Gotta Catch 'Em All! Hiding Kneel plays the Svartalfar

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in. Amelia's beastman has started exploring that dungeon. Which means there's nothing to stop me from harassing his worker:



Let's see how long I can delay his farming effort.

Meanwhile, that dungeon... I don't have good enough odds to take a chance attacking the beastman before it finishes exploring. But I definitely want to stay within two tiles of the capital, in case a bad lair result gives me an opportunity (by the same token, I don't want to be too close to the lair itself: my scout would be a tasty snack for a lair defender.

Domestically, I finished a corn farm by Thariss, and produced our third scout.



One more turn to grow to size three, and then I think I'll start a settler. Should be able to get one out by the end of turn 20, and my second city on turn 23.

[HidingKneel]

New turn! My persecution of Amelia continues:



Predictably, his worker fled to the only tile my scout couldn't reach. Also note the lion up north! I think I'll make a quick training detour, and come back with a shock promotion. So long as I stay two within two tiles, he won't be able to risk working the rice. And my other scouts should be along shortly to prevent him from working other tiles.

("Wildlands" is a very nice advantage for Volanna .)

Domestically, not much to report. Started a second farm, and grew a size at EOT:



I'm the first to size three, because I think I'm the only one who started with agriculture. That advantage won't last long. I suspect I'm about to fall behind in tech, as the underwhelmingness of my chants/education opening becomes a factor (crafting->exploration->mining would have been much better, I now think ).

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns played. Unfortunately, that lion started running away from my scout, forcing me to pursue:



I shouldn't have put myself in a position to be defending; that's carelessness. I'll get less experience, and I'm not guaranteed a victory (though it's still pretty likely). Well, with luck the lion won't attack and it won't matter.

Not sure what Amelia got out of that dungeon. One thing I can say is that his power went up: probably because he built another beastman.

Meanwhile, I've got more scouts on the way:



And things are quiet back home:

[HidingKneel]

Looks like the turn is finally moving again. Let's check in with the Svartalfar.

First off, there's big news in the event log:



First, we survived our lion battle .

Second, Lucian is dead, and we didn't even have to lift a finger.

Third, Yell0w fired his worldspell. Could it be related to the Lucian-slaying? I guess not, since Yell0w fired the spell before the barbarians moved, and Lucian was killed afterward. Most likely, the barbarians did it.

I guess it's to my advantage that Yell0w fired the spell early... can't have more than a couple of units by now. Still, should be cautious leaving vulnerable units around. Don't want Yell0w snatching a worker with one of his hidden scouts, say.

So, my other scouting team make a pleasant discovery:



I love having wildlands on. Killed it with my unpromoted scout, who can now take a shock promotion next turn. Also, got a look at some more of the land between me and Amelia:



Wow, that spot I marked is really fantastic. Plains hill, fresh water, picks up two high-commerce calendar resources and pigs. Not to mention the nearby forests. It's much closer to Amelia than to me.

I think it's imperative that I prevent Amelia from settling it. Right now, Amelia's in a hole... settled the shade as a merchant, and has no commerce resources to work near the capital. But he's expansive. If he techs calendar and settles this spot, he'll be able to more than double his tech rate. Can't have that.

Question is, what's the best way to deny it to him? Maybe I should keep those scouts out of his vision for the time being, waiting for him to send out a settler. If it's escorted by two beastmen or less, I should be able to kill them, and take the settler back to build cottages by Thariss.

How about my other scout? She's up here:



Looks like Amelia finished that rice farm while I was out of range. Oops.
Now, where will that worker go next? To build some riverside farm, most likely. The closest tiles are SW, and S-SW of his present location. Maybe if I move my scout SW-SW, he'll get sloppy and give me a chance to snatch the worker.



Whoops. Well, I think I may have solved the mystery of Lucian's early demise. That's a named giant scorpion, a goblin with a poisoned weapon and two combat promotions, and a skeleton. And my scout is wounded. I promoted to C2, but she's a goner. Oh well. Plenty more where that came from .

Meanwhile, things are quiet back home:



Just three more turns until education is in. Going to need to think about what to tech next. My next five techs, in some order, will be:

1) Exploration: Cheap tech, lets me connect cities for trade routes, and gives my workers something to do when they're moving from place to place. Prerequisite for hunting.

2) Crafting: Cheap tech. Lets me work the wines for a small commerce/food boost, and an extra happy cap. Prerequisite for mining.

3) Mysticism: Unlocks God-King for a huge production boost and small gold boost in the capital. It'll also let me build elder councils, but it's too early for that. Also, a prerequisite for Way of the Forests. Main reason to consider it early: I'd prefer to minimize the number of civic swaps on the table, so a revolt to God-King and apprenticeship is appealing. That'd let me turn out 1-turn C1/S1 scouts in the capital.

4) Mining: Lets me build a gold mine by the second city, for a huge production/commerce boost, and a happy boost. Also useful elsewhere (for example, on that plains hill that I'm working now).

5) Animal husbandry: put those animals to work for me!

[HidingKneel]

Played turn 18. Lost my first scout as expect, and edged my other scouts closer to Amelia. Keeping them out of his view, though. He probably doesn't know my first scout was killed, so will avoid moving his worker to the east. I'll try to position to swoop in and snatch worker if he's careless enough to move it to the far southeast.

Ran some C&D on Amelia. Looks like he finished his fourth beastman last turn, and will grow to size three at the end of this turn. Not sure what he'll do at that point. Since he's got no commerce at the capital and is expansive, seems like the most sensible thing to do is start work on a settler. If so, that could be finished at the end of his turn 26 (it's possible that he started a settler already at size 2, but it seems unlikely).

[HidingKneel]

Played turn 19. Looks like my numbers on Amelia are correct: he grew to size three last turn, and now has four beastmen. I don't want my scouts sitting inactive for the time it'll take him to build a settler (and from the talk in the banter thread, it sounds like he might be building extra beastmen to hold off the barbarians anyhow), so I made my presence known:



Looks like he's got two beastmen in the city; probably the other two are out guarding his worker. Wish my western scout had survived; I'd have taken a shot at them. Anyways, I'm keeping my wounded scout out of sight until she heals up (at least I think that's out of sight, but I'm not entirely clear on what's visible due to culture). Dungeon is still unpopped. I might pop it myself, once I get one scout in place to provide "cover" for the other.

Meanwhile, the other players are pulling ahead, while I play the "long game" with the education beeline and early settler (due to pay off next turn).
I'm thinking exploration next, while I build a bunch of workers (who will now have plenty to do).

[HidingKneel]

Turn 20 is in. Looks like Amelia has found me:



Got settler out this turn, and was contemplating some future sites. Our next city will go here:



Plains hill, picks up gold (no mining for a while, though) and floodplains, and later deer. Plenty of forests, and shares a farm with the capital.



Plains hill, fresh water, plenty of forests. Can work cows (and we'll tech animal husbandry soonish), and eventually banana (after bronzeworking).

Not too many other places to go, though. Water to the north and east, jungle to the south. The land to the west has some appeal, but there are few food sources until we can clear jungle.

Of course, there's that plains hill I'm trying to deny to Amelia. But that's 8 tiles away from the capital. And I'm going to need some military before I can hold it.



Finished a farm, a settler, and education at end of turn. Moved one warrior onto that hill. I think that's out of Amelia's view, so if he's sloppy with the scout next turn I might get a free kill.

Had a little rethink on tech path, and I think I'm going to go mysticism next. Commerce-wise, that'll be painful. But we've already got the most important worker tech: cottages will let workers do plenty of improving, wherever we settle. Meanwhile, the extra hammers from God King and the extra xp from Apprenticeship will give us a solid early military, and let us get some expansive settlers out quick.

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns in. The most recent was eventful:



The accursed summer elves! Well, that's unfortunate. That scout could make big trouble for me. Right now I've got two warriors (though I can finish a third anytime), and very soon I'll need to defend two cities, plus a worker. I definitely don't want Kyan's scout hanging around.

Now, if I were Kyan, I would declare war next turn and head NW, to see what kind of defenses Thariss is sporting. So let's lay a little trap for him:



If he does start by moving NW, there's no place he can end up that I won't be able to hit him with one of my warriors. I'm not guaranteed a victory, of course: that scout is promoted to C2, so if he's on a forest I only get something like 70% odds. But I think that's worth taking, since I can always pump more warriors.

Now, laying my trap is very risky:



I sent the worker onto that hill first, to see if there's anything dangerous around. When I didn't see anything, I sent the settler up too. Of course, there could be a griffon in the fog two tiles to the north. If so, I'll lose big. Otherwise, I'll found my second city next turn, and get a defender there ASAP.

What else? Still keeping tabs on Amelia:



The demos indicate that he lost his scout. But he's up to five beastmen now, and his capital is size four. I guess he's going to grow it to the happy cap before starting to expand.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 23 is in.

It looks like Kyan didn't take my bait. No sign of his scout... it must have gone back into the southern jungle.

So, we got our second city!



What's Amelia up to?



Offering me free experience, apparently. The reason those odds are so good: that beastman is plagued. Well, I killed it anyway, and didn't catch anything. That scout can promote to C2/shock next turn, and Amelia's down to four beastmen.

Screenshot from EOT:



Got a second worker out, and started our first cottage on the floodplains.
Looks like we also lost a hammer to decay on the warrior we had cooking in Thariss. I guess I might as well finish that next turn (running too thin a garrison right now anyways), and then get started on a third worker.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in. Didn't do much myself, but got a look at some other players.

Amelia is apparently fighting barbarians:



Unfortunate that his beastman survived. Might have earned itself a promotion. Oh well; even with C1, he can't use it to guard a worker against a C2/S1 sinister scout.

Also of note: Amelia revolted into agrarianism. He's a long way from looking dangerous: the nearest tier 2 units are horsemen, which is 580 beakers away (upward of 30 turns at his present rate). By then I'll surely have hunters.

Kyan's scout has resurfaced:



I moved my other scout back towards Thariss, to a position where I might be able to hit him if moves the wrong way:



Those odds aren't great, but they'll improve substantially if he moves to a non-hilly forest. Should have kept that promotion free!

At the end of turn, I got a border pop in Thariss. This got me vision on a little more of the map:



Hmm... Kyan moves before the barbarians do. So he'll likely kill that lion, and possibly earn himself another promotion.