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Are you, in fact, a pregnant lady who lives in the apartment next door to Superdeath's parents? - Commodore |
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Make love, not war: HidingKneel chills out with the Elohim (Spoilers!)
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How's the game?
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(January 11th, 2014, 13:40)Qgqqqqq Wrote: How's the game? Not really sure. I've found everyone, and there seem to be a lot of war declarations and peace declarations. Everyone else seems to be fighting, but I'm not sure who's fighting who or who's winning. I've been running a farmer's gambit to try to catch up (my military is like half the size of everyone else's). No one's called me on it yet, maybe due to the worldspell. Hasn't really worked, though; I think I'm probably fourth in GNP, and nowhere near tech parity with the leaders.
Okay... update time. Sort of. No pictures, I'm too lazy.
Somehow I've managed to climb to the top of the scoreboard. This is almost certainly misleading. Here's the situation as I see it: The Good: I've had a lead in food for pretty much the entire game. Have more cities than anyone (even Expansive Rhoanna) and most of them are pretty big. Managed to grab the GC at Military Strategy, used it for a GA. During the GA I built the Bone Palace (a few turns ago) and Form of the Titan (just this turn). The first GA is over but I've got 9 turns left from the second. I just got myself Priesthood and Order, and am going to start mass-producing Monks and a few Confessors (Blessed Spiritual monk is 7 Str, 3 Move for 80 hammers, can build everywhere, and they'll start with 1 promotion). The bad: My economy is a disaster. I'm teching along nicely during the GA, but I think once it's over I'll be losing money at 20% science. And that's assuming that I'm not paying for any military. Running Military State right now, which means no upkeep for units. But I have by far the smallest army in the game, which is not a good situation for the civ which is #1 on the scoreboard. Building enough Monks to defend myself will surely cost me. The ugly:I've gotten here by running a near-total farmer's gambit, but a few turns ago Yell0w decided to call me on it. Razed one of my cities. Since I was defending with one or two Str 3 warriors per city, I had no choice but to fire the worldspell. Right now Sanctuary times out at the end of my second GA, more or less... (assuming it's 14 turns long like it says in the EitB changelog, as opposed to 30 turns like it says in game). I'll need to have a defense up by the time that's done. To get there, I burned my first Great Prophet bulbing Priesthood, which is very bad for my Altar plan (looks like I'll also need to use at least one more Prophet for a shrine if I want to build a ToD, since I only managed to secure two mana nodes of my own). Yell0w is clearly winning the game. He's got Guild of the Nine and a much better economy (better GNP than mine even while I'm running a GA and he isn't). My only hope is that he misplays his hand and gets bogged down in multiple conflicts. Right now he offered me peace after I fired Sanctuary, then declared on Molach. I'm going to try to buddy up to Molach... got a trade connection with him this turn and offered Ale (looks like Yell0w destroyed or conquered his Deruptus city?) Maybe I'll research Cartography next and open borders to Molach... that might help keep my finances in shape once the GA ends. I'm also sharing a border with Suttree now, and would like to offer the same to him... the danger is that they might see me as a bigger danger than Yell0w, because of my higher score. Note: Yell0w has open borders with Mardoc... I need to organize an anti-Hippus/Illian coalition in an AI diplo game. Tech path: so many techs I need, so little time before my economy shuts down again. Some useful-sounding things: Fishing Dirt cheap now. Extra health from seafood will be useful now that my happy cap is about to go up. Bronze working Bronze warriors are a cheap way to hold the line. Bless them and they'll have odds against mounted mercs defending a city, while being much cheaper. Also, there's jungle to clear. Writing Would be nice to put up a National epic if I want great people. But libraries sound like a terrible deal right now. 125% of 0 is still 0... Festivals To enable Markets. I've got lots more hammers than I have commerce. But I'm not sure I can spare the hammers... need to build units instead before Yell0w kills me. Cartography Might pay for itself if I can get open borders agreements with Molach and/or Suttree. Not clear that either would be game. Not clear if Molach is going to be around much longer, if Yell0w's targeting him. Knowledge of the Ether Adepts would be great if I could get Mana loans from Molach and/or Suttree. Meta please. Body would be nice too. Seems like a long shot, though, and Adepts would otherwise be useless. KotE is also a prereq for Corruption of Spirit, which will give me a source of collateral and open up further options (StW = mega-economy). All those things are super-expensive, though; I'll need to resurrect my economy before going this direction. tl;dr version: don't be mislead by the scoreboard you see in those other lurker threads. I'm definitely not winning, though perhaps my situation is not hopeless... |
