You speak in whispers of the devils I have slain, Brian, Sareln & Ichabod of Elohim

[Brian Shanahan]

Turn played. Nicker went worker>stable, nothing else happened.

In forane news the Elves founded Fellowship of Leaves (well the obvious choice) and the Hippus founded Octopus Overlords.

It is well known that being Ljosfar means that your economy is geared towards spending at least a good portion of the game in FoL, a) to spam the Priests for bloom and b) for the Ancient forest spreads, so that one was sticking out a country mile (you don't want to hear the other analogy I was thinking of).

But the Horselords going OO is a bit strange to my mind. The best choices IMO at this stage are Kilimorph (for the economic boost to help with conquering the world in a massive horse rush), Order (Valin is a strong early Horse based hero, this can be dropped later) or the Veil (similar with Rosier with the added bonus of the Priests having ring of fire). OO is a strong religion with two good heros, and a temple which is very handy in a culture battle, but the whole focus of the religion is towards slower, more deliberate movements, which is the exact opposite of what you're looking for as a Hippus leader, which is get in there early, often and hard.

[Ravus Sol]

If you havn't upgraded Lugh completly yet i'd recomend combat one and then keeping the second promotion available depending on how he's used.

If you are planning to take on the Grigori anyway you should just take the city site you want most.

[Brian Shanahan]

Yeah that's what I did with Lugh, gave him combat 1. Depending on what happens in the future he'll either stay combat or specialise.

The thing about the Grigori is that the city site I really want is their capital, as I am way too cramped for space here, especially given the way other teams are zooming up the line.

[Brian Shanahan]

Turn is played, Festivals is in, Hedgeamacation is being teched (though science will be turned off next turn 12g @ -8gpt). The cows are pastured at Hospital, and being hooked up. And I've got the two happy on-line:

I show Nicker just to illustrate the happy resources, though you are free to critique my choice of tiles to work.

The land looks little different:

but I have a few more resources coming on line and my cities are all going to grow for a while. Muff gets a market after the settler. Hospital, Market>EC. I'll build festivals where there's a need for happy.

Foreign news is a bit more spicy:
First Kyan:

I was sorely tempted to ask for a city just for laughs but decided not to.

A big jump (2 to 6) in the AC decided me to look at the log, where I found:

Probably Nicolae, as who else on the land wants an early AV (later on most of us would like some). But I'm thinking, maybe I could throw up an otherwise throwaway production city and just build a few Hallowing of Elohim rituals, all the while auctioning off the costs to interested parties (ie see who want's them and who don't and do what the highest bidder asks). Pipe dream maybe but I might just float it.

And finally the demographics:

Slowly improving, and hopefully not too slowly.

Edit: I'll just send a note to Acalostas that he can expect a visit from a wandering warrior in c. 7 turns.

[Brian Shanahan]

Two turns today, because I got the save so late last night.

Turn 78

Not much happened, just moving stuff around. Both Nicker and Muff expanded borders at eot.

Turn 79

Not much here either, but pictures will describle:

Note that demograpics were taken with science @ 100% so I am going up in the world, but that wasn't my actual gdp. I'm at 40% at the moment, calculating how much I needed to get five turns of research at -7gpt, and cutting the research down for one turn approrpriately (probably been better to exhaust the treasury, but the recent pattern of my gdp will hopefully confuse people elsewhere).

And I include the power graph (which is one turn behind):

I'm reoughly half of Acalostas at the moment, who's a third behind my partner Kyan. A horde of screaming horsemen will rectify that deficit.

On horses I'm three turns from hooking them up giving me time to slot in a market in Nicker first, so my next build everywhere is Market.

And finally I need cover from next Wednesday to Tuesday week. I'm going down to Dingle with my parents for a short break and probably won't have access to Civ (unless an internet café has it). I should manage internet no problem though so should be around for talk and discussion. This will be the second last time I need cover (I'm moving up home around September 15th and may need that day, not sure).

[Square Leg]

when are you going to pop the well?

[Brian Shanahan]

when are you going to pop the well?

When I get the units to spare. I could do it now, but it'd mean pulling units off garrison duty and be annoying. I'd say in about 15-20 turns, when I have 5-6 horsemen.

In single player I'd have popped it about turn 10.

[Ichabod]

I can cover for you, Brian.

I'm already receiving the saves, just need to play them.

General guidelines would be helpful! (yes, I know, kill the Grigori, but other than that :neenernee)

[Brian Shanahan]

Tech
Well the plan is to go through Education and Code of Laws on the way to Order. So Education will be done during your set, and Code of Laws started. If neccessary min/max to get the money together for teching.

Civics
Apprenticeship will be used, I think I'll stay in GK for the forseeable future, don't have enough farmable tiles to make Aristocracy viable yet. So after Edu revolt to Apprenticeship.

Builds
Markets are next everywhere, I'll have them started. Nicker gets started on horsemen after that, the first to find Gaspar, and get talking to him, the next few to block out Bradelines, and after that build them up for attack (slowly really as we don't have great cash potential atm).
Muff goes for the settler pump to get the Iron city up and running, plus the two others I have marked out, plus the blocker, which I'll look at later this evening.
Hospital gets an EC after the market, then stable>horses/workers.
Limerick gets Monument>Market>EC>Stable>Horses/workers.
Obviously all this won't happen during my absence but it's good to put it down for now.

Workers
Get the gold on line asap, it'll be three turns to border pop so I'll be starting that. Other than that look to the best options, if hammers are needed, mine; food needed, farm or pasture; gold needed, consult your local loan-shark.

Scouting
Diarmuid is going to wander around Grigori land (I'm still at that agreement, totally lopsided) and basically pinpoint what Acalostas has, first horseman as mentioned goes to Hippus land, using the NorthEast passage (I'll mark it on the map).

Naming
Next city is Limerick ("The Treaty City", and where I was born too!), after that continue using your favourites from this thread, if you found them. Workers are "Dad's Army" characters, list here. I'll be working the song into the war dec somehow.
And legendary units get named after Irish Legends (Keep Cathbad for Coraline, and Cuchulainn for Valin). Mine this page and it's links (we've lots, and interestingly every single one of them is flawed in some way).

Diplomacy
It'll be a good idea to give Kyan/Krill some idea of troop composition if you can, and I'll try and get on the good side of Gaspar (for now anyway). Were good friends with the Bals, but remember that Krill is getting a bit bloodthirsty. And finally as I didn't mention it the other night Kyan offered Ale when he has Deruptus up for an unspecified future happy resource, accept it if it comes up in game.

And, remember, in the immortal words of Private Frazer "We're DOOMED!"

[Brian Shanahan]

While I wait for Nicolae to send me my save for turn 81, I outline what I played last night. And as a special treat to the lurkers it's got extra pictures! Aren't I nice?

First the turn:

Muff completed it's settler and moved him out towards the Limerick sites. 5 turns away.

Hospital completed it's monument and is starting a market.

I pulled science back to full to complete Education.

Other than that nothing else really happened.

But I also did a pictoral review of my situation, so here it is.

Land

As you can see in the culture map Nicker is out to 4th ring, Muff to 3rd, and Hospital is 3 turns from 2nd (due to just building monument).

From the resource map you can see that I have 2 horses, cow, sheep, crab, 2 corns, silk and cotton. I will also be getting a gold soon, and missed out on fish (I think though grabbing the horse in BFC is better than fish, and there is an island just south of the fish anyways).
Soon I will have a second sheep, marble, incense, a third horse and dragon bones elephant, with copper deer and furs also earmarked for capture as well.

From the soldier map you can see that I am spread out pretty thin. Every single one of those marks is a single soldier, except for the one highlighted (1E of Muff) which also contains a settler. I have in addition to this either 5 or 6 workers (I forget exactly but will count when I get the save), who are busy beavering away at improving the landscape.
As regards disposition it is one soldier per city, with one explorer, one settler escort and one (Oisín) guarding the skelly bower south of Muff. I am running a very light defence here. And also note that there is a skelly incoming to Nicker. He's currently just outside the border 1E of the sign "Somewhere". So 4 turns away essentially (counting the stop turn). And final troop knowledge, Acalostas has a scout going east through what I've marked the North-East Passage.

Next is cities:

[SPOILER]Nicker
This is production central, with seven total hills and 2 food resources. Everything else will be farmed for the crops to work the mines. If I went total food here I'd have 8 surplus at the moment, but I'm running a sage for the science (and not to inflate the pop too quickly, I'm still tight on happy). But when this gets going I'll be pumping units like mad. It is not a good commerce city at all however.

Muff
Muff is a production/GP hybrid, it has four minable hills plus the horse, giving good production here. With sheep, corn and 3 grassland farms this should be well capable of working the four mines, and supporting enough specialists to give me my quotient of GPeople.

Hospital
Hospital is going to be a production/commerce hybrid. 2 grass land farms and cow will (just about) support the working of the four mines and six cottages I plan on building here when I have the chance. I'm going cottages, because a) I don't really have the rivers to spread Aristofarms, and b) it would really cripple the capital as regards food. This may change down the line if I capture good Grigori cities.

[/SPOILER]
The big tech which will spur my city growth here is actually Construction, which I have not yet talked about in my plans, mainly because I'm focused on a more mobile type of war. But I plan on getting it as soon as is possible after I finalise my war techs, i.e. getting to Order and Valin. It is 43 turns to Order at best (assuming 100% breakeven research), so I will really be cutting it fine getting him into battle for turn 130. After that Masonry/Construction is another 20 odd turns, so it'll be turn 160 before I see chain irrigations in my land.
Incedentally building Vailin in the capital at food neutral will take me exactly 6 turns with no modifiers (I'll get exactly 20 hammers for a 120 hammer hero).

Demographics and graphs

I'm slowly coming up in the world, pegging myself back into the races step by step. My GNP is still 40%ish the leader's (in nearly all cases it's Kyan) and my crops and MFG are not much better, but if I can build up sufficient force to take on most of the Grigori lands, I will be back in contention in this game. It's a long haul, but if I want to have a shot at winning this I have to keep plugging away at it.

And finally the top 5 city list:

Picture says it all, Hugh Jass and Harry Crack are Kyan's, TheNamelessCity is Acalostas'.