[Spoilers] Perpentach of the ... where did I have my pants?

[Serdoa]

Ilios send an email telling that Mist maybe got Bronze Working and could therefore field Sons of Asena with Str 5. That led me to realize that I have told Mist soooo many turns ago that I would answer him on his greeting message, but never did. That had to be corrected

[COLOR="Yellow"]Dear Mist,

We realized with anger that nobody ever answered your greetings. An oversight which can only be explained with wars in other realms.
Take this as excuse for this failure of our lackeys.
Your nation seems to be growing, but slowly unfortunately. Did you have issues with the wildlife like we did? Or is your
land bad? I can tell you, ours is mountains, deserts and plains. I believe having the Malakim as our direct neighbours did not help at all
with it. Especially as they are grabbing land like crazy and probably need to be kept in check soon.
All of those points considered, I wonder: Are there ways we can help each other? Maybe by agreeing to a NAP till T120? Securing our
resources would sure be easier this way, don't you think?

Please let us know what you think about this offer. We also would be willing to
give you information about our other neighbours if you would be willing to give
up information on yours.

Kind regards,
Grepe Wirutwo
First Clown of the Balseraph Empire[/COLOR]

[Serdoa]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 66:[/SIZE]

Capital started on a settler. Argenteria and Hexam finished their markets, making all of my cities having a market. Coombe View finished a Warrior. Doesn't sound exiting, wasn't exiting

Looking at the military I seem to have more military then my neighbours. But Mahala is nearing my military - only that I have 4 cities to defend and he has 2. And if that wouldn't be enough to worry, I got this answer to my message:

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Ah, a Fool!

What a rare sight. We shall celebrate it with great festival in our
Carnivals and Markets. Mistress Mahala thought you have completely
forgotten about us, but I personally was sure you would not dare to do
such a thing. And see, here you are, if late a bit.

I thank you for your concern, but we're perfectly fine. You might have
been told we are small and weak, but all is never as it seems in the
land of the wolves. Do not believe all you hear from random
travellers, they hardly ever have full picture. What we have and what
we can get is enough for us, and be assured we're making good use of
it.

On the foreign matters I shall quote the mistress.
"Treaties? Talks? Quit these absurdities. We Have Enough On Our Hands.
Make him come back in ten moon cycles."
I ventured that you might be distressed by such a dismissal and been
allowed to tell you this :
"We are not interested in the west. Yet. It will change, Calabim will
have it no other way."

I wish you all the best,

Intellego of Mist
Those who follow Mahala

P.S. It occurred to me you might also want to know this :

"If he thinks he can take our land with all resources he's certainly
welcome to try. We do appreciate good entertainment." - Mahala[/COLOR]

I am not really sure what he tells me with that...

[Serdoa]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 67:[/SIZE]

Builds were changed in all cities:

Capital, Coombe View and Hexam produce a Freak
Argenteria produces a Elder Council (only city still missing this building)

EOT Argenteria popped its borders, showing this:



Nothing game changing, but if I take that tile, I should be able to field forces on the copper-tile without them being visible for the Calabim, making me able to strike his city without warning. Don't intend to do that of course, we do have a NAP, but if he does not start to get culture in there, I might get enough to hold on it for quite some time.

Speaking of the Calabim: If they said the truth, then they should fire their worldspell either this or next turn. I tried to prepare as good as I can, but I simply will lose pop and their is nothing I can do about it.

[Serdoa]

I started to (over)analyze Mists message. And when I was doing that I thought "Hey, those lurkers surely would like to laugh about me trying to decipher Mists email" So, here I am

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Ah, a Fool!

What a rare sight. We shall celebrate it with great festival in our
Carnivals and Markets. Mistress Mahala thought you have completely
forgotten about us, but I personally was sure you would not dare to do
such a thing. And see, here you are, if late a bit.
[/COLOR]

Apart from answering my apology (well, kinda...) for being late he tells me that he has discovered Festivals. As he got a Merchant some turns ago (I think I forgot to report on that ) this was pretty obvious. I don't think there is any other early game tech which opens up buildings with merchant GP-slots.

That leads to the question: Does he have Education as well and goes for Drama for the Great Bard? Lets hope that he doesn't.

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
I thank you for your concern, but we're perfectly fine. You might have
been told we are small and weak, but all is never as it seems in the
land of the wolves. Do not believe all you hear from random
travellers, they hardly ever have full picture. What we have and what
we can get is enough for us, and be assured we're making good use of
it.
[/COLOR]

If he wanted to give me a hidden message with that part I don't get it Maybe it was only fluff - or maybe he is planning a war on his neighbour... oh, wait, thats me

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
On the foreign matters I shall quote the mistress.
"Treaties? Talks? Quit these absurdities. We Have Enough On Our Hands.
Make him come back in ten moon cycles."
[/COLOR]

Oooook, wait a minute. "We Have Enough On Our Hands." I know that from somewhere... I've heard it before. Oh yes, an AI which is planning war. Guess his neighbour is really getting attacked soon, sucks to be ... oh, wait, we had that before, thats still me

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
I ventured that you might be distressed by such a dismissal and been
allowed to tell you this :
"We are not interested in the west. Yet. It will change, Calabim will
have it no other way."
[/COLOR]

*take a deep breath* I hope this means he does not come for me. And if he comes later he wants the Calabim-land, not mine (I can sooo understand that ). Lets pray that he is honest otherwise I probably will have a hard time fending him off. Though I do have second highest military, ahead quite a bit of Mists. Of course if he pops his worldspell, I will not have enough troops to hold all cities. But then, looking at it seriously, he doesn't have a reason to come for me yet. I am pretty sure he is still some way away from me, so taking even my city which is nearest to him would mean to overexpand quite a bit. Also my civ is not really that big a threat later. I think the vampires or the elves are better targets in the early game and at least the vampires are near him. He said he does not want to go for them yet but maybe he is lieing or maybe his other neighbour is really weak. Hopefully Loki does get sometimes in the near future to Mists east to find out who that is.

Looking at the upper part again, he also tells me that I should come back in 10 turns about the NAP and stuff. I wonder why in 10 turns. Till now I could not come up with any idea...

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
I wish you all the best,

Intellego of Mist
Those who follow Mahala

P.S. It occurred to me you might also want to know this :

"If he thinks he can take our land with all resources he's certainly
welcome to try. We do appreciate good entertainment." - Mahala [/COLOR]

First time someone answered directly my hidden messages

[Serdoa]

Calabim to me:

[COLOR="Red"]Hey I have a mea culpa to issue. It turns out firing the worldspell now is not a good idea. We are unfortunately going to have to delay it 15-20 turns. I apologize, and wanted to let you know as soon as we realized it. Err...sunrise089 is blameless as well.

Darrell[/COLOR]

So, did they do this on purpose so that I don't grow? If so: Guys, I did not have enough happiness to grow anyway :neenernee

Seriously, I guess it is a good decision from them to delay it a little bit. Everyone will grow and expand and so it will hurt all much more then now when some only have 2 cities. Obviously this includes me, so what do I plan to do against it? Well, nothing basically. Only asking to get some turns warning from them

[COLOR="Yellow"]Thats ok. It's still good to know that you didn't forget me. It would be great if you would let me know 4+ turns in advance before you fire it though I would say I can do you the same favor with mine but... eh, I guess it wouldn't really benefit you in any way

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/COLOR]

[Square Leg]

Really enjoying the diplo you are writing and the responses it is generating!

[Serdoa]

Thank you. I often feel that my bad English skills are a hindrance to my diplomacy (and they seriously are sometimes when people completely misunderstand me) but if those messages entertains then they are doing at least 50% of what they should do (the other 50% being to get everyone to bow before our mighty insanity )

[SIZE="3"]Turn 68:[/SIZE]

Capital: Freak (unfinished) -> Settler
Coombe View: Freak
Hexam: Freak
Argenteria: Elder Council

Research was set to Bronze Working, after we finished Education end of last turn. I initially researched Education to go for Writing next, getting Libraries in play as long as I am Philosophical and get them for half the hammers. I changed my mind now partly due to the message by the Doviello, partly because I don't have the time to build Libraries right now (need Workers and Settlers) and partly because I want Bronze Working to get the jungled gems hooked up, providing more happiness so that I can grow my cities bigger. I honestly don't understand how others can have size 8 or 9 caps. The Calabim for example: Prespur is size 8. The only happy they have hooked up is Wine. They hooked also Incense up. The only explanation I have for size 8 would therefore be:

4 initially
1 Palace
1 Wine
1 Incense+Pagan temple
1 Deruptus Brewery

But I cannot believe that they have built the Deruptus Brewery instead of another settler. And a Pagan temple? In your cap? I guess no one can explain it to me right now for spoiling reasons but it really freaks me out that I don't understand it.

Anyway, on to stuff I do understand.

1. Power Graphs:



Mahala jumped up quite a bit last turn. Before my demos showed me leading, now I am only 2nd. Though I am not that far behind as you can see. And I do have 9 warriors, so I guess this is not mostly techs. Though I don't have a list of which techs give how many soldier points or how many soldier points you get per unit unfortunately, so I can't be sure. Does somebody have something like that at hand?

Oh, and looking at this jump and the one the Calabim had, I guess it is save to assume that this is really Bronze Working.

2. Neighbours 1

Calabim have planted there 2nd city. Exactly as I assumed after they told me they would fire their worldspell. Why can't Mahala not be that easy to understand?



3. Neighbours 2

I looked at the "Foreign Advisor"-screen and saw the following:



Please, can someone tell me why it shows that all others don't have contact with each other? I could believe that Ilios hasn't met Mahala but other then that, I am pretty sure that they should have met each other already. Mahala talked about the Calabim, so they know where they are so I assume they have contact. Anyway, any explanation on the game-mechanic here would be greatly appreciated.

[Serdoa]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 69:[/SIZE]

Short update today. Still researching BW, still building the same stuff as last turn. Only thing what happened:



Yeah, thats right, we met the elves. I am working on a message to them, but probably they will send one before I finished mine...

[Square Leg]

Please, can someone tell me why it shows that all others don't have contact with each other? I could believe that Ilios hasn't met Mahala but other then that, I am pretty sure that they should have met each other already. Mahala talked about the Calabim, so they know where they are so I assume they have contact. Anyway, any explanation on the game-mechanic here would be greatly appreciated.

Normally that does mean that they haven't met. I don't think there is any change due to the mod.

[Serdoa]

So sorry, I really try now to update this thread daily (well, if we play a turn...) but I couldn't get me to do it yesterday due to some pain after visiting the dentist - and having him do some work of course...

But I will do a two turn update today AND we will have funny diplomacy - made even funnier by the fact that I had no idea how to react and so I throw a die I wonder how many of the big decisions of mankind were done this way

[SIZE="3"]Turn 70:[/SIZE]

Started the turn with an event:



41 gold for free? I'll take that!

Other then that, nothing happened, really. I got two warriors in position (you'll see next turn) to be able to fight a Lizardman off which stands between me and my 5th city.

Still working on the same stuff as last turn. Any my workers finished a mine. I have only 3 workers for 4 cities, not enough to improve everything I would like. Already bad enough, though its only 2 unimproved tiles I am working right now. But it will be worse soon when my new city is built because it will pop its borders soon afterwards and then have a gold which needs to come online. Btw: Freaks are awesome for border popping in my opinion simply because a monument would cost me 40 hammers which is much in a new city, whereas a Freak costs me 60 I think. But I can build him in a developed city, making him a 3-4 turn build instead of a 10+ turn monument in a new city.

I also received my first diplo-message from uberfish (Ljosalfar).

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Hi just checking this is the right email address - just saw Loki made contact. And your current traits, I don't think I could get those if I reloaded 100 times, congrats

Loki can observe what appears to be a Doviello/Luchuirp war if he heads to the NE. Just to be clear about this, Loki doesn't have right of passage through my lands at this time and I'll declare war to make sure he stays out if necessary. The border you see belongs to my capital. I don't want to give the wrong impression here, I'd much rather have a friendly relationship because, well, your other neighbours look rather threatening.[/COLOR]

So, he is pretty clear about Loki - doesn't surprise me anymore - but other then that, he seems to be quite friendly. I wanted to write him a nice greeting message as I did it before with the others and had already started that but could not finish it before my dentist appointment. And after that I was not up for those kind of messages though didn't want him to wait either - he seemed so nervous about Loki - so I wrote him only a short email back

[COLOR="Yellow"]uberfish,

Loki won't enter. I would also like a friendly relationship. And normally you would even get a nice in character email for the first contact. But as I have some pain after I visited the dentist this has to do, I'm sorry.

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/COLOR]

And thats it for T70.