RBPBEM FfH V [SPOILERS] Sareln of the Amurites

[Sareln]

[COLOR="Gray"]Hey there

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.

Iskender[/COLOR]

[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.

-Sareln-[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

The last several turns have been me growling at lizardman and daring them to come and do their worst.

Turn 26:
The lizardmen move to group up, I don't really know how the Barbarian player is making his decisions. Maybe my position on the scoreboard is confusing it?

Turn 27:
Still scouting around Iskender's backline. I kind of wish that my calendar resources were between my capital and the sea...

Scout:

Capital:

Turn 28:
One of the Lizardmen tries his luck, the other two exit my borders and head north , this is confusing, I'd much rather they all just make a try so that I can run my worker out and plantation those silks, I need/want the money...

My scout found the Ruins of Patria on the map. I tell Iskender about them, hoping to deflect his settling attention away from his south.

Scout:

Capital:

[Nyktorion]

The last several turns have been me growling at lizardman and daring them to come and do their worst.

Turn 26:
The lizardmen move to group up, I don't really know how the Barbarian player is making his decisions. Maybe my position on the scoreboard is confusing it?

Interesting barb behavior - maybe their decisions are random?

I've often experienced barbs waiting a turn or two outside my cities, too. However, this turning-around behavior is new to me.

Could it be that the turned-to-the-north lizard found another nice target (e.g. Sidar units) there?

[Sareln]

Turn 29:

The other Lizardman suicided on the capital, while the C1 lizardman has wandered off to who knows where. He won't be missed. My worker pops out to start plantationing the silks, capital is remicroed for growth and commerce. Mysticism/GodKing in 7 and Plantation + Pop Growth in 4.

My scout found the border of the Luchuirp (SquareLeg), but contact will have to wait for the blitz session.

Capital Pre-Micro:

Capital Post-Micro:

Scout:

[Sareln]

Met Bob on Turn 32, now we know what the map looks like.

Chatlog:

(5:48:37 PM) Sareln: Both of our scouts are standing next to a spider
(5:48:48 PM) Sareln: I hope you don't mind, but I renamed my Scout "Eat Tingle First Plz"
(5:48:54 PM) Sareln: also, Contact.
(5:48:56 PM) BobChllingsworth: haha, cool we met
(5:49:01 PM) BobChllingsworth: Was heading over to see you
(5:49:07 PM) BobChllingsworth: heard you had a guy nearby
(5:49:17 PM) Sareln: yeah, the Scorpion declined to eat
(5:49:27 PM) Sareln: hopefully the spider will do the same, but I'm less hopeful in that regard...
(5:49:35 PM) BobChllingsworth: is your guy promoted?
(5:50:00 PM) Sareln: nope
(5:50:23 PM) BobChllingsworth: guess it'll be a coin-toss
(5:50:29 PM) Sareln: yeah
(5:50:46 PM) Sareln: I've been seeing some wierd barb activity around my capital (lizardmen getting confused as to where they want to be)
(5:50:58 PM) Sareln: It may be due to my rather... low... position on the scoreboard I think.
(5:51:07 PM) BobChllingsworth: quite likely
(5:51:20 PM) BobChllingsworth: although I'm not seeing much in the way of barbs right now
(5:51:32 PM) BobChllingsworth: might just be that there aren't any spawning close enough to me
(5:51:56 PM) BobChllingsworth: so, who have you left to meet?
(5:52:08 PM) BobChllingsworth: I still need the Clan and Iskender
(5:52:19 PM) Sareln: Umm, I've got Clan, Iskender, SquareLeg, You
(5:52:51 PM) Sareln: So I'm still missing serdoa
(5:52:54 PM) BobChllingsworth: If your scout survives you should get contact with Serdoa to complete the set in a couple turns
(5:52:58 PM) BobChllingsworth: he has a scout following mine
(5:53:01 PM) Sareln: Clan and Iskender are my two neighbors
(5:53:12 PM) Sareln: Iskender, Up, Clan, Right
(5:53:19 PM) Sareln: that may also be why I'm seeing more barbs...
(5:53:38 PM) BobChllingsworth: ah okay, that clears up the final piece of my map puzzle
(5:53:47 PM) BobChllingsworth: is your capital roughly parallel to SL's?
(5:54:15 PM) Sareln: not really
(5:54:20 PM) Sareln: he's on the same level as Iskender
(5:54:42 PM) Sareln: so my corner looks like:
Iskender Square Leg
Me Clan
(5:55:54 PM) BobChllingsworth: k- to complete that map, put me close to directly under SL, approx 16 tiles distant, and Serdoa 12 tiles E of SL, almost parallel
(5:57:15 PM) Sareln: so:

(peninsula) Iskender <-> Square Leg <-> Serdoa
Me <-> Clan <-> You (Space?)
(5:57:43 PM) Sareln: I don't have vision on the Clan cap, they found me, but I'm pushing a scout out their way to have a look-see
(5:58:24 PM) BobChllingsworth: that sounds roughly correct
(5:58:47 PM) BobChllingsworth: my scouting hasn't been very good, so I have little idea what the coastline looks like outside of my immediate area
(5:58:49 PM) Sareln: this map feels a bit close btw
(5:59:04 PM) BobChllingsworth: I just got lucky with a scout who found SL's borders and Serdoa at the same time
(5:59:13 PM) BobChllingsworth: which is why I said the blitz ended up being productive for me
(5:59:13 PM) Sareln: I had contact with the clan starting turn 5 or 6
(5:59:17 PM) Sareln: ah
(5:59:39 PM) BobChllingsworth: yeah this map seems a lot smaller than "standard"
(5:59:50 PM) BobChllingsworth: which is what the settings screen shows
(6:00:05 PM) BobChllingsworth: I think there's probably a lot of land, just not on our continent
(6:00:08 PM) Sareln: ah
(6:00:10 PM) Sareln: Terra!
(6:00:14 PM) BobChllingsworth: exactly
(6:00:16 PM) Sareln: Also, Overlords!
(6:00:17 PM) Sareln: :P
(6:00:20 PM) BobChllingsworth: where else could Acheron be
(6:00:27 PM) Sareln: dead center? :P
(6:00:37 PM) BobChllingsworth: I think that's SL :P
(6:00:53 PM) Sareln: also, Iskender's Cap is 9-10 square perfect diagonal up-right from my own
(6:01:18 PM) BobChllingsworth: sounds like both of your neighbors might be closer to you than mine our
(6:01:25 PM) Sareln: (10)
(6:01:26 PM) BobChllingsworth: although idk how close the Clan are to me
(6:01:37 PM) Sareln: 10 up-right and then 1 right
(6:02:06 PM) Sareln: Iskender is 10/11 to the left of SquareLeg
(6:02:15 PM) Sareln: (I'm not counting city squares in this btw)
(6:02:16 PM) BobChllingsworth: sheesh poor SL
(6:02:24 PM) BobChllingsworth: although SL's land looks awesome
(6:02:25 PM) BobChllingsworth: so whatever
(6:02:42 PM) BobChllingsworth: he had a crazy amount of FP outside his capital
(6:02:45 PM) BobChllingsworth: has*
(6:02:49 PM) Sareln: Ruins of Patria between Iskender and SquareLeg
(6:02:53 PM) BobChllingsworth: also working a 6 commerce silk
(6:02:58 PM) Sareln: There's a crazy amount of FP south of Iskender
(6:03:21 PM) Sareln: ah
(6:03:39 PM) Sareln: Iskender has a double-calendar + nonirrigated Agriculture start.
(6:03:44 PM) Sareln: is that similar to Square-Leg's setup?
(6:04:01 PM) BobChllingsworth: idk- I only could get vision on a silk
(6:04:25 PM) BobChllingsworth: I haven't been following the demos much at all, so not sure what he's working
(6:04:28 PM) Sareln: Iskender has paired plains/river cotton.
(6:04:59 PM) BobChllingsworth: would be hard to tell anyway, since he has an engineer from the Golden Hammer, and probably another great person from detonating the Broken Sepulcher
(6:05:08 PM) Sareln: ah
(6:05:13 PM) Sareln: the Broken Sepulcher gave that Scorpion
(6:05:18 PM) Sareln: if Squareleg is to be believed on that.
(6:05:18 PM) BobChllingsworth: yeah
(6:05:28 PM) Sareln: can you get a GP and the Scorpion at the same time?
(6:05:31 PM) BobChllingsworth: Serdoa isn't happy about it- Sepulcher was closer to him
(6:05:46 PM) BobChllingsworth: you could get both if you had more than one unit exploring the lair
(6:06:13 PM) Sareln: ah
(6:06:19 PM) Sareln: the scorpion has no promotions btw
(6:06:27 PM) BobChllingsworth: withered touch or whatever
(6:06:27 PM) Sareln: so I dunno how that went down.
(6:06:29 PM) BobChllingsworth: I think
(6:06:42 PM) BobChllingsworth: it has that promo wraiths get
(6:06:48 PM) BobChllingsworth: (I saw it too)
(6:07:22 PM) Sareln: ah
(6:07:45 PM) Sareln: I'm glad there are no epic lairs near me
(6:07:49 PM) Sareln: I don't need more trouble :P
(6:07:57 PM) BobChllingsworth: I think Serdoa also has the seven pines
(6:08:10 PM) BobChllingsworth: I have the Pool of Tears at my capital
(6:08:19 PM) BobChllingsworth: and the Standing Stones fairly close by
(6:08:23 PM) Sareln: lucky duck
(6:08:27 PM) BobChllingsworth: eh
(6:08:29 PM) Sareln: that pool gives what, +3 happy?
(6:08:33 PM) Sareln: or is that only Ruins of Patria?
(6:08:35 PM) BobChllingsworth: haha noway
(6:08:39 PM) BobChllingsworth: just +1
(6:08:56 PM) BobChllingsworth: and cures disease, withered, plauged
(6:09:03 PM) BobChllingsworth: nice for freaks, I guess
(6:09:07 PM) Sareln: yeah
(6:09:14 PM) Sareln: if you're doing a lot of mutation it'll be nice
(6:09:23 PM) Sareln: or just running your diseased corpses through it if you go AV :P
(6:09:49 PM) BobChllingsworth: heh yeah, although if you're AV surely you'll have a few ritualists about :P
(6:10:36 PM) BobChllingsworth: do you have any unique features?
(6:10:41 PM) Sareln: I think everyone does
(6:10:48 PM) Sareln: none in my BFC though
(6:11:08 PM) Sareln: I've got the Tomb of Succellus guarded by a Gobbo fort
(6:11:22 PM) Sareln: and Odio's Prison between me and the Clan
(6:11:54 PM) BobChllingsworth: I guess the Tomb is pretty nice
(6:12:04 PM) BobChllingsworth: who doesn't like free mana, after all
(6:12:05 PM) Sareln: My Amurites will happily take the life mana :D
(6:12:27 PM) BobChllingsworth: now all your units can fix hell terrain!
(6:12:39 PM) BobChllingsworth: well once you get Govannon, anyway :P
(6:13:28 PM) Sareln: he's buried *how* deep in the tree again? :D
(6:14:04 PM) BobChllingsworth: the Pool wasn't initially at my BFC, btw- I ended up moving since my settler started off on some weird location 1 row of tiles off the coast
(6:15:00 PM) Sareln: ah, I bit the bullet and took the 3 coastal tile hit
(6:15:18 PM) Sareln: judging that the hill/river defensive bonus would be useful against barbs
(6:15:23 PM) Sareln: paid off in spades so far.
(6:15:56 PM) BobChllingsworth: our map seems small, but at least there's a decent amount of mana about
(6:16:24 PM) BobChllingsworth: useful since there's three heavy-duty spellcasters playing
(6:17:33 PM) Sareln: definitely
(6:17:40 PM) Sareln: have you found the Pyre by the way?
(6:17:49 PM) Sareln: I wants moar fire mana for some odd reason...
(6:17:53 PM) BobChllingsworth: haha
(6:17:57 PM) BobChllingsworth: nope, haven't seen it
(6:18:35 PM) Sareln: alrighty
(6:18:50 PM) Sareln: oh, I found the Ring of Carcer btw, though I don't think you're quite as interested in it this time around are you? :P
(6:18:58 PM) BobChllingsworth: hehe
(6:19:21 PM) BobChllingsworth: not quite as much- especially since my hero doesn't even get exp.
(6:19:47 PM) Sareln: heh, hero only gets you halfway anyways ja? It's like ~200 xp.
(6:20:04 PM) Sareln: probably not happening since my highest XP guys will be spell-slingers and passive xp doesn't show up that often
(6:21:15 PM) BobChllingsworth: you thinking of taking the Wizard's Way, or the Priests of Govannon approach?
(6:21:28 PM) BobChllingsworth: I suppose you could do _both_, too
(6:21:39 PM) BobChllingsworth: Amurities really need a spiritual leader
(6:21:45 PM) Sareln: I need to iron something out with the Clan first. Aggressive neighbor and all that jazz
(6:22:02 PM) BobChllingsworth: hehe
(6:22:18 PM) BobChllingsworth: have them attack the guy to your NW who specializes in assassin units
(6:23:04 PM) Sareln: haha
(6:23:31 PM) Sareln: I don't think I'm quite up to PB level of manipulation yet... :D
(6:24:34 PM) BobChllingsworth: I'm glad the Clan and Sheaim aren't close together
(6:24:42 PM) BobChllingsworth: they're somewhat natural allies
(6:24:52 PM) Sareln: how do you figure that?
(6:25:50 PM) BobChllingsworth: fire-resistant orcs make poor PZ targets. And the Orcs are the best civ to push up the AC, via 1-turn goblins in a Warrens + Prophecy of Ragnarock city (not to mention producing double veil priests for quicker spreading)
(6:27:14 PM) Sareln: ah, fair
(6:27:20 PM) Sareln: I've got to eat family dinner now, so ttyl.
(6:27:31 PM) Sareln: I might send you an e-mail announcing contact just for giggles.
(6:27:34 PM) BobChllingsworth: k, I need to head to bed soon anyway
(6:27:41 PM) BobChllingsworth: sure, if you want
(6:27:44 PM) BobChllingsworth: night / later!

[Sareln]

Turn 30:

Aaand the C1 Lizard is back, I wish he'd just settle his mind at this point so that my worker can work!

I meet the Luchurip and step next to a named scorpion! Someone's been popping lairs... poor scout.

Capital:

Scout:

[Sareln]

Turn 31:
More lizard-man dilly-dallying. Push my new scout out towards the south. I want to get a good idea of just how close the clan is. I'll probably be building warriors from here on out to prep for the Orthus Spawn. After I've got a large-ish pool of warriors I'll probably also start killing Lizardmen more proactively. Also, the Scorpion decides my scout doesn't look all that tasty and so abstains. My scout runs for the hills.

Capital:

Scout-North:

Scout-South:

[Sareln]

Turn 32:

My Northern scout finds Bob's scout in the fog. However, we're both standing next to a Giant Spider. I rename my scout "Eat Him First Plz" as a joke at Bob and then dial him up on IM to chat. Log already posted, lots of information exchanged. Maybe I'm being a bit too friendly, but hey, it can't really hurt at this point in the game.

My southern scout find's Odio's Prison. Nothing too eventful there.

C1 Lizard still marauding around the capital.

Capital:

Scout-North:

Scout-South:

[Sareln]

Diplomacy:

Iskender

[COLOR="DarkGray"]
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.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

[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.

-Sareln-[/COLOR]

SquareLeg

[COLOR="Magenta"]Squareleg,

Greetings from the Amurites. You have a named scorpion on your border, so my scout is likely to not get much further. I hope your scouts have fared well in the wilderness? I've met the Sidar and the Clan so far, and this map seems rather cramped. I can help you find the Sidar, but have yet to find the clan's borders. I'm sure one of their scouts will stumble upon you soon enough. If you want, I can point them in your direction.

-Sareln-[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hello Sareln,

Ah yes, Walgna. He has travelled from afar to reach my western borders originally starting far to the east guarding the Broken Sephulcher. Rumour has it that his mother packed him a copy of "Sights to see in Erebus" and he has embarked on a pilgrimage to the Remnants of Patria...

Your scout has travelled far to reach Luchuirp lands. We should have no reason for conflict and so I'm keen for our mighty nations to share information where possible; an eyes and ears network. To help start this I offer some information - I have met everyone except the Sidar now. Going from what various people have said I am fairly confident of the layout of the map. It appears we are on one lump of rock with all the civs starting in a ring around the edge. The order starting with yourself and moving in a clockwise direction: Amurites-Sidar-Luchuirp-Sheaim-Balseraphs-Clan.

If you can confirm or deny this that would be really useful.

Should your scout have survived the scorpion, the Balseraph have a scout in the region also allowing contact.

Hope to talk more as the game goes on,

Square Leg/Garrim Gyr[/COLOR]