RBP3 [Spoilers] Capac of Mali

[Swiss Pauli]

T53 played.

Jerry's chop finishes, Bianca's starts, and Marianne begins to pasture the ponies. Research switched back on: Medi due in 7, but we might be able to shave a turn off that.

Keef spots Carthage's borders in the fog:



HRE finally got back to us about Carthage's location. I thanked them for the directions (no need to tell them they weren't needed).

[Swiss Pauli]

Email from Maya:

Hello Emperor Capac

Good morning, or a good whatever time it is in your lands when you read this!

We were comming to that conclusion regarding Mathematics ourselves from what we had heard from Byz. We have already advised Byz that that was our preferred path and will, of course, advise them that you preliminarily agree. We're supposed to sit down with them and have milk and crackers later this afternoon.

We're finishing up Pottery now, it will be done on turn 55 (in 2 turns as I write this). After that, our tech path will depend in part on when trades can start happening. Soon is good for all of us, obviously! Ref is going to try and get exact ETAs on Mathematics for different tech paths and microplans, and we'll let you know what we've got as soon as we know ourselves; super-rough estimate right now is sometime in the ballpark of turn 80-85, but that's a VERY rough estimate; could be sooner or later depending on what we do and whether I remember things correctly. (If it's needed sooner, we'll find a way!)

In the meantime, any estimates we can get on the other techs' ETAs (even crazy rough ones like ours) would be extremely helpful, to help us plan our empire accordingly.

On another note, Byz was trying to arrange contact between us and Bab/UK. However, from talking to Byz, we think that Babs have settled towards you initially? If so, we've come to the conclusion that we'll meet Babylon (and therefore England) much faster with our warrior near you than we will with our one near Byz. Could you please advise them of her location and that she's the one that will be comming to meet them, not our warrior near Byz.

Thanks again for all your help so far, and thanks in advance for all your future help!

ManiCat Marshall and Ref Eriksson for King Ragnar Lodbrok.

I'll get back to them giving a similar timeframe for our research of Monarchy because that will make them feel good It's hard to guage acurate tech speed for something so far away: Meditation is 144 beakers and will take a total of 9 turns, then Priesthood is 108, and Monarchy itself a whopping 540. We'll be adding some cottages soon, but that's still a fair old tech trek

I'll clarify about the meetings, too.

[Swiss Pauli]

Email from Babylon:

Emperor Capac,

I agree that England would be very beneficial to have in a close knit unit. However, i am not 100% sure of their intentions currently. They came asking us about tech trades and initially seemed eager to make deals. Since then they have met other civ's and gone quiet. Perhaps they have been offered a better deal?

I'm happy with Maya on board and heavily agree that Maths would be their best target. Do we know their research thus far? If they haven't started writing it will probably be too late and they should maybe grab other filler techs and save gold. That way when we get alphabet, we can gift them writing and they can get Maths ASAP?

Inca are heading around east of our borders first and will then head to yourselves. Between us two, i was asking them about their recent movements (they've whipped down to practically nothing) and managed to find out that they are 95% sure about to attack Ruff to get the buddhist holy city. Athlete and Kalin sure do like those buddhist cities eh! They have also expressed an interest in trading but i'm not sure they'll be able to offer much in this round of trading. Their tech seems a bit backward compared to our own. They're about a tech and a half behind us

Your Friends,

Kyan
Kysit's Periwinkles.

I will reply:

re: England - time to press them hard on their intentions.

re: Maya - about to finish pottery so will push them to Writing next.

re: us - we're on Medi, then Priest, then Monarchy but we have potters & soon some FIN cottages

re: Byz - they are researching the cheapest tech (IW) so they should learn 'filler' techs like hunting & fishing to make up beaker deficits.

[Swiss Pauli]

Reply to Maya:

Dear Friendly Kittens

It's a blustery evening in this part of the Mali empire!

Good to hear that you've had positive feedback from Byzantium (whom we've not yet met). We propose to supply Monarchy in this round of trades and our current forecast gives an ETA of T85. This is, of course, a very rough estimate. We'll need to up our tech rate to achieve this but we'll soon be merrily cottaging, so we hope we won't let anyone down with our tech pace.

Moving on to diplomacy & contacts, our understanding is that Byzantium & England have warriors headed to meet us. The rendez-vous is the woods north of the barb in the screenshot we sent out recently. Furthermore, you'll soon meet Babylon's culture: the 2nd ring of their city takes in the marble in the same screenshot, and they are aware that you are on your way, and look forward to meeting you.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

[Swiss Pauli]

T54 played: Uberfish whipped to complete granary, Jerry starts to cottage (5T), Brian moved back to cover Sirian because the barb has reappeared, and Carthage met & greetings sent. Screenshots to follow tonight.

[Swiss Pauli]

Screenshots T54:

[Swiss Pauli]

Correspondence with the Kittens:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Capac Mali to Kittens


Dear Kittens

We hope Lord Ragnar is sleeping off the booze!

The barb has moved east, and out of line of sight, so Prrsha is safe to move NE this turn.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

On 1 March 2010 09:29, Friendly Kittens wrote:

King Ragnar Lodbrok asked me to deliver the following message:

I, Ragnar, pillager of far too many places to mention, do hereby thank my good friend, Capac, of the tiny little nation of Mali...

However, I decided that my leader was drunk, and that his message would be in rather poor taste, so I figured I'd just say thanks for the heads up, and that I agree that we will definitely wait until after you have advised us of the whereabouts of this band of ruffians before we decide where to station Prrsha next.

Thanks for your continued cooperation, and here's to hoping we can continue working together for many years to come.

Lieutenant ManiCat Marshall of the Friendly Kitten Empire.

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 1:28 AM, Capac Mali wrote:

Hi Kittens,

We'll update you next turn as well, so hope you can wait until we can log in to move Prrsha!

Also, we think you should go directly Writing-Mathematics if possible so that research times are more-or-less aligned (for Monarchy, Maths, and Alpha anyway). We'll follow this up with you later today.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

[Swiss Pauli]

Reply to Babylon:

Dear Kyan,

Thanks for your email. We are a bit pressed for time today, so we shall have to be brief. As the poet said, work is the curse of the talking classes!

Maya will finish Pottery on T55, so we'll press them on to Writing immediately. We have started Meditation, due in 6, but be assured that our tech pace will increase because we are now adding river cottages. You seemed concerned that Maya will be too slow; how far along into Writing are you? If there's a civ that should research filler techs like Hunting & Fishing it should surely be Byzantium because IW costs much less than the other techs (and they need to make up the beaker difference anyway).

Regarding England, I think the time has come to press them on their intentions regarding this round of trading. Their thread seems quite active, so it's surprising that they've not really followed up on their initial emails with either of us. We should each email them saying we've got trades lined up for Maths, Alpha, IW and Monarchy and ask them whether they can commit to joining this round. Would you agree?

Another chariot rush from Kathelete, eh? As you say, they're probably not in a position to participate in this round of trades.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

[Swiss Pauli]

T55 Report: chop comes in at Sirian, so the Granary will be done very soon. Warrior due in 4 at Uberfish so we'll have to switch from the FP to the plains not to get an angry citizen when we grow. Keef moved W at 'Boring' to reveal furs & copper in addition to the river marble. Wish we had such a boring city

The barb moved out of sight, so Brian moved back to Blake:



And Mick continued to explore:



I plan to move him SW next turn then to swing around NE to end up back by the pigs (edit: the unrevealed pigs 2S of the corn that is). Is this OK or should he keep heading SW?

[Swiss Pauli]

Incoming email from Carthage:

It is with great pleasure that we meet Keef and all of the Malinese people. We share your desire for sustained peace.

What is the diplomatic picture like in the south? What teams have you met? Have any partnerships formed yet?

It seems that to our north are Egypt, India, the HRE, and the Ottomans.

I don't have a problem with telling them which civs we've met, but I think we should not go to much into the agreements, and simply reply that we've been discussing tech trades with our nieghbours. What do you guys think?