Gotta Catch 'Em All! Hiding Kneel plays the Svartalfar

[HidingKneel]

New turn in.

Amelia's settling party is up here:



So either he's settling on that hill there (in which case he'll have no good tiles to work for a long while), or he goes further north, distant from his capital and probably not on a hill. Either one works for me. I wasn't able to stop him from settling, but it seems pretty likely that I'll be able to prevent him from building a road connection between his cities for a while.

It occurs to me that I should start worrying about when Amelia is going to get a military upgrade. He might be beelining HBR, in which case I'll need to be prepared.

Anyway, my other scout is trying not to get killed on her way to the epic dungeon:



I'll start popping it next turn. Meanwhile, back home:



Got me another settler out, so my third city should be founded on turn 39. And now I'll actually start growing the capital...

[HidingKneel]

Alright, turn 38 in.

Scouted around the Pyre:



Coast is clear so far. In three turns, something awesome will happen. Unless my scout gets eaten by a wandering animal first. She's not in much of a position to fight one off, especially desert terrain.

Amelia hasn't settled his second city yet. Settling party disappeared off to the north.

Back home, things are looking good:



I think the cottages are paying off. If you ignore the extra culture from the creative trait, my GNP is just a hair lower than Kyan's. Maybe I've got a chance of beating him to WotF after all! (If he's not on a tight beeline.)

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played.

First off, Yell0w killed my Pyre-exploring scout:



Also of note: somebody got a great prophet. I'm guessing that's Bob, since he started with chants and mentioned going mysticism first. Wonder what he'll do with that. Bulb a religion? Maybe bulb philosophy and grab the Bone Palace? I was hoping to make a run at that myself, given that I've got a lead in mfg, marble nearby, and a reason to go for philosophy early. But Bob's industrious and has even more of a reason, so he'll probably get it.

What else? Amelia's got some warriors deployed:



I'm going to have to step lightly if I don't want to lose those scouts.

Oh, and I built my third city:



Kyan also got a third city this turn. Only I'm expansive and he's not. Playing against Kyan sometimes feels like playing the AI on some super-high difficulty level.

On the other hand, he's barely got a GNP lead now, and that's counting 6 points of creative culture. I think I might be teching faster than him, at this point.

[HidingKneel]

Made a bad mistake last turn. Forgot that enraged units get a movement buff. So Lucian Jr. is going to be able to hit my well-promoted scout (which hasn't even taken half of its promotions). I suspect I'll lose it between turns, and Amelia will have broken free of my choke.

[HidingKneel]

Well... enraged units may get a movement buff, but they're also controlled by the AI. For whatever reason, my scout was spared. Got another look at Lucian Jr.:



And this time, kept my distance. He might be headed toward my territory... he could reach the site I've planned for my fourth city, just as I plan to settle it. I should build some extra military to get ready.

What else? I offered peace to Yell0w:



My way of saying "no hard feelings". And "by the way, if you've got any more invisible units lurking around, I don't want them in my territory without a war declaration".

Kyan's got a substantial score lead, while Amelia still hasn't settled his second city. Just how far north is he intending to go?

Here's a screenshot of my core at EOT:



The cottage economy is coming along nicely. And check this out:



We took the lead in GNP (and still have a healthy lead in production). Hunting due on turn 42, and WotF due on turn 50.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 41 in.

Yell0w accepted my peace offer. Excellent.

Lucian Jr. left himself exposed:



I promoted my scout to C3/S1 and took a swing. Killed him, and earned enough xp for another promotion. Hmm... that could be shock II. Promote that scout to a hunter and it'll would be effective strength 12 against warriors, 11 against warriors in cities. Maybe killing Amelia in the short term isn't completely out of the question. And of course, getting a lot of xp on a scout/hunter makes a great candidate for an Aeron's chosen assassin later in the game.

What else? One turn away from hunting. I don't seem to be getting a known tech discount, so I'm guessing that means Kyan doesn't have it yet. Which means I'll probably beat him to WotF. Unless he built a cheap pagan temple when mysticism came in, and is planning on bulbing.

Got my third settler out at EOT. New city soon! Speaking of which, Amelia still hasn't settled. Weird.

[HidingKneel]

Ho! Looks like fawns don't get a -20% to city attack. So I could have fawns attacking at strength 8 vs. beastmen in cities, right out of the box. And they're only 40 hammers in EitB...

[HidingKneel]

Alright, another two turns played.

First, an important tech:



I immediately started a hunting lodge in Thariss. I'll probably only build one of those, at least for the forseeable future. Sinister hunters are great, but sinister fawns are even better, for just about everything except capturing animals and carrying hawks.

Turns out that recon units can't take shock II. So I promoted my scout to C4/S1 instead, and sent her back in the direction of Thariss. I'd say she's earned herself a hunter upgrade. Once the lodge is in, I'll probably build a few more hunters, and then take this harassment campaign up a notch. A C4/S1 sinister hunter will have good odds on the defenders in Amelia's capital, at least until he unlocks bronze working or something. And a stack of C1/S1 hunters, fortified on that forest hill north of his capital ought to be pretty safe on defense (even better once I've got fawns).

Also got myself another city:



For the moment, that site is pretty lousy. Gets a lot of resources, but none of them are in the first ring, and I don't have the techs to improve them anyway. No food resources, so it'll take 7 turns to grow a size. But it ought to get a lot better once WotF comes in: a little culture and a few ancient forests will do a world of good, there.

Upkeep's starting to become noticable. I've got enough gold to get to WotF at 100% science and pay for a hunter upgrade. After that, I'll probably need to start playing around with the slider.

My core at EOT:

[HidingKneel]

Alright, this game proceeds... slowly.

A couple more turns played. Built myself a hunting lodge in Thariss, and am a few turns away from WotF.

Swarming all over Amelia:



Have to be careful; he's got 7 beastmen around there. Including one in the capital with a stoneskin promotion (chaos mana). Won't want to risk a hunter/fawn on that; I'll probably sacrifice a scout when it comes time to start attacking the city itself.

A barbarian city sprouted up to Amelia's west:



Built on desert, so it should be an easy conquest. Not anything I need for the moment, right now.

I wonder if that named giant scorpion is still lurking about? I hope so. Capturing that would be a real boost: +1 strength on all recon units. Of which there will soon be many.

A screenshot of my core:



I've got the smallest capital of anyone, because I don't have techs to boost happiness. But that'll change shortly.

Demographics:



Not too shabby. #2 in GNP after Kyan, and half of the advantage he's got on me is free culture. #2 in soldiers after Amelia, but that's mostly because the game underestimates the value of my scouts. Still just barely have a mfg edge on Kyan, but both of us have a huge lead on the rest of the world (especially on Yell0w, who's sporting that 9).

[Xenoborg]

I wonder if that named giant scorpion is still lurking about? I hope so. Capturing that would be a real boost: +1 strength on all recon units. Of which there will soon be many.

Ooo, whats this? I don't think Ive ever captured a scorpion before, can they cast poison blade or something?