Paranoid: An Adventure in Extreme Fishing[Lanun Spoilers]

[Nicolae Carpathia]

You probably need the seafaring tech to actually get the Pearl resource, but I don't think that's really necessary as don't they ignore happiness?

[Bobchillingworth]

Yes, Infernals get Seafaring for free if you switch to them from the Lanun. Seeing Pearls gives them an okay commerce tile to work, but it's a pretty minor benefit. A little bit more significant is the free +1 movement range for all boats.

[Selrahc]

Apparently Orthus has spawned somewhere between me and the Hippus... This could be trouble.

[NobleHelium]

Any sign of Orthus?

[Selrahc]

Here is the situation.

T63.
20 turns until AV is founded, based on current research level.
1t Anarchy
23 turns(+1 anarchy) until a Great Prophet is spawned.

Now a Great Prophet won't bulb Infernal Pact all on his own. But it gets pretty close. I could drop the number of turns to spawn the Great prophet by switching to pacifism, but I don't think it will be worth it. Work boats count as military units, as do warriors. My second and third cities won't be making any hammers at all in pacifism.

T87-90. Firm estimate. If I am in a race for the prize, then that number is the target that they have to beat. I can't do much to change it.

Turns are so boring right now.. I've set out my diplomatic smokescreen to the Khazad, Elohim and Hippus. The Micromanagement is stuff I've done in 3 test games already. The barbs are a non-threat(In fact, they've given me a few slaves which helped in knocking a turn off construction of the pagan temple.)

Just waiting around for the turns to pass along. And at least they're doing that promptly enough nowadays.

[Selrahc]

Just about to send out the settler for the third city... If I was planning on sticking with the Lanun my expansion would start to skyrocket around now. A fairly high food, decent hammer, god king capital with access to slavery means I can send out a settler every six turns without problem. With other cities contributing settlers as well, I could rule the southern coasts by T100.

[Selrahc]

Also, something terrible has happened to Dantski's Elohim. Looks like he lost a city, with a big fall in graphs and score. I could do a little detective work to find out for certain what happened... but I don't really care all that much. With Jkaen and Dantski both being fairly badly off, I should have some fairly easy targets to pick off with Hyborem... if Sciz doesn't take his Axe and demolish them first.

Ichabod and Mardoc are sitting pretty on top of the Demogs. I'm not doing too badly, but doing things like working a priest and slaving repeatedly have left me behind. I'm not too worried though. Really wish I'd met the Kurio's so I could see if they were in slavery. If they aren't then I've got Hyborem locked up and could consider going for other techs before hand.

[NobleHelium]

So you think it would be better to delay Hyborem if competition is not an issue? What techs would you get?

[Selrahc]

Priesthood. That would give Hyborem the two essential parts of his military, Ritualists and cured Diseased Corpses. One step closer to Malevolent designs as well.

Mining. In order to build mines.

Nothing else really matters. Going on some kind of extended research quest to unlock Arcane Lore or Theocracy is not on the cards.

[NobleHelium]

I didn't realize you didn't even have Mining. That's pretty hilarious.