[SPOILERS] - Tredje and Mardoc are Sheelba of the Clan of Embers

[Tredje]

I decided to write a mail to Square Leg where I suggested a settlement deal between our two empires. Now, why would I do this you may ask?

• 1: The Balseraph plan means that we could need a secure front. That front is not going to be against the Balseraph nor the Amurites, which leaves the Sidar and the Luchuirp.
  
• 2: Iskender admitted (which I think was a stupid thing to do), that he has a settlement agreement with the Amurites. This means that both of them could and probably will want to push towards us. This means that I do not trust either of them. This only leaves the Luchuirp, and although I do not want them to grow too strong, I need to think of our immediate survival.
  

Here is the mail I wrote:

Hi Square Leg,

You will forgive me if I write this out of character, as I am pressed for time but want to reply to your mail. Let me first of all thank you for informing us of a plot against us. We have, in fact, received warning from other players as well, and it seems that not everyone is interested in the Balseraph plan succeeding. Needless to say the Clan will not sit quietly and watch the land around us being seized by hostile powers.

Perhaps the Luchuirp would be interested in drawing up a settlement deal of the land between us? You remarked that your intentions towards the Clan are friendly, and that you do not intend to participate in a conspiracy against us. By agreeing on a such a deal you would not only show that your friendly words are matched by friendly actions, but you would also yourself be free to concentrate on settling other sites while knowing that the land between us would be ready for you to settle at any time.

Also, if we are able to come to an agreement, I would be at liberty to tell you a secret. A secret I think the Dwarves would be very interested in knowing.

Regards,

- Tredje (with Mardoc, Orc (with Goblin)

It's pretty straightforward and we will see how he responds. The secret I am hinting to is of course the Sidar plan. I have no intention whatsoever of participating in an attack that removes one of our possible allies while we are still surrounded by enemies. If Square Leg agrees to a settlement plan I will agree to a worldspell-NAP with Iskender and tell Square Leg about the threat.

[Tredje]

Posting for later discussion:

[Mardoc]

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday, I'll try to chime in here.

First, I have to admit, my immediate reaction is that we ought to call For the Horde now, and try to wipe the Balseraphs off the map. That'd make people reevaluate settling agreements! But then I calm down, and realize that's not a good idea just yet.

All in all, I agree with the idea of forming an Axis with the Luchiurp if that can be managed. You're right, Iskender and Sareln having a settling agreement means they'll both be coming our way, as apparently Bob will be, so we're already committed to a cold war/settling race with 3 of our 4 neighbors whether we like it or not. It's only good sense to try to ally with number 4; hopefully we can coordinate on a target too, but general friendliness is the least we can do.

But ideally, I'd rather hit the Balseraphs first - we definitely want Iskender to burn his world spell before we have to fight him, so a world spell NAP is worth pursuing. I expect our true striking power to come from Warrens, anyway, not the spell. With an alignment of these three, we have to tread carefully in our plans.

It looks like Bob has yet again managed an alliance where everyone else does his dirty work - if they were closer to him, I'd try to point that out. The unfortunate thing is that it's not much of a stretch between what he wants from them and what they'd be doing anyway. We ought to seriously consider allying with Serdoa as well (ideally against Bob); maybe it's worth sending Mr. Wolf off to find him once we settle the dragon bones to make sure that he has another perspective on the world than Bob's? Letting him know it seems to be a repeat alliance from PBEM1 might help bring him over to our side.

As for today's turn I have started mining the Gems, and the mine will be finished in 3 turns. The settling party is on its way to the designated site, and will settle in 2 turns. I also did some thinking regarding the Warren we are set to build in our capital. What hit me is that we can almost finish production of a unit, and then switch to another unit and do the same, before we actually build the Warren. This way we can use the turns before Masonry is in to put hammers into a Warrior and into a Settler. Then, when the Warren is done, we will get 2 Warriors and 2 Settlers. This also ensures that we can get our 3rd/4th city settled faster, because the time before Masonry is used to sink some hammers into a Settler. I think I will wait until after all this is done to build more Workers. Right now the capital has enough improved tiles and the second city can't be improved much until after Bronze Working.

This all sounds good - I'm slightly worried about hammer decay while we build the warrens, mainly cause I don't know the formula there. But yeah, pre-building stuff for the Warrens seems obviously a good idea, and I'm kicking myself I didn't see that myself.

And, in C&D news, the Amurites, Sidar, and Sheaim have each picked up a tech in either T36 or T37

[Tredje]

I am happy to hear that we have a similar perception of the situation.

I have sent a mail to Iskender informing him that due to the recent developments we will not participate in an attack on the Luchuirp.

I talked to Square Leg earlier today, and the screenshot posted is the result of our discussion. Although it pains me to see him grab so many floodplains, it does give us a reasonable chunk of land in that area, and it ensures our continued cooperation. This leads me to the second part of my plan.

The first thing I intend to do is send our Wolf Rider down towards Clown lands to scout for any Settler parties heading our way. If I see a good opportunity I might declare on Bob. I also want to fire our world spell within a short timeframe. I am not 100% certain when, but definitely before people start settling their third city. At that point we should have a Warren in our capital, and we shouldn't be too far from settling next to the Copper. This is a time where I think we can take Bob on. And what I have in mind is not charging headlong into Balseraph lands, but ensuring that he isn't able to settle in our direction. With the number of troops gained from For the Horde, and the ones we can produce ourselves, this should enable us to halt his advance, and maybe even weaken him a little.

[Tredje]

Turn 39:

Our second city will be settled next turn, which is also when the Gems will be mined. I have a second Warrior moving towards the site (I want at least 2 Warriors in the city), while I will be sending the Wolf Rider and the C2 Warrior in the Balseraph direction. Bob actually settled his second city last turn, and we can see its borders:

Strange as it may sound I am actually very pleased with this site. Why? A) It doesnt deprive us of our Copper, which was something I feared he might try. B) It is not on a hill and it is in close proximity of our capital. If you look at the screenshot provided by Square Leg, you will see that he has a planned city site north of the lake, on the right side of the river. If (or more likely when) it comes to blows, the city he settled is, in my opinion, a better target.

[Mardoc]

I'll admit, if I mentally change the border colors to orange, that does look like a good city site, fitting in well with the dotmap, and able to share the rice back and forth. And Bob's creative, so it will shortly be non-autorazed.

I'm not sure what the point of putting a second warrior in the new city is? We don't have to worry about the barbs, and I think our worry on other players is going to be an all or nothing sort of thing. I'd rather have him go with either settler 3, or as part of the For the Horde wave with the wolf rider.

I think I'd recommend against showing the wolf rider to Bob, though. We're not going to intimidate him, I don't think. Either use it directly for a choke (hopefully it can manage to always stay out of striking distance), or keep it hidden in the capital, or use it as a scout. Similarly, part of what I'm hoping for when we do call For the Horde is a goblin archer or two for choking purposes (Bob and maybe Sareln?). Str 6 on defense is nearly unbeatable at this point in the game, and if we stack a wolf or warrior with it, it could go pillage just about anything around a city. Maybe a pillage fest would even pay for the extra units!

[Tredje]

Haha, yes, the spot chosen by Bob is perfect for a Clan city :neenernee

Your point about the second Warrior is well taken. I guess I am slightly worried that Sareln or Iskender will try something while we go for Bob, but another Warrior really isn't going to make a difference there. Sending him back SE. Regarding Bob he already knows that we have a Wolf Rider. In fact, after we received one I think three of the other players mentioned it in our chats. The power-increase made it obvious I'm afraid. What we need to decide is if we want to send it to intimidate him as soon as possible, or maybe send it around the lake to try to outflank him, or if we want to keep it with our main force (once we have one) and use it to harass his reinforcements between the capital/second city.

And like you I would love to get some Archers with FtH.

[Tredje]

Turn 40:

Renegade Hill has been settled. It is working the Dragon Bones and has started on a Warrior. Gems are now mined and our BPT went up from 12 -> 19, albeit at -1 gold per turn. Masonry will be done in 5 turns now.

The Demographics look much better now. We are second in GNP and Crop Yield, first in Soldier count.

[Mardoc]

Excellent - hopefully this continues to pay off. That ought to nearly double our tech pace.

On the C&D front, not only did Bob get a new city, so did Square Leg. It's called 'Valley of Wind' - anyone know, is this another Howl reference?

I have another question for lurkers - the Dragon Bones says that it provides Ivory, in game. Is this true? Does it require we get to Hunting to use, or just a trade route? The manual says nothing about it, nor does the FFHpedia, but it'd be very nice if it gives us an extra luxury resource too (and would make me definitely agree with slipping in Exploration soonish!).

PBEM 5H (Irgy vs. Bob) spoiler:

One thing that struck me about Irgy's game against Bob was just how much a single well managed wolf rider hindered Irgy - he's had an ongoing choke for 45 turns and expects it to last at least another 5-10, all because the wolf can stay in range to threaten and pillage but out of range to be counterattacked by 1-movers successfully. That nice ability to move in, attack, and move away means that the wolf controls the pace of combat, and Str 4 means that he wins most of the time - even better once we manage to get him a couple levels. He's already Combat II, which would give him excellent odds of further fights, so long as we don't end turn next to a stack of Warriors.

We shouldn't waste that by waiting until people tech up! Honestly, now that I see that, I'm inclined to suggest we wait no longer than our Warrens to start on Bob, and perhaps even start right now - call For the Horde, and depending on what we get, immediately move to threaten one or more of our enemies.

I have this feeling that if we do that, it could help in other situations, too - when someone asks about why we chose Bob, our answer (which is even true!) is that he was settling very aggressively, and we didn't feel we could tolerate that. It might convince Iskender and/or Sareln to fill in some of their closer sites before pushing toward us

[Tredje]

I'm sorry, but I haven't got time to spend on this game today. I have an exam tomorrow, so that's where all my focus lies. I played the turn and moved our troops towards the Clown border. We need to make a detailed plan about how and when to strike against Bob. Do we for instance finish the Settler before the Warren to settle the Copper asap? I think this might be the best choice, even if it is not "optimal." Do we fire For the Horde as soon as our Wolf Rider is within striking distance or do we wait until the attack? There are probably other things to discuss as well. You can add your thoughts here and I will reply tomorrow.

Also, Sareln sent us an email about a settlement deal/NAP. My immediate reaction is to think: Good! We can secure our back and focus all our attention on Bob, and we don't have to fear that Sareln claims all the land to our West.