[SPOILERS] Bobchillingworth Presents: The Six Million Dollar Golem

[Bobchillingworth]

[SIZE="4"]"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first thinking golem. Barnaxus will be that golem. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. More combat promotions."[/SIZE]

[Bobchillingworth]

So, here I am in yet another FFH PBEM, this time commanding Beeri Brawl of the Luchirup (or however you spell that). I think I’ll make my introductions a little bit shorter than in previous threads, because most of the info about the mod & civs involved should be familiar to everyone by now, and I don’t have much to say at the moment regarding my opponents, when I don’t know what spells their starting adept has & the impact of personality is heavily mitigated by the CTON rules.


What I’ll discuss then is what spells I chose, and what my basic strategy will be with the Golems. First up though are my 3rd and 2nd civ / spell choices- let’s see how well they synch up with the combos I’m sure that people have been posting in the luker’s thread =) :


The first combo which I came up with, when Selrahc approached me about the game concept in chat prior to starting the sign-up thread here, was Tasunke of the Hippus, starting spells Enchantment, Meta, Haste. Simple, brutal, straight-forward rush game- build four warriors or so, haste them off toward the nearest opponent (who you can detect with floating eyes to save time), and then deploy the worldspell once you find someone to get an almost assured kill using strength 4, move 3, blitzing enchanted blade warriors. I also considered entropy instead of meta- would have to rely more on luck to find an enemy, but rusting would make the odds even more lopsided in my favor. After the first enemy is down, just pump HA / mounted mercenaries to kill everyone else.


I ended up rejecting this combo as my first or second choice just because it seemed kind of boring. The initial rush would be exciting, but afterwards I’d just be expanding & slowly teching to stirrups or the Guild of Nine, and then building mono-unit armies until the game was over. Possibly a strong strategy, but not one which I was interested in pulling off.


The second combo, which I kept wavering between whether to use it as my primary or not, was Auric of the Illians, with haste, meta, and mind. This combo would have been all about getting the Priests of Winter out and killing someone as quickly as possible. Haste gets them to the front lines and helps out if someone hits them with Slow, and mind provides +2 beakers from turn 0 to grab philo earlier. Meta is for scouting. I ended up keeping this combo as my second choice for similar reasons why Tasunke was third- the early rush would be all but unbeatable, but I didn’t feel that the game would be very fun afterwards. Auric is also going to have serious production issues on a rainforest map- using Temples of the Hand to turn the jungle into forests would be tempting, but I knew from talking with Selrahc before the game began that he wanted to play the elves, and I considered such cities to be almost indefensible. Teching would be a pain too. Another potentially winning combo, but satisfaction comes first.


So I went with Beeri of the Luchiurp, with the starting spells of Enchantment, Death, and Meta. Like my second and third choices, the plan here is to start with a powerful rush, here exploiting the ability of dwarven adepts with Enchantment to repair Golems and siege engines. I start with Enchantment mana normally, but this way I can skip KotE for a while longer. Plan is to get to construction ASAP using the great engineer from my worldspell for a bulb, as expertly pulled off by SL in PBEM V. While I prepare a wood golem assault force, I’ll also then tech towards aristocracy, allowing me to spam financial-powered aristofarms all over the overwhelmingly green rainforest map, thanks to construction enabling chain irrigation. Early game scouting will involve floating eyes, with disposable enchanted skeletons sent off to explore lairs and skirmish with barbs.

My main tech goal will be to get to engineering, so that I can obtain the free forges wonder and build gargoyles as my main fighting unit- gargoyles instead of Iron Golems due to them requiring less tech and being decent combat units and superb defenders. Elementalism for Blasting Workshops is also critical.


Should I survive long enough, late game toys include all of the other Golems, Dwarven Shadows, and Dwarven Druids. The Druids are especially awesome units, but they require several otherwise useless techs to reach. I’d really love to use Nullstone Golems, but teching all the way there might be an issue. I guess we’ll see!


For religion… I need to see the map first (lots of hills means I’ll be tempted to stick with Arete for a while), but I’m leaning towards the Empyrean for Blinding Light.


So yeah, I think that’s it for now. More after I see the map, of course. If anyone has any questions, fire away.

[Sciz]

golems ftw yes yes yes

[DaveV]

My main tech goal will be to get to engineering, so that I can obtain the free forges wonder and build gargoyles as my main fighting unit.

Not to mention the 50% speed boost on roads - potentially a big deal for the golems and catapults.

[Bobchillingworth]

Played a test game, although I think my results got skewed some by my settings (deity difficulty, raging barbs- both to simulate worst-case-scenario conditions). I managed to get Construction before turn 35 (researched masonry first, popped worldspell, used Pacifism to get the Great Engineer ASAP), but I think that was too early- with only time to get a couple worker techs and a single Mud Golem, Barnaxus was taking far too many turns to build. I'll have to wait until I see the save to determine whether I want to head straight for masonry or first pick up something like agr & calendar, so that I can tech my way to mining and godking while the first Great Engineer cooks.


The actual rush worked pretty well- Wood Golems took damage on almost every attack, but they usually could get healed up within a couple turns. Having the skeleton around at the very start was a great help- my capital will be fairly vulnerable to attack if I go Mud Golem first (which I should), with only one warrior and the adept defending unless I build an emergency defender. The skeleton meant that I had an endless supply of skirmishers to fight barbs and disposable lair explorers.


My main worry for the game right now is how to handle assassins. Tough to get guardsmen on a significant number of units... I think I'll either need to eventually get my own to counter Selrahc / whoever else builds any, or just accept that I'm going to lose enchantment adepts when facing assassins and either bring a large number or go without. Royal Guard would be nice, but Feudalism little sense otherwise for me.


One interesting result of having a level 4 unit to start is that it influences some events- mine got mutated on turn 1 (didn't pick up anything except sentry), and I know that you can also get Hero for free. I think I'm also more likely to get the "torturing prisoners" event.

[Ichabod]

Your start:

[Bobchillingworth]

Thanks, Ichibund!



Let's see... dwarf warrior should go N, NW. Since I'm most likely to settle where I can get the wines, scout should head SW, SW, in order to get some more vision before I plop my capital down, and to get in position to grab the hut next turn. Adept needs to summon a magic eye, I'll send it either E or NE. Just based on the map info in the pic, settling in place looks like it might be the best option, with tons of river grassland tiles, a fairly generous four hills for a rainforest map, and a good mix of resources both for long-term use and decent tiles to work while I ever-so-slowly get my Mud Golem ready. I might end up using a lot of cottages, since this start is so rich in resources & food that I'm going to hit my happy cap fairly quickly. Not that I'm complaining! Rainforest maps are always weighted far towards the "ridiculous paradise" end of the land spectrum.


I could also settle 1SW; that would grab yet another food resource, but I'd be down a grassland river tile, and possibly missing a hill (although it looks like there's one in the fog I'd get to make four).


I wonder what tiles I should work, assuming I settle in place. Hmmm... def. want to go Masonry first, so that I can get the engineer hammers earlier. I should work a 3 food 1 commerce tile to start, but when to work the 2 food 3 commerce or another 3 food, or some hammers- I'm not too great at thinking this sort of stuff through, so I'm awfully tempted to just wing it =)



I'm really looking forward to getting the save from Selrahc tomorrow, anyway! Well, getting it from him today. I should probably go to bed, heh.

[Bobchillingworth]

My screencap after I made all of my moves (for the second time, heh) didn't take for some reason, so I'll have to wait until the start of next turn to take a pic of all the territory I was able to reveal. Suffice it to say that it was a lot. I moved my units as I posted I would, and setted in place. Research to Masonry, working the river rice. Three huts in sight, two dungeons, and a generous helping of mana nodes. Oh and Marble! Nice to get that with an industrious leader


I'm really hoping our blitz is successful Sunday- lots to look forward to

[Bobchillingworth]

Um maybe I should update this while the blitz is ongoing.



Let's see, got agr from a hut turn 2, then mining shortly afterwards. Three other huts have given gold. Popped a distant barrow with my scout for a portal, took it and then popped another distant dungeon for spiders. Skeleton popped a dungeon once for a portal which I did not take, and then a second time for supplies, which I'm sending back home but expect to get eaten along the way.



Mud Golem taking forever to build. Ugh.

[Bobchillingworth]

Sigh forgot to take any pics again. Next turn!



Anyway we played until turn 12- 3 turns an hour, not terrible although I think we could have moved a little bit more quickly



My supplies sadly were eaten by a spider a few turns from safety... I would have really liked to rush a sculptor's studio with them. Oh well.


Cast my worldspell at the start of turn 12, revolted at EoT to Pacifism, so the construction engineer arrives in 17 turns. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered revolting, but I want Barmaxus out sooner rather than later. Mud Golem finally finishes in 6 turns, tech is for Calendar and then... I'm not sure actually. Maybe Myst, and then festivals for markets. Given the incredibly lush land I've seen, I'm really debating if I even want to run aristofarms- city spam with city states and cottages seems like it might be the best option.


Marble in fairly easy reach means that gargoyles are a must- 25% construction bonus absolutely seal the deal.