[SPOILERS]"Look at my horse, my horse is amazing"

[Mr. Yellow]

*DING*



Muuuuusic to my ears!

Lets get dem stables up!

In the meantime, more barbs are approaching.



Dang it! The capital is safe with 3 warriors, but Banang is living pretty risky with just 1 inside. How am i gonna get out of this mess...

Now barbs tend to wait one turn before assaulting, but i'm not gonna take that chance. Good thing i got HBR now, as extra mobility will get me out of this.

So, i'm gonna need one warrior from the settler escort back to MegaYellow and another from the capital back to Banang. Moving one warrior up of the settler excort to the coast showed no griffons in sight, so back to the cap with the other one.

Well the main barb stack didn't wait at all.



Looks like i didn't really need a 3rd warrior in the cap. Despite the stack all having combat II (minus one with Drill). Then again that city's placement makes it nigh impossible to possibly beat this early.

Crafting in, time to actually gain some luxuries.

And 4th city settled.



This would be a more appropiate name if there actually were a river going north from that lake, but whatever.



Bah, make up yer mind ya stupid orc!

Diplomacy time!

With Ravus:

17:42
Ravus: Are you free?

Jeg: sur

e*

Ravus: Just found the Bannor, so i can finally talk to them

But more importantly, The Vampires now have 6 cities and Aristocracy
17:43
Jeg: thats pretty dang fast

Ravus: I know

they must have pure beelined

Jeg: well im in the process of getting stables up
17:44
Ravus: Well recent talks with the elves reveal they are starting to pump out hunters. So you are looking like you will have easier luck against the vampires

who still only have warriors
17:45
Jeg: yeah i did see the recent spike in power, pretty much means theyll go for leaves next

Ravus: Yeah, they allready have mysticism

Jeg: that was their 5th tech

Ravus: mmm
17:46
sorry i'm typing up my opening email to the Bannor at the moment while talking to you. So i'm only half talking. Basically just wanted to fill you in on the continueing rise of the vampires

Jeg: i see
17:47
btw, you need philosophy to access religion techs yes?

Ravus: um nope

Jeg: hmm, might have seen things wrong in the tech tree then

Ravus: the first three you only need mysticism and a second tech
17:48
you need philosophy to get to way of the wise and way of the wicked for the better religions though
17:50
Are you hoping to get any religion in particular?

I'm going to grab the Runes religion to help in expansion to keep up with the Vamps

Jeg: well heh, thinking of grabbing runes too
17:51
though my reason are the priests

Ravus: really?

the Runes priests arn't anything special

apart from being able to quick build the temple in cities
17:52
Jeg: well yeah, if it did only give the priests alone i wouldnt be interrested

but id like any kind of boost for my cavalry

Ravus: every little bit helps i guess
17:53
I figured you would go for Empy or Veil late game for pure horse power however.

Jeg: later maybe
17:57
Ravus: Okay apart from warnings on the continued vampire threat I actually have little else to talk about. So i'm going to go write another message to the Amurites. Do you need to chat about anything else?
17:59
Jeg: nothing for the moment
18:00
Ravus: allright i'm of then. I will talk to you again at a later date
18:01
Jeg: later then

So Sareln got Hunting as last tech? Pretty much means his next is gonna be the leaves. Wonder if i spilled too much info with my talks to Ravus and has been sharing a bit with the elves.

Believe i'll have a chat with Sareln next time. Maybe there's a more appropiate approach.

Finally some talk with Mist:

20:28
Jeg: hey, heard Ravus has reached you

Piotr: yeah, just got a welcome letter
20:29
Jeg: so, sent any response?
20:30
Piotr: just general "hi, nice to see you, shame I'm far away from everyone, we can talk when I'm back from holidays" :]

Jeg: allright

anyway, Ravus keep talking of incoming doom on the vamp side

saying mackoti has 6 cities and aristocracy
20:31
Piotr: this is half true and half turning attention away from himself
20:32
mackoti is, and will build a strong economy, but he has no real experience in fighting in FFH

and Decius is not financial, aristofarms will not be nearly as powerful as they could be under Flauros
20:34
Jeg: aware of that, still hitting mackoti before he gets vamps out is more optimal than warding off future vamp stacks. Either way its not gonna change my current plan
20:35
current focus for the moment is the elves. Who now has gained Hunting it seems. Would explain the sudden power spike.

believe his next tech is gonna be the leaves

Piotr: very likely
20:36
Jeg: stables are coming up btw, horses will come cranking out in 2-3 turns
20:37
Piotr: nice

[Mr. Yellow]

Get of my lawn!




0.1 health. Eek!
Well a kill is a kill, need to get that road up. Of course the barbs won't let me be in peace this far in the game.

Mining is finally researched and our copper is spotted.



Lovely location. This should really up the hammer amounts of Fjords of Yellow once it's grown.

Right now my capital and the 2 nearby cities will be my horse producers while Golden Coast is the current worker/settler pump. Although food is currently in focus to reach the pop limits. In fact my food is currently in a pretty good spot now after lagging behind for quite some time.



Anyway, with Mining in i need to consider what to research next. Masonry can wait for now as it would only give me marble that i don't even have in my current influence (and i'd rather not spend hammers on culture at the moment). Current choices are Calendar->Festivals, Cartography or Runes of Kilmorph.

At the moment, i'd like to stay in God King a while longer for cavalry production. I'm pretty close to my happiness limit and more food isn't gonna do much, especially with the few farms around. Markets are handy, but seems like a bit of a waste to take the Festivals path just for that. Runes of Kilmorph would give me much needed happiness and more potential gold.

Yeah, Runes of Kilmorph it is!



Little else going on through the turns. Guarded the worker to finish repairing the road while the barb eventually suicided and died.

Turn 82 and Sareln has founded the Fellowship of Leaves, as expected.



Yeah he's looking less and less attractive for a raiding target, especially with the power he's wielding.



I actually attempted a chat with him some days ago.

00:23
Jeg: hey Sareln, hows it doing?
00:26
Sareln: oh not much. Pumping out some hunters and hawks to finally get a good look-around at the neighborhood

Did you also get hit by a wave of barb warriors recently?
00:27
Jeg: i actually did yes

Sareln: I think I just racked up ~10 barb kills in the last 3 turns or so

Jeg: 6 of them suddnely from nowhere

Sareln: same story

all of a sudden I went from having "overbuilt warriors" to having barely enough.

Jeg: seen any barbarian encampments?

Sareln: no, haven't

unless you count clan cities :P

Jeg: heh

Sareln: but that's not quite the same I think.
00:28
Jeg: speaking of the clan, how is relationsship with the orcs?

Sareln: we're not killing each other, so I guess it's better than it was in PBEM V.

hooked up a road for better trade routes between us as well.
00:29
we'll see where it goes from there I suppose

Have you been getting along w/ Ravus alright?

Jeg: pretty well, been sharing some nice info about the vamps
00:30
though hes quite eager to fish for information it seems
00:31
say, have you met the vamps yet?

ive heard from him that they are located north east of you
00:33
been a bit worried about the activity going on there
00:34
Sareln: I just got a scout out to the vamps this last turn

I still need to write Mackoti saying "Hi"

what activity? Just the scoreboard push? Ravus says Mack just switched to Aristocracy as well.
00:35
Jeg: well ive heard from him that hes been aggressively pushing towards Amelia

he apparently has a city very close to the Amurite capital
00:36
Sareln: hmm

I guess the best way to confirm that is to haul that scout over to Amelia and see what's up...

Jeg: perhaps
00:37
either way im considering sending an army towards the area
00:38
dont really want to let him get stacks of vampires up

Sareln: yeah, though he's a bit far don't you think?

Jeg: he could be, but i got speed in Hippus
00:39
Sareln: given map size and player locations, I don't know if anyone is going to be able to mess with the vamps before they have vamps up.

that's true
00:40
Jeg: think ill get there in around 5-6 turns. Though i have no knowledge of that area
00:41
Sareln: ah, well, it's still a big black area to me as well. The best person for it would probably be Ravus.
00:42
I think I remember him saying he sent his wolf-rider that way.

Jeg: he did

it got killed by mackoti
6 minutter
00:48
Jeg: i did mention Ravus about trading maps, but he understandably consider his to be superior and would ask for more of it

Sareln: ah
00:49
makes sense I suppose
00:50
Jeg: well i find little else to talk about, gonna clear the current barb situation and see what i'll do from here. You got something you'd like to ask about?
00:51
talk*

Sareln: Not really, I'm mostly just waiting for FoL to come in so I can start reasoning about where I go from here.

Need to bring some actual strategic thought to my game instead of just trying to micro an opening.
00:52
Jeg: i see. It was nice chatting with you.

Sareln: ciao!

Aaaaand it felt awkward. Not sure what i really want to say about this, though the whole thing feels like he knows what's coming in the next few turns.
Not so sure about the whole military needed for the big barb raids, though his growth did stall for quite a while when researching Way of the Forest. Still i think there's more to it than just barbs. Power rate looks a bit too high for simple barbs.
Heck i'm even a little scared of a hunter stack possibly showing up on my south-eastern border.

Soo, just build up my forces and see what to do from there, likely i'll attack anyway.

First though, i need to clean up my western front.

[Mr. Yellow]

So after some microing, our great nation has finally gained their first horsemen!



So lets talk about horses!

Right now it's about getting as many of them as possible (without sacrificing too much gold/food). So let's see if i can get 10 of them during the next 10 turns.

There isn't much left to tweak in MegaYellow currently. Production is at 16 hammers and that nets me 2 horsemen every 5 turns. 5 Horsemen in total after those 10 turns (turn 93). Pretty underwhelming if that's the amount i'll have then, so what can the other 2 production focused cities net me?

Banang, after growing to size 5 in 2 turns will gave me 12 hammers, which would translate to 3 horsemen in turn 94. 8 total.

Finally, Fjords of Yellow. Which currently is working dry corn and wines is gonna need time to really get the hammers pumping. It will grow to size 3 on turn 84, size 4 turn 89 and size 5 turn 97, assuming the next tiles worked on are improved copper and plains hill tiles. That gives me 8, 12 and 16 hammers.
It should have the stable done turn 89 and net me the first horse turn 93, next on turn 96. So 9 horsemen total on turn 93, 11 on turn 96 (and 180-220 gold).

Mmm, that should be a decent amount. I'll be needing those 10 turns cleaning my west front and hunt XP for flanking.

Speaking of that, guess what time it is kids!

[SIZE="4"]IT'S TIME FOR....[/SIZE]

[SIZE="7"]The Great Hippus HORSE Quiz[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]My coming army may only be composed of the 4 legged beauties, but that doesn't mean they'll do only one thing only. His yellowness has planned to task his cavalry into 3 different roles:

Scouts (2+ movement and sentry, though i'll need combat 3 for that), to search ahead for the enemy positions.
Flankers (Flanking III), to soften up defenders or at least inflict some hit and run damage with minimal casualties.
Main army/Stompers (Combat promotions), the clean-up crew and main hard hitters.

And to make sure each of them know their stuff, each role shall be given a name. Something that his yellowness has already decided on.

So i ask you, what do you think he has named his arguably most interresting division, the flankers?
[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]A) Flak Reavers
B) Blazing Yellows
C) Ponies of Yellow
D) Windrunners[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]So who will guess right and advance further on, how many new participants will the quiz get or will this just get ignored and thrown into the bin?!

That and the answer will be answered in the next coming turns![/SIZE]

[uberfish]

E) yellow bellied cowards

[Tasunke]

D) Windrunners

[Bobchillingworth]

Gotta be the Yellow Peril.

[Ilios]

Yellow Fever?

[Mr. Yellow]

Mmm, maybe these kind of questions is a biiiiit too silly.

Anyway.

Gonna get some XP. Luckily those barbs's are gonna give me quite a bundle.
Around 90% chance sounds good enough.



And success. 5 XP.



Believe i'll promote to Flanking II and continue the assault.

Now recently, Sareln recieved a Great Sage which he used for a golden age straight after researching Way of the Forest. His production has worringly skyrocketed and his GNP less so.




So far though, he hasn't increased in power during the period, even lost a few to barbs even. We'll see how this evolves further on, but i'm quite certain that production is for the temples and eventually priests.



I'm currently 2nd (of all 6) in power.

[Mr. Yellow]

Turns been going quite slowly the last days. What has happened so far?

Well not much.

Barb stack has moved on the forest next to MegaYellow and found the odds for attacking the barb stack not good enough, sticking to defence here.



That said i still want my horses to gain the XP, so only putting 2 warriors on and see if the Horseman gets a turn on the field as well.



1 XP. I'll take it.



Now here's another nice oppurtunity. Total odds of about 95%, winning this should put it past 10 and level 4.

Now this would be all lollipop and sunshine once it passed that threshold, except...he died.

Damn that was painful!! Just sat there for over 30 seconds in disbelief and agony!

Arrrgh!



Finished it off for one measly XP.

[DaveV]

Total odds of about 95%...

Except you were attacking across a river, which wasn't reflected in the original odds. The mouseover is kind of flaky about including the river malus; I think if you had moved the horseman directly adjacent to the warrior and rechecked the odds you would have gotten the true value.