Hi all.



After losing 4 times, the fifth proved to be the charm. ^^ Forgotten is a hard faction, especially if you´re up aggressive competition. I did make good use of the tech stealing for a moment there, in order to reach Tier 4 in time to set the Military Empire Plan. But that was it. Looting helped wonders with luxuries, but I pillaged only 3 times for the fun of it - I didn´t feel like there was an actual opportunity to get advantage from pillaging. You´re always busy.



The very beginning is important. Dust can be extremely limited, so you really do not want to buy techs in the first 10 turns. You have to avoid it as much as possible, which often means buying 3 techs: Parlay, Mint and Foundry. You absolutely need these things up ASAP, and you probably want a settler - this will usually take up the 10 initial turns. On turn 11 after you get discounts, then you can tech as much as you possibly can until you get sources of money - Industry buildings to free up population, Right of Way for steady income and mobility and Central Market both for the +10% to dust and because it allows you to expand.



For the first 20 turns, as long as you got some forests (or any productive terrain), you really want to focus on food and just enough influence. You want to accumulate as many People as possible until you activate the first level of Economic Empire Plan, so that you can then always assign the amount of people to produce Dust that you need for your next goal.



Getting the first level of the Forgotten Hero´s skill to make dust out of forest can be really nice. By the end of the early game you might find yourself in need of retrofits or a general, and the dust does help you to get there. You might also not even have enough money for a good governor, or it might not be in the market. You shouldn´t count on that ability, but it can help wonders. More importantly perhaps is getting two level of the trait that reduces Assignment Cooldown. Well used, this ability can speed up xp acquisition considerably.



Anyway, here goes the turns, feel free to ask, comment or criticise.



ps: I didnt manual a single battle ^^

Settings



Turn 1 - Tech - Like I said, you want those three things to start, and then stop buying. Some exceptions are when you can settle on top of a luxury/strategic resource, in which case it´s obviously nice to start with that. If that happens, feel free to sacrifice foundry/mint depending on your tiles - get what you don´t have first - and build naked assassins in case you run out of things to build before buying another tech.



Turn 3 - Mint



Turn 5 - Foundry



Turn 6 - Settler



Turn 8 - Assassin



Turn 10 - Empire Plan and Tech - Next turn I buy everything but Seed Storage (I want not to change eras to finish the cheap Assassin).



Turn 11 - My 8th tech is costing what my 4th was. Rushing this out in order to appease the Silics god. And because Dust loving factions love glassteel.



Turn 12 - Tech - Tier 2, now I have the same priorities as in the beginning: industry, dust, approval and military.



Turn 13 - Simply the Dust Boost 1 virtually doubles my income during winter by sending the hero to govern instead of being stuck in some forest.



Turn 15 - Winter gone, now I´m roughly making a tech every 4 turns...



Turn 18 - ...and since I can´t even build that fast yet, I go for Full Tier 1 retrofit. I don´t mean to conquer the world with these units, but I need them to at least pay for themselves by looting Minor Faction villages and scouting a minimum. 4 naked assassins will not do the job, but this cheap retrofit is incredibly efficient. I´ll fight haunts and survive.



Turn 20 - Capital, Second City and Empire Plan



Turn 22 - I believe Trade Routes are important, but mostly on games with little initial dust tiles like this one. They probably can be replaced by an earlier Public Granary which would certinly mean more Populaiton when you get to activate the Economic Empire Plan.



Turn 24 - Moved in to kill the village and level up, next turn I get that ruin and already go back to the capital to make more dust.



Turn 25 - Tech - After the essential T2, the faction specific. From this point onwards there´s a high chance you´ll be assigning your starting hero to spy, so you can steal basic techs that now everyone gets, like Public Granaries, Meritocratic Promotion and Strategics. I won´t take that road, I will keep my starting as a governor a little longer for a lack of good governors, and in this case my hero will "tech" for me by increasing the Dust of my capital.



Turn 26 - Starting the Megapole. Hero is away getting xp again.



Turn 27 - Andom the Seer is in the Market, so I´ll stop teching for a little while



Turn 29 - Finished the Megapole, getting xp using the most of the cooldown trait.



Turn 30 - Empire Plan - Time to build some Mysts.



Turn 31 - Central Markets for expansion and fighting around for loot and xp. I would go the Fast Healer traits instead of following the Faction skill tree. It made some difference in the early sabotages, allowing me to heal and go back to spying in the same turn. This also leads to some extra spying points further up the tree.



Turn 32 - General - Lorekeeper Lakapassar, drakken with Army Health Boost 2. Must have, this guy was my tank in future warfare. Levels up very quickly, especially after you get a full equipped army and can start bullying the AI - it now retreats everytime it seems like it would lose. That means double xp from almost every enemy army you can defeat and attack two turns consecutively.



Turn 33 - Buying tech..



Turn 34 - ...buying tech...



Turn 36 - ...buying more tech...



Turn 37 - ...aaand some more.



Turn 39 - Tech - So, Tier 3 without stealing a single tech. Certainly due to: high approval, trade routes, starting hero governing early and Empire plan.

• Unit Design - First Myst
  
  

Turn 40 - Empire Plan - This is the turn I first assign my starting hero to spy. It already has Fast Healer x2. Also, I´m going for Dust Refinery first instead of Dust Transmutter for a lack of dust tiles.



Turn 41 - This army is marching south towards doom. I was hoping I could defeat Fotios and get some nice dust, but the Vaulters thought of that too.



Turn 45 - Buying Lord Peyton Quinn for Dust Efficiency 3 and future multiplication of resources.



Turn 47 - The Myst Revenge



Turn 48 - First tech steal



Turn 50 - Empire Plan and Military Overview



Turn 52 -



Turn 53 - Tech steal - Hehe, I had -forgotten- about quest.



Turn 55 - A tech is already costing over 700 dust. There is no point getting anything economy related right now. Once I have the Military Empire Plan level 4, I need to make as much of a straight line of conquering capitals as possible. So whatever I´m buying now is going to be in order to get a Military advantage.



Turn 57 - Tech steal



Turn 58 - Myst with Palladian spear and Titanium ring just before the health empire plan, Tech Steal with Ziema real quick and then Tier 4. Not at all late for multiplayer, for example.

• Unit Design - The Myst of the Great War
  
  

Turn 60 - Empire Plan



Turn 61 - Beginning, conquered city, Military Overview and end-turn.



Turn 62 - Steamrolling



Turn 63 - When I finally meet their capital, the fortifications impose me a decision - either I fight now and probably win with considerable losses, or I risk sieging until Turn 70. Anything in between would probably mean I would not be able to set the same empire plan again, and that would be the end of my plans for conquering the world in time. By this point I´m still not the pinacle of home defense, so a concentrated attack on my capital would mean I would have to abandon everything and run. Luckly enough the AI seemed more interested in getting his old cities back, something a human player would or should not do.



Turn 64 - Planning next move. She kinda has an impressive military by this point, and very soon declares war on me while I´m sieging.



Turn 67 - 8 slot military and extra defense.



Turn 69 - He can have that city for now, he actually helped me keep the right Empire Plan by doing that.



Turn 70 - Empire Plan



Turn 71 - Back to conquering

• Unit Design - Hashashin
  
  

Turn 72 - Steal Vaulters´ vision and then move to their capital.



Turn 73 - Military Overview



Turn 75 - Attrition, especially because of the retreat thing I mentioned earlier. You get double xp, but you do take twice the time to kill an army, and late game is often a very tight schedule. You should always aim to win as close to turn 80 on fast speed as possible.



Turn 78 - Military Overview

• Unit Design - Predatore and Harmonite (they´re like a Country duo)
  
  

Turn 79 - My next target ;/



Turn 80 - Empire Plan

• Unit Design - The Myst of the Eternal Night
  
  

Turn 81 - Marching



Turn 83 -



Turn 84 - AIs will make truce immediately. Like the trading of victory techs for scientific victory before the patch, this here seems to me like the one thing that makes military victories possible on endless now. If I had to worry with every accumulated war, I´d never be able to finish this in time. I´d probably still win every battle, but someone would get a peaceful victory first.



Turn 87 - Marching to backstab



Turn 90 - Last Empire Plan

Okay, I think this looks good now.

Nice come-back, and nice AAR too!

Why use lance and bow on ur unit design - claw and duo crossbow seems to be a better effect - sweeping strike and for preda, more dmg if the target is near

most ppl dont ve cavallry or flying unit

Frogsquadron wrote:
Nice come-back, and nice AAR too!

Thanks. What´s AAR?

erwinpeng wrote:
Why use lance and bow on ur unit design - claw and duo crossbow seems to be a better effect - sweeping strike and for preda, more dmg if the target is near

most ppl dont ve cavallry or flying unit

If had been manualing fights, I would probably go for claws and crossbows, or at least have versions of the units equipped with these, but auto doesn´t make good use of either. I also wanted to make sure I had counters for the Wild Walker´s Nydias, the Vaulter´s Daemons and Dawn Officers, the Roving Clan´s Dervishes and the Broken Lord´s Ryders. The Vaulters were honestly the ones I was worried the most.

AAR= After-Action Report.



In this context, a summary of the game you played.

Great, thanks again!

--



I realised I might have been a little too lucky regarding my starting spot, the assimilation of triple silics and the lack of the likes of necro and drakken, so i decided yesterday to try another game. I got a pretty regular starting spot; but as I moved, I discovered some great anomalies and triple silics in the region beside me.



I thought to myself "this is not going to do it, it will absolutely look like I choose the easy games" and went to mp.



Today I decided to give it another go - again, not a great starting spot. Then I move and the region beside me is a desert with forests and approval. I start taking screenshots to show the perks of moving carefully before settling, then comes turn 4, I find myself already settled in a region with....triple silics.



So there you go, now I am choosing starts in order to look like I´m not choosing them.



Anyway, I´ll post the next game soon hopefully.

Maybe you've just discovered the hidden start bias of the forgotten!

Just wanted to chime in. Started my first Forgotten game and my starting spot was terrible too but moved north into a triple clumped anomaly and settled there right across the border ...

Since they´re so popular now, I tried once again. No harmonites this time.



Settings



Turn 1 - Can´t complain.



Turn 2 - I´ll buy the mint next turn. Tech - unusual start.



Turn 4 - Find the quest village. They want 10 glassteel which will be hard.



Turn 5 - Gold luxury from ruin will push me into spending more than I´m used to.



Turn 8 - The new Too Many Chiefs quest is a good source of early influence.



Turn 9 - I´m going to Bribe that Dorgeshi, since that region has both strats and a good spot.



Turn 10 - Going for those 3 cities. Empire Plan - now I can buy the rest of the techs. Capital - keeping that micro



Turn 11 - This will be all I need. Tech tree - I really want that glassteel to at least try Megapole. Dillema - I´m almost done with the Deed, but it would get me Emeralds. I wouldn´t mind losing that in exchange for 5 awesome turns on my newly founded cities. This is before I settled them. I ended up getting the Deed anyway. Influence - I want the building discount at turn 20, so I moved population around to an average which allows me to spend what I have now to assimilate those 3 Eyeless Oness for 15 approval.



Turn 12 - Scores because I forgot to take a picture in the actual turn 12. I retrofit assassins here with basic armor to kill predatores.



Turn 13 - Quest done, Hero goes away to govern.



Turn 14 - Winter gone



Turn 15 - The pillager getting pillaged. And just for comparison: Axe/sword Assassin - Sword/axe Assassin



Turn 16 - Meeting my weird neighbors



Turn 17 - I realise I can´t infiltrate because it would screw my Empire Plan..



Turn 18 - I have a lot of money right now, so I decide to take a look at the Market - and I find this guy. Selling the predatores still doesn´t do the job, so I wait a little.



Turn 19 - Religious Fervor helps me with that influence to infiltrate.



Turn 20 - I sell the predatores now to buy Nachampassea. - Empire Plan



Turn 22 - Farming around



Turn 25 - Starting the Megapole. I send Nachampassea to get the xp from it.



Turn 26 - The event that reduces Dust from tiles is on, and winter is coming, I need to make up for those things. - Tech steal



Turn 28 - Megapole done.



Turn 29 - Attrition with the Cults start



Turn 30 - Empire Plan



Turn 31 - Exploring with Ziema. - I want this guy to govern. - Tech steal - Peace



Turn 33 - Winter



Turn 34 - Sell units to buy Peyton Quinn



Turn 35 - Winter gone. - Tech steal



Turn 36 - I´ll build all the buildings after turn 40 when I get discount back. Tech tree



Turn 37 - Infiltrating the Drakken for xp.



Turn 38 - Cult has Dust Alchemy for me to steal.



Turn 39 - I got the strat equip too late. - Hashashin



Turn 40 - Extractors are always top priority. - Empire Plan



Turn 41 - I´ve been selling units like crazy since they were T2 and it´s really fast to produce T3 ones. That Allows me to buy Ozek - Tech steal



Turn 43 - Peyton Quinn is level 4 and gets extra T3 strats for me now.



Turn 44 - I open T3 weapons and the resource market, now I can seriously build a military.



Turn 45 - Army Hashashin. And with this Market, no one needs the strat Deed.



Turn 46 - I had survived one Round Up already and forgot to keep an eye for others. I built the hero as a spy, with no levels on the trait to get Dust from Forest, so I was able to build up some levels before taking the city.



Turn 47 - Blue Cult would spy-harass me a lot



Turn 48 - The Striker, with palladian claws.



Turn 49 - Military Overview



Turn 50 - About time I go to war. - Empire Plan



Turn 52 - Getting more discounts.



Turn 53 - The AI has been attacking when under siege with no hopes of winning and using the Garrison in the fight, like it used to. Makes things really easy. Tech steal



Turn 54 - The other Cult wants some. So I buy another Peyton Quinn to save up on the titanium from Damage Boost 2. - Tech steal



Turn 55 - Tech steal



Turn 57 - I forgot to do the math for Military Empire Plan level 4, so I didn´t attack in the hope I would have it. Could have been faster.



Turn 60 - Terrible tactical awareness from the AI. Empire Plan



Turn 61 - Siege



Turn 63 - Headed to place the spies for the last push after turn 70. Tech steal



Turn 64 - Military Overview



Turn 65 - Heavy Influence focus in order to get Health and Movement from empire plans.



Turn 66 - 8 slot armies.



Turn 67 - Teching



Turn 69 - Teching



Turn 70 - No forgotten hero in the market means I´m forced to infiltrate Bela the Bat on the roving clans. She has spying 3. - Empire Plan for the win - Fotios - Ultimate Hashashin



Turn 71 - Military Overview



Turn 72 - So it begins



Turn 73 - Steamrolling Sabotage



Turn 74 - rolling



Turn 76 - rolling



Turn 78 - rolling



Turn 79 - Salting a city to fit the Empire Plan



Turn 80 - Empire Plan - Sabotage



Turn 81 - Sabotage



Turn 82 - GG

Nice game BPrado! It took me a second because I didn't realize you were on Quick instead of Standard and I was wondering how you got things so fast. Really well played.



(I didn't see the link for "settings" at the beginning until I looked back over the AAR - such a noob I am)

Thanks!



The most critical in my opinion was the abundance of strategics in the Market. I did not have to worry about Palladian/Titanium for Strikers and Hashashins at all. I lacked some techs I wouldn´t normally do, like Glory of Empire and Public Works, probably from spending so much dust on strats. But it paid off.



The fact there were 2 Cult neighbors changes the game a bit too. I had to be more paranoid about suddden raze attacks on both my flanks, so I had to invest a lot of industry on T2 units just for safety. That led me to turn off the discount for buildings on Turn 30 to focus my peripherical cities on units. On the other hand, I probably only got the region to my east because the Cult couldn´t settle it first. It would be a lot harder without a single region providing both initial strats. The region north of me would be pacified through settling, but it only had glassteel iirc. It would also expose me to the highly beligerant Drakken, which is never a good idea. They will usually rush whoever forward settles them and make peace with the rest, like it happened in this game.