Arise, Riders of Rohanna! Ride for Molach! [SPOILERS!]

[Molach]

Fantasy realm? Personally I think I like my maps to look like a real world, and last time I checked the map just made a weird world. Not really fantasy, but weird realm. Could be a cool idea for a MP game, at least it balances itself, no large areas of anything around. Some tiles are just very good to start next to, though. Haven't really tried it much.

I like to play on this map though. Fun exploring. "You never know whatcha gonna get"

Turn 45

Summary: Built road connection. Killed a bear. Clan Wolf Rider outside my borders. Sent Serdoa a message. Scouted.
Thats about it.

Scout attacked the bear.

Enough exp for animal capture now, if I get AH within reasonable timeframe.

Roading, and Serdoa Wolf Rider.

Workers are building a mine for Amon atm, next turn one will start roading towards the south. Sent a short message to inquire about what he is doing, as Serdoa does not like to talk much.

Good morning. See your wolf rider found my southern border of my second city.
Hi.
So how's it going? I can't help but notice you seem to be doing allright in every sense - who are you gonna attack?

-Molach of the Hippus.

Sent a warrior N, after turn a bear moved in. Which is okay, I guess I wanna pull him back for now as I'm settling the south with next 2 cities, but need to think about a presense here.


Demons have not seen any scorpions. Maybe head up north, since I found backup bronze to my south. He can dance on a graveyard on the way.


Demos:

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah my thought about a fantasy realm map was more that in FFH so many more tiles are viable (between aristograrianism et al) so a hodgepodge of terrain could work.
Its got different settings too IIRC...

[Ranamar]

Wow, that's some gold you found in your recent scouting.

What did Lesser D turn out to be? ... and are you thinking about a city somewhere up there?

[spellman]

Wow, that's some gold you found in your recent scouting.

ALL THE GOLD

[Molach]

Missed our saturday turn, gtAngel had it for the day.

ALL THE GOLD

Yup, thar be gold in them thar hills

Turn 46

Center lands, 3 turns before settler is done.

Lazy worker has taken to the jungle. Worker onto plains hill to mine it (it was actually a 0/3/0 tile this turn because of +10% military production...). I'm starting to lean towards city on the plains forest tile now. A warrior on the Grassland forest hill can cover all 3 cities with 2 moves. Also opens up a city spot on a plains hill 2S of the corn. Also it can share the jungled dyes from capital, if capital ever should go hammer-heavy, so I won't lose that bit of commerce. But closeness, added to that this will hopefully not be frontline city for long. Maybe against barbs for a while, but with warriors on defense I should be okay. Maybe a good idea to garrison the hill anyway, so they either have to cross water or come in over flatlands.

I sent a warrior SW, I want to stake out the lands for my bronze city. Yup, gonna grab that next, after a couple of workers. Scout lost warcry, finally. Didn't promote yet, I'll try to save it for animal capture but also can get shock in case barb warriors suddenly should become troublesome. No barbs on the horizon except elephant N and that bear NE.

This bear.

Yeah I think this warrior can just keep going east, if possible SE-wards and see if he can either scout some nice city locations, make contact with clowns, or die with honor.

Demos and 4 graphs:

Added some clown stats, as far as I can make out from graphs + demos

gtAngel leads GNP, but is quite behind in food and production.
Serdoa is ahead, depends a bit on how much food the clowns are outputting, I really should try to find them and get their graphs. But my gut, from scanning briefly demographics, is that they aren't too hot either.

Speaking of Serdoa, he sent a longer reply now - guess the real game is about to start.

Hi Molach,

It's going well right now, thanks for asking. I do think my lead though is mostly because of lucky hut pops. As soon as others tech-rates catch up I'll fall behind.

As for whom to attack: I don't intend to attack anyone right now, except if opportunities present themselves. Whosit would need to be attacked right now (he is Fin, Ind, Spi...) but I don't have the means to do it and also agreed not to. GtAngel is not really a threat as of now, so attacking him wouldn't make much sense either. Only maybe to get this game moving quicker, it's a joke that we don't get one turn a day with just 4 players.

Leaves you and me: And in our case I do not see either of us benefitting from attacking. I'm too far away from you (~25 tiles to the east from you and even more tiles to the west, we are pretty much on opposite sides of the world) so even with Hippus-movement horses it makes no sense to come to me - and it makes even less sense for me to come to you. Actually you sit in a pretty spot right now, because you don't neighbour anyone and have wide stretches of land to you, while I am pressed in between Whosit and GtAngel.

So yeah, as of now, I won't attack anyone I guess. How about you, do you intend to go on the warpath again soon?

Kind regards,
Serdoa

Went with

Hi, thanks for reply.

I've noticed your production and power are through the roof, so I thought you were on the warpath. And I got a bit nervous over this wolf rider you field. Some time till I can have horsemen of my own.

I've no formal NAPs with anyone, still haven't met clowns and the others don't want one... just building warriors and preparing for the barbarian invasions. I am thinking I go all builder and sit peacefully until I get swallowed up by the runaway civ, hopefully for 2nd place.

I agree meta-wise about gtAngel, seems he only can play at one specific time and has no leeway about that. And keeps forgetting to attach the file too. But we have no reason nor ability to do anything about that.

Cordially, Molach of Hippus.

That. And I guess we talk in 20 turns, or until I find out more about the lay of the land.

[Ichabod]

Nice about Serdoa. I'd settle the gold city next (it fits better with your worker placement), since I don't think Serdoa is lying about attacking. Let's expand and fill this map with our horses.

[Molach]

Nice about Serdoa. I'd settle the gold city next (it fits better with your worker placement), since I don't think Serdoa is lying about attacking. Let's expand and fill this map with our horses.

Yeah, gold city first, starting the road to it next turn. City up in 4 turns. Quick farm then goldmine.

Next builds I think are worker from capital and amon, and then I'd like to settle bronze city, which is not terrible either...has a gold, of course. Also cotton for happiness. But a bit of a stretch, need to be careful about garrisoning it. Would actually like to have Ancient chants by then for a quick monument - establish a presence. But I think I have time for festivals as well before that.

[Ranamar]

That zone defense argument is a really good one for building the city on flat land. 2 moves is one turn on road, after all, but I'm sure you already knew that. I hadn't thought of that positional advantage.

What do you think of the roads over by Lesser D and Greater D? That should speed your warrior's scouting up, at least. What are the 'D's anyway?

[Ichabod]

I think 4th city could be by the silk and cotton near Amon Harad. That 2 extra hapiness will do wonders for you, enabling all cities to start growing way earlier. After that, you can settle for copper. Besides, the copper city placement could be improved, I think. It'll take a long time for it to grow its borders and actually get the copper. Maybe settle a city on the desert hill 1N of the desert gold (maybe even on the desert gold), which gets a powerful rice tile right away, and after that get a city 1W of the copper. That city, even only working copper + cow can be quite productive. 20 hammers per turn on a settler at size 2, 26 hammers per turn on a settler at size 3!

Your call, of course, but I think the planned copper city will not be productive enough right now to be worth it. I really don't think we are on danger of being attacked.

[Molach]

That zone defense argument is a really good one for building the city on flat land. 2 moves is one turn on road, after all, but I'm sure you already knew that. I hadn't thought of that positional advantage.

Yeah, mobile units are a bit in the future, as I seem to avoid getting HBR like the plague for some reason, so the 2-move thing, and in this case, a single point that covers all 3 cities is good enough. And to be honest, having read various lurker threads I've never ever seen veterans lament 'omfg look at that noob packing those cities together like a supermassive black hole'. Rather the opposite, every comment is 'he put his second/third city where???'. I accept, for reasons currently not quite fathomable to me, that cities should be closer together than I think they should be.

What do you think of the roads over by Lesser D and Greater D? That should speed your warrior's scouting up, at least. What are the 'D's anyway?

D - perhaps the same as 'Tenacious D?" Naw, D is Domsdale. A quick search on 'lesser Domsdale' leads to...well, this thread, actually. Mighty useful. Not as useful as those roads, though.

I just hit the road, and spotted another gold. I'm a bit concerned, all this gold will surely lead to massive problems with inflation, like the spanish after importing all those new world precious metals...

Hm? I see another feature. And this time it's...

Tomb of Sucellus. (Warning to those suffering from vertigo - picture has been rotated 90 degrees

In the north, demons trudge on, find more traces of pirate activity.

Nice place for fishville. 1N of warrior can get both + pig, but 100% useless before first pop in that case. I'll think more on this in 60 turns. Probably have a religion by then.

I think 4th city could be by the silk and cotton near Amon Harad. That 2 extra hapiness will do wonders for you, enabling all cities to start growing way earlier. After that, you can settle for copper. Besides, the copper city placement could be improved, I think. It'll take a long time for it to grow its borders and actually get the copper. Maybe settle a city on the desert hill 1N of the desert gold (maybe even on the desert gold), which gets a powerful rice tile right away, and after that get a city 1W of the copper. That city, even only working copper + cow can be quite productive. 20 hammers per turn on a settler at size 2, 26 hammers per turn on a settler at size 3!

Your call, of course, but I think the planned copper city will not be productive enough right now to be worth it. I really don't think we are on danger of being attacked.

Hm. Yeah, this bronze city is a stretch. Ignore what I said about packing them close. The place I'm thinking of has copper (and gold, and pig, and cotton) in first ring though. And on a plains hill with copper already mined it can push out a monument (for zone control, mostly, not to gain tiles) pretty fast. 6 turns. Then the GL farm is finished and it may grow a bit.
Here's a bit of a map with some city spots indicated...(barb city does not fit well with the rest, I could work around it of course but settlers are pretty cheap)



I am not really worried about AI rival attack just now, my power should be higher than the two people closer to me and while Serdoa might be lying about peaceful intentions, he is probably not lying about being furthest away from me and that it is futile to attack me now. But I am concerned with barbs. Similar games have seen civs getting stalled in developement in about 10-15 turns by the barbarian hordes. With luck I can build up some promoted units (and with enough units I will get the luck, eventually) but that str really gives warrior more bang for the buck, especially in a counterattack role, to preserve my improvements.

Bronzetown would, as a slight bonus, provide cotton to my empire's happiness. And in 15 turns I could pop the borders in Amon to gain silk. But there is a nice city near Amon, for sure.

And there is the gem city to found as well. No time for warring, gotta fill up all these juicy spots...

Demos: