[Spoilers] A more civilized age - Arendel of the Ljosalfar (Uberfish)

[uberfish]

Agree with your general diplomatic disposition, until we meet a lot more players we can't decide too much on who to be buddies with or not. If Mist is trustworthy in his dealings with us then it begs the question, do we want to be seen as on "his side".

You mentioned Mist met a Balseraph scout to his east, would you say that the Balseraphs might form the top of a diamond shape of starts with Doviello, ourselves and Luchuirp? Imagining there's one person equatorially (is that a word?) similar to us to the Doviello's west, then another NW another SW of that.

Mist got the directions confused first time, the Balseraphs are to his west. Guessing there's 4 civs north of the jungle belt, and 3 south with this big lake taking up much of the space that might have gone to another civ.

[uberfish]

Some quick analysis of potential Doviello early offensive options:

Option 1: a bunch of warriors + worldspell summoned wolves

Can definitely hit before Way of the Forests. Might actually have a chance of working because my capital isn't on a hill, however Mist doesn't know this and may assume that someone who took 2 turns to found the city moved to a hill. His exploration units have died and my borders will expand in 3 turns preventing him getting vision of the city tile. May be prudent to delay building my settler until Doviello start theirs in any case.

Option 2: Sons of Asena (Axeman) upgrade rush

This hits later with str 4/5 units, requires at least 680 beakers worth of tech (Mining + Bronze Working + either Crafting or Exploration), can be camouflaged from demographic spying by building extra workers instead of a settler and using them to chop forests and road to the target. If they want the bronze upgrade it's likely they'll need to settle a 2nd city though, and they'll also need 20 gold per upgrade which might slow them down a few more turns.

I can probably deduce when Doviello are researching bronze working by watching their rate of tech gain. If I skip education I think there's no way he can get bronzed Sons of Asena to my doorstep in time, since I'm going through 1080 beakers at over 1.5x the speed. If I pick up education, it might be a close thing if he has bronze within 3 tiles of the capital.

Option 3: Warrior harrassment/choke followed by upgrade rush

Controlling the forest hills next to my capital should prevent this doing too much damage. Sending reinforcing units with double animal spawns on will be difficult for the attacker. The majority of my research won't be coming from the land early, so my tech rate won't be slowed down much.


Overall, all of these options should be considered risky for Doviello. But a city with Academy + Great Sage is a great prize and maybe worth the risk. That being said... the Luchuirp world spell produces goodies that can be captured (typically free Engineer specialists, meaning whoever conquers the Luchuirp get a significant portion of their wonder-building power) rather than angry trees.

[uberfish]

t12:

The hut near Luchuirp gave 27 gold, for a total of 83 gold and a map from 4 huts. I'm summing this up now because on the last hex of jungle I needed to cross, the scout ended up next to a bear AND a spider. Overkill. The results aren't going to be too pretty. Rest in peace.

Look at the amazing access to commerce specials Luchuirp have near their start position! I was serious when I said getting a great sage this early was actually just evening things out



Well, hopefully there'll be something nice to my west; if my guess as to the civ distribution is right my neighbour in that direction shouldn't be too close.

2 warriors are fortified in Evermore awaiting the barbarian hordes, and a worker is due in 7 turns.

Likely to be a boring few turns for lurkers coming up as I don't have anything to do but press end turn for a bit.

[Maksim]

Likely to be a boring few turns for lurkers coming up as I don't have anything to do but press end turn for a bit.

Oh, don't worry - some of us will still be obsessively checking the thread, looking for clever insights / paranoid ramblings (delete as appropriate).

One thing that I'm wondering about is whether the extra hammer from the settled GS is a big benefit? The other is whether you are going for Education or Mysticism next, and why.

Finally, a more long term question is what sort of army will you aim for? Hunters, as you pick up the tech as part of the WoF research path? Archers, to benefit from your civ unique trait? Or Priests, to benefit from Spiritual?

[uberfish]

+1 hammer is always useful in the early game, it's worth a couple of extra warriors by the time the 2nd city goes up in FFH

as for Mysticism vs Education, that decision is 100% in favour of mysticism first:

- surplus food, not much surplus happiness = comfortable to run a sage
- spiritual = free civic switches including being able to go in and out of pacifism
- need extra warriors because of proximity to doviello = God king (queen?) helps
- wide open map = cottages can be delayed by barbarians
- free specialist = Academy gives 3 extra beakers once up

[Square Leg]

It also opens up God King Which can greatly speed up the settlers...

edit - read post properly first time!

[Dantski]

I was just wondering whether the increased number of animals affects the numbers of other barbarians such as warriors.

[uberfish]

I was just wondering whether the increased number of animals affects the numbers of other barbarians such as warriors.

It shouldn't do since there's the Raging Barbarians setting for that.

As far as army composition goes, I'm planning to build around the Spiritual trait and the early-midgame core will most likely be priests and religious units of various flavours. The more religions I can acquire, the better. A few archers for defence duty and hunters for animal capture/scouting. Not ruling out getting a bunch of swordsmen and attacking someone if it seems necessary.

You should ask Perpentach what sort of army he plans to build, "whatever my traits are at the time" would actually be a valid answer.

[uberfish]

t13: Yeah dead scout. Absolutely nothing else of interest happened.

[uberfish]

In the meantime, initiated some diplomacy with Sciz, who apparently saw me pick the hut up last turn (although this clearly isn't a big deal, since he hadn't asked me to leave it alone either). The civ he's most concerned about is Doviello, so I helpfully let him know that they were 10 tiles to his west. I feel it's advantageous to me if he builds early military as a result and slows his progress towards golems or wonders. At the same time warning him about his "worst enemy" should establish me as a helpful neighbour.

Mist was quite noncommittal about who he wanted to attack, but apparently is surrounded by nice land to the east and west, and his preferred targets would be Calabim or Lanun if they were accessible.