[Spoilers]Auro is prepared: You shall not pass!

[Jabah]

You could try moria working a river tundra and probably gain 1 real commerce.
Can't remember if you ever manage to get 12 food (need some special bonus) you could even grow to size 2

[Erasmas]

I think you should not compare the Ancient Forest with Forest, but with an empty tile. In that case the +1/+1 looks correct.

[Aurorarcher]

You could try moria working a river tundra and probably gain 1 real commerce.
Can't remember if you ever manage to get 12 food (need some special bonus) you could even grow to size 2

That's interesting and you seem to be right.



I had no idea of this so thanks for the info!

I think you should not compare the Ancient Forest with Forest, but with an empty tile. In that case the +1/+1 looks correct.

Oh, that's true , thanks for the correction.

[Aurorarcher]

I got the prophet I wanted!





And used it to bulb Priesthood.



Rivendell has Heroic Epic (+100% unit production). I'll start spamming PoLs once I can get temple there. Should be 1-turned next turn. Barbs are being a pain, well at least I should get some free xp?







At least I was able to finish it off with my speedy Centaur.



Even my Centaur almost died and I had to cover it with a scout. I also built another Fawn in Rivendell just in case that Lizard gets super lucky.

Also I am not sure how Lumbermills work for the extra +1 commerce. I thought this tile was "next to river".



But I guess the logic is that if it's diagonally "next to river" it doesn't count?

There might be a water pathway between Dave and xist?



My capital from T76. I just love this city!



Going to prioritize food a bit from now to grow with my free ancient forests. They work quite nicely with my lack of workers (only have built 3). I'd love to have a few more but with only 3 cities I don't seem to find time to build them.

[Aurorarcher]

Haven't found much time to report but here's finally some. A lot of things are going, the game is heating up... it's T85 already. Some pics are as old as T78.

First some "news from empire" then maybe some plans/tactics in the end. Okay here we go.

Scouting Dave/xist borders.





Grabbing some bears for extra culture + happiness.



Flawless win.

I found something odd with (+10% from TRs with Foreign Trade).



Notice the city has +300% in total  (so should make 3c) but for some reason the bonus from FT is counted AFTER the other bonuses and it rounds down. 1c * 2,9 = 2,9 ~ rounds to 2. After that 2c * 1,1 = 2,2 ~ rounds down. I don't know if this is intentional (feels unlikely?) but the TR bonus from FT is totally useless (unless you have 10c trade routes...). I don't know if this was a known bug/mistake but I only noticed it now.

T81 Brian built The White Hand.



Need to be careful so I will strengthen Edoras. It's not easy to capture even with PoWs. I hope he forgets to use his WS  .

Notice I also found OO (for Cultists). More on that later.

Bree has been founded.



It'll grab Pearls (happiness + extra commerce from Jeweler) and also added +3c to mainland trade routes.

Coldrain built Barnaxus and killed it (on purpose) next turn.



The plans is obviously to build Shrine of the Champion for extra promotion to his Mages.

Dave is exploring the Ship Wreck next to my border. Not very happy with this...



... and the result.



Ehh... Well, not the worst to be honest. At least Dave didn't get anything good from it and this isn't as bad for me as it could be (Azer or Stygian Guard would be very annoying). I should be able to kill these quite easily (not the Serpent though). It can act as a guard for me in case Dave has any plans to attack with boats later. That's the thing I'm probably most worried about in the long-term when thinking about Rivendell. That's where the Cultists should help me.

Some got Great Sage. It could be Dave to bulb his magical route or then it's xist.



Next settlement will grab the gold (3rd Jeweler resource). Probably will settle on Copper.



I also discovered something really nice this turn.



See something? I am making some cash, culture and hammers just with citizen. I am in Caste System but I didn't realize that it applies to Citizen also. I guess they can be called "specialists" also.

You might notice I haven't quite followed the initial tech plan considering Culture Victory. Well, the thing is my opponents can tech to Mages fairly soon ~20 turns and I need to be prepared. I am vulnerable to some galley invasions from Dave/xist. On land it should be pretty slow to get to me and my land is mostly AF making it even slower. Still need to find coldrain, to my east it should be... hopefully far away.

I should consider burning the port cities to the inland sea. With Cultists this could be done fairly easily.



The problem is I don't want to make myself a target or get an angry neighbour just yet. I could also put Triremes in critical spots to guard against potential naval invasion in the future. The island will always be lightly defended but Rivendell must be very well defended. Don't get me wrong, the attack from Dave won't come too soon. But once he gets to Mages (about 20 turns maybe?) it'll be thing I need to consider. I am leaning towards not being aggressive but I'll grab Animal Handling for Hawks. Then I can scout enemy lands and see the incoming attacks.

I am still debating with "where to go next" in the tech tree. So many great options and hard to say when I really want to push that Culture path towards Mercantilism.

Demos as of T85.



Clear lead in GNP (71 of that is culture). That 27 GNP (Brain & Bing) is not looking very good  . My production is pretty low but Heroic Epic is making sure that in reality it's a bit more.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks for the update! What trait did you take?

[Jabah]

How risky is it for your Hunter to try to capture the elephant by edoras right now ? That would be a nice extra defender) ?

[Jabah]

Also could be quite expansive but priests could build temples in key settlements to open better specialists (and extra culture or money). Spécial bonus for wonders that are giving free building everywhere ...

[Aurorarcher]

T86.

Looks like Drowns want to attack Dave .



Tiger found Bear, had to promote to Woodsman to have 65% odds to win.



Settling party met a lizardman. Shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the update! What trait did you take?

Spiritual.

How risky is it for your Hunter to try to capture the elephant by edoras right now ? That would be a nice extra defender) ?

The Hunter has 75% odds to kill the Elephant. I have one of my PoLs nearby so softening it up with a Tiger could be enough to get better odds. 8 str defender is decent for sure, unfortunately it won't benefit from any defensive bonuses.

Also could be quite expansive but priests could build temples in key settlements to open better specialists (and extra culture or money). Spécial bonus for wonders that are giving free building everywhere ...

The plan I have been thinking is to use Cultist to plant temples. It's quite expensive and I need to still do the math if it's worth it. As I have The Great Library ideally I'd like to use sages as they will be now +4 beakers. Merchants are good too. FoL temples gives priest and bard slot (no thanks). OO temple gives sage and priest. With Serfdom I get additional +1g + 2 culture but those I get without temples. So 4 beaker for 80 hammer unit. Rivendell with Heroic Epic can almost 1-turn them already. Still, the maximum amount of "things" I can build per turn is so limited that it's difficult to "waste" units in such way...

[Aurorarcher]

T87.

The bear didn't want to attack his fellow animal.



Drowns keep marching towards Dave. Looks like he killed one of the 4 but got pretty badly injuried.



I revolted to OO this turn, couple Cultists now. Saving a little gold at 40% science then I'll turn research on 100% and Currency is mine in 3 turns. Then another turn to save gold and another 3 turns to get Mathematics. After that 6 turns to get Taxation. So I should have Taxation on T100. Revolt to Republic and my tows/enclaves will be very very good!

Btw, first Enclave will be seen in 10 turns!