Tholal wonders what the hell he's doing! [SPOILERS]

[Tholal]

OK. I guess I'm supposed to have one of these threads, so here it is.

Hi. I'm Tholal and I'm an alc-... oh wait, wrong meeting! Let's try this again...

Hi. I'm Tholal and I'm a FFH2 multiplayer virgin. I haven't even played Civ4 in multiplayer. The last time I played a Civ game with another human was when a friend and I used a null modem cable to play head to head with Civ II about 13 years ago!

I have plenty of experience playing FFH in single player, and in fact, I've done quite a bit of modding work on it as well, so I have a pretty decent grasp of the game mechanics. But reading some threads on these boards from previous games, it's apparent that I don't have the micromanagement and number-crunching skills that some folks here display, and that multiplayer strategy will be a whole new beast for me.

So I come to this spot with (hopefully) realistic expectations. I dont expect to win (though I will certainly try), but I do hope to make a good showing of myself and have some sort of meaningful effect on the game's outcome.

[Mist]

Hope you like hybrids and rodents. Thessa of Kurios.

[Tholal]

Thessa of the Kuriotates? Hmmm. Seems kind of an odd combination. Let's take a look in more detail.

The Kuriotates have Sprawling as their civ trait, meaning that they can work the 3rd ring of tiles around their cities. A very nice ability. Unfortunately, they can only build a certain number of cities (I believe my limit will be 3 for this game). After that, any new cities placed will be 'settlements', proto-cities that are unable to grow or create anything and which are mainly used for claiming resources.

Thessa's traits are Expansive and Arcane. Expansive seems pretty much required for a Sprawling civilization. Otherwise it would be very difficult to make decent use of the 3rd ring of workable tiles. Arcane on the other hand, seems kind of a mismatch. Arcane gives a free Potency promotion to all of my adept units. However, the Kuriotates are really not a magic-heavy civ, and the limited number of production sites means that I probably wont have a chance to build a bunch of adepts anyway.

The Kuriotates get several unique horse units, the first being the Centaur, who can take advantage of defensive bonuses despite being a mounted unit.

The Kuriotates also get two unique buildings that provide extra luxury resources, the Tailor and the Jeweler. These will help keep my cities growing and also provide extra resources for trading with other players. The Kuriotates are also able to grow their town improvements one size bigger than all the other players, providing an additional commerce for each.

Placement of my first three cities will be crucial. They will need lots of food sites (preferably near a river) to provide enough to feed all the hungry mouths that will live in my super cities.

[Thoth]

NM the economic nonsense.

Who ya gonna rush first?

[Tholal]

Who ya gonna rush first?

Whoever's upwind!

[Mist]

Your starting position



The game should start moving tomorrow. Make sure you're happy with the turn order and that it fits your preferred playing time slot, it's the last moment to fix that if it doesn't suit you.

[Tholal]

Well that's certainly a different kind of start. Should be an interesting game!

[Tholal]

Land layout on turn 0.

Looking very dry and bleak. Desert all along my western border. Some sign of green to the northwest. Think I'm going to have to research Calendar first so I can switch to Agrarianism and get the extra food from the farms. As things currently stand, I only have enough food to grow to size 6.

Interesting that we start with a Metamagic node. I'm guessing that this will be a magic heavy map. Again I don't really feel like I have a civ that's built for heavy magic use, but the potential for a Tower Victory is something to keep in mind.

Only sighting of other units is a wolf hiding in the woods. Hopefully it will sacrifice itself to my scout next turn.

Since there are already improvements built around the city, and nothing nearby to build upon in the near future, I decide to send my commoners out to work as pig farmers while a granary is built to store all of our extra pig parts. I was thinking of building another scout first, but with both the No Lairs and No Tribal Villages options turned on, there is a lot less for them to do. Hopefully my first scout will survive and continue on in his explorations. Next turn, the Warrior will move back to form a home guard .

Granary is currently taking 14 turns (bonus production due to Expansive), though that will decrease when my city grows to size 2 (3 turns).



Here's the info I have on my fellow players (from mousing over their scores). My guesses as to Leaders and civs are in parentheses.

Ilios of the Sun Tribe - Philosophical, Arcane and Sinister (Dain of the Svarts)
Ichabod of the Stars Tribe - Spiritual, Creative and Guardsman (Arendel of the Bannor)
DaveV of the Night Tribe - Philosophical and Aggressive (Alexis of the Calabim)
LLewyn of the Sky Tribe - Expansive and Charismatic (Falamar of the Lanun)
Tasunke of the Wind Tribe - Creative, Charismatic, Arcane, Insane and Sundered (Perpentach of the Sheaim)

[Tholal]

Here's the info I have on my fellow players (from mousing over their scores). My guesses as to Leaders and civs are in parentheses.

Ilios of the Sun Tribe - Philosophical, Arcane and Sinister (Dain of the Svarts)
Ichabod of the Stars Tribe - Spiritual, Creative and Guardsman (Arendel of the Bannor)
DaveV of the Night Tribe - Philosophical and Aggressive (Alexis of the Calabim)
LLewyn of the Sky Tribe - Expansive and Charismatic (Falamar of the Lanun)
Tasunke of the Wind Tribe - Creative, Charismatic, Arcane, Insane and Sundered (Perpentach of the Sheaim)

Looks like I was a little bit off. I thought the fact that two leaders seemed to be paired with their normal civs didnt seem right. Here is the official list just released by Mist in the Tech thread.

Since all of the leader traits and most of the civ traits are visible, the lurkers think it's a good idea to release the lineup. So here it is :

DaveV - Alexis of Amurites
Ichabod - Arendel of Bannor
Ilios - Dain of Svarts
Tholal - Thessa of Kurios
Tasunke - Perpy of Sheaim
Llewyn - Falamar of Sidar

[Tholal]

Turn 1: Wolf attacked my Scout and lost. Scout promoted to Combat I. River spotted to the north!