Misty Shades of Grey [SPOILERS]

[Aurorarcher]

Thanks, TBS!

That makes me feel a bit dumb with settling the GM, with careful planning I could've gotten that 900 gold then... oh well.

[Mardoc]

400 gold -> 500 beakers? Care to elaborate? Or do you say approx. 500 because of prereqs (+20 %, so that makes it 480)?

Yeah, that's what I meant. It was because you were comparing to a bulb, specifically.

That makes me feel a bit dumb with settling the GM, with careful planning I could've gotten that 900 gold then

I know it's FFH and food is easy - but still +1 fpt is worth something, too. Also, that careful planning would either come with a risk of failure or you'd have had to invest in military and delay to make it happen. And maybe the game will go more than 40 turns.  So you're probably not too far behind where you could have been.

[Aurorarcher]

Maybe thegame will go more than 40 turns. It might actually and here's why: people have very low GNP still at around T80, not very many cities either. Most are at 5 or less. I am about to put down my 6th next turn. But powers are fairly high (except mine which is very low). On the other hand I have no borders with others than Dave (not a threat at the moment) so I'm not too worried.



I am very happy about the demos at the moment (GNP/PROD/FOOD). That 14 GNP is Cairo. Mack has highest food, but also the most pop + I am running 4 specialists in my cities. That highest power is also mack, but that's partly because he just built Kithra (24k power). He must've teched straight to Hidden Paths considering his GNP. He has the strongest unit now obviously, but can he do anything with them just yet? That is to be seen... and mark my words if I see Kithra on my border within next 5 turns. That'd be a disaster. That's very unlikely though with no border tension yet, he'd have to come through the wild. Still, slightly worried about my farmer's gambit for a moment.

Power:



Those spikes of Cairo are something juicy. They look almost too similar to me, worth about 18k power. Mobius witches are 12k but only one player has KotE so far, and that must be Bob. Also one player has BW, that could be Cairo more likely. Pyre Zombies are 6k power. Did he just build 2 of those at the same time? Maybe. Is he planning to be aggressive early? Maybe. He has been very passive in the previous games. Also settling Copper is directly towards me as well. In 3-4 turns I should have first Hunters (with Divided Soul spell) so I'll send first one to the west to see whether there's anything coming for me. I am not quite sure how far Cairo's borders are but we met around here on T10:



And Cairo's empire is west from here. I'd estimate over 10 tiles from there.

GNP:

[Aurorarcher]

So that power of Cairo was meant for Dave. That's good. Is it? To Who? for me and others, Cairo's economy is in the toilet and this war will ruin Dave's chances as well, that's my prediction. Unless Cairo manages to eat Dave quickly but I doubt that'll happen. He declared on T82, and apparently there was a small fight. At least 3 WW (I think that is for Cairo even though it shows under Dave's leader). It was 1 last turn, but you lose 1 WW per turn I guess?



Not sure how many fights or whatever that is... I have no idea really. Time to google. What I think I do remember is that you don't gain any WW when you fight on your own land, neutral territory was different too, and inside enemy borders you gain most WW. I found this (that's from Kael's post long time ago):

WW_UNIT_KILLED_ATTACKING iDefineIntVal 3
WW_KILLED_UNIT_DEFENDING iDefineIntVal 1
WW_UNIT_KILLED_DEFENDING iDefineIntVal 2
WW_KILLED_UNIT_ATTACKING iDefineIntVal 2

So I guess Cairo killed one unit then, that'd make it from 1 -> 3? I don't remember how fast WW goes away... was it 1 WW per turn? If so then he attacked and lost. Maybe? I guess afterwards when I read their threads I can find how wrong I was

Power situation as of T84.



Others news. Barbs gave me a free worker.



Also notice I have my 15 xp warrior there. Need 2 more xp! Come on... Also it's nice that the other archer moved out (hopefully doesn't come back). That'll make it easier for me to capture this nice city later. I also have another 15 xp warrior (that one with promotion available).

Empire.



Cap just built 2 Divided Souls in 3 turns. I have KotE so I can move very fast. Some MGs are going to be built to get early adepts. I don't want to build warriors while the screenshot just shows I built one, heh. Getting Writing for quick round of Libraries, I have at least 3 cities that could use them (cap, Vetus and Zarlra), then maybe build TGLib, +1 for sages is not bad because I'm already running them a lot. Also Writing is on the way for Maths which I eventually want for Bazaar of Mammons (+100% gold) in the cap. I figured I'd keep GK longer, it's nice when saving gold and I am already getting over 10 hpt in cap with it. Now losing some gold at the moment... need more shades, so come on barbs, just move one warrior out of the city, please?

After Writing I'll grab Fishing for my new city next to cap which will use a lot of cottages. Then maybe Sailing and after that I'll probably take Recon line more seriously. Or maybe not, we'll see. I can play quite long with Hunters; as they get 17 xp it'll get more expensive to shade those units. Hopefully I'll get my 2nd GP around that time.

Considering that... Drama is still available. None wants to take a stab at it, my GNP is highest so it's unlikely others try to grab it. Maybe mack? But seeing the Bard fall before you get the tech would suck a lot. It's over 600 beakers and useless (to me) otherwise. Another free GP is from Military Strategy, but that is also a bit of distract from the techs I really want... hm, decisions decisions, they're pretty hard. I don't want to focus on military line (recon) too early either. I do want a GA around the time I start to build the army. There's still a lot of room so I'm optimistic considering how long this game will last. The longer the better for me.

[Aurorarcher]

News of the T87.



The war is not going very well for Mr. Cairo. He is also at -5 GNP. I believe he wanted to rush someone from the get-go and it just didn't work. Rushing in general and especially in FFH is very hard, even if you were able to take some cities. It's still usually not worth it as you just end up wasting way too many turns with crashed economy. Especially if the enemy is too far away and has enough time to react. And while that happens the others usually make more profit just by expanding normally and not building an army. Of course, in some cases early rushes have paid off but that happens so rarely. Of course this isn't really an "early rush" as it started around T82. In this game though the rush could've worked because nobody has researched (well other than Cairo) BW so far. If he didn't improve/settle around his Copper, then it was just foolish...

Then I also met mack.



He wants this city too, if he takes it I might have to declare on him. The city has one archer with fortification bonuses + one C1/D1 so it's not falling yet. Unless he has his hero behind.

I am now #1 in score as I just finished Writing. Grabbing FoL now would be easy because with Dave/mack giving me known tech bonus. Do I need it? Well, Fawns are 10h more than Hunters but get no city attack malus. Maybe useful but not immediately as I don't plan to take any cities just yet. I don't need to much happiness either so I think I'll pass here. Maybe later. Also, I have to say Divided Soul is just a wonderful spell. I have scouted so much with them just with couple turns. So easy to run away from animals if in danger... I have one with 8 xp already. Can't wait till I can terrorise my enemy with rangers or similar... it'll be a pain to defend against.

[Aurorarcher]

Well, the city fell so what do I know . Mack had more promotions than I thought and also brought Kithra... He declared war and killed my 15 xp warrior . I might lose more (even a city) but I doubt he'll risk moving Kithra further. Pics to come later what the situation looks like.

[Aurorarcher]

So here are pics. They're not pretty for me. I made so many stupid mistakes it's killing my motivation... but I won't give up. I haven't seen T90 yet but I already know I messed up there as well. Anyway... so this is T88 where it all started.



Mack took the barb city and killed my 15 xp warrior. I then had my 19 xp (to be shaded warrior here). I thought myself, could I in any case run away? First I thought I could waste my WS but Kithra can see invisible units, and if Kithra is nearby so can other his units too... so there goes that. Then I figured if I placed my units correctly he could't kill all my units. I even placed my Severed Soul in front, I figured it can defend (so it read, and it's a summon so maybe it stays for a turn?). I thought it would take away one of his hitters. So without mobility he could max kill one of the units in the stack.



I also have my other Divided Soul close to mack's south, but I met a GS... I should've odds but...



Turns out I was wrong. Severed Soul disappears at the of your own turn? Like wow... at least according to next turn log which is just awful. Mack is running over me...



Notice the combat log. No sign of anyone killing Severed Soul, so apparently it disappeared before mack even saw it... also notice the Giant Spider attack in between. That means it was Mack's spider. The odds must've been fairly bad... argh. And yeah, I lost the city of course because I had left it empty because I thought I was safe. But I wasn't, mack had HBR and promoted to Mobility and ran over me. I don't think I'll lose any more cities in a while... or maybe I will, he has 3 giants too and Kithra is just so powerful.

I stupidly brought a Divded Soul from cap to defend Zarlra (because it only had one warrior). Well, bringing the unit wasn't stupid. But what was is that I promoted it to C1! ARGH. Had I not done that the warrior would be top defender against Kithra. Stop wasting your pretty units, Auro!

So how to play this? I can 1-turn Divided Souls from cap and other cities can pretty much 1t warriors. I am all on those. If I grab enough Divided Souls I could hit him back but I need a lot. His warriors are very well promoted too, if he gathers a big stack next to one of the other cities... I am in trouble. Especially if he does it fast, and it doesn't look like he is slowing down.

I am not sure if mack remembers even the spell I can use. With that I might be able to trick him... my only hope pretty much. Now for the others mistakes; Writing was a bad call, I had no idea what mack was up to at that point though. I could try to grab BW and settle for Copper quickly... hmm... that takes some turns of course. Maybe in 10 turns I could have that. I think I'll rather just go for Poisons right away. I need better units anyway to fight back. If I'll survive.

[Aurorarcher]

The war has stalled for a moment. Mack took Vetus (my 2nd city) but I killed two of his Giants afterwards losing only one Divided Soul + warrior (forgot to delete it though, dang).

I am 8 turns away from Poisons, my GNP is still #1 despite losing a very good city of mine. Mack's power is spiking a lot, not sure what that is... but bring it!

Dave is kindly giving me his Copper so now I have bronze weapons with my warriors. That helps a lot. He is also giving me bunch of manas + happiness. I asked for his Ivory this turn because mack pillaged mine. Dave's happy cap is at 8 and his cities are at 7 so I am hopeful he'll give his only source... I'll go and enchant blade his troops as soon as I can just to help. Cairo has been eating his cities.

Despite the bad situation, I'm still kind of enjoying the game. There are two wars going at the same time and lots of stuff happening... only one player peacefully expanding (Bob), but his gnp/prod are fairly low. He is in Aristocracy (interesting) which I think on this map is a mistake, not too many riverside farms but maybe he'll prove me wrong. I hope I'll be able to get Poisons before my game is over, that'll be the goal for the moment.

[Aurorarcher]

5 turns from Poisons. I make 75 bpt and 9 gpt even with just 4 cities (100% science). Cap is making almost half of those beakers. Mack is pillaging and building an army, but I'm not in danger of losing anything more just yet. Mack fired his WS T91 so I can enter his borders on T105. It's T96 now...

[Mardoc]

5 turns from Poisons. I make 75 bpt and 9 gpt even with just 4 cities (100% science). Cap is making almost half of those beakers.

Sidar can be deceptive like that .  How does that compare to the rest of the world?

Mack is pillaging and building an army, but I'm not in danger of losing anything more just yet. Mack fired his WS T91 so I can enter his borders on T105. It's T96 now...

So what are the odds that you get another Shade or three from the war?  Your capital could be worth more than some of your foes' entire civs .

I hope when you reach Poisons you'll give us some screenshots...I imagine there's all kinds of potential for interesting tactics.