[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[DaveV]

Some of the modmods feature mobile spiders, but my experience in vanilla FfH matches Darrell's. I always put a sign on the tile where one of my units is eaten by a spider, and the spider will often still be sitting there hundreds of turns later.

[sunrise089]

Some of the modmods feature mobile spiders, but my experience in vanilla FfH matches Darrell's. I always put a sign on the tile where one of my units is eaten by a spider, and the spider will often still be sitting there hundreds of turns later.

I do the same! BUT it's very helpful to know that if the tile where I was eaten was a non-forested tile then the spider may have moved.

Also, do baby spiders ever naturally occur? I've popped them from layers, but do they show up otherwise?

[DaveV]

Also, do baby spiders ever naturally occur?

There's a 5% chance that a baby spider will spawn from any giant spider combat.

[Bobchillingworth]

You can even get baby spiders from attacking workers... and since spiders come with hidden nationality and the AI is terrible at combating them, you can easily make a spider army in an AI's lands with enough fodder & patience.



A screencap from this turn:








Only 10 turns for the CoL! And I'm only a couple turns out from reaching the Khazad, too. The more I think about it, the better a worker steal vs. them sounds... I hope the barbarians have left Cull complacent =)


Of course I can't keep researching at 100% science, but it sure looks great now I'll also get an additional coin from the grass farm I'm working on to Prespur's SW.

[sunrise089]

There's a 5% chance that a baby spider will spawn from any giant spider combat.

And then a baby spider needs 1 successful combat to become giant?

Are baby spiders also invisible?

[Dantski]

baby spiders have a 2% chance of becoming giant spiders if successful in combat, they are not invisible.

[DaveV]

A screencap from this turn:

Several comments:

1) Nice to see Prespur without the unhappy face. Of course, it will be unhappy again as soon as you build a governor's manor...
2) It seems a little early for a settler. I can only see two spare bloodpets after a garrison of three for each city, and
3) You need two bloodpets to guard your worker by Nubia so he doesn't get eaten by a lizardman.
4) For your next city, what about 7777 from Prespur? As far as I can tell (doesn't anyone else in the world like to turn on the grid?), it has corn, copper, two floodplains, and fresh water from the oasis. No hill defense, but I still think you need to grab copper and research Bronze Working ASAP.

[Bobchillingworth]

1) Nice to see Prespur without the unhappy face. Of course, it will be unhappy again as soon as you build a governor's manor...

Well, right now I have it on "avoid growth", so no worries. Once I have the manor I'm going to let it grow into massive unhappiness though, since I'll at least get some minimal hammers out of it and I want to grow to max size in time for the vamps.

2) It seems a little early for a settler. I can only see two spare bloodpets after a garrison of three for each city

I'm going to leave Prespur with only two bloodpets to defend; it doesn't need three anymore. I want to build my settler now, while I still get the extra food from agrarianism without the Aristo offset.

You need two bloodpets to guard your worker by Nubia so he doesn't get eaten by a lizardman.

Well the lizard on the ruins will remain stationary to defend, and I think I'll have a turn to retreat when another spawns under him. Even if I don't, I've noticed from SP that lizardmen often ignore workers anyway in favor of attacking cities. Plus with all the extra food, it takes Prespur just as long to replace the bloodpet I'd lose on flat ground as it would a worker.

For your next city, what about 7777 from Prespur?

I'll consider this, I need to log in to the game first to see how it fits with my dotmap or how well I can create an alternate map.




Also, I recieved this email from Sareln today, under the subject "Illian Rushes Svartalfar":

With the priests of winter. I guess I've been nominated for another
"public service..."

Looks like you called that one, Dave. Excellent play by Selhrac, and awfully quick too, even with the 15 free turns from stasis. Sareln has only two cities and low power, so I think he's probably screwed. Not much that I can do about it besides type up some condolences and fish for information. It sucks for someone to be eliminated so early, but thus is the nature of the game...

[DaveV]

Once I have the manor I'm going to let it grow into massive unhappiness though, since I'll at least get some minimal hammers out of it and I want to grow to max size in time for the vamps.

I don't think the manor works that way. My recollection is that I don't get any hammers for population beyond the happy limit.

Also, I recieved this email from Sareln today, under the subject "Illian Rushes Svartalfar":

With the priests of winter. I guess I've been nominated for another
"public service..."

Does that mean Sareln already killed Orthus? At least that would mean he has the axe, so maybe he *can* do a public service and kill some of the priests. Since they can't be replaced, Selrahc has to be really careful with them, but they are outrageously strong for this point of the game. I just hope you aren't next on the target list.

[darrelljs]

The Governor's Manor gives, essentially, one hammer per population point after the first.

Darrell