[SPOILERS] ARRR Ye Scurvy Dogs! Hannah the Irin

[NobleHelium]

There is no unlock for Mobility II. Mobility II is available to all units that can take the promotion and have Mobility I. However, only recon, mounted, and animal units can take the promotion. If you get a mutated one and it starts out with Mobility I, you can take Mobility II without HBR.

[uberfish]

Blinding light does hit invisible units (if you can find them)

[Mardoc]

There is no unlock for Mobility II. Mobility II is available to all units that can take the promotion and have Mobility I. However, only recon, mounted, and animal units can take the promotion. If you get a mutated one and it starts out with Mobility I, you can take Mobility II without HBR.

Ok, good, I should have a sufficient moat for the island, then.

Blinding light does hit invisible units (if you can find them)

So my main goal during the war needs to be finding places that are tactically useful yet Thoth doesn't expect me to be there. I'm pretty sure many of the damage spells are the same way.

I think I not post any screenshots while the war is going on, except out-of-date ones. I trust Thoth to be honorable, but there's just so many ways he could learn, even accidentally, if I don't play the paranoid.

[Mardoc]

Nothing much new this turn, except a significant increase in WK's power, and he has iron now. Hmm...what could a Tolerant civ who conquered Hyborem possibly have done to achieve both of those at once...

[Mardoc]

Huh, just had a discussion with Mist (subbing for WK) that tells me very interesting facts:

1. Heisenberg had a deal with the Elohim for perpetual Ice mana to them in exchange for being allowed to settle Letum Frigis - and their caravel died the turn that deal was cancelled
   
   
2. He'll be attacking T165 (sadly, probably before my assassins can get there) since he considers the NAP broken by point 1
   
   
3. And...he'll be attacking Thoth immediately afterward, no info on whether that NAP was a lie or what.
   

I'm not sure what to think, except that I can probably write off Heisenberg despite the best I can do. I will still attempt to get the assassins and Hawks promised, mind you, but circumstances may have escaped me.

Which...was probably Mist's goal with the chat all along. He mentioned that he's ok with me sending Hawks and Assassins (after I told him I'd committed support but before I gave any details), which implies to me he's got something in mind to neutralize them. And in fact has promised to send me Entropy and Metamagic mana (and Iron, but I turned that one down) T170, after I told him I wouldn't raze Ahrpetr. It still leaves the question of after the war unsettled, but makes Thoth's position look much worse.

[Mardoc]

Hmm, what else does it imply? It's possible Heisenberg was playing me, didn't really have any intention of going to war with Thoth, did kill the privateer, etc. Penny-wise pound-foolish, if so, but it's possible. It's also possible he's telling the trust and WK has now broken an NAP.

Well, first - the diplomatic situation post-Thoth will be tricky again. Instead of being me and Heisenberg and Nyk vs. WK, then sort it out with me as the clear strong one and the one Heisenberg owes, it'll be a nasty little three-way balance of power. And no particular reason for me to trust either of them; Nyktorion after what he did to Mr. Yellow, or WK after Heisenberg. If anything, WK might be more trustworthy, but frankly I think I'd rather rely on Nox Noctis and Ritualists. Guess who's likely to be embargoed?

Among other things, that means my goals for the Thoth war have to shift - instead of going for outright destruction and praying to come out alive, I need to focus on getting stuff. Which means the Heron Throne might live, if I'm careful about it. I'll still aim to raze most things, like the Mines city and the Remnants area, though - anything that I can't guarantee holding, if I have to settler race for after the war, so be it.

I ought to consider training some more adepts, too, since there will apparently be a long term to this game, and try not to whip my cities too far into the mud.

Also - instead of being a last ditch effort to take down Thoth or die trying, there's a good chance of us winning. WK/Mist has a nice army, Snowfall of his own and 2-movers, with Order Blessings. And WK/Mist has decided to hit Thoth before sanctuary runs out, in order to benefit from it during the initial phases of the war, so Thoth will have lots to deal with simultaneously - Nyk can probably hold out 8 more turns, and then it'll be all three of us against Thoth. This all assumes Heisenberg folds, but apparently he currently has 0 mages, will be hit before my aid is in place, and while Mist has Sanctuary to (ab)use.

And...I need to start thinking about how to swap cleanly into the Veil. And on how I want to actually win this sucker. That's apparently an option now, if the Elohim are onboard and timely.

Ritualists/Maelstroms would be sufficient collateral once everyone moves inland, and with Thoth out of the game, my leftover Cultists still ought to be enough to rule the seas. I need to swap to Sacrifice the Weak, I think, in order to turbocharge my economy, and I need something reliable for collateral, so AV it is. Why OO ought to be safe: I can't imagine Nyktorion giving up on Way of the Forest, especially after Marching all his trees, and WK likely he would stick with Order, he's got a nicely promoted hero. If he does swap, it'll probably be with similar considerations as me, that he needs inland collateral and stronger units. I really really can't see WK swapping twice, when he's not Spiritual. I need to boost my land forces considerably to have a chance against Nyk/WK, possibly allied.

And... I'm thinking Tower may be the way to go, if I can grab enough ex-Malakim nodes. Although both my foes have burned their worldspells, I doubt there's much hope for conquest/domination, at least until I have many Tier IV units and they have none.

[Mardoc]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think no one really has a clue what they're doing here. Except maybe Thoth.

Me, I'm playing ok, but without much of a plan. I'm mostly reacting. I've managed to get myself into a position where I might be warring with #1 and #2 simultaneously (or arguably, #1 and #3), with one of the worst militaries in the game. Even if I don't end up at war with the Elohim due to a combination of Sheaim dying too fast/assassin being hidden nationality, I don't have any friends except maybe Heisenberg, who will probably be exiting. It's hard to say I even managed that - Heisenberg hasn't exactly been a giving partner/ally, and the only thing he's been willing to commit to is an attempt at survival. At least my alliance with Mr. Yellow got me maps, but that wasn't anything to write home about either. Basically, I've been trying balance of power on the cheap, which means that I don't balance anything, just piss off the big guys.

Thoth is playing technically well, and if he's actually managed to strip WK out of the alliance, diplomatically as well. Mist has made me doubt part 2 of that, though, which means that Thoth messed up in being too greedy with me and Irgy - if he'd left me the Remnants area, maybe something else - I'd still be in builder mode, with the belief that I could catch him. Who knows if my military will work, but he came within inches of talking me into being neutral as it is. Similarly, why go for Nyktorion? He could have negotiated something with the Sheaim to carve up WK - if he'd left me the Remnants, I might have joined in, and he'd have a much more balanced fight. But instead he had to kill Rosier. Still...Thoth is the only one in the game who might survive his bad decisions without needing someone else to mess up, due to his excellent play otherwise.

Nyktorion seems to have bit off more than he can chew, with Thoth. I really don't understand why he went in alone, but regardless Thoth is making him pay for it. Similarly - his handling of Mr. Yellow's situation was bad; if he'd truly allied with the Bannor, Thoth might still be fighting that war. If he'd remained neutral or told Yellow that he was coming in, at least I'd have been able to trust him now. Nyk's also having trouble diplomatically; he should have had an easy case to talk me into allying with him against Thoth, eons ago, but his Mr. Yellow dealings and unwillingness to be pinned down weigh against that. The only thing he's achieved is to tie his hands while WK does his own thing, and possibly to have talked me into joining (I'm not 100% sure what my thought process was [SIZE="1"](yeah, I know that's not a good sign for me)[/SIZE].

WarriorKnight/Mist - well, at best, they're committed to fighting two wars in a row. At worst, they've NAP'd Thoth and he'll stroll to an easy win. Meanwhile, they have one of the worst economies in the game, none of their neighbors are friends, and nobody trusts them, except maybe Nyk.

Irgy/Heisenberg - they didn't use Pyre Zombies. They don't even have Sorcery at the T162 mark, I believe. (I'll know for certain in a couple turns when my Hawks go thataway). They got locked into a very strange deal with WK for Ice mana (it's a little too strange for me to believe that's a lie). They're arcane/summoner, so could be doing awesome things with mages, PZ's are awesome on their own, it all adds up to 'huh?' And...they don't appear to have any friends, either; just a smidgen of cooperation from me, extorted with ice mana. Playing as the Sheaim, but without trying to use their strengths.

Mr. Yellow - I still don't know for certain who was at fault - but he managed to piss off both his neighbors, without having copper or a military.

Edit: Oh, and the devillish pair - their big mistake was to try immediately to go to war. And with the Elohim, of all people. Still, it can be somewhat excused by their lack of info coming into the game, and maybe they didn't even try to play to win, just to cause chaos and have some fun

Really, at the end of the day, it'll come down to who made the fewest mistakes. I still have a chance at that, but mostly because everyone else has made their share of idiocies as well, not because I've played particularly well.

Does this sound like a post-mortem to you, too? I'll still give it the old college try, but this game may have been lost when I chose to settle the island instead of pile in against Thoth back at T140. Or back at T100ish.

[Mardoc]

Not much new to report. Nyktorion's reports from the front keep getting gloomier, it's now along the lines of 'I think I can preserve some of my army' rather than 'I can kill X and Y and Z'. Still...8 more turns, fellow Malakim smasher! Hold out, keep Thoth where he is, and I can do a lot. Fall and let Thoth bring his army to me, and that'll be that.

I suppose the only significant news is that Thoth is mostly water walkers, only a few ships, and he just swapped to Empyrean. I may have some issues at land, but at least I should be able to rule the seas. I'm really hoping he's surprised that Empy units won't see my Nox Noctis hidden ones, he doesn't make enough mistakes otherwise . Iron Working should arrive this turn, at which point research will go off until Thoth's dead. Hopefully I'm close enough to parity.

And sadly I have to mine over a town in sight of Thoth's Hawks in order to get my Iron. Fingers are crossed that his focus is on Nyktorion and he misses seeing that.

[Mardoc]

Well, I was starting to doubt it, but the turn actually came around today!

Iron Working came in, so I went ahead and shut off research. We'll see if I can drown + upgrade enough warriors to matter. Aside from that, very little of note.

[Mardoc]

I'll be playing the turns and doing at least some reporting, but I've mostly lost interest in this one, between the horrific pace and being mostly convinced I'm now out of it. Unless the Malakim war goes much better than I'm expecting, I don't expect to regain much interest, either.

Really I started checking out when Irgy left us, and Thoth's apparently effortless theft of the Guild of Hammers added to that, and it's just getting worse for me.

So - I'm likely to miss things that lurkers are interested in. Any questions? Maybe you all at least can have some fun.