[SPOILERS]- Crazy Keelyn is trippin’ Balz: Bobchillingworth of the Balseraphs

[DaveV]

I'm still reading, but just don't have much to contribute. It sounds like things are going well, maybe even too well. You should keep the diplo flowing in an effort to avoid the old "gang up on the leader" syndrome.

[Hesmyrr]

Ditto. You are being watched (love how this sentence could be intepreted ambiguously).
When are you planning to explore the island? Prospect of competitor having any effect on your settling/exploration plans?

[Bobchillingworth]

Np guys, I don't have much to report anyway :P



Turns right now are just moving Loki and workers while everything works on infra builds.



I should have fishing in 6 or 7 turns from now (counting the one turn left for CoL and one for revolution to aristocracy & apprenticeship). Workboat in... dunno when. I'll switch both of my southern cities to workboats, but both only have a single mine each to work, along with some plains forests. If the Clan can get to the island first, then I guess I'll just be sad, and consider them my most likely target if / when I finally decide to get aggressive with someone. I know that Sareln will be interested in fighting them (and may even still at war with the Clan once my NAP runs out), so I should have some help on that front.

SL and Serdoa made peace this turn- both were gassed militarily and stuck on 2 cities each, so I can see why neither saw any reason to continue fighting. Hopefully both will remain angry with each other for a long time to come, so that the likelihood of the two of them working together to attack me is mitigated (and so that I may be able to prevail upon SL for assistance if I attack the Sheaim).

[Bobchillingworth]

Turns have been moving more slowly than I'd like, but enough has happened for me to prepare an update.




First, diplomacy. Here's a chat I had with Square Leg a few days ago:

4:33 PM Square Leg : Hey Bob, Hows it going?

[I told him that I was just checking out a save file DaveV sent me from FFH Adventure III, which I hear is the awesome experience of a lifetime which closes in exactly two weeks and which every man, woman, child & beast ought to play and marvel at in rapturous delight, and we talked about the Mostly Greatest Scenario to Ever Exist Probably Until The Next One for several mins. Yes.]

So in PBEM V I have peace with the Sheaim!
Bobchillingworth : I saw!
guess he was pretty gassed
Square Leg : So was I....
4:46 PM I don't know if I have mentioned but I survived at my capital with 1 warrior on 0.1 health.
4:48 PM Serdoa doesn't want me discussing the actual terms of peace but I think it is fair to say that I am pretty happy with the terms considering everything
Bobchillingworth : I wonder why he'd want to keep them secret...
can you say if you have an NAP with him?
4:51 PM Square Leg : Well - yes, I do. I'm still able to abide by our agreement to share known threats with regard to the Sheaim and the Clan.
4:52 PM To that respect - I can confirm he hasn't expressed an interest to go attack you right now. He has aired the question of doing so in the future but I am not bound to attack with him
4:53 PM Have you chatted with Sareln of late?
4:56 PM Bobchillingworth : yeah, just yesterday
4:57 PM Square Leg : He sent me a mail regarding the clan
seems we are all in agreement that they got some sons of the inferno and have teched sailing
4:58 PM Bobchillingworth : he told me that's what though they had, anyway
that or a Discipline of Acheron
4:59 PM dangerous stuff if they do have one of the Sons- nobody can match that kind of power right now, and Sareln could get eliminated
he didn't seem overly alarmed, tho
Square Leg : hmm - if he is ahving to ship them back then sinking the boat carrying them would be really cool
5:00 PM Are you in any position to carry out such a task?
Bobchillingworth : afraid not
don't have boat tech yet
won't for a little while yet
Square Leg : brb
5:04 PM Do you currently have a nap with the clan? - Sareln could be o if he manages to cast his worldspell and then warrior-mob them with haste...
Bobchillingworth : I have an arrangement with the Clan, of some variety
5:05 PM for than that I'm forbidden to say
Square Leg : ah ok
Bobchillingworth : I'm trying to get fishing soon tho, both cause' I have fish to fry, and because I want to trade Entropy mana to sareln
5:06 PM Square Leg : I wonder if we will be able to trade as a result - have to check the map
5:07 PM Do you have any duplicate resources?
Bobchillingworth : yup!
extra rice and cotton
5:08 PM oh and ivory
won't be connecting that for a little while tho
especially since I cottaged over one of them, heh
Square Leg : I have silk, corn and beaver potentially
Bobchillingworth : cool- I could def. use both more health and happy
5:09 PM my civ is crushing the demographics, but it's all just a horrible farce
pretty much all culture
and godking
5:10 PM I'm kind of worried about getting dogpiled over it, which would be stupid when most of my cities produce more culture than beakers
5 minutes
5:16 PM Square Leg : Yeah - I don't think would be wise. there isn't exactly an alliance to do it though is there?
Serdoa is by himself - Sareln and me have enough to worry about - leaving the Sidar
Bobchillingworth : yeah, for now

This conversation led to me sending the following email to Serdoa three days ago:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Heya,



So since you've recently concluded your war with Square Leg, I figured I'd restart our previous NAP discussions. Although SL has honourably refused to give any details of the peace treaty you guys signed, I know that it's standard procedure for an NAP to be included. And since I'm your other neighbour, I'm interested in confirming the security of our mutual border. I think that as allies our civs could offer quite a bit to each other. In the past I was unwilling to work together militarily as I lacked for reliable forces, but that situation has since changed (and will continue to improve on my end). I've also got Entropy mana that I'm happy to trade for Death so that we can assist each other on our Towers of Necromancy, and I'm willing to loan my other sources as well in the future. And as the owner of the Stigmata, my interests in raising the AC dovetail rather nicely with your own.


Actually, on that last point I have some vague idea of perhaps putting together a loose "Alliance of Armageddon". You, me, the Clan, and I guess Hyborem whenever someone gets around to summoning him. All of us will get something out of raising the AC. I have my shrine, you have your Planar Gates, and Tredje has Warrens to double-produce Prophecy units & benefits from the barbarian trait allowing him to unleash the Riders without fear of consequence. I admit that I haven't put much more thought than that into it though. Let me know if you think it has some promise.



-Bobchillingworth [/COLOR]

Of course he hasn't replied yet, despite being on chat (along with Tredje and SL... hmm....). Until I receive a favorible reply, I'm going to have to assume the worst and significantly beef up my defenses on the border. If I can get my military up before he attacks, and if we don't have an NAP, he's foe #1. I'm never going to feel safe with a neighbor who immediately tries to scheme about attacking me with the guy he was fighting a life & death war against (which he initiated!) just a turn prior. As a result of this and another development which I'll get to in a sec, I've set Bronze Working as my next tech instead of fishing.



Today I also revolted to aristocracy and apprenticeship. Here's some pics showing the results:



Before









After:









Science has significantly improved- I'm going to bump up the research rate to 60%, I think. Still moving a little bit more slowly than I'd like- I wonder when I should deploy the worldspell. I've been intending to save it for the late game, but perhaps it would make more sense once I can start building adepts, for quicker preparation in case of an invasion? Some input here would be appreciated.


It's a little difficult to make out in the empire overview images, but the barbs have built a city on the spot I have marked in the eastern fog. That's the other reason I want copper- I'm going to have Jubilee and Hexam build an army of warriors and freaks and march them over with the axe once BW comes in, to seize the city. Survivors will take up positions as city garrisons. The Freak currently in production at Jubilee will form a Freak Show, though (unless he has ridiculously good mutations). Sixth city is built next turn.



The Veil has spread to four of my five cities, making conversion somewhat attractive. Only one of them has reached the happy cap (Coombe), but Jubilee will fairly soon. Not sure that it's worth the turn of anarchy, though. Although the chance of getting the golden age event is great too. Hmm.



Tech path is now BW -> fishing -> Knowledge of the Ether -> sailing & onwards to Deception. The inclusion of KotE slows down my reaching Esus significantly, but I badly want adepts for rust and to a lesser extent inspiration.


Sigh, so many techs, so little time to get them :P

[DaveV]

Tech path is now BW -> fishing -> Knowledge of the Ether -> sailing & onwards to Deception.

Why the fixation with CoE? If you're expecting a visit from flaming zombies in the near future, you should be working on a counter, like summons or fast units. Just grabbing Horseback Riding for the Mobility promotion would give you the ability to hit and run on roads. Does Serdoa have bronze weapons? That would make it a really sticky situation. Ring of Flames will do only half damage to PZs, but if you had 6 Ritualists they'd still be likely to rack up 40% damage. From what I've read, the explosive damage done by a dying PZ is proportional to his strength.

[Bobchillingworth]

I think I've explained it a few times now, but: Gibbon & Nox Noctis. Especially Gibbon.



I don't know if a PZ attack is coming soon- Serdoa's power remains low and he's still stuck at two mediocre cities. I am working on a counter now by going for adepts earlier- with rust I can reduce PZ to 4 strength with a -10% penalty. Should be fairly easy prey for my own warriors and freaks at that point. Mobility would be nice, but I also want sailing for claiming any islands I can reach, given the shortage of land. I was going to reply on luckily mutated 2 or 3 move Freaks, although I guess I could take a diversion to HBR. It's a cheap tech tho, so I can research it fairly quickly in a pinch, while I hold off Serdoa initially with less-mobile warrior spam. That assumes that he attacks any time soon, which he may well not given how under-developed he is at the moment.


But the best defense is a good offense, or so the saying goes, and so I think I'll be best off if I just destroy Serdoa with Air or Earth Elementals as soon as I can get my hands on them. He's backwards and he's going to grow increasingly desperate to attack me over time as I continue to surpass him in all categories; I'm never going to feel safe as long as his empire remains on my border. Trying to take him out with a giant army of ritualists and mobility units seems expensive and dangerous- I'd rather bleed his military out from afar with T3 summons, then move in for the kill with basic melee units.


Edit: There's also chariots, which are a good counter to PZ and happen to fit nicely with the path to CoE. I'd still need masonry & construction, but those are pretty cheap techs I should be able to slot in whenever.

[Bobchillingworth]

City 6 is up:





Guell should already have a couple farms ready, but I lost several worker turns to a lizardman choke (finally killed him this turn, no losses). The FP farm completes next turn, so at least it's only going to spend a single turn working an unimproved tile.

Considered revolting to the Veil for the happy boost, but I don't think that I can justify even a turn's worth of lost hammers, growth, and beakers to do so.


The Clan have five cities, the last two founded on a turn or two apart. Seems likely to be the product of Warrens. I'm the only person with six.



I keep going back & forth about different tech options- do I try to found the Overlords and try to head straight to cultists / Stygian? To I bother with the Veil techs? But so far I'm committed to staying the CoE course, because none of the other possibilities look convincingly superior.

[Selrahc]

Edit: There's also chariots, which are a good counter to PZ and happen to fit nicely with the path to CoE. I'd still need masonry & construction, but those are pretty cheap techs I should be able to slot in whenever.

Have you got horses?

[Bobchillingworth]

Look closely at Argenteria

[DaveV]

I think I've explained it a few times now, but: Gibbon & Nox Noctis. Especially Gibbon.

Yes, you have said that a few times. It seems to me to be a long way off, but you're the best judge of the current threat level.