[SPOILERS] They're cOMing to taKe mE AWAy! Haha! Hoho.

[Qgqqqqq]

Probably sanitation - we don't really need mana techs unless there's an emergency.

[Mardoc]

T105 is...interesting.
First up, Perpentach remembered that he's insane. Not the best timing, Mr. Leader!





I remembered that diplo is on, so last turn, before Molach played T104, I sent this to Ellimist:

Ellimist,

I see you've started to build a military.

Any interest in signing a NAP, so you can apply it safely close to home? I'd have to insist that you stop pillaging my dungeons, but I'm sure you can find other uses for that griffon.

Response: crickets

Ellimist is usually quite responsive. If he wants to be. But no response at all, not to even say 'neutral ground is neutral'...I think he's coming.

Much as I want Sanitation, I'm declaring this to be an emergency.

Aggressive will be very helpful, in that respect. Organized...we're not in position to take advantage, but at least it'll cut costs. Spiritual...definitely not in position.
If we keep those traits for a while, though, we can definitely benefit from Spi/Org! And, dang it, but I'd been delaying promotions on the adepts, so I'm back down to only one ready to upgrade.

They kept Potent, though, the ones I had built. So they'll make it up to 10 XP soon enough.

And, looks like we'll need to ship a Freak over to the new colony; no more Creative . Although at least that means our GNP won't be quite as inflated as it used to be.

Aggressive and worried: that means we won't have much food surplus to burn, and XP is extra valuable; decided to keep Apprenticeship:



Forgot to take before/after GNP pictures. But we gained 10 commerce worth of trade routes, the Island city will be worth more, and all the cottages are now growing double speed.

But - I'm going to go directly for Sorcery now. Likely Sage due soon:



I'm still debating Necro vs Elementalism. I think, I think it's got to be Necro, but delay converting the node as long as possible. I know I'll have at least 7 adepts, but so far only three likely mage candidate. And that won't change quickly!

What I really want, is to get Meta first. Because I really want both Fireballs and Spectres. But I don't know how much time we've got. Need to have a Mage with a spare promotion, if we're going to do that - make a meta node, promote a bunch of adepts and one Mage to Meta II, then immediately dispel and make a combat node. Or even, meta up, then grab a Spring adept, then over to combat mana.

I'm going to finish up the current round of adepts, and then mix in some Freaks. Even though swords aren't nearly as good as mages, if the ball drops soon, they'll be more effective than adepts. Well...mostly. Better at defending, anyway. Dang it, it's all a question of time. I still would much rather make this a naval war.

Also going to finish the settler who's half-done. Ringmaster can swap to naval production or adept production after he's done, but we're still ahead on the Power graph, so we ought to have some time yet. Plus, well, GNP appears to be a serious bottleneck; another coastal city that can be Inspired ought to provide decent income.

In other news:

Molach,

Loki has found your exploring warrior this turn. Is it far, to your homeland? We would like to trade.

I see you're in contact with Ellimist, but not HidingKneel. How has Ellimist been treating you? The Circus believes that conflict with the vampires is inevitable, and would be happy to assist the Sidar in mutual defense, if required. The recent Calabim military buildup suggests that this may be necessary sooner rather than later.

If you would like, the Circus will gladly forward messages to the Elves.

- Mardoc

Adept count:
2XP: 1
5XP: 1
6XP: 2
9XP: 1
10 XP: 1

+Kimble@5XP

[Qgqqqqq]

How far is it over the sea?

[Mardoc]

How far is it over the sea?

Don't really know. It can't be too far, Ellimist showed up with a well trained Griffon on T65. It had to take a serious amount of time to capture and train the Griff, and it only moved 2 tiles/turn while exploring for us. The galley will head in the general direction the griff came from, SouthEast, and see what we find.

So, first line of defense: navy. What do I need for a navy?

I need two Maelstrom mages, to knock the opponent down to 60 HP fairly reliably. I need a Floating Eye adept, to enable me to get the first blow. And I need enough hitters to finish off the wounded ships. Since they'll be wounded ships, galleys are probably fine. Lower strength, but they're faster. And cheaper to build, too.

This minimum, is quite doable as long as we have 10 or so turns. Need to get to Sorcery, have 2 10XP adepts with Air I, and an adept with a free promo. As well as a few ships. We can fake the Floating Eye if we fight in home waters, using culture to see, although that's got the risk of being unable to drown whatever land troops come along.

Bonus stuff:
I could use some Fireball mages, to get the odds really far in my favor. Especially if there are any Triremes or unlucky Maelstroms
A fair winds adept would make manuevers easier
Some marines to go burn Elli's ports would really be the icing on top .

Fair winds adept should be easy. Already got some of those. Marines - well, that's going to have to wait until after sea supremacy, I think. Fireball mages is the tough one; need to get to Sorcery, have the time to swap nodes at least once, as well as pick up Elementalism.

Second line of defense: homeguard mages. This is where I want Spectre mages the most, but skeleton adepts and fireball mages could be a very useful item as well. And, definitely, Maelstrom would be valuable here too. Need to ensure that I don't let Ellimist onto my road network, he's Raiders after all.

Third line of defense: swords and warriors. But things are sad if we're reduced to this.

In other news: we have a diplomatic response from Molach. And, oh my, if this is any indication, he's going to have a very fun thread to read after the game is over.

Our chariots are ready, but the Orcs are mighty. They know how to work iron, and they have allied with the horrible Iron ogres! The Elves we conquered, but the Orcs killed the shades and destroyed the clowns. We can't repel hordes of that magnitude. We must...

Molach awoke, tanged up in sweaty bedclothes. He tried to remember what the dream had once meant, but it was slipping...fading from his mind. He sighed. It had felt important, somehow, but he couldn't remember these days. Probably for the best.

Walking around the Sidar palace always felt strange. There were rarely anyone around. Or, he suspected they were around, but he rarely saw anyone. Ever since being invited to the Sidarese court to assist the High Shadow gtAngel, he had felt very lonely. He had not even seen the High Shadow in person - whenever he entered the council room the other officials were busy, working...seemingly without clear purpose.

"But what is the plan? What am I supposed to do?"
.....command us.....
"But what instructions did the High Shadow give?"
...faded...into the mist....no worldly interest...oblivion...


Pondering, Molach studied the maps with more interest. Until the High Shadow returned, there was work to be done....

---
Hey Loki.

My warrior's mission was indeed to make contact with Barnum's famous Circus of light. He may now die gloriously and become one with the mist. After the departure of gtAngel and the my strange coming to power in this strange land, I've toiled hard at making us a power in the world. Perhaps a hedgehog is a suitable animal for our coat of arms now - small, harmless - but a pain to swallow. We'll strive towards mastering the art of the hedgehog. Yeap.

I took over a nation with 2 cities, one worker, quite some techs but little to do with them. We had severe happiness problems, even for cities as small as ours were. Rumors say the citizens of one city were still resentful that we had given refuge to a half-human half harpy creature.

Anyway, to answer one of your questions, the Vampires have been good to us. Without any strings attached they offered us several resources as gifts. They asked, but in the "could you spare this", and not the "we demand this as tribute" and not at all "give us this or be prepared to be destroyed"

We do not have a NAP, though. He did not want any this game. However he assured me he had no immediate plan to annex our shady empire. I kind of agree, it's still cheaper for him to expand with a settler than with a kill-stack. And we also think that spending resources beating down the dead-last civ might lead to other taking economical or military advantage. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst. However we do know (by divine intervention, no doubt) what he did with that Combat 5 Griffon so we realize that he is in this game to win it. And he seems to be doing a good job so far.

It seems we are not connected resrouce-wise yet, but I thank you for the (soon-to-come) beaker discount on AH, Fishing and KotE. You'll get sanitation discount in 4 turns...

Since we have no immediate plans to attack you (heh) we can offer you a NAP right now, but if you want your hands free like Ellimist that is fine too. We think same points that means he might not attack us just yet are valid for you too, so hopefully we can exist in our little patch of fog here. For a while longer.

As a measure of good will, we ask that you, Loki, not destroy any lions/bears dens or a skeletal barrow near my lands - we plan on using these to train our fighters to fight and kill so many creatures that they suddenly realize how they can solve our civ's economical problems.

Kind greetings from Molach.
High Shadow of the Sidar Empire.

That's...very interesting. I think he's right about Elli, there's no way you gift someone a lot of resources in preparation to swallow them. So it's either us or HK.

Can't send this until the turn comes around again, but here's what I'm thinking of as a response.

High Shadow Molach,

Very curious, that bashing skeletons leads to economic insight. I suppose it's not terribly different from learning new spells by slaughtering goblins.

We can agree not to destroy your training grounds, so long as their inhabitants head toward you rather than toward us.

The Circus would be happy to sign a non aggression pact, to lay the groundwork for future cooperation. What duration would you like? Until T150, say? As you mention, our profit opportunities lie in peaceful settlement; the only military action we desire is against the vampires.

We desire more information about the world. If you are willing to hold our maps in confidence from said vampires, we would trade maps with you. Perhaps that will enable the discovery of a route to trade resources or simply to open borders and allow merchants to travel.

In shorter term cooperation: We have discovered a veritable colony of bears. We want them to dance for our citizens, but don't particularly care who gains the combat experience. Should your people discover the method to Subdue animals, rather than kill, and agree to move the bears to our cities to dance, we would be happy to give your hunters directions.

In happiness and joy,
Barnum

[Whosit]

Since you happen to have one lying around (presumably), Adventurers constantly gain XP, correct? Do they still do this after you upgrade them to another unit type? My guess is yes, because that's why they'd make such valuable mages.

[Thoth]

Adventurers have the Hero promotion which gives them +1 exp/turn to a max of 100xp. They keep the promo after upgrading and keep on gaining passive xp.

[Mardoc]

that's why they'd make such valuable mages.

As Thoth said. They have one minor additional benefit; there are a couple promotions only Heroes can take, like Twincast. But mostly it's the easy XP that's important.

Interestingly, Heroic mages can sometimes gain 2 XP/turn, because Hero and Channelling both operate. Matters more for archmages, like Hemah and Gibbon.

[Mardoc]

Mardoc,

I'll stop exploring your dungeons immediately. At first, I'd expected that you wouldn't notice, but once you did all you had to do was ask!

You've probably seen me in enough games by now to know that I'm not a fan of NAPs in general, and so far I haven't agreed to any in this game with anybody. I'm not automatically opposed to one, except that I'm pretty sure you can't reach me and a NAP wouldn't benefit me at all. Feel free to offer something else(maybe a one sided map trade plus mana or something else) that makes a NAP worthwhile for me, but I wouldn't really mind if you used your golden age to make yourself more comfortable by building more troops. Maybe this time I don't even need a Griffon to keep you honest

I'm still at work and haven't loaded the turn yet, but I expect that you'll make contact with Molach very very soon. If you haven't yet, send Loki directly north to make contact with his warrior. Sorry for not replying last turn, but I got turn 105 at 2 AM and wasn't sure how to respond since we haven't talked for awhile.

Ellimist

Huh. Need to think about this. I can't see bribing Elli in order to see if I can outgrow him or not, but maybe I'm being excessive on the panic front?

[Mardoc]

Y'know, the more I think about it: thought you wouldn't notice the dungeons? Only had to ask?

Really, Elli?

I think this is going to be my response:

Noted

[Mardoc]

Dang, all sorts of luck is going against us at the moment.

Ellimist somehow got another golden age. No great people in the log, no Bone Palace built - not sure how else he could have done it.

Our great person was born, as a low-odds Bard. Sorcery is 8 turns at breakeven. Sage would have knocked four turns off. At least we have Necromancy now, though.

We spotted a HN griffon in the process of slaughtering some spectres, en route to Elli. Gotta be his. Promoted the galley Combat I, so that he won't have odds on killing it.



Molach's previously agreed not to share maps away from Ellimist, so no dice there. We signed a T150 NAP with him, not sure if that'll matter.

Been trying to shuffle around the adepts, to put the low XP ones in the back lines on Inspiration duty, with the high XP ones in Ringmaster, ready to upgrade and board ship. The adepts seem to have temporarily stalled at 7 XP; at least I hope it's temporary.

In better news, HK said he's building that giant-area road, and expects it done in ~10 turns. So we don't need to worry about claiming more islands, can stick to better terrain.

And, a border pop reveals that we will be able to grab mana and food simultaneously, once we clear out the bears. Going to move the city 1S, and put another to claim the fish.



Adept count:
3XP: 1
4XP: 1
7XP: 3
11 XP: 1
12 XP: 1
+Kimble@7XP