[Spoilers] Peace and Purity - Einion Logos of the Elohim

[Mist]

Someone got a Prophet and it's in the log. Assuming that they got it naturally, that means that they had to have built a Pagan Temple (expensive and does nothing early) and run a Priest. I'm the only Philosophical leader so that must be painful for whoever did it. If they got it unnaturally like in an event, that would make more sense but then why didn't my Great Engineer show in the log?

It had to be natural. Great persons from events and lairs never show up in the log. Someone out there is going for a really unusual opening.

[WarriorKnight]

It had to be natural. Great persons from events and lairs never show up in the log. Someone out there is going for a really unusual opening.

Not like I ever considered doing the same thing or anything.

Irgy got a Scientist, and the only other person who starts with Ancient Chants is Sciz. He's probably the one who got it, as he gets half price temples and has probably the best reason to go for the altar, but it's still a strange opening.

[WarriorKnight]

Looks like Sciz used the Prophet to found Runes at a crazy early date. Good for him I guess. I didn't have much interest in Runes but that means everyone else who was interested in it will likely go for another religion. Wonder if anyone wants to go for OO (while Nyktorion takes FoL).

Scout popped graveyard for...



A spectre.

Exploring a graveyard is not the same as exploring other dungeons. You can't get crazy monsters, but can still get things like techs and cash. Seems I'm just unlucky here.

Scout moved onto forest hill and hopes to win the 50/50 battle. If it moves into my territory my cap has 3 warriors inside and is in no immediate danger.

[WarriorKnight]

Spectre suicided on my scout, now he can take a promotion.

Only other thing I did was revolt to Agrarianism, since a farm will be complete at Glens of Killybegs next turn and I'm about to start building my 3rd worker. After that, another warrior and then a settler?

[Mist]

Yeah, and after that I suggest Orthus mode.

[WarriorKnight]

Nothing happened t45.

Had a chat with Irgy. It was mostly just filler but he didn't seem to get what happened with the prophet and RoK that Sciz got. I filled him in on that and then mostly just focusing on what threat Sciz could be with Runes this early. I think I won't have to worry about Irgy in the short term, which is good since I seem to be surrounded by land and therefore neighbours.

Orthus will probably spawn when I'm halfway through my next settler. I have no idea where to settle my 3rd city though. Getting Mining would open up lots of spots (forests and hills aplenty) but I want to get CoL ASAP. I'll post some shots next turn.

[WarriorKnight]

OK here are 2 spots I'm considering:



Pre-Mining, all I'm looking for is a few flat river grasslands which can give farms. 1SE of the Sheep gets 3 of them (2 stolen from the capital), but also gets more of them under forests and 9 hill tiles. Plus it gets me closer to the gold, which aside from the wine at my cap seems to be the only luxury around.



And also our original start. 2W1S of the wine also has space for 3 immediate farms, but has more production potential later on. The nearby barrow could cause problems however.

I'm leaning towards the northern one atm since it's closer and easier to defend. But either one seems acceptable (or if you find a better spot Mist I could scrap both of them )).

[Mist]

Why not on the sheep? On the river, grabs gold with a bit of culture, no overlap. Unless you're queasy with the distance, but I can't see how one tile might matter in this case.

[WarriorKnight]

Why not on the sheep? On the river, grabs gold with a bit of culture, no overlap. Unless you're queasy with the distance, but I can't see how one tile might matter in this case.

Hmmm, didn't really think of that.

I don't consider overlap to be much of a downside if at all. The flexibility that it offers tends to be worth it in the long term, especially since I'm Philosophical.

I'm also not sure how I'm going to get the border expansion needed to get the gold inside my border this early on. A monument isn't cheap and has no other use. I usually use a religion for border pops but I'm not going for an early religion so it'll be a while before I get an easy source of culture.

Also there's only enough room for one grass farm in the short term, which means I'll need to sidetrack to Mining to make the city useful.

So yeah, while it might be better long term, on the sheep will probably take too long before it's contributes something useful.

[WarriorKnight]

Managed to get through 5 turns in the Blitz session. Now we're on T51.

During that time I got a Great Sage and turned him into an academy. My GNP is really up there now. Also finished Education on T50 and I expect to have CoL by T60 at the latest. Also Orthus spawned somewhere and a skeleton is approaching my capital.

Overview shots:



My capital in all it's glory. Working on settler no.2 for a city somewhere to the NW.




Coming along nicely, soon it'll be able to run a scientist of it's own. However, I want to be able to get some prophets soon so I might build a Pagan Temple next or a monument (but I don't really need the border expansion here yet).




Domestic Adviser screen.




I'm obviously killing everyone in food. I can barely match the top GNP when I'm researching something. Production is still lacking thanks to no Mining, but that's OK.

Noteworthy is that someone is over their happiness/health cap. If I'd been tracking points I could probably tell you who, but all I know is that it's not me.


Diplo:

Diplo with both nyktorion and Irgy is going smoothly. I have fairly long NAP's with both of them (T80 with Irgy, T100 with nyktorion) which I'm happy to sign since it's still going to be a while before our borders collide. I'm downplaying my lead and focusing on the Malakim and Lanun as threats but I don't know how long they'll buy it for. It also seems that no-one has found those two either, but everyone else has been found.

Fortunately, even if I'm ganged up on, I still have Sanctuary.


Tech path:

When I complete CoL, the early-early game will be done. Then I need to grab a couple of other techs before heading up the Divine line.

Possible Options are:

• Mining - Give me forest chopping and building Mines. If I get copper I'll need BW as well to be able to use it.
  
• Festivals - Lets me build markets, which are rather important buildings.
  
• Hunting - Enables Hunters and also Hawks. Scouting would be really easy with this, plus animal hunting is fun. Expensive though.
  
• AH - Gives pastures, reveals horses and allows animal capturing. Not exactly a high priority but it may be needed at some point.
  
• Cartography - Another low priority, but map trading could be useful.
  
• Writing - Lets me build my half price Libraries, plus the Great Library would be nice to get
  
• Philosophy - Tech that unlocks the Divine path, is somewhat useless by itself though.
  

Mining is up first, I need that to be able to settle anything beyond my fourth city. Festivals is probably next after that, followed by BW (if I have copper). I'd like to go Hunting and get some highly promoted hunters that can upgrade into Devouts but I don't know how good of an idea that is. AH is dependent on Hunting or Pastures while Cartography is dependent on diplo. Last thing will be Writing and then up through Philosophy.

So, is there anything I missed?