[SPOILERS] Lurkers Thread - Well someone has to do it

[Mardoc]

The big question: can two scouts reliably defend the stack in transit? Two barb units could wipe the whole stack, and then he's out of the game.

Unless those barbs come out of the fog, then hit the stack simultaneously, I think the worst they can do is delay Mist and force him to upgrade early.

Which would still be pretty bad in terms of handling Sciz, potentially giving him a few turns warning and time to build a couple more warriors, but I don't think it'd be as bad as knocking Mist out of the game.

[DaveV]

Try this scenario: he moves scout #1 two tiles and finds a bear. Now he has to split his stack or move everyone within range of the bear and risk a second unit coming out of the fog and killing the stack. Now a griffon or lizardman can burst out of the fog and kill his split stack. Or, as he continues moving, he finds a spider, or another (or the same) bear.

I'll be amazed if he can cross a large stretch of wilderness without suffering some attrition: we know there's a spider near Sciz that already ate a couple scouts.

[Square Leg]

Pick one.

I would settle on the silk in the SW to claim Sheep, Rice, DROGON BONES, and a lovely river valley. There are quite a few peaks at that spot but it looks pretty awesome non-the-less. It is a little further away than i would normally place my 2nd city in ffh because it is always nice to have a clump of warriors stationed between the two to deal with barbs/orthus spawning on your doorstep.

[Brian Shanahan]

I just had a thought about the Tomb of Succellus which Sciz has founded (I previously confirmed his suspicions re the same through manual reading, not spoilerish IMO), but what if the extra healing effect was available to enemy units too? Now I'm not sure on this one (manual doesn't say) and if it is true, I think it would change strategy for Sciz in any upcoming war if he has a city near there. Would I be right thinking mentioning that to be spoilerish?

[Maksim]

So, the Luchuirp are planning their third city. Unknown to them, their preferred location (riverside gold) has already been settled by Malakim whose Creative culture will make border dispute lean in their favor (Malakim settled on turn 35, but the screenshot in the dwarven thread is from turn 27 - an old one, perhaps?).

When will the dwarves find out? What will they do then - will they settle to the north to establish borders? Will we see some diplomacy going between the two nations in the near future? More importantly, who will be getting their third settler first?

If this escalates into a settler race, this may distract Luchuirp from Doviello on their western borders, and increase Mist's chances of his sudden strike succeeding.

[The ShiningOne]

If this escalates into a settler race, this may distract Luchuirp from Doviello on their western borders, and increase Mist's chances of his sudden strike succeeding.

Well, a 3rd city will probably put Sciz in a tougher situation, but he's still going to beat Mist to construction quite a bit before Mist has bronze working. The Luchuirp should still be able to defend Mist's rush with wood golems and Barnaxus. Maybe Mist's force will be positioned in a threatening enough way to prevent Sciz from trying to defend. However, I think Sciz will want to fight Mist rather than lose more territory than he already has/is going to, due to Ilios crowding his east.

I think the most interesting outcome could be Sciz giving in to Mist and gearing up to send an early wave of Golems into the deserts of the Malakim. Wood Golem rushes with a leveled Barnaxus are pretty good. Maybe Sciz could make a deal with Mist to get some free exp for Barnaxus in exchange for accepting the Doviello demands. Then Sciz can strike Ilios in response with some empowered wood golems. Ilios will likely only have warriors and soldiers of kilmorph to defend for quite a while.

This is all speculation though, we'll see what really happens.

[MorganaNox]

I just read all threads the last two days. (I've been here before with the nick Sina many years ago and couldn't activate that one again because I don't own the associated email account any more. So I registered with this new one.)

I am really excited to see the outcome on the planned Doviello rush. I don't think they'll make it. If I counted right the dwarves will have the sculptor studio up before and that ruins the whole thing.

One thing I am surprised about is that only uberfish and Mist have sort of an alliance yet. Uberfish is really playing all others and sharing with Mist. We'll see how that works out when Mist fails with the rush on the dwarves.

Looking much forward to updates.

[Square Leg]

Sciz is planning on settling on the grass hill for his 2nd city. I would be sorely tempted to plant on the plains cotton 1E for 2 reasons:

1 - It shares a FP farm
2 - It gains Banana eventually

The GH will give hime really good vision thought once the borders pop onto all those mountains. It also allows the cottons to be worked without border pop...

[Maksim]

Hmm... On the other hand, there are benefits to settling on the grass hill too:

1) Nice defensive spot, and with the peaks surrounding it, the only way in is through the south. This will put a crimp in Mist's surprise attack for sure (fortified warriors with innate city defenses, and the city is on the hill - ouch!). Also, the peak 1SW will likely give good advance warning if Mist arrives via the southern route; sufficient time to move warriors from the capital.

2) No need for border pops at all. The city can start by working the grassland farm, then move onto plantations (grassland, then two plains). Sure, production sucks, but 1E is not much better for production either.

3) Is Banana a good tile long-term? It's not much better than a grassland farm, I would think.

[NobleHelium]

Hmm, uberfish and Sciz are closer than I thought. Sciz can now see the fire node from the Pyre with his new city, and uberfish's planned city site next to the fire node is the minimum 3 tiles distance from Sciz's new city. Should be interesting to see what happens with that area and Mist's rush.