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

[Mardoc]

Well, that was embarrassing - turns out the reason we didn't have a save in the last 36 hours is that I forgot to send it on to Bob after playing. Didn't make that mistake this morning.

So...


We found Serdoa! Still doesn't count as official contact; maybe it will once we actually have vision on land inside his culture. Or maybe we'll have to send over a Divided Soul eventually.

In any event - He's *that* close?!? No wonder we weren't getting many barbs incoming from the east.


Finally, an overview of our lands. We have a first cottage - in a mildly inconvenient place. Stupid lizard, not getting out of our way. This was the only tile I could improve in one turn that was outside barb attack range.

I thought about attacking the lizard with a CIII warrior, but that was only 73%; we'll probably have good odds next turn against the warriors, assuming the lizard actually suicides instead of chasing the workers.

[Thoth]

Well, that was embarrassing - turns out the reason we didn't have a save in the last 36 hours is that I forgot to send it on to Bob after playing. Didn't make that mistake this morning.

So...

Whoopsie.

We found Serdoa! Still doesn't count as official contact; maybe it will once we actually have vision on land inside his culture. Or maybe we'll have to send over a Divided Soul eventually.

In any event - He's *that* close?!? No wonder we weren't getting many barbs incoming from the east.

Do we want to make contact (if possible). Right now we have the information advantage (we know where he is, he doesn't know where we are and he isn't aware of this).

He's playing a rush leader of a very good rush civ. On a map with Raging Deity barbs to farm exp from.

We're playing a civ that wants to build (and farm exp for Shades) which makes us a very solid choice as a target for a rush (I'd make the Vamps a higher priority to stomp on, but with a close victim who's been doing heavy Waning.....)

OTOH, if we can make contact we get the inside track on possibly building diplo relations. We'd also give Serdoa access to our graphs and our GNP should be spiking nicely over the next 8/9 turns which would give him even more incentive to make us his first target.

I'm inclined to avoid contact for the moment and keep on building in the mists of Sidaria.

Finally, an overview of our lands. We have a first cottage - in a mildly inconvenient place. Stupid lizard, not getting out of our way. This was the only tile I could improve in one turn that was outside barb attack range.

I thought about attacking the lizard with a CIII warrior, but that was only 73%; we'll probably have good odds next turn against the warriors, assuming the lizard actually suicides instead of chasing the workers.

First cottage up

No worries about it's position, that's a tile we wanted cottaged soon anyway.

AI units can "see" for their full movement range, so good call on not exposing the workers on the FP.

I took a poke around the t46 save this morning, it's looking good.

Those two c3 warriors in Asteroids probably shouldn't get risked at anything less than 95% odds. They're too valuable to lose at this point (we will lose some 95% odds fights over the course of the game but we only need one roll on the 15xp warrior and two rolls on the 13xp warrior to get our first pair of Wanes)

I think we want a warrior in PacMan next. The Archer has very good odds against any single incoming unit, but losing our Capital to a couple of bad RNG rolls would suck (and probably cost us the game).

We'll want 3/4 more (at least) to protect our cottages (and Hamlets ect ). Asteroids can throw out a couple once the Brewery and growth happen plus a handful or so out of PacMan (we'll need to balance growth vs Warriors here, but we have a Granary and a Hunting Lodge to sink hammers into while we grow)

[Mardoc]

Um. On the one hand, I strongly see the value of keeping Serdoa in the dark for a while yet, at least until we've had a chance to actually get and use those Wanes for a while. On the other - I want his graphs! And perhaps to talk to him, although I'm not sure that would really outweigh him seeing our graphs, diplomatically .

On the third hand - if it doesn't count as contact when it's a Hidden unit - then I want to see his lands, too. This is the one I'm really hoping for to be true. If we can get a good feel for where he's at in terms of units and improvements and so on without him knowing, life would be super-extra good.

I can agree on the value of getting a few more warriors out, for insurance. Now that CII starting is possible, that makes life easier. But yes, it's starting to be time to actually guard our lands.

[Thoth]

Um. On the one hand, I strongly see the value of keeping Serdoa in the dark for a while yet, at least until we've had a chance to actually get and use those Wanes for a while. On the other - I want his graphs! And perhaps to talk to him, although I'm not sure that would really outweigh him seeing our graphs, diplomatically .

On the third hand - if it doesn't count as contact when it's a Hidden unit - then I want to see his lands, too. This is the one I'm really hoping for to be true. If we can get a good feel for where he's at in terms of units and improvements and so on without him knowing, life would be super-extra good.

We may be able to get border visibility without contact, but I don't think we can enter his lands for a full scout about without DOWing.

Seeing Serdoa's graphs would be very nice in trying to figure out what he's doing (and watching for any telltale power spikes) but once he sees our upcoming GNP spike we become Warcry Target #1.

I can agree on the value of getting a few more warriors out, for insurance. Now that CII starting is possible, that makes life easier. But yes, it's starting to be time to actually guard our lands.

Yeah, unpromoted st 3 warriors suck. They're sometimes a necessity, but 5xp warriors have much better survivability.

Here's hoping for an easy kill for our 15xp warrior so that we can actually afford a military.

Deity maintenance costs are going to hurt. A lot.

[Mardoc]

once he sees our upcoming GNP spike we become Warcry Target #1.

All right, you've convinced me. We can contact him *after* we have Iron axes to defend with . If I can figure out how, I'm going to test if Hidden units can scout his border without granting contact.

...actually, I imagine Flanking II horses could be excellent punching bags for farming XP, once we've a unit convincingly stronger

[Thoth]

All right, you've convinced me. We can contact him *after* we have Iron axes to defend with . If I can figure out how, I'm going to test if Hidden units can scout his border without granting contact.

...actually, I imagine Flanking II horses could be excellent punching bags for farming XP, once we've a unit convincingly stronger

Yeah, Enchanted Blade Iron Champions (with Mob 1, C1 and Haste ) do a fine job vs Horses/HAs....but they are a long way away.

If Serdoa already has contact with Selrahc, his rush intentions are going to be inclined in that direction which give us more "find big rock" time and less "nice doggie" time.

[Mardoc]

Or...we could open the save and discover that contact has been made interturn, whether we wanted it or not. So much for that debate Well, might as well make the best of it. Moved up to a hill on his borders to look around.

He's in God King/Religion/Agrarianism - so he either doesn't have Edu, or hasn't bothered to revolt.

We can see that Conrond Mor is size 4, and Alteriol deWhatever is now listed as the size 5 city in Top 5 cities. He must not have much happiness - I can't think of any other reason for them to be that small.


Graphs:

Good news? Aside from Warcry and his apparent Hut luck, he doesn't appear to be much of a threat, econ-wise. We're significantly ahead in all but Power, and we don't even have Shades yet! Presumably we'll continue to pull away.

I think, from that GNP graph, that he must have some form of commerce tech. Maybe calendar can explain it - or maybe he does have Edu after all.

Hi Serdoa - looks like our invisible Scout finally found you! He's been travelling since the start of time, and discovered you to our east. You're the first one we've found. This is a freakin' huge map!

I don't know that there are a lot of deals we could discuss - getting a road to you seems impractical, as well as a bit unwise . We can agree to facilitate contacts with Bob and Selrahc, if you want. Anything you'd care to talk about?

- Mardoc

In domestic news, our warriors continue to huddle by the archer, with the workers for company. Across-river odds were just too poor, and I didn't like the idea of hitting the SW warrior either, when we'd have to park next to a warrior pair. Probably next turn there will be just the warrior pair, on flatland next to the city, and we can clean them up (95.6% odds) for at least our first Shade. That would let us cottage the plains FP, too.

I went ahead and started Pacman on a warrior, along with jiggering tiles for 1-turn completion; I still want it to grow, but you're right that there's no point in taking chances. Next turn I plan to resume the Hunting Lodge, at least until we reach size 8 - and maybe until we make it to 9; Dereptus is coming! Meanwhile Asteroids is rearranged to work the cottage and otherwise maximum hammers. And of course a turn wouldn't be complete without firing the sage again



Anything else worth discussing? I think our tech path is still pretty well set in stone - finish Mining, then Way of the Earthmother

[Thoth]

Or...we could open the save and discover that contact has been made interturn, whether we wanted it or not. So much for that debate Well, might as well make the best of it. Moved up to a hill on his borders to look around.

He's in God King/Religion/Agrarianism - so he either doesn't have Edu, or hasn't bothered to revolt.

We can see that Conrond Mor is size 4, and Alteriol deWhatever is now listed as the size 5 city in Top 5 cities. He must not have much happiness - I can't think of any other reason for them to be that small.

From the looks of things, he's got as few improved tiles as we do.

Note that Conrond Mor is working a riverside grass hill as one of it's tiles. He may not have his cities trade connected yet.

Good news? Aside from Warcry and his apparent Hut luck, he doesn't appear to be much of a threat, econ-wise. We're significantly ahead in all but Power, and we don't even have Shades yet! Presumably we'll continue to pull away.

Note that he has some highly promoted units (heavy on the Shock promos). His power graph doesn't accurately reflect his actual combat power. He's significantly more combat capable than the demos show.

We're going to have some tough choices about how to spend our exp. Wanes are great, but we'll want some well promoted troops to defend them.

I think, from that GNP graph, that he must have some form of commerce tech. Maybe calendar can explain it - or maybe he does have Edu after all.

He's probably got a Calendar resource improved, but not much else. Maybe an Elder Council or two.

In domestic news, our warriors continue to huddle by the archer, with the workers for company. Across-river odds were just too poor, and I didn't like the idea of hitting the SW warrior either, when we'd have to park next to a warrior pair. Probably next turn there will be just the warrior pair, on flatland next to the city, and we can clean them up (95.6% odds) for at least our first Shade. That would let us cottage the plains FP, too.

Playing it safe was the right call I think.

Note that we'll want the Wheat improved and connected ASAP (which may be awhile given the barbs) to boost the Brewery (we'll be needing the health soon as well)

I went ahead and started Pacman on a warrior, along with jiggering tiles for 1-turn completion; I still want it to grow, but you're right that there's no point in taking chances. Next turn I plan to resume the Hunting Lodge, at least until we reach size 8 - and maybe until we make it to 9; Dereptus is coming! Meanwhile Asteroids is rearranged to work the cottage and otherwise maximum hammers. And of course a turn wouldn't be complete without firing the sage again

I'm thinking we complete the Granary after the Worker. We can finish it in 1-2 turns depending on tile configuration and it will speed our growth up to size 9 by a turn or two. Once WotEM is in our happy cap will grow to 11 with RoK spread and 12 with a temple. Pacman is tight for food, any extra we can get would be good.

Anything else worth discussing? I think our tech path is still pretty well set in stone - finish Mining, then Way of the Earthmother

Techpath after WotEM?

I think AH followed by either Bronze (if we have Copper) or Archery (if we don't) so that we can get some real units into production.

After that....dunno. Writing for cheap libs, Festivals for Markets and Carnivals, Bronze/Archery (whichever one we didn't grab as our military tech), HBR (mobility, possibly Horsemen) are all appealing.

What we grab will depend on what things are looking like WRT resources and the diplo situation.

[Thoth]

Ooooh. T48 just arrived.

[Thoth]

Had a look at t48....

We can grow Pacman in 3 turns, completing the Granary in 2.

Check out the garrison in Conrad Mor......OMFG.