[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either. But he did figure out that Cull gifted Sareln the city (by checking the diplo screens every turn), and apparently is set on eliminating them both now. He told me under confidentiality today that he was def. going to declare on Cull, and raze the cities.


Meanwhile, I secured a 30-turn NAP with Selrahc this turn, while I'm in the process of constructing Sareln a settler

Diplomatically I'm playing a very dangerous game, but it seems to be working pretty well so far.


I also got CoL this turn and founded my third city. Forgot to take a screencap, will next turn. I'm going to revolt to aristocracy and apprenticeship next turn as well. Sareln's settler will be a little slow to arrive because the farms will lose some food, but I'll assist it with chops (as long as I keep enough forests to avoid unhealthiness). The settler will have a bloodpet & scout escort... maybe two bloodpets, actually.

[DaveV]

I'd recommend putting some chops into the monument in the new city, too. Try to have the copper hooked up when Bronze Working comes in. Also, governor's manors ASAP! The extra production from the manor usually makes it worth stuffing it into the queue ahead of everything else.

I may already have broken your confidentiality on Selrahc's attack: I sent the screenshot from post 142 to Sareln, and he said he was going to forward it to Cull. But Cull will know soon anyway when the priests come within range of his borders.

[Bobchillingworth]

A couple images from this turn:





Met whats-his-face of the Hippus, and also found a baby spider- I think Sareln got a scout eaten somewhere north of me.





Also the barbs founded a city in a somewhat incovenient location- I can still settle my marked spot though, just won't be able to work all the times until I kill the barbs.



I had a brief chat with the hippus today as well, Iskender wanted to explore a barrow next to my new copper city. I told him that I was opposed, since it could spawn something nasty, but he said that he was going to do it anyway. He got an Azer + Tiger combo, so his warrior will be wiped out, and then I'll have to deal with the likely promoted Azer and hope it dies attacking my town. I'm pretty pissed about this, and I now know exactly who my first target will be. The Hippus are permanently in my Shit Book.

[DaveV]

found a baby spider

Of course, this means the mommy spider is hiding somewhere nearby...

Also the barbs founded a city in a somewhat incovenient location- I can still settle my marked spot though, just won't be able to work all the times until I kill the barbs.

It looks like all you're losing is a couple plains tiles. You may be able to win them in a culture war eventually.

I had a brief chat with the hippus today as well, Iskender wanted to explore a barrow next to my new copper city. I told him that I was opposed, since it could spawn something nasty, but he said that he was going to do it anyway. He got an Azer + Tiger combo, so his warrior will be wiped out, and then I'll have to deal with the likely promoted Azer and hope it dies attacking my town.

So he asked your permission and then did it anyway when you refused? Sounds like a weird conversation. The tigers aren't a concern since they can't enter your borders, but the Azer is a serious problem - 3+3 strength, as I recall, and causes collateral damage. You should move the third warrior out of Acaia to the tile with your workers so it won't be damaged by the Azer's attack. If you're lucky and the Azer is heavily damaged you may be able to kill it; otherwise, you may lose your new city . Reinforcements from Nubia can't get there in time to make a difference, and you only have one extra warrior in Prespur.

Did he pop the hut with a different warrior than the one on your borders in the screenshot? Could he be planning to warrior rush you?

[Bobchillingworth]

For your edification, the relevant part of my chat with the Hippus dude (I cut off an extended discussion I first had with him about the nature of vassals in FFH):

Iskender: well, i'm not going to vassalize anyone. or be a vassal for that matter, I just RYDE
across erebus
2:14 PM btw. mind if i popped a dungeon next to my warrior?
me: ah, the one near me?
2:15 PM Iskender: yes
me: yeah, I mind, sorry
you could spawn something nasty on my borders
Iskender it is possible
2:16 PM i could spawn something nice for me though
me: yup. So go pop some near your own borders
Iskender there are none
me: then go get some that aren't near me
Iskender[ i have a fort with 7 goblin archers tho
2:17 PM i think i'll pop it anyway
me: ah, well, that's not really a great idea for future relations, but I suppose I can't kill your warrior first
2:18 PM Iskender[ just bear in mind that i gave you a heads up on that
it could be a nasty surprise
2:19 PM me: letting me know that you're about to cause some havok on my borders in advance doesn't really carry much weight in my book
2:20 PM if it is something nasty, I'm not going to care that you warned me, since I told you not to
if it isn't something nasty, then you still didn't do as I asked
2:21 PM so you have a heads up that you're about to get on my bad side
Iskender[ but then again
2:22 PM do you judge by intentions or results?
me: you asked for permission; I said no. If you do it anyway, it implies a lack of respect
2:25 PM Iskender[ well, i could've played dumb and popped it anyway. i acually considered that
2:27 PM me: yup
but you didn't
so
what will you do now
Iskender[ a good question
2:28 PM me: is it worth antagonizing the calabim over a lair? your call.
2:29 PM Iskender[ i'll weigh pros and cons. no hard feelings on my side
it's still just a lair
me: Yeah. But we both know that they can hide some nasty stuff
2:30 PM Iskender[ Azers at worst i think
me: orges too, I thought?
or mistforms
Iskender[ oh yes, mistforms
2:31 PM these are nasty
me: If you do decide to explore it, and I do suggest you not, then I'll at least keep in mind if you tell me what the result is
2:33 PM Iskender[ are we doing 2 turns today again?
2:35 PM ok, i will
me: trying to get as many turns in today as we can
47 minutes
3:23 PM Iskender[ popped an Azer
me: just one?
Iskender[ yes
me: it almost never just spawns one enemy
he doesn't have wolves backing him up or something?
3:24 PM Iskender[ heroic Azer with a tiger

I don't know if this guy is just a dick, or if he comes across that way because of poor English skills or what, but he really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm going to rather enjoy burning his cities, assuming he doesn't manage to kill me first.


No azer spotted this turn. Also, I assume he had two warriors in the area.

[Bobchillingworth]

Still no Azer. I did see the tiger though, and my very first orc appeared near Nubian, which I should be able to handle easily.


I did have an extra bloodpet which I built out of Nubian and sent south before I even met the Hippus, so if the azer does show up I'll have 4 guys on hand to deal with him.



The big news of the turn came from Sareln- apparently Selrahc really did decide to declare war on Cull. The whole thing sounds like a total boondoggle for the Illians, which is perfect from my POV. Apparently Cull is being an idiot though and refusing to spare a single warrior to capture his second city back from Sareln (Sareln can't gift it because it's his capital), which screws over his own ability to make reinforcements, and means that Sareln can't get palace culture or godking bonuses in his newly founded city to my north. Sareln is going to declare war on Cull himself to induce Cull to take the city back next turn, if Cull doesn't get a clue before then.

[Bobchillingworth]

Checked with the hippus guy, sounds like the azer came from a dungeon in one of the two tiles his warrior could reach which I had fogged. The azer killed his warrior, and then ran off for parts unknown.



Not much else going on.

[Bobchillingworth]

Got a picture from Cull of his front lines:






Heh, where to even start with this? Most important thing to note is that Selrahc doesn't look to be making any progress anytime soon. Cull has something like a dozen well-promoted warriors (on flatland though), and it looks from the image like selrahc attacked with the ice elementals, got two withdrawals and a loss, and Cull's warriors were hardly even scratched. Cull should easily survive this attack as long as he doesn't do anything stupid.


But what the Hell is going on with his civ? Tons of farms (artisofarms as the Khazad?! Even a base cottage is almost as good as an aristofarm for financial leader, and the dwarfs don't need tons of food). No roads. The corn isn't farmed, and his city is starving from unhealth. He also apparently grew into unhappiness. He didn't keep his warrior around to defend his recaptured 2nd town, and so he could well lose it to a lizardman. And why the heck did he have so many warriors sitting around?



Ah well, what's done is done. My suggestion is that he just continuously build warriors until he has about 25 (I think he can make one per turn)- then throw everything at selrahc, assuming the illians are still just sitting there. If the Illians attack and either the super-priest is heavily wounded or two or more of the priests in general are badly wounded, then can probably wipe them out with only 15 warriors. If he can even only take out one of the priests it's a great victory, assuming he remembers to leave enough guys in his city to survive a counter-attack.




In other news, Prespur finished it's governor's manor, it went into unhappiness- and it only gets +1 hammer! WTF?! After all the discussion in this thread, I thought that I should be getting something like +8 hammers, and not just one hammer per redshirt citizen like I initially had assumed. As it stands, it looks like I sacrificed a 3 food 3 gold farm for a stupid 1 hammer redshirt. Grr. I'll post an image next turn.

[Ilios]

In other news, Prespur finished it's governor's manor, it went into unhappiness- and it only gets +1 hammer! WTF?! After all the discussion in this thread, I thought that I should be getting something like +8 hammers, and not just one hammer per redshirt citizen like I initially had assumed. As it stands, it looks like I sacrificed a 3 food 3 gold farm for a stupid 1 hammer redshirt. Grr. I'll post an image next turn.

Yeah, I don't where people got that from... The building would be horribly broken if you'd get a hammer for every red citizen.

[Jabah]

You should have the production.
But to visualise it, you need to compare the numbers on the production bar and the total on the worked tiles in the city radius. THEN you should realise it is working (you possibly need to wait a turn to adjust ?).

Nowhere you will find a line saying manor +8hpt.

I had the same reaction when playing vampire for the firt time but in the end it was ok (version n, same as you afaik)