Psyringe
Scout
Hi there 
Found some time to continue my Merlin game (tiny map, 5 opponents). Here's the current situation:
9. The Age of Colonization
After the defeat of Mordja, I actually had the time to build up my economy. The other mages were rather peaceful with the exception of Tlaloc, who declared war on me for the second and third time. However since Freya's realm stretches a long way between Tlaloc and me, he never actually attacked me.
During one of these "wars" I shipped my Champions to the island west of my mainland (the "promised land" where I found the goblins), on the northern tip of which Tlaloc founded a city. Capturing the city seemed easy, but exactly one turn before I started my attack, Tlaloc built the Firewall. I still won the battle, but lost one of my four Chanpions in the process. Also Tlaloc had reduced the city from size 2 to 1, so that I couldn't take it, but destroyed it instead.
His other cities were defended by Ents and mostly built on hills - too tough for my champions, so I left them alone and extorted 6 gold per turn from Tlaloc for peace. This was more than I expected, because I didn't have any possibility to attack him on his mainland, where he ran around with elves.
In this period of relative peace, all mages started to expand onto the still unsettled islands. Most of them are unfriendly blobs of tundra, but probably better than nothing. It was very interesting to see the AI aggressively hunt for empty islands.
To my surprise, one of Ariels cities (which was bordering Lifemound) suddenly fell to Freya. I don't know what happened. A cultural flip from a life mage seems unlikely, and I haven't seen Freya using other units than Ents and half-gnolls either (which are weaker than the sorcerers with which Ariel guarded her cities). But no matter how it happened, it gave me some room to cram another city in some now-free space to the north. This also lead to some interesting borders, e.g. Freya owning a stretch of land right between Vlad's mainland and four of his "colony cities" on another island.
Nearly every space of the world is settled now, and I wonder what will happen now. I built up my economy and continuously produced hammerhands in one city, so I feel pretty safe. I lead in score and culture, Tlaloc is second, Freya and Vlad follow. However Tlaloc grabbed several wonders, so he might be stronger than he looks. I think about a mutual protection pact with Freya, because if Tlaloc delares war on me, he then would face Freya on two fronts. However Freya might also get into a war with Ariel, and I don't want to lose Ariel as a trading partner. Presently I sell her three luxuries for 19 gold per turn.
Tlaloc is generally doing well. Freya is a little out-teched, but I'm still astonished how she wrenched this city from Ariel. Ariel is falling behind, but now has a (yet unconnected) resource of trolls in her territory, I wonder whether she'll use it. Vlad still holds his ground.
I think I'll take a defensive stand now, try to outproduce the others and see how they do. For me this is a new and very interesting way of playing a tiny map. Usually on tiny maps I rush-build offensive units early and just overrun my opponents. With the strengthened defensive in MoM, and being a life mage, this isn't as easy, so other strategies might be better.
Found some time to continue my Merlin game (tiny map, 5 opponents). Here's the current situation:
9. The Age of Colonization
After the defeat of Mordja, I actually had the time to build up my economy. The other mages were rather peaceful with the exception of Tlaloc, who declared war on me for the second and third time. However since Freya's realm stretches a long way between Tlaloc and me, he never actually attacked me.
During one of these "wars" I shipped my Champions to the island west of my mainland (the "promised land" where I found the goblins), on the northern tip of which Tlaloc founded a city. Capturing the city seemed easy, but exactly one turn before I started my attack, Tlaloc built the Firewall. I still won the battle, but lost one of my four Chanpions in the process. Also Tlaloc had reduced the city from size 2 to 1, so that I couldn't take it, but destroyed it instead.
His other cities were defended by Ents and mostly built on hills - too tough for my champions, so I left them alone and extorted 6 gold per turn from Tlaloc for peace. This was more than I expected, because I didn't have any possibility to attack him on his mainland, where he ran around with elves.
In this period of relative peace, all mages started to expand onto the still unsettled islands. Most of them are unfriendly blobs of tundra, but probably better than nothing. It was very interesting to see the AI aggressively hunt for empty islands.
To my surprise, one of Ariels cities (which was bordering Lifemound) suddenly fell to Freya. I don't know what happened. A cultural flip from a life mage seems unlikely, and I haven't seen Freya using other units than Ents and half-gnolls either (which are weaker than the sorcerers with which Ariel guarded her cities). But no matter how it happened, it gave me some room to cram another city in some now-free space to the north. This also lead to some interesting borders, e.g. Freya owning a stretch of land right between Vlad's mainland and four of his "colony cities" on another island.
Nearly every space of the world is settled now, and I wonder what will happen now. I built up my economy and continuously produced hammerhands in one city, so I feel pretty safe. I lead in score and culture, Tlaloc is second, Freya and Vlad follow. However Tlaloc grabbed several wonders, so he might be stronger than he looks. I think about a mutual protection pact with Freya, because if Tlaloc delares war on me, he then would face Freya on two fronts. However Freya might also get into a war with Ariel, and I don't want to lose Ariel as a trading partner. Presently I sell her three luxuries for 19 gold per turn.
Tlaloc is generally doing well. Freya is a little out-teched, but I'm still astonished how she wrenched this city from Ariel. Ariel is falling behind, but now has a (yet unconnected) resource of trolls in her territory, I wonder whether she'll use it. Vlad still holds his ground.
I think I'll take a defensive stand now, try to outproduce the others and see how they do. For me this is a new and very interesting way of playing a tiny map. Usually on tiny maps I rush-build offensive units early and just overrun my opponents. With the strengthened defensive in MoM, and being a life mage, this isn't as easy, so other strategies might be better.
I've since reduced the number of resources (more because of bugs than map size - I was getting phantom resources, ie I'd found a city and it would think it had access to a resource that wasn't even linked to any terrain) and thus I've reduced the map size. I havn't had the chance to see if that reduced the minimum back down to 1 though.
