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

[Ilios]

T26:

Luchuirp Scout coming to say hello:



Poison damaged and healed to 1.7 with a promotion. I can't believe he won a battle against a Str 5 Spider, so I'm guessing either a Baby spider or a Fort Goblin (first is most likely).

Good thing I'm covering the Worker, or I'd have to move him back.

Demo:



Rival best MFG at 15, which leads me to believe either the Vamps or the Elves got Mysticism, and revolted to God King.

Speaking of the Vamps, they got another tech, another tech pop from a hut?
Not like they need it...

Lanun are still at 2 population. At this rate I'll finish my Settler before the Calabim fire their Worldspell!

[Ilios]

Good news!

The Luchuirp capital has grown to size 6 last turn, meaning I have a head start to claim Blue dot (a copy of the T19 dotmap can be found in the third post of this tread).

Sciz did discover Mining last turn, but a forest chop will only get you 8 hammers in this game (until you discover Archery), so he won't be chopping out that first Settler soon.

Mist grew his capital to size 5.

[Ilios]

T28:

Lanun Capital has finally grown to size 3. If the Calabim don't fire their Worldspell this turn, I have no clue when they will. If they do, I have enough hammers invested in the Settler, so I won't have to regrow the Capital, and instead finish it at size 3. Current ETA for Blue Dot founding is T35.



On the screenshot you will notice the slowly encroaching forest. More fuel for the fire!

Gratuitous LotR quote:

- "The trees are strong my lord. Their roots go deep."
- "Rip them all down."

[Ilios]

T29:

No point changes this turn.

Just wanted to show this:



Rival best GNP has now jumped to 30! I'd have to fire up a test game, but I'm pretty sure this is the Lanun and their ridiculous Pirate Coves, maybe with an improved Pearl resource thrown in. (Pearls are sea based resources, which can only be seen by the Lanun. Improved, these tiles give like 5-6 commerce and and extra happy.)

Let's move now to the rival best MFG. At first, I had assigned it to the Elves discovering Mysticism and revolting to God King, but the MFG graph confirms this is actually the Balseraphs, building an Expansive Settler. Expansive in FFH gives a 100% hammer bonus when building Settler, extra health and cheap Granaries. So Serdoa's capital is working the improved Cow for 3 hammers, the improved Sheep for another 2 hammers, and the center hammer for 6 total hammers. Times two makes 12 in this Universe.



Man, couldn't whatever false god the Balseraphs worship grant Tolerant, Industrious and Ingenuity to his subjects?

Oh well, at least I won't have to worry with clashing Culture, at least until Serdoa can build Freaks...

[Ilios]

Haha, gotcha, no interesting post forthcoming!

Pressed enter and passed on the save...

[Brian Shanahan]

Have I mentioned that you are a bastard somewhere already?

[Old_Lion]

At least we know the game is not stuck in limbo.

[Ilios]

Have I mentioned that you are a bastard somewhere already?

I blame the Imp of the Perverse...

At least we know the game is not stuck in limbo.

It sure feels that way sometimes, frickin' turnhoggers!

[Ilios]

T32:

Another turn, another Splashscreen:



So I'll be able to build Elder Councils and Desert Shrines, but more importantly, I'll be able to switch to God King Civic.



I'd like to take this moment to explain my reasoning for not heading straight for Mining.
Even if I skipped an important filler tech like Exploration (needed to build Roads), I'd have still needed around 8 turns to discover Crafting, and another 11-12 turns to discover Mining.
So I wouldn't have been able to increase my production until at least 10 turns from now (workers need to build a Mine). Compare this with God King, which gives a 50% bonus to hammers in the capital.
Working the plains forest hill, Helios gets 6 base hammers (1 from the Palace, 2 from the center square, 3 from the hill). So with God king I'm getting 3 free hammers per turn, without needing worker turns. I still only have 1 Worker, currently improving tiles around Blue Dot, so I wouldn't even have the workforce to build those Mines.
God King also grants a 50% bonus to gold, which will help my research rate as well. I plan on using binary research, at least in the beginning of the game. So when I found my second city, and upkeep costs start to add up, I'll turn research to zero. God King will increase my gold per turn from 15-16 to 22-24, meaning I can research at full clip for longer periods. On top of that, I'm Spiritual, so no Anarchy for me when changing civics!
Did that make sense?

Anyhow, I decided to switch to Nationalism as well. At this stage of the game, the only thing that is of interest to us is the 10% hammer bonus when building units.
But Ilios, I hear you say, a couple of posts up you told us you wouldn't be switching because you didn't have enough base hammers? Well, that is actually why I delayed the Settler by a turn. Originally, it was finished this turn but with zero hammers overflow. After some micro-adjustments (working a plains river hill for the extra commerce instead of a grass forest) we've at arrived at this point:



It is not entirely clear, but Helios has a 10-food surplus and is producing 9 hammers. As you can see the Settler is three hammers short of completion. This will give me a 10 base hammer overflow next turn, and should allow me to finish at least two units in as many turns.

After that I'll probably finish two workers in 5-6 turns and start another Settler.


Moving over to where the action is:



Next turn, the Settler will move into position on the Floodplain tile. Gabriel the southermost Warrior will move onto the tile northeast from Blue Dot. If nothing big and scary is around, I'll move Dappa the Warrior there as well. The turn after, Gabriel and Dappa will flip a coin to decide who moves into the jungle first. Again, if nothing too dangerous appears, I'll move the second Warrior as well, and move the Settler to BlueDot.
If it becomes apparent I cannot move to Blue Dot safely, I will probably just found on the tile north of the Incense.
Note an already finished grass river farm. The second should finish when Blue dot gets founded (T35).

C&D:

Lanun got another cheap tech, I'd say Amelia is heading for Mining, so Crafting?

Ljosalfar capital grew to size 5.

Balseraphs and I got our third border pop land points.

Demographics:

[Ilios]

I don't understand the power spike on T12-13. Does anyone know if Animal Husbandry in FFH gives you a 2K power increase, like in BtS? That, together with a scout pop from a hut could explain the spike...

I think I figured out what happened. I'm pretty sure Serdoa explored a dungeon, and got the Dwarves/Lizardmen fighting event. If you decide to join the Dwarves, you get 2 Dwarven Axemen, but 3 barbarian Lizardmen appear as well. If you join the Lizardmen, it's the other way around.
So, Serdoa could have gotten the event, lost his scout and a Lizard/Dwarven Axe (both str 4), for a net increase to power of 2K.