[Spoilers] Peace and Purity - Einion Logos of the Elohim

[WarriorKnight]

Thoth seemed surprisingly eager to sign a NAP until t135, so I accepted it. After that time I should have some monks up, so I won't immediately be signing NAP's like I have been recently. Anyway, now I have a NAP with all my neighbors, so it's time for a settler spam.

OO got founded somewhere, looking at the score increases it has to be either Thoth or more likely Mardoc. Which is great as the Lanun are IMO my main competition for Order (nyk and Irgy have better religions, Thoth already has one, Mr. Y has other priorities, and Commando Valin would be scary in Lanun hands). Just have to wait for 3 more turns...

[WarriorKnight]

Quick update, ending turn finished a Library in the capital, so I think I have one in all of my cities. Order will be founded next turn, I hope Glens of Killybegs is the holy city but it doesn't matter too much. Mardoc switched to OO, confirming that he got it.



I get around 140 beakers per turn (I'm researching Order so I don't get a pre-req bonus) and I'm guessing that the next best is around 70-80. Food and production is average but hopefully I can catch up when my happy cap goes up from Order and Ivory. I'm also settling my 5th city shortly and I've got a couple more settlers being built, so I'm happy.

After Order and Priesthood, I'll probably get Construction then Trade (via Sailing, but probably worth getting HBR too) with Cartography thrown in somewhere. After that I don't know for sure but most likely some order of Sanitation, the basic arcane techs and Fanaticism/Poisons.

[WarriorKnight]

And, I got it.



As a bonus, it even spread into my capital immediately. Now to spend 2 turns in revolt (one to Order state religion, other into Religion civic since I'll need the happiness and no other civic is nearby for a double swap) and then I might stop by at fishing before Priesthood since it's cheap and I'll need to build a workboat in my 5th city (which gets founded next turn).

[WarriorKnight]

Hey, is there any chance that you could get connected to the elves? I'm in dire need of copper and i just got connected to them. I believe they just took the nearby barbarian city.

Could you get a road up to that city? I'm willing to make a good deal for the copper (lost my only way of getting copper myself).

- Sir Yellow

Can't this guy see the writing on the wall? Nonetheless now that I have a NAP with Thoth I don't want to give him an excuse to break it, so I'm going to have to turn him down again. Just have to hope that he doesn't come back.

Hmmm, building a road to the elves is going to take quite a few worker turns. I'm a bit short on workers at the moment so I doubt I can spare the force required to build a road up to the elves.

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just ask for copper from the elves? Surely the elves have a native source somewhere that they can lend to you (if not then the map maker is rather cruel). It would sure be a lot quicker for you to ask from them compared to me building a trade route.

WK

In other news, Thoth has been surprising friendly for apparently organizing a coalition against me. Maybe Mr. Yellow was lying about that part to try and get me on his side, but Thoth is still first in power by a mile so I'm still keeping my eye on him in the near future.

[WarriorKnight]

Just revolted to Order and got a free Acolyte when it spread to Slane EoT (one benefit of Order is that after spreading to a city there's a high chance of receiving a free Acolyte or if I know Fanaticism, a Crusader). Also settled Dragon Bones city so now my happy cap is up to 11, so I probably don't have to revolt to Religion immediately. Instead I'll wait until my next two settlers are done before switching.

What's interesting is the diplo, where Mr. Yellow has called me out on being neutral. However, he's wondering if I can help Irgy and him connect so the Sheaim can give them their copper, and nyktorion would be willing to help build the road. I don't think I can resist that offer, especially since it likely won't be enough to connect the two of them and it gets me a trade route with nyktorion for only 2 pieces of road.

[WarriorKnight]

OK things are becoming increasingly difficult diplo wise. I asked if nyktorion was willing to establish a trade route between us, he replied as so:

Hi WarriorKnight,

I am currently finishing a few small other things with my workers. After that, I should be able to shift the road towards Garryvoe inbetween their other tasks.

best regards,
Nyktorion

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Actually, the above is just my official respons to your request. I would like to inform you a bit more about my current situation, but I also ask you to keep everything below the above line confidential. If anyone else asks you about this topic, please only let them know of the response above the line. I had to think about this topic for quite a while, which also explains the delay in my response, for which I apologise.

Very well...

Of course, I'd generally like to establish trade routes; they give us more profitable trade routes in our cities once we have open borders, and they enable us to trade resources. Both of that is beneficial to both of us. However, our connection can also be used by anyone else we're currently not at war with; in particular, Mr. Yellow would be connected to Irgy, giving him a new potenital source of copper, and this is the source of my reservation against our routes.

As I have told you in a chat some while ago, there was some border conflict between myself and Mr. Yellow, because I settled my city Yonna 3 tiles away from Vallus. Meanwhile, I found out that Vallus was actually a much more aggressive settling move than Yonna: Vallus is 10 tiles away from Torrolerial, in my direction (it strongly reminds me of the "pink dot" story I've seen on RB), and this is the reason for two things:

1) My own settling space is rather restricted; I don't really have space for a sensible sixth city anymore
2) The Bannor empire is essentially divided into two halves; when Torrolerial and Trinity had only three cultural rings each, the borders of these halves were only touching each other, but not overlapping

The prominence of our border conflict has meanwhile been drowned by the Bannor-Malakim war, and I am currently playing nice with him, and we have a NAP until T105. With Thoth heavily distracting Mr. Yellow in the west, myself lacking space, and the Bannor being the reason or my lack of space, I am planning to join the war on Thoth's side as soon as my NAP with the Bannor runs out, and to take Vallus and Trinity for myself.

I hope that you would also rather see those cities going to me than Thoth eventually taking all of the Bannor lands

Consequentially, I have a strong interest in keeping Mr. Yellow disconnected from copper. Since I would rather share my war plans only with you (whom I have had good relationships with for a long time already) rather than with both you and Irgy (whom I have met only recently), I prefer a solution that only involves us two (negotiating a copper embargo would require to incorporate Irgy, as well). Therefore, I would like to ask you to refrain from connecting our cities until T106, and to understand that I will refrain from doing so, as well. After that time, I would happily start a trading relationship between our two empires.

I would also be very happy if you kept even the very fact that I am unwilling to quickly establish a connection confidential; therefore, please use my initial response as my official response to your request.

Would the kind of cooperation I am asking for be okay for you?

OK well I wasn't expecting that. I seem to have gotten involved in this war much more than I would have liked to, but since I'm in this deep let's try and figure out what to do.

Since nyktorion has asked for confidentiality, It'll be unwise to share with anyone. (The fact that nyktorion is admitting to having a good relationship with me has been noted, and chances are I'm probably his BF right now) I'd also much rather take the Elves side over the Bannor. The problem is how will Irgy take this? From what I've heard, he's interested in keeping Mr. Y around for a map trade but aside from that probably doesn't have much of an opinion on him yet. I think he's only doing it since he hasn't had another option given to him yet, having only recently made contact with nyktorion, and lacking contact with the Malakim/Lanun. Hopefully he's willing to concede the map trade with the Bannor for our relationship. (I'll probably make a map trade with him when I get Cartography to make up for it, which I'll research within the next 10-15 turns)

Anyway, t98 was troubling since Thoth jumped up to 8 cities. I'm only on 5, although 2 settlers are in production (due around t102). Nyktorion and Irgy are likewise on 5. I'll probably need to start settling in Thoth's direction, especially since I can see his border now:



t100 is right around the corner, so I'll hold off on a complete overview until then. For now though, here's the Demographics:



Along with Thoth (who recently adopted Aristocracy which combined with FIN makes him 1st), nyktorion is getting a decent economy going and the Lanun are likely 3rd place. When I'm at 100% science I can reach 2nd. I've still got a lot of growing to do, as I'm tied for highest approval rate and I'm not even in religion yet. The Bannor aren't doing that well (hardly suprising) and neither are the Sheaim. As I don't have contact with the Lanun I can only guess how they are doing but I think they are in a similar situation to nyktorion, economy wise.

[Mist]

Does Irgy have visibility on your border with Nyk? If not maybe sell him a story about worker eating spider or something? Although probably better idea would be just to pass on the 'official' elven story - they are currently busy and can't spare the worker turns. You'll both try to make it happen over next few turns. Emphasis on 'try', after all, failures happen

Apart from that - yes, keep tight with elves, tie Irgy down with trades ( both present and future ) even if it means giving him better terms than you'd like to, and expand, expand, expand. It seems your game is reaching the phase where borders are set in stone, make that happen in a way convenient to you.

Food for thought - settler trade with Irgy? He'll plant you a city somewhere in the south, you'll throw him one next to that FP copper and you swap. He gains an escape outlet from being bottled up by your borders and pretty nice cottage location. You gain a Sheaim city and someone directly interested in keeping Toth in check.

[WarriorKnight]

Food for thought - settler trade with Irgy? He'll plant you a city somewhere in the south, you'll throw him one next to that FP copper and you swap. He gains an escape outlet from being bottled up by your borders and pretty nice cottage location. You gain a Sheaim city and someone directly interested in keeping Toth in check.

That sounds nice (anything's nice if I get Pyre Zombies out of the deal ) but I don't know how much he'll want to go for it. Sure it's a good spot, but it's miles away from his capital and he's struggling enough in GNP already. If he was out of land then maybe it could work, but it seems he has a fair bit of room down there(although I can't know how much for sure until we swap maps). Still, I wonder if there's a way that he would say yes to it. (after all, I'm giving him a mana node for free, that's got to count for something right?)

[WarriorKnight]

Nothing much happened on t99 (except for an natural Order spread into a Sheaim city which will undoubtedly be Inquisitioned out in time). t100 should be more interesting as I'll be able to use a hawk over Malakim lands, my hunter will likely capture his first bear IBT and get to 10xp, and 2 Acolyte's are going to finish spreading Order to all of my cities. Not to mention that I'll give the traditional overview.

[WarriorKnight]

It looks like the overview will be delayed unfortunately. In news for this turn though my hunter died IBT to the bear. I don't know what the odds were for that but that was unlucky for me. Now I doubt I'll be able to get Aeron's chosen unless no-one else ever researches poisons.

Also Glens border expand EoT, which cuts off Thoth from the Sheaim. I've agreed to let him declare a phony war on me to get past my borders since I really should have checked the holy city culture, but oh well.