Get Rich or Die Tryin': HidingKneel and Mardoc tackle the Khazad (Spoilers!)

[HidingKneel]

Turn 16:

Louie got a look at the lake to our east:



Grew to size 5 at EOT. Yell0w grew before us (thanks to Ind), while the rest of the non-Calabim civs are slightly behind.
Got 19 hammers in the Deruptus now. Will put it on hold and start a 3-turn worker next turn.

Dwarven vaults: low .

[HidingKneel]

Turn 17.

Our first barbarian incursion:



Poison resistance might be a handy little bonus, as Mardoc mentioned earlier.
Question is, how risky do I want to play this? Three warriors doesn't give a lot of leeway. And it'll be a pain to build more atm, thanks to my decision regarding the Deruptus.

Anybody know how much xp I'll get if I put a warrior on a hill and win a battle on defense? Enough for a C1 promotion?

[DaveV]

Anybody know how much xp I'll get if I put a warrior on a hill and win a battle on defense? Enough for a C1 promotion?

1 XP, unless the odds are substantially (isn't that a nice nebulous word?) against you.

[HidingKneel]

Overly pessimistic! I did a test in WB. Looks like a poison-blade equipped goblin attacking a dwarven warrior on a hill has a 20% odds of victory, and the dwarf earns 2 xp if it survives.

So I've got three options:

1) Go on the offensive. On open ground, I've got 67% odds on the goblin. Success earns 5xp: two promotions.
2) Fortify on a hill. If it attacks, 80% chance of survival. Success earns 2xp: one promotion.
3) Hole up in Duckburg. 99.99999% chance of survival. Success earns 1xp: no promotions. Also, the goblin might cut off access to some nice tiles while we wait for it to attack.

Could also mix and match. Hole up in the city, attacking out if the goblin steps on a tile we're using?

Also, I think option 2) might be sort of theoretical. In my worldbuilder sims, I couldn't get the AI to actually attack a warrior on a hill: instead, it kept stepping around and moving toward the city. But just in case I'm wrong about that:



Now that I think about it, option #1 is probably best. Two promotions means a warrior could be S1/shock, hence able to easily defend against roving warriors. Probably worth the risk.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 19. Not much to report. Worker #1 finished a farm, Duckburg finished worker #2 at EOT.
Decided to retreat warriors into my territory rather than hope the goblin will attack them on a hill.

Got a border pop at EOT. Which is actually a convenient time for it: it means I won't have to waste a worker turn waiting for mining to come in. So we found a use for that extra culture after all...

[HidingKneel]

Turn 20.

The marauding goblin moved onto our oasis tile. Now, we weren't working that tile anymore (got plenty of 4-food farms now).
So we could wait for the goblin to suicide on our city... or take a 67% odds battle, and get ourselves a good barb-smasher.
With turns coming in a rate of 1/day, my decisions always tend to be biased in favor of "doing stuff during the turn".
So I rolled the dice:



Looks like it paid off, this time.

Mining came in at EOT, revealing resources.







Looks like we can't swing a dead cat without running into a copper deposit. City sites #3 and #4 look even more attractive now. Still not quite as attractive as city #2, I think: that gold mine will really boost our commerce, so I want to get it connected right away. Though it might be good to have our Kilmorph holy city radiating culture in the direction of other civs, rather than uselessly into the jungle to our south...

Anyways, don't need to make the decision yet. We've got another 7 turns until our settler is done cooking.

Dwarven vaults: low .

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns played.

First, we earned another merit badge:



Now we can get this "dwarf" thing properly underway!

Also, an event:



Dwarves and witches don't mix. Burn her! The ten turns of happy don't do us much good, but they're better than nothing (who knows, maybe it'll be handy to leave the capital ungarrisoned for a turn or two).

A view of our capital at EOT 22:



It says six more turns until that settler is done, but with the forest chop it'll be five.

I've been thinking about the possibility of grabbing that northern site first, just to make sure we get it (and to increase the odds that it's the holy city). Bronze in the hill makes it a more attractive option. Of course, for it to pay off, we'd have to research bronze working earlier: probably exploration -> BW -> chants -> mysticism -> WotE instead of exploration -> chants -> mysticism -> WotE -> BW.

Pretty sure it's not worth it if we're left to ourselves. But if we're competing with the Grigori and Kuriotates for that land, the calculation changes. Like I said, I'm not too worried about WK grabbing that site early: the land just isn't very good on his side. But the Kuriotates are a different story: they might settle their second city some distance away, and grab a huge swath of land with their worldspell.

As luck would have it, TBS chose this turn to open the diplo lines again:

Hail Mr GlomGold,

I'm under orders from my glorious leader Cardith to keep the lines of communication open with your company. We wish to inform you of the location of another group inhabiting this land, the Calabim. I would guess that they lie roughly the same distance from you travelling either East or West.

Do the Khazad have any new schemes in the works? The game is getting more interesting these days.

TBS.

Good information to have. But what I really want to know is how far Kwythellar is from our capital, and whether they're going to make a play for those dyes. Which calls for a gentle probe for information: I don't want to give him any ideas if he doesn't already have them, and I don't want to seem pushy: like I said earlier, I want the Kuriotates as friends. So I fired off this:

Greetings again, TBS!

You Kuriotates certainly are well-travelled, despite the loss of your scout. Or did the Calabim locate you?

As for the Khazad, we've mostly been keeping to ourselves. We finally got our mining equipment to the surface and have a few projects ongoing. It'll be some while before they bear fruit, but maybe it's not too soon to start talking business. Our shareholders would very much like to do business with the Kurioates. I understand you're in the textile industry? When do you expect to have that underway, and how are you set for raw materials? (Cotton/dyes/silks?)

Flintheart Glomgold, Founder and CFO of the Khazad Mining Corporation

Hopefully his response will settle my mind on settling south. Final decision is only a few turns off: workers will need to roading towards/converging on the site for city #2.

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns in.

We have earned a merit badge in:



Also, got this reply from TBS:

Mr. Glomgold,

We discovered the Calabim during one of our routine area viability checks. I suspect we have a bit more land knowledge than usual due to the strict requirements placed on us by our governors.

It is good to hear that your employees have not been idle. Unfortunately we are somewhat lacking in the raw materials for our products. We should be able to manufacture our own silks but dye and cotton are in short supply. Thus our tailors are not being prioritised right now and I would expect it to be quite some time before exports are available. If we knew we could procure another raw material then this timetable might be moved up. Before Splinter's untimely demise he recorded the dyes lying between your land and the Grigori. We would be willing to set up a favourable trade with you if those resources come under your control.

On that note, in the case such trades go through, what would be the best route between our lands? I have access to the body of water just east of your capital, but I'm not sure what technology our merchants would require to make use of it.

I hope the board isn't bothering you too much,

TBS.

Sounds like he's further off than I thought. So I feel pretty safe going south for the gold with city #2, claiming the dyes with city #3. Tech set to ancient chants, then:



We're a little bit ahead of the sandbox, now. Presumably from known-tech discounts.

Demographics:



Leading in GNP. Lagging a bit in foodhammers, but we that should turn around soon once we're running God King and slapping down mines everywhere.

Dwarven vaults: low

[Mardoc]

Thanks for the continued updates while I was away. I agree with the goblin smashing (particularly in retrospect! ). But if an opportunity arises again, getting some early XP makes everything else easier.

I don't think you had any other questions? Just following the micro plan, teching up and going for the gold. The main thing that'll help foodhammers is getting more cities, of course .

[HidingKneel]

Welcome back, Mardoc!

I don't think you had any other questions? Just following the micro plan, teching up and going for the gold. The main thing that'll help foodhammers is getting more cities, of course .

Yep, pretty much. Standard early game stuff.

Played another turn:



Ancient chants came in at EOT. We look good on the scoreboard, but demos are not so hot. I think we're doing well, though. I suspect we'll be second to get our second city (after the Calabim). The Kuriotates are also out front, but they've decided to grow to their happy cap before expanding (size 8 this turn).

What do you think about settling that Heron Throne site a bit early, Mardoc? I'm thinking it could be worthwhile even in advance of getting fishing/connecting marble. Thanks to our irrigated corn, it can grow in a hurry, and we can put two grasslands farms next to the oasis (in addition to the oasis itself) that the capital won't be using. Might be good for city #5, after we let the capital grow a few sizes once Kilmorph and dyes come in (at which point, we can spare the irrigated corn)?

I sent this to TBS last turn:

TBS,

Based on an assessment of the land between the Grigori and ourselves, I suspect that the Khazad Mining Corporation will be able to secure exclusive access to those dyes. Assuming all goes according to plan, we should have them available to trade around thirty turns from now (of course, when does anything ever go according to plan?)

As for the cotton, we can be of no help: the only cotton we've seen is a bit north of where we met, much closer to the Grigori than to us.

Regarding the trade connection: it will be some time before we have a port city, so a land route would probably be best. In what general direction is your territory from ours? We had earlier surmised that Splinter arrived from the north. But based on your previous message... perhaps it was actually from the east?

No response yet.

Remind me... in order to get foreign trade routes and trade resources, someone needs to research cartography, right?
A shame that's sort of a dead-end tech for both dwarves and centaurs.

Dwarven vaults: low