[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[DaveV]

@sunrise: MP. I haven't played MP, but from what I read, the Calabim are considered to be extremely overpowered in the hands of a good human player (in fact, I think they're banned in some games). I agree that they aren't much of a threat in the AI's hands.

Sheaim and Balseraphs are another story...

[Bobchillingworth]

Wow, that would have been game over if you'd lost the stack. It seems you've had very good luck against the barbs so far: have you lost any bloodpets? Anyway, yay for more commerce and happiness!

For medium term strategy, I think you should go for bronze working after code of laws, and plant the city by the copper as your third city. That will give your bloodpets enough strength to take on the the lizards at pretty much even odds. It would also help you against the Hippus: I'm worried about them. Their new player is apparently an experienced one, and he has the best rush civ in the game. Experienced players also tend to play a strategy of wiping out the vampires before they become a problem.

My only losses so far have been a single scout, I think. I'm really surprised that my second scout is still alive, too.


I agree on pretty much all points in your second paragraph, although the copper town will be too isolated if I don't stick a city to my immediate NW along the way. That has the advantages of providing cover for my worker train through culture, and making some use of that corn.


I also have another copper that I can reach about 2 sites distant to my east that I should post a screen cap of.

[Bobchillingworth]

Revealed a large map of my north from a hut, so as promised here are some images of everything I've uncovered of the north and north-east so far:








You can see my extra copper to the East. Overall some very nice land in that direction, I'll probably settle one spot to take the 2X gold, and then another for the corn /cow / copper.


The red circles show two new ruins I've uncovered, as well as another barrow. The crazy influx of barbarian lizardmen and skeletons is finally starting to make a bit more sense.


The yellow circle is the first Unique Feature that I've uncovered, the Seven Pines. If Seven Pines is in your borders, you can march a unit over it and as a one-time ability force peace to be declared with all civilizations who are at war with you. It's very useful against the AI if you have the feature, since it allows you to get away with producing only the minimum of military needed to deal with the barbs, but not so much versus thinking human players. Still, I'd like to secure it for myself.


Blue circle is another hut, which I'm going to beeline toward.


Also visible are the borders of Cull / athlete's dwarfs. They're thankfully not too close, if my scout survives for long enough I'll try to make contact with them after popping the hut.

[Dantski]

You already know Bob but might be interesting for the lurkers at least.

You can use the Seven Pines to make peace even in an AW game.

[DaveV]

Blue circle is another hut, which I'm going to beeline toward.

That hut is *really* close to the dwarves; I'm surprised they've left it alone for so long. I'd suggest tipping the hut from two squares away, in case there's a spider sitting on top of it. It looks like there's a hill north of the square between the lair and Seven Pines; if you can reach that safely, it will give you an overview of the hut (suggested path: 8, 77, 47).

[sunrise089]

Spiders will sit on a hut?

[Bobchillingworth]

Hehe already got the hut this turn



Going from my last screenshot, I first moved the scout 1W to see if it was safe to move to the forest 1NW- found a bear 1W further, so I then moved 1NE onto the jungle tile. Next turn I sent the scout 2NW without issue. This turn I went 1W, 1NW and popped the hut- a lousy 22 gold :P

Basically followed Dave's recommended path, with an additional (pointless) move at the start.


At least the Kazad weren't able to get it first. I'll now try to reach contact with Cull / athlete. Should I see some unguarded workers I may be tempted to get a little aggressive with my commando scout... we'll see

[DaveV]

Hehe already ... popped the hut- a lousy 22 gold :P

At least Cull can't pop it and get Omniscience or something...

Spiders will sit on a hut?

Probably not, since I think they use animal AI. I know from experience that barb warriors/axemen/etc. will sit on a hut.

[darrelljs]

My experience is that Spiders stay put unless you end up next to them, at which point they eat you. If you are eaten on a Jungle/Forest tile, that's their new lair, otherwise they go to a random adjacent Jungle/Forest tile.

Darrell

[Adlain]

I have seen spiders roaming forrests before, and my Scout was watching from a hill far away (thankfuly)