[SPOILERS] Might Makes Amurite -- Tatan tries not to screw up

[Tatan]

It occurs to me that I have not been as diligent about posting in this thread recently. Well, no longer! (at least for now)

I have in the past few turns discovered both Calender and Exploration. My settling operation has continued along these lines:


Note that this pic is several turns old.


Somebody got a Great Sage a few turns ago as well... I'm not entirely sure who, but I think Ilios is less likely due to him likely wanting a Great Prophet for the RoK shrine (of course, this assumes the GS was naturally generated).

[NobleHelium]

Event GPs do not appear in the log.

[Tatan]

Event GPs do not appear in the log.

Oh, okay. I still have no idea who it was, but thanks anyway.



Suicidal Barb suicides. Not much else to say about this pic, except that you can see that I am researching KotE and also have very scatter-brained worker plans.


More importantly: third city!

"What took you so long? You get stuck in an elevator or something?"
Whatever! First build is an elder council.


I finally got my calender resources connected, drastically improving my core cities:

Note my handful of prosperous little cottages. Of course, what I really need is MOAR WORKERS before things really get going. Which is why I am building one in RR, while MM works on a monument to grab the copper (and the juicy riverside grasses). Caves of ancestors will also being going up fairly soon, as I'm still pushing the happy cap.

Speaking of which... why is MM working a farmed corn and thus growing when it is already unhappy? Instead of working one of RR's juicy cottages, which would only starve MM a bit until I get it connected to RR's cotton? *sigh*


Anyway, have some home-made demographics analysis!

[Tatan]

Better go git tha club o'er there, Leroy.



O, look'ee thar, I think that miss'er Mardoc dun got hisself a bus'ness connekshun wit' da Octipus fellers.

[Tatan]

Got KotE, woot. Need moar workers though (and settlers!), so I'll have to build the Mage's Guild in MM. CC was finally connected to the rest of my empire.

I've had to run a sage in MM for the last several turns to slow growth and avoid working unimproved tiles, so I'll probably pop the GS there eventually (I still plan to bulb Sorcery at some point, though not as quickly). RR is working almost entirely cottages and various other food/commerce tiles while building various food/hammer units (not the best use of God King hammers, I know, but the circumstances demand it).

Research set to Archery.

[Tatan]

Damn you, barbs! DAAAMMMNNN YOUUUU!

Ahem. Warrior wins the 99% odds counter-attack, a C1 warrior from the cap moves south to play zone defense.


Also, more Great Sages!

!!!

[Tatan]

Here are my lands at the moment. I started a settler in RR, though I don't know where he's going quite yet. Possibly to the light blue dot from the dot-map I made ages ago.

Archery will be in soon, although it might be a little while before I can actually build any archers (MM is working on infrastructure for Mages, RR has to juggle building an Archery Range with not getting hammer decay on the settler). I can adopt Nationhood/Apprenticeship/Conquest whenever I feel like it, but I'm not building any units right now so I'm not quite sure when that will happen.

Forgot to mention this at the time, but Mardoc for his T70 adaptive switch took Organized (replacing Exp). Presumably this is because he REX'd out and needs to recover. I don't know exactly what ORG does in EitB other than the usual -50% civic costs, double-speed Courthouses, and ability to build Command Posts, so I'll have to look that up (especially since I'm ORG myself ).


The specifics still need much more time in the oven, but I think I finally baked the core of my plan. In case it wasn't obvious from my decision to research Archery, I'm going Bows or Bust. I figure...
a) I don't have the skills or patience to give the Tower a real shot
b) In the rest of the FFH games played, no one has really managed to execute the classic So-Many-Units-It-Lags-The-Game late game. They've all been decided by an early rush, a builder gambit, or one decisive battle with mid-game units.
c) It'll be crazy if it works, and fun to attempt even if it doesn't!



Things certainly will heat up, my friends.


So basically my nebulous plan ATM is to get up a few supporting adepts (for Haste, Floating Eyeballs, and if possible Rust) and go whole-hog Firebow for the rest of my military. Since no one has contact with me (and likely will not for ages), I don't have to worry about anybody seeing the spiky power graph. So I'll wait until I have a gigantic invasion force, force it through one of the Hill Giant passes (probably the one in the south), and hope whoever is on the other side is Uberfish or Mardoc (Ilios will actually have a military, I expect, and Darrell should have March of the Trees online by then if he's doing it right).

So the tech I definitely 100% need is Bowyers. I'll also want Sorcery (most likely via Necromancy), Horseback Riding, and Warfare/Military Strategy. The first wave of Firebows will be built using Apprenticeship/Conquest for 5 exp out of the gate (enough for Fire II and mobility), but eventually I will transition over to drafting hoards of them via Military State (with Command Posts I'll still be able to get 1 promo on draftees). If I'm still around and teching after all that, I plan on researching Divination and using the ToD to slingshot Arcane Lore for Govannon.

But for now, I must simply continue to expand, which is difficult because my production sucks.

[Tatan]

Yeah, game over.

I knew I probably wasn't going to win when I entered this game, and I've known for a while now that my play hasn't been spectacular so far, but this picture really just drives it home. The other players' GNP and GDP figures are universally higher than mine, and the next worse player's crop yield is over TWICE mine. So looks like I'll just have to see how much fun I can have before someone else wins.


Also... that Exports-Imports figure is really puzzling me. One player is at 3, but the rest are at 0; I thought the only way to increase/decrease this number was by trade routes, but from that figure it would appear that one player is trading with nothing?

Since the player who is closer to the end in the turn order will always win ties in the Demographics screen, I know the person with 3 has to be Mardoc. After all, he goes last while I go second-to-last, so if he had 0 he would be second and me third.

Is there anyway a lurker could explain to me how this figure possible without giving away spoilers?

[NobleHelium]

I think you're misreading the trade routes? They're all 0.

[Tatan]

I think you're misreading the trade routes? They're all 0.

FWIW, I have been diagnosed with dysgraphia... still that's pretty embarrassing.