Horselover Fat's journal - Iskender and the Hippus

[Ilios]

In the meantime 10th Hippus city was founded. Take a look at the fabulous spot for #11:

Hmm, maybe you could advertise it as a premium vacation spot for wealthy Illians?

[Mardoc]

You're a wise guy Sun, but you constantly fail to include the fun factor into your observations. That's why I'm mostly inclined towards [SIZE="6"]A[/SIZE].

Well, this gets a lurker's approval. I make no comment on whether it's wise, but it'll certainly be a blast!

Could you comment, though, on the state of your army, and where you expect to be if/when the war comes? About all us lurkers know is that you have one or more archer, horseman, and are aiming for Rathas.

And if their land became your land, then everyone would feel the same way about you .

Any idea how feasible this goal would be, with PB's help? I assume you're not looking to just defend PB's settlements, but how much do you expect you could achieve against Bob? Are you looking at eliminating all his farms, paring back the Vamps, or doubling the size of the Hippus empire?

Of course this is early days yet, so I'm sure your goals will mutate as you get more information and closer to d-day.

Still, I find it satisfying as a lurker that the Hippus are the civ everyone wants as an ally, paid for somehow, and is hesitant to declare on because you'd be more useful as an ally.

In the meantime 10th Hippus city was founded. Take a look at the fabulous spot for #11:

Darn, Ilios beat me to the Illians joke. I do, however, count 8 coasts and a fish, so I definitely see why you're founding it anyway.

[Iskender]

Could you comment, though, on the state of your army, and where you expect to be if/when the war comes? About all us lurkers know is that you have one or more archer, horseman, and are aiming for Rathas.

At the moment I have some 10 archers, two catapults, two horsemen and a couple of warriors. My real military force should take shape in about 30 turns. I want it to be composed of:

- Rathas, for "crowd control"
- Ritualists, 4 should do, for mass damage and healing
- Diseased Corpses, hopefully with bronze weapons, and Horse Archers - main body of the army, the more the merrier. DC/HA proportion close to 1/1. DC with Combat I or City Raider. HA with Flanking I. I might change the proportion in favour of HA if I'll go for a faster stack. It depends on whether I'll have access to Haste (DC are not affected by it so I'd make just enough of them to provide basic defense against spectres)
- Beasts of Agares with Mobility I and as many Combat/CRs as possible. That's the trickiest part. I need to research Fanaticism and discover Infernal Pact before anyone else does it. I'm sure Bob will go AV (he mentioned Ritualists in a conversation) and Pb might convert as well, Sacrifice the Weak must be tempting for the Kuriotates, not to mention the free tech. I don't want to research Fanaticism in vain, as the tech itself gives me nothing, it's just a prereq. for Malevolent Designs. If I see that I have little chance to get both Fanaticism and Infernal Pact in time, I'll try to get Chalid instead and if that fails, Gibbon Goetia to cast Domination (which is not a bad idea actually).
- at a later time I'd like to include Assassins

Any idea how feasible this goal would be, with PB's help? I assume you're not looking to just defend PB's settlements, but how much do you expect you could achieve against Bob? Are you looking at eliminating all his farms, paring back the Vamps, or doubling the size of the Hippus empire?

That largely depends on the scope of Pb's aid. Ideally Pb would want to bring big enough force to cripple the Calabim and little enough to prevent me from gaining anything substantial. My goal is to get that entire Fertile Crescent - Prespur and the core cities - for myself.

Still, I find it satisfying as a lurker that the Hippus are the civ everyone wants as an ally, paid for somehow, and is hesitant to declare on because you'd be more useful as an ally.

I believe that's the #1 reason why I'm still alive (or at least matter) in this game.


I sent Pb an invitation to DANCE:

[COLOR="Lime"]Hi there

Indeed, Sareln founded a city in the non-settling zone. He wasn't
explicitly prohibited from doing so - the NAP and settling agreement
between me and the Calabim doesn't involve the Elves. I am mostly
annoyed at the manner in which the city was founded, that is, without
any regard for my wishes and with calling in the Calabim, thus I've
decided to take the city by force. The NAP makes it difficult though,
as there are probably some Calabim troops in the new city's garrison.

I don't think Bob wants to end the NAP. He's making regular attempts
to get me on his side (which is quite unlikely after a series of
diplomatic blunders). Actually I believe I'm the party more interested
in shortening the NAP, I need to get some serious offensive force
first and, as you noted, it requires aid or an ally. Are you
interested?

Iskender[/COLOR]

And Bob a phony non-denial:

[COLOR="lime"]Hi there

Let me begin with the details: attacking the Kuriotates is not going
to be easy. He's got a defensive settlement close to the gems that
prevents easy entry into his land. Recently he's begun surrounding his
borders with deserts making it hard for the enemy to enter his lands
and easy for him to launch a counter-strike. I don't know how many
vampires you could get in 20 turns, but I think it's not going to be
enough. I for sure won't be able to gather strong enough offensive
force in 20 turns, 30 is more likely.

Iskender
[/COLOR]

I'm actually afraid that Pb will consider my genuine offer as more phony than Bob my phony offer genuine. Well, I suck at diplomacy If I get to play in PBEM 3 I'll pick Sidar and just shut up!

[Iskender]

Bob wants me to be more explicit with my commitments:

[COLOR="Red"]Heya,


Okay, just to confirm- you are in to attack PB, yes? As for 30 turns vs. 20, while 30 seems like a long time to me, you know the capabilities of your civlization better than I, and I certainly could use the extra 10 turns or so to prep more myself. DaveV did some power-graph analysis of PB, and we think that his current military is about 8 Centaur archers spread out fairly evenly amongst his jungle settlements, with a fair number of warriors playing garrison back home, and those 3 hill giants. My main concern is that in 30 turns he might have gotten something nasty from the Tower of Divination, but I agree that going into a major war prepared and facing possibly higher resistance is far preferable to declaring before you're ready and subsequently getting slaughtered. So for right now I'm fine to agree to a tentative 30 turn invasion date.


What forces are you thinking of bringing? My main group will probably be some combination of vamps, royal guard, and chariots. I may try to get a few ritualists in as well, depending on my tech path & priorities.


Also, do you agree to the NAP amendment I have proposed? 30 turns from now will be awfully close to when our current arrangement expires, and I don't want either of us to be worried about the intentions of the other.


Finally, I do urge you to get cartography fairly soon, so that Sareln can help you prepare your border forces. It's kind of a useless tech otherwise, but it's cheap at least.
[/COLOR]

I'm not sure for how long i could spin that NAP extension thingy. I try to avoid any outright lies, but Bob's going to figure out it's fishy sooner than later.

[COLOR="Lime"]First, I need to get an army that has a chance to be successful. If I
manage to do that in 30 turns count me in. I should have Rathas with
Blinding Light (I'm going Empy) and maybe Chalid, that should stir
things up.

As for the NAP, I'm still feeling uncomfortable with the way the
situation with Sareln and the barb city was handled. If we want to
prolong the NAP we first need to establish some kind of framework to
avoid such situations in the future.
[/COLOR]

In the meantime turn 159 began. I'm on 100% research burning my stockpiled cash. If I'm correct about tech overflow in FFH (no cap and the current tech bonus applied to the overflow) I should get Honor as early as at the end of turn 161.

Selrahc made a surprising (for me) move. I was SURE he'd convert to some combination involving Conquest/Apprenticeship and make Sorcery his offensive tech of choice. Looks like he's aiming for Archmages.

[Sciz]

So by going Empyrean, have you scrapped your Hyborem plans? I was looking forward to that!

[Ravus Sol]

I assume the Empy is a short term stop gap? Will you get some Radient guards while you are at it?

Oh dear, diplomacy fun, stuck in the middle. Oh well if they get confused over whom you support you can allways fall back on C, Do nothing, and wait for them to declare on each other before you publicly pick a side.

You are certainly ambitious in your desires for the vampire fertile crescent. Are you going to ask for help removing the winter elves entirely as well? So you believe that PB only wants to cripple the Vampires not take the cities seeing as PB gets little to nothing from making them settlements?

[Iskender]

[SIZE="4"]OK disregard my A B C post.[/SIZE] I was under influence of [SIZE="4"]Substance D[/SIZE].

Earlier today I was playing turn 160, checking out the tech tree wondering what Pb could research next. My glazed eyes landed on Engineering, particularly on that funny flying ship that Kuriotates got so they also could transport units to distant continents. In a brief moment of clarity I decided to do a test to make sure if unloading troops from the Airship eats their movement.

It didn't.

This is what my face looked like during the test, as registered by the webcam:



This is serious. I can shrug off Archmages, High Priests and some assorted crap like Centaur Knights. But Airships are really serious. Pb would be able to fork like a dozen of cities with those. Seriously, that's the Wunderwaffe of Erebus. He must be stopped at all costs!

Therefore, I'm switching to [SIZE="4"]B[/SIZE]. My phony messages to Bob are no longer phony. I will cooperate with him in an attempt to bring Pb down, although it's not going to be a particularly enjoyable experience, but I feel like this time I really have no choice. I'll also approach Selrahc to see if he realizes the threat and is willing to do something about it.

My tech plans remain unchanged. I'll found Empyrean next EOT and then work on getting Fanaticism, AV and Infernal Pact. It should take about 20 turns, probably more than it'd take Pb to grab Astronomy, Engineering and Iron Working.

I assume the Empy is a short term stop gap? Will you get some Radient guards while you are at it?

Not really. I'll train some but only to upgrade them to Rathas as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for more ravings of a Substance D addict.

[Iskender]

Still in the Airship-panic mood I sent Selrahc the following:

[COLOR="Lime"]Hi there

Congratulations on winning the Somnium tournament. I hope you made a
good use of that gc, as I'm going to win it back next time!

I'm writing to ask what do you think about the prospect of Pb getting
Airships filled with commando troops able to fork cities in 10+ tile
radius, striking from above a peak or from the ocean. Do you think
there's a way to counter it? I'm sceptical.

Iskender[/COLOR]

I'm really curious what he's reply with. Did he know about Airship threat all the time? Why did the arrange the mana exchange with Pb then?

Had a chat with Pocketbeetle. I've decided to cooperate with Bob for good or bad, so some parts of it are phony.

[COLOR="Lime"]ja: hey Pb

i went Empy
12:08
let me answer some of your questions:
12:09
in my NAP negotiations with bob 50 turns ago i explicitly promised that if he stations troops in Sarelns cities i won't attack them. that's the thing that makes it difficult, at least diplomatically
12:10
i'm negotiating with Sareln, he might give me some kind of compensation for settling that city. i want to get the wheat and also bronze that is S of the city
12:11
still, it doesn't make the Calabim issue go away
12:13
i'd like to eventually grab that entire fertile crescent they started in. it is a bold plan, i know, especially that they've already discovered feudalism
12:14
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Hi Iskender
12:15
ooh Empy, interesting, I guessed wrong

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: do we have a conflict of interest here?

i didn't really need to rush it

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Nope, I meant what I said, it's your to found
12:16
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: as i wasn't bent on founding it. i just like rathas

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Maybe later we could work a RoK priests for Empy priests deal, who knows. Or both go for Overcouncil?

anyway, dealing with matter at hand
12:17
Bob's troops and you can't attack them, okay not a problem. Would you like me to move a hawk down and scout wherever the city is next turn?

If there's none there, then nothing would stand in your way if you moved quickly with mounted units would it?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: sure if you wish, but I'm not going to attack it right now

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: (not right now, but it future)

I know, yup
12:18
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: i'm quite certain there are some bob's units

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Okay, well no harm checking.
Next, you want Bob's land do you

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: maybe two bloodpets or moroi

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Ah, you've seen that floodplain river, with the gold on top?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: yes. and i wept

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: crazy I know
12:19
No secret why Calabim now top crop yield

and feeds into Gov mansions nastily
12:20
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: i'm not sure what i could do about it at the moment

actually i am sure i could do nothing
12:21
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Well, let me be clear Iskender. I have no further territorial aims in this game. I might settle a few more settlements here and there, but if you wanted Bob's lands, I'm not going to kick up a fuss. I can't defend settlements over there realistically

[/COLOR] [Aaaargh! I do want that land badly! Still, staying alive in the long term has higher priority.]

[COLOR="Lime"]ja: btw. he's going AV

[/COLOR] [Sorry Bob. I really wanted to see Pb's reaction to that. He didn't seem bothered by Empyrean. What about AV?]
[COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: So frankly, if thing's went well, you'd be gaining a decent amount of land

Really? Ritualists? Or summon hyborem?
12:22
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: ritualists for sure. i dont know about hybo

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: interesting, thanks for telling me

[/COLOR] [Aha! Pb's interested in AV. Bad news. The only thing worse than paratrooping centaurs are paratrooping commando Beasts of Agares]
[COLOR="Lime"]ja: probably yes - he could make good use of sacrifice the weak
12:23
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: So, are you interested in some sort of military alliance vs the Calabim? It seems to me that if it goes well, you could gain a lot

And I have no problems with that. My main aim is a weaker Calabim, that's all

[/COLOR]My poor attempt at dodging the question:
[COLOR="Lime"]ja: i need to find a way to circumvent that NAP first :/
12:24
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Well, did you see that chat part? I'm pretty damn sure he'd declare

(Either that, or he was making a very good bluff)
12:25
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: yes, but if he stations units in that sarelns city I might as well break the NAP outright, as i promised not to attack cities in which he has troops
12:26
i had different plans when i made that promise - i wanted to somehow talk sareln into breaking his bonds with bob and 'liberate' him

i was under impression that he was not happy about being Bob's vassal

but that didn't work out
12:27
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: No, its been pretty clear that Sareln is Bob's vassal, Bob says it, Sareln doesn't deny it etc

What I'm worried about is who Bob intends to attack next.
12:28
Apparently Cull has a nap longer than T200 with Bob, you have til T200, that leaves Selrahc or me

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: could be me. but rathas can save my butt until i get more serious force online

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Or, he intends to break it with you, but you don't seem to think so

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: he still needs a dozen or more turns to train and feed the vampires
12:29
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: True, and has got to complete Fued however far into it he is

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: he discovered it

i think i mentioned that somewhere above

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: ?

When did he discover it? Must be this turn, I checked last
12:30
[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: this turn

i mean last

EOT

technically

[/COLOR]pocketbeetle: Ah k. That sucks, I thought he had another 5+ turns to go at least [O Rly?]

ja: yeah, i was surprised as well [O Rly?]

[COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Such is life, still gotta train them as you say

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: his gnp is not really mindblowing
12:31
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Considering his land, he should be doing better imo. But that's better for us I guess

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: indeed. that goldmine has been 9gc all along. and those floodplains...
12:32
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: So, I can see a couple of options depending on what hawks show. You attack Sareln, or if Calabim troops there, we could sign a military defensive pact and I either declare war on bob or get him to declare war

(I think I could get him to declare war, he promised to if I explore a lair near him, which I haven't done yet )
12:33
That's if you would prefer not to break your nap. I can understand if so, but equally if you want to break it, I definitely won't hold it against you at all

[/COLOR]Now how to weasel out of it without giving anything away?
[COLOR="Lime"]ja: let's see what the hawk reveals
12:34
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: okay. Where abouts is the city? Where should I move the hawks to roughly?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: the city is 1S of the wheat
12:35
try to move the hawk as far from the city as possible so sareln doesn't see with his hawks that something's cooking
12:36
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Okay, hawk sight range is 5, plus flying of 3 = 8. Can you find a city of yours 7-8 tiles away from it?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: let me see
12:38
Mourosbane - 8W 2N of the city. i'm not sure if it's withing range
12:39
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Okay, well I try there first, and if not will move a second a little closer

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: Mourosbane is 5S of my mana node

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: I'll send you a screenshot of anything I find, fair enough?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: no, wait 4S

ok, sure
12:40
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Okay, but you seem a little hesitant still. I'm not going to push you now, but is there anything I can say to convince you? Is there anything you want?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: give me some time to figure out how I could bite those cities
12:41
i mean Bob's

[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: Sure. Do you have recent map knowledge?

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: i could immobilize his stack with rathas if he makes a mistake and positions it badly

yes
12:42
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: good okay. I went raiders because I saw so many roads there. So much criss crossing

[/COLOR][COLOR="Lime"]ja: indeed. that's pure smoke
12:43
[/COLOR][COLOR="Magenta"]pocketbeetle: I'll let you know once I get the save. Thanks for the chat though Iskender.

[/COLOR]ja: ok, cheers

Then sent Bob this:

[COLOR="Lime"]Hi there

I think I know what Pb's weapon of choice is going to be. Airships.
This may sound lame, but imagine a couple of these hovering over the
peak NW of Nubia, each carrying 6 centaur archers with commando that
can disembark without losing movement. I'm sure you see what it
implies, but let me say it - with Airships Pb could threaten every
city in the enemy civ at once. For me its a kind of threat an order of
magnitude greater than, say, Archmages. If we fail to prevent it we're
dead.

That's actually the reason why I've decided to cooperate with you. I'd
like to extend our NAP or set a cooldown period, but first we need to
sort some issues that might impede our cooperation:

You are going Ashen Veil. How much of a priority is getting the
Infernal Grimoire for you? I'm asking because there might be a
conflict of interest here. I plan to switch to AV soon and get the
Infernal Pact within a golden age and probably switch back to Empy
(the exact plan depends on what Pb does). I'd like us to avoid a
possible straining race for the Grimoire. To get a free tech we can
(and should!) arrange mana trade for the Tower of Divination - with
Sareln's Mind mana, your Law and two free nodes we have just enough
mana to get it.

The above is possibly a non-issue though, as i think Pb wants to get
the Grimoire for himself. If that's the case there's nothing you or I
can do about it, I'd just stick with Empy and get Chalid or maybe go
Esus for Gibbon Goetia.

As for the goblin fort - Sareln promised me to let me farm the for
within his borders. We can arrange it the way thay you get to farm
Sareln's fort and I get the one in between. It'd actually be simpler
that way.

I'm going to research cartography at some point, but I think it'd be
better if I just researched Hunting. There's a way for Sareln to enter
my teritorry w/o open borders though - he could use his world spell.
It'd be a huge giveaway for Pb though - the story I'm spinning for him
is that I'm still angry at Sareln for settling in the south.

Iskender[/COLOR]

I have revealed quite a lot there, I'm afraid though that Bob might underestimate the power of fork with 15 prongs and ignore the threat. He's proved to have skewed judgment in the past (those High Priests of Winter). If we end up arguing over the Grimoire it'll be a disaster.

In the game Empyrean has been founded in Conrond Mor, my second city. A perfect location, ready to roll rathas off the production line.

[Iskender]

Got reply from Bob:

[COLOR="Red"]Hey,


Damn, I admit that I hadn't even considered airships as a possibility. Flying & free movement for embarked units- nasty.


For the NAP, let's just add a cool-down period. Less of a hassle to keep track of than counting down turns. Will 10 turns work for you? I attach no particular significance to that number, so feel free to propose an alternate.

Regarding the Veil, I am going to eventually switch to the religion for the Ritualists, but quite likely not for a while. I am first going to found the Council of Esus and build Gibbon. [/COLOR] [It sounds fishy. Bob must know that switching out of Esus loses him Gibbon Goetia. I'm still not convinced that he's, for example, not going to pretend to go for Esus and grab AV instead (both religions have the same tech prerequisites) and bulb Infernal Pact] [COLOR="red"] I therefore won't challenge your claim to the Grimoire if you research the Infernal Pact first. If I do get to the Pact before you, and I have a large number of other techs that I'm going to research first, then we may need to discuss which of us will get the most benefit out of the wonder, but I won't unilaterally try to build it without consulting with you first. I'm guessing that you want the Grimoire to get Mono for free? I do wonder whether it might be more efficient to just research Monotheism straight away in that case without bothering with the Veil, although you wouldn't get any Ritualists. Let me know as you near researching the Pact, I'm going to want to fill in some land first before Hyborem starts squatting on it. The Infernal might become quite powerful if a human player takes over for them- dead vampires = lots of free manes. It's less interesting for the poor lurkers, but we may just want to keep Hyborem as an AI for this game.

Concerning the Tower of Divination, I agree that we should cooperate together to complete ours. I intend to use my mana node as a Death node for my specters,[/COLOR] [A strange decision, wasting one's only mana to boost spectres by mere 33%. Also fishy] [COLOR="red"]which would leave us one short- except that you could build the Empyrean shrine for the free Sun mana. The shrine itself provides some pretty neat benefits, and I assume you'll want it to help boost Chalid anyway, so hopefully that works out.

I agree on the goblin forts. I might just end up mind-controlling all of mine for free archer MP. Is there still a Hill Giant roaming around your southern territory? I wonder if it might be worthwhile to try controlling him as well... unless you would like to kill him for exp, of course.


Please let me know if PB mentions any military plans vs. me, and I'll of course do the same for you. [/COLOR]

Pb reveals there's no Calabim troops in Thariss (Sareln's new city), calling my bluff about the reasons for not attacking Sareln.

[COLOR="Magenta"]Hi Iskender,

Good choice of city, here's what the hawk saw:

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2507/...t0003v.jpg

There's one hunter in there, that's it.
I guess they don't think you're a threat.


Also - I promise that Giant with Combat promotions in the South isn't mine!
If you want me to send a unit down there to kill it, just let me know.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Scouting Boy-King
[/COLOR]

My reply to Bob and Sareln:

[COLOR="lime"]I think 5 turn cool-down period would be perfect taking into accout
the fact that the pace of the game accelerates with each turn and soon
10 turns is going to be quite a long time.

I'm relieved to see that we can avoid the race for the Grimoire. Let's
say that makes us even after that barb city incident. You plan to
convert from Esus to AV, but you do realize that it will make Gibbon
abandon your civ?

My choice of the free tech depends on my assessment of the chances of
getting the Grimoire - if I see that getting it is at risk I'll settle
for a cheaper tech such as Religious Law. Hyborem won't be much of an
issue - I'd like to give it to the AI.

Dies Diei is tempting, but that's distant future. My next great person
will be a crossbreed and will be used to trigger a Golden Age. The guy
after probably won't not appear until 50 turns from now, less if I
gamble and pollute the GPP pool with non-prophets but i'm hesitant to
do this.[/COLOR]

[Now that Pb revealed there are no obstacles to me attacking Sareln i need to find out some kind of way out of this mess that doesn't alert Pb and leaves Sareln unharmed. I didn't believe it would be an issue as I was absolutely sure Bob and Sareln wouldn't leave this new city settled right in my face defended only by a single Hunter. This is what I came with:]

[COLOR="lime"]There's one more issue that cropped up recently regarding that new
Sareln's city. I've been telling Pb how irritated I am about it. I
was, in fact, until I saw Airships looming on the horizon. Now I'm
continuing with the story not to alert him that something's changed
(we may use it to our advantage soon). I've told Pb that i wanted to
grab the city and the only thing that stops me is the Calabim units
garrisoned there, since I explicitly promised not to attack Svartalfar
cities with garrisoned Calabim troops (I was sure there were some
Bloodpets left in Thariss). Well, Pb called this bluff and scouted the
city with a hawk, which revealed only a single hunter and I have have
two horsemen in range.

Now I need to do something to go on with the bluff. I was thinking of
declaring a fake war on Sareln and moving the horsemen next to the
city. I'll say Pb I'm trying to extort some resources from Sareln for
not attacking the city, and hope Pb buys it. In any case don't worry
if you see the declaration and two horsemen next to Thariss. If you
have a different idea how to solve that issue without alerting Pb
please let me know. If I notice any signs of him planning a military
action I'll let you know.[/COLOR]

I feel bad about all this. I'll have to keep lying to Pocketbeetle and I really hate that. He's the guy who got me here over from CFC and he's been nice and friendly all along. Sometimes I wish I didn't notice those Airships and allied with Pb vs. Bob and let Pb build an advantage that guarantees him win (that he certainly deserves).

[fluffyflyingpig]

Of course you could change plans again, and the phony-real messages to bob will be phony again and your lies to pb will be true!

The lurkers are enjoying the high drama, keep the updates coming!