Auro’s thread

[Aurorarcher]

T50.

5th city spot. Settler in Dunwich at the moment.



I really hope the bear doesn't get lucky against my other Hunter on the forested hill...

[Aurorarcher]

Haven't found much time to report but here's something.

T60 I settled my first island city, I'll probably put Heron Throne here later.



T62 my Galley found Sidar (coldrain). Not the best neighbour but I'll take it. I could have been a dick and pillage his sea food but decided it's smarter to play friends for now.

Here's overview of the land... eh, mostly sea, between us.



It looks like there's a bigger island right next to him. I'd like to settle it to grab the Whale but it's so close to his borders it will be difficult to defend. Northern x is more conservative spot and likely wouldn't piss him off that bad.

T64 I got great prophet eot.



I am also planning on building The Great Lighthouse. I might just use the Prophet for GA and revolt to OO and switch some civics. Would get TGL a lot faster too. I'd keep GK for now and switch to City States during the last turn of GA. Need to think about this because usually it's not worth to use the GP for GA so early, the more cities you have the more you get out of it. Other options are obviously to save it for later GA or bulb Priesthood for Cultists. I don't think I'll need that just yet but eventually I will of course.

[Aurorarcher]

It's now T74. I did use the Great Prophet for GA and it was a pretty good move I think. I managed to tech Carto, Writing, Trade all within 6 turns and then revolted to City States + Foreign Trade. Full civics are here:



-10% military production sucks but other than that it's all good. I probably should've switched to Nationhood now that I think of it... only my capital needs the happiness badly. Oh well. Not going to build that many units just yet.

I met xist turn 66 or 67 I think. We shared a map and I was a bit surprised. What's wrong with his empire, can you tell?



End of turn 71 I got Trade and I was able to check other's tech...



Well, that's early! Shades are nasty. They can also use Sever Soul spell (like other their recon units) once they get KotE (coldrain got it T73 I think). Need to be careful, more on that later.

I also finished this beauty.



With Trade + Foreign Trade most of my cities have 5 TRs making all new cities very profitable. Like this one:



This city is likely one that coldrain doesn't like but I need those Whales. Could've gone 1N now that I see all the resources...

Next island city is here going here:



Then a little bit about my neighbours and the situation in general.

First border (almost) with xist.



Seroe Vakas is on a hill so fairly easy to defend. The border is pretty safe also, no real tension now or in future.

Cairo/Dave area (I traded map with Dave):





At least two city ruins, Cairo's power is very high (270k, more than double compared to me). Good for me there's a lot of space between me and Cairo. I don't want him to run his Centaurs towards me and as there's so much space I don't see that likely in near future. Need to get some scouting to the area of course. Looks like Dave is able to hold his last couple cities and keep Cairo busy. That is helpful to me of course.

Then there's only left coldrain border.



The most likely person to attack me in the near future. He has 6 cities to my 10 so I think he will likely expand a bit more before going for war or planning for one. He has about 150k power so already some powerful units. I believe Bing (one that I haven't met) is west of coldrain.

Some plans/thoughts for now:

1. Tech Priesthood (2 turns left). Build some Cultists.
2. Tech Construction (workshops, need more hammers).
3. Build more units and secure border with coldrain.
4. KotE + adepts?
5. Warfare + Military Strategy? Only person to have Writing (other than me) is Bing (he built the Great Library).
6. Optics? Do I even need it to dominate the sea? Probably not.
7. Tech Honor? Only religion that allows me to see all invisible units. Later. But could be very useful against coldrain.
8. Spam more cities, a lot room for great cities.

Demos eot 74.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks for the update. Improvements - and cottages specifically.

[Aurorarcher]

T76.

Found coldrain's Ghost.



It has killed someone with poison... hopefully he doesn't find a Scorpion and capture it.

Settling party on its way to island.



There's a small chance for a Griffon 2 SW of my Galley but other than that I should be there next turn.

[Aurorarcher]

T77.

Capturing bears for culture.



I found coldrain's scout on island, planning to pop the graveyard so I decided to steal it.





Spectres haunt this area but as I had units on the adjacent tile they just don't appear? Changed my settling plans also, this island is very seafood rich.



I'll settle the Dyes/Pig island with next settler (4 turns).

End of turn I also finished Heron Throne.

[Qgqqqqq]

You can cheese a lot of lair results in base by filling all surrounding tiles with units.

[Jabah]

You didn't occupy the sea tiles but I am not sure graveyards could spam water base or water walking units

[Aurorarcher]

Lanun economy is leading the game by a lot as demos of T84 show. Currently in GA from Bone Palace though.



I have a huge tech lead. I also revolted into Military State + Conquest + Nationhood. Now +25% military production I can finally produce some units pretty fast.

Once Dave is dead (he seems to be fighting back pretty well btw!) I think coldrain, cairo and xist should work together against me. They all have adepts but no mana techs yet. I also have KotE now. I'm mostly worried about coldrain and his invisible units. There are couple ways to find them and easiest is probably floating eyes, of course that requires Sorcery tech. One other interesting option is Honor religion with the wonder (requires Great Prophet which I do have):



Will reveal all invisible units within my borders. Not sure if that's worth it but good to keep in mind. Honor has some decent units like Rathas to fight against recon units and they can also see them. Sun II also helps for sure.

I am 1t away from Form of the Titan, then I produce 3 lvl units for free. If I'll settle the Great General from Military Strategy I could get 6 xp units so almost ready mages (I need 8 xp with CHA).

So the plan now is to produce enough units to hold any attack then I might expand a bit more (decent places everywhere!) or/and start to plan the attack against coldrain. I could easily destroy his coastal city with Cultists but after that it's not so easy. He doesn't seem to be doing anything crazy yet, losing some power currently so likely settling some shades maybe?

[Aurorarcher]

I found Cairo's stack.



Cairo has a lot of Centaur Chargers (I counted about ~10) and about same number of Centaurs (at least). A lot more in the fog probably. Now as Dave is dead they will likely head my way...

My opponents started to plot against me in the 49th council (like the should!) and I figured I should pay a visit...





Next turn I moved in and after 4 tsunamis it wasn't very difficult to raze the city.







I will lose the last Cultist that is now on land but I had promotions available so it is now C1 + Guerilla on a hill so might not even die.

Coldrain just got Elementalism but quite far away from Mages still. He could have a great sage saved though.



My lovely capital that will mostly produce my Mages, they start with 6 xp.



Sorcery in 3 turns so not that far away. After that Smelting + Iron Working. My military production looks like this: two cities building mostly Cultists, two mostly Chariots and two mostly adepts. 

Land between me and Cairo.



He could in theory march his whole stack towards me fairly quickly but the land isn't in his favor. I need a lot of scouting info obviously. Once I have floating eyes I can relax more. I guess he would also like to heal before going for new war too. So not worried. Yet.

Land between me and coldrain is almost only mountains.



I mean as far as I can see I can't reach his side without boats. Unless I go through Cairo's territory (not going to happen). He can "jump" over mountains but it'll still be a challenge for him to attack me in any way. He doesn't have Sailing. He could of course jump over mountains with his recon units but he can't bring any other units.

Demos as of T90.



Cairo, xist and coldrain all are in golden age.