[Spoilers] Defining the phrase "€˜Hung Like a Horse"€™: Pb & the Kuriotates

[pocketbeetle]

The whole flying a GC on a hawk is a neat trick.... very ingenious.

I'm surprised no terrible black metal bands have even a song named "stigmata on the unborn", I'm definitely rooting for that one being built first.

Hey Rev,

Yeah hawks are just crazily useful.
Really they should have a limited range for rebasing and a smaller scouting radius.
I'm not complaining though, considering I've only seen one other player using them so far.

Nice catch on the Stigmata available from Great Scientist! Following this logic, can Runes of Kilmorph shrine (Tablets of Bambur, wasn't it?) be built with a Great Merchant?

Hi Maksim,

I checked that too, and sadly not.
Here's a list:

• RoK - Tablets of Bambur.
  GPro only, provides 1 Earth mana, +2 eng gp. (Also allows +1 engineer spec, useful)
  
• OO - The Necronomicon.
  GPro only, provides 1 Water mana, +2 priest gp.
  
• FoL - Song of Autumn.
  GPro or GArt, provides 1 Nature mana, +2 artist gp.
  
• CoE - Nox Noctis.
  GPro or GMerch, provides 1 Shadow Mana, grants units Invisibility if within cultural borders, +2 xp to recon units built in city, +10 to crime rate, +2 merch gp.
  
• Empyrean - Dies Diei.
  GPro, provides 1 Sun mana, reveals all invisible units within cultural borders, +2 xp to disciple units built in city, -10 to crime rate, +2 priest gp.
  
• Order - Code of Junil.
  GPro, provides 1 Law mana, -10 to crime rate, +2 eng gp.
  
• AV - scroll up!
  

Why are you so keen on the Stigmata, by the way? Are you planning on raising the Armageddon Counter? Blight is painful when your cities are so large...

Good point.
I'm not crapping myself about the AC just yet, but it's something to keep in mind.
The AC counter is currently at 12%, Blight strikes at 30%.
Because of the map size, the AC counter is not strictly 1:1 with +AC effects, it's a percentage of 134 (17/134 = 12% rounded down).
Building the Stigmata will take that to 22/134 = 16%, still far away.

With the Sheaim not present, the main way to up the AC counter is via the Prophecy of Ragnarok world wonder.
I'll need to keep an eye on it, and if necessary build it myself (although I'd prefer not to).
The necessary tech is Way of the Wicked, which only Selrahc has researched so far.
Considering he can't run the AV religion, I see little reason for him to be building it just yet, particularly given his Bone Palace/Tower of Divination wonder plate.

I'm less worried about the AC counter for one other reason: the presence of the Seven Pines unique feature.
It allows a one-time cast of Peace to the controlling civ, ending all wars, but also halving the AC counter.
Bob currently controls that, but there's always the potential for change.

As for why I'm so interested in the AV shrine?
Two reasons.

• Increases the number of priest slots in Avelorn.
  This'll be a constant underlying theme. I'd prefer to be able to run a decent amount of priest specialists without having to switch from God-King to Theocracy (allows unlimited priests).
  
• I want the free Entropy mana.
  

...and since you love my convoluted way of answering, tell me why I want Entropy mana.

[pocketbeetle]

Diplo:

Iskender replied to my last message, and it’s a friendly one.

Hey Pb

Thanks for the sugar. You should taste the moonshine I'm making with
it (Deruptus fell in love with it at first gulp)

I grief over the loss of that 100gc, but the tourney was a nice
distraction, I'm looking forward to repeating it in 50 turns (with
adequately higher antes).

Sareln settled near the Wheat you mentioned the other day. As I have
no NAP with him i think i'll try to retake the area at a convenient
time (but please let's keep it between us).

Iskender

Time to roll the dice I think.

Hi Iskender,

I'm sorry to hear about Sareln stealing a city site from you.
I saw that Settler travelling through Bob's territory and wondered where it was going.
I take it he founded in the no-settling zone?

As for not mentioning anything to Sareln, you don't have to worry about that.
While the Kuriotates respect all Civs' right to exist, any funeral service held for the Svartalfar would be a short affair ending well before lunchtime.
But have you considered that there is a good chance the Calabim would declare war on you for doing so?

Could it be that Bob -wants- you to get annoyed at Sareln, so he has an excuse to attack before T200?
I'm sure you've noticed that the Calabim can now research Feudalism, as of ~3 turns ago...

It may be that you need a distraction, or an ally, for your plan to work.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Diceman Boy-King

I’ve got a beautiful snippet of chat if he tries to play down the chances of Bob attacking.
(Tip for anyone playing other PBEMs: always save your chats to a word document. You never know when some silly comment by another player can be helpful!)

Unfortunately, it’s been several days now and still no reply.
I’ll nudge him on the weekend.

Continuing the conversation with Selrahc:

Hey Selrahc,

How interesting.
I would never have thought of building a defense based around Mages, particularly with a non Arcane/Summoner leader.
Should be fascinating to see how it works, and you pretty much hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph.
If the Calabim were to pick up your land also, it -would- be game over.
Did you ever consider the possibility of a pre-emptive strike?

Oh and I know for a fact that Decius has a thing for my favourite lawn ornament - it says so in the foreign advisor!

Regards as always,
Pb, Librarian Boy-King

Essentially dropping the other subjects for the moment, trying to get a feel for how Selrahc regards the Calabim.

They don’t have OB or any trades going on, but have they been chatting while I’ve been laying low?

It is a fairly unusual move, yes. I'd say the prospect of being attacked by an army of vampires is a fairly unusual situation though.

If you're curious as to how I came to the decision, I can expand on some of the thinking behind it. Suffice to say it wasn't just an impulse. I think this honestly does have the best chance of keeping me safe from the blood suckers if the worst comes to the worst.

As far as a pre-emptive strike.. I honestly haven't been in position for it. At all. Until fairly recently its been all hands to the pump in pushing infrastructure and expansion. I considered it, as you probably remember urging me to do, way back when the priests were rampaging around and it was my rejection of it then that has led me to consider what exactly I could be doing to ensure that the decision didn't come back to bite me later, which led to the mage solution

At the moment though my ideas are defensive orientated almost in their entirety. I'd prefer to settle the remaining land in my immediate reach, and be prepared to defend it as vigorously as possible, before thinking of turning my sights outwards.

Anyway, at the moment this is all just idle speculation. I've no wish to antagonize the vampires needlessly. Bob actually proposed a formal extension of our NAP when it officially lapsed on T115, but I told him I'd prefer to keep things informal where possible. I think if I'd tried though, I could have gotten a fairly long treaty. I would definitely suspect him more of attempting to take out Cull before going after the snowy climes of the Illian border settlements. And from our discussions he knows full well that I'm willing to slave Temples of the Hand in out of spite if he invades. The economic benefits of war to him would be low, and he'd potentially risk heavy losses in the fighting(and yeah, if he were to invade I'd be willing to cripple my civ down to the ground slaving out as effective a force as I could manage, seeking to drag him down with me. I think if it happened the fighting might be so bitter that the game would be yours to lose). I'm hopeful that would discourage him. I think war maybe further away than you're perhaps anticipating.

That whole email rings of someone being truthful to me.
I’m sorry to say this, but I think Selrahc is doing a much better job at being honest in diplo than I am.

In the meantime, Bob sent me a message.

Subject: Vanilla Ice


All right,

I see that the illustrious bipedal rat Vanilla Ice is skulking around the Northeastern edge of my empire. Please inform Mr. Ice that he is stop molesting the local wildlife, collaborate with my instructions, and listen up: if he explores that lizardman lair he's camped beside, I'll consider it an act of war. So unless he (and you) want to get rocked like a vandal & waxed like a candle, get out of my sight.

Also you suck for making me spend more than two seconds thinking about vanilla ice lyrics. This email was almost physically painful to write :P

-Bobchillingworth

Now hold on here.
I’ve only just moved the unit there, it’s outside of his borders and on the extreme edge of his empire, and this is the #2 power talking to the #1 power?
He’s going to “wax me like a candle?!?"

Methinks Bob may be getting a little too big for his boots. Vampires may be close, but you don’t have them yet my friend.
But that’s okay, I’m capable of several of modes of interaction!

I have my nice smiley friendly one.
And I have less smiley, more toothy one.

I think this calls for the latter.

Hello Bob,

Considering that:
1) This unit has only to just moved to that location
2) I was not even aware there was a Lizard ruins there

…I find your message rather rude.
Don’t ever send me threatening emails like this again.

Furthermore, I would advise against any attempt at a reply along the lines of “it wasn’t a threat, merely a statement of fact,” because that would be insulting my intelligence also.

Finally, I’ve been meaning to speak to you about the equitable division of the land to your South (my workboat noticed there’s a lot of space and resources left unclaimed).
Given that you would appear to be uninterested in friendly relations with the Kuriotates, I think we may just have to engage in a good old fashioned settling race: my Expansive zero maintenance settlements vs your full cost cities.
Good luck.

Regards,
Pb, Annoyed Boy-King

To summarise that message in four words, it basically says “Don’t fuck with me”. [FONT=&quot][/FONT]

Bob: when you come to read this, don’t worry, I still love ya.
I realise there’s some kind of reference to rap lyrics in there (no idea what, can’t be bothered to look it up) and I’m only pretending to be infuriated.
But I am slightly miffed that you went straight to threatening war, instead of say, first asking if I had any plans to explore it?
You definitely needed a “sit down and shut up” reply.

Regarding the last paragraph: I keep a little list of zany ideas to try out (it’s how Veez’s Grand Masterplan #1 came about).
One of them which has been there for quite a while, has been to get Bob thinking I’m building Frigates (Optics tech, prereq Sailing which I’ve already got and not too expensive) thereby making him focus less on military/expanding outwards and more on claiming the land in his backlines.
The plan was to suggest that because the world was toroidal, his South was actually very close to me in the opposite direction (it’s not, Iskender’s South is closer). Unfortunately that idea got sidelined once Trade came along and I realised that he could see my techs in the foreign advisor.
Not much point telling someone you’re building Frigates if he can see you don’t have the tech.

But seeing as these may be the last set of emails between the Kurios and Calabim which Bob places some credulity upon, I figured what the hell, throw it out there.
If nothing else, it has the added bonus of making me look naïve, that I think we’re still in the settler race/ cultural war stage instead of military buildup.

In hindsight, I probably should have played possum, and meekly said sorry while withdrawing Vanilla Ice.
But screw it, I wasn’t in the mood.
And if any of you still are unsure about the answer to this question:

Oooh, that'll be fun.
Do we get to find out your target before your target does?

Then thou art not paying enough attention!

Bob’s reply:

Dear Boy-King,

Oh boo-the-heck-hoo, I'm sorry if my sad attempt to compose an email out of Vanilla Ice lyrics hurt your feelings. I guess I shouldn't have expected thicker skin from a child.

Look, you have a steadily rising power level, a military wonder, and the Raiders trait. You have deals with almost every other player in the game, but the only gesture of cooperation you've ever shown my civilization was to briefly open borders, and then close them after murdering my scout. You never responded to my email regarding Selrahc, even to disagree. I've also heard stories of you exploring lairs near other players, and I've had serious difficulties in the past from Iskender doing the same. So pardon me for being a little bit on edge.

I can't decide whether your threat to start expanding to the icy wastelands of my south is more bizzare or laughable, but suffice it to say that any such action would be massively ill-advised on your part. If you are interested in some sort of genuine dialouge or cooperation, I'm all ears. All I know is that I've seen increasingly ominous signs from your civilization, and heard nothing but silence. If you don't have your heart set on conflict with the Calabim, convince me otherwise.

-Bobchillingworth

Good reply.
Sounds like he’s known I’ve been killing his units and has been seething silently.

Eh, let’s throw that message right back at him.
I find accepting someone’s apology when they haven’t actually apologised tends to be quite annoying also.

Hello Bob,

As Supreme ruler of the Kuriotates, I must learn to be tolerant of all this world’s creatures, even the intolerable.
So I accept your apology and pardon you.

Look, you have a steadily rising power level, a super-unit on the horizon, and the Raiders trait. You have deals with almost every other player in the game, but the only gesture of cooperation you've ever shown my civilization was to send an email trying to set up an alliance against another player. Do you not think that makes me wonder how many “kill Pb” mass emails you’ve sent out in the intervening silence?

As for the claims of killing a Scout, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
The only Calabim Scout I know of is the one that I had to let through my borders after you blackmailed me with the threat of exploring a lair -within- my borders.
So yes, I can see your policy on exploring lairs is really clear cut.

In short, convince ME you horrible blood-sucker.

Regards,
Pb, Magellan Boy-King.

This is quite fun.
Includes another blatant fib ofc, but he can’t be absolutely certain it was me that killed his Scout, so no need to confirm it.

Anyway, all these fireworks brings some more urgency to the talks with Selrahc, and let’s return to confirming that it is Sorcery for sure that he’s intending to take with the Tower of Div.

Hey Selrahc,

That was a really interesting email, thankyou for being so frank.
Rest assured that if the Calabim were to come calling, I wouldn't just sit on the side hoping you both wipe each other out.

I still remain unconvinced about Bob's motives however.
He just sent me an extremely rude message, outright threatening to declare war, simply because I had the gall to move a unit near his border in the East?!?
It's literally on a hill, in neutral territory, two tiles away from his culture.
Needless to say I'm not happy, and I will explain that to him when I can be bothered to reply.


...Since you've tipped your hand and given me an idea of your plans for the near future, maybe I should get into the spirit of giving also.
Veez intercepted a courier package out of the Calabim capital around 15 turns ago.
It contained a rather nasty message, basically trying to set up a coalition against you.
Naturally, it was sent to everyone in the game, except you.
Copied out of my thread, I've included it below.

Subject: Selrahc and the Tower of Divination
Sent to: Everyone except Selrahc

Hey all,

As you can probably tell by the email subject and who I'm sending it to, I'm concerned about Selrahc in the FFH PBEM. Specifically, I have good reason to believe that he may be planning to build the Tower of Divination in the near future. I have map knowledge of almost all of his land, and he already has a mind node and spirit node up. Because he starts with enchantment mana, all he needs is to construct a sun node and he's set. The reason the Tower is such an issue is because it gives one free technology, and I'm sure that he'll take the otherwise prohibitively expensive Theology for the High Priests of Winter. Once he has the High Priests, this game might be over. Not only are they base strength 9, but they pack the absurdly deadly Snowfall spell which turns all tiles around the caster to ice and takes away like 80% of the health of every neighboring enemy unit, regardless of base strength or stack size. They also have medic III and another spell that allows them to restore most of the health of all units in their stack, so you can't simply whittle down their health through attrition.

Selrahc is otherwise doing well but isn't totally running away with the game, so I wouldn't bother sending out an alarmist call for action if I wasn't completely terrified of the High Priests. But I think that it's a contingency which the rest of us now have to discuss. I'm not suggesting any sort of preemptive strike (although I wouldn't rule it out), but perhaps we should at least make a policy that if Selrahc attacks any one of us with the High Priests, the others will try to strike at his core (or territory in general) to force him to withdraw. Otherwise, if he's able to claim dominion over another player's land, I think that will be the end of the game. None of the rest of us are equipped to deal with someone packing a trio of super units and holding the land of three players. It's possible, albeit difficult, to counter the Priests militarily, but I question whether any one of us individually will be prepared by the time he can strike. If he does deploy them offensively, unified action from every other player might be the only recourse.

Ideas?


-Bobchillingworth

Now from what you've told me, it would seem Bob is getting worried about nothing, you intend to Tower of Div the Sorcery tech, correct?
But you should note two things from that email.
1) He's clearly considering the possibility of attacking you (getting map knowledge, not ruling out pre-emptive strike).
2) He's actively seeking to align the other players against you.

...and if you were wondering, I chose not to respond to that email (which apparently offended him).
The problem is, I don't know how the others responded.

Anyway, I can see you feel confident about being able to deal with the Calabim, and I think I’ve pushed the issue far enough.
But do me a favour, and make sure to look long and hard at any deals you strike with Bob and Sareln.
I think the time is soon coming to pick sides, and blood red just really isn't my colour.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Pretty in pink Boy-King

I tried really hard to come up with some inventive way to use that email other than simply dumping it on Selrahc.
Couldn’t think of anything, so I’ve gone with the tried and tested.
In the worst case scenario, it’ll make an Illian-Calabim “Kill Pb” alliance less likely to pass off.

Now let’s visit Cull (told you I’d be busy in diplo again!)

Hi Cull,

Just wanted to drop you a note, saying hi etc, and also offer a small piece of advice.

I know that you’ve been expanding and building a lot of new cities recently, because you’re trying to catch up with the others (good for you btw).
But don’t forget that you need to keep hold of the land you’ve claimed, and I couldn’t help noticing that you’re still relying on Warriors for defense.
That might not be enough soon.

The Calabim can now research Feudalism (Vampires) and have been making noises about removing you from the game, something I of course don’t want to happen.
You have Bronze Working now don’t you? Can I suggest building some Axemen?

And if you need help, remember you can talk to me.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Safe Boy-King

And wonders of wonders, Cull replied! Twice!
It must be getting close to Christmas.

I'm aware. Thanks for the heads up! Bob and I actually have a NAP for a little while longer, so it ain't all bad..

Also, thanks for the apologies on Vanilla Ice a few turns back, even thought it was more of my fault. Oops. Lets keep our diplo lines open in this scary world, huh? ^_^

I don’t think Cull likes long emails, so let’s keep it short.

Hi Cull,

It's good to hear from you!

Can you tell me when your NAP with Bob runs out?
Iskender has one with the Calabim until T200, I'm curious if yours is longer.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Chatty Boy-King

Whatever figure he comes back with, I’ll then point out how likely he is to be attacked and include the “remove Cull to speed up the game” email from Bob.

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 157:

Alrighty then.
No splashscreens, but the turnlog tells me that the Illians have begun another GA (their third).



That means Selrahc has either used his GSci to start his 1-GP Golden Age, or he’s got stupidly lucky with the RNG.
Flying a hawk over the Southern Illian lands (along the potential route a unit would take from Silent Night to Chestnut Roast) reveals nothing, so I'm guessing the GSci is no more.
Didn’t expect that, although it could be a good move.

Vanilla Ice has fortified in place.
I’ve passed the healing salve over to Kes, should’ve done that last turn really, before Bob saw the unit.

The Calabim city of Morr'ta'nar received a free AV spread.
Considering I don't actually have OB with Bob (yeah I know not relevant) he's getting quite a few freebies.

Over at Zaonce I’ve figured out what Sareln is doing, and frankly he’s becoming like a painful haemorrhoid in my ass.



I’ve been wondering why that hunter has just been sitting there.
Each turn I’ve checked it for a hawk, yet seen none.
Then I realised: when you rebase hawks to hunter units, they act like a transport boat and ‘auto-load’ into them...
...and in normal Civ, when you have units in boats, they’re not visible are they?

One WB test later, and it’s confirmed - you can’t see hawks being carried by foreign hunters.
That has three ramifications:

1. Bob possibly doesn’t know I’ve got Kes over with Vanilla Ice.
   
2. Sareln is almost certainly flying hawks over my jungle settlements right now and getting an eyeful of my Raider CAs.
   
3. Sareln probably got a good look at Caledor with that hunter before I asked Selrahc to kick him out.
   Without doubt he was close enough.
   

Point 1 is potentially good, point 2 is liveable with (I never expected to keep them hidden forever, either from Hippus or Svartalfar hawks), point 3 is annoying.
Nevermind, but clearly that hunter needs to start fearing for its little life. And soon.

On a separate note, I feel a strange urge to kill the Hippus archer in that screenshot.
No idea why! :neenernee


OO temple completed at Caledor, smokehouse next.



I’m a little uncertain where the Stonewarden-Dyes deal with the Illians is at, considering I’m not getting the Dyes at the moment (does Selrahc still expect the Stonewarden within 15t?).
Either way, it’s a good deal for me so I’ll stick to it, although the unit will be built somewhere other than Caledor I think (Avelorn or KK).

Oh and on plan, I dispensed with subtlety and switched research to 100% in order to complete Taxation next turn.
Ignore what the tech bar above says: I’m literally two beakers away from being able to finish it off, meaning I’ve only got to work a extra cottage at KK or something irrelevant.

The result:

Eat my non-FIN, non-GA dust!

Demographics:

Bob has built a carnival in Acaia.
Prespur has also grown to size 17, so you might be right Mardoc.
I really need to get around to checking Bob’s GNP.

[Maksim]

...and since you love my convoluted way of answering, tell me why I want Entropy mana.

Elementary, my dear Watson!

The Entropy spell Rust is a wonderful way to weaken the enemy stacks that consist primarily of melee-line units before taking them out with Centaur Archers.

Your likeliest enemies at this stage are Calabim, who will be relying on vampires, who are (guess what!) melee-line units.

---

Now, it's been a while since I fired up FFH my own self. Does Rust remove the metals promotion and add a "Rusted" promotion of -10% strength, or is my memory failing me?

[Rowain]

On a separate note, I feel a strange urge to kill the Hippus archer in that screenshot.
No idea why! :neenernee

Bring it on little Boy :dervish:

[pocketbeetle]

Elementary, my dear Watson!

The Entropy spell Rust is a wonderful way to weaken the enemy stacks that consist primarily of melee-line units before taking them out with Centaur Archers.

Your likeliest enemies at this stage are Calabim, who will be relying on vampires, who are (guess what!) melee-line units.

---

Now, it's been a while since I fired up FFH my own self. Does Rust remove the metals promotion and add a "Rusted" promotion of -10% strength, or is my memory failing me?

Spot on.
It removes the Bronze/Iron/Mithril weapons and applies the "Rusted" effect, which gives -10% str (bleh) and can only be removed by visiting a city with a forge.

...guess who doesn't have forges yet?

(Well, nobody to be truthful, Although Selrahc does have Adepts with Enchantment mana, so could use the Enchanted Blade spell to remove it.)

Bring it on little Boy :dervish:

[Mardoc]

My goodness. When you go silent, it's apparently just your backlog of written but not uploaded posts expanding. Much appreciated!

Yeah, I think we've figured out your target. Good luck in the diplo.

I'm curious what you see as the various likely scenarios vs. Bob? Can you take him yourself, and you're just looking for allies to make the war easier? Do you expect him to be pillaged, crippled, destroyed?

Conversely, what can he do to you or other potential targets? And on whose behalf would you intervene? Anyone, for the excuse?

[pocketbeetle]

My goodness. When you go silent, it's apparently just your backlog of written but not uploaded posts expanding. Much appreciated!

I'm glad you liked it, although I'm still a turn behind.

Yeah, I think we've figured out your target. Good luck in the diplo.

I'm curious what you see as the various likely scenarios vs. Bob? Can you take him yourself, and you're just looking for allies to make the war easier? Do you expect him to be pillaged, crippled, destroyed?

Conversely, what can he do to you or other potential targets? And on whose behalf would you intervene? Anyone, for the excuse?

Good questions, not all of them I can answer.

I'm 100% prepared to go alone, so long as I feel reasonably safe on my other borders.
Allies of course would be nice, however trying to get Selrahc involved is proving to be like pushing a boulder uphill: lots of inertia (but hopefully a rolling ball of death if I do get him to sign up!).
Either way, I'll be leaving the War Elephants (and maybe Giants too?) behind to defend.

My aim has never been to take out Bob: originally it was to delay Vampires, but I may end up arriving late for that party.
The plan is to run around on his roads, pillaging and razing targets of opportunity.
Also note that I'm not committed yet, and won't blindly declare war on a certain turn. I'll be doing my best to get an idea of his forces beforehand (hence Vanilla Ice's location and his aborted mission to visit the South).
Really I should be sticking all cities to military unit production right now, but unfortunately I've got other priorities also.
I'm consoling myself with the fact that no-one else has a HE up yet.

Who would I intervene on behalf of? Anyone, although the level of intervention would depend on the target.
Obviously, each and any city the Calabim raze (that isn't mine!) is in my interest. But I did mean what I said to Selrahc, I wouldn't just sit and watch.
To give examples: if it was Cull attacked, I'd probably provide a token force of 5 CAs in his capital to try and keep him from collapsing, the rest would visit Calabim lands via the other side, ie Acaia.
Whereas if it was Iskender attacked, I'd put every unit of mine at his disposal. I want a strong swing vote closely tied to me.

The best case scenario is that Bob attacks Cull; then Iskender, Selrahc (because he wants to keep Cull's palace mana) and myself declare on the Calabim and take them out.
Second best is that Iskender attacks Sareln, Bob declares on Iskender and thus I declare on Bob. Iskender defends, I attack.
Neutral scenario is I go alone and everyone else stays uninvolved.
Worst case scenario is that everyone declares on me, at which point I cry and start spamming emails with sentences such as "You're throwing away the game!" in the title.

In the case of the Kurios alone vs the Calabim, I think the short answer is that the defender is screwed.
I have the mobility, Bob has the concentrated firepower.
That's why I'm so keen to get Hemah: Snowfall can make defending a single city a whole lot easier.

[fluffyflyingpig]

So you're just letting bob strongarm you into leaving the ruins? After he blackmailed you earlier?

This is not the pb we have come to expect!

[pocketbeetle]

So you're just letting bob strongarm you into leaving the ruins? After he blackmailed you earlier?

This is not the pb we have come to expect!

Now hold on here!
I've already virtually promised a war to you bloodythirster lurkers.
Are you seriously intent on starting it next turn?

The thing that's stopping me is not Bob's posturing, more the 73% odds of winning vs that lizardman.
That's effectively a 27% chance of losing a GC... for what?
At best I'm getting a 10% chance of getting another GP, which to my mind says that the risk-reward ratio is skewed in the wrong direction.

If that fight were a 95% one, I'd happily explore the lair tomorrow, with a big fat grin on my face at the thought of further enraging Bob. :hat:
Unfortunately, that's not the case.