Svart Game, we must frolick in the forests...

[aswfreak12]

Thinking I might play a game and put it up here so you guys could comment and I could have a place to put my thoughts on Rise from Erebus. My comp isn't so great so I'm going to try to keep it small.

Note : I've disabled the Bow of the Long Sighted and goblin clan archers from bombarding, this is because I play a ton of multi-player games and forgot to change it back. Normal archers and such by the AI and me can still do so.

Map: A modified Erebus Continent
Size : Small
# of Computers : 4 all random
Difficulty: Monarch

Map Options :

Medium Cohesion (This is modified actually so it's more like high)
Very Few Mountains (again modified)
Wrap x & y
Increased Rivers and Lakes
Separation North and South ( draws a waterline halfway down the map, sometimes its complete sometimes its not)

Game Options:

Orcish Swarms
End Of Winter (My first time playing with this on)
Barbarian World
Wildlands
Blessings of Amathaon
Living World
Wild Mana
Mana Guardians
Last Days (My first time playing with this also, should be interesting I hope)
All Unique Features
Flavor Start

Why Camilon Jivorn? Well because Emergent is awesome, and Warlord allows easy farming, he's the "jack of all trades" leader for the elves. Also the double production speed of the training buildings is pretty cool too.

I'll take this point to ask some questions here since my understanding of Minor and Emergent leaders is incomplete, I've gotten multiple traits when using an emergent leader (up to 3 in some games like Arcane, Summoner, Ingenuity) is this supposed to happen considering the minor trait is supposed to be lost? Also, I have never gotten to choose a trait for a Minor leader, is this also supposed to happen?

Here's a screen grab of the start.

Plenty of forest, awesome, but waaayyy too much ice. Since It's my first time playing end of winter I'm going to assume everyone else has the same ice problem except for maybe the equator. Two goody huts, two deer, and the Tomb, at this point I'd rather have the Pyre. Hopefully I can find some stone also to offset the slow elven workers.

 

[Hroth]

The End of Winter starts with everything Ice/Tundra and gradually thaws. The tundra based resources (bison and artic deer) will change when the thaw reaches them.

It's one of my favorite options to play.

 

[Valkrionn]

I'll take this point to ask some questions here since my understanding of Minor and Emergent leaders is incomplete, I've gotten multiple traits when using an emergent leader (up to 3 in some games like Arcane, Summoner, Ingenuity) is this supposed to happen considering the minor trait is supposed to be lost? Also, I have never gotten to choose a trait for a Minor leader, is this also supposed to happen?

Ingenuity (start a Golden Age) and Magic Defense (complete second Altar) are free; They don't remove Emergent status. When gaining Arcane, you have a small (~3-5%) chance to gain Summoner, so you just got lucky there.

Plenty of forest, awesome, but waaayyy too much ice. Since It's my first time playing end of winter I'm going to assume everyone else has the same ice problem except for maybe the equator. Two goody huts, two deer, and the Tomb, at this point I'd rather have the Pyre. Hopefully I can find some stone also to offset the slow elven workers.

In End of Winter, EVERYTHING is ice. Hell, coasts are surrounded by chunks of floating ice.

 

[aswfreak12]

Turn 1: Ordo got founded, looks like the Mechanos are in game. This would be my first time playing against them as an AI. I know the Mechanos have a problem against units that can fear and that they can be a research and production powerhouse. I also moved my settler scout and warrior towards the Tomb. Turns out there is a ton of grassland so I looks like I'll settle around there and the Tomb, but I'll look around for a few more turns.

Turn 2: Looks like my wishes of getting the Pyre were confirmed, its a bit north of the Tomb. I think I will settle 2 north and 1 east of the tomb. This puts me on a hill with plenty of river tiles, grassland, forests, and two deer resources. Not a ton of hills but not a lack of them either.

It seems I'll be hurting on happiness a bit, but the Tomb offsets that somewhat.

Turn 3: Thariss has been created and I've begun production of a warrior. With the barbarians and animals being so invasive in RifE I've got to get a defense up asap and beeline for archery. Although, I could go for hunting first so I can grab those deer and if I were to get a great prophet I would be able to lightbulb Way of the Forests with him, or I could go for Mysticism for God King, elder councils and temples which would help speed things up in the research department since I seem to be hurting there a bit too. Oh the choices.

I'll go with archery then decide things from there. Better to play it safe. I'm a turtle at heart.

On a side note I also popped a goody hut for 103 gold. Sweet. Going to go for the other two that I've spotted.

Turn 5: Got another 49 gold from the next goody hut. One thing I've noticed is that there is a thade near the next goody hut that is stuck, which would normally mean he was attached to a mana node. I guess wild mana isn't completely compatible with the end of winter option. Or maybe he's just really cold.

Turn 8: Some more gold. These villagers must be swimming in swag or something. Noticed a bear spawning, thus reminding me to get animal husbandry sometime soon and start playing pokemon. Not to mention get some much needed happiness.

Turn 10: Acheron spawns about a good 15-18 tiles east of me. Hopefully that'll ruin someones day.

 

[aswfreak12]

Turn 15: My scout has become the Hero of Foxford. I shall name him Bob.

Turn 19: Bob died to a Minotaur...

There will be revenge....

Silliness aside there is a hill giant on it's way to Thariss, I should be alright with the band of warriors that I have there with it being on a hill and all, but if I get hit by some crazed minotaurs I could be under some heat. Looking at the turns it's going to take to get to archery I'm getting a little impatient.

Turn 27: I've made it through the hill giant alright and I got the truffles event 2 tiles west of my city, giving that tile 1 food and 1 gold. Very sweet. I've also started production of a worker so I can get a move on improving these tiles and increasing my research a bit. With elves it's nice to cottage spam since they can be built on forests and hills giving a production bonus and a food bonus eventually when they become ancient forests at fellowship.

In a few games I've built some mines in a couple tiles just so I could discover some resource at some point. Some games I do discover something and some games I don't at all even with 4 or 5 mines. Anyone have anything to say about this or about the elven economy in general?

 

[Deon]

Manas are there. Also your starting position was very resource-heavy because of the mapscript.

You just don't see most resources yet because of game option. You should consider settling the place where you settler started ASAP, it has lots of resources you cannot see.

You don't see most mana and resources before the winter goes away.
The mana guardians are the best way to find out where the mana is with End of Winter gameoption.

 

[aswfreak12]

I was thinking the same, especially since my area is starting to warm up and turn to jungle. I've got the space to put a city where I spawned thankfully. maybe I should complete dowsing sometime to investigate a bit more.

 

[aswfreak12]

Turn 32: If you've noticed some jungle near my city in the last screen grab then you are more observant then me. It looks like the world is warming up and starting to turn my forests into jungles. It would seem I am at the equator I suppose. I'm glad I'll have some workers out early so I can start chopping these guys down.

Turn 44: Just got the Muris Goblin even, but thankfully elves have nature mana. I've also got two workers working on a camp for one of the deer. This should speed up the production of even more workers so I can start the cottage spam. Only two more turns for Archery.

Turn 46: I've started research on Ancient Chants in order to get to Mysticism. After that I'll go for Hunting then Animal Husbandry.

Turn 47: A hill giant came after my warrior+2 worker stack and killed the warrior before I could promote the workers with hardy one. Thus I lost both the warrior and workers. Awesome. I've got another worker finishing in 2 turns and after that I'll start making a fletcher. I need to get some archers.

Turn 51: I just spotted the mechanos culture to my south west. They are pretty close to me and If I'm going to follow the advice of Deon then I'm going to have to settle my city over where I spawned very quickly.

 

[aswfreak12]

Turn 58: Looks like the Calabim are in the game.

Turn 62: Fletcher is done and I used up my goody hut gold on upgrading three of my warriors into archers. Started production on another worker now that I can relax a bit more. Mysticism is also finished in 6 turns.

Turn 64: Got the dead wealthy woman event. I chose to convict the butler, it's always the butlers fault. Apparently not always....

Turn 74: I mutated one of my archers through an event, out of which he got seige combat I, heroic attack and defense, conviction, and sentry. On the other hand he has a 3% change of becoming Enraged. Not too bad if I can get the loyalty promotion on him somehow. Also have 4 more turns on Exploration and even more jungle is popping up everywhere.

Turn 77: completed an elder council and started production of a settler. Orthus also spawned this turn but I can't see exactly where. There are more and more lairs popping up around me and more and more barbarians roaming around. I can also the the calabim culture to my west.

I think that's it for now. I might do another round later today. Any and all advice on my situation and strategy is welcome. Anyone think I'm too late with my settler, or should I be more focused on getting archers up and about to protect the cottages I'm making? Does anyone think that my research is misguided? Should I buddy up with the mechanos to take on the Calabim to remove the Armageddon threat that they will likely bring?

 

[Deon]

DO NOT chop jungle, they turn into forests and ancient forests once you become FoL.

Also it's obvious that you've settled in jungle/maybe desert area, because it was grassland during the winter.

And dowsing does not help to see resources with End of Winter, they are hidden/revealed via scripts.

 

[Thormodr]

Very interesting. Tough luck losing your workers but you are doing well.

 

[Grey Fox]

I'll be trying to follow this. Keep it up!

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

who said no one ever uses x/y wraps on erebuscontinent?

 

[Seven05]

He doesn't count, it's a modified version

 

[aswfreak12]

He doesn't count, it's a modified version

Hey it's still the same mapscript lol. I've just played around with the map constants to make it more suitable for me. Why not use x & y? Just makes it more realistic.

 

[Valkrionn]

who said no one ever uses x/y wraps on erebuscontinent?

Bah. I like the x wrap, but a y wrap ruins it for me.

Hey it's still the same mapscript lol. I've just played around with the map constants to make it more suitable for me. Why not use x & y? Just makes it more realistic.

In what way? Crossing the North pole should not spit you out of the South. I hate that wrap.

 

[Saucetenuto]

It's perfectly realistic; the lore clearly states that Erebus is donut-shaped. Obviously.

 

[aswfreak12]

Donut shaped is closer then black force wall of nothing lol

 

[Seven05]

Hey it's still the same mapscript lol. I've just played around with the map constants to make it more suitable for me. Why not use x & y? Just makes it more realistic.

Sorry, you're still disqualified

See, I hate y-wrap because it breaks things in the code and Gekko is the one who first convinced me to add it in the first place so I keep threatening to remove it just to pester him (in response to him pestering me). To not disqualify you would mean I have to acknowledge that Gekko is, in fact, not the only person using y-wrap which is something I refuse to do

Therefore, as the omnipotent virtual being directly responsible for the game world you're playing on I get to disqualify your use of y-wrap as evidence used by Gekko to defend his stance.

And now that we've completely hijacked your thread (sorry about that) I'll be quiet now

 

[sylvain5477]

Sorry, you're still disqualified

See, I hate y-wrap because it breaks things in the code and Gekko is the one who first convinced me to add it in the first place so I keep threatening to remove it just to pester him (in response to him pestering me). To not disqualify you would mean I have to acknowledge that Gekko is, in fact, not the only person using y-wrap which is something I refuse to do

Therefore, as the omnipotent virtual being directly responsible for the game world you're playing on I get to disqualify your use of y-wrap as evidence used by Gekko to defend his stance.

And now that we've completely hijacked your thread (sorry about that) I'll be quiet now

I also use mainly x&y wrap !