HidingKneel horses around with Rhoanna [HAR! I mean, SPOILERS!]

[Commodore]

What I actually meant is it looks like you are trying to win a Domination Victory with settlers. I want it to happen.

[HidingKneel]

What I actually meant is it looks like you are trying to win a Domination Victory with settlers. I want it to happen.

I'll see what I can do . There's a long way to go:



This map is friggin' enormous. It's really a stroke of luck that Hyborem landed so close. Seems Dave is none too happy about it:

Arrgh. Just Arrgh. You have no idea how badly that city messes things up for me.

Sorry, I owed you a response to your last email: the sugar should be online after my next turn.

Dave the Depressed

I don't get it. Maybe Dave really wanted a city on the coast of my big lake? It wouldn't help him get islands, since I'm already claiming them (got another island city this turn. Not so lucrative yet, because I only have two automatic trade routes... but I should be gradually accumulating more, especially if I manage to snag the Great Lighthouse).

Revolted into Sacrifice the Weak and Slavery this turn. GNP immediately shot up (StW is no upkeep and +10% gold!)
And, of course, my food surplus went through the roof. Did my first little bit of whipping this turn... a worker, a settler, and a Temple in the Veil holy city. That city has lots of food and not much production. Seems like a good place to whip out the Beasts of Agares (and thematic!) Much more to come...

The arrival of Hyborem allowed the barbarians to double-move. I wasn't expecting that (it also happened in FFH XX but I didn't understand it at the time), and I took a few losses:



Barbarian skeleton nabbed two of my workers . Well, plenty more where those came from. Cities with 30+ surplus food can get worker out pretty fast.

Decided to research Message from the Deep, to start getting ready for my Beasts (an Overlords temple will make a nice addition to my great person farm, as well). That was another increase to the AC. Several more on the way (Rosier, Grimoire, Mardero, Beasts...) I ought to be able to weather blight pretty well, since I'm running StW (many cities wouldn't even notice it) and can whip away unhealthy population. I'm not sure I want to deal with the Horsemen, though, but hopefully I've still got some time to prepare.

EOT demos (golden age, no tech selected):



Food for thought: Nox Noctis is allowed. Am I an idiot for not grabbing Deception ASAP?

[HidingKneel]

Turn 112.

Built two new cities this turn. Here's one:



Looks like there are only so many names to go around (weird that I've never noticed this before... I only have 26 cities at this point, and I'm pretty sure that I've gotten bigger than that in SP games...)

Generated a great person last turn. It came out a Merchant. The RNG really wants me to grab the Nox Noctis...

In foreign affairs, Brian converted to Veil (I'll bet he's steamed that I beat him to Rosier and other AV goodies), and somebody built the Great Library. Great Lighthouse still hasn't fallen... just three more turns until I can pop rush it. It'll be nice to finally land a wonder this game...

Speaking of wonders... which ones do I want?

Right now I'm thinking Great Lighthouse (being built), Infernal Grimoire (being built), Guild of Hammers, Nox Noctis, Guild of the Nine, and Ride of Nine Kings.

That's a tall order, but I'm guessing that I can land most of them.

Teched Hunting last turn and Archery this turn. Next I'll 1-turn Mathematics. Given the food surpluses I'm running, I really need the extra happy from Gambling Houses for growing my cities and offsetting whip unhappiness.

Slavery + StW is an amazingly strong combo. The capital has 32 surplus food... combined with a Granary, that's a pop growth every turn with overflow. It wasn't much of a hammer powerhouse, so Slavery more than doubles its output.

After Mathematics? Probably Deception, though I doubt I have much competition for Esus. Ellimist's Agnostic, Brian just finished researching Veil, and Dave doesn't even have Mysticism yet. Tholal might be angling for it, but then again he might not be (he's running Kilmorph now). Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Engineering's also a top priority. After which... maybe it's time to start that beeline to Warhorses? Should also pick up Currency at some point.

[HidingKneel]

Alright... turn 115. Last turn of my Golden Age.

Event log reveals that Ellimist has finally unlocked his Priests of Winter:



Far too late for those to be scary. If Ellimist can even find me...

Should start thinking about finding him, though. He's #2, and he doesn't need to overtake me in order to win. He just needs to build the Tower of Mastery.

Finally got in range to pop-rush the Great Lighthouse:



Feels kind of silly to rush it when it's so close to completion, but I can't actually finish it next turn (GA will be over), and I really don't want to miss it.

The food situation in the capital is insane:



Is there some cap to that, or will I just keep building up an enormous buffer?

Tech is set to Engineering. I don't want to miss the Nox Noctis, but I really really don't want to miss the Guild of Hammers.
Plus the road movement from Engineering will be useful. I've got a group of cities that are pushing out 1-turn workers and 2-turn settlers, and I'm planning to spread out over the eastern landmass like a swarm of locusts... (28 cities now).

It occurs to me belatedly that I really should have teched Deception before Infernal Pact. Then I would have been able to have Hyborem as an Undercouncil buddy.

As it is, I think I should conquer him. Grab some cities that can claim Nightmares, get the Gela. Shouldn't be too hard once I have Beasts (which is soon). Right now I'm sending Rosier down to scout out the situation. I attached the Great Commander from Military Strategy to him, just in case he gets an opportunity to kill some barbs in his travels.

Another possibility is to use those Beasts to punch through the wall of goblin archers to the southwest of my core. I'll bet I can find other players if I go that way (and it'll give me a new direction to expand in). I'm scouting that coast now, though, and no luck so far.

Here are the demos as of EOT (with GA over):



Looking good. I think Dave's my competition in MFG; he just fired his own GA a few turns back.

[Qgqqqqq]

Is there some cap to that, or will I just keep building up an enormous buffer?

I don't think there's a limit.
What hell resources are there atm?

[HidingKneel]

New turn. New contact!



That's Ellimist's wolf. So we've now met the Illians.

Techwise: he's up Priesthood, Alteration, Divination, and Elementalism. I'm up Festivals, Drama, Military Strategy, Necromancy, and all the religous techs (Corruption of Spirit, Infernal Pact, Message from the Deep).

Need to worry about a Tower of Mastery in the long run. I think I'll probably have to use my Beasts to go hunt him down, once they get built.

He doesn't have Necromancy or Sorcery. Possibly that's the direction they're going next. However, he's also got Mathematics. Which makes me think that he's headed to Engineering to grab the Guild of Hammers. So, full speed ahead on that. I can probably land the tech before him, but I don't really have a powerful hammer city to build it in, so I might lose the race.

City-wise: He's got 11. As of this turn, we've got 29.

Civics: he's running the same as me. Except he's got Nationhood where I've got Sacrifice the Weak .

Looking at the demos, it's hard to say whether he's fired a Golden Age yet. There's two points where his GNP spikes suddenly, but no corresponding jump in MFG. I'm going to guess no GA yet, which makes the Guild of Hammers even more uncertain.

Wonder-wise: looks like he's the one with the Heron Throne and the Great Library. Not the Bone Palace or the Titan, though.

What hell resources are there atm?

There's Gulagarm next to Dis. No longer a big deal: unhappy citizens are now the fuel that burns my unholy rise to power.
Also, gambling houses. But there's also this:



Gotta get me some of those. If it means war with Dave, so be it. Though I suspect that won't be necessary; there's plenty of cows on the map, and the AC is high enough for hell terrain to spread into unowned land.

Speaking of which, I should get myself some Life Adepts to make the hell terran doesn't ruin anything of mine. That can wait until after Engineering, of course.

Here's an overview of what we're building:



There's another page after that, but it's more boring (lots of cities building culture, granaries, etcetera).

Demographics:

[Merovech]

God, those demos are insane, especially when one realizes that your food is almost 2x as efficient as everyone else's anyway.

[HidingKneel]

A few more turns played. I landed some more goodies:



Got a source of Nightmares now, on one of my island cities.

Founded Esus this turn. Was getting a little worried that Dave was going for it... he's in a golden age now and has all the prereqs. I've also got Alteration. I want some life adepts to make sure hell terrain doesn't spread too far into my territory. Plus haste is always great to have. Got Nature Mana from the palace, so I think I'll also hook Enchantment and get a city started on a Tower of Alteration. I'm not really so keen on winning by tower, but I want to keep my options open.

Finished the Grimoire at EOT. I'll use it to grab Malevolent Designs for Beasts and Mardero. Then I need to decide what to do with them. Still don't have a good idea of where Ellimist is... maybe I should go after Dave once I get my army up and running? In that case, I'll need a few more military toys. Priesthood for Ritualists. First, though, I'm thinking Currency. Lots of cities would benefit from half-price moneychangers, and I'll put Guild of the Nine in a production center.

Wonder-wise, I'm a bit worried about the Guild of Hammers. Ellimist's GNP has spiked; he's now overtaken me. (Doesn't seem to be due to GA.) I've got a head start of a few turns, but he could easily catch up if he's got a high-production city. Maybe I should fire another GA of my own? I generated another Sage this turn, and I'm still sitting on a Merchant (which could build the Nox Noctis instead) and a Great Commander (currently attached to Rosier). The GA would let me swap into Undercouncil, which is probably just barely worthwhile (very worthwhile if I can get someone else to join). Mostly it would just increase my odds at nabbing the Guild of Hammers, but that's a pretty awesome wonder on a map this size. Not sure putting it off would do any good; my economy's holding steady at around 50% gold, and I don't think I'm ever going to want to leave my current religion/civics.

32 cities and counting.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, turn 125.

Another five turns in.

We've finally got some high strength units:



I'm training the Beasts up on those goblin archers that are keeping us boxed in. They need mobility promos at least.

Note: I've actually bypassed the goblin archers by sea already. Got a team of four workers and two chariots building a road down south in the direction that Ellimist came from. The road gets one tile longer each turn. It's not clear, at this rate, that it'll actually lead anywhere by the end of the game.

Also of note: Ellimist's got a wolf hanging out by the workers. I could just declare and kill it, and maybe I should, but I haven't yet. It's not doing any harm.

Turns out my fear about Ellimist were unfounded. He was going for Sorcery, not Engineering. And that's the reason he had a GNP competitive with ours: he was getting +80% from 4 prereq bonuses. He finally landed it this turn, and probably hasn't even started on Engineering. So I think it's safe to say I'm going to get this wonder:



Still planning to pop rush it ASAP, though... it'll be a big boost as soon as it comes in.

Note: Ellimist has Sorcery and all basic magic techs. Looks like he hasn't connected any mana, though, so I don't have to worry about him building towers quite yet.

Wonder-wise, I'm also building Guild of the Nine in my best hammer city, and I've started a Tower of Alteration here:



Cash-rushing is the only way I'm going to finish the towers in a reasonable timeframe. But that's quite feasible: I can probably generate something like 700gp/turn right now. For now, I'm putting that GNP to teching, though. Since the last update I've grabbed Currency, Priesthood, and just finished Stirrups this turn. Remaining techs on the list are Feudalism, Warhorses, and maybe some arcane techs (Divination, Elementalism -> Sorcery; worthwhile for the floating eyes even if I'm not planning to win by Tower). After that I dunno. I guess I should be gearing up for war. Got my first Ritualist out this turn, and Mardero, and I'll finish my last Beast next turn. I've also built the Nox Noctis, so I could probably gather quite a big of muscle on my border with Dave without him being aware of it. Note: he's running OO and just teched Priesthood, and is therefore starting to look vaguely dangerous (all of my border cities with him are on the water). Now that I've got Stirrups and Stables everywhere I should probably make myself a giant stack of Horse Archers and take Dave out.

Made contact with the Doviello this turn:



They are super-far away.

Meanwhile, I've got Rosier out scouting for the Sheaim, or Acheron, or whatever else he can find:



New civ means new graphs:









Not terribly worrying.

The AC reached 29 when I built Mardero at EOT. Finishing the final Beast should tip us into Blight. If not, I can finish the job by building the Stigmata. I've got a Sage on hand for that, which I've been saving just in case I need a GA to put a rush on the Guild of Hammers. Looks like that won't be necessary, though, so my second GA can wait a while. Blight ought to be quite a setback for everyone who isn't running StW (except the Infernal, of course).

Speaking of the Infernal... looks like Hyborem researched Cartography. So I opened borders with him. His trade routes aren't worth anything to me, but maybe they'll help him a bit.

Here are the demos (before EOT):



I'm at 36 cities now. Dave is also growing rapidly (20 last I counted), mainly using Loki I think, and Tholal is nearly as large (he's also Expansive).

[Qgqqqqq]

How spread is the veil?