Had a look at the save.
I think you should try pillaging non-essential old improvements, we've got the military and the gold can help us get to necromancy (or AV?) quicker. I don't think its worth upgrading vamps for now - Yell0w isn't a threat, Khazad have no military and are ages away. We have the military for fighting off Yell0w so I actually think we shouldn't push vamps to hard yet, just focus on resettling cities/building workers and building them at a reasonable pace.
We can probably add some nearby barb cities to our collection too, with the moroi getting odds on the archers even without BB.
We should be able to easily kill the crusader
And wow, it looks like the Khazad are beating us by like 80 food/mfg.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
Forcing blight might be a nice way to stick it to TBS...does that count as aggression?
Why I sued for peace:
I've got 6 moroi in the area - should be able to handle that stack
Hmmm, looks like he's sending some reinforcements...
I hope avelorn isn't building more boats
Basically, even though he didn't have reinforcements coming in the north, fighting TBS off at this point looked to be really, really bloody. I'd much rather rebuild
Turns 93
Time to rebuild our lives
At least he doesn't have much cash in the bank (but the fact I can see it means he probably has currency now - HK does too).
Here's the Crusader Q was talking about
Kind of a :weed: more if you ask me. He just traded a highly promoted crusader for a 1xp bloodpet. And I managed to get a moroi to lvl 4 (i.e. vampiric chariot if I ever get around to building a siege workshop)
Took Q's advice on pillaging old improvements
Only got 38 gold total this turn, but I've got units en route to mine and Yell0w's razed cities to commence Operation Refill Coffers
With the Kurio threat removed (delayed?), I made short work of the barbarian invaders
Domestic advisor
Demos
HK is in a golden age (explains his jump in MFG/GNP)
He used it to switch into consumption and arete (to go along with agristocracy)
Some good news
Yell0w's power is essentially flat, and it looks like TBS is pulling off the throttle. His CA's were still hanging around the charred remains of social media, which is good news for his western neighbors.
So I one-turned fishing this turn: decided to be all upright about getting TBS his clam, plus it's not a lot of beakers so gives an extra turn to consider tech path.
Options for next tech
Archery (1t)- I'm working ~5 forested tiles empire wide and counting so lumbermills would be nice
KOTE (1t)- required for pretty much any further techs
Options beyond
Necromancy (2t) - spectre booster
ashen veil (4t)- religious happiness, mounted hero, diseased corpses; added bonus of increasing the AC
priesthood (2t)- collateral (when combined with AV)
Honor (3t)- rathas, rathas, rathas (plus disciple units who can bring cities out of revolt); it would only be a temporary stop
sailing (1t)- start to build a navy to rival TBS (with my one crappy filler city which shares a body of water with one of his megacities...)
smelting (2t)- see iron; forges
research time is at max tax (-100 gold/turn); I've got ~100 gold in the bank, but can probably scrap together another couple hundred through pillaging.
I'm leaning towards skipping archery and doing KOTE -> ashen veil -> priesthood -> necromancy. Rosy will be super strong (+40% against disciples great for facing Yell0w), and collateral is, well, collateral. GP for golden age should take less than 10 turns, so can switch pretty soon. I'd love to spend 5 turns in Empy getting rathas + revolt poppers, but I don't think I dare delay key military techs.
I think KotE->AV->Necromancy->PH.
I agree with archery being extraneous, especially if we're trying to take out the barb cities soon (and thus needing the improvements). I want to cross between trees is so that we fit in the buildings needed to make it work. I believe disciples don't require the religion, but if we want a cheap one then I'd advise RoK instead of honor - I don't think we'll get another GA for a while and it will be costly converting. Is Infernal Pact worth considering for the Grimorie and StW? (Grimorie taking fanaticism)
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(October 13th, 2013, 21:45)Qgqqqqq Wrote: I think KotE->AV->Necromancy->PH.
I agree with archery being extraneous, especially if we're trying to take out the barb cities soon (and thus needing the improvements). I want to cross between trees is so that we fit in the buildings needed to make it work. I believe disciples don't require the religion, but if we want a cheap one then I'd advise RoK instead of honor - I don't think we'll get another GA for a while and it will be costly converting. Is Infernal Pact worth considering for the Grimorie and StW? (Grimorie taking fanaticism)
Hmmm, I guess it'll depend on whether I get the mage guild or temple of the veil up faster to go necro or PH first...you're right, almost certainly will make sense to go necro first. Good call on grabbing ROK for thanes; I'd forgotten you don't need to convert to build them (just a temple).
Infernal Pact is definitely worth it and will probably be the next tech after priesthood, but it'll take awhile to get there. I was actually thinking that grimoire should grab malevolent designs; Losha is great, but mardero and beasts of agares would be even better. That also sets up a tower of divination shot at divine essence (vampire lords!).
I think TBS has gotten confident after his war success.
He'd been so careful not to build any roads towards me, and now he's building one right up to my borders. I guess he realized that not having roads was a double-edge sword: I couldn't get to him quickly, but he couldn't reinforce his invasion force quickly either. If I road my forested hill, plus the tile 1NW (in his borders - wait til turn of attack), a stack of vampires 1S of my peak could 1-turn Avelorn out of the fog. Hopefully giving him my map keeps him away from getting his own hawks...
Most of this turn was spent smashing piggy banks.
You'll notice I 1-turned KOTE as well. AV is now a 3t tech; ought to be able to get enough cash to get there.
Yell0w doesn't seem to be doing much of anything right now.
Border cities still only have 1-2 warriors each; his power is stagnant. I'll take a shot at Warrenpoint if a moroi can get good odds. Regardless, it's improvements are not long for this world.
Demos
GNP isn't quite as bad as it looks since no tech is selected. It was at 345 before I ended turn and completed KOTE.
maybe! he does seem pretty checked out right now. my guess is he thought he could fight me off with units, and severely underestimated the mobility of burning blood, raiders moroi. Then TBS came to the rescue, so he figured he could wait just a little longer...
Yell0w offered up a tasty sacrifice to the XP gods
TBS is grabbing every last bit of mana he can.
Just wow; he still has 4 tiles to road to connect it to his trade network! The things you can get away with when your neighbors don't build a military....
I only managed ~100 gold in pillaging, as Yell0w decided to send out a welcome party.
I've got 6 units spread between those two hills, so if he makes any threatening moves I'll take out the crusaders. Preference would be to just merrily pillage away.
I moved a small pillaging stack up to take a peek at his capital too.
Demos
TBS completing the pillar of chains pushed him ahead of me in MFG. It also bumped the AC up a good amount. Between spreading AV and Rosy, I should be able to set off blight pretty soon (although I'm totally not ready for it yet; most of my main cities are already unhealthy).
Next steps:
Networking finished the HE and will 2-turn vampires from here on out.
Settlers to replace Social Media and Quick Wins finished EOT; both will be resettled T97
Forces are in place to capture the barb city on HK's borders next turn.
corruption of spirit will finish EOT97.
GP due in 6 turns. Will pop a golden age to switch to AV and military state. That'll also provide a research boost for getting to infernal pact.
I need to decide whether to pump vampires in all my main cities or whether to get health buildings up to prepare for blight. It would really suck to have cities starving down during my golden age.
If we're going StW (which we should try during the GA) then we should be fine through blight. We can always feast the cities down instead.
I don't think its worth worrying about as yet.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.