[SPOILERS] It's a treehugger, not a facehugger... honest! - Sareln/Ljos/Tessa

[Sareln]

Writing up my response to Ravus:

[COLOR="Green"]Ravus,
Your proposed changes look good. The only thing I'd add to it would be a non-compete request for FoL. It's probably a formality, but I figure as long as we're negotiating non-competes, I might as well ask for it. With both our inputs, this is what the deal looks like right now:

1. NAP through T125 with extension negotiations to open on T100
2. Moria and Clam Point locations to Sareln, Ravus gets everything south of that. Sareln will provide Ravus with his choice of one of (Incense, Silks) and one of (Pigs, Deer, Wheat) for the duration of the NAP.
3. Open Borders for at least the duration of the NAP.
4. Ravus and Sareln will trade maps every turn, will not trade maps with 3rd parties without consent of the other, for the duration of the NAP.
5. Sareln will not found RoK or Ashen Veil
6. Ravus will not found FoL

As an aside, I would be happy to pay for priests founding RoK temples in Elf lands later in the game, should the opportunity arise. Perhaps put together a temple founding exchange?

I am a little concerned about a Hostile Hippus, due to his silence. I'm going to try and draw some diplomatic chatter out of him and see what his thoughts are. I think I'm safely out of war-cry warrior-rush territory, but it pays to be cautious in this regard.

I have not yet seen any barbarians that aren't animals. Perhaps the large map means that a number of them are just wandering randomly through the fog?

-Sareln-[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

Did you know that at Size 6 my capital can do 5 turn settlers under God-King? It's kind of nifty. I'm going to have a hard time justifying non-settler builds in the capital in the near future (probably workers will be the only thing able to unseat settler builds...)

[Sareln]

A reasonable Fishing Expedition I think.

(4:19:43 PM) Mr. Yellow: hey there
(4:20:08 PM) Sareln: Hey, how goes it?
(4:21:39 PM) Mr. Yellow: id say decent. Communication with the orcs has been good and though river of blood hit me hard and barbs approaching, i'd say i'm getting back on track.
(4:22:01 PM) Sareln: oh, so you're seeing barbs?
(4:22:14 PM) Sareln: I've not seen any yet, and Ravus seems to be saying the same thing (lack of barbs)
(4:22:26 PM) Sareln: yeah, the river of blood threw out a half-way decent micro plan
(4:22:40 PM) Mr. Yellow: well animals have taken all the spots and there were no goblin forts around
(4:23:27 PM) Mr. Yellow: looks like you got out of the WS better than most though, guess all the food helped then?
(4:23:33 PM) Sareln: ah, you know, that makes sense.
(4:23:40 PM) Sareln: yeah, it's not traditional for elves to run agrarianism
(4:23:49 PM) Sareln: but I figured that with the map so dry, I could use all the food I could get
(4:25:01 PM) Mr. Yellow: Anyway, barb cities are coming up and i'd expect barb stack in a short time.
(4:25:40 PM) Mr. Yellow: wouldnt suprise me if Ravus decided to pop his WS soonish
(4:25:56 PM) Sareln: Yeah, though I think he's waiting on proper confirmation that there *are* barbs on the maps
(4:26:08 PM) Sareln: it would be a real letdown for him to pop the spell and not have any units to grab...
(4:26:23 PM) Mr. Yellow: so how has talk with the orcs been?
(4:26:30 PM) Sareln: reasonably cordial
(4:26:40 PM) Sareln: better than my previous experiences with the Clan to be sure :P
(4:26:47 PM) Mr. Yellow: heh
(4:27:02 PM) Mr. Yellow: well you have been through the powers of fire and ice
(4:27:13 PM) Mr. Yellow: and a lone stranger
(4:27:25 PM) Sareln: through is a strange word, it implies they didn't kill me in the end...
(4:27:50 PM) Mr. Yellow: heh
(4:28:40 PM) Mr. Yellow: maybe striked/succumbed would have been a better word(s)
(4:28:47 PM) Sareln: perhaps
(4:29:23 PM) Sareln: I hear tell though that you've met the banner? How's Mist doing?
(4:30:00 PM) Sareln: probably fuming at the dry map nerfing his cottages...
(4:30:01 PM) Mr. Yellow: doing fine it seems, though growing vertical seems to have slowed him down
(4:30:24 PM) Mr. Yellow: Mist is still having one city you see
(4:30:57 PM) Sareln: really?
(4:31:01 PM) Sareln: that's very late on his part
(4:31:01 PM) Mr. Yellow: maybe River of Blood hit him harder than i thoguht
(4:31:20 PM) Sareln: I mean, I did the same thing in FfH V, but I knew I was being slow
(4:31:28 PM) Sareln: being choked by the clan and all...
(4:31:51 PM) Mr. Yellow: well he did settle in very good spot with plenty of commerce
(4:32:10 PM) Sareln: ah
(4:32:20 PM) Sareln: so is he the one doing the wicked ~44 commerce per turn?
(4:32:28 PM) Sareln: I was wondering how/who was doing that
(4:32:32 PM) Sareln: and hoping it wasn't the vamps :P
(4:32:45 PM) Mr. Yellow: early game? Yepp, he was the sole leader in that category
(4:33:01 PM) Mr. Yellow: even had a 7 pop cap there
(4:34:14 PM) Mr. Yellow: looks a bit juicy to be honest
(4:35:32 PM) Mr. Yellow: Anything else to talk of?
(4:36:05 PM) Sareln: not much
(4:36:11 PM) Sareln: I've mostly been loading the turn and hitting end-turn
(4:36:25 PM) Sareln: teching the usual elf techs and doing the usual elf thing more or less
(4:36:58 PM) Mr. Yellow: boring (?) routine in other words
(4:37:03 PM) Sareln: well yeah
(4:37:06 PM) Sareln: not quite boring
(4:37:09 PM) Sareln: but definitley quiet
(4:37:31 PM) Sareln: scouts were dead early on (bears and scorpions) and haven't had the opp to push some more out
(4:37:37 PM) Sareln: well, I did push another warrior out
(4:37:42 PM) Sareln: who promptly got eaten by a spider
(4:37:46 PM) Sareln: so yeah
(4:37:56 PM) Sareln: you seem to have had more luck with the whole scouting thing.
(4:38:00 PM) Mr. Yellow: nature is such a harsh mistress
(4:38:06 PM) Mr. Yellow: funny thing actually
(4:38:30 PM) Mr. Yellow: i was about to not gain contect with the bannors earlier
(4:38:43 PM) Mr. Yellow: hit a spider in the lone forest, expecting to be eaten
(4:39:15 PM) Mr. Yellow: instead, it went to the desert next to me. A desert with nothing at all.
(4:39:27 PM) Mr. Yellow: like..huh?!
(4:39:38 PM) Sareln: strange
(4:39:43 PM) Sareln: perhaps your scoreboard position?
(4:40:05 PM) Sareln: iirc barbs have a disincentive to not hit the lowest/lower players on the scoreboard, in their AI routines
(4:40:20 PM) Sareln: it can lead to some strange things on higher difficulties where the AI is throwing up huge amounts of points...
(4:41:15 PM) Mr. Yellow: still, it went straight into an arid desert next to a juicy scout. Surely it should have proritised the scout.
(4:41:35 PM) Mr. Yellow: anyway, that oddity led me to contact with the Bannor
(4:41:45 PM) Sareln: nice
(4:42:17 PM) Sareln: well, it's been fun chatting, talk to you later Mr. Yellow!
(4:42:35 PM) Mr. Yellow: sure, bye Sareln

[Sareln]

T62 - Someone founds RoK, unlikely to be the clan. Perhaps Mist?

[Sareln]

T62 - Someone founds RoK, unlikely to be the clan. Perhaps Mist?

Sent a quick little message to Ravus with the RoK information and my own speculation. Really though, I want him to get back to me on the longer term deal. I'm starting to get a little bit... um, suspicious, about this.

[COLOR="Green"]
It wasn't me. I hope it was you. Otherwise perhaps Mist? Mr. Yellow
claims he was highest GNP and that number has gone to 55 now from ~45
ish.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
Damn. No I need another 15 or so turns to get RoK. I had to detour from my tech plan, for AH because of the sparse lands. I suppose I was foolish to hope to grab it with my -10% tech rate plus no starting techs and no huts to help.
[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

Oh good, I was just getting paranoid.

[COLOR="Orange"]You are correct it's most likely a formality about FoL but I can easily sign it in good faith. I've just recieved your information about RoK being founded early. Orcs show that they can't rush religions against the more powerful techers. I have my own important information to share. I used up my Worldspell on a gamble and came out okay-ish. One of the archers has found Amelia the Archmage, their nation is located to your east. If you start from Ceres your second city it would be around 10-15 tiles distance. It is hard to tell with the fog of war in the way. I don't know what information you have recieved from Mr Yellow, but he let slip to me that he has floodplains near him. Yes he is far too lucky with positioning. I think one of the other archers is near him so i should have a position on him too soon. The last orc warrior is inbetween the two positions and I hope to use it to find the Bannor.

Even with the loss of RoK I may still get it. The Priests of that religion are a near necessity for me. Would you prefer to pay for these priests founding temples or have an equitable exchange with FoL Priests? I do understand that FoL Priests are much more useful then RoK ones.

As for the Hippus they have let slip that they have a positive relationship with the Bannor. To what extent I do not know. The size of the map prohibits most warrior rushes. Even the Hippus and Orc ones. But due to the size the two armies I fear most are fast horsemen and mobility hasted vampires. (Yes I still havn't found the Vampires and talks with the Amurites indicate that they don't know where they are either. It's starting to get annoying where they could be.)

Here is a repeat of the NAP details to show that I am agreeing to it all. For the resources I picked Silks and Deer as I doubt I can get them anytime soon. I've found some incense to the West, but I won't be able to use it for a long time. I have an Abundance of wheat and animal resources, Plus I have a surplus of the Ale Happines resource. Once we have a trade connection we could try to establish some other trades.

Confirmation repeat of agreement between Isengard and Rivendell:

1. NAP through T125 with extension negotiations to open on T100
   
2. Moria and Clam Point locations to Sareln, Ravus gets everything
   south of that. Sareln will provide Ravus with his choice of one of
   (Incense, Silks) and one of (Pigs, Deer, Wheat) for the duration of
   the NAP.
   
3. Open Borders for at least the duration of the NAP.
   
4. Ravus and Sareln will trade maps every turn, will not trade maps
   with 3rd parties without consent of the other, for the duration of the
   NAP.
   
5. Sareln will not found RoK(failed) or Ashen Veil
   
6. Ravus will not found FoL

How goes your own progress towards FoL? Hopefully one of us will get their desired religion founded first.

Ravus - The Red Wizard[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

Alright, what I want to tell Ravus:

• Great! We're agreed then.
  
• I can either trade priests for RoK priest spreads or for FoL priests 1:1. Whichever ends up being more convenient at the time.
  
• When I've got something to trade for your ale, I'm all (pointy) ears
  
• Thanks for the Amelia pointer, I don't know how we're going to deal with the mage threat long term, but it's something that clearly needs to be done. I suppose it will vary based on where the vampires are.
  
• If you believe the Hippus, Bannor are still on one city, so RoK in the capital.
• Bannor must have moved for a double (at least) commerce resource setup b/c of their GNP.

[COLOR="Green"]
Ravus,

Sounds good. We are agreed.

In the future, I can either trade priests 1:1 or for gold, whichever
is more convenient for you to be honest.

I'm definitely interested in trading for Ale, I'll let you know when
I've got something that's worth trading for it.

Thanks for the Amelia pointer. Have you shared that information with
Mr. Yellow? He's got a warrior poking around my borders which is doing
sort of the inverse of what your wolf-rider did, which seems odd and
is pinging my paranoia levels. If not, may I?

Hippus have told me that Mist is on 1 city only, so size 6 and landing
RoK in the capital. I assume it's his GNP that's taking off for the
sky, I have no idea how he's managing it. This also implies double or
triple calendar resource, but now I'm just hypothesizing without any
evidence to back it up.

Sorry this sounds so short. I've been meaning to respond but don't
have the time to do a longer missive.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
Sareln of Rivendell

Don't worry, as long as we keep up a semi-regular back and forth it doesn't matter
if it's short.

1:1 sounds fine. I should have an abundance of Priests by mid-game. You seem to
have more Plantation resources so i'm sure we will find something to trade.

I did sign a basic information exchange agreement with the Hippus. So Mr
Yellow has been given the information about Amelia. Amelia has also provided
basic information in exchange for a overview on who is where. So the Amurites
know that they have you and the Bannor for neighbours. To your East is a huge
Desert that now has a number of highly promoted scorpions. He also mentions
a large mountain range to his South-West so I assume the Misty Mountains
might extend all the way to his borders.

Amelia also has three cities the same as us. While Mr Yellow only has two cities...

Mr Yellow does know where Amelia is. But if you want to also mention it...
Personally I've found Mr Yellow doesn't do well with subtlety.

Hippus have told me similar, that they have one city. But Mr Yellow has also
said that the Bannor have no cottages... Which combined with the top GNP
claim seems off. Like you say I have no idea how that can add up if it is all true.

I'm hoping to loop my remaining barbarian claimed units to head towards the Bannor
so that I can talk to them myself.

Ravus - The Red Wizard

[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
Sareln of the Golden Forest

I hope the talks with the Hippus has calmed your fears about their close kept Warrior.
They mentioned spotting a Settler heading South, is it going to claim Moria? I am
finishing of a Settler in a few turns and so could have a border city in places, to use
for a road network. If you have a different site in mind then could you tell me, as I
have a different site of my own that would be better long term.

Interesting news, I have just found the border of the Calabim nation. so far they can't
see me and Diplomacy has not been engaged.

That was the good news.

The Bad news is that they are North-East of you. You seem to be surrounded by nations.
Amurites to your East
Horselords to your West
Isengard to your South
Calabim to your North-East

- - C - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
E - - - A - - - B - - - - H - - -
- I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This seems to be the basic map layout. Which leaves the Bannor the most lonely of nations

In other news, I have still not found the Bannor, but recently I managed to get an Archer
onto the Mirrror of Heaven which allowed me full view into Horselord Yellows Capital.

If you get time and want to discuss anything just send an email

- Ravus, the Red Wizard

[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
Ravus,

Yeah, that Settler is for Moria. Originally I was going to start
settling sites that had hunting food resources but the temptation of
more easy commerce was too much to resist. I don't think Mr. Yellow
is hostile, but I've been double-covering both the worker crew and the
settler just in case. No need to tempt him more than necessary.
Whether you settle for the better site or wait on it in favor of a
faster connection is up to you, the resources for Moria are ready and
waiting so whenever the route goes live we can start the trade.

As an aside, I've managed to get a scout with vision on that giant
spider that snacked on your goblin and my warrior. It's a C3 beastie
now!

Interesting, a map layout with me in the middle should be fairly easy
to confirm once I've got hunters and hawks out. I'll finish hunting
on the next turn if I've done my math right, so we can find out fairly
quickly (inside 10 turns probably). I've been a bit pressed for time
with a house-move. My neighbors have been gracious enough to loan me
their internet (friendly people, should be good neighbors), but it's
still a tenouous connection. How does the Hippus capital compare to
yours and mine? I've got a plains-forested-silk and a
plains-river-wheat as the most notable things.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
Is Mr. Yellow's warrior close to your southern border then? If so I should reinforce my
own borders in that direction. If you are founding Moria then I will settle the border
city. A trade connection will be useful to get, I will need to build a monument to
expand the cities borders but apart from that It won't build any other culture buildings.

Yes everyone seems to have tales of insanely strong animal monsters. At least you
will soon have hunters unlike everyone else.

I can try and give better measurements about the distances for everyone, but from
a glance I think that you will have to use hawks on wandering Hunters to get far
enough visuals to see the other nations cities.

Don't worry if things are rushed, we have all been there. Unless one of us get rushed
I doubt anything interesting will be happening anyway.

The Hippus Capital lacks happy resources. So it's only size 5 (although you can
figure that out from C&D), they have rushed to Education and have grown some
cottages in size, two are nearly towns. Both second cities are to the east towards you,
one to the North one to the South. The Capital has enough rivers to be jealous about
but only 3 grassland tiles, all river, and two are covered by a forest. Plus while the city is
founded on a hill there is only one other Hill (plains) that can be used for production.
Resources wise I can only spot plains-river-Wheat and plains-dry-Wine in the BFC.
I assume the other cities are claiming better resources, I can only see Copper and
Sheep elsewhere. It looks like Mr Yellow decided to focus on economy sacrificing
growth and production.

Once one of us grabs the neccessary tech for map trades you will be able to see for
yourself. I may end up grabbing it myself in 20 turns, I can't stay in God-King for
much longer, only one more city really.

I've decided it's better to open diplomatic talks with the Vamps and use the surprise
movement to try and get a good visual into one of their cities. If they are in a beeline
they could be in Aristocracy allready. Forewarned is Forearmed.

- Ravus, the Red Wizard
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
To Sareln, Leader of the Woodland Elves

The hold up in turns is my fault. Mackoti apparently got very worried about Fluffy the
Worg Rider, (Whom now has Combat I and Shock). He has held up the turn so he can
get a response on his NAP offer. I declined, for now, so the save should start being
passed around again soon

There is a lot to do in my turns at the moment with all the Micro and Exploration. I did
manage to notice that you had found Moria, good job on that, hope you get it productive
soon. Still no sighting on the Bannor but that doesn't matter. The Vampires are the big,
big, news at the moment. I'm just re-looking at their graphs, for a start they are already
at 5 cities.

Their GNP is currently around equal to the Hippus, I'd estimate around 36. Amurites are the
bottom with 31. But the Vamps have apparently been as high 45 recently. Their Production
used to be low but they have just gotten mining so it's on the rise to #2. (I can spot a Gold
Mine with Fluffy). They are #1 in food which by the Demographs is 57. Their power is nestled
in #3 a bit below our own, but I believe it's mainly made up from Warriors.

As you can see Mackoti has very well leveraged his worldspell into a nice nest-egg. From his
land score I will assume most of the cities are close to his capital and that He has not built any
Monuments. Lack of God-King makes me think he's not going for a religion and is bee-lining
Vampires.

Quite frankly I would like to cause some damage to them. But it's a lesser of two evils choice
which depends upon how well our little alliance works together. If I leave them alone they are
GOING to attack someone eventually and the only two neighbours they have are you and the
Amurites. Mackoti plays too overaggressive sans-diplomacy not too. I don't know which he
will attack, the weak or the strong. But with Vampires He could easily swallow up one of the
empires and then steamroll from there. However If I attack them they will want revenge
eventually and would try to come for me, which if the only way too me is through your borders...
well it could cause problems for you. Or for me if you just open borders for them and accept
the NAP offer that Mackoti is sure to try and tempt you with. I suppose I could take the NAP
offer as well and then The Vampires will just swallow up the Amurites...

Anyway, Suppositions aside;
It seems we have our very own Prisoner's dilemma. So I thought the intelligent thing to do would
be to actually talk to my honourable ally first before doing anything... rash.

Ravus - The Red Wizard
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
Hi Ravus,

No problem with the save holdup. It's been a busy week for me so it
hasn't been missed.

I'm hoping Moria will start paying off quickly as well, I moved it up
on the list after we signed our deal since it had some more raw
commerce to exploit, rather than requiring cottaging to start
contributing. Mr. Yellow is still hanging around of course, so my
workers wander with double-protection to prevent any rash moves on his
part.

Vamps sound like they're ramping up in a dangerous manner. The
vampires managed to claim the gold-mine slot to the left of the
mountain range then? That's annoying but predictable, the gold was
tempting when I scouted it, but far too far away to be a reasonable
grab. The next batch of settlers will have to go towards Mackoti
then.

I think you are right, in that it is to our mutual advantage to delay
the vampire. A delay will help make any conflict between him and me,
or him and Amelia much more bloody and less lopsided.

I will not grant the vampire NAP or Open Borders for the duration of
our NAP. I will aim to settle to my left quickly, to gain control of
the ground towards the vampire and start prepping it for bloom-spam.
That way we'll have a goodly forest wall and the world-spell to use if
Mackoti wants to force the issue. Sound good?

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
Sounds very good. But I think I must have not given you direct direction to the Vampires. As
they are not to your left (or west). The city of theirs that I have found is 11 tiles East and
11 tiles North. Past a mana crystal and a oasis.

I think they are mirroring my own start. Like I am in the south and close enough to the Coast
that I could claim the southern Isle, The Vampires are in the north and I think close enough to
claim the northern isle. It will be much easier to co-ordinate once we get Cartography. If you
are not planning to get it soon I may detour to get it before Priesthood.

Thanks for the heads up on Mr Yellow. I'll reinforce my own settler squad before sending it off.

I will declare on Mackot in a turn or two. I spy a second cities borders and could possible hold
a position between both cities to threaten them. Plus i'm hoping that I can spy a city with minimal
warriors. I will consider this little escapade a success if I manage to pillage some gold mines or
raze a city or kill a worker.

Ravus - The Rushed Red Wizard
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
Alright, I understand better what you mean about the vampire positioning now.

I need to decide between Way of the Forests and Cartography as my next
tech. My cities are happy-capped until I can get religion going or
spend too many hammers on carnivals. I was running about 40 BPT last
I checked the save (a couple of days ago), so Cartography looked to be
about 5 turns and WotF about 10. I'd probably just focus on your
priesthood push to be honest, you're the one running under a research
malus.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
The Vampires have a LOT of Defenders, scouting out Adonis I see three in that city alone.
They have probably angled their military strength to the new cities if they have a ocean
as a defensive back-to-the-wall play. The new city, however, is directly in the face of the
Amurites school of wizardry. So they could allready be setting them up as their target.

Remember that if you need Happy resources I have Ale and also Gems to spare for trade.
So either technology helps happiness wise. But with yourself surrounded you might prefer
that big fancy defensive worldspell button to maps.

- Ravus
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
Cartography is in, got it at the end of turn

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
I offered you a map trade then so that you can look around on your next turn and see the exact layout of things to come. Open borders we don't need untill we get the road up. My city founding got delayed by a Bear sitting in my spot. Damn Animals. The assault on the Vampires didn't amount to much. A bit pillaged and then sniped by three warriors. He seems to know that he is the biggest military threat as he mentioned not wanting to let me get any further into his land to sell maps of it to anyone else. I'll probably have to draft a final letter and let things simmer for now.

The Amurites and the Hippus have been told about where the Vampires are. The Amurites said they couldn't see them even with them being so close... That is worrying to my mind. Sounds like the Amurites are going to be taken by surprise or have allready signed some kind of confidentiality agreement. The Hippus were as blase' as usual.

If you have any other questions on the map or anything else just drop me an email. Hope you get to FoL quickly. That shiny defensive worldspell button will be looking pretty desirable right now.

- Ravus
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Orange"]
The Vampires Just switched to Aristocracy. Looks like they WERE going for a economy beeline. But with all of their flood plains and cities they will gain in power quickly from now on.

From the Diplomacy screen I can see that the Amurites have made contact with the Vamps, I will push them for more information in a second. I have also made contact with the Bannor, they only have 2 cities but they do indeed have the best GNP. Will hit them up for information soon as well. How goes your efforts to get hawks out? I accepted your open borders offer. I need to wait for this bear to move and then I can use the two workers I have in the area to road to your border.

- Ravus, the rushed red wizard

[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
I just had maybe about 8 barb warriors come at me from the fog.
Fought them off and got some lucky rolls with 50/50 or even 35/65
battles which have given me some experienced warriors. First hunter
in 2 and hawks are 1 turn builds. I think I'll scout towards vamps
and see what I can come up with in terms of terrain. FoL is due in
about 6 turns give or take, maybe faster if we get our road network up
and running smoothly.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

[COLOR="Red"]
HI,

Its nice to met you, welcome in Decius land.
My world starts from where your scout is and goes far north.

I hope we will have peacefull relations.I already met the Clan, which well is clan and when i talk about peceful relations they say perhaps they came in peace or maybe not, and kept snoping aroud with a wolf ridder, trying to find a weak target.
For that I declared war and killed the thing.Question is do you feel same think like Ravus that Vampires are the most dangerous?You have a very strong civ why we dont work togheter?
Your scout is welcome but be aware that in t he are is 1 scorpion ,2 giants spiders, and at least one grifon .

The other which i met is Amelia who was much nicer with me and i think we will leave long time in peace.

Regards,
Mackoti
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]
Hi Mackoti!

Greetings from the woods.

I don't blame you killing the wolf-rider, I've had to deal with Clan
harass before and it is very annoying. As it is now, I think the Clan
and I are getting along alright, I'm not worried about them. Personal
opinion is that Vamps are always strong, but if Amurites make it to
the late game unmolested, it won't matter as we all die to mage-spam
and magic-blocking world-spell.

I think we can work together, the land between us is pretty dry and
useless as I can see so far, nothing to fight over. Hunters and hawks
will scout that and see for sure. My scout will try to escape animals
and reach Amelia, see what he's up to.

I've met Mr. Yellow's Hippus scouts, they are on the other side of me
from you. Have also met Ravus, his wolf-rider came by but saw cities
full of warriors and surrounded by forests, so he left. Now I know
where it went. Still have not heard from Mist. Founding RoK and
staying on one city for so long seems an intriguing start. Will be
interested to see how he played the opening.

-Sareln-
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[COLOR="Red"]
Well i am not familiar with FFh2 timing, when late game start?What they have to research to became that powerfull?
Ho long its that bloking world spell?
I hope we can do something about that, if not well its just a game,
regards,
Mackoti
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[COLOR="Green"]
They start taking off as they hit sorcery. Get a building there that
gives +1 XP / unique mana source, gives them the ability to push
adepts w/ 10 XP and instant mage upgrade. Their mages also get a
promotion that they can spend to regain spell casting for a turn. So
on one turn they can double their spell-power. World spell requires
Knowledge of the Ether, gives +1 XP per improved mana source on the
map to each of their arcane units and shuts off magic for all other
teams for ~13 turns. Used it in PBEM V to stall the sons for a little
bit, still died. If they wait for their hero they can turn all their
priests into mages as well. He's very late though, sorcery is the
main breakpoint I think.

-Sareln-
[/COLOR]

Tons of diplo has gone through that I should transcribe into the thread. Know that Ravus and I are cooperating closely, Mackoti is hard to understand and I think he's suspicious that Ravus and I are close, Mr. Yellow is dangerously quiet, and I haven't met Banner or Amurite yet. For now, have a dotmap with minimal comment:

Blue - Sites to Settle with the settlers from my GA ( every 3 turns in the capital)
Green - Sites to Settle after the GA
Pink - Silly Sites that are impossible to defend or not worth rushing, or otherwise questionable.

Note: I may forgo the floodplains site in favor of the dear/pig site towards the Hippus instead of the vampires. Depends how Mackoti and I are getting along at that point I suppose. I don't want to provoke, but I don't think he knows anything about the land to his west.

[Square Leg]

Hey Sareln,

How is your tech position? Have you founded FoL yet and/or teched to Priesthood?

The deer/wheat/cow/incense site is pretty decent imo - I'm surprised you aren't settling it asap just for the fact that it will start to contribute a decent amount to the empire pretty soon after founding.

SL

[Sareln]

Hey Sareln,

How is your tech position? Have you founded FoL yet and/or teched to Priesthood?

The deer/wheat/cow/incense site is pretty decent imo - I'm surprised you aren't settling it asap just for the fact that it will start to contribute a decent amount to the empire pretty soon after founding.

SL

I just founded FoL and popped my GSci out of the capital on the same turn. I started a GA and transitioned into FoL. I'm planning on researching Animal Husbandry (2 turns) and CoL (4 turns) with 2 turns necessary for gold generation. The last turn of the golden-age I'll do a triple civic swap to go God King/Nationhood/Tribalism/Agrarianism/None -> Aristocracy/Religion/Apprenticeship/Agrarianism/None

Tech wise, I have Agriculture, Exploration, Calendar, Festivals, Education, Mysticism, Ancient Chants, Hunting, Way of the Forests. I have markets in 3 of my cities and some Merchant GPP accumulated in Caras Galadhon and Gondolin.

Golden age 100% research pulls something like 80 BPT with -20 GPT and 100% Gold pulls +72 GPT or thereabouts.

I didn't know about the deer/wheat/cow/incense until after I traded maps with Ravus and haven't had time to pop any settlers with a mass of barbarians coming out of the north and threatening to swamp the capital. I ended up using suicide warriors who refused to die though, so I've got some decent XP'd units now. I may grab that as the 3rd. I do want to grab the ivory so that my cities stop being limited by happy-cap so badly.