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

[Maksim]

Can human players capitulate in-game, or would that be verbal arrangement only?

Since you mention "world land percentage", I assume you expect an in-game capitulation, but I'm not sure if that's supported.

[darrelljs]

Can human players capitulate in-game, or would that be verbal arrangement only?

In BTS, it is possible to vassalize a human.

Darrell

[Maksim]

In BTS, it is possible to vassalize a human.

Fair enough, then.

[Maksim]

And here's what life in the Calabim lands might be like...

The council room was large and airy, with a great balcony from which one could oversee not only the upper city, but the rest of the Calabim capital Prespur as well.

Lord Protector Decius stood up, opened the decanter of wine (thinking "red, why does it always have to be red?"), poured himself a large glass and gulped it down - tonight was going to be a long night, and he had no intention of going through it sober if he could help it.

Tonight was the night when all three members of Triumvirate would gather together and discuss the state of the realm. Though Decius assumed leadership of the Calabim nation many years ago, their ageless nobility still considered him an outsider, never to be trusted completely, and assigned two of their kind to keep watch over him - Flauros and Alexis. Officially, they ruled as a triumvirate, so the two nobles could overrule any decision of his, but the privilege has not been exercised once.

Flauros, the detail-obsessed freak, begins:

- The governors' manors in our cities have been completed, and we were able to send out our emissaries and keep close control over each city...

Alexis, the spaced-out mystic, Flauros' sister-lover-soulmate, finishes the thought:

- Of course, only those loyal to our cause were sent to the most important positions. We also got rid of a few firebrands. With no audience to hear them out, their influence will ebb and fade away.

Flauros speaks once more:

- We still receive complaints of too much coin being spent on military, and the resulting inflation, as all those coins make their way to the taverns surrounding the barracks...

Alexis' voice flows on from his, inflections shared:

- Indeed. Perhaps it is but a side effect of a certain Lord Protector's proclamation that men serving in the elite units would be exempt from the lottery; we certainly did not expect that so many would seek to join up and avoid their blood debts...

As her voice fades, Flauros takes over:

- Though perhaps it was somewhat too expensive to have ten regiments surround each lair to be explored, so that they could bash arcane forces on the head as soon as they appear? It worked well, but it cost us more than all our outlying colonies combined.

An interjection is made by Alexis:

- Though I do enjoy the sight of so many men lined up in those three by three groups so much...

The spell breaks as Alexis begins to moan softly to herself, whilst Decius and Flauros exchange worried looks. Decius pours himself another glass, downs it, then launches a counter-offensive:

- All this is in the past. What's done is done. What we should worry about now are our neighbours in the north. We are expanding, but so are they. They have three fearsome priests of winter, and if they get their theology down right and put a big high hat on each priest, they will become unstoppable. That's what we should be worrying about, not bean-counting!

Flauros takes offense at that, muttering that obsessive bean-counting is just a silly superstition, no more true than running water or garlic. Decius ignores this, and continues:

- Our army still has many uses. We can march them to the dwarven mountains, and demand tribute... nay, capitulation!

- Decapitation?

- What?

- Sorry, misheard you.

- Yes, well, the dwarves will capitulate before the might of our army. With them and elves as our vassals...

- We shall have a complete set of the elder races as our playthings?

- Yes! No! Are you taking any of this seriously?

Flauros and Alexis exchange glances, then shake their heads synchronously. Decius swears under his breath, goes to refill his glass, yet finds the decanter already empty...

This was going to be a long night indeed.

[Bobchillingworth]

Haha, Bravo!



That's totally now part of my personal canon

[Bobchillingworth]

Ah, turn 150! When most games are by now forgone conclusions or finished, ours is just now heating up!


Okay, I'm not going to show the city views for every town, because everything is just working as many farms and non-desert hill mines as possible, with hardly any specialization. What I'll do is provide an overview of my civ as a whole, some demographic and other information of interest, and my prospective tech path. Diplo will be in a separate post.


That said, I'll start with the


Western Empire





Acaia and Morr ta'nar are currently focused on pumping out military. They just finish a catapult each, and next will build either two more 2-turn catapults, or a couple of 1-turn moroi. Probably the catapults, I can produce bloodpets or moroi in a turn or two respectively as emergency defense if I see enemy units approaching, but catapults take more preparation. I'm going to alternate between catapults and melee for a while between these two cities, along with a palisade and walls for at least Acaia. Vampires arrive in only about a dozen turns now, so I do want those damned food saving buildings eventually, but with PB now packing raiders and that +2 exp colossus-type building I can't slack off on defense.


Acaia is also running a merchant specialist, and has been for a little while now. I'll explain my reasoning later on.

Nubia just finished a library. I'm not sure what I want to build next here, maybe a siege workshop, followed by a Breeding Pit, followed by some chariots.


After the library completes, I'm leaning towards a Carnival in Prespur, so that I can work another 3-commerce tile (which adds into the library science boost and Brewing House money boost). After that, it's time for the food buildings so that I can have at least one high-pop city ready to begin feeding on ASAP. Plus Prespur isn't an impressive production city for military.


The "City?" sign west of Prespur will have a town founded T 151. Not a great location, but it gets me deer and adds a buffer against Iskender sacking my capital (or PB attacking me through Iskender's lands). First up will be a governor's mansion (because I can chop it quickly), then monument.


The Northeastern Empire





The Northeast is home to my newest acquisitions, most of which have been at the expense of Cull. Pavunar is mostly filler, and I'm thinking of turning it into a military pump using a combination of farms and plains workshops (you can see that it already has two). It has a Governor's mansion already. I'll probably build a training yard after the monument.


Krinera is there to get gems, a horse, and box in Cull. Also a staging ground if/when I want to attack him. I'll build a governor's mansion after the monument. After that, I have no idea. Maybe a market and then a breeding pit to make up for the lack of a food resource? This city can be a decent production site one day, but it's going to take a lot of investment.


The Mystery City Whose Name Is Blocked By The Copper Icon is another space-filling resource grabber. It too has the potential to be a strong production city eventually, but it needs chain irrigation which will take some time to construct. Governor's mansion after the monument, then market, then who knows.


Adonias is my least favorite city ever. The stupid people are always unhappy. Hopefully that'll be resolved once the public bath finishes and everyone can enjoy their disgusting pool-based orgies before vampires eat them all. Not sure what to build after the baths, a market if I don't have one and then probably a library followed by growth buildings.

The Southeastern Empire





I've neglected this region pretty badly so far, but NO MORE! To that end, San'ta'ron (Santa Ron? My God! ) is building a settler to found the Horse + Wheat location ASAP. I feel pretty stupid for not having done this earlier, I'm really going to need those horses for chariots. San'ta'ron will then probably put a turn of construction into a carnival or something while it grows to size then, and then I might build another settler to grab the Pigs + Deer + Fish spot before the barbs found there.


Dirage Gets a public bath (unless that's what is just finished, I forget). After that it needs a library, to get the most use out of those two wine and the gold. Pretty straightforward.



Alright, next up are some general screenshots of interest:





Here's the southern barbarian city I'm going to burn in a couple turns for Sareln. It's unfortunate that I had to move most of Acaia's garrison away to do so, I want to get this job finished very soon so that I can get them back into place. I guess I'll send in the catapults first, then mop up with whatever gets the best odds. Iskender was upset when Sareln ill-advisedly told him that I would be razing it, but I convinced him to see my side. He said that he might want a "favor" in return some day, which I agreed to as long as it won't be entirely out of proportion. If he later asks for something impossible and I don't desperately need his goodwill, then he can stick the request up his horse's ass, and then stick the horse up his ass.


Okay right anyway, here is the demographics screen:





It's alright but not fantastic. I was second in most categories that I'm now third in, but Selrahc leaped ahead with his golden age. I'm still second place in score, though. It seems clear that this game is a contest between me, PB, and Selrahc, with PB holding a long-term tech advantage (and with it ultimately better units), Selrahc has a land and super-unit advantage (for now, anyway...), and I have the advantage in unit spam (one-turn bloodpets, and soon endless specters). So I guess that makes PB the Protoss, I'm Zerg, and Selrahc can be Terran even though it doesn't really fit, just to make this a complete analogy :P


Here's the power graph:





Very troubling rise from PB. He's obviously gunning for someone. I'm guessing not Selrahc, based on his not responding to my call for action and his gifting Selrahc Sun Mana (even though Selrahc has a Sun node of his own... I guess it was just to give him a head start on his divination tower). I'm worried that Iskender might have struck a deal with PB for me to be attacked instead (he has OB and some resource trades with PB). Sareln is constantly scouting near Acaia with a hawk, so I should have some advance warning. I hate paying for them, but I might want more than one bloodpet in Prespur too, in case raiders centaurs strike at the heart of my empire through Iskender's territory. Hopefully the Deer town will block them some, I'll want to limit my roadspam in that area.


And finally, the rarely-seen civics screen:





There are a few... odd choices here. Iskender and Cull are running religion without a faith. They must really want that weak culture boost, I guess. Cull is also spamming aristo farms, even though river cottages (his land has a ton of rivers) would have grown into villages and towns by now. Selrahc has pacifism, but with his small cities I'm not sure why he wants great people so badly- saving up for a long golden age chain, perhaps? Everyone is scared of him, giving him plenty of time to build up his slow-growing cottage economy.


In the next post- Tech!

[Maksim]

Could you also post an F1 screenshot of your empire as well, please?

Thanks!

[Bobchillingworth]

My tech path is to finish trade next turn, and then start on Feudalism after that (ETA: 12 turns). Once that finishes, I think I might go on to Deception, if it hasn't been founded yet. The reason is that Acaia should have given me a Great Merchant by then, and if the Nox Noctis is still around I quite badly want it. Also Gibbeon is a pretty alright hero.


Following Deception / Feudalism is Knowledge of the Ether and Warfare, in any order. I might want military strategy after that for my Command Posts. Then I want Necromancy, Corruption of the Spirit, Priesthood, Infernal Pact, and Fantacism, possibly but not necessarily in that order. The idea is to boost specters, get Rosier out on the field if I'm not using Gibbeon, unlock Ritualists for some collateral, unlock sacrifice the weak and the free-tech evil wonder, and finally obtain Losha and possibly Basium if I'm feeling insane and don't mind switching from the Veil. I have no idea what comes after all of that, I suspect the game will be over by that point anyway but if it isn't then iron weapons and Madero would be nice.


My prospective tech path will entirely shift if I'm attacked by overwhelming forces, however. In that case I'm going straight for Hyborem to switch, and hoping that he spawns somewhere safe. Also would be nice if I can get some vampires out first so that the AI Calabim feeds me some manes. If anyone knows that it's not possible to take over Hyborem in a PBEM game with all human players, now would be the time to let me know


Coming Soon: Diplomacy!

[Bobchillingworth]

Ugh, my least favorite thing to sum up.


Okay, well I'll first post my alarmist email I sent around once I realized that Selrahc was going for the Divination tower:

Hey all,



As you can probably tell by the email subject and who I'm sending it to, I'm concerned about Selrahc in the FFH PBEM. Specifically, I have good reason to believe that he may be planning to build the Tower of Divination in the near future. I have map knowledge of almost all of his land, and he already has a mind node and spirit node up. Because he starts with enchantment mana, all he needs is to construct a sun node and he's set [Note: Obviously I was confused here and thought that the Tower required Enchantment, not Law]. The reason the Tower is such an issue is because it gives one free technology, and I'm sure that he'll take the otherwise prohibitively expensive Theology for the High Priests of Winter. Once he has the High Priests, this game might be over. Not only are they base strength 9, but they pack the absurdly deadly Snowfall spell which turns all tiles around the caster to ice and takes away like 80% of the health of every neighboring enemy unit, regardless of base strength or stack size. They also have medic III and another spell that allows them to restore most of the health of all units in their stack, so you can't simply whittle down their health through attrition.


Selrahc is otherwise doing well but isn't totally running away with the game, so I wouldn't bother sending out an alarmist call for action if I wasn't completely terrified of the High Priests. But I think that it's a contingency which the rest of us now have to discuss. I'm not suggesting any sort of preemptive strike (although I wouldn't rule it out), but perhaps we should at least make a policy that if Selrahc attacks any one of us with the High Priests, the others will try to strike at his core (or territory in general) to force him to withdraw. Otherwise, if he's able to claim dominion over another player's land, I think that will be the end of the game. None of the rest of us are equipped to deal with someone packing a trio of super units and holding the land of three players. It's possible, albeit difficult, to counter the Priests militarily, but I question whether any one of us individually will be prepared by the time he can strike. If he does deploy them offensively, unified action from every other player might be the only recourse.


Ideas?


-Bobchillingworth

Cull's response:

Honestly, if Selrahc blows in my direction, its gg. However, if he does attack someone else with the High Priests, my little dwarves will help out a bit, maybe raze a few cities before its too late. In any case, thanks for the email.

About as good as could be hoped for.

Next up is Iskender's reply:

Hello

First, let me break the bad news: for at least 5 turns Pb has been
delivering Selrahc sun mana. (You can see it in the diplomatic
relations screen.) In return Selrahc will help Pb build his own Tower.


It means if we're going to get outpaced if we don't work something
out. We're quite far away from that as yet another issue has cropped
up between us: that barb city in the south. Let me express my
dissatisfaction with the manner this issue is being handled. The city
is two tiles away from my borders and I've just been told there's a
military expedition sent to pacify it. I can't accept that. I consider
the city within my area of influence by virtue of it's proximity to my
other cities. I wanted to capture the city for myself in the future,
but I'm ready to negotiate that part. In any case sending a stack to
that city is a non-option as far as I'm concerned. I hope that doesn't
sound too demanding, I'd like us to eventually achieve the level of
trust that Pb and Selrahc have.

Going back to the Priests: Assassins are a perfect counter. Combat
five strength nine priests should be designated stack defenders. If a
strong unit redlined them an assassin could finish the priest. Of
course it would take many attempts, but then againe three successful
attempts would do as priests are irreplaceable. The idea of keeping
the priests in check appeals to me, but I'd like to see if Selrahc is
really going for Theology. I think he'd rather take Sorcery and spam
summons.

Iskender

Terrible news about PB and Selrahc, obnoxious regarding the barb city, and quite accurate regarding assassins. I am very thankful right now that I helped keep Sareln alive.


My response:

Dang, so my guess was correct. I suppose in hindsight the Tower is a fairly obvious play. He's also going to get Law from Cull, so if he does want to screw around with specters or something he'll have several free nodes to boost them. I suppose we can assume that PB must have some sort of NAP type agreement with Selrahc- no reason why he'd help him become more powerful otherwise. PB is also sporting Raiders now, so presumably he's going to declare on one of us soon. Judging by his techs reflected on the trading screen, I'd guess that he'll be bringing lots of centaur chargers, and possibly knights + Hemah [Note: I meant Herne, heh] depending on what he takes as his free tech.


Regarding the barb city, I honestly didn't think it would be much of an issue. The barbs helpfully founded in the no-settling zone, so by the terms of the peace treaty you can't keep the town. My intention is to burn it to the ground and allow Sareln to settle slightly to the East. That will still leave plenty of room for you to place cities elsewhere in the south. I don't want to be the bully here, especially since I think that you're right that we need to work together to avoid being overrun by PB & Selrahc, but I don't see myself as being in the wrong, and you can't back up any demands with military for like 50 more turns. I'm open for negotiating where Sareln can found in the area once I burn the city, so as to minimally infringe on your future city sites. If you have some sort of concession to offer for me to leave the city in unmolested, then let me know. I would prefer that we move past this issue ASAP so that we can work on joint military plans, so apologies if I'm being kind of curt here.


Actually, on the subject of cooperation, I'm not too interested in us slowly building up trust relations at this point through gradual trades or information sharing. I see a very clear and imminent danger from the northern civs, so I'm happy to be fully open with intel and cooperation immediately as long as you'll reciprocate in kind and keep everything just between the three of us. I think it's evident that we're going to have to work together in order to avoid being picked apart- I think the balance of power now is such that if either you or I fall, then victory will become impossible for the survivor.


-Bobchillingworth

Okay, looking back on it that really wasn't the most "diplomatic" email, but whatever. Iskender I and later had a chat, which I am going to dump on you


Now:

7:53 PM me: ah, hello
gota few mins?
7:54 PM Rafal: hey
yes
i was about to write a reply
me: yeah I figure chat is more efficient
Rafal: i'd like to make it via email to avoid any misunderstandings
7:55 PM me: oh, well that's fine too, but it's much more difficult to do back & forth discussions
via email
Rafal: yeah, it takes some time
7:56 PM me: and since I have the turn now and am ready to play once I know a few things...
I'd prefer we just talk about the issues now
Rafal: all right. i'm listening
7:57 PM me: okay well with the barb city, I honestly didn't think it would be much of an issue, or I would have let you know
I don't plan on keeping it or anything
just going to burn it so sareln can found a decent city (closer to me than the barbs are now)
I'm happy to give you the pillage money if you want it
7:58 PM Rafal: sareln's version is that he wants to settle two cities
7:59 PM me: Oh, two?
I need to coordinate with him better...
my dotmap just had one
Rafal: one now and the other after razing barb city
8:00 PM me: okay, I'm not entirely sure which the "one now" is, but I think it was a city he wanted to cram in near Prespur, but which I'll probably found myself in a couple turns
8:01 PM Rafal: here it goes:
"For now, I think I may want to rejigger my dotmap to get two cities
down there, one which can be founded immediately, and another which
can be founded after the barbarian removal. "
me: yeah the one immediatly directly borders prespur
8:02 PM so I think it's more just like one city now
I believe 1E of the barb city
8:03 PM Rafal: does he have the second setter already?
8:04 PM me: I don't think so
Rafal: so there's no rush in razing the barb city?
me: well since he's probably not going to actually found two
8:05 PM because I'm going to take the spot near prespur for myself
then it does need to be razed soon
I don't care who razes it
if you want the exp
farming the barbs for exp won't work well tho. They're just going to slowly make warriors which horsemen won't even have fantastic odds on
8:07 PM Rafal: so when do you plan to have it razed?
me: about 5 turns
8:09 PM Rafal: all right then
in exchange i might ask for a favor in the future
8:10 PM me: hmm. Alright, but I reserve the right to refuse if it's entirely out of proportion
but yeah if you want copper or something for free later, fine
8:11 PM Rafal: sure. btw. i just gave you the gems as agreed
me: k, thank you
okay as for PB and selrahc
I guess they must be working together pretty closely...
I feel stupid not realized that pb was gifting selrahc the sun mana
wouldn't have included him in the email
If I had known
of well
oh*
8:12 PM Rafal: has pb replied to your message?
8:13 PM me: no
presumably he just fowarded it on selrahc and decided to sit on it
Cull did, but forgot to hit reply all
Rafal: i guess so
me: he's willing to assist if someone is attacked, but correctly stated that he can't really do much
8:14 PM The way I think this is going to play out, at least without you and I doing something, is PB will probably attack you (going after one of us with that new raiders trait), while Selrahc will target me
8:15 PM did you get that message? said you went offline briefly...
Rafal: yes
8:16 PM you mean this one:
The way I think this is going to play out, at least without you and I doing something, is PB will probably attack you (going after one of us with that new raiders trait), while Selrahc will target me
me: right
anyway, the best counter for either Mages or High Priests is assassins, as you said
Rafal: i guess it's not going to happen soon if they're after towers of div.
8:17 PM me: especially sareln's, especially his hero
which is one of the reasons I'm working so hard to get him back on his feet
hero assassin uses mirror to injure a high priest, then finishes it off for real
repeat three times
in theory
anyway
Rafal: sareln mentioned to me something about Bronze Working. will he be able to get to Poisons at all?
8:18 PM me: I think he wants BW first to clear jungle at his capital
the poisons
I don't know, time is a real issue for both of us
I still need a little while to get vampires...
I can spam catapults and moroi, but that's not a fantastic deterent
8:19 PM Rafal: it still takes 500+ hammers to complete the tower
me: that much?
8:20 PM that's good. Unless they got an engineer from an event... I haven't noticed any being born in the log, but I'm not sure if the "engineer from the wildnerness" shows up there
also selrahc is in a golden age now
from bone palace
8:21 PM Rafal: yes. he can get about 30 hammers in the capital
per turn that is
me: k
could be worse
8:22 PM I got writing recently, I think Dave offered to do an analysis for me of what techs everyone has
I can let you know the results for PB an Selrahc
see what techs they're likely to get from the Tower
8:23 PM my guess would be Knights for PB and Theo for Selrahc, but that's more based on what I personally would do in their positons than any basis in fact
Rafal: knights are nice. i'd take them myself
me: plus it unlocks his more realistic hero
8:24 PM the one everyone forgets about
Rafal: yeah, because he's in the shadow of the true hero
me: doesn't even merit a civilopedia description :P
8:25 PM Rafal: wow, i didn't know that
too bad
me: I think you're okay if you can get a lot of HA
I'm going to rely on chariots, catapults, lots of random melee
8:26 PM tbh not much we can do if there is an attack soon with vastly superior units
Rafal: if there's only 3 of them we may work something out
8:27 PM me: if one of them attacks us, and it looks like you or I is in serious trouble, but the other northern civ isn't do anything threatening, we might want to consider mutual military protection
so if PB is running roughshod over you, I could try to divert him by razing outlying settlements
8:28 PM I don't even know if PB and Selrahc are teaming up, but they're obviously working together at least for tech
Rafal: a brave idea, but i don't think he would be much bothered by that
me: military cooperation seems natural
yeah, it's better than doing nothing
8:29 PM If selrahc takes my land or PB takes yours (or selrahc takes yours, whatever), then the surviving party will be in an even weaker position
8:30 PM Rafal: if they manage to do that
it's not easy to take a well defended city
8:31 PM me: not unless you have snowfall or 4th tier units, anyway :P
8:32 PM I'm not proposing that you and I become formal allies. But we've got that NAP for like 50 more turns, and I think at least one of us is likely to get attacked before it's up
so cooperating to keep the south free from northern aggression I think is a good idea
8:33 PM Rafal: well, preemptive strikes are not a bad idea either
me: I do want vamps for that tho
my preferred target would actually probably be PB
8:34 PM I think I can do a lot of damage with raiders and spectres
Kurios are very vulnerable to both pillaging and losing settlements
defense against selrahc would be the main issue, of course. Plus the time factor, if I want to pair vamps with something awesome like ritualists
8:35 PM Rafal: i agree about pillaging. not sure about losing settlements
me: settlements can't get much cultural defense, right?
even if he tries to defend them...
8:36 PM Rafal: but doesn't cause much damage if you take them down
me: yeah true. Mostly cuts off resources
Like, I think his only source of copper is in a settlement
costs him a settler too
and possible shrine income
8:37 PM do you have map knowledge of PB's territory?
I know where everything is
8:38 PM Rafal: yes, two of his cities
capital and 2nd one
me: I have a map of all of it
I'll send a map trade when I play the turn
should hopefully be of some use
Rafal: ok
me: just don't let anyone know you got it from me
Rafal: yeah, i'd like to see his 4th. it's pretty close to me
8:39 PM me: yeah he settled really aggressively near you
those jungle towns are an insult
Rafal: i know. can't do much about it right now
8:40 PM me: have you looked at the garrisons in them? Whenever I try send a scout over it gets killed by wolf riders and other crap from that goblin super fort
Rafal: no i can't see it
8:41 PM me: oh okay. Maybe sareln can try basing a hawk in your land so we can find out what PB is fielding
Rafal: i considered that, but neither of us have cartography :/
8:42 PM me: ah.
haha okay well once you have cartography then
okay I am going to get back to some schoolwork and then play the turn
8:43 PM just to be clear, I'm razing the barb city right, or did you want the honor?
Rafal: i could raze it but in 15-20 turns
me: I'll take it then
okay, later! I'm sure we'll have more to coordinate soon.
8:44 PM Rafal: ok, cheers

Unedited for your pleasure, heh. So at least the barb city seems to have worked out in the end, and Iskender and I are hopefully starting to cooperate now against the threat of Northern Aggression. I'm not sure why he dislikes doing diplomacy via chat so much, might be because he's worried about his English skills in real-time? I can understand him perfectly though, so not sure that's the case. Anyway, I was fairly honest in the chat, but I saw no point in deceiving someone whose assistance I may be relying on shortly.



So to sum up diplo relations-


Cull: Obviously Selrahc's invasion set him way back, plus I don't think he was ever that strong a player to begin with. He has made some rather bizzare development decisions, but hasn't actually lost a city all game, so credit where credit is due. My plan is to march a big ol' army of vampires next to his borders, demand he capitulate and agree to assist me in all wars which do not conflict with any preexisting NAPs he has, and then just leave him alone for the rest of the game. If he refuses then I'll either say "opps sorry" and leave him alone if I think that he's most useful left in peace, or pillage all his land and raze any cities I can with the object of eliminating him if not. On that note, I might need to double-check what tech actually allows for capitulation... I thought that it was Feudalism, but that might just be only Permanent Alliances instead.


Sareln: Ally, vassal, whatever. Currently helping keep the Calabim secure by doing routine hawk sweeps around my borders. Going BW -> Poisons.


Iskender: I've already written a bit about him above. Need to cultivate him as an ally to resist the north, while making sure that I don't accidentally cause a northern alliance to form in response, where none actually existed before.


Selrahc: Enemy number one. Diplo relations aren't actually bad with him (we hardly ever talk, really) but I'm sure that I top his list of targets. Maybe I should initiate some sort of communication with him first? I don't want to look weak though, and tbh I was always planning to fight everyone at some point, so perhaps it'll be best to just get it over with.


Pocketbeetle: Enemy number two. Relations are poor, diplomatically. I'm upset that he never responded to my email and is collaborating with arguably the most dangerous civ to make him even more powerful. My guess is that he struck some deals with Selrahc to save his own skin after watching Sareln get smashed and Cull almost overrun, and is now planning to make his own gambit in the south in tandem with Selrahc. Can't trust that boy-king!


The Barbs: Kill the Orcs!



Whew, I think that's everyone!

[uberfish]

A long and detailed report, thanks Bob on behalf of the lurkers.