[SPOILER] Kyan's Thread- FfH2:EitBPBEMXXVII

[Kyan]

Pasting this here for my reference:

So, proposed ruleset so far:

Game Speed: Quick

Difficulty: Immortal/Cylindrical or Emperor/Toroidal

Diplomacy: AI Diplo, with some specifics. Tech trading is off.

Raging Barbarians – OFF

Wildlands – OFF

Orthus – OFF

Acheron – OFF

Huts - OFF

Lairs – OFF

Hyborem/Basium – No new players

Banned Leaders:

a) Beeri Baul of the Luchuirp
b) Vollana of the Svartalfar
c) Amelanchier of the Ljosalfar
d) Keelyn of the Balseraphs
e) Perpentach of the Balseraphs
f) Falamar of the Lanun

---

Things we need to clarify yet:

1. Diplo: There was some talk about making Ai Diplo with some other pre-defined options. It seems that was the winning option. So we need to clarify this rule. Serdoa proposed an interesting thing: you can only proposed deals that you can propose to the AI in a SP game. So, that'd be:

a) You can propose that player A declares war on player B.

b) You can propose that player A stops trading with player B.

c) You can propose that a player changes his religion/civics.

You can offer gold, cities or resources to pay for these things. I'd say it's best if no justification can be given to why you are proposing something. You can only send a message to the desired player in your turn: "Declare war on X for this resource or that gold". But you can't say anything like "he's running away with the game" or similar.

2. Since events will be ON, due to technical difficulties, we need to decide if we want Living World or not.

3. Map. Mardoc made a very good post about the map above and I think everyone is ok with his choices. He asked us to decide on these two issues, though:

a) See starts before picking?

b) Quick start bonus or not, and what type if any?

[Kyan]

So, who to play as?

I'm open to suggestions. My current slight preference is Sabathiel of the Bannor but i'm definitely open to being convinced if nobody wants to read that or they've been done. My only reason behind that choice is my head says ORG will be good on Immortal, I haven't played them before and they have no obvious weakness. Crusade could be fun eventually.

[Kyan]

After some consideration, this is my list:

Valledia the Even of the Amurites
Sabathiel of the Bannor
Varn Gosam of the Malakim

I'm going to leave them in that order. Amurites have some more fun stuff. That's basically the only reason they got the nod. I'm aware that this thread is so far proving a masterwork in how to play the game and thought-out decisions... Yeah, that won't change. I'll be playing more 'off the cuff' than previously. Probably.

[Kyan]

My opponents are:
Lanun
Khazad
Sheaim
Calabim

I'm quite happy with that. Nothing brokenly overpowered. I'm pleased that Thoth didn't choose Averax. I rate him as the best player in this game, but I feel my civ has an edge here. Glad I got my pick, I'm fairly rusty having not played in months but will practice with them a little bit.

[Mardoc]

Outside the BFC if you settle in place, things may and probably will still change.

[Mardoc]

Here's your T0 save (no password set).

[Kyan]

Nothing exciting yet. There are a ludicrous number of plains cows. They are literally everywhere. As such, AH is being boosted higher in my priorities.

Tech path: Agriculture -> Exploration -> Crafting -> Mining -> AH

The reason for early mining is because my second city has 3 floodplains and gold in it's first ring. That gold will boost my early research. The land is fertile, rapid expand is definitely going to be the aim of the game for me. I met the Lanun whose warrior came from the direction of the gold. There is actually a second gold tile over that way just further on from my second city. Capital grew to size 2 and is now building a settler. Maybe that's silly, but the second site is brilliant so I think it's worth it. I want like 6 cities ASAP as my core is very decent.

I was going to do my utmost to claim that one too, but now i'm not sure. The Lanun had a chance to be aggressive with their warrior and it would have disrupted my worker by 1 turn. I had a warrior in the capital, but he did not know that. He chose to be peaceful and move on. He wins a brownie point.

EDIT: Oh and the crafting isn't entirely useless with the wines at capital. There are a few early happiness resources around so i'll not have problems with the happy cap.

[Kyan]

Sorry for lack of updates, but there is nothing interesting to write just yet. At this stage, I think we all know how to play an opening and mine is not unusual. I would note that I didn’t sit and micro out the first 30 or so turns, which is unusual for me. I have been going with a gut feel decision making process. That being said, I have already found one weakness in my micro where I’ve wasted a few commerce. C’est la vie. Rustiness is to be expected.

Onto the case at hand, my current plan is to utilise my 50 starting gold from the ingenuity trait to force some earlier expansion. I will be grabbing four cities (including the capital) as quickly as possible. The maintenance costs should be fairly crippling on this map, but my way of getting around this is to let the starting gold take the hit initially and that should bankroll me to mining tech- at which point I unlock my gold tile at the second city. This should fund the early cities and hopefully give me a small snowball to start with.

My second city is not ideally located. It is one tile further away than I would have liked and has no overlap. However, it’s in the direction that the Lanun came from and has 3 floodplains and gold in it’s first ring. The next two cities will be placed adjacent to the capital with minor overlap (one NW and one SE with the second city being NE). There is a lot of good land to be had including a great site to the SW. The reason I am not grabbing that one earlier is because there are two possible locations:

• One has cows and corn in first ring but is one off the coast
• The other is on the coast but has both food resources in second ring.

Until I determine the size and importance of that body of water, I am reluctant to forego a long term potentially extremely strong port city.

I can put some pictures up over the weekend if that’s desirable.

[Kyan]

I'll do an update over the weekend. Short version: there are barbarians EVERYWHERE. I have about 8 in sight currently and they founded a city first ring from my capital. It's not particularly well placed though so i'm considering what to do with it.

Think i'm going to divert to bronze working early to deal with this. I do have a couple of well promoted guys but even my shock promoted warriors are losing eventually. Real chance of losing my second city next turn (~25%).

[Kyan]

Ok, good news (for me) is that my second city survived between turns. Definitely will need another round of warriors shortly. Getting into that FfH trap of wanting to head in too many directions on the tech tree. Currently heading for CoL so I can get my economy up and running. Without economy, we lose eventually.

Our capital:



Good city. The copper will be mined shortly, allowing my next city to build a quick monument. I hate building monuments but no real choice currently.

My second city:



Placed for the gold/floodplains to give our economy an injection. Heavily considering just settling a second city a few tiles west to grab the other gold. It will more than pay for itself anyhow.

My proposed next city:

It's pretty and it's production heavy which is important in FfH.

Future proposed city:



I'm intentionally slowing down this cities initial contribution to get it coastal. That water body is large and if there's an island, I want it ASAP. I am organised, so coastal/island cities will be great. Course, i'm next to the Lanun so I expect plenty of competition!

The reason for most of my barbarian troubles:



It's a nice spot and it of itself, but in the bigger picture not so much. It forces that northern city to be a lot worse. Unsure whether I aim to keep this or raze it. If I do raze it, i'll re-settle it 1 west and settle my other northern city 1SE of the current marker.

This game is going well so far, but one unlucky dice roll could change things. Only 3 barbs in my territory currently, as I've culled them a bit. They appear to breed at an alarming rate though. I keep eyeing bronze working.

How about getting Education (cottages), then detouring for Bronze Working. It basically eradicates our barbarian problem. Will be needed if we fancy the barb bulb sanitation slingshot anyhow.