[Spoilers] Cometh the Messiah - Varn Gosam and the Malakim

[Ilios]

T17:





Ok this means that Sciz discovered Calendar, and not Mining! As the Luchuirp do not start with Agriculture, we've discovered the technology Sciz popped from a hut on T2.

[Ilios]

I'm not quite sure what Mist is doing with his Doviello. Still at one population. Double worker first?

Well, Doviello have just increased population to two...

[Ilios]

T18 & T19:

Discovered:



Allowing me to change to:



Resulting in:



Scout reveals:



Yup, dead scout next turn...

But more importantly, Gold!

This actually poses me with a dilemma. Oh, not the placement of the second city. I'd be crazy not to pull a river plains gold into the BFC (though it pisses me off I need to change the dotmap, and I'll found a turn later, and it will be in dangerous lands...).
No, I've been mulling over my tech path. Originally I had slated Mysticism as my next tech:

- Allows me to do binary research more efficiently, as I'll get 50% gold with God King
- Extra hammers from God King (9 hammers total output when working the plains forest hill)
- Allows me to put new city on Elder Council as first build.

The gold tile has changed all that. If I head for Mining first, I should get that tile improved at least ten turns earlier. That's 90 commerce! So, even though I have put a turn into Mysticism while I was stuck in indecision, I've decided to change my research path yet again. (putting a turn in Myst will have thrown off C&D analysts, so it's not all bad)

Exploration -> Crafting -> Mining -> Mysticism

The much anticipated Malakim dotmap:



So, blue dot first ofcourse, then either yellow or white.

Yellow is a better spot, but more vulnerable because of that Ruins. If a second Lizard spawns next to the city, both might attack (at least they do in single player).
Now I know that player Lizards (the ones you can get when exploring a dungeon, or the ones buildable by the Clan) are amphibious, meaning they aren't penalized when attacking across a river. I'm wondering if barb Lizard are as well...
Anyway, improving the tiles around yellow will obviously be kind of a pain, but shouldn't slow things down too much.

White dot isn't optimal, but is in a very strategic position, being surrounded by either river or peaks from almost all sides. I'm also counting on a strategic resource to appear in the red circle, and would claim Silk (under the red circle tile) and Reagents for extra commerce. I'll be able to put down two farms and a plains mine right away, as already within Malakim borders because of the capital's border pop.

Red dot you know, only viable once I can improve the Crabs/Sheep. I'm counting on Serdoa not doing anything as stupid as claiming this site right next to my capital. If he does, well, his supply lines will be a lot longer than mine...

Purple dot is probably wishfull thinking. Only if Serdoa does really bad...

The last easily reachable site is on the northern coast. Lots of hills, so might be a good candidate for a Heroic Epic port city.

And last but not least, the demographics:



Taken after ending turn. Rival best crop yield = Luchuirp. The Balseraphs have just finished improving the plains cow tile, increasing their MFG significantly.

River of Blood:

We should see this one in a couple of turns, as the other capitals grow to size 3. I'm kind of hoping the Calabim give me another 4 turns, which would allow me to finish the second flood plains farm. This would give Helios a 10-food surplus when it gets knocked back to size 3, allowing it to grow back to size 5 in three or four turns.

[DaveV]

Now I know that player Lizards (the ones you can get when exploring a dungeon, or the ones buildable by the Clan) are amphibious, meaning they aren't penalized when attacking across a river. I'm wondering if barb Lizard are as well...

According to the manual, amphibious attack bonus is part of the lizardman promotion. So, yes.

[Jabah]

any reason you are staying in 'religion' (vs nationhood) in the cultural civic ?

[Ilios]

any reason you are staying in 'religion' (vs nationhood) in the cultural civic ?

Hey Jabah!

Nationhood only gives a 10% bonus to hammers when building units. As I'm not anywhere near 10 hammers in Helios, it's no use to revolt. (the hammer bonus is rounded down to zero for base production under those 10 hammers)

Religion only gives me a culture bonus for the moment (basically every 5 turn I get 2 extra culture). Not very impressive, I know, but better than nothing...

Besides, I'm Spiritual, so no need to combine Civic swaps;

T20 has been played, nothing much to report other than the scout being paralyzed, covered with spider silk and sucked dry at tea time.

I'm back to moving only the worker during my turns...

Sciz increased population to size 4. All players founding on T0 (me, Balseraphs, Calabim and Luchuirp) got their first land points (13 points for 9 land tiles, except for Serdoa, who only has 7 tiles for 9 points)

[Rowain]

T20 has been played, nothing much to report other than the scout being paralyzed, covered with spider silk and sucked dry at tea time.

No Sam here to save him. So the ring is lost

[Ilios]

According to the manual, amphibious attack bonus is part of the lizardman promotion. So, yes.

Whoops, didn't catch your reply, thanks again DaveV!

No Sam here to save him. So the ring is lost

I was about to start spewing LotR quotes, but then realised it would be silly...


Alright, I'm not used to playing on Quick Speed, and I can't seem to find it online:

Could someone please tell me how the food requirement progression works?
I know on Normal speed it's 20/22/24/26/28/etc.

On Quick speed it's 14/16/17/18/19/20/21/etc?

[T-hawk]

Quick is 67% of normal, rounded down. (Not two-thirds, exactly 67%.) Also, normal starts at 22 food for size 1, not 20.

[Old_Lion]

I don't comment much because I'm not doing detailled calculation or micromanagement when playing.

I tend to shut up when I have nothing intersting to say, but I keep lurking with interest.

I have a question anyway :
Do you think you need to calculate everything to be a top notch civ player ?
Can someone playing with "feelings" take the better on someone performing detailled calculation ? (diplomacy and incredible luck aside)