Have you found coldrain? It looks as though he has a unit sitting on the Pool of Tears, which might indicate he's to the northeast. If mackoti doesn't have a close neighbor, I'd be wary about planting a provocative city. He's number one in score and has access to fauns at least, and probably a bunch of priests of leaves in the very near future, if he hasn't popped his world spell already. Maybe you could trade for earth mana if you stay on mack's good side.
It looks as though Bing is to your southwest, Miguelito to your southeast, and mackoti to your west. I hope you're not the monkey in the middle; that will make it tough to expand in any direction.
Bear in mind that you can't capture, only raze, the formerly barb city of Deluoc until Miguelito grows it to size two.
It seems like you need more of everything: cities, military. How aggressive has Miguelito been? Can you maintain a cease fire with him? His leader is built for capturing barbarian cities with Loki; if he's not positioning his units in a threatening manner, you might have to live with the status quo. Can you plant some more decent cities in the neutral territory to the southwest and northeast?
The city is on size 2.
Mig is relative peaceful - as peaceful a city capture 5 tiles next to my capital is.
Still, he has 5 warriors, 1 hunter and loki in the area - and the barbs as gratis garnison. So 4 units more than he needs in the moment ?
Add 3 workers and this is not something I which I can ignore.
1 decent city here ?
Fish/silk on the coast - fishing next. - And the island city too, when I researched a tronsport ship.
After that, 1 okay city with the wild and then a few city possible, which will work a few cottages and nothing more.
Not really contested
About 3 decent city here ?
Suddenly the area contested.
2-3 cities here ? Partly contested by Bing, I really need to send a eye here again.
And a blockcity east of Schneewittchen/Rotkaeppchen with nothing besides thet.
I expect coldrain/Auro here. So 4 "neighbours" per player ? coldrain/Auro is blocked by a mountain range, but I think a sea border is possible.
I think I could ask for map trades with Bing at least.
Wow. Mackoti already has a size 15 capital and an island city. I guess the best you can hope for is that he's more concerned about his neighbors to the west than about you: the argument is whether he tries to knock down his rivals or go after the easy meat.
Rather than your marked city in the north, I'd be more tempted by the site directly south of [Sn?]ail Haven. Fishing shouldn't take too long to research, and then you'd have a good food tile and another happy resource. Alternatively, you could settle the wine/pigs city and not need the Fishing detour. I guess the fur/crab/fish island is supposed to be yours? It seems like sailing is a ways off, though. The scoreboard shows you with trade connections to Bing and Aurorarcher; do you know whether those are two-way or one-way routes? In the former case, opening borders would give you a few more commerce from trade. I don't think it's a good idea to sign open borders with Miguelito until Loki is dead.
Fishing is ~4 turns in full research ?
But I want to collect gold at first.
I have all research I to ruin the game of one player, but not enough gold.
I opened borders with Auro - he added beer as bonus and a strong neighbor for mackoti ?
And I had already opened the border for the other players too, even if I get no real benefit. Till now it was no benefit for both sides and peaceful intentions are reason enough, I think.
Other than for Mig. No maptrade and no open border.
(August 1st, 2024, 16:58)DaveV Wrote: I'd be more tempted by the site directly south of [Sn?]ail Haven
Ha! What would the dwarves of Stormsail Haven say to that, I wonder!
Also, wow, I had forgotten how much earlier map trades can happen in EitB than in BtS (or CtH)! I think I recognize three new "landmarks" from your screenshots not previously described in this thread:
From the first post-map-trade picture:
Worldstone Reef Wrote:Not far from the mouth of the bay, the sea waves break across a stony coral reef so ancient that it features in many creation myths: Some say that the marble deposits shaped by Kilmorph near the shore were made in imitation of it or even out of parts of the reef itself in the long-forgotten past - while others claim the world itself, land and sea floor alike, are just overlays of rock and dust and soil on a framework of primordial coral. Ocean life abounds across the coral reef, and the upper and outer reaches of the stony coral can be harvested as building materials, but the foundations of the reef are impervious to even the most powerful sorceries and enchanted tools. It was known to the ancients that any ship that tried to navigate the breakers across the jagged shallows created by the reef must do so with extreme caution, taking it slow, for even the strongest hull can be torn apart when striking the barely-submerged coral - and consequently, any ship that successfully navigates the reef and establishes itself there with the coral to cut off enemy lines of attack would be extremely difficult to dislodge by other ships at sea.
From the second, though you'll have already seen this one if you followed the previous game closely:
Syraethe's Stand Wrote:Rumors are spreading about the site of a terrible battle between the living and the dead that took place soon after the glaciers receded from an ancient vault. Many died and rose again to do battle against life, and the master of the undying army was only thrown down and destroyed when one who dared stand alone against it in the face of the deathless hordes transformed the power of the vault itself. Tales vary with the tellers and the audience and with time, but it is said that Syraethe, the mysterious general who led the living army, ultimately gave her life to effect the transformation in a last and desperate stand. Some say her courageous spirit still watches over the site where the vault once stood, but all agree that afterward, when the corpses were carried away - some perhaps still restless - and cairns or tombstones raised above them all, then whatever became of Syraethe's spirit, her body was never found.
And from the third:
Covenant Shoals Wrote:The rich silt from the twin estuaries making its steady way out toward the mouth of the bay gathers here in the shallows under the influence of outflow and tides to form a maze of unpredictable shoals, supporting immense kelp forests older and more tangled than any living forest of the surface world. Traversing the water's surface between the thick tangles of kelp and avoiding the hidden hazards of the shoals demands slow, careful navigation, but any ship that could wind its way in and prepare its defenses with up-to-date knowledge of the daily-shifting obstacles beneath and at the surface of the waves would be extremely difficult for enemy ships to safely pursue. So ancient are these kelp beds, their submarine soil constantly renewed as the rivers carry nutrients out from the shore, that legends are told of the place from before the ice came and the seas froze: Legend tells that long ago, a pact was made here between the peoples of the ocean and the shore, declaring a peace between them and establishing trade and commerce at the surface of the sea, where the realms of air and water meet. Whether the compact yet holds is as uncertain as the origin of the legend itself, but there is a small community of merfolk that lives among the kelp and shoals that is willing to barter their undersea goods with fisherfolk from the shorelands, and if trade should continue and increase, their numbers - and the value of the goods they can provide - will surely grow. Should the community be entirely destroyed by raiders from the surface though, no one who knows merfolk ways imagines that any more will resume such trade again at the site of betrayal from above that scourged their predecessors from the sea.
Good luck with whatever direction you choose to pursue!
Miguelito's scouting game seems to be worse than mine.
And Mig is the only one who didn't get a map from me.
And I think that is a valid reason. 12 units and Loki
Yes, I have a small group in 7 Geislein, but that seems to be nearly not enough against this group.
And the barbs remain at guard duty, so this are at least 10 units too much, if Mig has peaceful intentions.
I got swordsmen and wizards, so I feel relative secure at the moment, but...
And you can see, I found city Nr. 6 in the southwest.
Southeast has a Loki, I didn't want to risk it.
I still plan the Standing Stones next. I have a combat 4 warriors on a hill next to the stones and the border from makoti. So he should know I have interest in this area. If I see neither a settler nor a military built up, I think I can settle there ?
Looks like some excitement up ahead! Good luck with the neighbors - be they goblin forts, orcish cities, or rival fantasy civs! And...
(August 7th, 2024, 06:17)xist10 Wrote: I found this naturewonder on the map.
Ha - it took me a moment to realize how you managed to unfog just exactly that tile! And since you have...
Maurits Basin Wrote:Rumor whispers of a titanic struggle between legendary beings wielding now-forgotten magics beneath a frigid sky, amid vast sheets of snow. The glaciers where the battle took place, and even the frozen bedrock below, were torn asunder, hurled outward, by the force of devastating spells, and the very fabric of the world around them was strained and twisted by the power unleashed there. Now, long after the battle, some say snow and sleet still fall ceaselessly around the basin thus torn open by magic power; some say volcanic vents rise from the earth beneath, burning hot enough to melt even hail in mid-air as it falls. It may be that both are true - that the residue of the two great powers and their meeting still do battle across the basin and its walls, leaving power of another kind behind - for there are tales of a river that flows around the basin without beginning and without end, forever rushing downhill in an eternal circle, impossible in any other part of the world. The river is said moreover to overflow its banks in time with the sun's yearly cycle, annually reclaiming rich volcanic soil from the snow, and thereby to turn the icy basin where the battle raged into one of the most-fertile lands of the south. The tales of this place might never have spread nor ever been believed were it not for the astonishing drawings of the river made by the famed and ingenius explorer Maurits Cornelis, for whom and for whose work the basin now is named.
I think I'll save the write-up of the other(s) though until you have a clearer view of the area around it/them than just a sign in the fog!
World news.
Runes is interesting - was my choice, if I had to found a religion, because the paramander can replace the swordsmen.
Still I'm missing the techs, I will not convert.
Delouc had the CE and blocks me from clearing the barbfort.
Mig seems to prepare for war. Another 2 catapults and another settler.
I upgrade the 3 warriors in 7 Geislein to swordsmen. Cost much, but I need the +2 strength.
And I asked coldrain for a militaric alliance - and Mackoti/Auro for a rice/rice (or corn/corn) nap.
