RBPBEM FfH #1 [SPOILERS] Sareln of the Svartalfar

[Ilios]

Thanks for the Dotmaps

What are your plans with the Mana nodes?

[Sareln]

Thanks for the Dotmaps

What are your plans with the Mana nodes?

Mana Plans

+ 1 Shadow
+ 1 Mind
+ 1 Nature
+ 1 Nature from FoL Holy City
+ 1 Fire at Node
+ 1 Fire at Node
+ 1 Water/Body at Node

2 Nature
2 Fire
1 Shadow
1 Mind
1 Water / Body

I need fire for fireball and a source of collateral damage, nature for the poisoned blade buff for all my recon units (my main forces will be primarily recon).

I may pick up Body instead of Water since Haste is just that good, especially with raiders.

[Ilios]

What's the benefit of having two Fire nodes?

[sunrise089]

Fire affinity (I think Fire Elementals only) and new or promoted Mage path units start with Fire 1 without burning (ha!) a promo.

[Sareln]

What's the benefit of having two Fire nodes?

My adepts will start with Fire I auto-magically instead of having to use a promotion on it. This means that if they're dedicated fire magi, they can use that promotion on Combat and Mobility promotions to increase the power of their fireballs or their movespeed.

Similar reasoning with nature. It's a spell I want, but I don't want to distract from other things. Mages who are going to take Nature II for poison blades would probably also take Body I as a promotion. Namely though, the 2 nature nodes will come about as a consequence of going FoL.

Let's break it down:

A mage comes with 2 free promotions (one for being an adept, and one for being a mage) and the 3 promotions to take them from lv. 1 --> lv. 4.

With only 1 fire source, a dedicated mobile fire mage takes the following promotions

1. Fire I
   
2. Fire II
   
3. Mobility
   
4. Combat I
   
5. Combat II
   

With 2 fire nodes, an adept starts with Fire I, and so a dedicated fire mage has the following promotions:

1. Fire I (Free from Nodes)
   
2. Fire II
   
3. Mobility
   
4. Combat I
   
5. Combat II
   
6. Combat III
   

[Sareln]

Recent Diplomacy With the Boy-King (PB) of the Kuriotates:

Executive Summary: Pleasantries, commiserate about barbarians, hint of C&D, talking about Selrahc, contact tips.

Hi Sareln,

Thanks for the reply and yes the rather frigid winter King did mention it.
He sent me a note around the same time as I received your message.
How are finding him btw?

He was very friendly in helping us contact each other, but equally I'm not rushing to tell him where I'm located yet.
I'm still not sure how borderlines etc will resolve themselves.
But then admittedly, I've still got squares 7 tiles from my capital that are still fogged.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Village Gossip Boy-King

He answers my mail, but not much comes out of him. He planted his
second city in my general direction (more or less unavoidable given
our proximity) and has stated he wants ice to be Illian only. I'll be
honest, I'm much relieved that I accidentally stepped onto, and
triggered, letum fridgus, because an aggressive Illian would be
absolutely terrifying to me right about now.

How've your relationships been with the others? This reminds me that I
should go talk to Cull again, if only to commiserate about Barbarians.

-Sareln-

Greetings Sareln,

My apologies for the late reply to your message, all my couriers were tied up (literally) and being used as pawns in a giant game of chess in Kuriotate Palace courtyard.

That's huge news that Selrahc is already on his second city! I guess it makes sense, but even so, yikes!
How close is it to you?
I have visibility on the pig and marble tiles NW of your capital, but know little else to the direct West of you.

Agree that having a close Aggressive + Charismatic Illian neighbour would have been rather fearsome.
Do you think his city plant is in retaliation for that? Or is he just trying to secure Letum Frigus?

My relations with the Winter King have been cordial so far, although I'm deliberately keeping quiet about my capital location for as long as possible to avoid any of these border issues.

Similarly Cull has been helpful, although I've only just met him a couple of turns ago, so nothing to be concluded yet.
My scout has just left his borders, dragging with it 2 lizardmen away from his capital, likely to die soon.

Noticed you ramping up on the production to get ready for Orthus.
Fingers crossed he spawns far away from both of us (or I'm in serious trouble).

Kind Regards,
Pb, Grand Master Boy-King.

No worries, there is plenty of time for talk right now since we're
still in the primary phase of the game, where the barbarians are more
threatening than other players.

Selrahc's new city is pretty close, 6 tiles from my capital (I can see
its initial ring just on the border of my capital's third ring). It's
also south of his capital, so it is a claim to southern territory,
rather than to any of the area around leptum fridgus. I wouldn't be
surprised if the city plant was just choosing the best city site for
his 2nd city. He hasn't made any angry noises in diplomacy.

I'm sure Cull is quite happy that you pulled some barbarian pressure
off of him, those lizardmen are a royal pain to be sure.

-Sareln-

[Sareln]

Turn 45:

Fortune favors the bold, and I need units more powerful than base with promotions to keep barbarians in check. I'm configured to pump out scouts every turn, so why not spend one and see if I get 25% lucky.



I do, which gives me an 8 XP scout, probably to take woodsman and combat I for forest clearing duty and later on scouting when it picks up it's 3rd promotion.

This also lets me deploy my worker out again, 2 turns to farm completion. I'm not working this tile right now, but the extra food will come in handy when it's time to build more settler/workers, since 4F/0H/1C > 0F/3H/0C. Also, if I step to calendar and agrarianism I'll swap that civic and gain +1F in all farms.



Here's an overview shot of the map with resources enabled. No new territory since I lost my scout on T33 or so, but it's good to get an top down perspective from time to time.

[Sareln]

Diplo with Cull:

Executive Summary: NAP until T100, renewal talks T90, 5T cooldown, a southern land agreement about the mana node at yellow dot, some discussion of barbs.

(12:51:51 PM) Cull RB: Notice any barbs lately?
(12:52:07 PM) Cull RB: Just had 2 lizardman pop up and wondering if others had the same problem
(12:52:16 PM) Sareln: a few. Pocketbeetle says his scout pulled some off of you recently.
(12:52:38 PM) Sareln: I have had to deal with 2 lizardmen and a Skeleton/3 str. Goblin pair recently
(12:53:51 PM) Cull RB: thanks for the info!
(12:54:22 PM) Cull RB: The other thing I'm thinking at is would you mind a NAP with me?
(12:54:30 PM) Sareln: no problem. I have the nagging suspicion that I'm shielding the Illians from the barbs coming out of the jungle, so he's getting something of a free pass
(12:54:35 PM) Sareln: I wouldn't mind an NAP at all
(12:54:45 PM) Sareln: what sort of terms are you looking for?
(12:55:36 PM) Cull RB: general goodwill, no pink-dotting, no DOWs, no ROP for enemy units that either of us are at war with, and general goodwill, and common sense
(12:56:01 PM) Cull RB: And its just WONDERFUL that Serlahc gets a free pass with barbs
(12:56:02 PM) Cull RB: grumble
(12:56:24 PM) Sareln: XP for me, but he's the one who got the free 13 turns or whatever it was.
(12:57:06 PM) Cull RB: Something about wasting wolrd spells or something
(12:57:19 PM) Cull RB: XP for you/us, yes, but a headache
(12:57:50 PM) Sareln: most certainly
(12:58:01 PM) Sareln: that and he basically leverages the world spell into a bonus city
(12:58:10 PM) Cull RB: I know
(12:58:12 PM) Cull RB: Lapland
(12:58:15 PM) Sareln: (He settled a second city on a plains hill next to plains wheat)
(12:58:17 PM) Sareln: oh you saw it?
(12:58:19 PM) Sareln: cool
(12:58:20 PM) Cull RB: no
(12:58:23 PM) Cull RB: didn't see it
(12:58:26 PM) Sareln: Diplo Screen?
(12:58:27 PM) Cull RB: via the land
(12:58:28 PM) Cull RB: yeah
(12:58:31 PM) Cull RB: land stat
(12:58:34 PM) Cull RB: and diplo screen
(12:58:47 PM) Cull RB: the land demo(thats the word)
(12:59:01 PM) Sareln: yay C&D
(12:59:26 PM) Sareln: anyways, I would be perfectly happy to sign an NAP with you, though let me look at my dotmap
(12:59:35 PM) Sareln: so that I can tell you how close I plan on getting to you eventually.
(1:00:03 PM) Cull RB: Of course, same here. Although, in the previous chat we did mention that the land between us was sort of boring and bare
(1:00:10 PM) Sareln: yes
(1:00:21 PM) Sareln: there's a mana node I'm interested in down south
(1:00:30 PM) Sareln: but I think that's the only remotely contentious thing.
(1:00:38 PM) Sareln: and given that you're dwarves...
(1:00:46 PM) Sareln: (who only get adepts, iirc)
(1:00:56 PM) Sareln: I doubt a mana node is going to be that contentious between us.
(1:01:07 PM) Cull RB: Mana nodes?!?
(1:01:11 PM) Cull RB: you can have that
(1:01:31 PM) Cull RB: but if you're worried its too close, just send me a piccy
(1:03:22 PM) Sareln: I'm planning a city that's I think about 8 tiles from your capital, directly left
(1:03:31 PM) Sareln: so right across the lake basically, if you can see that
(1:04:08 PM) Sareln: it puts the mana node in the 3rd ring, but backs off the banana that's to the south-left of your capital so that it shouldn't interfere with dwarven attempts to settle south.
(1:04:47 PM) Cull RB: Let me open the latest save(last turn one) and see where I think it is
(1:05:09 PM) Sareln:
(1:05:48 PM) Sareln: it's a bit dark, but I think it gets the location across
(1:05:54 PM) Sareln: that's when your capital had only 2 rings
(1:07:13 PM) Cull RB: Thats fine
(1:07:29 PM) Cull RB: You wouldn't mind a city nearby of mine claiming those bananas, would you?
(1:07:37 PM) Cull RB: not the node
(1:07:53 PM) Sareln: Not at all, I have a different source of bananas that I'm eyeing more directly south of my capital.
(1:08:01 PM) Cull RB: k
(1:08:05 PM) Cull RB: I almost forgot!
(1:08:09 PM) Cull RB: How long NAP?
(1:08:49 PM) Sareln: hmm, want to take it to T100 with renewal discussions around T90?
(1:09:01 PM) Cull RB: sure
(1:09:06 PM) Sareln: I'm picking round numbers :P
(1:09:41 PM) Cull RB: lol Assuming it breaks(which hopefully it doesn't) 5 t warning/whatever its called?
(1:09:54 PM) Sareln: cooldown I think
(1:09:55 PM) Sareln: sure
(1:10:12 PM) Sareln: so to T100, renewal discussions planned for T90, and 5 turn cooldown.
(1:10:20 PM) Cull RB: Sounds good!
(1:10:51 PM) Sareln: Cool, that's signed by me then.
(1:11:54 PM) Cull RB: Great.

[Sareln]

Mana Plans

+ 1 Shadow
+ 1 Mind
+ 1 Nature
+ 1 Nature from FoL Holy City
+ 1 Fire at Node
+ 1 Fire at Node
+ 1 Water/Body at Node

2 Nature
2 Fire
1 Shadow
1 Mind
1 Water / Body

I need fire for fireball and a source of collateral damage, nature for the poisoned blade buff for all my recon units (my main forces will be primarily recon).

I may pick up Body instead of Water since Haste is just that good, especially with raiders.

There are actually 4 nodes near me. So I need to decide whether or not I should save a node for metamagic (which grants dispel magic to mages and invisibility spotters and scouts to adepts).

[Sareln]

Turn 46: More Boldness

I'm overflowing into another scout, finishing Mysticism (and revolting to God King Next turn) and then starting work on my first settler. Settlers cost 145 hammers.

I double promoted my scout Woodsman I, Combat I and then saw that I had decent (75%) odds on the skeleton. So I said why the heck not, went for it, and now have a 12XP scout. I can give him Combat II or Shock I depending upon what I want to do with him. (Combat II for scouting, Shock I for keeping my lands clear of silly orcs).