Horselover Fat's journal - Iskender and the Hippus

[Amelia]

Just to confirm, and you can probably find out by reading the start of the thread, River of Blood has been used already.

[Iskender]

Phew... the last thing I would want to see is the Calabim getting ahead of Pb in MFG, food and GNP.

[Iskender]

Received this from Pb:

[COLOR="Plum"]Hey Iskender,

I picked up Sailing last turn and was quickly going through the Calabim resources.
It looks like they have a Deruptus Brewery, but no Wheat, neither connected nor in their territory.

I looked around the map and did spot one (only one!) nearby, approximately 6 tiles SouthEast of Radonnor (spelling?).
I don't know if you have a source of Wheat yet, but given the choice between our neighbours the Hippus getting it or the nasty vampires, we'd choose you every time.
So if you happen to have a Settler available, why don't you take a look?

Kind Regards,
Pb, Picking a Side Boy-King[/COLOR]

My first reaction was:

I forgot that the Deruptus Brewing House gives commerce bonuses and never bothered to connect the corn south of the capital! It cost me 4 raw multiplied by about 40 turns

Wrote this in reply:

[COLOR="Lime"]Hello Wise King Pocketbeetle

The wheat tile you're referring to won't be within anyone's cultural
borders soon as it lies in the demarcation zone that me and the
Calabim agreed not to settle.

Iskender[/COLOR]

[Iskender]

Cull just discovered Sanitation. He's got an extra Silk and I've got some spare Ale so I finally got around to establishing diplomatic relations with the dwarves:

[COLOR="Lime"]Greetings to the mighty Khazad from the roaming Hippus!


Let me begin by saying that the Hippus seek no enemies among the dwarves. Although we are considered a warlike nation we value peace and cooperation.

It seems that we are connected by a very long river that allows us to float goods back and forth. I noticed that you don't have any ale, but have extra silk, so I offered some of my ale in exchange for the silk.

Iskender[/COLOR]

[Maksim]

Cull just discovered Sanitation.

Excellent news for the dwarves, and also anyone located downwind from them!

How did you find this out?

[Iskender]

I used the Tech Known by Others bonus. In FFH the bonus is much lower than in Civ but it's still there - with 6 civs total it increases GNP by about 1% for each known civ that has the tech. This turn Sanitation got an increase from 2% to 3%, so someone must've discovered it. A look at food output of farms of various players confirmed it was Cull (this is another way to figure this out). Cull's riverside farms are now 4/0/4 - all hail Financial Agristocracy! I should catch up with Sanitation in 4 turns.

[Iskender]

A quick update: Without saying a word Cull agreed to trade Silk for Ale. Bob sent an Open Borders offer which I hastily accepted. It seems that Google Translate was wrong after all(work on it ERIC SCHMIDT!) Selrahc founded his eleventh city, which is quite a bother. His pop almost doubled in ten turns. I'm settling my #8 next turn.

And a nice screenshot of the Hippus in turn 140:

[Maksim]

Your empire looks quite neat, and your research rate is very impressive, especially considering Hippus' history.

I can count seven cities in the screenshot, and can also the expected locations of cities 9,10 and 11. What happened to city number eight?

Do you intend to pick up Fishing\Sailing for the coastal cities you'll be building, or will they be OK working just the land tiles for now?

[Iskender]

Your empire looks quite neat, and your research rate is very impressive, especially considering Hippus' history.

Thanks!

I can count seven cities in the screenshot, and can also the expected locations of cities 9,10 and 11. What happened to city number eight?

The eight city has just been founded. It didn't fit in the previous screenshot. Here's one showing what's the situation in the south:

Do you intend to pick up Fishing\Sailing for the coastal cities you'll be building, or will they be OK working just the land tiles for now?

I got lucky and received Fishing from a hut the other day. Cities 9-12 will be coastal as I've already run out of land sites. I'm not prioritizing Sailing - coastal cities should get enough food from farms.

Pb discovered Trade, 2 turns ago I think, I just noticed it looking at the F4/tech trade screen. He's got Stirrups and most likely a nice squad of centaur archers. Not good. If he takes Raiders in turn 145 and goes Empy, tremble Erebus!

Had a brief chat with Selrahc:

17:00
selrahctheeternal: Hey.
17:01
Would you mind if I did a map trade with Sareln?

If you're trying to keep knowledge of your territory away from Bob/Sareln I'm fine with avoiding a trade.
17:04
ja: i don't mind. Sareln probably has my map via hawks already

selrahctheeternal: Right. Thanks.

ja: have you noticed that Pb discovered Trade?
17:05
selrahctheeternal: No.. I hadn't.

Interesting.
That's centaur chargers right?
17:06
ja: he's got centaur archers so chargers shouldn't make a difference, but i'm afraid it means rathas & chalid

selrahctheeternal: Hmmm. Yeah.
17:07
I don't know. His tech is insane.

I'm going to tower my way to having an effective unit technology.

Indeed, he's discovered Divination and built a Mind node already. I wonder which technology he has in mind. It could be Sorcery, but then again wasting the tower for a 2000 beakers tech seems a waste.

[Iskender]

Turn 143:

I've discovered Sanitation and hooked up the Gems that I'll trade with Pb as a part of our settlement deal.

Bad news: Pb gave Selrahc Sun Mana. I guess the second part of the deal is Selrahc giving Pb Law and Mind mana, so they both can get a free tech. What bothers me more though, is that such a deal proves how unlikely they are to go hostile with each other. If Pb goes Raiders in turn 145 (I definitely would) then I'm the only neigbour left to harass. Well, at least we have a 10-turn peace.

I've change my beeline plan a bit. Instead of going straight for Fanaticism and Infernal Pact I'm taking a detour through Honor to get Rathas.

For a change, a view from a makeshift Hippus satellite: