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

[Thoth]

Well, now I know what Serdoa was doing with his newly existing GDP, and frankly I'm confused. Yet thrilled.


True, the Ghosts can't kill it this turn, they've just finished sneaking up to the city. And apparently there's at least one very wounded horse they'd rather kill.

But...that's going to be easy to kill - and easy to get priority on, too. Should kill 5 units next turn with the ghosts, and I'd be shocked if I can't make the cat one of them.

This does mean we'll be seeing Chariots at some point, I presume. But better those than HA's!

Now...why would Serdoa think that catapults would survive against a largely Ghost-based army? I haven't exactly been secretive about using them!

The Cat is a mystery to me (can they take Mob II? or just Mob I?) but those Horsemen can upgrade to Copper Chariots which is definitely a threat.

Cats OTOH, are easy exp for Ghosts.

(and nothing wrong with having to Sacrifice a Weak HM in order to target a Cat. )

Am I counting correctly? Is Serdoa down to 19 HM in Asteroids?

If so, we can start thinking about some offensive action in the not too distant future.

[Mardoc]

Pretty sure it's just MobI for cats, but I haven't tested.

Copper chariots are scarier than horsemen, but only on the offense. As long as we keep the initiative, they die just as easily.

Am I counting correctly? Is Serdoa down to 19 HM in Asteroids?

If so, we can start thinking about some offensive action in the not too distant future.

25. They scroll off the top of the screen If I knew how to fix this, half my frustration with FFH would be gone in a heartbeat.

But...give me a couple turns, he'll be at 19 sooner than you think

[Iskender]

Yo, ctrl+I (or was it alt+I) and mousing over the banner instead of the tile should help a bit.

[Mardoc]

So, Bob did swap civics after all

But now that he's out of his Golden Age, we are at least comfortably ahead in GNP again (even if most of ours is going toward upgrades). Recapture Asteroids, which is starting to look feasible, and we'll be in a good spot. Presuming we can recapture it in a way that keeps Serdoa from just pillaging the place into oblivion, anyway.

Yo, ctrl+I (or was it alt+I) and mousing over the banner instead of the tile should help a bit.

That's beautiful! Works perfectly.

Before:

During:

After:

Yes, I know that Serdoa's only missing four units. I suppose one does have to lose the occasional 98% odds battle, otherwise civ would straight up list 100% odds.

Finally, it's Baron-time! Had to go into slight starvation to guarantee him in 4 turns rather than 5, but it ought to be worth it. Of course, *now* the barbs stop incoming, but hopefully we'll have a nice chunk of them ready for the Baron's inaugural feast. If not - we'll just have to let him snack on some horses



Speaking of Bob - he's got Trade now (and could have for a while, didn't check before). Which means we can get an idea on his tech level.

Can't Trade (and hence we know he's up on us):
Alteration
Cartography
Code of Laws
Festivals
Masonry
Mathematics
Priesthood
Smelting
Trade
Way of the Forest

We know he also has, at least, Iron Working. A quick glance at the tech tree with the 'Can Research' list in front of me suggests that's *all* he has on us, though.

Can Research:

Bowyers
Commune with Nature
Construction
Corruption of Spirit
Currency
Deception
Divination
Drama
Elementalism
Fanaticism
Feral Bond
Feudalism
Fishing
Honor
Necromancy
Orders from Heaven
Poisons
Religious Law
Sanitation
Sorcery
Stirrups
Way of the Earthmother

I think we're up Poisons, Feral Bond, Animal Mastery, Way of the Earthmother on him. But...wow. I thought he was further ahead than that! He's nowhere near being able to build the Tower, and it looks like Champions really are his star units (well, Satyrs, I suppose).

Finally, for a bit more info, this morning's e-mail from Bob:

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Yeah, that's... odd. As far as I can tell, he only has like that one siege workshop, too. I am not convinced those were hammers well spent :P


It will suck if he gets trade- not because Chariots are super-scary (especially since he only has copper and no sources of Iron), but because the Barbarians are going to start sporting 3-move, 5-attack units. Although those will be easier to kill than the current Wolfrider pests who have apparently dedicated their lives to ensuring that I cannot improve tiles without engaging in wanton slaughter.


By the way, speaking of Trade- I'm now in the Undercouncil. It's lonely

Join me for free great scientists and nightwatch!


Oh one last thing- you aren't working on the Catacomb, are you? I complete it next turn, and just realized this turn that you have a mage guild. I'm pretty sure that you didn't mention it when I asked you earlier about wonders you might want me to reserve for you, but I figured I'd just check to make sure that you aren't just starting it now or something and about to waste some hammers. I wasn't even going to build it (400+ hammers is a lot to invest for a few mage guilds, especially when I don't have any great need for adepts), but Selrahc's cities have a single node which I can develop soon, and it's a lot less of a headache for me logistically to just build the adepts on-site instead of escorting some over. Also I somehow had like 200-something hammers in overflow which I had nothing else to invest in. [/COLOR]

Yes, Bob - it's a waste of hammers to build catapults that might theoretically allow Serdoa a chance of breaking the Beastmasters, but it's perfectly reasonable to dump hammers into the Catacombs to save the effort of escorting Adepts around

Not that I discouraged him, of course.

So, yes! All in all, a very good turn . Lots of forward progress, and equally important, discovering that Bob's definitely beatable from here, we just need the game to stretch out some more.

[Thoth]

So, Bob did swap civics after all

But now that he's out of his Golden Age, we are at least comfortably ahead in GNP again (even if most of ours is going toward upgrades). Recapture Asteroids, which is starting to look feasible, and we'll be in a good spot. Presuming we can recapture it in a way that keeps Serdoa from just pillaging the place into oblivion, anyway.

That's looking promising.

Yes, I know that Serdoa's only missing four units. I suppose one does have to lose the occasional 98% odds battle, otherwise civ would straight up list 100% odds.

I count 5 Ghosts in the first picture, but only three in the last. Did we take two casualties? Or did you not attack with one?

Finally, it's Baron-time! Had to go into slight starvation to guarantee him in 4 turns rather than 5, but it ought to be worth it. Of course, *now* the barbs stop incoming, but hopefully we'll have a nice chunk of them ready for the Baron's inaugural feast. If not - we'll just have to let him snack on some horses

I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the barbs this game. We've seen lulls in barb activity before, and it's just a matter of time before a 4 axe kill stack appears from Myrean.

I think we're up Poisons, Feral Bond, Animal Mastery, Way of the Earthmother on him. But...wow. I thought he was further ahead than that! He's nowhere near being able to build the Tower, and it looks like Champions really are his star units (well, Satyrs, I suppose).

Iron Champs and Satyrs make for a nice stack...and he's still ahead of us in Power, Hammers and # of Build queues.....

Finally, for a bit more info, this morning's e-mail from Bob:


Yes, Bob - it's a waste of hammers to build catapults that might theoretically allow Serdoa a chance of breaking the Beastmasters, but it's perfectly reasonable to dump hammers into the Catacombs to save the effort of escorting Adepts around

Not that I discouraged him, of course.

So, yes! All in all, a very good turn . Lots of forward progress, and equally important, discovering that Bob's definitely beatable from here, we just need the game to stretch out some more.

Erm whut? Bob though we might want the Catacomb for our one city?

Makes a bit of sense for him to build it if he's planning on some Adept spam, it does save hammers if he wants more than 5 Mage guilds and the extra (philo) GPP are handy I'm sure.

Looking good atm considering we're playing an OCC at t143.

I'd say we're still a long shot for the victory, but I like our chances a lot better now than I did on t100.

[Mardoc]

I count 5 Ghosts in the first picture, but only three in the last. Did we take two casualties? Or did you not attack with one?

Neither. I moved the Ghosts home in between attacks; the first two got horses, the third got the catapult, the fourth died, and the last one killed another horse.

[Thoth]

Neither. I moved the Ghosts home in between attacks; the first two got horses, the third got the catapult, the fourth died, and the last one killed another horse.

Not our Aeron's Chosen I hope.

1 dead Ghost for that kill count is an ok tradeoff (so long as it wasn't one of our high xp Ghosts....that would be cruel of the RNG )

[Mardoc]

Not our Aeron's Chosen I hope.

1 dead Ghost for that kill count is an ok tradeoff (so long as it wasn't one of our high xp Ghosts....that would be cruel of the RNG )

No, Aeron's was last. But we did lose the next most experienced. .

[Tasunke]

Maybe the most experienced ones should attack first? So that they have the least chance of dying?

[Thoth]

Maybe the most experienced ones should attack first? So that they have the least chance of dying?

With Assassins, it's often the other way around.....attacking the weakest unit in the stack means that if one of your low xp Assassins dies, it's pretty much a sure kill for the next one.

Sucks to have lost a high xp Ghost though.


OTOH, the kill ratio so far has been massively in our favour and we're looking solid to hold PacMan with a possible strike on Asteroids in a few turns.