[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Mygdala]

What are your plans for your newly invisible units? Is this just to help finish Bob off faster (how?), or this this to help sneak attack someone else later on (who?).

[Iskender]

I do hope that Bob will move the skeletons or the adepts out of Jubilee if he gets bored or just stops caring. Then I'll be there to grab Jubilee or (even better) prey on the ungarrisoned stack.

I don't have any particular long-term plan involving invisible units. It's been one of the last moments to trigger the spell before it fades into irrelevance, so I thought why not?

It might put some pressure on Square Leg. His Rathas see invisible, but there's a chance that he gets paranoid and maybe even decides to research Hunting. Our NAP expires in 12 turns, let's see if he approaches me to extend it. I could march on Serdoa, but that would be pointless. Maybe I'll send there a tiger or two for the lulz

I wish I could have used Into the mist to wreak real havoc on someone, but it's not such a big deal, I got enough mileage out of it in the early game.

[Iskender]

Pictures:


Balseraph final wave. Notice the adepts at the end, and how often Priests defended - more than 4 fights for each priest.

What's left of Jubilee garrison:




And that's the danger map in case Hyborem appears. Now that Balseraph economy is not burdened by so many skeletons Bob might succeed in discovering Infernal Pact. Red = serious trouble, possibility of being wiped out. Yellow = one or more cities lost. As you can infer from the city descriptions I'm not much concerned about Hyborem at the moment.




I also had a chat with Mardoc. He'll try to recover the Axe, it's supposedly still on the island with the razed Clan city. If all Balseraph cities are captured and the Axe not, it's lost in the limbo. The Clan is researching Currency, how about that. We also agreed that what we've been doing was in fact saving the world from the monster that Keelyn would have become if not stopped. The SoI don't look that scary compared to the Bals. Maybe if they were Body III instead of Combat and there were four killer Flesh Golems to aid Fire Elementals.


Last but not least - my theme for units and cities is a tribute to this gem of a game:



It's awesome, anyone around familiar with the pleasures of seeing a monster CA TT in action or the unkillable underdog -f IS?

[Iskender]

So Bob moved out even sooner than I thought. His remaining skeletons (36) and 4 adepts are heading towards Coombe View. He can't summon new skeletons cause he's already above the limit.

Only a warrior and 4 puppets were left in Jubilee. I hit it with a CR3 tiger, got lucky and killed the warrior at 39%. The last low-exp priest hit a puppet at 99%. I still had 3 warriors below 26xp, but rusted and damaged with odds on puppets below 90%. Fortunately Enchanted Blade remedied the rust and two warriors won at 93-94% odds and the third lost at 72%. The city was taken by the adept who lost invisibility anyway after casting EB




A nice city. I wish I could burn it. I'm gifting it to Clan as per our agreement.




EOT Bone Palace triggered a Golden Age. Discovered Writing. EOT demographics:

[Commodore]

Holy crap, you've played Stars!. It's an awesome, awesome game.

[Iskender]

Yeah, a pity it didn't work out with Supernova.

T139:

I moved out of Jubilee preparing to go home and gifted the city to the Clan. Balseraph remaining skeletons are still heading towards Coombe View. Even if they get there, my priests will be there already and tigers even turn earlier.

Balseraph 2 workers found. The picture tells the story:



Let's see if Serdoa likes cheese.


To Mardoc:

[COLOR="Silver"]I moved the priests NW of Jubilee and gifted you the city. I left it unguarded, but there's nothing that can reach it this turn and I'm blocking the way back for the skeletons (or rather hasted puppets/adepts, skeletons wouldn't reach it anyway).

I moved 8 tigers onto the desert hill SE-SE of Coombe View. They'll arrive in the city next turn. I'll actually be able to reach CV with the priests before Bob's skeleton stack, I'm heading that way, slowly preparing to remove the priests from the scene. I'll leave the tigers if you need them, maybe there'll be an opportunity to cause Seroda some mischief, he's my last chance to make use of Into the mist, and I'll keep hawking of course.[/COLOR]

The last line is an attempt to fish for Mardoc's plans where to send the SoI next (on Square Leg's behalf, but I'm interested as well). I wish I could have some fun with invisible tigers in Serdoa's land, there's 8 of them and maybe half have CR3, but then the Clan would just swallow the Sheaim and then the Luchuirp and then me.

Before that I had a chat with SL (wall of text warning)

11:30
Square: Hey iskender! hows it going?
11:31
ja: hey

just captured Jubilee : O

Square: wow

awesome!

are you keeping it?



ja: nope, giving up to clan

nice city though, stigmata and academy

10 beakers from the stigmata already
11:32
Square: aww - don't fancy giving it to me instead?

ja: doh, I would but i promised

Square: have you finished the turn yet?

ja: yes, already finished
11:33
Square: I wanted to put through our enchant - silk trade but forgot on my turn

never mind

ja: hm

Square: I'll do it next turn

ja: this might be difficult

Square: how come?
11:34
ja: i'm trading it with the clan atm

but i'm giving it as soon as it ends

well, in 9 turns

Square: ah

ok

I guess there isn't anything we can do about it now
11:35
ja: sorry, i though you'd give me a headsup when you wanted it

Square: Yeah - being away on holiday kinda messed things up a hit

no biggie I guess

just have to spend a promo on repair now!
11:36
ja: but you were right about the war

it's been almost 20 turns
11:37
Square: yeah - how did you manage to get Jubilee? How many skele's puppets were here?

ja: 40 puppets and close to 70 skeletons at peak

sheesh
11:38
Square: jesus!

ja: fortunately no gibbon

Square: how did bob lose it then? I don't understand?!?!?! He must have thrown them at you

ja: we'd be dead then and the rest of erebus after

Square: yeah - tbh - that is true

ja: elementals proved to be quite skeleton resistant
11:39
Square: Keelyn is just plain nasty

ja: but it's been a tough fight

my priests usually killed 3-4 skeletons each
11:40
Square: they must all be wane-able by now then?

nice work

ja: yes, though i lost two

Square: So how much does bob have left?

Isthe war going to continue much longer?
11:41
<praying for a yes>

ja: he suicidied almost all his adepts last turn

he had 20+

Square: ffs.
11:42
Ireally wanted bob to stall you guys a bit longer

ja: maintenance for permanent summons has been killing his eco

i guess he wanted to get rid of them to research infernal pact

Square: no offense or ill wishing to you at all - the clan however.....

classic bob!
11:43
ja: he still might

Square: So what are the plans for a post clown world?

ja: now that's a good question

Square: guess I should try and get the clan to kill Serdoa next.
11:44
serdoa would thank me for it!

ja: i don't mind

Square: heh
11:45
ja: i suppose serdoa is still hunting for mobius witches

Square: Can I be frank and talk in confidence?

ja: sure
11:46
Square: I just got the harpy event and a free Great Artist who was burnt on a GA. I will be in a position to have Engineering research in about 15t.

ja: ah

Square: researched*

ja: i was wondering about that

i got my own GA this turn via Bone Palace

Square: I can kill Sons of the Inferno with those badboys.

sweet!
11:48
I would be really interested in signing a decent nap with you and trading stuff (Silk - Cotton straight away if you like?) in exchange for a couple of things

1 - influence the clan

2 - defensive pact of sorts against them
11:49
the first point is to buy me time.

They need an economy! - now is a good time to build that up...

wink wink
11:50
sign a nap with the dwarf's for 20t and either hit the sheaim or build econ

wink wink

lol

I think either of us can still win this but unless we work together - the clan will win it
11:51
ja: well, i guess the want to do something with the SoI instead of just sitting them somewhere

that's true
11:52
Square: I have emailled Mardoc discussing a new nap

but he hasn't responded yet

I would really appreciate a good word if he discusses it with you at all
11:54
ja: sure, though we discuss mostly the clowns
11:55
Square: ok - if you can poke him at serdoa then do - I'm going to follow up my mail to try and get a nap extension - it ends in 2t afterall! I'm a little nervous!

And I appreciate your discreetness
11:56
ja: i'll try to fish out if he's after serdoa

myself i'm going home soon to wane the folks

Square: great - thanks
11:57
give your troops a hero's welcome when they get back and feel free to use my lands if it is quicker
12:00
ja: in any case the SoI should be busy with the clowns for maybe 10 more turns

Bob has still got 5 cities

Square: that is good to know
12:01
ja: if you could satisfy my curiosity

i don't mind if you don't

Square: of course

ja: did he offer you anything for the earth mana?

Square: yes
12:02
the disciple of leaves

ja: ah

Square: I was hoping it was going to spread around a bit so that I could swap and get some ancient lumbermill

s

ja: it's unbelievable how close we were to losing this

Square: but no spreads.....

i know
12:03
ja: if only Esus didnt spawn in Ocells

Square: exactly

ja: or Bob didn't make smoke with the Nightwatch

phew

it still makes me shudder
12:04
Square: you know Esus is still out there though... just he can't get it. Anyone else can - I wonder if it will make a new holy city?!?!

ja: no, i think not. just a regular one

Square: well he can get it if someone sends him a hawk laiden Esus spreader....
12:05
something I did consider doing but decided against since it would have made him farrrrrr too powerful
12:06
better we are in this situation than with Keelyn and Gibbon

We're discussing the situation after Balseraphs, SL suggested a NAP and a defensive pact. We've got no other choice than cooperate, otherwise the Clan wins, but I've yet to find the mean between making sure that the Clan loses on one hand and on the other that the Dwarves don't grow too strong in the process.


F1:



A couple of unhappy faces due to WW and after I gave the Clan Enchantment mana in return for an earlier loan of Body mana. I still owe Enchantment to Square Leg, he asked for it a turn after the Clan, we should have arranged some kind of timeframe to a situation like this.

[Iskender]

T140&141:

Mardoc captured last two mainland Balseraph cities, Bob is left with only these two:




The priests will defend Coombe View on their way out:





Balseraph GNP went negative. Looks funny in the graphs:

Some diplo with the Clan:

[COLOR="Orange"]Thank you. If you could protect Coombe View for a few turns, and
maybe kill Bob's remaining adepts/skeletons, that will give me time to
hurry up and finish Bob, and then maybe we won't have to worry about
him returning as a Demon. It ought to be a nice XP-farming
opportunity, although I suppose most of your Priests are already
prepared to Shade.

I went ahead and moved my forces to protect Jubilee, and took Guell
this turn; unless Bob has something nasty in the fog, Hexam ought to
fall next turn, and that might be the last of his mainland cities.

I haven't thought a lot about what I'll do next; so far I've pretty
much just been following the path that Tredje laid down. I think my
focus needs to be on recovering the Axe and cleaning Bob off the
islands, to properly compensate you for your aid and to avert Hyborem.
Do you recommend hitting Serdoa next? Would you be interested in
prolonging our alliance to do so - and if so, what sort of terms do
you have in mind?

Also, there's a non-zero chance that Bob will put the Axe beyond my
reach, depending on how spiteful he's feeling about this. What would
be a reasonable compensation for failure to perform, do you think?

- Mardoc[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

I should defend Coombe View w/o losses. I don't mind handing the Bals over to AI, they're done anyway. Does it affect the prospects of recovering the Axe? I mentioned that I find it valuable because of its synergy with summons so before we talk of compensation let's make sure whether it can or cannot be recovered.

I'd like to hit the Sheaim, merely for the opportunity to test invisible warfare, but i think swallowing another player could make the Clan maybe too powerful, so I'll pass. Nonetheless I want to send a couple of hidden tigers to zombieland just for fun.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

NAP with the Dwarves extended to T160.

[Iskender]

T142:

A nice event to sweeten a...



loss of another priest, fallen defending Coombe View from hordes of skeletons. First two priests died when Tredje and Mardoc were feeling brave, this time it was my turn. A pity, they'd have made a substantial difference in GNP after settling. At least I was able to kill the lucky skeleton with the last low-exp priest, bringing him to 18xp.


The invisible Divided Soul is also on his way out. He noticed two Sons resting in Guell,



one promoted with Body III. Could've been much worse if the SoI had all taken Body III instead Combat from the get go. I look forward to seeing the flesh golem. It should be a real killer eventually, but it takes time to feed it all the valuable promotions.


I wanted to avoid scouting the Clan with the invisible hawk (it would be a kind of using my worldspell against them), so I hawked Serdoa:



Nothing special there, two Planar Gates, a handful of PZ. If I moved in the tigers I could kill 2, maybe 3 cities two turns after declaring. It won't happen though. First it would skew the balance even more in Clan's favour, and second those bloody tigers eat up to 3gc maintenance each.

I can't use the tigers against the Clan and the Luchuirp likely can see invisible, so I deleted all 8 of them. Sorry, no really fancy invisible maneuvers this time, but still I might be able to pull off a thing or two - the workers are still invisible - I can ie. prechop my forests/jungles to make a final chop right under a possible invading stack (that couldn't see invisible). Also now workers can do this:



The guy is not bothered by barbarians nor animals an can keep making road for 8th city (ETA 4 turns). Second lizardman spawned last turn and EOT moved south to be challenged by a 13xp priest (one of the veterans of Milk the Spider) next turn.


I made peace with AI Keelyn. Time for conclusions, but first a screenshot:



It has been a grind indeed. I think neither Tredje/Mardoc nor me fully realized what numbers we will have to deal with. Let me repeat: we've been this :thumb and index finger squeezed together: close to losing this. We've managed mostly because Bob botched both macro and micro. I've been commenting on it every now and then, let's now try to make a summary:

• A total disaster with the Nightwatch. Three puppets would've soaked up the attacks by elementals. Gibbon, safely trained in Jubilee, even under siege, would have killed us with earth/air elementals (air are far superior i think) or dominated priests/SoI to make the win more fancy.
  
• No Axe for skeletons. Bob killed 3 of my priests, an adept and a DS without the axe. He would've had a chance to kill all of them if he had used the axe.
  
• Too many Earth I adepts instead of Spell Extension ones. We were able to run circles around 1-move skeletons razing lesser cities before Coombe View and Jubilee fell. Lots of unchopped forests helped with parking the stack as well. 2-movers could've even prevented me and the Clan from merging our stacks or bringing the reinforcements later. 2-movers with the Axe would've been overkill.
  
• Workers building a farm while we were pillaging roads. A decent road network would've made even 1-movers good on defense. Without it we just pillaged/blocked the road when we wanted to make a critical area off limits to skeletons.
  

That was micro. With macro the mistake was constant sacrificing the short term for the long-term, ie. by researching Drama for the GA and only then casting Revelry, instead of doing it other way around or even skipping Drama altogether when the SoI were knocking at the door. Attempting to make Gibbon more powerful later (by securing free Earth III) instead trying to get him out as soon as possible. We weren't going to wait to admire his perfect build in any case. Finally, all that AV stuff (Stigmata). I do look forward to reading in Bob's thread what was the point of it.


Anyway, the Balseraphs are gone and now there's another what Mardoc termed 'an existential threat'. Here's the F5 map:



(I'll make a better hi-res flying-camera map screenshot when I'm back on my usual machine for playing FFH)

The Clan is big. Oops Well, not really, not yet anyway. Look at this:



I usually look at someone's pop to see how much of a runaway he is. The Balseraphs were close to 30% at peak, Pocketbeetle in PBEM1 was between 30% and 35% when I was still able to check . Clan's 33% will surely increase over the next dozen or two turns but it doesn't look bad at all considering their terrible pop efficiency - nowhere near Pb's range, not even close to Square Leg's or mine even out of our GAs, and pop efficiency is not something one can improve in the short term, particularly with the pop spread over so many cities. Clan's only good multiplier buildings are Warrens and if I looked right they've got only 2. The Clan has currently 12 cities, 4 of them will be in revolt for 3-4 more turns and in demographics (not including Serdoa) they are last in everything but food.

Still, they've got crazy potential and the SoI, so anything can happen.


A message from Mardoc:

[COLOR="Silver"]I'm not sure anymore on the Axe question. The unit who had been
carrying it is now out of my sight, and I'm not sure how the AI will
prioritize disbands, or if Bob will disband units before turning the
Balseraphs over. Having to fight an AI instead of Bob should make
recovering it easier, once I actually find it. As long as Bob hasn't
stuck the axe in the tundra or disbanded it, I should catch up to it
eventually.

I do believe I've lived up to all the other provisions of the deal?
You have something like 6 Shadable priests now, and I think you
captured about half the cities the Balseraphs lost.

I'm glad to hear about Coombe View. I think once that defense is
over, the war will be definitely just a matter of mopping up.

I've been discussing the game situation, and I'm still debating
between a pause for infrastructure and moving right on to hitting
someone. If you don't want to ally to do so, which makes sense to me
(there's no remaining existential threat, except maybe the Clan after
T150), then I suppose you'll find out who when I declare .

If you do pull some fun shenanigans with Into the Mist, please
document them in your lurker thread; I'll be curious to know
eventually what you can do with it.[/COLOR]

The bold part actually triggered an attack of my paranoia. The smile in particular. I've never seen Mardoc using smiles in his messages and this one looks like this:



Would he attack me on T150 when our NAP expires? He can't succeed without SoI and If he wanted to bring in SoI he'd have to break the worldspell NAP. Not likely.

Still, if anyone wanted to attack me, this is the time. I'll be liquidating the elite of my army and I have not yet reached my civ's window of opportunity period (Poisons). Recent Open Borders between the Clan and the Luchuirp is also intriguing, but that might be just for eco. In any case, hawks are going to be busy.

I replied after seeing the turn:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

Coombe View defended. I lost a priest though, do you mind if I take it out on the two goblins in the fort near Sorodh?

I'm evacuating the DS as well - I believe that keeping invisible units within your territory would violate the spirit of our worldspell agreement. The DS is NE of Jubilee now. I can continue scouting Balseraphs from Ninisnal with a normal Hawk.

Fortunately disbanding the unit with the Axe preserves it, only destroying the civilization that controls the axe would make it disappear. I can help you with localizing the Axe if it's somewhere within hawk's reach.

As far as capture gold is concerned - I earned a total of 502gc (142 Argenteria, 197 Gaudium and 163 Jubilee). If you got similar amount let's leave it as it is, if there's a subtantial difference let's settle it after you've got Currency.

I guess that's all, good luck in finishing off the clowns (someone should keep a count how many times Rosier has fallen)
[/COLOR]

Hinted the worldspell NAP just in case. I haven't been entirely honest about the Axe - I was suggesting I would attach it to summons, but the Nether Blade will be much better for this (2 [STRIKE]unholy damage, fire elementals don't resist it, golems do though[/STRIKE] no, it's 2 death actually, oh well) and the Axe would give Blitz to Aeron's Chosen. I just don't want to draw unneccesary attention to the Nether Blade.


Armageddon Counter reached 29, but thanks to Bob I was able to get rid of WW and swap Public Baths for Granaries in critical cities. Even if Blight hits soon it shouldn't be much devastating.

Here's F1 at the end of turn:



Lots of Happy The capital is going to start building the Bazaar (taking advantage of Industrious once again after Bone Palace) with overflow after training a hawk. Initially I wanted to build the Bazaar in Peekaboo, the production city but the capital is making 30 more commerce that can be doubled in turns of 0% sci. The Bazaar should be ready in 10-12 turns. With settled GM, specialists and modifiers I'm going to make... guess how much gpt in the capital (at 100% sci). Really, try to guess

170

Would've been above 220 if all the priests had made it.

Not long after I should get Poisons and that will begin the period when the Sidar have their fun.

[Iskender]

Recent activity in Serdoa's thread made me realize that I made a little smoke move with the hawk - despite being Hidden it is still visible when in a city

I considered DoWing the Sheaim and then doing nothing, just to see if Serdoa would freak out, but that would probably only detach him from the game even further. Instead I sent this:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

Sorry for that hawk. I thought it would remain invisible, so you won't notice it, but I forgot that invisibility doesn't work in cities. So much for the camouflage...

I sent it because I was curious how the Sheaim are doing, ie. if you've got any Witches already. I'm not scouting you out for the Clan, we went separate ways after accomplishing the objective of our alliance. I considered the idea of attacking you, but rejected it on grounds that it would make the Clan too powerful. I'd like to sign a NAP if you wish.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

Continuing the exchange with Mardoc, we agreed on the final split of clowns' gold.

[COLOR="Orange"]Thank you. I have no objection to you attacking the goblins, just
please leave the fort intact. I should warn you that I recently
acquired a barb city south of Udenerat, and I accidentally enchanted
the blades of the axemen inside (I thought they came with the city
until I looked more closely). I expect them eventually to wander up
your way.

I'm afraid I'm not sure exactly what I earned in capture gold, but it
appears I took 4 cities (CV, Hexam, Guell, Ninisnal). I didn't record
the amounts of gold since CV was before my time, so I think I'll pay
you whatever I earn from one of the two island cities, when that comes
in. Seem reasonable?

As for the axe - I'm guessing it's on the trireme the Bals have
wandering around to my south - they razed a barb city with something,
and I don't think they could have gotten any other forces into the
area.

- Mardoc
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Silver"]Yes, I think your idea regarding dividing balseraph gold is fair. Thanks for the heads up on the axemen, I'll make sure to organize a welcome party.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

The hawk checked out the Dwarves:



A ratha, a radiant guard, 2 wood golems, several warriors. I hope there's much more in the fog. The Luchuirp returned to RoK. They don't make an impression of a civ that is about to fight for its exsitence. Also, Square Leg has been mysteriously absent on Google Chat recently. It makes me wonder if SL signed a NAP with Mardoc and I got the short stick this time.

[Iskender]

So it's true

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey SL

Are you there? I can't reach you on chat, I was hoping we could continue discussing the defensive pact. Have you reached some kind of an agreement with the Clan? That would make things a bit more... complicated.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

Square: I have inked a deal with the clan though - I will be around soon and i'll give you a better story then

I've always assumed that after defeating the Balseraphs the only choice left for the Dwarves would be to side with me vs the Clan. Square Leg acknowledged this as well

I think either of us can still win this but unless we work together - the clan will win it

but something went wrong. I should've signed that defensive pact when it had been offered. Maybe Square believed I was going to let him be devoured by the Clan, a thing easy to believe considering the Clan-Sidar worldspell NAP. It would be not far from the truth even - I wanted to team with the Dwarves against the Clan, but on terms that would ensure my eventual dominance.

It failed, Mardoc and SL worked out an agreement. My optimistic guess is a long NAP and pessimistic is a joint attack vs me with SL getting my land. I'll have to wait to hear the whole story and try to fit myself into it.


In the meanwhile I signed an irrelevant NAP with Serdoa:

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Hi Iskender,

I am fine with a NAP - tell me how long you would prefer it. As for the hawk, don't worry, I am expecting to get scouted after you guys killed Bob (well, kinda)

Kind regards,
Serdoa
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Silver"]How does T170 sound? I don't want to make it too long or too short, I guess T170 should be OK.

I've removed the hawk. If you'd like me to scout an area from any of your cities let me know.

Good luck with Mobius Witches!

Iskender[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Hey Iskender,

T170 sounds fine, so I take it as agreed.

Thanks for the offer re the hawk, though I don't see it necessary right now. If the clan comes calling I am dead anyway .

If there is something I can help you with let me know.
[/COLOR]

He doesn't care anymore, so I hawked the Sheaim land after seeing Clan's DoW on them.



Two elementals that make an impression as if they were too shy to attack the cities. Mardoc might be cautious with regard to the Armageddon Counter.


Speaking of AC, I avoided a big Defenders of Coombe View never stopped to heal. Three shadeable units were below 30% health, Blight could've killed them. I healed one with a promotion and rested the other two in Clan's lands. The rest is almost home:



I lost the free Commander though By one turn, even less - I'd get Military Strategy this turn, but I'm later in the turn order. I could've gotten the tech a dozen times already but I've set up the micro for the Bazaar so nicely. Bleh. On the good side, with no pressure on research I was able to focus on preparing for the incoming Blight.