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

[Bobchillingworth]

Hah, I like the new bloodpet names. The only meat product you'll ever need!


I assume it's back to popping lairs after you take the city? Also, are you following my city site signs (with the exception of moving one of them to a plains hill), or do you have other plans?

[DaveV]

Hah, I like the new bloodpet names. The only meat product you'll ever need!

Kind of fits with the presumed "Life of Brian" reference in the thread title, too.

I assume it's back to popping lairs after you take the city? Also, are you following my city site signs (with the exception of moving one of them to a plains hill), or do you have other plans?

Actually, I have another group lining up on the lair, too.

I'm building two settlers. One is headed for the plains hill between Dirage and Prespur, the other for the marked elephant north of Dirage.

[DaveV]

I killed the lizardman guarding the lair at 90%, and will be able to explore it next turn.



I'm also in position to attack Dirage next turn.

[Bobchillingworth]

It's great to see so much development going on with our civ- I think we're really in a very strong position at the moment, with NAP security to the West, no real threat from Cull to the East, Selrahc would rather trade with us than fight in the North, and Sareln as a vassal / ally / whatever.


I get the impression that you really aren't talking with him much right now anyway, but just be sure that you don't sign any NAP arrangements with Cull- he's pretty much the only target we have left, and nobody is going to miss him or care when we take him out. I suppose that we don't have to attack anyone, but really who uses vampires just for defense?


Random note- way back when, I already put a couple of turns building a mine on the plains hill 1W of the rice at Nubia, if you hadn't noticed.

[DaveV]

It's great to see so much development going on with our civ- I think we're really in a very strong position at the moment, with NAP security to the West, no real threat from Cull to the East, Selrahc would rather trade with us than fight in the North, and Sareln as a vassal / ally / whatever.

Meh, I'm not very happy with the current tech rate. Getting two wines and two golds hooked up should help a lot, though!

I get the impression that you really aren't talking with him much right now anyway, but just be sure that you don't sign any NAP arrangements with Cull- he's pretty much the only target we have left, and nobody is going to miss him or care when we take him out. I suppose that we don't have to attack anyone, but really who uses vampires just for defense?

Yeah, he looks like a good eventual victim. Right now, I'm concentrating on filling up empty space.

Random note- way back when, I already put a couple of turns building a mine on the plains hill 1W of the rice at Nubia, if you hadn't noticed.

Nope, hadn't noticed. Thanks for the heads-up.

******

Got a response from Iskender on my rambling email:

Hi there

First, thanks for including me in the league with Pocketbeetle, Selrahc and yourself, I feel flattered. My view is quite different - I see PB as a runaway, Selrahc and you guys as runners-up and me trying to catch up with the rest.

I think that, all things considered, the NAP between us was a good idea. It is a pity that it was signed under such dire circumstances. In the conversation with Bob I'd tried to establish some kind of a framework for settling cities in the "demarcation" area, but I agree that it would be better do discuss this on a case-by-case basis.

Having this in mind let me offer the following: I would like to settle a city on the grassland hill two tiles west of the barrow you want to explore. This city would be five tiles away from Acaia, the same distance that already separates Acaia from my south-east city of Feiss Mabdon, so your defensive position would not be weakened to any significant degree. In return I will let you explore the barrow in any manner you see fit, and if the result is negative (ie. a harmful promotion or death of the explorer) I'll give you Wine for 10 turns as a compensation (Ale is out of stock for a moment).

Iskender

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I may ask for a waiver for a river city four tiles north and one tile west of Acaia instead of the possible 10 turns of wine.

[DaveV]

Good luck this turn. I took the barb city, losing three bloodpets (about what I expected). Four turns of revolt, but the 85 gold is nice.



Then I explored the lair, and got a great artist.



I don't think I need extra culture anywhere, and if I used him for a lightbulb, he would have given Drama, which is not on my research path. I could have grabbed Drama for the a free tech and a replacement great artist, but if someone else had already researched it I would have wasted the artist on a tech I don't need. Instead, I went for a golden age.



I'm running a heavy gold surplus to get above the magic number of 100. Several events give really good rewards if you have 75-100 gold.

[Bobchillingworth]

Nice turn! I might have saved the artist for an offensive culture bomb when you fight Cull or whoever later, or bombed Dirage, but I guess the Golden Age works pretty well.


Are you going to build the Brewing House in Prespur? Might be a good idea, with that new golden age production.

[DaveV]

I expect the "mini-bombs" from disciples to be enough to keep the ball rolling on offense, especially with the raider trait.

I probably will be building the brew house; I'd been hoping to trade for ale, but it looks like Iskender isn't biting on that one.

I sent a reply to Iskender:

Well, you're the best judge of your own progress. At least you have the financial trait.

Your proposal seems fair to me, with one additional condition: no great artist bomb in the new city. I'll warn you that my city just expanded to its third ring, so it will take you a long time to gain control of the tile to the south of the barrow. But I don't want to lose any of my river tiles to a culture bomb. I won't pump any extra culture beyond the existing monument, and maybe a temple in the distant future.

DaveV

[DaveV]

A little late to the party, but the Calabim have finally claimed their own free Golden Age, as rightfully befits the true Epic-Masters of Erebus

Um, I was hoping to keep a low profile on that .

[Bobchillingworth]

Oh apologies. In my defense,

A: Both PB and Selrahc already posted similar messages before, when they got their golden ages


and more importantly,


B: Anyone can just check the events log and see that you spawned one. I know that at least Selrahc checks the log every turn. Actually, you could have looked at the log when you got the great artist to make a reasonable accurate guess as to whether the Drama Artist was still available.