[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[Bobchillingworth]

Thanks for posting the demos- and thanks again for playing the turns



Good lord, what happened to PB's power? It sounds like Selrahc brought his full power to bear vs. Sareln already, I wonder if he sent a second force to punish the Kurios at the same time?


Got an email from Sareln, Cull came through and gifted the city.


I wonder if I've played the current diplomatic situation well or poorly. Sareln survives and I gain an ally, but I made myeslf a target for Selrahc (if I wasn't already), especially if PB rated me out. I've managed to keep Nubia under my control, but Cull claims part of the "saving Sareln" reward (although I intend for Sareln to be most indebited to me, as he'll inhabit my backyard). I've got the nucleus of an anti-Illians coalition budding, but I've lost the freedom to declare on my likely best target (Khazad cities... so rich!).


In the end, it probably doesn't matter. Selrahc has played a very solid game, and with FFH's balance being what it is, I'm not sure that any difference in my play, leader, or civ would have changed the likely outcome of this game.

[DaveV]

Thanks for posting the demos- and thanks again for playing the turns

And thanks for getting everything wrong? Here's the diplo screen, I think it's just open borders between Illians and Kurios. I wish they'd used more distinctive colors...



Oh, and Bob, I think you've done a pretty good job diplomatically. It will take a long time for Selrahc to march his stack to the next player; if you're that player then you've played a good game till now. If you're not the next victim, you have a pretty good shot at having bronze online.

[Rowain]

If you mouse over a diplohead the tooltip should tell you if he is vassal/master.
If you click one leader head you can see what diplo he has with the others.

[DaveV]

Another event:



88 beakers toward CoL: every little bit helps .

Empire overview:

[Bobchillingworth]

Heya Dave, in case you don't read the tech thread first, I'm back. Thanks so much for covering for me- I really appreciate it =)

[DaveV]

One more screenshot, from the start of turn 80. It looks like Selrahc may be planning on killing off the dwarves and elves (Cull gave Sareln his 2nd city, so they each have one). Those are Cull's borders on the right, the white guys are ice elementals summoned by the priests of winter.



Bob: glad to be able to help out. You guys have done an impressive job of keeping this game moving, and it would be a shame to put it on hold when things are starting to get exciting.

[Bobchillingworth]

Oh yes, I have every expectation that Selrahc is going to march on Cull and kill him, since he told me himself that that he was seriously considering it in a chat yesterday =).


I'm not going to be too torn up if he does so, as A: I don't want to share Sareln's loyalty with him, B: Selrahc will be occupied elsewhere, C: I couldn't stop the Illians from killing him anyway even if I wanted to, and D: Selrahc offered me a long-term NAP to convince me that he has to intention of declaring on the Calabim next, which I intend to affirm once I get my hands on the turn and determine how much time I need to have adequate defenses against the Priests of Winter.


An NAP also works pretty well by offering additional security to Sareln once I have him safely in my backlines. By the time it runs out, hopefully I'll be able to set up a coalition of four civs to deal with the Illians if Selrahc wants to to have a go at it- plus I should be close to vampires.


Feeding Cull to the Illians is a mean move no doubt, but FFH is a mean game, and I'll do whatever I have to to stay alive.

[DaveV]

Selrahc may find Cull to be a pretty tough nut to crack, with his 20% racial culture bonus and aggressive trait. All Selrahc has to do is lose some 70% or 80% battles and his big advantage is gone forever.

This is a pretty bad game setup for a rush: big map, quick speed, fairly high difficulty level. It will take Selrahc a very long time to march one tile at a time to his next victim, who will most likely have bronze or horse archers or something that matches up decently with the priests. Selrahc may be putting himself out of the game if he doesn't have a good economy to support his conquests.

If Selrahc wins, that means lots of expansion room for you. City spam is looking better and better.

My big worry is still the Hippus. Do you have any feel for what iskender is doing? Maybe you can sic Selrahc on him next

[Bobchillingworth]

Got a view of the priests of winter passing through. I'm going to try to reach PB with my scout, but he's not likely to survive the journey.

[DaveV]

I don't see how Selrahc is going to conquer Cull with that stack. Cull should have two cities' worth of warriors crammed into one city, and they'll have 50% culture defense in his capital, with combat 1 from aggressive. So even with no extra promotions, that's 120% fully fortified on flat land, 145% on a hill. So his warriors have an effective strength of 6.6 or 7.35. If he has bronze, make that 8.8 or 9.8.