Auro’s game thread

[Aurorarcher]

T13 & 14.

I made contact with Sidar. He is still at size 3, running GK + Pasifism + has only 4k power... it's possible he is trying to get early religion too, maybe by running priest specialist.

I could try to analyze if he can beat me to RoK for example but I don't think he should have Mining yet at least. He probably started with Mysticism though so he could easily get it on time.

Here is his power graph.



He lost his warrior and scout at some point it seems and his cap was empty. Then he got his first warrior out. But I wonder what he has been building before that. Pacifism gives -50% unit production so that could be it. Still, by the time I had built 3 warriors he had built one. The only chance I think he could beat me to RoK is if he builds Pagan Temple and runs specialist. That would give him 7 GPP per turn.

In other news our scout is still alive and trying to find a way through those mountains. Hopefully staying alive as long as possible.



Skeleton is being annoying, not taking bad odds but going straight for my cap. Next turn I have to attack it as it's sitting on my Wheat. It's 50% odds but 2nd should be able to clean up if I lose with first warrior.



I also revolted to GK + Agra but I wonder if I should have also revolted to Religion... Well, it's too late now. Nationhood is not doing me much, it's only going to something in my cap but it's also losing me one overflow hammer I get from warriors due to roundings. For example 1 overflow hammer divided by 1.1 -> rounded to 0.

[Aurorarcher]

It's already T18. Not much happening but here's something.

T15 I attacked the skeleton.



and...



That's great! 6 xp.

My scout is still alive somehow. Being able to double move on hills has been very useful with this map I must say.



Capital eot 18.



Growing size 7 as planned. Then I'll use sage and start settler.

I did some simulations again and I can settle 2nd city on T28 and get RoK on the same turn as well (end of turn). So making my earlier sim a turn faster. I knew there were room for improvement as I had so much overflow beakers in my previous simulations.

Demos eot 18.



Leading in food with a big margin due to getting Calendar for free. That 28 GNP is Bing. That for sure is running a sage specialist. He built fast EC with PHI.

Some other plans and thoughts for the future:

- I think I am going to play with magic a lot in this game.
- Blasting Workshop (req: Sorcercy) gives my Golems ability to throw fireballs. Even my workers! That could be very useful, building 50 h units that can throw fireballs, build one turn roads and be 2 movers. Not bad at all!
- Planning to build Tower of Elements. It gives +1 strength to fireballs. So 5 base strength. Making my "worker mages" even better. I also already have all the required manas to build ToE close to me. Fire (hopefully mine), Sun, Earth (Palace) + one clear mana node (make it Water).

Still debating a bit whether or not to play with Barnaxus and other Golems. I definitely need some hitters and defenders. Wood Golems can potentially also throw fireballs of course but their movement pace is the issue here I'm struggling to deal with. Also they heal slowly but with Enchantment mana my adepts can heal each Golem in a stack by 20 hp. That's very useful, with 4-5 adepts I can heal my stack to full hp after combat. That's the best part.

Maybe my attacking stack could be a mix of slow movers with some fireball throwing guys that can clear up the surroundings from a distance. Maybe add in some Chariots to make up for that slow speed.

[Aurorarcher]

T19.

Feels like my scout is immortal. First barely avoiding Spider.



Then end of turn getting attacked by Griffon. Not bad. Probably promote to C1. Guerilla could be useful too as I'll mostly try to stay on hills...



In foreign news Q is first to settle 2nd city T19 (I can see this from demos as his population went from 48000 to 49000). He is EXP so that was kind of to be expected. His 2nd city gave him 6 new land tiles so it's very close to his capital, sharing 3 tiles (assuming no water tiles). Likely 3 tiles away from his cap. For reference my 2nd city will be 5 tiles away from my capital.

[Dreylin]

Sorry for recent absence, I seem to have got into a cycle of reading the thread when it's hard to respond or right before doing something else.

Things are definitely looking good, is the settling plan still for the Northern river valley first? How much did Q grow before putting out his Settler?

Also, did I miss / were we told what techs the other players took? I don't think you included that in your analysis, and it would be interesting to hear your speculation and the implications.

[Aurorarcher]

That's all good. The techs other players took was not told so I can't know that for sure. Also different civs had different options to choose from... but I can try (will do in the the of this post). At least of the players I've met.

2nd city plan is same as before, 1S of the Rice.

T21 & T22 my scout has met with coldrain's scout first and then warrior later.



And a turn later this...



Ehh... and en of turn this...



He'll probably kill my scout next turn for sure. He doesn't know how far I am from him though so hoping that might make him save my scout. I think his capital might be pretty close from here. He is bringing warrior here to fight against Skeletons from that barrow. Or this might also be a place for his 2nd city soon. Zooming out doesn't reveal his culture so it's not that close. This Gems, Pigs area looks pretty similar to my east (Pigs, Gold).

So what about the techs chosen before game then?

1. I know from Foreign advisor that Sidar took Mysticism as they had God King when we met. At least I think that's the case, makes sense for PHI. He is not in Agrarianism so no Calendar yet. Other possibility is Mining as his tech choice.

2. Coldrain has not revolted at all yet, no Agrarianism or God King. Also someone has AH (I get a known tech bonus), so I believe that is what coldrain chose. I think that's quite a weird pick, I mean he surely has some AH food in his cap, right? Or then he took Mining and researched AH it's hard to tell.

3. Mig and Q it's obviously harder to tell. Q with EXP definitely prioritizing hammers makes Mining the best pick. I believe same with Mig, Mysticism is also possible. But this is pretty hard to tell without seeing their starts...

Might speculate further when I meet them because the early graphs reveal some of that information.

[Dreylin]

Well hopefully he thanks your Scout for taking the hit and lets him pass on his way rather than punishing him. I don't know coldrain at all to judge whether he's more likely to want to keep you friendly or guard his map knowledge. Nevertheless, if the Scout survives they probably deserve a name.

[Aurorarcher]

Coldrain saves my scout!  Any name suggestions? Something dwarf themed maybe...

Promoted to C1 and moved away to NE. I also found his border. They're indeed close to that tile point where we his warrior is. His cap is 4 tiles away from his warrior. I probably should heal, I am at 65 hp.

[Tarkeel]

Coldrain saves my scout!  Any name suggestions? Something dwarf themed maybe...

Bjorn Stronginthearm?

[Kaiser]

Ragnar Elfshield?

[Dreylin]

Or just, y'know, Gimli?