You speak in whispers of the devils I have slain, Brian, Sareln & Ichabod of Elohim

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok I played last night and just now. Not much happened over the two turns. I'm pulling back the warrior from the west, and kept Oisín on the hill due to 2 skellys coming in.

Turn 30 saw a skelly attack IBT and Oisín is now 2.5 str but with combat 1.

Demographics look like:

I'm beginning to fall behind in everything. Partly this is because as both I and Ichabod say I've been gimped with my start (needing minimum 5 techs to get any sort of improvements going), and partly due to going aggressive with my settler. Hopefully the second city will pull me back, but the start I've been given, where I frankly had to move from a bad to a subpar capital site, have no worthwhile land to expand into and a neighbour right on top of me, mean that taking out Acalostas is frankly the only way I'm going to stay in the game, even if it ends up helping others more than me.

My suspicions are that the map was a straight up Erebus Continent script with little to no modding to balance starts.

[Ichabod]

I'll play from tomorrow until sunday then.

Brian, what do you think about changing the build to a Elder Council? We could build it in 4 turns and get a little science boost. Maybe we should have changed it right before Mysticism was teched, but get it now could still be good, if not the optimal choice.

[Brian Shanahan]

Oh dear have been up the walls trying to sort out arrangements for college in autumn, and beautifying the garden at home (read cutting a hectare of a field) to even look until now. A four turn EC looks juicy, doesn't it?

The reason behind going for the settler was my paranoia over Mackoti (read them diplo I last had with Kyan for a refresher), but things have calmed down a slight bit now, so we could switch to the EC and go back to the settler immediately after, though I'd keep off the sage until the settler is built.

[Brian Shanahan]

I have today's save, Ichabod. If you ever cross paths with me I owe you a beer.

[Brian Shanahan]

Not much doing, healed both warriors, left worker resting. Settler t-3 turns.

Demographics:

Getting a bit depressing, really. Despite playing a fairly good (IMO) opening I'm way behind everyone. OK I probably could have gone worker first (not that it mattered with my resources), the soldier count is due to luck mainly, and the land is due to 3 creative leaders. But I have a feeling that either my land is gimped compared to the others or I've been extremely unlucky (compared to the others) with my pops {and frankly a is more likely than b}.

I'll try to work out some sort of coherent C&D over the week, and also firm up my plans for the putative war against the Grigori.

Diplomacy

After realising my mistaken address on Mackoti, I sent a short reply apologising for my mistake and summarising my counter offer to Acalostas, he sent this in reply (apologies if you're female Acalostas):

[COLOR="SandyBrown"]
Hey Brian

No worries, we don't hold it against you, we'd probably think the same in your shoes. For future reference Mackoti's email is macedon ciprian (at) yahoo (dot) com. (without the spaces obviously). You had macedon"ian"ciprian@yahoo.com ("" for emphasis)

Okay, to make sure i understand the deal, You will settle the spot 1 tile North-west of the original proposal (which was 5 tiles North-East of our borders.) You will give us 50 gold sometime in the future in compensation (yeah, we're taking the money option. I knew we should have picked Khazad).

Do i have that right?

And what about the proposed NAP until 120?

At some point in the future would you like to trade mana? we both have Spirit and Water mana, so if we traded the mana when we're building adepts, we can both get free promotions for Spirit and/or water. Do note this is entirely optional, just an idea for mutual gain in the future. it'll be like a game of Hot Manato!

so welcome back to the gaming seat Brian, We have hope for future diplomatic contact.

May Sirona be with you,

-Acalostas, leader of the nay-theists

[/COLOR]

I'll probably take that, though initially cutting back on the NAP if possible. But there is a question, am I right in thinking that you don't get free spells from multiple mana until you get mages? If so I'll politely decline comitting on that for now citing the long term nature of comitting to such a deal (though "leaving it open" for future deals).

Edit: Hot Manato?

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok sent the following:

Dear Acalostas & Mackoti,

Oh dearie me, the whole role-playing has completely slipped over the last two weeks, so let's see what we can do to ressurect it.

Feck, arse drink, Drink! Drink!!! DRINK!!!!! Girls, Arse Feck. I love my brick!

Ah there we go, we eventually found Fr. Jack. Seems he fell off a cliff, near the Holy Stone of Clonrickert, and was rescued by a bevvy of bosomy ladies.

Well back to business, I'm not 100% sure about a NAP to turn 120, it seems to be a bit long in the eyes of both myself and Fr. Jack (we're both a bit paranoid unfortunately). Now a NAP to turn 80 would be more acceptable, it would allow us to grow in peace and ensure that we can weather an attack by a certain relative of Fr. Jack's without worries for a backstab. Now if you have a persuasive arguement in favour of a longer term NAP then I'm all ears, ahaha.

On the matter of sharing mana, I am definitely amenable to discussions though I don't know if adepts can receive spells from owning extra mana, so it is probably a long term goal and not really worth discussion for the moment. We should definitely reopen it when we get to a moment where it is appropriate. We are not too worried about water mana at the moment, Fr. Jack took one look at the plans for Water Elementals and ran screaming from the room, shouting DRINK!!!!!DRINK!!!!!DRINK!!!!! at the top of his voice.

As ever I am your obedient servant and spiritual guide,
Fr. Dearg Doom.

1) returning to a small bit of roleplay, if you don't recognise google Fr. Ted.
2) trying to negotiate down the NAP, don't want too long of a one here.
3) saying the mana loans are an interesting idea, with attached roleplay (seriously if you don't know who Fr. Jack Hackett is go watch the show on Youtube or Channel 4)
and that's it.

Now the reasons why I sent the message to Acalostas rather than both are a) Acalostas is almost certainly a softer touch than Mackoti, b) a little dissention (if this works) in the ranks of the enemy is always nice, and c) it may make it easier to go on the warpath c. T130 if the terms I agree with Acalostas are "broken" by Mackoti through ignorance or disagreement.

[Ichabod]

I'm pretty sure that adepts can gain free spells if you have more than one source of a certain type of mana.

I didn't change the settler for an elder council because it is really close to being finished, so I thought it wouldn't be worth it.

[Sareln]

I'm pretty sure that adepts can gain free spells if you have more than one source of a certain type of mana.

I didn't change the settler for an elder council because it is really close to being finished, so I thought it wouldn't be worth it.

When you build an adept or upgrade it to a mage or archmage:

If you have 2 of a particular source of mana, your unit gains that sources 1st promotion

If you have 3 of a particular source of mana, your unit gains that sources 1st & 2nd promotions (if you're upgrading to a mage or building a religious archmage)

[Brian Shanahan]

Thanks lads, something I didn't know, as I'm rarely building adepts when I've 2 or more nodes the same.

[Brian Shanahan]

OK not much again this turn, warriors healed so Oisín begins his trek to the graveyard (should have popped early doors) and Warrior 2 goes East to the site of our new city.

I got a sign from the stars:

Yay money! Wish real life were like this. Took the wrong screenshot, should have shown the 40g I got.

So a focus on the land we're colonising within 5ish turns (3 turns on settler 2-3 to move and settle:

I'll probably pull my 3rd warrior here just to guard from the skellingtons hiding in the hills.

And Demographics:

Not looking at these today as demographics seem to make me grouse this game.