FFHSG1 - The Perilous World Of Erebus

[Ozbenno]

The worker is recalled down south to build a plantation on the cotton, with plenty of military protection. I also re-arrange the tiles so we're working all 3 tiles that have any commerce, which makes Cartography a few turns quicker. Hill Giants or bust!!!

Orthus pops up



Orthus is a powerful barbarian warrior (axeman??). Strength is 6, as he has a relic, Orthus' Axe which raises your strength by 2. Can be a pain if he pops up near you, as he usually has buddies as well but if you can take him down, it is a powerful early weapon to have.



And just like that he's gone. Hopefully it wasn't Mahala (probably wasn't as the Doviello start at peace with the barbarians).

I started on the second cotton but a warrior was killed by a goblin (and a second killed in the strategic retreat) so there is a promoted goblin on the fort. Worker now on incense.

I sent a warrior south east to explore and he popped a hut and robbed a graveyard, both for some cash. There is an empty fort nearby he can explore if we're feeling lucky.

Cartography in 1, Hill Giants or bust. Mysticism next please

I played 20 as not much happened.

 

[Ozbenno]

Also, we're at size 6 now and could think about another settler after the Hill Giants.

 

[King Bulrush]

Got it!

 

[King Bulrush]

A short account of the reign of King Bulrush the 3rd:
On the first turn we finished researching cartography and started on Mysticism. We also finished the monument in Udenrat. I really wanted to start the pact of the Nilhorn there but the city is still too small and we don't have the ability to improve it quickly. Even in the best case scenario it would take 150 turns and that is by sacrificing growth completely. So unfortunately our "giants or bust" plan means dedicating the capital to it. Fortunately the next warriro is due in one tur so we can start quickly.
Also, the AI is dumb enough to sortie the highly promoted (But almost dead) goblin from the camp alone. I send one of our warriors to kill it and restore the honor of our army. There is also a large goblin raiding party advancing to the northeast of the capital, so I withdraw the worker from there.
On turn 2 I use our scouting warrior to explore a lair and it turns int a crazed skeleton warrior. Well, I gues it can still explore....
All good things come in threes: On turn 3, an army of 3 or our warriors successfully repells an attack from 3 scorpion clan goblins over the incense field to the northeast of the capital. You may say that the goblins's attack plan...went up in smoke.
On the next turn our skeleton warrior also kills a goblin and comes back to its senses. For a while at least. And then it promptly gets killed by a Griffin that came out of nowhere... Such is life (and un-death).

On turn 132 Mahala comes to us to offer an open borders agreement. I agree since this will improve our relationship.

On turn 135, Loki shows up on our doorstep. That can't be good.
And it isn't. He steals gold from us. But there is an opportunity here: A side effect of his ability is that our happyness cap is raised in the capital so it can grow to size 7. I decide to take advantage of it.

Turn 141: We now have a garisson of 3 warriors in Udenrat. I decide to start on a smokehouse since there isn't much else to build and we want to boost growth. I would say that we should wait until the city grows to pop 4 and then maybe start on a worker or even a settler (if we can afford more cities). Right now we are working all 3 commerce resources near the capital but we are still loosing money (and that's before Loki steals from us)

And.. That's it. I also play 20 turns. Mysticism is due in 2 turns. I suggest crafting and then mining next so we can improve the land around the second city. (As I said, we might want to build another worker soon). The giants are due in 37 turns. The capital is micromanaged, to the best of my abilities, to maximize production, and also commerce. On the second city I tried to focus on food (for growth) but also some production. Our troops in the capital are busy killing goblins and winning experiance, which is good. We aren't exploring any more for the moment.
Otherwise, not a very eventful reign.
The size of the empire hasn't changed much. Our borders have just expanded a bit in the north due to culture. Once the pasture (for the horses) is done, I recommend working on the incense to the west, for some extra commerce.

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice. We got tonnes of cash, an extra city would be good. Worker might be better first though.

 

[King Bulrush]

Speaking of extra cities, here are my top 3 picks for next city location:

The coastal city to the norteast would also have acces to one fish (not visible in the screenshot).

I think downriver to the southeast may be the best choice for settling next.

 

[Ozbenno]

Agree, the city to the south east looks the next best candidate. Hopefully will have a Hill Giant escort!

We'll need the city to the west eventually for reagents (needed for mages) but not for a while, there looks like a good spot further east as well.

Crafting might be a good choice next for the winery but we should consider Knowledge of the Ether sooner rather than later as we will need to start producing magic users and we really need the wonder that puts a mage guild in all cities (Catacomb something or other ). That plus Cave of Ancestors in good production cities means that we will be pumping out fireballs and can start the fun!!!!

 

[King Bulrush]

we should consider Knowledge of the Ether sooner rather than later as we will need to start producing magic users and we really need the wonder that puts a mage guild in all cities (Catacomb something or other ). That plus Cave of Ancestors in good production cities means that we will be pumping out fireballs and can start the fun!!!!

It's called Catacomb Libralus and you have a point. I just checked and if we start researchyng Mysticism now we should be done shortly after the giants are built, so we can then start on the wonder. This does however mean that we won't be building much else in the capital for a very long time. We really need our second city to grow as fast as possible and to found more cities to produce other stuff. But that wonder is indeed a must have for us.

 

[pholkhero]

got it

Will head for Knowledge of the Ether next. Ude seems like it might work as nice middle of the road production city, so i'll look towards that when the smokehouse finishes.

continue exploring and cross fingers??

 

[pholkhero]

Sorry all. I underestimate how little time we need right now to play and write up a report when not much is going on, so I put it off until tonight, when it took me no time at all

but, not much happened . . .

we kept losing gold to the Entertain spell. I didn't see a way to stop Loki from casting so, we lost 4gpt.

Went Myst>Ether, and revolted to God King. it shaved the Pact from 35 to 23 turns almost 50% even

Meanwhile, Perpentach went Nationalism. Idk a lot, but that doesn't sound good to me.

we're not on the power list. (perp is 5).

we lost a warrior up north, but vengeance is ours and sweet:


An event:


And that's that. 20 turns done and dusted. I MM'd a bit to let Ude grow some more, but didn't think it was worht it for our capital just yet, with us going for the pact. speaking of, it'll be done in about 6 turns, ether not long after that.

Roster:
pholk > just played
Oz > UP NOW
KB > on deck

 

[Ozbenno]

OK got it, I first read the first option in your pic as "needles death". I'm hearing ya!!

 

[King Bulrush]

we kept losing gold to the Entertain spell. I didn't see a way to stop Loki from casting so, we lost 4gpt.

About Loki, normally the the only way to chase him away would be to declare war and then attack him and force him to retreat (killing him is a whole other story...)
However, with HN giants we can attack an chase Loki without declaring war.
We just need to decide if the extra tile we can work right now in the capital (Loki causes happyness there) is worth more or less than the gold he is costing us.

 

[Ozbenno]

Project Hill Giants or bust is nearing completion. Project Catacomb Libralus is bubbling away nicely.

And the perilous world of Erebus claims another victim



Bye Jonas, was nice never meeting you.

Turn 171 was a busy one.

We got an interesting event.



And we got three Hill Giants to explore the dungeon.



I was contemplating war with Perpentach to get rid of Loki but he left of his own accord. We do explore the dungeon though and get a spirit guide (the XP of the unit will transfer to another unit when it dies). I contemplated an Elder Council in the capital after HGOB but thought a settler would be a better investment at the moment.

Knowledge of the Ether came in and Crafting was selected. Settler is in 8 turns and then we can build a Mage Guild.

Loki is back, caused unrest and stealing gold again. I'll leave it to you KB to decide whether to declare war or not.

Hill Giants are exploring to the south east. If you declare on Perpentach, they can head there and cause havoc.

 

[pholkhero]

We just need to decide if the extra tile we can work right now in the capital (Loki causes happyness there) is worth more or less than the gold he is costing us.

My event gave us an extra happy; it was cut off in the image.

iirc, we can grow up to at least 8 now, whether that's the limit or it's up to 9 now, i don't remember

 

[King Bulrush]

Got it. I was going to play now but I think we need to take some time for a strategy discussion.
The most important item to discuss is that I want to recall the giants back to the capital (basically cancelling your plan to use them for exploration). My reasoning is that the giants are our main strategic reserve, so using them on exploration is inefficient and too risky. Their main function at this point is to detter any attacks, and if attacks do occur, to reinforce the threatened area. This is why we need to keep them colose to the centre of our empire.
Using them to explore dungeons is particularly risky. We don't want one our strongest (and irreplaceable) units to be turned into a toad or something like that due to a bad roll of the dice when exploring a lair. If used to explore lairs they should wait outside to clobber anything threatening that may emerge from there, but the actual "explore lair" action should be performed by more expendable units.
Also, speaking of exploration, I don't think it is really important at the moment. We know our immediate surroundings, and whatewer lies beyond that is probably too far away to be of any real use for us at the moment. I think goody huts are probably all gone by now.
Also, we need to farm some xp with those giants and wandering around the map is not the most efficient way to do this when we can just wait for new goblins to pop out of the fort next to our capital and kill them there.
And lastly, the giants are HN so they should be able to chase Loki away without declaring war on Perpentach

So before I undo most of your moves by walking the giants back to the capital, I need to know the opinion of the other players. Do you agree? If not, then in what direction should we explore next?

Other minor issues:
- I see you started a granary in Udenart. This is also somenting I think about changing. I'm not sure a Granary is so usefull at the moment. We could very quickly build a mage guild, which gives us the option of either starting to build adepts there or try to start on the wonder. The only downside is that if we do eventually build the wonder in the capital (or somewhere else) then the hammers we spend now on the mage guild of Udenart are wasted.

As for tech, my plan is Crafting > mining so we can start to improve hills.

Edit: one more thing about Giants and exploration. They are HN units, which means there is one place we may want ot explore with them: rival terittory. They can cross borders without declaring war, and they can also pillage and harras rivals. We just need to decide which of our known rivals should we first pay a visit to

 

[Ozbenno]

No great dramas in getting the giants back, I was looking to farm XP by exploring, rather than waiting for goblins to pop but 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

I pondered the mage guild in the second city and didn't, as the capital will build the Catacomb and it would be wasted hammers. I was also thinking of pumping out warriors but in the end went for the granary as it is somewhat food poor and can use the boost to food reserves.

 

[King Bulrush]

Well, that settles it then. Time for the AAR...
... which is very short, as the reign of king Bulrush the 4th was as uneventful than the previous ones.
Settler is done and sent downriver. Work starts on the mage guild. (by the way, the lands along the river valley to the east are really rich in resources and we should strive to make them the main axis of development for our civilization in the near future).
Nimarail is done on turn 189. I start building a monument to expand our cultural borders. At some point we might want to build another worker somewhere.
Also, we finish researching crafting and start on mining.
Our giants returned to the capital just in time to kill a goblin. We got only 1XP for the victory, though...
But on turn 191, a giant killed Loki!!! I did not expect this to happen and I don't even know if it is a bug. I thought he was supposed to retreat. Anyway, no more stealing from our treasury. The victorious Giant (Curly) now has 15XP! I give him 2 levels in combat and the cover promotion (against archery units). This should enable us to overrun the gobiln fort if we want to. (But right now I think we should wait a bit and farm the goblins for XP).
Mage guild is done in the capital and we start work on the catacomb wonder (43 turns)

And that's it...

 

[pholkhero]

use the giants to farm xp for now i guess? shouldn't we maybe use one of the giants to explore a bit into our neighbors' lands, and keep 2 at home for defense? we could even rotate who's on walkabout so that they all can farm xp from teh gobbos

edit: got it

 

[Ozbenno]

A second worker in the second city would be good.

 

[Ozbenno]

We should also make sure that the Hill Giant with the spirit guide is the one with the most XP as we get to keep the XP if anything happens.