[Spoilers] Dain of the Amurites Marks History Forever

[Kragroth]

Animals aren't barbarians.

They have the same symbol. When do animals spawn?

[Ellimist]

Animals are hidden nationality units and can spawn at any time.

They're basically the same as barbarians, except they can't enter borders. Elephants, notably, also cannot attack.

[DaveV]

Animals spawn on barbarian turn 5, so you can see them as early as your turn 6. And any of your units that are standing outside your borders at the end of turn 5 are vulnerable to being eaten.

[Kragroth]

Well apparent lairs have their own spawn rate too and it ain't pretty



I've just put up an emergency warrior and it may come up too late. At least I settled my warrior on a Hill. I do not like lairs Sam-I-Am.

Dear Lurkers what is the spawn rate for lairs and when do barbs come from them. It's obviously not 1.5 * the normal amount of cities for those.

Well, this may be the end of me.

[Kragroth]

Well, the stupid lizards decided not to attack. I was able to get my warrior with the Hills promotion out so I feel much safer now. I'm going to delay myself again to build another warrior......and maybe another one. I will get my settler out eventually.

[Kragroth]

I just realized that these lizard border guards are useless to the clan. The clan could definitely rush the other civs. I would probably be the juiciest tsrget.

[Kragroth]

2 Lizardmen attacked and died. Now, two of my warriors have some xp and are slightly injured meanwhile 2 more lizardmen seek to visit me. I wonder if these lizardmen will act like the last? Have I found an Ideal Barb Farming location?

[DaveV]

I just realized that these lizard border guards are useless to the clan. The clan could definitely rush the other civs. I would probably be the juiciest tsrget.

From the setup thread:

So, here's my plan for the map:

3. Hand place a few ruins at choke points. The ruins will have Held, Hidden Nationality units on top, to prevent Barbarian civs from moving through them.

[Kragroth]

Alright, so I haven't updated as much as my opponents. There's a reason for that.

Not a whole lot has happened. I have been hampered by these Lizardmen pretty badly. This is another reminder why I don't like lairs. With bad odds, I could have lost a warrior or the game early on while my Jonas opponent can ignore them with impunity.

I got hampered by the following things:

1. Rushing FoL
2. Building an Elder Council, Cave of Ancestors, and putting up Priests instead of Tiles
3. Rushing Kithra

I don't really regret the choices I made. I wanted to be competitive for a long term victory (Altar) while being able to do cool long term things (Govannon teaching Priests, Warriors, etc.). If I rethought the settings proposed I probably would have chosen Clan as well or Doviello second. Being able to expand quickly without being harassed by these lairs would be a welcome reprieve.

The nice thing about this era is that its very feasible to go for FoL. Normally you gimp yourself a little bit because hunting is so expensive.

Current State:

I'm weak. The dwarves and orcs are in a good economic position with a lot of cities. I could probably be invaded half-decently soon and I only have a couple of wild cards in my pocket

1. Kithra
2. Random chance of Treants

What do I need to do?

1. In 5 turns I finish my settler and I use Kithra to escort him and a worker or 2 to build a path to copper, this will make my warriors more defensible.
2. I finish Warfare in 2 Turns. I use this to build a National Epic to increase my Great People Count Even more.
3. Next I research Military Strategy in 14 turns to begin building the Heroic Epic to +100% my production. If I'm lucky I'll even get this tech first for a great commander (but if not, no biggie either).
4. After Military Strategy I research Priesthood and start pumping out constant Priests of Leaves from my Capitol taking advantage of my xp boosting Altar.
5. In the meantime, I have one city pumping out warriors for defense who will become copper warriors later.

After that I research Military Strategy followed by Priesthood followed by Horseback Riding or Knowledge of the Ether.

What do I think my chances of winning are? Not great. My best hope and strategy is to build up a competent defense that will make me hard to defeat and if I'm really lucky do damage to someone else. 5 more Great Priests is a lot even being a Philosophical Civ. 1340 Hammers is also a lot for the final altar. I'll need my opponents to adopt Undercouncil and the slavery option and/or I'll need to Adopt RoK for Soldiers of Kilmorph and/or I'll need to find a way to get some great engineers to speed that thing along quickly. Before that I'll have to ensure I get Commune with Nature and Divine Essence. The easiest way is probably teching commune with nature followed by building the Tower of Divination to land me Divine Essence. This has its own drawbacks as using the Tower of Divination for Arcane Lore would result in quicker Govannon.

But, I'm happy. I like my strategy and endgame even if it costs me the game. I'm having fun. What can I say.

[Mardoc]

I agree with most of what you posted.

But...

I'm having fun.

Sometimes I forget that this is what really matters. Thanks for the reminder.