Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T71
I've been saving gold for what feels like forever - now it's time to turn tech back on and blow everyone away!
huh. well, let's try this, see what happens.
hooray, we're...average? *sigh* I guess it's time to pin our hopes on aristocracy.
I worked a couple more scientists to get edu in one turn. CoL is 4 turns after that. Would love to shave some time off of it, but doesn't look like it's possible. Probably can finish it at partial slider though, get a little more use out of God King. After that I'll have enough gold for 4-5 turns of deficit research: enough to grab fishing->OO. After that I think I want BW for safety's sake, AH (mostly just if health has become a major problem, but will also boost food in a lot of cities), then, probably philo or writing. I'd love to get some adepts out, but I want to hold off on KotE until I get my next GP. It's going to be mixed pool sci/prophet, and if I get the prophet I want to use him to bulb priesthood. Which means delaying KotE or else he'll target corruption of spirit.
other techs I'd like soonish, outside of the arcane line: sailing, hunting, HBR....and not much else. maybe festivals (might need markets in order to pay for mage upgrades), maybe warfare for military state & national epic, but I haven't seen any marble around. military strategy would be great for the GC (would pop a GA), but I just don't think it's worth it for me, not with the risk of not getting it. someday maybe for the HE (probably while waiting for a great sci to pop to bulb sorcery).
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T75
One. More. Turn. actually able to finish off CoL at 0% (using scientists), eking out the last bit of good from god king. I've finally got another scout out wandering around - he's basically just tracing the footsteps of a rat hoping not to step on any spiders. He gave me view of this:
Looks like Dave has pretty much claimed the sepulcher.  That would have been amazing for me; I probably wouldn't have researched necro for a very long time in that case. I've been thinking of using divination as my mana tech to sorcery rather than necro anyways. Hosts and blinding light might make for as good, if not better, summon/spell combo than spectres (or pit beasts)/rust.
Anyways, I'm going to settle the "c?" spot in two turns. Aurorarcher's already on his 6th city, and leading most of the demos.
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T78
Ring of Jumping will be a great city - wish it had hammers in the first ring, but culture is on its way!
That puts me up to 7 cities, with more planned to grab mana past RoJ.
Dreylin stopped by, so I've now met all opponents.
Good time for a foreign affairs review:
Dreylin and Dave and still missing each other.
Hmmm, I guess we know what the "standard" play is!
Power is getting worrisome. I am so going straight onto bronze after religion comes in. Also, Aurorarcher and I each have 7 cities, Dreylin and Dave are on 5, and Ventessel has 2 (Kurio cities yes, but his capital is the same size as mine).
Now that I have a working economy, should be able to knock out the next batch of techs pretty quick. I'm thinking BW, AH, KoTE (for scouting), writing (save gold while building a library or two), => magic line. hunting and sailing would be great, but mages would be greater.
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T81-83
ugh, kindof a lousy spot to get religion - city already has a monument, and doesn't need the extra happy (food/health constrained right now). I was really hoping to get it in Bugsby's Hand, which was a size larger and ready to grow.
The RNG paid me back a little - got a free spread in the capital  This actually convinced me to revolt, which actually was probably not worth the anarchy right now. I'm going to have at least 4 cities with religion though, and extra pop in Shiny Amulet and Bugsby's Hand will help out right away.
After MotD, I grabbed BW in 2 turns. None too soon I see!
Going AH next - will just be too big of a hammer/food boost to resist any longer. Auro is up to 9 cities, and Dreylin has tied me up at 7. I keep telling myself it's ok, that my fast start should help get me to mages before I die to axes/moroi...but I wish I were doing a little better expanding right now. 2 settlers in the queue, but I don't really have anywhere that can really push them out quickly right now.
After AH, I'm planning on KoTE -> writing (save gold, build library) -> divination OR necro (I know I said I'd like to try divination, but the first level spells of necro are SO MUCH better - rust could well save me from a bronze invasion pre-mages) -> sorcery (at least partial bulb)
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T84
Auro continues to snowball away from the rest of us (up to 10 cities), and I continue to fall back into the pack on demos. Just don't have enough hammer cities, and too many hammers put into EC's. even as I write this, my best hammer city is building a temple to spread religion to cities that badly need culture....perhaps using it to build settlers/workers and better city placement rather than culture would have been better? oh well, my next two settlers are due in like 3 and 10 turns. Both going west. after that, there's two barb cities in the west which I would dearly like to have, but suspect someone else might get there first.
Dave founded FoL and revolted. so far we're the only two who've gone for a religion.
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T90
I finally get another city! Rod of Lordly Might really isn't that great, but it grabs another node and will be a good jumping off point to go for the sepulchre, which I'm now thinking is on an island. I'll send a workboat over soon to confirm, but either way, will want sailing soon to put a settler over there.
I found Dreylin - just south of the furthest south fish. It looks like we don't have a land connection in the SE, but he could pretty easily hit bugsby's hand with burning blood moroi. Hopefully I can get some cultists in the south sea to control the area. I've got a GP coming 5 more turns. prophet is pretty low odds - would bulb priesthood; GS would save for a sorcery bulb.
Demos aren't looking pretty. I started off so well, but too many of my cities are short on food-hammers, so I've been really struggling to expand. Auro's up to 12 cities, Dreylin's at 9, I'm at 8. #9 is coming in like 5-6 more turns, #10 will be a couple more turns after that.
As you can see, I've switched my tech path to include sanitation. I just really need a boost right now. After sanitation I'll save gold for a couple turns until my GP comes in. Grab philo if prophet, otherwise go KoTE. After that I need necro, sailing, HBR yesterday, plus writing before sorcery. earlier writing is more efficient for beakers, but the rest of the techs feel more urgent.
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Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T94
Sanitation is in. barely makes a dent in the demos. Oh well, not much else to do but keep expanding and pushing towards mages.
So I finally move out to scout my next city spot...ummm, no. I guess I'm not going there. It's pretty much completely indefensible.
make that COMPLETELY indefensible.
scouting in other directions found some good stuff. I decided to hold off on popping for now. Only good thing that would help right away would be a GA. I'm going to try to capture that barb city in the next 10 turns, so I'll wait til then and surround the Pyre.
End of turn reveals the Standing Stones. looks to be across the sea, so unobtainable in the near term.
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T95 - two turn reports for the price of one!
I open up the save to receive my first trade proposal. Took me all of 2 seconds to accept; I think it means that Dreylin wants to work with me against Aurorarcher. Although he could have been even more friendly by offering the map for free, then asking for it back the next turn. if he just wants scouting info on me to attack me, well, game over already because if we fight, Auro's gonna run away with this. which he might do anyways.
taking a look around with my new map, I spy something exciting. If ventessel keeps twiddling his thumbs, I might get me some ice mana 
Also got an event. get 11 gold and 20 turns of happy, or get like 20-65 gold. took the happy. 2 of my cities are about to grow into unhappy now, and several more will be ready to hit that in the next couple turns. the extra pop will pay off much better.
oh, I also settled another mediocre city. at this point, it's pretty much time to focus on capturing barb cities.
Empire overview.
You'll notice that I got a scientist. I'm strongly considering using him for a GA, and trying to pop another scientist for sorcery. but my best GP spots are mixed. So maybe I put him on ice, then pop a GA with my next person (23 turns away right now, but I'll build a mage guild and shave probably 8-9 turns off that). I can't wait any longer to grab KoTE, so it's that, writing, necro, and sailing up next. Not sure of the order. I ought to grab sailing soonish to try to go for the broken sepulcher.
September 10th, 2015, 19:26
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T99 - several days overdue, but then again, so is the save from Ventessel 
Finally got around to building another decent hammer city, Belt of Giant Strength 2x fish + lots of mines. That stone is tempting for a run at the bone palace, but I don't think I dare spare the research time for masonry/philo.
Going to have to capture my next hammer city. Got 6 warriors coming in, hoping that an archer pops out again (has been every couple of turns).
Another barb city I'm hoping to grab soon. Was expecting the kill stack, but one of the warriors went off the reservation instead 
Seriously considering going for the iceball city rather than trying to capture straatus and get culture in there. I think I grab sailing and build my next city here. (or for sepulchre if it's an island)
September 25th, 2015, 10:14
Posts: 855
Threads: 7
Joined: Mar 2011
T98-104
Feels like forever since I've updated, but not much going on for me. For others though...
So on T98 I decided to poke the giant and try to get lucky from exploring the ruins.
iirc, I got poisoned, then popped copper for him.  anyways, I then came to my senses and remembered that Auro has more power than like everyone else combined.  So I offered peace.
and he took it! yay, now I can build up my military, this is great! ....uh, sorry Dreylin.
wow, that was stupid of me. I think our only chance was to team up, and i left dreylin hanging.  Auro was able to completely strip our border to go after the vamps.
I'm doing my best to prop him up, but I think he's lost at least 4 cities now (one to barbs...?)
I captured what would probably have become my best hammer city, and used the gold to finish off sailing quickly. now it's just a long slog to necromancy, and an even longer one to sorcery.
so it's pretty much game over. Khazad are ripping through vamps with trebs/axes. I've got lots of warriors.  adepts are coming, but they don't have any useful battle spells yet. I'll have ice mana in another 7 turns or so. Hopefully grab necro shortly thereafter with the boost of a golden age. if only dreylin can hold out a little bit longer....I'm going to have to put pressure on Auro's border cities to try to help slow him down, but it's going to be too late. Unfortunately, my entire army is a speedbump, and he's probably got galleys waiting to come raze my underdefended coastal cities.
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