Your name is in the mouth of others, be sure it has teeth: a Tale of Mice & Centaurs

[Ventessel]

A new update is long overdue. I was initially aiming for two or more good updates per week, although work has been especially hectic and I've wanted to do the events of the game justice.

Long story short, Aurorarcher has been working some kind of diabolical scheme and has two cities steaming away with a GNP that makes me quite envious.

Also, we're at war.

He had a double promoted (aggressive means he gets C3 then) warrior who showed up on my border and just attacked one of my warriors. He has skirted past my city, scouting it out and killing ANOTHER warrior (his guy survived at 0.8 STR, I was less than pleased) and is now trying to make his escape.

Fortunately, I know the terrain and he's boxed in if he runs Northeast.

Pics to follow.

[Ventessel]

Here's the initial Khazad attack on turn 40:


I was planning on building my second city down here, on one of these sites...



... however, security concerns now that Aurorarcher is attacking me dictate a closer location preferably to the West:


His warrior ran through the hills South of Caemlyn, and apparently I forgot to take a picture of the "action". Seems like he might get away. He's now promoted to C4/Shock I which is a little ridiculous. I am going to have to figure out how to take him out if he goes after my settler en route to the new city site. I think a minimum escort of 3 warrior is necessary, which is a shame because that means I'll have had to dump 6 or more turns of production into these damn warriors.

Here are the latest demos, I was kidding myself last week into thinking I would produce a mega-post with a look into all the goings on of the score changes, etc. but work has kept me far too busy for that.

So my off the cusp thoughts:
score

I've flatlined, but will research Education in 3t and then get my second city build probably 10t after that. The timing of this war means all those hammers spent on the settler can't yet be used. Very unfortunate, and it's making me really contemplate changing game objectives from "play a fun game and see what happens" to "exact genocidal retribution on the dwarves".

How will I do that? No idea! Hopefully with conquest and a flood of centaurs, if I ever research those at this rate.

Here's GNP speaking of...


That's what's got me really worried.

And MFG:


Where is aurorarcher getting all of his yile yields from? I realize he has two cities now and all, but seriously... what the hell?

My crop yield fell precipitously:


And my power graph is apparently an oscilloscope readout now...



Currently I am DFL in every category but manufacturing. Not good, and having lost two workers, two scouts, and 3 warriors (two to aurorarcher, and one to the barbarians) I have a lot of wasted shields and unimproved tiles. Some bad luck to be sure, but also some apparent miscalculation.

To salvage this game, I need to get my economy moving quickly. I am thinking I push out 3 warriors, 1 settler, 3 warriors, another settler and go for those two city spots I had wanted. If I can get them, and hold them after popping my worldspell (for quick culture growth/defense bonuses) then I might be able to stay in the running and not get crushed by these damn dwarves. We'll see.

[Kragroth]

Don't give up! Centaurs are still awesome!

[Ventessel]

I've been neglecting this thread for two reasons. First, not a lot has really happened. Second, the things that have happened mainly involved me getting my ass kicked in a very piecemeal and un-eventful manner.

I've lost scouts, warriors here and there, and basically had my plans totally derailed. At this point, I am now angling for a strategy of "cause maximum havoc" by researching HBR, founding my second city wherever I can get it safely (there are a LOT of bears down south) and then seeing how I can catch up.

A quick survey of recent events:

I unfortunately was forced to pick the option to add population at the only time when more population was actually a bad thing, thus leading to several turns of disorder while I starved Caemlyn back down... lesson learned, don't sit at your happy cap too long.

Here are the demographics from Turn 53.
Miraculously, someone is doing worse than me in GNP....


My power graph will speak for itself and sing the sad song of many warriors lost to bears...


You can see on this graph where I suddenly pulled a Joe Stalin and started starving my own citizens despite a huge food surplus...


The lack of a second city and mining is really killing me in the MFG department. If I don't fix that ASAP it will really go downhill due to a lack of military units.


GNP. Not so hot.


Northeast of Caemlyn, my settler (who had to run away from the West where I wanted to build city #2) is now going forth with an escort of ... not enough.


This really caused me a lot of aggravation when I got my settler expedition out there and saw those pesky barbs stole my city site.

Not much chance of taking that until I get the Centaurs... On the bright side... Free city? Ish/kinda?


I did get the elder council (finally) on T51. So my people will eventually get a GS, which will possibly be my only chance for not becoming hopelessly technologically backwards by founding an academy and running maxed out Scientist specialists to grab writing after HBR.


I'd totally have some riverside cottages, too... if my worker wasn't dead. There are a lot of important units that I've lost this game, and it remains to be seen if I can make that back up or not.


In unrelated news, some rabble rousers have been arrested in a beer hall in downtown Caemlyn and their leader imprisoned.

[Bobchillingworth]

Wait, why would you starve down angry population? This isn't Civ III, unhappy cities are still fully productive.

[Ventessel]

I just switched over to get max hammers/gold out of them for the time being. In retrospect, that may not have been the most efficient decision.

[Ventessel]

Happy Independence Day!

Received this diplomatic message upon opening the save:


In the spirit of freedom and America, sent this reply:


Also started feeding my citizens again, after that uppity bunch from the beer hall were safely incarcerated and tried for treason.


And those barbarians are taunting me by moving out of their city!

[Ventessel]

i guess Aurorarcher wants perpetual war. I am alright with that, centaurs are killer.





... besides, that city was lame anyways.



Score for the people who care.

GNP. I'm not pleased with that BS.


MFG. I would cry, but America keeps me going.


A crop yield that would please old Mao Xe Dong. That commie...


Power. As anticipated.


For the fatherland!


I'd settler that, I'm desperate.



Annnd, yut kill.

Demographics from the last turn. Those Munich rebels had a point.

[Ventessel]

Turn 60 update

Here's the second city I founded. Rather a non optimal location without fishing, but I had to get one down somewhere. With centaurs due in 6 turns, and built shortly thereafter through conquest, I should be able to scout south and make sure it's safe to settle where I actually wanted to originally.


Score Chart
I still don't have much skill at reading these, but I did a decent breakdown of the power graph a little further on...


GNP
WTF is up with Aurorarcher's GNP. Those greedy dwarves.


MFG
I am way out of this, although I'll check the log and see if anyone else is in conquest... if not, I may be able to surprise someone with my centaurs.


Crop Yield
That second city is already paying off here. Still a ways to go to catch up, however.


Power
Just looking at the warrior-sized ticks in the graph, here's my best guess at relative military power:
Dreylin - built six warriors, lost one for sure (maybe another 2 recently?)
Stoneskin - built four warriors (possibly more inside the 2 huge power jumps), lost none that I can tell
Jalapeno - built three warriors (possibly four?), lost two.

On the other hand, I've built eight and lost four... kinda sloppy on my part.

For posterity, here are the demographics. I'm still well under the averages in all categories that matter, but centaurs are sneaky creatures...

[Ventessel]

Turn 61

I dare that Griffon to attack me.