[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Iskender]

A blitz update on yesteday's blitz:

Turn 8:

Double Tall Skinny reached the Mirror of Heaven and in the molten quartz he saw this:



A view on the Amurite capital! Their BFC is very similar to mine - two calendar resources, river, starting grassland hill and an unirrigated food resource unlocked by agriculture. It wouldn't be surprising if everyone had a BFC like this. Sareln is the poor guy working a zero-commerce tile (hills plains). He's last in research ex aequo with the Clan and their 10% malus.

The Mirror also revealed a hut three tiles east and an interesting land tile in the west, seemingly separated from the main body of land.

Private DTC headed back north to rob the graveyard before he opens the hut.

Serdoa discovered a tech, most likely Agriculture



Turn 9:

Amurites, Sidar and the Clan discovered Agriculture

(I'm not 100% sure about the Clan, there's a very slight chance they went for Ancient Chants or Exploration)



Turn 11:

Worker completed. He immediately starts building a farm on the nearest Flood Plains. Production set to Warrior.



Turn 12:

A surprise in the event log:



Wow, that's unexpected. Square Leg has indeed been working on a tech with a prerequisite bonus and it wasn't Mining, as I tried to guess, but Masonry. He ignored basic worker techs, a daring move, so either he's got Wine in his BFC or he has a really cunning plan. I need to keep an eye on the Luchuirp.

Double Tall Skinny robbed the graveyard north of the Mirror and irritated a skeleton:



DTS, being a cautious fella (that's NOT the Sidar Way!) took to his heels and made off into the woods.

Bob discovered a tech. Time of discovery suggest Calendar.



Turn 15:

Double Tall Skinny reaches a tribal village. Bittered and embarassed by the skeleton adventure he intends to take it out on the villagers. He finds out though that these are tough people, living in the desert and keeping Scorpions as pets:



DTS decides to wait it out in the woods.



Turn 16:

C'mon Scorpy, be gone already!





Turn 17:

Ha, the scorpion is gone! But what's that purple glowing guy doing with MY mirror? Nevermind, the boss will settle this. Let's abuse the villagers:



Eek! More jungle and more ruins. Not a place for a cautious fella like Double Tall Skinny. Definitely not:



If you see a promoted Lizardman in the area, remember private Double Tall Skinny, a cautious fella, but not cautious enough.



Turn 18:

Flaming Poodle the Warrior completed his training in the Sidar capital. He will stay at home and muster courage necessary for future great expeditions. Next in training: Scout.

Fearing that Sareln might use the scout to open the Pyre I contacted the Amurites:

Iskender: hey there. nice view from the mirror, isn't it?

Sareln: Yeah, it is

didn't lose the scout either, the skeleton decided to go towards my cap instead.

Iskender: you might have witnessed the death of my brave warrior

Sareln: there's a large number of ruins on the map though

yeah

get something good from the hut for your trouble?

Iskender: map

mostly jungle

Sareln: fun

Iskender: i'm a bit concerned about the pyre. it's close to my borders. do you want to open it?

Sareln: Haven't seen the pyre yet

if you ask me nicely, I won't open it though

Iskender: oh. what a giveaway

Sareln: since Big-Bad is very-bad :D

hey no worries

Iskender: it's in the east

Sareln: you're lucky it's me and not PB

Iskender: or me

Sareln: heh, fair

well, my closest neighbor is clan, so even opening up Big-Bads aren't quite that good for me...

Iskender: oh boy

i haven't met anyone else than yourself yet

Sareln: ah, I'd give you directions, but I think that lizardman just shut down your scouting in the south for the time being no?

Iskender: yes he did

there's also a scorpion and a lion

and another ruins 4E of the ruins SE of the mirror

it's going to be fun

Sareln: yeah...

and by fun, you mean we're all choked as the clan goes nuts? :P

Iskender: i'll just turn invisible and pretend i'm not there

In brief:
- I gave away that there's a nuclear bomb next to my border, but Sareln assured me that he's not going to take advantage of that. I trust him on that.
- He's got the Clan as a neighbour and is afraid of their world spell (I am as well, but not so much if the Clan is not my direct neighbour)
- looks like we'll have a friendly relationship



Turn 20:

FYI - Sidar truffles are the best! What else can you expect from a civilization of half-immortal ethereal soul devourers?



Serdoa discovered something. Looks and rustles like Calendar



Turn 21:

Defying all stereotypes Sheelba the Educated discovered a technology! If Tredje keeps that pace we'll soon greet Dr. Sheelba.



Turn 22:

Researched Calendar EOT. That leaves Sareln as the only guy with only one tech discovered so far (though I sense his sages are close to a breakthrough ).


Demographics after the Blitz:



Bob has apparently hooked calendar resources already and other civs (including me) will soon follow. I'm #1 in food thanks to flood plains and the truffles.

Next research: Education

[Iskender]

Revolted to Agrarianism last turn.

Sareln's scout spotted NW of the capital. He probably popped the hut over there. Oh well, at least he didn't get a free tech. I don't think it ignoring that hut with a warrior was a mistake - there's a 35% chance for barbarians spawning on Immortal and my capital is very hammer-poor:





On the good side, I'm #1 in GNP (probably a tie with Bob) and #1 in food. 2nd city ETA is turn 40 with an optimistic assumption that two warriors and a scout will be enough to fend off barbarians until then (a very optimistic assumption ).

[Iskender]

Turn 25:

Started constructing a plantation on one of the cottons and pressed Enter.

And received a message from Sareln:

[COLOR="Magenta"]Iskender,

Yeah, our capitals are quite similar then. I'm under quite a bit of
pressure from lizardmen at the moment, but have directed the Clan
(Tredje & Mardoc) north to make contact with you. That's probably
more feasible than you trying to get a warrior back down south here
across the desert. There is some more land to your left, but it's not
particularly fertile. It does have some furs and such in multiples
that will be nice later on in the game. Additionally, off your
northern shore is the Ring of Carcer on it's own one-tile island. If
the opportunity presents itself (lv. 15 unit) I would probably be
happy to make an offer for her, provided that you're selling.

I'll probably keep my scout moving along your northern coast until I
get blocked by your 3rd ring expansion. At that point I'd like to
move my scout through your borders with phony-war. May I?[/COLOR]

A frienly message. Two things bother me though:

- Sareln didn't mention the riverside plains Gold. He might have missed that tile (the Mirror doesn't uncover it), but it's unlikely as he's seen the Furs, which are even farther north. If he wants to grab the Gold for himself we might have a conflict of interest here.

- a Clan warrior might pay us a visit. Unlike Sareln he will have little to lose by opening the Pyre and very much to gain.

So, I'd like to consult the collective wisdom of my dedicated lurkers:

A scout is ready in 2 turns. Should I open the Pyre with it?

Pro:
- Clan could open it soon
- someone will definitely explore it sooner or later.
- the only Big Bad monster that could ruin the game at this point is Mistform (I guess)

Contra:
- emergency hammer output is only 11, allowing training 2 warriors in 3 turns
- there are 2 ruins in the Pyre's vincinity and an unknown number of lizardmen. It'll be a shame to waste a great person as a snack for lizardmen.

My reply to Sareln:

Sorry to hear about your lizardmen trouble. Amazingly I've been spared so far, which of course means they're going to hit with a double force later. Yes, I've seen the double Furs, there's also Gold south of it. We'll need to make our dotmaps compatible to make the early game as strain-free as possible (I reckon both our civs are late bloomers). Thanks for the tip about Bridgit, I will wane most units with 26xp, so she'll definitely be available (hm, that doesn't sound right, now I'm a pimp for a valkyrie). My culture expands next turn, but you'll be able to squeeze along the north coast.

And the map of the area. Can't say it doesn't look good:

[Ilios]

I won't comment on whether opening the Pyre is a good idea, but I do want to inform you that because it is located on a floodplain, the Pyre will disappear if succesfully explored.

[Selrahc]

I won't comment on whether opening the Pyre is a good idea, but I do want to inform you that because it is located on a floodplain, the Pyre will disappear if succesfully explored.

The fire mana?

[Ilios]

The fire mana?

Yup

[Thoth]

Sareln's scout spotted NW of the capital. He probably popped the hut over there. Oh well, at least he didn't get a free tech. I don't think it ignoring that hut with a warrior was a mistake - there's a 35% chance for barbarians spawning on Immortal and my capital is very hammer-poor:

Huts within 8 tiles of your starting location are safe for you to pop, they won't produce barbs if you pop them. If someone else pops the hut (and it's more than 8 tiles from their starting location) it can pop barbs.

[Iskender]

I won't comment on whether opening the Pyre is a good idea, but I do want to inform you that because it is located on a floodplain, the Pyre will disappear if succesfully explored.

If it means that I'll get one more improvable FP -

Huts within 8 tiles of your starting location are safe for you to pop, they won't produce barbs if you pop them.

Oh.

[Mr. Yellow]

Suggest you keep the scout there as a guard. Give him an appropiate name even to show that you intend to keep the pyre closed off.

If the clan gets dangerously closed, it might be best to pop it anyway so you get the possible positive outcome.

[Iskender]

Give him an appropiate name

"Black Smoke" aka "The Deus ex Machina when you have no idea how end the series"

I like the idea, although the scout would be threatened by out-of-sight lizardmen from two ruins, but I could move him every turn to see if any lizardmen showed up.