Like a hot wind Varn Gosam of the Malakim [SPOILERS]

[Square Leg]

... Will run specialists until I get that desert Springed.

Sprung.

Very comprehensive update. It looks like we are in the lead by some way actually. How many workers do we have? It looks like some cities are in need of some more - having said that - I haven't ever played a game where I feel like I have the right amount.

Your call about Irgy may well be correct but he is the only evil civ so he will struggle for manes unless he gets someone else to convert to AV. Elohim aren't going to and neither are the Elves. I doubt the Pirates will either and I can't see us running it as a main religion...

Mardoc seems to have been able to build build and build some more and he is still behind us in terms of city count and demog's so it is encouraging that the Malakim are on top despite a war and various other invisible attackers!

[Thoth]

Sprung.

:neenernee


I'm up to 11 workers with #12 due in two turns (13 if Mr. Yellow doesn't delete his worker in Astrum). I could use a few more but this will have to do for the moment.

Irgy may suprise us all by summoning Basium instead.

Mardoc has had a few barb problems (his power graph has the occasional dips in it) but for the most part it looks like he's been able to run a fisherman's gambit. I've kept up thanks to a large workforce and a couple of captured cities. I expect his power graph to rise once he realises that I've popped my world spell for 9 Cultists. :storm:

[Thoth]

The city of Golden Cave has been liberated!



Bannorian workers who previously chafed under the oppression of the previous regime rejoiced as they joined the ever growing ranks of the Malakim workerforce.

Last turn, Kang took the axe which set up this:

His victory was followed by a c1 warriorpult equipped with the axe:

Who died. Leaving one healthy, one redlined defender and the Axe on the ground.

General Martok took the axe and did his thing:

Leaving nothing but cleanup for my final warrior:

Golden Cave is 1 tile south of where I would really like it (1 N grabs a Crab resource) but it's not worth the 145h to build a replacement settler, so I kept it.

OO is due at eot 102, so I'm all set for a swap to OO and some Tsunami action come turn 103.

Kil'em'orf!!



(some diplo exchanges with WarriorKnight and Nyktorion to follow in a later post)

[Sciz]

[Thoth]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hi Thoth

I have some bad news unfortunately. The border of Glens of Killybegs has expanded this turn, which blocks off the route to the Sheaim. I apologize for this, as I should have checked to see if the route would have been blocked off before you got there.

Since only one tile of culture blocks the route and neither of us has Cartography for Open Borders, I'm willing to let you declare a phony war on me so your scout can get to the other side of my lands. However your scout will need to follow these directions:

t100) E,SE (forest)
t101) declare war SE,SE,SE offer peace

After that the Sheaim borders are about 5 or 6 tiles south. Of course, this phony war would be exempt from our NAP provided you follow the given directions.

Would this arrangement be fine with you?

Regards,[/COLOR]

I'd really like to avoid a DOW at this point. Even a phoney war screws up trade route bonuses.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi WarriorKnight,

That is indeed unfortunate.

Your suggestion is fine with me, but if there is any way around your lands without declaring war I would prefer to take a few extra turns to meet the Sheaim rather than messing up potential trade routes. (a DOW would reset the "+150% years of peace" trade route bonus to 0 and it would take a long time to recover at 3%/turn). I realize that commercial trade routes between us are going to take awhile to set up, but I am hesitant to throw away perfectly good commerce just to make a slightly earlier contact.

If there is no other way around, then I will follow your directions to the letter and acknowledge that this will in no way affect the NAP that we currently have in place.

(did my scout get bounced away from your borders IBT?)

Thoth[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Thoth

The only other way around my borders is impractical, as it requires your scout to head through the Bannor to get the eastern part of my empire, then going through a barb city. I'm guessing that probably isn't a viable option, therefore there is no other way around. However, if that's what you want to do, then I'll help you with directions. I'll let you decide.

And yes your scout got bounced from my borders, although not by much.

Regards,
WarriorKnight[/COLOR]

He's right. Any other route around his lands will be a long trek.

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hi Thoth

My research adviser has just informed me that I'll be researching Cartography shortly. Therefore if your scout can afford to wait for 3 turns or so then we can skip the phony war and can just sign open borders instead. Would this be ok with you?

Regards,
WarriorKnight[/COLOR]

Yes, but I don't want your hawks snooping around in my lands and it's in my best interests if you and Mardoc aren't talking about any dogpiles just yet.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi WarriorKnight,

Waiting a few turns for Open Borders works for me, I'm not in that much of a rush to meet up with Irgy.

I do have one area of concern regarding Open Borders. I would prefer not to have Elohim hawks scouting out my territory, especially while I am at war with a third party. OTOH, asking for a "no scouting" clause when I'm also asking for passage through your lands doesn't seem quite right to me.

Your thoughts?

(worst case scenario I can always send the scout back to annoy Mr. Yellow. )

Thoth.[/COLOR]

Fuck. Actually my scout is now trapped:

And WarriorKnight has the Dragon Bones.

If Nyktorion and I had Open Borders I could retrace my steps, but neither of us seems to be in any hurry to waste beakers on Cartography.

Contact with Irgy will have to wait I think. The longer it takes for WarriorKnight and Mardoc to start talking about "how do we take down the leader" the better.

I'd rather delete the scout than have those two talking via a hawk recon.

[Thoth]

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Dear Thoth,

I just wanted to give you a heads-up on some things related to our efforts against the Bannor.

- Preparations for the war proceed as planned; I got priesthood this turn, in the next 1-2 turns, I'll do some upgrading of disciples, and whipping of new priests and further dexterous archers
- A warning: there might be a small window before my NAP with the Bannor runs out where I can't prevent the establishment of a (coast-based) trading connection between myself and WarriorKnight. Some turns ago, my religion auto-spread into Kabhalg (which got its second cultural circle this turn), and Garryvoe (WarriorKnight's newly founded border city towards me) now has the Order religion present, as well, and will probably expand its borders slightly before my DOW; this would make a continuous part of the coastline between Kabhalg and Garryvoe owned by either the Elohim or myself. I'm not sure whether this suffices to establish trade a trade route without Sailing (I'm not at all an expert in trade connection mechanics), but I strongly consider it possible.
- Mr. Yellow has already asked me about a NAP extension last turn, which I am stalling right now. Also, I just declined a world map trade offer by him (as I agreed in a recent chat with you), so that should make him more nervous, as well. He also noticed my increase in military power (right now, he still seems to expect that it will help him push you out of his lands, but I don't think that feeling will last much longer). Therefore, I'm expecting that he'll take some effort to upgrade his military presence in his east soon.
- You might also be interested in the following: according to what he told me, Mr. Yellow thinks he'll have "cats out in around 7 turns".

best regards,
Nyktorion[/COLOR]

Usefull info for sure, but if things unfold according to plan it won't matter if Mr. Yellow has copper or not. Nykrorion is looking more and more like a decent ally....if he's willing to carry on as we have been.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi Nyktorion,

Thanks for the update.

I've finished Priesthood and expect to be pulling the trigger on my world spell on turn 103.

The Malakim Geological Institute is predicting heavy Tsunamis around the Torrolerial area circa turn 104/105. We are currently urging all non-combatants to leave the area before then for their own safety. (OOC: If you have a hawk in the city when I tsunami it, the game will auto declare war between us. I would prefer to avoid that as it would reset the +150% "years of peace" modifier to 0 for any trade routes between our fine nations).

He's going to loose his capital either t105 or 106 so the incoming cat shouldn't be a problem. I had figured he could produce one by ~t105 or thereabouts so no worries if he isn't going to get it before t107.

I don't think he has much in the Eastlands to oppose you, I've been monitoring the progress of 5 warriors coming Westwards over the last few turns. You should be able to walk into his cities virtually unopposed.

As far a the trade route from WarriorKnight goes, I think he will have one. He mentioned to me that he expects to have Cartography in about 3 turns (we're discussing how my scout can get through his lands to meet Irgy) which makes sense if he's currently researching Sailing. In that case, he will almost certainly have a trade route to Torrolerial and possibly to Vallus as well if Vallus is coastal. If I were you I'd count on Mr. Yellow having 1-2 bronze warriors in Vallus and Trinity. Shouldn't be too much of a problem for Gilden backed by tigers, Priests and archers.

Right now I don't see anything Mr. Yellow can do to stop us splitting up his lands between us. Victory shall be ours.

I look forward to working with you to our mutual profit in the future.

Thoth (dreaming of calamari and fishsticks)[/COLOR]

I might be giving away too much here, but so far Nyktorion has shown himself to be onside and I don't think that there is much that can go wrong so no harm in letting him know what's going on wrt my plans re the Bannor capital.

and one final update to Nykrorion...

[COLOR="Yellow"]One further update:

Golden Cave (formerly known as "Astrum") has been liberated from the vile clutches of the rogue regime calling themselves "the Bannor" with minor casualties to our forces.

Onwards to victory!

General Martok.[/COLOR]

[Thoth]

Sez the man who didn't want to rush anyone. :neenernee

[Square Leg]

Golden Cave has the potential to be a great production city once irrigation is chained in the north and mines are built in the south. I see Mr Yellow left the worker there for you too as a nice bonus payment!

From now on I think all warriorpults need to be re-named that just so you get to see "Your Warriorpult has died..."

Nyktorion seems to be nice and easy to work with and it is encouraging that he is seeing the opportunity of gaining more land for himself by being on the good side of this war. Once the war is over and the Bannor are gone he will be presented with a situation of re-evaluation. Let's hope we keep him "Sunny-side-up"

Perhaps deleting the scout and not meeting the Sheaim just yet would be a good idea in this case? We don't really want Mardoc and WK talking like you say so we can avoid the whole OB/Scout/Hawk shenanigans for a bit.

[Square Leg]

Blatant post-spam which this of course is not... :neenernee

[Thoth]

Golden Cave has the potential to be a great production city once irrigation is chained in the north and mines are built in the south. I see Mr Yellow left the worker there for you too as a nice bonus payment!

I'll need construction and sanitation to really make this city shine, but it will be very nice once those techs are in.

That worker is a very nice bonus. It's been hiding in the city since the start of the war and I was expecting it to get deleted last turn, but I guess Mr. Yellow didn't think I could take the city.

From now on I think all warriorpults need to be re-named that just so you get to see "Your Warriorpult has died..."

The era of warriorpults is drawing to a close. They're good for softening up a single foe or a small stack but once higher strength units and larger stacks come into play they loose a lot of their shine. When attacking at less than 20% odds there is a decent chance of having them simply bounce and deal no damage to the target.

Nyktorion seems to be nice and easy to work with and it is encouraging that he is seeing the opportunity of gaining more land for himself by being on the good side of this war. Once the war is over and the Bannor are gone he will be presented with a situation of re-evaluation. Let's hope we keep him "Sunny-side-up"

I've gotten a good vibe from him so far and I'll be putting some effort into keeping him onside for the future. He's cramped for land to the south and there are only a couple of passes through the mountains so attacking WarriorKnight would be difficult for him unless WarriorKnight were distracted somewhere else. OTOH, Nyktorion is playing the Ljos and has most of the ingredients needed to set up Elfish super cities so he may be content with 8-9 very good cities and simply building upwards. We'll see how things go as the current war draws to a close.

Perhaps deleting the scout and not meeting the Sheaim just yet would be a good idea in this case? We don't really want Mardoc and WK talking like you say so we can avoid the whole OB/Scout/Hawk shenanigans for a bit.

That's my current line of thinking. The scout isn't all that valuable anymore and I can meet Irgy by walking a couple of Cultists over to him. If they happen to arrive about the same time AV gets founded and if AV gets founded in a coastal city......