Ellimist has declared on Mardoc. This is excellent news. I'm assuming it's not a real war, at least not yet.
But:
1) Ellimist and Mardoc just met. It was a turn or so after Loki arrived, so I'd guess it was Ellimist scouting Mardoc, rather than the other way around.
2) From looking at the power graphs, I don't think that Ellimist lost his starting scout. Which means he's got a unit with a least 3 moves, possibly 4. A unit like that is great for snatching workers. Maybe that's what happened?
3) Snatching a worker from the leader is good for me. Also, Ellimist getting Mardoc ticked off is also good for me: Mardoc's play in XXIII suggests that he doesn't take stuff like that lying down.
Sent off diplo messages to both of them, asking for clarification.
So the situation is very, very good. Only way it could be better would be if someone had declared a PYFT war on gtAngel instead.
Domestically, not much to report. Warrior killed a skeleton, built a cottage, the usual.
Domestically, not much to report. Killed a barbarian warrior (been doing a lot of that lately; fortunately, battles are going well and I've got a fair number of experienced barb-smashers). Finished a farm by Crystal Palace, and it grew to size 2. And hunting came in at EOT. Ellimist got a tech right before me... I'm guessing Code of Laws?
Got replies to both of my diplo queries. First from Mardoc:
Quote:I have the intense displeasure to admit that the rumors have some truth. Perhaps the chefs of your court can pass on recipes for making highly experienced griffons edible?
Or, in the event that acquiring the ingredients takes longer than expected, perhaps the hunters of the court would be interested in dividing vampire lands?
Ellimist was a bit more pithy:
Quote:HK, Envoy of Thessa,
Yes.
Ellimist of the Calabim
You can see Mardoc going into war mode (or at least, griffon-hunting mode) here:
Anyways, this is all great news for the elves. At the very least, Ellimist is slowing down Mardoc's development. And possibly getting himself involved in a war in the process. Hopefully he won't want me after him as well, and will therefore leave me alone. It's also possible that I could be seeing a griffon of my own in the near future... though I've got an experienced lizardman who might be useful for dealing with that.
As for Mardoc's proposal, it's hard to imagine that I'm going to want to help him. Unless it looks like he's losing. Anyway, it's certainly easier for me to target Ellimist than it is to target Mardoc, but war seems very far in the future, in any case. For the time being, I want #1 and #2 at each other's throats so I have a chance to catch up.
Anyways, I sent this off to Mardoc:
Quote:When Mulcarn slew Sucellus and the Age of Ice began, much of the ancient elven lore was lost forever. Including all of our griffon recipes, sad to say.
As for your proposal, it's a possibility. But surely far in the future.
Next up: Way of the Forests. 8 turns at 100% science. I should probably store some gold for a turn, which brings it to 9. Which is exactly how long it'll take my Great Commander to arrive.
Looks like we're back to a turn a day. At least for a couple of days, and then Mardoc goes on vacation.
Anyway, got a lengthier response from Ellimist:
Quote:To HidingKneel, Envoy of Thessa
I've been a bit short of time lately, so I'll try to be brief. To summarize, I sent a well promoted griffon into Mardoc's territory, but do not expect to do much/any actual combat with it. This turn, his capital shows 4 warriors, a freak, and a puppet, and he's producing at least a unit per turn. The primary goal of declaring with the griffon was to put an end to his "farmer's gambit." His surging power graph and reduced GNP growth demonstrates that this has pretty much already occurred. I'll hang around with the griffon for another few turns, and see I can motivate him to increase his unit upkeep expenses any more before it moves on.
Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'd appreciate it if you don't share this information with Mardoc. Right now, he doesn't know what to expect and he's taking (expensive) precautions. Those units won't have any realistic way to reach your lands or mine until (at least) astronomy.
I'm not sure whether Mardoc will hold a grudge for it... but it's not likely to matter very for a long time with the distance involved. It's almost win-win, even... he'll have less difficulty dealing with the barbs after this.
Decius of the Calabim
Well, it seems to be working. Mardoc's production shot up, and he's well past me in power now. But Ellimist's right: with the size of this map, there's not going to be any warfare for a long, long time. (Not sure what he was getting at about astronomy? Does he mean that ships are fast?)
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Two options, really. Bone Palace or Form of the Titan.
If I go with the Bone Palace, I can save the great commander I'm about to generate for a later golden age. In that case,
I'll probably want to delay revolting into WotF for a few turns after landing the religion in order to tech philosophy.
This is a little out of my tech path right now (animal husbandry would be really handy), but I'm going to want philosophy soon anyway for PoLs.
Form of the Titan: well, that will synergize with my arcane gameplan, and with my plan to tech warfare during the upcoming golden age (also makes the swap from apprenticeship to military state a no-brainer).
I'm liking the Titan better. Particularly since I think I've got a decent chance of landing the Bone Palace later anyway. I've got more reason to want philosophy than the others, and I'm in the best position to expand quickly to grab that marble in the middle of the map.
Of course, Form of the Titan means I need a level six unit. So it's time to get my lizardman some exercise:
Won another 99% battle worth 2 xp. Three more battles like that, and I'm good to go. Unfortunately I once again took a ton of damage, and will need to heal up. Meanwhile, there's two more barbarian warriors enroaching, which I'll probably have to fend off with my own warriors.
Got a settler out in the capital, and a worker in Volantis' Rest. There's a warrior that I wanted to finish in Volantis' Rest at this point, but I screwed up the micro by ignoring hammer decay. Anyway, I'm going to need several more warriors and workers soon: planning to crank out 3 or 4 settlers during the upcoming golden age (depending on where FoL lands: if Crystal Palace is the holy city, I'll build some disciples there rather than settlers).
In foreign affairs: I was right about Ellimist's new tech being Code of Laws. He swapped to Aristocracy last turn. This turn, the demographics were dismaying:
Ouch. Well, he's not getting that commerce for free... manufacturing has dropped below ours (though he'll likely make up the difference soon with governor's mansions). Meanwhile, gtAngel is still outputting only 4 hammers. Got a tech this turn, though.
Turn 72. Let's take stock of the Ljosalfar empire.
First of all, we've got barbarians to deal with:
Fortunately, this one was kind enough to approach without using defensive terrain. Killed another one with my lizard, who only needs two more battles to enable the Titan. Took some damage, though, and will need two turns to heal up. Which is unfortunate: I've got another warrior bearing down on me next turn. Don't want to take a risky battle with the lizard, so I'll have to clean up with one of my shock-promoted warriors.
Got myself a new city:
Looks like I'm the first one to four cities. And I ought to be able to keep that advantage... capital is building a worker right now, but after that it'll stream out settlers for the forseeable future.
Did some thinking about my golden age over the break. Question is: is a golden age at this stage of the game really worth it? Argument against is that I'm working a lot of riverside tiles that give no hammers. In the not-so-distant future, I'll have bloomed those tiles, and my golden age will be adding more hammers.
Let's put some numbers to it. In the hypothetical future, I'm working all forests. Let's say it's an even mix of plains forests and grass forests. That's an average of 1.5 hammers per tile, which is boosted to 2.5 hammers during the golden age. That's a 66% increase. Effectively, my golden age puts me six turns ahead, production-wise.
What do I get by firing one six turns from now? By my estimate, I'll be putting out 33 hammers per turn if not in a golden age, and a golden age will add 19 to that. Not quite as good, but not far off. The golden age puts me 5 turns of production ahead.
Figure in the two turns of anarchy that I'm avoiding, and I come out ahead.
Commerce-wise, the situation looks even better. Except for the rice farm, every tile I'm working right now gives a point of commerce. So I'll get as much benefit now as later. Possibly an even better deal, since the relative increase is a lot higher for undeveloped cottages and riverside farms than some hypothetical future where my core is filled with forest towns. Figure in the two turns of anarchy I save, and it's worth a lot more now than later.
So I'm pretty set on using the Great Commander as soon as it comes in (simultaneous with WotF).
The other question is: what's going on in this game, anyway? Now that Ellimist is running aristocracy, he's starting to look a lot more dangerous than Mardoc. Mardoc's academy is a significant early boost, but it's going to fade in significance as the game goes on (given the size of the map, the real power will be in having a big empire, not in having a big central city). I'm nervous about Balseraph mages after XXI, but circumstances are different here. If nothing else, than because having forested territory ought to substantially lessen the danger posed by his mobility (at least if he's invading me). And as Ellimist said, the distances involved mean that any sort of war is going to happen very late in the game. Even with Mardoc's early lead and his worldspell, I'm pretty sure he won't be able to keep up with the elven economy in the long run.
With Ellimist, it's a different story. Vampires are at least as scary as Balseraph mages. Ellimist is a lot closer, so we could potentially come into conflict a lot sooner. And the Calabim economy can probably keep pace with ours, if not surpass it. Governor's mansions give a comparable benefit to our ability to build improvements on forests (namely, about one hammer per tile worked); he gets them for half-price and can build them already, while I need several more techs before I can start planting my own forests (which requires a substantial investment of its own). Aristofarms with sanitation give more food
than ancient forests. Less commerce than well-developed cottages, but require a much smaller investment in worker turns.
And my guess would be in the late game, Ellimist goes AV for Sacrifice the Weak, which should put him substantially ahead.
(Mardoc could potentially do the same, but I expect him to go for either OO or Esus, to grab himself a twincasting archmage to really take advantage of puppets.)
Given that analysis, I'm leaning toward favoring Mardoc if he faces off with the vampires. Of course, the best outcome would be to let them pummel each other while I outgrow them. The diplomatic situation is good for me here: Ellimist's got himself on Mardoc's bad side, so maybe he'll leave me alone to minimize the risks of getting dogpiled.
What about the Sidar? gtAngel is running a comically low mfg number. Should be an easy target for either neighbor, if there was any benefit to be gained from conquering (which I think there isn't, given the distance between capitals). Not sure what benefits me here. I suppose one danger is that they vassalize themselves to the Calabim: as far as I know, the Sidar haven't made contact with anyone but Ellimist.
EOT demographics:
Not great, but I've got plenty of cards left in the deck.
It's a funny thing. I was just thinking today how I shouldn't have build riverside cottages down by Volantis' Rest: farms would do me more good there. As long as that city's pushing out workers, I need the foodhammers more than I need a slight commerce boost.
Lucky for me, the AI has decided to correct my mistakes:
(June 1st, 2013, 06:15)DaveV Wrote: Lucky indeed. Is this a good time to point out how much I dislike lairs ?
I hear ya. But on the other hand, the game just got a lot more interesting . I'm generally in favor of having some randomness to spice up the game, but early mistforms are probably too much spice. The game would be more interesting now if Selrahc weren't eliminated: there was really nothing he could do.
It's a little later in the game now, though, and I have more options available. A lot depends on how many mistforms are out there (sounds like at least two, since they had enough moves to capture my supplies and pillage twice), how well-promoted they are (they had plenty of time to eat Illian units), and what they decide to do. Mistforms are melee units, so I promoted my warrior in the city to C1/S1. Add to that 25% fortification bonus, 25% defense bonus from the hill, 25% from warrior defending a city, and the extra 25% against barbarbians, and it ought to have a shot at surviving if the attacking unit isn't too well-promoted. I'm bringing a warrior down from New Evermore with C1/S1 and another free promotion (for Guerrilla I), and I've got a handful of well-promoted units that are healing up in Crystal Palace (including a C4 lizardman and a C2/S1 warrior who can add Guerrilla I to that). Really hoping they decide to camp Volantis' Rest rather than heading up to New Evermore. Both because it will cost me fewer improvements, and because New Evermore isn't built on a hill (it makes up for that with cultural defense, but doesn't let me use guerrilla promotions). Fingers crossed... all I've lost so far is a supplies (which would be worth 80 hammers down the line) and an improvement I didn't really want anyway. And got my plans scuttled a bit... building warrior everywhere atm.
But it could get a lot worse... losing more improvements, workers, city defenders. Need some kind of plan to get the situation under control. I see three options:
1) Switch tech to mining (3 turns), and cross my fingers that I've got copper in easy reach. If so, I can use my great engineer to bulb bronze working, connect the bronze, and I'll have a much more effective defense. Pros: Mining is a tech I want very soon anyway, BW will be handy (can start clearing the jungle up NW), and bronze warriors are very cost-effective garrison units once the mistform problem has been dealt with. Cons: I might not even have copper in my culture. Even if I do, I might not be able to connect it safely (most of the non-forested hills I can see are not too far from the mistforms). And even bronze warriors (unpromoted) don't have terrific odds against mistforms. And it feels like it would be a shame to use up the great engineer in that way.
2) Switch tech to archery (6 turns). I have another supplies unit, which I can use to rush an archery range and immediately promote some of my good warriors to archers. And the capital might even be able to get Gilden built in three turns, if I'm smart about overflow. Pros: Archers ought to have very decent odds against mistforms if they're defending hill cities; Gilden would be even better. We want Gilden sooner or later anyway. Cons: Archery has no economic benefits. Six turns is a pretty huge detour, and giving up the supplies for an archery range would be a shame.
3) Stay the course. Tech Fellowship of Leaves (5 more turns), hope that the units I already have can deal with the problem.
If it looks like I'm heading for disaster, I have March of the Trees. Pros: stays on track, development-wise. Using the worldspell early doesn't hurt me too badly, since I won't have any ancient forests to lose. Cons: Worldspell is a lot to give up. And using it means I won't see ancient forests in my core for a long time. Also, since I can't see mistforms, there's no guarantee that I can use the treants in a useful way. I could imagine firing the worldspell, having the mistforms roam off for a while. 5 turns later, the treants are gone and the mistforms are back.
I've decided to go with 3), at least for the time being. I think 2) is safest, but I don't think I can afford to play safe. If I'm hoping to stay competitive in this game, I'm going to have to hope that the RNG is on my side.
Lost my C1/shock warrior. Next turn, lost my C1/shock/guerrilla I warrior. Afraid to move warriors in that direction now, since I'm not sure where the mistforms are and warriors have terrible odds on the road.
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?
. I'm generally in favor of having some randomness to spice up the game, but early mistforms are probably too much spice. The game would be more interesting now if Selrahc weren't eliminated: there was really nothing he could do.