Aurorarcher has a tough row to hoe

[Aurorarcher]

T57 Q got a prophet.




And a turn later he build the Shrine (I forgot the exact name). I guess he can now run bunch of specialists if he so wants, early shrine with the best religion for this map is a decent plan. I'm not sure how much that has crippled his expansion, he is IND though so he has saved some time with worker builds. I also believe that he skipped Mining (not 100% sure) to hit OO directly so his raw commerce might be lagging for now.

Still interesting plan, very curious to see how he plays his opening from here. 

T58. 4th city settled, just 2 turns later than Ellimist. I have also renamed all my cities to be Beach themed.




Demos are looking pretty good for me. Of course my GNP is highly inflated because of CRE.

The promised graphs in spoilers:

[Aurorarcher]

Some news: Ellimist research Cartocraphy and also built Loki. He has also annoyingly been able to keep 3 excellent traits (SPI, IND, CRE) for a very long time. He got rid of his poor starting ARC trait so early.

Here's overview of my world.




The last addition, Turtle Coastline was settled on T69.

Some plans:
- Switch to ORG on T72. It will save me 8 gpt right away. Build bunch of cheap Lighthouses in key cities. Also build Courthouses as well. I have never really built them in FFH games, I guess it's time to try them out.
- Aristofarms from T74. Also Academy + Deruptus in cap by then.
- Currently in Pacifism, will switch back to Religion on T74. Need to build more warriors then.


Cities starting from the newest:




I'll put some hammers on HT, it'd be good here but most likely just some fail gold. I was lucky to time this city to T69 because I will lose CRE on T72 (and I'll get the border pop eot 71). Can use 4 decent food tiles and some hammers. Lighthouse here for sure when I can. Ultimately good city for Settler/Worker spam with its high Food.




Coconut Coast is a decent city. Ultimately it will be a production city with 6 hills available. A little slower on growth. Also probably Lighthouse here. Currently building a warrior with -30% modifier for units . Good thing that's loss of only 1hpt right now. Not much else I'd like to build before Lighthouse though.




The Eagle Edge is another hammer city. Will finish Desert shrine now that I am in Pacifism, ultimately a city where I will spam Cultists/Zealots. Need a Zealot from cap as I haven't gotten a single free spread yet .




Pelican Bay is one of my best Settler/Worker spam cities and that's about its work for a long time. Lighthouse is also going to be built here. Could use some more mines sooner than later to speed that up.




Sandy Cliffs has also pretty much only build Settlers/Workers so far. It's a more commerce orientated city.




Palm Tree Coast is an awesome capital. I love this city. Currently the plan is to finish Deruptus eot73 (need 1 more chop from cap) and next turn I'll switch one FP tile to desert mine. Also I am going to get GS (hopefully) eot73 for Academy. I have only put 4,5 GPP of Prophet in, hopefully that won't become a kick in the balls .

I should finish CoL eot73 as well (or maybe eot72). With Aristofarms + Academy I'll start getting 80+ beakers from this city only starting on T74. So the heart of my economy will be the capital.

Also I have been saving gold for a while (longer that I'd need to to get CoL) because I want to use GK bonus when I still have it. Revolt to Aristocracy + Religion will be on T74. That will slow down my settler production a little of course.

And finally, demos eot69.

[Aurorarcher]

So I got the GS, glad there was no 5% prophet on the line... Here are demos before Academy/Aristofarms.




And here's after.




Now I just need to turn that GNP lead into something useful. I am planning on grabbing Sanitation next to make my farms better again. Masonry -> Construction -> Sanitation, that's about 8 turns of research. I'd actually like to avoid BW for time being (I don't need it). Hopefully not shooting myself to leg by doing that. I'd like to try workshops now that they're 3h in plains. I need to improve my production rate. I'll hop to Religion back then probably and grow faster again and push cities. For now, I need more soldiers, been on a farmer's gambit for a while .

That top power is TBS, I am pretty sure he has Griffons around - maybe even Spiders! Otherwise his power doesn't make much of sense.

I just love my capital even more now.




Builds a Zealot for The Eagle Edge. Sadly I realized (just when I ended turn) that I cannot build galleys in capital. Dumb of me to forget that. To grab that marble I need to build a fort somewhere. Also no Pearls immediately within my reach (not too far either).

Met jalepeno to my east on T72, now he settled his 7th city here. Wow, he has pushed for his west hard!

[Aurorarcher]

T75.

The turns are just so slow between Ellimist/Q, both often missing their window once or even twice... I guess we're still around holiday time, hope that's it...

Took Masonry this turn at 50%. Note to self: I can grab that Marble by building a fort + road on it. I didn't actually know that for too long ago. If I build a quarry it won't even get connected.

7th city will be settled next turn to north.

In the south Ellimist's scout is still sitting around healing from a Griffon attack. He also proved world to be round, that +1 movement for ships is going to be good on this map.

[Aurorarcher]

T76.

I was lucky to be able to 2 turn Construction. It was really close, if I take away even 1 commerce it's slowed by a turn. Workshops are on their way starting from T78!

Papaya Strand was added to my empire this turn. Lighthouse to use that juicy lake. Ellimist and Jale are also at 7 cities. TBS is at 5 if I recall correctly.




Demos.

[Aurorarcher]

No update for a while, but the game has been really fun, getting to interesting times also. The pace has picked up too which is nice

Here are some pics that I have taken since last report, turn 76.




Ellimist's traits finally switched... to another 3 decent ones. Raiders might not be that useful for now but it's nice to get some commando units for later upgrades or something.

His scout also moved along my borders, I decided to sign peaceful intentions and not to kill it. The scout annoyingly survived several animal attacks from Griffons.

T78, I found Bob's borders. No connection yet.




Also bunch of stuff happened in the logs. Jale rushed the Bone Palace with GE.




T79 Q found me, later I saw his borders meaning he is indeed NE of me.




Later there's contact with Bob. Bunch of units in that city for a civ with BAR. Why he needed PZs already is a mystery to me. Notice no Copper hooked up at this point.




Me and TBS are getting closer in the west. He has city probably 1E of cows. Later the Pigs was improved too.




T86 I found some OBs going on.




At this point Ellimist has 10 cities, I got 7. And he is up on resources too, he's got Pearls (I can see mine but can't improve it easily), Gems (I can't see any, must be due to lack of scouting), and Marble (I improved mine on T87). Interesting.







T87 logs, and some older too. Bunch of great people, that GE must be Jale. Great lighthouse worth it? I've found that the map is not as watery as I expected. Makes Lanun less likely to take Optics too early. Very cool map layout so far, not totally mirrored - as far as I can see, which is cool.




Then a war! A very surprising one too. They had OB, was it all for a betrayal? Or is this war not a real one? Both have about same power, around 150-160k. TBS is in Pacifism still, he reovolted to it t84, which can backfire if he needs to build units with -30% modifier. Interesting times are to come...




I landed GC. Golden Age, here we come! It might be time to grab Priesthood... takes only few turns. I could use some units as you can see from demos, lowest power. And out of those there are 2 galleys. My garrison is pretty much 10 warriors for 8 cities .

Notice that there are TR signs after Dreylin and Dave. They weren't there on T87. That means that somehow, through water or/and rivers I have connection to their cities.

[Aurorarcher]

So basically for the last 10-12 turns since last report I have been improving my cities, growing tall pretty much.

[Aurorarcher]

T89.

Okay, the war was only for one turn. Still, they lost their OB traderoutes so there must've been a reason for the wardec.

Ellimist fired his WS, that's 18 turns of GA for him if I recall the WS correctly (double the normal 9 turns).

I fired mine as well, slightly leading in GNP still - but about 40 hammers behind in production. 2 more turns till Priesthood, one of the players I know already has it. I'm not sure who really, maybe Jale?

HT was build in a far away land on T88, that was Dave. I got 70g failgold.

I started Heroic Epic in one of my good production cities. Takes only 2 more turns to build.

[Aurorarcher]

T90.

Ellimist got The Great Lighthouse. Jale created Bambur. I settled my 9th city.

Priesthood in one turn, I might need those Cultists pretty soon. Running on warriors is a bit risky.

In the north I found something amusing.

[Thoth]