Green as they come: Hiding Kneel plays the Ljosalfar [SPOILERS]

[HidingKneel]

Turns are coming in at a good clip. Looks like we might manage two of them today?

As before, not much to report (I can very much understand the desire to speed through the early game). One of our scouts is travelling northwest:



Maybe these tribal villagers can teach us hunting. (Hey, it can't hurt to ask.)

Our other scout is in the south:



Looks cold down there. I think I'll have him swing around and scout east; more likely to find alternate sites for our third city. There's also a ruin out there, but it'll probably have a defender by the time I reach it.

[HidingKneel]

Turns are coming in at a good clip. Looks like we might manage two of them today?

Well, it didn't quite make it around again to me yesterday. Ellimist said he was sitting on it waiting for dedlurker advice. And I think I can see what it was about: according to the log, he fired off "For the Horde" this turn.
According to the demographics, the Ljosalfar are no longer the mightiest nation on Erebus. Ellimist is also leading the pack in score right now, with us coming up in last place. I'm assuming that's a reflection of our decision to go with the merchant, making us the slowest to tech to agriculture.

In other news, our scout arrived in the village:


Nothing special, but what can you do?

Having a bunch of barbarians under Ellimist's control makes it even more imperative that we get some kind of minimal garrison in our cities ASAP. I'm guessing that he fired it early on the off chance that it'll give him an opportunity to take out an undefended city. And right now, we've got the undefendedest cities around .

[Commodore]

Is this a mirror map? Whatever the script is, it's massive and rocky.

[HidingKneel]

Is this a mirror map? Whatever the script is, it's massive and rocky.

No idea. The map size is large, though. With just 6 players, that should leave plenty of room for expansion before we start butting heads. Which is good for news for elves.

What do you plan to do with those supplies?

On second thought, I'm guessing I'll use them for a hunting lodge. Gets them off my hands earlier and saves more hammers, since I get temples for half price. Also a building we'll definitely want, since it unlocks our first tier 2 units and hawks.

[HidingKneel]

[SIZE="5"]

Micromanagement 101

[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Or, how to prevent HidingKneel from losing the game.[/SIZE]

As I mentioned earlier, I've been lurking the site for a while but this is my first actual game. So, despite the fact that I've been played umpteen games of FFH against the rotten AI, I think I've got a lot to learn about how to take advantage of certain game mechanics.

So, I see a lot of talk about building things with overflow hammers. Do I understand correctly that people take advantage of this by building things which they receive bonuses to (due to civics, buildings, or whatever), and then having some of those bonuses spill over into the next build?

For example, suppose (just for the sake of argument) that I had a city with a bunch of floodplains around it, giving me a food surplus which I'm using to build a worker (say). If the extra food lets me finish the worker with overflow, can that overflow can be applied to infrastructure/unit builds that can't normally be built with food?

[Commodore]

That is exactly correct, and in FFH that's the primary way overflow is done. In BtS with much better slaving, it can also be used to whip in wonders without the malus. The thing you have to be careful about, though, is +100% (or +10%) production modifiers. Those overflow hammers are actually divided by the amount you were getting bonuses on (so a temple's overflow for you is halved, etc). One interesting application of this is with Nationalism, if you're not careful to finish military units with exact hammer amounts you'll lose at least one hammer to rounding from the overflow. Worth it, if you're gaining more than that from the bonus, otherwise, it's a bad civic.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 6 is in. It seems we've made our first contact:



Just who does he think he is? The Ljosalfar people will not be intim... err...



That is a unit I do not want to mess with. More to the point, that is a unit that I do not want messing with me. It might not be able to take one of my cities, but if Ellimist decides to choke me with it, I probably won't be able to dislodge him until I can build Gilden.

So, I sent him a short message making nice, and sent my scout off to the west. (At least I hope that's what I did; never used the in-game diplomacy before.) All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that he's got better things to do with that archer (and/or that he can't find me; it'll take him 10 turns to reach me in any case, and that's if he knows exactly which way to go).

What else? I took our worker off of road-building duty and sent him south of Evermore, so he can start farming the floodplains as soon as agriculture comes in. Hyll finished a warrior at end of turn, and is working the floodplains to grow to size 2 while starting another one.

We're still last in score, and demos aren't looking so hot:



But don't worry! Agriculture comes in next turn, and our second worker comes out the turn after. Good times are just around the corner. And at least we're don't have negative GNP! (Ellimist must be struggling with the upkeep for all those units he just hired.)

[Commodore]

So, opinions on the kerfuffle? 86k is a bit of an extreme power differential, and economy crash aside Elimist should be able to kill off at least one person, probably all of you if he plays it right. On the other hand, if he plays it at all wrong it can go very nicely for you, particularly if he's smart enough to focus on Kyan as his preferred victim.

[HidingKneel]

Good question. On the one hand, I'm tempted to say that we should just roll with it. FFH is full of randomness, and I'm having fun with being afraid of Ellimist's uber-archer. On the other hand, you're probably right that optimal use of those units would be a rush that would be decidedly un-fun for someone.

I also wouldn't mind a reset, for purely selfish reasons. I'd be in a better position if I had actually played turn #1 , or if I'd settled that shade as an engineer rather than a merchant. I think I'll wait to see what some of the other players want before chiming in.

[Commodore]

I also wouldn't mind a reset, for purely selfish reasons. I'd be in a better position if I had actually played turn #1 , or if I'd settled that shade as an engineer rather than a merchant. I think I'll wait to see what some of the other players want before chiming in.

So on the one hand, looks like the reset is a no. On the other hand, looks like Kyan and Elimist are apparently set at odds with one another. Overall, a win, although as soft a target as you are, wariness is key.