[spoilers] Something something horses - Tasunke of the Hippus

[Ellimist]

Btw I'm pretty sure you can't spring oasis or floodplains but you can vitalize.

[Sciz]

Yeah. I'm pretty much just gonna push it forward whenever he mentions it, saying that he'll get some soon, i need to get infrastructure in place, etc.

I desperately need sun mana though, or the Lanun cities will be useless. I mean they still have coves and plenty of sea resources, but they still aren't terrific. There's no one to trade sun mana from on a short notice, so I need my own node. I also need water though. I dunno what to do really. I think getting the coves could enable me to hold off on getting aristocracy for a while, so I can go KotE and stuff for mana nodes instead, but idk.

[Thoth]

Btw I'm pretty sure you can't spring oasis or floodplains but you can vitalize.

Oasis can most certainly be Springed.

Floodplains cannot.

[Ellimist]

Good to know, Thoth.

Is there any opportunity for a backstab, here? If he allows you to put armies next to his cities and leaves them lightly defemded, why can't we attack before he gets Hyborem? The infernals are going to be really strong on this map, I'd rather just kill him if we have the chance.

[Sciz]

I would like that too, but he says Hyborem will be summoned within 5-6 turns from now, because he has a great prophet to help bulb. I'm moving an army southwest towards him, but it's going slow.

[Ellimist]

Hm. Well. I hate to be pessimistic but I think the infernals have a great shot at just stomping everybody flat. This map is sorta designed for them.

[Sciz]

Okay so update time or something.

I agree that Selrahc is the favorite to win now. With the very low food map, the Infernal ability to grow cities without food is going to be killer. And since he managed to summon them this early means that he will definitely be able to kill the nearest civ to him with Hyborem, champions and longbowmen. Anyways he ended up next to Cardith, who says he will die soon. Wouldn't surprise me. Cardith is somewhere to the northwest of me, IIRC. So After Cardith it should be Jkaen or Ichabod.

Obviously everyone not Selrahc has been trying to form a coalition, as I said earlier. Don't know how well it will work though. Dantski has settled a city near my eastern borders, so now I know exactly where he is. Ichabod has settled two cities north of me that I would have liked, but they would have been useless cities without springing anyways, and since I couldn't get the water mana from Selrahc I held off on settling them, I could've gotten there first otherwise. I've got a settler one turn from completion in Starvald Demelain, but i'm holding off on it because I am expecting my economy to tank after I capture the Lanun cities, and don't want to add another city to strain me economy even further. Maybe this is stupid thinking though? I dunno. If there had been a great spot to settle, I obviously would have completed the settler right away, but since the whole map is bad it's hard to motivate placing cities

There is one or two spots i'd like to the north with a lot of desert river tiles, but I desperately need water mana for them to be good and I am so far away from that. Need both KotE and Elementalism, then for an adept to build a node, and then spring. Sigh. Anyways I decided i'd go capture the Lanun cities first, while teching for sanitation, to get my food up, then using the Lanun coves to spring my research towards KotE and Elementalism, and spring the desert cities. I feel like i'm wasting a lot of time here, but yeah. I should really tech towards Horse Archers after this. Really. On the other hand religion would be great, but I really don't have the time. On the bright side Ichabod is sending a Thane towards my lands, since we agreed that in deal for me not researching RoK.

Lastly, I think Selrahc may have exaggerated when he said his cities were directly SW of mine. He said they were really close, but only now have my warriors reached his borders, so it wouldnt surprise me if his cities have 1-3 defenders in each, which will make it harder for me to take them. Maybe even impossible to take the furthest one right away.

I promise at turn 100 I will produce pictures! Exciting, isn't it?

[Ellimist]

Thanks for the update.

There's not a whole lot to be done vs Hyborem on a map this barren.

[Sciz]

Yeah it's looking kinda bleak. I'm still gonna try though, who knows what will happen

[Sciz]

Took the eastermost city. It had two warriors, the second just being produced the turn I attacked. Won two 65% battles. Gonna be hard to get the rest, I think.



A cove and two crabs before a border pop. Pretty decent, but I desperately need scorch over here.