[SPOILER] Yell0w - Rhoanna, Hippus

[Mafro]

I just painfully learned not to underestimate a Moroi sneak attack, to that end I want to shift two more warriors in our border city and get the Palisades up. The theater afterwards is optional but will be necessary if we want to compete in a culture border war.

I'd like nothing more than to ignore that threat and just build a Money Changer, but I won't.
Additionally I'll road towards Molach in a couple of turns to "offer" him trade routes, that also means he can reach us way faster, so there is no way around at least Palisades. Honestly I'd feel a lot saver if we had Palisade and a Wall up.

Okay, sounds reasonable.

Let's make sure those roads don't go through the corners of our big fat cross. Otherwise, you are correct, he could move from a corner tile right next to Murousbane, cast burning blood, and attack in a single turn. If the roads go through the center of the BFC, say straight north from the city, then he won't be able to use them to do that. As long as he can't attack on the same turn as he declares, and we keep a healthy bank account, we should be able to recruit one MM per unit that can reach the city and put up a decent defense.

And if he does attack we should rename the city Maurosbane...that'll help too!

[Yell0w]

And if he does attack we should rename the city Maurosbane...that'll help too!

I wanted to do that, but I don't want to send mixed signals, building a road and taunting him might not be the best idea =) if it should come to war. Definitely.

[Yell0w]

Hey hey Mafro, could you step in for me over the holidays? Please feel free to say "no".

Construction finishes next turn, I'd go over to 100% gold then. City management wise you need to reconfigure some tiles Especially between Radonnor and Gaene. Gaene has to grow as fast as possible, the tree workers can start farming the gl tile S of Radonnor as soon as Construction is finished. Swap the sheep tile over to Gaene whenever it is the best tile for it.

I'd totally trust you to do the job and make the right calls =)

[Mafro]

Hey hey Mafro, could you step in for me over the holidays? Please feel free to say "no".

Construction finishes next turn, I'd go over to 100% gold then. City management wise you need to reconfigure some tiles Especially between Radonnor and Gaene. Gaene has to grow as fast as possible, the tree workers can start farming the gl tile S of Radonnor as soon as Construction is finished. Swap the sheep tile over to Gaene whenever it is the best tile for it.

I'd totally trust you to do the job and make the right calls =)

Sure, no problem. I'll play the next turn and will continue to do so until you tell me you're ready to take back the reins.

Thanks for the guidance...!

[Mafro]

Oh, just to confirm, I send the save to rbtrackerxxx at the usual place and it will automatically forward it to rbmolach at that same place, right?

[Qgqqqqq]

That is how trackers generally work, and I presume this works the same.

[Mafro]

Opened the turn to see the following:



Looks like Suttree is seeking a little certainty about our intentions. If I recall, accepting the gift would prevent us from declaring war on him for 10 turns. Given that GotN will be done in 4 turns, we could be ready to attack in less than that. Part of me wanted to accept and plan our attack for 10 turns from now, mainly so that he won't be spending the next 10 turns preparing to face us. However, he could be closing in on firebows, so every turn counts. I exited diplomacy without accepting.

Once I closed the diplomacy dialog, I realized why he was seeking that certainty.



Looks like he declared on Mardoc! That's great news, as it puts more pressure on the most dangerous civ (at the moment). It may even mean Mardoc is coming for the Amurites and Suttree wanted to take a preemptive strike. It's even better because Suttree and Molach haven't made contact yet, which I believe means neither is aware that Mardoc is at war with the other.



If Molach still thinks he's the only one battling Mardoc, then it's unlikely he will come for us. Mardoc clearly has his hands full with two enemies, Suttree just entered a war, and HidingKneel's borders are far from ours. This should give us enough room to take the initiative in the next few turns, once GotN completes, likely going after Suttree first - even better if he's off balance fighting Mardoc. Now, if only HidingKneel would get embroiled in a conflict...preferably with Molach...that would be perfect. However, HidingKneel seems to often play the waiting game, and the Elohim supports that playing style.

Meanwhile, we're all about preparing our economy to support the GotN. Here's a snapshot of our cities:



Given we're in last place on the power graph, we're going to need everything we can get.



And I'll finish this update with a look at overall demographics. I think we're getting a bonus to GNP because we're researching Construction, which has likely been researched by some of the others. Still, we seem to be in a solid position.



EDIT: Corrected references to Mardoc and Molach. (In my first reading of Lord of the Rings I did the same to Sauron and Saruman...apparently, I can't get past the first letter...LOL.)

[Qgqqqqq]

Looks like Suttree is seeking a little certainty about our intentions. If I recall, accepting the gift would prevent us from declaring war on him for 10 turns

This is a SP only thing, enforced by the AI and not by the game. The only way to force peace is through peace treaties in MP (the same is true of the peace caused by Seven Pines and Corlindale). Also, you mixed up Molach and Mardoc in the above post, Mardoc is playing the Illians and Molach the Calabim.

[Mafro]

This is a SP only thing, enforced by the AI and not by the game. The only way to force peace is through peace treaties in MP (the same is true of the peace caused by Seven Pines and Corlindale).

Okay, good to know.

Also, you mixed up Molach and Mardoc in the above post, Mardoc is playing the Illians and Molach the Calabim.

Umm... I was just checking to see if anyone was paying attention. Yeah, that's it....

[Mafro]

T91 played and sent. It was uneventful, except for landing Construction.



I turned off research, so we are now saving 143 gold per turn. If I end up playing the next turn, I'll switch us from Sailing to Medicine, so the -5 research we get each turn is against a tech we will probably never want.

Three turns until we get GotN, two turns after I clicked End Turn. The only minor issue is that we will likely be a turn late in hooking Copper up. I sent a worker to help get it in place as speedily as possible.

Beyond that we continue to grow our economy at a reasonable clip. I'd like to get us some foreign trade routes in the next couple turns by roading the jungle tile 2N of Murousbane.

However, as the city is about to grow, I held off on that for the time being in order to keep the city growing with a newly farmed grassland, courtesy of Construction. It also allows us to get a couple more warriors in place, in case Molach feels like poaching our workers (though I can't see that being a strategically sound move on his part).

We can research Cartography for open borders in a single turn whenever we want. Sailing also seems like a good tech - we could really use Pearls right about now.