[SPOILERS] Woof! Woof! Bad dog! No biscuit! Charadon of the Doviello

[Ellimist]

Okay, I've been thinking more about my options post-Calabim. For one thing, I'm tempted to keep Santa Monica. I need to make sure it won't cost me my Barbarian peace, but it looks like a good site with improved terrain. Hopefully the great artist Mist got will keep his score high enough for me.
My plans so far may have been a little unrealistic, post-Calabim. It would take awhile to collect as much gold as it would require, and the map isn't production-poor. Another thing is I'm not exactly doomed long term. Sure, the Doviello do best at the very beginning of the game, but they still have some options later on.
Let's take stock of some of my advantages and disadvantages vs Mist:

Disadvantages:
Innsmouth hurts my economy right now.
If I take Santa Monica, it will also hurt my economy in the short-term.
The barbarian trait and lack of science multipliers will make it harder to keep up with Mist on tech.
The elves will get stronger as the game takes longer.

Advantages:
If I can get to City States, it will nearly erase my finance problems. Plus the slider percent is less important than the number of beakers.
Last time I checked, Mist's capital was size 2 and mine is almost size 5. In another turn I'll have a farm on grassland corn(wet), grassland, and floodplains. I also have 3 grassland dye tiles about to be improved and 2 ancient forests that don't need improvement.
I have a ridiculous amount of good land available to me, including Dragon Bones and Remnants of Patria.

Right now I'm leaning toward Runes of Kilmorph as a longer term plan. It wouldn't take me too far off course with tech and can get me the gold I want as well as early iron. The main drawback is a lack of culture.
AV is very tempting but very expensive. It would probably take too long to get to it. Plus if the game goes on long enough, I can see Mist summoning Basium to help out.
OO might be an option. It depends on the terrain of Mist's empire. Ichabod might know so I could ask him before I betray him.


Of course, I expect Mist to get Fellowship of Leaves(duh.)

[Ellimist]

Okay, not much to report. I was given a helpful hint as the game loaded though. I'll have to keep this in mind:

The troops are marching onward to Santa Monica, they'll become visible next turn. There's not a lot to explain about the following picture.
Image:

Ichabod hasn't swapped from food to production yet, and his power is at 10K. I know he has 2 warriors(3K each), and a scout(2K) so that leaves 2k for population.
My economy officially sucks and I'm not sure whether to raze Santa Monica if I'm able to capture it. I want to keep it but I don't think I can afford to keep Innsmouth and Santa Monica. If I could retroactively raze Innsmouth, that would be ideal, but I'd need Ichabod's help to do it and that seems so slimy. I could delay the DoW by 1 turn if I want to raze Innsmouth with my beastman in the area after gifting it to Ichabod.

[Ellimist]

I also sent this to Ichabod yesterday, and he replied:

[COLOR="Teal"]Ichabod,

How much have you seen of Ljosalfar lands? Would it be worthwhile to get cultists for tsunami?
I'm trying to decide what religions would be best to go for. I think probably OO or RoK. OO as collateral damage is only worthwhile if water is conveniently located, however. Obviously AV would be best but it may take too long to research.
Which religions are you aiming for?

Ellimist[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Red"]Hey Ellimist,

I've scouted almost all the northern borders of the Ljosalfar lands. I've seen some lake tiles inside of his borders (on his western border), but I'm not sure if it justifies going OO. The problem is that I cannot see the BFC and inner ring of the city, since it has a massive culture due to the artist and already expanded to the third ring. Like you said, Tsunami is situational, so it's difficult for me to give a proper opinion.

I'll probably go for Esus or Empyrean, since they are on a similar path to my other tech plans. I have no desire to pursue an early religion, though (RoK, FoL, OO). So if you are aiming to get one of these, don't worry about me getting it first.

Kind Regards,

Ichabod[/COLOR]

Definitely worth checking out before going OO, but that may be the best religion option available to me if he does have lake tiles inside his borders.

[Ellimist]

Diplomacy Emails:

[COLOR="Teal"]Ichabod,

Innsmouth is still dragging on my economy. You mentioned earlier the possibility of assisting me in razing it.
I now have a beastman 2 tiles away from the city.
I can't play the turn until I get home from work later, but if I offer you the city I can raze it two turns later. Would that be something you are willing to do?

Ellimist[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Red"]Hey Ellimist,

I'm willing to assist you on the razing of Innsmouth. Like I said, I look forward to the development of our civilizations.

But I have a condition, which I guess you probably know what it is. I want a NAP. The demographics show you are probably going to kill Mist soon and I'm the only target left after it happens. If I help you now without a NAP, I'm just making my demise a sure thing.

So, if you can agree to a NAP until turn 120, I'd agree to help you.

Kind Regards,

Ichabod[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Teal"]Hey Ichabod,

A NAP until turn 120 is not something I would consider at this time.
You make very good points, and I can't dispute them. Unfortunately, playing as Charadon doesn't give me much opportunity for genuine cooperation with other teams.

Ellimist[/COLOR]

More Calabim correspondence. My next message to him will probably be when I get home, play the save, and move my forces into view.

[Ellimist]

[SIZE="7"]Vampires Under Attack[/SIZE]


I moved my forces into view this turn and declared war. It looks like Ichabod has been taking damage from the barbarians. Hopefully his bloodpet hasn't gotten to 2 exp to promote yet. I don't know where his other bloodpet went but it won't have a fortification bonus even if he can get it back into the city.

I am pretty sure that the turn order goes:
#1 Ellimist
#2 Mist
#3 Ichabod
#4 Barbarians
So I'll be able to attack immediately after the goblin that is about to hit him next turn. Or if I attack the turn after next, I'll be attacking after goblin #2.

I'll run a sim next turn based on the actual situation and see if I am likely to take the city with just the 4 wolves. It will depend on how much damage the barbarian goblin can do and whether the other bloodpet returns to the city. The fact that he only has one bloodpet in the city is very promising. It makes it less likely that he'll be able to finish another bloodpet before my troops arrive.

Screenshot:

I sent him the following email to inform him of my deception:

[COLOR="Teal"]Ichabod,

I expect you'll be very irritated with me, but I must inform you that nearly everything I've told you is a lie. I've been planning to choke or kill you from the beginning of the game onward, as this is the only way that Charadon has any chance of winning.

I disagree with your belief that a three person game must come down to 2 vs 1. The Doviello civ doesn't have much to look forward to after the early game, and this leaves them little reason to cooperate with anybody early on. My troops are outside Santa Monica this turn and I declared war. I believe that the odds will be in my favor when they arrive at your city.

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a way to do this that did not involve a lot of dishonesty, and I regret that you were the recipient of this deceit. You've been quite friendly to me and I've pretended to be friendly while plotting your demise. I hope you won't take it personally, but I'll understand if you do.

I consider you to be an excellent player. If you made any mistakes this game, it was to trust an untrustworthy player. I expect that, in a contest where I did not attack you, you would have been the eventual winner.

Ellimist[/COLOR]

[Ellimist]

[SIZE="5"]The Home Front[/SIZE]


Financial Screen:

Outside River Heights:

Inside River Heights:

Yes, my finances are indeed +3 gold at 100% gold. I'm not super worried about it though, for two(and a half) main reasons:

• I am about to lose some units and my costs will go down when I do. If I win, I won't need some of the remaining units and may disband them anyway.
  
• I am about to hook up the 3 dye tiles at my capital.
  
• If I keep Santa Monica, it has improved tiles including cotton and corn. So the additional maintenance costs will be offset right away.

I expect Ichabod to use his worldspell this turn, but with 3 agrarian farms I'll grow back quickly.
My worker just finished a farm on the floodplains and will begin a plantation next turn. Another worker will finish soon to help him out, and I may build a third worker after that. The three plantations should have a BIG impact.

I plan to tech exploration next, then probably cartography for city states. There are a lot of great city sites on this map and I'd like to be able to afford to take advantage of them. The main thing to worry about there is keeping my score low enough to keep my barbarian peace. Hopefully Mist will assist me with that by increasing his own score.

Also, yes, my capital is empty. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything to worry about though.

[Ellimist]

I did some testing with wolf packs and found out some interesting things.
For example, I can move two wolves and then form a wolf pack that has full movement remaining. So I could strike at a distance of 4 spaces instead of 2. This could be handy when I find his worker(s).

I also was looking at some other late-game strategies, and it might be doable to go for summoning the Mercurians. That would definitely be a way to supplement the Doviello's lack of advanced units. I'm not sure how realistic that would be, but an Aristofarms strategy seems quite powerful on this map. Another option is to go for RoK iron or maybe ritualists.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Postin' to sigtest and wish you victory!

[Ellimist]

Thanks Nicolae!

Game mechanics questions:

I haven't tested it because I didn't think the game would last long enough, but can icy floodplains be scorched? I know desert floodplains can be vitalized but cannot be sprung.

If I summon Basium, will he be at peace with barbarians(because he's allied to me)? I think he will be. Can I summon him while evil?

[Ellimist]

No time for pictures.

Ichabod cast River of Blood and finished a 3rd bloodpet this turn. I didn't even consider attacking with the 4 wolves against 3 aggressive bloodpets on a hill. I'll need to weigh the odds carefully, I might need to choke until Lucian arrives.

At size 2, I was pulling in 14 food and using 4, and the box was at 6/16, so I postponed the worker by one turn so that River Heights could grow instead. Improving the dye a bit sooner won't help if the city isn't big enough to to work it.

I split one wolf from the pack so that I could get a better look at the north of Ichabod's BFC next turn. If I'm lucky he'll kill it though, and I'll be able to kill a bloodpet on flat ground(or bypass it and take the city.) If I can kill a bloodpet with either beastman, it will let me promote them again and that could be decisive.