Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Gaspar]

Went ahead and did the map trade with Nicolae, and took the liberty of rebasing the hawk to his furthest flung city. Suffice to say - we have a much better idea of the map now.



That's Sheaim-ia.

Other than that, hum drum turn. Writing is in though we can't yet build any libraries as the queue is full and Priests take priority, at least until we have a few more out. Hulk Oaken is headed to the north to assist in the conquering of Kabhalg. Honestly, probably can make it happen with 3 priests, or perhaps even 2 priests and the garrison of Cypress Hill. Sooner that's done, the better. Will need more workers at that point, however. One thing at a time, though.

Saving gold this turn, Sailing next.

Here's the EOT visual:

[Mardoc]

Ok, if you'd rather prioritize Kabhalg than blooming, I guess I can get on board with that - it's the same sort of answer as building settlers instead of Kilmorphians and markets. But please at least tell me Hulk is Blooming random tiles while we wait to accumulate forces?

[Gaspar]

Ok, if you'd rather prioritize Kabhalg than blooming, I guess I can get on board with that - it's the same sort of answer as building settlers instead of Kilmorphians and markets. But please at least tell me Hulk is Blooming random tiles while we wait to accumulate forces?

Indeed he is. I owe you guys a couple of chat dumps. So first, with the Clown King himself:

Kyan: Mr Gaspar, long time no speak. how are you pal?
Gaspar: not too bad, you?
Kyan: bit tired. shitty day at work but going for a meal this evening so things should improve alcohol helps
<snip non-game chatter>
dont spose there is any type of ingame cooperation that could happen?
Gaspar: In FFH7?
Kyan: yeah, worth an ask
Gaspar: You just built Gibbon - what cooperation could you possibly need?
Kyan: touché. i guess it would be nice to end a game with an ally that wasnt a vassal
Gaspar: lol, Well, I'm mostly taking a "pay no attention to that guy over there who's several thousand beakers ahead of me" sort of policy to the game. I harbor no delusions that I could do any damage to you, nor that even on the unlikely chance I could I'd just be throwing my game away for Rawkking. And PBEM14 has done a lot to change my philosophy regarding people throwing away their games.
Kyan: to be honest, i dont know what could be done now.i have staggered NAPs with you all if you wait til the last one, its too late
Gaspar: Yeah
Kyan: so people break NAPs, and if they do, i really dont think a lot could be done if i was defending - with road netowrk, defence advantage etc
Gaspar: My instinct is that ultimately that's what will happen, waiting.
Kyan: well, i hope so for fun sakes
Gaspar: But I don't really talk to the other players much. Rawkking's mostly disinterested in diplo and Nicolae is mostly disinterested in the game
Kyan: if things go as planned though i intend to give the others permission to break their NAPs and go always war
Gaspar: Well
Kyan: so you can plan for that if it helps
Gaspar: You're going to be in GA for the next what - 30+ turns? There's no planning for that.
Kyan: not exactly, well not unless people break NAPs
Gaspar: I told these guys both when I met them that they needed to hit you now and that if they had long NAPs the game was over.
Kyan: i will briefly exit a GA nicolae got terrified by 1 lizardman, actually, twas a gryphon
Gaspar: Neither would answer me re: NAPs but I'm a smart cookie
Kyan: yeah, brian still thinks he can win the game
Gaspar: lol I'd suggest calling it except I think it will be more fun to see what you pull off. Also I want to see how far along the Elven Economy I can get before the game ends, since I'll probably never play Ljos again
Kyan: yeah, i'm interested to see that. you are the only 'worry' to me
Gaspar: Its a fun little builder-y Civ in a war game. I'd need a miracle to beat you. I could defend against you for a bit, but even that I'll never match your production so you could stomp me if you wanted. I'll appreciate it if you decide you don't want, though. One of these days we'll have to play again where you're not ridiculously far in front of me.
Kyan: haha for sure. you know, what will piss you off more is that 3 other players are all loaning me mana for effectively nothing
Gaspar: Someone mentioned a water loan. didn't know there were others
Kyan: aye
Gaspar: You REALLY leveraged those lizards, huh
Kyan: to an extent, yeah. For land. 2 of those mana deals, fecfk knows why they agreed them. im trading one mana in exchange for cows...
Gaspar: FWIW, if you had come knocking at me I'd have told you to just kill me.
Kyan: and one in exchange for settling rights to a location i would never have settled as its too shit. yeah, hardball would not have worked on you
Gaspar: mana for cows...
Kyan: wouldnt have tried it. Probably would have just choked
Gaspar: unbelievable. I was actually expecting a choke after I found out you met Nicolae. By that time I could have broken one though, after having dealt with the Ogre you dispatched :P Not saying I wouldn't have crumbled as the others did, I was just saved by being your last contact, far, far away. But it appears in several cases these guys aren't just new to FFH, they've never read any of the other games around here or played any MP civ or anything
Kyan: yeah. Brian was new to MP totally. i think you would hate diplo with him
Gaspar: lol, Why?
Kyan: well, he goes from being so easy going to being so stubborn
Gaspar: By the way, this from the most recent post in my thread about you:
Kyan: and he's so illogical
Gaspar: "I personally feel that any battle with the Balseraphs in 40 turn’s time is going to be like a fish arm-wrestling a bear."
Kyan: haha in 40 turns time, i truly believe that if all the armies of the world (that were still alive)doubled their armies instantly and invaded they would lose
Gaspar: I fully agree
Kyan: balseraphs with keelyn are broken beyong belief
Gaspar: I would say with complete confidence, the only possible way you'll ever see a hostile elf in this game Is if you declare on me
Kyan: me and Krill have come up with a more ludicrous plan to leverage them further. so yeah, expect shenanigans
Gaspar: Like I said, I'm most looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Kyan: it wont be that exciting, just a demonstration of a few broken features. duplicated summons being just one. we think we found another huge thing for Sareln to fix, but want to show it first
Gaspar: haha. Whenever I play the Clowns in SP (which is never anymore, but back when I occassionally played a SP game of FFH) I'd get bogged down because they have too many toys
Kyan: yeah, most of them are junk though
Gaspar: Yeah
Kyan: 3/4 of the unique things we wont use. one of the things we intend to abuse isnt Balseraph specific. you'll probably guess it at the time, but ill leave you to wait and see
Gaspar: Always fun. I think you should summon Basium, Since nobody's done that yet. Krill could play him.
Kyan: haha he would miss the clowns too much
Gaspar: Krill really is the Perpentach of RB, so it makes sense.
Kyan: yeah,he bitched like made that i took keelyn. he's only now admitted he was wrong and that keelyn is superior
Gaspar: haha
Kyan: *mad
trust me, getting krill to admit a mistake is nigh on impossible
Gaspar: Keelyn is definitely superior

TL;DR: Here nice Kyan, have a biscuit. Look over there, over there... no really, over there.

[Gaspar]

Few tidbits in this one:

Nicolae: sup gaspar
Gaspar: Hey
Nicolae: any plan re: clowns?
stupid marble and bone palace
Gaspar Yeah, I talked to Kyan a bit today
Nicolae: that was a quick gibbon
Gaspar Yeah, he's going to be in GA for most of the rest of the game I think
Nicolae: and what did he offer for mine or RG's head?
Gaspar Still has revelry and the 2-man GA at least
lol
He doesn't bother with that with me, he knows better Though he does ask if I want a NAP everytime we chat, Apparently he's getting 3 mana loans at the moment
Nicolae: water from elohim im guessing
Gaspar not just the water from brian. nature from RG and one other one that I don't remember. I think he said the water mana was for cows, which I'm choosing not to believe because then I might have to fly to Ireland to shake the shit out of Brian
Nicolae: classic gibbon water elemental spam
Gaspar Yeah, I think that's what we're looking at I can field a credible army of PoL's right now if I went into overdrive on producing them, but alone that's not enough.
Nicolae: im barely halfway through writing
Gaspar Yeah - I lack a coherent idea. I feel like our window was 25T ago, but there was no convincing rawkking to break his NAP
and I don't get the sense we're getting any help from the west from what RG tells me
Nicolae: well there was no way i was going to march a sizable stack of PZs through the jungle up to kyan 25t ago apparently acalostas and brian are at blows any chance of mackoti's influence there?
Gaspar maybe early on. Nah, wasn't saying you should have flown solo either
Nicolae: and 25t ago i was crawling towards food
Gaspar just saying I dunno that we have a great opportunity. The thing about FFH is its all about speed and collateral. PZs are great for the latter, though not the former
Nicolae: mages and tigers may be able to handle the former
Gaspar I can get ritualists up too
Nicolae: but you'll prob need corruption of spirit for ritualists
Gaspar I mean Gibbon can't be everywhere and he's gonna need time to tech to archmages, even with his sick GNP
Nicolae: whats your beaker rate? is ~100 *mine is
Gaspar Yeah, I'm headed there soon. Wanna grab Trade first because its passive beakers then I'm going for CoS
erm.. lemme check, 1 sec
~170
Nicolae: haha im fucked as soon as this is over im getting rolled by chalid or something
Gaspar I accepted the map trade if you haven't seen the save yet.. your lands really suck
Nicolae: but yeah, ill throw in with you guys
Gaspar Mine suck too, but you really got boned
Nicolae: i cant wait to see
Gaspar rumor has it Brian got boned even worse than you
Nicolae: that would explain why im now #4 in food. agenda issue: whats your plan regarding the magic line?
Gaspar well, I can get good food even on crappy land with leaves. thats the good part of elves. Well, I'm probably just going for utility adepts. Might bang out a few Savants for future mages but ultimately I'll just stick to priests, being Spiritual. I'll probably make a body node at least. might want to do some trades for Tower of Div if we stay alive that long
Nicolae: mine is to head for sorcery after saving up gold for libraries after writing. im planning to get one meta node, i can always dispel it later so i can dispel the pyre for another death node
Gaspar I'd certainly be interested in a meta trade when you have it
Nicolae: i may not have it for long i need as much strength on my spectres as possible if i want the slimmest chance on kyan
Gaspar Oh, while I'm assuming he's going to ele spam and not spectre spam. we discovered that destroy undead doesn't work on puppet summons
Nicolae: alternatively i hook up meta for a turn, trade it to you so you get eyes on adepts, then i dispel my node
Gaspar which is charming
Nicolae: SHIT
Gaspar Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction. brb a sec
Nicolae: np
Gaspar back. So yeah, I got the sense from talking to Kyan that he's got his NAPs staggered in such a fashion as to be able to hit everyone one by one. So my instinct is I'll probably be helping you defend more than us attacking unless we can be ready really soon
Nicolae: im going to be capturing a barb city on the landbridge soon, its flatland. any way to purchase a temple into the city so that ill have cultural borders to absorb the alpha strike?
Gaspar Sure. I can divert a priest to you once I have a few more out.
Nicolae: that'd be great, ill draw the heat
Gaspar How many turns do you have?
Nicolae: ~30. ive lost anyway so i may as well ruin #1's day. i actually posted a diatribe on CFC that you're morally obliged to dogpile the runaway
Gaspar lol. Well you've seen me play enough to know I feel the same way. Though I don't necessarily agree if the game doesn't have a runaway. In this case, Kyan's so far ahead its insane
Nicolae: thats the important call. how far ahead is #1? no one was like that on pbem19 until the end, and maybe in pbem17
but here its a clear call
Gaspar and anyway, if we somehow managed to take him down a peg, inevitably the next fight is me and RG and there's a good chance you could come out of that with a shot at winning, since I don't have a good way to deal with a bunch of warcried shit
Yeah
Nicolae: i am not going to talk about a post-kyan world all
Gaspar I don't suspect there will be one anyway
Nicolae: all thats going to do is take the wind out of the sails. yeah its completely nuts how far ahead kyan is
Gaspar I asked for suggestions in my thread
MBTM said "I personally feel that any battle with the Balseraphs in 40 turn’s time is going to be like a fish arm-wrestling a bear. In fact, they landed Esus, so make that a fish arm-wrestling an invisible bear."
Nicolae: haha, noctis is nuts
Gaspar Yeah
Nicolae: summoner puppets are already broken
Gaspar Why not make them invisible to boot?
Regardless, while I think its pretty well hopeless I agree that we're obliged to try
Nicolae: see, unless someone has raiders, there's no real chance to hit the core of someone. acal maybe but he's pretty weak
Gaspar Yeah. I haven't met him but I had no idea what the hell happened there
They started out pretty good according to my C&D
must have fallen apart when mackoti bailed
Nicolae: mackoti's doing pretty good in ffh8
Gaspar i stop following that game because nobody was really updating for the longest time
Nicolae: ravus' updates are great
Gaspar yeah, agreed
mackoti's a pretty good player though, so not surprised he's doing well
esp with the vamps
Nicolae: vamps are mid-late game aggression so not really mackoti's style
Gaspar well, and there aren't any pyramids in FFH
Nicolae: closest thing is the great library. whiiich kyan is going to get because has marble and writing
Gaspar yeah, it basically gives the rep bonus
indeed
I have marble just not connected yet :o
I briefly debated making a run at it when I got writing but decided there was no way I could beat him so I'm not going to bother
Nicolae: ive noticed that kyan hasnt been trying to contact me, this bodes ill
or not, i have the most defensibility against kyan
Gaspar well
we've sort of guessed in our thread that you're first on his hit parade
not that Brian isn't an option as well, but Sanctuary's a bitch
Nicolae: hence a leaf/tentacle temple in my front city will hopefully give 3-4 tiles of warning
so say a turn, enough for me to dodge life2 spells and get some collateral down
Gaspar Yeah, makes sense
Nicolae: but thats assuming kyan stacks everything into 1 big stack
alternatively he staggers them, but i really dont know what to defend with
Gaspar Well, if its water eles, the worst part there is they split when they die, don't they?
Nicolae: when they die on offence or defence?
Gaspar I honestly have no idea
dont think I've ever used one

TL;DR: We're going to send a priest to put a temple in Nicolae's border city. And um, we can't win!

[NobleHelium]

You could potentially use 2 1/2 priests for the barb city. Priests can summon multiple tigers as long as the overall priest quota is sufficient, so you can keep a priest elsewhere and use his tiger at the front still.

[Mardoc]

A small comment - watching Iskender dismantle me in PBEM5 is actually teaching me quite a bit about MP warfare, I think. And, well - one very important piece - I don't think we're quite as doomed against Kyan as all that. If we can get Mobility/spell extension priests and ritualists, there's a good chance of being able to do a lot that he can't counter - only Gibbon + water elementals have the mobility to keep up with us then. Plus, PoL and Ritualists are a strong combination even in a non-spiritual hands - imagine how much fun they might be for us! What matters is being fast enough and powerful enough to be able to take any small opportunity without it being a trade. That forces the opponent to spread out, and then you can grow and keep winning the attrition.

[Gaspar]

Just a quick report, as I'm chatting up Nicolae and Rawkking as we speak.

Kevin Ash born in the capital. Going to do one more Priest there before switching to a library. The kill team is taking the long way to Cypress Hill, hopefully shortly after they die I'll be able to assault their city.

Sailing in @EOT onto HBR and then Trade. Up to 180 bpt at max science, which isn't bad, save y'know, Kyan. I'll have more tomorrow when its not quite so late.

[Gaspar]

So I had a relatively lengthy chat with Rawkking and Nicolae last night where we hashed out some cooperation regarding the Clowns. Bottom line, we're just going to aim to be friends and we discussed potential army compositions if need be. Rawkking's NAP is about a billion years long, so I don't really suspect much help truth be told, but I suppose the relevant piece of info is that we agreed a three-way NAP until end of Kyan wars +10T. I don't really love NAPping the Horsepeoples, since they've been kind of douchey to us so far, but it doesn't do any good to let Kyan roflstomp everyone, so I suppose the ultimate answer is that I need let them feel safe on this flank so they can pursue the other.

In turn news, I've taken advantage of my newfound friendships to fly hawks out of their cities. We have our first view at all of Balseraphia, as well as seeing 2 Grigori scouting units and an Elohim Horseman. How many contacts did that get me, you may ask? 0. Who knows how this crazy-as game works? Not me. Anyway, here's our best look at Hippusland yet:



I'd like you to note the Wheat, Cows, Plains River Incense capital and compare to the Corn and Bupkus capital we have. Good thing he doesn't have best traits in the game too, or else that'd seem imbalanced. :P

Here's the little bit of Balseraphia we can see. Enjoy Yggdrasil.



Not a lot to report beyond that. We're cranking out a few more priests and we owe Nicolae one soonish to help with culture. We're saving gold 1T so we can go straight from HBR to Trade. After that, probably time to grab AV, so we can get some temples up, if not Ritualists.

Here's a couple advisor screens to give you an idea of what's going on:

[Mardoc]

Well - if we're now NAP'd until oblivion - I retroactively approve of the settler push . And I think I'd argue that we ought to push out a couple more promptly, now that it appears that Rawwking may have filled out the land except on our border. As soon as we have enough PoL to handle Kabhalg and the gift/trade to Nicolae, I'd make sure to put cities on settler duty. It'll be our last chance.

Once we've got the last 2-3 sites grabbed, then yeah, full speed ahead on terraforming the land and infrastructure/army. But if we're going to rule out warring for land, then we ought to make sure we're not short on it either.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Leaving land quality comments and bizarre contact rules aside, I actually feel a little more positive after those Hawk flights. The landbridge to Nicolae is pretty thin, and we know that the entry into our lands is a couple of one-tile chokes. That suggests that OO should definitely be in our future, as Cultists could actually do a pretty good job on collateral for any stack moving on the eastern civs.

I’d actually give some thought to whether we really do want to settle those cities given that we no longer need them as a front “buffer” against RG. They’re pretty marginal in terms of their added productivity.

Not a lot else to say – we’re rumbling along fairly well, just not in the same league as the leader.

**

That was an embarrassing effort for the 1000th post in the thread, so let’s try to a little harder with a brief history of the Ljosalfar.

The Age of Ice had been harsh, and the Elves of the Summer Court had retreated beyond the frozen jungle to the farthest corner of Erebus. As the glaciers receded, they found a fertile, forested valley in the shadow of the Tomb of Sucellus and set about returning their great civilization to its former glory.

The Elves had many challenges to overcome, finding their surroundings mountainous and bereft of resources to cheer the populace. More worryingly, it was discovered that there was a nearby settlement to the south of the jungle, populated by deviants and maniacs determined to bring chaos and Armageddon to the world. The Elven ruler acted quickly, securing peace for the Ljosalfar nation, and allowing the forests to be filled with villages and fishermen rather than fires. Explorers searched the lands, meeting terrifying foes and searching for treasures. Sadly, even the great hero Bahamet the Second could not survive the perils of the wilds.

But the Sheaim and wildlife were not the only danger now stalking the lands of Erebus. Whispers surfaced of a band of painted-faced lunatics, who panicked the animals of the world. The fearsome Balseraphs came upon the Sheaim with strength and threats, before calling forth a monstrous creature to terrify the peaceful elves. The challenge was overcome, but it was quickly clear that Keelyn’s followers would be a powerful force to be feared and plotted against.

The Ljosalfar met the Hippus, but were otherwise trapped from further exploration. New cities were settled, and the Elven mystics gained true enlightenment in learning the Way of the Forests. Around the same time, a mysterious stranger introduced the ideas of the Ashen Veil to the Chronic, and his dark beliefs have subsequently spread quickly across the empire. In addition to discovering the secrets of working bronze metals, to enable their workforce to combat the sprawling jungle, the spiritual elves also explored the religion of Kilmorph.

The Elves worked peacefully with their bizarre southern neighbours, and found the Hippus to be more interested in expansion than war. However, despite the increasing size and productivity of their holdings, the Elves could only watch in fear as the Balseraph nation took command in the lands of Erebus, marrying a fearsome fighting force with rapidly growing technological understanding. And so the Elves, Horselords, and Sheaim signed a pact of peace, pledging to present a unified defence in the face of the painted menace. The Elven Council continued to plan for the future, hoping that the Clown domination could be withstood for long enough that their own plans for greatness could be realised.