[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Iskender]

I forgot that Sheelba is Barbarian and cannot explore dungeons. Tredje might declare war on barbs immediately after launching For the Horde, but I think the chance of Tredje opening the Pyre in the next several turns is low (there's also Scorpy prowling in the area).

Stinky Socks the Scout finished his training and moved south.

Being last in turn order I have the luxury of seeing barbarians move. EOT 27 an unpromoted Lizardman appeared (finally some action):





He showed up at a fortunate location - he'll probably move onto the plains hills, allowing my worker to continue improving first cotton. I'll move the scout back to the capital in case the lizardman kills one of the warriors.

[Iskender]

The lizardman kindly followed the (above) red arrow while the worker finished the plantation.

Square Leg discovered his 3rd tech. 1st was Masonry, 2nd - a 6-turn research - fits nicely with Agriculture, which would make the 3rd one Calendar.

I think it's safe to assume that every player had the same double-calendar-resource start and followed a similar Agriculture->Calendar tech path. Let's see how fast which civ was to get Calendar:


1. Bob [INDENT]Turn 12. Had a head start by not having to research Agriculture.
[/INDENT]2. Serdoa [INDENT]Turn 20.
[/INDENT]3. Tredje [INDENT]Turn 21. Amazingly fast for the Clan. Outstanding micro or a beaker+ event (which doesn't preclude outstanding micro)
[/INDENT]
4. Me [INDENT]Turn 22.[/INDENT]
5. Sareln [INDENT]Turn 23. Most likely no Flood Plains in BFC. Had been working a no-commerce hills/plains/forest tile.
[/INDENT]6. Square Leg [INDENT]Turn 28. Took a detour to get Masonry.[/INDENT]

[Iskender]

Nothing really interesting happened since the last update. The lizardman has been defeated, both cottons connected.

Sareln told me on chat that Luchuirp is located east of my land and that he saw a named scorpion near dwarven borders. Stinky Socks was sent east to make contact with Square Leg and found the scorpion:





Another Lizardman appeared, this time SW of the capital. This one might mess up my worker micro, but otherwise shouldn't be much of a threat.

I'm running really low on soldiers, putting every hammer and slice of bread into the settler. I'm at 11k (2 warriors + scout) versus rivar worst of 16k. I should catch up once 2nd city is founded. Now let's just hold thumbs that nothing threatening (ie. someone getting BigBad from the Pyre or Tredje launching his world spell) happens in the next 5 turns.

Apart from soldier count, I'm doing well in demographics:





It's interesting that Bob's GNP isn't higher at this point, suggesting that he might not have two calendar resources in BFC. Maybe the starts aren't equal after all (ie. he was given only one resource tile) or he moved away from the second tile.


A diplomatic exchange with Sareln:

[COLOR="Magenta"]Hey again,

I'm willing in principle to agree to a land/dotmap split. One of use
will need Cartography to make that happen though no? It's hard to draw
maps blind. That's not too soon for me, given barbarian activity. I
have the nagging suspicion that your first city isn't going towards me
anyways. I found the Ruins of Patria just right of your 3rd ring
borders, across the water (which there is a land bridge for) along
with some deer. It is on a desert so will only give 3 base --> 5
hammers post education, but that's still a decent find. I will carry
on scouting in that direction.[/COLOR]

He's right about my 2nd city - i see a perfect spot just screaming "SETTLE ME!" and it's not anywhere near Amurite lands (do you see it?). It's slightly worrying though, that for the second time he left out Gold from the conversation. It's not your average weak-ass Gold - it's a plains river 9-commerce Gold (the kind that Bob got and squandered in PBEM1) located almost halfway between us and I don't want it to be a taboo until one player claims it and the other bears a grudge for the rest of the game, so I steered the exchange in its direction:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

Yes, I've seen the Remnants, could be a nice tile if Springed. The surrounding area doesn't look that good though.

Regarding dotmaps, I'm mostly concerned about the Gold north of the Mirror of Heaven. We're almost equidistant(?) to it - i'm 7 tiles and you're 8 tiles away. I'd like to discuss that Gold before one of us makes a move that cannon be undone.[/COLOR]

Now, when I'm reading it, this "cannot be undone" part seems too serious. Anyway:

[COLOR="Magenta"]From the map, you can rest assured that any gold site will not be a
first city . I'd like to scout more of the in-between between us,
as well as between myself and the clan before making any deal. I
don't want to accidentally sign away land needed to be competitive.
At the very least I'd like to secure as far as the mirror, you know
how mana-hungry the Amurites can get.[/COLOR]

My 2nd city won't be founded near Gold as well, but maybe the 3rd?

I'm positive that I'll have 3rd city much earlier than Sareln (he's having some sort of barb trouble - switched his tiles to full production and still hasn't improved any of the Silks). I could agressively grab the Gold with the 3rd city and use the above exchange as an excuse if Sareln makes a fuss about it. Greed is not good though.

[Iskender]

Apparently the lizardmen got bored of picking on Sareln and instead decided to bother that farmer's gambit dude in the north:




Two lizardmen and a skeleton.

The capital is defended by Brass Rat (2/2 xp, can take a promotion) and Flaming Poodle (0xp). Both warriors are fully fortified. Lizardmen have 3.7% odds, 1.3% if I give Brass Rat C1.

The big question is: should I switch production for a warrior? It's only 4 turns until the settler is out, switching now would delay 2nd city by 2 turns. On the other hand, if any of the lizardmen wins I might say goodbye to PBEM5. Ugh...

[Iskender]

Moar contacts!

First, Tredje:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]It was a peaceful day in the Sidar palace. Everyone was busy contemplating how they could please their ruler Iskender by being Great.
In fact, that is all the Sidar ever think about. Even housewives and stableboys in their quite moments sit down and ponder how to achieve greatness.
But suddenly the calm was broken when a wounded scout came running through the courtyard.

"Master, master!" he shouted. "Lizardmen and Skeletons are converging upon our fair city. "And they are looking for blood!"

Iskender, not one to be frightened by news of a couple of barbarians, climbed up on his balcony to get a good view.
The scout was right, Lizardmen and Skeletons were marching towards them. But behind the great number of Lizardmen he thought that
he for a second spotted a orcish looking creature spurring the barbarians on. Then whoever it was vanished.

Iskender returned to the courtyard to organize the defence. At the same time an Orc messenger approached him with a parchment covered in
crude writing. It said:

"Daboo. We are Orcs and Goblins. We come say hello to the Sidar. We friendly."[/COLOR]

That Great People part is just great

It's relieving to hear a declaration of friendship from the Clan, but to be safe I switched the production to a warrior.

[COLOR="Silver"]Welcome Orcs and Goblins!

Can you see us? So much for the disguise... The Divided Soul who suggested that black denim and plenty of eyeliner would make a good camouflage will have his soul divided by zero.

As a token of friendship the messenger was given a pair of the hippest Sidar shades and a message written in black and dark purple gothic letters:

"Hi

Other than yourself, I've met the light purple wizards in the southwest and the dark purple wizards somewhere in the southeast. I should make contact with the dwarves of the east soon. No signs of the crazy clowns so far. If you travel east look out for the scorpion prowling in the southern desert. If you take a northern route, there's also a scorpion east of my lands, a named one, probably unleashed by the dwarves.

The Sidar are secretive society, so please burn this note after reading. Enjoy the shades!

Iskender"[/COLOR]

Yeah, the shades is a bad pun, but at least I resisted the urge to make a David Caruso reference!


In the east Stinky Socks makes an unexpected acquaintance:



That's a Sheaim scout. What's he doing here? Let's say "Hi":

[COLOR="Silver"]As the scout emerge from the forest he sees a peaceful valley and a flock of sheep grazing in an oblivious joy. One of the sheep immediately catches the scout's attention. There seems to be something really weird about it. The intrepid scout has seen many animals in his journey, both peaceful and deadly, and this sheep doesn't look like any them. He feels an irresistible urge to poke the sheep.

As he does it the sheep bleats,

"Baaa"

Curious, he pokes it again,

"Raaam"

and again,

"Eweee"

Fascinated, the scout decides to poke the sheep a few more times to see what happens but as soon as he raises his tatooed hand the sheep cries:

"All right, stop it already! I'm not a sheep m'kay! That's a CAMOUFLAGE! I belong to a secret society of the Sidar; our first rule is "do not talk about Sidar", so do not talk about Sidar. In fact you might stay here and graze with me for a while - there's a scorpion northwest of here and I believe it's not my camouflaged cousin. This scorpion actually had a collar. When I picked it up it said "WALTIO. If found please return to Ms. Gertrude Gyr, 23 Hammer Road, Ithralia". Oh, and there's a spider in the south, but that's my brother-in-law. So, if you want to graze for a while I can get you a camouflage, but look out for rams!"[/COLOR]

At the end of the turn (forgot to make a screenshot) one lizardman neared the capital and the other mysteriously disapeared so I'm switching back to Settler with half a warrior waiting in the queue. 2nd city ETA: turn 40. Agristocracy ETA: turn 50

[Ilios]

Greed is not good though.

[Iskender]

The Clan warrior didn't move, he's just standing there on a hill. Not good, my spider sense is tingling. With almost twice as few warriors as everyone else I'll try to use diplo to take the Clan eyes off me.





Tredje and Mardoc's (Trardoc's?) reply:

[COLOR="Orange"]Hello,

Thank you for informing us about the dangers located in the wilderness next to your borders. I am not sure if this is already known to you, but I can tell you that the Clan is situated to the south and a little to the east of the Sidar empire. The Clowns are even further to the Southwest, quite a distance from your capital.[/COLOR]

Looks like it's a crowded place indeed. But where's Acheron? Anyway:

[COLOR="Silver"]Too bad that the Clowns are that far away. I wanted to crash their party by doing the "I'm the invisible man" trick.

Speaking of which, I have an offer for the Clan. I'm going to trigger my world spell rather sooner than later. Not at the moment - a portion of my military is in form of hammers in the queue waiting for my conversion to Appretinceship, but early enough for everyone to have little chance of having Hunting. I think I'll declare war on several players, triggering a general feeling of paranoia, but actually pick on only one.

My offer is this: we could coordinate our world spells to cause greater havoc. We could make a deadly strike vs one player or just mess with most of them. I'm mostly concerned about the Balseraphs (don't like the idea of Gibbon summoning Mind III or Air III puppets), but alas they are far away. If we're unable to coordinate our world spells we could just make some kind of anti-mutually-asserted-destruction pact to make sure we don't waste our world spells on each other.

Cheers, Iskender[/COLOR]

The parts in bold are what I really wanted to convey, both with the purpose to make me look as an unattractive target for For the Horde. I do have a bit of an army in the queue (8h worth of a warrior) and if Trardoc does C&D he knows that I haven't researched anything recently despite having high GNP, meaning I'm close to discovering an expensive tech such as Education, so he might know I'm not bluffing and could spam guerilla/combat warriors if threatened.

I'm not really interested in coordinating Into the Mist with FtH at this point. I'd like to leverage my world spell diplomatically before actually casting it. An agreement not to use our world spells against each other would be enough, allowing me to run farmer's gambit a little longer


Found the owners of Waltio the Scorpion:





This gave me opportunity to recycle a few jokes:

[COLOR="Silver"]Pssssst!

"I'm hiding in the bushes behind the lake. Can you see me? I bet you can't, cause I'm a member of the secret Sidar society. First rule of Sidar is: you don't talk about Sidar, but what the hell - we live west of here, behind the big lake. We've made contact with everyone except some crazy clowns. Gotta go, I'm being chased by someone's pet scorpion!"

The scout retreated in such haste that he lost what looks like a pair of shades.

[/COLOR]

[Iskender]

Lots of interesting diplo recently.

First, got hit in the head by a little dwarven shoe:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]As your scout retreats he feels a smack on the back of his head. With hesitance he picks up the object and studies it with intrigue. In his hands a small square shoe presents itself in a way that only a small square shoe can...

"Who throws a shoe? I mean honestly?"

Inscribed on the sole of the shoe is this message:

"oops - sorry - I was aiming for tree in front of you. ;-)"

Inside the shoe is a whistle and a piece of parchment that smells distinctly of ale.

"Sorry about my messenger, he played the same on the Sheaim recently. Apparently throwing shoes is his favourite past time. I'll ask him to be more respectful in the future.

Walgna was indeed my doing. He has been equiped with a copy of "Sights of Erebus" and is currently visiting the Remnants of Patria. Where he heads to next is a mystery!

You are my final contact and should you wish for contact with the Balseraph I am happy to point you to the south-south-east of my borders. Shrieks of laughter have been heard in that direction as well as a C3 lion wearing a pair of oversize shoes. My messenger is desperate for those...

Thorion Vo was most grateful for the shades. ;-)"[/COLOR]

Now who on Erebus is Thorion Vo? Oh... I've been so obsessed about the Clan that I missed a Luchuirp Great Engineer being born and them mysteriously getting 23 points. Suddenly all the pieces clicked together (the shoe in the head helped a bit in that):

Square Leg bulbed Construction.

He had it planned since turn 0, hence going for Masonry first, instead of ie. Agrarianism. This looks like a Wood Golem rush, a cunning plan indeed!

From now on I'm counting every hammer the Luchuirp spend.


Now, dealings with the Wizards of the West:

[COLOR="Magenta"]I've plotted out a preliminary dotmap and I think we can come to an
amicable agreement. As stated earlier, I want the Mirror of Heaven
under my control. I'm playing Amurites, so this shouldn't be all that
shocking. I don't know how far along you've scouted, but there is a
nice set of flood plains south of your capital. as well. I'd like
just a small piece of them, mostly the overlap that will happen when I
settle on the river in your south / my east for a rice/banana spot
between myself and the clan. In return, I'll be giving up any
contention for land in the north, including that gold/fur/corn spot
that looks particularly awesome, as well as a mana-node hanging out on
the northern peninsula stretching out to the west.

If this sounds like a good deal to you, we can start working with
landmarks/screenshots to reach a solid understanding.[/COLOR]

All right! I'm getting the Gold and a big chunk of the west in exchange for a couple of flood plains. Is that the charm of Into the Mist working?

[COLOR="Magenta"]Additionally, I'd like to set up a more formal NAP structure for us if
we go through with a settling deal, something along the lines of until
T100 for starters, with extension opportunities starting at T80. Let
me know if that interests you.[/COLOR]

Apparently so. I appreciate Sareln's settlement offer, but I'd like to get a little bit more in exchange for him being safe from the dreadful Sidar world spell.

[COLOR="Magenta"]Now let's talk about the Clan. You've mentioned earlier that both our
CIVs are late-bloomers, and that's definitely true. We have for a
neighbor the Aggressive/Organized Clan of Embers. They're about
equidistant from the both of us as I eyeball it here, but may actually
be closer to you. They are the penultimate rush CIV. I am,
understandably, somewhat worried. When I got into contact with Bob,
he stated that he's trying to put together a soft-contain of the clan
in the early game, basically constricting their land opportunities
since they're in a middlish portion of the map, instead of on an edge.

The initial, low cost, step of this contain is to make sure that
pretty much everyone's first expansions go towards the Clan. I've
agreed in principle to the idea, if he or I can bring you onboard with
it. Bob is talking with Sqaureleg about it as well. I'm talking with
you about it because you don't have contact with Bob yet, and this
sort of agreement needs to get hammered out before we plant our second
cities. I think it's a reasonably good idea, especially since the
land to my east is solid as well and I wanted to expand into it
anyways. I think it's much the same with you, if my assumption of the
flood plain south is correct. Up for it?
[/COLOR]

Some interesting news here. Apparently the world resembles a flower with the Clan in the middle and the rest of us as its petals. It looks like a deliberate setting - leaving everyone equal opportunity to be rushed by the Clan.

Bob is organizing an anti-clan coalition and I've just made the Clan an offer to coordinate our world spells. Looks like the future of PBEM5 is slowly being shaped

My reply to Sareln:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey there

Looks like that we'll be able to avoid any quarrels over settlement issues. Yes, I see those Flood Plains, there are five of them I think. We could arrange it the way that one of us gets 3 and the other the remaining two. I'll send you a detailed dotmap on tuesday (no access to FFH at the moment).

I'd like to cover our possible NAP in a separate agreement. I'll get back to you with that in a few days. Don't worry - I'm not trying to avoid or delay the issue! I want us to have a NAP, but I believe it'll benefit you a lot more, so I'd like to bargain a little extra for myself.

Regarding the Clan: I've already chosen the spot for my second city (east of Deep Thought), mostly for economic reasons , but the third city will most likely be founded south of my capital.[/COLOR]

In brief: settlement - YES; NAP - I want more; Clan - too late.



And last but not least, Trardoc's response to my worldspell offer:

[COLOR="Orange"]Well, color me intrigued.

Your proposal rings well in Orc ears. With two world spells we could be able to wreak some havoc among the opposition. Let us for a moment assume that we decide upon such a joint venture. Like you I think it would be best to declare war on several targets but actually focus on just one. But whom? The Clowns are far away and 20 turns of travel can make a world of difference. Logistically I think that the Luchuirp or Amurites are better targets, seeing as they are much closer. But if we pick on the Dwarves, wouldn't that open up lots of space for the Sheaim and possibly the Balseraph? I'm sure neither of us wants to do them any favours. Of course we don't want the Dwarves to grow out of proportion either. On the other hand, If the Amurites were to be crippled, it would ensure that the western part of the continent could be shared between us.

Do you share this view, or have your reflections led to other conclusions? If we choose to go ahead, we should perhaps have a chat to figure out the specifics, such as a time frame and similar details. Let me know what you think.
[/COLOR]

I wanted to take their For the Horde eyes off me and it looks like the mission has been accomplished. The Clan seems genuinely interested in coordinating our world spells to wreak extra havoc, and, in light of the Luchuirp recent coming out as rushers, I think - why not? Trardoc apparently want to target Sareln, but maybe they can be convinced to go for Square Leg instead:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hello there green fellas

Yes, Amurites and the Luchuirp are the only targets within my reach. I'd like to avoid targetting Amurites for two reasons. First, with Knowledge of the Ether they'll be able to detect my invisible units with Magic Eyes, and second, I'll be honest here, Sareln is offering me a good settlement deal, with a nice stretch of land in the west.

From my perspective the Luchuirp seems much more attractive as they're unlikely to have any means of detecting invisibility anytime soon. I don't know what's the political geography in the east, but I've heard that Bob is trying to organize an effort to box you in by asking everyone to settle in your direction. You could escape that by claiming a chunk of former Luchuirp territory (assuming that our little operation succeeds). If you wan't to mess up Bob for coming with such a plan I have a really nasty idea. Are there any skeleton barrows down there? :evil grin:
[/COLOR]

I hope I spinned this one right. I Deliberately left out the part about Luchuirp getting Wood Golems, makes them too unattractive as a rush target, but Trardoc probably figured it out on their own anyway, or will soon.

A pair of Sidar shades to a bloke who first tells what's the idea to mess up Bob about. It doesn't involve exploring lairs, although we know how much Bob hates that.

[TheBagelProblem]

Oh no you don't... I want a pair of Sidar shades for me just for not spoiling the burrow idea to others.

And I know that you know that I know... the idea I mean.

[Iskender]

No wai! I will not be blackmailed by a bagel!