[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[Bobchillingworth]

The shock promotion actually came up in the initial conversation I had with Selharc. He intends to take out some of the skeletons in the Barrow-infested region to my NW, which explains why I haven't been attacked by any skeletons for a while. I'm not sure it's a great idea, but the promotion does have a purpose. I'm a bit worried that he could unleash some terror trying to explore one close to me, but that's fair game (I'd do it to anyone else in a heartbeat), and I can't stop him if he tries.


Also he later said that Archduke is a bit more distant from me than 6 tiles; I'll try to post the message when I have time / remember to.

[Bobchillingworth]

This should be interesting!






I think that Selrahc actually has pretty reasonable odds to trounce the lizardman, but I won't shed any tears if his bloodpet dies. Although it would kind of suck if the lizardman then was able to promote to shock or something... hmmm.


Also just realized that he a bloodpet instead of a warrior. Doesn't really matter (only "bonus" of bloodpets is that vampires can eat them), but I'm kind of curious how he got it. Maybe Darrell placed my units, and then forgot to change it back to a regular warrior when editing in the Illian's.

[darrelljs]

Yeah that is what happened . I think the AI tends to just tKe straight combat promos, I can't recall seeing a shock lizardman...

Darrell

[Bobchillingworth]

This crap is nuts. Selrahc's (I think I spell his name different every time) "bloodpet" seems to have fled into the fog, and it looks like his legions of fans have decided to follow:





That's 4 lizardmen and two skeletons. Not pictured: Another lizardman approaching Prespur from the East (which means yet another ruins somewhere over there), and *seven* visible bears in the south.




And yes I know that I still need to do my status report from last turn... it's coming, eventually

[DaveV]

Yay for irrigated floodplains! Just what are you planning to do with a scout, though? I hope you have the "no growth" button turned on: I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to enable that button and grown into unhappiness.

[Bobchillingworth]

The scout is because I wanted to get a quick build in before starting the settler (while I get some farms up), and also because I want a toy to play with, with all my other units tied up on garrison / escort duty. I'll send him straight east, after the latest lizardman is cleared out. South has too many bears, and the other directions are swarming with barbs. I did grow into size 7, because I get about 7 or 8 turns of free happiness still from the "burn the witch" event, and it seemed a shame to not use the free production.

[Bobchillingworth]

I have no idea why the turns aren't currently moving (if it's Cull again, then I think it's time he be removed as a player), but I guess now is as good as time as any for my turn 50 summary. I'm mostly going to post a few images with some brief explanations, as I think I've done a reasonable job of explaining what I want to do with my civ, and how the game has progressed thus far.


First up is the known uncovered world:




Apparently the Hippus are the closest to me, off in the fog to the West / North West, but there still should be room a few cities between us. The land I've revealed thus far is pretty good. I know from the demographics (coming in a bit) that other players have better food tiles hooked up then I do, and
I'm all but certain that everyone will have better production, but I have several luxury and health resources within reasonable distance, some nice farm-able land, and a decent amount of hills and plains for production. The forests at my capital are okay for chopping & keeping a few around for health, but unfortunately chopping only gives about a third as many hammers in FFH as in vanilla BTS.


The gold site is definitely confirmed, second expansion will probably go to secure more FP, the cow, and the incense to the North, or to use the corn and mine the hills immediately NW of Prespur. My scout will head East, as I apparently have the area all to myself, and I want to see what priority to place on settling in that direction. I also want to snatch any huts I can find there first.


Second image is from inside Prespur:





Not a lot to say here, really. I'll try to not grow past size 7, will work river farms for commerce and settler / worker production, the cotton for commerce, and 2 hammer tiles as necessary if I need more military. Prespur will never be much of a production center, but it'll be fantastic for vampire feasting and solid for commerce.


Next up are some demographics:




As I posted before in this thread, I'm not following these too closely. Posted here for lurker interest I'm a bit surprised that I'm best in both commerce and military, although the margins obviously aren't very wide.


The top cities in Erberus:




Prespur has consistently been in the top 5, abetted heavily by my worldspell. PB has grown his capital with alarming speed, clearly he's working at least one high-yield food resource.


Finally, my kill count:





Depending on what the Barb Train from my turn 51 update does, the totals may grow substantially in the near future. Eventually I might start throwing bloodpets at barbs at less than stellar odds for the exp, once I can build them in a turn or two each, but right now I have better things to blow my production on.

[DaveV]

Nice update. Just a couple comments:

second expansion will probably go to secure more FP, the cow, and the incense to the North, or to use the corn and mine the hills immediately NW of Prespur.

Commerce is most important at this point, so I'd favor the incense location. It's also important to grab copper, but if you're lucky that'll pop on the tile south of your capital. You still have a lot of research to get to Code of Laws, then Bronze Working is an expensive tech after that, so maybe your third settler could nail down copper if necessary.

Next up are some demographics:

The guy with half your soldier strength could be in trouble, especially if Orthus comes knocking. Or maybe Orthus is already thinning the ranks?

[Bobchillingworth]

The guy with half your soldier strength could be in trouble, especially if Orthus comes knocking. Or maybe Orthus is already thinning the ranks?

According to a recent post by Sarelin in the tech thread, Orthus has already appeared, I think as of turn 51. I didn't notice any prompt about his appearance when I last played, though. I can easily handle him if he does show up on my border, with 6 my bloodpets (one of them promoted shock).

[Bobchillingworth]

Finally played turn 52, confirmed that Orthus has appeared from the turnlog, but I have no idea where. Also PB is now in Godking, which reminds me that I should revolt to agrarianism next turn, now that I have a couple farms up and my scout completed.