[PB58 - spoilers] AT's Order of the Civ

[AutomatedTeller]

Also, 2 cities found next turn - stone/silver & yellow fp filler. Stone/silver will likely end up a military pump that may never, ever whip. Every non-hill will end up farmed - it will require fairly significant worker aid.

Filler will end up a pure cottage city that also may never whip.

After more back and forth, I am moivng settler #3 to the cow. Why? it's the same amount of time to get the island city up and it's not as good long term. More importantly, I don't really know what is down there, so I don't know what is optimal

[AutomatedTeller]

Big turn!!

Founded 2 cities:

Nale:



Nale is the leader of the Linear Guild. The linear guild is recurring antagonist to the Order, lead by Nale, who is Elan's twin brother. The LG is built on evil opposite's - where Elan is a dumb-as-rocks CG bard, Nale is a brilliant LE Figher/thief/sorcerer with a specialization in enchantments... which is basically a bard, but more complicated. Which sort of describes Nale to a T - needlessly complicated. Really hates Elan.

I think I'll improve the FP then the sheep,then the silver. I'll probably bring a 2nd worker up for the rice. There is so little good food here, I might just not whip.

MitD (Monster in the Darkness)


MitD is the secret weapon for Team Evil. It's unknown what the monster is, as in perpetual darkness below it's umbrella. it's very child like and very powerful. Has a tendency to eat scrabble letters and likes to have tea parties with corpses and paralyzed paladins. Like stew a lot. Great comic relief. hte big reveal will come late in the comic, apparently.

Also got Jowy's graphs:

Power graphs:

[AutomatedTeller]

Jowy got CoL and confucianism this turn. This is his 2nd religion, the first being Hinduism.

More and more, I'm convinced I should attack Tarkeel soon. I don't really understand his city placement (more on that in another post) and I suspect he's going to be weak for some time. Still need to get currency, but IW after that and go stomp.

I built another worker - O-Chul. OOTS has a bunch of paladins - one of them (Miko) was put in for Rich to show how NOT to play a paladin. O-Chul is one of my favorite supporting characters, which is saying something. He's built to endure - not many punchlines or really straight lines - just a lot of actual wisdom.

[AutomatedTeller]

Serdoa is up to 10 cities. I will found my 10th next turn - I think it shall be redcloak.

I'm starting to pop libraries in place - they are inexpensive (same as a lighthouse) and will be quite useful. Cottages are going down - I think I am quite slow on them- I have two.

Someone has metal casting - not Jowy. I hope it's not Serdoa. Silver mine in Vaarsuvius finished. 7 commerce plus another happy

[AutomatedTeller]

founded redcloak



This is kind of a crap city, but 2 resources and 2 lakes make it decent. the grass can get cottages, plus the river plains, i guess, plus I can work coast. Anyway, the great sites are gone, though I can pick up some nice corn/river/lakes sites.

Redcloak the OOTS character is part of Team Evil, Xykon's right hand man (or maybe his puppet master). Where Xykon is kind of sociopathic, Redcloak is a fanatic. he is the high priest of the Dark One, who is the god of the goblins. One of the things I like about the comic is the depth of motivation. in D&D, goblins and orcs and monsters in general are usually just there to be evil, do horrible things and die to adventurers, which is fine for a game. For a story, it's kind of boring, so there's background, some of which is tragic, to Redcloak. But tragedy is just what it is, and Redcloak is evil, pure through. Unlike Xykon, who just loves to do what he wants to do, Redcloak thinks it's justified. He also thinks he's in charge of Team Evil, that Xykon is his puppet. It's not clear that he's wrong, either

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned how I think Tarkeel is vulnerable. I'm certainly not an expert in building a civ, but this is his empire and a list of his cities, which I believe are in founding order:



I added numbers to his cities. Kuat, which is further away from his cap than any of my cities, was his 3rd city founded, with dry rice and a surplus gold. Gold is great, but it is costly in terms of food. #1, #2 and #4 seem right, but #5 I've talked about before - I don't understand it, at all. It is still size #1.

He also doesn't seem to have made any monuments and is light on lighthouses (for being organized) He's got a ton of non-specials mined (I have 1 mine on a non-special, though I will say that water is more interesting to me)

I think if I had a stack of 5 chariots, I could take 2 cities now (Kuat and Endor) and might be able to take Calamari, too.

[AutomatedTeller]

State of the civ post:

Because turn 86 is the standard time for reflection, I decided to reflect.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with where things are. I am keeping up with the expansion-heavy civs. I do expect the imp civs to pull ahead a little again in city count, but I'm making cheap libraries now, which will have an effect on my tech rate, which is pretty key. I've got a city right in the middle of the mountain area, so thats a good spot to be wresting control from opponents. I have 4 very strong cities and 6 other cities. I feel like I'm low on workers, but that's fixable.

I'm worried about Serdoa and, to a lesser extent, jowy. Jowy should be entering a phase of the game where he is very strong - cheap courts and fast whip cycles. Might be that the two of us could go after serdoa to cut him down?

I figure I'll pick up IW somehwere around turn 100-105 and be able to start hitting an opponent (tarkeel) soon after that.

[AutomatedTeller]

I am 4 turning currency, which is nice cheap libraries are a nice multiplier. 3 turns to go.

Everyone's power is going up, so i also need to build units and probably a barracks or two. Need to pick up some more workers, but also more settler. Will settle city #11 on the southern island in 2 turns. It's honestly not a great city.

Serdoa keeps asking for OB, but I turn him down because, you know, he's winning. This time he offered wine for silver, which would help me if I had both silvers hooked up, but I don't yet.

[AutomatedTeller]

Oops. Serdoa is attacking tarkeel. That's not good for me.

I suspect Tarkeel planted in Serdoa's face and Serdoa took it away. From what I can tell, he razed the city, though I'm not sure, and if he did, it didn't autoraze, so it might be an actual invasion.

[Mjmd]

Oops.  Serdoa is attacking tarkeel.  That's not good for me.

I can think of explanations, but curious as to why you don't think that is good for you?

[AutomatedTeller]

Oops.  Serdoa is attacking tarkeel.  That's not good for me.

I can think of explanations, but curious as to why you don't think that is good for you?

Because Tarkeel is weak and I want to take him over (I mean, he's not technically weak in power to me, but I'll have currency next turn and praets not long after that) and if serdoa takes him over, I have a problem. That said, it looks like that was a border clash and they made peace. My guess is that Tarkeel founded a city too close to Serdoa and Serdoa razed it.

In turn 92 news:

Serdoa killed a chariot and asked for peace.  I gave it to him - it will give him time to put a city on the penisnula between us (he has a spear, a chariot and a warrior there, so I assume one is one the way, but it gives me a chance to get Praets.  

I founded Blackwing



It's a crap city, but it has enough food and hammers from trees that I can get a granary and lighthouse in their pretty easily, so it can grow onto coast tiles.

In international news, Serdoa built his shrine and Tarkeel built the Collosus.