Disciples of Erfworld - The Contagion - rules and signup

[Werebiscuit]

It does mean they have a caster (something we could have assumed given their size/power level) but we already know spells can be called like air strikes from (presumably) unlimited range in this game, so the caster that damaged the Mad Cow may be dozens of hexes away

Ah right.... not having played disciples i'm still learning the finer points.

[BLANDCorporatio]

The point about casters is accurate. They can be very far away.

And alas no. While consuming a caster is a good XP boost for research, no caster pops for you.

In other 'news', I corrected the map with Swodaems' location.

[Werebiscuit]

Everything seems to have come to a halt (probably with the changes going on in Marbits forum game which most of us are also playing) but can I take it we're all agreed to go to the mine ?

If we're going to negotiate we'll need a cover story. Don't want them searching for our only city and the Starchild.
So....
A suggestion. : We claim we were involved on a raid on the Veg Talians border cities. ( BLAND: You said we know of 2. Do we know their names ?) As we were approaching we were captured. Our capturing group spotted a strange portal nearby. Arrows shot through just seem to pass through unharmed. Rather than risk their forces the group was ordered to use prisoners to investigate. When we passed through our link to Burger was severed. We used the chance to escape but are now our own side although we are still loyal to Burger. We need to build a city and the mine for our upkeep.

Does it seem plausible enough or are there other suggestions ?

[0beron]

Seems like a good idea (also, I think things have slowed down a bit because I've stopped arguing haha)

[The Colonel]

LETS GO NEGOTIATE!

[Swodaems]

Alright, since we seem to have decided everything that is going to be decided, I'll give the orders.

Our migration to the mine starts with me seperating from NPC Bee and going 2 hexes NE by myself to the meetup hex 2 hexes NW of the capital.
Next, NPC Sprite drags the Grizzled Bear corpse 2 hexes NE to the meetup hex. (Yes, NPC Sprite and I are going to the same place, but we travel as seperate stacks so I don't lose move by dragging the corpse.)
Then the house group and Bob Enweave move to meet up with me and NPC sprite, but act oddly on the way: First, the house group move 2 hexes NW to meet up with Bob Enweave. MarbitChow mounts Bob Enweave. The whole group, now with Bob Enweave, moves 1 hex NW into our capital. MarbitChow dismounts and 0beron gets on. Then the group moves the remaining 2 hexes NW to NPC Sprite's and my location. (This way, MarbitChow saves 2 move and Oberon saves 4 move.)
MarbitChow eats the Grizzled bear corpse and levels to grillphon. 0beron dismounts. We mount TheColonel, and Watermonkey314 on Bob Enweave and MarbitChow. (EtheBoyce will have the move next turn to be able to join the group assaulting the city.)
Thanks to the mount/dismount shenanigans and the choice of meeting place, NPC Sprite, Bob Enweave, MarbitChow, Bridget, 0beron, and Myself should all have the move remaining to get to the mine this turn with TheColonel and WaterMonkey314 riding along.
Then we move as a group to take back the mine. (Seeing as the Burgers have not merely violated our territory, but actively hindered us by taking the mine, we'll first try out the bluff Werebiscuit thought of, then offer the Burger Bee a chance to surrender and, if he refuses, use stun attacks to beat him senseless.)

[MarbitChow]

MarbitChow takes natural armour upon leveling.

[BLANDCorporatio]

BLAND: You said we know of 2. Do we know their names ?

Yes, Bwussews and Peasa. The latter is an L3 and has a tower. Bwussews is L2 and not particularly special.

And now for The Plan.

You approach the Jolly Bee. She greets you with some suspicion and alarm, but relaxes a bit when it's clear you were not intending to fight. You give your cover story, as suggested by Werebiscuit.

"That's quite a tale. You're welcome to join with us again," Bonnie says.

"Uhm, no, we thought we'd form a splinter side from the Burgers. After all, th- we have 12 cities, it's about time some child sides were made."

Bonnie appears to think for a while. She's obviously new to the side's politics, but eventually she shrugs and says, "well, that's probably for the best. I'll ask on my next turn via Thinkagram for advice from His Majesty."

"And the mine? It's tough being barbarian units without cities, you know."

"Oh, right. Upkeep. Well I guess 100Schmuckers mean more to you than they do to us. Ok, I'll let you claim the mine now and I'll move SE on our next turn. Where did you say you were captured? That must have been quite the army to do that."

Remembering that your city, which you just claimed didn't exist, is to the SE of your location, you quickly plot your answer ...

[Swodaems]

Options I see:
1. Be truthful, but play dumb and act like we mispoke before. "Oh, you thought we were completely cityless. When we said that it's hard to survive without cities, we meant that we needed a second city to give us cities instead of city." (If Burgers are a Noble side.) "We're barbarian by the fact that we're not ruled by a King. We not the sort to call each other Lord and Lady falsely."
2. Bribery. Pay her enough money to make her or the Burgers ignore the fact that we don't quite make sense. Maybe disquise the offer as mercenary work and offer her a spot in the group taking the barbarian city to the NW. (A ridiculous offer considering how many healers we already have in the group she can see.)
3. Lie and say that we have reason to believe that a significant Bwussel force is to the SE. We're not only here to reclaim the mine, we're also here because it serves as a defensive strong point. (Maybe admit that we have a city to the SE, but say that we suspect it will be lost soon.) Ask her if there are any other burger forces in the area that could render aid.
4. 1 hit croak her before she can get a thinkagram off. Any of the managers or Grillphons can do it. (Stunning may be an option depending on how fast she can call.)
5. Ignore the problem, hope she doesn't spot the city, but pop a patty flipper there to keep her from capturing it.

[0beron]

Um BLAND, why are you putting words in our mouths to make things difficult for us? Not cool....

"We've come from the SE and have taken care of that region. Just some wild units."

[MarbitChow]

Um BLAND, why are you putting words in our mouths to make things difficult for us? Not cool....

A suggestion. : We claim ... We need to build a city and the mine for our upkeep.

BLAND literally interpreted our suggestion, since we did not provide further refinements. You must treat BLAND as a genie, who will carefully twist your words if you are not careful.
Had we said "We took a city, but because we were not on a side, it established a new one, and we need that mine", we'd be fine.

In fact, we still can go that route:

"Bee, look - we're scared. Something weird happened. We lost our connection to the side, and were afraid we weren't going to be able to pay our upkeep. We found a poorly-defended city and took it, and that somehow established a new side. We don't know if we CAN rejoin our old side. And we're afraid that, because of this weirdness, our old side won't see us as a lost part of themselves, but as a new threat, and they'll just wipe us out instead of trying to understand what's going on with us or even talking to us. If you go SE, you'll head straight into our city. We've popped some units there to protect it, but because they're new units, they don't feel the same way about Home and Her units as we do; they might see YOU as a threat. Please, head back towards home and send the Thinkagram, so that we can carefully start talking to each other without anyone panicking. It might even be best if we don't rejoin the side, since we can be a trusted ally of our Motherland and double the number of cities we could hold before we reach our effective maximum. But those talks are for wiser heads than ours. Please, just head back towards home and send the message, so that there is no confusion and no mistakes are made."

[Werebiscuit]

Um BLAND, why are you putting words in our mouths to make things difficult for us? Not cool....

"We've come from the SE and have taken care of that region. Just some wild units."

Heh, you didn't think it would be easy...did you ?
And MarbitChow I don't think I'd like to tell them the position of our city. At the very least I'd like to misdirect them (i.e. lie to them). We can't help them knowing we will have a city at the city site. I'm not sure we want them knowing it's our second..We need to misdirect Bonnie to the NE (as I'm assuming she came from NW, from working out where our fog of war was earlier) So the Bwussels waid...er... raiding party is in the northeast creeping in an arc westward using the cover of the mountains. She should go look and report back to Frankenfurter before it his them. We'll even accompany her (we won't unless she goes via the city site), if she has no protection. Ask her if there are any other burger forces in the area that could stop the raiders. (We'll need to have a strength for the raiders but we can say we've only spotted their scouts so far) Can we have a suicide NPC jolly bee accompany her straight into the wild barberians as the first move ?

Sound like a plan ? Or are there any other suggestions ? Or even further refinements ? What about a decent size for the scouts?

[BLANDCorporatio]

Um BLAND, why are you putting words in our mouths to make things difficult for us? Not cool....

I'd like to point out the suggestion that you ended up following, specifically the italicized text:

When we passed through our link to Burger was severed. We used the chance to escape but are now our own side although we are still loyal to Burger. We need to build a city and the mine for our upkeep.

For some expediency in handling such situations, I will improvise dialog for you when given some indication in the text/order of what that dialog may be.

[BLANDCorporatio]

*bump*

So what it's gonna be? Werebiscuit's suggestion or do you want to see other ideas?

[0beron]

Whatever, go with it.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Whatever, go with it.

By 'it' you must mean Werebiscuit's bluff. However, there's also MarbitChow's 'let's (almost) come clean' approach. There's no real consensus established between the two, apart from a slightly grumpy third party post.

[0beron]

Were's bluff

[Werebiscuit]

Question Bland If we one hit croak Bonnie, would her side know what had Croaked her ?

[MarbitChow]

Go with Were's bluff. I withdraw mine.

[Werebiscuit]

Question Bland If we one hit croak Bonnie, would her side know what had Croaked her ?

I should note that they can probably see us at the mine (so the answer would be yes) but my plan is to get her away from there to the northeast before we one hit croak. If we can do it that way, would they still know? Or only know that she had been croaked ?