Anyone up for an EitB SG?

[Mr. Cairo]

Turns played, here's the report:

T121: Finish HBR, start Masonry. I favour binary science, so I went to 0% for a few turns here (it was a cheap tech).

T122: Warrior in the desert gets eaten by the evil Polar Bear. Diseased warrior to the north explores a dungeon, which turns out to be empty, while fleeing from a skelly. Afterwards it head up towards safety in Sabathiel's land.

T125: Random event:

I took the xp loss over losing the unit to send the Armageddon counter down by 2. For some reason, the event healed the warrior to full, so I fortified it in the forest hoping the skelly would suicide onto it, which it did. Afterwards the warrior eventually made its way back down into our territory. It's not that useful, but it can explore dungeons at least.

T127: I go exploring with a settling party from the Sheaim, as there are lots of bears in those woods:



T129: First look at barb city:

I decided to send the settler to the north here, instead of the desert to the west, since overall it's a better spot (in the desert getting the gold and wheat in the bfc means losing out on quite a few of the lovely floodplains. And it would require less worker-turns to get up and running. I also moved it one square to the west. It adds a couple of peaks to the BFC, but brings in the horses (a nice hammer tile if nothing else), and puts the cows in the first ring, so the city gets a good tile to work straight away. Also, Radonnor's borders popped thanks to religion, which I didn't notice for some reason until there were only 2 turns left on the monument (which I finished, thanks ocd :/). I really should have swapped it over to workers once it was at the cap.

T130: Settler completes out of capital, start a Stables. The settler was slightly delayed as I swapped to a warrior there at the start to grow to the cap. I also wanted to wait until I had more warriors to escort it. That warrior in the north gets eaten by a spider, and we meet the Khazad. I sign OB, they have 3 cities, they were ahead of us in score at the time. He's somewhere to the south.

T131: Masonry was completed at some point before, not sure when, and I had been saving until this point when I turn science back on for Construction (workshops really will be handy). It had a time of 10 turns, but it ended up being 9.

T133: City founded, cows pastured on the same turn (for some reason I don't have a screen of this event). The city (and workers) is guarded by a half-dozen warriors or so. Expenses are starting to increase with how many units we have (~15 warrior I think).

T135: Hello, what's this...

hmmm... Diplo screen shows him as having 4 cities total as well.
I send a warrior to go have a look, and hopefully explore further west without being eaten by the devil polar bear.

T136: A closer look...



T138: Stables finishes in cap, start our first horseman. Conrond, which had been 2-turning warriors for most of this turnset, starts on a stables of its own.

T139: A worker finishes out of Radonnor, I set it on to warrior duty, picking up the slack from Conrond working on a stables.

T140: Construction finishes. Here's an overview:

In the core, all cities are at the happy cap, and only Radonnor needs more worker attention, workshopping those two plains tiles it has been depressingly working lately. At some point we should deal with that goblin camp, but I would prefer to wait until we get horsemen, so we don't have to sacrifice a bunch of warriors to do so.


There's the prick, let's avoid that bear for now, there's plenty of land to explore in the north-west, or we can start scouting out the Malakim lands for an invasion later.


The "frontier". There are three workers around Feiss, I'd say two fo them can go back to work on workshops. Tech is set to hunting for those elephants, but nothing's committed.

With Decius shooting up the scoreboard (size 11 cap and huge borders from the holy city is my guess, the only wonder built is the Heron Throne in the Sheaim capital), I don't think we're going to be swapping any time soon.
My feelings are it is probably best to focus on the barbs right now with our first set of horsemen, cleaning up that camp and capturing that city (which we should keep), and giving our horsies valuable xp in the process.
I don't know if it's worth still trying to settle in the desert to the west, perhaps the spot 1S of where the sign is now (the scrubs). It's far enough from the Malakim city it wont be crushed by its culture, and still have potential borrowing some farms from Conrand to get an early boost. The gold of course is highly desirable.
Other than that spot and the barb city, the only route for expansion I see is to invade the Malakim, and it'll probably only take a couple of city conquests to send us to the top of the score board.

superjm --> UP!
haphazard1 --> On deck.

[DaveV]

Note that moving into the Pool of Tears will cure disease (as well as Poisoned, Plagued, or Withered).

Exploration is good; it's also nice to know where we stand relative to the AIs.

And yay for connected copper!

Edit: and whoops, missed Mr Cairo's set on the next page. I agree with peaceful expansion and barb slaughtering as our near term goal.

[haphazard1]

I still have not had a chance to look at the save (family in town visiting this weekend ) but it looks like more good turns from Mr. Cairo.

Going after the barbs and pushing more peaceful expansion where we can sounds good to me. We may have to take more direct action against the Malakim if they continue to increase in score, but as long as we are also growing more powerful then things should be OK.

[superjm]

Got the save, will have the turns played soon.

[haphazard1]

Good luck, superjm!

Got a chance to look at the save finally. We could desperately use more happiness. Our cities are small, and other than the very newest one are all at the happy cap. Settling the gold to the west, and even a filler city for the fish and dyes, might be worth it just to enable a couple more pop in each of our existing core cities. Grabbing the barb city and its resources would also help. I wish we had something to trade for the Bannor's spare wine, but we have nothing they want.

Not sure on our tech path -- Hunting would give us a chance to capture animals, and maybe finally deal with the devil polar bear (is that thing now combat 5? ). But it is expensive and then we need to build hunting lodges. Our hammer situation is not very good.

[superjm]

Alright so starting out, it's nice to have vision of the land around us. 5 workers seems a bit low to me, but on the other hand our expansion has been slow enough that there hasn't been THAT much for our workers to do, and we can't continue growing until we hook up the ivory and later the sugar in any case. So upon finishing the warrior in Radonnor I'm just gonna build a settler there. The capital will be pumping out horses and Conrond Mor will do the same once its stable is finished. Feiss Mabdon will just continue to grow into its tiles. The rice should be ready for improvement by the time the borders pop.




But first thing's first, we kill us some goblins.

The attack succeeds although our warrior is poisoned as a result. No big deal. Hopefully our batch of horses will take care of that goblin fort once and for all.




Per the suggestion, I'm going to try and move our highly promoted diseased warrior to the Pool of Tears in Malakim's territory to heal him. I will probably use him to pop the Goblin Fort first assuming the horses do their job of clearing the area.




Our first shiny new horse finishes in the capital. Seeing as Radonnor is busy with a settler I plan on taking the workers that were on workshop duty over there and relocating them to workshop the two grassland tiles in our capital. This should make our capital a much stronger spot as a result.




I don't want our expensive horseman to die, so despite having 71% odds against the goblin I'm gonna sacrifice a warrior to hopefully soften it up first. I really should've moved my warriors out last turn if I wanted to do this but eh, it's no big deal.




Well here goes nothing.




Nice combat. Our horse would have cleaned up that combat easily but I found it best to be prudent. Our horse has 83% odds on the goblin. That with 10% withdrawal is a lot more comfortable to me.

The horse cleans up the goblin and the remaining warrior easily dispatches the weakened archer. My diseased warrior is right on cue to explore the goblin fort next turn.




Conrond Mor expands its borders, for whatever that's worth. Less tiles to worry about animals I suppose.




I maneuver my warriors so if that if something nasty does spawn, it at least won't be near the city. The horse has a promotion and is healing (it was unfortunately poisoned by the attack) and I have a horse coming from the capital next turn, so I'm figuring we should be fine in the worst case.




Dang, bad result. But not too bad, one spectre should be trivial to deal with.




Now this is more like it. Going for construction was definitely the right move.

The spectre kills itself to my newer horseman, giving it some EXP. Of course, now the diseased warrior is level 4, which means I can do one pretty cool thing.




Let's go

I have enough units to surround the Pyre so nothing nasty spawns, unless it somehow shows up on the water. If it does, then we're in a bit of trouble




Oh, what's this now? Looks like Kabhalg is sending a force to attack us. I say bring it on, our units could use some experience




Meanwhile I looped my warrior around the mountains down south and find a tower. There's... not much of anything good here. An iron tile and then who cares otherwise?

Looking up north it seems like there's nothing but coastline in the fog. I'll try and take a peak to see if there's anything of value around but it looks like any further exploration will need to go through Malakim.




Hunting is next turn and I have enough workers to improve the ivory immediately, so I turn off Avoid Growth and let it ride. Cartography will be next for City States, since our empire's about to get a lot bigger soon.




I position my units to try and force them to either attack across the river or step on the Pyre where I can hopefully clean them up without issue. I'll make sure to get a warrior in the cap juuust in case.




Units are in position.




Three warrior attacks and a horseman attack and no casualties I move my units to better positions to prepare for popping the Pyre.




Seems like we got another barb city in the fog. And right on the dot too We almost don't even need to build settlers




Runes of Kilmorph is founded in Bannor's lands.




Oh, what's this? 68% chance to kill this meddling polar bear? Well there's a chance it won't attack if I attempt to go on defensive terrain, so here goes.




Blasted polar bear

So Pyre pops next turn, it's surrounded by units, so let's hope for a good result. And it'll be on the last turn of the set. Oh and the settler is finished in Radonnar. Since there's a barb city placed conveniently on where we wanted to settle out east, I'm going to put this city below the capital to eventually grab the dyes, since it'll be a while yet before the capital borders pop. And hey, maybe we'll get the Fellowship there to expedite the process.

Anywho, here goes nothing.




A Great Commander!

A Golden Age would be pretty sweet right now, but I'll leave the usage of our new toy to the next player




With 7 horsemen out I move them into position to take the barb city. 7 horses plus 3 warriors for backup should be more than enough. I've queued up workers in all cities to prepare for improving the upcoming south and the eastern cities, as well as improving more tiles in our core cities (putting watermills on some of those flood plains tiles seems like an obvious move to me)




And here's our glorious empire. VERY eventful turnset, I'm glad I was able to play it. Not sure I made the best decisions but we had some good fortune happen to us and we're in pretty good position to explode from here if we play our cards right.

Bullet points as per usual

-Decius is only getting stronger and spiralling out of control in score. We might not have the luxury of peacefully expanding if we want to actually switch over and eventually win this game.
-There's no reason we shouldn't have both barb cities in the next turnset. With City States coming in we're in prime position to bring out empire to the next level.
-As for teching, I see no reason to go to the bottom of the tree at all. The two options that look the most alluring are Sanitation for more growth, and working our way towards Trade to beef up our economy, get Conquest and Apprenticeship, and get access to Bronze Chariots, which should make quick work of Decius if we're fast enough. We also get double speed Siege Workshops, so that shouldn't be an issue at all. This also makes Dragon Bones stronger, for what it's worth
-I don't usually get Great Commanders in my games, so I'm typically at a loss of what to actually do with them.
-Polar Bears suck 

Looks like we get some action next time. Have fun.

EDIT - Wait are we on 15 or 20 turns? Brian played 15 but I just noticed Cairo played 20. I played 15 myself, I'm assuming that's what we're doing on the second pass, no?

[Mr. Cairo]

EDIT - Wait are we on 15 or 20 turns? Brian played 15 but I just noticed Cairo played 20. I played 15 myself, I'm assuming that's what we're doing on the second pass, no?

Woops, I assumed that Brian played 20 (since he ended on a multiple of it), but I had forgotten that his very first turnset was 25. My bad.

[haphazard1]

Lots of very good stuff in the latest turns from superjm.

Hmmm, what is the best way to use the great commander? I am not all that familiar with them, either.

OK, I have the save, should be able to play sometime today. Looks like we have some barbs to annilate and conquer, some tile improvements to be done, and then whatever I can think of to do next. Prep for military action against the Malakim, maybe? Surpassing them peacefully is looking unlikely. We shall see.

[Brian Shanahan]

EDIT - Wait are we on 15 or 20 turns? Brian played 15 but I just noticed Cairo played 20. I played 15 myself, I'm assuming that's what we're doing on the second pass, no?

Woops, I assumed that Brian played 20 (since he ended on a multiple of it), but I had forgotten that his very first turnset was 25. My bad.

Yeah no worries on that. I only played 15 to equalise the numbers back to 0, and didn't mind if people after me took 20 (as evidenced by me not saying anything). I think though after this go round we should go back to ten turns a set. There's increasing amounts of stuff to do every turn at the moment.

[haphazard1]

Played ten turns, will hand over at this point. (Need to go to a birthday party. Also, there are some decisions to be made and I think it is better not to tie the hands of the next player as the game gets busier.)

After taking over on T155, the first order of business was the attack on the barb city of Kabhalg in the east between the Dragon Bones and Laetum Frigus. superjm had set everything up nicely, so I sent in some inexperienced warriors to soften up the defenders for our horsemen. Three warriors died at terrible (<4%) odds, but each reduced a defender to minimal health. At that point the horsemen easily cleaned up and we captured the city.

On the same turn we also expanded with the filler city of Murousbane, just south of our capital.

The main attraction here is the dyes, which will boost happiness in our existing cities. But with some time and plenty of worker improvement, Murousbane should be a decent city.

The following turn we finished Cartography, and I revolted to City States to reduce our maintenance costs. Ouch on the turn of anarchy, but we immediately saved 9 gold/turn which was a significant improvement. The civic is costing us some culture, which will slow border expansions.

Decius got a great bard this turn -- not like he needs more help spreading his borders.... And then the next turn he completes the Song of Autumn -- well, we know what he did with the great bard, anyway.

One of our horsemen destroys a skellie on the barrow north of Feiss Mabdon; another horseman is killed by a giant spider. I have marked the spot, to the east of our cities; I was hoping to move a unit through northward and make contact with the Lanun, but the lands are very dangerous. We would need to send a substantial force.

I spent the next several turns postiioning our forces to attack the other barb city, Sludgehome. Our workers were busy with workshops and clearing jungle tiles for resource hookups. Decius was kind enough to send a disciple of leaves our way, which would convert Kabhalg a couple turns later.

On turn 163 we popped iron in a mine at Conrond Mor. Nice! Hammers now, and the metal later (if we are still the Hippus by then, we will need it). Our horseman explores the barrow in the east while our diseased warrior clears the dungeon by Conrond Mor; both get the same result: a fight with a poison clan goblin, victory and lair destroyed but wounded and poisoned. Meh. Could have been better, but could have been worse.

Kandros Fir converts to Fellowship of Leaves, which should boost our relations with him.

Our forces are in position, and we assault the barb city of Sludgehome. Again, I send in several warriors at terrible odds to soften up the defenders and then follow up with horsemen. We lose the warriors but all the horsemen are victorious.

Sludgehome will need quite a bit of worker assistance, but with gems, sugar, and pigs it should be a very useful city.

The last couple turns are quiet, as I reposition troops from the captured cities. We have completed research on Education -- Apprenticeship is available if we want it. I have set research to Sailing (on the way to Trade) but nothing has actually been invested.

Our capital has built a hunting lodge and is working on a hunter; Conrond Mor has completed a siege workshop as preparation for future needs (chariots and/or catapults). Our older cities have been stagnated, and note that some have avoid growth turned on. We have workers improving the sugar for more happiness, and can trade a spare ivory (just hooked up this turn) to Sabathiel for his extra wine to boost our happy cap. So we probably want to reeconfigure our cities to grow a couple more sizes.

We have a couple possible spots for peaceful expansion still if we want them: the gold to the west and also east of Kabhalg by the Tomb of Sucellus.

As of T165 here are our demographics:

Tebryn has converted to Runes of Kilmorph, so he is now neutral. Not sure how much diplo effect this might have.

Our score gap with Decius did not close despite our additional cities; in fact it widened slightly. More direct action against the Malakim is likely to be needed to reach the top of the score board.

With hunters and the siege workshop we will have more options. It would be nice to get contact with the Lanun if we could get some units far enough (and alive).

Good luck!

The roster:

Brian
Mr. Cairo
superjm
haphazard --> just played
DaveV --> UP!
Lord Parkin --> missing in action Possibly on deck?

Edit: Forgot to attach the save! Should be there now.