Bearing the flag proudly, Sabathiel of the Bannors [SPOILERS]

[Mr. Yellow]

Next turn starts with an event.



I've usually picked the 2nd option everytime i played in single player, though there aren't any goodies to gain i thought there might be a longterm benefit of it through another event. Haven't seen any of it however.
So this time i executed here, giving me a pretty useless 10 turn 1+ happy. Dunno if that will have consequences though. An event list i searched on the net showed nothing of this.



Anyway, were just 1 turn away from a new city! No dastardly creeps around either. Also the tiles around really benefit from Calendar. Agrarianism farms and plantations will make this a much better location.

Now there's 2 issues i'm faced with here. The 1st is that Sciz has already grabbed a religion! Just 43 turns in too. Either he got lucky or really beelined for it since it's a rather beaker heavy direction this early in the game. Then again he has had the biggest GNP of us all, culture or not.
This does tell me that he for sure has Crafting, Mining, Mysticism and Way of the Earthmother.
Now if his score is any indicator he is about to become a runaway civ. Not good at all.

The 2nd is the location of the 3rd city. I'm considering another long grab for sweet tiles again. This time in the southeast.



The river down there hold gold and nice lands. A pretty good spot to take. The issue of course is the distance and i dunno if there is another civ in that direction. A closer one would be the flood plain rich lands a little more to the west. Though it's just that and i need water mana to make the other tiles more productive.
It's either that or the spot next to the goblin fort however, unless the western area looks promising.

Score notes:
Sciz got 23 points. Uggghh. 11 for sure is the Earthmother tech. The rest, um not sure. Will have to see next turn.
Mardoc got a tech.
Nyktorion gained 9 points. Pop in 2nd city?

Anyway, next post will be a tech update. I really need to see how far they have progressed. Especially Sciz!



Meanwhile Dirk continues his daring adventure to the west!
Coming up next time. Will there be a spider in the forest?!
Stay tuned for next turn!

[Mr. Yellow]

Next turn up and Dirk...sadly will not see if there's a spider in the woods.



Freaking killjoys are back to make life miserable, so Dirk had to daringly flee like a sissy back east again. He's currently on the desert next to the plains hill, which scouted the tiles below the lake.

I didn't make a screen of it, but the river south goes westwards so the location the lizard is on could possibly become my 3rd city spot. Have to explore a little more.

Back home, Mannecuisine the warrior was completed and production was switched to worker. After that i'll get the next settler.

Now the bright news. Our 2nd city has been settled!



Some pesky goblins tried to stop it, but too late for that now. Meeklord is set to farm the floodplains first before taking the cotton.
Production is set for Elder council, theres little reason to make stuff other than infrastructure when the capital is tasked for units.

Anyway, here's the tech situation:


(Start techs are ignored)
WK: 4 (On turn 1, 8, 24, 34)
Irgy: 3 (On turn 15, 24, 38|)
Me: 4 (On turn 10, 16, 41, 42)
Nyk: 4 (On turn 7, 20, 27, 41)
Mar: 6 (On turn 11, 11, 18, 21, 27, 42)
Sciz: 5 (On turn 12, 17, 25, 30, 42)

Quite some juicy info here, though the 3 i'll focus on now is Irgy, Nyktorion and Sciz.

Sciz:
Since he founded RoK and have had a high food graph, it's pretty easy to figure out which techs he has, which is: Crafting, Mining, Mysticism, Way of the Earthmother, Agriculture.

It may just be 5 techs, but those in total are quite beaker heavy. Apparently he did RoK in only 12 turns, that's quite scary.

Nyktorion:
His first 2 techs are undoubtably Agriculture and then Calendar. His final 2 techs shows signs of Ancient Chants and Mysticism. Not entirelly certain, but i'll keep it like that for now. Curious when he'll go for Hunting. Or was his GNP so high he could do Hunting in just 12 turns? Nah, unlikely.
So its; Agriculture, Calendar, Ancient Chants and Mysticism.

Irgy:
I don't have a graph of him yet, but the fact he only has 3 techs is disturbing.
15 turns for the first. 6 turns after for next. Is it possible he did some switcing between Crafting and Agriculture here, quite likely considering his next took as long as 14 turns, which must be Mining.
If this is the case then he's rushing for Pyre Zombies and it's code red if it takes a while till he gets the next tech, which would be Bronze Working.

Score notes:
Mardoc gained 15 points last turn. Double pops?

[Mr. Yellow]

As expected, Scalie Killjoy is now positioned on the hill Dirk was on earlier.



Now, Dirk could return home and wait till the dang thing is dead, but there has hardly been any exploration recently and i'm dying to see what lies hidden out there. So Dirk will go west by south of the lake. Which is gonna be a slow and hazardous journey.



Hardly anything has happened in either cities. At least Vallus will take the flak of goblins now, leaving the capital with just the lizards.

Intimidating notes:
Irgy had a huge jump in score. 33 points which i find quite unreadable, though i assume 11 of it is a tech. That was rather well played if he aimed for that. Too early for Bronze Working though.
Else both WK and Nyktorion have had pops.

[Mr. Yellow]

If there's one thing i've realised, It's that I need more money fast. My GNP is almost half of opponents worst and it's still gonna take some turns till cottons are used. Even then were else to make som quick bucks? There's inc...ense near the 2nd city, reagents down south of the captial. Both in rather harsh terrain that needs nearby flood plains for cities to work. Ugh, why did I have to be stationed right next to the bloody desert!
Then there's gems in the capital and the gold far down southeast, but i need mining for that.



Dirk slowly, but steady making it through the desert. More worrying though is that Scalie is no longer seen. He must be on the desert tile he was on 2 turns ago....which means Dirk will have to retreat, again.

Back to Vallus, look who came down to visit!



It's that dang Griffin that had a lovely time with Dirk and the elves, now enjoying a trek on the mountains. Anyway animals and beasts can't enter borders, so it can't do a thing this time.
Else the goblin from last turn suicided and Nutters have enough XP for a 2nd promotion.

Blitz will be on soon, but i don't like my initial situation for the moment. Right now i just have to get settlers up ASAP as well as water adepts for fertilizing.

Score notes:
WK has a big jump this turn, 27 points. Believe a tech is among it.

[Mr. Yellow]

Yupp, Scalie appeared and blocked my approach to west again.



But heck, i want to get some exploration going, so down the desert we go....



OH COME ON!! It's even a leader giant from a dungeon!
Bah, there were hardly any exploration done this time!

Screw this, giving Dirk one final chance.



Will check the south-east area again this time. Settler coming right after Dirk!

Score notes:
Sciz gained pop in his 2nd city.

[Mr. Yellow]

AMAZING LUCK! The giant left Dirk alone! Even better, moving on the scrub east popped a hidden goodie hut!


Giant and Scalie on the oasis tile

Which provided a map of this area.



Nice mix of goodies and baddies there. Lizards, skeletons and gargoyles guarding the remnants. Anyway, Dirk then moved over to the flood plain, out of danger.

The issue then was, what to call the scout that was supposed to be Dirks 4th try? Hmmm.



Moved right on settler next. Decided that it's either the incense or gold spot for 3rd city. West can wait.

Other notes:
Sciz gained another pop point.

[icewolf34]

Dirk is an intimidating fellow, it seems.

Is there a chance the giant will wander into your lands?

[Mr. Yellow]

Giants are beast units and are unable to move inside borders. So pretty safe there. Only annoyance is if they are a hindrance to my expansion plans.

Speaking of the giant, now he caught eye of Dirk and is in pursuit togheter with Scalie.



Ugh, that's not in a good position for Dirk, to get safe he will have to continue east. Yet i don't want them in range of the land between capital and gold spot (yes i've decided to go for the gold! Call me crazy). So south-east we go....



Lovely, it's the giant that killed Dirk in his 2nd life. So chances are, Dirks gonna possibly get mauled by a giant again. Best possible cover though is the tile directly south...



Oh goodie, a bear...in the middle of the desert.
This game is such a tease.

Back home, the other scout will soon be positioned on the nearby tower as a sentry.
The worker made earlier, now named Hampshire, is being directed to road a path between the capital and the gold spot.

Score notes:
Both WK and Mardoc have scored pops, while Sciz has researched another tech. Expectedly quick too.

Next update will be turn 50, which will show the state of my lands.

[Mr. Yellow]

Turn 50 and a milestone update. Will be showing how the state is in my lands, but first how the turn went.

First of all, Crafting was researched and moved straight to Mining, which should be done in 10 turns with my current GNP.



As expected, Dirk didn't survive this time. I moved my other scout on the tower and it shows that the bear indeed mauled him, though Dirk but up a real fight.
This is gonna be the last of Dirk though. I doubt i'll be making more scouts now and if i'm gonna do more exploraton trips, it's gonna be with a party of warriors.

Anyway, i don't like this picture overall. The giant and Scalie is moving towards the eastern deserts, about to block my path to the gold spot. In addition the other giant has moved south and out of range. I might have to cancel this voyage and just take the goblin spot for now.



At Vallus, Meeklord is about to work the cotton. Should be ready in a few turns and it would provide me with much needed gold.

And that's about it for turn 50.

So, how does it look? First a peek in my 2 cities.



My capital working as intended, getting me all the food and hammers for civilian and military units. I'm also trying to work as much gold as well without sacrificing much production.



With the capital in full production mode. Future early cities will be all about money or beakers. There's little point going for hammers untill the cities are fairly larger. Currently Vallus is working the unimproved cotton, which sacrifices just 1 turn with food for more hammers and coins. Eventually it will work both flood plains and cottons, even with health problems.



Score looks to be quite ok, keeping up with the frontal civs abd stay close by.



My weakest graph by far and rather intimidating to look at. I've tried to get a little extra out though, which can be seen with the small rise at the end. Sciz however, looks to be sailing away. He isn't even Financial yet.



I barely had any use for hammers early on. With most of production focused on civilians. Once i got God King and 6 pop in capital it skyrocketed, giving me all the hammers needed for expansion.



Food were among my early game focus, so it's little suprise i'm among the top at crop yield.



A largely unnecessary graph at this time. Units come and go in this hostile world. Sciz apparently have had it rather eventfull (including popping a damn leader giant, ugh).




And one final shot of the damographics and top cities. I'm doing fine in all categories except GNP. For cities, some have a 7 pop city. Believe that is Mardoc.

Other notes:
WK gained a tech and Nyktorion 12 points, which i presume it's land.

[Mr. Yellow]

Turn 51 was....rather depressing.



2 giants (1 with extra speed), 1 lizard and possibly a bear is just too much at this stage and the gold spot has to be abounded. The boy was moved back and will be the new western explorer.



Instead, focus will be to get the goblin spot. I've moved Hampshire to road the mana and continue so eastwards.



At least the goblins are too focused on Vallus to any significant threat for the next party. My only worry are potential spiders in the woods and that the fort could empty all of it's units on to the city once it's settled. Think i'll get 3 warriors for 3rd city in that case.

Other notes:
Sciz and Irgy have gained pops. In addition someone got a great sage some turns ago.

In addition, i've had concern regarding the location of Irgy and have sent a message to Nyktorion, to see if he knows something.