[SPOILERS] Bobchillingworth is: Falamarrr- Sailor of the Swishy Seas

[Bobchillingworth]

Decided to gamble a little and pop a dungeon:






Probably the weakest "good" result possible, but I'm not complaining. I could have had two or three warriors defending the capital if the dungeon had spawned baddies, so it wasn't too much of a risk. Better to get rid of it now, than have someone's scout do it for me.



The land that has been revealed so far is universally fantastic. Lush, tons of resources, good production. So tempting! But dammit, I wanna play as Hyborem! Romping around with him, poisoning this delicious land, utterly indulging in my love of the Veil- I can't resist

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Come on, you can always convert the old-fashioned way, there aren't enough plains and plains hills to justify going fallow. Show off what the boy can do.

Also, did we just get a flawless victory on the barb goblin?

[Bobchillingworth]

Ugh, et tu, Carpathia? Man, I'll think about it.



Poison goblin is chasing the warrior. I'd rather not have him wait forever, healing off the poison damage when he could be scouting.

[Bobchillingworth]

Well, I was thinking about ways to play this game as Falamar, and I had some pretty good ideas, but it might be moot anyway :

[COLOR="Teal"]To the Bobchillingworth of the Lanun, masters of the swishy seas, Ellimist sends greetings.

Your people seem to have settled dangerously close to the camps of the Doviello. Whether this was bravery or foolishness will have to be determined by the laws of nature. Clearly, the only answer for this is to challenge the master of Innsmouth for supremacy.

Don't be alarmed by the howls that disturb your citizens. Lucian will spare those residents of Innsmouth who deserve to be spared, while removing the weak from their midst. He invites any worthy challenger to stand in his way.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Awesome, just who I wanted to start next to :P


Falamar fears no man! His nails are manicured, his hair conditioned, his hands well-moisturised! He pities the fool who would dare to interrupt his bubblebath! Tell Lucian to bring it on, and prepare to receive a grooming he'll not soon forget!


Lucian's a barber btw, right? I mean, that is why he has that giant razor he lugs around (a little oversized if you ask me, but who am I to judge to tools necessary to shave barbarians as unkempt as yours), yeah ? Y-yeah??? [/COLOR]

[Bobchillingworth]

Here we go!







Probably shouldn't have gone scouting with that starting warrior, but whaaatever :P



I'll have two warriors defending when Lucian can attack, with a third arriving shortly afterwards. I'll be up against... Lucian, a scout, and potentially two wolves. Odds are... not great



Well, not much else I can do. If I get eliminated, so be it.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Aaaaah holy shit.

Sorry about my "executive decision" to start working the 2/0/2 tile early. We're going to lose the 1/2/0 hills, shame as we need the hammers.

Eh, Hyborem sounds good, make that deal with him, he gains an unimproved city which won't contribute hammers or beakers, with zero Lanun coves. Later he'll gain an improved city with lots of cool coves.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Are we okay

Also, what happened to our blessed warrior? Any chance he could counterattack and take out Lucian?

[Bobchillingworth]

No idea what the situation is. Turn hasn't moved since Friday, and I'm still waiting on a response from Ellimist.


Blessed warrior is still scouting. He couldn't get back in time- the poison goblin blocked his way, and even if I had decided to take the 50% battle and killed it, it still would have arrive a turn too late.

[Bobchillingworth]

Welp, seemed like he might bite for a while, but he ended up not going for the proposal:

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Okay, well I know I just sent a "bring it on" response a few hours ago, but having now seen that there's a scout involved too I think my chances of survival are at about 40%, and so I am forced to deploy my SECRET DIPLOMATIC WEAPON.



Ahem. I had planned for a contingency like this from the very beginning, although I had hoped it wouldn't come to pass. I'd like to offer you a deal. Spare me, for about the next 90 turns. In fact, help keep me alive in case someone else comes by seeking to destroy my empire. At about turn 95 I should be able to switch to Hyborem, and then my old empire is yours to do whatever you see fit with it. I promise that I'll leave you with at least three cities to capture (tests showed that I could build several more of course, but after four cities they start to slow down the tech rate), fully developed coves, and some farms & probably plantations too. I'll be happy to empty my cities before I make the switch to the Infernals, allowing you to mop up Ravus or whatever poor AI takes over for my old civ. I would request that you agree to kill any Savants I can produce, though. You'll also capture the Veil Holy City, of course. I'm entirely willing to work with you regarding the placement and number of cities I found before jumping ship, although more cities past a certain point means a longer wait before you can take them.


We can discuss the exact terms further if you're interested, of course, but the arrangement I have in mind would read out like this:


* The Lanun and Doviello will sign an NAP and MPP until the Lanun are able to switch to Hyborem (or some reasonable cut-off date, if the former is to vague)


* Before switching to Hyborem, the Lanun will abandon their cities and leave them open for capture by the Doviello, which will be accomplished with a minimum of effort.


* The Doviello will agree to kill and Lanun Savants spotted on sight.


* As Hyborem, Bobchillingworth will sign an NAP with the Doviello, to last for an amount of time we can discuss later.



What do you say? Figured I should send this to you before you might decide to pop that worldspell (and thus have invested yourself in fighting me). So I sort of composed this in a rush :P
[/COLOR]

-Bobchillingworth

[COLOR="MediumTurquoise"]To Bobchillingworth, Master of the swishy seas, Ellimist sends greetings.

This is a very interesting proposal, I will definitely consider it. Pirate ports are definitely a tempting factor. I'm currently at work and will deliberate further once I have a chance to view the save.

I was hoping for better odds than 60%, but if that is indeed the odds after using the worldspell, then I may take the offer. I will run some simulations once I am able to see the garrison of your city. I will be declaring war regardless this turn, as a means of getting visibility on the city tile. For all I know you are bluffing and it's empty.

One concern I have is with regard to fairness. I'm not sure how I feel about the ethical implications of such an arrangement. This is my first (solo) PBEM and will probably set the baseline for my reputation. Another concern is the logistics of such a deal, I doubt whoever takes over the Lanun(if you are Hyborem) will simply allow such actions to take place.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hey,


I happened to be checking my email, so you get a quick reply :P


By all means, feel free to declare- as you'll see, the city has one warrior defending right now. Another finishes next turn. Like I said, I think you'll have odds to take it, but even if you do there's a good chance of losing Lucian, and you'll likely have to blow the worldspell. My plan allows you to skip on off to the next target


The ethics issue has already come up in my thread, since I posted the approximate details of the offer I sent you before I had even played turn 0, as this plan was always my diplomatic ace-in-the-hole. In sum: while some people are disappointed that I'm so willing to abandon Falamar (in a game supposedly intended to show off the poor dregs leaders of FFH), I don't anticipate that anyone will come away from this with a tarnished reputation. If there is any lurker blowback, I expect to be the sole target, since I was the one who came up with the plan in the first place. Leaving behind a weak empire shouldn't be too much of an issue for anyone- after all, that's the naturally consequence of any Hyborem-rush play. I'm just going to make finishing the Lanun off a little bit more easy for you I believe that outright gifting would be definitely unethical though, so you will have to capture anything you want for yourself.


About logistics, if I have about four-five cities, it shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Position scouts or something to take most of the cities in the first turn (I'll empty them first), something slightly more beefy to take the capital / anything you can't hit in one turn, and then some melee units to kill and savants I can produce. In the worst-case scenario you'll be facing warrior garrisons, which will be more free exp for your Sons of Asena than any real obstacle. Going with the reputation thing, since I don't want to be a huge dick to Ravus, I'll shoot him an email before the plan is completed letting him know what the situation is. Most likely you'll be destroying a crippled, hapless AI.


I'm not going to be crushed or anything if you decide to reject the plan and try to destroy me- considering the civs / leaders involved in this game, I knew as soon as I got Falamar that I was target #1 for everyone and a bloody death was the likely outcome if I couldn't reach Hyborem in time. But I think that inheriting a second empire instead of conquering an unimproved size 1 city (potentially losing Lucian and/or your worldspell in the process) is a pretty good deal, and the sort of boost that Charadon needs to compete with pretty much anyone else. [/COLOR]

[COLOR="MediumTurquoise"]To Bobchillingworth, Chief Scoundrel of the swishy wet water, Ellimist sends greetings.

Lucian tells me that those who ask for mercy are too weak to deserve it. I suppose we'll put this to the test soon enough.

I have consulted with 25 of our shamans and 21 of them assure me we will be successful in liberating the citizens of Innsmouth from the shackles of civilization. Due to this, and other auspicious signs, we will respectfully decline your proposal of providing future prey.

I will be posting my thought process and reasons for making this decision in my thread. I'm hoping you'll get a chance to read it soon.

Thanks for putting this game together and allowing me to take part. I regret that you may be eliminated from it so early.
I really appreciate the creative ideas you provide. The "Gotta Catch 'Em All" scenario seems particularly inspired(though I haven't tried it yet.)
This particular format, (pre-choosing leaders/civs, having players sign up, and then randomly distributing the leader choice,) also seems very promising.

Maybe next time there will be cooperation between us
Ellimist, Pack Alpha of the Doviello[/COLOR]

At least he's polite about it =) I don't know if I would have gone for it in his position either, although I'd have been pretty tempted. I'm not dead yet, but the odds for survival are poor. If I had kept the starting warrior at home, I'd have a significantly better chance of pulling through, but that would have been a poor move with almost any other neighbor, considering that my starting builds were warrior -> warrior (with a third warrior planned). Having Nic actually follow my plans to the letter and work the tiles I said to would have been nice as well, but honestly the few hammers "lost" probably wouldn't have made any difference, since I think the Doviello can attack before I could possibly get a third warrior out. Plus I probably would have switched to that tile for faster fishing anyway, if I had been playing the turns



Not much else to say, really. I think I'll be out of all of my PBEMs soon, so I'm hoping that Sareln gets the Paring Mod to a mp-playable state so that we can test it out here

[Sareln]

Still out before you again...