Perpy's Puzzling Poets (Northstar1989 and Old Lion of the Balseraphs)

[Northstar1989]

This thread looks fun and crazy. Ill follow this for a while, unless I get lazy.

OOC: Awesome! Are you dedlurking (meaning you don't follow the other threads in this game, but can give me more specific advice) or just general-lurking?

Thinking about next city yet, Your Clownliness? I see a decent spot, but it depends a bit on what you're thinking about doing here. You also need to look around to the east of course. Have you considered walking about a little with your warrior? A couple of tiles along the coast would save your scout some backtracking later.

My Warriors would not last for long, with such beasts around great and strong!

Soldiers I cannot afford to loose- we need them to keep our people happy more than booze!

About early River of Blood, speeding up first worker has a certain snowballing effect. A well-planned second city (with worker support and a wet agranism wheat/corn and + another farmed grassland) will typically grow pretty fast anyway.

The River of Blood they could not afford to squander.

They could have lost each rival 2 citizens and their fate to ponder...

OOC: If they had waited until the average player had 3 citizens, they could have had 5 citizens in their capital while kicking everyone else back to 1. The mere threat of the River of Blood spell would have also forced opponents to sub-optimal build orders to try and keep their population down (like churning out a Worker at population 1 ). The longer they could have kept that sword hanging over or heads (or rather, fang hanging over our throats) the better... I built my strategy around the Calabim using their World Spell effectively- but they used it poorly, and now I am at the disadvantage instead of advantage over my rivals for building a Worker right off the bat... (although my village-techs and great starting-location will probably more than make up for this...)

About your tech path, in my experience commerce is hard to come by in FFH, so one has to make sure to get +commerce techs online. Animal husbandry is good, but delay getting +commerce so it is often delayed a bit. It does reveal horses, and maybe you are planning to horse around. Usually there is a calendar resource nearby, so people will typically research that first - revolt to agranism for more food and use calendar plantation for commerce. In your case, so far it looks like education or aristofarms must provide commerce. Festival is good for clowns too for other reasons.

However your crafting pop was lucky, getting commerce from wine will surely help.

There are no Calander resources within the BFC of my capital. The only reason I began researching Calendar is for Agrarianism, and eventually for Festivals... Without the free village-techs I would have put off Calander until much later, in favor of other techs liking Fishing and Mysticism (and likely the founding-tech for Octopus Overlords, as I have use for both its prerequisites...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Hill Giants have AnimalAI, and cannot enter borders.

[Qgqqqqq]

and now I am at the disadvantage instead of advantage over my rivals for building a Worker right off the bat...

Err...you do realise that 90% of players in FFH games will build a worker first? It's not so marked an majority as in BTS, but it still is what occurs the vast majority of the time. All spoilers aside, there is no way I would consider anything other than a worker as my first build with your start on this map. Nothing else could possibly compare for economic growth.

[Molach]

I have so far not at all read,
any lurker or player thread.
So I can as the bird be free,
with any advice I may offer thee.

Tech from hut is great - and calendar is a natural tech to go for now
I meant earlier, that often calendar tech will be a source of much-needed commerce. Not so with your start. Hence the question "how will you ensure a steady flow of commerce".
I see no gems or precious metal either, so I guess you need cottages or aristofarms sooner rather than later. Education also opens up 2xp units, which is good for dealing with barbs early-ish. Your capital has some plain river tiles, might want to cottage those as soon as you can.

Worker first is indeed standard one-right-start, regardless of bloody rivers.

Hill giant is troublesome, but if he refuses to move away from where you want to settle, you can send 2warrior+settler, hell kill a warrior but next turn you can settle and be safe. Warriors are cheap anyway.

[Northstar1989]

Hill Giants have AnimalAI, and cannot enter borders.

That's nice to know! Thanks Q!


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Err...you do realise that 90% of players in FFH games will build a worker first? It's not so marked an majority as in BTS, but it still is what occurs the vast majority of the time.

But not 100% of the time, which is what's important... Although if none of my rivals grow soon, I can probably conclude they started off with a Worker as well, in which case I was at no significant advantage...

In fact, thinking about it more carefully, I had one of the single best possible starting tiles for a first turn Worker- a Deer/Forest- so I might have actually grown before any of my opponents (in which case I might have benefited from the Calabim' sub-optimal use of River of Blood more than other players...)

All spoilers aside, there is no way I would consider anything other than a worker as my first build with your start on this map. Nothing else could possibly compare for economic growth.

Of course not- with my start I would have been insane to start with anything else. But that's not necessarily the case with all of my opponents- those of my rivals who didn't start with Exploration or Agriculture (i.e. the Amurites, Sheahim, and Clan) actually don't have any reason to start off with a Worker unless they have enough commerce to get a worker-tech before their Worker is built...

So maybe they built a Worker because of River of Blood- in which case I actually *benefited* from the timing of the World Spell, as it forced my opponents into sub-optimal build orders...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

I have so far not at all read,
any lurker or player thread.
So I can as the bird be free,
with any advice I may offer thee.

Welcome, welcome, fellow court jester!

What enemy first think you we should pester?

Hence the question "how will you ensure a steady flow of commerce".

Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail never clinking.


There have you your first test and your answer fair jester!

Hill giant is troublesome, but if he refuses to move away from where you want to settle, you can send 2warrior+settler, hell kill a warrior but next turn you can settle and be safe. Warriors are cheap anyway.

Ay- but a giant without bravery to our cities bother, is a giant with cause to further wander!

About such cowardly beasts, worry we naught!

Unless our Scout should unhappily be caught!


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OOC: For some reason no screenshot of this even though I tried to snap one, but the Hill Giant moved to the southwest one tile, and my Scout gained line-of-sight on it across a water tile. Will show a screenshot of the Scout next turn...



Our hardy Workers will soon win applause, when they work hard to better our glamorous cause!



And more restless wanderers will soon be out of my hair!

Off to the flit through the countryside, seeking village and lair!





Our jolly citizens hardly rest!

Our joyful carnival of a nation will soon be the best!


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Of course not- with my start I would have been insane to start with anything else. But that's not necessarily the case with all of my opponents- those of my rivals who didn't start with Exploration or Agriculture (i.e. the Amurites, Sheahim, and Clan) actually don't have any reason to start off with a Worker unless they have enough commerce to get a worker-tech before their Worker is built...

This is the case 95% of the time, and I'm pretty sure it's the case here as well.

[Northstar1989]

Our Scouts have discovered a lair most foule!



Fools of old did covet immortality more than gold, and their tombs our Scouts did explore brave and bold!



And emerged with a Torc, an object of pride- which might save us from poisonous Spiders wherever they hide!


Meanwhile farmers didst plough golden seed- to meet hungry mouths' future need!




More Scouts, more Scouts- that is what comes next! To guide us to treasures, and ancient scrolls and texts!



A hard decision we do now face- do our Scouts return with their prize, or risk further their lives?



Either path his its merit- but to lose the Torc, could I bear it?


Regards,
Northstar

P.S. I will only be working the Deer tile for one turn- I calculated that I could work it one more turn before switching to food without slowing my next city-growth or either of the next 2 growth after that...