Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[NobleHelium]

I appreciate the LurkMaster title, I do believe I lurk a lot. I forgot about the fact that a fake war declaration is going to torpedo the trade routes for a while. So maybe we shouldn't do that, or maybe you can use that to decline passage for him for now.

[Gaspar]

I sent the preceding message lightly edited off to RG.

I got this from Nicolae, apparently he isn't quite as fussed about <redacted>'s actions in PBEM17. Is he d/l'ing someone there? Meh, its at least 10% more friendly than the rest of his diplo, but he really doesn't seem to be interested in making friends.

Hey Gaspar,

I've been sending a dude north to gain vision on the Pyre tile itself. It may need to pull him back, depending on how Orthus spawns. How are you going to deal with the jerk? I've been taking it cautiously, and I think I have the numbers if he spawns nearby, but the problem is my food/production is abysmal. You're right about the early academy, I got a lucky roll but I still don't think it will keep me relevant considering my other demonumbers. Congrats on landing early education, I'd love to get that and CoL and spam riverside aristofarms everywhere, but the only way to get those tiles productive is post bronze working. Not something you need to worry about, what with forest cottages that ignore the river bonuses . But don't worry, my 1st settler is going to be sent directly west in a handful of turns.

Also, what fascinating thing has Kyan done now? I've only followed PBEM4, 12 and 17. In the first one he did well with good mechanics and unassertive insecure rivals, 12 he had FWs, and 17 I think he just played really well while letting nospace take the heat. I haven't been following WW or Diplomacy, I've been too lazy for deep reading comprehension

Finally, I'd be interested in meeting up with the Hippus. What's their RP gimmick? My guess is Monty Python. I know yours is :weed:, and mine is a bizarre Left Behind/Conservapedia pastiche.

Cheers,
Nic

[Gaspar]

Also had a long, boring chat with Nicolae which didn't say much but I suppose is good for future relations. I'll tidy it up and post tomorrow.

If any of you ever end opposed to me in a Civ game - I really hate chats. In almost all situations, whatever needs to be said can be said in an email, and it doesn't soak so much time. If we end up chummy we can move to chats later when we have more to talk about. So, pretty much every chat invite about a non-critical issue is a -2 diplo hit from me. Just sayin'.

[pling]

Anyway, how about another RP interlude with the Horsepeoples:



Thoughts?

It made this lurker laugh - you're definitely doing a good job on the entertaining-thread thing ...

I don't expect you to constantly refresh, Mardoc. I expect everyone in the RB world to stop what they're doing and read my thread when there's an update!

... but not quite THAT good that I'll drop everything to find out if there's a new update :neenernee

[Man Behind the Mask]

Random thoughts about the last 24 hours...

It’s a good job we’re back to the “fun” theme, or a powerful and unpredictable enemy forking three units would be terrible for my nerves.

The new barb city is a disappointment, and it’s in a pretty strong spot so will be a bit more productive than the average.

One thing worth noting is that an unknown civ has again had a 12k drop in power.

I really enjoyed the Hippus message. I agree that close relations seems the best option – it’s going so well that neither side has immediately reached for the comfort of a NAP.

[Mardoc]

It’s a good job we’re back to the “fun” theme, or a powerful and unpredictable enemy forking three units would be terrible for my nerves.

You do know how to make me rush for the inbox and open the save, don't you!



Fortunately, the Ogre is down to 43 HP. We have 2 unpromoted warriors, and one with 5 XP.

Unfortunately, he's in defensive terrain and I don't think we can afford to cross the river before hitting him. So, how to best manage this?

Well, according to Sareln's odds calculator, we want the attack order to be Unpromoted, Unpromoted, promoted Combat I + Shock for the best odds. If we have the promoted guy hit first, we get these odds:


Hit second:


And hit third:


Since a higher probability of Ogre dead seems worth a lower expected number of survivors, to me at least, I would save the promoted guy for last. I did check, if he promotes Shock, he gets +40% against the Ogre.

Edit: Still, it may be worth recalculating this between the first attacker and the second, once we know how damaged that Ogre really is. Also, try to get screenshots .

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, you should attack with one warrior and then we can do another team huddle.

Also the difference between #2 and #3 is miniscule. However by taking #2, we increase our chances of saving one warrior by a lot. So, I'm in favor of going with #2, but obviously the decision changes once we find out the outcome of the first combat.

[Gaspar]

So, sorry for the wait. Friend of mine had his car stolen, so I ended up getting caught up quite late tonight and just got home. Thanks to you all for your work in figuring out the Ogre situation, lets see how this plays out.

Score increases: <redacted> 11, Grigori 6.

So let's see how this Ogre attack plays out. Brooklyn Brawler, noble in service, gave us a fairly impressive knockdown to half HP. Unfortunately, as Mardoc said, we're stuck in a situation where we have to take him down across a river on a forested hill with a 5% fortify bonus. Unfortunate that he never took the worker bait, but not much you can do. I decided to go with Barry Horowitz first, and here's the result:



Jobberpult doing what a jobberpult should do. Given the positive result, I decide to take the two promotions on the newly christened 1-2-3 Kid, and he has 83% odds against Kont-Check... the result:



A little something like this:

1...2...3!



Hmm. Now that he's won should I change his name to X-Pac?

Anyway, one crisis averted. Orthus was created last turn and since <name redacted> is last in the turn order, I don't think we'll be finding out where he landed until he dies. Really sucks that everyone doesn't find out as per normal, but so it goes. Anyway, 1-2-3 got 5 xp for that kill, so we should have a C2-Shock Warrior if Orthus comes around, that plus a jobberpult or two should be able to handle the job. With that, I leave the Remnants and go to working the 2F/1H unimproved cows to grow in Hash pipe. I decide to result the Elder Council for now, knowing we can churn out another 2T warrior should danger return to the forests. R.I.P. Brooklyn Brawler, we really should get to build Shrine of the Fallen Champion with your loss.

Other than that, Butterfinger and Cheetos move a tile west and resume cottaging, and Almond Joy resumes farming. At EOT, we'll birth a Great Sage. Still haven't decided whether to keep working the sage or work the 3/1/0 farm to get more workers out faster. Probably the latter, but we do need all the beakers we can get, Hunting is pretty crucial at this point as the area is getting more dangerous.

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="7"]CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING!![/SIZE]
[SIZE="1"]for now...[/SIZE]

[Man Behind the Mask]

VICTORY! The ogre even proves my suspicions about the tastiness of Almond Joy, completely ignoring the free snack.

R.I.P Brawler, another elf on our list of heroic dead. Let's also hope this is the start of having some heroic units stay alive!

Here's to a few uneventful turns.