We just watch. And Judge. FFH PBEM III Lurker Thread.

[Selrahc]

So, Irgy is building Pyre Zombies- and using them like standard axes for barb defense / escort duty. And he's going to give up the ice mana from the Frigus to the guy who has the one of the earliest available Archmages, at no charge. Who he's also offering lots of free info to, including the exact locations of where he intends to settle, and where Warrior Knight can obtain copper. Why?

He wants to play a mage game. Stay friendly with the neighbours. Tech to sorcery before attempting any real aggression.

It's not the best way to use the Sheaim. Pyre Zombies are one of the most powerful units in the game, so it's almost insane not to take real advantage of them, especially after making them such a tech priority. But I can see what he is doing. Nobody is going to want to attack him until they have their counter for Pyre Zombies in place. And by then he wants to have mages rolling off the production line.

[Bobchillingworth]

Poor Mr. Yellow. Should have waited a turn before settling that Great Bard



He chose a strange location to settle him in regardless of Nyk's settling party, really. The extra culture would help much more in a city that will be claiming more than coast tiles.

[Sareln]

Yellow has been super-aggressive in his placement towards Nyk, and Nyk has talked himself (rightly so in all liklihood) of having no other choice but to settle into a dispute. Should be interesting to see if sparks fly here.

[Sciz]

Yeah Mr Yellow has been really agressive in his diplo versus both the Malakim and the Elves, without anything to back it up really. And in both cases he's the one further away from his capital than the other part.

[Sareln]

Yeah Mr Yellow has been really agressive in his diplo versus both the Malakim and the Elves, without anything to back it up really. And in both cases he's the one further away from his capital than the other part.

Eh, aggressive negotiation works fine when your opponent has room to retreat into/accept. You run into trouble when the guy on the other side of the table has no options left. Nyk is right in that regard, he's backed into a corner and if he can't get more quality land peacefully, then he'll have no choice but to go to war footing and take some of it.

[Sciz]

I certainly didn't like Sir Yellow's diplo against me even though I had lots of space to expand into in other directions. That was much more "my land" than his, and he got angry that I claimed it. Obviously he wants the land, I don't have a problem with someone expanding a lot, but I get the feeling from his messages that he feels that it's his right to get those spots even though they're much further away from his capitals than from Nyk's and Thoth's. It's a bit bewildering.

[uberfish]

Settling your second city 10 tiles east from capital, and claiming rights to the next city site to the east based on that alone seems unreasonable to say the least.

[Sareln]

Looks like Nyk and Mr. Yellow are going to come to blows over it sooner rather than later. I don't know how Mr. Yellow expects to hold that city when it's so far out...

[Selrahc]

One way to win this is to get to Bronze Working and then straight to Order (Philosophy - Way of the Wise - Orders from Heaven) for the priest. Bless + Bronze weapons can give me the muscle to push him off the city.

Not a very workable strategy. A warrior rush doesn't work if it's predicated on getting all the way to Order+Priesthood. That will take around 40 turns of research, by which point Nyk will have had archers for an eon, high cultural defences and a very decent archer hero with a nice pile of XP. And it's a hill city.

[Caustic Soda]

Yeah if Mr. Yellow wants to fight for the city, he would probably do best to just go for Bronze and build warriors/axemen ASAP. Alternatively go for Construction and catapults.

oh, and hi Selrahc *waves*