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

[DaveV]

Oh and hey, let me know if you think this "dual diplomacy" thing is going to be too much of a headache. I'd like to help however I can as an active partipant in the game, but if you have everything well in-hand, I don't want to screw things up by slowing down or confusing the diplomacy.

No, it's good to stay in touch with the other players, and it sounds like you've done a good job of that. I haven't done online chat since my Civ2 MP days, and don't even have a Facebook page!

Just keep me updated (Sareln didn't share that information with me), and try not to make any promises that would be awkward for me to keep.

[Bobchillingworth]

Okay, thanks and will do. I also finally updated the tech thread with your info.

[DaveV]

More correspondence with Pocketbeetle. He's going to die fast if he doesn't get his thumb out, and I'm trying to drive that point home.

Hi Dave,

That doesn't sound good.
I guess I'll definitely have to start improving my power rating soon!

Thanks for the heads up,
Pb

No offense meant, but you don't realize how "not good" it is if you're talking about doing something "soon". There is only "right now" and "oh, I wish". Iskender showed me his probable attack stack last turn: he had 11 warriors with the warcry promotion, 4 attack and 2 move. They should be able to move from the eastern side of his empire to the western side in 2 turns, so you'll be seeing them the turn after next if that's where he's headed. He may not attack you, but it sure seems like the most likely thing to me. He has a limited time to use his Warcry before it wears off, and you and I are his closest targets, and apparently he has just signed peace with me.

[DaveV]

Iskender has declared peace. Game mechanics question for the lurkers: from his email to [strike]Bob[/strike] edit: me (see next post), Sareln can trade with Iskender. Why can I not trade with Sareln?

The migthy bear-dodging scout has finally made his way through Pocketbeetle's lands and found: a hill giant . Let's see if he can scare them away, too.



On the eastern front, I'm mobilizing to capture Dirage. That's my top priority: it will give wine, an extra gold (which maybe I can trade to Iskender for Ale?), and some much-needed cash. I'm hoping I can catch it with just a single archer defending, in which case the four bloodpets should be enough.



The bloodpet standing on the reagents killed a marauding skeleton, after one of his buddies lost at 98% odds. I'm going to move Bob's marked city one tile to the west, since I love to build on plains hills.

I took a look at the top 5 cities, and Pocketbeetle does look like a tempting target:



Short-term plans: finish construction, sanitation next. Clear the lairs in and near my territory (except for the barrow between Iskender and me, which I belatedly realized is protected by our peace treaty). Build more cities. Medium-term plans: city spam and vampires . Long-term plans: lots of possibilities. I've explored a good portion of the map, and not found any unique features. Apparently Darrell has put them all on the Island of Lost Toys. It would be cool to collect all of their mana, but if they're separated by ocean it's going to require teching Astronomy, which is a horribly expensive tech. I could just tech to OO, which would let me water-walk some Drowns and maybe pick up something good from the explorable features.

[DaveV]

And, some more correspondence, this time with Sareln:

I noticed. We were trading through your territory so everything has
handled itself (resource trades are cancelled). Iskender thinks that
he can reach peace with you in short order, not quite sure why he
thinks that.

Good luck. I'm just about to finish FoL and get my hunting lodge up,
so I may be able to start providing scouting data soon.

-Sareln-

The trading is a little strange, since it seems I can't trade with you. Just out of general nosiness, what were you trading? I'm thinking I may try to make a deal for Iskender's surplus Ale when I get some spare luxuries.
The reason he was confident of peace is that I had already offered it out-of-game; I was willing to call off hostilities in exchange for a long-term non-aggression pact. I suspect Iskender's off to attack Pocketbeetle now, since he used his worldspell.
Dave

[DaveV]

From Iskender:

Hi there


You might want to move Turkey the scout east, as the area where he is now will be enclosed by Hippus borders in a few turns.


Iskender

My response:

Thanks for the heads-up. I made one more western move to sneak a peek at the coastline. If he gets trapped by culture now, I can't say you didn't warn me.

On the Eastern front, my bloodpets advance toward Dirage:



A shot of the demographics. Note that Governor's Manors are not included in the Production numbers, so I should have exactly 20 more hammers than shown. It looks like I need to do some serious work on my GNP number .



Finally, another exchange with Sareln:

Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow.

We were trading his Ale for my Cotton. I didn't really need the deal,
but figured it would looks rather... suspicious if I was like: no, no
deal b/c I don't feel like it (Knew that you were going to hit him).

-Sareln-

Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow: Pocketbeetle? Just because he has the top score, or do you have issues with him? I think he's a paper tiger, with pretty thin military.

Iskender has found someone else to give his ale to, or is that you again?

Actually, it looks like he took my advice and is building up his military:

[Bobchillingworth]

Haha! Wow, that's a great power graph- shouldn't be anyone looking to mess with the Calabim for a while now, I think


I think it's totally time to spam settlers. Also, how soon until you can start exploring the lairs? I think you're cool to open any near Iskender, he never asked us to not explore them, and you can gaurantee he won't get a nasty barb spawn on his borders.



Btw, PB had told me in chat that he was looking to hold off until Centaurs before building a real military, I assume he has finally started building more warriors in the meantime.

[DaveV]

how soon until you can start exploring the lairs? I think you're cool to open any near Iskender, he never asked us to not explore them, and you can gaurantee he won't get a nasty barb spawn on his borders.

Next turn:


On the Eastern front, I'm going to need a couple more warriors before attacking the barb city:



Another series of emails with Sareln:

Thank you!

I've got my hunting lodge up, and I beat off the barbarians in the
south, probably got a little lucky there, killed 4 barb C1 warriors
without losing either of mine.

I'm building a hawk right now, to go with the hunter I got from event,
is there any particular part of the map you're interested in learning
about?

-Sareln-

Hawks rock! I haven't been able to explore any of the other civs' territory. It would also be interesting to check the oceans for an island with all the missing unique features.

I forgot to say this last night, but great news on holding your city! I had some bloodpets lined up to retake the city, but now they can move on to hunt other barbs.

Got FoL in Schwartzwald and the road connecting us is built.

-Sareln-

Watch out for tigers! Iskender popped some from a lair, and I think I saw one eating one of his scouts a couple turns ago.

Congratulations on Fol :D!

[DaveV]

A tiger attacked my lair-popping stack and redlined a bloodpet. I spread out and explored the lair, got a healing salve. That's an item you can carry around with a unit, and, oddly enough, use to heal the unit. Whoop de doo.



In the course of surrounding the lair, I found another lair to the north. They're pretty thick up there!

The barbs built another warrior in Dirage, and the lizard lair on the border with Sareln spawned a lizard who will try to do something obnoxious next turn. Not a great turn, all things considered.

Message to Sareln:

Explored a lair for a healing salve, yay. I'll need to coordinate with you on the next one, three tiles south of your capital. If we cover all 8 tiles around the lair (one of which is your territory), hostile units can't be placed on the map, so nothing happens if that would have been the result.

[DaveV]

Tile Garrisoned.

Sorry, I need to work on my communication skills. It will be 4-5 turns till I can walk my units into position to explore that lair. I'll let you know when I'm closer to being ready.