HidingKneel horses around with Rhoanna [HAR! I mean, SPOILERS!]

[Commodore]

Two more turns played. The first one brought us mining, which revealed something awesome:

Ctrl-R or it didn't happen!

[HidingKneel]

Ctrl-R or it didn't happen!

Here you are:



One source of copper, conveniently positioned one tile from the capital. No other copper on the map that I've seen so far. Assuming all the other players have a similar setup, it looks like one of the few situations where a Crafting-Mining is as strong or stronger than an Agriculture-Calendar opening.

Well, now we have all four techs. Two more turns played. Connected the Gold and Gems, built ourselves a fourth worker and a fifth worker. That sent our GNP through the roof:



Note: that's our GNP while we're researching Chants. Add in the prereq bonus, and we'll be even more firmly in the lead.

Next up: growing the capital to size 7, then starting a settler. And putting down a mine on that Copper.

[HidingKneel]

Another two turns played.

Barbarians were once again giving us trouble. From the SW, which is where I want to settle next:

This time we've got a little spare muscle:



Risked a 50-50 battle with our newest warrior. Unfortunately, that was a loss. But it left us with this:



Easy mop-up job for our second warrior, earning a promotion. Assuming there's not another goblin down there next turn, I'm sending that warrior onto the forested hill. I want to scout my third city site, and also take up some defensive terrain around there.

Meanwhile, not much else going on. Working on getting my bronze mine up, teching Education, building a 4-turn settler in the capital. Demos look good:



Not exactly leading the pack in production, but Expansive should help make up for that.

[HidingKneel]

Several more turns played. They have been full of awesome.

First, we got this event:



Now, that's not a super-big deal. I was in the process of putting a mine there anyway, which will have about the same value as the mushrooms. But I get the improvement two turns sooner, save two worker turns... and food is better than production while I'm below the happy cap. It might get us to full capacity a turn sooner.

Now, I know what you're thinking. If Conrond Mor is going to be growing faster than expected, how will we keep up in tech? Well, that's where the RNG smiled on us again:



That got us here two turns ahead of schedule:



Next up: Code of Laws. Because we're expanding fast. Got a settler headed SW this turn, into a bit of a traffic jam:



Hopefully either the goblin suicides itself between turns. Or stands still, and I kill it on my turn. The warrior on the hill to the W is promoted to C2 and unwounded. Figured it would be pretty safe playing defense, and I didn't want the goblin heading for defensive terrain.

Capital can finish another settler in four turns, thanks to our Expansive trait. Going to delay that a bit: we should probably get another worker out, and grow another size first. So... maybe seven turns?

Meanwhile, demos look pretty solid:



We seem to have secured the lead in GNP, and we're headed for CoL which will give us even more GNP. Which makes me think we should head for Drama next: it's a race we can win. And unlocking cheap markets on the way is just icing.

[Merovech]

Awesome!

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in:



Barbarian goblin chickened out and moved onto the wheat tile. That was open ground, so it was easy pickings for my C2 warrior. Slightly wounded, and can now take another promotion.

Which left me free to proceed onto that tile I want to settle. And look what we find:



When you tell Mardoc to guard the lairs, he guards the lairs.

[HidingKneel]

Once again I'm many turns behind!

The empire has been developing quickly. Here's an overview of where we're at. First, the capital:



We're at size 7, but our happy cap is 8. I'll grow to it next, building a warrior on the way. Note that we just finished a settler. That's going here:



To settle our fourth city.

Meanwhile, city #2 just finished growing to its cap, and started a settler of its own:



I'm thinking that settler will go to this area, which I've been scouting recently:



Or maybe a tile south of there? It's a choice between fresh water and being able to grab the Crab without help from another coastal city. Doesn't seem like it matters too much either way... we'll get corn in the first ring, and a border pop from Drama will secure us sheep and reagents.

We don't have vision on it anymore, but there's a Wraith protecting that barrows. We're not clearing that out anytime soon.

City #3 is coming along nicely:



That goblin fort seems to produce a goblin every other turn or so. Lost a C2 warrior in an unlucky battle recently. But should be a great source of xp.

And some other sites which should be settled in the near-ish future. This one will only be good when we get Drama:



This one will never be good, but I think we want that Cotton:



And this one looks promising, but we need to do more scouting:



Note that's where we lost our scout to a lizardman early on. Hopefully our exploring warrior will not meet the same fate.
Not sure what's going on with the lizardmen... fought three of them early on, but nothing recently. Maybe they're bothering Ellimist or Tholal.

Techwise, we're just about to finish Code of Laws. We'll then revolt to Aristocracy and (after a short stint of saving gold) tech Festivals -> Drama, hopefully landing the Drama bard. I think we've got a good shot at that, given the state of the demos:



After Drama, I see a couple of ways we could go:

The Greedy Path: Try to land as many "first-to" bonuses as we can. We've got copper and we should be able to manage a 26xp warrior soon, so we can tech Bronze Working (allowing us to bulb Sanitation), then Warfare to unlock the Titan build. Then Mysticism -> Philosophy -> Military Strategy for the Commander.

Way of the Wise: Tech Masonry -> Construction to allow us to bulb Sanitation and chain farm. Then Animal Husbandry -> HBR to unlock horsemen and chariots. Then Writing -> Trade to get some trade routes going. Then Mysticism -> Philosphy -> Honor to unlock Overcouncil/Empyrean, and Rathas to blind our enemies.

Way of the Wicked: Masonry -> Construction -> Animal Husbandry -> HBR -> Mysticism -> KotE -> Philosophy -> Corruption of Spirit. Aiming for Ritualists and Sacrifice the Weak (after researching even more expensive techs).

[Qgqqqqq]

Is that a desert sheep?

[Merovech]

I think that it's from one of those temporary astral alignment events.

[HidingKneel]

Yep. "Burnt Wing" IIRC. Transformed two of my tiles to desert temporarily, but I wasn't using them anyway (not settling for the sheep turned out to be a good call).