Okay, here are some comments I have. For what it's worth, here's Asterix's latest message:
My immediate thought upon reading this is that I actually think he's in a long-term alliance with SutOxy.
(1) We didn't sabotage the "Big Coalition" ... Asterix was the one who rejected offering further assistance. Remember, Asterix was also asking me for a Turn 250 NAP with him in exchange for this agreement, and said that he could not make Rome talk to us. Sorry, but the ridiculously long NAP and Rome's communication are two important things.
(2) We didn't tell him the NAP with India because we already have an agreement to keep things confidential ... that has higher priority in my opinion than a non-official agreement with him.
(3) "And you must noticed India's continuously raising power and them switching to Police State early." Yes, we noticed India switching to Police State on the very first turn they did it, and we've had their entire power graph. Yeah, we "must noticed" it.
(4) Not a single mention of SutOxy. Yeah, you know ... that new team with Mausoleum of Maussolos, the highest score, and apparently, neighbors that won't attack them?
(5) No mention of how India/Yuufo is playing his turns in 5 minutes? I'm not sure how that's a recipe for success.
I'll draft a longer message to him soon but I'm not sure how we can keep working with him. I keep trying my best to explain our position but he continues to be blinded by the "India threat" and constantly claims that we broke an earlier agreement, which was nothing more than just verbal suggestions on our part.
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Anyway, time for the domestic part. If it is true that Rome is now losing money at 0% gold, then yeah, this is really their time to attack ...
CM - Hindu temple fine. I noticed that the spear moved down south ... are you considering putting this city in a turn of unhappiness if needed? Or you might just build the settler while waiting for the unhappiness counter to wear off.
Georgia Tech - yes, Hindu Monastery. Put all the cultural buildings we can get there because we need that sheep.
MIT - Since Rome literally needs to declare war now, let's put it back on the axe.
Other stuff:
Illinois - Want to switch it to an axe now, for emergency precautions? It's only generating 6 hammers a turn so wealth loss won't be too bad. We can move the galleys back and try and fork the two coastal cities somehow ... are 4 axes attacking amphibiously enough to raze their iron city? Sadly, I don't think so (assuming it's guarded by 2 axes, or 1 axe 1 praet).
I would recommend that UT Austin's missionary go to Cornell, while Washington's missionary go to MIT (alternatively, can go to Wisconsin if we want to get culture there quicker). We should get another missionary for Berkeley and MIT/Wisc but other than that it's not really necessary to get further religion spread. Illinois doesn't really need it right now.
Edit: Did some quick number crunching on Rome's power.
Total power: 474,400
Power due to population: They've got 6 cities. Let's assume that the average city has 5 population points, so if they have roughly 30 citizens total, they get 15,000 power.
Power due to tech: 3 x 2,000 due to Hunting/Mining/AH (I'm assuming no Sailing), 4,000 due to Wheel, 6,000 due to Mathematics, 8,000 due to BW, and 10,000 due to IW ==> 34,000
Power due to barracks buildings 3,000 x 6 = 18,000 (assuming they built barracks in all 6 ciites)
Disregarding units, they have an estimated 67,000 power. So they have roughly 400,000 total power from units alone.
Warriors give 2000 soldiers
Chariots give 4000 soldiers
Axemen give 6000 soldiers
Praetorians give 8000 soldiers.
If we assume they have about 6 warriors, 6 chariots, and 6 axemen (one for each city, I think this seems reasonable), then that's 72,000. So we get (400000-72000)/8000 = roughly 41 praetorians. Does this seem conservative, generous, or just about right? If we assume they leave all non-praetorians over for defense and split up their attacking force, even if they bring something ilke 15 praetorians over, we can still prevent them from taking even one city, especially if we whip axes/cats like crazy since we'll have a couple turns of notification. So the only real danger we have is if they throw everything they have at us.
If they bring a stack of praetorians over, at some point they must put it next to the silver tile. Even though we get +25% defense from the hills, I don't think we can afford to let them attack. If it comes down to this, I say we throw all catapults we have at their stack, and hopefully we can clean up the stack with our projected force that will be there.
Quote:Hi DMOC,
it was not me advocating attacking India early on, it was your team, I was always saying it was better to develop our economy until at least T120-130. Although us acting together wrt to India seems to be strongly dictated by the map, although again it was your team who proposed it.
The reasons I think you have become India's "best friend":
1. You sabotaged "Big Coalition" - when I told you Rome would not attacked either you or Dinosaurs or Yossarian if we all agree to ally with them against India, you refused to do it, even though you claim you are afraid that Rome will attack you
2. Your PM from Dec. 3rd: " we need India on our side to help us out in the long run. Sorry about that, our diplo is pretty complicated at the moment. frown"
3. You continue to refuse to tell us length of your NAP with India, in spite of our earlier agreement to exchange such info and prevent India from taking us one by one. Yes, I think India is still interested in doing it, they are completely out of land, they have Currency, they need new cities.
As you see, it is difficult for me to understand, why if you would genuinely be worried about Rome, you would repeatedly refuse my offers to help - and declined their offer, they asked me to pass to you, to make NAP with you if the "Big Coalition" would be formed. Why you would like to be a junior ally in the coalition with India is also difficult to understand, too
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on that, if you want to share them.
In case we will not communicate in the next couple days: Merry Christmas
Asterix
My immediate thought upon reading this is that I actually think he's in a long-term alliance with SutOxy.
(1) We didn't sabotage the "Big Coalition" ... Asterix was the one who rejected offering further assistance. Remember, Asterix was also asking me for a Turn 250 NAP with him in exchange for this agreement, and said that he could not make Rome talk to us. Sorry, but the ridiculously long NAP and Rome's communication are two important things.
(2) We didn't tell him the NAP with India because we already have an agreement to keep things confidential ... that has higher priority in my opinion than a non-official agreement with him.
(3) "And you must noticed India's continuously raising power and them switching to Police State early." Yes, we noticed India switching to Police State on the very first turn they did it, and we've had their entire power graph. Yeah, we "must noticed" it.
(4) Not a single mention of SutOxy. Yeah, you know ... that new team with Mausoleum of Maussolos, the highest score, and apparently, neighbors that won't attack them?
(5) No mention of how India/Yuufo is playing his turns in 5 minutes? I'm not sure how that's a recipe for success.
I'll draft a longer message to him soon but I'm not sure how we can keep working with him. I keep trying my best to explain our position but he continues to be blinded by the "India threat" and constantly claims that we broke an earlier agreement, which was nothing more than just verbal suggestions on our part.
---------
Anyway, time for the domestic part. If it is true that Rome is now losing money at 0% gold, then yeah, this is really their time to attack ...
CM - Hindu temple fine. I noticed that the spear moved down south ... are you considering putting this city in a turn of unhappiness if needed? Or you might just build the settler while waiting for the unhappiness counter to wear off.
Georgia Tech - yes, Hindu Monastery. Put all the cultural buildings we can get there because we need that sheep.
MIT - Since Rome literally needs to declare war now, let's put it back on the axe.
Other stuff:
Illinois - Want to switch it to an axe now, for emergency precautions? It's only generating 6 hammers a turn so wealth loss won't be too bad. We can move the galleys back and try and fork the two coastal cities somehow ... are 4 axes attacking amphibiously enough to raze their iron city? Sadly, I don't think so (assuming it's guarded by 2 axes, or 1 axe 1 praet).
I would recommend that UT Austin's missionary go to Cornell, while Washington's missionary go to MIT (alternatively, can go to Wisconsin if we want to get culture there quicker). We should get another missionary for Berkeley and MIT/Wisc but other than that it's not really necessary to get further religion spread. Illinois doesn't really need it right now.
Edit: Did some quick number crunching on Rome's power.
Total power: 474,400
Power due to population: They've got 6 cities. Let's assume that the average city has 5 population points, so if they have roughly 30 citizens total, they get 15,000 power.
Power due to tech: 3 x 2,000 due to Hunting/Mining/AH (I'm assuming no Sailing), 4,000 due to Wheel, 6,000 due to Mathematics, 8,000 due to BW, and 10,000 due to IW ==> 34,000
Power due to barracks buildings 3,000 x 6 = 18,000 (assuming they built barracks in all 6 ciites)
Disregarding units, they have an estimated 67,000 power. So they have roughly 400,000 total power from units alone.
Warriors give 2000 soldiers
Chariots give 4000 soldiers
Axemen give 6000 soldiers
Praetorians give 8000 soldiers.
If we assume they have about 6 warriors, 6 chariots, and 6 axemen (one for each city, I think this seems reasonable), then that's 72,000. So we get (400000-72000)/8000 = roughly 41 praetorians. Does this seem conservative, generous, or just about right? If we assume they leave all non-praetorians over for defense and split up their attacking force, even if they bring something ilke 15 praetorians over, we can still prevent them from taking even one city, especially if we whip axes/cats like crazy since we'll have a couple turns of notification. So the only real danger we have is if they throw everything they have at us.
If they bring a stack of praetorians over, at some point they must put it next to the silver tile. Even though we get +25% defense from the hills, I don't think we can afford to let them attack. If it comes down to this, I say we throw all catapults we have at their stack, and hopefully we can clean up the stack with our projected force that will be there.