[SPOILERS] Mardoc decides what kind of loser he wants to be

[Mardoc]

Well, that was annoying. Sent out all my scouts. T5ish, I see DaveV's scout inbound. Had to turn one scout around and crash build a warrior to be safe. That'll delay my worker by 3-4 turns.

On the bright side, when he saw I was prepared, DaveV chose not to actually declare. So I don't have to deal with a choke.

Also found Jalepeno.

The continent we're on is a narrow donut. Suspect there are islands both inside and outside the donut. Have not gone through portals yet but I'm tempted to, now that I've scouted about half the donut continent.

[Mardoc]

Also found Jalepeno.

By which, of course, I meant not-jalepeno. Alexis. Which is Aurorarcher.

On the good side, this means I have no Expansive neighbors. On the less good side, neighbors are closer than I had previously thought, and Moroi might be a bit of an issue. Not very happy about the proximity to neighbors.

Going to have to dotmap soon, and make sure to include enough coastal cities that I can get to the islands - that seems to be where the bulk of the land is. Why Lanun was banned seems obvious. Why OO was not...less so.

[Mardoc]

Went through the portal. My scout survived one turn, enough to make contact with Jalepeno's Luchiurp...and then for his warrior's pick to make contact with my scout's skull. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that he wants a monopoly on information over there. I'll eventually send over some more, but not just yet.

I also met the Doviello with a more conventional scouting approach, so I should be able to read all the demos if I ever have the time for it.

[Mardoc]

GG Jalepeno

Uh...I guess Jalepeno should have kept his warrior home instead of sending it through the portal? And then Lucian?

I wonder if Aurorarcher will expand toward ex-Jalepeno or toward me, planning to get Jalepeno's land later.

[Mardoc]

At least Plako had to use Wild Hunt to get it done.

And something very interesting...



That surprised me at first, but on second thought it makes sense. Monarch difficulty, big map with us all squeezed into a fairly small starting area...plako is probably *not* actually suffering too horrible maintenance costs. Now he's got two cities well before anyone else. Good bit: now he's the one to beat, and hopefully both DaveV and Auror recognize that. Nasty bit: that's a really big boost to his snowball.

Well, I'm going to try for this land. Lots of offshore stuff, plako will be occupied by the land that doesn't require Sailing, I might be able to get Jalepeno's share. Hopefully.



Not for a while yet, though. Because building my second worker, after getting half-choked by DaveV, I'm trailing the pack.

[Mardoc]

Nothing much going on so far. Scouting around ex-Jalepeno (for no particular reason, but my scout is there), working on my first winery.

I'm going Mining before Calendar (and, er, may delay Calendar quite some time, since there aren't many Calendar resources in the area). I can't decide if this is genius or idiocy, but my theory here is that mines are better than even agrarian farms when my priority builds are warriors, workers, and Expansive settlers. Of course it's never quite that simple: need to work some food regardless to feed the miners, which would work better with Agrarianism.

What I'm really hoping is that I can afford to continue delaying Calendar until at least post-Education, if not also post-FoL/Sailing. It'd be good to start my cottages and forests growing ASAP. I need to find the time to actually put together a dotmap before I'll know if that's a realistic goal or not, though. Maybe this weekend I can sit down and actually make a plan for this game, at least the first couple cities worth.

[Mardoc]

Researched Mining, started on Ancient Chants -> Edu. We have copper off to the east, on the plains hill by the Fish. Debating with myself what to do after Edu: straight for Myst - Hunting - FoL? Slip in Fishing - Sailing? Backtrack for Calendar or other worker techs? My default choice is going to be FoL. It just gives me so much: culture, happiness, military, worldspell, and of course forest upgrades.

Hit size 6, so I've begun working on our first settler. Due in about 7 turns, will speed up as I get mines online.

I really need to find the time to dotmap this. Now that I've opened up the settler spigot, I'm going to be filling up land pretty darn quickly. And, on top, that'll help me prioritize techs. Granted, farms + cottages + mines will do for most worked tiles, but I do want to work resources where I have them.

[Mardoc]

Well, this is still going on. I don't expect to report in any detail, but are there any broad questions I can answer?

I'm still running toward the back end of the demographics, although I've gotten my city count up to match Plako. Part of that is my slow start, part of it is that I'm beelining Elf Econ, which means no aristocracy, and I'm building a lot of cottages which are still mostly hamlets or smaller. If the game lasts long enough, that'll pay off. If it doesn't, well, it'll be another data point for 'elves can't do the traditional elven economy anymore'.

I'm a bit fortunate in my location; Plako has declared on DaveV and razed at least one city. Knowing DaveV, I think he'll have enough troops on hand to make Plako stall out, so I won't have to worry about either of them for a while.

I'm currently researching Hunting, and planning probably FoL as my next tech. I may slip in Sailing; I could use some ICTR badly, and would be good to start scouting for more islands too. Will probably just go for FoL, though. I need the happiness, and culture, and a better tier of units (and WS) in case I'm wrong about Dave being able to stop Plako. Be a nice bonus to start upgrading forests, too.

[Bobchillingworth]

How's the empire look? Also, current expansion plans?

[Mardoc]

How's the empire look?

Wide and little. I need more happiness for my cities, badly. Also need some extra income from something - possibly extra citizens working more tiles . I still don't have Calendar - but it doesn't really matter, because all my potential Calendar resources except Reagents are buried under jungle.

Also, current expansion plans?

None for the moment. I've filled up the land to a point where my options are:
a) into Aurorarcher. He's got more power than I do, and is counterweighting Plako
b) into the jungle toward DaveV. I don't have Bronze Working yet
c) overseas. I don't have Sailing yet either.

I'm about a half-dozen turns from getting Fellowship of Leaves, which ought to help with my happiness issue (and unlock my worldspell for defense). After that, probably Sailing to get more cities and more income simultaneously, although I'm tempted to pick up a maintenance civic instead.

Really, I'm quite behind for now. I'm hoping for a long game.