The Orc Clan: Following the Princess Rule

[Ravus Sol]

Once again a big big wait. My father has his birthday a few days after Australian Fathers day, plus it's exam week. Anywho. I havn't posted picture since turn 50 and it's now turn 68. I havn't posted the Diplomacy since Turn 58.

Summery of events?
- Found the Amurites, East of the Elves
- Found the Hippus Lands, Used the Mirror to spy
- Found the Vampires, They got scared of Fluffy, they are NE of Elves
- Talked with Hippus, They are attacking the Elves they seem to think I might help
- Talked with Sareln, They are founding Moria and we will soon start trading, they seem to think the Hippus may be friendly despite my gentle hinting
- Bannor founded Runes first...
- Vampires have 6 cities. Yes. 6. They popped the world spell when they had three then used all of them to make Settler AGAIN.

All in all, I'm starting to feel happier with having made an alliance with Sareln. He will get pestered by the Hippus. Plus his closeness to BOTH the Vampires and the Amurites should keep him on benevolent terms with me. The Hippus are an annoyance, the Vampires are the threat. Bannor are FAR FAR too isolated. They have played a economic game and they could continue to do it with all the fighting centered around the Elvish Area.

I'll post up all the screen shots and Diplomacy now. But the map seems designed for Sareln to get rushed.

EDIT: 6? Five! FIVE! goddam my memory skills.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Turn 51-55: Bled Dry and Horsefound[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Turn 51: Chanting free and Founding Entwash[/SIZE]

Ancient Chants comes in, now the none-capital cities can actually have culture. Which is a big deal for planning city placement.

Mysticism comes in with a 12 turn wait. A long time in this day and age. But hopefully the upgrade once the Ale house comes in will upgrade that time.

This is where the new city was forced to found. I had wasted enough turns that I didn't want to waste any others, plus didn't dare risk anything with a Griffin in the Area. Once it has a road connection it will be a Super production city.

The Top cities of the age. The seven is supposed to be the Bannor City... Still not confirmed on this information though.

The Demographs for turn 51, Way down in last for GNP. But continuing to hold a high position in Production, Land and Soldiers.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 52: Revenge of the Blood Suckers[/SIZE]

The lands of Isengard are hit by the Blood drinking curse of the Vampires. Fangorn Forest can no longer work the Gem Mines and the capital loses it's production. The Time for Mysticism falls to SIXTEEN turns. Not good stuff.

Broken Entwash is growing! This city is recently enough founded that it isn't really damaged by the Vampires. It should have been founded on the Entwash river but never mind. The worker farms the Rice for some faster growth. Then the horses and a mine to speed up the Monument production. This position for the city does allow me to upgrade the wheat once the border pops. And the Lonely Mountain city that could be founded in that direction could then use it when founded.

Fluffy circles the Elvish lands to find the Rohan Warrior. You can clearly see that this city also has been hit by the Vampires.

The Demographs for turn 52, Everyone has been hit hard, My own GNP has fallen to a staggering 14. 14! Worryingly the #1 GNP has increased. The Vampires have obviously slingshotted into the lead with this stunt. The population score speaks for itself. Most likely 3 cities.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 53: Watching Cities grow[/SIZE]

Fluffy wanders. The elves certainly have a lot of those hunting resources to spare.

Don't Look!

[SIZE="4"]Turn 54: Yawn[/SIZE]

Copper? meh.

Finally the food increases and the cities start to grow a bit better. My GNP thing is far too low.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 55: Yellow Belly Warrior[/SIZE]

Fluffy finally finds the Horselords Warrior and diplomacy commences (I've allready posted most of it.) The Warrior was weak enough that I was tempted for a moment to declare and snipe it. But the lure of diploatic talks and sounding out Mr Yellow was too great.

It shows how hammer poor everyone else is that I am already making a come back production wise.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Turn 56-60: All Talk and no Play[/SIZE]

This section is named because all the action was happening in Diplomacy. Mostly due to the Damage from the Blood Drain. But also due to the offer of an Elvish alliance and deciding what to do about Mr Yellows secret plans to attack the Elves.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 56: Fluff[/SIZE]

The worker for Broken Entwash has finished the Rice and has started on the Horses. The Chop plus the new pasture should get the Monument finished in time for Mysticism if I am lucky.

The old warrior guard for the worker heads off to the West. I really would like some sight over there but every time I send someone of they seem to get eaten by the same Griffin, surely it would move away?

Fluffy circles around the Hippus Warrior, still loads of hunting resources around the elves.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 57: [/SIZE]

Fluffy heads north. At this point I was under the impression that the Hippus were north of the Elves. It was only in diplomatic talks later that I was told oterwise.

Others have recovered faster from the Blood drain then myself. I continue to run 100% money untill the Brewery comes in.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 58: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo[/SIZE]

Damn Griffin. Killed my warrior. Again.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 59: Score![/SIZE]

The Capital completes the brewery and starts on a Granery while it grows. Fangorn is now big enough to work the Mines again. Without the Sheep It would have been a large burden after the Blood drain. My thanks go again to Ichabod for making sure I made the right but hard decision to grab the Animal Husbandry before teching up Mysticism.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 60: Going for the Throat[/SIZE]

Fluffy jumps on a defencless lion. It is an easy victory and boosts him up to the next level. Better to choose my battle now then risk a bad assault later. My choice of Promotions is going to be Shock. Just in case I find someone worthy enough to attack.

My scores have increased back up to a respectable amount. Even my score has increased although that is artificially inflated from the Brewery National Wonder. The main eye catching bit is how low my soldier score is. It was due to this and the fact that Barbarians should have been appearing for 10 turns now, that I decided my worldspell should be used.

[Ravus Sol]

Well the save has just come through so I will play that before continueing this big update marathon. Just need to show all the pictures of the world view I now have from the worldspell. Plus slot in the Diplomacy that has gone on.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Turn 61: Roaming Roaming Roaming Rohan? no Wait that's the Amurites![/SIZE]

This section is named because all the action was happening in Diplomacy. Mostly due to the Damage from the Blood Drain. But also due to the offer of an Elvish alliance and deciding what to do about Mr Yellows secret plans to attack the Elves.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 61: Empire[/SIZE]

Isengard starts in on a Worker because we will soon need more to get up a road network. You can also see that Fangorn Forest to the East is going to finish a monument in time to build a Elder Council as well.

Broken Entwash is now 1 turn away from completion now that it has a Mine to work as well. One worker is making a farm the other will make a second mine, then both of them will start roading duties.

[SIZE="4"]Turn 61: Exploration[/SIZE]

Fluffy heals from his lion fight and then calls for the horde! He should be safe healing here while the new units explore.

This is the Monster Champion of the Dragon Bones Isle. But it's not mine. I control the crappy NORMAL Champion that was randomly on the island as well. I could have actually gotten the Monster Champion if I had been lucky. It has Orcish and no Hero promotion. But I would have had no way to get it to the mainland any time soon. So I guess it doesn't matter.

He got deleted for sheer sillyness of placement.

The Archer from Sludgehome is called "Searching for Wizards" perhaps in a cheap move naming wise because I could allready see the edge of purple to the West. But this one movement gets me close enough to open Diplomatic talks. And also inform the Hippus and Rivendel nations due to my "Information Exchange" agreements with them.

The Archer from Domir is called "Searching for Rohan" In recent Diplomatic exchange Mr Yellow mention a flood plain area to his west. So I feel confident that If I head East sticking to defensive hills (Archers get bonus from hills) then I can make it to them intact.

The Sheer awesomeness of Domirs placement leaves me very jealous if the Hippus ARE in close to this place.

The Warrior from Ahepetr is called "Searching for Gondor" and is sent of North. This Barbarian city is in a nice little position and should allow us to find the Gondor nation

[SIZE="4"]Turn 61: Demographs and Graphs[/SIZE]

Average scores.

Scores will have to be discussed in a big Post around Turn 75 if things stay on course. But for now things are looking okay.

The Amurites and Hippus are both at the bottom of the pack GNP wise. Mine is inflated due to the Brewery and the two Gems. I know that the Elves survived through the Blood Drain due to an abundance of Calendar resrouces which probably made it easier to grow AND keep a high commerce gain.

But for the most part I am in a respectable place compared to everyone. Especially having started with the Orcs.

The Food graph shows that the Hippus have REALLY been running a low food economy. They do also only have 2 cities as they claim that the Vampire Blood drain hit them hard enough to delay getting out a third.

The Amurites and Elves are running Agrarianism so they have much higher jumps in food them myself. You can see the noticeable dip when the Vampire Blood drain hit.

You can see that everyone BUT the amurites started on a plains hill for the extra production. A nice little bit of knowledge. Means the Magic users technically have a easier capital to take if they are not on a hill.

Elves can build all their improvements inside forests so their increase in production is easy to understand. My own is due to beelining Mining as a starting technology. The Elves however are still above me. But then they allready have God-King by this point while I do not.

The Power graph shows the nice sharp increase from gaining Fluffy early on. But then lots of ups and downs as I constantly lose explorers to those ruddy insanely powered animals.

The Elves power on the other hand... It shot up once, when they found out they had BOTH the Horselords and Orcs for neighbours. But again awhile back. This would be when the Blood Drinking happened. So I can only assume he ran warrior builds while growing for even MORE protection. HE also has three cities and has given up on exploration so he can probably afford it.

The Amurites also have a highly grown city and I can only assume that the top city is the Vampires.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Wizards have no word for "Neighbour", they do have a word for "Area we havn't blown up yet"[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The "I'm not going to wait for you to start up that silly 'In-Character' Rubbish" opening[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Purple"]Hahaha. I was boasting in my thread that since every single path is surrounded by vicious animals, apart from one which has a barb city, i was probably isolated.

Barring, you know, any orcs. There goes my isolation game plan =)

So, hello there! I'm pretty sure you've met everyone else so far, so how is Erebus?

With that said... i notice you have a barb archer next to me. And i also notice that it's only one barb archer. Can we please keep things peaceful between us?[/COLOR]

Amelia goes for the friendly-first approach before asking about intentions. Gives away his now useless isolation plan. Since the Ice has allready been broken for the most part I skip most of the opening fluff that i've used before.

[SIZE="4"]The "Vampires Bad, Orcs Helpful" reply[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Orange"]Indeed. I too have encountered various killer animals. Spiderman have battled my green goblin scouts. Griffins have been fed to monster levels. Depressingly I have only encountered one wolf in the whole of this barren wasteland. If I had not decided to risk it and summon the horde I doubt I would have gotten through to you. I think most of our plans were derailed with the Vampire blood spell.

I have not met everyone else... But I have met most and know where the Bannor are and have suspect plots where the Vampires are. Erebus is well, although myself and Sareln call it Middle-Earth. Most people claim to have negligible land, so far no war have broken out. The large size of the map is contributing to the peace so far. I don't mind providing specifics of the layout, the map feature, of who is around you and so on in exchange for a basic information exchange agreement. I'm close enough to you that we could eventually be good trade partners. But most of all i'd love to be called if you ever find those evil Vampires.

Sludgehome is the barbarian city that the Archer came from, it currently only has one archer now. There is no need to worry about aggression from the Archer. He will most likely circle north as i suspect that the vampires are either to your north-west or north-east or to my own west. Those are the only spots with enough space on the map to have a nation sheltered in them.

Ravus - The Red Wizard of Isengard[/COLOR]

I try to keep things casual and yet still witty. I think I succeeded for the most part. While I exchange basic useless information I drop the Vampires into the Letter in a negative light. My future pariahs of the land can't have too much negative reinforcement.

I open the idea of a basic Information agreement in a much more blunt manner then I usually do. But without flowery language to disguise content this is what amounts to a usually opening gambit anyway.

[SIZE="4"]The "Have some interesting looking but mainly useless information and leave me alone and let the conversation die so I can go back to my empire building" response[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Purple"]Ravus, Red Wizard of Isengard,

I have heard tales from my scouts, or rather what remains of my scouts, of many horrible things to the west. But what seems to be the most prevalent is the tales, or rather, TAILS, of scorpions pouncing onto my scouts.

Are you certain that the barb city only has one barb archer in it? I plan to made it an addition to my empire, and any news from it is welcome.

You are the only one i've met so far due to these scorpions, and i regret to tell you that the borders to my north-west are fully occupied by me. Nevertheless, i'll be saving your archer from a poison-ing death from scorpions

To my south west, in endless deserts and hills, lies yet another scorpion, who ate my first scout. There have also been rumors about white bears, but i deemed that as useless knowledge.

Finally, the area to my S is unexplored, so i cannot tell you anything about that area. But at least there won't be any vicious scorpions.

Dain, Grand Archmage of Ancestor Caves..[/COLOR]

This overview of the land is interesting but only halfway useful. He noticeably only talks about the land OUTSIDE his borders. Which is good for navigating but not so good for getting a feel on Amelia's long term plans. Looks like even admitting it might not be do-able he will be holding out on whatever isolationist plan he was hoping to run.

[SIZE="4"]The "Wizard did it, have your information exchange and stay alone then" grumble[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Orange"]Dain, The Grand Archmage (Even if it's not as good as a Wizard) of the Ancestor Caves.

There seems to be monstrous versions of every wild animal at this point. But your warnings about Scorpions and the land surrounding your cities is well appreciated. I will head around a different direction. I have another unit in your north west that may stumble upon the other side of your borders.

The Barb City appears to have only one archer within it. But as it is size 2 I must assume it has been here long enough that there could be a 4 orc hit squad circling into your lands from the south. Be warned that you will need Bronze working or Fire Mana to make Sludgehome profitable.

The fact that your southwest has natural desert is a good sign. I am in that direction most likely past both the hills and desert and circling around the great inland sea to your south. You seem to be in a natural isolationist position. Two great seas to your north and south. Jungle to your east. desert to your west. The nations surrounding you are mainly the Elves beyond the desert to your West and the Bannor to the east, who have just founded RoK. I have not yet found them but i'd estimate they are around 13 tiles East. The world then curves and between the Bannor and the Elves are the Hippus, who so far are the lucky ones with some flood plains close to them. The Vampires continue to be cloaked in shadow and mystery. No one has met them.

Ravus - The Red Wizard[/COLOR]

I try to keep things pleasant and reply to the information that Amelia desires without giving away anything too important. I drop in that fact that his surrounding land will match his personal desire to play isolated and then leave him too it.

Conversation drops off here and no further replies come. No point in trying to suck blood from a stone or trying to engage a person who wants to be alone with diplomatic back and forth. Hopefully I can keep things pleasent and open enough that I will be remembered as a "nice" and "honourable" person in his mind.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Turn 62: Abra Kadabra Alakaza- No wait that IS the Rohan this time![/SIZE]

This turn I found the Hippus and remembered to send them their own little diplomatic exchange about my explorations.

SfR (Searching for Rohan) finds the Rohan (duh). They have an Oasis from what I can see and are ridiculously close to wonderful flood plains. Which are good by themselves. But on a map this sparse they just look food crazy after dealing with 1 food tiles for so long.

They also have Gold along with the flood plains. I don't think I can ever let the Hippus live down that they are going aggressive when this amount of good land is right next to them.

The main thing about this turn is not the Hippus though. It's the fact that if you look at the Score boards...

THE BANNOR FOUNDED THE RUNES RELIGION.

It was actually the Elves that told me this during our information exchange. This upsets me a little but it is understandable because... well... the Orcs suck at teching. Hopefully Mist doesn't get the shrine soon and won't gain anything If I too grab the religion. It's too useful to pass up on a map this large.

Demographs are still nothing special. still waiting for Mysticism, exploration and Education for my economic payoffs.

[Mardoc]

I could have actually gotten the Monster Champion if I had been lucky. It has Orcish and no Hero promotion. But I would have had no way to get it to the mainland any time soon. So I guess it doesn't matter.

Well - he wasn't intended to be grabbable, so I feel *I* dodged a bullet here.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="6"]Horses say "Neigh". Horselords say "Hey Neighbour".[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The "Aren't I a nice person sticking to his agreements" letter[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Orange"]To Horselord Yellow, in regards to the agreed upon information exchange.

I have popped off my own worldspell to help in exploration matters and have found the home of the Amurite Archmages. They are to the East of the Elves about 13 or so tiles, the fog of war makes measuring tricky. They seem to be placed between the Bannor and the Elves if I am reading the map correctly. With 4 nations in the middle of the map and 1 to the south i am now thinking that the Vampires may be in the North somewhere.

You will also be able to see one of my new Orc Archers next to your borders. It comes from Domir, a Barbarian city that has founded in the flood plain area you described in a previous chat. The land here looks very lush. I believe you have come out on top in regards to land placement.

The Bannor has just founded RoK which makes me wish they were nearby. A holy city is a very tempting rush target.

The Red Wizard[/COLOR]

This is me making a show of continuing the half-hazardly made information exchange agreement with the horselords. They weren't exactly forceful enough in chat that I felt they cared either way. But it's something else to talk about and sound things out.

I drop in my jealously of their Flood Plains and also of the Bannor having founded Runes of Kilmorph!

[SIZE="4"]The "Flood Plains are for kids... now how weak is that city so we can take the Flood Plains for ourselves mwhahahaha-*cough* We're nice people" sillyness[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Lime"]Didn't look like you gained much from it, how many units did you get?
Another thing, that barb city is currently in the way of the FP area and needs to be eliminated. Curious about which defenders there were there currently after the conversion.

If you've found the Amurites east of the elves then that bins my thoughts on where everyone are. However i am located next to the northern coastline, right next to the remnants island. Maybe the world is waveshaped, making space for large oceans next to the big 3 islands? If that's the case then maybe the vamps are indeed located north of us all.

As for the FP area, it's easily the best location i've explored currrently as i've hardly seen anything close to it. It's a little too far for my liking this early though.

- Horselord Yellow[/COLOR]

The hook that Mr Yellow sends my way about my power increase will be ignored. If he can notice the increase then he can count the difference if he wants details. The Angling was not subtle enough to gain a real response from me. The joys of handwaving from the english language.

Even with my problems with communication with the Horselords, they are still the best player to talk to about map layout, due to them actually knowing where the Bannor are exactly. The wave shape idea is actually a good one.

The attempt from himself to handwave away his gorgous flood plains is silly.



[SIZE="4"]The "Hey shouldn't the Vampires be near-ish to you" angle[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Orange"]Only a handfull, but they have fullfilled their goal of giving me a proper map. I don't think I too a screenshot of the barb FP city but I seem to remember it had a Archer and a Warrior when I left.

It seems four nation stretch across the middle of the map with myself in the south, so the Vampires must be in the North somewhere. There is a northern section above the Elves but I would assume that if a sort of pattern is involved that the Vampires would be halfway around the world to me... Which would put them in the north between the Amurites and the Bannor.

Ravus, The Red Wizard[/COLOR]

The handwave about direct numbers from my spell is amusing to write. I wonder if I come off as annoying or amusingly coy to Mr Yellow. Or wether he isn't getting the undertone at all. Either way my real memory gives the barbarian city just a single defender but adding in a extra warrior should make Mr Yellow Hesitate.

I really do see the most logical place for the Vamps as being between the Bannor and the Amurites. I was hoping this would cause a little concern about having Vampires near to Mr Yellow but communication dropped off here. So I guess we both got all we could from this little chat.

[Ravus Sol]

Well - he wasn't intended to be grabbable, so I feel *I* dodged a bullet here.

whoops. Well no worries. Even If I had gained him I wouldn't have had any way to get him off the island. I would need ships that can actually sail on the sea to get to him which is a ridiculous teching cost sink for so little gain. It's only a champion after all.

Now if it had been a Son with that many promotions...