Hiding Doctor Yellow Mist: 4 heads, one body

[HidingKneel]

Diplo sent to the Luchuirp:

Here's the original:

Maker of Golems, Perpentach of the Seas sends his greetings. It would appear that you have stumbled upon our waters. May we trust that your intentions are peaceful?

Which comes out:

Maker golems, send Perpentach-of-the-sea greetings. Apparently, they run into the water. We can trust that their intentions are peaceful?

Well, hopefully they'll get the gist...

[HidingKneel]

Awesome pace.

Turn 127 (4/12):

So, I had forgotten that Caravels can explore rival territory. The Luchuirp entered our territory peacefully, no doubt hoping to scope us out. Well, that's not going to happen:



That's an Iron-equipped boarding party, mutated to Heroic Strength I using the axe of Orthus. I declared war and claimed that Caravel for our navy. I think I'm going to send it up to explore the Maenalus (inaccessible to our Galleys).

Of course, it'll require some real diplomatic finesse to smooth this over. Here's the message I tried to send:

Golem-people, you have trespassed upon restricted waters. The Lanun had no choice but to sieve your vessel. Your crew now feasts with the Overlords within Danalin's dreams. Perpentach-of-the-Seas.

And here's how it actually came out:

People Golem. Ograniczony. Lanun waters have been violated had no choice but to use your boat. Your team now Pages with overlords before Danalin dreams. Perpentach-de-la-Mer.

I think they'll get the idea.

Of note: the Amurites and the Luchuirp have no contact yet. Let's keep it that way.

Decided to go with KotE next. As soon as we get a mage guild built, we can promote that adventurer. We've got two sources of Water mana (one from palace, one from Necronomicon), so he'll start with Water I. And we can use him to make some use of this land out here:



Need to start expanding. The Luchuirp are taking the lead in cities (currently 11 to our 9).

There's some gains to be made up here:



Two barbarian cities up there, and a ruin for us to explore (nothing exciting). I've got two drowns in the neighborhood who can start conquering... might want to delay a bit, though. Those cities are pretty far from our core, and we're running God King right now. Ideally we'd like them to come out of revolt just in time for new, big-empire civics.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 128 (5/12):

Got our first hawk out. Hawk flight reveals an animal we should capture:



That's sort of a long-term project, though.

Hawk also reveals that we're closer to the Amurites than I thought. Two cities I was thinking of claiming would put us right up against their borders. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've got a substantial tech edge, two heroes (the Amurites haven't even unlocked KotE), and we're about to have some options for collateral, at least by sea. No reason not to pick a fight. Especially because of this:



Low-odds great prophet means we'll build the Nox Noctis on turn 130. Muahahahahahahaha.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 130 (7/12):

Lots of stuff going on. First of all, the Amurites have Bowyers now. We're going to need some military options of our own soon.
Got Priesthood last turn, so I can build us some Cultists. But I think we really want Ritualists.

Tech-wise, there are three directions that look appealing:

Optics: Cheap, unlocks worldspell, second hero, extra visibility over water (the Luchuirp might come over water), and ability to build better boats.

Mathematics->Engineering: Increased movement on roads, unlocks GoH. Would be nice to build that before anyone else does. The Luchuirp will be tough to beat on the hammer front, but if we grab the techs early enough we might have a shot. Also, City of a Thousand Slums might be worth building in Tortuga:



Probably not. But maybe.

Corruption of Spirit -> Infernal Pact: Unlocks Ritualists, Sacrifice the Weak, and the Grimoire. We'd have to give up Saverous (no biggie) and we'd take a severe happiness hit if we don't get our temples set up properly beforehand.

I'm thinking Optics can wait, and I'm torn between the other two. Saving gold for now.

Getting in position to strike that barbarian city (should take it next turn):



Build the Noctis:



Lights out!

Our stolen Caravel is exploring an epic dungeon:



And Saverous is on the other one (if we're going to trade him in soon, might as well get some use out of him):



Got a Mage Guild built in the capital, so I could upgrade our adventurer:



He started with Water 1, so I gave him a mobility promotion and put him on terraforming duty.

When I took over, both opponents were in GAs. Those are both over now, and our demos look pretty good:

[Qgqqqqq]

Turn 131 Diplomacy:

War against us and keep us,
No peace in deep autumn,
The loan trunk clever creeping things,
From our crew chief * Sample *

You can not find us a very steep price,
We do not ask for gifts come cheap,
Those companies! Put all in a pile,
Beside that direct wash up.

But if instead you take this bag,
And we pay the price, and was whispered,
And join us in peace, hug your trees hugged and cried,
Remember that time we fought like sheep.

Tai beautiful and clean sea, and all the evil and suffering wash buildings, unmade, the sperm and the woman, and the anger of our twin and you forget the pain, and the near poor.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 133 (10/12; get ready, Mardoc):So

So, after sending that brilliantly incomprehensible message, the Luchuirp apparently decided to clarify their intentions:



I responded with what I thought was essentially "lol": proposed that they give me their maps for peace instead. I mean, we're likely half a world away, right? It's not like either of us can hurt each other in the near future. We don't have Optics, and they can't even approach us by water due to Noctis + Boarding Parties + Cultists.

Amazingly, they took us up on the offer. We've now got maps of the Luchuirp territory (they're on their own continent, fully colonized, and it looks like they've recently captured a barbarian city on ours). And their maps came with a nice little bonus:



Our ridiculously mobile navy just got even more mobile.

Here's the response I wrote:

Metal man makers, our miscommunication was regrettable. But all's well that ends well, and we'll certainly put those maps of yours to good use. Looks like you might be a bit lonely on that island of yours. Can your robots travel by sea, or are they too heavy?

And after being translated English->Polish->Hindi->Welsh->English, here's what came out:

Developers metal man, our disagreements unfortunately. But all is well that ends well, and we will give these maps to good use. It is possible tat this island you will feel only slightly. Your task is to travel by sea, or are they too heavy?

Quite evidently I am no match for Qqqqqqgq in this department .

Got a fairly irrelevant event:



And also a bit of bad luck: dangerous results from both of the epic dungeons. This one is no big deal:



Scorpion is actually nice (I'm working on getting us a subdue animal hunter), and those axemen should be no problem.

By sea, things are looking a little more dangerous:



Sea serpent is irrelevant, but four Azers could make trouble. Especially because they're right next to a city guarded by some of our experienced Drowns. Undead = -50% fire resistance; bad news. Fortunately, our mobility will come in handy there. I've been sending cultists up that way with the intention of getting set up to menace the Amurites. Looks like I can have two of those in range to hit the Azers with tsunami next turn. I loaded the drowns and a Boarding party into a Galley to help take advantage (can also attack with Galleys and the Cultists themselves), so we ought to be okay.

Was able to do another civic swap this turn. Decided to swap out God King for City States. It's actually a tossup at the moment: City States saves 50gpt, but God King adds 10gpt when running breakeven science and 19 hammers in our awesome new capital, Tortuga. But we need to expand if we're going to keep up with the Luchuirp, so City States will soon be a lot better.
And I'd like to have our next civic swap available soon; I'm going to unlock Corruption of Spirit next turn, and nine turns from now sounds like a good timeframe for swapping to StW if Mardoc chooses to go in that direction.

Also founded a new city:



This one will claim us some gems. It's nestled right up against the Amurites. Hawk reports that they're defending with next to nothing. But they're also quite high in power right now (building firebows maybe?) so I'm not sure if we want to mess with them. Well, I'll get some troops in theater and leave the tough decisions to the next Perpentach.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 135 (12/12). Next one is yours, Mardoc.

The Azers went straight for our city. Good thing I was able to get those Cultists in place:



Two Tsunamis and we had just enough firepower to clean up afterward:



We really need more units. I smell war with the Amurites on the horizon. They cancelled trade routes with us this turn (though we're still trading them seafood for Ale; we don't even have our own Deruptus yet, because we only have one riverside city and it's only producing a hammer per turn).

Founded AV:



It landed in our former capital, Pirate Bay. Which was the ideal spot, because that's also our GP farm. I started a temple there this turn. We also had a Great Sage hanging around, which I used for the Shrine:



That's a questionable move, though. Probably should have saved that Sage for a second GA. Now any additional GAs are a ways off. Unless we get free GPs from lairs... I started exploring the Maenalus again, now that the Azers have been dealt with.

Tech-wise: the appealing options are Optics, Math -> Engineering, and Infernal Pact. Optics can wait, and I think Math -> Engineering is best (grab the GoH before the Luchuirp can). But that's something like 8 turns of tech at 100% science. So I decided to save gold and leave the decision to Mardoc.

Demos look pretty good:



Not as good as they could be, though. The Amurites are leading us in power. They don't have mages yet (just KotE) but they could really wreck us with Firebows, especially if they use Arcane Lacuna to take away our collateral.

Well, that's someone else's worry now .

[Mardoc]

Here are your random numbers:

9 Timestamp: 2014-03-25 13:47:56 UTC

Looks like I'll be playing from T136 to 144 inclusive, and T145 will be Ellimist's again.

Whenever the next one comes in, that is.

[Mardoc]

Ellimist, can you take over early? My computer seems to be dying.

[Ellimist]

Ellimist, can you take over early? My computer seems to be dying.

Sure.