It's a Barb World Outside, Let's Keep It That Way: Jonas Endain of the Clan of Embers

[Ichabod]

Guys,

Sorry for keeping this without uodates for so long...

I'll be pretty busy until this sunday, but I promise that I'll catch up after that. There's nothing much happening in the game, so you aren't missing anything important...

[Ichabod]

Turn 12:

Finally, after a lot of real life issues that got in the way, I can present you with an update.

Well, truth being told, you haven't lost anything between turn 0 and turn 12. No events, I didn't meet anyone, just explored a bit.

But turn 12 was an eventful one. I was greet with this event when I loaded the save:

Nothing I could do, since I could only choose one option. At least it expanded my second city's border, enabling it to work a 3/0/1 tile instead of a 3/0/0 (well, this early, every commerce counts).

At least the effects of inflation aren't being felt right now:

Than, it was time to pop the hut near my capital. I was going to do with the first goblin that I created (capital went goblin -> goblin -> building worker; second city is still building a worker) but I decided to let agriculture finish first (agri -> calendar was the tech order), hoping to get a lucky new technology result that would give me calendar.

So here I go:

Well, the result wasn't far from that. I won't complain, though:

It was the most expansive tech I could get from the hut

Ah, and we have horses near the capital ²

Horses aren't that useful for the clan, since wolf riders don't need horses to be built and the Clan mounted line is pratically non-existant. But it's a strong tile, anyways!


Here's an overview of the map:

The second city worker can improve the cows now. I'll improve the capital with the worker being built there (6 turns to go, IIRC). Capital is working rice, foodplains and horses. I'll switch to the 2/0/2 tiles (the 2 calendar resources) when worker is ready and I'll burn the slowly accumulated treasury to tech calendar quick (agrarianism + good commerce tiles).

I'm hoping that the 2 calendar resources will give me a significant boost in research...



I have one warrior exploring far into the southwest, which seems to be my only connection to the mainland... I'm in a peninsula of some sort:

Unfortunately, i can't explore the barrow under the warrior, since I'm a barbarian...



Ah, about the map. It was very cooked, like I said in my first reports. But it actualy is helping us in some ways: the cities near the players starting positions seems to have only 1 warrior. But the cities in the second ring had (at least for me) an elephant (str 8) and an azer (str 3 + 3 fire) -> it'll take a while for someone besides me to be able to take these guys out, especially since the barb cities are probably building warriors for garrisson right now!

And I found Dantski, but still haven't made contact:

I'm gonna park my warrior there to see if I meet him when his border pops or something.


Demographics:

I'm first in land for two reasons: I had the event which popped my second city's border and Ravus Sol, with a creative leader probably has cities with a lot of water. That's good, since water sucks in FfH (with fishing being extremely expensive).


Diplomacy:

I haven't met anyone, like I said, but I already have a trumph: the Lettum Frigus is very near my capital, in a place acessible from only one direction. I didn't go inside it, since i'll use it to try and make some kind of deal with Ravus, if the situation requires it.

Better to have an agressive Illian running around than to be dead... But I remember something about adaptive bugging the Lettum agressive trait...

Well, at least I have ice mana... :neenernee


Any questions?

Updates will be much more frequent from now on!

[Ichabod]

Ah, in the end, the vent we had wasn't that bad:

My tech plan is Agri -> Calendar (for commerce) than Crafting -> Mining -> Bronze Working for city capturing + production. But I thought about getting Ancient Chants (for border pops) and exploration (for roading) somewhere in the middle. Guess I won't be needing AC for quite some time...


And I just realized................

I WON'T BE ABLE TO CONVERT THE CITIES WITH HIGH STRENGHT UNITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that promotions are accounted in the calculations of who's the stronger unit in a city... If they aren't, I'm in a very bad shape...


Edit: Yup, it's confirmed... I'll have to declare war on the barbarians to take the cities with high strenght unit...

This makes me very angry... No one said about these speacial features in the game... We would play with barbarian world on, not with this kind of changes... I wouldn't have picked the CoE if I knew that...

[Brian Shanahan]

Yeah it seems pretty bad. Frankly of there was a nerf of your Ratine strategy made (and not just simple bad luck) then I think it should at least have been mentioned. Well, it's something that has to be overcome.

Is Archeron on? If so and you haven't used the world spell, waiting for him to build a stronghold may be a very good option.

[Mist]

And I just realized................

I WON'T BE ABLE TO CONVERT THE CITIES WITH HIGH STRENGHT UNITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is not true. Copper Weapon Rantine with Heroic Strength I ( that's level 6 ) will convert the Azer. Iron Weapon Rantine with Heroic Strength II ( lvl 7 ) converts the elephant. You can substitute whatever weapon giving +strength ( orthus axe, rod of winds, great general ) and it'll still work.
You're NOT stripped of ability to peacefully convert cities and if you give it few turns, you should have plenty of targets for For the Horde.

Yes the map is cooked, but it's giving everyone a level playing field and you're not gimped any more than other players. *Noone* started this game without chances to win.

[Ichabod]

This is not true. Copper Weapon Rantine with Heroic Strength I ( that's level 6 ) will convert the Azer. Iron Weapon Rantine with Heroic Strength II ( lvl 7 ) converts the elephant. You can substitute whatever weapon giving +strength ( orthus axe, rod of winds, great general ) and it'll still work.
You're NOT stripped of ability to peacefully convert cities and if you give it few turns, you should have plenty of targets for For the Horde.

Yes the map is cooked, but it's giving everyone a level playing field and you're not gimped any more than other players. *Noone* started this game without chances to win.

Yeah, I overreacted a bit... But just a bit...

I can affrord to wait until I have Iron weapons (and iron, which I have no guarantee that I'll have inside my borders) to convert cities. Even bronze weapons + heroic strenght 1 will take several turns to get, compared to what I'd be expecting.

I'll probably have to declare war on the barbs, and that means that I'll lose all the advantages that compensate the -10% science and the lack of a starting tech.

I could give more indepth reasons why I think I was more harmed than the other players, but I rather leave it behind me and play the thing as it is. In the end, I can have fun either way.

[Ichabod]

Turn 13-14:


Well, the game is in its boring stages... nothing big happening.


Got one of the religious golden age events:

I'm going to pop a hut next turn. Let's keep our fingers crossed:

Another interesting thing about the last screenshot: why does the barb warrior have the combat 1 promotion? It seems to have been created by the barb city, but I don't know how to explain the promotion...


Demographics:

Someone is really letting his cities grow... strange... maybe someone that started with Ancient Chants and went mysticism (so no worker techs...)

[Square Leg]

Although you are at peace with the Barbarians, you are not at peace with the animals of Erebus. That Elephant city shouldn't be too hard a nut to crack with a Lizardman and Rantine.

Ok - the Azer city might take a little longer granted.

[Ichabod]

Although you are at peace with the Barbarians, you are not at peace with the animals of Erebus. That Elephant city shouldn't be too hard a nut to crack with a Lizardman and Rantine.

The elephant was added as a barbarian unit, if I remember correctly, so no such luck. Animals need the hidden nationality promotion for me to attack them without declaring on the barbs.

[Ichabod]

Turn 15:


Played a quick turn today.

I got the same event this turn that I got in previous... When I first loaded the save I thought that I made a mistake and used the turn 14 one...

If only I worshipped Cthulhu


Ah, do you remember that I asked you to keep your fingers crossed?

Thanks!!

Now I can go straight to BW after calendar and I don't have to worry myself thinking about when would be the right time to tech exploration. And I'll be able to connect my cities for some extra commerce!


Overview of the empire:

Worker finished the cow tile, he'll probably farm the wheat next... Maybe I'll try to road the cities first (since growing the second city isn't a priority... I don't have nothing to build at the moment)...

Does anybody know if roading the tiles 1S and 2S of the second city will get me a trade route beween my two cities?