[Spoilers] Dreylin of the Khazad fumbles around in the earth (EitB PBEM39)

[Aurorarcher]

The clan gally could of course be finding a new city spot from one of those island(s) - if there's some. The traderoutes coming from an island city is a pretty nice boost.

What's your plan with Archery Ranges? Archers for defense? I'm not a huge fan of archers (dwarven slinger for you) - though, without Copper it probably makes sense. I'd suggest getting copper connected pretty soon as your whole army is pretty all melee units. Copper warriors defend almost as well as archers if you take into account that they're over 2x cheaper than archers.

Only issue with copper seems to be that it's somewhat faraway from your core cities.

[Dreylin]

Yeah, Copper is a priority on the horizon for sure; I think I've got the spot identified, and it will be in the next round of cities, but I do plan to give the land another review after the next 3 go down to identify and prioritise. I'm more and more certain that's an island, and I'm also pretty certain it can be confirmed in the next couple of turns by walking around it on the main landmass. If so, the one to the North is probably closer (at least to the current expansion direction) than the one to the East, but both are equally near to neighbours.

It's getting more important to confirm where everyone is placed. With Kragroth building Kithra and the Clan growing like weeds (confirmed 8 cities as of last turn) prioritising defense will important. Based on the Galley, the Clan are either in the pod to the NE, or directly North - which is also directly South. I should probe that pod soon with the Southern exploring team.

I was thinking I'd get an Archery Range for some Archers - to mix up the defense if nothing else. Melee-only defense must be vulnerable to Shock promotions, so dotting an odd Archer in there should help with that. The alternative I was looking at (other than more Warriors) was a Granary to speed the city's growth, but I'm not really sure how to rate Granaries in EitB. Brie feels like it might be worth it since it has lots of sizes to grow and may need the extra Health once it gets large and the forests get chopped (Wensleydale is over it's Health cap at the moment, though that will correct itself once the Corn, Pigs&Crab, and Cows&Fish come online from the next 3 cities.

A mechanics question; if someone I haven't met completes a Shrine, I should see that on the World Wonders screen same as BTS, right? Reason I ask is that there have been 2 Prophets born so far, and no Shrine has been reported yet. I had assumed that the first one popped from a lair, but if it was Krag or North I see no reason why they wouldn't have Shrined their State Religion. What am I missing?

[DaveV]

A mechanics question; if someone I haven't met completes a Shrine, I should see that on the World Wonders screen same as BTS, right?

Right.

Reason I ask is that there have been 2 Prophets born so far, and no Shrine has been reported yet. I had assumed that the first one popped from a lair, but if it was Krag or North I see no reason why they wouldn't have Shrined their State Religion. What am I missing?

I can't comment on what, if anything, the other players were thinking.

[Dreylin]

A mechanics question; if someone I haven't met completes a Shrine, I should see that on the World Wonders screen same as BTS, right?

Right.

Thanks, that's what I thought.

Reason I ask is that there have been 2 Prophets born so far, and no Shrine has been reported yet. I had assumed that the first one popped from a lair, but if it was Krag or North I see no reason why they wouldn't have Shrined their State Religion. What am I missing?

I can't comment on what, if anything, the other players were thinking.

Well one of them is Northstar, who has some ... umm, unconventional ideas at times. Or they could both be Clan, who don't have a religion yet (as far as I know).

[Aurorarcher]

Shrine is not always the best place to put your Prophet on. Especially early on you won't get much out if it (those specialist slots are nice though) - of course if your religion is well spread it'll be nice boost but even then sometimes GA or Priestood bulb might be more valuable. Of course, all this is very situational.

I generally don't find granaries to be much of use in EitB compared to the hammer investment, and after all they only give you 20% food storing. OTOH you have lots of hammers and if you've health issues, sure.

[Dreylin]

Decided that Brie is in the business of Warriors for the foreseeable future (5-6t until I get RoK into it and it starts on Thanes).

t56 - scored some gold from an event to start the turn.

Confirmed that Qgqqqqq is North/South of me:




I moved the first Axe SE and revealed the above, so I sent the rest West and he will catch up and see who's over there.

A Barb shows up in the East:


The highlighted Sentry spot is where I'm currently thinking I'll plant for the Copper; it'll orphan a few tiles, but grabs the FP and the Cow for food.

And a free city in the West (plus Bear!):


Stilton plants next turn, which might delay the pair of Settlers since it knocks the production bonus down to +10%. Safely on track for 600g by the time Cheddar and Camembert settle.

Q's economy is back down at starting levels with his 10cities (including that island one we can see above), but it'll pick up quickly as his cities grow and in the meantime he's beating the field in Food & Prod. Power is slightly higher than ours, but since his pop is also quite a bit higher that means he has fewer actual units. I'll post demos next turn if anyone's interested, and definitely when I meet whomever's SE/SW.

[Aurorarcher]

I like your city spot for copper, little low on food though, but still the best spot nearby. What's your plan after WotE (sorry if you mentioned it somewhere)?

[Dreylin]

I like your city spot for copper, little low on food though, but still the best spot nearby.

I think that is going to be the description of a few cities in the next round, as the resources are not exactly lush. OTOH, there is a lot of fresh water about - mostly 1-2 tile lakes and 1-2 section rivers - so the main source of food with be Farms.

What's your plan after WotE (sorry if you mentioned it somewhere)?

Haven't really discussed it, and would appreciate your input; this is where my FFH2/EitB games tend to fall down is indecision over tech paths and/or chasing too many things. As I think I said up front, I chose Khazad so that I could skip (to some degree) the Magic techs.

My current thoughts are:

Sanitation: definitely high on my list of wants, but also expensive and I'd prefer to get Construction first, however Construction isn't really needed right now. I will need Sanitation around the time I switch to Aristocracy to maintain the food surplus, and have been planning to grab it during the Bone Palace Golden Age.

Sailing: now that I'm settling some coastal cities this starts to have some worth. Although I'm not sure whether I'm ready to leap for an island yet, the potential for intercontinental routes is a draw.

Priesthood: I'm not planning to stay in RoK for the rest of the game, so I'm going to want to push out the Temples fast and store up some Stonewardens for a later date; makes sense to start now.

Warfare: need 4xp on my top unit to enable the Titan. I note that since Kragroth has built Kithra and Q built Rantine, there's a narrowing window before a potential race for this (maybe 20t?).

HBR/KotE: both have uses (Mobility / Enchanted Blades), but don't seem as useful as the above.


I don't have access to the game right now, so can't look at research times, which might make a difference. Right now I'd probably go Warfare next if I pick up the xp before WotE finishes, otherwise probably Sailing to at least get the Pearl reveal for future planning.

[Aurorarcher]

FoT would definitely be a great catch if you were able to get it because you could swap out of Aprrenticeship and use Military Strategy instead. FoT can be build at double speed with copper, which kind of sucks for you if the enemy already has copper connected - but then again you also get hammers from the vaults (you need more gold obviously).

So I'd probably want to finish Warfare at the time you almost have copper connected as well. You can start FoT before copper is connected if you think you don't find any better use for your hammers. When (roughly) do you think you would have the copper connected?

Should you settle the copper spot before "Cheaddar"? What do you think?

HBR/KotE are pretty much only needed when you're about to go to war or if someone is attacking you (which could happen of course as Clan has boats). I would skip these for now at least. Same goes to Construction, those Trebuchets are nice but you don't need them just yet (like you said yourself). Of course with construction you could chain your farms which could help with lower food areas.

I'd skip Priesthood for now as well, it's the most expensive techs of these. At least not as first prioprity in my mind.

I'd probably go like: Warfare (assuming you'll find that 4xp and have an idea when you'll get copper) -> Sanitation -> Sailing/Priestood depending on the situation. You have CoL right (as you spoke about Aristocracy)?

Have you fired your worldspell yet? How many mines do you have at the moment?

[Aurorarcher]

Oh btw, I could take a look at the most recent save (if you agree) to get a better view of your situation. You know my email already