The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself.
The second thing Tak did, he wrote the Laws.
The third thing Tak did, he wrote the World.
The fourth thing Tak did, he wrote a cave.
The fifth thing Tak did, he wrote a geode, an egg of stone.
And in the twilight of the mouth of the cave, the geode hatched and the Brothers were born.
The first Brother walked towards the light, and stood under the open sky.
Thus he became too tall. He was the first Man. He found no Laws, and he was enlightened.
The second Brother walked towards the darkness, and stood under a roof of stone. Thus he achieved the correct height. He was the first Dwarf. He found the Laws Tak had written, and he was endarkened.
But some of the living spirit of Tak was trapped in the broken stone egg, and it became the first golem, wandering the world unbidden and unwanted, without soul or purpose, learning or understanding. Fearful of light and darkness it shambles for ever in twilight, knowing nothing, learning nothing, creating nothing, being nothing ...
-From 'Gd Tak `Gar' (The Things Tak Wrote) trans. Prof. W. W. W Wildblood, UnseenUniversity Press, AM$8. In the original, the last paragraph of the quoted text appears to have been added by a much later hand.
--Terry Pratchett
Welcome to my first PBEM, I realy don't know what to expect, so just follow me along the way...
After the restart we started with the same starting position so basically
not much has changed...
FIRST TURN
The starting position is more than nice, guess everyone will have a powercity right away. I decide to move my settler one square down to get 1 more hill tile 2 more forest tiles 1 more floodplain and 1 floodplain right away so my city will grow a little faster right away. I plan on getting hammers after the first growth to speed up my first golem. Unfortunately there is no "3-hammer-hill" in sight. Research is on mining, it will take some turns before my golem is ready so I'll have 2 techs done by then, so I take mining first to see copper earlier. Agriculture will be next, then probably animal husbandry, but we'll see about that.
I'm near coast or a lake which seals 1 side of for expansion, I like that one side less to worry about, at least till later in the game.
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/Y3110w/PBEM/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg)
Regarding picks:
nabaxo: Varn Gossam of the Malakim (Spi/Ada[Cre])
probably the most standard that means financial and religion Empyrean. Could also go for Order and high promoted disciple units
Xenin: Capria of the Bannor (Spi/Ind)
Don't know the potential of the Bannor. Likely candidate for Empyrean or Order as well, would love to see both going for the same
Tholal: Einion Logos of the Elohim (Def/Phi/Tol)
Dunno, seems like a weak pick. If it comes down to a builders game I could still beat him thanks to financial. I don't even have a guess what or if he wants a religion at all.
Cromagnumpi: Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim (Arc/Sum)
Mass summons is fun in SP. Could be strong in MP we'll see. Maybe he does smth diffrent. Religion wise AV or OO, would like to see him go OO. I think AV is "better"
haphazard1: Rhoanna of the Hippus (Exp/Fin) <- talk about top tier pick, top traits, top WS, Horselord on top of it!
Don't be near me please. I don't worry about the str. but the mobility will kill me. No way are my golems keeping up with that speed. If he is near me I probably have to focus all my resources to fend him off. But I doubt anyone will have an easy time against him. Now after he changed to the better of the two hippus it will be even harder... since archduke would have spent more time trying to choke players with pillaging he could really profit from due to his trait. Now he doesn't even have to pillage if he decides not to, thanks to financial he will be a potential powerhouse all game.
-----
UPDATE:
Game is up and running again!
After TheArchduke droped out and haphazard1 replaced him we decided to start from turn 1 again and I was able to swap my leader pick to Beeri while haphazard1 chose to Pick Rhoanna.
Expect a new report at around turn 15 if nothing happens.
-----
TURN 4
I switched from floodplains (3/0/1) to deer (2/2/0), my city will grow next turn. I'll work the wheat resource (2/1/1) with the new citizen probably. Which should mean that my Golem should finish 1 turn before the mining tech. That should be the most efficient way to get my economy going, since a mined gold gives 6(7 due to financial) commerce after ruffly 20 turns. But I guess everyone has a high commerce resource, would be really unfair else since I think that fast early teching (first 30 turns) can snowball you to a tech and expansion lead. In BtS it wouldn't matter that much, even in EitB (no financial) but in the version we play it's amazing how important that commerce is right away.
I just now realized that in my starting city I can work 6 unimproved tiles with a yield of (combined) 4 each and 2 of them with 2 hammers. I think I never had a phenomenal start like this in SP.
Normally I'm lucky to have one unimproved resource with a yield of 4 and two hammers, now I can switch around between them to get my tech/built order perfectly without having to work mine tiles with a yield of 3.
Btw. feel free to disagree (strongly if possible
) and argue, turns take sooo long.
-----
I play EitB normally and just read the EitB changelog again and realized how many buffs Lurchips got...
-----
TURN 6
After some scouting, thats what I can see:
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/Y3110w/PBEM/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg)
From the previous game I know there are the "Standing Stones" SW from me at the bottom of the map. I won't go for that. There also is Yggdrasil "far" in the South. Maybe a perfect 2nd city Location.
C&D tells me two enemy cities level 2 and two level 1. The soldier count is between 3000 and 9000, I wonder where the 9000 come from (most have 6000) the 3000 one probably lost a Warrior or Scout. Please correct me if I'm wrong. First time I try to read stats like that.
I use Blue Marble, it works perfectly but in FFH II, in EitB it's no problem. I'll try to fix this If I feel like it.
I'm thinking on a naming theme for cities and such, suggestions welcome =)
Btw. I got enchantment (+1happy), life (+1 healthy) and earth (+3 or 5% increased chance to pop mine) Mana. So every single one of my Manas gives me a bonus right away. Enchantment gives one of the strongest tier 1 spells you could ask for: +20% strength. Which ofc doesn't matter to my Golems, however it also gives Repair! Life tier 2 gives Destroy Undead, which could come in handy later. Earth has very situational use. It's always nice to capture a city and have a stonewall up right away, as it is good to have Stoneskin to walk through Hellfire.
-----
Might it just be that the standing stones are the worst unique feature after "Bradeline's Well" ? Is there anything you can do with it besides getting 1 Earth Mana and +1 happy? Cause thats not worth it.
-----
Financial/Industrious Lurchip got Gold, Gem and Marble. I don't need a lot of techs to hook everything up I need. I missed out on the Incense cause I don't need it for long into the game. And since I'll be going Education before Calender I'll just build a Cottage instead, will take a little longer but I'm financial so it goes up to 4 shields fast and ends up being better. Food isn't as important to me as to everyone else, since Mines are as good as Farms for Settler production, but way better for me in Mud Golem production. Marble is just too much. Not only will it almost guarantee me Great Library and Bone Palace (+100% with industrial). I need to pick up Masonry rather fast for Construction anyways. Only Xenin with Marble has a chance to beat me to it, but not techwise. And that opens up a nice possibility: If I'm done with Mining -> Agriculture -> Education -> Exploration/Mysticism -> ?Calendar? -> Masonry -> Construction/Writing -> ?Animal Husbandry? -> Way of the Earthmother (if it's not gone) -> Knowledge of the Ether -> hmm.. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. What I wanted to go at (it's pretty obvious anyways) is that I can go Mathematics -> Engineering and can build Guild of Hammers to get Forges (no need for Smelting, Golems don't get the bonus, neither do Catapults or Adepts) even though I can produce Forges quick which would go to waste. And I get Gargoyles (8 +50% = 12) for (120 -25% = 90). If I don't have Hippus next to me and can tech in peace for a while... I so hope they regard me as weak and Lurchip as a weak pick. Well, demographics should take care of that.
Speaking of Demographics:
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/Y3110w/PBEM/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg)
This is my first time reading anything out of that.
One player has started with (most likely) a warrior and the other two have started with (most likely) Workers. EDIT: well... you can see that by clicking on "TOP FIVE CITIES / WONDERS" too -.- . Slight, meaningless difference in tiles worked.
Am I right?
I'm starting to repeat myself here. Next update follows if something happens.
I'm really getting into this, hope you can enjoy my writing (English as second language), if anyone even reads this ^^ (apparently not)
-----
TURN 17
Him who mountain crush him no
Him who sun him stop him no
Him who hammer him break him no
Him who fire him fear him no
Him who raise him head above him heart Him diamond
Mr. Pump, my first Golem, was just baked in Ankh-Morpork. At the same time the first and most important tech Mining (you can't play dwarfs without knowing Mining, obviously) was researched. So Mr. Pump will be building a goldmine night and day. Agriculture is next, kind of a no-brainer.
I'll train another Scout, if I start near the Hippus I need to know as fast as possible. Since there aren't any lairs near me I don't have to worry about spawning barbs that much. After that another two warriors and a settler probably. My first city isn't an optimal spot but I can hook up everything with the techs I'm going to research and really: this is still a lush land. I'll grab the Calender resources with my 2nd and 3rd city, by then I should have Calender. There is enough happiness thanks to gold/wine to not hit the happy cap before I can hook up either gems or Calender resources.
Updated map with city spots:
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/Y3110w/PBEM/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg)
-----
TURN 19
My scout was eaten by a wolf, other scout heading east. Warriors getting build. Settler next. Agriculture was researched and Mr. Pump is hooking up the Wheat. He'll build another farm on floodplains, then mine/chop some hill forests to rush the settler. If Education is done Cottages will pop up. I decided to go Settler before 2nd Mud Golem. Also I think researching Writing for The Great Library would be the right move in SP but not here. So Construction will go first. I hope I'll still be able to get TGL. I will probably get either a Great Prophet for the religious wonder or a Great Scientist for an Academy, haven't decided yet. Both ain't possible cause I want to have two Great Engineers, one to rush Mathematics and one to rush the wonder. I should be able to produce Gargoyles with 40-50% bonus from Barnaxus quite fast. I doubt my enemies will suspect a midgame invasion force from the Lurchips.
-----
TURN 25
My 2nd Scout stands on plains across a Lion, if I lose him I lost too much for the scouting I did so far. I realized after I sent the save that I could have moved him in a Forest without losing movement. The time and the condition was deteriorating as I took my turn
Ankh-Morpork will grow to size 6 in two turns, my 3rd warrior will be finished as well and I'll start on a settler. Mr. Pump is mining the hill on the river after he finished the farm on the wheat. He'll chop one forest on of the hill tiles after and start a farm on floodplains. Education is due in 12 turns. I know aristocracy is OP but I hate it. Fuck agrastrocrazy it's so easy and so boring.
-----
TURN 26
Scout survived promoted to Flanking. Moved him and will let him heal now.
I met Cromagnumpi: Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim in the east. Thats nice, I don't expect early military from him. I'll try to make trades with him whenever possible for now. My scout will then try to find the Sheaim and figure out what land they got etc.
Here is a screenshot of the scouts:
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll111/Y3110w/PBEM/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg)
Cromagnumpi could be far away if this is his first scout and he moved him in a straight line.
A great deal of diplomacy went forth:
The Mine will be finished in two turns as well, a Farm would take four turns and it doesn't matter for building a settler.
The second thing Tak did, he wrote the Laws.
The third thing Tak did, he wrote the World.
The fourth thing Tak did, he wrote a cave.
The fifth thing Tak did, he wrote a geode, an egg of stone.
And in the twilight of the mouth of the cave, the geode hatched and the Brothers were born.
The first Brother walked towards the light, and stood under the open sky.
Thus he became too tall. He was the first Man. He found no Laws, and he was enlightened.
The second Brother walked towards the darkness, and stood under a roof of stone. Thus he achieved the correct height. He was the first Dwarf. He found the Laws Tak had written, and he was endarkened.
But some of the living spirit of Tak was trapped in the broken stone egg, and it became the first golem, wandering the world unbidden and unwanted, without soul or purpose, learning or understanding. Fearful of light and darkness it shambles for ever in twilight, knowing nothing, learning nothing, creating nothing, being nothing ...
-From 'Gd Tak `Gar' (The Things Tak Wrote) trans. Prof. W. W. W Wildblood, UnseenUniversity Press, AM$8. In the original, the last paragraph of the quoted text appears to have been added by a much later hand.
--Terry Pratchett
Welcome to my first PBEM, I realy don't know what to expect, so just follow me along the way...
After the restart we started with the same starting position so basically
not much has changed...
FIRST TURN
The starting position is more than nice, guess everyone will have a powercity right away. I decide to move my settler one square down to get 1 more hill tile 2 more forest tiles 1 more floodplain and 1 floodplain right away so my city will grow a little faster right away. I plan on getting hammers after the first growth to speed up my first golem. Unfortunately there is no "3-hammer-hill" in sight. Research is on mining, it will take some turns before my golem is ready so I'll have 2 techs done by then, so I take mining first to see copper earlier. Agriculture will be next, then probably animal husbandry, but we'll see about that.
I'm near coast or a lake which seals 1 side of for expansion, I like that one side less to worry about, at least till later in the game.
Regarding picks:
nabaxo: Varn Gossam of the Malakim (Spi/Ada[Cre])
probably the most standard that means financial and religion Empyrean. Could also go for Order and high promoted disciple units
Xenin: Capria of the Bannor (Spi/Ind)
Don't know the potential of the Bannor. Likely candidate for Empyrean or Order as well, would love to see both going for the same
Tholal: Einion Logos of the Elohim (Def/Phi/Tol)
Dunno, seems like a weak pick. If it comes down to a builders game I could still beat him thanks to financial. I don't even have a guess what or if he wants a religion at all.
Cromagnumpi: Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim (Arc/Sum)
Mass summons is fun in SP. Could be strong in MP we'll see. Maybe he does smth diffrent. Religion wise AV or OO, would like to see him go OO. I think AV is "better"
haphazard1: Rhoanna of the Hippus (Exp/Fin) <- talk about top tier pick, top traits, top WS, Horselord on top of it!
Don't be near me please. I don't worry about the str. but the mobility will kill me. No way are my golems keeping up with that speed. If he is near me I probably have to focus all my resources to fend him off. But I doubt anyone will have an easy time against him. Now after he changed to the better of the two hippus it will be even harder... since archduke would have spent more time trying to choke players with pillaging he could really profit from due to his trait. Now he doesn't even have to pillage if he decides not to, thanks to financial he will be a potential powerhouse all game.
-----
UPDATE:
Game is up and running again!
After TheArchduke droped out and haphazard1 replaced him we decided to start from turn 1 again and I was able to swap my leader pick to Beeri while haphazard1 chose to Pick Rhoanna.
Expect a new report at around turn 15 if nothing happens.
-----
TURN 4
I switched from floodplains (3/0/1) to deer (2/2/0), my city will grow next turn. I'll work the wheat resource (2/1/1) with the new citizen probably. Which should mean that my Golem should finish 1 turn before the mining tech. That should be the most efficient way to get my economy going, since a mined gold gives 6(7 due to financial) commerce after ruffly 20 turns. But I guess everyone has a high commerce resource, would be really unfair else since I think that fast early teching (first 30 turns) can snowball you to a tech and expansion lead. In BtS it wouldn't matter that much, even in EitB (no financial) but in the version we play it's amazing how important that commerce is right away.
I just now realized that in my starting city I can work 6 unimproved tiles with a yield of (combined) 4 each and 2 of them with 2 hammers. I think I never had a phenomenal start like this in SP.
Normally I'm lucky to have one unimproved resource with a yield of 4 and two hammers, now I can switch around between them to get my tech/built order perfectly without having to work mine tiles with a yield of 3.
Btw. feel free to disagree (strongly if possible
) and argue, turns take sooo long.-----
I play EitB normally and just read the EitB changelog again and realized how many buffs Lurchips got...
-----
TURN 6
After some scouting, thats what I can see:
From the previous game I know there are the "Standing Stones" SW from me at the bottom of the map. I won't go for that. There also is Yggdrasil "far" in the South. Maybe a perfect 2nd city Location.
C&D tells me two enemy cities level 2 and two level 1. The soldier count is between 3000 and 9000, I wonder where the 9000 come from (most have 6000) the 3000 one probably lost a Warrior or Scout. Please correct me if I'm wrong. First time I try to read stats like that.
I use Blue Marble, it works perfectly but in FFH II, in EitB it's no problem. I'll try to fix this If I feel like it.
I'm thinking on a naming theme for cities and such, suggestions welcome =)
Btw. I got enchantment (+1happy), life (+1 healthy) and earth (+3 or 5% increased chance to pop mine) Mana. So every single one of my Manas gives me a bonus right away. Enchantment gives one of the strongest tier 1 spells you could ask for: +20% strength. Which ofc doesn't matter to my Golems, however it also gives Repair! Life tier 2 gives Destroy Undead, which could come in handy later. Earth has very situational use. It's always nice to capture a city and have a stonewall up right away, as it is good to have Stoneskin to walk through Hellfire.
-----
Might it just be that the standing stones are the worst unique feature after "Bradeline's Well" ? Is there anything you can do with it besides getting 1 Earth Mana and +1 happy? Cause thats not worth it.
-----
Financial/Industrious Lurchip got Gold, Gem and Marble. I don't need a lot of techs to hook everything up I need. I missed out on the Incense cause I don't need it for long into the game. And since I'll be going Education before Calender I'll just build a Cottage instead, will take a little longer but I'm financial so it goes up to 4 shields fast and ends up being better. Food isn't as important to me as to everyone else, since Mines are as good as Farms for Settler production, but way better for me in Mud Golem production. Marble is just too much. Not only will it almost guarantee me Great Library and Bone Palace (+100% with industrial). I need to pick up Masonry rather fast for Construction anyways. Only Xenin with Marble has a chance to beat me to it, but not techwise. And that opens up a nice possibility: If I'm done with Mining -> Agriculture -> Education -> Exploration/Mysticism -> ?Calendar? -> Masonry -> Construction/Writing -> ?Animal Husbandry? -> Way of the Earthmother (if it's not gone) -> Knowledge of the Ether -> hmm.. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. What I wanted to go at (it's pretty obvious anyways) is that I can go Mathematics -> Engineering and can build Guild of Hammers to get Forges (no need for Smelting, Golems don't get the bonus, neither do Catapults or Adepts) even though I can produce Forges quick which would go to waste. And I get Gargoyles (8 +50% = 12) for (120 -25% = 90). If I don't have Hippus next to me and can tech in peace for a while... I so hope they regard me as weak and Lurchip as a weak pick. Well, demographics should take care of that.
Speaking of Demographics:
This is my first time reading anything out of that.
One player has started with (most likely) a warrior and the other two have started with (most likely) Workers. EDIT: well... you can see that by clicking on "TOP FIVE CITIES / WONDERS" too -.- . Slight, meaningless difference in tiles worked.
Am I right?
I'm starting to repeat myself here. Next update follows if something happens.
I'm really getting into this, hope you can enjoy my writing (English as second language), if anyone even reads this ^^ (apparently not)
-----
TURN 17
Him who mountain crush him no
Him who sun him stop him no
Him who hammer him break him no
Him who fire him fear him no
Him who raise him head above him heart Him diamond
Mr. Pump, my first Golem, was just baked in Ankh-Morpork. At the same time the first and most important tech Mining (you can't play dwarfs without knowing Mining, obviously) was researched. So Mr. Pump will be building a goldmine night and day. Agriculture is next, kind of a no-brainer.
I'll train another Scout, if I start near the Hippus I need to know as fast as possible. Since there aren't any lairs near me I don't have to worry about spawning barbs that much. After that another two warriors and a settler probably. My first city isn't an optimal spot but I can hook up everything with the techs I'm going to research and really: this is still a lush land. I'll grab the Calender resources with my 2nd and 3rd city, by then I should have Calender. There is enough happiness thanks to gold/wine to not hit the happy cap before I can hook up either gems or Calender resources.
Updated map with city spots:
-----
TURN 19
My scout was eaten by a wolf, other scout heading east. Warriors getting build. Settler next. Agriculture was researched and Mr. Pump is hooking up the Wheat. He'll build another farm on floodplains, then mine/chop some hill forests to rush the settler. If Education is done Cottages will pop up. I decided to go Settler before 2nd Mud Golem. Also I think researching Writing for The Great Library would be the right move in SP but not here. So Construction will go first. I hope I'll still be able to get TGL. I will probably get either a Great Prophet for the religious wonder or a Great Scientist for an Academy, haven't decided yet. Both ain't possible cause I want to have two Great Engineers, one to rush Mathematics and one to rush the wonder. I should be able to produce Gargoyles with 40-50% bonus from Barnaxus quite fast. I doubt my enemies will suspect a midgame invasion force from the Lurchips.
-----
TURN 25
My 2nd Scout stands on plains across a Lion, if I lose him I lost too much for the scouting I did so far. I realized after I sent the save that I could have moved him in a Forest without losing movement. The time and the condition was deteriorating as I took my turn
Ankh-Morpork will grow to size 6 in two turns, my 3rd warrior will be finished as well and I'll start on a settler. Mr. Pump is mining the hill on the river after he finished the farm on the wheat. He'll chop one forest on of the hill tiles after and start a farm on floodplains. Education is due in 12 turns. I know aristocracy is OP but I hate it. Fuck agrastrocrazy it's so easy and so boring.
-----
TURN 26
Scout survived promoted to Flanking. Moved him and will let him heal now.
I met Cromagnumpi: Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim in the east. Thats nice, I don't expect early military from him. I'll try to make trades with him whenever possible for now. My scout will then try to find the Sheaim and figure out what land they got etc.
Here is a screenshot of the scouts:
Cromagnumpi could be far away if this is his first scout and he moved him in a straight line.
A great deal of diplomacy went forth:
Yell0w Wrote:Good day to you Sir!
The Mine will be finished in two turns as well, a Farm would take four turns and it doesn't matter for building a settler.
