[Spoilers] Cometh the Messiah - Varn Gosam and the Malakim

[Ilios]

T46 update in previous post!

Literary Intermezzo #1

After deciding on my unit naming scheme, I started re-reading the trilogy it is based on. I'm halfway through the last book of the Baroque Cycle and I've just stumbled on this gem of a passage. I'd like to share it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (or skip it...)

"What have you told the proprietor about who we are, and what we are doing?" Mr. Threader was asking Saturn.
"That you are Royal Society men making observations of the daily currency of the river."
"He's not going to believe that, is he?"
"You didn't ask me what he believes. You asked me what I told him. What he believes, is that you are City men investigating a case of insurance fraud by spying on a certain ship anchored out in the Pool."
"Fine - our true purpose shall not be suspected as long as he is telling people that."
"Oh no, he's not telling people that. He's telling them that you are a Sect of Dissenters forced to meet in secret because of the recent passage of Bolingbroke's Schism Act."
"Let the blokes in the tap-room think we are Dissenters then, is all I'm trying to say."
"That's not what they think. They think that you are Sodomites." Partry said. This silenced Threader for a while.
"No wonder we are paying such exorbitant rent," reflected Mr. Kikin, "considering the vast scope of activities going on in this one room."

[Ilios]

T47:


Lex has disappeared into the Western Wilds:



Lonnie is scrounging for nuts in the Helios Woods.

Hyldrich and Francis finish another farm at En-Kai. En-Kai switches from the plains Gold to said Farm, and will grow next turn. I'll probably suspend production of the Elder Council, and build a Worker instead.

The Warriors Vrej and Yevgeny move outside of Helios towards the Yellow Dot staging tile (on the plains west of the desert hills). Otto Van Hoek should be able to handle Lonnie, should this deranged Lizard ever decide to attack.

After taking the screenshot, I decide to move Dappa the Warrior out of En-Kai as well. He'll join the other warriors at the staging area, if no barbarians appear at the gates.


I've switched research back to 100%, Mining done in five turns.


The Vagabond moves towards the blue borders:



And meets the Lanun:

Dear infidels,


It has come to our attention that your lands are in fact not populated by two-headed fishmen.

This information relieves us greatly, and allows us to extend our hand in friendship.

With your permission, our Scouting party led by the Vagabond Kind would like to move west along your northern borders. You see, their mission is to boldly go where no Malakim has gone before etc, etc.

Prior to making contact your great nation, the Vagabond King spotted a creature of the Lizard persuasion (one-headed), heading west. We would appreciate it if you could inform us of its current location. It had a foul look, and our Scouting party would like to avoid tangling with it for the time being.


Hoping to hear from you soon,


Yours, faithfully,


Ilios "The Voice of God"

The Vagabond will continue his initial mission, which is to find the Elves.

Meeting the Lanun allows me to fill some holes in their C&D file:



So Amelia has Ancient Chants/Mysticism (God King civic). After getting those, she also discovered a cheap tech, either Exploration or Crafting, on T34.

Three opponents met so far, time for a graph dump:



Lanun doing ok here, as expected.



Working more forests than me I guess.



As the only nation without a second city, we can safely assume the Lanun are dead last, with a Crop Yield of 14.



The difference is mostly population I guess (which gets counted in the Power Graph)


Conclusion:

I'm not very familiar with the Lanun, but they don't seem to be doing great in this game...


C & D:

The Lanun have gained 13 points, most likely land points as well, but I'd prefer to wait until I have contact with them for confirmation.

Confirmed. Their capital grew to size 5 last turn.

The Calabim have gained another pop, and have moved into second position, point wise.

The Doviello have gained a pop as well, their second city grew to size 3 (or they founded another city), and they gained another tech (I can't be bothered to guess which).

[Ilios]

T48:

Lonnie has found what he was looking for:



And leaves Malakim lands.

This allows me to finish the Settler, and move units into position for Operation Yellow Dot:



This turn, the Warriors from the capital moved onto the staging area (circled). My Workers and Dappa the Warrior move to the southwest of that tile, and build a road.

Next turn (T49), Dappa and the Workers move to the staging area together with the Settler. The Workers finish another road section.

After that (T50), the Warrior who draws the shortest straw will move diagonally to the settling spot. If only one Lizard is occupying the Ruins, the Workers will finish another road section on the desert tile, allowing the Settler to move and settle my next city.
If two Lizarmen occupy the Ruins, I'll move all my units on the desert tile, and wait for the baiting Warrior to take the hit. The turn after I should be able to clean up the Lizard and found.

Finishing the Settler and growing En-Kai to size 5 costs me another two gold per turn. Upkeep costs are starting to bite, and I'm about to found a third city!


The Scout moves along the Lanun border.



Nice beaches!


C & D:

Last update I said that the Lanun were last in Crop Yield, and the only nation left without a city. Both were wrong.

Here's the Food Graph:



Lanun Food is about half mine, so should be around 19.

Demographics:



Someone is still at 14 food, and the Elves haven't founded a second city yet...

The Lanun founded their second city last turn (T47).

The Balseraphs gained a tech, most likely Mining, and gained a pop in one of his non-capital cities (most likely Hexam).

[Ilios]

T49:

The event screen:



Serdoa gets his Great Savant, and Amelia gets OO. Nicely founded in her new city too. I don't really get why she has gone for it before Mining though...

The staging area:



That Griffon better not be taking a crap at Yellow Dot next turn!
I don't really think it will (although another animal might). Worst case would be for the Griffon to move to the desert tile northwest from the staging tile. But then I'll just kill it with my nomads.

Augustinus has finished another grass farm at En-Kai:



So I switch the city to a worker, to be finished in five turns. The Gold Mine should be finished around the same time.


Famous last words:


Bear spotted, the un-teddy kind...

If The Vagabond doesn't get eaten by the Bear, he'll surely get beaten to pulp by the Lizard. Oh well, every Scout I've built so far has gotten me a new contact. Only three to go!
Looking at it from the bright side, his demise will save me another gold.

[Maksim]

With turn 50 approaching, it'd be interesting for the lurkers to compare the positions the players find themselves in. With that in mind, could you please give us an update for turn 50, with some screenshots?

1) The overall empire - what cities you have (F1 city list, perhaps, to see the food\production\research per city in a single screen)

2) What technologies have you got?

3) What luck you had with goodie huts this game?

And anything else you'd care to add, such as diplomatic situation from your point of view, expansion plans, any other random thoughts et al.

Thanks!

P.S. This is cross-posted in every player's thread.

[Ilios]

T50:

One of the most annoying units in FFH gets built:



Loki is the Balseraph unique unit. It has only STR 2, but can cast a puppet every turn, which is a disposable summon that disappears at the end of turn. Loki can actually convert a city to the Balseraphs if it doesn't have any culture in it. Doesn't work very well on Human players, for obvious reasons... Loki can also add or subtract to culture in cities.

The Vagabond King has met a Grizzly demise... or has he?...


Dappa draws the shortest straw, and is sent into the Wilds:



He says hello to the new neighbours, and signals the Workers to do their thing.

The city of Ra is added to the Malakim Empire:



Costs drop by one because the Settler is used, and increase by three because of city upkeep (ouch!).

Over at En-Kai, Augustinus roads a tile, and will be moving towards the Gold tile.

Over at Helios, Jeronimo, the newly built Warrior, moves to reinforce En-Kai.

It's time for Orthus to appear!

If he does pop up around Malakim lands, I'm pretty sure it'll be to the south.

Demographics:



With Mining coming in, I hope to increase MFG considerably in the coming turns.

C & D:

The Luchuirp have gotten Construction.

The Ljosalfar have finally founded a second city.

The Calabim have gained another tech.

And some more assorted pop increases, which you can check in the second post of this thread.

[Ilios]

As requested by Global Chronicler Maksim, here's a small T50 overview. I believe my turn reports are complete enough for lurkers to know what is going on.

Cities:



Taken after ending turn.You can see I've grown Helios into unhappiness again, should be only for a couple of turns while I improve the gold.

I'm on schedule to found at least another city by the time the Adaptive trait comes in to play, and I switch from Creative to Financial.

As soon as Mining has been discovered (should be next turn), and copper is revealed, I will make another dotmap.

Could a kind soul remind me how I need to activate that flying camera view?

The Vast Hordes of the Malakim Empire:



Scary, huh?


To return to the question of Hut results, I've had zero technologies discovered, and zero gold gained. I've gotten two maps...


The Malakim know Ancient Chants - Crafting - Exploration - Agriculture - Calendar - Mysticism - Mining (1 turn to go)

I'll switch off research again after Mining has been discovered, and then head for the Runes of Kilmorph religion.



I'll have some nice research overflow, and a gold tile coming online in 5 turns, so I'm estimating around 7-8 turns research time.

I really hope I have copper, because I'd like to head for Bronze Working next, to cut through all that jungle (Dyes, Rice).

Switched to Financial, so time to pick up Festivals for those cheap Markets.

Then probably get Fishing and Animal Husbandry to get some Health resources.

By then I need to check how well I'm keeping upkeep costs in check. If I'm struggling, I'll probably pick up Education and Code of Laws for Aristocracy. Otherwise Philo -> Priesthood line, or Masonry -> Construction -> Sanition

Mining -> RoK -> Bronze Working -> Festivals -> Fishing/AH -> Education

I'll do a diplo-update in another post later today.

[Ilios]

T51:


I open the save, and look for the well known Orthus icon, and realise only Sciz, who is last in the play order, could have seen it.

There have been quite a few posts in his thread today, so I'm going to assume Orthus spawned uncomfortably close to the Dwarves...

Lonnie the Lizard has decided not to harass those poor Balseraphs, and has moved near En-Kai instead.

Over at Ra, no new Lizard has spawned in the Ruins, so I move Dappa towards En-Kai, joined by Jeronimo from Helios.

I end the turn, which finishes Mining... Do I have copper?...



Score!

It doesn't appear east of Lonnie's current position as expected, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Especially when I zoom out and look around for other copper deposits.

...


Zero - Nada - Rien du tout!

Check out the minimap, I've discovered a considerable chunk of the map and I cannot see copper anywhere! Mine, all mine!

A couple of further remarks on the screenshot.

"He's Creative, why the hell is he building a Monument at Ra!?"

Good point, allow me to explain my thinking.
There are only 20 odd turns remaining before I switch from Creative to Financial. In other words, at 2 culture/turn, not enough for a second border pop. I want my culture to dominate the approach to my lands near Ra, because it cannot be blocked as easily as the narrow pass west of En-Kai. And Creative doubles hammers while building Monuments, so I better take advantage of it now.
I plan on planting one more city blocking off the approach from the east, chopping out the Monument, hopefully in time to benefit from the Creative bonus.

Helios currently has 9 hammers invested in a Warrior, but I don't need it right now, so I've switched to a Worker, finishing at the same time as the one En-Kai is building.

Suggestions for names are encouraged!

Five Workers should be alright for the next ten turns or so. The Workers at En Kai will just finish the Gold Mine and another Farm, then scuttle over to Helios to Mine all those hills.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll go maximum gold for one or two turns. I'll probably just make it with one turn, but I'd like to keep some gold in reserve in case of a good (or bad!) event.

C & D:

The Ljosalfar have discovered Hunting.

The Lanun have discovered a cheap tech (in two turns, nice!)

[Ilios]

T52:

Short report - Mining splashscreen:



And a nice overview map, after ending turn and popping Ra's borders:



Next city will be White Dot, to seal off the east from the Balseraphs. It claims Rice (jungled), Silk (forested), and fully 6 peak tiles! I could move it northeast and squeeze another city west of the Silks, but I prefer the defensive position of White Dot, with river almost completely surrounding it, and allowing for a buffer zone between Balseraph and Malakim lands.

C & D:

The Lanun new city grew to size 2.

The Luchuirp have discovered Ancient Chants.

Diplo:

I asked Sciz if I should be worried about Orthus, but he told me the Big Orc spawned somewhere near the Lanun.

Serdoa has asked me to keep an eye on Calabim Power and Tech advancement. He cryptically told me he might be needing it soon. He hasn't replied yet to my request for more information.

[Ilios]

T53 & T54:

Two new Workers have been added to the ...erm... workforce...

"Better to illuminate than merely to shine"
Thomas Aquinas

"Go forth and set the world on fire"
Ignatius of Loyola


Overview Map:



Augustinus will finish the Gold Mine next turn, then join the new Workers improving the capital.
Francis will head there as well, as soon as he's built a Mine on the plains hill Reagants around Ra (the city is a little hammer starved).

Helios has started another Settler, putting one more turn in it before finishing the Warrior in the queue, then building either an Elder Council or a Desert Shrine, and then finally finishing the Settler (timing depends on how fast I can finish three road sections towards White Dot).

En-Kai will finish the Elder Council and grow to size 6 in two turns. It will hire a Savant, and start on a Desert Shrine. I'll switch to the Pacifism Civic for an extra GPP.
Once the Desert Shrine finishes (6-7 turns) the city will hire a Prophet as well, for a total of 9 GPP per turn. A Great something is expected 5 turns later.
I'm hoping for a Great Savant for an Academy in En-Kai, but I'll be able to put a Great Prophet to good use as well.

Demographics (T54):



I'm a bit stumped by the GNP score of 37, because I'm making 39 beakers and 8 culture per turn (= 47). Maybe the gold deficit of 10 is deducted?

The Lanun are clearly in the lead, they're making a lot of culture though because of that OO Holy City.

Dot Maps

I've been trying to get that flying camera thing to work, but haven't been able to yet. It should work in the Mod, right?

The South:



White Dot seals the border with Serdoa, as mentioned earlier. The Silks will come in handy as well, because I've calculated that Helios needs to be at least size 10 to be able to work all six Mines.
Together with the Wines and the Gold, the Silks will allow size 8. Add in the happiness of a state religion and the bonus happiness from having a state religion while running the God King Civic, and I should be set.
This is assuming I'll have enough health bonuses by then... I might have to go Animal Husbandry before Bronze Working. Or I could road towards the Tomb of Succulus for an extra Life Mana (+1 Health).

Orange and Flesh Brown Dots depend on how fast the Lanun expand, because I'll be expanding in the north after White Dot.

The North:



Red Dot, or the earliest Dot of the Malakim Empire, should come after White. Helios will pop borders again on T59, and any Balseraph city placed to grab the Gold and Incense would be lacking decent Food tiles, so I think I should still be able to get it after White.

I'd actually rather claim Green Dot first, but it is safely mine, and so will come after Red (or Orange, if I'm feeling very greedy )

C & D:

T53:

The Luchuirp have founded their third city to Ra's west. Mutanbo will need to build some culture quickly if it wants to keep it's second ring facing Ra.

The Balseraphs have gained another pop, and discovered a new tech, either Fishing or Calendar.

T54:

The Ljosalfar have grown both their cities.

The Calabim have gained a pop. My info on them is the worst of all my opponents. If I had loads of time, I'd re-check every old save to see where I lost it. Maybe later...


I know, I still need to do a diplo-update (nothing much is happening actually), and I really need a separate post to explain all the nifty things you can do with the Lightbringer.


Any questions/remarks? I hope I'm not overdoing it with all the screenshots...