[Spoilers] The Golem Factory: Beeri Bawl of the Luchuirp

[Selrahc]

There is a bear to the west that I might have Barnaxus try to kill later, it's 5 strength with no promotions, so if he gets on the flood plains Barnaxus should have decent odds, and it should give some good exp.

Could go the other way, and wait on the other side of a river for the bear to attack you.

Also Ilios founded his fourth city this turn.

More loot to be taken when we win our inevitable victory! Was this one in our direction too?

[Sciz]

I can't see it anywhere on the map, just found it in the diplo screen with him (i check it every turn)

[Sciz]

Sculptor's Studio in Mutanbo complete, now it's all wood golems from now on



12 turns right now, but that number will drop quickly when Mutanbo grows and I get the four engineers from the world spell in there. I've also decided to let Barnaxus go northeast after he kills the skeleton between Cotton Valley and Ithralia, because skeletons keep coming from up there, plus there are bears and stuff there as well, so it should be a fair amount of exp there hopefully.

[Sciz]

Barnaxus kills a skeleton, and is now at 4 exp, one away from Combat 2, ugh. The bear is now two tiles away and on a desert tile, but Barnaxus only has 3.8 strength, so he has to heal up

Also I can see Mist's graphs now for some reason, even though I havent come close enough to see his lands yet, so I wondered how this could be, until I saw this after I'd sent on the save:



Wonder what they are doing there? His power is low though, so no worries.

[Sciz]

Okay shit is going down now:

First I get a mail from Mist of the Doviello:

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Ah, a dwarf!

Finally, and here I taught we got lost in these god forsaken mountains. So you're running a ... 'corporation' here? What an odd word. Fortunately since Mistress saw fit to construct the markets everywhere I think I know the lingo. You see, I, the fellows with me, the ones in the south and those behind me, was sent to your 'corporation' with a certain 'business proposition'. We were to get a 'favourable market share' agreement out of you or initiate a 'hostile takeover' and 'liquidation' of your 'assets'.

Fortunately for you, wider 'economic climate' changed significantly over last months and our mandate got altered to 'leverage' new situation in most profitable way. Therefore you are given a choice now:

1) We shall form a 'joint-venture' aimed at 'arresting' the alarming growth of 'Malakim Sunny Co'. Since this will significantly hurt your 'direct competition' and open many 'growth opportunities' on your eastern border, we expect to be properly compensated for our hard work on the project. We have certain 'concessions' in mind, we're also open to 'salvaged asset exchange scheme'

2) We go back to the original plan. Using cutting edge 'heavy ax' technology and an unique 'many-a-wolf' solution we'll perform a 'hostile takeover' of your Cotton 'business', 'liquidate' your 'assets in the field' and hopefully 'seize' your 'executive' Barnaxus. You can also expect multiple future challenges to the 'legal status' of your 'corporation headquarters'. Possibly involving other 'interested parties'.

We're eager to hear your decision, but be aware that time flies fast on the markets and we won't wait long.

With regards,

Perdo,
Field Marshall ( New Markets Acquisition Director ) of Mist,
Those That Follow Mahala.[/COLOR]

Cough.

Nicely worded mail, but still quite confusing! I'm not exactly sure what his intentions are, but it seems that he is proposing that either

1) We together attack Ilios to curb his expansion, but that he gets compensated for his help. I'm not sure about this. Him taking any of Ilios cities would be useless to him as they are so far away and would kill him in maintenance costs. And I sure as hell don't want to pay him anything to have him help me when I should be able to attack him myself in some 40 turns or so.

or

2) He attacks me. I'm not sure with what though, as his power rating is significantly lower than mine, and this would just hurt us both. After reading this mail I boot up my save and see what he is threatening with:



He was two beastmen to the south, which shouldn't be able to take down CV on their own, and then 5 beastmen and two scouts to the north. Not too frightening! Currently they could probably take down CV, but i'm moving Barnaxus and Michelangelo down there and Ithralia can produce a warrior every turn. Really the only thing this does is slow me down on my preparation for the Ilios war, and that's not good. Also for some reason his units Cannot move (1) for some reason. Not sure why this is. If it means he can't move next turn, it will take him 6 turns to CV with the northern units, and 6 turns to Ithralia. If he can move next turn, it's 5 turns. Should be enough time to make some warriors. 4 turns for a warrior in CV, so I can switch my production there if I really need to.

This is really annoying though. I just want to prepare for the Ilios invasion in peace, and the Doviello have to come knocking. I don't really know what to respond. None of the options he gave me are anything I want. I think i'm just gonna tell him he has no chance of attacking me successfully, it will only hurt us both a lot, and will make Ilios even stronger, the person he himself is saying is growing too fast. Even more annoyingly is that I completed the settler this turn. But I can't really place it in the NW now with Doviello armies just nearby. I really need him to back off. I still moved the settler two tiles north, so I can place him next turn or the turn after that:

[Sciz]

I have a response to Mist typed up, but I don't want to send it off yet, I would like some comments from you Selrahc if you don't mind

[COLOR="Sienna"]How delightful, a business proposition!

However, there is nothing delightful about the contents of the proposition. As I see it, you either want us to attack Ilios together, with me giving concessions to you for your help, or you will attack me.

Allow me to amiably disagree to both of these propositions. Ilios is surely a looming threat, with his fast expansion, but I had already started working out a contingency plan, but with your sudden approach, you are definitely harming my abilities to slow down Ilios's fast expansion. Even though I appreciate the offer, there is no need for your help in this endeavor, and I certainly do not want to make any concessions to you for help I don't even need.

Second of all, the plan of you attacking me does not look like a terribly bright idea. If you have noticed the power rating, mine is significantly above yours, and I have not even started to create Wood Golems yet, which I can do at a moment's notice. Your invasion force that I can see to the north and south will never be able to take down a single city of mine, and will only serve to slow down both of us. I would instead propose that you move away from me, and instead perhaps attack the Calabim, who surely you should be afraid of, wouldn't it be best to stop their growth before they reach their dangerous vampires? And if you attack them you benefit yourself much more, as with an assault on Ilios his cities are too far away for you to take them. Surely you see that a war between the two of us would only hurt us both. It would hurt both our growths. There is nothing good about this! If you attack me I will respond in force, and I will defeat you, but we would both be much better off if we stayed peaceful. If you attack me I could probably even get my elven friends on my side. Would you enjoy a 1v2? I don't think so. To show you my good intentions, I can even extend a NAP proposition. To turn 120. How does that sound? It's for the best of both of our nations.[/COLOR]

Should I mention my Ilios plans? I tried to be as vague as possible in this mail but still mention I'm handling the Ilios problem, but maybe I should skip the whole thing about Ilios and just say that I don't care about him. Since if I mention this maybe he will tell that to Ilios, and that wouldn't be good at all.

Should I mention I don't have Wood Golems yet? I said I don't have them but that I can build them at a moment's notice. I did this to show that my power rating is higher than his, but can get even higher if I start making Wood Golems. Maybe I shouldn't mention it though.

Should I maybe accept Mist's #1 offer? To be honest I have no idea what he can do to help me. He's far away, we don't have open borders so it would take ages for him to reach Ilios since he would have to go around me, and I don't want to attack for another 30 turns or so.

Advice would be very welcome!

[Sciz]

I was just gonna say that it was possible that he is just masking his power rating by being able to upgrade his beastmen to sons of asena but not doing it yet, but then I realized that should cost a lot of money he probably doesn't have, so that's improbable.

He also does mention that he has an army I can't see. In his mail he says "I, the fellows with me, the ones in the south and those behind me", the first part is the ones to the north presumably, the second the two in the south, but those behind me could possibly be another stack? But they are really far away in that case and shouldn't be much trouble. Though he can use his worldspell I guess and create lots of wolves. That wouldn't be nice.

[Selrahc]

Not good. But not disastrous.

We could play it shady, and accept his offer with the intent of attacking him later. Or we could play it straightforward, in the way you did. I don't really have any compunctions about playing it shady. If someone underlines their offer with a threat, then they aren't getting on our good side.

If all he wants is safe conduct through our lands, and for us to not warn Ilios I think we can give it to him.

[Sciz]

Hmm. Well I revised my mail quite a bit and sent this off to him:

[COLOR="Sienna"]How delightful, a business proposition!

However, there is nothing delightful about the contents of the proposition. As I see it, you either want us to attack Ilios together, with me giving concessions to you for your help, or you will attack me.

I'm not sure about any of this. What sort of "concessions" are you talking about from me? And what time frame are we looking at? Because I have to say, I don't want to attack Ilios at this moment. Let's just leave it at that. However, if you so wish, I will allow you to pass by my lands (not sure how this would happen as I do not have the tech for open borders) and I promise not to tell Ilios about your army marching towards him.

If you do not like this, then you are saying you will attack me. Allow me to show you how bad of an idea this is. I can easily defend against you. The reason I am not ready to attack Ilios now is not because I'm not strong enough. So if you decide to attack me right now out of the blue, I can easily defend myself, and the only thing that will happen is that we will both lose valuable time. A war between us would probably drag on to become a standstill, and none of us would benefit whatsoever. I can create Wood Golems at a moment's notice, which will easily crush your units. There is nothing for you to gain by attacking me. You will lose. Look at our power ratings. Mine is higher, and I am producing more military every turn.

I would propose to you, to turn back with your army and attack towards another direction. The Calabim, perhaps? It would be in your interest to halt their expansion before they reach vampires, which are very deadly. Besides, you will have much more to gain by attacking the Calabim, surely, as they are closer to you than Ilios, so you can keep your winnings much more easily there. IF you go back with your armies, and don't attack me OR Ilios, I will propose a NAP, to turn 120. You don't have to accept this of course, but I think it would be in the best of our interests. We shouldn't fight each other, a war will only slow both of us down. You will fail in taking any cities from me, rendering the war useless for you, and will only slow me down a bit. If you are so distressed of the Malakim's expansion, then you can take your armies to him, and I won't tell him anything, but that's all I will do for you.

I really want to have good relations with your nation, so I hope you can reconsider any plans of attacking me. I do not say this to save my skin, as I would be able to defeat you quite easily, but to help both of our nations to not get dragged down into a pointless war this early into the game. Surely you have better things to do with your time.

Signing off,
Sciz, CEO of Siege Workshops Ltd.[/COLOR]

I decided to ask him what kind of concessions he is talking about. If it's nothing big I can probably agree, and then just attack him after we've killed Ilios. I'm also asking what kind of time frame. Even if Mist wanted to attack now, i probably wouldn't go with him. I have pretty much nothing. I mean I have enough warriors to defend against Mist, but not to launch an offensive against Ilios, especially with no collateral at all, and no strong golems.

[Selrahc]

You do have Barnaxus, and if you momentarily dropped the guard on each city to a single warrior you could assemble a little stack to accompany him. Maybe build a catapult quickly enough too. I think if we had a few dozen Beastmen and Wolves helping, we could definitely strike hard.