Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Gaspar]

Uh...I've said multiple times I'm stuck in a NAP with Kyan O_o

You've also said multiple times this is probably your only game at RB. So... why worry about your rep?

[Gaspar]

The save's in. I can play it, but if you'd like to pick up a turn, MBTM, I've no objection to leaving this one to you. I'll leave it until I hear from you and/or it gets to "obviously past your bedtime."

Edit: Rawkking offered a map trade, which I would accept. Offer one as well to Nicolae, and I'd rebase a hawk to Austin to get an updated view on Kyan's troops on the jungle arm. Other than that, the world is your oyster.

[Gaspar]

Two more messages from Rawkking... if we end up being the one's to propose FFH14, how do you guys feel about a CTON?

The whole plan we had was about trying to prepare for when both our
NAPs expired (and hope Kyan was distracted by the west during this),
and I've told you at least twice I'm stuck in a longer NAP than you
are....so yeah. You're pretty much asking me to break a NAP. As
frustrating as it is you might want to reconsider the refusal to
provide mana.

I'm giving Gaspar a map trade as well, fair's fair.

Don't think I touched on this, but stupid clause to not disclose NAP
duration or not, I'm telling you guys the length of my NAP with the
clowns 10 turns before the Sheaim's expires. It's served its purpose
long enough, and I'm never agreeing to such a deal designed to allow a
runaway to continue to win in a diplo game ever again.

[Man Behind the Mask]

The save's in. I can play it, but if you'd like to pick up a turn, MBTM, I've no objection to leaving this one to you. I'll leave it until I hear from you and/or it gets to "obviously past your bedtime."

Edit: Rawkking offered a map trade, which I would accept. Offer one as well to Nicolae, and I'd rebase a hawk to Austin to get an updated view on Kyan's troops on the jungle arm. Other than that, the world is your oyster.

Not in bed but no time, I'm afraid.

[Mardoc]

Two more messages from Rawkking... if we end up being the one's to propose FFH14, how do you guys feel about a CTON?

Well, it's not like any of us enjoy the diplomatic side of things particularly.

Just have to pick an appropriate civ if we do that.

[Gaspar]

False alarm. Kyan isn't breaking the NAP. Nevertheless, there is no doubt in my mind that Kyan is going to attack me at T140. I don't imagine Kyan was distracted by the west in the first place, Acal is sending Water mana for Cows and open borders, telling me he's been neutralised bloodlessly.

The best thing I can do is make this is bloody as possible while you guys come in from the flanks.

Also, I'm beginning to suspect I have a martyr complex

I suppose I should play the save now, no?

[Gaspar]

Try to be a bit more comprehensive here since my turn reports of late have frankly sucked.

HBR in, less important for us given the fact that our military will be 80+% priests and those get mobility for free. Still, a nice option to have. Trade will come in in 1T. Interestingly, we have enough overflow to get Maths in 4T - very tempting the Bazaar would be a big help and its one step closer to Taxation. Still, Trade is passive benefit and that's what we need with Libraries and Carnivals to build all over the place.

Speaking of which, PC switched to a Carnival as per MBTM's suggestion. I'm pulling off a cottage to work an artist for the moment - this slows growth into unhappiness and accelerates our GP to 12 turns. I figure even if it contaminates the pool to such an extent that we get an Artist instead of a Priest/Sage, we can still build the Leaves shrine. I'd certainly prefer the Veil shrine, of course, but Leaves is a well spread religion as well.

Other than that, just a bit of scouting and the like. We can now see pretty much the entire world. After this round of builds, I'd like to do a round of Workers/Settlers for the Horse/Clam site and the city SE of Kahbalg. That will pretty much be it for us and expansion.

Trade came in @EOT, and Veil unsurprisingly spread to Afro Man. We'll need to get a pair of Disciples/Priests into the new locations to get Leaves in. I didn't take a shot, but before ending turn we were actually #1 in GNP while researching Trade with double pre-reqs. We're up to 214 bpt after Trade, which is not bad at all considering our slowish start. Of course, the capital alone makes 88.5 beakers a turn - that's probably not far from what the Grigori are making Civ wide. I think if Kyan weren't a runaway the intelligent thing to do would be to fight a surgical strike against the Hippus to try and take Hamalot, Pramalot and Cupralot. We no doubt got squeezed quite a bit by both of our neighbors. Annoying.

We have our best look yet on Kyan's land:



2T from the assault on Kabhalg with 3 priests, 4 Tigers and a Warrior. Should be enough, though they're up to 2 warriors in the city.

[Man Behind the Mask]

You've also said multiple times this is probably your only game at RB. So... why worry about your rep?

I know what you’re getting at here, but let’s be careful. That kind of action is about principle as well as reputation. What’s actually happened is someone using the legitimate tactic of diplo skill to manipulate the situation in their favour, in the same way as we might use our Worldspell as a threat/deterrent. To avoid the former tactic…

if we end up being the one's to propose FFH14, how do you guys feel about a CTON?

This game had actually been diplomatically dead until the last week or so. If you go way back to the start-up thread, I’d actually suggested this game be diplo-lite (although that was partly motivated to reduce the time-burden so I could actually play). Mardoc’s right that you’d need to take CTON into consideration in picking your leader/civ, but I’d have no great problem with letting our paranoia run wild.

In some areas, of course, the conversation here is still dead. Given no response from the player you’ve been passing the save to for the last few months, maybe we need a simple “Are you doing diplo this game?” as a follow up?

Other than that, just a bit of scouting and the like. We can now see pretty much the entire world. After this round of builds, I'd like to do a round of Workers/Settlers for the Horse/Clam site and the city SE of Kahbalg. That will pretty much be it for us and expansion.

Two points here. I really need to have a proper look at the map. I get the impression that there are a lot of mountains. For example, that screenshot makes it look like RG actually has just a tiny eastern chokepoint by Ramalot for the Clowns to attack and then a massive unbroken range that only a Griffon could penetrate. I’d also like to scope out what the Clowns have available for mana nodes, as you can see four(!) in that picture. Secondly, I agree that planting those cities soon will give them a chance to get productive before we reach the endgame.

Trade came in @EOT… I didn't take a shot, but before ending turn we were actually #1 in GNP while researching Trade with double pre-reqs. We're up to 214 bpt after Trade, which is not bad at all considering our slowish start. Of course, the capital alone makes 88.5 beakers a turn - that's probably not far from what the Grigori are making Civ wide.

The economy is definitely well on the way, especially with libraries to add very soon. I suspect our Power graph has also taken a rather different shape over the last few turns. I will hopefully have time over the weekend to look at the Tech Trade Screen and see where we stand with respect to the rest of the world. I’m especially intrigued to discover what Acolastas has picked up whilst eschewing Aristocracy.

And a final aside…

Not in bed but no time, I'm afraid.

This is the kind of insightful wit and wisdom that I always hoped would be my legacy on the internet.

[Gaspar]

Well, MBTM, you'll be pleased to hear that we received a response from Acalostas. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Hey Gaspar,

Sorry about the late reply, but i've been having Real Life™ trouble, and now my computer is on the fritz.

Yeah, i know what you mean about having a hard time coming up with RP. I've been struggling to even reply to my normal diplo
, let alone come up with something interesting. Seems to be the same around the board.

Interesting? not much. i'm currently sandblocked from expanding any further by Elohim (Sanctuary) and Balseraph (Suicide). In fact, if i didn't have open borders with both of them, i'd be out of this game already. I certainly understand your neighbourly concerns in that regard. We could be easily crushed between an Immovable object (Elohim) and an Unstoppable force (Balseraph). Other than that, not much is going on. I'm eyeing what i affectionately call "Flaming Island of Rampaging Elementals (FIRE)", the island on which Acheron is located. There's at least 12 Sons of the Inferno on that island, each of them summons Fire elementals every turn. every single tile is covered in at *least* 1 fire elemental. I don't have much hope. Monks to the North, Clowns to the East, Ocean to the West, and a Dragon with enough fire to start it's own personal hell to the South. Lot's of expansion possibility there! :D

The only other interesting thing going on is that Brian seems to be trying to organise an Anti-Balseraph Alliance. He invited me and Rawkking, but i declined due to having NAP with Kyan. No idea whats been going on with that, but it's option if you want go for it <shrug>. If you haven't met Brian yet, you could always ask Rawkking.

As for godless heathens, well, Kilmorph disagrees. We have a bit of a business relationship with her, if she doesn't bother us too much with the earthquakes and such, we let the peasants worship her. it's a win-win situation; Her followers work hard and get us more gold, while we don't get smited! :D

So yeah we founded Runes due to a lucky dungeon exploration. Go us! (RoK is probably the only useful religion you can get for Grigori. All the temples and other associated bonuses can't be used, but RoK can still give you that 1 gold per city to help pay the maintenance)

Anything important i've missed?

-Acalostas, Well if I can't win, at least I can be filthy rich!

[Mardoc]

Well - at least it was a lair pop that stole Kilmorph from us, not miscalculation. I think that makes it more religions founded by lairs than research this game!

I agree, Acalostas seems to be confused about a lot in this game, although I suppose that shouldn't be surprising given his apparent performance so far. The piece that I really don't get is the combination of the belief that he's out of this if he doesn't expand, yet:

Brian seems to be trying to organise an Anti-Balseraph Alliance. He invited me and Rawkking, but i declined due to having NAP with Kyan. No idea whats been going on with that, but it's option if you want go for it <shrug>.

Dude? You've said that you've got 2+2 on the one hand, and not-4 on the other Either you need to expand and hence to figure out a way, or you don't, in which case you should at least be aiming to get the most from your land.

I think I'm concluding that the east is where this game will be decided, with maybe a contributing role from the Elohim. If we're going to have a shot at stopping Kyan, it'll have to be us, Nicolae, and RG, no more. Which also means, let's keep focused on the Tower, please.