[SPOILERS] Tres Equis: Mardoc plays the Most Interesting Civ in the World

[Mardoc]

Met the last of our victims - I mean, foes.



Ice Elementals had a much less lucky turn, but that's the beauty of fighting with summons. Still whittled the city down some, still expect progress next turn. PoW would only have had odds in the 80's, nowhere near high enough to risk them.

[Mardoc]

Ok, I see two higher priorities than killing Yell0w...so far.






I need to get the Amurite worldspell popped or made impossible, and I need to defend from Molach. Possibly defend actively . Need to figure out priorities here. If that bloodpet sticks around, it needs to die next turn, but other than that I'm debating what makes sense.

Edit: Well, Molach's power isn't amazing, even if he does have copper warriors and Moroi available, he doesn't have them yet. Regular warriors are probably capable, for now. Hopefully I've got at least adepts out or the PoW returned by the time he's got a serious force.

Suttree's only got four cities. And he's got lowest Power. If he doesn't already have his worldspell available, he may never have it. Much as I'm nervous about the idea of opening a second front before finishing the first, I'm thinking he's got to be my priority.

But kill that Bloodpet and get a sentry or two out toward Molach, first. Just to be sure.

[Azarius]

Why Mardoc, it almost sounds like you mean to infllict violence on your fellow inhabitants of this world. I thought you yearned only for peaceful builder turns to make inns and herbalists . In all seriousness, pressuring Suttree makes a lot of sense. his worldspell is by far the biggest threat to your plans for arcane dominance, so getting rid of that before it can be an issue would be a huge help.

[Mardoc]

Why Mardoc, it almost sounds like you mean to infllict violence on your fellow inhabitants of this world. I thought you yearned only for peaceful builder turns to make inns and herbalists . In all seriousness, pressuring Suttree makes a lot of sense. his worldspell is by far the biggest threat to your plans for arcane dominance, so getting rid of that before it can be an issue would be a huge help.

Glad you agree

PoW are en route, but something like 13 turns away. Honestly, if I'd known he was that close, I should have skipped the barb city entirely and just gone for him directly. Going to have my workers cut that time down a smidge for me, but it could be better.

Econ is crashing, down to something like 5 gpt at 0% science. Need to keep building and working cottages. At least the Elder Councils are keeping research moving along. But I won't be building any settlers for a bit here

And I'm sending a fair few warriors west. Need to be able to keep Molach off my back while I either force out WS or kill the Amurites (depending on whether he's got KotE yet)

[Mardoc]

Is that supposed to be a keepaway sign or something? PoW are inbound, now that I have four warriors to my western border (and counting). Something like 8 turns away, now that I've gotten some more roads in place. If he's going to try to defend with Soldiers of Kilmorph - well, I like the hammer exchange odds of summons vs SoK!

Also, you can see that Elder Councils have really rescued my economy! I'm stacking up Sage GPP in four cities now, plus getting a decent beaker rate. Slavery is going to put up more of these, everywhere . And shortly, Elder Councils and adepts!

[Azarius]

Do the priests have any escort, or just them and their summons? Using SoK to actually fight is an interesting choice. I suppose they're stronger than warriors but their cost is kind of prohibitive. If what he has sitting on that hill is supposed to be scary I like your chances. What does his power look like currently?

[Mardoc]

Do the priests have any escort, or just them and their summons? Using SoK to actually fight is an interesting choice. I suppose they're stronger than warriors but their cost is kind of prohibitive. If what he has sitting on that hill is supposed to be scary I like your chances. What does his power look like currently?

Planning on just the PoW, plus maybe one or two warriors if they're in the neighborhood. PoW are already to the Combat II/III level, with still more passive XP to collect, so they should be fairly strong. At least against the Amurites. I'm rather more worried about the Calabim. But I think I've got to try eliminating that worldspell regardless. If Molach is just a few more turns delayed, I ought to at least get some Slow adepts built.

[Mardoc]

Still haven't seen the turn again, but I figured I should add a little to the report. Something I didn't mention: turned science back on, so that KotE is due in 4 turns. Slavery is turning out to be very nice - my main issue is running out of things to whip! I'll be finishing up granaries and smokehouses shortly; already got Elder Councils and Monuments up almost everywhere, and Temples of the Hand in progress where appropriate. Lack of good whip targets won't be much of a problem once I've got adepts available - they're always a good idea.

First priority is getting a Slow adept - depending on what Molach brings, that might effectively halve his stack. Second priority is Enchanting all my Blades. Realisitically I want all the adepts to take Slow, in preparation for being able to summon Ice Elementals. Law is less important, unless a target starts scorching all over the place and I need Hosts instead of elementals.

Having four sages beavering away means I've got Great Sages due rather soon - 10ish turns on the counters. Of course the later ones will be extended when the first one pops, but still, I expect to get to Sorcery in a fairly reasonable timeframe. Won't have any other tech, though . No Bronze, no HBR, no econ techs. Or at least getting them late.

Going all-in on magic like this is the main reason I'm taking the risk of hitting the Amurites while Molach is still at war with me and building a lot of Power. If I can wipe out that worldspell, then I have confidence in the ability of Ice mages to keep me save and kill everyone; if I can't then I'll be hideously vulnerable. I'd rather lose early due to stretching too far than lose late after establishing a strong position.

I'm debating if I should research the mana techs myself - might take a while, even with an ever increasing number of Elders - or simply bulb my way directly to Sorcery - fewer total beakers provided.

[Mardoc]

Finally had another turn. Molach backed off with his warrior; not sure exactly why. If it's the precursor to invasion - well, I'm up to 6 warriors fortifying in Strawberry now, so I've got a decent chance to stop him. Strawberry started a Monument for defensive bonus, visabilty, and copper tiles; next it'll build a Temple of the Hand - again a mixture of defense and economy. I've got some chops incoming, and a Slave, so these ought to go up relatively quickly.

I turned up my tech speed another notch; I expect to finish KotE next turn. Which is very good, because I really need something new to whip in my cities. I'm on the verge of trying out Herbalists just for somewhere to dump the hammers I'm about to hook up Wines, which will let me use the food for growth for the moment - but I can't afford any more settlers just yet, and I have enough workers.

Plus, well, I'll feel a lot more secure once I've got adepts deployed with the 'stop Molach' force and adepts counting up their XP toward Magedom. I'm only 2 whip cycles away from being able to deploy them.

[Azarius]

Molach has more power then I thought he had, unless I had missed an earlier graph. Kind of scary actually. With priests home it'd obviously not be any real threat, but getting rid of the Amurite worldspell before it's an issue when you're going arcane focus just makes sense. Hopefully he is put off by your power spike that has to be the priests and thinks he doesn't have an opportunity atm. Once you can get a slow adept into Strawberry he will need a pretty big force for it to be worth attacking.

As far as what to bulb or not bulb, how long would hand researching a mana tech take? Obviously the more beakers we can get with each bulb the better, but it may be better getting the beakers sooner depending.

It's nice to see how well you've been able to leverage slavery. You've been able to get infra builds into cities that I wouldn't be building this early in SP, let alone a MP game when you're at war with the power leader and about to start another .

ETA on the PoW invasion?