[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[DaveV]

Definitely more warriors: I usually shoot for four/city in the early going, when it's a 50% chance to kill that orc that's about to pillage something. Your capital is pretty weak on hammers; another good reason to build some better cities (and Governor's Manors!). It's hard to go wrong with an early worker, though: he can be building roads and irrigating while you're building the rest of your escort crew.

One more bit of kibitzing, if you don't mind: I'd recommend setting research to 0% after Calendar comes in until you have 100 gold in the bank. Then you'll be able to buy a great engineer or settler if the game offers one, or buy your way out of a bad event.

[Bobchillingworth]

I'll look into running enough gold to make a 100, but my main focus in on getting mining ASAP. I really need to be able to work that gold resource, which combined with the cotton and eventually the northern incense will consist of the entirety of my economy (with some pocket change from rivers) until Aristocracy.


Missing out on the free engineer would blow, but the event is rare. The free settler would save me a lot of hammers and time, but the Calabim have a special option that (I think) gives me a large sum of gold instead, which isn't a terrible alternative. I'm pretty sure that most BTS "spend gold to not lose X" events were removed for FFH, I think that I've only gotten a couple minor ones before, not enough to justify putting off several turns of research.


Woud have been nice to recieve gold from the Chicken hut, but the gigantic map was a fair consolation prize.

[Bobchillingworth]

Been a little while since I posted some images. First:






OH NO CHICKEN WATCH OUT. The Scout Deathwatch probably doesn't have more than a few turns to go. I can easily out-maneuver a single skeleton (moved S, NW), but the lizardman (not pictured) is only a couple tiles behind Chicken. Hopefully I can reveal at least a new luxury or food resource before my guy bites it.



Second, I've had Pocketbeetle's graphs for a while due to the accidental contact. I haven't been doing any diplo with him, but I have occasionally checked out the charts for comparative purposes. Check out his recent drop in power:





Looks to me like he built a warrior & lost one within the space of one or two turns. I'm not sure that a scout would give a power spike or drop of that length. My most recent increase looks to be about the same height & consists of a bloodpet followed a turn later by growing to size 3. He hasn't lost any pop, as his capital has bizarrely remained size 1 for the entire game so far... since his production isn't fantastic, I can only assume that he went for an early worker, got zapped by stasis, and then had to rush a warrior probably working a hammer-heavy tile that further retarded his growth.


He's not going to like it when I eat his pop right after he finally reaches size 3...

[Bobchillingworth]

.................







.................






*SPLAT*


(but hey, at least he found me a new luxury resource!)


[Also, that Hill Giant has Killed Before- might explain PB's power drop]

[darrelljs]

Ouch ! Hill Giants are just too mean for words. That's the worst thing about desert in this game, with Spring available. Hill Giants, Scorpions, too much nastiness spawns in desert.

What is your capital building now?

Darrell

[sunrise089]

What are Hill Giants? What are Scorpions?

[Bobchillingworth]

Ugh, I really hate scorpions. They have high strength, cause poison damage, but they're the only animal that doesn't build / provide anything useful if you capture one.


Thankfully hill giants are pretty rare. Unfortunately, this one seems to have a taste for blood.



Prespur is currently building a worker (due in 6 turns), and is defended by 2 bloodpets in the city itself, and one fortified on the cotton. After the worker finishes I'm going to build a small army of bloodpets and maybe another scout (I really want to pop some more huts, and getting the "6 angry orcs" result if I try one with a bloodpet could well be fatal). Then a settler.



I've been thinking, and with the large map size, this game is going to see a vast amount of combat with the barbarians... I wonder if the other players really know just what they're in for. From what little scouting I've done, I already have revealed 3 barrows, a goblin lair, and the lizardman ruins all fairly close by, and I know that there's another barrow not far to my NW. Combined with normal orc & goblin spawns, and I'm going to want a lot of military.

[darrelljs]

Note that a world wonder available at Cartography gives you three of these. Because they can Bombard and gain Mobility, they are important for the Khazad (who can't get Fireball).

Scorpions are 4-5 Strength with +1 Poison combat. They can be captured .

Darrell

[sunrise089]

Note that a world wonder available at Cartography gives you three of these. Because they can Bombard and gain Mobility, they are important for the Khazad (who can't get Fireball).

Scorpions are 4-5 Strength with +1 Poison combat. They can be captured .

Darrell

I got the Hill Giants in an SP game, but they didn't seem so great. I imagine this was because I didn't beeline at all to them so they weren't really special for the time.

Are scorpions more formidable than giant spiders?

[Bobchillingworth]

I personally find giant spiders worse than the scorpions, simply because they're invisible. A giant spider will often get a least one free kill on a scouting unit, unless you can identify them first with a "can see invisible units" solider from a distance. Of course scorpions roam which spiders don't, so they can be difficult to keep track of. Both units will poison any living unit that defeats them, which drastically slows healing speed.


Hill Giants aren't very good attacking units, because they won't have any promos. Even with strength 7 they have odds only slightly above 60% to defeat a fortified combat I warrior in a city with 20% cultural defense. Considering the disgusting cost of the "Pact of the Nilborn" wonder that gives you three of them, they're a terrible choice for direct attacks. Their main use, as darrel pointed out, is for the bombard- get them 2 exp each to promote to mobility, and/or cast "haste" on them, and you have three 2-3 move units that can take down almost all city defenses in a turn or two.