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

[WarriorKnight]

Mining done, Festivals is next followed most likely by Hunting.

Copper appeared here:



Unfortunately, it's not located in a very convenient spot. I wasn't planning to settle up there anytime soon and without any nearby food resources probably won't for a while. Maybe I'll just forgo copper for now and wait until my capital's border takes it (didn't check how long that would be, if it's in 200 turns I'm going to have to think of something else)

[Mist]

Unfortunately, it's not located in a very convenient spot. I wasn't planning to settle up there anytime soon and without any nearby food resources probably won't for a while. Maybe I'll just forgo copper for now and wait until my capital's border takes it (didn't check how long that would be, if it's in 200 turns I'm going to have to think of something else)

I believe you can make a city ( tile 4N from the lair ) that grabs both the copper and northern pigs. It's a matter to consider post AH, but that spot could be very powerful hammer site.

[WarriorKnight]

I believe you can make a city ( tile 4N from the lair ) that grabs both the copper and northern pigs. It's a matter to consider post AH, but that spot could be very powerful hammer site.

That's true. Unfortunately, neither resource is in the first ring, so I'll need a border pop. That's going to be difficult to get. The easiest way would be to spread a religion in there, but that's probably not going to happen for around 20-30 turns. Building a monument is the only solution available now, but isn't generally the best thing to build.

[Mist]

That's why I said "post AH". You want to go up the recon path. AH and hunters give you ability to catch and plant bears for culture.

On the other hand - here's something more long term I'm toying with lately. Drama. In general, that's a junk tech with Great Artist only thing that salvages it a bit. But if you're not creative and don't play the religion game, then ability to build culture suddenly saves you quite a lot of hammers on getting the first border pop ( 10h and 2-3 turns on quick speed? A bargain compared to any other option ). The bigger the map, the more you can squeeze out of it.

Generally, I'd say getting copper on this map and in this diplomatic situation is not really a priority and you'll get it within your borders solely by capital culture. Just keep this spot in mind for later. It's quite worth it.

[WarriorKnight]

Not much going on unfortunately, I'm only doing what I said I would be doing. No random events or noticeable log/demographic changes. Festivals just came in, so it's onto Hunting. I'm about halfway through my 4th settler, after that comes in I'll probably wait a bit before going for city 5.

That's why I said "post AH". You want to go up the recon path. AH and hunters give you ability to catch and plant bears for culture.

On the other hand - here's something more long term I'm toying with lately. Drama. In general, that's a junk tech with Great Artist only thing that salvages it a bit. But if you're not creative and don't play the religion game, then ability to build culture suddenly saves you quite a lot of hammers on getting the first border pop ( 10h and 2-3 turns on quick speed? A bargain compared to any other option ). The bigger the map, the more you can squeeze out of it.

Generally, I'd say getting copper on this map and in this diplomatic situation is not really a priority and you'll get it within your borders solely by capital culture. Just keep this spot in mind for later. It's quite worth it.

I forgot about Dancing Bears, they are a great way to expand borders.

Building culture can solve border expansion problems I agree. Trouble is, I do want to play the religion game. After I get Order I doubt I'll have culture problems again (except in a culture war). Plus Drama is quite expensive (only slightly cheaper than Priesthood and nowhere near as useful) and it's only other use is the Great Artist which we might not get.

[WarriorKnight]

A while ago, Irgy came to me and said that he wanted to settle near Letum Frigus (there's apparently a nice spot 1W of his PZ) and we'll share the ice mana. I've found a couple of Irgy's units heading over there:



My scout will head west for now, who'll keep an eye on them.

He's also scouted out the SE a bit:



And a shot of the Dragon Bones site (which I'll probably want as city 5 or 6 for the Ivory):

[WarriorKnight]

I'll probably forget about this, which is why I'm posting it here. (well, that and so you lurkers can figure out what I'm doing)

My biggest problem is the happy cap. To get around it, I need happy resources ASAP. The gold near my 3rd city will help as will the Ivory in Dragon Bones (it does give Ivory right?), but in addition I should build Dreptus for Ale. Cahir Abbey can't build it as it's not on a river, so it'll have to go in Glens of Killybegs (after it finished a market).

Also to get hunters and hawks I'll need a Hunting Lodge somewhere. It'll probably have to go in my capital as city 3 & 4 will be busy getting up to speed and Glens is busy building Dreptus.

All this means I won't be building military stuff, but I'm fairly high in power, have 2 fairly long NAP's with my neighbors and still have Sanctuary in a worst case scenario.

[Mist]

Yes. Bones give Ivory. Regarding terrain there - no food sucks. Therefore of all the possible bad spots 1E of mana node looks best. 2 hill wines+bones make for a decent, if uninspiring hammer/commerce site early on. And quite a monster after you put windmills everywhere.

[WarriorKnight]

Yes. Bones give Ivory. Regarding terrain there - no food sucks. Therefore of all the possible bad spots 1E of mana node looks best. 2 hill wines+bones make for a decent, if uninspiring hammer/commerce site early on. And quite a monster after you put windmills everywhere.

Not much food? Aristograrianism farms on all that river grassland will provide enough food after getting up to a decent size, and there's a river nearby. Granted, settling W of the peak means it'll be 3 tiles from Glens, so that's not really a good option. I don't think Irgy is planning to take the gold, so a city could take that and the wines, leaving a better spot for the bones. Haven't really thought much about it though (plus the split between screenshots doesn't help)

I'll confess that I don't really use windmills, mainly because by the time I get to Engineering, the game is practically over and I can't be bothered replacing mines. Are they any good? The main problem is that I don't know when/if I'll get Engineering or Machinery, as it's not on any of paths I'll likely go down (which likely be primarily Divine and recon and later on maybe arcane or metal).

Anyway, message from Irgy:

I can see your scout, who, as you presumably know, has just found the
locations I was referring to previously. Just a short note to tell you if you
wish your scout to rest and heal, feel free to do so safely on one of the
squares my warriors are currently on. They're in position now, and won't move
until I settle the Letum city, which is a good few turns away yet (especially
with all the current anarchy being stirred up by nationalist farmers).

Irgy Arbandi


PS ok I can't help myself. Congratulations on reaching Aristograrianism
already! This is not an arbitrary milestone just to make conversation, I
genuinely look forward to reading your spoiler thread after the game to find
out how on earth you got there so quick. I already know it involves farmer's
gambit, an early philosophical-boosted academy and skipping mining, and who
knows what resources you picked up by moving your capital for a turn. But even
with all that I don't know how I'd have got there as quickly as you've managed.

The PS is longer than the actual message.

Response:

[Quoted message]

Yes, I've found the copper that you said you would be settling. I don't suppose you could tell me which tile your planning to settle on so I can adjust my dotmap appropriately? (I don't think you mentioned the specific tile, just the copper)

Thanks for offering protection for my scout while he heals, I'll be sure to do that.

[Quoted PS]

Heh, I wondered when this would come up.

You'll have to wait until you read my thread for all the info, but IMO it's just a combination of tech prioritizing and early GNP focus. I don't think it's that impressive of a time since it's about the same I normally get it in my SP games (well, I play normal speed so it's actually around T85-90 but you know what I mean). Also worth mentioning that you've done a good job yourself. I couldn't imagine how I could get Pyre Zombies up this early.

Einion MonkKnight

It's actually true, I don't consider T58 to be particularly fast compared to my normal games. Here's a quick summary of my game so far (so Irgy doesn't have to look through my whole thread post-game):

Techs: Agriculture, Mysticism, Crafting, Calendar, Education, CoL

Capital: Built worker, grew to size 5 I think training warriors, settler, Elder Council (hired scientist), then 3 workers, a settler, a scout and some warriors in a random order after that.

2nd city: Elder Council, has 2-3 farms and regents. Main thing is hired a scientist.

The only other mentionable things were I got a Great Engineer from an event (who settled in my cap), I have cheap Elder Councils and hired a couple of scientists early on.

[WarriorKnight]

OK, I finished the settler for city 4 EoT and here's where I'm thinking about placing it:



I personally like 'or here' because it can work the rice when Cahir Abbey doesn't need it (like right now for instance) and it leaves the pigs for another site (whereas if the pigs are claimed then a city claiming the cows will have a lot of peaks in it). 'here' could work too, although I don't like it as much due to the 2 peaks and being further away. Any other spot claims more peaks or misses tiles, although I'm sure there are good spots I missed.