[Game Spoilers] My browser thinks this forum is written in Portuguese

[RefSteel]

Glad you got through the weather on the way back home! And I hope you discover(ed) something fascinating after all to include now that you can post pictures!

[Brian Shanahan]

Glad you got through the weather on the way back home! And I hope you discover(ed) something fascinating after all to include now that you can post pictures!

I have an unusual improvement to disclose. Unfotunately last night Windows Update decided it needed to play havoc with me trying to run anything else, so I haven't been able to write anything up.

[Brian Shanahan]

Firstly, proof of my thread title:

I just think that's funny every time I see it.

In relation to the game, I haven't really done too much over the last few turns, scouted mostly to the South East with my scout, after the first turn I saw he was going to end up in desert if he stayed going westwards like I initially thought so I sent him in the direction with the best movement.

My warrior kept going North West until this turn where he went North. He'll continue on that vein for a couple of turns before swinging to the North East to come back around the capital from the North. The warrior about to finish will do a short swing to the capital's immediate East to scout a nearby city site.

My scouting results:

Turn 4:

Turn 5:

I see that Ref's computer has been infested with Piseógs (otherwise known as County Council workers) as well.
Current turn:

And Demographics for the last few turns:

Thoughts for the next few turns:

My worker has finished farming the flood plains, he'll farm the other one then move back to the bananas to plantation them (I'll either be finished calendar or nearly so in time). After that, depending on growth I'll either camp the Deer or the Elephant.
In terms of builds, my warrior finishes eot next turn. After that I'll build a second worker to boost my improvements curve and also because I haven't yet seen a close settlement site I like (if the rice were one tile north west, it'd be different), so a worker is definitely a plan.

Oh and the pasture, it does nothing!

[RefSteel]

Firstly, proof of my thread title:

Heh - when I visit the site from a computer at the library, the browser does the same thing! (My own computer is better trained not to offer to do things for me that I didn't ask for specifically. And speaking of that device...)

I see that Ref's computer has been infested with Piseógs (otherwise known as County Council workers) as well.

Well, I don't call them that, but you can if you'd like! As mentioned in the tech thread:

Like last game, there may be a number of tile improvenents scattered around. Some survive from ancient times, but many were built and tended by roving bands of goblins, who along with their livestock bred from giant rats, tend to make ... uh, creative ... use of the land.

(Spoiler for the story of this particular type of goblin "land use" - not actually spoiling anything about the game.)

Choermus Clan goblins are well known for herding enormously fat, slothful livestock bred from giant rats: Livestock so disease-ridden, and with meat so foul-tasting, that no humanoid people outside of the Choermus Clan itself has ever been prepared to regard them as food. The crude pastures that Choermus goblins build for them are sufficient to keep the bloated rat-spawn (reportedly known among Ilians as "Piseógs") from slowly dispersing into the wild, and to help the goblins keep out predators desperate enough to feed on the horrible things, but most civilized peoples are more inclined to tear down the fences, scatter the oversized vermin, and use the fertile land for more-appetizing purposes. Raised - perhaps in imitation of the livestock in whose pens they typically sleep, sharing their fleas - in a culture extolling idleness as a sign of prosperity, prudence in the face of anything resembling immediate physical danger, and filth to demonstrate resilience in the face of ubiquitous disease, Choermus Clan goblins are easily put to flight by any show of force, leaving such valuables they may have collected over time and scattered amid the mess of their sties. Invaders can therefore profit from the destruction of their pastures so long as, unlike desperately-fleeing Choermus goblins, they are willing to take the time to gather the gold and baubles from amid the refuse - unless the local goblins have been sufficiently integrated into the soldiers' own culture over time that they may grow suspicious of the danger, gather their valuables quietly, and steal away with them in advance of the attack. Nevertheless, some believe there may be a cost to destroying Choermus pastures prematurely: As unappealing as their rat sties may be, Choermus Clan goblins and their livestock do keep the encroaching vines and fungi of the thick local jungles at bay, preventing the fertile lands on which they make their homes from being overrun with an ecosystem rich in life but inimical to humanoids and far more difficult to remove than Choermus goblins, their livestock, their fences, and even their copious mounds of waste.

Or in other words:

Oh and the pasture, it does nothing!

Haha - but! Mechanically, it actually does two things that I know of: It prevents jungle growth onto the rice tile, and (as long as it's not in your territory) can be pillaged for a little gold.

(You may find other examples of "... uh, creative ..." goblin land use too as you explore the map....)

[Brian Shanahan]

Firstly, proof of my thread title:

Heh - when I visit the site from a computer at the library, the browser does the same thing!  (My own computer is better trained not to offer to do things for me that I didn't ask for specifically.  And speaking of that device...)

I see that Ref's computer has been infested with Piseógs (otherwise known as County Council workers) as well.

Well, I don't call them that, but you can if you'd like!  As mentioned in the tech thread:

Like last game, there may be a number of tile improvenents scattered around.  Some survive from ancient times, but many were built and tended by roving bands of goblins, who along with their livestock bred from giant rats, tend to make ... uh, creative ... use of the land.

(Spoiler for the story of this particular type of goblin "land use" - not actually spoiling anything about the game.)

Choermus Clan goblins are well known for herding enormously fat, slothful livestock bred from giant rats:  Livestock so disease-ridden, and with meat so foul-tasting, that no humanoid people outside of the Choermus Clan itself has ever been prepared to regard them as food.  The crude pastures that Choermus goblins build for them are sufficient to keep the bloated rat-spawn (reportedly known among Ilians as "Piseógs") from slowly dispersing into the wild, and to help the goblins keep out predators desperate enough to feed on the horrible things, but most civilized peoples are more inclined to tear down the fences, scatter the oversized vermin, and use the fertile land for more-appetizing purposes.  Raised -  perhaps in imitation of the livestock in whose pens they typically sleep, sharing their fleas - in a culture extolling idleness as a sign of prosperity, prudence in the face of anything resembling immediate physical danger, and filth to demonstrate resilience in the face of ubiquitous disease, Choermus Clan goblins are easily put to flight by any show of force, leaving such valuables they may have collected over time and scattered amid the mess of their sties.  Invaders can therefore profit from the destruction of their pastures so long as, unlike desperately-fleeing Choermus goblins, they are willing to take the time to gather the gold and baubles from amid the refuse - unless the local goblins have been sufficiently integrated into the soldiers' own culture over time that they may grow suspicious of the danger, gather their valuables quietly, and steal away with them in advance of the attack.  Nevertheless, some believe there may be a cost to destroying Choermus pastures prematurely:  As unappealing as their rat sties may be, Choermus Clan goblins and their livestock do keep the encroaching vines and fungi of the thick local jungles at bay, preventing the fertile lands on which they make their homes from being overrun with an ecosystem rich in life but inimical to humanoids and far more difficult to remove than Choermus goblins, their livestock, their fences, and even their copious mounds of waste.

Or in other words:

Oh and the pasture, it does nothing!

Haha - but!  Mechanically, it actually does two things that I know of:  It prevents jungle growth onto the rice tile, and (as long as it's not in your territory) can be pillaged for a little gold.

(You may find other examples of "... uh, creative ..." goblin land use too as you explore the map....)

On the last sentence, you're correct in both instances, though I think the gold is very minimal (aside from disconnecting strategic resources, I think I've pillaged only twice in fifteen years playing the game).

[Qgqqqqq]

I will note that FFH2 has different pillaging values.

[Brian Shanahan]

Edit: This post was supposed to have gone in here yesterday. But I tried doing a custom title for the post and accidentally made a new thread.

Due to the fact that I didn't play my save until about half ten this morning, I got to play twice today.

In terms of game play, not much happened. On turn 7 I finished my warrior and started on a worker. This is kind of putting me behind the curve at the moment, but I think the extra worker is worth it.

In terms of scouting, I've found a few decent cities in the relevantly near north east, so unless I find something better to the west, my first settler goes that way. I decided to turn back my scout, because where he was (about eleven tiles due south of my capital is a hilly and mountainy waste, and getting a fuller scout of my east is more valuable for the moment. My newly built warrior will do a very quick swing around the outskirts of my capital before settling as MP there.

Some photos:

Scouting:
SE:

NE:

Known world (2 shots so overlapping):

And demographics:

I know I haven't talked much about what I want to do, but that's mainly because my plan for the moment is fairly simple, scout enough land to build a good core of at least 5-6 cities, tech to bronze and philosophy for an axeman and Priests of Winter army while developing sufficient economy to maintain them. Go conquer someone while teching to Iron Working. I will probably flesh this out, eg by getting at least a few adepts to buff my army but that is basicly it.

[Brian Shanahan]

Sorry for the lack of updates the last week, I was doing a lot of burning the candles at both ends in an ultimately vain attempt to make up flexi-time at work (from hell's heart I stab at thee, Eowyn!) and am still not quite there enough to write up something coherent of the last eight or so turns.

But the Illians have a new hero, Beary McBearface!

PS Proper update tomorrow.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok, the big update for the last eight or so turns.

First off, my scout starts poking around the west, first evading a scorpion before parking himself between a giant and a bear, who promptly start fighting over who gets to eat his juicy corpse (sadly, the scout does not get away):

A pulled out vision of the poor scout's position before he died, showing also some good land to build out to in the West.

And now for the tale of our newest hero Beary McBearface, the great warrior who braved the blazing deserts to avenge his fallen brother (not really, he killed a different bear with no promotions, you can see the man eater in the distance in the below shot). As he was on a desert hill with no fortify bonus (the desert debuff cancels the hill buff) he was fighting at 3 vs 5 or roughly 35% odds to win, so I am very happy to declare that Beary McBearface to be a true legend of the Illian people (I gave him C1 and C2 promotions the next turn to heal him up).

In other news I did get a money vs temporary happy event on turn 17. I took the money as I usually do (don't really like temporary happy you can't renew), but forgot to check how much (turns out it was 42 gold, not quite enough for the good "pay money for things events" but a bit of a buffer nevertheless):

Apart from that I've gotten my second worker out and another warrior (the warrior finishing at end of this turn). I am still running low on GNP and middling on hammers but am second in growth and I am frankly growing like a weed, up to five pop now, even with the worker build stopping growth. I'll build a second warrior before popping out a settler, simply to come closer to my current happy cap of 8 and I will start a settler spam to build out my core.

This is how the land looks currently (along with the first screenshot showing the west):

North:
South:

I have some very good sites pinned out on the map at the moment, and two or three others that I can see but haven't marked. However they are not closely packed in so I'll have to have a think about where the first settler goes, probably on the desert hill where the warrior is sitting in the North picture, with access to more flood plains and cottons. While it'll need culture to be truly strong, and has a bit much desert, the Illians can fix deserts and culture isn't that hard to come by even for agnostics. After that I think north is the next nearest good site and then populating the west.

I'll also need to crank out a few more scouting units to try and get contact with the foreign cultures out there in the mists.

And finally my demographics (only posting this turn's, but others are kept if anybody wants them):

If anybody can write a kick ass ballad, I'd love to hear one for Beary.

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the comprehensive and entertaining multi-report!  It's a lot of fun (for me at least) to see how exploration is playing out and how your civ interacts with the map.  Oh, also...

If anybody can write a kick ass ballad, I'd love to hear one for Beary.

Wow - a ballad?  I mean, haiku, sure; a limerick, definitely, but a full ballad?  Who would put together an entire...

Ahem.  With grave apologies to Robert W. Service:

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up on a hill by the Pool of Tears;
Nigh all could hit the soprano notes; just one had hit manly years:
Back of the rest, looking out for game, sat Barry McBeigh, alone,
And watching our luck running out on us, he muttered of blood and bone.

When out of the woods betwixt cotton and sheep, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a creature fresh from the woods, dog-dirty, a towering bear.
It looked like we each had a foot in the grave, and scarcely the strength left to fight:
If we tilted and poked that dusty old b'ar, then we'd fill our graves on that night.
There was none at hand who dared to stand, and we stumbled and cried "Gangway!"
As we staggered back, leaving one alone: 'Twas bloody Old Man McBeigh.

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, for he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell,
With a face most hair, and the heavy stare of a dog too old to run,
But he lifted a green log from the fire, and we slowed up, one by one.
Guess we all was figgering what was what, and wondering what he'd do,
When I turned and saw the bear watching him with nothing between the two.

His beard and whiskers they were a fright, and it seems to me I could swear,
For hairiest face I couldn't judge between Barry McBeigh and the bear.
Old Barry'd told us time and again that he feared no claw and no tooth;
I'd thought it was a bare-faced lie, but it was the bear-faced truth!
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he stood, and he gave no ground;
When the bear charged in with its 5 base strength, he just swung his club around!

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the growl of a savage beast now and then out in the cold,
A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for someone to hold;
While high overhead, green, yellow and red, mana streams swept in bars -
Then you've a hunch whence these battles come ... hunger and night and the stars.

And hunger roared from the belly, out the mouth, of the terrible bear;
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home made its answer there:
By the fireside Barry shouts, "Bring it down!  It's now or never survive!"
And oh! so cramful of courage was the sound of his voice, alive!
He swung his club as though all the world swung with him, and he swung true!
(Oh! how ghastly the looks of that beast - enraged by the blood he drew!)

Then on a sudden our scramble changed, so we who would scarce have dared
But a moment before - we're emboldened, cleaned of all in us that ran scared;
We charge at the bear then, and flanking the beast, let out our own battle-cry -
We whose guts'd been gone, so the best we'd known was to crawl away and die,
Ere the crowning cry of Old Man McBeigh that had thrilled us through and through:
The cry that made him our leader sure, and made us his loyal crew!

We boys each almost died that day ... but we burst like a pent-up flood
Against the bear as it struck to slay each of us, bone, hitpoint, and blood.
We struck as if at an ancient wrong, and we stung like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill!  The bear died - with no laptop crash!
And then Barry turned and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;
In a buckskin shirt stained with blood and dirt he stood, more than just McBeigh.

Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm;
And, "Boys," he said, "the barb bear's dead, and now grant our fallen balm."
For some of us fell, though we battled well, in the huge bear's killer path,
But all of us grew (to Combat Two!) in the fight and aftermath!

We each got our share of the bear-skin pelt when we knew the bear was dead,
And we made a cloak with a hood from part of its back and all its head.
That cloak and hood, as we rightly should, we gave up to our leader's share
For the man whose bear face and bear courage alone stood in battle against the bear.

These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know;
Our leader's name's grown with the legend too; oh, I'm not denying it's so.
I'm not so wise as the hist'ry guys, but strictly between us two -
Old Beary McBearface has earned that name - and so will say all of his crew!