[Spoilers] Defining the phrase "€˜Hung Like a Horse"€™: Pb & the Kuriotates

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 151:

Currency splashscreen on loading the save, yippee!



Picture of naked man against a sunset, sort of yippee!

(The modmakers included short movie clips for some of the custom wonders such as the Form of the Titan.
They’re not amazing, but it’s a nice touch.)

In the far East, Vanilla Ice’s odds of taking out that Skeleton are below my 85% threshold, so I move him 1E into the forest to wait for next turn.
Before moving, I had visibility into Shadowed Vale, which showed Cull with another Settler to take his tally up to six cities soon.



You can see in the screenshot that Kes rebased twice, fetching the GC from KK.
Join/Splitting the GC counts as casting a spell, and units can typically only cast one spell per turn.
So by joining the GC to Kes this turn, I have to wait until next turn to split it from her and give to Vanilla Ice.

In the North, I forgot to mention this but Concepcion could have explored a lair this turn.



I had no intention of doing so: first I want to defog that tiny patch of darkness on the coast, which is preventing me from having a Northern trade route to Cull. (Currently we’re trading all around the South, which is subject to Iskender and Sareln not declaring war on either of us).
Hawks can't reach there easily due to Selrahc's culture, so I’m going to spend two turns moving Concepcion West, then I’ll return and explore.
That way if I get a bad outcome, it doesn't matter.

More importantly, Leesti was founded this turn on the Hippus border.



Things look good there, Pixiefoot and Larry will defend, c9 will be settled next turn.



Selrahc now has Bronze weapons on his Warriors for str 4 city defenders (still weak).

Library completed in Avelorn, NE up next.

[K]

I believe war elephants need experience to be upgraded. Might just be a fall further thing though. Never used hunters much so far, until I recently and realizing how ridiculously useful hawks are.

[Ilios]

I believe war elephants need experience to be upgraded. Might just be a fall further thing though. Never used hunters much so far, until I recently and realizing how ridiculously useful hawks are.

Nope, they just need to be moved to one of your cities. No Stable is required, and I'm not even sure about HBR. I'm guessing The Reverend either didn't have enough cash or hadn't moved Dumbo into one of his cities.

[pocketbeetle]

Nope, they just need to be moved to one of your cities. No Stable is required, and I'm not even sure about HBR. I'm guessing The Reverend either didn't have enough cash or hadn't moved Dumbo into one of his cities.

I went and looked it up. =)
You're right about not needing a Stables, HBR is a required tech.

I believe war elephants need experience to be upgraded. Might just be a fall further thing though. Never used hunters much so far, until I recently and realizing how ridiculously useful hawks are.

Hi K,

I'm curious, how does that work in FF?
Because in vanilla FFH2, Elephants can't attack, so are you expected to pick up experience on those Elephants by using them as city defenders first?
Or do you simply have to sacrifice a few low str units to them before capturing?
Agree about the Hawks.


Random musing of the day:
The 123g that it costs to upgrade WEs on quick speed means that (according to the upgrade formula of 2 x hammer difference + 5g) the player is paying for 59 hammers worth of upgrade.
I'd guess that Barbarian Elephants cost the game 1h to build, and WEs would cost 60h if they were buildable?

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 152:

Turnlog shows that Bob received an OO spread to Pavu’nar (a small city planted East of Sareln’s Nameless Tower, near the Seven Pines unique feature).
The ten turns on the Illian Sun mana deal has also expired, so I cancelled that.



Concepcion continued West and encountered the Seven Brigits unique feature.



I’m not sure if coastal trade routes can go diagonally, so will move Concepcion 1SW before turning around and returning to the shipwreck.

Joining the GC to Vanilla Ice turned a 75% fight into a 95% walkover, so the Skeleton died (for the second time).
Unfortunately we again have the problem of only being able to cast one spell, so the lair can’t be explored this turn and I moved Vanilla Ice 1N to wait.
With any luck, another Skeleton will spawn and give me some more free xp.



Kes flew seawards, nothing there.

At c9, Zaonce was founded.



A Goblin showed up on the Bananas tile, but the roading provided by the city meant Agrius could pass through, smite the barbarian and return back.
Flying a Hawk revealed that the area is a little bit hot, with Lizardmen and active spawning Forts: there’s a Goblin in the East Fort that will likely move towards Zaonce next turn.

For the moment however, it’s safe to move the local Worker onto the Bananas.



You may also have noticed Sareln’s Hunter is still in the area, well within Curly’s two-movement range…



That would be if Hidden Nationality units could use neutral roads sigh.
Oh well, he lives for now.

Ending turn completed the HE in Kwythellar and a Hawk in Caledor.
I inserted a Hawk into the build queue because I’m feeling a little blind.
With Kes exploring, two Hawks aren't sufficient to cover the Zaonce-extended border.



Also received a free RoK spread to Tionisla.
I know I moaned about it earlier, but I think I prefer OO spreads to settlements rather than RoK spreads.
RoK spreads are not as useful because I still have to build a Stonewarden to found the temple.
OO temples are less essential and a simple spread may suffice in some cases.
Anyway, it’s minor I know.


Other stuff:

Tile gazing shows that the average reading age is increasing across Erebus, as Libraries spring up in both the Calabim capital Prespur and the Illian city of Chestnut Roast (why not his Academy capital?).
Iskender has built his first Public Baths in Ath-impossiblespelling-Mealthiel, while Selrahc has built another Mage Guild in Deck the Halls.

In worse news, Bob has completed the Trade tech and can now research Feudalism for his Vampires.
Despite his slug-like pace (), it’s still alarming.
I thought I had more time that this, his research has recently picked up quite a bit, in part thanks to Sanitation I suspect.

Lastly, I cancelled the Fine Clothes gift to Cull because next turn…

[Adlain]

Lastly, I cancelled the Fine Clothes gift to Cull because next turn…

You know you are Evil realy.................. Right??...........

[K]

About the elephants guessing both would work. I caught 2 of them last game of FF I played and was stuck unable to upgrade them. Fairly certain I had the money. Just stuck them on garrison duty near a lair and eventually it worked out.

BTW just thought I'd let you know it was this thread that brought me to this site. Actually searching for further info on the Illian rituals led me to your intro. Since I had never used them before. Must say I find the Illians fun and quite annoying. Stasis, and priests is deadly early on. Then turning cities to ice makes them useless for most. Oddly since you only build settlements wouldn't bother you too much at this point.

[pocketbeetle]

You know you are Evil realy.................. Right??...........

Lies! Bias! Sedition!

No, I promise I was nice.
I thought I’d mentioned it in a previous update; I sent Cull a friendly warning I was going to cancel it a couple of turns before, and it was a gift in the first place.

Hey Cull,

Just a heads up that unfortunately I may have to cancel the Fine Clothes freebie soon.
Just trying to give you adequate warning.
Also, the tech thread might be worth a read.

Pb

If you need a hint, scroll back up and take a look at what the Illian workers are doing.

About the elephants guessing both would work. I caught 2 of them last game of FF I played and was stuck unable to upgrade them. Fairly certain I had the money. Just stuck them on garrison duty near a lair and eventually it worked out.

Interesting, not sure it's a necessary change though.
Yes WEs can be powerful, but the limited number and difficulty in capturing balances out quite well in my opinion.

BTW just thought I'd let you know it was this thread that brought me to this site. Actually searching for further info on the Illian rituals led me to your intro. Since I had never used them before. Must say I find the Illians fun and quite annoying. Stasis, and priests is deadly early on. Then turning cities to ice makes them useless for most. Oddly since you only build settlements wouldn't bother you too much at this point.

That's great to hear, thankyou, and welcome to RB. =)
I occasionally go back and see mistakes that I really should change: eg in the Illian section I said that each ritual is necessary for the next, which is plain wrong. Only the final Auric Ascended ritual has a requirement in the The Draw, all the others can be built independently.
But nevermind.


Edit: Oh, I did change it!
Last edited by pocketbeetle; June 16th, 2010. Reason: Strikethrough
Good good.

[Mardoc]

If you need a hint, scroll back up and take a look at what the Illian workers are doing.

Oh! Because you need it to get your hands on Selrahc's dyes!

[pocketbeetle]

Oh! Because you need it to get your hands on Selrahc's dyes!

Turn 153:

T153 started with Selrahc offering me Dyes: his first improved one to boot!



Can I get a “Hell Yes!”?

In the East, Vanilla Ice took a level in D&D adventuring and went on a dungeon crawl, finding…

…a Healing Salve.

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I guess!

Kes flight reveals that Cull will be settling a city next turn to block me in.
I’ll have to travel through to reach the Lizardman ruins, will send an apology when I do.

Zaonce is proving a hotbed of barbarian activity (should’ve named it after an anarchic planet).
The Goblin moved SW out of the Fort as expected, which meant that Agrius can double promote to Combat II (Combat I was still giving ~65% odds due to the river) and wipe it out, before Sprinting back a tile.



In the meantime, the Western Fort has now spawned a Goblin which will exit next turn.

Hawk flight from Zaonce shows that Sareln has been a busy boy, with a captured Svartalfar Bear and Elephant making their way to Nameless Tower.



Bob has a Siege Workshop in both Acaia and Morr’ta’nar and seems to have built a Catapult in each.
He also has several Workers building plains workshops in that screenshot, as well as a couple doing so around the Eastern cities close to Vanilla Ice.
That’s weedy imo, workshops are *slightly* improved in FFH2, giving +1c in addition to the usual -1f/+1h, but they’re really not useful until the lategame Guilds tech. If he’s really that desperate for the hammers, then farm the land and switch to the Conquest civic for food -> hammers, or research FoL and bloom some forests.
Don’t waste time building 0/2/1 tiles. Even a plains cottage is better imo.

Note the Svartalfar Hawk in Acaia.


Speaking of hammers, do I hear the phrase “one turn Centaur Archers” echoing in the halls of Kwythellar?



Cool. Done. Fine.

Everyone still growing, another RoK spread, this time to Lave.



Let it Snow completed a White Hand temple last turn I think, the Illian empire is turning very…white.

Not screenshotted, in the North Concepcion moved 1SW and then back, the crew will spend the inter-turn readying themselves to explore another phantom ship.


Demographics:

Something weird going on in the Exports/Imports section, think as a result of Iskender researching Trade and getting a second trade route in each city.