Green as they come: Hiding Kneel plays the Ljosalfar [SPOILERS]

[HidingKneel]

Alright, kerfuffle notwithstanding, turn 7 came in today with another message from Ellimist:



Actually, our knowledge of archery was all lost during the Age of Ice. We don't even know which way to hold the bow anymore. But the less he knows about that, the better.

So, not much happened this turn. Scouts are still scouting, haven't found much of interest. I shot the following reply to Ellimist (apparently I did it wrong last turn, and sent him an empty message):



Here's a screenshot from after EOT. Agriculture came in, and we're no longer last in score:



Of course, that'll probably change in a turn or two when Kyan finishes researching calendar.

[HidingKneel]

So on the one hand, looks like the reset is a no. On the other hand, looks like Kyan and Elimist are apparently set at odds with one another. Overall, a win, although as soft a target as you are, wariness is key.

Reset would have been boring anyway. Plenty of mistakes will leave room for improvement next game .

The Ellimist situation definitely bears watching. But like you say, this isn't necessarily a winning play for him:

I settled my shade as a merchant and am running 100% gold. I'm still losing 5 gpt.
Even so, I can afford it for awhile due to gold I've saved and gotten from huts.

So, he's either got to delete most of those units, or use them in a hurry. The question is how? Here are some of the options I can see:

1) Explore as much of the map as he can and grab every hut in sight. When it looks like a unit isn't going to be of much extra use for this purpose, delete it. This is the "peaceful" way to go. But I don't think Ellimist won a game with Charadon by playing nice.

2) Put a choke on every player he can find. Not sure this is a winning strategy for him. If he's running 0% science, he needs to do something decisive; otherwise, he's just marking time until someone builds up the tech or military to fight back. Also, unless he can lock down all five of us, he'll just be handing the advantage to whoever he doesn't find.

3) Assemble as many of those archers as he reasonably can into a strike force, and try to take somebody out. Presumably all the capital sites are pretty nice, and a city with a free settled great person is a nice prize. He might have to pay some maintenance on it, but city states is a nice civic for him anyhow, with all expansion he's likely to do early on.

So, who do you think will be the target? Given the spirited nature of the discussion in the tech thread, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Kyan. Even ignoring that, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Kyan either: he definitely strikes me as the biggest threat.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if it was us. For one thing, he's already made contact with us, so he has some rough idea of where we are.
Second, we're an easy target right now, but won't stay so for very long. He might figure on taking us out before the worldspell/Gilden come into play.

Then again, he might not rate us very high on the threat-o-meter. I'm a newbie here, and I've been cleverly flying "under the radar" with my last place score . So we might be safe for a while, if he's thinking more of tearing down rivals than building himself up.

So, what to do now? I guess building a second warrior would be a good start. I promise to get on that soon.

[HidingKneel]

We have turn 8. Another communique from Urag gro-Shub, aka Ellimist:



I figure as long as we're talking, he's not killing me, right?

Then something buggy happened:



We're not supposed to be able to do that. But it wouldn't take no for an answer: every time I clicked "no", the window popped up again. So I revolted into agrarianism. Set the next tech to calendar: even if I wanted to take advantage of the bug, we still need the tech in order to work those dyes.

Not much else to report. Our eastern scout will arrive at the ruin next turn. Don't have vision on it, so I can't tell if it's got a defender or not. If it's unoccupied, I think I'll take a chance and pop it. Seems like the alternative is just waiting for someone else to do likewise, meaning I'll get all of the risk and none of the reward.

Here's a screenshot from after EOT. Evermore built us a worker, and Hyll's grown to size 2. Next up: warrior in Evermore, worker in Hyll (Hyll can finish its current warrior in 2 turns, in case of an emergency.)



Oh, and it looks like Ellimist picked up another hut tech. For a civ running 100% gold, his research is coming along rather nicely.

[Commodore]

Reports looking good, nothing wrong I see yet (that you have control over, at least). Elimist is darned scary right now, as you mentioned above, he won a Charadon game. Admittedly on a tight rush map, but still, the man knows his aggressive-rush-while-at-peace-with-barbarians gameplay. If he's in the mood for it, he could go for a kill everyone shot very easily, as you said, it's not like he needs to be able to tech when he has goblins all over the place popping huts. As a GM owner, by the way, Evermore is a particularly attractive capture.

Just as an aside, you did mention the Lurchiurp Basium rush plan was dismissed, and fairly so but I am willing to take over Angels if the XVIII-style elven economy Basium looks appealing.

Finally, theme?

[HidingKneel]

Just as an aside, you did mention the Lurchiurp Basium rush plan was dismissed, and fairly so but I am willing to take over Angels if the XVIII-style elven economy Basium looks appealing.

That could be an interesting direction to go. It's not far off of the tech path: the goal is to hit priesthood fairly early, and we'll need fanaticism anyway to build levels of the altar. My vague plan was to postpone that and go up the recon line for some muscle (rangers/satyrs), but maybe contracting out to Basium wouldn't be such a bad idea.

If I was to build the Mercurian gate in the altar city (or gift the city to Basium), what happens to the levels of the altar? If Basium gets to keep them, starting with a fresh GPP counter could really help with getting all of the great prophets we need.

Finally, theme?

Err... elf theme! Inspiration has yet to strike :rolleyes:.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 9 arrives. Not too much to report. No message from Ellimist this time, which I hope doesn't mean he's gunning for us.

Our eastern scout gets vision on the ruins, which actually has two defenders:



I moved him to the forested hill for extra defense, but he'll have poor odds if that second lizard comes after him. It can also get to Evermore in 5 turns. I can easily have a defender by then which should get odds on an attacking lizardman (and can trade the supplies for a palisade for a little extra luck), but it looks dangerous.

What else? Our workers are farming that floodplains. We're no longer in agrarianism (guess the game checks each turn to see if you're in civics you shouldn't be?), but should be able to revolt again by the time calendar comes in. Western scout is scouting, hasn't found anything interesting yet.

Score-wise, we see that Ellimist has picked up yet another hut tech, and that the Ljosalfar have returned to last place. A snapshot from after EOT:

[Commodore]

Bleh. I hate close ruins. Don't know your policy, but I always make it an early goal to pop them just to wipe out the lizards. At least with the chokingly dense terrain they'll worry your workers less than usual. What's your general lair philosophy? And how long until the tech-engorged Elimist loses barbarian peace? He's moving on to lairs at that point.

[Mardoc]

And how long until the tech-engorged Elimist loses barbarian peace? He's moving on to lairs at that point.

Just to confirm - you mean this as a rhetorical/predict-the-future type question, right?

[SIZE="1"]You don't actually want a lurker to tell you it's when his score exceeds 150% of 2nd place...wait, what have I done?! The words, they have escaped! Catch them![/SIZE]

[HidingKneel]

What's your general lair philosophy?

I generally pop them as soon as I can. Should have sent a scout out there much earlier: I had vision on those ruins starting from turn 0. As it is, I probably won't be able to clear them before Gilden.

And how long until the tech-engorged Elimist loses barbarian peace? He's moving on to lairs at that point.

I think Ellimist losing peace with the barbs would be a Very Bad Thing.
Not so much because it would let him pop lairs (though that's a danger too), but because it would let him train up by fighting barbs in the wild. Right now, those 4/6 goblin archers are scary, but they still don't get odds on a warrior fortified in a city. Put C1/shock on them, and the game changes.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 10 rolled in with good news and bad news.

The bad news is that our eastern scout got snuffed:



Put up a good fight, though. I'd really love to finish that lizard off, but I don't dare move my warrior from his fortified position in Hyll. Anybody know what the base FFH2 barb AI will do in this situation? (I usually play with Tholal's AI mod, which makes the barbs act a little smarter.) I'm hoping that lizard will smash itself into Hyll. There's only one defender there, but he'll have 25% fortification, 10% culture, 25% hill defense, and 25% for being a warrior in a city. So I feel pretty safe against a lizard with its -20% city attack, even if it does manage to pick up a promotion from eating my scout. If it goes for Evermore I'm in a much worse situation: I can have a warrior there in time, but he won't have the fortification bonus or the hill bonus, so I think a C1 lizard will have roughly 50% odds on him (though I'll be a little better off if I build that palisade). Then again, that lizard has to heal up, so that should buy me some time.

The good news? I lied about that part...



Our other scout stands a good chance of getting snuffed as well. Though his odds are a little bit better. We'll know next turn.