[SPOILERS] Beyond the Shadows with Mist and Ellimist - Varn of the Sidar

[Ellimist]

Settling in place seems good enough, especially for what should be our #1 priority(survival.)
SIP gives us the bonus hammer and the defensive bonus of a hill site. The rivers on both sides add a bit more. I can't see a great reason to give all of that up(plus some commerce) for 1 additional FP.

[Mist]

So, research emphasis or cash emphasis?

First one means teching Mysticism early, sages council in capital and Great Sage as a first GP. We get a lot of beakers, but can't afford upgrades or fast expansion, so whatever army we want to field needs to be pushed out with raw hammers.

Second one is a Festivals beeline, Market in capital and Great Merchant first. Going this way we'll never, and I'm not kidding here, never fall below 100% break even research and can expect to field hordes of Divided Souls by Scout upgrade method. This is also probably the method of choice if we're concerned about survival above all else.

[Ellimist]

Festivals plan sounds good to me. That also makes us more likely to snag the free great bard, which should be nice if we're still going for culture victory.

I think we should be as paranoid as possible at the start, and only gradually relax as we become more secure.

[Mist]

Okay, any second thoughts about going leaves as first religion?

Because I do have some.

Sure, we're teching hunting fairly soon, but we're also going to grab mining about the same time. FoL on it's own, without priesthood, gives pretty little to play with - meh temple, unique units that are crap and forest->ancient forest upgrade we'd rather put off untill the time me can reliably spam lumbermills. RoK on the other hand has a top class temple and adds to our cash focus considerably. I'm still on deck to use Leaves later in the game once we start getting some priests around, but we should really probably go RoK first.

[NobleHelium]

FoL doesn't give anything over RoK until priests, except border pops which you could get by sacrificing disciples. And if you're not staying in RoK long term then spreading it isn't a huge priority. Could just do it in cities that are ready to build temples, and by then natural spreads may have happened.

[Mist]

Settled in place.

Queued a Warrior and Agriculture.

Forgot to swap out of pacifism

Moved scout as discussed.

As following images show - there's no wrap, we're in SW corner of the map, and we can forget about exploring unique dungeons.

Also, see that lizard lair? I think we should pop it. If it wrecks our game, at least it'll do it early and we need every bit of luck we can squeeze out. Even if it;s gambling.

[Selrahc]

And.. uh.. the sword?

[Mist]

And.. uh.. the sword?

I decided not to ask any questions

It apparently provides fear immunity, if we ever get to it

Not deleted it since we might actually get a diplo contact out of it and well, maybe Mardoc wanted it there

[Mardoc]

well, maybe Mardoc wanted it there

Nope, that would be a mistake. Up to you if you want to bring it up and consider restarting.

[Jkaen]

Would be cool if each civ had an item for them (invisible to other civs) in the opposite corner of the map