Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Gaspar]

Thanks again, MBTM. Whether or not I've well-utilized our C&D information in diplomacy, I think its been a definite asset in understanding our place in the world. Ultimately C&D is most useful for things like wonder and first-to races and is best utilized in BTS games where the stupid espionage mechanics make one able to do things like figure out how many hammers someone has in the box at any given time. Still I think its been helpful particularly with regards to the Hippus since Rawkking has been so difficult to crack.

As far as the analysis goes there's not a lot we can do about a Hippus power increase at this point until we get some priests in the field. I'm not interested in spamming out a ton of warriors without knowing there's trouble brewing and hopefully getting those priests out should hopefully work as a deterrent. Its possible that could be the source of a Hippus power increase as well - Cultists. Given that currently only the city furthest away from Rawkking can be hurt by Tsunami, I'm not all that fussed right now.

I did speak with Kyan at some length yesterday but I didn't post it here as half the conversation was about PBEM24 and the other half was mostly him just telling me we'll probably live and that he's offered NAPs if we're worried about that and me giving my usual non-answers.

[Mardoc]

Things look about as expected, really. Well...I did expect more than one turn to go by in my absence .

Nothing really interesting on the hawk flights - I'll rebase one to the hunter next turn to get better eyes on Hippus territory. He'll have a brawl with a bear next turn.

Minor note - I know he has odds, but still wait to rebase the Hawk until after the fight, please .

[Gaspar]

T101, finally.

Bear attacked on the IT and Terra won flawlessly. I rebased the Hawk, so we should get some new pictures next turn.

Barb kill team gathered 1 outside of Cypress Hill. I expect them to suicide shortly, giving us useful XP.

This is all elementary, of course. The Clowns, who are currently in a GA, just built the Bone Palace giving them another. They still have their world spell and I assume can generate another 2 GPs over the course of 36 turns of GA, so let's credit them 45. Suffice to say I'd be surprised if they spent another turn this game out of GA. Just ridiculous, if this was BTS they'd be fielding Modern Armor against our Longbows. How fast do you guys think we can get to cultural?



Someone also built Heron Throne. My guess would be Rawkking, but that could have been the Clowns as well.

That's about it. 5T left on the Settler, 5T to Priesthood. Once Priesthood is in probably we should crank out priests everywhere that can crank them for a while.

Upon ending turn the Veil spread to Where It's At.

[Mardoc]

Bear attacked on the IT and Terra won flawlessly. I rebased the Hawk, so we should get some new pictures next turn.

I think I might put the Bear into Where it's At. For the culture. That'd be our best shot at grabbing Domir or at least the elephants.

Either that, or Cypress Hill, since it ought to have good uses for population.

How fast do you guys think we can get to cultural?

Not really sure. I'm also not 100% convinced it makes more sense than Tower. I do agree that one or the other is the only way to go anymore.

Upon ending turn the Veil spread to Where It's At.

Excellent! I assume the new Disciple will go here?

[NobleHelium]

Are you sure you can't scout on the same turn you rebase? I remember doing that before. May depend on the distance of the rebase.

[Thoth]

Are you sure you can't scout on the same turn you rebase? I remember doing that before. May depend on the distance of the rebase.

If you rebase to a city then you can fly scout missions on the same turn, if you rebase to a Hunter then you cannot fly a mission until the following turn.

[Square Leg]

If you rebase to a city then you can fly scout missions on the same turn, if you rebase to a Hunter then you cannot fly a mission until the following turn.

I never understood why this was the case.

[Man Behind the Mask]

As far as the analysis goes there's not a lot we can do about a Hippus power increase at this point until we get some priests in the field. I'm not interested in spamming out a ton of warriors without knowing there's trouble brewing and hopefully getting those priests out should hopefully work as a deterrent.

I agree that we shouldn’t sink hammers into warriors. That was why I suggested diplo as the answer to any concerns we might have.

Suffice to say I'd be surprised if they [Clowns] spent another turn this game out of GA.

Well, we’re the furthest away and the Elohim have Sanctuary, so hopefully at least the two of us will be around in 40 turns’ time.

How fast do you guys think we can get to cultural?

I’ve had no time to get very far on building a sandbox (and probably won’t for a few more days). I think that’s the only way we can answer this question.

Someone also built Heron Throne. My guess would be Rawkking, but that could have been the Clowns as well.

Score increase rules out the Hippus. Clowns are likely, although it could well be the Elohim (who started with a coastal capital).

I think I might put the Bear into Where it's At. For the culture. That'd be our best shot at grabbing Domir or at least the elephants.

I guess it depends on how much we want to annoy Nicolae? I’m inclined to think that if we ever do come to blows, it won’t be simply because of a couple of tiles, so maybe getting as much culture as we can into Where It’s At is our most sensible approach. None of our cities is desperately struggling for happy, with Carnivals and Tigers soon available for anything near a cap.

[Azoth]

Just want to say I completely agree with this:

I think, assuming our workers catch up to our population growth, that I would settle the rice city next. Well, either that or be bold and grab something in this area, Aggressive City or C or the Drown sign.



My reasoning? Primarily, that once the jungle's been cleared and the area Bloomed, both of which are going to be plausible in the near future, these are both darn good sites, with lots of grassland base. Settling toward RG, on the other hand, is mainly for strategic reasons, as all those sites are mainly ocean and peaks, with a thin layer of forest in between. I still think we'll do better strategically to grab the best land, and trust in that to provide the military we need, than to grab less nice areas so that when we lose, we lose more slowly . Really, although tactics/positioning matter, what matters most in war is the tech and size of your army. And that still calls for grabbing the best sites, in my book.

(Emphasis Mine)

The Drown sign is a tile too far for my taste, and it gives up the hill, so I would prefer the Aggressive City sign. I was worried that Nicolae would claim it with his last Settler but I see that was not the case. We must move quickly if we want to grab the site ourselves; with two food resources and a solid grassland base, it's clearly the best spot around. Alternatively, we could settle two cities in the east in quick succession: one NE of the Mana Mode, the other 2W of the Rice. We've assumed that if we move the proposed Mana Node site 1N, Nicolae would steal the Rice with a city of his own, but we could beat him to it! That second city would also completely seal the mountain pass, and come with quite a few forests (i.e.: potential Treants) intact. Bottom line: we should take advantage of our NAP to do some aggressive settling.

On a separate note, if we are still thinking about Culture Victory, we should definitely settle the Bear in either Hash Pipe or Cypress Hill, our two most likely cultural cities, apart from the capital.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Had an unexpected chance to look at today’s save.

With regards to Azoth’s settling plan, I think we’ll lose friendly terms with Nicolae if we take either the western city or anything south of the mountains. Both will also be pretty difficult to defend. With the Balseraphs ramping up, though, I’m not sure that will matter in the grand scheme of things. In terms of their value, I’m not sure faraway southern city offers much more than sheep/mana in the north, given the mountains and Sheaim culture, although it does have some forest available and offers MotT threat. The western city at least would get us that source of rice we were debating earlier.

We can get two settlers out at the same time in four turns (Cypress Hill underway and Chronic started immediately). We’ve got a pair of workers for each city at the moment, and one “spare”. Paradise City could complete another worker and a warrior to go with new cities and we can get additional garrison from Hash Pipe. Those builds will basically all complete when Priesthood comes in, but I’m afraid we’d need to go ahead with this plan right now to be most efficient.

We’ve also got a trade connection with the Balseraphs. Looks like they’ve got Mirror of Heaven, but haven’t yet set up any other nodes.

PS The spider is now very scary!