Not another elf chick? HidingKneel beats a dead horse. (Spoilers!)

[HidingKneel]

That's an incense on the desert, not a wine. You'd know this if you turned on the resource bubbles...

Typo! I don't need your silly resource bubbles...

[HidingKneel]

After some practice I'm going to recommend Fellowship of Leaves as an early tech goal.

FoL synergizes nicely with your recon goals as well. You get to use Fawns, which unlike normal recon units do not get a penalty for attacking cities. They are also very strong in forests, which works out nicely: you want to be attacking the Ljosalfer (forests).

This makes the early tech path something like that:

Agriculture->Calender->Mysticism->Exploration->Hunting->Way of the Forests

This gives economy (Agrarianism/God King/Elder Council) and military (Hunting/WotF) and culture (WotF). I recommend using your first Sage to bulb Knowledge of the Ether, giving you access to Mage Guilds (2 sage specialists) and Divide Soul. You can easily come up with another Sage for your Academy, especially with the Mage Guild specialist slots.

Think this is what gtAngel's planning to do with the Sidar in this game? Sounds a little strange to me... but if so, I might have some competition for founding the religion (maybe even for Kithra). On a tighter beeline than I was planning, too, due to starting with Chants and skipping Education.

Well, if so, there's not much I can do about it.

[UnforcedError]

WotF and GoN are both bulbable (we'd just need to skip Mining and Fishing prior to bulbing WotF). I'm not utterly sure about delaying Education though, especially with Elves. If he's planning to do this, fine. He might found the religion but we should get Kithra if we focus on commerce as well.

[HidingKneel]

WotF and GoN are both bulbable (we'd just need to skip Mining and Fishing prior to bulbing WotF). I'm not utterly sure about delaying Education though, especially with Elves. If he's planning to do this, fine. He might found the religion but we should get Kithra if we focus on commerce as well.

The plan he described in the other thread was to rely on calendar resources and sage specialists for commerce. I don't think that strategy will be terribly effective: with our expansive trait and him working a sage in each city, we'll easily outgrow him. I haven't done the math, but I wouldn't be surprised if the education route gets us to WotF earlier.

The bulbing plan seems a little shakier now that we've got that great commander. First GP we get will almost certainly be a second GC: we won't have mysticism until around T50, and no opportunity to work specialists before that. Meaning we'll need 167 GPP to get a second specialist. Even if we build a pagan temple ASAP, it'll take 50+ turns to get a second great person out running one priest specialist. So no hope of bulbing WotF. Hidden Paths is more feasible: if we use one our our supplies to instantly build a temple of leaves when WotF comes in, we could be running two priest specialists. But it would require prioritizing the specialists rather highly, when I think I'd rather be expanding (plus, I'd rather have an elder council than a pagan temple early on).

[UnforcedError]

TBH if we want to expand fast I'd prioritize City States over GoN in this game. There's no need to break an arm and a leg to get Hidden Paths as early as possible for size 4 cities. I wasn't suggesting we should bulb either of the techs but I'd say we should grab Education as early as we can to get the most out of our cities. We will see later whether spawning a prophet for Hidden Paths would be beneficial or not.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 6 has arrived!

Time for some more derring-do!



Not as glamorous as a free great person (or a free tech), but handy nontheless: that'll probably get us to education one turn sooner. Better than spawning a spectre that eats the scout, at least.

TBH if we want to expand fast I'd prioritize City States over GoN in this game. There's no need to break an arm and a leg to get Hidden Paths as early as possible for size 4 cities. I wasn't suggesting we should bulb either of the techs but I'd say we should grab Education as early as we can to get the most out of our cities. We will see later whether spawning a prophet for Hidden Paths would be beneficial or not.

100% agreement. Education will be the cornerstone of our economy. A waist is a terrible thing to mind! Or something like that .

[UnforcedError]

Looking good Even a bit of gold is a great help at this early stage

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns played.

Demographics this turn were interesting:



Someone is at 4k power. Now, all the non-elven civs started at 19k. By my calculation, that's
12k (supplies) + 3k (warrior) + 2k (scout) + 2k (super scout).

Dropping down to 4k means someone's down a warrior and a supplies. I'm guessing they lost the warrior and used the supplies to rush a palisade, hoping that a scout can hold the capital against whatever killed the warrior. Unlikely to be ordinary barbs this early; I'll bet it was a bad lair spawn.

[HidingKneel]

Volantis paused to scan the horizon, then turned his attention back to the broken branch along the path.

"What do you make of it?" One of his companions asked apprehensively. "Orc?"

Volantis paused for a long moment before shaking his head. "Whatever left this trail must have been thrice the size of any orc I've ever seen." He pointed at a nearby oak. "This branch was ten feet from the ground."

They lit no fire that night. This land was inhabited, and this was no time to announce themselves.

[Merovech]

Nice! You found him quickly.