The Haunted Forest: Mardoc puts the Sidar to the test.

[Thoth]

Also:

Philo/Ind Sidar are awesome for Cultural victories.








We'll need to bonk a few heads first though.

[Mardoc]

[SIZE="3"]Oooh, sorry, was this a private party? I'll[/SIZE] [SIZE="2"]just [/SIZE][SIZE="1"]be going...[/SIZE]


It seems Serdoa might be leading these gentlemen in our direction. He's still unsquished, and still officially unmet. I guess it doesn't count if one unit is Hidden.

Our southern archer is now Drill III, and has some more incoming barbs to practice on. Northern archer's wondering what all the fuss is about - but I suppose while we're finally improving all our tiles isn't the perfect time to complain about a dearth of barbs .

Not a whole lot else to report. Crafting nearly in, and Asteroids is nearly ready to start brewing. I decided to gamble the lizard is headed south, not north; we might lose a warrior if I'm wrong, but we won't lose the workers.

[Thoth]

Yeah, good call re: the lizard. We'll either win, and pick up xp. Or lose and can pick up exp on either the warrior or the archer. I'd only risk the archer at 99+% odds. It's too valuable to risk at this point.

Otherwise if it's damaged enough for our other warrior to get decent odds, hit it with the warrior. If we can't get odds, retreat into PacMan. We can eat the loss of worker turns if we need to. (this won't be the last time we lose worker turns to barbs this game. )

I like the way that southern archer (we need a naming scheme for our "Hero" units) is shaping up. He'll make a fine Horse Archer/Knight or Marksman or Crossbowman.

Remember, not all exp is for Waning. We want some high level units to [strike]kick some arse[/strike] keep our borders safe. Our foes will also be gaining highly promoted units. And they can't Wane theirs.

[Mardoc]

Remember, not all exp is for Waning. We want some high level units to [strike]kick some arse[/strike] keep our borders safe. Our foes will also be gaining highly promoted units. And they can't Wane theirs.

Yes, I agree in principle. I might have to be persuaded in each individual case, though . Especially this early, where even just one Wane would set us convincingly ahead in the demos, and 3-4 would double our next nearest neighbor. I suppose it'll be an easier case once we're out ahead enough to be a target.

For a naming scheme for the kept units, why don't we go with alcohols/cocktails? So southern archer can be Rum, northern archer Budweiser, for now (since south guy is stronger). Should be easy to add in new names as things go along.

One thought I had - when we're in Conquest, shortly, and we're developing our units for Waning - if the barbs don't come to us, I'm strongly tempted to go to them. Specificially - to go explore a bunch of ruins! If there are no more ruins, there are no more lizards harassing us (and as I understand barb spawns, we'd get more regular warriors and goblins to make up for it). Plus, there might be something worth looting.

We'd need a force capable of for-sure killing a fortified lizard, plus one just spawned, plus making it to and from the site alive. I'd guess that something like 5 CII warriors would be sufficient to that purpose. Could go down as low as 2-3 if/when we have copper

I wish I'd thought to mark all the fortified barbs, so we could specifically go hunting for them too, to increase barb spawns in our area. But if they don't come to us, having parties out wandering looking for them might not be a bad idea.

At worst - we go find Selrahc and help him keep his lands clear . Of both barbs and improvements

[Mardoc]

Ok, I didn't expect the warrior to win, but not to even scratch the lizard? Bah!

Workers retreat for now.



Popped a hut in the north for 25 gold. And the barbs in the south were in temptingly good positions again. And...our expenses are down .

Decided to burn a couple more fights on non-archers, and we now have an 8 and a 9 XP warrior in the south. Planning on Combat II for both of them, and then to wait for another good opportunity. They're halfway there...just need another 2-3 won fights each, and then they can retire. I won't build more warriors until we have Edu in, in any event. And we probably have 2 combats this turn to boost our archers with, I'm not totally abandoning the super unit plan.

[Thoth]

Decided to burn a couple more fights on non-archers, and we now have an 8 and a 9 XP warrior in the south. Planning on Combat II for both of them, and then to wait for another good opportunity. They're halfway there...just need another 2-3 won fights each, and then they can retire. I won't build more warriors until we have Edu in, in any event. And we probably have 2 combats this turn to boost our archers with, I'm not totally abandoning the super unit plan.

Remind me again why we took Bounty Hunter on a unit you're not going to let fight.

Nice results though. Be careful with these guys. That xp makes them much more valuable to us.

Sucks to lose the warrior to a flawless kill. Hopefully the Lizard will attack and give us some easy exp on Budweiser.

More gold is always good. We've had good, but not spectacular luck with the huts.

[Mardoc]

T39: Played the turn. Was so boring that you don't even get a screenshot - we're started on Dereptus (after firing that Sage *again*), the lizard suicided and we're building a road therefore, scouts find more forested hills. Demos are starting to look pretty . Should improve further when Dereptus comes in.

[Thoth]

T39: Played the turn. Was so boring that you don't even get a screenshot - we're started on Dereptus (after firing that Sage *again*), the lizard suicided and we're building a road therefore, scouts find more forested hills. Demos are starting to look pretty . Should improve further when Dereptus comes in.

Get used to firing that damn Sage. The Governor loves it's 4 b Sages (for good reason) and the barbs are going to be messing up our tile micro on a regular basis.

Yeah, Beer and Cottages are going to make our economy explode in about 15 turns. :hat:

[Mardoc]

Dang it, more lizards. I moved the workers/warrior such that they can run away next turn. . Even though the warriors in training will be healed entirely next turn, it's looking unlikely that they have a good opportunity to bash heads, due to those same lizards.

Can I get you to weigh in on the idea of expeditionary forces to go genocide lizards? It's only about a dozen turns until that's feasible.



My biggest micro debate right now is Asteroids - should it emphasize hammers to get the granary done before the growth, or emphasize growth on the premise the granary is just a backburner project anyway? At the moment it's emphasizing hammers.

And the demos, for those of you playing at home. Note that part of our GNP dominance is the 8-9 culture we're generating from palace + monument + academy + Religion + Pagan Temples. But...the average looks pretty decent too, and of course we have Dereptus + Edu + Shades in training, all of which ought to really boost us in a few more turns.

[Mardoc]

Barb warriors doublestacked, gave us one 88% battle opportunity. I took it - and now


...probably one more battle is all he needs. Maybe if the odds are too good once he's CIII, he'll need two. Of course, Murphy would have it that we're destined to lose the last one, but here's hoping.

I figure he becomes a GSage here in Asteroids. Assuming he makes it all the way to Shadedom.

Meanwhile, of course, there are 3 barbs who might hit Asteroids this turn and turn into shiny gold coins in the treasury.

In other news, our northern scout popped a hut this turn. And, well.

Jackpot!

If it weren't for hammer decay, Pacman would swap to a Hunting Lodge this very turn! With decay...I'll wait until the Granary finishes, but a Lodge has to be next. Which raises the question - what sort of ratio do we want between Divided Souls and warriors, once we start a Conquest-fueled training spree? I'm thinking we want a couple of each, with warriors destined for shade-dom and divided souls training up to be zone defense for now, eventually Ghosts and Rangers and such.

I think the scouts should just keep exploring, not come home to be upgraded, but I might be talked out of it. Still, it appears that they don't get Sever Soul until KotE, when all the Sidar recon will get it - so the only benefit to them would be the higher strength. Meanwhile we'd lose time, and depending on the details, I think there's a chance they lose Hidden when they upgrade, too.