[Spoilers] Peace and Purity - Einion Logos of the Elohim

[pocketbeetle]

Since PB asked so nicely () here's where the Unique Features are:

Thankyou!

Looks to me like you got off lightly with the Elves, lucky or just good?

[WarriorKnight]

lucky or just good?

Lucky I guess.

If I was to start again I'd probably keep the warrior in the capital. Of course, it's impossible to tell if anyone will get past the wildlands animals, and it's really just a guessing game if someone will find you or not.

[WarriorKnight]

I wish there was more to report on. I am literally just pressing enter.

Rice gets farmed next turn counts?

[WarriorKnight]

Oh boy, I'm laughing my head off at how stupid I am.

Greetings, WarriorKnight of the revered Elohim!

As you will no doubt soon see for yourself, our scout has made it past
goblins, skeletons and an attack from a pack of wolves to finally arrive
outside your borders. I hope you don't mind him taking a well deserved rest
there now that he has arrived, as he needs to heal. We have known about you for a while now, as a friendly village provided us with a map which included an area with a mysterious blue glow, that they could only describe as "Elohim" lands. You are indeed the only other people we have made contact with so far.

We would first of all like to assure you of our peaceful intentions towards
you for the forseeable future. With your choice to concentrate on farming and unfortunate military record, you may be understandably a little concerned
about even just our injured scout sitting on your borders, let alone the
number of warriors we possess overall. However I can assure you I have no
intentions to spoil our future relations with a cheap shot at a currently
undefended capital. The overall military disparity is primarily the result of
our evidently different opinions on how dangerous these lands can be. Our
warriors are (and will remain) busy enough just sitting around in barrows,
exploring the wilderness, and protecting our own territory.

We hope in fact to make this the start of a strong and friendly future
relationship between our civlisations. As a sign of good will, I will give you
what knowledge I have of the geography of our area.

Our capital Galveholm is situated to the southeast of yours. We are settled
inland, but going further to the south and east of us quickly reaches the
ocean. In between the two of us are what could broadly be described as two
mountain ranges. One is to the south of you and runs predominantly east west from what we can see of you. The other forms an arc around our relatively fertile lands. In between the two is a wide, dry valley which our scout has been following. This valley notably contains Letum Frigis.

We have yet to explore all that far directly along the coast to the west and
north. It's also possible (but fairly unlikely) that there is more land to the
southeast, as we haven't quite seen through the jungle as far as where the two coasts connect. With all the jungle around we are unlikely to be the
southernmost point of the continent, but the south coast does extend at least a fair way to our west.

We would be interested to know if you have met any other survivors of the long winter age, and what you know of the geography - particularly whether there's any places nearby which we should be wary of venturing too close to.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Irgy Arbandi of the Sheaim

Well, be wary of Irgy's diplo skills for sure, this guy likes writing long messages.

First things first, he's apparently standing right outside my borders to the SW, which is where my worker is farming and he's staring right at my undefended capital. Looks like we'll have to face death again (why are those Wildlands animals killing only my explorers?).

Assuming we don't die, I do want to be friendly with the Sheaim, but it currently looks like we are their only neighbour. This is both good and bad, good because long term I have possibly the best bet against their units, bad because I was hoping he would rush someone else with Pyre Zombies.

Of course, this means nothing if he kills me next turn. He can see my graphs and therefore the fact that I have 0 soldiers. It's probably time to send something along the same lines as our recent letter to Nyktorion.

[WarriorKnight]

Had a greeting chat with the Sheaim:

<meaningless filler>
me: yeah
first thing i want to talk about
the fact that your right outside my capital
Steven: Not as close as I might have been though - I'm not 2 spaces diagonal but a step further away
15:49 me: ah, thats a relief
anyway, would you sign a short (20?) term NAP so i dont have to worry about it?
15:50 Steven: Sure, I'd be happy enough to do that. Don't get much out of it myself other than good will, but good will can be worth a lot
It means I can leave my scout there to heal without being rude at least
me: thanks a bunch
15:51 i hate to be demanding this early, but I'd appreciate it if you dont move to one of the 4 corners of my cap
Steven: I can understand that
me: ok, well thanks a bunch
15:52 i'll see if i can make it up to you at some point in the future
as the 2 rushers of this game, it would be unfortunate if we fought ourselves rather than the other peaceful builders
anyway
Steven: Elohim are rushers?
me: kinda
15:53 Steven: I know they get a lot out of rushing, but they don't have much advantage for it
I guess they can do it safely though
me: well they dont have any economic bonuses, and monks are kinda sweet
Steven: Ahh right monks
15:54 I'm a little skewed really because the Elohim in my self play game had such a shockingly bad start and I feel a tendency to blame the whole civ rather than just how that game went
me: you self played all the civs in this game?
Steven: just a 7 player hotseat, Elohim were in it at random
me: ah
15:55 Steven: Calabim won, although Hippus should have
me: well, maybe i'll suprise you then
Steven: I'm sure you'll do better than they did
So, have you met anyone else then?
me: yes
your my 2nd contact
Steven: that's pretty good for someone with no scouts left then
me: lol
15:56 Steven: I think I'm kind of in a corner though
me: im suprised ive found 2 people this early tbh
anyway
the other civ is the elves
Steven: right, now there's a builder civ
15:57 although that hero at archery is pretty good
me: and their worldspell kinda mirrors mine
although destroys your economy if used late
Steven: It's a strange one really, interested to see when it's used
me: or if
15:58 Steven: By the way, do you know what's happening with the Malakim? As far as I can tell they must have got that prophet event.
15:59 me: not really sure
I'll admit Im not really tracking C&D
Steven: I don't normally, but I'm trying to learn
and a spoiler thread is a good motivation
me: more laziness then anything i guess
16:00 after a while, it becomes pure guesswork
and with random events and huts/lairs, well that doesnt help at all
16:01 Steven: Now the other thing I need to remember to get out of you - am I in any danger of walking into Pristine Pass?
It won't help either of us if I pop it by accident
me: ah, you want me to tell you where it is?
i guess i should tell you
16:02 no, its nowhere nearby
Steven: don't need to know exactly, just whether I should avoid an area Good to know then, thanks

OK well I got out of this one OK too.

I don't think he'll try and kill me but I guess when you have no units you can never be too paranoid. Gave up some information about meeting the elves and where the Guardian is, but I'm happy to do that in exchange for my life.

He mentioned that the Malakim might have had the prophet event, which is certainly possible since one civ has a crazy high GNP. Not really much I can do about it this early though.

Certainly relations have started on a better track than with the Elves. Still worth keeping options open though.

Also told Nyktorion about the contacting the Sheaim, although I didn't think that I would meet anyone with no units.

[Mist]

I'm afraid this is becoming a worrying habit, russian roulette is all fun, but someone is bound to pull the trigger eventually So, congratulations on still being alive ( again )

A prophet event does not explain sky-high GNP ( that's only +3gpt settled, noone has religion for a shrine yet, bulbs don't affect GNP ), but a sage from a lair used for academy might, as might a settled great artist.

[Selrahc]

that's only +3gpt settled

5gpt.

[WarriorKnight]

I'm afraid this is becoming a worrying habit, russian roulette is all fun, but someone is bound to pull the trigger eventually So, congratulations on still being alive ( again )

It's not my fault that 2 civs have found me this early. (I'll admit that I should have left the warrior at home though)

A prophet event does not explain sky-high GNP ( that's only +3gpt settled, noone has religion for a shrine yet, bulbs don't affect GNP ), but a sage from a lair used for academy might, as might a settled great artist.

As Selrahc said, 5gpt. Being the Malakim, they probably have lots of 2 commerce floodplains and they are probably size 3-4. Oh, and he's creative to start with. We have 14 GNP, so that means he's probably around 27 GNP? That's going to be tough to beat.

[WarriorKnight]

So, t14 the worker finished farming the rice and we grew to size 2 EoT. I think we should work the wine tile with our 2nd citizen in the short term to get Mysticism quickly. Farmed rice should mean we grow quickly enough.



There's the Sheaim scout. The good news is that he can't take my worker with 1 move. Irgy said that he would stay on that tile healing up a bit, and that's fine by me.

Also labeled some possible 2nd city spots I'm thinking of. Both of those cities can work the rice. There is 4 tiles of overlap with our capital in both cases but that's only a problem later. The main difference between the two is that A has a better defensive position against the Sheaim while B doesn't have any peaks. I'm leaning towards B right now.

The only other spot I'm thinking of is NE towards the Reagents, but that requires Calendar which we don't much other use for as of yet. Otherwise there's not other food around (aside from some AH resources, not good right now).

[WarriorKnight]

And one more thing:

I'm thinking the tech path should be Mysticism -> Crafting -> Education -> CoL. That way we can get Aristocracy quickly and it also leads to the Order. I'm also tempted to quickly build an Elder Council and run a scientist in Cahir Abbey with those 2 grains.