Like a hot wind Varn Gosam of the Malakim [SPOILERS]

[Selrahc]

Any explanation?

A "lean to" is a sort of crude shelter from adverse environments.

[Thoth]

That had to be some seriously high odds though

6 str mistform vs 3 str warrior. A bit of fortification and stuff but -20 or -25% terrain bonus and stuff. Across a river though, maybe

Not all that high. Our defending warrior had +20% culture, +25% innate city defence, -5% (nomad on desert), +25% fortification and +40% river crossing for a total modifier of +115%. An unpromoted warrior would have an effective defence strength of 6.45 enough to give us >50% odds of winning on defence. A combat 2 warrior (base st. 4.2) would have an effective defence strength of over 9. Luck was with us, but not outrageously so.

A "lean to" is a sort of crude shelter from adverse environments.

Yep.


Thanks for the turn 50 update. Things are looking decent, although the food numbers are a bit worrysome. Getting a couple more farms up + Agrarianism will help here.


Going forward.....

1) Builds: I would strongly suggest building 2 workers before the next settler. There are a lot of tile improvements to be made around our existing cities plus road links to existing/future sites to build.

Something like worker/worker/settler/warrior/worker/settler as the next few builds for GLT would put us in good shape expansion wise. Jerusalem can keep building warriors for the time being (sending one to the copper area to scout and fogbust would be a good idea).

2) Foreign Relations: Have you done any diplo with Mr. Yellow?

3) Tech: Get Animal Husbandry before Education. Know where the horses are (and if we have access to them at all....) will make a difference to our settling plans. Code of Laws can wait for the moment, switching to Aristocracy too soon will severely nerf our growth curve (-1 food per farm and the loss of the God King hammers for settlers/workers). I normally aim to get Aristocracy around the 5-6 city mark.


4) Military: We will want something better than str 3 warriors soonish. If we have horses easily available, HBR would be my choice. It should be possible to put together a 12-15 horseman rush on Mr. Yellow by turn 80-85 by mass building 2 xp warriors once apprenticeship is in, then building a stable in GLT (should only take 3 turns or so under God King) and then upgrading them to horsemen. tech path for this would be: Calendar->Animal Husbandry->education->HBR (then turn tech to zero while the upgrades complete) then either writing (libraries) or Col (once we've got 4-5 cities up and running, Aristocracy will be worthwhile, but it's quite weak until then).

If we don't have horses, grab Bronze Working instead of HBR and settle city 4 near the copper (exact location dependant on scouting) so we can get bronze upgrades for our warriors.

5) Great People: Our next GPs will cost 201/335/469 GPP each. I would aim to generate a great scientist next (from GLT) followed by a great Prophet (from Jerusalem)

6) Turn 70 trait switch:

We can either go for an economic trait (Philo or Financial) or a military trait (Aggressive or Raiders). Normally I would go with an economic trait at this point, but if a horseman rush is possible it would be worth considering picking up Agg or Raiders instead. At this point in the game I would favour Agg over Raiders (there won't be very many enemy roads to use and he isn't going to have much territory depth, so I would prefer the extra punch from Agg).

If we're going for an economic trait, I'd prefer Philo over Financial. We'll save a lot of hammers getting out libraries and elder councils and we'll get our Academy and our shrine down in half the time. Commerce isn't going to be a problem for us with the amount of flood plains we have to use.

Financial is nice, but getting our beaker buildings out faster and cheaper should produce similar/superior beaker counts and give us extra hammers to spend on other infrastructure/military builds.

7) City specialisation:

GLT: Hybrid commerce/gpp farm
Jerusalem: Mainly a production city, but can build us a Gprophet at size 8
Eastern Gold/cow city (Golden Calf?): Production.
Far east: Commerce city to grab up the rest of the flood plains. Consider making it coastal for some exploratory boats.
South: I would settle one east of your city marker to make the city coastal.
This will be an excellent commerce location (5 flood plains plus incence and some grassland river.)
North West: Copper city-->production/navy
South West: We can shoehorn in a couple of ok cities (one on the hill you marked plus one more further west) or we can go with one very good city on the plains hill NW of the wheat.

8) Ortheus: Nice bit of luck there. Engage him on the desert tile SW of GLT (send in a zero xp warrrior or two first....). It will probably cost a couple of warriors to take him down but getting the axe plus a bucket of exp on the unit that kills him will be nice.

[Sciz]

Good idea on building a warrior in Jerusalem for scouting, I think (but i don't remember) I started building a temple of kilmorph in Jerusalem, for the gold and priest specialist, but i've got a feeling that we're on the way western end on a continent, so it would be a good idea to have a warrior go west from jerusalem and see what he can find out.



It really looks like coast to the west of the forested hill, and then to the west of the peak and forested hill above that as well. So that could mean there's just an unpopulated peninsula to the west of us, which would be great, because then we don't have to rush to settle it. That's why it would be a great idea to scout it out asap so we can find out if we can leave the west for later and concentrate on the west where we have opponents. There could still be an opponent to the south of course though, I want to scout that out later too, with a lightbringer preferably since they have much better line of sight.

Diplomatically I haven't really talked to Sir Yellow much. I said hi to him when we met, and he said that he had met the elves to the east, who had told him of the elohim even further east. That kinda makes my theory of no one being to the west make more sense, since it would be weird if no one still hasn't come from the west if there is someone there. I'm gonna shoot him another mail though, just ask him what's up. I don't feel like going for any rush, horseman or otherwise against him anyways. I'd rather wait for priests and stuff. So definitely a financial trait on turn 70. I see your point with philo, but I still like financial more, it just cannot be beat. Especially if we're waiting for CoL for a while longer it'd be sweet with financial for the +1 gold on all flood plain tiles since they are base 2 for us. It wouldn't be that big of a deal getting an academy a bit later imo. if Square Leg also favours philosophical then i'll let the majority decide I guess, though!

Don't really think two workers in a row is needed in GLT though. First of all we can't grow more anyways since we're at our happy cap already, so having more food wouldn't be that much of a deal, not until we get more happy at least. It's more important to get more cities out. IMO after this worker is done we get a settler, then a worker who will go to the eastern city, then perhaps warriors depending on how many we'll lose to Orthus, if not needed then continue on settlers.

[Thoth]

Good idea on building a warrior in Jerusalem for scouting, I think (but i don't remember) I started building a temple of kilmorph in Jerusalem, for the gold and priest specialist, but i've got a feeling that we're on the way western end on a continent, so it would be a good idea to have a warrior go west from jerusalem and see what he can find out.

I'd stick with warriors until size 6 in Jerusalem, then get a ToK (+2 gold, +1 happy, priest and merchant slots). Hiring the priest can wait until GLT gets started on a Great Sage. However, getting a few Klimorph missionaries out to our new cities to either spread RoK or to pop their borders will be very handy. (Remember, we loose our creative culture after turn 70)

There could still be an opponent to the south of course though, I want to scout that out later too, with a lightbringer preferably since they have much better line of sight.

I would go with a warrior west as it looks like heavy terrain out there and send a lightbringer east (and perhaps a second one south) though the flatlands where they can run away from hostiles and take advantage of sentry over the flat.

Diplomatically I haven't really talked to Sir Yellow much. I said hi to him when we met, and he said that he had met the elves to the east, who had told him of the elohim even further east. That kinda makes my theory of no one being to the west make more sense, since it would be weird if no one still hasn't come from the west if there is someone there. I'm gonna shoot him another mail though, just ask him what's up. I don't feel like going for any rush, horseman or otherwise against him anyways. I'd rather wait for priests and stuff.

If you're not going to rush him, keeping in close contact would be a good idea as would negotiating a NAP.

Priests are great support units, but if you are planning on making them the mainstay of your army, you are going to be disapointed. 80 hammers for a strength 5 unit is a lousy bargain. Think D&D clerics. Ok fighters, but their primary role is healing/unit buffs.

So definitely a financial trait on turn 70. I see your point with philo, but I still like financial more, it just cannot be beat. Especially if we're waiting for CoL for a while longer it'd be sweet with financial for the +1 gold on all flood plain tiles since they are base 2 for us. It wouldn't be that big of a deal getting an academy a bit later imo. if Square Leg also favours philosophical then i'll let the majority decide I guess, though!

Finanacial is a good trait, but it isn't the uber trait that it is commonly regarded as, especially when it's only a temporary trait. If we'd gone for an Acadamy first instead of the RoK bulb it would be decent enough, but as it is going Fin over Philo will cost around 25-30 turns of Acadamy beakers plus 10-30 turns of shrine income. Factor in the hammer savings on Libraries and elder councils and there is no way I would take Fin over Philo at this point in the game.

Don't really think two workers in a row is needed in GLT though.

Three might be better.

First of all we can't grow more anyways since we're at our happy cap already, so having more food wouldn't be that much of a deal, not until we get more happy at least.

More food = faster settler production.
Roads to new city sites = faster travel times for settlers = faster cities

Our happy cap will rise by 1 once the gold is hooked up, and can be raised another 1 by building a cheap Temple of Klimorph. Food won't go to waste.

There are still plenty of tiles to improve around GLT (the forested hill, the sheep, roads to Jerusalem, the wheat and future city sites, all of the flood plains) and Jerusalem (another farm or two plus all the mines that need to be dug some of which also require forest to be cleared). 2 workers per city at this point would not be excessive. 2 workers for 3 cities isn't nearly enough.

It's more important to get more cities out. IMO after this worker is done we get a settler, then a worker who will go to the eastern city,

It is better to build the worker for a new city before the settler. The worker can be roading towards the new city site while the settler is under construction and will be in place to begin improving tile yeilds immediatly.

then perhaps warriors depending on how many we'll lose to Orthus, if not needed then continue on settlers.

Yeah, we'll need to throw in a couple of warriors allong the way. Taking out Orthus will cost 1-3 warriors, taking out the skelleton on the barrow will likely cost another one to kill it plus one to fortify on the hill until we can pop it safely.

[Thoth]

BTW: What does our current military look like in terms of exp/promotions? Do we still have our promoted warriors?

[Sciz]

We only have one warrior alive with a promotion, and it is combat 1. The other ones we had were killed by mistforms and other such dastardly creatures.

Got a response from Sir Yellow:

[COLOR="Cyan"]Hello councilor.
We haven't heard from any other civs yet and have had rather bad luck with our exploration trips (one can be
attributed to a mutated giant named Dagan-Gannd, ringing any bells?).
Our current situation can be described as piss poor, though you've certainly had it better.
Founding the Runes of Kilmorph before turn 50 is no mean feat, nice work on that.
We have found oppurtunitues for expansion, but haven't seen any civs so far and it's possible some of it might be in neighbouring lands.
Where exactly is your peoples location compared to us? It would be apprechiated to know. Your fool was spotted to the south-west of our capital by the way.
Also, curious if you've seen any of this Orthus that has recently appeared.

Sir Yellow, frustrated Chief Advisor of the Bannors[/COLOR]

Looks like they are having some troubles

Also note that the hill giant in question was the one I released from a lair

I told him that in my response though, no point in trying to hide it

[COLOR="Yellow"]I do hope your situation gets better! I believe I am somewhat directly west of you. Maybe a bit south as well, but not much. Mostly west. Sorry about that Hill Giant, an unfortunate warrior did manage to pop it from a lair, though luckily for you and us Hill Giants don't enter territory, which can't be said about the Fawns who invaded my lands a while ago. Though do note that I popped this lair to the west of me, far from your borders, I wouldn't attempt to pop any lairs near you, that would not be a neighborly thing to do.

I have it on good authority that Orthus will be "taken care of" next turn. Or so I am told, anyways. What does an old spiritual man like me know? You'll have no trouble from him, I'm happy to say.

May Kilmorph be with you,
Sciz[/COLOR]

Let's not mention we popped the pyre of the seraphic near his borders

[Square Leg]

Let's not mention we popped the pyre of the seraphic near his borders

And lets do it again?

[Sciz]

Orthus down!



Lost two warriors, but totally worth it. That 31 exp warrior with orthus axe can easily take out that skeleton now.

Also I do have another warrior with promotions that I hadn't noticed before. It's one of the warriors in Jerusalem, he has combat and shock 1.

[Thoth]

Sweet! Promote that warrior up to level 6 and we'll have the Form of the Titan unlocked. (not to mention a untit with a base strength of 8 (3 +1 for the axe +100% for combat 5 )

Good news about Sir Yellow, weak neighbours are good neighbours. :evilgrin:

And lets do it again?

I think that can wait for a bit.....we've had enough trouble with nasty spawns as it is.

Once we can spare 5 warriors, that barrow can be popped safely though. In the meantime, fortify a warrior on it to prevent any further spawns (once the current skelly is dead of course). It will be cheaper than trying to kill off skelletons on a hill.

[Thoth]

We have found oppurtunitues for expansion, but haven't seen any civs so far and it's possible some of it might be in neighbouring lands.

I may be being a bit paranoid, but this might indicate he's thinking of expanding via pointy sticks.