[SPOILERS] The Peaceful Centaur: a Study in Possibility

[Mardoc]

A convergence of giants.

He moved SW-W, didn't see much of interest.

I assume you mean SE - E?

There is currently a scorpion on that hill. If you take the next turn, don't move onto that hill, as there is guaranteed to be a scorpion next to it.

Got it, no suicides, just negligent homicides

Although someone has more GNP. Not sure how. Everyone else has at most 4 pop, and the creative civ has 3. We're working a scientist, and only one non-commerce tile, and we're researching a tech with a pre-requisite. We should be ahead of everyone except maybe Dantski who should only be on the same GNP at best (2 extra culture, but 2 less commerce). What am I missing?

Adding in the graph, it's not Ichabod or Dantski.

Well, I only see three possibilities here. Either someone's researching a tech with two prereqs, which can pretty much only be Lanun researching Fishing after doing Exploration first (seems unlikely, especially if Selrahc's only got tundra to work pre-fishing), or someone who's in God King saving money (seems quite possible, I'd say that's got to be Jkaen if it's anyone, since we're pretty sure Sciz is beelining Horseback Riding and Selrahc probably can't have gotten to Mysticism yet if he went Fishing first). Or someone's gotten a nice bonus from an event or lair opening.

Or, wait, make that four - maybe it's Selrahc. If he went Fishing right away, he could be working coastlines and maybe even a Cove already. Which would be 3 and 5 commerce, respectively, per tile.

I think I'd bet on it being Selrahc. He settled T4, I think? It seems quite possible that he's gotten to his first cove already, and if he's in tundra as bad as what we have, he's likely working coast with most/all of his population, too.

Edit: I see you beat me to that conclusion.

* I don't think I'm going to specify "plains" on anything from now on. If it's desert/tundra/ice I'll say so, otherwise it's plains

[Irgy]

I assume you mean SE - E?

Ack, yes. Change all my "W" to "E". That goes for the hill near the other scout too. I wouldn't bother telling you not to move back west onto a hill, it was that it looks very much like the ideal tile to move to that was the problem.

I think I'd bet on it being Selrahc. He settled T4, I think? It seems quite possible that he's gotten to his first cove already, and if he's in tundra as bad as what we have, he's likely working coast with most/all of his population, too.

I got there eventually. Worst crop yield is 9, so he must indeed be working a cove. Either that or settled on bananas (now why does that make me want to giggle?).

[Mardoc]

I got there eventually. Worst crop yield is 9, so he must indeed be working a cove. Either that or settled on bananas (now why does that make me want to giggle?).

That doesn't make sense - if he's got an upgraded cove, he'd be at 3 hammers by now. On the other hand, I don't think you included our Elder Council in your count of our beakers. Maybe he's working 4 coasts, no cove?

Not that I'm worried particularly, we'll be doing ok.

The big thing is that Selrahc will be even shorter on hammers than a normal Lanun game. While everyone else should be extremely hammer-rich.

Maybe we should point this out to Sciz...

[Mardoc]

On further thought - if Selrahc simply has a Fish/clam/crab, then he could easily be at size 3 and 9 food. In which case he probably does have a cove started, for 5/3/3 commerce, which makes all the arithmetic work out. And I believe last turn we were tied for 1st in GNP, so probably he just founded the cove this turn.

A crazy (and mostly irrelevant) thought - I wonder if Maksim defogged a coast tile for Selrahc at the start of the game. 4 turns from start to coast pretty much requires a beeline, doesn't it?

[Irgy]

That doesn't make sense - if he's got an upgraded cove, he'd be at 3 hammers by now. On the other hand, I don't think you included our Elder Council in your count of our beakers. Maybe he's working 4 coasts, no cove?

So, a cove before it upgrades would give him the 2 commerce that I left out from the Elder Council, whereas another coast tile would put him too high. But only the coast would explain the 9 food. Could he have really got to 4 population already though? I suppose if he hasn't built a worker he'd have 9 food. Maybe he's 4 pop, working 4 coast, one of which has a cove, and he's researching something with no pre-requisite? Not sure if that comes out right or not...

The big thing is that Selrahc will be even shorter on hammers than a normal Lanun game. While everyone else should be extremely hammer-rich.

Maybe we should point this out to Sciz...

Or just send some centaurs south ourselves...

[Irgy]

On further thought - if Selrahc simply has a Fish/clam/crab, then he could easily be at size 3 and 9 food. In which case he probably does have a cove started, for 5/3/3 commerce, which makes all the arithmetic work out. And I believe last turn we were tied for 1st in GNP, so probably he just founded the cove this turn.

Oh, right, seafood. Forgot about that A much better explanation.

A crazy (and mostly irrelevant) thought - I wonder if Maksim defogged a coast tile for Selrahc at the start of the game. 4 turns from start to coast pretty much requires a beeline, doesn't it?

Seems an odd thing to do though. If anything he should have defogged a coast tile for everyone (but maybe that's just my way of thinking about things). Would explain how Selrahc knew to move to the tundra though. Although he also could have just guessed that the snow would at least be coastal at the poles, while desert was quite unlikely to be.

[Irgy]

A proposed message to Ichabod about our potential city site. Not really sure why, but I feel more worried about what he's going to think than what Dantski thinks about it. We probably should send something to Dantski too though.

[COLOR="Magenta"]Greetings!

It's been a while since we've spoken. We hope all is well. The giant Mithecha and his unnamed friend are running a merry chase after our scout Veeson, you'll be glad to know they're both a long way from your borders now. No sign of any

We're currently trying to find a decent site for our second city, and in all honesty struggling a little. The only reasonable site we've found so far is in the desert, next to the gold south of Mithecha's dungeon. It is full of desert, but eventually this is something our water mana would be able to clear. It is however a bit of an aggressive location, situated as it is somewhat equally between us, yourself and the Elohim - it would include for instance the reagants and sheep just east of the dungeon. This is essentially unavoidable for us, as the size of our cities combined with having settled basically in the centre of the small area available to us means there is literally nowhere for us to put it that does not poke into someone else's land at least a little.

So, we're letting you know in order to gather your thoughts on the issue before we commit ourselves to it completely.

In other news, well there's not much of it. We've yet to make any other contact. We've discovered that there is indeed snow and tundra to the north, rather than the hidden green fields of happiness we'd secretly hoped for.

Irgith Lorda[/COLOR]

[Mardoc]

Well, finish the sentence in the first paragraph, but otherwise I think it's a pretty good message.

[Azoth]

What the heck does all that mean? I thought there were just two per-unit upkeeps:
1. Total units.
2. Units outside borders (this is the unit supply below).

However, this seems to say we have two separate upkeeps to pay, one for "units", and the other for "military units".

No, that's just leftover clutter from BtS. The "military units" upkeep refers to expenses from the BtS Pacifism civic, which charges you 1g per military unit. Pacifism has been changed in FFH, so you can safely ignore that component. Which means you currently have free support for 8 units. (In practice, that works out to 9 units, because the cost of the first unit over the limit is always waived.)

[Mardoc]

Ah, thank you Azoth. That makes sense now.