Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Man Behind the Mask]

I'd strongly guess Nicolae has BW. Between all the jungle and his UU, there's a very low possibility BW wasn't prioritized.

Worth noting that his powergraph has remained quite flat since I think he picked up the tech, so he's not stockpiling zombies.

As far as the EC, I'll probably bow to said pressure, but let's see what the game throws at us first.

I'd be inclined for the compromise one warrior first and then the EC, so that the Chronic can get back to settler duty and then hopefully move onto Hunting Lodge or Temple.

After god knows how many turn of not spawning a Lizard, the ruins spawns 2 in 3 turns. This forces us to give up on the new cottage for now. I wonder if this one will attack us or move after someone else. Also, the original lizard decided to just hang out on the Burnt Forest. Bizarre.

Maybe these are the only ruins left in the world? We've created a little lizard nature reserve.

I'll have a look at the score move tomorrow, and I'm afraid I'm no use for song titles.

[Azoth]

I'd strongly guess Nicolae has BW. Between all the jungle and his UU, there's a very low possibility BW wasn't prioritized.

Oh, I'm fairly certain Nicolae has Bronze Working. The question is whether he picked up Copper with his second city, and has Exploration for the roads necessary to connect it. Otherwise, he could have found those Bronze Weapons in a lair, and moved that Warrior to our borders as a show of strength. Like I said: not likely, but possible.

I'd be inclined for the compromise one warrior first and then the EC, so that the Chronic can get back to settler duty and then hopefully move onto Hunting Lodge or Temple.

Well, a compromise is better than nothing. But I think it's instructive to refer back to BtS: as a rule, when you plant a new city, you don't start building units; instead, you start building/chopping/whipping a Granary, Library, and Forge. In FFH, the basic economy buildings are Elder Councils and Markets.

On a related note, I'm not sure we can afford a second Hunting Lodge in the capital. We are behind in population and productivity so we need to conserve hammers where we can; one Hunting Lodge in the empire should suffice until we start mobilizing for war. The best thing the capital can do for now is build a stream of Warriors (as the most efficient city defenders and kamikaze troops), alongside Workers and Settlers, leaving the satellite cities to focus on infrastructure. (That said, slipping in a Temple to raise the happiness cap is a good idea. I'm less sure about a Brewery, which will also be available soon.)

I'm afraid I'm no use for song titles.

Me neither. Though I note that City #4 will be a hill city; so we can reserve the name Cypress Hill for it.

[Gaspar]

I don't know any. Unless you count ones that seem like they might have been inspired by , like this one

I feel like I just got Rickrolled, only much worse.

But I am indeed very glad to see Hash Pipe growing to size 5 at EOT - three more to go for the current cap. And of course glad to see city 3 nearly ready and city 4 in the pipeline; for that matter, glad to see Chronic growing (I hope you'll have a cottage ready to grow onto?)

No substantial comments from me tonight.

No cottage ready, I'm a slacker. On the plus, the foodhammers will help with settler until I get one?

Paradise City. "Where the grass is green" was originally "where the grass is good".

Excellent, keep them coming!

Don't know if it has already been said, but I demand a city called Cypress Hill.

Not "Hits from the Bong?" Cypress Hill will indeed make an excellent city name for City 4.

Worth noting that his powergraph has remained quite flat since I think he picked up the tech, so he's not stockpiling zombies.

I'd be inclined for the compromise one warrior first and then the EC, so that the Chronic can get back to settler duty and then hopefully move onto Hunting Lodge or Temple.

Maybe these are the only ruins left in the world? We've created a little lizard nature reserve.

I'll have a look at the score move tomorrow, and I'm afraid I'm no use for song titles.

Good to know he's not building up. I think 1 warrior then the EC sounds about right.

Oh, I'm fairly certain Nicolae has Bronze Working. The question is whether he picked up Copper with his second city, and has Exploration for the roads necessary to connect it. Otherwise, he could have found those Bronze Weapons in a lair, and moved that Warrior to our borders as a show of strength. Like I said: not likely, but possible.

Well, a compromise is better than nothing. But I think it's instructive to refer back to BtS: as a rule, when you plant a new city, you don't start building units; instead, you start building/chopping/whipping a Granary, Library, and Forge. In FFH, the basic economy buildings are Elder Councils and Markets.

On a related note, I'm not sure we can afford a second Hunting Lodge in the capital. We are behind in population and productivity so we need to conserve hammers where we can; one Hunting Lodge in the empire should suffice until we start mobilizing for war. The best thing the capital can do for now is build a stream of Warriors (as the most efficient city defenders and kamikaze troops), alongside Workers and Settlers, leaving the satellite cities to focus on infrastructure. (That said, slipping in a Temple to raise the happiness cap is a good idea. I'm less sure about a Brewery, which will also be available soon.)

Me neither. Though I note that City #4 will be a hill city; so we can reserve the name Cypress Hill for it.

The BTS comparison isn't exactly instructive, since a BTS Granary/Library/Forge all far more useful than ECs/Markets. Its also fair to mention you rarely slow build those buildings, usually you whip everything and then ask questions later. Still, once Paradise City has a garrison, we can move on. I just don't want to spam warriors in the Capital on "Avoid Growth" when I can put that excess food to good use, as we still need plenty of Settlers/Workers. We'll definitely get a Temple up as soon as its practical, however, as that not only raises the happy cap, but will be an essential building for military eventually. I do think 2 Hunting Lodges will eventually cover our needs, but I'll also agree that the 2nd one can probably wait a bit.

[Gaspar]

T70...

Hippus 17, Grigori 22, Sheaim 22

So today's turn report begins with an episode of an apparent new episodic series....



[SIZE="5"]WEIRD LIZARD BEHAVIOR[/SIZE]



Check this out...



So one Lizard suicided against the city, losing to the 1-2-3 Kid who didn't take so much as a scratch. The other Lizard suddenly decided to cease protecting the ruins its guarded since time immemorial and move to threaten our workers (?) Honestly I have no idea what its doing, unless its somehow a Kyan lizard with HN, but really, wtf? Anyway, no threat at the city, but obviously we can't attack out either. One more victory puts the Kid at level 5, for whatever that's worth. The other lizard who was at the burnt forest receded from view, as did Nicolae's Bronze warrior.


The worker tandem returned towards the capital to get another cottage up, while Eclair started on the Pig pasture, due in 4T, after the founding of the newest Ljosalfar outpost, Paradise City:



This settling, combined with various cottage and city growths has us up to the 50 bpt mark. Exciting.

Ending turn sees Way of the Forests down to a 5T ETA. Hash Pipe also popped 3rd ring, which revealed a few interesting things in the south.



Most interesting the location of Babylon, the 2nd Sheaim city, settled apparently 1S of the dungeon we threatened to pop. I noted a couple other things on the map.

Finally, EOT demos. Let's not discuss Rival Best GNP, k?

[NobleHelium]

What the hell? Barbarian units are specifically coded to always have one unit protect the lair. How is this possible?

[Mardoc]

So, um, we need a NAP. Maybe two. Or three. You should probably try to meet the Elohim ASAP just so we can have a NAP with them. NAP NAP NAP. .



I'm impressed that you managed to have FOUR pre-improved tiles for Paradise City; this does suggest that we can get by with just the workers we already have, for the moment, and what's urgent is getting the cities built, infrastructure built, and more cities.

[NobleHelium]

NAP NAP NAP. .

Reminds me of another game.

[Mardoc]

I actually have a substantive comment to go with that silliness - we probably ought to go ahead and build an extra cottage for The Chronic to work whenever it's not focused on settler/worker spam, so that we can avoid using 'Avoid Growth' and instead get some extra beakers. Probably the best spot would be one of the hill tiles that can be shared with Paradise City, so that one city or the other can be boosting it up to Town most of the time. Of course that should be balanced with ensuring city4 has pre-improved tiles to work, but at the very least we ought to be able to keep those workers on their toes!

I also had a fairly random thought - especially with Way of the Forests coming in shortly to boost our forests to Ancient - we could afford to run Aristocracy on our forested farms *without* running Agrarianism, once we're out of the settler spam phase. Aristocracy gives a nice maintenance bonus, too.

The biggest reason not to is that I don't see much reason to head for Code of Laws anytime soon.

[Gaspar]

What the hell? Barbarian units are specifically coded to always have one unit protect the lair. How is this possible?

Yeah, it really makes no sense, especially given that the Lizard only wandered 1 tile off the Ruins, as though it moved and then suddenly was like "Oh crap! I'm not supposed to do that!"

I really have no answer for it. I'm curious to see if it moves back to the ruins next turn or if it suicides on the city. I was actually counting on that lizard to give Hunter 1 enough XP to take subdue animal, after softening him up with a jobberpult. Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe we can pop it soon, right Azoth?

So, um, we need a NAP. Maybe two. Or three. You should probably try to meet the Elohim ASAP just so we can have a NAP with them. NAP NAP NAP. .



I'm impressed that you managed to have FOUR pre-improved tiles for Paradise City; this does suggest that we can get by with just the workers we already have, for the moment, and what's urgent is getting the cities built, infrastructure built, and more cities.

It'd be more impressive if I'd factored in the city growth and had another cottage at the capital. But yeah, Eclair should be able to handle the last bit of improvement at Paradise City for the near future, so the worker stack can move on and start throwing down some cottages near City 4, which will be ready sooner than we think. Between that city and the happy cap increases coming with Religion and Temples, we'll need to train another pair before City 5 probably. The question is does City 5 go SW of Hash Pipe, NW of Hash Pipe, or the "filler" in between Hash Pipe and The Chronic? The other two northern locations are much more marginal, so I'm inclined to wait until we get a strike team to take down the Barb city up there before planting those two.

Reminds me of another game.

Hey, if you've been reading our thread, you'll see I was against most of those NAPs, and this game and PBEM14 should tell you how I feel about them when I'm doing the driving. Namely, you sign them when you need them, and only then. The only time you want NAPs with everyone is when you can be relatively certain you're going to be to the tech leader. Otherwise, they're helping the other party more than they're helping you. PB4 and FFH2PBEM3 are two excellent examples of how NAPs hurt the trailing teams, but there are others.

I actually have a substantive comment to go with that silliness - we probably ought to go ahead and build an extra cottage for The Chronic to work whenever it's not focused on settler/worker spam, so that we can avoid using 'Avoid Growth' and instead get some extra beakers. Probably the best spot would be one of the hill tiles that can be shared with Paradise City, so that one city or the other can be boosting it up to Town most of the time. Of course that should be balanced with ensuring city4 has pre-improved tiles to work, but at the very least we ought to be able to keep those workers on their toes!

Workers in place to do just that next turn. Generally not a big fan of cottaging hills as the elves, since I do love me some Ancient Forest mines, but the location that will allow the two sites to share the tile is too handy to pass on.

I also had a fairly random thought - especially with Way of the Forests coming in shortly to boost our forests to Ancient - we could afford to run Aristocracy on our forested farms *without* running Agrarianism, once we're out of the settler spam phase. Aristocracy gives a nice maintenance bonus, too.

The biggest reason not to is that I don't see much reason to head for Code of Laws anytime soon.

Pretty sure uber ran Aristocracy most of his game. If you're working any farms to speak of, its pretty much better than City States, and that column is pretty limited. Once God King becomes prohibitively expensive, Aristocracy is pretty much the only good option until very late game. Only situation not to do it is if you're relying on Farms heavily for food and don't want Agrarianism for whatever reason, but once you have Sanitation its pretty well moot anyway.

[NobleHelium]

Hey, if you've been reading our thread, you'll see I was against most of those NAPs, and this game and PBEM14 should tell you how I feel about them when I'm doing the driving. Namely, you sign them when you need them, and only then. The only time you want NAPs with everyone is when you can be relatively certain you're going to be to the tech leader. Otherwise, they're helping the other party more than they're helping you. PB4 and FFH2PBEM3 are two excellent examples of how NAPs hurt the trailing teams, but there are others.

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't been able to read much of most of the threads. Not much time and not much interest. I read your thread for a good stretch, not reading it anymore really for obvious reasons.

uberfish ran Aristocracy only after he got Sanitation to offset it. City States is just bad though, because Aristocracy basically has the same maintenance reduction bonus. That's a large reason of why it's overpowered; the main other part is "food for free" from Agrarianism on grassland.