Need for Speed: Ichabod & Ravus chasing the Dream

[Ichabod]

Damn about the centaur. I left the HA in there because I was sure those damn treants had animal AI. Damn... That's really annoying... Hopefully I can kill that damn thing next turn.

I think the Orcs used dispel magic on that node to get a law one. I don't think Mist will make different kinds of mana for each part of the world. I think he only made elemental nodes everywhere.

The manual lies yet again. It says Orcs can only get Iron weapons... I'll test things from now on, because the manual is too unreliable.

[Ichabod]

Good news, bad news.


Good news is that I killed the annoying Treant to the west. He was in range to attack one of my cities, so I had two options. Attack it with my best HA or defend it with my best HA. I decided to attack, because at least that way I'd get something from my 45% chance of retreat. I had another HA ready for the mop up, if needed too.

So, let's see:

Good odds, I say. 78,5% chance of staying alive.

In the end, here's what happened:

Die, stupid treant, you have annoyed long enough. Say hello to my 17xp horseman who probably needs to be named. I'll destroy that barb city soon and than we can keep expanding on this direction.


Bad news is that in the EoT, every goblin we could see evolved into a goblin archer. I was too slow to grab the blue effect that happens, but take a look:

Other bad news is that we have 2 treants to the south near Paraná. Hopefully they won't enter the borders.

And, finally, the last good news is that Ravus will pop a hut next turn (with a hunter!). How about some lucky very-high-on-the-tech-tree tech?

[Ravus Sol]

So now we have hordes of Goblin archers to deal with as well as Treants.
*sigh* good job on killing that one prowling our border at least. Are you going to ride straight through the ruins of that barbarian city and rush the orcs or wait back a bit?

[Ichabod]

So now we have hordes of Goblin archers to deal with as well as Treants.
*sigh* good job on killing that one prowling our border at least. Are you going to ride straight through the ruins of that barbarian city and rush the orcs or wait back a bit?

I'll wait for the treant killer HA to heal (promote him to mobility). I have 2 HAs near ready in my cities, so I'll assemble a group of 4 or five and go.

[Ravus Sol]

What the hell?! My Save is wrong, all my units are in the wrong place. My Centaurs arn't advancing and my workers are out of place to build my sugar and ivory happy resources slowing down my growth?

I played the damn turn and sent it on so what the hell?

Looking back in my email it looks like my sent save never went out for last turn? Damn it I thought Ichabod had been asking about wether I could play HIS turn not my own. Gah.

May as well play on, Just means a turn behind in tech and in attack. I had fiddled with micro to get Engineering finished this turn and I'm not sure I will be able to do it now.

[Ravus Sol]

The Ivory was in place in the end and I managed to get Engineering finished this turn by popping of the Golden Age a turn early.

The Centaurs are marching out but i'm less happy with their prospects. Thats a lot of units focused in the north there. Hopefully I can just run around them and force them to scatter back to their backlines.

[Ravus Sol]

Golden Age
Okay so what did I do on my first real Golden Age turn? SPAM WONDERS. I kid you not. I have nothing left to build in my three big cities and the other two can be settler pumps for a bit as they need to slow down growth while the workers put up more improvements.

The three wonders I am grabbing are;
Guild of Hammers
Guild of the Nine
Pillar of Chains

These should be very useful to us and I need to contribute on more then the tech front. Guild of Hammers gives us a Forge everywhere, Guild of the Nine means mercenary abuse and Pillar of Chains gives +1production per unhappy face and stops civic change anger. The next Settler is going to be a forward base to defend against the Vamp/Malakim team and the next two will be pushed West to grab more of the forests away from the Treants and to grab the base mana node!

Tech wise I'm going to grab Sorcery then Airships, then Iron Working then each magic tech (Necro, elemental, alteration.) then shut off tech. When the Divination tower pops we can grab Knights and then it's all about playing interference to everyone.

I make nearly 1000 beakers a turn as I'm spec-ed to that. But I also make nearly 500 Gold per turn if I wish to and that's without throwing any money boosting buildings down. That's quite a few Hippus Mercenaries per turn if we need to throw up an Army.

Looking at the land revealed, Airships could kill this map. Lakes and Peaks are plentiful and they will be damn hard to dislodge provided I keep track of any peak walkers and switch to lakes when they are around. Even if a few knights made mobile by airships can't kill anybody they can choke even a late game empire and stop then from sending an army to us.

[Ravus Sol]

4 turns left for golden age
Wonders finish in 3-6 turns
Airships in 10 turns
Settlers heading to claim base mana node for Towers now

[Ravus Sol]

2 Malakim cities razed!