[SPOILERS] Emissaries from the blighted lands; Mardoc and Jkaen take on the world!

[Mardoc]

First can give us education, and the second code of laws (probably skipped about 1/2 a dozen pre-reqs but oh well!)

Now, now, let's not be greedy . Although I am actually positive that's possible, Edu has Ancient Chants as its prereq, and Code of Laws has Edu as its prereq. Still, there's lots of other techs within reach of huts, and we'd have to be ridiculously lucky to get those two.

[Jkaen]

To be honest I wouldn't complain if we get any 2 techs (plus we still have the hut up north too)

[Mardoc]

Nothing much new this turn. Which I suppose is another way to think about 'yet another turn of progress with no #%@^ing orcs around . Next turn we should get two huts, though, and at least one more shortly afterward (hopefully my scout is as lucky in his upcoming explorations).

A picture of the southern lands, complete with huts (but in general, a poor area to settle with all that marsh and shallows)

[Gaspar]

My two cents on tech path - beeline Aristofarms. Its the best economy for both of your Civs, and if someone comes and squishes you before then, you're going to lose anyway. Then after that, beeline Sanitation. Then everything else. Might be worth seeing if you can get the GA from Drama to get Santitation off a bulb, I've always like that trick. With the fast tech rate you guys have, I see no reason to focus anywhere else.

[Mardoc]

Hmm. It'd be a gamble. But if it works, it would work all the way - getting our economies roaring right away would really rock.

How long would it take, anyway? (337 (Edu) + 385 (CoL))/1.2 (prereq) = 602 beakers. Divided by our current rate of 22 beakers/turn, that leaves us at 28 turns until Code of Laws comes in. If we can boost that, and we can definitely (we both have tiles with commerce we can start working, plus Arwen'el will keep maturing), we might be able to cut time to Aristocracy to somewhere in the 20-25 turn range. After which, the world is our oyster.

Well, to really make it work we really ought to add in Calendar (192/1.2) = 160 beakers. The total of 762 beakers still adds up to 35 turns until we're in full-blown Agristocracy economies at 22 beakers/turn, 32 turns at 24 (where we'll be when Arwen'el grows up), even better once our cities start growing. Meanwhile, the Malakim border to the center of the map is 13 tiles. Double that for the distance to nearest foe, and we're looking at 25 turns transit time, after a foe builds a unit and sends it at us. Realistically, the only enemies that could reach us before we're full aristocrats is the Clan Hordelings.

And adding Aristocracy + cottages ought to about double our commerce output, making Bronze a lot faster. In addition to getting me access to Governor's Manors, which ought to about double my hammer output. I think I'm talking myself into this . Maybe we ought to simply swap to Education now, and come back for Crafting -> Mining -> BW once we get our economies running.

[Jkaen]

I am happy with the gamble and trying to get our econ flying asap

In other news, I have finally taken a screenshot! Got a map from the first hut



Will grab the hut then I think I will start popping dungeons

[Mardoc]

Alright, the gamble it is! If this works out, it will definitely make all our subsequent teching discussions much easier - at least until we get to the expensive stuff. And if it doesn't...well, it will definitely make our teching discussions easier, since we'll be dead .

Got a map from the first hut

Well, I suppose our luck had to even out sometime. I'll look at what we've revealed when I get home, and maybe we can start serious dotmapping shortly, now that our workers are finishing up. Fingers crossed for the next two, though. Especially if we can luck into Education or Calendar.

I guess the next relevant question is, what do we build while we tech to aristofarms? Do we want Warrior/Bloodpets most? Hunting Lodge and Hunter/Hawk? Or just straight to settlers? My current thinking is that it's not worth going for settlers until we reach the happy cap, but unless there's an imminent threat, like Clan archers in our land, it's probably worth going immediately for settlers when we do - with preimproved tiles, we want to expand pronto!

There's also probably not a lot of purpose in us both going for Hunting Lodges. You'll have more production than I will, both from the mines, and from having further to grow. I'm inclined to propose that I work on Bloodpets, then once I make it to size 5 (or 6 ) that I immediately start on a first settler. Meanwhile, you'll want to be growing, and you have at least that nice grassland mine to work, so you can afford to go for our first Hunting Lodge, Hawks to keep us secure, and Hunters to start amassing an animal army (and possibly dancing bears too).

Alternately, we both just stick with the simple stuff, warriors and settlers, and don't worry too much about using Hunting until we've knocked out a few cities and met our first foe. This is the approach that says 'we're gambling on a pure econ starting strategy anyway, might as well go whole hog'. If we take this route - well, we'll have a lot more production and research to play with shortly.

What else is there? I don't see much purpose in granaries, breeding pit, monuments, or excessive workers, just yet. There's definitely a place for all of those eventually, at least before I want to be drafting/feasting. The only buildings I think will be actually desirable in all cities, immediately, are Governor's Manors; anything else we currently have access to isn't as valuable as another city with already half its workable tiles pre-improved.

[Jkaen]

I will feel a lot happier with a hawk network, so I am happy going for hunting lodges, although I think sneaking a settler in here and there to make use of all the preimproved terrain would be a good idea.

[Mardoc]

3 for freakin' 3! ::dancing5:



Well, I now know what I'm going to do with any excess worker turns - make sure I have a trade network with you! In addition to the defensive considerations, that looks to be worth another 4 gold/turn.

Of course, if it turns out Cartography wasn't needed for teammates to open borders and trade, well, then I suppose it might as well have been a map. Although at least it opens up a civic for you if you want it.

I will feel a lot happier with a hawk network, so I am happy going for hunting lodges, although I think sneaking a settler in here and there to make use of all the preimproved terrain would be a good idea.

Fair enough. Looking at the save in front of me, anyway - I've got more production than I'd realized. Arwen'el is 2 hammers, the plains hill wheat is 2, the obsidian plains are 1; it adds up to 7 hammers/turn, and I'll want to be working the grass hill corn as well - basically until I'm an agristocrat, I'll have lots of production, more than just the couple bloodpets I was expecting to churn out while I grow. If you've got the Hunter side of things covered, I might go ahead and start on my Breeding Pit. Assuming, of course, that I don't need to pump out a lot of Bloodpets for killing off goblin archers. If I'm reading the power right, each one is only 6k power, darrell has 35k, which after subtracting the initial units, still leaves him with probably 5 of them, enough to try to choke everyone else I think. But if we're the lucky one to only see 1 archer, hitting it with enough warriors will certainly kill it.

I went ahead and swapped to Education this turn, although if you would rather finish up Crafting I'll swap back.

Although...maybe a few more scouts to find huts would be profitable enough .

[Jkaen]

Not bad, shame its me opening the next hut rather than mr lucky (I think your scout deserves a name now btw)

As for the tech switch, thats fine, I think given the techs we have landed a change in direction is understandable!

Wonder if the others are running C&D departments, and if they are managing to keep track of us!?