Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, there ought to be a rule that whoever is last in the turn order must announce to everyone where Orthus spawns.

[Mardoc]

Yeah, there ought to be a rule that whoever is last in the turn order must announce to everyone where Orthus spawns.

I see practical problems. Specifically - suppose he says it's way to the north of Coombe View - what does that actually tell us?

Wow, all that fear, and we escaped at a net cost of 2 warriors?

I think I'm changing my tune on lair popping, though, we definitely wouldn't have survived that without the XP and Spirit Guide. And clearly avoiding lairs being popped is not really an option, except where negotiated by treaty.

So...clearly it's time to go back to the dotmapping discussion, since we'll be alive for it to matter . I think with Almond Joy surviving, I'm happy with your previously suggested build order.

[Commodore]

Why dotmap when the barbarians saved you the cost of a settler on the worker pump location?

[Gaspar]

VICTORY! The ogre even proves my suspicions about the tastiness of Almond Joy, completely ignoring the free snack.

R.I.P Brawler, another elf on our list of heroic dead. Let's also hope this is the start of having some heroic units stay alive!

Here's to a few uneventful turns.

Well, regardless of how the game turns out, I think we've definitely ended up with an epic tale to tell, no? If nothing else, we've done a nice job of creating something out of nothing.

Yeah, there ought to be a rule that whoever is last in the turn order must announce to everyone where Orthus spawns.

As Mardoc says, this is impractical, but it is annoying to not know where he is. Orthus is a pussycat really, unless you're under heavy threat or he starts far enough away from enemy lands to start piling up the promotions, you'd really *want* him to start near you, so you can get the axe. Given our current situ, we'd be covered if he popped near us, but a few unfettered builder turns would also be quite the nice departure. I suspect we'll only find out where he is when he dies. Rawkking did send along a note with the save asking if we had seen him, so we can guess he's not near the Hippus.

I see practical problems. Specifically - suppose he says it's way to the north of Coombe View - what does that actually tell us?

Wow, all that fear, and we escaped at a net cost of 2 warriors?

I think I'm changing my tune on lair popping, though, we definitely wouldn't have survived that without the XP and Spirit Guide. And clearly avoiding lairs being popped is not really an option, except where negotiated by treaty.

So...clearly it's time to go back to the dotmapping discussion, since we'll be alive for it to matter . I think with Almond Joy surviving, I'm happy with your previously suggested build order.

Generally, I think you want to pop lairs - the positives are game changing and the negatives can usually be dealt with, but I also think you generally want to pop them a bit later, like now, when you can churn out the jobbers to deal with the bad stuff. And the worst results, like mistforms, can be game enders. Still, there's no question that we'd have been in a whole heaping load more trouble if BB hadn't had 6 XP and Spirit Guide. I'm also glad I saved the promo so we could use it on something useful. Normally I don't save the first couple promos while out in the wild because you never know when you're going to get hit by a Griffon, and while you still probably die on C2, its a whole lot better than dying with a promo in hand.

The build order/plans have to be revisited I think. I've been a bit all over the place and that's not good in this game. I'm going to build this next worker in The Chronic while finishing the Elder Council in Hash Pipe. After that I think a warrior in each place, then we have to decide when and where the next settler's going down. I'd like to be on 4 cities by T75, but I'm not positive that's practical. Turn is in, I'll do that in a new post, and then maybe we can try and discuss a plan for the next 25 turns today.

[Gaspar]

T52:

Score increases: <redacted> 14, Hippus 22

Asher the Encephalic was born in the Chronic, and constructs an Academy. At the moment, an Academy is worth 9 bpt and settling is worth 6bpt and a hammer. Ideally, if you get a GSage really early, I like to settle the first and Academy the second, but at this juncture, the Academy is clearly the superior value, not to mention who actually knows if we'll see another sage?



This initially increases our BPT to 29, and reduces the turns on Hunting from 11 to 8. Interestingly, this is only the 2nd GP born naturally in this game, and the first was an Adventurer birthed by the Grigori. So clearly we had early Academy on the brain a bit more than other folks. Be interesting to see how that plays out. I decide we should keep the Sage hired in The Chronic for a little bit. We'd be swapping it for either a 3/1/0 tile, a 3/0/1 tile or a 1/1/1 tile. Right now, I think beakers are the bottleneck more than food/production, and any which way I do it, the next worker completes next turn. The real question, I think, is whether to build another worker in the capital next turn, to send over to Hash Pipe, or to let Hash Pipe build its own workers after the Elder Council. Let's make this more succinct. Options for next few turns in the capital are:

1. Send worker #4 to Hash Pipe and build worker #5 for the capital.
   
2. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build worker #5 and send to Hash Pipe.
   
3. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build warrior while avoiding growth and the build settler.
   
4. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build 2 warriors while avoiding growth and then build settler.
   

I'm leaning towards option 3 at the moment, at least partly because I don't necessarily feel the path from the capital to Hash Pipe is especially safe. More and more I'm wishing I built that road.

1-2-3 Kid has a promotion that I'll save for a bit, he and Lanny Poffo remain in Hash Pipe. Almond Joy (which, agreeing with MBTM, I also don't especially enjoy) is still farming at the site. The tiger has slipped out of view from the south, and there's still no sign of Orthus.

Here's the post Academy demographics. I don't think we're actually 2nd in real research power, since we're getting 10 cpt and only <redacted> is also Creative and we just built an Academy which gives 4cpt, but there's no question adding 9 beakers is pretty nice this early.

[Mardoc]

I think building a worker in Hash Pipe is a bad idea if it can possibly be avoided. Its food surplus is near non-existent, while its happy cap is high. If you must build two warriors, build them both in HP while it grows, and let Chronic mass produce our workers/settlers.

This has the happy side effect of letting the worker build a road on his way from C to HP.

So I would go with one of 1) or 2). I lean a little bit toward 1) because the capital has all workable tiles at the moment, while HP will be growing if you follow my advice, so it'll need the workers anyway.

[NobleHelium]

We definitely need at least one if not 2-3 more warriors before settling a third city. It makes sense to slow build them in Hash while we grow, but it's still building the EC, yeah? Having Chronic build one warrior next would be fine, since Hash is still occupied.

[Azoth]

Hurray! We survived! Again!

Now, back to the dotmap discussion:

Here's an alternate proposal, to at least start discussion:

I suppose the barb city is our new red dot. I would then suggest moving green dot 3W to cover all the grassland forests and grassland hills on that side of the peninsula. That leaves enough room for a third city (let's call it blue dot) 4N of the cotton, which we can build at our convenience to share the corn at red dot. (We can always pick up the sheep and mana node in the far west with another city once we expand past those mountains.)

For now, it seems our next city will be yellow dot. It might work out for the best, after all, since we can save all of the animals in the north (like that bear in the last screenshot) for our hunters. Also, a yellow dot city would be able to contribute Treants to the attack on Nicolae, if we're still planning for it.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Lots more to catch up on, with help from alternative technologies to combat the little red “x”s.

Interestingly, this is only the 2nd GP born naturally in this game, and the first was an Adventurer birthed by the Grigori. So clearly we had early Academy on the brain a bit more than other folks.

This kind of news is encouraging, to show we may not be that far behind the curve. Hopefully, we’ve made up for a few trials and tribulations with good, focussed play. We believe that the top civ in GNP has 8cpt, so we’re really not that far behind at this moment, and still have a stock of gold to burn.

The real question, I think, is whether to build another worker in the capital next turn, to send over to Hash Pipe, or to let Hash Pipe build its own workers after the Elder Council. Let's make this more succinct. Options for next few turns in the capital are:

1. Send worker #4 to Hash Pipe and build worker #5 for the capital.
   
2. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build worker #5 and send to Hash Pipe.
   
3. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build warrior while avoiding growth and the build settler.
   
4. Keep worker #4 for the Capital and build 2 warriors while avoiding growth and then build settler.
   

I agree with Mardoc that Hash Pipe needs to keep growing, so stopping for a worker is probably a bad idea. I’d quite like a warrior next in the capital for three reasons: 1. To fogbust or cover a worker; 2. It’s better to have a unit or two ready before the scary monsters show up; and 3. Despite the friendly relations, we are trapped between the two rush civs – if I were the Hippus, I wouldn’t feel too nervous about taking the Remnants of Patria from a civ at the bottom of the power chart. You can micro for 8->12 hpt without reducing our current commerce output. That will either 1-turn it or give you a good chunk of overflow into the next build.

More and more I'm wishing I built that road.

Because of the double forest movement, and lack of construction/engineering, I’m not sure a long road would actually have that much benefit. I think a three tile road, starting where the workers currently sit and going SW-SW will speed up transit from The Chronic to Hash Pipe by a turn. [EDIT: Ignore this rubbish! My brain decided to ignore units with more than 1 MV. Sorry!]

I can’t decide what to do with the next worker. Hash Pipe does have a very good tile (Remnants) which it can work while Almond Joy catches up; the new guy won’t arrive until the two farms are practically done; and we don’t yet have AH for the Cow. If he hangs around the capital, then “D” can be immediately switched to a new city in that locale. On the other hand, it would be nice to lay a couple of cottages fairly quickly over at Hash Pipe to support the push for WotF – one worker per city is really not enough, even a city with relatively low food.

I suspect Hash Pipe is going to go Council->warrior (or two)->Hunting Lodge.

By the way, the next few turns will see a few odd score increases as people get land points for their second cities.

I’ll hopefully have some time later to add a few more thoughts. I’m guessing the Nicolae chat really was so dull it’s not worth sharing.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Do you know what the lurkers haven’t seen in the last 24 hours? A good, old fashioned PANIC!!!

I’ve been doing my usual check through the scores and demos and spotted this which I missed earlier.

T52:

Score increases: … Hippus 22

I think that means the next thing we hear going “clip-clop” will be a lot more frightening than coconuts. 22 points is a classical tech and I know for a fact they’ve got Animal Husbandry (time for us to research that tech shows a known civ discount). I should probably go back and bold my third reason for more warriors!

Apart from that, not much to report about the outside world. Total populations around Erebus are <redacted>, Grigori=10, Hippus=9, Elohim=6 and Sheaim=5 and we’re top in available happiness and health so there’s plenty of room to catch up on those we’re behind. Our tech count will look a lot better when we go back to the cheap techs that we’ve skipped.