Secrets of the Deep: Northstar (Lanun) vs. Mardoc (Svartalfar)

[Northstar1989]

The other day, I saw a bear...



This isn't going to end well.




Or, apparently, not... The Bear could have eaten my Scout for dinner, but for some reason it choose not to...

God of the deep be praised!


Also, here's the Demographics. I caught sight of something that took me by surprise in one of the often less-examined categories: see if you can't find it...



Did you see it? Life Expectancy. The Elves have a higher Life Expectancy than my own citizens!

Now canonically, that would make perfect sense, as Elves basically live forever until something kills them in combat. However HERE, the Life Expectancy statistic is calculated from the balance of Health vs. Unhealthiness in cities...


This means one of two things. Either:

(a) The Elves got extremely lucky, and a forest grew near their capital- leading to their Life Expectancy increasing from the extra health-point... (knowing my luck this game, with a 1 in 165 trait-gen, I wouldn't put this beyond reason...)

(b) The Elves didn't settle in the same location I did, and either have more Health from forests, or are suffering less Unhealthiness from Flood Plains.


I'm going with (b), purely by it being infinitely more probable than a forest growing And that's actually GREAT news for me- because it probably means the Elves didn't settle near the Cotton... And if they didn't settle near the Cotton, then there's a pretty good chance I could acquire a substantial tech-lead over them early in the game...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OK, so my capital is humming along- growing nicely and making progress towards another Warrior:



I want to make sure I monitor the cit-growth carefully for micro-management reasons, so here that is:



Meanwhile, my lucky Scout, grateful to be alive and not bits of meat hanging from the jaws of some ferocious Bear, has turned around to explore to the east again:



The Bears were in the way of heading to the southwest without an extensive detour, so I decided I'd see if I couldn't get a little better lay of the land before Mardoc starts swarming the wilderness with Sinister Scouts...

Umm speaking of which...



8000 Soldiers- that adds up to one Warrior and two Scouts, right?

I'm not very good with Demographics, particularly the Soldier-count, so LURKERS I could really use some help with that...


Also, Mardoc's population hasn't grown again yet like mine- although the fact that he adopted Agrarianism already (the only POSSIBLE explanation for his current combination of 10 food and 5 hammers with just two population is that he has Agro-Rice and Remnants of Patria as his two tiles...) means that he must be focusing on early population-growth...




Finally, I had an !IDEA! Like all of my ideas, it could be a little dangerous...



What if I leveraged the high happy-cap and rapid population-growth my starting position allows me to dedicate a Sage specialist after I build my Elder Council and switch into Pacifism at that time on top of that...

The idea being to get lots of Beakers so that I can beat Mardoc to several key techs- particularly the Fellowship of Leaves religion (founding which has important denial-value to the elves...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OK, so my Scout continues to explore:



And things proceed smoothly, with no major surprises after I ended my turn:



My capital insists on trying to swap back over to the Remnants of Patria though...



I'll have to disable the citizen auto-manage as what I need most is food right now... (I've little immediate use for Warriors- which is what I'd be building with the extra hammers right now- and the extra food will lead to more population and more production in the very long run...)

Finally, here are a look at the end-turn Demographics:



It seems I'm ahead of Bob in most categories, through no particular virtue of my own. Rather, he's just suffering from the sol-starting Elven economy thanks to the racial penalty to their work-rate...

Hopefully I'll get another trait-swap before long... I would really love to end up with Spiritual (free civic-change), Industrious (cheaper Workers), or Expansive (cheaper Settlers!) instead of my currently-useless traits... (Charismatic, the only trait of any potential use at the moment, is completely worthless to plan around as Insane means it could change at any moment before I ever get to the point of having a cheaper promotion or an additional happy citizen...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Aurorarcher]

It seems I'm ahead of Bob in most categories, through no particular virtue of my own. Rather, he's just suffering from the sol-starting Elven economy thanks to the racial penalty to their work-rate...

You forgot who you were up against?

[Northstar1989]

It seems I'm ahead of Bob in most categories, through no particular virtue of my own. Rather, he's just suffering from the sol-starting Elven economy thanks to the racial penalty to their work-rate...

You forgot who you were up against?

Yes. Brain-fart. Mardoc. I'm ahead of *Mardoc* in most categories...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

My capital is growing rapidly:



I decided at this point to swap to work on a Scout instead of completing a Warrior to maximize the chances of getting another Insane trait-swap that will allow me to produce more useful military units. If it doesn't work, I'll probably put the Scout in the queue too, and begin on another Worker or a Settler, while keeping both units as a surprise for Mardoc should he attempt to attack me (normally a sub-optimal strategy as you lose the fortification bonuses, but if it gets the units a free Combat I promotion from Aggressive then well worth the while...)


My Scout, meanwhile, continues to explore east. It seems he's come close to Guardians of Pristine Pass (based on the tiny amount of the text poking through the map-edge...)




My population is still ahead of Mardoc's:



I wouldn't be surprised if he's building another Worker at this point based on what he's said about his tendency to build lots of Workers, early, before... I'll probably churn out another Worker soon after my capital reaches size 4... (at which point, I can produce a Worker in 4 turns instead of 5 by switching a citizen to work Remnants of Patria...) I was really hoping I might get Industrious or Expansive first (in the case of the latter, I would have started on a Settler first to take advantage of the trait while it lasted) but oh well, it looks like the game is going to saddle me with these useless traits for a while longer- probably right up until just before I can actually use them!


And... Here are a look at the Demographics:



And last but not least, right at the end of the turn, a Scorpion moved out of the fog of war into line of sight of my Scout!



I'd write more at this point, but my mouse has been going haywire since a t-storm this morning, which apparently might have blown a tiny amount of water in an open window onto it... (although after the storm it was completely dry, so I have no way of knowing if this happened...) I can only hope+ray that it'll start working right- because at this point I can't really afford to replace it...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Umm, this is fishy... (pun intended)



You guys saw my last turn- I quite clearly did NOT build a Warrior last turn, I built a Scout.. I have definitive screenshot proof of this (just look at my last post).

However, re-playing the previous turn and making Mardoc send me the save again would NOT be fair, because I started playing anyways and this happened:



I would now know the location of the Spider, and would logically not want to move there on a re-do (unless I were to intentionally sabotage myself for fairness?)


Well, I guess NOW is a good time for another Scout:



Seeing as my first Scout ended up dead:



And... Demographics:



I'll have to consult Kragroth about this. Maybe I can get a re-do if I agree to move the Scout next to the Spider anyways? (technically that gives me a re-roll on the combat, but the odds are so against me it's unlikely to change anything...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

unless I were to intentionally sabotage myself for fairness?)

That would be required, of course. I don't see why you'd replay because of your own mistake.

And again, provided you moves were the same, it would not effect the RNG.

[Northstar1989]

unless I were to intentionally sabotage myself for fairness?)

That would be required, of course. I don't see why you'd replay because of your own mistake.

And again, provided you moves were the same, it would not effect the RNG.

Q, this was not a mistake- I did *not* select a Warrior to be finished. I have screenshots from AFTER I hit "End Turn" just a couple posts back to PROVE it...

The Scout moving next to the Spider wasn't a mistake either- it was a surprise. I had no (fair- not cheating) way of knowing the Spider was there...


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

So what are you proposing? That the game altered your production for you?

I've never come across a case of that occurring in all my time lurking this forum, nor even the suggestion. I consider it far more likely that you simply changed it by accident or forgot that you had. (Your screenshot of the city is not of end of turn, btw).


I didn't say your moving next to the spider was a mistake. Merely that it would, obviously, have to be redone if you were to replay the turn.