Need for Speed: Ichabod & Ravus chasing the Dream

[Ravus Sol]

At least the pre-set names for some stuff will make navigating a bit easier. Can't wait for the first turn to move around the super duper settler.

[Ravus Sol]

I'm thinking either
"His Phoenix"
or
"High Talk"

For my first city name.

[Brian Shanahan]

For preference I'd suggest "Sailing to Byzantium", but unfortunately that's too long.

But I'll suggest a poem from my all time favaourite, Cathal Buí Mac Guilla Ghunna, An Bonnán Buí (The Yellow Bittern).

As regards the start, from what we can see, Crab/Corn/Dye has to go to the Kurios, it's by far the strongest of what we can see, and the Hippus can start somewhere in the South. But of course all this will be rendered obsolete when ye get the save and find something a lot better.

[Ravus Sol]

For preference I'd suggest "Sailing to Byzantium", but unfortunately that's too long.

But I'll suggest a poem from my all time favaourite, Cathal Buí Mac Guilla Ghunna, An Bonnán Buí (The Yellow Bittern).

As regards the start, from what we can see, Crab/Corn/Dye has to go to the Kurios, it's by far the strongest of what we can see, and the Hippus can start somewhere in the South. But of course all this will be rendered obsolete when ye get the save and find something a lot better.

An Bonnán Buí Sounds pretty cool for the Kuriotates, but wow is there suddenly a lot more choice for a starting spot. This map is edited up the Wazoo, Pictures to come...

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]The Lands of Broken Erebus[/SIZE]
Initial Password = Overide

These lands were obviously once a vibrate and well lived place. Previous settlements now dot the lands. Workshops, Cottages, mines and even a fully developed Town.

The Mana Nodes are the most difficult. None of them appear to be raw, meaning any
PLANNED or desired mana is much harder to obtain. We Kuriotates are suddenly jealous of the Amurite nation and it's initial MetaMagic Palace Mana, as they will be able to re-do all of the mana around them. At least this means that unless the Vampires find some meta magic they cannot boost their spectres... But for us, we still need Law & Mind Mana to build the Tower of Divination.

Here is the knowledge that these settlements have passed onto us. A world Divided. We are located in the Upper Right, or North East of the land.

[SIZE="4"]The Northern & Southern Ford[/SIZE]

The Fords seem to be lakes that separate East and West. Although Old Maps seem to indicate it could merely be heavy marshland spotted with patches of water. Whatever the case, these lands are obviously sparsh with any food. While not lush and previously inhabited like our own lands... These lands are obviously of strategic value and either our initial scouts or Riders should venture here.

[SIZE="4"]The Green Maw[/SIZE]

The Green Maw is a central area of inhospitable Jungle. Sages from the Royal Court suspect their could be something... or someone... at the centre of this mass. The Jungle Circles around the centre of the lands. To the East and West of this Green Maw, There appears to be Mountains of Dawn and Dusk. Sages again suspect these to be whole mountain ranges... But they could merely be Mountains of importance.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]City Planning[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The Southern Lands[/SIZE]

This map of the southern lands gives more options for the Hippus for their first city. My first thoughts are 1SW of Drendos... But as we have seen from this land, first thoughts are often discarded once we gain more information.

The most important sighting is the Raw Mana node in the SW, the only one we have spied so far. Also the south seems like it might have a large river-lake seperating the north & South... It could be useful to loop a Super Settler around the forest peak to get a lot of sight down there. It would only take half it's movement to get there

Also it might be best to loop around the hut. We get the best pops once we have a city in place.

A worrying thought... I can spy NO Barbarian forts... no goblins, skeletons or lizardmen. If they arn't here... where are they?

[SIZE="4"]The Northern Lands[/SIZE]

The Obsidean Fields are the tiles with 4 food and 1 Production... If they can also have a town built on them then they are very tempting as a lure.

Tomasingen is the town mentioned before. It is fully developed and has a lot of commerce. It's very tempting to found on the Hill next to it.

The inland Lake has fish. Yet we will not be able to get a work boat to it unless we have a city linking the inland sea to the inland lake... (Can Forts pass boats across a land gap like in BTS or does that no longer work?)

Obviously the aim is to get the right balance of Food/Production/Commerce

I'm glad we get the chance to talk about this before founding the Kuriotate Super City.

The Original City Sight is still good, but next to Tomasingen is also very tempting, while it has less resources it has good improvements and tiles... I think we need to choose based on how we can squeeze in the cities.

The Scout will head towards that Western Hut ready to pop it when we settle, the Warrior will follow the settler at a slower rate to defend once it arrives.

[SIZE="4"]End of Movement[/SIZE]

The Settler ends in the Forest next to Dardin. I felt we didn't need to hold the turn. The Kuriotates need to move further away then most anyway. There doesn't seem to be a world warp. So that makes the North East the safest place to build the super cities. So the Kuriotate Settler is heading in the best direction.

[SIZE="4"]The Extreme East[/SIZE]

This Picture shows how much land is left to the East. The furthest right should be the edge of the map. Gives us an idea of how many Super cities we can squeeze into the Corner.

[SIZE="4"]The Five Cities[/SIZE]

This shows that we have 5, not 4, Kuriotate Super Cities available to be built.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Settings, Civics & Information[/SIZE]

The Basic Information we have on the game so far.

[SIZE="4"]Civics[/SIZE]

With a turn of travel, I switched over the Pacifism Civic to the Nationhood Civic. It will be very useful once we start building military. The -10% military production can hurt initially.

[SIZE="4"]Settings[/SIZE]

No Orthus & Archeron.... But with the Kooky Map Makers these days that doesn't mean much. They could be built on a island or held somewhere for fluff.

I'm sensing there could be SOMETHING in the middle of the Green Maw. It's far too big not to have something.

[Ravus Sol]

Wait a minute...

Are the cities of Dardin and Drendos Elvish Forest Cities? We so need to have one of those in our Capital BFC

[Ichabod]

I would still settle on the grassland 1N of the crab. You'll have a lot of food (banana, crabs, wheat, corn) and hapiness (dye, cotton). Don't forget that the Kuriotates have the tailor building avaiable at crafting. It gives 10% commerce and 1 hapiness for cotton, dyes and silk. So, building one you'd get a happy cap of 13 (4 normal, 1 palace, 3 sprawling, 2 cotton, 2 dyes, 1 fine clothes). A Size 13 Kuriotates city almost from the get go surpasses the bonus of a fully developed town, especially since we'd get +20% commerce too (and even more with the brewing house).

Just improving the dyes would give us a better tile then a fully developed town (which is on a 1f tile).

Going 2NE, 2E I think we could settle it in the next turn. It's up to you though. I want to take this game very lightly and have fun and the key to this is accepting your partner's decisions.

It's also nice to see that we have silk and rice too. +60% commerce cities to the kuriotates almost from the get go will be gold.

The bad thing is that this is a huge map. We won't be getting near the malakim/vamps before they have vampires. But, I really think that the airships will shine. Seriously! It'll be very funny to play with them. No one will be able to leave unprotected cities!

[Ichabod]

Ah, and I still have no idea about where to settle my capital city... I'll think about it when I receive the save.