Bearing the flag proudly, Sabathiel of the Bannors [SPOILERS]

[Mr. Yellow]

Well we worked something out.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi Mr. Yellow,

I'd prefer to establish friendly relations with you. As neighbours we can be of assistance to each other. Getting bogged down in an early war would likely have an unfortunate effect on both our empires.

I'm willing to settle 1N of the gold, but I cannot allow you to found a city on the desert 1 W of the lake. A city there would completely choke out my city. If you were to settle on the marble, you would have a solid city with 3 floodplains, sheep, a 2h city tile and enough hills for production. There would be 3 unused floodplain tiles to the south, with rampant desert beyond. I would like to place a city in that area (3 S of the westernmost lake tile) eventually but it's not a high priority as that city would be mostly junk except for the floodplains/oasis..

If you are concerned about good city sites, there is an excellent spot 6 tiles south of your capital that would grab 4 floodplains, reagents and a pile of hills. That floodplain valley continues a long way south. If you were to settle this area you'd fill all of your floodplains needs without close border tension.

Once we get a settling agreement into place, would you be interested in negotiating a Non Aggression Pact?

Sheam to the south and probably east makes sense. I'm at the Western end of our landmass and it doesn't look like there is much land directly south of me. I've found coast down there, but unfortunately my scouting info has been limited by nasty barbarians.

Cheers,

Thoth, Chief Camel Herder[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Eh, that marble site isn't very attracting, but fine. Me on the marble and you 1 north of the gold. However, i won't go into further settling agreements and consider the rest of that land neutral territory up for grabs.

I don't want to do a NAP for the moment. None of us has any interest in warfare right now and i consider it too early to talk about such things considering i've yet to get a clear view of the world, contacts included. Besides a NAP is there if you aren't really sure about your neighbour.[/COLOR]

Not what i wanted, but on the marble is fine. It may not cover a lot of flood plains, but the rest of the terrain is decent. Besides i doubt i'll get Masonry untill much later.

Now this leaves a lot of flood plains open for a southern city. In addition that south spot also includes the pyre, which means fire mana. So i wouldn't consider it "junk".

Also i find NAP rather silly this early. Warriors are too brutal on defence and you don't get good offensive units (unless you're certain civs) until later.

Anyway, back to the game! With another 2 turn report.

First of all, both those turns have been run at 0% research. Markets are not important till the cities can start building something new. So gonna squezze in lots of money on the turns in between. Should have enough now for 2 techs at 100% research.

First our scout. Scalie gladly got tired of chasing the scout and have decided the more suicidal approach of picking a fight against the slayer of Orthus. Whatever that's working inside that skull of his, it sure is messy.



Little else to see though. Gonna check the border of his 2nd city and then go back.



Final skeleton done at the capital. Sent Hogwood to the west for scouting. Mines finished on the 2nd turn and gave me the big boost i needed.
Question now where the settler really should go. No longer in a hurry to grab the marble spot and gonna check if there are better locations around.
Hampshire will most likely mine the tile next to the gems.






In the east, Nutters is still alive and no spiders around. Sadly goblins spawned again and i'm not taking the chance of him defending the settler when weakened. So moved him across the river again for better cover.



...and survived! 0.8 health, but with no threat remaining the settler have free access to the destination point.



3rd city up next turn!

Hmm, this is curious. That blue circle shows up on the hill next by. Maybe i'll get a warrior up there to scout the nearby area.

Small notes:
WK, 11 points (tech).
Mardoc, 7 points (pop).
Thoth, 13 points.

[icewolf34]

Hmm. Agreed that NAP is not necessary when the defender has such a large advantage, but maybe it'd be worth it to agree to a short, extendable one just to build relations? Settling agreements won't be worth much if he thinks you're planning to declare or something.

In general it just seems worthwhile to be slightly more friendly in diplo than your real intentions are. At the moment, it almost seems the opposite -- you're not planning on picking a fight until way down the line in reality, but might be making him worried (either about settler race or war down the line).

(Wait, when is a good time for Bannor to go on the attack in general?)

Anyways, maybe think of some empty friendly things to say? People seem to like those around here. Cool that you were able to work something out, though.

[Mr. Yellow]

Have to see his next response, but generally you can easily see someone building up for a war by checking the power graph. Should give you a clear indicator of whats going on.
Besides you usually need an overwhelmingly large force or a quick decapitation strike to wage a successfull war in civ, including this mod.
Secondly having a NAP means your choices gets a little restricted. What if something happened that makes you change your mind about this player, but you can't do anything cause of the NAP?

I've mentioned this in my first post, but while the Bannors are a militaristic civ, they don't start to shine till Fanaticism is researched and unlock the crusade civic. Until then, they are a bit bland.

[Mr. Yellow]

Not that much happening, still a fun turn though.

West area is looking more curious, lets see how much territory there really is there.



Central area, Hogwood discovers the sheep mentioned by Thoth.



Checked the hills recommended by the game. Should have known that it priorities coastal spots. Settled in place and the 3rd city is found. Going straight for monument to grab incense and corn. Meeklord, who have been improving Vallus will soon go over to Trinity and work there.



Turned research back to 100% again. 3rd city actually just gives me one more in maintanence, since it eats up the upkeep in units.

Small notes:
WK, 6 points.
Nyktorion, 7 points.
Mardoc, 6 points.
(all pops)
Thoth, 9 points.

[Mr. Yellow]

Got a confirmation mail from Thoth.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Thanks for the agreement on the marble/floodplains area. I don't know when you are planning on settling that city, but there is some wildlife in the area (a bear and a scorpion) as of turn 63.

I've settled the gold city this turn (1N of the gold as agreed).

I understand about not wanting to tie your hands with a NAP at this point. Perhaps later, once the overall game situation becomes more clear.

Thoth (Grand Vizier to the Malakim Empire)[/COLOR]

Well, with that out of the way the coming turns are gonna be rather dull. Nothing really happening now outside from the recent discoveries.





Oh boy, a bear. Hogwood is gonna be at disadvantage here (4,5 vs 5), but hopefully we pull through. Another mana node is nice and likely be the meta node.

Speaking of mana nodes. Thoth was interrested in getting water from me. He must have seen the node south of him, so what does he really want to do with it?

Anyway, here's a shot of the current GNP situation, which looks much better with gems around.



Small notes:
WK, 11 points. (tech)
Irgy, 11 points. (tech)

[icewolf34]

Thanks for the continuous stream of screenshots, by the way. It makes the game way easier to follow as a lurker.

[Mr. Yellow]

Apprechiate it icewolf!

Now, i was thinking about writing something here about Hogwoods struggle with the bear, but all you need to know is that Hogwood won out of sheer manliness and that this is an accurate representation of the fight.





So Huzzah! Hogwood still lives and got a nice new coat from it. I was thinking of awarding him a title here, but he's still on scouting duty and can still be killed off. So no titles till his badassness pulls him through.

Concerning the terrain around and the likelyhood of him getting killed, Hogwood was promoted with Guerilla for 40% extra hill defence. This also bumps his health up to 2.



Hmm, another hut. Considering the possibility of barbs springing up it might have been best to heal up. But eh, it's very hard not to pop those suckers, so off we go!



Well, you win some and you lose some. Hogwood does have a decent chance to pull through, as the bonuses rise his power to 3,8. Doubt it's enough
against 2 of 'em however.
Got a nice view of the land though and there's coast bleeding out north of the mana. So the tile north-east of the mana is a pretty nice spot for a city.



The boy is being redirected south now. Deserts are hardly good terrain to scout on.
Little to say about this place, since it will eventually be Thoth's land once he expands south. Looks pretty decent though.

In the east i've achieved some great luck. Got the harpy event on the 2nd turn!



Trinity is my newest city and needs some real work to actually grow. So taking the great bard isn't really gonna hurt me at all!



I decided to make him a specialist in the city, giving 12+ culture and 3+ commerce. The first benefit of that is that i no longer need the monument for culture. The 2nd is that it provides some much needed commerce for my expansion plans.

Now since there's gonna be quite a few turns till the population mellows down, it will be working on a plains hill for infrastructure. Meeklord is currently roading the cotton for luxuries and will after that gonna work more flood plains and the incense.



At the center, another skeleton pops up. Quite unfortunate timing too since it's highly likely that it will block of the path for the settler, which is done next turn.

With the bard settled it bumps my GNP to a respectable 3rd position. I know 12 of it are culture, but eh...it still looks nice. Still below average though and whoever that is on the top is making some scary amount of money!



Ending the turn pops the borders at Trinity and reveals the pines! Which could be handy in a future conflict.



Finally, i'm no longer last in score!

Small notes in 2 turns:

Nyktorion, 6 points.
Mardoc, 6 points.
Thoth, 23 points. In addition he has sacrificed food and gold for lots and lots of hammers. Apparently he is building up for something, but what?

[Mr. Yellow]

Well well, would you look at that.



Spitting against the laws of nature, Hogwoods ballsiness trashed the barbarians and made it through with just 0.1 health remaining. Yupp, that guy needs a title. Exactly what i'm not sure about, suggestions?
2 combat promos later and he looks pretty damn scary. Once fully healed, even spiders will have pretty bad odds against him on hills (6.9 vs 5).

In addition this will be the guy i'm aiming to get to level 6 with. The primary wonder i'm targeting for (Form of the Titan), needs a level 6 unit to be unlocked. Hogwood currently has 9 XP and with charismatic i only need 11 more to get him to level 6.
Currently i'm torned with letting him continue scout west and accumulate XP or get him home and find something else to poke at. Right now the only danger for him are giants.



Anyway Festivals are done and with the settler finished, the captial is set to get a market up in 2 turns. As for the settler, it will take 3 turns till he arrives and settles on the marble (the skeleton moved east and out of range to intercept).
Education is next and with that cottages. So i'll be getting a few more workers up before i consider my next step.



This is a rather unwelcome sight. Nyktorion just appeared with a settler party to grab the flood plains. This upsets me, as those squares are what made this spot good in the first place. Wished i waited one turn with the bard so he could be settled in Vallus instead.
Either way, i've sent him a warning and i even consider aggression if he settles down. Both cultural and military.
The exchange will come at a later update.

Speaking of unwelcome sights.



Yupp, Thoth just gained another gold. Think it's from an event of the barrow or something else. Either way this is downright pissing!

OK, i've got 3 locations for the next city.
First is the safe one to the west with copper. However this is a pretty guaranteed spot and i'm not gonna pursue Bronze working till i'm done with Cartography.
The 2nd is to the south of the river close to the marble. Thoth getting a 2nd gold makes me want to just get the rest of the river. Then there's the pyre which provides fire mana.
The 3rd and least likely is the gold spot to the south-east, though i expect it's grabbed now. Think i'll get a new scout to explore the tower again to see whats up. Either it's a clear way down (hopefully with less giants) or i recieve a new contact.

And the latest news on the scouting front.



Small notes:
Nyktorion, 6 points.
Mardoc, 6 points.

[icewolf34]

In BtS I often promote up Woodsman for scouting warriors so they can get the double-move... too late, though? I forget if Shock helps with animals or not.

I suggest title of 'Boss'.

[Sareln]

In BtS I often promote up Woodsman for scouting warriors so they can get the double-move... too late, though? I forget if Shock helps with animals or not.

I suggest title of 'Boss'.

In FfH, Woodsman 2 is unlocked with a later tech - Hidden Paths, Available only to FoL Civilizations.

Shock does not help with Animals. Works fine on Barbs.