Bearing the flag proudly, Sabathiel of the Bannors [SPOILERS]

[Mr. Yellow]

Todays update, not much.

Lizard suicided against Birger, doing no damage at all. Got enough experience for Combat I.
Tiles switched to work farmland full time.



Bah, better get a blitz session on next weekend.

Small notes:
WK gained a pop, as expected.
Sciz gained a tech, possibly Agriculture.

[Mr. Yellow]

Todays update, still bored.

Farmer finished farming the corn and ending turn gives me the next pop. Torrolerial will be growing like a weed from here.



Also, that tower in the southeast is teasing me! >:|



Small notes:
Mardoc finished a tech this turn.

[Mr. Yellow]

Well there’s sadly little to report regarding the game at the moment. So here’s my thoughts on the different schools of mana for this game and what uses it has to me.


Elemental:
Water:
Undoubtedly the first one I’ll get. There are too many desert tiles around that which needs to be turned into valuable cottages. Water walking might be useful later, depending on the map.
Fire:
Fireballs are one of the better stack killers in the game and will be valuable for collateral. Also forest fires in case of elves.
Air:
High priority magic due to maelstrom. A 30% life reducer is significant.
Earth:
Though one of the palace manas, it’s gonna be of very little use for me. Wall of stone is situational and Stoneskins value is reduced due to the Guardsman trait.

Divine:
Law:
One of the palace manas and will have its uses. Host of the Einherjar is a nice summon to fall back on, especially against undead.
Life:
Will certainly be of use against the Sheaim. Sanctify to reduce AC and Destroy undead to remove any pyre zombie stack coming my way. Else it’ll be ignored.
Spirit:
Rather weak mana, though one of the 3 available in the palace. Courage might get some use and Hope is nice for small late game cities.
Could go for trust and hope that each player could show a little more goodwill than usual.
Mind:
Not in consideration except for Tower of divination. Inspiration is nice, but I’m planning to get adepts with 8 xp right out of the gates.
Sun:
Low priority. Other schools are of greater importance.
Will be gained later for Tower of divination.

Necro:
Enthropy:
Might go for it due to rust, but only that.
Shadow:
Meh, only really useful for city sieges. Think the other schools will be more than enough.
Death:
Will be pretty much ignored. Summons aren’t gonna be a main part of my game.
Chaos:
Not worth the time. Too erratic.

Alteration:
Body:
Absolutely a must have before fanaticism. Haste will be of significant use as well as Regeneration.
Enchantment:
Enchanted blade is quite nice. Actually there's a question i'd like to ask regarding that and rust at the end.
Nature:
Might get it for poison.

----------------------------------
Anyway, regarding rust i tried to test it against the different weapon promotions as well as enchanted blade in worldbuilder, but the results got bugged.
So i have 2 questions.
Does rust remove mithril weapons?
Does enchanted blade prevents rust from destroying the weapon (as well as preventing the rust promo)?

[Mr. Yellow]

So, no answers?

Anyway, Turn 20 still as uneventful.



I’ll be training a settler once the scout is done. If I stick to the planned location, I’ll have my 2nd city on around turn 47-49 (3 for scout, 14 for settler, 8-10+1 travel time). Farmer Carlos has now started on the 3rd farm.



(Not) Small notes:
Everyone except WarriorKnight gained land points this turn. Now I’m not sure how that score is calculated, but the more land around the bigger the score.

Irgy: 14
Me: 13
Nyktorion: 18, also gained a pop this turn. Meaning he got 11 land points?
Mardoc: 9
Sciz: 14

So what I understand from this is that Mardocs capital is clearly coastal. That Nyktorion has possibly settled near the coast as well and that Irgy and Sciz are landlocked.

Bah, I’m clueless otherwise.
Does someone here have an article regarding the scoring system in civ4? Would be much appreciated.

[Mr. Yellow]

Well.

All that's to say for this turn is that the growth goes as expected....



..and there's pain on the horizon.



Goblins from east and lizardmens from south. Sounds like fun times ahead.

So i doubt i'll be getting that 4th and last farm. Besides it's hardly worth much for the moment and that the worker will be roading as soon he's done with the 3rd farm. With 2 warriors in hand, i can now provide guards to the worker. Still putting them on flatland is pretty risky. Maybe i'll road the eastern hill first.

Ending the turn nets me another pop up to 4, which i will stay on for now.

Here's a shot of the demographics.



Even though the worker started a bit late, it still helped me get in lead on food (along with WK i presume). Even with 1 less pop than the workerless capitals.

Score notes:
WK got the land points for this turn. 14 to be exact. Believe he's landlocked as well. Curious to what he settled near though.
Nyktorion gained a tech. Find it too early for Mysticism however. Maybe it's Calendar.
Sciz gained 20 points this turn. Must have popped his border.

[Mr. Yellow]

This turn? Nothing really.

But ending it however give me several good news! First of all the borders popped.



And we've started with the settler. After Dirk has finally respawned and ready to explore the wilderness

to be mauled

again!



His first task, to daringly cross the land of lizards and investigate the blasted tower to the southeast.



Anyway, in other news this graph...



...and crop yield confirms that Nyktorion revolted to agrianism last turn. So the 2 techs he has discovered so far are Agriculture and Calendar.
Wish i had such info on the other civs. Hope that i'm in contact with a few more after tomorrows blitz session.

Score notes:

WK gained 6 points this turn. Must be his 4th pop. That's...quite late actually. Either his tiles aren't so good or he got barb problems as well.
Irgy gained 20 points, border pop i believe.
Nyktorion gained 8 points. He's still stuck on pop size 3 so were did those come from. Agrianism?
Mardoc got 18 points, can't be border pop. Must have gained a pop and tech simultaneosly and someone did get a 5 pop city this turn.

[Mr. Yellow]

Blitzing has started and Dirk is off in direction of the tower. Meanwhile farmer Carlos has finished the 3rd farm and will soon grab a shovel and switch profession. Goblin might delay the roading however, we'll see.



And WK got his border points this turn.

[Mr. Yellow]

Parked Dirk just north of the peak, in position of the tower. I do not want to go any more south right now in fear of being spotted by a lizardman.



The goblin is in range of the city now. Hopefully it suicides next turn, so that Carlos can start to road a path.

WK got 17 points this turn. Haven't bothered to check why yet.
Irgy got 11 points. A tech.

[Mr. Yellow]

I didn't notice last turn that this guy showed up from the southwest. Sciz has indeed found me and sent a message sometime later. That and my response will come later.
Anyway, Carlos will have to wait a bit to start roading. Goblin is doing the preperations for the assault on the city.



Now, time to examine the tower!



Yupp, dead Dirk next turn. Guess it's back to the cellar.
Anyway, lovely land to the southeast here. Gold, sheep, river and a few hills. Should be a good spot later.
Maybe would have liked to grab it first, but with the giant around, i don't think so. There a huge amount of flood plains just to the west there as well, but little else.

Sciz gained 6 points last turn, a pop. Up to 5 now.

[Mr. Yellow]

Goblin moved to south of Torrolerial....



OK! F' it! I'm moving Birger and Carlos to the hill east and start to road from there. Goblins be damned!

And Dirk did succumb to the giant. Lifespan; 3 turns.

Sciz gained a tech last turn.