Mooooooo.... wait, wrong animal. Neeeigghhh

[Iskender]

There's a silver lining though: it made me realize I've been misspelling your nickname all along, sorry


T118:


The northern scout keeps moving. He outmaneuvered a C2 Scorpion and is 18 tiles away from the eastern edge of the map.

The southern one is mapping out whatever he can in Illian lands

Not much besides. Here's F1:

Serdoa is hoarding cash (400+ atm). Could be that he wants to hurry ToE with $ and move on to ToN. It'd be expensive though - hurrying national wonders is 6gc/hammer?


Honor in 1t. Short-term plans: settle two cities in the east and one in the south, spread Empy, get a few Horsemen and capture Galvenholm.

Tech plans (not necessarily in that order): Construction (moar farms), Fishing+Sailing (secure Letum Frigus), KotE, Stirrups?

[Iskender]

T119:

Another Illian city sighted

This one has also been founded on a desert. This might eventually force Serdoa to make a tough choice - either have cities with 25% def penalty or convert the desert to snow and deny the cities river commerce. Also, more roads please!


There's a situation in the north:

I played it safe and withdrew the scout SW onto a desert hill. Probably too much caution on my part, the orc squad is most likely beelining the closest Grigori city.


EOT: Empy founded in Epsom! Very nice, I like!

[Brian Shanahan]

Myrean is a barb city name, so it may not have been Serdoa's choice exactly.

[Iskender]

Cheers for the barb AI then, maybe eventually we'll be able to take advantage of this unfortunate city placement.

T120:

Scouts keep scouting. The northern one should outrun the orc stack next turn thanks to Mobility I.


We're now official emissaries of the Empyrean religion. It's already spread to Aintree and I'm sending the free Ecclesiastic to Ascot.

F1:

Three settlers ready in 2 turns. Two should go somewhere here:

Not sure where exactly. One probably near the floodplains and another maybe up the river.

EOT: Heroic Epic built in the capital. Discovered Construction.


Now bad news. Serdoa completed the Tower of Elements (and also discovered Divination). If his micro is good he should be able to start another tower next turn.

We need to make a tough decision. The golden age ends in 4 turns. The next one should start around T138. The question is when should we adopt Conquest? At first I thought we can delay it until around T140 and focus on the economy instead, now I'm not so sure. We might need to have a complete attack force ready by T150 to be able to prevent Serdoa from winning the game.

Also, we have lots of excess food in developed cities. The only way to utilize it is to build settlers+workers but if we keep doing that we run the risk of overexpanding - we're at 11 cities, 4 settlers are being built and there are 3-4 barb cities to capture. In a few turns we'll need to work specialists to prevent cities from growing above the happy cap (even if it rises a bit) and I'd hate to work specialists that'd never make a great person (thus effectively being the equivalent of a 0/0/3 tile), a waste of good citizens Therefore I'm for switching to Conquest at the end of the current GA and gradually switching to military mode. What do you guys think?

[Brian Shanahan]

Cheers for the barb AI then, maybe eventually we'll be able to take advantage of this unfortunate city placement.

Or it maybe him throwing a googly, by giving a barb name to a city. Though unlikely as Myrean is an early barb city (it's usually the one that gets Archeron in my SP games).

We need to make a tough decision. The golden age ends in 4 turns. The next one should start around T138. The question is when should we adopt Conquest? At first I thought we can delay it until around T140 and focus on the economy instead, now I'm not so sure. We might need to have a complete attack force ready by T150 to be able to prevent Serdoa from winning the game.

Also, we have lots of excess food in developed cities. The only way to utilize it is to build settlers+workers but if we keep doing that we run the risk of overexpanding - we're at 11 cities, 4 settlers are being built and there are 3-4 barb cities to capture. In a few turns we'll need to work specialists to prevent cities from growing above the happy cap (even if it rises a bit) and I'd hate to work specialists that'd never make a great person (thus effectively being the equivalent of a 0/0/3 tile), a waste of good citizens Therefore I'm for switching to Conquest at the end of the current GA and gradually switching to military mode. What do you guys think?

Way I see it is that you've got three questions to answer.
1) How worried are ye about ToM by Serdoa (I would but I'm not playing)?
2) Will ye be ready to step up plans (to me it looks like it, but I'm not getting the saves)?
3) What is Krill in all of this? You could be beating down Serdoa, just to see the most monumental stab ever (can't be backstab as no relations).

Personally I'd push for war, if Serdoa is going ToM ye could have a good chance to stop him, if not how else are ye going to win, and ye could still catch him on the hop.
Krill is a problem that can only be resolved two ways, either getting diplo or playing out the scenario. Diplo is a long shot so I think apart from beefing up defences where he'd most likely strike ye can do nothing really.

I hope that helps.

[Iskender]

1) How worried are ye about ToM by Serdoa (I would but I'm not playing)?

He built ToE in 14 turns. This turn there's Death, Entropy and Shadow mana visible in his trade screen and a Chaos node on the map (yet unconnected though, haha). He can get ToN by T134 (probably even earlier) and then if he builds ToA and ToD simultaneously (he needs 6 nodes for this and we can already see he's got 5) then by T150 he'll have started working on ToM already.

IOW I am worried.

2) Will ye be ready to step up plans (to me it looks like it, but I'm not getting the saves)?

3) What is Krill in all of this? You could be beating down Serdoa, just to see the most monumental stab ever (can't be backstab as no relations).

The worst news would be that Krill is racing with Serdoa to get his own ToM. The most boring news also. It'd make the XII look like an Adventure played over several months. Sheesh.

If we're the only ones to try to stop Serdoa then Krill wins even if he doesn't attacks us immediately, he'll just run away with the game. We should make contact in maybe a dozen turns and then make some really careful diplo.

A direct attack by the Clan is unrealistic, I believe. We're about 60 tiles apart from each other with Amelia still in between. The only way for Krill to reach us fast is be by mounted units and I doubt he can out-hippus the Hippus.

Thanks for your input Brian, now let's see if SL manages to keep his hands off Chianti for long enough to help us here.


In the meantime, T121:


The northern scout is 11 tiles away from the eastern edge. He should meet the Grigori (or die) in a few turns.

EOT: Discovered KotE. Built two of these:

[Iskender]

T122:

Met the Grigori. I sent Amelia this:

[COLOR="Lime"]Greetings from the Western Prairies!

Many a brave scout have died trying to cross the perilous land that divides us. We come in peace and we seek advice. There are two Evils that struggle for dominance over Erebus. We have known the Ice Devils from the south for long. Long enough to see their purpose, which is to put ice shackles on all creation by completing the Tower of Mastery. The Ice Devils have are already masters of the Elements and will soon extend their rule over the realm of Necromancy.

But there still might be a Greater Evil lurking in the southeast, an Evil that we know nothing about. You are now the only civilization that have met all living powers of this world. We seek your advice. Which Evil is greater? Which Evil should we fight? Or maybe they are both in league to destroy all creation? These are the questions that torment the horselords. If the Grigori elders have the right answers maybe this will change the fate of Erebus.

Iskender the Nagmaster on behalf of Square Leg the Horselord


PS. Out of character: there are 4 orcs heading your way two or three tiles west from the scout.[/COLOR]

Basically I tried to fish for info on the Clan, their NAP with the Illians in particular. Maybe something interesting will pop up. Who's a nagmaster anyway?


Three new settlers are on the move. EOT I grabbed Fishing.

[Brian Shanahan]

Thanks for your input Brian, now let's see if SL manages to keep his hands off Chianti for long enough to help us here.

Just don't send him any fava beans and we should be allright. phetetetetetete!

[Iskender]

Yummy!

T123:

No response from Amelia, maybe he's given up completely and none will come. The scouts turned south .

Domestically nothing new. I'm still weighing options whether adopt Conquest now or later (I think I'll take it next turn). One more factor cropped up in demos:

Somebody's GNP just doubled. Must be the Clan (Serdoa didn't do anything conspicuous this turn other than adopting Conquest). I guess Krill has entered a GA and is having fun with the slider. Not sure though.

Discovered Hunting EOT.


Last but not least, a screenshot that says how interesting the game has been so far

[Rowain]

Last but not least, a screenshot that says how interesting the game has been so far

You know you could have declared war on the Ilians . Surely that would have spiced up things a bit So don't complain now