[SPOILERS] Northstar of the Svartalfar v Bob the Great of the Malakim

[Northstar1989]

Greetings fellow hunters! It is me, Northstar of the Svartalfar! (Volanna)

And today, I'm up against the great and might Bobchillingsworth of the Malakim... (Varn)


Yeah, I'm aware that the Malakim are pretty strong against the Svartalfar- but I had to pick my civ first, so I had little say in the matter. Clearly, though, Bob felt I was important enough to use a Varn pick on- his civ may not be great, but he has pretty much the game's most powerful Leader...


Here is what the start looked like:



And here's what it looked like to the north (GOLD!)



Now my first reaction when I saw the start was EGAD- the Malakim are going to have a FIELD DAY with this, with their starting Creative trait. But then I realized two things:

(1) The Malakim don't start with Agriculture. I do...

(2) The Malakim can't move through forests at double-speed (meaning it would cost them at least a full turn to settle anywhere useful except near the Rice), I can...


This is going to be !FUN!


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Bob was fast! He got me the turn back within 7 minutes!

Nothing to report yet, though. Just continued working on my Scout (with the Sinister, Elven, and Combat I promotions a Scout is actually a great choice to protect my workers by hunting down Barbarians BEFORE they attack- and also great for taming wild animals!) after which I'll get started on a Worker so that I can start a farm on one of the wet Grassland tiles to the south...

Here's keeping my fingers crossed for some positive random events that could snowball in my favor! I may be slightly outmatched by Bob, but I can always pray for a miracle!


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

This is an interesting map...



Maybe I'll be lucky enough to tame a Polar Bear at some point! How do some tasty desert-dweller desserts sound to you my frosty friends?


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

For after the game (and everyone else):

You should be going worker first, Northstar. There are very few scenarios where not going worker first is an option, and this isn't one of them.

Tech wise you should also be going to calender. Farmed cows (with agrarianism) is almost as good as pastured, and taking calender will let you pick up the incense for a large commerce boost, and boost some surrounding grasslands up to 4-food. Food is king, North - less so in ffh in certain scenarios, but it's a good rule of thumb to follow.

In general, you also seem to be overestimating certain advantages and underestimating others. For the Malakim founding a turn later isn't very important - it's definitely worth considering, but other advantages (such as an early worker, an early agrarianism and spiritual access to godking are much more important). The same with terrain advantages - in general the movement advantage of Nomad is nowhere near as important then the commerce advantage on floodplains/oasis'.

If anyone think's that is too much, even for post game, pm me.

[Northstar1989]

Wait, so you post something here just to tell me I can't read it???

I'm assuming you're going to tell me I should be pumping a Worker or a Warrior instead. Don't worry- I know those are typical strategies. But, as I point out- a Scout will be just as good for early military as a Warrior (and a lot more mobile), and I want to gain some XP for him...

As for not doing a Worker- well, I don't want to freeze my city-growth. If I do the Scout first, I'll reach size 2 before I start on the Worker (my NEXT build for sure!) and then it won't take as many turns to complete him. Founding my 2nd city ASAP is more important to me than getting improvements completed- and a 2nd Scout will also give me a better knowledge of the terrain before I found...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Another turn...

My Scout continues to explore to the north...



And my capital is getting close to reaching size 2 (and churning out another Scout)

I wonder, though, if it was a good idea to decide to explore every blackened tile to the north. I don't want to miss any key resource that might pop up later (like Iron or Copper), but it *IS* delaying exploring more useful portions of the map...

Oh well, too late to fix it now. Maybe I shouldn't be playing after a good beer...


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

This is fun! More spoilers:

Yes it would freeze your city growth - but getting an early worker would easily make up for this. Try a sim sometime, I'm sure it will bear out. Besides, no animals even come until t5, and it will be more like t15 before you can expect to see one.
This:

Founding my 2nd city ASAP is more important to me than getting improvements completed

Is also a big mistake. Improvements are king. What is a new city, sans improvements? 170h (or so - one stat I've never memorized, curiously enough) which gives 4f and 2h output (grass forest) sloooowly increasing. Costs in maintenance negate the commerce, and tbh the defence negates the hammers. Get even a agrari grass farm and that's another 2fpt, which speeds up the next size and the next, and so on. And that's discounting resources - where a grass irrigated corn is another 5fpt, and so on.

...god that's a really bad way of explaining it. Seriously though, try a sim sometime. Look at a start and run it through 3-5 times for the first 50 turns and try different approaches. I guarantee that the improvement first one will win. Hell, start a thread and post a start and I'll run through the sim and show you what I'd do.

Where are you currently thinking for city 2?

[Northstar1989]

Stop it with the Spoilers- or I might just have to click on them! You DID post it on MY thread, so you can't really say it wasn't legit for me to look at them... It's probably nothing important anyways though- I doubt you'd blatantly post secret information, even in a spoiler.


As for city #2, it might just be the beer talking (in fact, it's PROBABLY the beer talking), but you see that nice forested Plain between the Wheat and the Sugar? I'm thinking of founding there. It's close enough to snatch up the Cows from my capital if I ever need to micro-manage a project or growth-threshold that's just a few food/hammers short, and it's also next to the lake, so it's got fresh water. And there's the Wheat- which is always nice...

Either that, the Plains Hill 2 tiles east of there (which might be better, depending on what the fog holds), or north of the Rice. The Rice is nice (hey, that rhymes! ), but it doesn't have much growth-potential until I unlock fishing due to the lack of more than one immediately-adjacent Grassland forest I can plant a Farm under... Also, there are probably some much better spots I haven't discovered yet...

Really, though, I need to uncover some more of the fog. There are probably some great spots I just haven't uncovered yet. And between the time to build a Scout, a Worker, and maybe a Smokehouse before the next Settler, I should have PLENTY of time to explore with my 2 Scouts first...

You're probably thinking I'm crazy/stupid at this point, though. Where would YOU settle Q?


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Well, the Hills Plain has fresh water, so it must be on the side of a lake...



It might actually be the best spot for my next city to the east. But based on the poor terrain to the north/east, I REALLY want to see what lies to the West first (which is where I'll find Bob), before I go making any rash decisions. Luckily, I've got plenty of time, and 2 Scouts to ensure I manage to do that...



Oh BOY does that Silk look nice, by the way. Since I'm Elven, I can build a Plantation there without chopping, if I'm not mistaken (and probably need the Commerce- since Aristograrianism is NOT to my advantage when most of my Farms will lie under forests...) This map hasn't had a lot to help the Elves (rich terrain under forests) so far, except for in the way of increased mobility. So that Silk, at least should be nice...


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Since I'm Elven, I can build a Plantation there without chopping, if I'm not mistaken

You're not mistaken.

Where would YOU settle Q?

I couldn't possibly say


Fogreading can be a good help for working out things like that. For example, you can clearly see the outline of a coastline 2E of the sugar in the picture you posted.