[Spoilers] Cometh the Messiah - Varn Gosam and the Malakim

[Brian Shanahan]

Spider Baby and Boring Voiced Priests are both Father Ted references.

In fact if ever I screw up the courage to do one of these, I'll be doing a priest rush just to use all the Father Ted names.

[Ilios]

Spider Baby and Boring Voiced Priests are both Father Ted references.

Ah, I didn't get that, sorry. I remember my brother waxing lyrical about the series, but I never really got into it.

Diplo:

From ze Calabim:

Well, it was obvious you were preparing for it. If we caught you with your pants down, then sure, its a good idea. When that didn't happen, we should have aborted. And yeah, there were also some coordination issues, which didn't help. Heck, we didn't even have the time (okay okay, the courtesy) to issue a form DoW e-mail, we certainly weren't going to herd the cats!

Shall we make peace in game? It would go a long way to repairing our relations if you'd march some crappy units into our land, fortify them, and let us farm them for experience, but I suppose we could let you off with a "white" peace ;-).

Darrell

Haha, good old Darrell...

Should I bother to tell him I WAS caught with my pants down?

I'm not sure I want peace right away though, so I just replied I'll think about it.

Lanun:

Ilios


Ok =) But can we get a NAP along with it? Just for security purposes.

Wow, nice, she agrees to give me her mana, basically for free. I'll explain in a separate post how important that is. That NAP isn't much of a bother, I've got at least four more decent sites to fill, and as much as I enjoy bashing heads, I'd like some more time in builder mode.

Hah, that'll give me an NAP with all my neighbours!

[Ilios]

T106:

The Lanun land their first prize:



Heh, I never noticed that defense bonus on the Heron Throne...

I moved most of my Priests into En-Kai. I've got a Worker building a road section so the Priests can move next to the Barb city in one turn.

After ending turn, I noticed something weird...

Before:



As you can see, the Worker build in En-Kai is showing three turns to go, while the one in Horus is showing two turns.

After:



Worker in En-Kai is showing one turn to go, Horus Worker is finished!

I discovered Sanitation (+1 food all farms) end of turn, but apparently, the bonus food per city still gets added before hammers/food goes into the Worker builds.

This brings back the phase/timing discussions in Magic the Gathering, way back.

- Untap phase
- Upkeep phase
- Draw card
- Declare attackers
- Declare defenders
- etc

Anyway, new demos (after ending turn):

[Ilios]

Diplo w Amelia:

Hmm,


Why would you need to convince the rest (Calabim?) we're still at war? All I want to keep secret is the Mana deal really.

Regards,


Ilios

Ilios


Well, they threatened me to attack you. They don't have vampires yet. i have this army that is taking up costs, and the only reason why i have it is because of them.


I think you can see where this is going.


Also about the mana deal, sure, i'll keep it secret, but bear in mind others can see it through the trade screen.


Amelia.

Amelia,


I'm not really following you here...

How long do you expect us to be at war, while at the same time we'd have a NAP till T150?

We'd need to be at peace if you want to be able to gift me the Mana, right?

Also, I've talked to the Vampires, and they don't seem to be convinced they're the instigators of this little adventure...

Oh, and grats on the Heron Throne!


Regards,

Ilios

Ilios,


Basically, can we remain at war for say, 5 turns? Enough turns for me to lead my troops over to the Calabim border, and give him a surprise.


If there's others behind this potential conflict, i am sadly not aware of it (mostly because of my isolated start, which means that i didn't have contacts).


Once i have my troops in position for the Vampire assault which hopefully they won't see coming, i'll sign peace with you. Is that ok?


Amelia.

So, if I get this straight, Amelia will now move her little army east and invade the Calabim? Well, I'll believe that when I see it... Why would she tell me about the impending attack? For the moment I'm more inclined to think Amelia is working closely together with the Calabim. No matter though, we'll see in a couple of turns I guess, but I won't be surprised if I get a: "Unfortunately, the Calabim have just reinforced their border city, so the attack is off."

[Ilios]

T107:

Splashscreen:



I decided 31 gold upkeep was too much, so I copied Uberfish' playbook:



I don't need the exp boost from Apprenticeship at the moment, so I might as well benefit from the extra free units. Together with the bonus from Nationhood, I'll have a 25% hammer bonus when building military units, which I'll use to spam a couple of Priest who are to be turned into Temples.
I might use the Gold rush to quickly finish Libraries in cities, so I can build the Great Library.

The result:



Nine gold saved, that's pretty nice!

I will be planting a city on the dot on T111. Lots of overlap with the the barb city, but since most of the overlapping tiles consist of crappy peaks, I can live with it.

As you can see, I'm a couple of beakers short of getting Military Strategy in one turn. So I dialed research back to 20% for some extra cash. If someone gets the free Commander this turn, I'll switch to another tech, since I don't need the tech right away.



A little shot of Ra, my current Settler pump. As soon as it has built enough Settlers to fill the remaining land, I'll build the National Epic and start running some Priest specialists.


Oh, and the Calabim got Feudalism last turn...

[Ilios]

T108:

Ok...

So erm...

I checked for that Great Commander...

Turns out, it's gone already...

Hehe, I'm guessing Uberfish got it around the time he build the Form of the Titan. I have to admit, during the invasion I wasn't really paying attention to things like that, instead calculating combat odds and likely army paths.

Still, I should have caught that...

So anyway, I moved my army in position next to the barb city:



Maybe a little overkill for what is defending the city, but I was afraid someone else was planning to take the city. In the shot you can see a Luchuirp Warrior. It has a 10% fortifying bonus, so probably arrived a couple of turns ago. I'm not sure what he was planning on doing with the one Warrior, maybe get some exp out of it? In any case, Sciz is not going to be happy when he sees my troops next turn.

I have already thought of a nice quote should he come to complain about my taking the city.

“I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them”

:hat:

A Thane is tagging along, who will do his culture bomb thing, because I want to start improving the city right away.

Notice the Sugar, another happy resource ready to be claimed for the greater glory of the Malakim Empire! If there's another grain resource hidden in the fog, even better...

[Ilios]

In any case, Sciz is not going to be happy when he sees my troops next turn.

So, I was about to post that I was surprised that Sciz has played his turn, but apparently hasn't complained about my taking that city next turn...

you don't really need that city


not really

Sciz, if you ever read this, come on! You took the land that got liberated by the Loki move, fine. But you cannot expect me to give up on land you're not able to grab because you've been at war for 50 turns!

I wonder what he's going to say when I found a city right next to his borders in about ten turns...

Anyway, while I probably should tell him he's not really in a position to dictate terms, I sent him this instead:

Sciz,


My military advisors are telling me that the best way to defend my borders is to extend them. You are unfortunately not the only one running out of prime land to expand into...


Regards,


Ilios

If he keeps this up, I think my army might have to go on a punitive expedition...

[Ilios]

T109:

Events:



Wow!

Serdoa hasn't even waited for his NAP with the Calabim to expire, I think blood is pretty bad between those two...
Now if only I could get the Elves to participate in a conflict...

Anyway, despite loud protests from the Luchuirp ambassador, my troops next to the barb city move in, starting with those poor Tigers:



They all die, as expected.

Time to send in the big boys:



Killing two undamaged Warriors.

I then decide it might be a good idea to send in the Warriors to get some experience:



Otto Van Hoek moves in for the kill, and dies...

I knew I shouldn't have named a land unit after the famous Captain!

Anyway, I send in another Big Boy, and finish off with a Warrior.

The Thane moves in as well:



I'm not waiting four turns for the city to come out of revolt!:



A nice city! I especially like the Marbles...

As I view the surroundings of the city, I spot a little Luchuirp army, arriving right on time to celebrate the addition of Mithras to the Malakim empire! :hat:



An overview map, after ending turn:



Helios, En-Kai and Horus will start on a Library next turn. Both Helios and Horus can finish it in four turns, while En-Kai will take seven turns.
So, I'll probably rush buy that one, finishing all three Libraries at the same time, just when I'll have that Marble connected for the Great Library.
I'd like to build it in En-Kai, but I can probably knock it out with the Capital in five turns, and I'm not taking any risks. The free Sage would have been nice in En-Kai (Academy city), but I'm afraid the Elves might get it before me, with that monster capital of theirs (where is Uberfish getting the happyness from?).
I need the extra beaker from sages for the game I'd like to play.

As an added bonus, some graphs and demos:

[Ilios]

T110:

Ze splashscreen:



Four turns to finish all Libraries, then another four turns to finish the Great Lib.

World Events:



If I'd had to guess, the Calabim probably owed another Worker to the Balseraphs, and Serdoa declared war to grab them, since you cannot gift units in FFH.

Elves start a Golden Age! I suppose Uberfish used the Great Sage born last turn. Pretty good move with the Sage, all those hammers are doubled. I wouldn't be surprised if the Elves finish the Bone Palace during their current GA for another one...
I could try to grab it, with access to Marble Helios should have a good shot at it, but I'd prefer to get the GLibrary.

New city to be founded next turn:



Location is mostly to grab another gold tile, and to cut the west from Lanun expansion. Jumbo is in an unfortunate position, and won't have an experienced Hunter any time soon, so I might just throw a couple of Tigers at it, and finish it off with a Priest.

My Priest move into position to open the Ruins next turn:



I don't think I'll bother covering everytile with a unit. I'm too lazy, and I've always thought it was a pretty gamey move...

MFG graph:



The Elves have about double their next competitor...

[Ilios]

Haven't posted this screen in a while I think:



I haven't received the new turn yet, so this is still from T110. I've actually turned science down to 80%, running break even.

I'll grab KotE next, then on to Way of the Wicked and Corruption of Spirit. The ability to build/upgrade Ritualists is nice, but I'm picking it up so I can convert, turn evil, and run Slavery. There just isn't enough production on this map, and I'm swimming in food at the moment.
I'll whip some infrastructure, and then re-evaluate the situation in ten turns (and another Civics switch). I'll probably switch to Religion as well, so I don't get the unhappy face when I switch from RoK.

On the diplo front, I've agreed to a T150 NAP with the Lanun. It's builder's paradise till then...