[SPOILERS] DaveV: The vampire bites! Goodbye level 9.

[DaveV]

Recently, you have begun to find yourself unfulfilled and distant in your daily occupation. Strange dreams of prospecting, stealing, crusading, and combat have haunted you in your sleep for many months, but you aren't sure of the reason. You wonder whether you have in fact been having those dreams all your life, and somehow managed to forget about them until now. Some nights you awaken suddenly and cry out, terrified at the vivid recollection of the strange and powerful creatures that seem to be lurking behind every corner of the dungeon in your dream. Could these details haunting your dreams be real? As each night passes, you feel the desire to enter the mysterious caverns near the ruins grow stronger. Each morning, however, you quickly put the idea out of your head as you recall the tales of those who entered the caverns before you and did not return. Eventually you can resist the yearning to seek out the fantastic place in your dreams no longer. After all, when other adventurers came back this way after spending time in the caverns, they usually seemed better off than when they passed through the first time. And who was to say that all of those who did not return had not just kept going?

Asking around, you hear about a bauble, called the Amulet of Yendor by some, which, if you can find it, will bring you great wealth. One legend you were told even mentioned that the one who finds the amulet will be granted immortality by the gods. The amulet is rumored to be somewhere beyond the Valley of Gehennom, deep within the Mazes of Menace. Upon hearing the legends, you immediately realize that there is some profound and undiscovered reason that you are to descend into the caverns and seek out that amulet of which they spoke. Even if the rumors of the amulet's powers are untrue, you decide that you should at least be able to sell the tales of your adventures to the local minstrels for a tidy sum, especially if you encounter any of the terrifying and magical creatures of your dreams along the way. You spend one last night fortifying yourself at the local inn, becoming more and more depressed as you watch the odds of your success being posted on the inn's walls getting lower and lower.

In the morning you awake, collect your belongings, and set off for the dungeon. After several days of uneventful travel, you see the ancient ruins that mark the entrance to the Mazes of Menace. It is late at night, so you make camp at the entrance and spend the night sleeping under the open skies. In the morning, you gather your gear, eat what may be your last meal outside, and enter the dungeon...
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For anyone who knows what I'm talking about, Rob Balder (the creator of the Erfworld webcomic) recorded a very clever song about Nethack:

[DaveV]

My picks:
Decius of Calabim
Arendel of Ljosalfar
Faeryl of Svartalfar

Password:
Elbereth

Edit: oops, wrong Amurite leader
Edit2: Fawn abuse time

[DaveV]

Everybody gets their first pick!

gtAngel: Hannah the Irin of the Lanun (Financial, Raiders; Seafaring, Exploration)
Kyan: Valledia the Even of the Amurites (Arcane, Organized, Ingenuity; Ancient Chants)
Thoth: Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim (Arcane, Summoner; Ancient Chants)
DaveV: Decius of the Calabim (Organized, Raiders; Exploration)
Ichabod: Kandros Fir of the Khazad (Aggressive, Financial, Ingenuity; Crafting)

A strong field of opponents.

Thoth - the pre-game favorite, IMO. He's won pretty much every one of these games in which he's participated. Excellent understanding of game mechanics, good micro, excellent macro. His pick of the Sheaim screams Armageddon push.

Ichabod - a solid player, but (by his own admission) tends to lose focus as the game moves along. Maybe his horde of lurkers will help him keep his head in the game. He's played the Khazad before, in game 6, and was very competitive right up to the end. Hands-down winner of the spoiler thread title competition.

Kyan - another very good player, although I think one of his biggest strengths is his diplo prowess. That won't help him in this game. He's returning after a layoff, but I expect a well-played game from him. I've always found it hard to play the Amurites, so I'm interested to see what Kyan can do with them.

gtAngel - a fairly new player, who has posted a lot in the strategic discussion threads. She appears to have a very good grasp of the game mechanics, and a lot of game experience, but I suspect she is actually handicapped by her single player experience. Stuff that works against the AI is not as successful against a smart human opponent, and she may not be as sharp on the micro as the previous three guys. Hannah's strength is pretty much directly proportional to the amount of water on the map, so it's a very swingy pick. All this said, there are several people who have played great games on their first outing, so she may push me into last place.

DaveV - based on my past performance, I'd rate myself as a good tactician and a fair-to-poor strategist. I just don't have the focus to play this game at a top level. Decius of the Calabim is an interesting full-circle pick for me: I dedlurked Bob and played some turns for him in the first FFH PBEM. Once Decius gets his Aristograrian economy going, he's pretty good; the problem is getting there without any good economic traits. The Calabim are my default single-player civ, and they are arguably the only first-tier civ in this game (depending on how much water there is for the Lanun to spam up with Pirate Coves).

[DaveV]

Strategy: fire the worldspell on the first turn and go worker-worker, then pump out an early settler. If I can settle my city before two of my opponents, I can get the garrison later, since barbs won't start spawning until there are eight cities on the map.

Grab the basic worker techs, then beeline for Code of Laws. Then Bronze Working and (I hope) Copper. Lots of ways to go after that:

* Construction->Sanitation for more food and happiness (and aristofarm spam)
* Trade for chariots, +1 trade route, and one tech away from Vampires
* Military Strategy for the Great Commander and Command Posts

A lot will depend on the map. I may even need to tech Archery, since my capital is very weak on production.

[DaveV]

Reserved

[Mardoc]

Outside the BFC if you settle in place, things may and probably will still change.

[DaveV]

Ack! gtAngel is winning already! Dogpile time! And since when did the Amurites have a leader named Kyan?

Thanks, Mardoc.

Edit: a warrior? What is this strange unit?

Edit2: any chance of getting the map dimensions for sandboxing?

[DaveV]

First turn played, world spell fired. I renamed my capital to CloakOfMagicRes (not enough characters), my scout to Newt and my bloodpet (nice fix, Mardoc!) to Killer Bee. The naming scheme is that cities will be the elements of the Ascension Kit, scouts will be named after level 0 monsters, bloodpets after level 1 monsters, etc.

One screenshot (I forgot to grab a screenshot of the Settings page):



Only 1500 land tiles means the map is about 40% water. Not good news with the Lanun in the game. My plan for now is to eschew water tiles completely and concentrate on land.

[DaveV]

Second turn. More exploration, still no good second city site found.



Demographics show that starts are similar or identical. gtAngel has an inland capital, so her seafaring starting tech is not helping her.



I forgot to grab a screenie of the settings page last turn, so here it is. A few interesting things: all unique features are enabled. Did Mardoc do another one of his treasure island maps?

Map size is Small when it should be Large. This means cheaper techs and higher city costs, a net negative for me I'd say. City States looks like an interesting civic choice (if you're not the vampires).

[NobleHelium]

Probably the best start ever for t0 RoB, with the two oases. Nice.