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

[Ilios]

Rumour has it you're still playing this game.

[Mr. Yellow]

I am and still fully commited. I just have no interest left in updating this thread due to a combination of less interrest in FFH, stuff not going as planned and college.

And especially college is the big reason why i wanted to start a new game at the beginning of summer; to avoid having this on me in the middle of the heavier months. Unfortunately no blitz happened, with the game still going towards the next year. And after having a heavy workload left on me due to the student i grouped up with suddenly dissapeared (taking what we worked on as well, ARRRGH!) a few months ago, i lost all interrest to keep updating this thread.

Maybe i'll start updating this again at a later date. I just want to get done with the current semester first.

[T-hawk]

Hey, if you see this, your attention is needed in the tech thread. Make your moves in your current turn, then save (don't end turn) and email that to me. I'll need your civ password too. erik at dos486.com

[Mr. Yellow]

T-Hawk, i need to have a talk with Sareln about recent events first before i do my turn. Though i expect to have this delivered soonish.

EDIT:
Sorry, but i'm delaying this till the next day. I don't want to do this turn untill i'm finished with this diplomatic matter as it will decide what i do next.

[Mr. Yellow]

Believe i should start updating this thread again. Not much going on in real life at the moment and i'm getting more interrested in the game as well.

That said last month was pretty painful. The build up for the big fight only to have it turned around before it even started, at which point the game got stalled. Not really sure what to do about it and was pretty frustrating all around.
Don't think i'll attempt another game (non CTON) alone after that.

I'll bring up a summary of what's happened from my last update soon. For now you get this screen.

[Mr. Yellow]

Soooooooo, where to begin...

Last time i updated i was in the middle of attempting a raid on mackoti with a bunch of Horsemen, which i doubt would have suceeded after a look on his defences. Sareln also saw this wouldn't really work and offered compensation in the form of 2 settlers after terminating the raid and returned home.

However, it became pretty clear that mackoti were in a pretty solid position and could run away should he manage to consume a civlization. There was especially a fear for him conquering Amelia. So me, Sareln and Ravus decided to build up and rendevouz at one of Sareln's eastern bases in preperation for a dogpile on mackoti, with Mist supporting me indirectly with money to get the Stirrups tech quickly (and a GM to upgrade horsemen), waiting for mackotis (in my oppinion) inevitable attack on Amelia.

Which never happened. Apparently mackoti were more concerned of Sareln (especially after a few skirmishes) and we decided to move in after Ravus got a little impatient. The plan was to move the combined forces of elves and orcs towards mackotis southern city Nubia, while i waited in the north in position to raid once mackoti were distracted in the south.
However me and Mist were scared of that little thing called the armageddon counter and the possibilies of powerful barbarians rampaging around our backyard. ESPECIALLY when Ravus completed the Prophecy of Ragnarok and the counter suddenly starting to go up. The blight i didn’t mind that much, but the fact that there were a lot more neutral territory around me and Mist and hardly anything close to mackoti, not to mention that they would hardly dent him while possibly wasting us i made it pretty damn clear to Ravus that he better not raise the AC over 40.
It was already pretty close to it though, 39 after finishing Rosier a few turns before engaging. One city razed and we would have Stephanos on our doorstep. But i thought he had it in control with his marked units and keep it below 40.
Then it goes bonkers and straight to 48 after he picks the evil option on the savior child event, the moment i was about to make my move!!! Seriously the next turns after that was pretty agonizing as there was the possibility of Stephanos in my backyard and being unale to commit to this dogpile. I weren’t sure about Ravus claim that he was forced into it. Shouldn’t you have a neutral option at all times? Mist even calls it rubbish and goes as far to say that Ravus is the bigger bad right now. That i should rather attempt to snipe his AV holy city and Ragnarok.

I had to think long and hard about this. I really REALLY didn’t want withdraw from this dogpile. But i believe there’s other intentions on Ravus mind than this. If he really was comitted to this then why alienate an ally by doing the exact thing he asked you not to?!!
At this point i’m pretty sure he had no real interrest in this and just used the dogpile as a backstage for his machinations to forward his true intentions; armageddon.
When Sareln said that there were no marked units in his squad (which i should have asked for or checked earlier) i was convinced that was the case and he had to be brought down.

So i withdrew from the front, putting my army at a position to either move towards Ravus or march home. When Mist said he had Stephanos under control i made my move and positoned the army as shown in the screen last update.

[Mr. Yellow]

A few turns before that though i was attempting to convince Sareln into aiding me indirectly with hawks, as the intel would let me manage the raid better. However Sareln was bound to a NAP with Ravus till T150 and still wanted to honor that. I’d argue about the aggression part of it though considering Ravus latest actions that could possibly threaten us. In addition Sareln have attempted to extend this, but Ravus has been quiet about it. Preeetty suspicious.

Either way, i decided to continue on. Ravus summoned Hyborem as well that turn, but that was not going to deter me away, hoping it would spawn somewhere far away.
Unfortunately, Sareln wanted to play both sides. Still wanting to keep good relations with Ravus, he declared war on me, pushing me off his borders and possibly notify Ravus on an incoming attack. He immediately used the seven pines to get peace back and cut the AC in half. This put me in a position for Ritualists to burn me and making me unable to continue the assault. However it would have been hard to continue on anyway, since Hyborem spawned in my and Mists backyard.



Add in the fact that Mist got the 2nd horseman in close proximity as well he was going to have a tough ride out of that. I signed peace with Ravus, resigned OB with Sareln and hurried back home. Mist had to go for crusade to hold both off and were (maybe still is) currently in a pretty dire position. He had however a lot of gold he had no use of and we agreed to send it all over to me for more units. This was used to hurry the HA currently in production in several cities and to upgrade whatever scouts (or warriors) I later produced. With the HA count expected to be around 25-30 HA once the money is used, this is gonna give me a pretty significant army at this stage of the game.

Anyway, the Horse Archers are pretty much all I have now. After Stirrups and the HA upgrades I haven’t had a clear goal of what to do in every department and been pretty much flip-flopping on several issues, not to mention shambling my micro. On techs I went for Sanitation next to combat the Blight, but I’ve been more or less saving gold after that. I really should go for the economic techs next. There’s several 2-3 turns techs I have use for (Sailing, Trade, Writing etc.) and should wait with the higher once for the moment.
In addition I have 2 settlers chilling in Heavenly rays at the moment. With Krill spawning in my backyard I had to rally my small security force to combat the demons, leaving the settlers with no escort. There’s a giant wandering around in one of the location and the other is a bit to close to Krill that I’d like to risk it. Though I should get the escort needed as soon as the main force is healed.

[Mr. Yellow]

Mist in the first turns of the war requested me to grab back the city he lost to Krill (Halcyon) and get it back before the hell terrain consumed his FP. My main force at that time still haven't even reached home, so my home guard and any recently rushed HA had to do. Luckily that amounted to 5 HA ready to strike the next turn (including a warrior and a couple more HA a turn behind), not to mention Halcyon at that time was only guarded by a longbowman and a mane.



Should be no problem.
In goes a Flank promoted HA.



Results: HA escapes and the longbowman is left at 0.8 strength, nothing but a cleanup from here.



Unfortunately, hell terrain consumed the floodplains too fast and Mist is left with burning farms.

Anyway, Krill was even on the defensive before i arrived. Mist killed both of his champions and defeated Hyboerm once. He had a decently sized army of Paramanders and demagogs close to Krills border and requested to send whatever i could the next turn to support it. Had 4+2 HA around to support that.




We hoped to get Krill that turn, but there were too many manes around to take that chance. So we decided to wait for my main army. Which were pretty close at that time.



In the meantime, hey a free worker! :D

Taking that lead to...



A juicy settler. Apparently Krill never settled his 2nd city.



Another turn to regroup and...



Krill is pretty dead next turn.

[uberfish]

Lol, krill waits for ages to join the game as hyborem and you guys clean him up before he can do much of anything

[Selrahc]

No negotiating with [strike]terrorists[/strike] Krill?