Don't worry, we won't bite - Whosit and Yell0w travel to Transylvania

[Whosit]

Sorry what's a GS? Probably not a Great Scientist! I also always forget how much stronger EXP is comparatively vs BtS but I guess I kind of hope Kredom's 2nd city has grown at least once but eh.

It sounds like everyone is being pretty aggressive with their units this game, huh? I might be out of touch, but even for a EitB game this seems a tad unusual. However, based on the last posted map, it shouldn't be too hard to eventually post sentries in key spots to spot any incoming invasions, yeah?

[Yell0w]

Sorry what's a GS? Probably not a Great Scientist!

Giant Spider

It sounds like everyone is being pretty aggressive with their units this game, huh? I might be out of touch, but even for a EitB game this seems a tad unusual. However, based on the last posted map, it shouldn't be too hard to eventually post sentries in key spots to spot any incoming invasions, yeah?

Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard. The thing is there are 4 clearly very good areas that are up for contest, and we'll ofc try to grab 2-3 of them ... and keep a sentry near the 4th.

[Yell0w]

[Whosit]

Those are some nice numbers! Though it looks like someone grew their capital to size... 5 before RoB was used? Well, 2 pop is 2 pop and I guess pop 4 and 5 cost more than 2 and 3. Anyway hopefully we can make this early lead snowballllll.

Nice to see another worker coming out. Don't want our cities working unimproved tiles for too long. Soooo I recall something about us getting use out of unhappy citizens but is that automatic or did we need those manors for that? I forget what we're going to do with all of our extra food. That's always my problem with EitB because Slavery comes so late.

Anyway, I'm hitting the road tomorrow morning but I'll stop in and look if I get the chance to.

[Yell0w]

Just realized, that clan WS could potentially open up 4 epic lairs on those isles. I'm not sure about it though, I think lairs can't be opened when at peace with the barbarians, but epic lairs might. Anyways, if I'd get 3 of those isles with my WS I'd cancel peace with barbs and try to open up those lairs, probably. But then you kinda need ships to get those valuables off the island, so probably not worth it.

Whats going on in the game?
Oh well, Aurorarcher is bugging me with a C2S1 warrior, but I think I'll kill him with great expense pretty soon.

We also have to decide what path to go:
1. go save, research BW spam more cities, try to get 2-3 of those sweet spots with all those unique features, while being totally save with bronze Moroi.
2. go gambit, get those food boni building whipped while spamming more cities and researching CoL, by that time we should have whipped granaries, smokehouses and breeding pits, overflowing into a much needed Deruptus Brewing House, and maybe even a Bone Palace, and of course more settlers.
3. go classic, CoL here we come.
4. do the long haul, go slavery but go BW after to be save, then CoL

In each of those we probably need to slot in stuff like masonry and AH sooner or later.

Oh yeah and a small mechanical question: how do % hammer boni work with slavery in EitB?

[DaveV]

Oh yeah and a small mechanical question: how do % hammer boni work with slavery in EitB?

The same as in base BtS: slave hammers are multiplied by (100+bonus)/100, overflow hammers are multiplied by 100/(100+bonus). So, with a 50% bonus, you would get 150% of the normal slave hammers, and overflow would be reduced by 33%.

[Yell0w]

Oh yeah and a small mechanical question: how do % hammer boni work with slavery in EitB?

The same as in base BtS: slave hammers are multiplied by (100+bonus)/100, overflow hammers are multiplied by 100/(100+bonus). So, with a 50% bonus, you would get 150% of the normal slave hammers, and overflow would be reduced by 33%.

Thanks a lot, so even with reduced overflow that makes whipping worth it.

[Kragroth]

Alright,

Yell0w has been gone for several weeks. I have been given consent to continue playing the game. If Yell0w returns we can work together.

At the moment, the Calabim are in trouble. We have a lot of cities and a lot of territory and some cities are super producers.



We have the following problems:

1. The orcs are stronger than us
2. The dwarves are even stronger than the orcs
3. We have the Sheiam and the Svarts who can backstab us later if we commit too much to war.
4. We don't have enough of a standing army
5. There are a large set of dwarves on an island with trebuchets and high promoted warriors waiting to kill us
6. We don't have much of a navy
7. We have lots of points where the enemy can attack us which means defending requires a large army.
8. We don't have very many techs compared to our enemies

If you were to look at these cities, you'd notice several things, Yellow built up a lot of buildings. He's working on 3 libraries right now. In a new city to the south he built a carnival. On a border city, he's building a granary.

I didn't deviate from Yell0w's plan last game (EITB 36) and I regretted it. We didn't have enough of an army and all our builderiness didn't help us when the tides of attacks came our way. I think Hiding Kneel is out teching us and out militarizing us. We have to build up quickly in order to at least defend ourselves and eventually spur on the attack.

For the last 10 turns that I can see, Science has been set at 0. This is unacceptable. HK and Auror will out tech and cream our Unpromoted Moroi. Yes, Yellow was trying to do a slavery strategy. The problem is that Calabim benefit from large cities and slavery reduces that and that Aristofarms benefit from large cities and slavery reduces that. Not to mention the fact that we need the extra promotions to fight these aggressive Khazad. Conquest is not ideal because it nixes extra food from agrarianism. We lost organized so we can't build command posts. We lost the race to Military Strategy so no Great Commander for us. We lost the race to form of the Titan so no extra xp from that. Apprenticeship really is the only way for us to go at this point.

Eventually we will want to get vampires and with Vampires we may be able to excuse a lack of apprenticeship by feeding on our cities. But that Requires Feudalism which we don't have and is still a ways off.

We need to get real and get a competent army going. I set my capitol to build a siege workshop. In 1 Turn I finish researching Horseback Riding. This will enable Mobility I as well as allow Bronze Chariots to shore up some attack possibilities. Next is Knowledge of the Ether. Body Mana is powerful and we need adepts quickly to both attack and defend our territory properly. Shadow mana is useful too. We cannot wait for Vampires and they do not get Shadow Mana.

After that we're at a decision point. We have a great merchant hanging around. We could use him to build Nox Noxcis which could help some money issues by spreading the religion. I don't know how beneficial this would be in MP though. Hawks are harder to get than in vanilla but I wouldn't put it past my enemies to beeline sorcery and get the metamagic eye (which is easier anyway). It might be better just to keep the merchant as a golden age maker and leave it at that.

I think the Calabim are built for The Order. In fact it is immediately researchable now. Order then Priesthood then Fanaticism would fit right in. Two heroes, Priests that add to combat directly, and the ability to build the Mercurian gate and get a Human Basium to help us? This is definitely the path towards a shot at winning if it's not too late.

[Ellimist]

Would you mind using [screenshot] tags instead of [img] ?

[Kragroth]

Hyborem has appeared. Yay, Q spent all this time on a suboptimal rush? Don't know for sure. But, the tech costs for the Ashen Veil and Infernal Pact are nuts. I am heavily dissuaded from pursuing those techs early in EITB.