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

[Ilios]

Tile bleed on the forested plain SE from the lightbringer shows another river, so I think I'm going to move him there.

[Old_Lion]

I think I mistook warrior for lightbringer and vice-versa. I find it hard to tell

wouldn't a 1S for lightbringer be more effective for scouting, It looks like a hill to me ? (I find it hard to see the terrain from this point of view)

+

Having rivers everywhere is great. One or more cities with freshwater only tiles.
I don't know how you plan to play, but it could make a cottage intensive city tempting

+
I'm not really used to MP games. I have several orbis PBEM underway, but they are unresolved, and obviously I did not go into as much thinking as some players of the first FFH2 PBEM thread were. So don't hesitate to tell me how much my suggestions are mistaken.
--
also, I'm not an english speaker, so I may use strange words or sentences sometimes.

[Ilios]

wouldn't a 1S for lightbringer be more effective for scouting, It looks like a hill to me ? (I find it hard to see the terrain from this point of view)

The problem with 1S is that all its adjacent fogged tiles are forests, so I probably won't be uncovering that many tiles, even with Sentry. I'd need to test it to be sure. (or if a lurker could confirm )

Having rivers everywhere is great. One or more cities with freshwater only tiles.
I don't know how you plan to play, but it could make a cottage intensive city tempting

That depends a bit on the initial food situation. If there are some juicy food tiles around I can spare some citizens for cottage duty. But I plan on going Financial eventually, and cottages are a more tempting pillage target then Farms. With the Aristocracy and Agrarianism civics, those Floodplain farms will be 5/0/5 tiles
I will probably build a few cottages to work and re-assess once Code of Laws has been discovered.

I'm not really used to MP games. I have several orbis PBEM underway, but they are unresolved, and obviously I did not go into as much thinking as some players of the first FFH2 PBEM thread were. So don't hesitate to tell me how much my suggestions are mistaken.

No problem, we're here to learn and have fun!

also, I'm not an english speaker, so I may use strange words or sentences sometimes.

I think you'll notice that the native English speakers on this site use some strange words as well from time to time.

[pocketbeetle]

The problem with 1S is that all its adjacent fogged tiles are forests, so I probably won't be uncovering that many tiles, even with Sentry. I'd need to test it to be sure. (or if a lurker could confirm )

Sentry on a hill should be able to see 1 tile over forests or hills, but not over forested hills.

[Ilios]

Sentry on a hill should be able to see 1 tile over forests or hills, but not over forested hills.

Thanks buddy


So, turn was played, here's the result.

Double moving the warrior, popping the hut:



Seriously, no food resources? (I'm not counting the jungle-infested Rice tile!)

The hut revealed a detailed map of my south-east:



Note the Dragon Bones Unique Feature on the right hand side of the map, and the Tomb of Sucellus on the left. Lots of Mountains.

I saw no reason to move, as apparently, desert hills do not give a defense bonus in FFH:



Agriculture in 8 turns, worker in 9. Borders will pop end of next turn.
With the plains hill plant and the plains hill forest, I can build a warrior in 3 turns if necessary.

And a shot of the demographics:



Note the extra commerce I'm getting from the floodplain. Looks like Serdoa didn't get a double hammer plant, and is working a plains forest.
Best rival power 13K - Mahala and her merry bunch!

[pocketbeetle]

Pretty useful hutpop.

Agree about ignoring the Sheep, I'd be interested to know your thoughts about settling in place vs settling 1SW.
Looks to me like you'd have lost a turn and a bunch of hills, but gained a lot more cottageable/aristofarms land.

Where did the Lightbringer move to?


Edit: Oh and about the desert hill.
I believe the way it works is the desert = -25%, but hill = +25% so they cancel each other out.
I imagine the Nomad ability would have given you an extra 25%, so plains hill vs desert hill plant is the same defensively for the Malakim, with base tile yields being 2/2/1 vs 2/1/2 (?)

[Ilios]

Agree about ignoring the Sheep, I'd be interested to know your thoughts about settling in place vs settling 1SW.
Looks to me like you'd have lost a turn and a bunch of hills, but gained a lot more cottageable/aristofarms land.

I'd only gain one grassland tile actually (granted they'd be all river tiles, versus settler on the spot has two normal grass tiles), and an extra plains river. Not worth the lost turn I'd say. Helios would be very hammer poor until those desert hills are Springed.

Where did the Lightbringer move to?

Well, the map information made my initially planned move with him unnecessary, so I moved him east:



There's gold, but it looks like pretty crappy land, the lightbringer will move on the gold tile to see if it has the makings of a decent second city site. The coastline you can see is ocean.

Edit: Oh and about the desert hill.
I believe the way it works is the desert = -25%, but hill = +25% so they cancel each other out.
I imagine the Nomad ability would have given you an extra 25%, so plains hill vs desert hill plant is the same defensively for the Malakim, with base tile yields being 2/2/1 vs 2/1/2 (?)

The Nomad ability only gives a 20% bonus, so I'd still lose out defensively. The yields you mentioned are correct, and I'd take an extra hammer over an extra commerce any time at this stage of the game.

[Ilios]

First dotmap of the Malakim Empire!:



Unfortunately, I won't be settling this site in the immediate future. Its two food resources can only be improved with Animal Husbandry and Fishing, two technologies I had not planned on researching right away. Maybe as third or fourth city, to be founded before T67 (to make sure borders are popped before I switch traits).

I've circled the point summary of Mahala. I couldn't figure out why Mist has zero points, and then I remembered the Doviello do not have a starting technology.

As you can see - and have probably read about in the other lurker threads - the Lanun, Elves and Doviello have not yet founded their capital.

Demographics:



First place at 17 GDP... Balseraphs? They popped their borders end of turn, but I can't think of of a three commerce tile for non-financial civs. I hope someone didn't already get the free monument event.

Overview:



Taken after borders have popped. I'm not sure what to do with the Dan'Yel the Lightbringer. He has absolutely no chance against animals, who will soon be making their appearance. I'm currently leaning towards returning him to the capital, and unfogging the lands to the north and west.

After thinking for a minute, I've decided to put an early end to the exploring ventures of my starting warrior. Any ruins could already have spawned a Lizardman, and I would not want a rival's scout swooping out of the fog to find an empty capital. Borders will pop soon again for more map info, and as mentioned before, the Lightbringer should be able to do some safe scouting.

I wanted to send the warrior to the blue spot, which is currently my top second city site. I just love those riverside plains Incense tiles!
I'm going to check if I can't slot in Calendar after Crafting technology.

Notice the unfertile north...

[pocketbeetle]

After thinking for a minute, I've decided to put an early end to the exploring ventures of my starting warrior. Any ruins could already have spawned a Lizardman, and I would not want a rival's scout swooping out of the fog to find an empty capital. Borders will pop soon again for more map info, and as mentioned before, the Lightbringer should be able to do some safe scouting

You wuss!
Remember the first spawn on any Barrows/Ruins is just going to fortify in place and animals shouldn't spawn until ~T10.

As for spoiling your lurkers with dotmaps on T1, agree that riverbend Rice and Incense does make blue site very nice indeed.

[Old_Lion]

Well,
now that I've read through what both of Ilios and PB wrote in other threads, I'm officially intimidated.

I have little to add for now.
allow me just to state that there are several promising spots in the south. For exemple in the bones general area, even if it is a little moutainous...

The ligth bringer could try and win "easy" fight in the desert. otherwise, it will be fogbusting only.