[SPOILER] And now for something completely different: DaveV is Hannah

[haphazard1]

The Bruces is a personal favorite. As for the city, copper and lake/coastal tiles will be nice plus there is potential for a fair bit of production.

[DaveV]

If any people unfamiliar with the EitB mod are still reading: production cities are important, because chops and whips are weak (8 and 20 hammers respectively), and slavery comes much later than in BtS.

My scout is doing some scouting, and the first barbs have appeared:



Since the RNG hasn't seen fit to give me new traits yet, I spent a turn in anarchy to revolt to the standard second set of civics:



I started in Nationhood, which gives +10% production for military units. Since it's very difficult to get 10 or more hammers in the early game, that civic usually just means losing one hammer of overflow on all warriors. The culture boost from Religion is somewhat useful in the early game, but the main benefit is just switching away from Nationhood.

Agrarianism makes every grassland farm a 4-food tile, which is very helpful for building workers and settlers in the early game. I was exactly one foodhammer short of producing the worker in the capital, so the extra food from my rice farm means it's not delayed:



Note that the switch from Low upkeep Decentralization to Medium upkeep Religion costs me one gold already.

To finish the copper mine, I'm defending against the (2 strength) goblin, which is very much in my favor, but not a sure thing. Here's hoping the RNG doesn't hate me too much.

[DaveV]

The barb goblin chose not to attack my warrior/scout/worker stack, and instead moved forward to threaten Bruces. I had good odds with my warrior, crossed my fingers, and:



Won, with 2.0/3 health and gaining 4 XP. I started the worker on roading the copper, which costs me a turn on the first grassland farm, but I'd like to get that road down now while I can.

[haphazard1]

First barb threat, smashed. There will be plenty more, so getting the road down now is probably smart.

[DaveV]

For some reason (hidden resource in the forest, maybe?) the barb warrior moved onto flatland instead of staying in the forests. This gave me a slightly better than coin-flip attack (thanks to Commando's first strike chance). Since I had a backup unit and would be finishing another warrior this turn, I took the chance:



Once more, the RNG smiled on me:



I'll be able to take a shock promotion on that guy. With bronze weapons, he'll have >99% odds on future warriors (barb or Doviello).

Another reason to finish the road on the copper: sometimes the barbs come in waves, and it's good to have a half move left over so an attacker can move back into the city rather than being left injured on open ground and vulnerable to the next guy in line.

I'm still playing catch-up with the other guys, but I should be able to defend well against the barbs with my two promoted bronze warriors.

[DaveV]

Looks like Mr. Cairo has popped his world spell, which means he must have settled his three cities. I did a quick check on the culture map, and don't see his borders encroaching on mine anywhere. That's good, Kurios can be obnoxious with culture.



Note: the screenshot is rotated by 90 degrees, since I've explored more on the North/South axis than on the East/West and I couldn't fit even my meager territory on the screen without the rotation.

The RNG hasn't been completely in my corner: I'm still awaiting my first trait swap (odds of that happening: 38% and falling). So far, FIN has done nothing for me, since I've been running 0% on the gold slider all game. RAI has been helpful in my barbarian battles, and maybe in scaring off Aurorarcher's warrior. The advantage of a swap is that I'll have three traits instead of two, although they're randomly picked from this list: 'TRAIT_AGGRESSIVE', 'TRAIT_ARCANE', 'TRAIT_CHARISMATIC', 'TRAIT_CREATIVE', 'TRAIT_EXPANSIVE', 'TRAIT_FINANCIAL', 'TRAIT_INDUSTRIOUS', 'TRAIT_ORGANIZED', 'TRAIT_PHILOSOPHICAL', 'TRAIT_RAIDERS', 'TRAIT_SPIRITUAL'. My preferred three would be Creative, Organized, and Aggressive, I think, although I'd be reasonably happy with any set of three that included Creative.

[DaveV]

Another barb warrior is coming for Bruces. Bad timing, since I'm two turns from bronze and my shock warrior won't be full health until next turn (otherwise, I could block the forest tile). If he moves onto the forest, my warrior will have an 80% odds attack, which is not worth risking. If he moves onto the copper, I have to kill him, of course. Odds on that attack should be in the high 90 percent range.



I've finished my first mine at the capital. Chopping the forest hill to the NW should finish my settler one turn early, with no overflow.

[haphazard1]

Barbs are inconsiderate like that, always showing up at just the wrong moment. Especially when your defenders are wounded, it often seems like more barbs spawn. I know it is a form of perception bias, but still that is how it feels. Good luck!

[DaveV]

Turn 50, and time for a complete report because base 10.

The barb warrior moved onto my copper, meaning he had to die:



One XP shy of my next promotion, but I'm just glad to win.

My military:



Cities:



Finances:



Aurorarcher still has three cities:







With no culture in the two new ones, but twice my population. Since I have 8 population, that would mean he has 16, or 6/5/5.

And he, like me, is in Religion and Agrarianism, as I knew:



Demos and graphs:

[DaveV]

Turn 51 opens with the "ding-a-ding-ding-ding" sound of weapon upgrades. At strength 4, my warriors now have a good chance of surviving against an animal, if I accumulate enough of them that I want to send some out exploring.

Here's my settler about to finish. 30 foodhammers needed, 30 available. Very efficient.



I'm spending one turn at 0% science to build up my event fund.