Fog:Emp multiplayer 2 -- BARBARIANS ARISE (game 2 running)

[JasonPratt]

What I've heard as the current prognosis is, two weeks in rehab before she can come home, then another week before she can come back to work.

We'll just have to make sure the factory isn't a smoking cloud of poisonous acid floating over a crater by the time she comes back! 

[Tuna]

Family first

[JasonPratt]

Glad you're back, Blucher! Status:

1.) Ethiopia and my npc ally Blemmyes got into a war and took me with it, but you shouldn't be at war yet, so you can time your entry in as you wish. I'm taking the opportunity to pick up as much of Eritriea as I can, to start securing both sides of the Red Sea, which should help you whenever you want to stab across the south of Ethiopia and then north next to the desert through Nubia toward Egypt. (Long-distance plans.)

2.) You may wish however to delay that until you've recaptured your former capital from me. (I've managed it as well as I can in your absence.) I've broken our alliance again so you can declare war on me and get it back, then we'll peace as soon as possible (though we can't ally again for 10 turns.) Be aware that Judea may try to hit you from the north when you do this, so be prepared! If we can get it done fast enough, when I go to peace Judea should, too, as my client state.

3.) Eventually we're going to have to go to war with Judea, unless the upcoming diplomacy super-upgrade allows me to take over running my client states and/or allows factions to trade territories (which is REALLY BASIC FUNCTIONALITY in other games, good Lord Age of Wonders has been able to trade cities easily for 20 years.) Similarly I'll have to go to war with Blemmyes eventually, though you may be able to avoid that. I'll leave timing for the Judean takeover for your preparation estimates: you should get at least one maybe two provinces out of that.

[Blucher]

Glad you're back, Blucher! Status:

1.) Ethiopia and my npc ally Blemmyes got into a war and took me with it, but you shouldn't be at war yet, so you can time your entry in as you wish. I'm taking the opportunity to pick up as much of Eritriea as I can, to start securing both sides of the Red Sea, which should help you whenever you want to stab across the south of Ethiopia and then north next to the desert through Nubia toward Egypt. (Long-distance plans.)

2.) You may wish however to delay that until you've recaptured your former capital from me. (I've managed it as well as I can in your absence.) I've broken our alliance again so you can declare war on me and get it back, then we'll peace as soon as possible (though we can't ally again for 10 turns.) Be aware that Judea may try to hit you from the north when you do this, so be prepared! If we can get it done fast enough, when I go to peace Judea should, too, as my client state.

3.) Eventually we're going to have to go to war with Judea, unless the upcoming diplomacy super-upgrade allows me to take over running my client states and/or allows factions to trade territories (which is REALLY BASIC FUNCTIONALITY in other games, good Lord Age of Wonders has been able to trade cities easily for 20 years.) Similarly I'll have to go to war with Blemmyes eventually, though you may be able to avoid that. I'll leave timing for the Judean takeover for your preparation estimates: you should get at least one maybe two provinces out of that.

Its good to be back Jason. Sorry to hear about your family. Fatal Alliances ended up being a bust it was too complicated to play. Took us 9 hours to do a turn and a half not good. I am attempting to retake my capital. It seems my Kingdom is in total disarray after the fall. I am also still saddled with an awful ruler. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

[JasonPratt]

The diplomacy super-update landed today. Haven't tried playing it yet. Hope it doesn't break saves...?

[JasonPratt]

Okay first good news: new update does not apparently break saves.

Next: we can now trade regions or even whole provinces. However, our relationship must be high enough, so for this purpose we should ally again.

[JasonPratt]

Blucher,

to cancel a move, select your unit first (of course) then right-click in the region your unit is currently in. (I have to do this occasionally to repath, too.)

Thanks to the new diplomatic actions, we can save some time and effort by transferring regions around as we wish; and in this case, since you declared war on me already, I'm offering peace by giving you your region back. So if you take it, we'll save a step and be at peace again. And then we'll see what's necessary to get back to alliance asap.

Factions can trade all other resources, too, now: not culture, but gold, metal, manpower, equipment. So if you're running low on something let me know, and I might be able to help. (Though not on manpow for a while, as I'm buffing up to go take more of Ethiopia while I'm near their capital.)

Note! -- now if players decide to quit the game, you can arrange for your faction to be absorbed into someone else's faction for management rather than just handing it over to the AI!

This new patch is just the best, so far. Why these options weren't in the base game, I have no idea.

[MetalDog]

My understanding is that multiplayer was slapped on at the end of production.  I see these updates as creating the game as they go.  And I am kind of interested to see where it goes.  I haven't played my solo game since I jumped into all these mp games. 

[JasonPratt]

Hopefully Blucher, you can accept my peace offering of you capital back, before Judea's idea of a doomstack arrives to bug you! Worst case scenario though is that they grab a northern piece of Arabia Orientalis, and several turns from now I arrange to transfer it back over to you for nothing after I finish absorbing Judea under direct control.

My plans should allow you to focus your efforts on the point of the Abyssinian spear, so to speak, as well as building up your Arabian heartlands better. I'm planning to secure the majority of Charascina (or whatever it's called) for you, too, and send it over as an entire province, or at least be prepared to do so. (You'll probably appreciate it being a buffer against the larger middle eastern enemies on one hand, and letting me manage it up to being something other than a disaster to hand over!)

[Barthheart]

MD and Tuna, my valued allies, I am in need of your assistance in taking out the evil Brits left by Huw.
I can't do this on my own and can't expand while they exist.
Surely the three of our great clans can take them out.

[MetalDog]

My fellow sovereign, I will answer your call to arms.  Let the perfidious Britons be put down!  Once you have cleared the Channel, my army will set sail.

[JasonPratt]

Let the perfidious Britons be put down!  Once you have cleared the Channel, my army will set sail.

...said the leader of a German army!

Some things change, some things stay the same.  >:D

[JasonPratt]

Blucher, while your decadence is dumpy right now, you've really got to get your infrastructure and food up to stable in all areas (maybe also gold -- and in that order (if you can live on food reserves long enough)! -- without need for workers in any of them to keep them above zero, before you start adding more strain to your system in culture buildings. Also, building pleasure houses and monuments etc. gives you decadence! So if you're sucking decadence already you should avoid doing things like that.

Moreover, within your provinces, it's better to focus on one building getting done asap, so you can start benefiting from it asap, than spreading out your work in the province's regions on multiple projects. (Unless you find you can do more than one project in one turn! -- which once you've stabilized your underlying infrastructure you may find you're able to do more often!)

At this point it may be tough to say whether or not you should keep all your current culture projects on the go, so that you don't lose progress in sunk costs already. But even if you do that, don't start new projects in a particular province's regions (like the regions of Arabia Orientalis) until you've finished all ongoing projects, which should go faster as your workers shift over to focusing on remaining projects.

Note that your capital, being part of Arabia Felix, can't help with that: it has to stand or fall on its own! (I own the rest of Arabia Felix; it's the hand we were dealt.) But also note that before you got it back, I used the rest of Arabia Felix (including my own capital workers) to get your capital into a stable food and infrastructure surplus.

[Tuna]

My fellow sovereign, I will answer your call to arms.  Let the perfidious Britons be put down!  Once you have cleared the Channel, my army will set sail.

I need a navy to cross the Channel do either of you guys have a substantial one? My last attempt, they bloodied my nose. If you just plant it in one spot we can cross there. I haven't gotten that option yet where they allow you buy some good ships.

[Barthheart]

My navy is already moving towards the channel.