[SPOILERS] ARRR Ye Scurvy Dogs! Hannah the Irin

[Mardoc]

So, what kind of impact did that revolt have? Well, it looks pretty decent:


Expenses are down by 23, income up by 12. It means I can bump my tech rate to 80% instead of 70%. It also definitely maxes me out on foreign trade, as can be seen in the newest little Lanun city, Coolio:


I had forgotten about the inter-continental trade bonus. This will mean just about every city will benefit at least 5 gold/turn from building a Sea Haven, turning all my 2 commerce trades into 3 commerce trades. Also, as you can see, Coolio is already tax-neutral, possibly tax-positive if you count the improved trade routes on the mainland, plus generating 9 beakers. With literally nothing except free trade. This is why I'm sacrificing city growth and infrastructure for settlers. This is why I have hope of catching Thoth if his darn golden ages ever end. In a turn or two, the Cultist for Coolio will finish, as will its workboats. In a few turns I will have gotten the first of many workers to the island. I expect great things from this island.

I have settlers due in 1, 4, and 5 turns, to be transported to the island. The challenge is going to be coming up with Cultists, workboats, workers and warriors fast enough to keep up, but I think I can probably manage that too.

In foreign news, Thoth has built the Tablets of Bambur, and as you've probably seen, guaranteed that Irgy will be part of any take-down attempt by killing Rosier and presumably at least Tsunami'ing all of his coasts. Seeing as Irgy was the one with the least to benefit from a dogpile, I think this may have been a foolish move on Thoth's part. True, mano a mano I don't expect much from Irgy due to his enormous production disadvantage, although hopefully he'll at least kill a Cultist or two. But this does mean that Irgy will almost certainly not only join our dogpile, but commit serious forces to it.

I've finally bit the bullet, and gone for Optics. I should get my first scouts going for circumnavigation and Irgy-contact shortly, maybe even with Air adepts on board.

Some diplo:

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]
I've got to agree on Thoth - there's been a lot of 'don't want him to get, but I want my copy of it even more' going on - trade, for instance. And happiness resources. and NAPS .

He definitely came fishing about a Coalition of the Willing attempt, I said basically nothing either way. 'Huh? Are you talking about PBEM2?'. Of course the primary difference between the two games is that we don't intend to fail .

I do apologize for the mistake on Valin/Sphener; I knew it was an Order hero, but got mixed up on which. I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention that I plan to get Saverous and Hemah eventually.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Hmmmm, well the other game didn't intend to fail in their dogpile either. (actually, every dogpile attempt ever never intended to fail, they just did) All that matters really is well we all co-operate with our attack and hide our intentions, although so far it seems we haven't exactly done a great job so far given our NAP expiry dates differences and Thoth's rising power (and Iron Chariots).

You have a lot of trades with Thoth. (sheep, gold and incense, OB and water mana for something I presume?). I can't say I'm that happy about them all, given Thoth's growing lead over the rest of us (you've seen the Malakim demographics haven't you? True he's in a GA but it's still ridiculous). Since you don't want to trade with him but still want the resources, it's worth mentioning that I can have a spare sheep available for trade if required and Irgy has a spare gold which I presume he'll be happy to trade to you when the two of you make contact. Perhaps you can arrange to trade with us instead of Thoth?

Speaking of trades, I would be interested in borrowing your Sun mana starting from T135. You did express interest in my Nature mana when we made contact, would that be a suitable exchange for Sun mana? (I should have nature mana available on request, but since your not the only civ who I have agreements regarding the nature mana there is a small possibility that I won't be able to send it on request, hopefully that won't happen though).
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]
Yes, I'd be happy to trade with the easterners instead, except that for the most part that hasn't seemed to work - you've already traded away your spares to one another, leaving me the choice of Thoth or nothing. I tried to trade with Nyktorion for silk, for instance, but he said it was already promised elsewhere, and I've had Pearls available for you, but until now you haven't had anything to offer. I am at least getting my Ale from you instead of Thoth, even at the cost of not having it for a few turns. I'd be happy to loan you my Sun for 10 turns, in return for a future undetermined loan of Nature or Life (depending on where Irgy summons Hyborem). Suppose, to make sure of it working, we add the condition that you guarantee the mana to me within 10 turns of my request, for a 10 turn period?

I'd be fine with replacing the sheep trade from Malakim to sheep from you; what do I have that you could use? I can't cancel my gold trade, as it was tied in with a deal that let me have a city site close to Thoth's capital that had multiple Pearls available.

In terms of hitting Thoth, in my conversations with him he's expressed the opinion that he's a natural dogpile target, so he's expecting one regardless of whether we give any particular indication. Frankly, yes, a GNP twice the nearest competitor, even in a Golden Age, will spawn a dogpile attempt .
[/COLOR]

As another proposal, something I worked out with Nyktorion but would be happy to imitate with you - if we can work out an alternating schedule for trading water mana back and forth, we can ensure all our adepts start with Spring for free. Would you be interested?

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
Your additional condition is fine by me. So, in summary, the deal is (unless I'm mistaken) Sun mana for 10 turns starting T135, in exchange for Life or Nature, within 10 turns of your request, for 10 turns.

I didn't really think about what you could offer me for sheep. Being the Lanun, I assumed that you would have plenty of seafood to trade but upon closer inspection it appears the only surplus seafood you have (crabs) is the only one I managed to get myself. Is there any chance of you getting surplus clams or fish? If not then oh well, it was worth asking to see if there were any possibilities. Your gold trade with Thoth is similarly understandable, some trades can't be canceled.

Thoth knows his lead and is expecting the dogpile, but that doesn't mean we should give him hints of our intentions. Still, he'll probably figure it out sooner or later anyway. I'm just worried since his MFG and GNP are at least double the next highest and I'm 95% sure he used the Drama Bard for another GA, that by the time T170 comes around he'll be too far ahead for any or all of us to do anything about it. Still, given that it'll be extremely late in the game when the time comes, it will surely be awesome regardless of the result.

Trading our Water mana so our adepts start with Spring is an intriguing idea. I would be very interested in it. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to be on the receiving end of the deal first as I'd like to give a free promotion to Corlindale who I'm building ATM. He only gets free promotions when he gets built (unlike adepts, who can also get free promo's when they upgrade to mages and archmages) hence why I'd like to be on the receiving end first. If that's not a problem, could you send your water mana before T135?[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]
Ok, consider the Lanun signed for "Sun mana to Elohim for 10 turns starting T135, in exchange for Life or Nature, within 10 turns of Lanun's request, for 10 turns."

I will be able to get extra Fish for certain, possibly also crabs. I'm not sure how long it'll take me without the game in front of me.

Similarly, on the Water question, in principle yes, but I need to check the game for the details. I will be starting my adepts shortly, and a main purpose to them is to eliminate all the desert in the west that's not inside Thoth's borders (really don't want that extra movement allowed). If I can get an adept or two trained before that, then I'm good with giving the extra promo to Corlindale. I really wish I'd thought to offer the trade a few turns ago, then I could have been getting free promos now, but there's no way to manage both that and water in your hands at T135, game mechanics wise.

You might be right about Thoth. Although, if there's one thing Pocketbeetle taught us, it's that any army can become extremely fragile under the right conditions. It's just a matter of maneuvering to set that up.[/COLOR]

I apologize for the delay in response. As my first Adept will be rolling off the production line T137 at the earliest, I've gone ahead and offered you water mana. I figure I three turn delay won't cost much on my end. After Corlindale is built and the 10 turns are up, can I have yours in return?

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]On the Air mana deal - would it work for me to have the two air manas at ~T140? That's when I expect to be manufacturing a good chunk of Adepts.

Something I hadn't considered on the Tigers until recently was that I need to build Carnivals first. Which may be a while. Maybe a tiger deal would be best timed for after the Malakim war, when you can just walk them to me (assuming it goes well).[/COLOR]

[Mardoc]

Not a lot going on in Lanun this turn. We approach Optics, and 1 turn more on all the builds.

In foreign news, Nyktorion agreed to the Air mana loan, although he wanted to start it a tad earlier so that he has his Air mana at T150 when the NAP with Thoth expires; so I'll be getting Air mana at T137 from Nyk. I think I may want to build a second Mage Guild so I can really pump out the Adepts in the T137-T150 range while I'm getting free promotions. I'm just not sure where's the best spot. Maybe Phiber Optik, although I was planning to build Caravels from there.

[Mardoc]

The turn opens with the research of Optics - now I can get started on Caravels, Pirates, and The Black Wind!



I finally found my 12th city, RTM; now all my urgent city sites are on the island . I only have one more to found on the mainland before the Thoth problem is dealt with.



And, speaking of the Thoth problem, his golden age is over, let's see how we stack up:



We're #1! We're #1!

Of course, he's probably still got an Artist for another golden age. And he's definitely got to be ahead a long way in tech, so I still have a lot of work to do to catch up. And I'm still well below him in Food, Production, and Power. But it's working!

[Mardoc]

We're #2 .

As I kinda expected, Thoth was probably running a turn of 0% science to replenish his gold reserves; he's now about 80 GNP higher than me. Still, I'm in the right ballpark again. If I keep pushing expansion and growth hard, I should be in decent shape. The real interesting question is what he does at his next Adaptive switch, which I think is T145. If he switches away from Financial, then I'll be left at #1 GNP pretty decisively, I think: -1gold to almost all of his tiles will be gory. On the other hand - he's got one limited war going on, and a good chance of war with me, Nyktorion, and WarriorKnight after that. Maybe he'll decide he's got enough GNP, and needs to protect it, and will go for Raiders ala PB. Or, for that matter, that he's got enough of a tech lead, and it's time to start turning that into a victory, and still go Raiders.

In other news, I'm thinking tech path again. Honestly, I think I've cleaned up most of the useful economy techs for the moment, so it's probably about time to start on my military techs. I still need Mathematics for my soon-to-be-cheap Gambling houses, and possibly also Engineering and/or Taxation for econ boosting. Engineering would be great for war, too, as I lean on my Raiders trait. But I've got most of what I can use, economy wise, for a while.

So, military tech. That would be Mind Stapling for Saverous (and the option of Asylums for science down the road), Fanaticism for Stygians, One of the 'isms, probably Elementalism -> Sorcery -> Arcane Lore for Hemah and maybe mages, and potentially also Metal Casting -> Iron Working for, well, Iron (not planning any Boarding actions, although I suppose it couldn't hurt to pick up Guybrush). Iron would help at sea, too, enabling me to build Frigates.

Finally, I really ought to start applying the whip. Problem is, I'm not particularly used to using it. Is there a good guide somewhere to optimal whipping? About all I'm aware of is that it's going to be most efficient where I have a big food surplus, granary/smokehouse, and can do multi-pop whips. And that it often doesn't pay to whip off of improved tiles. So the best spots for it will tend to be my new cities, especially post-lighthouse. Second-best will be places like Captain Crunch, with big food surpluses, although again a lighthouse and granary/smokehouse will greatly improve my efficiency. Is that about right?

[Mardoc]

Irgy revolted into Undercouncil this turn, which both got me contact with him and started the voting. I sent off a quick message to him proposing open borders and cooperation, we'll see what happens. Voted for myself as Head Councilor - hope that wasn't a mistake that will cause delay.

Going Mathematics at the moment, which will probably transition into Engineering and/or Taxation. Then I really do need to switch over to military.

Werewolf took a lot more time to moderate than I was expecting, so not much time for reporting tonight. I'll try for more detail tomorrow or Thursday.

[Mardoc]

Things are accelerating in Lanun. I've started to apply the whip, carefully, and it's nice to see builds go from 'it'll get done when it's ready' to 'yessir, ready as ordered' . Lighthouses and granaries are definitely in order, at least in non-hammer heavy spots (and probably there, too). Hopefully I will never again have any reason to turn on 'avoid growth'

In the south, Captain Crunch is working on a last settler for the island, then it will get a break while I put up granary, smokehouse, and lighthouse. It will definitely be the whip capital of the world eventually, though

I expect Samy to challenge it for the title - those Sugars are a nice food bonus! It's going to finish off a workboat for those Pearls, then go for Lighthouse/granary/smokehouse itself. Samy, despite being one of the newest cities in the empire, is already looking pretty nice - I expect once I get its infrastructure going strong, it will be one of my prize cities.

Condor just whipped its Elder Council, and thus starts on a Lighthouse. I expect to eventually be able to muster a truly awesome food surplus here.

Finally, Phoenix continues in its role of boring production center, building a Mage Guild to be able to also spam Adepts during the T135-T150 period in which I expect to have oodles of mana.



To the East, MafiaBoy works on the first Lanun adept, while both Curador and Comrade are focused on providing support to the islanders - switching between work boats, warriors, Cultists - whatever's needed at the time. Hopefully soon this work will be done, and they can spend some 'me time' .



In the West, the focus is on RTM - Phiber Optik and Electron are both building work boats for it, Electron's is whipped. RTM will continue to focus on infrastructure, while Phiber Optik knocks out some caravels and Electron heads for the food trifecta. Mindphasr is a fairly boring town, producing Cultists for the island, but at some point soon I need to slip in a lighthouse at least here too.

Finally, the island is starting to look like a home: Coolio is already working two coves; Dark Dante was founded this turn. Three more sites to fill (and 10 workboats, and 4 Cultists, and the lairs to explore).
Techwise, I think I'm going to go for Taxation and Engineering next (and I'm strongly tempted to build the Guild of Hammers - 300ish hammers for 17 forges sounds like a good deal to me!

And, some diplo with Irgy:

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Turns out you were right, Undercouncil did cause us to connect! So
finally I'm connected to everyone . I still will sail to visit you
for the map knowledge, though.

I proposed open borders, but don't see any other immediately apparent
deals worth making, since I will have Fish and Clams very soon. If
I'm wrong - there's a resource you can connect easily, for instance,
I'd be happy to trade with you. I'd also be interested in mana trades
later on.

I voted for myself as head councilor of the Undercouncil - I intend to
propose the Great Sage, then Smuggling Ports, Gambling Ring, and Slave
Trade, in that order. Thoth may be able to join the Undercouncil as
well this turn, but there's nothing we can do about that short of
spiting ourselves and throwing away our bonuses.

And, we can finally plan war without having to go through
WarriorKnight. I think Thoth probably guaranteed that you're going to
put up a significant force when the time comes - my sympathies on
Rosier, however. I do still intend to participate when the time
comes[/COLOR].

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Greetings!

Good to finally be able to talk to you openly. Not that I was particularly
hiding much before going through WK, but it just feels a little more comfortable.

I voted for myself on the CoE, just on principle, but I expect you have the
tie-breaker (though I've never really been sure how that works?). In any case,
I expect I'd propose similar things to you. I'd probably not prioritise
smugglers' port quite so highly though, and would prefer to enlist the
nightwatch rather soon to help me against Thoth's marauding Cultists.

Rosier was simply a bit of stupidity on my part. I had him exploring for no
particular reason. He stepped outside WarriorKnight's borders for one turn and
that was all it took for Thoth to make an opportunistic attack.

Here's some ideas for trades:
* World maps. I have quite a bit to offer with mine, I have received
WarriorKnight's map as well as Mr Yellow's before his departure. So I've got
quite a bit of the continent, and all the special features. Trading maps will
also activate trade routes for both of us by revealing all of the common coast
(as I've explored well past where your ship reached, so between us we have the
whole coast).
* In the future, or really any time you'd like to, I can replace your
gold-pearls trade with an identical one. You'll be helping the trailer rather
than the leader then I can also possibly try and re-arrange my existing
trades to free up some gems to trade to you.
* Shadow - You have the CoE holy city, I can only assume you intend to build
the shrine. When you do, I'd like to borrow the shadow mana - primarily for
constructing my Tower of Necromancy. Let me know what mana of mine you might
be interested in. I can be quite flexible with the available options once I
have researched sorcery, but in the meantime Death and Entropy (AV shrine once
I build it) are certainly two of the better level 1 spell schools for example.
* A Chaos-Chaos trade, similar to one I understand you have planned with the
Ljosalfar for Air mana, would benefit us both by giving a few free chaos 1
promotions.

Well, not sure what else to add at this stage. I hope your preparations are
going well. Mine are getting completely disrupted by Thoth's harassment - and
at no real cost to him, at least until I manage to take down some of the cultists.

Best Regards,
Irgy Arbandi[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]
Hmm. As it happens, I did get Mr. Yellow's map as well - being one of
the only people in the game to wish him well and help, if only
slightly, paid off, it seems. It would be handy to know of
WarriorKnight's land, though, and getting you activated trade routes
would certainly help balance the game somewhat. Probably yes on this
one, but let me think about it a smidgen.

I suppose we could bump up the Nightwatch a tad; it would be more
units in the non-Thoth camp than the Thoth camp, anyway. I don't
really know how the mechanics of the Undercouncil work, in any detail.
Are we going to have to spend 50 turns to get all 5 resolutions in
place?

Unfortunately, I can't cancel the gold-pearls trade, since it was part
of a larger trade that included me getting a city site close to Thoth.
Gems would be nice, though .

Your mana suggestions look good to me! I'm certainly happy to agree
to the Chaos exchange - ideally the vast majority of the time one of
us will have both Chaos sources. I don't know your plans, but I am
just starting a significant push for Adepts, and free promotions are
free promotions. Would it be possible to send over your Chaos from
now until T150, which is when my Air and Water deals expire and I'll
stop adept production for a while?

I'd be happy to trade the Shadow (or Sun) away (yes, Nox Noctis is
calling me - I think it would really help defend against Thoth), and
frankly, Entropy is extremely appealing in a civ that's likely to be
stuck with Adepts for the most part, fighting a civ who's almost
certainly building the Mines of Gal-Dur. Shadow - well, current ETA
is quite a while, but I'll be hiring another Priest or two shortly to
cut that time down. I have the Mirror of Heaven in my borders,
though, so I have Sun mana accessible in addition to my own palace
mana.

At the moment, my focus is still on expanding my economy and
production capabilities, but then I still have 35 turns of NAP
protection.

Anyhow, I'm sure we can find other points of agreement as time passes,
so keep in touch.[/COLOR]

[DaveV]

Looks like you have some lizard problems on your island. Do you need to squeeze in some extra warriors?

Techwise, I think I'm going to go for Taxation and Engineering next (and I'm strongly tempted to build the Guild of Hammers - 300ish hammers for 17 forges sounds like a good deal to me!

Not to mention that Guild of Hammers lets you get forges without researching Smelting. If you have a shot at that wonder, I'd definitely recommend going after it!

[Mardoc]

Looks like you have some lizard problems on your island. Do you need to squeeze in some extra warriors?

Probably not - both Coolio and Dark Dante are on hills, and my mutated Cultist is on his way to kill the one remaining on the Ruins. It couldn't hurt, though, just to be certain.

Not to mention that Guild of Hammers lets you get forges without researching Smelting. If you have a shot at that wonder, I'd definitely recommend going after it!

Ah, I was wondering about that. I will have to check the Trade screen again next turn to see if I have any competition for Engineering (presumably Thoth if anyone).

[Mardoc]

Thoth built the Mines of Gal-Dur; meanwhile WarriorKnight's gotten Corlindale and the Order Shrine built. Thoth converted at least one mana node within my sight to Enchantment. And Order spread to Dark Dante, for yet another religious option if I ever want to pretend I'm Spiritual.

Mind Stapling came in this turn, so I'm going to try to slip Saverous in somewhere so he can start levelling up. Haven't found a good spot this turn, though.

No one else has Mathematics, even, so if I press straight for that and Engineering, I should get the jump on them for Guild of Hammers. I think it's worth doing. People are definitely ramping up for war, it seems, so they might not even compete for a wonder whose payoff takes some time to achieve. Still, with my empire currently producing 137 hammers, not counting whips, adding 25% to that would pay off the 368 hammers of the Guild in under 10 turns. And Engineering's practically a war tech for me anyway .

I have my first Adept, trained in Air, headed toward Phiber Optik to board an in progress Caravel and go circumnavigate. I'll aim to knock out another 2 caravels here and a Pagan Temple for a second Priest, then it can be my home for the Guild.

Meanwhile the rest of my empire will work on what I've always been working on - stuff for the island and infrastructure.

[Amelia]

Damn it, how did you expand so much while i'm stuck with only 7 cities =(

I guess my beeline to Saverous didn't work out that well :P