Horselover Fat's journal - Iskender and the Hippus

[Maksim]

So it seems we might have common enemy. One thing bothers me though. PB claims to have no contact with Bob, however the diplo screen says otherwise.

I'm not sure what to think of that. PB is a nice guy, i wouldn't suspect him of playing any tricks on me. I'll be wary though.

I hope I'm not spoiling anything here - but there was a map-making hiccup that resulted in Pocketbeetle having contact with Bob at the beginning of the game.

As to whether they have established actual contact since, I cannot say.

[SevenSpirits]

Yeah, not a spoiler. That was posted at the start of the game in the tech thread. http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....stcount=21

[Iskender]

Thanks, that explains it.

[Iskender]

Hi guys.

There's been no updates for a few days - blame RBPB2 threads for that
As soon as I'm done reading it expect more frequent, more elaborate and more insightful (I hope!) updates.

Anyway, time for a turn 100 summary:

Technologies researched (in chronological order):

Ancient Chants
Mysticism
Crafting
Mining
Exploration
Education
Fishing
(Yeah, not an impressive list, I know )

Cities founded:
Turn 1: Altheriol-ta-Mealthiel
Turn 68: Conrond Mor
Turn 85: Radonnor

State of the empire at turn 100:

Units and buildings:



Among the warrior crowd there are two combat II shock warriors, one combat two warrior (with one more promotion to take), the rest is inexperienced. I have only three workers, but there are another two in construction with ETA +2 and +5.

I forgot to sort the building columns, so all it shows is the splendid academy. Besides it, there are two Elder Councils (capital and city 2), two Monuments (city 2 and 3) and a Palisade in the capital. There is another palisade in 2nd city's queue, ready to be finished in case of emergency.

A bird eye's view of the Hippus Empire:



Take a look at the two cottages north of the capital. It took 95 turns to get them (and Rhoanna's Financial trait) going! But from turn 95 on, it's snowball effect baby! Research bar shows CoL, but after taking the screenshot I've switched it for Calendar, mainly to confuse Pocketbeetle (i don't hold much hope for that though, he's got amazing read on me, and whatever he doesn't read from stats i blab out in diplo ). A careful observer will also notice an expedition on a way to pacify the barrows north of the "City D" spot. The operation is somewhat delayed due to an appearance of another skeleton, but it should be done in time for a settler to found city on the former barrows (suburbs on burial grounds can't be a bad idea!).

The capital:



It will get much better soon (commerce-wise at least). Borders that pop in 5 turns will grab gems - no need to plant a weak city up there already.

City overview:



And last but not least, demographics:



If there's anything else you need to know about the Hippus or a screenshot that you wish to see I'll be happy to provide it. There's more to come tomorrow: I'll analyze fellow players (should be a great source of LOL) and unfold long-term plans for the Hippus (get ready for a big surprise )

[Iskender]

As promised, an update on my plans for the Hippus. Let me divide it into three stages.

Short-term:

Converting to triple A (Aristocracy/Agrarianism/Apprenticeship) is the objective. According to my micromanagement txt file it will happen in turn 106 (105 being a turn of anarchy). To make this work I'll have to go below 50gc for several turns. I'm not comfortable with it (I prefer to keep at least 50gc at hand in case of a "great prophet" event) but I don't want to delay Agristocracy any further. City #4, founded on the Yellow Dot, is scheduled in turn 106, unless something bad pops out of the barrow. Or if Bob suddenly finds this area interesting.

After the switch I'll research Festivals and build Markets in three cities (#4 being busy working on a Monument). At this stage (about turn ~112) my commerce should pass the one hundred mark.


Mid-term:

With a decent research rate I'll finally grab some military techs. The cadidates are Archery and Horseback Riding. Archery will most likely go first, unless I'm sure that the Priests of Winter are not a threat, in which case I'll go straight for HR.

With horses ready to roll I'm going to declare on Bob. Not to wage a full-scale war with city sieges etc., but to do what Hippus are the best at: choke, fork, pillage and in general force him to waste resources on defense instead of beelining Feudalism. In the meantime i'll try to settle the Purple and then the White Dot.


Long-term:

Before I spill the beans on this one let me elaborate on the options that I've rejected.

The least favourite: Currency -> Guild of the Nine -> Mounted Mercenaries. It is available very early (only 907 beakers after Code of Laws!), but the cost of mercenaries is a real turnoff. It's 180gc for a str 5 move 3 unit worth. For that amount of gc I can upgrade one scout to horse archer and another one to horseman, keeping a gc/hammer ration close to 2, not 3 as in case of the mercenary (assuming such a unit is worth 60 hammers).

Another route, which I've been considering for some time is: instead of researching Stirrups (1185 beakers including Archery) beeline Construction and Trade (1474 beakers) and build chariots. Without bronze they are quite weak, but from Trade there is a relatively short route to Honor (1379 beakers). With Honor comes Empyrean and with Empyrean come rathas whose Blinding Light is a game breaker. With mobility II rathas I could immobilize stacks from 3 tiles afar and then pillage everything in sight like a Hun on steroids. Eventually I'd get Chalid and from then on siege would be no longer a problem.

I'm not going to go that way though. First, I don't like Chalid - he's so uber that when he's around, no matter on which side, it's no longer fun to play. Second, I don't want to skip horse archers. With Hippus (and with Defender civs - Illians!), they can reach 95% withdrawal rate (imagine a pillaging Roomba 8)). Third, there is another option with fun factor 100x greater than those above.

I am going to summon Hyborem.

Not to play them though. Before summoning I'll have to research Fanaticism to be able to get Malevolent Designs via the Infernal Grimoire. Now there is a conflict of interest between Hybo and the summoner (assuming both are controlled by humans) - they both want to get the Grimoire (to grab MD that gives Eidolons, Beasts of Agares and Mardero) and the summoner is much more likely to be first. While it is possible to build the Grimoire with Hyborem, it requires causing severe self-injury to the summoning civ (starving production cities that could compete with the Infernal capital, chopping all forests in vincinity etc.). I don't want to do that to an eventual successor, so I've decided to stick with Hippus and work things out diplomatically with the Lord of Balors. Of course not getting Malevolent Designs wouldn't mean that Infernals are destined to be weak. In fact I'm afraid that with a constant influx of evil souls they might eventually emerge as a winner.

And then I'll be happy to get my slice of what used to be Erebus, MWAHAHAHA

[Sciz]

How does summoning infernals/mercurians work anyways? I've never done it (new to FFH)

[Krill]

Can I play Hyborem please? I promise to be equally nasty to everyone remaining in the game.

[sunrise089]

Can I play Hyborem please? I promise to be equally nasty to everyone remaining in the game.

Ohh! Then PB (for thematic reasons only) can summon the Murcurians and I can play them. We can take the "don't trust Krill" stuff to the next level!

[Iskender]

Can I play Hyborem please? I promise to be equally nasty to everyone remaining in the game.

Hi Krill

Does the smile fit?

[Iskender]

How does summoning infernals/mercurians work anyways? I've never done it (new to FFH)

You need to research the Infernal Pact tech to spawn Infernals and build the Mercurian Gate wonder to summon Mercurians. Once it is done the game asks if you want to switch to the new civilization or stick with the old one.

In multiplayer games, if "take over AI" is on, another player can join the game in place of the AI Infernals or AI controlled abandoned civ.

I'm not sure how it works in PBEMs, where "take over AI" seems to be greyed out permanently. I'll try to playtest it somehow.