[SPOILERS] You know nothing, Mahala Tholal

[The Black Sword]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still reading the updates, but I de-dedlurked a while ago unfortunately, so I'm strictly moral support now. Good luck! (it's probably needed )

[Tholal]

Turn 133:

Blight hit this turn but the damage was fairly minimal. One bear killed. I had to whip a Shaman out in one city and I'll need to also whip in Urslo and Heimster, probably this next turn.

But the big news this turn... I finally received access to foreign trade routes! Woohoo! Though it happened in kind of an odd way. First move came as my Western Galley reached the coastal city of Evermore in Hippus Lands.



But that only gave me these two trade routes in one of my coastal cities.



OK, then. Moving over to the East, my Workers complete a road to the Sheaim city of Grottiburg (I had to build three tiles of it in Sheaim lands. And they call us the savages!)...



But that didn't seem to have any effect at all. Finally, things changed when I founded a new city.



I'm guessing that founding a new city forced the trade routes to be recalculated. I thought that would also happen when exposing new tiles and making road connections, but for some reason it is not.

Anyway, here are the Demos before foreign trade routes.



And here are the Demos after.



Pretty sweet!

[Tholal]

Turn 136:

Message from Ellimist

I wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be completing the Deepening ritual next turn(137). HK is building roads toward my territory near the barbarian city of Kalocly, so I also expect that he'll be attacking me at some point within the next ten turns. I don't have enough information yet to assess the odds, but I'll do the best I can.

Also, I managed to buy a map of HK's land from Hyborem for 130 gold. I've offered you a map trade in game to pass this information on.


P.S. There is Iron located 1 space west of your city of Bjarkoy. That's the only source of it located anywhere near your vicinity.

Excellent news on the Iron as I already have that hill mined. Just need to research the proper techs.

As for the Deepening, it really kind of screwed me over. Especially my capital which was blasted with 11 tiles of Snow (including the city plot itself) and all the rest changed to Tundra. Only one single, unimproved Grassland tile escaped the bitter cold.


Heimster didnt fair much better. I had to use the Whip a bit excessively to get to a point where the cities wouldn't starve.


We can see that it also hit the Hippus, but I dont think it really bothers him that much.


Apparently Brian also received the maps.

I offered maps with you revealing Horselords lands.

I see there has been an interesting change of hands over a former Clown city.

I went ahead and accepted the trade though it was of no real benefit to me. Brian seems to be just kind of putzing around in this game (though I guess the same might be said of myself). He is apparently working on running up the Armageddon Counter with Elegy of the Sheaim for some reason. I guess it does help his units created in the Ragnarok city.

I'm now really regretting my lack of aggressiveness against him earlier in the game. Attacking him now would probably be a bit counter-productive, though I have been flirting with the idea of switching to Order and calling in Basium for reinforcement.

Turn 137:

Hey,

I wanted to give all of you guys an update. HK has advanced the following units into the vicinity of the barb city of Kalocly:

13 Horse Archers
2 Chariots
1 Mounted Mercenary
4 Beasts of Agares
2 Ritualists
1 Mardero
1 Mage (mobility+metamagic+body+shadow)
1 Adept (mobility+metamagic)
1 Zealot
6 Workers

I'm not sure what his planned timetable is for attacking, but I will do all I can to hold him off and destroy this army.

I completed The Deepening this turn, and it reduced HK's food from 1408 to 1124. This is probably "too little, too late", but hopefully Blight will start to also hurt him now instead of just the rest of us.

I don't really expect this game to go on for more than maybe 10-20 more turns, but we'll see how things go from here, I guess. Thanks for the assistance that each of you has provided so far.

10-20 more turns? What does he think is going to happen in that time? It's certainly not enough to conquer any one player, much less all of us. And I doubt anyone can finish the Tower of Mastery by then.

from the Balseraphs:

I'm asking again for you to cancel open borders with HK. I know you're benefiting from the trade routes, but think of it as you giving him a couple free Mounted Mercenaries each turn.

Well first off, this turn was my first chance to be able to cancel the deal. And the trade routes are much too lucrative to me at the moment. I'll cancel soon. As for giving the Hippus a couple of free Mercenaries, I think that Brian is a bit off in his calculations. Mercs cost 180 gold. The Hippus are not making that much from the trade routes.


Turn 138:

HK moved 11 horse archers and a chariot to the space SSW of Kalocly this turn. He's keeping his stronger units north of that city for the moment. I'm not sure what his intentions are, but if he moves the 12 mounted units further south by themselves I expect to be able to wipe them out without difficulty. The rules allow screenshots, right? I can take some if you guys want better details.

He's also teched Astronomy... Be careful with your coasts.

AC hit 40 on turn 140, creating Stephanos, though I know not where.

I sacrificed a Beastman to clear out the Lizard camp in my territory. Thormund finished off the defender and then explored the lair, freeing a ...

... Thane of Kilmorph Oh well, at least it wasnt a bad result. I finished researching Priesthood so this guy became my first Stonewarden. I'm going to try and pump out a few from my capital with my Command Post and then consider switching religions. Either the aforementioned change to Order, or possibly Fellowship of the Leaves - the extra food from the Ancient Forests would be useful and I have a lot of Lumbermills up as well.

I also finished researching Animal Handling, so I now have Silk (Spider Pen), a Hawk in production and the potential for a couple of War elephants (might actually be handy against the Horselords). Currently learning about Stirrups, though as I write this, I'm realizing that I should go for something else. I have access to Chariots already. I dont think Horse Archers are going to be much of an upgrade for me at the moment. Bah. Why do I think of these things too late. Hopefully it will be a learning moment for me.

[The Black Sword]

I didn't realise the Deepening was so effective, how long does it take for those tiles to change back?

Btw, EITB changed Merc cost to reflect quick speed, so they should only be 120g IIRC. Have you got trade routes with anyone else yet?

[Tholal]

I didn't realise the Deepening was so effective, how long does it take for those tiles to change back?

Well it's only supposed to affect 25% of the plots in the world but it's bugged and instead affects 75%. The duration is also bugged. I'm not sure what number getGameSpeedType() will return, but iTimer will be at least 40 (and possibly much more - when I discovered this bug I was seeing timers in the 90s!). The terrain is changed for a random number from 0 to (iTimer + 10), so we're looking at a minimum range of 10-50 turns!

http://sourceforge.net/p/tholalsffhaimod/code/1409/

Fixed in my mod this past spring, but I think that EitB is way behind on incorporating my bugfixes.

Btw, EITB changed Merc cost to reflect quick speed, so they should only be 120g IIRC. Have you got trade routes with anyone else yet?

I do, though the ones with the Hippus are the most lucrative.

[Tholal]

Turn 141: Open Borders cancelled with the Hippus

[Tholal]

Quick Update (current turn 145):

A couple of turns ago I received the following message from Dave.

HK is attacking me with two Beasts of Agares, a Knight, and a bunch of Mounted Mercenaries. He'll be able to take several cities per turn until I'm gone. If you are able to attack him, now would be the ideal time while he has the bulk of his strength fighting Ellimist and me.

And I saw this in the logs.



Then the very next turn.



HK's power rating hasn't really taken much of a hit though.



I could hit HK next turn, though I really should wait a couple of turns for reinforcements and Enchanted Blade. I'm not sure I'll be able to do much more than raze a couple of his outlying cities though. I am VERY tempted to slam into the Sheaim instead. They have almost no defense that I can see. But, for now, I'm sticking with my plan and marshaling forces on my Western borders (which is East for the Hippus).

[The Black Sword]

What sort of army would you attack with?

[Tholal]

What sort of army would you attack with?

Here's a pic of the setup at the end of my last turn (turn 146)



I forgot to also include the Galley, which holds 3 Sons of Asena. Plans are for a naval assault on Bad Horse's closest port city. It only holds one Mounted Mercenary.

The main group will hit Braduk, which only has a Chariot. I will also capture that Barbarian Elephant for upgrading into a War Elephant. I have a steady trickle of Beastman/Sons on the way, as well as a few Shaman, Stonewardens and Thanes (for pacifying captured cities, though I plan to raze for the most part). Horsemen will be pillaging as much as possible. No plans to use Wild Hunt yet. The maintenance cost for all those Wolves would be prohibitive and they wouldnt do me a lot of good at the moment. Will have Enchantment mana next turn and have a Shaman with the main force waiting to take a new promotion.

Hoping to capture some Slaves and Workers for upgrading along the way. Not a real destructive force, but either the Hippus will need to send some extra resources my direction, or I'll get to go on a pillage and burn spree through his Eastern lands.

New turn arrived as I was working on this. We'll see what it brings!

[Tholal]

Hit the Hippus this turn. No time to put together a detailed picture but here's the broad overview.



Captured and razed Poena (coastal city - got lucky and only lost one Sons of Asena), and Braduk the Burning (easy pickings). Also snagged 4 Workers and a Settler and got a bonus Slave from one of the Workers! Upgraded them all to Beastmen. My forces are spread out a bit. Unless the Hippus have a force hiding beneath the Noctis invisibility nearby, he'll only have whatever Mercenaries he buys this turn (max 5 with his current gold). I should be able to get into his road network next turn and then the pillaging will commence! We'll see what tricks he has up his sleeve.

I finished Smelting and will start on Iron Working next turn. 9 turns at current tech rate. Hopefully I'll be able to shave a few turns from that.