[Spoilers - Flauros (sunrise089 and darrelljs)]

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Naw, they're not vampires at first.

But what does option 3 do ?

[darrelljs]

Sent this e-mail to Ilios:

When you get the save you'll see I've declared war on you (yet again). It was an easy decision made painful but the chats we've had over the last few days; you're both cool, and really damn good, but the goal is to win the game and this seemed like the best chance to do so. I guess it says something of your talents that you've been ganged up on yet again :-(.

Regards,
Darrell

Turn report coming up . I just wanted to echo the above comments to Ilios if he ever does read my thread.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

So a Vampire Child is going to bring peace to the world?

What kind of peace?

Irony, thy name is Ravus Sol .

Darrell

[darrelljs]

But what does option 3 do ?

Option 3 if memory serves adds 10 to AC. Not exactly what I had in mind .

Edit: Loaded the old save; it is a free Great Prophet, but you have to be OO!

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Okay, loading the save and dialing up Ilios I see the following cities:



Hmm...what happened to Soleil Noire and New Thordin?



Oh, uberfish happened . Metagaming 101, when there are 3 challengers for the crown (sorry Amelia ), things will degenerate into a 2v1, and you don't want to be that one. I think Ilios played a great game so far, but his one big mistake was diplomacy. I was working the phones trying to setup an alliance during the Serdoa war. It helped a lot that Iliios swiped some ubefish cities during his conquest of Sciz; that annoyed him (as much as it annoyned me when Ilios swiped a Serdoa city). We've been planning this little escpade heavily over the last week, coordinating our attack to put maximum pressure on Ilios in multiple spots. Initial move by uberfish went off without a hitch, now I have to do my part. First objective is a blitz of Surya:



Ilios has one Hawk in the area, but I am certain it won't see these three Vampires; its there to keep an eye on the bulk of my forces stationed in Serdoa's old capital of Jubilee. I have two Hawks, and more importantly they are on Mobility 2 Hunters that can be Hasted to five move. I've been tracking his troops for some time now, and Surya is consistently guarded by one Warrior. He's a bad-ass though, so I planned for two Spectres to take him out. You can see the desert approach, which requires two moves to go through. One Vampire for Haste, two for Spectres, Warrior is dead. So I move in and find:



Now there's a Thane of Kilmorph in the city as well . Kick. In. The. Jimmy. Oh well, there's always next turn. Send him in, and:



What th-. Wow. Uh...better to be lucky than good? The second Spectre cleans up the Thane of Kilmorph and Surya is razed. Objective #1 completed. Now for objective #2. First thing to notice is a Priest of Leaves casting Bloom that wasn't there last turn. Here, I am better prepared:



One Vampire stationed in recently founded Pavu'nar moves in, hits the PoL with a Spectre, then cleans up at great odds. Remember how I mentioned my Vampire stack was stationed in Jubilee?



It is a vaguely neutral location, as I can respond to any attacks by uberfish from there as well. I've also been there for a few turns after our NAP expired (t140), basically since I killed Stephanos. I have no idea if this lulled Ilios into a false sense of security, but Mobility Vampires with Haste can cover a lot of ground:



Combat results were predictable with three Death Mana nodes online:



You can see I had lots of Spectres left over, enough to snipe three more Workers and still move I believe eight Spectres in as garrison. I did keep the city, but more as bait than anything else:



I guess I should not be surprised a fairly new city lacked infrastructure, but still . The city is just out of reach of those Eidolons, but depending on what he does I can and will reach them with my Spectres. Generally whoever hits first has a big advantage, but in this case I'm not so sure. He doesn't have that many units, so even if he takes out 3-4 Vampires I'll live. My counter attack will be devastating. He's in quite the pickle it will be interesting to see how he responds . City overview:



Military overview:



Currently rule is draft/feast at any city that hits size 11 (so we can take Mobility and Death II), unless doing so would take me off a good tile. I'd say in about a dozen turns my cities will be cranking out about 5 such Vampires every turn . Finally, note I sent to uberfish updating him on my turn:

Sol Invictus captures (hoping he tries to liberate it), and Surya razed. Body count: 3 Warriors, Thane of Kilmorph, Stonewarden, Priest of Leaves, and 2 Catapults.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Well?

Darrell

[fire&ice]

Well?

Darrell

What did you want a sparta vs persia reference?

[darrelljs]

What did you want a sparta vs persia reference?

Quiet man, do you want to jinx it !

Darrell

[fire&ice]

Quiet man, do you want to jinx it !

Darrell

Well uhh . . . YES :neenernee

[darrelljs]

No one loves us poor, harmless Vampires .

Darrell