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

[Square Leg]

Have you read the PBEM 5 game between Irgy and Bob?

Bob - I think you are the only person who can't read this!

He built the Grimoire to bulb Malevolent Designs.

I wonder if something similar is in his plans?

[Sciz]

hey thoth can you post less so you don't pass my pbem2 topic in posts?

:neenernee

[Square Leg]

hey thoth can you post less so you don't pass my pbem2 topic in posts?

:neenernee

Hey Sciz - can you post less so I don't have to post stuff like this?

Actually - you are being counter-productive here - you should have PM'd Thoth instead!

[Thoth]

hey thoth can you post less so you don't pass my pbem2 topic in posts?

:neenernee

Too late. I've already passed you. :neenernee

[Sciz]

I know you have! I managed to pass you again but then you two went and posted and now I have to post again argh

to be fair you have an easier time getting many posts since square leg and I (mostly me i guess) post a lot of inane stuff that needs responding to

while in my pbem2 topic it's just me posting updates with a bit of strategic banter with selrahc

and SL popping in now and then

[Thoth]

Have you read the PBEM 5 game between Irgy and Bob?



I wonder if something similar is in his plans?

Yes, I read both of Irgy's threads in PBEM5.

My major concern about Hyborem is there is a chance he may spawn in the small strip of empty land to my north. If he does then I'm pretty much screwed. The odds are he'll spawn somewhere else but I don't want to count on it.

I'm looking at having chariots on line by about t120 so if Hyborem spawns in the desert after t120 I should have a decent chance of killing him quickly.

The $10,00 question is: How long will it take Irgy to tech to Infernal Pact?

[Thoth]

Nyktorion declared on Mr. Yellow this turn.

He should have an easy time taking Vallus but Mr. Yellow will be able to re-enforce Trinity in a couple of turns so that city will be a bit more expensive for Nyktorion to take.

I've now got a slightly better picture of the lands to the southeast, in part due to:

I moved the Cultist onto the grass tile before popping the wreck to check that there weren't any Lanun units/tile improvements in range of a Tsunami in the event of a nasty result.

Nice. For once the treasure isn't all the way across the map.

The map info is handy as well. Mr. Pirate certainly doesn't need the land he was trying to get from me. I think a polite "no" to his request is in order.


The lands in question:

Not spectacular, but I can get a least one ok city in here once I've finished clearing out the barbs.

At the eastern edge of that screenshot you can see one of my warriors standing on a barrow after killing it's skelletal guardian at 95% odds. I decided against popping the barrow this turn as I don't have the forces in that area to deal with nasty spawns. I'll pop it in a few turns once some re-enforcements arrive.


The Irgy/LP warrior has promoted to C1 (he didn't have a blue glow last turn) so I'm thinking that he fought off a skelly last turn and used a healing potion to get back to full strength. He's within 2 tiles of my incense plantation and I'm feeling a little bit jumpy about having non-NAPed foreign types on my border so I sent this off to LP:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi!

I would appreciate it if you didn't move your scouting warrior any further West. Your passage is blocked by my borders so your progress would be halted next turn regardless. I have some somewhat sensitive tile improvements right on my borders and I wouldn't want you to fall prey to temptation.

The Malakim Institute of Geology reports that there is a high degree of tectonic instability in the area and tsunamis have been know to occur.

Thoth.[/COLOR]

If he moves adjacent to Golden Tipi's borders I'm going to kill his warrior next turn.

Techwise, I finished up Masonry at eot and am now working on Sailing (due in 2t). From there I'm going to pick up KotE, Writing, Trade and Construction.

Mardoc hooked up another Pearls and offered me the previously agreed to Pearls/gold trade which I accepted. My happy cap is rising quickly (I'll have the Gems in Golden Igloo mined in another couple of turns).

[Thoth]

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Hi Thoth,

as planned, I declared on Mr. Yellow this turn. Vallus still contains only 2 defenders (so in the worst case, this will increase to 3 next turn), so I should pretty certainly be able to take it next turn.

About your proposal of a mutual defence pact: thanks for the offer, but I have to say that I currently don't feel an interest in this arrangement. I simply feel that a real threat occurs in the near future.

You specifically mentioned a possible summoning of the Infernals. Since we are in an all-human game, I doubt that the Infernals will receive a significant number of manes. Of course, they also start with a few strong units (Iron, Hyborem, two champions, and two longbows), but without support, I also doubt that they will be a threat to any of our two armies.

You also mentioned cooperation between the Elohim and the Sheaim. True, they might have some cooperation economically, but neither has shown signs of military ambitions yet. Even Mr. Yellow and I had this economic cooperation, and look where we are standing now! Also note the differing reactions about the delivery of copper to the Bannor between the two: while WarriorKnight was reluctant, Irgy had already signed a deal with Mr. Yellow, which was only interrupted by the appearance of my hostility towards Mr. Yellow. (At this point, I'd like to note that luckily, for some reason unknown to me, the coastal connection within our cultural borders was not sufficient in order to establish the trade route I feared).

best regards,
Nyktorion[/COLOR]

Pity about him not wanting a MDP. With the two strongest military powers allied we would have little to fear from foreign aggression.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi Nyktorion,

Best wishes for your campaign to liberate East Bannorland!

Mr. Yellow moved his remaining 6 warriors 1 tile east onto the roaded plainshill. It looks like he will be able to get that stack into Trinity by t108. I have a Cultist offshore near Trinity who should be able to prevent his workers from forest chopping but due to the losses I took last turn I won't be able to commit any other troops to aid your liberation efforts.

My main concern with the Infernals is the damage they could cause if they appear near either of our civ's borders. Iron champions backed by a st13 hero unit can inflict serious damage should they happen to spawn near a weakly defended area. Not to mention the damage that hell terrain causes to forests and floodplains. (of course there is also the possibility that the Infernals spawn on an offshore island in which case they would not pose much of an immediate threat).

Should you change your mind about a MDP let me know and I will be happy to discuss terms and conditions.

Thoth[/COLOR]

If he had been willing to negotiate a MDP I would have shifted some more forces eastwards but as it is, having Nytorion take casualties trying to capture Trinity will help the local balance of power equation. I'm going to pull my forces back into my own territory next turn (with the exception of the Cultist who may be able to do a bit of coastal sniping)

[Square Leg]

I can understand why he isn't interested in an MDP at the moment. He doesn't really feel threatened by us and so he doesn't need the protection. Maybe we will get the same out-come by just continuing to be friendly with him.

On Mardoc - I agree that the land he wants to settle near the Remnants isn't in his sphere and we shouldn't let him settle it. There is still some fog that may contain another resource or even some resources that aren't revealed until later in the tech tree.

Now we can see that there is land to his East that he has yet to settle (treasure chest area) he shouldn't be pushing that far towards us before claiming that in my opinion. I'd politely say that we have plans for that area, I'd maybe also consider leaving a cultist in the sea there to show that we aren't going to be pushed over. I would keep the diplo as nice as possible for now seeing as we aren't ready to attack him just yet.

One other thought would be to tell him about the lands down there in a few turns once we have scouted it out a bit. It will probably mean that he will concerntrate on expanding building settlers and workboats while we could prepare to attack... Just a thought.

[Thoth]

Turn 107 Nyktorion captures a city:

Love the new name.

WarriorKnight has some incoming barbs:

My warrior wound up getting squashed by a giant after turn 108. Should have popped the barrow after all.

Turn 108 produced some serious temptation:

After some hard thinking, I decided to leave that worker stack alone. Mr. Yellow could kill my Cultist at the cost of 1-2 warriors so I'd likely not be able to keep the workers and at this point I'd prefer he did some damage to Nyktorion's stack so leaving those workers alive to chop out more warriors/cats is looking like a decent idea.

(ignore the gpt/bpt in that screen shot, I dropped the slider to build up some extra gold and I hadn't done my city micro when I took that screenshot)

Sailing came in at eot 108, giving me 3 trade routes from Mardoc and trade goods access to Nyktorion and WarriorKnight.

Right now I'm the only person (with the possible exception of Irgy) who has marble hooked up, so it's looking like I have a very good shot at the Bone Palace (due in ~15 turns).

Turn 109 revealed a bit more of "Treasure Island" :

Damn but that's some nice looking land. Needs a pile of worker turns to get productive, but there's some fine grassland under those jungles and forests.

I'll open my treasure chest in a couple of turns and pop the hut a turn or so later.

My wandering Cultist out east encountered a Sea Serpent (st9/mv1)

A tsunami reduced it to ~65% health. Not good enough to take a shot at this turn, but I'll hit it with another tsunami next turn and then see about killing it for some easy exp.

My break even point is about 70% tech, but I have another lightbringer that I want to upgrade to Cultist before I swap out of OO on either t110 or 111 (I've got 3 border cities due for their second border pop in a turn or two. I'll need to double check to see if I can swap into RoK and still get those pops).

Switching to RoK will reduce my GNP by ~13 due to lost OO culture but increase my GPT by 8 thanks to RoK gold.

I'm 4 turns from the Heroic Epic and 7 turns from the Brewing Company, so things are looking good on the domestic front.

Diplo update to come in a later post.