[SPOILERS] DaveV plays Furia: What, me worry?

[DaveV]

Turn 113. Observant readers will notice that I popped a Great Merchant at the end of last turn. The choice is to bulb Currency, or trigger a golden age. Currency is a good tech, but I think the golden age will help more. In fact, it moves me into a solid second in demos.



I settled an island city which gave me +1 commerce per city.




My sentry hunter is still exploring in the northeast.



I also settled two other cities on the main continent; my total is now 16.




After EoT, Hyborem did indeed settle the city to the NE of where his settler was standing. Some good news: an OO spread in Movie Outtakes. Perfect for the upcoming culture war.




Speaking of culture war, how are my relations with Hyborem going?



Everyone is Hyborem's worst enemy? Guess whose fault those close borders are, Mr. Scratch?

[Qgqqqqq]

Who founded OO?

[DaveV]

Who founded OO?

I'm not sure. Probably HK, given that he seems to have the goal of finishing the whole tech tree .

[DaveV]

Big news for turn 114: contact with Ellimist. No email from him, so I sent one:

I noticed that I have contact with you, although you didn't send a greeting. Are you trying to sneak up on me? If you're coming from my southwest, watch out for a couple big stacks of goblins, who mobilized when they sensed an intruder.

I already have contact with HK, and with Hyborem, whom he summoned to a location three tiles from one of my existing cities . HK has 25 cities, nearly as many as the two of us combined. He's not generating a lot of culture, so his ridiculous GNP is mostly commerce. Hyborem has switched to Sacrifice the Weak, so HK will almost certainly get the Grimoire. HK is also running StW, so the upcoming Blight probably won't bother him much. His power is not much ahead of mine at the moment.

I signed a NAP (3-turn cooldown) with HK, and am providing him with sugar and silk. In exchange, he let me settle a very good city (2 sugar and 2 gems) that serves as a good border city.

So, are we just playing out the string here, or do you have a master plan for defeating the runaway?

Dave

Tech screen. I am sooo far behind.



Civics.



Relations.



Victory screen.



Top five cities.



Graphs.

Local news: yet another freak is born (YAFIB).



Hyborem is making questionable build choices to go with his questionable civics.



Northern scouting courtesy of my griffon.

[DaveV]

Turn 115. A reply from Ellimist.

Ellimist of the Illians sends greeting to DaveV of the Balseraphs,

I did indeed make contact with you last turn; sorry for not sending a message. I have a captured wolf just to the south of your land, moving eastward from your western border.

My nearest cities are located about 20 tiles to the west of the mana node at your southwestern city. The only other person I have contact with is Brian of the Sheaim, who is northwest of me and about twice that distance as far away from you. He has said that Tholal is to the west of him.

I do have some ideas for how to stop or slow down the Hippus, but it may already be too late. The biggest challenge right now is a lack of information. Do you have open borders with him or a map of his land? I'm hoping to have Metamagic mana within the next 10-15 turns, and I could lend it to you to give you access to Floating Eyes(you can use them to secretly map out his land.)

Ultimately, I think we will require a large army of summoners to bring him down. I'm willing to coordinate with you with mana, and soon I should have the technologies needed to access every type of mana.

Ellimist

My border city with HK that I mentioned earlier is 26N of the node you mentioned. He has two cities on a four tile island 5N and 5N3W from that city. There's a narrow isthmus which connects our lands; he has a canal city on that isthmus 3N6W from my border city. I can see more green borders to the west of that, but I promised not to send Loki exploring into his lands. He had no interest in open borders. Hyborem's capital is 4N3E of my border city, and is presumably busy turning all of HK's terrain into Hell.

Mana coordination sounds like a good idea. I'm currently planning to go for MftD and Priesthood before KotE, so I won't be ready for Metamagic mana for about ten turns. I got a free spread of OO in my city 3E1S of Dis; it looks as though HK was the founder. I've been waiting to convert, in hopes of not antagonizing Hyborem any more than my current -1 for close borders and -4 for trading with his worst enemy (HK and I have apparently been taking turns being that worst enemy).

Dave

In the actual game, two freaks were born:



Wow. That's a very, very good freak.



And here's the Combat I freak I've been waiting for since I switched (prematurely) to Aristocracy. It's a little late in the game for an instant Subdue Animal hunter, but that's probably what he's going to become anyway.

More exploring shows that I have two islands with food, and two with none whatsoever. Mapmaker, why do you hate me?




I think I'm going to send a sentry hunter out into the wilderness. He should have good odds against any animals he meets, and maybe there are still some huts out there.




Astute readers will note that I cranked up the slider between the two shots, to finish Trade at a substantial deficit. I'll move it back to the cash surplus zone next turn.

[DaveV]

Turn 116. A flurry of diplo messages.

One of my exploring wolves just made contact with one of HidingKneel's galleys this turn. It is currently positioned 25 west and 26 north of the mana node we've been using for reference. This map is so huge...

After sending my last message, I realized that we can do even better than simply trading mana. You don't currently have any of the mana technologies, and I will research the last of them soon, so I believe I can potentially send over some adepts to upgrade your mana nodes. Let me know if you're interested and I'll work on having the resources available. I'm willing to help out in any way that will slow down the Hippus.

That's frustrating news about Hyborem... not least of which because it means that we're going to be seeing Horselord+Nightmare units in the near future. How soon do you expect Hyborem to be eliminated?

Ellimist

Answering questions back to front: I estimate about 15 turns till I'll have a realistic chance at taking out Hyborem. My only current OO city has pretty poor production.

I'd expect HK's horse units to be boosted by both Nightmares and Sheut Stone. As you said, it's a big map and his mobility will help him a lot.

I certainly wouldn't object to you improving my nodes for me. I believe I'll still need the enabling techs before I'll be able to use the mana, though. Don't strip your defenses too bare, though: HK expressed concern to me about your extensive arcane knowledge.

Is it worth sending a hunter to defog a coastal connection between our empires? Some foreign trade routes would give a boost to both our economies.

Dave

Dave,

Sorry to hear that the Infernals are giving you trouble. We're sending a scouting party to determine the location of their second city.

Meanwhile, we've made contact with the Illians. Seems they've learned quite a bit about magic. Might need to do something about that...

Bad Horse

BH,

The Infernals are giving me less trouble than expected, thanks to a *very* poorly timed civics switch and a well-timed OO spread to my border city with hiim; now I think I'll win the culture war. His current lame civics mean he won't be much of a threat to wrest the Grimoire away from you.

Hyborem's new city is 3N5E of his capital. What kind of scouting party are you sending? I'd view it as a hostile act if you started capturing cities on my side of our agreed border.

As you probably noticed, I also have contact with the Illians, as of three turns ago. He says he has a wolf near my southwest borders; I still haven't seen it but have no reason to doubt him yet. It sounds as though he and I are so far apart that there's not going to be a lot of opportunity for interaction.

Dave

My northern hunter is pushing further into the unknown.




Demos:

[DaveV]

Turn 117. Another turn, another tech (Philosophy this time).

I don't think you'll have any trouble using the mana if I build the nodes. Remember the Metamagic node that everyone started with in FFH-14?

Currently, I don't have a surplus of adepts that I'm able to lend out, but I will need to build several of them soon if I want to have mages later. I figure they can complete their education in Balseraph lands just as easily as in our icy homeland. I don't think I have to worry about HK for awhile, either. He's pretty far away from me. I'm more worried about the fact that he just picked up engineering and the Guild of Hammers can't be far away.

I'll research Cartography in the near future. Most likely we can defog a route by trading maps, but if you want to send a hunter that's fine too.

Ellimist

I think you're right about mana nodes being immediately usable. I was probably confused between typed mana bonus tiles and actual node improvements.

HK has his Nightmares already. Maybe the first hell tile in his territory was in one of the aforementioned island cities, which had been built on top of a grassland cow. Sigh.

Dave

Dave,

Hyborem's second city is not far from another of our borders (to the north). While we have no intentions of conquest for the moment, we'll be closely monitoring the spread of hell terrain. In fact, I will be attending the matter personally. Minions always make a mess of things.

Bad Horse

Mr. Horse,

Hyborem's second city may be "not far" from your borders, but it is *on* my border. There's a reason why I have -2 close border tension. I noticed that you already have your nightmares (in Lamistuis), so there's no need to make an aggressive land grab.

Dave

[DaveV]

Turn 118. I have a sentry hunter exploring the north and Loki exploring the east.




Still no sign of green borders.




Maybe the lion will attack the puppet, or Loki will retreat SE.



Nope. Two steps forward, one step back.

[DaveV]

Turn 119 starts with an event.



The second option gives +1 culture to the tile in addition to the AC decrease, and is only available to the Elohim.

This is interesting. The AC has been stalled at 26 for a while, just the right value for hell terrain spread into HK's territory. Now it's below 25 again, so no more spread. The Prophecy of Ragnarok belongs to someone I haven't met yet (Brian would have the best reason to build it). Is it possible that HK bullied him into not raising the AC to Blight level? Does that mean it will quickly run back up to 25 again, or is HK satisfied now that he has Nightmares? Stay tuned for answers to these questions!

More exploring in the north.




In the south, I'm waiting for the borders to pop on Horrifying Cliches. Here's Ellimist's wolf (it's two tiles south of my hunter, hiding in the woods).




Loki does some more exploring in the east. Since the lion will be attacking from the northwest, Loki will retreat to the southeast, right?







Apparently not.

In the west, I captured a lion on defense. Must declare nationality next turn, or the lizard will kill him.




No screenshot, but I settled my second island city on the other island that ACTUALLY HAS FOOD. Ahem.

Again, no screenshot, but Hyborem popped a great sage. He should have had a 50% chance of an engineer, which would have been used to steal the Grimoire from HK.

[Qgqqqqq]

You mean +1 commerce from the event, no?
Secondly, I was under the (strong) impression that Hell Terrain spread in veil lands no matter what, is that wrong? It does mean that it can no longer spread in *your* land though.
If a lizardman attacks a animal with hidden nationality, does it capture it? Edit: stupid me, that would require the subdue promotion.