[Spoilers] gtAngel's journey to the west, er mist. (Sandalphon of the Sidar)

[gtAngel]

T25: State of the Civilization

The landscape is being revealed, units created, technologies researched, and diplomacy practiced! It is turn twenty five, and the game is growing! There is much to discuss and much to ponder over for the future.

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Basic Information

Minimap and Scores:

The landscape is becoming revealed, showing a toroidal map, and there is no great disparity in the scores. Although something feels a little off... perhaps if we look closer...

Event Log:

Read this closely - there aren't many events, but a lot has happened. Notably, we have lost Sian (Ljosalfar.) That's really unfortunate for him, but Fall From Heaven is partly luck based and very unforgiving. The other notable things to look at are the world spells: For the Horde and War Cry have both been cast. In particularly, War Cry was cast right before the Elves died, making it likely that the Hippus killed the Elves (I have since verified this with Molach, who is playing the Hippus.)

Lastly, I received a small bit of change from some villagers, teched Agriculture and Calender, freed my Prophetic Mane, and life is good.

City Screen:

My city is nice. It grew fast, has a Calender resource hooked up (soon to be a second), and is quickly producing a settler. I am very happy with my city right now.

Land

Central:

Northeast:

Northwest:

West:

South:

East:

The land is interesting. There is fire to the southwest and hellish lands to the northeast. The world is not very tall, so going north or south quickly wraps around. The east and west also wrap, but it is much longer.

To the northwest I have found Ryan's clan, not too close but not as far as I would like. Across the world from the Clan, and to my east, I found Molach's Hippus (his scouting warrior is slightly south of it, via conversation.) I know through communication that Whosit's Balseraphs are South of the Clan, and that Sian's Elves used to my to my southeast, between me and the Hippus.


Statistics and Graphs

Demographics:

List of Cities:

Score:

GNP:

Hammers:

Food:

Culture:

Power:

I'm looking pretty good in these demographics. I have the biggest city, the highest GNP, and almost definitely the highest current production (considering I am building a settler.) The only thing I could be considered behind for is that the Clan already has a second city. However, considering I have a settler coming out in 7 turns, a switch to God King coming in 7 turns, and a much more population than him, I am certainly in a better spot.

My plan right now is pretty basic and straightforward. I will research towards Code of Laws while building normally. I'm under no threat right now - I have the pre-placed Prophetic Mane (super strong defensive unit) already in my capitol and plenty of warriors. I have no other players close enough to actually threaten me with a rush any time soon, and no scary world spells to watch out for.

I would like to become allies with either the Hippus or the Clan, as both of them are great to point at other players and I feel that I can easily out scale either one of them. So if I manage to get this game into a 1v1 situation I want them to be the ones I'm facing, not the Balseraphs. As of right now I am aiming more towards the Hippus because I'm a little scared of opening myself up to the clan. the Sidar vs Hippus matchup is much better, so I would much rather have them protected and strong than the clan. It's a bit of a greedy choice - the Clan is probably safer to befriend - but so far things seem to work with the Hippus. At the very least we have a ton of room together because the Elves are dead, so there is almost no chance of us fighting over territory without other provocation.

Either way I feel really comfortable right now. Sidar are almost certainly the strongest builder Civ left in the game, so unless I get outplayed hard or ganged up I feel that I have inevitability. The Clan and Hippus are very little threat after being defanged so early, and ideally I can get the Clan and Balseraphs to fight over territory.

My next post will be a dump of my diplomacy emails. Keep in mind communication can only be sent on your turn, so it's one message at a time - there is no back and forth quickly.

[gtAngel]

gtAngel x Serdoa (Clan)

Salutations to the Clan, led by Jonas Endain

I am gtAngel, listener for Sandalphon and the Sidar Council, and I will be communicating with you for them.

First and foremost, we would like to extend our greetings. It is always good to meet our neighbors in this strange land, so we are glad to have come across your nation. The councilors spoke of five peoples, although more recently many of them have started saying four while mentioning some type of loud sound, like a cry.

Of the three other nations - horse riders, clowns, and elves, we have come to meet the horse riders, who are on the opposite side of the world from you. We ourselves are to your east, and have searched the area to our north and south without finding another civilizations.

Well, that is all for now, although we look forward to further communications and continued peaceful cooperation.

thanks for your warm welcome and for your freely given Information. To give something back, the Clowns are to my south, though blocked mostly by Giant Spiders (south of your warrior, below my borders is lurking one, last seen in the jungle), and some creature that seems to be hold in place. The creator of this world sure did tough upon it, it seems.

Kind regards,
Serdoa

gtAngel x Molach (Hippus)

Greetings Leader of the Sidar!

I am Molach, prime minister and right & left hand of Rhoanna of the Hippus. All contact will go through me.

Our warrior Belegtad reported contact with your scout this year, so I am therefore delighted to be able to send this greeting to you.

I see you're off to a good start, good job on that.

I've not seen any dangerous creatures around where your scout is since a griffon tried to dislodge my warrior from his hill. I've not been scouting much, so don't know the lands around your scout much. My lands are NE, very close. NW and SE are unknown. A few tiles east of your scout is the Pyre of the Seraphic-something, I beg you not to open that - too close for comfort. I'll dispose of it in due time.

'till next time.

-Molach

Salutations to Molach of the Hippus.

I am the listener gtAngel, and speak for Sandalphon and the Sidar Council. The councilors spoke of several nearby peoples, and it is good to meet our neighbors in this land. It seems that there are either four or five civilizations in the nearby area - the councilors seemed a bit divided on the matter, although most of them agreed on four in the most recent meeting. A few whispered some words about a great howl in relation to the potential fifth civilization, although they have only been whispers.

No matter the circumstance, however, I assure you that we seek peace with our neighbors, and you are no exception. I thank you for the information you have divulged about the surroundings, and I have no plans to open the Pyre. Our lands are rather far to the west, and a little north. Even further north west you will find the Clan - a hodgepodge of goblins, lizards, and other such creatures. You could also reach them by heading east - they are situated almost directly on the other side of the world from you.

Of the other two nations, the councilors spoke of both clowns and elves, and we have seen neither one so far. We ask for any information you have on their location (or the remains of that location, if in fact there are but four) to further understand this continent.

With hopes for the future,
-gtAngel

Thank you for your reply.

It pains me to inform you that you are not the first civilization we met. The Ljosalfar established a settlement very near our lands. We are a people who desire peace, expansion and prosperity. However when we discovered that Ljosalfar had formed their city 6 tiles from our capital, we decided that the threat to our future security was too great - we sent our garrison warriors to convince Sian to relocate to a more distant location. However the language-barrier was too great, and our warriors were attacked and killed by elven warriors. With a great warcry our scouts rushed to the scene, and in their fury the elven warriors were destroyed. The city did not survive the fighting. The ruins 2 west of your scout current location were not preplaced by the One - they are Elven ruins. Thus I am the Speaker for the Dead in this regard.

By your report, and our mystics' reasoning, we now have empty areas in which to grow and prosper, and desire peace above all else. In view of this, our next request may seem a bit aggressive, but we ask you also to not explore the dungeon directly south of our warrior. It is also very close to our lands, and a 13 % chance of big bad enemies ravaging our lands is, I'm afraid, not acceptable. I forgot to mention this in our last message, but it is very definite. I know not of any other lairs or features further SE of your scouts position so can and will make no further requests. Help yourself to any huts you find - my own fault I didn't get them.

We are somewhat concerned about the Orc's number of soldiers. We see someone founded a second city and suspect the Orcs did it, they have a big military. How are your relations with them?

I've scouted a bit to my northwest, and haven't found much there - tundra, ice, a few water/earth/meta mana nodes. And some Prophetic manes. I wonder if all races were 'blessed' with demon warriors near our lands?

Hopefully, Molach of Hippus.

We am glad we have been able to communicate so well so far then. we can certainly understand how a miscommunication like you had with the elves can lead to acts that cannot be undone, so it gladdens us to be starting with peaceful intentions. And believe us, we have no desire to open that lair and destroy our peace. With goblins to my west and you to my east I certainly have no intention of attempting of inciting violence.

As for the orcs, we have contacted them and learned that the clowns are to their south, giving a full, albeit slightly vague, picture of where everyone is located. We can verify that they are the civilization who has expanded - very much like orcs to rapidly breed. Their power does not worry us however - they have fallen back down and their growth was backed not by infrastructure, but by rallying the natives. We feel confident that the remaining natives will not be swayed and the orc army will have to grow normally as of now.

Personally, I suspect they will grow for a short while before amassing an army. The demon warriors have been spoke of very regularly in the council - it seems they are a gift of sorts, although from what they would not tell me. However, the important part is that they have very definitely been gifted to all peoples, and while their meaning is unclear their defensive power is obvious. I do not expect that anything the goblins can do will be very effective for quite some time. It is most fortunate for you that the elves had not claimed their prize - you may have had a struggle on your hands had that been the case.

Moving forward, I, and the council, all wish to continue having peaceful relations with you. Our positions on this world are ideal for such a situation - we are neither so close that we fight over land, nor are we so far as to be isolated from each other. I hope that you feel the same way.

-The Listener for the Council humbly speaks,
-gtAngel

[Qgqqqqq]

The setup you have for your report (centred) is very hard to read on my phone, as unlike other text styles it will not scale down.
You can keep it as is, but it is very annoying to the audience (and I'll probably not read it...).

[gtAngel]

I'll switch to left aligned then, I didn't realize it caused an issue.

Fixed - everything is back to no alignment.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks.
What do you think about the map?

[gtAngel]

It's a pretty interesting map in terms of the preplaced tiles. Some random improvements, some ancient forests, a lot of flood plains and things like fire and hell terrain. It doesn't look so different as to be gimmicky and gamey, just different enough to look cool and have some potential uses (for example, I'm planning on abusing these ancient forests for the extra hammer production.)

I just realized I forgot to turn on resource views, but I also have a second calender resource in my BFC, so my land is particular is absolutely what I wanted. Plenty of food to run a specialist or two, high production tiles, high commerce tiles, it's just great.

As for where each civilization is positioned it seems fine. It appears to be Elves->Hippus->Clowns->Clan->Sidar->Elves wrapped around, which is nice in that everyone borders at least one rush civ. The balseraphs have two near them, but it seems like the terrain is hostile between them and the clan, giving some measure of safety (spiders!) I wish I was closer to the Hippus than the Clan because I feel like Sidar are one of the best anti-Hippus civs in the game, but given the clan have already used their world spell I am perfectly happy with this arrangement.

[spellman]

It's a pretty interesting map in terms of the preplaced tiles. Some random improvements, some ancient forests, a lot of flood plains and things like fire and hell terrain. It doesn't look so different as to be gimmicky and gamey, just different enough to look cool and have some potential uses (for example, I'm planning on abusing these ancient forests for the extra hammer production.)

I feel like that's one of the best parts of Civ and FFH. Looking around, taking stock, then abusing what you're given for maximum profit.

[Qgqqqqq]

Just ftr it wasn't setup to split the "rush covs" - player positions are random.

[gtAngel]

Well it works nicely anyway :P

Even if it wasn't split this way the map is small enough that you'll be in their sphere of influence soon anyway. It just worked out and is something I noticed.

[Qgqqqqq]

We alive?

No, gtangel took over and started a new thread.

Which also died...

We've despaired so much of your reporting that we've turned to the dead thread.
FIX THIS!