Let it go: HidingKneel plunges Erebus into eternal winter

[HidingKneel]

If you were on a plane yesterday sitting behind a grown man who was watching this movie over and over again, that was totally not me. Or, if it was, it was all in the name of research .

[HidingKneel]

And here's my starting screenshot, courtesy of Q:



First instinct is to grab the riverside plains hill SSW. Going to need to meditate on it.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, first turn in.

No new information, really. Seems like settling SSW of the start is pretty clearly my best option. Only thing that worries me is that it's next to the water. In a game with Cultists allowed, but where I can't build any myself. Well, I'll worry about that when the time comes.



Good site for a second city there, too. Plenty of wheat to go around!

Starting settler is slow, so I'll have to wait a turn to found the capital. Meanwhile... what's the gameplan?
Illians start with Exploration. Clearly this calls for Agriculture -> Calendar first. Charismatic + Enchantment mana means my happy cap starts at 7. I only see five tiles worth working, though (the two floodplains, the wheat, the incense, and an Agrarian-boosted farm next to the oasis). So I'll probably start a settler at size 5. Crafting->Mining seems like a good choice afterwards; get that Gold connected ASAP and build some mines to make use of my extra happy citizens.

After that, I can think of three ways to go:

1) Priest of Winter rush. Mysticism (swap to God King) -> Philosophy (start White Hand ritual in the capital) -> Bronze Working (pumping out cheap warriors to use as shock troops). Then drop in on my nearest neighbor. Viability entirely dependent on map size.

2) Magic gameplan. Auric is competitive with the Amurites and the Balseraphs for best arcane game... Charismatic + Arcane means I ought to have no problem getting Adepts enough xp to promote to mages, and Ice Mana is just fantastic. Law I is kind of meh, but Enchantment and Ice are both good just to have on adepts. If I can get to Sorcery in reasonable shape, I ought to be a real powerhouse.

3) Auric Ascended gameplan. Good thematic fun... too bad it's totally unrealistic.

Of course, the whole point of picking Auric is that stasis is allowed. Looks like it's been modified somewhat in EitB but is still awesome. Seven turns where my opponents can't build or research anything, while I get a Golden Age.
Even if I don't use it strategically, that buys me a ten-turn head start on everyone else. The GA means I definitely don't want to use it straight away. If I go with the PoW rush, I should pop the worldspell right before invading to maximize the damage.

Another possibility is to build Samhain and pop the worldspell simultaneously. Probably a lousy idea, but it has the possibility to really do some damage if my opponents are running minimal garrisons.

[HidingKneel]

Wait a sec... if I'm rushing, I probably want

Mysticism -> Philosophy -> Education -> Bronze Working to swap to Apprenticeship or even Apprenticeship/Conquest (note that Cha means Apprenticeship/Conquest buys me two starting promotions).

[Dp101]

You do realise that because of your theme literally everyone in this game will try and kill you?

[HidingKneel]

You do realise that because of your theme literally everyone in this game will try and kill you?

Poor Queen Elsa is so misunderstood.

Turn pace in this game is awesome. We've seen three turns already.

Of course, not much is going on quite yet...

Everyone settled on their second turn. Looks like I don't have to worry about any mind games concerning the Calabim worldspell:



Surprises me how often people do that. Even with land this nice, I'd think it'd be worth it to hold off a bit and inflict some damage on your opponents. Anyway, I'll take it.

Founded the capital:



Meanwhile, scout got a good look at the proposed second city site:



That location looks pretty awesome, but it's not ideally placed for grabbing seafood (I'd miss some fish). Also, I probably want to settle that island eventually, but I suppose I'll have plenty of opportunities to claim some coast.

Got a fairly meaningless event:



Meanwhile, here are the demos:



Calabim are in the lead, of course. Looks like I'm behind in GNP and even in MFG... which could mean two things:

1) The starts are not quite mirrored, with some civs able to plant on a plains hill and work an oasis immediately.

2) GNP from culture rounds up, and some people are running Religion?

It occurs to me now that I should have swapped into Religion on turn 0. Well, I'll have an opportunity for that when Calendar comes in (if I still want to). In the meanwhile, Nationhood probably won't cost me more than four points of culture and possibly one hammer.

[HidingKneel]

Calabim are in the lead, of course. Looks like I'm behind in GNP and even in MFG... which could mean two things:

Oh, wait. Much more likely is:

3) Prereq bonuses. The Svartalfar start with Agriculture so they're certainly going to be researching Calendar. Assuming mirrored starts and that they founded on the same spot that I did, that would put their GNP at 14. The Calabim are at size 3 and start with Exploration, so they're probably working an extra floodplains and a forest and researching Agriculture: that would make them the GNP of 13. The Malakim start with Chants IIRC, so if they're getting a prereq bonus they must be going Mysticism first. Sounds like an odd move to me, but there you have it.

[Commodore]

You do realise that because of your theme literally everyone in this game will try and kill you?

Song stuck in head...so hard to get out...

Well, I don't know if any of them have little girls. But if they do...uh, yeah, man, you're dogpiled.

[HidingKneel]

Song stuck in head...so hard to get out...

Why would you want to get it out?

Turn pace for this game is awesome.

Unfortunately, my scouting luck is not so awesome:



That's a Spider with what looks like a Command II promotion. Ate my scout at EOT (I move last, so I get to watch the barbarians). Possibly the scout is now a barbarian which will come back to harass me. I've got my warrior exploring in the other direction, but I think he can make it back to the capital in time to stave off elimination.

[HidingKneel]

First barbarian sighted:



Hope that scout of mine doesn't come calling at the same time. That could be bad.