[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Iskender]

Turn 93:

Hawked southeast. More land and resources for the Clan.



I switched research for Cartography, figuring that Priesthood can wait a few turns until at least one Temple is ready.


EOT 93:

A GP has been born in Oop Be Gone




I grew Deep Thought and Oop Be Gone into unhappiness but only for the EOT - I'm adopting FoL next turn raising their happy caps by 1.

[Iskender]

Turn 94:

Adopted Fellowship of the Leaves. Two cities are busy building temples, the capital is halfway through training a Divided Soul.


Another sweep over Clan lands:



For some reason Tredje is moving the SoI east in response to Arcane Lacuna. Apparently he doesn't want to risk his SoI in direct combat. Odds of SoI vs Undenrat defenters should be around 99% but Tredje might be afraid of a scenario in which SoI may be damaged by the attack giving Sareln opportunity to take them out.

East of Shazak there's Levi, a C5 Body I SoI, might be a third one or just the named & promoted second SoI, spotted by the hawk two turns ago.


Sareln asked for an extension of our NAP up to T130

[COLOR="Magenta"]Not that it matters much once the world-spell wears off, but I would
like to continue our NAP through T130.

I plan to commit most all of my efforts to killing one of the two sons
at least once Tredje returns.

I am sending a work crew with escort to road out to you. I should
have cartography by the time they reach your borders and will request
OB to finish the road.
[/COLOR]

He seems to imply (the bold part above) that the Clan has only two SoI. I agreed to extend the NAP and assured Sareln that I would not do scouting for the Clan.


Sqare Leg approached me on chat and made a couple of offers:

Square Leg: Hey Iskender, you got a sec - not about the clan this time - promise!
12 minut(y)
10:22
Iskender: hey

sure
10:23
Square Leg: Well - I was wondering what you would want for either a few blooms or a spread of fol?

Iskender: i'm a sucker for experience points. is there any way you could deliver those?
10:24
Square Leg: heh - not in the near future. I just got copper online so my warriors are a little tougher now too
10:25
Iskender: what about skeletons. is the sepulcher under serdoa's control now?

Square Leg: It is - although I may be able to flip it.
10:26
I did pop it on T4/5 though so it needs a node now

Iskender: omg on T4? :O what came out of it?
10:27
Square Leg: That crazy scorpion with the death touch and then 84g!

I killed the scorpion with Barny V1

Iskender: ah

Square Leg: I was thinking I could gift you my silks for 10t?
10:28
In exchange for 5 blooms?

odd deal to fathom really! lol

Iskender: then after 10t my happy cap would drop and i'd be in trouble
10:29
Square Leg: afterwards we can continue the trade with you trading me cotton?
10:30
Iskender: what about letting me attack Ultigar? do you think it's worth a couple of blooms?

Square Leg: Sure - I'd be happy for you to do that
10:31
Iskender: but that could happen in 15-20t earliest

Square Leg: hmmm

Iskender: it might interfere with your settlement plans

Square Leg: Yeah - I was hoping to get rid of that city a little sooner
10:32
What are you planning on using to attack with?

is the tech the reason you can't do it sooner?

Iskender: yes, I don't have the tech yet
10:33
Square Leg: ok

That is fair enough
10:35
Let me see how quickly I could get rid of the city myself and if it isn't looking much quicker than you - then

we have a deal.
10:36
Iskender: allright. will 5 blooms do?

i'm not sure about the timeframe of blooming yet. maybe until T130
10:39
Square Leg: 5 is fine - and by T130 sounds ok too - although it would be appreciated if you can do it sooner.

Iskender: i will if that's possible

Square Leg: There are some more barb cities to my south too
10:40
At least 2

on flat land too

Iskender:
10:41
Square Leg: They don't mess with my settling plans so I am not planning on doing anything to them - perhaps farm

barny a little - but not destroy them yet

if you were to come by I don't think anyone would mind



Iskender: allright, i'll have it in mind
10:44
Square Leg: BTW - our nap is currently due to end on t100 - would you be interested in extending it to T130 to

accomodate this potential trade?
10:46
Iskender: err
10:47
you know what

sure
10:48
Square Leg: ok - you don't sound it but I'll take what I can get!
10:50
Iskender: sorry, i'd like the NAP. pls blame the impossion on the language barrier

i'm not going to put you in a position where i would have troops in ultigar and we had no nap

so until 130 it is
10:52
going back to the silk-cotton exchange. i might not be able to do it immediately. i had a similar deal with

Sareln. it depends on for how long he'll be able to keep his silks
10:53
Square Leg: ok - I have a trade route up with Serdoa so I may be able to get something for them there too - not to

worry - I guess it is in the Clan's hands!
10:54
I hope Sareln can hold out for as long as possible

Iskender: it is my hope as well

Square Leg: More time to tech up to the tech that allows "Destroy Orc" spell
10:55
Iskender:

• We extended our NAP to turn 130.
  
• He collapsed the Sepulcher while exploring it, losing a source of Death Mana. I'm moving Necromancy up in my "To research" list in order to get my own Death Mana that I could offer people along with other things in exchange for spamming me training Skeletons.
  
• We agreed that he'll let me train on the barb city of Ultigar (pictured on T91) in exchange for Blooming five of his tiles.
  

[Iskender]

Turn 95:

Having scouted the south I decided to take a look at the NW region. Looks good:



The island in the west looks big and it can be reached by a Galley. I'll scout the island with the aid of the Divided Soul (ready in 2 turns). The west coast is a perfect place to unleash a Divided Soul (Sidar variant of Hunter) anyway - 4 Bears and a Scorpion will yield roughly 15xp and if I promote the DS with Subdue Animal I'll eventually have Dancing Bears in four cities, good not only for +1 happy but also for the culture, ie. in case of Same Here - with 3 more culture/turn the city will soon expand to 3rd ring grabbing two Furs in the north.

There are also two city spots I find attractive over there. #7 grabs the mana node and with double Fish it doesn't suck as much as I believed it would seeing only its eastern half. #6 is a clear violation of my settling agreement with Sareln, but if Sareln is to fall I'd rather grab the site for myself than let the Clan spread even more.


Speaking of the Clan - Renegade Hill built



a Granary. That's interesting. Clan's production choices are limited, they probably aren't able to build Markets and maybe even Elder Councils (I doubt the latter though), but it's interesting that Tredje would choose Granary over, say, Warrens.


The Clan suggested a delay in the planned strike and asked me when I'll be able to scan Balseraphs

[COLOR="Orange"]Hi Iskender,

When do you think you will you be able to train Hawks? I am asking because at some point I think it would be interesting to station a Hawk in my capital and do a recon mission over Balseraph lands. As you know Sareln blew his Arcane Lacuna to defend himself from our SoI. This means that the Amurite operation will be pushed back slightly. I do not think we will be ready for a joint strike until T120 at the earliest.

Kind regards,

Tredje (& Mardoc), Orc (& Goblin)
[/COLOR]

"In two turns" I said:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

I'll have Cartography EOT next turn. If you offer OB on T97 I'll be able to scout the Bals the same turn. I'll only need a relative location of your capital (if that's your closest city to the Balseraphs) ie. from Renegate Hill to relocate a hawk right there and not to some different city of yours.

Thanks for letting me know about the delay, I'll adjust my plans accordingly. I should have first priests around T108 and maybe a six of them around T120.
[/COLOR]

They're moving the SoI east and are anxious about seeing Balseraph land. I should see what they're up to when I send the hawk.


Sareln discovered Cartography and is building a road to Nowhere. We should have a connection in 2 turns.


EOT two Ancient Forests appeared. One on a lumbermilled tile, the other on a forest currently being chopped+farmed delaying completion by 2 worker turns but also giving 7 more hammers from chopping.




Demographics say I'm a solid #2 which is a blatant lie at least gnp-wise, because I'm soon getting ~700 grey market beakers from bulbing (actually that was one of the reasons I chose Prophet over Sage)





EDIT: Of course I've forgotten about the most important event of the turn - founding THE CITY. It looks modest now but soon it is going to dwarf the wealth of Caledor and En-Kai combined! :neenernee

Take a moment to admire Peekaboo:

(actually all my city and unit names have been following a theme so far. it's even strategy-game related. I wonder if the names ring any bells?)

[Iskender]

Turn 96:

Sareln asked me for Enchantment Mana as per our agreement and offered Silk to cushion my consequent Happy loss. I still owe the Amurites Cotton and can demand Copper from them at any time.


Also from Sareln:

[COLOR="Magenta"]Alright. Also, I have spotted a 3rd Son of the Inferno. So well and
truly screwed here :D
[/COLOR]

That made me reread the worldspell NAP agreement with the Clan (irrelevant parts skipped):

If we're unable to coordinate our world spells we could just make some kind of anti-mutually-asserted-destruction pact to make sure we don't waste our world spells on each other.

I will, however, agree to a Worldspell-NAP between the Sidar and the Clan of Embers.

Do we want to make a detailed agreement about the world spells or follow to the spirit of not using one's world spell to harm the other? I think the latter is OK.

I am definitely okay with simply agreeing to not use our world spells to harm eachother.

[SIZE="1"](Note to self: never agree to follow the spirit of anything)[/SIZE]

Now, I'm pretty much safe from a SoI attack, but let's assume a hypothetical attack by the Sidar on the Clan. Do I have any grounds to demand that he should remove the SoI from combat? Discuss.


Next turn I'm opening borders with the Clan and relocating the Hawk to Braduk the Burning to scout Balseraph lands. Tredje also says Loki is heading in my direction.

[COLOR="Orange"]Hi Invisible Man,

I will offer OB on T97. Our capital is our closest city to the Balseraphs, so I think it will make most sense to scout from there. I am not sure how much information you can gather, but I think you will at least manage to scout his westernmost city. And our capital is located 4S3E from Renegade Hill.

Bob has sent Loki northwest to "defog the area." He asked if he could go through our lands, and I replied no. He will probably move along our borders until he reaches you. Then I assume he will ask if he can move through your lands. You are of course free to do as you desire, but I don't think there is any reason to let Loki scout our lands and possibly be in a position to harass our cities when we attack. In any case I figured I'd give you the heads up.

Tredje (& Mardoc), Orc (& Goblin)
[/COLOR]

EOT:

Discovered Cartography. Divided Soul trained in the capital. Another ancient forest upgrade, once again on a lumbermilled tile

Forestry departament report:

• Lumbermilled forests: 1
  
• Lumbermilled ancient forests: 2
  
• Forests to be lumbermilled: 8
  
• Ancient forests (to be chopped): 1
  
• Tiles to be bloomed, lumbermilled and anciented: lots
  

Hi-res map of the known land:

and with resource bubbles

[TheBagelProblem]

TBH, this agreement is a bit vague. If you were to say e.g. "we will not use the units (acquired from FtH/masked by ItM) against each other", it would be simple. But this whole "spirit of" might as well mean that you will not use the edge that firing a worldspell gives immediately after using it. And this edge was used by the Clan to choke Salern. The SoI only arrived later. But of course the Clan acquired the Sons of Inferno thanks to the buggy worldspell, and Tredje agreed not to use FtH to harm you (even if he thought only about warriors, goblins and archers at that time).

TL DR: I think he shouldn't use them offensively against you.

TheBagel has spoken. :neenernee

[Mr. Yellow]

Don't count on him not using his SotI to defend from your attack. It's more of a case of defending from harm than harming you.

EDIT:
Actually i'm more interrested in what units that are the best suited to tackle the SotI, should we ever get in a confrontal situation.

[Iskender]

Turn 97:

Witch event in Nowhere. The Sidar can't stand competition in the field of black clothing and dark-purple dyed unkempt hair so she's promptly executed.



By this guy:



That's a Divided Soul. He's on his way to kill a scorpion and then is going to wrestle with bears. Unfortunately he can't do any tricks with Sever Soul yet because of Arcane Lacuna.


Before relocating the Hawk to Braduk the Burning I used it to 'feel' the map looking for Clan's missing city.



Hezic'kul apparently has been founded on an the Acheron/SoI island.


Hawking from Braduk revealed Coombe View and the barb city of Straatus with Loki nearby. I sent Trardoc the screenshots.

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

I scanned Coombe View - that's as much as I can reach east from Braduk. The city garrison is two unpromoted bronze warriors. There's also a worker roading the mana hill. Loki is 3N of the Copper.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

Nice spot for a 2nd city. Coombe View has built Elder Council, Market, Carnival, Freak Show and Deruptus.


Now the Clan. Trardoc's starting location:



Hills/jungle, a 3H/6C tile. Not riverside - requires road to connect. There's also Grassland Reagents, but w/o a happy face bonus they probably don't make it worth beelining Calendar instead of Mining. Looks like Braduk has only built Warrens so far. Also notice in the bottom left side of the screenshot that Hezic'kul has already expanded to 2nd ring.


Clan's stack has been found:




A nice stack, where is it heading though?

EOT:

Discovered Philosophy. No new Ancient Forest spawns.

Actually i'm more interrested in what units that are the best suited to tackle the SotI, should we ever get in a confrontal situation.

Assassins are the answer. If Clan's stack consisted of SoI and Axemen, SoI with 9 str and Combat V would be designated defenders and could be redlined with cannon fodder to the point where their Channeling III would make them a target for Assassins. Could be difficult though, with 3-move Fire Elementals as a vanguard.

EDIT: a quick WB test shows that Channeling III is enough to make a C1 bronze axe a more attractive target than a C5 SoI. So, it's only assassins then, and lots of them.

[Mr. Yellow]

Turn 97:
Assassins are the answer. If Clan's stack consisted of SoI and Axemen, SoI with 9 str and Combat V would be designated defenders and could be redlined with cannon fodder to the point where their Channeling III would make them a target for Assassins. Could be difficult though, with 3-move Fire Elementals as a vanguard.

EDIT: a quick WB test shows that Channeling III is enough to make a C1 bronze axe a more attractive target than a C5 SoI. So, it's only assassins then, and lots of them.

Don't forget you got ghosts here, coming with Hidden right out of the gate. Could easily suprise anyone that isn't supported by hawks, not to mention your hero is an assassin as well coming with the nether blade.

A later possibility i see is Kithra Kyriel. With 2+ movement, being heavily promoted and equipped with the nether blade, could play the odds and snipe the SotI one at a time while escaping behind a line of meatshields to be healed.

However it would only work if if the SotI aren't shielded by lesser units. Not to mention he requires Feral Bond to be researched so eh, maybe not.

[Iskender]

Don't forget you got ghosts here, coming with Hidden right out of the gate. Could easily suprise anyone that isn't supported by hawks, not to mention your hero is an assassin as well coming with the nether blade.

I should be able to train Ghosts by T130 (if I don't go for Gibbon) and the Clan still has to grab a couple of techs more important than Hunting. Still, before using Ghosts against the SoI I'd first need to make sure it benefits the Sidar. After all, I'm safe from SoI so why not let them roam Erebus as long as it doesn't make the Clan overly powerful.

I'm still not impressed with Rathus Denmora - his only advantages over a standard Ghost are +50% vs melee and no 50% penalty to city attack. I think I'll wane him as soon as possible and just use the Blade with Ghosts and Tigers.

A later possibility i see is Kithra Kyriel. With 2+ movement, being heavily promoted and equipped with the nether blade, could play the odds and snipe the SotI one at a time while escaping behind a line of meatshields to be healed.

However it would only work if if the SotI aren't shielded by lesser units. Not to mention he requires Feral Bond to be researched so eh, maybe not.

If I manage to settle near the Mirror I'll make a stab at the Tower of Divination - I'd have Sun mana, Spirit mana (from the Palace) and two raw nodes. I could make a slingshot to Feral Bond or maybe even to Commune with Nature (FB is relatively cheap - only 2300 beakers).

[Mr. Yellow]

The witch event confuses me. The way it's set up you'd think there would be consequental events based on your decision in that matter. At least i haven't recieved one.

Oh and another thing regarding assassins; Aeron's chosen. Granted to the first assassin (non heroes) that reaches level 6. Gives you immunity to fear and first strikes, heals your unit after killing a living one and gives it 2 unholy strength. Something to keep in mind.