Green as they come: Hiding Kneel plays the Ljosalfar [SPOILERS]

[Commodore]

Agreed, mines > anything else in terms of defense right now, churning those warriors keeps the forests safe for eventually hunting and worshiping in.

I'm sorry for not fully grasping the distances before, but I would totally go for D before any of the others unless your spider sense is tingling about a land rush. You mention overlap, but that's a wonderful thing this early, allowing the power tiles like wine, the forested hill mine, and soon enough ivory to be always worked. Then too, the logistics are a lot easier, much less worker labor is required to get D up and running.

[Yell0w]

Turn pace has been really good, and I don't think Yell0w's held on to the save for more than a few hours since I posted that. I thought that was worth pointing out. If you're reading this, Yell0w, thanks for playing, and I look forward to playing with you in FFH XXII!

Yeah I am reading this.
I got shifts on work, so some weeks it fits perfectly some it fits OK and some it takes some time. Can't change that.

Thank you too, have fun, best of luck and see you in XXII.

[HidingKneel]

I would totally go for D before any of the others unless your spider sense is tingling about a land rush.

I see what you're saying. One counterargument: we can't really improve that area until we clear out those ruins. At our present level of tech, that's a substantial investment: to be safe, I'd want to send at least 6 warriors or so, and we'd likely lose half of them. That's a lot of hammers at this point in the game.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 24 has come and gone. Not much in the way of news. Our workers are done with Evermore for the time being, and starting to improve the land around Hyll. At EOT, Evermore grew to size 6, and crafting came in. Here's a screenshot:



As you can see, we're not in last place anymore! (Of course, that's probably an illusory byproduct of our creative trait.)

I'm guessing that means that Ellimist is putting the hurt on Kyan. So maybe it's not good news. But the situation can't be too bad, since Kyan hasn't fired his worldspell. Kyan might also have HBR by now, if he was beelining it. Between that and the worldspell, he ought to be able to put up a pretty good fight against the orcish hordes.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 25 opens with the following:



In foreign affairs, Weezel just founded Kilmorph. His score only went up by 3, so it looks like he didn't tech it (which would be near-impossible in this timeframe); must have been a lucky dungeon pop. Well, I'm of the feeling that anything that benefits a player other than Ellimist benefits us. It's not like we were heading that direction ourselves, anyway.

Started researching mining, and Evermore started our first settler, which will take one turn less than I thought. Here's a screenshot from EOT:



We cranked out a worker in Hyll, bringing us to a total of 4. Workers will finish farming the corn next turn, at which point it can really start growing.
Also, we're now supporting ten units, which means those supplies are costing us upkeep. Do you think it's worth hanging on to them until hunting? I'm thinking so, but now's the time to decide.

Finally, here are some demographics:



Looking better and better .

[HidingKneel]

Next turn is in. No news in foreign affairs. Domestically, we finished farming the corn by Hyll, which can finally start growing. Two workers went off to connect the incense, one is finishing the road to Evermore, and the new one went north to connect our wines.

According to the back of my envelope, with commerce sources we can presently get at, hunting is due in about 35 turns. That's not counting new commerce from cities we build in the meantime, which should let us shave a bit of time off that, so say 30 turns. 30 coins of upkeep for a free hunting lodge: seems like a pretty good deal, so I keep the supplies. (That's assuming I don't tech archery. If I do, we can trade the supplies for an archery range much sooner.)

Speaking of future cities, I got vision on the ruins again and they don't seem to be guarded by a lizardman (screenshot from EoT):



A fortified lizard is a pain to dislodge with warriors, but a fortified warrior ought to be easy pickings. I've dispatched three warriors to deal with the problem, including our promoted warrior. I'll probably lose of one them, two at the outside.

[Commodore]

On the subject of orcs...any further diplo from Elimist? He's terrifyingly advanced and no doubt fighting someone out there.

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns down. Once again, not much to report.

Our warriors are now in position around the ruins:



Worker finished the road connection between Evermore and Hyll. I'm wondering if it was a mistake not to finish it earlier. The commerce from the trade route probably would have shaved a turn or two off of calendar. Anyways, it's nice to have that commerce now.

On the subject of orcs...any further diplo from Elimist? He's terrifyingly advanced and no doubt fighting someone out there.

Apparently Ellimist tried to send me a message with the in-game diplo, but it didn't get through. He told me the gist of the message, though: our cultural edge is in danger! Because one of Ellimist's new acquisitions contained a settled great bard (!?). Not sure what Yell0w was thinking there, but it ought to help Ellimist make that area productive in a hurry. Which is bad news for us.

So it looks like my main objection to site D has lost its force: we ought to have that area cleaned out soon. With warriors and workers already in the area, we could get a city there up and running more or less immediately,
and access to two floodplains and riverside wines will make it grow fast, too.
Another possibility would be to settle further east of there, or to claim the gold at site A.

Here's a screenshot of our main territory at EOT:

[HidingKneel]

Turn 29 saw a bit of action. Let's have a look at that troublesome ruin:



Our unpromoted warrior doesn't have great odds, but survival will probably mean two promotions. I send him in first. We lose, doing a bit of damage but not enough that I want to risk attacking across the river. So, time to send in a pro:



After promoting to C2, Lizardslayer makes short work of the wounded defender. The ruins are ours! But for how long?



Glad I didn't wait a turn to get our other warrior into position. I move our other warrior in to defend the spot. Lizardslayer is probably too wounded to slay another lizard, but not so badly wounded that he won't be the top defender. Sadly, we'll probably lose him between turns. But our second warrior should have an easy time exacting revenge against a wounded lizardman on desert terrain.

Exploring with our second warrior, I find a treasure map:



Actually, that treasure is not so distant at all. The world is too dangerous to go straight after it, though (especially since we're down on warriors again), but I can send a hunter for it straightaway once hunting comes in.

Other news? One of our worker teams finished working the wines, and the other finished working the incense. So we're now pulling in a respectable amount of commerce, making us tied for #1 in GNP. Here's a screenshot from EOT:



Next turn, I'll connect both resources. Then one team can go farm the floodplains, and the other can get started on mines around Evermore.

[DaveV]

our second warrior should have an easy time exacting revenge against a wounded lizardman on desert terrain.

... unless the lizardman attacks and kills your warrior, then uses his second movement point to retreat out of range.