When to use River of Blood

[Calbrenar]

Been playing around with the Calabim. When do you suggest using the world spell? I'm thinking earlier rather then later where it has more effect. I've tested using it when first city is 2 pop points away from happiness cap thinking that it gives me a big early game boost and a painful drop to all the other players without causing any happiness problems?

Thoughts?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Very very early, with advanced start. Give yourself lots of size 1 cities and a ew settlers if there are good spots it won't let you settle. Once you settle all of them, cast it immediately. (of course, make sure you can support your economy too)

 

[Calbrenar]

I never play advanced starts. Does that change your advice at all? I figure if I wait until I have a couple cities then 1-2 of them will be at max happiness and when i cast it causes unrest. Also since in most economy based games it moves exponentially an early increase vastly outweighs a later one especially if I'm trying to beat people to techs like education etc.

 

[sylvain5477]

I use it 2 turns after my first city reach pop 3. Then I have 5 and everyone else 1.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

i've never gotten advanced start to work...

 

[rhawn]

Been playing around with the Calabim. When do you suggest using the world spell? I'm thinking earlier rather then later where it has more effect. I've tested using it when first city is 2 pop points away from happiness cap thinking that it gives me a big early game boost and a painful drop to all the other players without causing any happiness problems?

Thoughts?

I don't really know the best time to pop river of blood but I think using it when you have only one city is a waste. Early in the game you are looking to develop food resources quickly so that you can build settlers and workers faster, so the extra 2 pop isn't that much of a boom considering you can get that fairly quickly with farms. It also doesn't hurt your enemies much if they are employing a similar strategy, because their populations will recover quickly as well. I like to pop river of blood once I establish my first low food production city or after I've gotten my first couple vampires and have already fed down population or just want some free pop for xp. Considering the spell affects all cities, I think its more useful when you have a couple of cities.

 

[SwordofStriker]

I use it 2 turns after my first city reach pop 3. Then I have 5 and everyone else 1.

This is also what I do. Even if I only have one city, I use it to quickly get to a pop 5 city and slow down everyone else early on. I find that if I wait to use it, I end up never using it all. Very early seems to be the sweet spot.

 

[loocas]

I use it 2 turns after my first city reach pop 3. Then I have 5 and everyone else 1.

I do that, or right after first converting to a religion.

Since it's one-time, I want to get the most out of it. The later I use it, the more cities will be affected, however the later it gets the easier it will be for enemies' cities to recover. I find it most effective after hitting population 3 early on. The points show it when you're meeting your neighbors.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Still, it is way better with advanced start (as are several other world spells, like gifts of Nantosuelta. Perhaps imbalanced though)

 

[Mailbox]

In Marathon or Epic games, River of Blood is much more powerful. Cutting 20-30 turns off those first couple of cities is a massive boost.

 

[feydras]

I've found it very effective just after ending a long military conquest. During a long war i generally wrack up a lot of warweariness and either growth is stifled or i loose a little population. After the war is finished the possible addition of resources and the addition of several new small cities makes it a perfect time to do RoB. This gives those newly captured cities a nice boost up to make them more productive members of your empire. Just make sure to end the war first so that all of the war weariness will be gone and it works best if you have eliminated your current enemy so you don't have to deal with the 'wants to join old civ' unhappiness.

- feydras

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

After a military conquest is flavourful, but honestly, in the beginning is still the best time. The population hit from 3 to 1 when you're building your second worker or first settler, absolutely suctions.