Yeah that's where all the initial exploration paid off, I had lots of resources and no cities where to spend them. When i finally got the human town on the hill - behind the cannon garrison that attacked me - I cranked up horse production and it all came together suddenly when the quest gave me those 3 syrons. In that moment apart from the initial lol ice Drake, you faced my whole army plus every single lurker that I summoned.

It's a nice map because of the choices it forces you to make. It just needs two or three independent garrison settings fixed and perhaps a bit less concentrated berry trees/healing houses.

And no Technophobe. Boop Technophobe. Okay, I'll try to stop griping about it now.

Mab, Day 24

We decide to accept Artica's offer of a subservient position in her cabinet. Gotta be better than dealing with these ignorant human savages.

TS

The small ones will rule on the long legs! Mihihihihi!


In general i get Mab, the growth bonus more or less cancels out technophobe, and gives money on top.... But in this map there's only one goblin city

I strongly disagree. The growth bonus really, really doesn't cancel out the production malus, and trying to make up for the time disadvantage by rushing costs both extra gold and that extra population.

To build a human cav in one turn cost me 90 gold and that turn's population growth, meaning my city wouldn't get bigger. A butcher cost over a 100 gold to build in one turn.

I suspect the idea is to get to max size with housing then who cares about the rushing loss. While housing the prod malus disappears. And to build low level troops, that don't need the max prod anyway
Not saying that I like goblins mind you ;)

Population isn't usually the big limiter on rushing production. Gold is.

Building housing each turn in a goblin town (population growth racial) with the Expander skill will get a Village to size Town in 6 turns, and a Town to a City in 7 turns. That's 13 turns of the town doing nothing but building housing to go from Village to City, which also means it is making a little less money than a town building Merchandise. It takes 9 and 11 turns to go Village -> Town and Town -> City if you don't build housing. For reference, we stopped Arvandos at Turn 24, and the outcome was already decided several turns before then.

A goblin City under Mab with no extra buildings will generate 25 hammers per turn. This means 4 turns to build a Builder's Hall unless you pay additional gold. A Human Village under someone without Technophobe produces 30 hammers per turn and can build a Builder's Hall in 3 turns without rushing.

Adding the first two Production buildings to Mab's Goblin City brings the city up to 45 hammers per turn. This means the city needs two turns to build an 80 gold Butcher (a T2 unit) or it can do it in one turn for 150 gold. A T3 Goblin Troll costs 140 gold at base cost. A 55 gold T2 Wolf Rider can be built in one turn if Mab spends 75 gold.

By comparison, a Goblin city with two production buildings but NOT Technophobe generates 60 hammers per turn, which is enough to output a Wolf Rider every turn for no extra cost, or produce a Butcher in one turn for 120 gold. Add Constructor (which Technophobe blocks) and the Goblin City can produce a Butcher in 1 turn for only 90 total gold.

A Human Village with the first two production buildings can produce a 60 gold T2 Cavalry in 2 turns, or in 1 turn by paying an extra 20 gold (total 80 gold). Bump that Village up to a Town and the Cavalry comes out in 1 turn for no extra cost.

Technophobe is brutal to your economy.

Edit: While building Merchandise, a goblin village with full farms generates ~53 gold per turn. A goblin city generates ~77 gold per turn.

Wait what. Doesn't it reduce by 5/10/15. Yeah no, that's horrific.

I didn't mean to do nothing for the entire time, I meant to do the cheap stuff until you can push for city in 3-4 turns instead of 6-8, then go for it. But with those numbers it's pointless.

I guess that leaves it for low gold high mana maps where your hammers are wasted anyway. Even there it introduces a delay at the start.

Technophobe does reduce by 5/10/15. Rushing costs 2 gold and 2 pop per missing hammer, so 10 gold per missing half "coin" and 20 gold per missing "coin" when viewing an item in production.