Like a hot wind Varn Gosam of the Malakim [SPOILERS]

[Thoth]

OOOHHHH!

Fun and excitement.


Hybie DOWed WarriorKnight. And WK popped his world spell.

In other news, I finished up Infernal Pact and will be starting up the Grimoire next turn.


Update-wise.....

A bunch has happened domestically. The RNG has seen fit to give me a free smuggler's port (+1 trade route, +25% gold) in Golden Shanty and I got an event a few turns ago with three choices in GLT:
Choice 1: +1 happy in all cities for 15 turns. Nice, but I'm not much of a fan of temporary happiness.
Choice 2: Get a Sage specialist in GLT for +1 (permanent) unhappiness
Choice 3: Get an Academy in GLT in exchange for 133 gold and +2 (permanent) unhappies.

I thought about it for awhile, and decided that I can put up with the +2 unhappies and took the Academy.

Elsewhere, I finally got the Goblin fort in the Badlands cleared out and popped the lair.

Result: see post #1 in this thread.

Yes, I got *another* Gold resource

Irgy built a pile of Privateers and nuked 2 out of my three Cultists that had been anoying him. #3 (Jim Jones, the Slayer of Rosy) is currently sitting at 48/50 exp. I cleared out a gobbo fort on the Sheam borders and managed to Command a gobbo into my service. Not very useful under normal circumstances but when I popped the fort it turned out [Akbar]IT'S A TRAP[/Akbar] and the gobbo came in handy to rescue Jim from the cage.

I've got a Frigate on the way to pull Jim and Gorbag out of hostile territory. Once I've Grimoired MD, I'll upgrade Jim to an Eidolon. Other Eidolon candidates are Kirsty Alley (21 xp), David Khoresh (13/17 exp but will be stronger once I've finished with the Isle of Menalaus (sp??). #4 I'm not sure about. I'm regretting upgrading Khayless to a chariot as he would have made a fine Eidolon. So it goes.

The Isle produced an Azer this turn which was easily killed. I'll pop it again next turn and will keep popping it until it goes away. I've got a couple of 6xp Enchanted Blade/SoF Stygians in the area to help deal with any unpleasant nasties.

[Thoth]

Thoth: Things just got a little more interesting in FFH PBEM III. I'm sure you saw the Undercouncil elections (not sure what's up with that....I thought we had a few rounds of voting between elections) and of course Hyby DOWed WK....who promptly deployed his worldspell.
[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Mardoc:[/COLOR] Definitely
8:33 PM I don't think anyone got elected the first time - I voted me and Irgy voted Irgy
made me annoyed
I was shocked to see WK use the worldspell on Hyborem
Thoth: The pop up I got said Irgy had won the election last time
Mardoc: I mean, he's actually got an army, right?
Thoth: Hybie may have popped inside WK's land
WK's army isn't much at this point.
8:34 PM Mardoc: I voted Nyktorion this time, because I wanted to make sure there was a majority for someone
and I didn't think people would vote you
Thoth: Blessed warriors + a few Monks/Crusaders
Mardoc: Well, ok, I suppose Hyborem could be a real threat potentially
8:35 PM I still would have waiting to Sanctuary until I talked with darrell, though
I see he ended up on the coast, and you're at war too?
you Tsunaming him to death?
Thoth: I voted me.....not that I expected to win, but I'm looking at 10 Fire 1 adepts within striking distance of my borders and enough time for most of them to get upgraded to Mages
I haven't seen Hybie yet....
8:36 PM Mardoc: Maybe I misread the diplo screen
but I thought you were at war
Thoth: If Jim Jones manages to spot him on coast, then It's CoolAid time.
Mardoc: I just searched the map for the spot that's now Hell terrain
8:37 PM Thoth: Hybie DOWed me as soon as he was summoned. I can't imagine why.
OH. Neat trick. How do you search the map?
Mardoc: well, it helped that Mr. Yellow traded me his map before his , ahem, exit
8:38 PM but changes to tiles show up even in the fog
Thoth: AH. He didn't want to send me his map info for some reason.
Mardoc: Can't imagine why not?
it is a mystery
8:39 PM Thoth: I've no idea. After all I did help him to reduce his #of cities maintenance costs.
lol
8:40 PM Mardoc: but yeah, Hyborem ended up on the eastern coast, darn near as far away from us as possible
so I will be shocked if either of us have to deal with Hell
8:41 PM Thoth: That makes sniping him difficult for me. Irgy's Privateers killed off the Cultist I had in the far East. But good news about no Hell terrain. And it's at least 20 turns before Hybie's forces can cross Elohim lands. Good times.
8:44 PM Mardoc: I'm inclined to say 'not my problem' and wave
7 minutes
8:52 PM Thoth: hehehe
me to. :0

8:53 PM BTW: next turn General Martok will be killing that giant that's been wandering about between our borders.
The General has been getting a bit bored of late.
8:54 PM Mardoc: best of luck
I've been meaning to get around to that
8:55 PM speaking of which - that desert is still mine for colonizing, right?
Thoth: Thanks. The General is showing 98+% odds so barring any really nasty RNG quirks....
8:56 PM Yeah, you can have that desert. I've founded all the shitty cities that I want to.
Golden Dungheap is aptly named.
Mardoc: I suppose it does help to be running City States
it's still a profit to me!
8:57 PM small, granted
Thoth: Yeah, CS makes sense for the Lanun. Not much point in running Agristofarms when you have Lanun sea tiles to work instead.
8:58 PM Mardoc: granted, they're not quite as good, but they're close enough
your floodplains are what, 5/0/4?
8:59 PM or did you change out of Financial this turn?
9:00 PM no, wait, Malakim, it would be 5/0/4 if you already switched
5/0/5 before
Thoth: 5/0/5 with Fin/Nomad. I'll be swapping out of Fin next turn.
9:01 PM Mardoc: oh, it's next turn?
Now that I've got an Adaptive leader myself, I'd better study up on these things
(PBEM6)
Thoth: With 15 cities needing courthouses + damn near 100gpt civic upkeep (pre inflation) Org is looking pretty good right now.
9:02 PM Trait swaps happen at the beginning of turn 71/146/211
Mardoc: that might save you as much money as Financial grants you
got all your markets built, then?
Thoth: It's close. Once I factor in the hammer savings on CH's ORG is looking very good
9:03 PM Markets and Money changers. :D
I could use a couple more....but I could also use some more defence.
9:04 PM Mardoc: I've heard that elves consider arrows a form of romantic overture...
like we treat roses, really...
9:05 PM Thoth: Arrows? I was figuring that they might like an introduction into Rings of Fire and what happens if you are foolish enough to walk into one.
Mardoc: do take pictures, will you?
9:06 PM Thoth: I'm a bit behind on that....my lurkers are unhappy with the lack of updates....but if war comes to me I'll document it for posterity.
Mardoc: you still have nearly double my posts
9:07 PM how'd you manage that without talking about the game?
Thoth: A lot of those were drunken rampages across the internet. The content:random spam ratio in my lurker thread is a bit low at the moment.
9:08 PM Mardoc: I see
well, ok, I don't see
but I will one day
maybe now we've finally got our technical difficulties sorted out and can get to a better pace than 1/day
9:09 PM 1/week, I mean
9:10 PM Thoth: It's not all that complicated. Start by posting a lot of pics and thoughts to get people hooked. Then anytime you are drunk and on the internet, post some random crap in your lurker thread. The early good stuff gets them hooked, and they keep coming back for the crap.
Yeah, it would suck if PBEM II caught up to us again....especially after the trash talking
9:11 PM Mardoc: what do you mean, 'if'
they're at T145, same as us
except with 4 players instead of 6, now
9:13 PM Thoth: Well, we were ahead of them for awhile in turn count. Though in terms of potential excitement for the endgame I think we're still ahead.
No one is completely out of this yet (except for Mr. Yellow)
9:14 PM Mardoc: true. Admittedly, if I were betting, I'd bet on the Malakim
9:15 PM but yeah, we've got something more interesting than 'Vampires curbstomp everyone' remaining
I'm pretty sure, anyway
9:16 PM speaking of interesting - have you been watching the Diplo game?
9:17 PM Thoth: Well, I'd bet on the Malakim as well But I might be a bit biased....and I would have bet on the Malakim in PBEM II up until a few days ago....things can change.
I've been following the Diplo game, but not very closely. It's not something I've ever played.
Mardoc: this is true. And there is a Spectre power in our game, too
9:18 PM that's pretty much why I've been following it, I figure this is my chance to finally get a clue as to what's going on
scooter's thread has been very useful in that regard
9:19 PM Thoth: Spectres don't fare very well against Demonic units (such as Stygians......)
I'm taking a similar approach with the Diplo game....hoping to learn a few things along with my popcorn.
Mardoc: are Eidolons demons?
9:20 PM I would have thought they could save Thoth's bacon, but it's not looking that way
Thoth: Yep.
Mardoc: wait, other Malakim
Thoth: And they might just save my bacon yet.
Mardoc: Ilios
Thoth: hehe.
9:21 PM You do need some other units to back them up, but they make a very solid core for an army.
Mardoc: you sure you didn't invade PBEM2?
Thoth: Not yet. I'm still working on the "PBEM Planar Gate" ritual.
Once it completes OTOH....:evilgrin:
9:22 PM Mardoc: revenge for your Malakim brethren!
Kill mackoti in a single fell swoop!
Thoth: I'm pretty sure Mackoti isn't in FFHII....
9:23 PM I'd have to invade another game for that
Mardoc: yeah, that'd be 8
Decius again
9:24 PM I suppose you could settle for taking out Darrell in both games...
9:28 PM anyhow, I'll let you go - going to be playing Magicka with a friend in a bit
9:29 PM Thoth: It looks like I'm not going to have the chance in either game....WK will likely do the deed in FFHIII. His Order hero (can't remember the name...) was sitting at C3/Flanking3 last I saw it
Ok. G'night.
Good chatting with you.
Mardoc: you too
take care

TLDR: Hybie is in the far east and we're both happy that we don't have to deal with him. (and the Diplomacy game is interesting)

[Thoth]

[COLOR="Purple"] Hi Thoth,

Apparently I've inherited a war, together with all the diplomatic obligations to the other players Irgy has left me. =P
Kudos btw on the killing of Rosier, it was a good first strike I would have possibly taken myself if the opportunity had presented itself. (I was certainly laughing... when I saw Irgy's post...)
Due to the distance between our civs, it would possibly be inefficient to continue this war for both of us, and Irgy has left me a decent number of privateers for coastal defence.
I would be available for a discussion of possible terms if you'd like to.

Best Regards,
Heisenberg
[/COLOR]

This arrived a couple of weeks ago before we ran into the pauses and tech difficulties of late. Couple that with some busy times in RL, and I didn't get back to him until today. Not good. Never mind the diplo consequences, not replying was a bit rude and I regret not sending him at least a "thanks for taking over for Irgy and welcome to the game" email.

My belated reply:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi Heisenburg,

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. RL has been busy for me lately, and with the game more or less on hold for the last few weeks I haven't been doing much with it.

Shitty excuses, yes. Not responding to emails is a poor way to say "thanks for taking over for Irgy"

As far as the "war" between us goes, I'm not sure where I want to go with it. Deploying naval and water walking assets to keep you on your toes is certainly an option, but I doubt we can inflict much in the way of serious damage to each other at this point in time. Since WarriorKnight has seen fit to deploy his WorldSpell we can't get at each other via land for 20 turns or so since his territory blocks land access between us. I'm aware of the Privateers that Irgy managed to build/upgrade, but they don't fare very well against Iron Stygians and Frigates.

Killing Rosy wasn't really a first strike....it was just taking advantage of an opportunity.

What sort of terms did you have in mind?

Thoth.

(thanks for filling in for Irgy and helping to keep the best game on RB going. )

[/COLOR]

and a fast reply:

[COLOR="Purple"]Hi Thoth,

No problems, it had been a slow few turns.

Frankly, due to the distances between our two civs, I believe there isn't much profitability in an escalation of the "war".
As you are clearly the current leader in tech/land/GNP, I'm sure you have more pressing issues about the developments of your surrounding 3 neighbours... which "might" be viewing your rise with some "concern".

I had been bound to follow diplomatic agreements left behind by Irgy, but I need not follow the diplomatic... directions he had set.
If you are willing to keep further discussions purely confidential, we might be able to discuss certain other aspects which might be of interest to you.

Best Regards,
Heisenberg[/COLOR]

Well now. That might be interesting.

I'm all in favour of not getting dogpiled before I win the game.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi Heisenburg,

I agree that actually fighting a serious war would likely prove unprofitable to us both.

I'm interested in those "certain other aspects" you mention. I agree that I will keep any discussions between us purely confidential (with the exception of those vultures known as "lurkers" )

Regards,

Thoth.

(if you are on Gmail, feel free to hit me up for a chat if you see that I'm online)[/COLOR]

(note to self: It's Heisenberg not Heisenburg. )

[Thoth]

I had a longish chat with Heisenberg last night. We discussed some very interesting possibilities that I'm not at liberty to talk about at the moment.

However, he did let me know a few interesting things....Hyborem spawned within range of two of WKs cities which were "guarded" by a single warrior each No wonder he was so quick to fire his WS. Also, it was Irgy who was agitating for a COW before I sniped Rosy....

Mardoc is heading for Hemah and is trying to get access to Ice mana. Water walking Hemah with Snowfall would be a PITA to deal with.

and when I checked my email this morning....it looks like COW II is falling apart before it starts.

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Hi Thoth

It's been a while, how have you been doing?

It seems that our NAP is close to expiring again. I would be interested in extending it to T195, but given the current situation I can't agree to sign it without also agreeing that this NAP remains confidential (between the two of us only). Would you ok with that? If not I'm willing to discuss other ways we can make it work out for both of us.

BTW is there a reason why your at war with the Infernal's? I don't think it's because they spawned closest to you (I already claimed that title).

Regards,
WarriorKnight[/COLOR]

Now that's an interesting proposal. I'm not sure I like the secret aspect of the NAP as letting Mardoc know that my eastern borders are secure would help to encourage him to extend his NAP with me. I'll have to do some thinking about this before I get back to him. I'm going to want something more than a generic NAP, but if we do sign I should be able to win the game before the NAP expires.

[Thoth]

Turn 146 brought me to my second trait swap. I've decided to go with Organized for a few reasons. 1) Cheap Courthouses (I currently have none) 2) Cheap civics (I'm paying ~100g per turn x 138% inflation in civic upkeep) and 3) Command Posts for my production centres.

Swapping into Org and then burning the Great Artist from Drama produced this:

I popped Maenlus again:

More easy exp.

Empire overview:

Hitting end of turn produced a Great Prophet in GLT who will go to build the Empy shrine. I'll have another GP out of Golden Hovel in 7/8 more turns. What I get is up to the RNG, it's about equal chances for a GE, GProphet or a Great Commander.


Turn 147 I upgraded 5 Lightbringers to Ritualists for some nice collateral damage units.

Up north, Nyktorion decided to be a twit and popped Maenlus (producing a crab resource). He had to enter my borders with a caravel to do it and I could interpret his action as a violation of our NAP.

I'm considering my response, but I'm inclined to be a reasonable man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCvyrtVH...re=related

And I sent this off to WarriorKnight:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi WarriorKnight,

The Infernals DOWed me as soon as they were summoned, I think it's automatic because I was at war with their summoner. After my comments in the tech thread, I found it to be rather amusing.

As far as the NAP extension goes I'm willing to sign until eot 195 with a confidentiality clause. I would however like to also add a clause prohibiting the use of each others lands by any third party who should be at war or planning war against either of us.

If that is acceptable to you, let me know and we can ink the deal. If not, I'm willing to listen to other proposals.

Thoth. [/COLOR]

I'm not actually all that worried about Heisenberg using WK's lands to attack me but I'd like WK to think that I am. (Actually, until WKs world spell wears off all Heisenberg and I can do is make funny faces and rude gestures at each other across Elohim territory.)

We're in for some interesting times in the near future.

[Thoth]

[COLOR="Plum"]Hi Thoth,

Thanks for the offer, consider the NAP till t180 signed. We can remain in "war" for the moment, as a smokescreen.
WK is still caught up in the Elohim-Infernal conflict. I'm waiting to see how it pans out.

-Heisenberg [/COLOR]

Interesting times indeed.

[Thoth]

Reply:

[COLOR="Yellow"] Cool. Consider the NAP until EOT 180 signed on behalf of the Malakim.

Ingame "war" means SFA from where I sit. let everyone else think what they may.

Thoth. (still stocking up on popcorn for the Elohim/Infernal war)[/COLOR]

[Thoth]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Hi Thoth,

Your additional clause is fine by me. So consider the NAP until EoT195 with a confidentiality clause and a third party war clause between our nations signed by the Elohim.

Regards,
WarriorKnight

[/color]




Fun times.

[Mr. Yellow]

How is the demographics/graphs looking?

[Thoth]

How is the demographics/graphs looking?

I'm second in power (after Hyborem) and solidly in first in Food, MFG, and GNP.

I'll grab some screenies when the turn comes back to me.