You speak in whispers of the devils I have slain, Brian, Sareln & Ichabod of Elohim

[Brian Shanahan]

Kyan wrote back re last night and my save attached note:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hey man,

I accept and agree to those NAP conditions. Please consider it signed.

War could be fun I have Krill on board as a ded lurker so let me know if you'd like any advice on that front and i can always run it past him.

Yours,

Kyan[/COLOR]

I replied:

Well I'll see about war plans closer to time comes. But I'm thinking bronze powered warrior spam for now. I may have an avenue of attack straight at the Grigori capital. Will know next turn.

Thanks for offering Krill as "military observer" to me.

Brian.

And one final observation from me, why are Acalostas and Mackoti even thinking about their north east. The south is far better for them both strategically and in quality.

If I were sandwiched between an unknown playing the solid, if not overpowered, Einion and a good player playing the potentially frightening Keelyn then I'd seriously be looking at going with Einion to limit Keelyn until such time as I could go in and eliminate the Clown threat (no offense anyone but Kyan of Balseraphs is a lot stronger than Acalostas of Grigori).


Edit:
I'll need a turn player for the dates from 4th-7th June inclusive, it's the June Bank-Holiday, and I'll be up home an extra day for a college interview, same college different course.

[Ichabod]

Well, I can probably play the turns during that gap, Brian. I cannot confirm it 100% yet, but I'll probably be able to do it.

The diplo with the Balseraphs has been pretty good. Luckily, if worst comes aginst the Grigori, you'll not be the one being dogpiled.

I wasn't going to give too much advices regarding your game plans, since you are the one playing after all. But I'm not sure if taking the contested spot as a second city is a good move. Your settler will take ages to get there and you risk losing him to the barbs. You'll take a long time to connect the cities with roads, delaying the trade route income.

While the incense is a pretty good tile (but how long will it take for you to improve it?), he won't pay for the maintenance costs all by itself. You'll need a border pop to work the sheep and get a little food surplus going, otherwise the city will not grow pass size 2, from what I can see.

By getting that chokepoint you'll secure a lot of land, but you risk putting yourself into a very bad position. The civs with closer second cities will have an advantage that will snowball into a lead. So, I'd place the second city in the sheep/corn spot and only the third one in the contested spot. If acalostas decide to settle it as a second city, he'll have the same problems that I imagine you'll have. So you can take the city for you later using the tech and production from your better developed empire.

Later I'll give some insights regarding the rush you are planning.

[Brian Shanahan]

I did a test, on turn 1 if I give myself a second city ten tiles away on the horizontal it means I'm playing 3 gold per turn in maintenance.

Settings were Monarch, Standard, Erebus Continent, East West world wrap. All other setting as standard, with random civs.

For the test I assumed I had agri and myst (should have both by the time I settle). I gave myself 3 warriors and 2 workers as well. I didn't try and replicate the exact positions (too much work) but I did try to give the same resource tiles, except the corn was dry.

So all in all it is not too high of a premium, especially considering that it is an essential block off site. If I were going for war and found a better site to prepare for it then I'd definitely change, but as of yet I'm undecided.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok the save is played:

Exploration:

What I thought was an invasion corridor turned out to be a dud, good for defense, bad for offense. Though the Skellie barrow could be a nice little opportunity. Station 2 warriors 1N of it, and with luck mucho XP.

Demographics:

Someone's grown pop 3 I believe, and looking at graphs (unpublished) I believe it is Kyan (though he may not be the only one going by averages. Other than that nothing interesting is new.

Diplomacy with Acalostas:

In response to my curt message Acalostas sent:

[COLOR="SandyBrown"]Sorry about the delay, i had trouble getting ahold of Mackoti to formulate a reply.

and, ...uh...

...I'm sorry if i was overly agressive in that diplo email,i was in a bad mood at the time. Nothing personal, but that diplo message was an outlet for my aggression.

Forgive me?

Hoping for a more peaceful future,

-Acalostas[/COLOR]

3 options either:
a) my curt message has shocked him into realising I won't be a walkover diplomatically,
b) he's dissembling trying to put a good face on an agressive policy,
c) he wants peace but is unsure as best strategy for it.

I'm not too enamoured with the way the diplomacy went recently so I'll sit on this missive for a few days and then send him something.

[Brian Shanahan]

Oh, and in case anyone wants to give me advice private like, I've set up an account on Google Talk, usual name, avatar is me standing beside the Six Nations trophy, wearing a light brown jumper.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok the save is played.

I moved my Western Warrior NE and found some river grassland. My Old Warrior (who'll probably get a name on returning home) retreated away from the Skelly mound:

Sorry for the lack of bubbles but no new resources found.

Demographics:

Kyan's beginning to pull away a bit. I believe that Cassiel's score is from taking two of the low hanging techs (hopefully as it'll mean a lack of focus) and natural growth.

As you can see everybody is beginning to pass me in population, but I'll make that up from next turn with the worker coming out. First he'll farm the corn then he'll be stuck doing nothing for a while, until Calendar when he can go down to the cotton to plantation them.

Western Warrior will come NE again next turn, and either return to home or go NW (I'm not sure yet).

Old Warrior will return to his birthplace to go and pop the graveyard in the north.


Ichabod: Are you still up for covering me June 4th to 7th.

[Ichabod]

Yup! Will need a plan, though.

[Brian Shanahan]

How's this for a plan:

Kill the other four, while leaving Kyan for me.

I'll put up a more specific plan during the week, but at the moment the plan is:

Tech; finish Myst, start Calender.

Builds Warrior, then settler, after that the Elder Council.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok turn 18 is played and I find that George Mainwaring has been born in the capital, so I immediately send him to farm the corn.

On my travels the Western Warrior finds his NE passage blocked by an ponderous pachyderm, so he goes directly east instead (I've been long enough without a proper defence, so a swing back is advisable. Old Warrior continues his return home (have decided on Oisín, for his name if he survives).

So the land:

And Demographics:

I included the demographics as they are beginning to be a bit worrying, but there is nothing I can do except work harder.


Diplo:

First I had a bit of a rambling chat with Kyan:

peterofindia: hey dude, just thought i'd let you know i met grigori on my turn
me: Good, give them my best.
5:48 PM peterofindia: haha thanks
me: you got my last messagín, you're growing well in the graphs. I'm wondering who's the civ on 1 pop still though.
peterofindia: not a clue
im size 3
5:49 PM me: & I'm 2
peterofindia: demo's are inflated by culture adding to GNP and my plains hill start
bit early for leads. I'd be looking at the elves or grigori who both got at least 1 tech for free
5:50 PM me: Grigori is probably 3. GNP isn't too bad you're only 3 ahead of me, start at 10, get an extra 2 for culture & you get a bonus two.
So Grigori got a free tech, I knew about the elves, it came c. turn 5 so too early for a natural.
5:51 PM peterofindia: at least 1. i suspect 2
for grigori that is
or they've been after 2 super cheap techs
but, really, nothing is cheap
calendar is like 10 turns or whatever
and they have 3 techs researched
its turn 17...
so yeah
5:52 PM me: Could be, though if he started with two river side citizens then the extra gold could power the 2 techs. His MFG has been pretty poor the most of the time.
peterofindia: yeah thats true
maybe thats it
calendar + ancient chants?
5:53 PM me: Maybe, it's all specualtion. Those two could be candidates, though I don't play much quick. I'd reckon 2 first tier techs exploration ac or crafting. If he's being a bit spread out teching that's good
5:55 PM peterofindia: yeah i guess
im not so hot on the tech tree
after calendar now for agrarianism
5:56 PM me: Well it's a case of looking at your civ's strengths and seeing where to go from there. In SP it's not so important due to AI braindeadedness, but against humans the strengths of beelining a good unit or hero are very, well, very. Download the manual from the FfH section of CFC.
5:57 PM peterofindia: yeah, ive been told about the fun of summoners + puppets
would be great to try it out
5:58 PM hmm, can i ask you a question for scouting purposes?
me: Yeah, I don't want to tell you too much but for example a summoner Gibbon with a strong level three summon is the bomb
peterofindia: you can get a good feel for landmass by seeing where these features are, am i on the east coast of the world do you think?
5:59 PM me: The middle, slightly west & north of centre. I'm huddled at the west coast, and Acalostas slightly east of it. I'm guessing either a lot of empty land in the east, or a big sea.
6:00 PM peterofindia: hmm, good to know. thank you
i think there might be an inland sea then
as im coastal but the land bends around the water
me: No problem, small bits of information like this keep the good relations going, and you help your friends
peterofindia: indeed
6:01 PM want a fun tidbit in return?
though i'd need a promise of total confidentiality
with no expiry on it
me: Well I'd hope I'd be free to talk after winning the game . Yeah confidentiality guaranteed#
peterofindia: haha indeed
6:02 PM i have spotted 2 griffons thus far on my borders
just tamed my first one
i intend to be a bastard with him
me: A tame griffon, nice little nasty suprise for someone. Any worker steal plans.
peterofindia: lots
6:03 PM griffon 1 is going east in that case to try and harass the 'missing' civs
griffon 2 if i can get him will go fuck with grigori
second one is combat 1 already
6:04 PM me: what civs, those people to th east are nothing but barbarians. Combat 1 griffon, I'd be careful with the hunters, just in case. And always nice to hear about the Grigori getting "helped" by griffons.
peterofindia: i figured sheaim/elves would be there
6:05 PM me: Sheaim are nothing but evil scum, and elves are tree hugging hippies, you'll find no civilisation there. Promise of anonymity on something I'd like to say next is needed.
peterofindia: haha
this whole chat has confidentiality promised
6:06 PM me: Good, well it was a plan I cooked up from the start, but if I had started next to Sheaim I'd have rushed them. PZs are too nice for Elohim not to rush
6:07 PM peterofindia: would have been fun to read after
ill just fuck up their workers if i can
me: And if it paid off it could have been a short game. Elohim PZs running amok
6:08 PM peterofindia: maybe not so fun to read. i dont wanna die
but, at least in this game, we can fuck with the religion hating grigori
me: We all got to go sometime.
6:09 PM peterofindia: you can win without killing me
me: Yeah you can vassalise to me
peterofindia: haha no thanks. too independant to vassalize in ingame terms
6:10 PM i think i'd rather die than do a sareln from that first ffh game
me: I'll let you run your own internal affairs without interference, I think the British called it Home Rule
6:11 PM peterofindia: as fellow Brits, i could live with that
6:12 PM i believe we're the only two in this game
me: You should look up an atlas, last time I checked neither Limerick nor Cork were British
peterofindia: my ded lurkers/teammates are all british too. 5 of us in Balseraph colours alone
ah, apologies
i made an assumption
a bad one
6:13 PM you're still local, even if you dont like our club
me: We'll I'm multinational, one Irish, one Brazilian and one unknown (Sareln) not to worry on the mistake.
Maybe we can bring the true faith of hurling to you crazy clowns#
6:14 PM peterofindia: haha mayhaps!
6:15 PM me: OK deal then, we'll organise a championship. I wonder would the PBEM like a card tournament at some statge like PBEM 1.
6:18 PM peterofindia: the ingame card thing?
6:19 PM me: yeah, I'm hit and miss on it but it's a bit of fun, and some minor bets in-game would be nice
peterofindia: ive never played it
dont know how, but i can swot up in single player before the time
betting is fun ;
6:22 PM me: It's an easy enough game, draw cards at random, keep those higher value than you have, if you draw two cards of the same suit you lose all. There's also a few wild cards
peterofindia: yeah, but poker is simple enough in essence
doesn't make it an easy game
6:23 PM me: Somnium is down more to the luck of the draw than poker, you've no psychological stuff
I was always more of a 45 man myself
6:24 PM peterofindia: ah right
fair enough
me: good, talk to you later.
peterofindia: yeah, take care man
6:25 PM me: see you soon.

Part 1: Us trying to decipher the demos, and wondering about the Grigs. I also gave him info as to the relative positions of known civs.
Part 2: Him letting me know about griffon(s) he's captured. He should have the second soon.
Part 3: Random ramblings.
Part 4: Proposal of a Somnium tournament.

There was also a quick chat a few hours later, but that consisted of asking for and supplying emails for the Grigori.

This afternoon I got up and read my email, which included this gem:

[COLOR="SandyBrown"]Dear Einion “Jack” Hackett

Mackoti has rescinded on his hard diplomatic stance and is willing to compromise.

Should you accept our terms, you will be allowed to settle one tile North West of the spot you inquired of.
Apparently, Mackoti wishes for 100 Gold in tribute (as soon as the means to collect becomes available) and a NAP until turn 120 in return. We are also prepared to open borders with your nation in the hope of future trade and peace.

We have just made contact with Kyan, and think it best not to show any weakness in front of a player with his reputation. So I hope that mutual trade will make us not seem like easy prey for insane clowns. It would be best to avoid conflict with each other, as we may weaken each other enough for Kyan to simply swoop in and destroy us both.

Be wary, any clown you see in the market place could be a Balseraph spy…
-Acalostas[/COLOR]

Won't he be pissed when he realises I have a deal with Kyan already, including a secret clause.

I think though I should send back something along the lines of:

I agree to the deal as long as the tribute in gold is paid to me by the end of the NAP.

Followed by (after a suitable lapse):

You're trying to bully the civ with the bully-proof worldspell. Seriously guys my original offer wasn't made from a position of weakness, it was simply an offer of goodwill. Seeing as ye decided to laugh in my face, I see no point in accomodating your wishes, now or in the future.

With the way the land is set up the only thing that could possibly hurt me in the case of war is 4 move horses which are a nice bit away.

Frankly I'm taking that last message (privately) as a war dec.

[Ravus Sol]

I allways laughed at the idea of tribute in FFH. Sometimes you can go a whole game and no one researches currency. So no gold trading. Yet people still try and ask for tribute.