[EitB PBEM LVI] coldrain emerges from the shadows

[coldrain]

Turn 1

The game has started! Here is the screenshot at the end of the turn:

EDIT: Fixed how image was linked.

Starting units were settler, two scouts and a worker, all placed on the plains hill were the capital is. Before founding the city I moved one scout to see if I block any coastal resources by founding on the starting tile and second scout checked if there is a reason to move to the other plains hill southwest. Didn’t see any compelling reason to move, so founded on the starting spot. Forgot to change name of the capital, will do that next turn. I’m going to follow my simulation attempt unless scouting reveals something significant (like a powerful world feature or a neighbour is close).

So the rough plan is:
1)      Set research for mining.
2)      Capital produces warrior and grows to size 2. Worker improves the dry corn and then moves to the plains hill deer. I waste one worker turn by moving, but I want that camp done ASAP. 
3)      At size 2, decide if city continues to grow or build a second worker.

Elven workers are slow and building improvements on forested tiles is even slower. I quite liked the second worker opening in my test games. In any case, I need to build a warrior for safety first.

I will post thoughts on the civ and leader choices of other players later.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 1


https://imgur.com/a/06LGfgO

(I still couldn’t get the image to show properly. I will edit this once I figure it out.)

You need to right-click the image address, and use that instead of the page for the image. For this instance it's: https://i.imgur.com/tsHZqs7.jpeg

[coldrain]

Thanks Tarkeel! I finally got the image displayed.

[coldrain]

Turns 2-4

Don't have the time to write in detail for now. Played two turns today.

Moved scouts, not much else happening. Worker finished farming the corn. Very hilly terrain and not much space north of the capital. Expanding south first seems important. Getting ancient forests will certainly boost the food on the hilly area, but I have to research mysticism and Way of the forest for those. I need education for cottages (key part of the elven economy) as well. And fishing at some point. And animal husbandry... Too many priorities, even with the added starting techs!

Auroarcher didn't use his worldspell yet. I think waiting for a bit later is a good idea. I will elaborate more on this once I have the time to write up about the other civs and their abilities.

[coldrain]

Here are the original choices each player had and their final picks (copied from tech/setup thread):

Round 1:
Aurorarcher: Garrim Gyr of the Luchuirp OR Thessalonica of the Elohim OR Cardith Lorda of the Kuriotates
BING_XI_LAO: Decius of the Bannor OR Sandalphon of the Sidar OR Tasunke of the Hippus
coldrain: Thessa of the Ljosalfar OR Cassiel of the Grigori OR Mahala of the Dovielo
Miguelito: Falamar of the Lanun OR Rivanna of the Svartalfar OR Valledia of the Amurites
Qgqqqqq: Arturus Thorne of the Khazad OR Keelyn of the Balseraphs OR Alexis of the Calabim - REROLL

Round 2:
Qgqqqqq: Tebryn of the Sheaim OR Rivanna of the Svartalfar OR Rhoanna of the Hippus
 
I’ll go through these in the listed order and provide my opinion on the civ + abilities and speculate on the tech they chose. Again, an important reminder: Haven't internalized all of the changes EitB does compared to base FFH2, so I might get some details/abilities slightly wrong.

Aurorarcher: Garrim Gyr (Financial, Arcane) of the Luchuirp

The Luchuirp are a dwarven civilization (regular units move through hills faster, brewing house national wonder provides +2 xp). As dwarves, they have the boosted forge unique building. Standard melee units are replaced by golems which are slower, can’t earn experience, but have higher base strength. They are boosted with empower promotions when Luchuirp hero Barnaxus gains combat promotions. Golems are further amplified with later tech buildings to gain special abilities, such as added mobility, fireball casting or invisibility. Based on the earlier game reports I’ve read, golems are too slow to be useful on the offensive against human opponents. Instead, the Luchuirp usually rely on chariots, boar riders and adepts/mages. Maybe also religious combat units, such as paramanders. The best golem might be the worker replacement, mud golem (higher work rate). The true power of this civ is their word spell that I hinted at in the previous post. It requires masonry tech and when used, grants a golden hammer in each city. Golden hammer can be used as an equipment on any combat unit (+1 attack strength) or it can be settled in a city as an engineer specialist. That’s right! No need to wait for forges to get great engineers, this is very useful. If you collect all of the hammers into one city (preferably god-king capital), you will have great engineers in no time plus heaps of production. I think using the world spell is best with 3-5 cities, but I don’t know if this is the best approach in multiplayer. I’m expecting some of the good early game wonders to go to Aurorarcher. I also expect him to adopt Runes of Kilmorph religion (good melee religious combat units, great special wonder to build early game, shrine provides more engineer slots and gp points). Starting tech is either mining or masonry, So Auro could have used his world spell on turn 1, but didn’t do so (at least according to the event log). So maybe he picked mining instead, and will get masonry when he has more cities to benefit from?
 
BING_XI_LAO: Sandalphon (Philosophical, Industrious) of the Sidar

This civ has the special ability to turn highly experienced units into shades. Shades can wane in cities, creating a great specialist (sage, bard, merchant or engineer) and disappearing in the process. If there are enough barbarians on the map, Sidar can level up warriors etc. and wane them to have a super specialist city. This is further boosted by all specialists gaining +1 of their main yield. Theoretically adepts or mages with accumulated xp can also be waned, but I doubt it is worth it. Recon units starting form hunter replacement (Divided soul) can “sever soul” to create a temporary ethereal unit that can fly over mountains or water and then call back the caster on the tile. This gives Sidar recon very fast movement and ability to ambush careless victims over mountain ranges or 1-tile wide water obstacles. Or they can escape away from harm the same way. Additionally, assassins have the ability to hide. The downside is that recon units are typically bad at assaulting cities and don’t benefit from metal weapon upgrades. World spell grants magical invisibility (not seen by scouts) to all Sidar units, but spell casting and hostile actions brakes it. I’m not sure what the best use of the world spell is. Try to sneak attack someone? Or attack someone first, and then cast the spell to hide from retaliation? I’m interested to see what Bing comes up with. Starting tech is either mysticism (god-king civic) or education (cottages + apprenticeship civic). Both options are good, maybe he chose mysticism for god-king (+50% production and gold in the capital). With incentive to go for hunting tech for the unique unit, Bing might compete for Fellowship of Leaves religion.
 

coldrain: Thessa (Expansive, Arcane) of the Ljosalfar
I already analysed my choice of civilization and tech, so no need to repeat it.
 

Miguelito: Valledia (Organized, Arcane, Ingenuity) of the Amurites

Amurites are geared towards the arcane path. They get better mages and the world spell gives xp to arcane units and stops other civs from casting spells for a limited time. Unique building grants extra experience to adepts and the hero Govannon can teach his own adept level magic knowledge to combat units (not only adepts!). If for some reason Miguelito does not go for mages, he can also get Firebows (longbowman replacement) that can cast fireballs without any arcane techs. Amurite palace gives excellent mana sources (body, fire and metamagic). The challenge is to get to mages in a reasonable time, and you need some other units first to defend against possible aggression by neighbours. All in all, Amurites don’t have much in the early game, but mid/late game is very powerful. Interestingly, there are in total three arcane leaders this game, so Miguelito is not perhaps alone in pursuit of mages. On the other hand, body mana (haste spell) and metamagic (floating eye = recon flight) are very good early support spells with adepts, so early warfare is not a completely impossible idea. Also, when RefSteel started to make the map, I think the consensus was to have one guaranteed mana node per player and maybe a contested one nearby? So metamagic mana has even greater value (with mages, can change mana nodes from one type to another. Very helpful if there are limited amount of mana nodes). But I haven’t explored the map enough to evaluate if this is the case. Starting techs options are the same as with Sidar. Again, mysticism for god-king would be my bet.
 
 
Qgqqqqq: Rhoanna (Financial, Expansive) of the Hippus

Hippus are the horselords, nothing else to report. Well I can elaborate a bit more. Their mounted units have extra +1 movement and +10% withdrawal chance. In FFH2, withdrawal chance also works on the defence, so it is slightly more valuable. Palace provides a guaranteed source of horses. Hippus worldspell is terrifying. It gives war cry promotion to all combat units (5% chance to wear off each turn): +1 movement and +1 strength, can attack multiple times per turn. This combined with already faster mounted units can lead to devastating invasions. I definitely want to be as far away as possible from Q. Rhoannas traits are great for expanding peacefully, so war is not the only option on the table. Not much else special about the civ, unless I’m forgetting something. Starting tech options are calendar or animal husbandry. This is a tough one to predict: calendar grants the agrarianism civic (+1 food, -1 production to farms). Animal husbandry is on the path to horseback riding. Both are very good for Hippus early game. I guess starting resources determine which option is better? Unless Q is planning a horseman rush from the get go… I hope not!
 
Miscellaneous thoughts about the civs and opponents

I got the only civ with the ability to pick hunting as starting tech. So I have early military options covered (hunters) and a jump start to get Fellowship of leaves religion, which is essential for the Elves. I’m planning to research at least mining and education + the necessary pre-req mysticism before teching Fellowship, so in theory Bing or someone else could snatch it before me. Other good news is that the other Elven civ, Svaltafar, is not in the game. I’m going to grow ancient forests all over my territory, so other non-elven civs will struggle with movement if they invade.

I have read through the threads of the previous and some earlier EitB PBEM games, and it seems Aurorarcher, Miguelito and Q are all veteran players who know the mod very well. Bing looks like to be newer to FFH2/EitB and doesn’t know all of the “tricks” and special abilities available. For example in the previous game he didn’t build the project that gives Priests of Winter, the main early game power spike for the Illians. But who knows, maybe he has learned more during/after the game?

And me? Well I have a lot of experience in single player FFH2, but this is my first PBEM game. I expect to misread the game status at some point and get trapped in a single player builder mode. Then someone comes knocking at my door at an inopportune time. Or I decide to invade someone thinking I have an unstoppable advantage, but it turns out I underestimated the military strengh of the opponent. Also first time playing with Ljosalfar (I prefer Svartalfar, assassins rule!). Anyway, win or lose, I hope to have loads of fun with this game!

[Tarkeel]

Thank you for the very detailed overview, from someone who has never played the mod but tries to follow along.

[coldrain]

Thank you for the very detailed overview, from someone who has never played the mod but tries to follow along.

Glad to hear you appreciated it! When I was lurking around the forum, I always enjoyed reading player reports of actions they took during the turn and what they expect to happen next... Then next turn lament the fact that no plan survives contact with the enemy! My point being: reporting what has already occurred is good, but analyzing the game state and providing insight to the possibilities is much more interesting. So I will try to include that aspect in turn reports. In the early game, there's not much going on yet, so not much to write about.

All lurker questions are welcome! Reporting will continue anyways, so stay tuned.

[coldrain]

Turn 6

View of scouting to the east:

 
West/southwest:

Warrior finished at capital and worker starts improving the plains hill deer. Scout movement has been slow in the south, as I was blocked by a mountain range and turned back in hill terrain. Southeast revealed a great city site (pigs, wheat and reagents). First expand goes here most likely. I was planning to research animal husbandry only after Way of the Forest, but seeing the bacon has forced me to rethink. I was willing to skip AH, because ancient forests will provide more food than the two hill sheep tiles. No need to decide the tech path just yet, I will explore the area to weigh in the options.

I’m now slightly worried that the southern mountain range blocks my expansion (I’m expansive, I want lots of room for the half price settlers). I hope that the map allows more space for peaceful expansion than what I have revealed between the coast and the mountain range. On the other hand, those mountains could provide very defensible choke points, so I can safely sit back and develop my economy. Elves are after all a bit slow to get their ball rolling, but they also have a very high potential.

My research rate will jump slightly when the fur camp is improved (after the deer of course). If I time city growth and building a second worker correctly, I should be able to complete mining the gold on turn 18 or 19. Settlers will then be produced quite fast at size 5 with mines.

Demos:
 

 

[coldrain]

Turn 8

Another double turn. Worker finishes deer camp. Southern scout reveals this:

Take me home to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the gems are pretty!

 
Also the same scout attacked a wolf at 96% odds and won 3 xp, getting wounded in the process. Western scout finds a graveyard on a hill, but avoids it for now to not get eaten by the lion:
 

City grows end of turn, and demos look like this:

Southeast of capital is a very rich area to settle. The western river + wine area looks good as well. No sign of other players yet. I will promote the wounded scout next turn and decide if staying still to heal is needed. The city spot with gems and pigs is a nice defensible hill and controls the mountain pass. It is looking more and more likely that first settler goes there.

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the reports! What ended up happening with that graveyard and the lion? Did you just move away and look elsewhere? Or did the Scout hang around the area (or come back to it) for another look?