This Time for Sure: Mardoc reprises the Lanun

[Mardoc]

Funny...I didn't notice anything strange and Ilios was laughing at me in chat, so I checked this thread out. I did notice that Hill Giant was dead, I guess my sandbox has been broken into .

Darrell

Oh, dear.

Tatan, I think you picked the right target


It occurs to me that with Tatan keeping Darrell busy (or dead), a conquest victory is definitely in the cards. Shouldn't be too hard to keep both Ilios and Uberfish from going Tower, we're likely to end up at war with the both of them anyway once they catch on to our location (and each others').

I'm thinking the logical approach, after having slept on it, is to occupy the southern pass with a Fire Resistant Saverous and some Chariots backing him up, build a navy which defends the southern waters, and then take the rest of our army and go mess up Ilios. Let Tatan fight the elves in peace, so long as he leaves Fishing unresearched .

In fact - I may propose peace to him, combined with a gift of every single spare sea resource we have, to see if I can get that message across. I'm half-tempted to offer him Iron, as well, actually . But that might be a bit too condescending.

And, fortunately, the timing on getting Saverous + 2 armies + a fleet built ought to match pretty well with the timing on getting our peaceful settlement mostly finished.

[Mardoc]

Played the turn last night, not a lot newsworthy. Everything feels like molasses without the Golden Age speeding us along. I suppose that ought to let the workers have a chance to catch up. But I can't wait to get back into GA!

We've got our first chariot in play, so that's a plus. And next turn we should have iron (would have it a bit sooner if not for on the workers). I think most of our income for a while will be going into upgrades for our horsemen -> Chariots, then probably swords to a mixture of Chariots and Boarding Parties. We do want to stop at BP en route to Phalanx, for the Amphib

I discovered that workboats count as military units! So even our new cities can pretty much 1-turn them, once you take into account the food surplus and the +35% military hammers and so on. We'll be putting up a bit of infrastructure everywhere, though, anytime we need to grow. That's the main downside to military workboats, in fact - we're building them primarily in cities we want to grow, as well.

We've started on The Black Wind. I knew things were good on the naval front - but our shipyard cities generally have a +85% hammer bonus on ships! That's almost a heroic epic - only it's everywhere. Also building a Chariot directly. I'm going to find time to slip in a few Pirates, somewhere. Trick is going to be preventing cities from stagnating while they build navy; we don't have (m)any cities that are happy capped yet, and our whole economy is based on the idea of many huge cities. Our typical coast tile is 3/1/3, which is nice, but it's hardly going to compete with an Ancient Forest town - unless we've twice as many tiles worked as Darrell .

We've only about 30 turns remaining on Organized. I think this is the cue to make sure we get our Courthouses and Command Posts put up everywhere, because I'm perfectly willing to swap at T145 if we've accomplished that (Lighthouses everywhere is actually pretty much already done, or in queue; they're too good to delay). First thought on what to swap to: Raiders! But maybe Spiritual would work just as well.

We have one settler en route to the marble site, and then we'll need a couple more sites picked out, with a settler due next turn and one due in 4. First thought: grab the next two mainland coast sites. Alternately, grab the Ivory to boost our happy caps again. None of the various island sites are really ones we want yesterday; granted, they can still be strong, but it's probably time to start filling in gaps rather than racing outward quickly. Maybe the next one should go toward Uberfish to give us a focal point for defense, and because he's the only one likely to compete for our local islands anyway (can't imagine Tatan switching gears at this point).

Ok, so after that display of 'meh', I still find myself wanting about 5 cities settled with the next two settlers . Ichabod, I think I've been spoiled rotten!

Let's do something like this:

1. Current settler goes to marble 2-tile island
   
2. Ivory
   
3. Island toward Uber
   
4. North Coast
   
5. South Coast
   

That should keep us busy long enough to finish dotmapping the mainland and to make a settlement order for the remaining islands.

And...the past few turns have been played pretty much without a plan. I'm sure it shows That needs to change . Fortunately, this is the only save I expect to see tonight, so I ought to be able to make some short and medium-term plans.

We've got a tech plan. Getting to Mithril looks like 10-12 more turns, depending on how our GNP continues to ramp up. Therefore, what needs to be added for short term planning:

1. A worker and workboat plan
   
2. A ferry plan
   
3. A city builds plan
   
4. An army location plan
   
5. A naval plan
   
6. A plan to take the barb city
   

Medium term:

1. A more thorough settlement plan - include a decision on how to take and hold the mountain passes
   
2. A decision on army composition, size, and goals
   
3. A post-Mithril tech plan (collateral!)
   

Huh. For 'not a lot to say', I sure said a lot! I suppose that's because I was working on organizing my thoughts. More later.

[Mardoc]

After all that build up...the save didn't come in until midnight or so, long after I was snoring.

Thoth played the turn, but obviously didn't post about it (maybe because he played at ~2am ).

So...planning tonight, probably! If Tatan plays soon enough!

One piece I neglected to mention yesterday: Optics revealed quite a bit in the inner sea, of all places. We've now got clear signs of more peninsulae...almost as though there were a five-pointed star in the middle. I'm tempted to try to move up the barb city conquest date, as a result - because that could be five more cities, each as a peninsula with tons and tons of coastline and a bunch of resources to work. The only hesitation in my mind is that eliminates a buffer between us and the foes (smallish, granted), but also eliminates a psychological buffer. I'm not 100% sure I want my borders to be right there, saying 'this would have been yours if you only fought for it'. On the other hand...that's an easier claim to make when we have five more cities worth of production to back it up with

[Mardoc]

Well, yet another night without an update, despite the turn being played. We've changed course slightly - basically ships and courthouses are now at the front of our queues rather than the back. And we've decided to slip in Alteration sorta soonish, so that we have Haste and Enchanted Blades and Enchantment mana happiness and the start of Life II. Tech plan right now looks like Engineering -> Alteration -> Mithril Working -> Divination -> Elementalism -> Necromany -> Sorcery. We're really hoping that either Tatan hurries and makes a node for the Lacuna, or that he notices when we do, and gets that annoying WS out of the way before we're depending on mages.

Main threat at the moment: Uberfish. Ilios's Power is low, and equally important, flat. Tatan is embroiled with Darrell; not entirely sure what casualties were dealt by the March, but both of their focus should be each other. Which leaves Uberfish, with a safe flank, and us on the other side.

At the moment, we're focused on getting out a sentry net, and a mobile reserve. New Galleys are very nice for that - we should be able to make ships that start with 3 capacity and 8 moves (base 3, +1 for Lanun, +1 for Circumnavigation, +1 for Longshoremen, +1 for Nav I, +1 for Nav II); once we have a supply of adepts, we can change that to 4 net capacity, still 8 moves (Fair Winds + Skeleton Crew). Granted, that leaves the galley at 'dies to a stiff wind' status, only 4 strength - but if we cover them with Pirates and a firm intention to get the first strike, that should be fine. Besides - naval warfare is even more balanced toward first strike ability than land warfare, in FFH. And as circumnavigating Lanun, we should have first strike any time we don't eff up.

Add in for the actual naval combat, The Black Wind (completed EOT), Pirates, and Boarding Parties. And Cultists, if we can get the logistics to work out right. Man, logistics . I'm going to have to actually think about them. Getting the right mix of units, with the units balanced out between the right classes, in the right places.

On land, our mobile reserve will be chariots on Engineering roads. That's...basically the plan. Some cultists for healing. And probably going to have to be some catapults, until the Lacuna is over. Once we make it to Sorcery, we'll add in a bunch of mages, with ideally a smorgasbord of spells.

And we'll start Hawk production next turn, in order to justify or dispel our paranoia. We really want 8-10 of those little birdies, just for the mainland, and if we have extra, it'd be nice to use them to scout the ocean as well. Main plan for oceanic scouting, though, is Caravels, eventually supplemented by Floating Eyes.

Finally, Thoth identified a nice micro pattern for Mainmast that will let us start the Guild of Hammers with a lot of overflow, the turn Engineering comes in.

Anyway - we're basically just now starting on a real military. Fortunately, only Uber is a threat, and his army ought to be primarily on Tatan's border, out of position to hit us now. We also have the ability to react pretty quickly - if we go 0% science, we'll have the ability to upgrade all our horsemen and swords to chariots in 1-2 turns.

In other news, Ilios popped a golden age of his own, and is now close to our demographics lead - about 2/3 of our GNP and basically dead even in hammers. Which...is actually pretty reassuring. If we can stay ahead of even a GA-Ilios, then once we add in Guild of Hammers/GA #3, we ought to pull way ahead.

[Thoth]

I wouldn't count on Uberfish's army being out of position to attack us, he's had time to relocate it since the war started. And if that army is on ships....it can move quite quickly into range. I suspect his recent spike was a bunch of PoLs, so he'll have Tiger supported Pyre Zombies as land forces. Note that Tigers have a ZERO power rating, so his combat effectiveness is a lot better than it looks.

If he comes by land, there is a lot of ground between our East and his West at the moment. Some Hawk scouting here will give us a few turns notice of any incoming stacks.

If he comes by ship our best bet is early detection and aim to sink his fleet at sea but we'll want better garrisons than 1 Bronze warrior in each of our Island cities.

Recomend we Declare Nationality on the Black Wind and station it near our Western borders. Keep it a few tiles back of the borders, but in position to move and intercept an incoming fleet. I'd leave it unpromoted (save the Longshoreman spell) for the moment.

IIRC Hatch (I think...our Westernmost Island city with the Whales ect) can build a Caravel or a Pirate in 1t with the overflow from the Sea Haven. I think we want a Caravel built here this turn so we can start up a local sentry net.

Mizzen should be finishing up another Caravel this turn as well....more Westward eyeballs.

[Mardoc]

Mizzen should be finishing up another Caravel this turn as well....more Westward eyeballs.

Y'know, Uber exists to the east, as well...

and a Sentry Caravel covers a 7-tile front. If I can figure out a way to cover the west with just one, I'm inclined to send Mizzen's Caravel southeast instead.

[Thoth]

Southeast isn't horrible....but we aren't as vulnerable in that direction and it's a much longer haul for Uberfish to come at us that way.

If he does, he can hit a not very large border city with minimal investment.

If he comes from the West he can hit Hatch. A large and growing city with lots of infra and a large investment in cash rushed Work Boats.

I'd rather have the extra Caravel in the West at the moment. Once we've got a solid sentry/picket line set up in the West, then we start expanding it. SE and North are both high priorities.

[Mardoc]

Southeast isn't horrible....but we aren't as vulnerable in that direction and it's a much longer haul for Uberfish to come at us that way.

If he does, he can hit a not very large border city with minimal investment.

If he comes from the West he can hit Hatch. A large and growing city with lots of infra and a large investment in cash rushed Work Boats.

I'd rather have the extra Caravel in the West at the moment. Once we've got a solid sentry/picket line set up in the West, then we start expanding it. SE and North are both high priorities.

This is all very logical...but I sent a currently under utilized ferry SE on the off chance, out of curiosity when I played this morning. And found an Uber galley about 5 tiles from us. Now, it's only one, and he might be scouting too - but nevertheless, I'm going to replace this galley with a caravel ASAP. We do probably need two caravels in the west, as there are two channels. But the best way I can see to do that is to produce caravel #2 from the same place we just got caravel #1 .

I suppose that's the next question - do we pop that galley? The Black Wind could be there pretty darn quick, and I know it would get odds . My instinct is to say only if it comes within 4 tiles of a city - and if so, we follow up with a peace offer. Just like uberfish did with our galley, basically.

In other news, we didn't get boated in the west, and in a couple turns will have our caravels out scouting to ensure that continues.

I've decided to consolidate the horsemen at our one Siege Workshop - that's more or less central, plus, well, if we need them, we'll want them to be chariots. Just because we can't spare the gold now, doesn't mean we can't find it if an army shows up on our doorstep.

Our first Hawk was born at EOT; I'm debating where the highest priority is - do we want to scout the center, or up north by Ilios to see how far he's expanded, or south toward Uber to check for Pyre Zombies. Actually, asking that question answers it - we can save our scouting until we have a couple more Hawks, except for the bit that might involve Pyre Zombies.

We've got our 2nd marble city founded, with the Ivory city settler en route. So expansion isn't exactly stalling, just slowing down a smidgen . We've got some catch up work to do with our workers, anyway, so I won't cry that we don't have settlers due in the next couple turns. Er, that is, much .

And we're progressing nicely towards Engineering, and our Guild of Hammers plan is on track as well. So in that sense, nothing much to report this turn.

[Mardoc]

I see I've missed a couple updates. Because, well, the saves keep coming in late , and so either I play fast before bed/before work, or Thoth fills in for me. Neither's all that conducive to detailed reporting. Add in a good deal of plotting via chat with Thoth, so I'm not even certain what's been covered here and what hasn't.

I do have some time this morning, though, so let's remedy that.

First up, overall strategic situation. It's good . We're well ahead on GNP and Food compared to the closest rival (Ilios, in both cases, although Uber's keeping up with Ilios on food). We're not very far ahead on Production, now that Ilios is in an Arete golden age. That said, this is slightly misleading, as we're in Conquest (and building troops), and we've been spending a minimum of 100 gold/turn on cash rushing things ever since we entered MilState.

Still, we want to improve that production rating, and we've got a solid plan to do so:


See that 0% science? It's related...
Yes, I know one shouldn't rush wonders, I think they've added a 2x multiplier on cost. This one, though, is worth making an exception for. It's worth about 60 hammers/turn across our empire, plus +1 happiness in every city, an engineer slot in every city, GPP points in our secondary GP burg. That makes rushing it next turn worth about 600 hammers, compared to letting it build naturally. Probably more than that, actually, since our cities are still all growing like weeds, and we'll likely enter our 3rd GA in that period. That's worth the ~1600 gold investment. Even ignoring the value in guaranteeing it's ours, that no one can possibly steal it. No one has engineering researched - but in 10 turns, maybe they could.

In other news, we've finally cracked open the gates on military production. I still wouldn't really call what we've got an 'army', but it's more than cardboard cutouts by now, anyway.



Of course, priority 1 was getting some scouts in play, so we can judge how fast the rest of the army needs built. That's what the Hawk and Caravels are doing. Now, for all that that's a small number, it's still clearly 2nd only to Treants. Plus, we've Iron and a lot of units who can be upgraded to Chariots in case of emergency (every sword and horse).

We've founded a number of cities since I last showed pictures; in fact, we're comfortably #1 on that ranking. Way out in front at 18 cities. I'm not sure who's next, I think it might be Uberfish at his 12-13? Darrell was keeping up, until Firebows. And although our focus is shifting, most cities are building Courthouses or war toys, we still expect to continue settling with some part of our efforts. It helps to be in the lead

Cities that might be new after the last time I showed pictures:






What else...Darrell signed open borders with us, which turned out to be worth all of 9 trade routes for us . I'm guessing this is that bug SevenSpirits found? Still, it's ~15 gpt bonus, and a reason for Darrell to want to not join a dogpile. And if anyone needs the help, it's him. On the other hand, our cities are getting big enough, and spread out enough, that 2 gpt internal trade routes are actually starting to be a minority; most are worth 3 or 4 gpt.

Meanwhile, we proposed peace to Tatan, who wasn't interested. I think we may have to turn this into a hot war for him, if he's going to persist in being stubborn! Razing his coastal cities would be a good start.

And we've started chipping away at the barb city's defenses. Should have it join our empire in a couple turns.

Any questions?

[Mardoc]

Played. Thoth, I know you suggested a 10% research slider this turn, but that wouldn't leave any margin for events. I left it at 0 one more turn. We can catch up later by running a little closer to 100.

Also, your clever road to the new site was thwarted by an elephant camping there. : Hopefully it moves, otherwise we'll be delayed even further.

Uber's galleys seem to be stationary, almost as though he's worried about us

Other news? I Hawk-scouted the center, and didn't find what I was expecting. Although what I did find makes perfect sense:

That's right, there's too much room in the center for a simple star. Looks like we instead have a donut hole of land to grab and/or fight over.