Golden Era Discussion

[gibson]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
What about a Cyclops and a rush to the Riches from Beneath? Cyclops could also be used as an early-game SC.

I was considering something along these lines. Riches is a level 6 spell, which is fairly advanced but not too bad (especially with the research potential of GE). I guess the real question would be if you could find enough gems to cast it and not have it dispelled. I'll have to play with that some later.

I tried a game with a Wyrm with W4 and Order 2, Sloth 1, Growth 1, Misfortune 1 and Magic 3. Started early expansion with Wyrm mainly, and by turn three was also working with a small army of peltasts and cardaces. Even with just Order 3, the light infantry of GE is so cheap that I couldn't spend my money fast enough (generally a bad sign). So I went mercenary heavy to aid expansion and by turn 15 I have 12 provinces (had 14 but Ryleh has just taken two), 60 RP and 564 income. This is with indy str 6 btw.

While it is an alright start, it is weak in gems (1F, 2A, 4W, 2E, 1S, 1D, 0N, 0BL income) and most of those provinces are poorly defended (and thus I have an angry Ryleh maruading through my backyard). I think a strategy that focuses on getting capitol adjacent provinces and then building a decent army/researching might be safer, since the military might of GE is somewhat questionable (though hordes of cheap peltasts/cardaces work better than I'd have thought).