Time for an update, I've just played turn 19 and some unfortunate stuff happened.
First of all, last turn I spotted a spectre outside my territory...
![[Image: Ivrb1cx.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Ivrb1cx.jpg)
And I misunderstood the tag "Cannot Move (1)" to mean that my worker could safely finish his pasture and then run into the city.
Good news: He finished building the pasture!
Bad News: He died.
I consider this a moderate setback. I can definitely recover from it because my worker did hook up two food resources before dying, so not a total loss, but I'm still out a multi-turn investment. The price of sloppiness, I suppose.
I don't feel too bad, because someone still only has one pop in their capital...
![[Image: 0RuAleg.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/0RuAleg.jpg)
In his explorations, little Padan Fain has wandered north of the vampire lands and discovered...
![[Image: QbhV5EX.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/QbhV5EX.jpg)
The Ring of Carcer. For those unaware, this is a tile that can only be entered by a unit of Level 15 or higher (somewhere in the range of 150 - 200 xp) which is a pretty intense number of promotions to get for most people... except the Calabim, whose vampires can feed up to that level in a matter of 10 or so turns from a decent sized city. There were also 8 Brigit units in there... I'm not sure why that is, and I'd like to ask the mapmaker but I'm not sure how to do so in the general thread without being too spoilery.
Here's the GNP graph, looks like Dreylin took a dive recently.
![[Image: sNGAZl1.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/sNGAZl1.jpg)
MFG for both of my neighbors ticked up a point last turn.
![[Image: Or7zuX6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Or7zuX6.jpg)
My crop yield rocketed pleasantly with those food resources hooked up...
![[Image: RpWLC2Y.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/RpWLC2Y.jpg)
As it stands, I am still woefully hammer deficient. I am currently considering two options:
1. I need a new worker, and Dreylin has one. I also have access to an early game unit, Centaurs. They become available at Horseback Riding, which I could research right after Ancient chants if I so desired. However, without a lot of hammers, that might not work out so well. I DO have a large food surplus, and could easily turn that to military units with Conquest. This civic is available at Education, a tech I need to pick up anyways.
Now, stealing Dreylin's worker is not a practical solution to my short term issue of having lost a worker. I'll probably make a new one. However, no one would be alarmed by me teching to Education and I could potentially surprise Dreylin and/or jalapeno by going for HBR immediately afterwards. Time that to coincide roughly with the construction of my first settler, double revolt into Conquest and Nationalism (although that really makes poor use of my philosophical trait early on, which I had selected Pacifism to combo with...) and use those two cities to start cranking out Centaurs and go on a little military adventure.
2. Alternately, because I don't want to stint my long term growth (although those vampires with access to 8 Brigits constitute one hell of a long term threat) I may pursue a strategy of generating a Great Sage ASAP via an elder council sage and focus on planting my second city well to the South in order to secure territory and buy time to rebuild my worker. Once I've got that first GP I will consider switching into Conquest/Nationalism and building up a safety net of military units. I really need a second scout to go and look West of my position because I'm quite blind out there.
As it is, I have a few turns before Ancient Chants come in to decide what course to pursue. Another consideration is that Dreylin's capital is about 18 tiles away from me, because Brigit and the mountains blocks movement effectively along the shortest route between our capitals. I would estimate that jalapeno is south of Dreylin, probably 12 - 15 tiles if the distances between myself and Dreylin are any guide.
Worst case scenario is that Dave is to my west, with his sinister scouts. I just played a game this weekend with one of my friends and 8 AIs. On Monarch difficulty as the Svarts with the aggressive trait I killed all 5 AIs on my continent by turn 79 (standard speed) using CI/Shock scouts and a handful of hunters (I beelined hunting). I was pretty scary. And that's got me seriously wondering what Dave has planned.
Best case scenario, the Khazad of Aurorarcher are in the tundra to my west. They don't appear to be doing so hot early on, what with that one pop capitol. I have no idea what is going on in that empire, but it certainly would be nice to have them as a weak neighbor. Maybe they fell under an early barb attack and had to turtle?
I've got a large cache of screenshots that are sitting around, I'll start uploading them shortly with some updated plans for Super City #2 in light of my recent misfortunes.
First of all, last turn I spotted a spectre outside my territory...
![[Image: Ivrb1cx.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Ivrb1cx.jpg)
And I misunderstood the tag "Cannot Move (1)" to mean that my worker could safely finish his pasture and then run into the city.
Good news: He finished building the pasture!
Bad News: He died.
I consider this a moderate setback. I can definitely recover from it because my worker did hook up two food resources before dying, so not a total loss, but I'm still out a multi-turn investment. The price of sloppiness, I suppose.
I don't feel too bad, because someone still only has one pop in their capital...
![[Image: 0RuAleg.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/0RuAleg.jpg)
In his explorations, little Padan Fain has wandered north of the vampire lands and discovered...
![[Image: QbhV5EX.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/QbhV5EX.jpg)
The Ring of Carcer. For those unaware, this is a tile that can only be entered by a unit of Level 15 or higher (somewhere in the range of 150 - 200 xp) which is a pretty intense number of promotions to get for most people... except the Calabim, whose vampires can feed up to that level in a matter of 10 or so turns from a decent sized city. There were also 8 Brigit units in there... I'm not sure why that is, and I'd like to ask the mapmaker but I'm not sure how to do so in the general thread without being too spoilery.
Here's the GNP graph, looks like Dreylin took a dive recently.
![[Image: sNGAZl1.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/sNGAZl1.jpg)
MFG for both of my neighbors ticked up a point last turn.
![[Image: Or7zuX6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Or7zuX6.jpg)
My crop yield rocketed pleasantly with those food resources hooked up...
![[Image: RpWLC2Y.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/RpWLC2Y.jpg)
As it stands, I am still woefully hammer deficient. I am currently considering two options:
1. I need a new worker, and Dreylin has one. I also have access to an early game unit, Centaurs. They become available at Horseback Riding, which I could research right after Ancient chants if I so desired. However, without a lot of hammers, that might not work out so well. I DO have a large food surplus, and could easily turn that to military units with Conquest. This civic is available at Education, a tech I need to pick up anyways.
Now, stealing Dreylin's worker is not a practical solution to my short term issue of having lost a worker. I'll probably make a new one. However, no one would be alarmed by me teching to Education and I could potentially surprise Dreylin and/or jalapeno by going for HBR immediately afterwards. Time that to coincide roughly with the construction of my first settler, double revolt into Conquest and Nationalism (although that really makes poor use of my philosophical trait early on, which I had selected Pacifism to combo with...) and use those two cities to start cranking out Centaurs and go on a little military adventure.
2. Alternately, because I don't want to stint my long term growth (although those vampires with access to 8 Brigits constitute one hell of a long term threat) I may pursue a strategy of generating a Great Sage ASAP via an elder council sage and focus on planting my second city well to the South in order to secure territory and buy time to rebuild my worker. Once I've got that first GP I will consider switching into Conquest/Nationalism and building up a safety net of military units. I really need a second scout to go and look West of my position because I'm quite blind out there.
As it is, I have a few turns before Ancient Chants come in to decide what course to pursue. Another consideration is that Dreylin's capital is about 18 tiles away from me, because Brigit and the mountains blocks movement effectively along the shortest route between our capitals. I would estimate that jalapeno is south of Dreylin, probably 12 - 15 tiles if the distances between myself and Dreylin are any guide.
Worst case scenario is that Dave is to my west, with his sinister scouts. I just played a game this weekend with one of my friends and 8 AIs. On Monarch difficulty as the Svarts with the aggressive trait I killed all 5 AIs on my continent by turn 79 (standard speed) using CI/Shock scouts and a handful of hunters (I beelined hunting). I was pretty scary. And that's got me seriously wondering what Dave has planned.
Best case scenario, the Khazad of Aurorarcher are in the tundra to my west. They don't appear to be doing so hot early on, what with that one pop capitol. I have no idea what is going on in that empire, but it certainly would be nice to have them as a weak neighbor. Maybe they fell under an early barb attack and had to turtle?
I've got a large cache of screenshots that are sitting around, I'll start uploading them shortly with some updated plans for Super City #2 in light of my recent misfortunes.
"Solve a man's problems with violence, help him for a day. Teach a man to solve his problems with violence, help him for a lifetime." - Belkar Bitterleaf