[SPOILERS] Emissaries from the blighted lands; Mardoc and Jkaen take on the world!

[Jkaen]

When I get home, I will go a wandering in a generally NW direction and see what I can see, and make a decision then. Will leave this site for you.

[Jkaen]

Ok, settled coastal a bit up north, our BFC will touch.

Moving house this weekend, so can't sit down and update properly atm, sorry

[Mardoc]

Ok, settled coastal a bit up north, our BFC will touch.

Moving house this weekend, so can't sit down and update properly atm, sorry

Now I'm on pins and needles for it to come around again. Coastal! That'll mean Fishing, for sure. And probably OO so that you have that option. We might as well plan to research the whole tree . Oh well, we knew we would have to going into this, which is why we picked two good teching civs.

Well, I will definitely settle in that spot we picked out, unless Gaspar sees something I'm missing, and start things off with a nice River of Blood and a worker, I think. Should go pretty fast with a size 3 city and some pre-improved tiles.

[Mardoc]

Alright, played my turn, settled where previously planned. This is a very lush map. . I already cast River of Blood, which ironically makes my worker due the same turn as Jkaen's - as soon as my borders pop and I can work a better tile, that'll improve. And we're going to have to be discussing tech all along, because whew is that a fast rate! Team, plus nice bonus stuff = fast teching. Very glad we didn't pick rushers.



We have food and silk, but we need Mining before we can get at the Silk. Things that potentially make sense for early tech? We need to finish Agriculture, of course, and we already have Exploration and Ancient Chants. We could go directly for Code of Laws via Education. We could go directly to Kilmorph (Crafting -> Mining -> Mysticism -> Kilmorph -> Bronze Working. We could pick up Calendar along the way. We could even go Fishing -> Mysticism -> OO. We might even go for Hunting early, to get Hawks out to find the nice pre-improved spots on the map and give us early warning when it's time to expect the other teams. Right now, I'm inclined to the Kilmorph/BW path, but I could be talked into one of the others. Neither of us has a reason to go to Iron Working any time, so getting Kilmorph up and running would be very nice. Of course, several of the other teams probably have the same goal - I would expect it from the Dwarves, and probably the Orcs as well (wait, they're the same team now).

And, some more interesting stuff on the map:

There's a central jungle, probably:

Each of these revealed tiles is a jungle, labeled 'The Green Maw'

There's also apparently rivers dividing the map into quadrants, here's one example:

[Mardoc]

Hmm, what else. Since Jkaen settled where there are mines, and I'm settled for food/commerce, it probably makes sense in the early going for you to build the bulk of the scouts/warriors, while I focus on workers/settlers. Well, settlers anyway, I'm not sure what all my workers can do for you in a team game, besides roads. River of Blood strengthens that, since I'll hit the happy cap sooner - and I'd rather have Lightbringer scouts than normal scouts, the desert movement and the extra sight both ought to help find stuff out faster, and/or spot interlopers.

[Gaspar]

Sorry I haven't had much to say, I underestimated how much of my remaining time Diplomacy would take up. God help me if any of these Civ games go to war.

My impressions thus far are that its a cool map, though I think it might almost be better suited to a normal game than this one, where you guys will zip through the tree so fast a lot of the power will be wasted. Also a bit unfortunate to play Malakim without any flood plains around. I wonder if that Hell terrain will spread when the AC rises, someone should sandbox and test it, because if so, it will prioritize Life mana. Speaking of mana, I wonder if all the nodes are assigned already. If so, and metamagic isn't one of them, that basically means only the Amurites can win via Tower. If you do find a generic node, will definitely want to save it for Meta, even if magic isn't likely to be a huge factor. Well, other than death magic.

I think I agree with the settlement spots. From the way the map appears, assuming that area that's focused on is the center, it looks like you've been placed pretty close to a center area on a pretty large map. Can someone grab # of land tiles next they're in the game to confirm just how large? If so, you might want to prioritize exploring back towards the sides rather than forward to the middle, as I don't think you're going to want to alert your neighbors - you're both pretty squishy in the early game. And lastly, a request - take lots of screens, this is obviously a fully handcrafted map, so there won't be any way to predict what we're going to see.

Are huts/lairs/dungeons on is another good question. I can't remember if you guys decided that or left it to the mapmaker.

[Mardoc]

Sorry I haven't had much to say, I underestimated how much of my remaining time Diplomacy would take up. God help me if any of these Civ games go to war.

Clearly, clearly the solution to this is to aim to piss everyone else and set a record for fastest Russia exit? Ok, seriously, you're getting a turn in for about every turn we get, so we'll be almost to our first settlers by the time you're free again. I'm not certain of this, but I would expect your time commitment to shrink somewhat as people are eliminated, too.

And in the final analysis, it is our game and our responsibility .

But thanks for the cautionary example! I've been debating on and off getting into one of those

My impressions thus far are that its a cool map, though I think it might almost be better suited to a normal game than this one, where you guys will zip through the tree so fast a lot of the power will be wasted. Also a bit unfortunate to play Malakim without any flood plains around. I wonder if that Hell terrain will spread when the AC rises, someone should sandbox and test it, because if so, it will prioritize Life mana. Speaking of mana, I wonder if all the nodes are assigned already. If so, and metamagic isn't one of them, that basically means only the Amurites can win via Tower. If you do find a generic node, will definitely want to save it for Meta, even if magic isn't likely to be a huge factor. Well, other than death magic.

Well, we do have Life mana, Malakim palace. I suppose you mean prioritize KoTE so we can actually use it? Hmm, what else about mana - oh! Malakim have Mind mana, too. To maximize it, we should either have me feeding Jkaen gold so he can always run 100% research, or have him gift me the mana and feed me gold. I'm guessing version A will work better, once we make it to currency anyway. We also have Body mana, so heal rates in my territory (or yours if you're currently in possession will be increased).

I do agree on a generic node.

I think I agree with the settlement spots. From the way the map appears, assuming that area that's focused on is the center, it looks like you've been placed pretty close to a center area on a pretty large map. Can someone grab # of land tiles next they're in the game to confirm just how large? If so, you might want to prioritize exploring back towards the sides rather than forward to the middle, as I don't think you're going to want to alert your neighbors - you're both pretty squishy in the early game. And lastly, a request - take lots of screens, this is obviously a fully handcrafted map, so there won't be any way to predict what we're going to see.

Are huts/lairs/dungeons on is another good question. I can't remember if you guys decided that or left it to the mapmaker.

3324 tiles. So yes, we have quite a bit of expansion to do. That's...415 tiles/player or 830/team. At least room for 40 cities/team. Huts - I definitely see one hut already, we'll pop it soon. Lairs I think were mapmaker discretion. I already see a dungeon that I'm debating the best time to pop. Maybe we should go ahead and explore it now? If we're out this early, it's not much of a time investment so far.

[Mardoc]

Also, for future reference, in the event I go AFK, my password is:

Blood

Yeah, I know, real secure there. But honestly, I don't see the need for high security passwords for civ games.

[Jkaen]

All moved will play my next turn tonight when I get home, and incase its needed, my password is:

Ying

[Mardoc]

Not much happened this turn, to say the least. I'm moving my scout toward a hut, then probably in a clockwise circle around our land. Bloodpet's going to do a short jog around my city, then pop in and be a garrison. But, we still have lots of information that we haven't really analyzed.

First - Darrell popped For the Horde already, and is now at 35000 soldier points. We may want to bring our warriors home shortly, therefore - he clearly got something.

Second - when should we pop the dungeon by my city? I'm thinking maybe once I have a fortified Bloodpet inside?

Third, we do know an awful lot of land, we might be able to start thinking dotmaps already





If Shallows count as irrigation (will check next turn), I'm thinking 2W of Rosedale is a good site. Or the spot with the Malakim warrior, to pick up the incense and be a good city even without culture. There are Oases in the south, maybe it makes sense to bring a Malakim city down this way. In the north, it's harder, but I'm thinking perhaps by the incense, or else along the coast, grabbing the rice.

Maybe 1E of Quera'slin would be another good site, taking full advantage of the pre-built improvements.