[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Mr. Yellow]

Sons of the Inferno? Dunno if that's a good or a bad thing.

I'm more interrested though in what Bobs doing or more specifically, the relations between Bob and Tredje. Bob attempted a dogpile on the clan earlier and it seems like the clan would attempt an attack against them if possible.

I haven't followed this game much i admit, though i'd like if you updated your thread more from now on.

[Iskender]

Nothing really important happened in-between, or at least nothing reached me. Clan has been choking Amurites, Sheaim have been choking Luchuirp, and me and Balseraphs are taking advantage of it.

In the past Trardoc politely turned down my offers to hurt Balseraphs, but then again the offers themselves were not serious ones, but rather attempts to achieve other goals, ie. getting a worldspell NAP with the Clan. Now that Trardoc offers a NAP between us I should seriously consider a joint action vs Balseraphs. I'm thinking about sending several invisible Priests (and Tigers) in an attempt to raze a city or two, maybe more with Clan's help.

Sons of the Inferno are 8 strength Fire III Archmages, they can summon str 9 (10 with Clan's palace Fire Mana) move 2 Fire Elementals. Absolutely devastating at this stage. Sareln could stop them for 20(?) turns by casting Amurite world spell. Of course noone has seen a SoI in the game yet, all we know is that the Clan researched Fishing ans Sailing. If the tentative island is separated by ocean he'd still need Optics to reach it.

SoI or not I think a NAP with the Clan until T130 is a good idea and a joint attack vs the Bals even a better one.

[Mr. Yellow]

Um Iskender, you sure Acheron is on? Cause when i checked the tech page it said Acheron is off.

[Selrahc]

Acheron was pre-placed by the map designer, as agreed on by the players.

[Mr. Yellow]

Ah, ok then.

[Iskender]

Turn 81 & 82:

Booring turns. Improved a tile or two.

Overview of the empire at T82:





Turn 83:

Signed NAP with the Clan. It's valid until T130 and includes a Confidentiality Agreement.


The exchnange about the NAP:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hello Orc and Goblin

I'd like to sign a NAP until turn 130, there are two caveats however:

I have a yet non-concluded resource trade agreement with the Amurites. I would like to honour it even if the Clan were still at war with the Amurites. The agreement doesn't involve me delivering them Copper, that much I can say. I would not aid the Amurites in any other way.

I'd like to include a Confidentiality Agreement to the NAP, that is, each side cannot reveal any information revealed by the other or learned about the other for the duration of the NAP. At most we could reveal that we have a NAP and a CA. I think this is necessary if we want to plan any kind of joint military action.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]Hi Invisible Man,

I am glad that you desire to sign a NAP with the Clan. However, I am a bit curious about your resource trade with the Amurites. It would be unfortunate for us to sign a deal, only to have suspicion or even resentment grow between us because of this issue. Therefore, before we agree officially on a deal, could you allay my concerns by answering me this: Will the trade have an immediate effect on the Clan-Amurite conflict (as in Copper/Horses/possibly some sources of Mana), or will it have more of an indirect effect, such as a happiness or health resource or other sources of Mana? I understand that you cannot divulge the specifics of the matter, but I think it is within the limits of disgression to state what kind of a deal we are talking about.

Tredje (& Mardoc), Orc (& Goblin)[/COLOR]


[COLOR="Silver"]Please treat the following information as confidential:

I owe Sareln Fire and Enchantment mana, we also had plans to trade Silk for Cotton. I'll leave it up to you to judge what effect it would have on your conflict with the Amurites. The agreement was made before the conflict between you two.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]Iskender,

Whatever has been spoken between us I will keep to myself, that you can rely on.

Allow me to thank you for being open and candid in your descrpition of your deals with Sareln. I understand that it must be difficult to maneuver between two neighbours who are at war with each other.

The Clan hereby agrees to a NAP with the Sidar until T130 with a CA.

Tredje (& Mardoc), Orc (& Goblin)[/COLOR]

If the Clan indeed has access to Sons of the Inferno I'm afraid Sareln's fate is sealed.


Also this turn: Serdoa has made peace with Square Leg. I wonder where are Serdoa's zombies right now. He might be just crazy enough to do a raid on my eastern cities. Oop Be Gone will start building a (50% cheaper) Archery Range after it finishes a Market next turn.


Turn 84:

Improved and connected Gold. Discovered Hunting. Moving on to Way of the Forests. The capital built a worker and will now built/chop a Hunting Lodge in 5 turns.


Another goblin from the fort approached. This one had been smart enough to move onto a hills desert giving my warrior 77% odds instead of 95% .



Of course the warrior lost. Getting those Shades is an uphill battle indeed.


Turn 84 demographics:



Balseraphs are running away with Production and Food, not so much with GNP - half of it is still culture.

Bob and Square Leg both discovered a classical tech this turn. It's nothing I can immediately research, my guess is Code of Laws in one or both cases.

[Ravus Sol]

How many forests are you going to try and lumbermill before they upgrade to ancient forests?

[Iskender]

Two lumbermills will be ready before adopting FoL. After that lumbermilling is going be somewhat tricky. I'm going to chop forests that will have gone ancient prematurely (20 hammers gained, not a bad deal) and try to lumbermill the rest, spamming new forests once Priests are ready.

[Iskender]

Turn 85:

Nothing interesting domestically. ETA for founding FoL is turn 91. First Hawk should appear on turn 90.

Bob adopted Aristocracy/Apprenticeship. His research is more or less on par with mine, but he's got twice as many hammers.



Tredje founded 4th city. Serdoa discovered an ancient tech. Good - no HBR for the Sheaim so no Mobility for Zombies. Sareln built a Mage Guild a couple of turns ago and is most likely training an Adept.

[Iskender]

Turn 86:

Serdoa switched to God King, Apprenticeship and Agrarianism.

Nothing interesting happened in the Sidarland, so I did some diplo:


I revealed my FoL Priests plans to the Clan and offered my assistance in peace talks with the Amurites,

[COLOR="Silver"]Rawr!

Congratulations on founding 4th and 5th city. This looks like a good use of a Warrens.

Now that we have an NAP and a CA we could discuss some issues openly. First, the possible attack on the Balseraphs. My plan was to raid them with invisible Priests of Leaves plus Tigers as cannon fodder. I'll be able to build Priests around turn 100. Now that Bals research rate has increased drastically the chances of sending a big enough force before they discover Hunting are getting slim. We might consider organizing a conventional dogpile, but as history teaches us those have had 0% success rate so far. I still want to send the invisible Priests somewhere at least to force people to research Hunting and also get Priests some exp getting them closer to Waning. I'll gladly hear your opinions on that matter.

In about ten turns I'll be roading the Incense tile south of my southern city, if you extended a road north from Renegate Hill we could establish a trade connection. A word of warning regarding my city: because of the monument the city will expand its borders into 3rd ring stealing a tile from your BFC. I'm sure it's not a big issue, but it could get worse if FoL gets founded in the city. I hope it won't, but there's roughly a 1 in 3 chance for that. I don't intend to build a Shrine, at least not in the next 50 turns.

It seems that the Amurites are making a slow but steady progress despite the choke. Because I maintain peaceful relations with both the Clan and the Amurites, I would like to offer my assistance in bringing this conflict to a peaceful conclusion.[/COLOR]

informed Sareln about the NAP with the Clan,

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey Sareln

I'm writing to tell you that I have signed an NAP and a confidentiality agreement with the Clan, both up to Turn 130. Before I agreed for the NAP I made sure that Clan will honour the friendly relationship between the Amurites and the Sidar and respect the agreements between us. I offered my assistance in a peaceful resolution of the conflict. If you think there's anything I could help with let me know.

Iskender[/COLOR]

and blackmailed the Balseraphs:

[COLOR="Silver"]Greetings oh wise Sorceress and Queen

Your beauty outshines that of Valledia, Os-Gabella and Sheelba (and Garrim Gyr) even more than your Score outmatches theirs. I'm writing to express my exultation over the fact that you have abandoned the savage notions of ruling the civilization all by yourself and instead decided to relegate power to an inbred degenerated clique!

I'm also writing to discuss the future of a certain individual named Gibbon Goetia. This individual approached us, apparently attracted by our exquisite taste in clothes. He was offered an exclusive Sidar Retirement Plan and found it so attractive that he made a pledge to stay with the Sidar even if we abandon his favourite little cult.

Ok, OOC now: It's not a secret that we're both interested in Gibbon. Do we make a race to Deception or try to resolve this issue somehow?

Iskender[/COLOR]

The idea is that I'm pretending I'm interested in Gibbon because if I waned him I could switch out of Esus and still keep Shade Gibbon able to cast his tier III spells (true!). Let's see where it gets me.