Gotta Catch 'Em All! Hiding Kneel plays the Svartalfar

[HidingKneel]

So, given the [strike]diplo[/strike] banter thread revelations, how do you think you're doing?

Unclear. I'd say I'm in a good position, but it's precarious. Given some time to consolidate, I think I'll do well. But it looks like I was right to be worried about Kyan. Maybe Mardoc's invasion will buy me the time I need. Hard to tell whether Kyan's blustering or really not worried about a stack of six pyre zombies. Right now, six pyre zombies could do me some real damage:



That's the sum total of the Svartalfar military. What we've got, to defend five cities (soon to be six). We've got some well-promoted hunters, which was enough to handle Amelia. But we'll immediately fold if someone puts real pressure on us. So I need to start building a real military immediately.

Something I should have noticed earlier:



Nameless Tower got a border pop recently, and Kyan's border is visible in the tile bleed. So his border is only six tiles away from Nameless Tower. Based on the banter thread, I now think Kyan's planning on invading with a huge stack of bronze warriors. It won't take them long to reach us, and slow warriors won't be slow in our forests, since he's also an elven civ.

Also visible in that screenshot: a griffon, promoted to combat IV. I really, really hope that's under AI control. But it could be Kyan's, in which case it could choke me pretty effectively. If it parks on that peak 2N of its present location, I'll have no way to dislodge it, short of teching Commune with Nature or something. It's also strong enough to be a threat to my cities.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, new turn is in.

We got a tech:



Calendar centered the map, confirming that we're in the northeast corner of the world. Based on comments in the banter thread and folks I've met so far, I'm guessing that we're spread out like so:

Sidar - Doviello - Svartalfar
Elohim- Sheaim - Ljosalfar

with a strip of jungle separating the north from the south.

So, Mardoc's possible targets for early aggression were Bob (worldspell), Kyan (worldspell), and Amelia. If he wanted to improve his own position, why didn't he go for Amelia? Of course, that would have brought him in conflict with us... but he'd have a better chance of making gains than against Kyan.

I suppose the other way to look at it is that he's trying to defend himself. Looks like Bob and Yell0w are running skeletal militaries, and Amelia was tied up fighting me, so the only threat to his security was to his east.

Anyway, the latest posts in the banter thread had me worried that Kyan already finished off Mardoc's zombie stack somehow. But the demographics suggest otherwise (taken at EOT):



First, a huge leap up in Kyan's military strength. Maybe he just promoted a bunch of units? Also note: we're still running #3 in soldier count. If Mardoc had lost his army, we'd surely be back in the #2 slot.

Anyways, what to do? I had a little rethink about my Bone Palace plan. Forgotten how expensive it was... it'd take half my production for ten turns, even with the doubler. Can't spare that right now.

Question is: if Kyan's coming for me, how best to fight him? The cheap option is to tech bronzeworking and build a bunch of warriors. I'll settle that bronze hill in another two turns. But bronze warriors are a dead end. I don't want to tie up my economy building huge numbers of weak units just to hold Kyan off. I want to take a risk that Mardoc can hold him off long enough for me to get access to more cost-effective troops: priests of leaves. Priesthood is an expensive tech, but it should be worth it for disposable summons and an army that boosts the economy. Meanwhile, I'll build fawns everywhere.

Griffon disappeared from my borders between turns. Not sure if that means Kyan recalled it to fight Mardoc, or if it really is an awesome barbarian animal waiting to be captured. Going to have to think about sending a hunter into the heart of the jungle to find out.

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns played.

Last one was a doozy:



Kyan fired his worldspell. I guess Mardoc looked threatening after all.

I believe I am screwed. There's two treants in view already, and who knows how many more behind them. Those are two-movers over jungle. They can start pounding on Gereth Minar two turns from now... that's enough time to hit the city three times each. Or the capital twice each, if they go that way. And who knows how many other treants, and/or conventional forces he's got behind those. I might need to abandon Gereth Minar, the Fellowship Holy City.

The good news is that that griffon fell into my trap. Was it working for Kyan? I can't be sure. But now, it works for us:



Founded a new city:



And the Doviello capital came out of revolt at end of turn. Lots of unhappy faces there, but I'll spread FoL to it next turn, and it should be able work two plots and starve no lower than size four, awaiting a road connection.

Meanwhile, I maximized production in all the cities of my core, trying to get out some treant shields in a hurry. Also got my super-hunters en-route back to the core. Got the capital working a bunch of specialists, so I'll be able to fire a golden age in a few turns.

[HidingKneel]

Back in business!

So, last time the turn came around (almost a month ago?) the Svartalfar were in some serious trouble. Kyan fired his worldspell and was sending some treants my way. More treants than I could handle.

Now, GreyWolf has taken over for Kyan. And the treants are gone. Huge mistake! I'm not sure about his reasoning... maybe he didn't want to open up a two-front war? Anyway, he's missing out on a one-shot opportunity to cripple me at no cost to himself... I suspect he could have razed two of my cities with treants alone.

So where does that leave us? In a very, very good position. Kyan's economy was slightly better than ours before the worldspell. But it's now a lot weaker: he lost all his ancient forests, and it'll take a very long time for them to grow back. He's still got a good economy and a strong military, but he's also tied up fighting Mardoc for the moment. I'm not sure what Mardoc's demos look like (though I guess I could figure it out; I have contact with everyone at this point, though I'm not sure how I met the Elohim), but I'm guessing this war is going to hurt both of them.

So, what's the plan? Last turn I swapped pretty much every city to building emergency warriors. But it looks like those won't be needed. This turn I'm building mostly fawns, finishing a few infrastructure projects, and pumped out a worker in the capital (need a lot more workers for our new acquisitions). Also started routing some forces in the direction of Amelia's second city (which I haven't seen yet). I don't want to repeat the mistakes of XXI: I've got an enemy on the ropes, so I'm going to finish him off (which I would appreciate if I were in Amelia's shoes; playing from a hopeless position might not be very much fun).

At this point, I've got six cities. Taking another from Amelia will put me at seven, and that nearby barbarian city will make eight. Maintenance is starting to take its toll. Need to swap out of God King ASAP. So I think I'm going to research techs for some better civics next before heading to priesthood.

Here are the demographics at end of turn:



We were actually leading in GNP before ending turn. Dipped to second upon finishing Masonry. Why am I teching masonry, you ask? Because I've decided to go back to my crazy Bone Palace plan. Possibly with a refinement: I might use my first GP for a golden age, and finish the bone palace in the golden age to double up on it, and use the double-length golden age to swap into city states/military state/guardian of nature. That's one possibility, though I'm not 100% sold on it. If the GP comes out a prophet, I might use it to bulb priesthood instead.

Anyway, behind us in GNP is Yell0w, who's now overtaken Kyan. He's also second place in food (after us). But his production is abysmal, so I'm not too worried about him yet. That 13k power rating is Amelia; I'm guessing he's not going to be able to put up much of a fight when I come for him.

We're second place in soldiers which doesn't sound good for Mardoc. The 1.4 million power rating is of course the Ljosalfar; won't get a meaningful reading there until the worldspell ends. But I assume

[HidingKneel]

Turn 67 came in with that tech I mentioned:



Tech is set to philosophy, which should finish at the end of next turn.

In other news, I've got some forces converging on Amelia, and got a better look at his second city:



Haven't seen the city itself, but I know what tile it's on. Fingers crossed that it's not on a hill (would I see those in the tile bleed?) In related news, Amelia is still at 13k power. Last place manufacturing (surely Amelia) is at 11, so I'm not sure why his power isn't rising... maybe he's building a setter? On the other hand, the last place GNP (also surely Amelia) is at 26. That sounds pretty high, given his situation. Doviello palace gives 8 commerce and 2 culture, which leaves sixteen more to account for. That city must be sitting on some nice commerce resources. Time to bring those under Svartalfar control.

Otherwise quiet. Started my marble quarry, continued building a road to the former Doviello capital, and generally wished that I had more workers onhand. Gereth Minar and Nameless Tower both grew to size 7 this turn. They're still both below the happy cap, but I'm thinking I'll start workers in both next turn. I really need more, and there's no sign of the Ljosalfar yet.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 68 played. I finally got sight of Amelia's second city:



On a hill, but it's a desert hill. On the other hand, it's surrounded by mines. Not sure how much food is on the other end of the city, but he can probably build himself a beastman per turn if the need arises. Strangely there are only three in there right now... is he building a settler?

Anyway, I'm diverting all my free forces to finishing him off. That's three highly promoted hunters, three fawns, a scout, a warrior, and a disciple of leaves (to keep the army going, and bring the city out of revolt when the time comes). Meanwhile, I've got four cities cooking workers. I'll go back to fawns once those are done.

Philosophy came in at end of turn. Next turn I'll connect marble and get started on the Bone Palace.
Priesthood is 11 turns at breakeven science. I think I'll save gold for the time being. The plan is to build the Bone palace while teching priesthood, use the golden age to pump out priests and settlers, and to tech better civics for a large empire (city states/military state).

[HidingKneel]

Turn 69 opens with a tech:



Very good. I connected marble and started on the bone palace; nine turns in the capital.

Meanwhile, it's nearing the endgame with Amelia:



Not sure what is going on here. Last turn, he had three beastmen in the city, and a worker farming the floodplains. Between turns, he promoted one of the beastmen to a son of Asena, promoted the worker to a beastman (drat!), and moved two beastment out of the city (???). Anyways, I've now got two super-hunters, a fawn, and a scout in range to hit the city next turn, plus a well-promoted warrior who can guard them. The hunters get something like 99.5% odds on the SoA, and even the fawn has something like 75%. Not quite enough to take the city if he moves his units back, but I'll have the third hunter in position next turn. So I think this'll be over in at most two turns.

Meanwhile, I finally got the former Doviello capital on my road network, so it can start growing again. I'd love to improve the land there, but I think that work crew needs to keep roading towards Amelia's second city. Once that's taken, I'll conquer the barbarian city.

What then? Consolidate, or pick another target? I think I'll take a lesson from XXI here: I've got a good lead, but good leads dissipate over time (especially if everyone else realizes I have a good lead, and I get dogpiled). So I'm thinking I press my luck.

Who's next? Definitely the Sidar. They've got the second biggest GNP (after mine) and virtually nothing in the way of military. Another lesson I learned from XXI: it's really frustrating to fight an enemy with a huge mobility advantage. I want to cripple Yell0w before he can start playing crazy tricks with divided souls. Finally, Sidar cities with shades = omnomnom.

[Amelia]

You got that right that it's really frustrating to fight an enemy with a huge mobility advantage.

My whole plan was to use the GM to fuel my economy as i expand ASAP. About turn 5 i smacked myself realizing a GP would have done much better, since the hammers would be multiplied by expansive, but moving on. Was getting ready to expand when your first scout came along, and then the whole thing went haywire from there. Nothing much i could do when i teched expansion as well and hoped that the "doviello" term would stop people from rushing me.

I'm pretty sure you know what i did with those 2 beastman by now, but I'll leave it to you to tell the lurkers =)

[HidingKneel]

You got that right that it's really frustrating to fight an enemy with a huge mobility advantage.

Yeah, my biggest worry was that you were going to tech HBR and fight back with an army of upgraded scouts. Maybe because that's what happened to me in XXII.

My whole plan was to use the GM to fuel my economy as i expand ASAP. About turn 5 i smacked myself realizing a GP would have done much better, since the hammers would be multiplied by expansive, but moving on.

Ah, interesting. I had assumed the reason for the GM was that you were planning some kind of mass upgrade rush, after reaching an appropriate military tech. But you can cut yourself some slack: shades can't be settled as GPs, only as the other four specialist types.

So... turn 70 is in. First, I got a look at what the Doviello have been up to:



Salting their fields, and collapsing their gold mine. Also, it looks like Amelia starved the city down a size between turns. So it's not quite the prize it might have been. On the bright side, having only two defenders in the city made it an easy conquest:



Lead with a fawn (slightly risky, but I need some experienced fawn) and finished with a hunter at 99.5% odds. So, seventh city in place. Looks like there's some more room to expand around there, too... I'll have to send my scout to check it out.

Meanwhile, the treants expired, so I was able to get a look at the Ljosalfar power rating again. Forgot to take a screenshot, but it wasn't pretty... somewhere around 160k. I'm running second place with 110k... which makes me think that Mardoc may be in a bit of trouble. And also that I need to get back to building military, and maybe I should rethink my Sidar invasion plan. Yell0w is pulling even in GNP, but I don't think it'll last: my empire is more than twice as big, now.

[Amelia]

Couldn't even tech animal husbandry to see where the horses were before your scouts came actually. Was pretty screwed by then since GM doesn't do much for the economy until you have your second city and can then run 100% science on two cities instead.

Oh and yeah you were surprised at how far north i was willing to go. At that point, maintenences weren't a problem, since i had a settled GM anyways. The Corn + Gold was a huge boost, and if i had survived would finally have taken my tech rate up.

And yes, i did spot that "not for amelia" spot as a good spot, but you were already choking me so badly i had to go somewhere else for a safe city.