Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Mardoc]

I'd love to skip the temple and bang out a worker or two, actually, but we need the happy cap as high as possible if we're going to take advantage of God King much longer.

Well - the temple + Religion civic will be worth at least 3 happiness, maybe 4, depending on exactly how Religion works. Especially here in the capital where we have a large food surplus so can grow quickly, that population will more than pay for itself, even discounting God King. And doubly especially because we're Spiritual and get them at half price.

Not that I'm going to try to talk you out of building workers too Just that typical civ problem of too many useful things to do, and you need to pick which is *most* useful.

I flew the hawk flight west, to see if we could see if Rawkking settled his latest city towards us.

At some point, you should probably fly the Hawk east from Paradise City, on the off-chance there's something in the ocean worth knowing about (or contact with the Elohim/Grigori, if this isn't flat). And of course we want to keep an eye on the west, and on the south - it's a good thing Hawks are cheap .

[Gaspar]

You're going to get a very brief report, as most of my energy was taken up by the goings on in my other game. All apologies, but if you're following there, I'm sure you'll understand.

This had been a no good, very bad, horrible Civ day:



I decided to take the supplies for 53 gold, as that can be turned into a free Temple of Leaves in Hash Pipe. The Temple in the capital is already 25H in, so it'd be a waste to use it there.

The Lizard suicided on Hash Pipe, and a Great Commander was BIAFL, I'll assume that's Kyan researching Military Strategy. On turn 80.

I decided to take Mardoc's advice and fly the hawk E out of Paradise City. Nothing but ocean. I already knew the map was flat, but was hoping for an island.

First Hunter completed, heading north to get started in the wilderness. No way unfortunately to avoid wasting the first Animal, I guess. Hash Pipe starts on a new Hawk.

Mining comes in @EOT, revealing copper near Cypress Hill, which will be settled next turn:



Demos & Power:

[Gaspar]

This reply came in from Nicolae:

Hey Gaspar,

I've been stewing over some way to deal with Kyan, and yeah, we need a decisive dogpile. We're going to need to get Kyan's other neighbours on board though, there is no way I can personally cripple someone with over double my production and food, PZs will lose their momentum very quickly against a competent defender. I'd imagine RG would be happily on board, I've been trying to get vision to the east but your culture blocked me off

I'm going to need Selrahc's input though, but he doesn't seem very enthusiastic about my position (#6 in food and score ).

Cheers,
Nic

[NobleHelium]

How long would Priesthood take to research now, and would we get Festivals first? Their power graphs still haven't moved.

[Mardoc]

This reply came in from Nicolae:

Hmm, interesting. He clearly underestimates the power of the Zombie, if he thinks Kyan has a counter to it already. No, if anyone can counter the Zombie, it's the Hippus.

I certainly wouldn't mind getting more people on board, but I just don't see that as feasible. Or necessary.

I'm not sure how best to phrase it to him, though. Maybe mention that there's a reason our first and only goal with the Sheaim diplo was to avert the PZ rush? And that Kyan's likely confident that the animal army is enough, but we have a hard counter to that now?

How long would Priesthood take to research now, and would we get Festivals first? Their power graphs still haven't moved.

I think I would go BW -> Festivals -> Priesthood, if we're not concerned about immediate war. We want to focus on the happy cap ahead of getting forests planted, given our current cities, and BW would make a nice insurance in addition to getting us the Gold.

[Azoth]

Apologies for my absence. It's been a busy week. Some comments:

City Sites
Pigs/Horses/Clam is definitely City #5. I agree we should build a Settler in Hash Pipe right away. And, yeah, that southern barb city has to go. We have a good claim to the spot 2N; it's basically wedged between our first two cities. City #6, perhaps?

Cypress Hill
We really need to decide what to do with this city. It's surrounded by grassland hill forests which, as I've mentioned before, are the one tile on which we can build either mines or cottages. I favour cottages, since 2 base hammers per hill forest plus the Copper Mine should give us enough production. But we could mine everything for a fantastic unit pump.

Supplies
I'm not sure Supplies are worth 53 gold; we're pressed for commerce more than hammers. Even then, I don't think I would rush a Temple of Leaves; we're Spiritual and already get a hammer discount. A second Hunting Lodge in the capital or an Archery Range/Training Yard somewhere (to upgrade our most experienced warriors) might be the better option. Unless we're still planning a T100 war, that is.

Civics
City States is hardly ideal. I would prefer Aristocracy, which is unlocked at Code of Laws, not Feudalism. (Feudalism enables Royal Guards, excellent 4/8 stack defenders that can equip Bronze Weapons and start with Spirit II. They will be a worthwhile pickup eventually.) For the moment, I would stick to God-King, especially while we're still building Settlers, Workers, Priests, and Dereptus.

Tech Path
Well, we have a source of Copper. And it's not under a city! But I still think Archery-Bronze Working is a mistake: neither of our neighbours appears to be building military, and we need to focus on the economy if we ever hope to challenge Kyan. It's not too late to switch to Philosophy-Priesthood. And we can slot in Festivals whenever it looks like our cities have some production to spare. After all that, we have two options:

Economy: Writing-Trade-Masonry, i.e. Libraries + trade routes + Great Library with marble
Military: Message from the Deep-Knowledge of the Ether-Way of the Wicked-Corruption of Spirit, i.e. Adepts + Cultists + Ritualists

Fifty turns later, we'll be looking at:
Economy: Code of Laws-Construction-Sanitation-Currency
Military: Animal Handling? Infernal Pact? Feudalism? Sorcery?

Cartography doesn't even make the list. Maybe we should point one of our neighbours in that direction? The Hippus are Financial, after all...

[Mardoc]

Oh, a side note - Azoth, NobleHelium, you are still good on joining the rest of us in PBEM XIII whenever it gets organized, right?

[NobleHelium]

Eh, not sure. I'm not contributing much to this game anyway, to be honest.

[Commodore]

This reply came in from Nicolae:

Gaspar, I have received a sign, one that promises great success:



If the two of you work together in this, all things are still possible.

[Gaspar]

First the turn, then I'll comment on the other stuff.

Mining in, as advertised, and I've already shown the copper locations. Hawk completes in the capital, going to build a warrior then a settler for City 5 at the western site. I flew a SW mission from Hash Pipe, and I'll then have it rebase in the Hunter next turn. I flew a SE mission out of Paradise City, so we have a pretty decent picture of the south now.



In other news, the barb kill team I advertised a couple turns ago has arrived at an inopportune time. Cypress Hill was founded as advertised, but...



I promoted both warriors to Guerilla I, so I hope we'll be ok, but I really can't get anything else there quick enough if that's where the kill team heads. Unfortunately had to skip finishing hooking up trade routes, due to the barbs, so I decided to build a mine at the capital for options when we need hammers. Can always pave over it with a cottage should need arise.

Going to run 2T of 0% before moving on. I think BW is the right call, as there's no time really in the build queue for anything other than Workers/Settlers/MP/Temples/Disciples right now, so Festivals isn't really worth it yet. Tech path is very much up for discussion, while I did dump overflow in BW, its not so much that we're locked into it next. I'll take a look at Azoth's suggestions in my next post.

Demos & Power: