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

[Mardoc]

OTOH, I looked at the t152 save. WTF are you planning to do with our two workers?

Moved one to the riverside hill to mine, the other to the horses to pasture. After that, probably mine the copper, then...I'm not sure what else needs done.

Pretty certain that we don't need Trade for Honour in EITB (but double check me on this one).

We do .

Possible tech paths: Arcane line for some Magic fun and possible insta Mages (works well with some Priests in Pacman.....assuming you ever actually hire some).

insta mages via...savant? Which would work if and only if we run theocracy and get two levels of the altar built, and then back to AV. Hmm - OTOH, it would go well with Ritualists for Wanes. But the thing is, I don't want the Wanes from Pacman, I want Pacman to be building the army we'll be using. Wanes come from cities without Shrines of the Champion.

Plus - why go for insta-mages? I bet we can farm barbs for XP pretty darn easily if we give them Ritualist support .

Smelting/Iron Working: Gets us 1/2 price Forges and possible Iron + Champions. Decent, but we'll have Diseased Corpses with AV...

Agreed, this isn't the best route.

CoL/Religious Law: Gets us access to Courthouses/Aristocracy....we'll want Courthouses to help pay the maint on Hippo cities, gives us access to Theocracy (unlimited priests, +2 xp on new units, Chalid with Empy)

Cha[/quote]
Chalid's not at Religious Law anymore. Do I believe the changelog or the civilopedia? Changelog says we get him at Honor now, tech tree doesn't list him until Righteousness (a 7K tech)

Masonry/Construction/Sanitation: Activates marble (mostly useless at this point unless we build a third Library), gets us chain irrigation, Walls, Chariots (with expensive Siege Workshop), +1 food from farms, access to Bathhouses for extra happy....

Only way we're going to get the GLib is to take it from Bob. It's already built.
Public Baths would be very nice, as would bridges and faster roads, granted. And the extra food, particularly if I give in and start going seriously toward Altar. Actually - ok, I looked at the save again. And if we hire three Priests, we're looking at 14 turns for the next GPerson, significantly less if I finish off the Epic. Maybe this is worth doing after all, force Bob to come to us.

Another option is to tech to Stirrups. We have both optional pre-reqs so it would be cheap. Horse Archers would be a nice addition to our forces. (OFC, you'd actually need to move a Worker or two onto the Horses and Pasture them for this to work....we could really use another worker or two soonish, plus a plan to use them well)

I'm not really a fan - HA's are more hammers than Rangers, and slower once you take into account Sever Soul. If we plan to keep going, up to Warhorses after, I could be persuaded.

If you *really* want Waneable units at a decent hammer cost Archers/Axes are our best bet at the moment.

Was afraid axes would be the answer.

If we can get a few levels of the Altar built, then Ritualists (who level fast) would be our next best bet.

...yes....if we pop between Good and Evil enough times, and we're willing to pay 80 hammers/ Wane.

I don't want to bend the whole civ to Wanes, just to get some more coming along so that our GNP/production keep improving. We do still need an army that can kill Bob's, and Serdoa, and Ellimist.

Next turn, Hide the Ghosts (for the extra first strike) and check the odds with our healthy Beastmaster....if they're good, take the shot. Then have our best Ranger take the Nether Blade and check odds.

It'll take forever for our units to heal without a Medic....Spirit 1 will help, but I'd say withdraw to a defensive position via Divided Soul rather than camp where we are. Unless it will only take a turn or two to heal or we can actually take Conrad Mor with acceptable casualties.

Did we earn any fresh promos in the combat? If so we can promo heal (via the Combat line....don't bother with any more Formation promos)

Not much in the way of promos, no. The healthy Beastmaster got one I agree our healing rate sucks, and if we're just going to camp and wait, we might as well drift out of Serdoa's borders to do that.

But, your approach might also work. Maybe we can kill the remaining 5-6 units without too much trouble, and have a city to heal in, instead.

We'd have been better off with the Baron camped on a defensive tile next to the barb stack. Barbs is dumb. They won't always attack, but they usually will. We could have gotten several WWs out of those barbs instead of just one.

Hmm. I worry about Baron dying if I do that, is the thing. So far I haven't gotten a wolf from any other fight - I know the odds aren't great, but I'm starting to wonder if it's bugged.

In any case, barbs are a renewable resource. Maybe I'll be able to do that next big stack, if I stack him with some other 'wolves for just in case protection. I got so used to wanting to attack for the XP, I forgot that Baron's real purpose is just to win, he doesn't care about XP much.

[Mardoc]

Well, it appears Serdoa decided to deny us the choice of stay or go:


Yes, he killed one Beastmaster, at the cost of his entire garrison, essentially. We also lost a Hawk, since I wasn't smart enough to move it to a healthier unit.

But, of course, in return:

IF we can believe that maintenance number - then this won't hurt nearly as bad as I thought!

Everything moved into CM to heal, via Sever Soul (which I'm pretty sure means they count as unmoved for the turn and can heal right away). Assuming they heal sufficiently, next turn we'll advance on AtM

In other news, we finally have proof that werewolves other than the Baron can make baby werewolves:


Upgraded our best Ranger at home to fill the absent Beastmaster's place, made a temple to Kilmorph in Asteroids, and called it a turn.

[Mardoc]

And after all that, I forget to send on the save

Will try to make it home at lunchtime long enough to do so.

[Mardoc]

Played one last turn before the weekend.

Ended up deciding to go for Masonry-Construction-Sanitation-Code of Laws; we need some time to get Bambur leveled up to wane, and then Rosier leveled up to wane, so there's not much point in picking up Honor right away. Might as well get the additional happiness potential. I think it's likely we want Bambi to become a Merchant in Pacman, to help support the foreign city maintenance and Priests.

On the Serdoa front, just about every unit needed an extra turn to heal, so I gave them that. Had Hidden Ghosts start sneaking in; here's what he's got left.

Unfortunately, I don't see a way to hit him in a single turn, unless we wait for Construction. Which might actually be worth doing, only one more turn.


In other news, Asteroids built an Elder Council while Pacman knocked out Bambur. It's probably about time to finish that National Epic, then...I'm not sure, but I lean toward more military from Pacman and some Wanables from Asteroids.

We've still not found Bob, but I think we're getting close:


And - Baron's little flock is starting to look quite handsome; I think it's about time to push our cordon out further from the cities, maybe try to secure a road to Serdoia, and in any case get a wider perimeter with which to hassle the barbs.

Our exponential increase in werewolves ought to be beginning about now, after all. If every unit got a kill every turn, we'd be looking at 2 new wolves/turn. Baron's picked up Blitz, too; now it's probably time for him to go straight Combat, with perhaps some Mobility sprinkled in.

Wolves don't seem to be buffable. I've tried to get both courage and Shield of Faith onto them, but the spells won't cast.

[Magil]

Wolves don't seem to be buffable. I've tried to get both courage and Shield of Faith onto them, but the spells won't cast.

"Beast" units are ineligible for those "promotions" (the promotions granted by the buffs) in particular, but there should be some buffs that work on them. Try checking the 'pedia, I believe it lists them.

[Thoth]

Turns 155 and 156 played....

I'm moving on ATM and should capture it on t157.

Lost a Beastmaster and a Ranger (at 69 and 65% odds) cleaned up the wounded with Ghosts and killed a couple of other units with the remaining beastmasters.

Masonry and Construction are in, Sanitation due eot 157.

I'm thinking that your idea of building the Bizzare Mum has merit Mardoc. It would take ~5 turns of production but it's worth ~48 gpt right now. We're bleeding 3gpt at the moment, and that will rise once Hippo cities come out of revolt.

I've got a ranger and Thane moving along the remnants of the Black Road, both for healing and to possibly pop ATM's borders if it can arrive in time.

I've also queued up a Monument in Conrad Mor. We need a border pop here to get the Gold in play.

I've reconnected the Copper and finished up the NE and a Ranger. I'll build a Paramander next turn probably followed by another Adept.

We're now up to 4 Ravenous and 6 Blooded WWs.

[Mardoc]

I found a quick minute: looks good to me so far.

Lost a Beastmaster and a Ranger (at 69 and 65% odds) cleaned up the wounded with Ghosts and killed a couple of other units with the remaining beastmasters.

Dang, I hate losing against the odds. Still, I'd much rather that happen now, while we've got the extra force, than, say, back on T136...

Masonry and Construction are in, Sanitation due eot 157.

I'm thinking that your idea of building the Bizzare Mum has merit Mardoc. It would take ~5 turns of production but it's worth ~48 gpt right now. We're bleeding 3gpt at the moment, and that will rise once Hippo cities come out of revolt.

Not that I'd object if we can find a way to minimize that time. But yeah, it's probably worth doing; and now is about the right time, while we're giving Bambur a chance to level. Probably go Math next, therefore, so we can get started. When we're levelling Rosy, we can be pumping Ritualists, but there's only so many Stonewardens we can use .

I've got a ranger and Thane moving along the remnants of the Black Road, both for healing and to possibly pop ATM's borders if it can arrive in time.

I've reconnected the Copper and finished up the NE and a Ranger. I'll build a Paramander next turn probably followed by another Adept.

We're now up to 4 Ravenous and 6 Blooded WWs.

Sounds good. Tis the other reason for the Bazaar, we need to pay for the WW's somehow .

If you've managed to get the numbers up that fast, you must be playing them as aggressively as I wanted . Baron is looking like a better and better deal, though - 335 hammers for 6 Str 8 and 1 Str 11 units, just so far

[Thoth]

ATM is ours with no casualties.

Came with a Stable, Elder Council, settled GM and Deruptus.

At least we got a 67g refund at end of turn.

Sanitation is in, Math next.

Bob emailed me and asked me not to enter his borders (he's willing to reciprocate) and said he'd close borders if I didn't agree. We don't have a trade connection yet, but we may well in the not too distant future. I told him I wouldn't enter his borders while I was playing the turns.

We now have sight of the Elf Core thanks to Hawk flights. I'll get a picture up in a bit.

[Thoth]

158 and 159 played...

Turn 158 I snuck a Hidden Ghost towards Serdoa's last city....and saw it was empty with a Wolfrider at the gates. If I'd read the tech thread 1st I could have DS'd and taken the damned city.

Turn 159: Killed off the barb warrior and Wolfrider inhabiting Serdoa's former city (Now Centipede). No capture gold. No infrastructure. But does have the Remnants of Patria (It's PATRIA! He just bought Life Insurance [/obscure TV reference])

Renamed Conrad Mor to "Missile Command" and ATM to "Defender" (it's on a hill )

Killed a bunch of barbs....no new Ravenous WWs....there seems to be a cap of 4 on the board at any one time. Up to 8 Blooded WWs though.

Chop near Asteroids finished, completeing another worker (unlike the last time I subbed for Mardoc in this game....I built two workers rather than losing two workers. ) Asteroids is ready to grow a couple of points. I've dialed up a Temple of the Veil next, followed by a Hunting Lodge (we do indeed want a couple of replacement Hawks). Pacman completed a 1t Smokehouse. We've got another turn to complete Math, so I dialed up an Archer next for maximum overflow into the Bizzare (and another stout defender is always welcome. especially in our new aquisitions.) Barb Wolf riders are a pain.

No sign of Bob's field army (I'll get some pics up of what I've seen of his home army). I suspect it's camped in former Vamp lands and is busy defending against barb assaults.


The barb roads to our north are a mixed blessing....on the one hand, we're getting hit with multiple barb attacks along the roads each turn. On the other, we've got the forces in place to handle them and we're staying at our max Ravenous WW count each turn....and barbs that are dead quickly allow for more to spawn.

We'll want stout garrisons in our new conquests and a few more workers over there to improve tiles (and re-connect via road) but we're in decent shape.

I've queued up Festivals as our next tech....we'll need a bunch more gold to fund our army and Markets are cheaper than Temples of Kill'em'orph.

The Thane won't arrive in time to do any border popping, so I think we use it to spread RoK in Centipede for the +2 gpt.

Good call on moving in Mardoc.

[Thoth]

160 played....

killed some barbs, microed cities. Hit eot.

WE'RE NOW AHEAD OF BOB ON THE POWER GRAPH!!!!1111!!1