[Spoilers] Amelia, Tempest of the Seas

[Mardoc]

If it's scary we can turn back like the pirates we are ARRRR WE ONLY RAID UNGUARDED SETTLEMENTS AND RUN AWAY FROM A REAL FORCE

ARRRR! :aar:

[Amelia]

I went through the entire list of units, entire list of techs. One thing poked out to me.

Rathas do not require siege workshop.

In fact, the only thing they need is Empyrean... and given that i have a lack of production... Worth a thought? Of course i need to sacrifice poor Saverous, but is it worth it? Not to mention Rathas can use iron, which all i need to do is to research Smelting/Iron Working.

Let's see.

Trade -> philosophy -> WotWise -> Honor for Rathas.

Smelting - Iron working for Iron...

We are horse riding chariot mounting sun using PIRATES! ARRRR

Each Ratha is 120 Hammer. I'm on conquest / Military state / Nationhood, for a 25% bonus to military production. (Does that count for food?).

Let's look at my three cities.

Cerulean City

Cerulean uses 20 food, 1 lost to unhealtiness. It gets at the best 32 food, along with 9 hammers, for a total of 12 food 9 hammers per turn, 21. 6 turns per Ratha. adding 25% to the 9 means extra 2 hammers, nothing much.

East Checkpoint

At max pop, it has 18 extra food, + 10 hammers. After 25%, it reaches 30, exactly 4 turns per Ratha!

Radiata City

With a lighthouse, it gets 11 extra food, + 22 hammers. After 25%, 38 production, and this is not at max growth yet (3 more pop). It can easily reach 40, for 3 turns per Ratha.

After some consideration, i believe this is the way to go. Mass Rathas, who can use Blinding Light, and are Str 7 at Iron. (If i don't have iron it's Str 6, still quite good).

But what about collateral? I could rush chalid (back to original plan) for pillar of fire.... and i guess it's still the best.

Empyrean here i come!

[Amelia]

One last turn... Next turn i'll send the hunter in. If the coast is clear, war is declared!!!

If the coast isn't clear (erm sir we're on a hunting and scouting party, can you direct us to mist?)

Edit: One of the biggest ironies ever: I am the only civ in the entire game who will make good use of The Great Lighthouse (with 3 coastal cities, 2 more to go). The problem? I don't have the hammers required.

[Bobchillingworth]

Urghh. Why Ratha? Okay, fast movers, decent strength, blinding light. All good, and perhaps outright great with raiders. But allow me to make the case against them (and for staying on course):



* They're expensive. You were just complaining about how little production you have a few posts ago. 120 hammers is a lot for a strength 7 attack unit, and that's assuming you're able to get iron. Not having to build siege workshops isn't going to save you many hammers when each ratha is 40 hammers more than a standard chariot.

* Chalid is probably a pipe dream. Surely the Dovello, who have had the Empyrean for approx. forever, will get him first. And even if you do get him, it'll be so late that he'll be far from a game-winner (especially as he'll have no exp and you won't have the shrine's sun mana).

* The plan requires [SIZE="6"]way[/SIZE] too many techs. Please note the super extra emphasis on "way". You're talking philo, way of the wise, trade, honor, smelting, ironworking, priesthood, fanaticism, mono. All this to get expensive ratha and a single hero. "Impractical" would be an incredible understatement. You have at most 40 turns before Ilios is going to swarm south and destroy you. You need to be building cultists and Stygian ASAP, or preparing to switch to Hyborem, not setting up a plan to gain mediocre attack units a hundred turns from now.

* Which leads me to the final point- why do you even want ratha? You should be planning to play defense, not a super-convoluted future attack. Who would you even be fighting with them? By the time you get them Ilios will be far too advanced for them to matter, and you're declaring on the Calabim in a couple turns, when ratha are as realistic as a dream within a dream within a Gabriel García Márquez novel. Which is to say, they aren't. If you still want fast raiders units for the attack, then at least go for the much more practical HA instead, who have the added bonus of not sucking on the defense. But really what you need are cultists for reliable collateral damage and Stygian to actually kill stuff and defend. And losing Saverous would be the worst possible thing- without him, you essentially have no military. Even if you could get Chalid, Saverous will by that point have at least 100 exp, and arguably more valuable because of it. Plus there's Hemah, if you want to fantasize about very long-term options.




Sorry if that's all a bit harsh. I'm just a dedicated lurker with no real investment in the game, so do what you feel is right. But I think you're going to get eliminated pretty soon if you don't find a practical plan and summon the willpower to stick with it.

[Amelia]

I'm basing my plans on the fact that Ilios will aim East, against the balseraphs.

Mist had Empyrean not from the tech itself, but from a dungeon raid.

Of course, if Ilios really wants me first, Rathas aren't going to help. But i thought of them as my main offensive army, who can strike fast and hard with Raiders.

But of course, for now, Stygians (and overlord temples) are coming up. I'll probably rush Hemah first, better to have more insurance than no insurance.

[Amelia]

So, after a convo with bob, first let me show the details.


In almost every way, Calabim has ridiculous weak military. He even has a lesser power graph than me, the Lanun. So... why did i say almost?



Just start laughing, heh. That's not going to work. I've send an email to Calabim telling him Saverous is there for Goblin Archer duty, and an email to Ilios telling him what happened.

So back to expansion... and the building of military. I took a one turn archery, 5 turns to stirrup route for HAs. Once i get stables out this will be my main military, with cultists at the back.

[Amelia]

Darrell replied that yeah sure ok no problem.

Looks like he didn't realize my true intentions.

[Bobchillingworth]

Oh hey, since you don't have to worry about tipping him off any more, might as well base your hawk in his cities and scout everything.



If you can get an NAP with the Calabim, I'd send East Checkpoint's settler to take the horse filler site in the east (found either 1W of the horse, on the horse, or 1S of it). You can capture a bear to get some quick culture going there, too.

[Amelia]

I need to build a new hunter though, to get 5XP immediately for animal capture, but my capital is busy making a settler now (and i need to revolt to conquest/military state).

I guess i'll ask him in the form of "Is mist around you? I still need contact with him, can i send a hawk?"

[Bobchillingworth]

There's three bears visible in your pic, so you could try to kill one just for the exp, and then capture the others normally. But a new hunter would be useful too.