You speak in whispers of the devils I have slain, Brian, Sareln & Ichabod of Elohim

[Brian Shanahan]

First things first, I sent the following to Kyan with the save (I regularly send a message to him with it, usually a "hello, best wishes" or a joke message but sometimes serious):

Kyan,

the save. And after spending the last 20 minutes looking at the demos and I've frankly come to the conclusion that you've essentially won the game in all but name. Now that won't stop me trying but being realistic about the challenge never hurts.

Brian

I will show you why in a minute.

My harbour finished in Nicker giving me the princely sum of 1gpt. Running a sage and merchant will have a GP in 4 turns (currently 92/8 in favour of the Sage). If it is a sage, I keep him for Order conversion and pop a Golden Age in 7 turns (at eot). If a merchant, I send him into Balseraph territory to nose around and get money (Merchants are invisible. Yes/No?)

In other news instead of getting the hell out of Dodge, Acalostas has kept his scout on a hill admiring the Archers in Zbolub. And he has finally removed his warrior/worker quartet from my land, after roading all the way up to Limerick (thanks for hooking up some horses for me boy!) despite me already setting up the trade route with one tile of road.

Apart from that I ordered a Fishing boat in Nicker and nothing else happened really.

So on to some pictoral thingumajigs (I've been lazy so I've done a bit extra today):

1 Land
Starting Clockwise from the north west of my land (I'm including Grigori land here as I'm evicting him soon)

Missing resources (not including those seen in any of theother 3 shots); NW Fish 3S1E of Hospital
NE Copper 2W1N of City 7 notice. Fur 1NE of same.
SE Copper 4S2E of Nameless City. Why not settled, either 1 top location or 2 strong locations in vicinity?

Oh and Zbolub with sheep and fish is a keeper (if somewhat marginal otherwise)

Foreign Relations

And this is why Kyan has the game won. He is 20 techs up on me, and has much better demographics than anyone else in the game (He's top in everything significant and population). Ok yes he is in a double golden age (sage and Bone Palace), but even in normal circumstances he beats everyone (except possibly me in MFG), and he still has another double Golden Age to go through, due to Revelry (and a third if he drags the game out that long).

Now I know that I've made some mistakes in this game (quite a few which are probably signifcant, e.g. not switching to Nationalism when moving on turn 0), but the biggest difference between me and Kyan this game is land. I got the shitty end of the stick whereas Kyan was given very strong land to use and grow into. Now in a 1v1 on Kyan I'd give myself a 30% chance of winning normally (lets face facts he's a stronger player), but with a big handicap on my side it's not even that close (I reckon my chances of winning this game in a 1v1 at the moment are <1%).

Now given my start and Acalostas beside me, if I gobbled up the Grigori I would be a match for Gaspar and Rawwking (at least if I didn't mess around) even with my 250-300 points handicap at the moment (for example until 5 turns ago Rawwking was running pure farmers gambit, if I were close enough I'd have been tempted to run a razzia de cheval deep into his territories just to stunt him). The inclusion of strong land would push me forward a lot quicker. But Kyan is 20 techs ahead, more than twice the soldiers (with me 2nd!) and a significant lead in both GNP and food production, thus leaving me with the conclusion that this is unwinnable aside from a grand coalition very soon after I exit my NAP over attacking Acalostas.

[Cyneheard]

Merchants are visible (and are therefore vulnerable), but they do not need OBs to go on a foreign trade mission.

[Brian Shanahan]

Thanks Cynheard.

As regards the turns it was so boring I forgot it already. Interesting to note that Acalostas has two scouts in the north.

That is all.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok turn played.

A bit more exciting today.

First off I took Zbolub (to be renamed next turn). It was size 2 and with two food resources it's decent site. It gave me 25 gold and with a hiring of a Merchant in Muff we are now at 120 gold at -18 gpt. This is well within tolerances so it didn't hurt me too badly.

My first horse was promoted Withdraw 2 (Well I'll be going up that line a bit) and won at 32% odds (50% withdraw so fairly safe for survival) against the first Archer. My second only got withdraw 1 but redlined the second Archer at the same odds (redlined himself but that didn't matter; 30% withraw). Third horse finished him off without getting hurt. So all in all a good round.

The settler finished in Hospital and is heading to the staging site, will probably hold off until Order founded though.

In foreign news I was talking with Kyan, and he agrees that he'll probably win, with his starting position and staggered NAPs (well I was better off keeping one flank safe in my position). I also got the impression he wasn't too impressed with Gaspar or Rawwking (I said they had a chance of winning and he rebuffed it. Now their chance is through a grand coalition elimination of Kyanapoleon Bonaparte, but I didn't say that). He also asked for ten turns of Nature mana now and ten turns of water later, in return for an uncontested claim on a good lakeside site. As neither mana is critical to an attack I said ok, as the site is a good one of itself, and allows me an extra buffer south of Limerick in case of attack.

[Brian Shanahan]

Well two turn update. Not much to say about turn 110, Muff finished it's Courthouse and started it's storehouse (more health). Hospital finished the settler whom I placed half way to his founding site and started on a Courthouse, followed by a carnival.

For turn 111 I first popped a great sage, he'll be used for a golden age shortly (i.e. when I get order). Then Nicker finished it's carnival and started a storehouse as well. The settler is at his site but will hold off on founding.

All specialists were fired as well, time to crank up the production soon.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, my internet is slow and pics will probably be a weekly thing.


Edit: I also offered Rawkking a wheat for sheep trade in game, and sent him a message too.

[Brian Shanahan]

Oh and one last thing, someone founded Ashen Veil (Nicolae if I'm not mistaken) and it spread to Ravus Sol (I will spread it myself), and Empy (?), which Kyan says was founded by Acolyte.

[Brian Shanahan]

Save played, not much happened.

Two turns to Order

[Brian Shanahan]

Save played.

Nicker Storehouse>Horseman,
Termonfeckin Market>Courthouse.

Since only one turn to Order, I dialled down the research to 40% getting it in one turn and also making 13 gold. At eot the religion founds in Hospital. Acolyte moves to Nicker (pity about the Kilimorph spread there two turns ago) and spreads (hopefully with a free acolyte).

Next turn my sage pops a golden age and I reconfigure for maximum production, and enter a more Ordered age.

[Brian Shanahan]

Order is here! Order is here! Finally we have a proper set of rules to live by! Go out and convert the heathen! Deus lo Vult!

Yeah pretty much a nice turn for me. As mentioned above it founded in Hospital, and the acolyte is en-route to Nicker to convert. Valin will be built in the city when converted.

In another piece of good news Muff saw the light at eot, and I got another free acolyte

In other news I founded Killaboy down below in the spot where I want cultural control. So I start with a monument there, which will be followed up with a carnival and a conversion (conversion before carnival). These should be enough for second ring, and maybe third ring (not sure with quick).

I popped the golden age to convert, so I'm getting 9 turns of extra hammers and gold, really shooting my production up, and helping my tech somewhat. Due to the extra gold I am continuing with research @ 50% as it it giving me 65btp and a 15gpt surplus.

As regards army Valin is in Nicker followed by horsemen. Muff and Hospital will also contribute the horsemen, and Limerick (hammer rich and food poor) will pump some warriors for defence on taken cities.

So I've a few pictures and diplo as well:
Land:

Demographics:

Looking better, though my food is still way down and it is golden age production.

And the diplo. First I meet Gaspar (a suspciously Irish name Patrick J.):

Gaspar,

nice to finally meet you. Yeah I've called the game for Kyan too. He got a good start and with a weak neighbour to his West (Acalostas), has been able to push that to a dominant situation.

As regards my land, it's a nasty mix of plains and mountains. If you want to see fully I proposed a world map trade in game. It is also hemmed in by having Acalostas starting in the only good land (directly to my south).

For the next bit I would like if you refrained from talking with either Kyan or Acalostas.
My position in game is to go with Kyan until Acalostas is down. We have a timetable which will resolve soon. After that I am a free agent again, and will be looking to work in a Grand Coalition to take Kyan down, to give me a chance of winning the game. After bargaining hard I've gotten most of the settled land, while giving up all the land Acalostas should have settled to the south.

To this end I've talked to Rawkking already (going so far as to warn him of Kyan's build up when Kyan was c. 250k soldiers and Rawkking c25k). So I am amenable to a dogpile when I will be in a position to contribute to it. So I am open to dialogue as regards when, where and how.

Brian

[COLOR="Green"]From: Patrick Topor <pjtoporxxxx>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 2:22
Subject: FFH7

Greetings Brian,

The first few times I had some elaborate roleplay greeting to accompany meeting but its T114, the Clowns have already won, and I'm kinda tired, so I apologize, but you just get a regular old hey. Hey.

How are things in Elohim lands? I haven't heard a lot about you before my hawk spied your horseman other than I've been told your land is pretty terrible. Anything else noteworthy from the first 114 turns of the game? Over in Elvishlands we've mostly just been doing our Elf thing. Got squeezed a bit by both of our neighbors but so it goes. Nonetheless, I fully expect to come in second by virtue of being the hardest of the other players for Kyan to kill due to being furthest away from him.

Hopefully we'll get some ability for future cooperation as we're so far away from one another that I can't possibly see why we'd ever have conflict. Plus I like old Einion Logos, he was my 3rd choice for this game. If there's anything you're curious about, just fire away.

Regards,
Gaspar[/COLOR]

Just suggesting that a) I'm in an agreement with Kyan, and b) it is not permanent and I will be interested in taking him down. Also some bitching about my land, but hey it's neccessary.

And my customary message to Kyan with the save:

Kyan,

Deus lo Vult! Order has appeared in the land and already it is spreading it's message of hope and charity across the lands.

Yours Sincerely

pp Lupine Wonse.
Msgr. Dearg Doom,
First Cardinal,
Ancient and Orthodox Potato Church (Reformed).


_____________________________________________

Have you got your HOLY POTATO today?

For efficient and rapid delivery of a replacement or new one, please write to:

CMOT Dibbler,
Sign of the Goat,
Pseudopolis Yard,
Ankh-Morpork.

Quote this offer and I'll give you a deal which is cutting my own throat.

Thought you might find it funny.

[Brian Shanahan]

Save played. Bit of minor bad news, but no problems.

The bad news is I lost a warrior. Decided to throw my 4xp C1 warrior at the goblin outside Hospital, he withdrew leaving the gobbo at 1.3 str. I threw the other (recruit) warrior at the gobbo too, and it turns out he was part of the Judean People's Front crack Suicide Squad, dieing at 94% odds.

In better news I'm getting 1 turn horsemen with increasing overflow on horses in Nicker. Valin will take 3 turns maximum when it converts.

Other than that not much happened.