Square Leg is Garrim Gyrrrrrrr - An Angry Dwarf

[Square Leg]

Turn 91

A few things happened on T91.

First off, we got the golden age event for OO... meh.

Secondly - Splashscreen for festivals:

That enabled me to build a 1t market in Totoro and a 4t market in Valley of the Wind. An extra 7.5gpt will enable me to keep my slider at 90% for quite a while - to make sure I ran a turn of gold.

Thirdly, my new settler moved into position to re-found Kobe next turn:

There are two mud golems on that hill with the warrior who will move in to farm the corn and get things rolling. I will then mine the copper, chop the forest 2W of the corn and spread irrigation to the corn. Kobe will be a bit of a hybrid city as most of mine will be, working grass farms and mines where possible - later on I will add lumber mills to the plains forests.

First build... I am thinking monument rather than market but I'm not sure. Maybe the monument will be better since I would like to have cultural pressure in the area as Serdoa is likely to found more cities along the border region. I may even be able to flip the death mana one day! Definitely going to go market 2nd if I go monument 1st and vice verser.

Totoro will build another mud golem and then another settler next whilst Valley of the Wind will complete its market and then likely build another warrior. When I turn the slider up again I expect BW to say 4t.

Feeling in a better mood about the game and finally making some progress, I decided to mail Iskender:

The subject of the message was: Remember the Ninja Dwarf?

He was back...

As subtle as being downwind from a pig farm the Dwarf rolled across the path from tree to tree. Alan stopped only to eat berries from the bushes or to scratch his bottom, he made his way in the general direction of the Sidar borders. As he approached he noticed something different... The trees were taller than before, the berries were tastier, the woodland animals happier... He quickly lost interest in performing thin air punches commando rolls and wandered awe stuck down the centre of the path, looking all around at the beauty that surrounded him. Like a child in a chocolate factory he felt an uncontrollable warm feeling envelope him. He had been told by Garrim Gyr that the rumour was the Sidar had been worshipping a new god. A god of nature, a god who could make the trees talk, a god who could provide riches from the forests and then, to his astonishment it happened.....


"Your standing on my foot." A deep voice said.

The Dwarf looked around nervously - his face now a deep purple from all the berries he had been eating.

"Who said that?" he squeaked

"I did" came the voice. Turning around Alan fell to the floor aghast for before him a great tree was starring at him with a disconcerting frown.

"I.... I... I'm very sorry sir" and with that he gathered himself and ran as fast as his little legs would take him back in the direction from which he came.




Hey Iskender - congratulations of founding Fellowship of the Leaves!

Ooo - I should also point out that i have fog busted my next city site near the remnants of patria - I really don't want the barbs messing things up anymore...

[Sciz]

regarding studio ghibli stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zTtwXQ5PJM

wow

[Square Leg]

regarding studio ghibli stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zTtwXQ5PJM

wow

Awesome - thats really cool!! I managed to get all the movies too:

[Square Leg]

Turn 92

Pretty big update today so I'll get started with the actual turn and then do the diplo afterwards. I was a big of a snappy chappy with the screenshots so those of you who like them are in for a small treat.

First things first I founded my 5th city

Unfortunately it now means I have only 3...

On doing this it meant that Serdoa and I had a trade connection! Lets have a goose at what he has:

Interesting choice to build the Brewing House with only wheat to give and extra 10% commerce. It does give an extra happy in Ale of course also so maybe that was his motive?

Shows his 4 cities including PZ Noob.

Next thing to do is move the Mud Golems in to farm:

Yes - I realise that isn't actually any need to show you 2 mud golems completing a farm...

A little bit of tile micro at Valley of the Wind is probably a little more interesting:

Before:



After:



Completes the market a turn quicker for the sake of growing into more unhappy and 1c.

While we are looking at the cities, here is the capital of Totoro:

I am happy with the development of Totoro as a hammer city. A lot of my other cities are only fair in hammers and so I am going to rely on Totoro in the future a lot. I will throw up lumbermills on those plains forests and farm the grasslands to feed the populace. Any extra citizens will be specialists. The GE is due very soon! He will be settled for more hammers. Totoro will build a settler next to found a city here:

The city will build market-monument. Tile improvement-wise I would like farms in the south on the grasslands and lumbermills on the plains. I need to approach Iskender about blooming those ugly plains tiles.

Lastly for the turn report:

An overview of the "empire"

I turn research back up and with the founding of Kobe and the markets in Totoro and Valley of the Wind both completed, I am running 100% slider at -1gpt! Sustainable for 50t

BW is only 2t too! yabadabadoo!

[Square Leg]

Beware, loooong chat log, summary at the bottom.

15:53 Square leg: hey bob, fancy a random chat about pbem 5?

12 minutes

16:06 Bob: heya
sure
Square leg: cool
so the sidar founded fol
Bob: yeah
16:07 Iskender told me that he got a religous something or other from a lair
Square leg: really - it coninsided with his score increasing by 22pts...
maybe another tec I guess
16:08 Bob: idk. He told me that he's going for CoE
apparently you can wane gibbon, switch religion, and he can still cast spells as a shade
and won't leave
(he told me in the context of him not wanting me to race him to the tech)
Square leg: thats quite interesting - I suppose the same is true of hemmah?
Bob: presumably, yeah
16:09 Square leg: hmm - that sounds quite broken - I guess he will lose the hero promo and not get anymore xp though?
16:11 Bob: Not sure.
Square leg: ok - did you notice Serdoa gain 2 new cities?
Bob: yeah
Square leg: I had to gift him one
Bob: right
figured
Square leg: part of our peace deal
16:12 PZ Noob if he doesn't change the name lol
The other one is a marginal site in his back lines - not in your direction
tbh - it is a bit shit
16:13 Bob: hah. Well, I'm not too worred about him yet, anyway :P
the Combat V Spell Extension Son of the Inferno about to eliminate Sareln is a little bit more concerning :P
16:14 Square leg: urgh
so it has started?
just 1 so far?
Bob: yeah
he has more than one?
Square leg: yep
Bob: how are you sure?
16:15 Square leg: not 100% but from a chat with him it was kind of implied...
16:16 Also - they are only 6k in power
He will have deleted any warriors or extra units to keep his gnp up to research sailing
and get the SOI to the mainland
i guess he has 3
16:17 Bob: well, game over then.
I can't stop that
oh and Iskender apparently has a long NAP with him
they're probably allies or something
16:18 Square leg: none of us can - serdoa has the best chance with PZ's
Bob: sigh. Including Acheron was a mistake. I thought that patch N was supposed to fix the Sons so that you couldn't grab them, but apparently not
or maybe O reverted it for some stupid reason
Square leg: they gave them the loyalty promo which only stops domination shenanigans
16:19 Bob: grrr
Square leg: I know
When is your nap with the clan to?
Bob: I can't say
16:20 last time I tried to organize something against the Clan it all blew up in my face anyway
someone leaked
wasn't sareln
probably wasn't you
serdoa didn't know
so, it was probably the sneaky guy with the long Clan NAP
so any dogpile you might be thinking of probably isn't going to work.
16:22 Square leg: Well - the only way I could have seen killing the sons would have been Sareln to cast his WS and then everyone to smack them with anything and everything. If that isn't going to happen...
16:23 Bob: To put it this way- if sareln were to cast his worldspell now, I could not interene without breaking me NAP until the spell was over (or close to it- not sure how long it lasts on quick)
and if Iskender isn't on board, and I really doubt that he will be, forget it.
16:24 Square leg: I bet Tredje has staggered his naps.
16:25 I have one with him too - I wonder if I am next on the list or you?
Bob: when does yours end?
Square leg: I can't remember if I can say.... just a sec.


5 minutes

16:31 Square leg: it is till T140
Bob: lol
yup
staggered NAPs
Me -> you -> Iskender (serdoa?)
16:32 Square leg: lol
ok - need to think of a counter quick!
Bob: haha.
16:33 He has two goblin archers too, to cover them, and can easily outproduce any one civ
if he's going for conquest, econ doesn't even matter
I think this is probably GG.
16:34 I can't even go with my Ultimate Defense Plan and stock my very nicely-positoned makes full of cultists, because Empower V fireballs will eat them
Square leg: one option would be horse archers or horsemen swooping in - enough of them....
16:35 they have the advantage of coming from the fog and they get a bonus vs archer....
Bob: ughh... maybe
but I'd need so many of them
16:36 I don't have HBR or archery either
to say nothing of stirrups
16:37 Square leg: I don't know what else unless he makes a mistake.
you can't get to deception before he comes knocking can you?
Bob: probably not with Iskender racing me
16:38 Square leg: puppets plus summons could work
Bob: if he has been beelining the tech, he'll get there first
Square leg: OO and fanaticism is a big ask too..
fo hemah
16:39 Bob: actually it's OO and one of the expensive arcane techs
fanatacism is Stygian
Square leg: ah - whoops
Bob: which do get minor fire resistance, actually
but they're far away for me
16:40 Square leg: hereis what makes me think he has more than 1:
Square leg: So I am just going to come out with it:
How are the Sons?
Tredje: What Sons? innocent face
Square leg: heh
11:08 I dind't think that you only got a couple of gobbo archers from your world spell
not after I did a WB test anyway
11:10 Tredje: Maybe we got lots of Archers?
11:12 Square leg: maybe - but I ain't buying it - why else would you esearch what you have?
11:13 I just hope you don't come my way - I've had enough of war!
he says: what sons
Bob: yeah, maybe.
16:41 Well. There's always plan "H"
Square leg: ha ha - whats that?
16:42 Bob: *H*yborem :D
Square leg: Atually - he could snuff a son or two...
Bob: Yeah- devils get minor fire resistance
and he has high strength
and I'll just pump entropy adepts on the way to him
16:43 so when the Balz AI dies, I get manes
ugh. I'll feel sad to abandon my civ, though. I'm actaully winning
:P
16:44 if it weren't for the stupid Sons I'd be tops in everything by a good margin
Square leg: yeah - I feel pretty shitty about it all too since I feel like I can actually come back from this position and maybe even do something this game...
Its a lot of effort to get rolled by a glitch
16:45 Bob: Yeah. Well, that's the nature of the game, I guess
lots of game-enders
Square leg: yeah - it is broken in lots of ways!
16:46 I wonder if I can persuade Serdoa to go raze some of the clan homeland - would you pay serdoa to do that some way?
16:47 Bob: Sure, if the price was within reason
Idk if he'll be willing tho
Square leg: the price being no more Sons of the Inferno screwing the game up
maybe I'll approach him about that and see what we can come up with
16:48 Bob: orcs resist fire tho, too
he'll need a lot of pz
Square leg: He is pretty dejected with the game I hink so many a bit of freelance fun would be of interest to him
yeah but the sons are 5 + 3 fire
16:49 he resists that
Bob: Yeah, the issue is that he'll need tons of pz to raze a city if tredje is spamming 2X warriors a turn in there
Square leg: also - clan have no sons if they have no cities
and it keeps them occupied while we think of a better counter!
16:50 Bob: Contact iskender too, see what his deal is.
if Tredje is giving him a lot of promises of cooperation and then goes off and murders everyone else, Iskender is just being played as a fool yet again
kind of like Selrahc from pbem 1- "I won't hurt you, if you enable me to run off and win the game"
16:51 I'd see what his deal is myself, but I think that he doesn't like me for some reason
Square leg: lol
16:52 I dunno about that but I'll contact him and see what he says
16:53 I am going to guess that your nap is till T120
Ikender probably T180
16:54 Bob: that sounds approx. right
just enough time between each to cripple or kill the target
Square leg: yeah
16:55 Actually - if Iskender does get deception and Shadow III he could attack the clan and they wouldn't know about it!
Bob: hah. I think it would be obvious who was doing it :P
I'd be better off with deception, anyway.
best thing is if Iskender leave it to me
16:56 I could make like four Air Elementals a turn
Square leg: That spit into lightning
Bob: good strength, up to four moves
Square leg: split
Bob: flying
Square leg: fly too - line of sight
16:57 Bob: Iskender can't get nearly as much use out of Gibbon. But he's likely to beat me there
Square leg: when can you get there by?
Bob: and I need to know soon if I should try for deception or initiate Plan H
can't do both
Square leg: sure
different directions
16:58 Bob: How fast I can get there depends a lot on whether Sareln uses his worldspell, and if I use mine
I've got 3 inspirations going at once right now
losing those will suck
16:59 Square leg: ok so this needs to be a world effort
else the clan will win
Bob: yeah. And we know how well those turn out :D
Square leg: yup
everyone is in it for themself really!
17:01 Bob: yeah. Well, there's different ways that cooperation could play out. I could do some damage with either Gibbon or Hyborem, Serdoa has PZ, Iskender... well, his NAP might make him useless, but he could try to box in the Clan I guess. You can send golems or whatever.
but it's herding cats
17:02 Square leg: The more we talk about it the more 4 air elementals a turn is sounding like the solution - it also means you will will if you kill the sons - so catch 22 for the rest of us!
will win sorry
17:03 Bob: haha. Well, that's just how it goes :P
unlike the Clan, I'm not necessarily looking to win by murdering everyone
17:04 so there's that :P
I'll sign an NAP with you for a very long time in the event that the Clan are defeated, if that helps.
17:05 Square leg: Well i want to win by destroying everyone so not really!
lol
17:06 I will talk to the others and see what happens - I am struggling to see what I can say to iskender to get gim to ditch deception
17:07 Bob: Just find out what the score is, RE- his terms with the Clan. That will show if he's willing to do anything to stop them.
If he is, then possibilities can be discussed from there
17:08 Oh, and look, he's on now
but I've got to go, sadly
laundry to be moved, essays to write
ugh.
I'm still going to be online, but AFK
Square leg: ok - well have fun with your dirty sheets! cya

- So we are both pretty scared of the Son(s) that appear to be coming our way as the Clan have staggered their naps.
- Bob speculated the naps are: Bob -> me -> Iskender -> (serdoa?)
- If he were to get Goetia (i hate this guys name - why couldn't it be easy to spell???) he could have 4 Air Elementals a turn using puppets. This would actually be pretty effective in fighting the Sons.
- I am to have a chat with iskender and suss out the waters
- I am to chat with Serdoa and see what his take on everything is.

To be honest, I cannot think of an effective counter to the Sons that is in a reasonable timeframe except for the broken Gibbon (can I just call him Baboon because that is what I get in my head every time) which will then make Bob the new Clan. Meh - 1 thing at a time!

Iskender came online and we started to chat:

17:07 Iskender: hey. thanks for your message
17:08 Square Leg: np - I felt like being silly again after days of slogging through PZ's!
Iskender: heh
i've seen serdoa named his new city 'PZ noob' or something similar
17:09 Square Leg: nah - I named it that for him
part of our "peace" deal
I can say now!
Iskender: ah
Square Leg: since it is obvious
17:10 So the clan have started hurling fire elementals at the amurites
Iskender: about the clan:
i have signed a nap and a confidentiality agreement with them
17:11 can't say any more about SoI than I did the last time
17:12 Square Leg: ok - Tedje has been quite coy really - staggered his naps with everyone it seems - I'd guess yours is to about... I dunno T180
(I'm fishing feel free to ignore me! )
Iskender: i guess i can say this much: i've tried to maintain friendly relations with both the clan and the amurites and tried to broker peace between them but apparently it didn't work
17:13 it's until T130
Square Leg: That fits with the staggering
17:14 looks like they plan on walking the sons around the world
Not sure really what can be done about them though.
17:15 The Lurchuirp don't have any weapons that can match them for a long while...
Serdoa could spam PZ's that might be moderately effective
Iskender: is your nap with serdoa very long. i'm still wondering if i could use Into the Mist on him and make a joint strike with you
Square Leg: Bals could spam summons with Gibbion or Hemah
17:16 Our nap is for quite a while yeah
certainly long enough so that the Clan will have destroyed me before it expires
17:18 Iskender: speaking in general: SoI are like buffed priests of winter. awesome but irreplacable. serlahc didn't find much use for the priests in the mid to late game
17:19 Square Leg: yeah but the POW only summon Ice elementals and he napped himself up.
17:20 If he had moved on to Cull after Sareln rather than run half way around the world with them chasing Sareln I think it would have been different
17:21 Iskender: true. probably even if he moved on Bob instead of Cull, but after that the priests just idled until the end of the game
17:22 Square Leg: Or even PB - That would have saved everyone a whole world of pain! lol
Iskender: indeed!
17:23 Square Leg: At the end of your nap with the clan - would you consider trying to do something about the Clan?
17:24 Iskender: i guess i would, but can't discuss it right now i think
Square Leg: I also have a nap with them - not the same duration as you but I would be willing to do something to try and stop them from winning this
Ok - that is fair enough.
17:25 We have a few turns to go but I will say this - be wary of them when they finish off Sareln.
Iskender: i will
17:26 do you think we could get a road between us? i'm going to research Cartography arount T100. we could get OB
Square Leg: Sure - I am going to be founding a city in your direction on or around T98 - T99
17:27 It will be 2E 1N of the remnants
17:28 I will obviously be roading out that way
17:29 If you road the deer and the tile to the West of it I will do the rest
17:30 Iskender: ok, i'll road it soon
17:31 i'm afraid though i don't have forces to attack the barbarian city
Square Leg: ok - np - I will likely throw warriorpults at it and use barny to clean up for some xp farm
Iskender: i'll have some maybe in 15 turns. if you can't wait that long feel free to train barnaxus on its garrison
17:32 btw. if you haven't found a trading partner for your cotton i think i'll have extra silk at the time we get trade connection
17:33 oops
Square Leg: I don't have cotton
Iskender: i mean the other way
Square Leg: ah - ok
sure - that sounds beneficial!
Iskender: (i know you have silk from that unique features screenshot you sent me)
17:34 i've been trying to reproduce it but no success
Square Leg: lol
no idea what happened
Iskender:
i've found some nice tricks to do with the camera though. you can see the world wrap with your own eyes
17:35 Square Leg: ha ha
I have to go now - time for me to go home from work
17:36 Iskender: cheers
Square Leg: cya

- It all started a bit cagey but then he just came out and said his nap was until T130 with the Clan!
- So revised order: Bob -> Iskender -> Me -> (Serdoa?)
- Potential Cotton deal in the near future and Open Borders! - Very keen to get both.
- Potential map trade not discussed.
- He seems quite stand-off-ish about the Sons... Unwilling to say too much as if he knows something I don't.


All this has made my head hurt so I am going to have a cup of char and a piece of cake.

[Square Leg]

Oh and one last thing - Please ask me questions if you have any. If there are any particular shots you would like to see then just ask and I will snap them next turn.

[Rowain]

No question but a big thank you for your updates

[Sciz]

If he were to get Goetia (i hate this guys name - why couldn't it be easy to spell???)

Call him Gibbon?

[darrelljs]

First things first I founded my 5th city

Unfortunately it now means I have only 3...

.

I do have a question actually, but its more of a general question. Do you think the Luchuirp are playable in an MP environment? My biggest issue is they start slow. One boost would be to allow them to build regular Workers in addition to Mud Golems. Golems being late are fine IMO, because they are so good, but the slow Mud Golem just kills them.

Darrell

[Square Leg]

No question but a big thank you for your updates

No problem! I'm glad that you enjoy my inane ramblings!

Call him Gibbon?

His name is now I R BABOON

.

I do have a question actually, but its more of a general question. Do you think the Luchuirp are playable in an MP environment? My biggest issue is they start slow. One boost would be to allow them to build regular Workers in addition to Mud Golems. Golems being late are fine IMO, because they are so good, but the slow Mud Golem just kills them.

Darrell

Thanks you for punctuating your lol smiley! .

The mud golem is a fantastic unit......... once it is built. 1t roads on quick are just amazing for using worker turns! 3t farm anyone? 2t chop?

However you have hit the nail on the head though in that they take forever and a day to build. That seriously compromises early growth -> later farms, later improved ralender/mining/crafting resources (commerce) which all snowballs.

I honestly think that the single best strategy is to research masonry first and pop the worldspell for an extra +3h a turn. As tempting as it is to leave the WS until later and get more hammers, the benefit of those +3h cannot be measured - it translates into a lot more food, commerce and hammers consequently. Furthermore, it give them at a time in the game when you need them.

What is the solution? Dunno - regular workers... meh - they would have to be really lazy to fit in with the lore. Maybe lazy workers until construction at which point you can upgrade your workers to mud golems?