Fox-50: Hercules Against Deities

[Ozbenno]

I was looking forward to some Fox love - Not!

Might need to get some scouting done west as the jungle up north probably means our next city will be west (unless we go triple-jumbo east).

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

I was looking forward to some Fox love

Fox love... That's the sort Max Mosley enjoys isn't it ... lots of involved if my memory serves me right!!

Ralph

 

[r_rolo1]

So, I'm up.... so, got it

 

[r_rolo1]

Being a mortal is a bad condition, thinked Oceanus. Being a Titan trapped somewhere and with his essence borrowed to a mortal earthbound creature, creation of the Titans creation, was a very humiliating experience. But revenge was brewing since the Olimpics had trapped them and Men were as good as any beast to fulfill the Titans plan to put the Olimpics in their place. And who better to make than than one of their creations ?

Anyway being in a man body made Oceanus very unconfortable and he needed to make something to cut the tedium out..... slaying a unharmed follower of the Olimpics would do:

Spoiler :

After that the only things that cutted his tedium were to listen the news brought by the scout named Scout. First he brought news of the Olimpians fooling the Humans once more with disguises and new names:

Spoiler :

He had a son with a girl of a barbarian village. He called him Scout.

Spoiler :

When he got to age, he became scout as well and both gone to diferent directions: Scout got south and his son Scout went north. Scout son found armed followers of the Olimpics heading to the Heracles city:

Spoiler :

Strangely he didn't attacked Scout son..... but Scout would bury his son not much after, at the hands of unrully humans that do not acept neither ours or the Olimpians rule:

Spoiler :

Besides that, only busy humans mining the yellow metal even before getting some rice to eat ( Oceanus never understood this greed of the humans for gold..... ) and rumors of some Olimpians calling themselfs CharleMagne and Tokugawa making their humans slaves. Heracles told him that was a bad sign, because knowing how to make humans slaves was necessary to make metal weapons. But Heracles was in the verge of doing that himself:

Spoiler :

Now on the serious stuff:

Pacal archer should get to our lands in some turns...... cover GG is mandatory

And before Mr Fox gripes me ( i only remembered the GG after finishing my set ), pls attach the GG to the existing non-GG warriors. Attached GG do not cost maintenance

The worker and the warriors are unmoved and the settler in queue is tentative.

 

[Ozbenno]

Shouldn't he have been called scoju?

Maybe another warrior before settler?

 

[GreyFox]

Good story, rolo. Enjoyable! And thanks for the name changing

I always could not understand the mechanics of resource connection. Seems like gold is already connected ... how? Through river or coastline? But river spreading resource require sailing. So, it seems to be spread using coastline ... and that does not require sailing? Weird logic!

My only gripe (apart from the GG ... that is harmless except for the extra maintenance incurred which is compensated anyway, so no big deal there) is that you should have finish BW before stopping. As it is now, "we" still do not know the location of copper to have a discussion of next city site ("we" because I actually know, having accessed the worldbuilder).

Right now, there are a few not-so-good sites for the next city. My preference will be one close by in the NE that have access to horse, 2 phants and share the rice with capitol. The other site will be directly north of capital with gems, but seems like a commerce city to me. A third site (my second choice) will be in the SW, near where our scout currently is to grab some floodplains (or oasis) and some good resources there, with a handful of hills, making it the perfect production city.

As to Ozzy's suggestion of one more warrior before settler, I think not necessary. We already have 3 (2 in city as shown by rolo's last screenie), one more Oceanus I wandering 2 tiles north of Athens. However, I do think we need to get the fish netted if we choose the second city to the first candidate I mentioned (which will need to borrow Athens' rice to grow).

Research wise, I would suggest agriculture if copper pops up nearby. Else, we have to go archery. If we are going for the horse site, we need wheel to enable chariots as well.

Roster
-- GreyFox
-- r_rolo1 == Just role-played Oceanus
>> Ralph Jackson == UP for some Heracles action!!
-- berserks01
-- Ozbenno
-- Imhotep

 

[Ozbenno]

Pretty sure you don't need Sailing for resource connection on a river within your own cultural boundaries. Sailing can connect cities (and the resources contained within) along a river, where the cultural boundaries do not overlap.

The warrior suggestion was so that we would have 2 warriors per city (as there are archers about). Don't want to lose a settler or a city to an angry monkey (all hail the RNGod).

 

[GreyFox]

True, but BW is in next turn. If we do not have copper, then switch settler to warrior. Else, all those warriors would all suddenly become phalanxes when the settler is out.

Not big deal if next player wants to switch, with Hercules' help (he is the prophet who settled in Athens BTW), warrior is just 2~3 turns away. Maybe what Ozzy suggested is better (but for a different reason), since warrior is much cheaper than Phalanx -- why waste hammers building phalanxes when warriors would suffice?.

Thanks for explaining the river mechanics ... now I understand how that works, it actually makes sense. So that means the stones and rice will be connected as well (once the quarry or farm is built) without roads or anything.

--

 

[ZPV]

Lurker's Comment:

Fox- you haven't got that quite right. If you build a quarry on the Stone, I think they aren't connected to the sea, so there is no coastal route. (You need a "port" (city or fort) or a river dumping into the sea to use the coast for trade routes)

edit: I might be completely wrong on this, however.

 

[Ozbenno]

Stones and rice need roads to be connected. Gold is connected via the river, the others aren't on a river that is connected to the capital.

 

[r_rolo1]

Rice will be connected by river, via the grass hill beteen the bed of the rice river and the Athens river ( I know, it is stupid, but it works that way.... I'll link a example I saw in S&T forum a while ago when I find him )

EDIT: See here

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

With Oceanus now fully manifested within the Humans body he started to form his plans...

Firstly even with the strength of a titan in the Human Body a Wooden Club was still just a wooden club... But a solution was in sight with mankind now having access to copper to turn him into a force to be reckoned with.

Spoiler :

So now with enough srength to counter any wandering Olympians it was time to think of the future.
First mankind needed to prosper taking the slow path from Barbarians towards a civilisation that could genuinely challenge the rule of the Olympians.

Spoiler :

However progress was slow and despite being a Titan Oceanus could not directly teach them all he knew... but he could guide their hand in the mysterious manner of the Ancient gods – directing them towards ancient pockets of knowledge that would propel them forwards before the Olympians realized that the Titans had arrived and their rein was under threat.

Spoiler :

The weakness still at the heart of Humans showed itself again with the last of Oceanus’ mortal offspring dying at the Hounds of savages to the Southwest. So Hyperion was despatched to seek revenge and prepare for the expansion of mankind’s foothold in the realm of the Olympians and help propel them Onwards.

Spoiler :

And yes we have iron at Athens

So.
A run of most undeity like pop hutting got us Horse Back riding for free and completed the part researched Iron Working!!
We have hand researched Agriculture, Wheel and Pottery at which point I stopped.
We have a Settler out to the NE with Hyperion and need to agree where to plonk down cities.

I would go for Yellow first, Red might be a stretch and Blue has great potential.. Too Mnay good spots to choose from so get dotmapping!1

Research, Mysticism in 4 so new city can get a Border Pop then..
I would say finish the worker due in 3, grow Athens to Size 6 (Granary or Military) and then 2 pop whip a second settler.
With Gold and Ivory happiness seems covered for now but do we want to try and pick up Confucianism? Run for Pyramids once we have 2 settlers out ?..
Do we need to acknowedge the will of the gods by doing somethign with Horse Riding (GG Horse Archer anyone..)

Ralph

Ralph

 

[berserks01]

I'd pull red in and put it on the hill 2N2W of our copper.

Oh, this is also a got it.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

2N2W of our copper is a nice site but might need Calendar to be really productive?? Althoigh gems will help it pay its way.

But if we go for yellow and blue first by the time we go there could have calendar unlocked?

Yepp I am still sitting on the fence in "too many attactive places to settle mode"

Ralph

 

[GreyFox]

Nice getting all those techs in one turnset!!!

I still prefer yellow to be where I initially suggested -- 1E of cows. Packing cities near when your capitol have good tiles and more than enough food is optimal for city to grow rapidly. The rice and sugar can be leave for another city.

As it is now, the yellow dot require one cultural pop which does not come easy (need monument and wait 10 turns). Moving it to 1E of cow it can immediately work on the rice (capitol shift to fish), while worker can start pasturing the cow.

But since the settler is already in position at Ralph's yellow dot, I leave it to berserks to decide.

Roster
-- GreyFox
-- r_rolo1
-- Ralph Jackson
>> berserks01 == Already Got It
-- Ozbenno
-- Imhotep

 

[Ozbenno]

As we have HBR, horse are a good pick-up so yellow dot for me (either location being fine).

 

[berserks01]

Hyperion returns with his report to Oceanus on his quest for revenge.

Hyperion: "Oh! Romeo. Where for art thou, Romeo?"

Oceanus: "What the .... Hey, you idiot!!! Wrong story!!!"

Hyperion: "Oh *cough* ... ummmm, sorry. Let me start again."

Hyperion takes a look around trying to compose his thoughts, he notices something ...

Hyperion: "So, uhhh, what's that?"

Oceanus: "Well, we added a new city to our empire."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "Ok. But what IS that?"

Oceanus: "Oh, one of followers discovered it while traveling to the new city."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "Alright. But what is THAT?"

Oceanus: "That? One of our weapon smith happens upon a new tool for defense against those Olympians."

Spoiler :

Oceanus: "But enough dallying. Tell me your report!!!"

Hyperion: "Huh? Oh, the report ... Right then. I found the stronghold of those savages down south."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "Then, on my way back, I was invited to stay at this village. But it turns out to be a trap by those same savages that killed our last mortal offspring."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "I only survived because of my awesome skills in combat and strategic planning ability." 'And because I was hiding in that forest on the hills and most of them couldn't find me, but you don't need to know that.'

Hyperion: "But enough about me, what I want to know is what is THAT?"

Oceanus: "That is the result of our need to explore over seas as well as land."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "Huh? Not that. THAT!"

Oceanus: "THAT? I had that erected after learning the Wuxi Finger Hold technique from a Panda."

Spoiler :

Hyperion: "A panda? How in the world .... nevermind. I don't want to know. Can you just look behind you and tell me what that is?"

Oceanus: "Behind me? Oh, nothing to worry about. They are too afraid of kung fu to come near our cities. Which reminds me, you need to go scout West. Much of it is still shrouded in darkness to my eyes."

Hyperion: "Oh, crap ...."

 

[GreyFox]

Roster
-- GreyFox
-- r_rolo1
-- Ralph Jackson
-- berserks01 == Just Got Our Warlord killed (see below)
>> Titan got it
-- Ozbenno == Wait for the the Titan's save
-- Imhotep

EDIT: sorry, when I read "Just killed our mortal offspring", I thought one of the warlords was killed. Now that I looked at the save, I think it was a scout that was killed. Which made me wonder: ain't hut-pop by scout supposed to be non-hostile?

 

[GreyFox]

I initially thought we need a new influx of GGs, but there are still 3 left, so I think Titans the Second can wait a bit.

Surprised by the tech choice of Archery. Is it for horse archers? Interesting choice of going for Great Wall. So now we have ensured our survival in the late game with stealing from the Gods, I would pretty much still like to go after the Pyramids. I think it is still doable, as the deities should be in War mode by now, busy killing each other. But we should finish the current settler together with one more land unit before attempting the Pyramids, and maybe whipping a worker as well and let it overflow to the Wonder.

I am quite surprised with the barbs though. Two cities had sprang up near us. Ainu is also in a good location, does not interfere with the Cyan dot. The new barb city up north (you can see the black border, but not the city) would means we need to change our Red dot, but in itself seems like a good location: coastal, grabbing cow, gems, rice, and fish.

Roster
-- GreyFox
-- r_rolo1
-- Ralph Jackson
-- berserks01
>> Ozbenno == UP!
-- Titans may want it here
-- Imhotep

 

[Ozbenno]

And thus did it come to pass that Ozbenno posted a got it....