Varn of the Illians - Serdoa and WK playing it cool

[Serdoa]

Ok, some sort of update. I played T110. And this is our world in 1 shot (caution, nearly 1 MB big)

As for my goal to get ToM, I thought now for several days about how to get the required nodes without having Mages to dispel used ones. Because, lets face it, I have only around 30 turns from now to get Adepts to Mages and I saw some explanation about the XP-gaining mechanism which I interpreted as it being pretty hard to get the required XP in the amount of turns I have targeted. Obviously I next looked at Heros... well, Gibbon as well as Hemah require to be in their religion, but I need to be in RoK to produce SoKs. So not going to happen as well (not completely true, I could have gotten Hemah as I have the OO-Holy City and I could still have gotten enough SoKs for everything in time, but it would have been extremely micro-intensive and I don't want to lose because I fucked up one worker-turn or something similar). What to do I asked myself? Well, obvious:

Get enough Nodes that you don't need to dispel them!

That plan actually might have worked but I needed to get 1 mana from the Grigori (doable I think), 1 from the Clan / Hippus (not impossible) and settle the Mirror of Heavens. I expected no issue from that one, as I have a settling deal with Krill which should make the mirror not be contested culturally too much, if at all. Well, except for that we talk about Krill... and so I spotted the following:



We had agreed not to settle in the row of the mirror and the row directly next to the mirror. If he is keeping his word, his city already had 2 border pops. As he told me about another city some turns ago that he would settle near our agreed line, I don't believe that. I think he broke our deal. Plain and simple. Guess I'll find out latest after the game.

Anyway, meant for me that I need another plan. And what could that plan be? Well, throw Adepts at low odds at bears and hope that they survive. I was last turn already in the position to do that but not sure how to proceed if I lose him. So while the game moved around I tried to refine my MM-spreadsheet. After realizing that I should build HE (yeah, go me... should have realized earlier then I would have the GC from Mil. Strat and not someone else - I guess Krill), I also realized that I could with ease produce 10 more adepts in time for my plans. So, let the dice roll at 12.6% odds to win:



YES! Thank you game, there go my worries. I probably will get another 2-3 adepts to mage level though, now that I will have enough to throw a few away against archers.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I think you can scorch snow tiles into tundra tiles. Pretty useful for Illians, as they treat tundra as plains. I think it'll turn a 1/3 snow hill mine into a 0/4 tundra hill mine.

[NobleHelium]

I don't think Illians treat tundra as plains...

[Serdoa]

Well, another Demo shot first:



Fun GNP, yes? I finished Alteration last turn and had the research set to Sorcery. Sorcery with 80% pre-req-bonuses

Crop Yield is obviously low because nearly all cities are setup for maximum hammers. Thats also why MfG is higher. Oh, and I adopted Conquest, losing Agrarianism in the process. With that I probably would still lead. Keep in mind that Krill is in Conquest as well though. So he is probably the real leader here - makes sense with I think 16 cities for him now.

Last interesting stat is soldiers. It is not too bad already but I probably will inflate it soon, changing to Military State and drafting 3 units / turn + producing another 3-4 units / turn. Mostly that are SoKs right now though, but the drafted units would be Javelin Throwers. Not sure if they are worth it from a cost perspective though - they do not really defend better then Bronze Warriors it seems. Of course, Rust won't harm them, but still. We'll come back to that in the "I have a question..."-section

So, whats going on in my part of the world? Firstly, I have built ToE and started ToN. I obviously am trying for a ToM-victory. My NAPs with Krill and SL go till T150 and I hope to live some turns afterwards to finish it. I also hope they won't break them but I think that SL is not going to break a NAP (because he is a fine guy first and foremost, but also because he would just have Krill win then) and that Krill is not going to break the NAP because he himself stated imo that one shouldn't agree to one if one isn't intending to keep it. But if they do, I try to be prepared. I am pretty sure I can counter Krill, but I am still not sure how to counter those damn horses. Though I don't think I need to counter them that much, I need to counter potential collateral they can bring. Because as long as I have more units then he has horses, he won't get through them in a city. He can pillage of course, but I don't mind that as much even though it might be complicated to catch those horses. Questions which came up:

1) is ToM still buildable if one of your cities having one of the lesser towers gets razed? Or do I have to rebuild this tower first?

2) What is the next unit after Javelin Throwers to be drafted? And is it drafted for 1 pop or for 2?

Back to the game. As I said I am working on ToM. I have finished Sorcery last turn and will get a MM-node T125. Get my Mage T126, dispel the Node the same turn and have T127 the 3rd node for the second to last tower. I have the first node for this tower already, and the second node should finish T127 as well. (With roads this time, not like with ToN where I forgot to build a road and delayed it by 2 turns due to that).

I also have 3 GS in stock to bulb through almost all of Arcane Lore and a GA for my 2nd GA (first via Bone Palace). I'll get two more GP (one GS via Arcane Lore and one produced in my 2nd GA). That should get me another GA, leading to three 9-turn GAs one after the other.

Conclusion: I can win this game if I can hold out some turns after my NAPs run out. I probably can't if one of the two (or both) breaks our NAP. Though at least for the Hippus it really makes no sense. Neither from my personal experience with SL (whom I really can't see breaking a NAP) nor from a game standpoint (breaking the NAP with me just makes the Clan win). I guess we'll see what happens in the end. Lets hope for the best!

[Tatan]

1) is ToM still buildable if one of your cities having one of the lesser towers gets razed? Or do I have to rebuild this tower first?

You will have to rebuild the tower, and in fact I believe you will also lose any production you have into the ToM itself (it gets converted to gold).

2) What is the next unit after Javelin Throwers to be drafted? And is it drafted for 1 pop or for 2?

There are probably other units as well, but I know that swordsmen (1 pop) and champions (2 pop) are higher on the chain than JTs [and champions are obviously higher than swordsmen].

[DaveV]

What is the next unit after Javelin Throwers to be drafted? And is it drafted for 1 pop or for 2?

Sareln gives a pretty good explanation of drafting in this post.

[Serdoa]

Just a short update: I think I can actually get ToM build till T140, maybe T138. I have right now 48 SoK available to rush ToM. Till T138 I will have around 60 I think. ToD shows 8 turns as of EOT132 but I should have 3 SoKs there T136-137. That should be enough to shave at least 2 turns off, taking a little bit of money (~120 gold) to actually finish it T137. ToA will be started T133. 5 turns of production are ~250 hammers (without GK), means I need 10 SoK to finish it.

That leaves me with 50 SoK = 1500 hammers. Leaves 1180 to produce. I have 1559 gold right now, getting 230 per turn. Lets make that 220 because my troops cost maintenance. I'll therefore have 2659 gold available on T138 = 590 hammers. Leaves 590. 50 will be produced normally, so 540 or 18 more SoK. Won't happen therefore. But T140 might be possible. Maybe with some SoK-whipping.

[Selrahc]

That's... very fast. Well done.

[Gaspar]

Your play in recent games has been really impressive, Serdoa. Well done.

[Serdoa]

Thanks Selrahc and Gaspar. As for impressive play Gaspar ... um, lets say its a good thing I haven't reported my utter crap I've done in PBEM28 and we also better not talk about this war in PBEM27