[SPOILERS] Woof! Woof! Bad dog! No biscuit! Charadon of the Doviello

[Ellimist]

Turn 29 played.

Images:

Killed another bloodpet at around 80% odds. Jackman is up to 34 exp at 2.5 strength. 2 are left and the best remaining bloodpet only has 5% fortification bonus.
I really should stop for a turn or two and heal, but he's producing a new bloodpet every other turn and I don't want to let them pile up. As long as I keep getting good odds, it's hard not to go for it, but eventually these unnecessary risks are going to hurt.
I'm considering merging my other two wolves into a wolf pack. It would save on unit upkeep, and part of the reason I'd avoided it earlier was so I could potentially do the worker taking trick from last turn.

If I keep Santa Monica, it's gonna be a near thing whether my score increases too much. I'll crunch the numbers first and try to figure out how to prevent myself from surpassing Mist + 50%. He finally grew his capital to size 3 and his crop yield is 12, so hopefully his city will continue growing quickly. Hopefully the reason it's still so small is a settler he has about to found a new city. He needs to research something, grow his city, do something.
I don't want to drag things out, for my own sake and for Ichabod's, but I may try to wait a couple of turns for Mist's score to increase from the land he gained nearly twenty turns ago(thanks to his great artist.) I also have the land points coming in soon from Innsmouth, and I can finish exploration in 3 turns(or not). If the choice comes down to keeping the city or starting to tech again, it will be a tough call.


The rushing personality of Charadon is totally counter productive to this barbarian trait restriction. Any successful rush puts Charadon in danger of losing one of his only advantages. Population is weighted so strongly to the score, and the delayed scoring of land provides an element of surprise.

[uberfish]

So I managed to come up with another crazy plan that I could implement as soon as I'm done with the Calabim. It would primarily take advantage of this map's large food surplus.

I'd be surprised if you managed to surprise Mist with it because he did the worker upgrade rush himself in PBEM2.

[Ellimist]

Well, Mahala would be a better leader for it I guess thanks to ingenuity. I'll have to read the rest of that thread.

[Ellimist]

Played T30. Killed another bloodpet with 96% odds. 1 defender remains and Jackman promotes to C5 next turn.

Santa Monica is size 5 now. I guess he starved it or something.

More updates later.

[Ellimist]

[SIZE="6"]Turn 30 Update[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The bodies are piling up[/SIZE]
So I started out this turn by getting an event that gave me one gold, in exchange for one unhappy citizen in River Heights for one turn. At least, that's what the result ended up being.

Image edited to show all possible options:

River Heights was already dealing with unhealthiness, so I paid.
Apparently the barbarian trait doesn't affect graves. At the end of the turn I got a refund when I cleared it:

Not that there was much risk because skeletons/spectres don't attack me.

[SIZE="4"]Calabim Action[/SIZE]

Combat was at 96% odds this turn thanks to a goblin. Next turn, elimination may be within reach.
Combat related images:

I started on exploration research last turn, I'd like to get roads up as soon as possible. It will take a total of 3 turns to research.

[Ellimist]

Turn 31 played and final 2 bloodpets killed.

I suicided the weak beastman to weaken the top defender(15% fortify), then promoted Jackman to C5 and killed the next at 97% odds. Then my C3 wolfpack killed the last at 89%. I used the weak beastman first instead of a wolf because (a) he had better odds to do more damage, (b) wolves are not replaceable, and © wolves move faster than him.

Mist's score is up to 160. I kept the city, taking me to 173.

I sent the two remaining wolves exploring to the east and west, roughly along the coasts. It's about time I got back to some proper exploration. The scout that was with Lucian will explore more toward the center area and probably find Mist eventually. The beastman that was with Lucian will garrison Santa Monica and Jackman will too while he heals.

I put both the captured workers into the city for a turn. It will be in revolt for 5 turns so they won't be able to do much besides build roads until then. Exploration finished at EOT so they'll start on that then.

[SIZE="7"]Turn 31 Pictures[/SIZE](delayed)


At the start of turn, things are looking good. One defender is poisoned and the other has zero fortification bonus:

In my sims, I got the best results when I sacrificed one of the weaker soldiers first:

Even wounded, Jackman's performance was never in question:

One vampire snack left defending:

And the wolves would eat him instead:

Santa Monica is captured by the same unit that captured Innsmouth:

The event log afterwards with my finance advisor. Things are looking a little better:

[Thoth]

Does anybody know the formula for unit maintenance? Is the number of free units I get based on number of cities, population of those cities, or some other factor or a combination?

I'm not sure of the exact formula (but I'm pretty certain the free support is lower in FFH than it is in BTS) but it is based on total population points. (ie more pop = more free units)

[Ellimist]

Does anybody know the formula for unit maintenance? Is the number of free units I get based on number of cities, population of those cities, or some other factor or a combination?

I'm not sure of the exact formula (but I'm pretty certain the free support is lower in FFH than it is in BTS) but it is based on total population points. (ie more pop = more free units)

Hopefully the costs will go down soon as the cities grow. I have to be careful about pop growth though, I can't let my score rise too much above Mist's.

I've looked at demographics from past turns and I think the deferred points I'll be getting from land won't put me over the limit, but growing my cities too much might.
I'm hopeful that Mist will ges a second city out soon and give me more leeway. Right now his great artist is probably the only reason I still have barbarian peace.


EDIT: It looks so far like I get one free unit for every two population.

[Ellimist]

Turn 33 played. Santa Monica is still in revolt and the turn was all about economic development.

The workers at River Heights hooked up the dye and are working toward the corn. After that, one will start a road toward the north and the other will build farms. The city itself finishes a beastman this turn and resumes a settler next turn.

The workers at Santa Monica are building roads to the south right now. Once the city is out of revolt, I plan to have one worker improve the city a bit more while the other continues building roads toward River Heights. I know cotton plantations aren't the greatest, but I'll take any commerce I can get right now.

Due to the 10% research penalty, I lose beaker efficiency unless I run binary. My 100% science rate is +27 beakers and loses 12 gold. My 100% gold rate is +18 gold. So if I run 2 turns of gold and 3 turns of science I get 81 beakers, and my break-even science rate is 16.2 beakers per turn. This will change when Santa Monica comes out of revolt, but it's decent right now. After cartography is in, I'll probably stockpile gold for awhile. It will make it easier to manage my score if I let Mist grow and get techs before I do for a bit.

Cartography is due in 5. It feels like a silly detour but I really need city states. It's not even that good of a civic, but it's the fastest solution I can get to for high city maintenance. I might even try for Pact of the Nilhorn.

I want to found a city at Dragon Bones ASAP for some great commerce. Ideally I would be able to settle on the mana node, but I don't think I can so I'll probably put it on the hill instead. I'll start farming more icy floodplains for it very soon, the city will have access to 3 as soon as I plant it.
I may go for mysticism soon and if I ever get a great scientist, it will probably go in that city.

[Ellimist]

Okay, I've put together a basic dotmap. I don't have time to fully explain it, but I'll post it anyway.
(warning, it's 1472×2129)

Link:
Turn 30 dotmap

Location 1:
This is nearly guaranteed to be next. It can share some food tiles with River Heights and will get tons of commerce from Dragon Bones and Incense.

Location 2:
This city is likely to be soon as well thanks to a plains hill and double silk and double food in the first ring. It will be able to share two resources with Innsmouth.

Location 3:
This spot will probably be delayed a little bit because it requires more development to make it profitable. It's still a priority, however, due to the sun mana in the BFC.
It's on a desert hill so spring will be nice, and in the first ring it (probably) has two floodplains. In the outer ring it grabs the Mirror of Heaven, incense, gems, and can share Dragon Bones with location #1.

Location #4:
This city can work 4 floodplains and Remnants of Patria without a border pop. A border pop will add incense and 5 more floodplains. Obviously this will be nuts. Another upside/downside is that I think Mist isn't too far from it.

Location #5:
After a border pop, this location will have 5 icy floodplains, 5 freshwater lake, and 3 incense. It's also conveniently between my two best existing cities.

Location #6:
6b grabs 2 incense and 3 cotton without a border pop, but I'll probably do 6a instead. Great commerce and great food, positioned between Santa Monica and River Heights.

Location #7 and #8:
Backline cities, so lower priority. They'll be decent but I need some more map knowledge of the area to pick the best spots.