[spoilers] Dragon Slayers and Warrior Knights, Oh my!

[WarriorKnight]

Do you plan any bulbing abuse?

Well, I did pre-game, but looking at the situation now I don't think I'll be able to. The problem is the adventurer gpp from my palace pollutes any attempts I may make to make specific GP's, and no other city has had the time to compete just yet. I did have plans to bulb down the arcane line for SoW but considering how few mana nodes I have (none), I doubt I'll do it.

I do have a GP coming out of my capital in 2t, and I'm really hoping it isn't an adventurer, as I still haven't decided what to do with my last adventurer yet. But even if it is, I'm sure I can find something to do with it... somehow.

TBS has decided to compensate for the Azer by offering a crabs for jewelery trade. It is my only crab, but still that's certainly a good sign that TBS is trustworthy. I'm still not really sure who out of the big 3 (HK, TBS and jalepeno) I want to ally with long term, I have a feeling that my weak position will mean that it probably won't matter. Still, for now though I want to keep Yell0w close and keep observing Sian. Maybe some thing will start changing once jalepeno reaches Vamps and TBS starts losing his lead.

[WarriorKnight]

Gah, another adventurer. Maybe I'll have to go for SoW after all, because aside from Archmages/Luonnotar's I have no ideas for how to spend the 2 adventurers I still have yet to upgrade.

Far more importantly however, is that jalepeno declared on Yell0w ending any chance for a peaceful relationship between the two. jalepeno seems to value my friendship and has asked for a mutual defensive pact against TBS, which I turned down (for now). Considering Sian doesn't seem to be interesting in talking to anyone, and everyone else is probably scared of vamps, I'd probably be correct in assuming that jalepeno is diplomatically isolated. Still, he doesn't have city limits like TBS/HK do, so perhaps that's for the best. One day I'm going to have to pick a side though.

[WarriorKnight]

Alright, so I think I've more-or-less picked HK's side in the upcoming conflict. He does have a better civ then me so this may only result in me handing victory to him assuming we somehow stop both Vamps and Kurio's, but every other option is worse. Yell0w is crippled thanks to jalepeno's intervention, jalepeno is on the doorstep of Vamps which I don't really have a hope of countering with anything practical, TBS is skating on very thin ice with me after planting a very aggressive city miles away from his borders just to steal a mana node from me but I can't really do anything in response thanks to our power difference, and to my knowledge Sian has just as much interest in diplomatic relations as I have chances of winning this game (ie almost none).

I've started to very slowly turn my empire into a war footing, as I think I'll soon be needing as many troops as I can get. Animal Handlng came in this turn for Hawks, and next up is probably Military Strategy for HE/Command Posts. Will have to buy time via diplo considering what everyone else has/will be running around with soon, but that's basically been my entire game so far anyway.

[WarriorKnight]

TBS's reply (more like excuse) for settling a city in my backyard:

I settled Caledor for access to the mana node, I had already decided to do so before you settled your nearby city and it didn't change my mind. Despite being an expansive leader with very good demographics and military, I am 4th in land area. Clearly I don't need as much as the Kuriotates, but you can't expect me to just give it up. Instead I've prioritised sites that are useful to me, which generally means mana nodes.

In addition I hope to settle the site 4N of Caledor and 2NE of the dungeon. I could probably be persuaded to push the latter city back to have the sheep in the second ring.

I will also point out that despite our capitals being so close, I haven't settled a single first ring city towards you and that your latest city along my northern border invalidates my preferred spot for settling the mana node there.

Where possible I act in the interests of your civ, because I value a peaceful border and a friendly relationship, but I cannot ignore my own.

TBS.

I particularly like the part where he complains that's he's 4th in land area as a Kurio. That's just gold. Also the fact that I invalidated his desired spot for a settlement is pretty funny too.

I don't think I care too much for friendship with TBS anymore, which was perhaps a mistake from the beginning considering he declared on me with the intent to kill. Sadly, his position is vastly superior to mine, so I more or less have to deal with it, for now. I will enjoy this diplo dance while I can though.

Also I haven't posted a pic for about 30t, so I will have to do something about that. Since I just built my first hawk at EoT, I think that's a good excuse for some pic spam if I find the time to do so.

[WarriorKnight]

Sounds about right.

[WarriorKnight]

Actually have to think about this one:



The game has given me an option to put the world in Blight after jalepeno switched out of AV at 27 AC. To further complicate matters, TBS has completed 3 of the towers and is dangerously close to a tower victory. I've teamed up with HK and jalepeno against him, but since the two of them signed NAP's with TBS they can't do anything for another half a dozen turns. Furthermore, I was hoping to trigger a GA this turn to be able to build some chariots to have some resemblance of an army, but Blight will obviously force me to prioritize elsewhere.

Heck, probably just have to do it anyway. If I still had a chance I'd think about it some more, but maybe it'll succeed in buying us more time. And if anyone has to win this I'd rather it not be TBS. Probably have to trigger the GA as well, even though Blight will make it suboptimal, but most of my game has been suboptimal anyway so... whatever.

[WarriorKnight]

Ha, Sian and Yell0w got hit with Blight presumably, but Yell0w built Valin to prevent HK, jalepeno and TBS from being hit by it, and I still got hit with it anyway (probably because I triggered it last turn). Just about the worst possible scenario for me. I doubt I'll play another FFH game again, it's a lot of fun but I clearly have no idea what I'm doing and this is just embarrassing.

This is probably my last post in this thread. TBS just finished his 4th tower and can start the main one next turn. HK gives him 5 turns max, which is the amount of time he needs before his NAP with TBS runs out. jalepeno's runs out in 3, but personally I'm hoping that's not enough time either so the suffering can end. I encouraged HK to break his considering he's the one with the most to lose, but he's not having any of that. Just another classic example of NAP's deciding games. Oh well.