Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Gaspar]

There's no doubt that the game will be decided in the east. Actually to some extent the game has been portioned into skill bands, which is intriguing, or would be if the outcome were less a foregone conclusion.

As far as victories are concerned, clearly keeping an eye on the prize is necessary though there was a loose agreement between the 3 of us to not conclude a victory condition while the Kyan wars were still active. I'm not going to let that stop us getting in position to get those towers up, though.

And oh, forgot to mention Nicolae indicated a willingness to trade us meta once he has Sorcery, so don't let me forget to make sure I have an adept with a promotion available at the time.

[Gaspar]

More chatter from Nicolae. Please note I haven't actually responded to any of these emails that I've posted recently. Does this make me a bad person? A bad diplomat? Just healthily lazy?

Hey guys,

I noticed that a turn or so ago, Brian was the founder of The Order. Now he's no longer the founder of the order. Uh oh, is he okay?

I've finally gotten diplomacy back from Acal, he said that Mackoti and Brian originally didn't get along, but everything worked out okay in the end. Probably a lie considering the rumblings I hear elsewhere.

Acal also said that Brian was trying to organise an alliance against Kyan. How behind the ball are they, and how much can we trust Acal, who is trading water mana for cows? For the record, Acal said he had to decline simply because he had a NAP with Kyan, I don't know how in bed he is with Kyan.

Another note, I'm shocked how behind Acal is, he has so much better land than I do! Also, I don't envy you at all, Rawkking. You capital is on the front lines. If I were Kyan, I'd land a big stack on the desert hill 3SW of your capital, and spring it for the +25% hill defense. Next turn, I'd spring the desert with a disposable adept, and send in the stack of 2-movers with haste support. Kyan doesn't have easy access to Commando promotion, so it may be worth keeping the area roaded, though war elephants will cover the top of the defense and puppet skeletons will cover the bottom of the defense. Do these suggestions help?

And I'm surprised how far the Yggdrasil site is from Kyan's core, I don't know if I can bust through that crumple zone and threaten his core with spectres. It really depends how Kyan responds. That 10 turn window where I'm not NAP'd and Rawkking is is probably not enough time for him to eat me and turn on you. Of course, I think Kyan is in a way better position than Thoth ever was, and there's a good chance could fight us on both fronts. We're going to need to enlist the western continent, if they could ever settle their differences. Gaspar, what what were Kyan's defenses at the Ygg site?

Keep in mind that Worldbreak is still an option. We should think about some way of timing Blight and Worldbreak, though it's going to hurt everyone badly. I just hope this will kill enough mages. Also, you guys mentioned that Kyan will probably just get the Gela if we summon Hybie. However, breaking all of Kyan's deserts sounds fun, though I think his floodplains are way too deep within his culture to threaten.

Keep me informed.

Cheers,
Nic

[Gaspar]

So, turn. Trade is in. Rawkking also got some sort of event and also a Great Prophet from it which he used to found the Necronomicon:



Also, we now know what Kyan's doing with Gibbon and its dangerous in a whole different way. I'm guessing he plans to switch religion to make him go away and then rebuild him later with a more dangerous configuration. Still, Vitalizing flood plains - yeah, this game is over. (Also, Hawks are broken.) Any chance you think of discovering Esus while he does that, building him and deleting him?



Here's the situation over at Yggdrassil, which I just sent to Nicolae:



The lineup is set at Kabhalg is set - currently 3 PoL, 1 warrior, 4 Tigers vs 2 Archers and 2 Warriors. Should I wait until those warriors attack out to attack the city? Alternately another Priest completes at EOT - I could at a minimum summon his tiger next turn and wait, or move him into position as well. Thoughts?

As far as the global tech situation, I'm going to list everyone's stuff and then we can backtrace the beakers later for fun.

Rawkking:

Can research:
Animal Handling, Bronze Working, Currency, Drama, Fanaticism, Knowledge of the Ether, Mathematics, Medicine, Mind Stapling, Optics, Poisons, Religious Law, Trade, WotE, WotF, WotWicked, WotWise.

Can't trade:
Archery, CoL, Masonry, MftD, Sanitation

Acalostas:

Can research:
Alteration, Archery, CoL, Construction, Divination, Drama, Elementalism, Horseback Riding, Hunting, Mathematics, Necromancy, Optics, Philosophy, Sanitation, Smelting, Warfare

Can't trade:
Knowledge of the Ether, Masonry

Nicolae:

Can research:
Alteration, Archery, Cartography, Currency, Divination, Drama, Elementalism, Fishing, HBR, Hunting, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Smelting, Sorcery, Warfare, WotE

Can't trade:
CoL, KotE, Masonry, Sanitation

Brian:

Can research:
Archery, Bronze Working, Cartography, Construction, Currency, Drama, Hunting, KotE, MftD, Priesthood, Sailing, WotE, WotWicked, Writing

Can't trade:
CoL, Masonry, WotWise

Kyan:

Can research:
Alteration, Archery, Cartography, Construction, Corruption of Spirit, Currency, Divination, Feudalism, Honor, Hunting, Mathematics, Medicine, MftD, Optics, Orders from Heaven, Priesthood, Smelting, Sorcery, WotE

Can't trade:
CoL, Drama, KotE, Masonry, Sanitation, Warfare, WotWicked, WotWise

[NobleHelium]

You could tech Deception and build Gibbon yourself if you really think he's going to despawn him and then rebuild him. He wouldn't be able to switch back to Esus for 5 turns.

[Gaspar]

You could tech Deception and build Gibbon yourself if you really think he's going to despawn him and then rebuild him. He wouldn't be able to switch back to Esus for 5 turns.

Certainly its just a hunch - but why else would he waste Terraforming promotions on his uberunit?

[Mardoc]

You could tech Deception and build Gibbon yourself if you really think he's going to despawn him and then rebuild him. He wouldn't be able to switch back to Esus for 5 turns.

That said - he is a hero Archmage. Lots and lots of XP coming in, and no wars in the near future for Kyan, probably. So he's still got time to add in a war mana and some combat promos.

Not what I'd be doing in his shoes, but...maybe this is a bit of the 'so far ahead I'm trying something crazy'

If Rawwking's got the Necronomicon, we should hit him up for a water loan once we make some adepts. We've got Desert to spring, and insurance against Nicolae burning us out would be handy too.

[NobleHelium]

The event that RG got was an event that specifically gives a Prophet if you're OO. Lucky him. Most people would just pick the -5 AC option.

[Gaspar]

I had this exchange with Brian. I honestly have no idea how to respond so misguided is the suggestions.

Hey Brian,

Sorry I didn't get back to you yet. Honestly, I think a dogpile is too little too late. At this current point in time anything short of everyone going full military and invading Kyan in 10T or so isn't going to be worth much. I'm not NAP'ed, but I'm sure as heck not sailing an army over there solo.

Keep me in the loop if something really starts to happen, though. I think its completely hopeless but its probably right for competitiveness that there's an attempt.

Gaspar

Well my position is that I'm going to pile in on Acalostas in a number of turns, with the cooperation of Kyan. The reasons for this were three fold, a) my land, b) Acalostas (and Mackoti) annoyed me early on trying to bully my 4th spot out of me, and c) it was the only way I saw to dig myself out of the hole of my start (frankly how this map ever came to play I don't know, the two best uniques within easy reach of some players but inaccessable to others, bad starting places {I think mine the worst}, some cramped starts, and giving the FP starting civ the most room for expansion). As regards the dogpile it leaves me out to turn 145, and I couldn't have been relevant before then even without current deals, as I've a cool-down after war NAP as well. On the other hand it is eliminating the worst player in the game and giving a parcel of good land to someone better able and more willing to use it, so I will be a lot stronger after the war and more able to contribute.

As regards resources, I will have 30 turns in which to throw everything at Kyan, using Sanctuary, I am going down the horse route, with a detour to Priesthood, so I will be able to have mobile units standing ready for any attack. But the most important thing for a dog-pile would be to execute it properly, we want to all be able to go in at the same time hitting him from all sides (with at most 2 turns of a gap). De-stablilise him and hit him hard. Now I'll have horses and priests, you'll have tiger priests, bows and (temporarily) Treants, Nicolae will have PZs (never underestimate them, my dream start would have been beside the Sheaim), and Rawwking will have the best mobile force in the game (not sure if he's Tasunke or Rohanna). We can make this work, and end up with a pretty even result if we work together on it, but it does need coordination.

I'll be sending this (my part only) onto Rawwking fairly shortly, as I think we need to start discussing options fairly seriously and figuring out what and when we can hit him. Please forward it onto Nicolae as well.

Brian

[Gaspar]

Damn. Not even a single chuckle out of "will wrestle for food?" Nobody remember the video for "Right Now" by Van Halen?

(The screen overlay, which is what I was driving at with the comment:

Right now someone has the wrong idea.)

[Mardoc]

Damn. Not even a single chuckle out of "will wrestle for food?" Nobody remember the video for "Right Now" by Van Halen?

Remember? That suggests that I've seen it at least once .

Seems depressingly similar to previous diplo - everyone's got plans until T150, and they don't realize that their plans afterwards are along these lines:

1. Die