(June 3rd, 2013, 00:33)HidingKneel Wrote: Lost my C1/shock warrior. Next turn, lost my C1/shock/guerrilla I warrior. Afraid to move warriors in that direction now, since I'm not sure where the mistforms are and warriors have terrible odds on the road.
Dropped to last place in GNP. Morale is low.
That really stinks.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Got a turn of respite, though. Mistforms must be healing up, or something. (I guess it takes them a full turn to move onto my beautiful forest cottages before ripping them up.) Built another warrior in Volantis' Rest, promoted to Guerrilla I, and fortified.
Way of the Forests comes in at the end of next turn. At that point, I'll need to decide if March is in order. I'm torn between thinking it's ridiculous overkill, and worried that it won't even help (C4 mistforms will have odds on Treants unless the Treants are on defensive terrain. And treants are only 1-movers, so it might take some time to get them to the scene).
Another turn, another mistform attack. Lost my Guerrilla I warrior. No pillaging this turn, though. Which is good and bad: bad because it means I have no idea where the mistforms are at (except that one must be next to my city).
Killed a barbarian warrior, getting my lizard to 25xp. Realized belatedly that I left him in kind of a precarious position, with mistforms roaming about. Covered with my C2/shock/guerrilla I warrior, who should be the top defender against a melee unit. But, of course, it would be a shame to lose that warrior, too.
Fellowship of Leaves came in at EOT:
Of course, it landed in Volantis's Rest. Which means that I will likely lose my free disciple between turns.
The messenger approached in New Evermore on the back of a deer, as if stepping out a legend from before the Age of Ice.
Though his arrival preceded the dawn by several hours, Thessa granted him immediate audience, and convened her council.
"What news do you have?" Her voice was slightly hoarse, betraying her exhaustion. How long had it been since she had a full night's sleep? A fortnight, at least.
"Archmistress, the situation has worsened."
"Has there been another attack?"
The messenger shook his head. "No. Well, yes. But that's not what..."
Tualor cut him off. "How many do you have left?" He had once been the admiral of the elven fleet, which now lay ruined at the bottom of shipbreaker bay. Since they made landfall, Tualor had reinvented himself as the commander of Thessa's armies. When the first elves had gone missing, he dispatched a contingent of soldiers to help defend the city.
"None. Vanished in the night, just like the rest."
"How could a hundred elves just... vanish?"
It was Alessa who answered him. "Sorcery. The same sorcery which unmade the Illians."
Thessa sighed. She should have foreseen this. Should have prepared her people better.
"It is worse than that." They turned their attention back to the messenger. "Few elves of fighting age remain in the city. Many have fled into the forests. Of those that remain, most are old, or sick, or too young to hold a sword. And three days ago, a host of orcs was seen approaching the city."
Tualor rose to his feet. "We must send reinforcements at once! Archmistress, I beg you. Let me put a bow in the hand of every elf who can hold one, and lead them to our defense!"
Alessa shook her head "You'll lead them to their deaths, as well as your own."
"I do not fear orcs. Every elf among us is worth a dozen of them."
"The orcs are the least of our worries. Tell me, how can an archer's arrow find the heart of a foe he cannot see?"
"What do you propose, then? That we abandon the city? If we do not make a stand there today, we will be fighting the same battle here. Perhaps month from now, or less."
Ulios cleared his throat, interrupting their argument. "Archmistress. Perhaps... perhaps there is another way."
Thessa held up her hand for silence, and turned her attention to the wizened old physician. "Speak, Ulios."
"This land is our home now." He cleared his throat again.
"In the days before the Age of Ice, it is said, our people walked beside Sucellus. And he taught our druids many secrets of the forests."
Tualor snorted. "Those are legends. And Sucellus is dead."
"Legends built upon truth. And while Sucullus may be dead, the land is not." Ulios made a broad gesture with his hands.
"Can you not feel it? We came to this place for a reason. The forest has embraced us, as we embraced it. If we call upon it for aid, I think it will answer us."
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(June 6th, 2013, 09:18)DaveV Wrote: It's a shame to use the spell so early, but it doesn't do much good to keep the spell unused and get killed by mistforms.
I was still debating it until I saw that barbarian warrior heading for the holy city. If I lose that, I lose the capacity to build any FoL units! (Sadly, lost my free disciple between turns, as expected.)
Just need to keep my fingers crossed that this actually works. No forests left means most of those treants are on open ground, which means highly promoted mistforms will have odds on them. Just got to hope that in the next five turns, some mistforms either attack while wounded, or attack across rivers, or get unlucky.
Using the worldspell is a shame, but it isn't all bad. On the bright side, workers can cottage New Forests in 4 turns rather than 6.
What are the mechanics on new forests growing to forests? Is it a random chance per turn, or a fixed number of turns, or something else?
Held off on the golden age/WotF revolt this turn, since I had a 0% chance of ancient forest growths. And via a combination of mistform pillaging and overbuilding warriors, my GNP is about ten points lower than I expected it to be at this point, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to tech warfare and cartography in time. I'll stockpile gold for a turn or two and then go for it.
Also visible in my screenshots: I killed a lion with my lizardman, bringing him to 27 xp. So I'll be able to build FotT whenever Warfare comes in. Probably going to wait until Animal Husbandry, though: I'd really like a subdue animal promotion.
(June 6th, 2013, 09:43)HidingKneel Wrote: What are the mechanics on new forests growing to forests? Is it a random chance per turn, or a fixed number of turns, or something else?
Random roll per turn, scaled to game speed. It should be 4.5% chance per turn at Quick speed. The same odds apply to all feature upgrades (e.g. forest -> ancient forest).
And of course, as soon as the treants are in play, the mistforms are nowhere to be seen.
No attacks, no pillaging.
Anyway, might as well go ahead with my golden age:
(June 6th, 2013, 11:01)DaveV Wrote: Random roll per turn, scaled to game speed. It should be 4.5% chance per turn at Quick speed. The same odds apply to all feature upgrades (e.g. forest -> ancient forest).
So, with 27 new forests, I'd should expect one or maybe two of them to change back. Got exactly one. Fortunately, it was in a useful place:
My treants will only be around for four more turns. I'd better make them count. Rather than defending my improvements, I'm piling them onto defensive terrain: the city gets +25% hill defense and +10 cultural defense, and that forest gives +25% defense and +60% bonus to treants. So I should have good odds if they attack units on those tiles. It'll be a shame to lose more improvements, but it'll be a disaster if the mistforms are still around four turns from now.
Only exception I made for the cotton tile: losing that improvement will throw New Evermore into unhappiness, so I decided to protect it.
Lurker question: what promos do barbarians take when they run of combat promotions? Is it possible that I'm facing a single mobility-promoted mistform, rather than two? (I've seen two pillages and one attack on the same turn, but haven't seen two attacks on the same turn.)
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