Aurorarcher leads Khazad out of their cavernous homes

[Aurorarcher]

My picks:

1) Decius of Calabim
2) Kandros Fir of Khazad
3) Perpentach of Balseraphs

Will comment more later why I chose these.

I realised after chosing these that Org doesn't boost GMs anymore in V11.1 (GM no longer replaces Courthouse). So I could've chosen Flauros instead. Oh, well. Cheap lighthouses might be handy in this map setup with bunch of water. Raiders is situational, could be gamechanger but not really doing me much early on.

[Aurorarcher]

So Dreylin got Decius which means I was given my #2 pick. I'm happy with that, although playing with Calabim would've been a fun journey.

What's great about Khazad, now that I saw my opponents picks, is that they're pretty hard/unlikely to get rushed. +20% city defense out of gate + CI makes my cities pretty safe in the early game. This could make it less likely that Dave will harass me with his scouts. He could very well do it but I'm not the easiest target. Also fast workers is always nice to have when playing Khazad (+20% or 25% faster, I forgot which one).

More thoughts later.

[Aurorarcher]

So the turn finally came to me. This is what I saw at the start:




Moved 1W with the settler and not losing 3-moves here is pretty sweet:




Settled on the hill. Basically I traded 2 grasshills, Pig and Cotton for Sheep and a riverside Wheat. Which is okay because I'm not going to grab Calendar right away - and also, had I settled in place I couldn't get a city near the fish.

2nd city is probably going 1N of the Pig, then it can use capitals Corn. Another possibility is 2S out of Pig. Khazak's borders have popped twice by the time I get my 2nd city so I can work pig even from there also.

There's some potential city sites in the west as well, the southern one is pretty good. Even without border pops it can work Wheat and Sheep from capital and incense and a few mines.




My early tech plan is: Agri -> Mining -> Exploration -> AH/Calendar.

I've simmed this a bit and there are some choices I need to decide on:

#1: Build a worker, grow to size 4 and build one warrior (comes out the same turn as capital hit's size 4), then settler
#2: Build a worker, grow to size 3 (warrior 1t away), then settler

#1 results:




Settler out on T28. 2nd city on T30. Agri, Mining, Exploration and 47b to either AH/Calendar. 2 turns away from size 5.

#2 results:




Settler out on T27. 2nd city on T29. Agri, Mining, Exploration and 24b to either AH/Calendar. 3 turns away from size 4.

Growing to size 5 is slowing settling 2nd city down to T33 with 2 warriors in capital. So that's not even coming into a question.

Comparing the #1 and #2:

Pros #1:
- Faster to happy cap and faster 2nd worker
- Slightly more beakers researched on T30 -> can hook up pig faster
- have 1 more turn done with a non-river farm

Cons #1:
- 2nd city settled 1 turn slower.

Pros #2:
- 2nd city 1 turn faster.

Cons #2:
- no warriors out
- slower growth of capital compared to #1
- slightly worse teching -> pig comes online one turn later

Both #1 and #2 can give me a worker out in 4 turns after settler. Thought #1 gives me a lot more overflow afterwards if I decide to go for a 2nd worker.

Overall, I think I'm leaning towards #1.

[Aurorarcher]

Oh yea, also, Dreylin fired his WS on T0, so no need to worry about that .

Pretty smart move in my opinion. Either on T0 or right after 2nd city - those are the only two turns that make sense to me.

Here's demos. You can clearly see the Calabim in here:




8 production, 6 food... hmm...

He could've settled on plain hill (+2) and working a forested plain hill (+3h) and a plains forest (+2h) + palace bonus (+1h) for total of 8 hammers. He also probably has a Corn next to his capital like me - but hey... where's my forested plain hill?!

[Aurorarcher]

Next turn I found that someone popped their borders, must've been the event to get +10 culture in every city.




EDIT: nm. that must've been Dave with CRE .

[Aurorarcher]

Land in SW:




And NE:




Demos prove that I have the most water tiles in BFC, 4, while others have 1 or 2. Not feeling so good longerm about my 4 water tiles...

[Aurorarcher]

A thing I only noticed now: Isn't Khazad supposed to start with 2 warriors? Yet you gave me scout + warrior, Kragroth. It's too late for a change - but just to mention.

[Kragroth]

A thing I only noticed now: Isn't Khazad supposed to start with 2 warriors? Yet you gave me scout + warrior, Kragroth. It's too late for a change - but just to mention.

If so my apologies. Another undocumented feature of FFH. At least we got the starting techs right.

[Aurorarcher]

The plan is: The Drama Bard. What are the chances of getting it early? I think pretty good. I've simmed this a bit and I should be getting it rather early. Calabim is an obvious competitor here as their worldspell allows a quick researching. Here's some analysis of the way I should aim for it:

The teching order will be like this:

Agri -> Mining -> Exploration -> Animal Husbandry -> Calendar -> Festivals -> Chants -> Education -> Drama.

By the time I hit Drama I should have 6 cities and 7th being settled shortly. Drama will be ready on T66 (add couple turns if barbs ruin things badly, lizzardmen for example). If anyone is curious of the details, I can post a more detailed microplan with worker moves and build orders etc. - but I don't bother to post it here just for myself.

I have changed my inital plan on 2nd city to go 1N instead and ignore the fish. Plainhills is pretty good city for early production, and I'll pump out workers/warriors out here quickly + I won't be getting fishing before the Bard. Here's an overview of the known world on T14 and the city sites I'm going for:




Also notice I have +6 gpt with 100% science... it's because I have this guy settled to my city




Yes, I did pop a lair south from Khazak and got a prophet. This is a great boost for Khazad, especially as I can now run 100% science (according to my sims) till I hit Drama (without the prophet Drama would be delayed till ~T72). Also notice the annoying lizzard sitting on my Corn . There's another one coming next turn and there's not much I can do about it other than wait for them to suicide. Overall it looks like there's bunch of lairs near my capital.

[Aurorarcher]

Some analysis of my opponents actions so far:

Calabim: Fired WS T0, Agriculture (T6) is researching Calendar now.
Kuriotates: Cap size 2 (T13), Calendar (T14).
Amurites: Agriculture (T8), Cap size 2 (T13)
Svarts: Calendar (T13), Cap still size 1.

Also previous demos show that someone had power 8k on T12, 9k on T13 and 7k on T14. And this someone wasn't Calabim. I'm guessing it was the Kuriotates- and they went warrior first instead of a worker. They also lost a scout on T14 it seems.