Fires of Bhall. Some orcs just want to watch the world burn. [SPOILERS]

[Lewwyn]

Gonna try to catch you online tomorrow to discuss. I've been having a pretty hellish week for work so I haven't been very available. Diablo 3 came out as well, but even then I've only been able to play a very small amount! The furthest I've got is the start of Act 2. But I want to check in tomorrow so that I'm up to speed and can give any necessary input. Unless you're busy with job hunting too.

[Ellimist]

I finally worked through the micro of getting the SoKs built and in place. Turn 80-85 is very possible, even considering that it will take the SoKs several turns to walk to the Gate city. The wonder costs 402 hammers so I'll need to accumulate quite a few of them.

Expenses have gone up considerably in the past few turns. I'll have to see if it's worthwhile to ask someone for a gold loan to get to Fanaticism sooner.

[Ellimist]

I really hope we're not in a race for the Gate. Kyan's golden age ended this turn and he got another Great Engineer. If he wants the Gate, all he needs is Fanaticism and he could probably get there before I can.

The good news is that he must have diluted his GPP pool quite a bit to get it this soon. He converted to pacifism the turn after he finished Bone Palace, and he would have gotten the great engineer on turn 75 if he had no other sources of GPPs. If he was going for something important like the Gate, I don't think he would have taken a 30% risk of getting a scientist or prophet or whatever.

I'm probably just being paranoid, but it's going to suck if I lose out on it due to turn order (I'm directly after Kyan.)

[Ellimist]

(Pictures coming soon.)

I had the opportunity to raze one of Kyan's newer cities last turn, which yielded 48 capture gold. My power rating is spiking right now due to SoKs, but I really only had two wolf riders and an archer to harass him with, so I sent him the following offer:

I'll move my units out of your territory until at least turn 90, in exchange for the following:

150 gold
Non-compete for Deception (Council of Esus)
Non-compete for Form of the Titan
Not telling the other players that I'm not actively attacking you.

I thought this would be acceptable to him, and I was right. I'm actually starting to think I've been misjudging him somewhat. He doesn't seem to be confirming my earlier conclusions lately, and I've been busy confirming his earlier accusations.

Over the past several turns, I've perfected my micro for the Gate. We'll finish it pretty soon unless somebody beats us to it. I think only Kyan has a shot of getting there with his Great Engineer, but he would probably already have it if he wanted it. Furthermore, he only had about 70% odds of getting the engineer, and I don't think he'd pour beakers into Fanaticism while diluting the GPPs.. I'm becoming more and more confident with each turn that passes. If he's racing for it, he'll probably win, but it's not looking likely that he is.

Once we do complete the Gate, I'm thinking we start with a massive settler spree. In general, the best hammer cities will probably go to the Clan and the best food/commerce cities will go to the Mercurians. (The Merc capital will also get a ridiculous amount of hammers.) Tech wise, I'd like to pick up Deception, Warfare, and Arete soon.

After that, a disciple-focused attack will be devastating. Paramanders get all my SPI bonuses as well as a guaranteed angel when they die. 80 hammers gets me two of them. I'll maintain my phony war with Kyan and hopefully catch Weezel unprepared.

[Ellimist]

Obviously I lost the Gate to Kyan. Missed it by two turns.

I've thought a lot about how to deal with Basium, and my conclusions aren't pretty. I'm basically locked out of using RoK or another good religion, and Ichabod can pick the rest of us off one by one with self-produced angels.

The good news is that the others seem to be on board with stopping them. If they weren't, then I'm not going to stick my neck out and drag my own economy down in order to stop Kyan. I've introduced a proposal for a proxy dogpile, where everybody contributes gold for me to hire wolf riders with, so we'll see how people react to that.

[Ellimist]

Okay, sorry I've been a bit less enthusiastic about this game lately, in addition to being busier IRL.

Current plan is to knock Kyan solidly out of the running. I had a plan and he got in the way, so he's going to regret making that decision. It's going to be costly, but Weezel and HK are on board, and hopefully Tholal is as well.

Kyan will have 40 or 50 wolf riders on his doorstep on turn 91.

There is a fair chance that I will be able to destroy both Kyan and Ichabod, but my primary goal will be to eliminate the Mercurians.

If I can't manage that, my secondary goal will be to kill the Basium hero and do as much damage to the Hippus and Mercurian infrastructure as possible. (Kyan can prevent Ichabod from being eliminated if he gifts additional cities to him before I can conquer the existing Mercurian cities.)

[Ellimist]

Lmfao

I've been wondering if somebody would tip off Kyan/Ichabod. It looks like Kyan has gotten word of the attack, but afaik nobody has backed out.

Received the following message:

Ellimist,

Why do you hate the Hippus so much? Have we really offended you that badly?

You know full well that I am, technologically, a distance behind both you and Weezel. You also know that you have a decent food and mfg advantage. Why are you going to so much trouble to attack me again?

I assume there's no talking you out of this one. I get that i'm top on the scoreboard, but i'm not top of the demographics- the true reflection. I'm top on scoreboard because the board is adding mine and Ichabod (who has only one city at size2...) together and we both get the points for each tech we know. i.e. all my points from techs are doubled. Thing is, I know you know this. I can only assume you're therefore scared of the Angels. I've offered you a NAP plenty of times, besides i'm nowhere near anyone else on the map. All they're achieving is ensuring barbs aren't a trouble- which they weren't anyway. Civ's a snowball game and i'm miles behind. Ichabod has actually been posting in thread trying to get my enthusiasm going once again. I feel robbed of a fair shot by a combination of poor map design and impressive play on your part. Do you truly view me as a competitor right now?

Kyan

There is no way I'm calling off the attack, but I'm not sure how to respond to this. He's opposed me from the very start, before we even had contact. Despite this, I've already passed up on several opportunities to attack him. Then he built the Gate, even if he doesn't seem to be taking advantage of it.

That's the most ironic part. I planned ahead for a Mercurians strategy, while Kyan obviously didn't, (or he would be in RoK like the rest of us.) I convinced the others to help me stop him based on what I would have done, but the Kyan/Ichabod strategy does not seem aggressive enough to make it worth their investment.

Weezel is the most likely source of the leak. He has more to gain from dragging this out than Tholal does. I'll have to see if there's a way to repeat this tactic vs him.

[Ellimist]

Sent this:

Kyan and Ichabod,

I'm not sure how much you already know, and I don't want to (completely) ruin the surprise, so I'll be vague.

Angels were my "plan A," months before this game even started. When you completed the Mercurian Gate, you did a pretty good job of nullifying my preparations and decisions. Plan B will arrive within the next ten turns.

I agree that Weezel and HidingKneel are both doing very well right now, but you're a much bigger threat after turn 73. You claim that you don't know how to use the Mercurians to dominate. If that's true, then you shouldn't have summoned them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwcy6A3zhRY

Good Luck,

Ellimist

[Ellimist]

Time for a proper update. First, the core cities:

Malacath:[SPOILER]

Meridia:

Boethiah:

Peryite:

Mehrunes Dagon:

Sheogorath:

Mephala:

Hermaeus Mora:

[/SPOILER]Kurioate lands:

Hircine:[SPOILER]

Nocturnal:

Sanguine:

Vaermina:

[/SPOILER]

[Ellimist]

Militarily, I'm finally getting a hunting lodge up, and am hoping that hawks, hunters, and assassins can give me an edge. My defenses are currently not that extensive, but warrens will allow me to reinforce more quickly if I do come under attack.

The attack on Kyan/Ichabod will start next turn. We'll see how things go, but I think the odds are pretty good. I still can't believe I convinced three other players to give me 1900 gold, enabling me to do something I wanted to do anyway.

The recruiter of the coming horde:

I may not do the full C&D treatment that some players do, but I do pay attention to what my opponents are up to. Instead of spreadsheets, I use signs on the map to keep track from one turn to the next:

The biggest thing about to happen domestically is completion of the Summer Palace at Hircine. I should have built it a long time ago, but I delayed for various reasons related to my Mercurian expectations. It will save me approximately 30 gold immediately, and allow me to rapidly expand out of that area. I've offered to pay Tholal if he can send a Thane of Kilmorph to Hircine.

I've accelerated my pace of settling around the core areas. Settlers are super cheap and it's getting easier to keep maintenance costs under control, so my current rate of expansion is limited primarily by culture(thanes,) and workers. Most cities are able to pay for themselves pretty quickly, but take longer to get warrens up and become fully productive.

Most of my expansion around the core will be toward Weezel, but the dotmap will remain relatively tight. I'm also planning to settle these three sites pretty soon, probably whenever I research fishing.

In the screenshots, you can see that my next tech is Sanitation. If I switch into the conquest civic in a few turns, I'll get more gold whenever I capture a city, which will hopefully offset the unit supply costs. I'll offset the loss of food from losing agrarianism by discovering Sanitation. (Ten turns later, I'll probably go back to agrarianism for the extra food.) After Sanitation, I plan to go for adepts and the Great Library, as both will be crucial to my long term plans. Construction and Trade are also on my short list.