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

[fire&ice]

I took the description to mean you always get +1 happy rather then training yard which only gives you +1 happy with nation hood

IDK I might be wrong you might but, either way if you die you can blame a glitch.

[Irgy]

The "+1 happy" at the top is a summary of the benefits, which are described in more detail below. If you switch out of Nationhood it won't say +1 happiness at the top any more.

[NobleHelium]

You can always use in-game signs to remind yourself of what you should be doing.

I'm pretty sure Seven Pines peace is longer than one turn, but I don't know exactly.

[Irgy]

It's a ceasefire, so you can even declare war again in the same turn.

It *ought* to be a peace treaty for 10 turns, and the manual even says so, but it isn't.

[Serdoa]

Thanks for clearing that up - might still be useful if he would invade me. But right now I am on his turf anyway.

[Serdoa]

So, short update without picture. Ilios wiped out my Hamly Ka (my 84xp warrior). He needed... one unit for it. Yes, one unit to damage my effective str 13.5 unit enough to have it still as stack defender but not with enough life left to kill the next attacker as well.

I told darrell about it and wanted to send this

Gratulations to get as lucky as you did, killing a str 13.5 unit with just one loss. I think I would need several reloads to get the same result, but I guess you just got lucky choosing two times exactly the right unit to attack?

to Ilios but didn't. Ilios, when you read this sometimes and you say "I have not reloaded, just got lucky" I will believe you, but right now I am simply pissed for losing a unit which should have cost you at least 1 or 2 more to kill it. And why you attacked the way you did is still beyond me. If you had lost your second unit (living with 0.4 health now) then my unit wouldn't be available as defender anymore - so what then? Losing 2 units and gaining... nothing? Thats exactly why I believe this to be reloaded.

[Serdoa]

So.. uh, since my last post I made peace with Ilios, telling him I would attack the Calabim. I considered if I should do that or not but seeing them getting vampires made me tell Ilios that I won't attack and so I had no longer to think about if I actually want to hit my former allies.

Well, appearantly they realised that they have to grow bigger and I am the only available target - according to them. They might be right about that, at least considering their direct neighbours. Amelias land probably is not what the Calabim are looking for (I have no clue about it but imagine that it is coast heavy). uberfish? He is after our "mutual" war - which I fought pretty much alone, or at least it felt that way... - second strongest civ in the game. That leaves me.

I have spotted 13 vampires near my borders, Ilios told me there are another 11. I am not sure if he is talking about the same ones I have seen or others. If those are two different stacks then Darrell has 24 vampires and I am toast. If not... well, I am probably still toast. My border city has 14 warriors and 2 catapults in it and 30% defenses. Those warriors are Str4, a few with promotions. His vampires are Str6, probably all with some promotions at hand. Even if not they should have odds. And they can summon spectres. I am now in full war mode, producing troops everywhere, but that won't be nearly enough. Not even remotely. As soon as Darrell has killed that border city, it is pretty much walking over me for him.

Putting that all together, I guess I can formulate my last words:

It was a fun game and interesting experience for me. I had nearly no experience with FFH before and I still have much to learn. I think I had a bad starting area and that combined with my lack of experience would have normally made me last place (instead of 3-4 according to score and demos) if it wouldn't have been for Perpentach and a really lucky change of traits.

I think I did play rather weak in the last weeks though, especially diplomacy. But that is a recurring theme for ALL pbems I am in at the moment. Having practically no time - and even with time simply not the energy - to do diplomacy has hurt me way more then my starting area.

Apart from that, with the knowledge I have now, I should have allied with the Malakim instead of going to war with them. Or at least got a NAP with them. I still have places in my backlines which I would like to settle, I probably could have taken out the Calabim before they got vampires and I believe that Ilios would have a better target with Sciz then me. But allying with the wrong party is also a recurring theme in my games.

Well, I guess thats it. If something interesting happens or if I - through a miracle - don't die, I'll let you all know. Sometimes

[Serdoa]

... Losing 2 units and gaining... nothing? Thats exactly why I believe this to be reloaded.

Something about that post above: Sorry for it Ilios. I was pissed on losing the unit but much more about some stuff happening in my RL. I apologize for being an asshole there.

[Serdoa]

Lost Argenteria, will lose my cap soon. Ilios declares on the west side of my empire after I told him to see our NAP as null and void. The same will be done with Mahala on the east. I wonder, do the lurkers think that giving others the chance to invade me too is unfair against Darrell?

Anyway, I am doing my best to put up a fight against those vampires, but I simply can't get enough troops in the short timeframe I have. If Darrell had healed 1 or 2 more turns in Argenteria, I could have had some more troops in my cap and the money to upgrade them to swordsman (I make 250+ gold per turn in my golden age at 0%). But that is not the case, so there goes my empire.

Since I play Civ4 that is the first time that I am sad about how the game worked out as I really felt that I was improving my position. My lands were underdeveloped for some time but I finally got to work only improved tiles and grow my cities to size 10+. I got lucky and got a GA from a ruin and probably would have added my world-spell GA onto it when it ran out. That might have been enough to catch up quite a bit on the leaders.