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

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, I think it's with Philo. I also intend to research the Veil if no one builds Rosier first, and so should eventually get some use out of the reagents as well.

[Bobchillingworth]

This turn I got visibility on the barb city:






Yuck. I'll keep on producing bloodpets, and I'll try to intercept the four-warrior stack when it comes out of the city. If they attack my own bloodpet stack on favorable ground, I might even get a few promos out if it.


In other news, barbarian animals have bizarrely begun to run away from my scouts. Three times in as many turns now I've had scouts end up next to bears, who then decided to high-tail it into the fog. I'm guessing it's some quirk of the AI, I suppose I shouldn't question it too much.

[Bobchillingworth]

I noticed this turn that my scout who had looked into the barb city was gone. I checked out the event log, and found this:





Excellent! One barb archer down, that should save me a bloodpet or two, assuming the barbs are slow to replace it.

[Bobchillingworth]

Also visible in the event log above is that Selrahc made peace with Sareln. There have been a few important diplo events in the last four turns or so, summarized as follows:


* [SIZE="4"]Selrahc[/SIZE] was threatening to take Sareln's capital, the city to my north. I had wanted to try to capture it for myself before he could reach it, but Sareln and I looked at the situation and determined the Selrahc would take the city first with an ice elemental summon. I caught Selrahc online and at first tried to arrange an agreement where I would gift him one of my spare golds and wines and in return he would let me capture the city.

He was receptive to my offer, but the conversation then turned to whether I knew where Sareln's last city was (the one in my south). Rather than deny it, I came clean that I had decided to shelter Sareln in return for his loyalty and mind mana. Around this time Sareln also joined in the discussion online. and we held a somewhat disjointed conference between the three of us to work out a mutually satisfactory peace arrangement, as I believe none of us particularly wanted a large-scale war to break out. Although there was some confusion at points as to the exact terms of the arrangements (we stupidly all communicated through separate chats with each other, as opposed to a group chat... not sure why tbh), the final terms are as such:

-Selrahc accepts that Sareln is my semi-offical "vassal" (I personally dislike the term, and prefer to think of him as a partner, although that makes him sound less like a servant and more like a retail employee... not sure whether that's better or not :P ).

-Sareln will never declare war on Selrahc as an act of aggression. He will declare on Selrahc if Selrahc declares war on me first. If I declare on Selrahc first, Sareln cannot join in.

-Sareln gets to keep his capital.

-Sareln will "loan" his nature and shadow mana to Selrahc at a time of Selrahc's choosing. Although Sareln already promised me that I could use any of his mana whenever I wanted, I already have shadow and have little use for nature, so I'm content to stick with his mind resource.

-I will trade a spare wine and gold with Selrahc once I have them hooked up, no particular timeframe established. I'm sure he'll have a couple resources or some gpt I'll want in exchange, so I think that works out okay.

-(Unofficial) Selrahc lacks copper... I have *three* sources visible (one currently connected), so I may want to trade him a spare eventually, although I'll want some hefty compensation for it.

-(Unofficial) Selrahc and I discussed lengthening our NAP but didn't come up with any dates, since we still have like between 20 to 15 turns left.


Summary: All things considered, I believe that this turned out quite well. I came clean about my harboring Sareln and seem to have set myself up for long-term peace with the Illians, which is exactly what I want. Auric isn't a very good economic leader, and without aggressive from the Letnum Firgus he's only a mediocre warlord once those priests are obsolete. He's hardly a non-entity, and the Illians are still plenty dangerous, but it will take him a while to get to his next set of dangerous super units (likely going to be Ice III Archmages.


* [SIZE="4"]Iskender[/SIZE] of the Hippus sent me an email a couple days ago:

Dear Calabim

This message is an attempt to initiate a diplomatic contact. I am
observing your progress with care and there are some things that
caught my attention. Namely, the tech researched back in turn 94, the
mine you've just build over copper and a trickle of new warriors. If
these are portents of a conflict I feel obliged to advise you that
neither of us would benefit by it. In the worst case I would be forced
to waste my world spell.

Both of our civilizations excel at warfare. It would be a great waste
if our best abilities canceled out against each other while the bigger
civilizations out there keep growing.

As a sign of good intentions I have sent my scout to a vulnerable spot
near Prawn. He says 'Hello'.

Iskender of the Hippus

I replied:

Heya,


Thanks for letting me know about your concerns. It's much better to discuss potential issues in the open then allow suspicion or fears to accumulate in silence.

I wish to assure you that I am not currently preparing for war with the Hippus. I am building a steady stream of military, but these are for either garrisons, barb culling (my civilization is quite literally ringed by lizardman and skeleton lairs), and for an assault I am building up for on a barbarian city to my east. Depending on how that attack goes, you may notice my power falling precipitously. I am indeed currently working on connecting my copper, but given the dangers of Erberus I think it's only prudent that I do so ASAP. I fully agree that it makes little sense for our two empires to fight at present, with peaceful expansion and development being far greater priorities than warrior-to-warrior combat. The growth of the Kuriotates and Ilians is also quite troubling, although I'm not sure there's much that either of us can do about that at present (I haven't even found PB's territory yet). If you do later have any ideas on that front, I'm all ears.


However, if you do try to open another lair / barrow / ruins etc. near my territory, then all bets are off. I killed the azer you unleashed without loss and have decided to let it slide without further issue, but please do not test the limits of my tolerance again. To be clear- if you do decide to explore another lair on my border again, I will consider it an act of war. You have been warned.


-Bobchillingworth

I then caught him on chat earlier today (probably while he was in the middle of typing a response, heh) and had the following conversation:

me: Heya
any thoughts, RE my email response?
4:44 PM apologies if you were going to make a formal written reply
figured I want to catch you while you were online and before I had the turn though if there were any isues
8 minutes
4:52 PM Rafal: i guess i can put my response here
4:53 PM i'm relieved to see that your actions are not against me
and i'm glad that we have a similar view on the overall situation
4:54 PM me: cool
4:55 PM apologies for asking, but are we on the same page regarding lairs?
I've lost far too many sp games to the dreaded "Ogre + 4 mistforms" and similar results to not be deathly afraid of someone exploring them on my border
4:56 PM Rafal: there are some that i am going to explore, but they shouldn't be a bother for you
me: fine, as long as they aren't those barrows between us or that dungeon to my north
4:57 PM graves are fair game... they never spawn anything worse than spectres I think
I don't know if there's any near me anyway though
4:58 PM Rafal: you should get contact with PB any time soon. his workboat is floating your way
me: awesome
I am amazed that it has not died yet
unless he is closer than I suspected
4:59 PM Rafal: gotta go
cheers
me: right, later!

(Apologies for the email & chat dump, they seemed to speak for themselves pretty well).


Summary: Sounds like the Hippus want peace, and PB is probably somewhere pretty high on Iskender's hit list. Works great for me, although I'm still going to have extra-large garrisons on my border with him. I also still have the Hippus as my preferred target, but no rush there. "Rush", hehe.


* [SIZE="4"]Sareln[/SIZE] and I chatted for a little while, we agreed that he should settle most of the land to my west while I settle east. The land I want (and best resources) are to my east, so that works out well. That also means that I won't have too broad a border with the Hippus, for if/when I see some action on that front. I'm feeling pretty good right now about my efforts to keep him in the game- I think it's more fun and interesting for all involved, which is most of the point of playing in these games, at least for me.


* [SIZE="4"]Pocketbeetle[/SIZE] I finally met this turn, with my scout who apparently doused himself in bear repellent

[Bobchillingworth]

Lol, the hippus guy is such a dick. One turn after assuring me he won't, he pops a barrow on my border:





And hit the jackpot, apparently. Why he decided to escort a settler with only a scout, and why he thought to risk losing them both by exploring the barrow I don't know. He must have something stronger around to have killed the barrow skeleton.


So, I'm now incredibly tempted to declare war, and very soon. He's pissed me off exploring yet another lair, and I really can't see how I can allow him to retain a heroic horseman / warrior / whatever. Acaia can produce 1-turn copper equipped bloodpets now, so I'm thinking of using my two workers there to road toward where he's likely to settle, and trying to raze the city with a quick 4-bloodpet attack, while I meanwhile move the 6 or so guys I have in reserve at Nubia toward the front. I'd also change research to masonry -> construction.

I guess talk me out of this Dave if you see a convincing argument not to, I'm leaning pretty heavily towards war right now. I can handily outproduce him, and I have a tech advantage, and a vassal... if I don't do something now, at least make him prematurely use his world spell and kill that adventurer, then I think I might be in for severe problems down the road.


Oh, and if the war starts to go poorly I can always settle and I think get 10 turns of guaranteed peace from the Seven Pines.

[DaveV]

-Selrahc accepts that Sareln is my semi-offical "vassal" (I personally dislike the term, and prefer to think of him as a partner, although that makes him sound less like a servant and more like a retail employee... not sure whether that's better or not :P ).

How about "associate"? "Welcome to Vamp-Mart!"

Lol, the hippus guy is such a dick. One turn after assuring me he won't, he pops a barrow on my border:

Actually, he really didn't assure you he wouldn't. His side of the posted chat was admirably vague.

I guess talk me out of this Dave if you see a convincing argument not to, I'm leaning pretty heavily towards war right now. I can handily outproduce him, and I have a tech advantage, and a vassal... if I don't do something now, at least make him prematurely use his world spell and kill that adventurer, then I think I might be in for severe problems down the road.

[VoiceOfReason]
If, as he not so subtly pointed out, he has not used his world spell yet, then you could be in for a bad time attacking him. If he can see that you've mined copper (again, kind of an in-your-face statement), that would imply he can see and connect copper himself. So you'd be at a 1-strength disadvantage until his world spell wears off, and the city you're planning on attacking looks like it will be on a hill.

What you said in your chat is true: it's probably a better use of your army to squash barbs at this point.

The hero from a lair is a bummer, but one unit is not going to win the game for him (look how Selrahc is doing with his Priests of Winter).

The city is an aggressive plant, and the lair popping could be considered unfriendly at best. I'd say, though that this is yet another case where revenge is best served cold.
[/VoiceOfReason]

Your options:

1) A strongly worded email
2) An anti-hippus alliance
3) Hope he's building up for war with someone else, and be prepared to fall on his rear when he's off attacking.

I'd probably try to come up with some combination of all three.

Second possiblity: he doesn't have Bronze Working, but guessed you did from your mined plains tile, and this is all a bluff which you should call.

[Bobchillingworth]

Your options:

1) A strongly worded email
2) An anti-hippus alliance
3) Hope he's building up for war with someone else, and be prepared to fall on his rear when he's off attacking.

I'd probably try to come up with some combination of all three.

Second possiblity: he doesn't have Bronze Working, but guessed you did from your mined plains tile, and this is all a bluff which you should call.

I doubt he'll really care if I bother with option #1- I think that's more likely to give my intentions away than anything.

#2 is a possibility, I'll already have sareln for what that's worth (not much atm, he's busy researching FoL, but I guess can send hunters later)

#3 I guess could happen eventually, but I don't want to wait that long.


I believe that he only knew about the copper because he saw a flatland plains mine. Even if he does have copper of his own, his worldspell only can be used once, and I much rather have to deal with some strength 4 or 5 2-move warriors than horsemen (or worse) if he uses it later.


So it's WAR!


Most of my cities can or will be able to produce a bloodpet a turn, so I'm not at all worried about being overrun. It'll be difficult to make much offensive progress until I have catapults, but that's okay- I'll just pillage his lands to hell.

[DaveV]

Just don't strip the back lines too bare - remember that a stack of 4 orc warriors is coming. I believe they're programmed to go straight after the nearest city, without doing any pillaging on the way.

Edit: Horseback Riding is a good next target after Construction. Mobility + Raiders = .

2nd edit:

If you're going to do this, you should go all in, and build truly ridiculous numbers of bloodpets. Once he pops his worldspell, his horse units will have a movement of 5, so you should keep a good sized garrison in Prespur and Acaia. You should also put a bunch of units on your copper to discourage pillaging, which would be a sensible first move for him. Save your promotions until you have horseback riding, then put mobility on every. single. unit. This will allow you to have a mobile reserve force to protect your cities and react against attackers/pillagers, and give you more flexibility on the attack. While you're building up, you might as well take out the barb city.

[DaveV]

Ouch, the hippus worldspell is a pain. Here's a chart of its decay over time. It takes 14 turns before fewer than half the units are buffed; after 40 turns, more than 10% of units can be expected to retain the promotion .

[Bobchillingworth]

Truly ridiculous number of bloodpets, check! All of my cities except for the latest can build one-turn bloodpets, so I can build garrisons or reinforcements pretty quickly if I need to. I can't spam too many troops though, as I'm already paying a lot of military support and that's with most guys still within my borders. I'm slotting in a few markets into my build ques to help make up for it.


Regarding the Hippus worldspell, thanks for the chart- I thought the spell was just a one-time bonus for all existent units, though? And that it doesn't wear off. For some reason the AI very rarely uses it, and I've only played one game as the Hippus before, so I admit that I'm not very familiar with how it works.


Oh and I double-checked the trade screen, Iskender does not have copper! He probably will have horsemen though, and since the Hippus palace supplies horse, there's no way for me to get around having to deal with them. At least he got the crappy Hippus leader.


Also, agreed that mobility is a very strong promo- makes more sense to save the promotion until needed on reserve units though, I think. Also a neat trick- if you move a unit onto a tile that uses up all their movement points, and then promote to mobility I or II, you get a free move =) Works great with raiders!