[SPOILERS] Emissaries from the blighted lands; Mardoc and Jkaen take on the world!

[Jkaen]

I didnt know if they went orc for early rush ability, or for warren cheese though.

I think clowns being arcane as well is good synergy, but you have a point about the lots of 1 type v 1 of lots type aim

[Mardoc]

Well, that's interesting! On the one hand, we're no longer the squishiest early game duo, and we're probably not the scariest late-game pair either. Amurites/Lanun take both honors. So I expect the bulk of the choke efforts to go their way.

On the other hand, now that Darrell grabbed the Clan instead of the Elves, they've become a serious early game threat, too, even without the worldspell. Between them and the Hippus, there's still plenty of extra early game choking left for us. We'll have to make sure to go to at least Bronze working fairly early.

[Jkaen]

I agree with targetting Bronze working pretty quickly to get some sort of defense up, priests and most other things can wait

[Mist]

Your start. Ignore the huts, they are randomly placed at start of the game and final layout will differ

[Mardoc]

Thanks, Mist! Are both of us placed on the same starting tile here?

I'm looking forward to exploration already!

[Jkaen]

Cool, the world has a history!

Looking forward to the battle of Glerin's Workshop etc

[Mist]

Thanks, Mist! Are both of us placed on the same starting tile here?

Yes. Starting settlers have Mobility 2, Sentry 2 and Settler bonus. So your settling options should be quite open

[Jkaen]

Well, MW of the workshop gets you 2 food, silk and the pool, so that seems like a reasonable vampire pump capital out of the current options.

Any thoughts where I should be looking to explore Mardoc (think I am up first)?

[Mardoc]

Yes. Starting settlers have Mobility 2, Sentry 2 and Settler bonus. So your settling options should be quite open

Yes, I guess so. . Once we know what we want to do, anyway.

Oooh, that looks like Hell Terrain under that dungeon. We're going to have to make no assumptions whatsoever, I think. And either plan to put up with Hell, or not raze too much, or find some Life mana - oh, wait, Malakim start with it. As soon as we reach KoTE, let's eradicate Hell from our lands .

Manas we have to start: Life, Mind, Sun, Body, Law, Shadow, and apparently Nature as soon as we we reach Divination. That makes it hard to stick to skipping KoTE, doesn't it?

First thought is to send one settler north to the river, and the other south to the river. But really, we're going to just have to spend some extra time with the save once we explore a bit.

[Mardoc]

Well, MW of the workshop gets you 2 food, silk and the pool, so that seems like a reasonable vampire pump capital out of the current options.

Any thoughts where I should be looking to explore Mardoc (think I am up first)?

Honestly - I think Aristofarms are where it's at for me. If we try to get the food and pool, then I'll have no river, and no aristofarms. My first thought, with this very limited info, is 2W of the wheat, but of course half that BFC is in the fog right now.

What we need to know about...well, one unit ought to head north, to see if there's food out there for a Malakim capital. One ought to head west; if there's food in the desert, that's probably where you want to settle. Especially if there's floodplains. If you have floodplains and Arwen'el in your BFC, that'll be an excellent early game GNP location, and an excellent settler/worker pump. On the other hand...if that's just desert, then we're out of luck.

I think it may be worth taking extra time over this turn - don't settle until we have a chance to explore. For that matter - even after we find a good spot to settle, if you have any extra movement, use it to scout.

You should have Lightbearers to start, I believe, so combined with the settlers, we ought to see the world pretty well to start. If it weren't for these darn forests in the way, anyway. :neenernee