RB Pitboss #1 SPOILER - Mali

[dsplaisted]

I'm quite happy with what Twinkletoes has done since taking over my civ. He got peace with Elkad which was something I wasn't willing to do, but I think it was the right move. And now he's managed to get the rest of the world to side against Rego, which was important. The three main players were Broker, Rego, and Twinkletoes, and it was likely that two were going to side against the third. So I also feel like this was definitely the right choice.

If it were me, I probably wouldn't commit to a peaceful endgame like Twinkletoes is doing. I'd want to have the option to attack Broker if I needed to to win the game. On the other hand, wars take up a lot of time and are pretty stressful (for me at least), which was the final straw that made me drop out of this game. So I don't blame Twinkletoes for wanting to avoid it.

Twinkletoes, once Rego has been nuked and you and Broker go your separate ways, I am worried that he will be in a stronger position than you. You should have a lot more territory, but I think you'll only have shadyforce as your ally, while Broker has the Lins, Munro, and Elkad. Also, I think his economy may be in a better shape than yours. So you should probably work on building up your civilization to be able to win vs Broker. It sounds like you're going for a spaceship victory, so I think that will mean primarily focusing on your research rate.

Also, thanks for keeping us up to date on what is going on in the game!

Daniel

[Twinkletoes89]

Thanks dsp, I am doing my best.

I can see that I would be in a weaker position than Broker if things stay the way they are, and at the moment it may be 4-2 against if Rego and sunrise are taken down a notch or five.

Now my hopes are that I may be able to try and convince Elkad and maybe sunrise (if he's still strong, which is the hope) to support me over Broker. It wouldn't be easy but it would likely be my only hope. Rego will be a no go but likely for both.

Ideally it would be Me, shady, sunrise and Elkad against Broker, Lins and Munro.

At that point it would likely be even as Munro and Lins are as strong as the weakened Elkad and likely weakened sunrise. It may be unlikely but I may be able to gift some of the gained land to Elkad to buy his support. At the moment Elkad hasn't got enough cities for national wonders (I believe) and it could make him stronger and loyal to me. If I can portray myself as the guy trying to spare shady from the war against rego (aside his uranium source/s) then maybe he would help me out.

Now if that happens, I wouldn't want a war but we'll see how it goes. Nothing is concrete yet.

Of course, with the plan of Broker to build the UN, people like rego, elkad and sunrise may flip the other way to screw me with a diplo victory if my diplomacy fails.

Lets see how it goes.

And I respect Rowain's choice to disagree with me, and I like to hear opposite opinions, I would just like it to have been a bit less edgy, that's all!

[Krill]

Couldn't you launch a first strike and knock out all of Brokers' uranium, then, well, kill him quickly?

[Twinkletoes89]

However ideal that situation may be, I will not be supplied with Fission until nukes are banned most likely. I wouldn't be surprised if Broker keeps a couple back as a 'deterrent' against me or a first strike against me!

Researching Fission isn't worthwhile to me though I am the one supplying Rocketry.

[Rowain]

(edited) Rowain, you probably could have given your opinion in a much less confrontational way.

Ofcourse, Rowain could have formulated his feedback a little bit differently.

And I respect Rowain's choice to disagree with me, and I like to hear opposite opinions, I would just like it to have been a bit less edgy, that's all!

As there seems agreement that my words were too harsh I'd like to apologize for that. I had no intention to hurt Twinkeltoes' feelings and I can garantee you that I feel no anger about your play. It is your game afterall .

[Twinkletoes89]

Thank you Rowain, it is much appreciated

[dsplaisted]

Any updates on what's going on in this game Twinkletoes? I'm still unspoiled for the other civs so I don't know what the situation is unless you post it

[SilentConfusion]

Any updates on what's going on in this game Twinkletoes? I'm still unspoiled for the other civs so I don't know what the situation is unless you post it

TT posted the following request for a replacement:

Hi all,

I'm sorry guys but I don't feel it is fair if I continue to play in this game when I am not 100% committed to it.

To be honest, it is very difficult to come into a game so developed with its entrenched alliances and the such like. It has never really felt like it is 'my civ' and as such, doing turns has become more of a chore than a pleasure.

With the position my civ is in, it would be massively unfair and possibly game-breaking if I was to gift my cities away or just give up playing and get steamrolled. I want someone to come in and takeover and run things through to the end. The diplomacy is pretty much out of the way for the forseeable future and is not too great to handle for someone keen to do this game - and my civ is not involved directly in a full on conflict, so you are not thrown into the deep end!

From my time in the game, I have too much respect for the guys who have put so much effort into the game to let it be spoilt by me not being committed to the endgame.

I will continue to do the turns until a replacement is found, to prevent a further pause to the game.

I have agreed to take over the civ that you handed to TT. I want to promise to you and to all dedicated lurkers out there that I will run this civ to the best of my abilities. I also promise to keep the spoiler thread more frequently updated. TT has agreed to stay on in an advisory role, but just can't handle the effort it takes to run the whole thing at this time.

My rules for myself:
I will play the game until the end, however far away that is.

I will play the game to win. I will not vote to end the game (i.e. diplomatic victory for Broker) unless it really seems like no one else wants to keep playing.


Now to the updating:

TT can add info for previous turns if he has time or the inclination, but my current understanding of the situation is this:

-rego got completely nuked (his whole land is pulsing a glowing orange) by Broker (I think). He says he'd be willing to come to some kind of deal to avoid further pummeling.

-We are still pretty close to Broker, Munro, and Dreylin as we have been for a while and we are generally agreed upon a peaceful end game between ourselves. Dreylin appears to favor a space race, while Broker is going for culture and has also built the UN.

-Munro told us to close borders with sunrise, rego, alex, and elkad to keep them from using our rails. We agreed. Alex in turn declared war on us, with the understanding that he would be using our lands to attack Munro and would not attack our cities.

-Broker, Dreylin, and Munro are all at war with Elkad. Both Broker and Munro are still at war with rego. A single nuclear bomb has been detonated in Elkad's lands.

-There might be a diplomatic election between us and Broker and players might just vote to end the game. It is my understanding that Munro and Dreylin would vote for Broker before us, but I am not sure. It is likely that Elkad, sunrise, and rego will not vote for Broker, but may not wish to vote for us either and may just abstain. We have tried to maintain good relations with everyone and haven't been taking part in the recent wars.

-We are generally gearing up our empire for a space race. TT has set us to building factories in our top production cities.

-We have the satellites tech up on almost everybody and sunrise doesn't have rocketry yet.

My plans for the future:
-Keep preparing for the space race victory, by focusing on increasing hammer production in our core cities and improve our cities with a bit of micro-managing.

-Send diplomatic communications immediately to all parties, ostensibly as an introduction, but also to get a feel for their situation and what they're planning. The more info I can get about what they're trying to do the better. I will post those letters and responses in this thread.

-After getting a feel for other players' situations, see if there is room for added cooperation.

-Do not DoW on Munro, Broker, and Dreylin in the hopes of a peaceful end game.

-Do whatever is necessary, short of declaring on them to get to a victory condition before they do.

-Protect our cities near the Alex/Munro conflict just in case some of their soldiers get carried away. After all we are the battlefield for their fight.


I will try to add some pictures from the game to make it a little more enjoyable for the lurkers.

-SilentConfusion

[SilentConfusion]

Diplomatic messages:

From Broker_33

Welcome

I wanted to say hi. Noticed you on civ stats and was wondering about that.

From your message I gather you are going to continue where TT left off diplomatically. Has he filled you in?

One immediate concern. He was going to ship me his Great Artist so I could pop a GA and we could get SDI up quicker. Can you still send it?

Any questions you have feel free to ask.

Thanks

and from Alex:

Hi SilentConfusion,

I am the player for the Shady Expanse, your next-door neighbour in Realms Beyond Pitboss 1. I replaced shadyforce just five or six turns ago, so I know how tricky it is to get a read on the diplomatic web - having Twinkletoes still on board will be a real asset to you.

Currently I'm assuming TT's told you everything you need to know, but if you want to sound me out yourself then I'm here and often on chat - UK time.

Have fun & good luck,
Alex

I talked to Broker in-game and I agreed to gift him my GArtist to be used for a GAge. In return he said he would gift me a GP (most likely it will be an artist) when he gets one. It is due in 5 turns but the GAge should lower that.

He says he is 4 turns from Laser and can make it 3 with a GAge. He wanted me to tech Ad Flight instead of SuperCond, and I gave him a tentative agreement on that in-game. I really don't want to, but if we're perceived as not helping our allies, then we risk losing their support. I turned the slider off to gather gold and to give myself time to think about it. I want to see if I can find a way out of it or some kind of deal that will reward me for teching Ad Flight, such as a worthwhile tech trade. Broker said Lin wants Ad Flight, so I think I will see what Lin is teching and see what I could get for Ad Flight from him. I will try to find another alternative to teching Ad Flight if possible. Lin is going for space race I think. I will not be teching Ad Flight for him while they grab space techs. If Lin continues to grab space techs that will be my excuse for teching SuperCond rather than Ad Flight. We have to beat the other team, but each of us is trying to expend as little effort as possible to do so, with the possible exception of Munro, who seems to want to go into all-out military conquest mode.

Unfortunately Broker gave off the impression that I would be giving him Ad Flight for Lasers. I will have to clarify that, but hopefully he will give me Lasers when he gets it and not wait until I have Ad Flight. I will try to paint Lasers to all allies as a necessity rather than a tradeable option, therefore also lessening my need to actually tech Ad Flight. The other option is to not even build SDI, and complete the no bunker gambit. If rego hates Broker and Munro more and sees that they have the real power out of the three of us, his nukes will be lobbed over our heads. This could be good for us. It might even be to our advantage to lose a couple cities to rego if it makes it easier for him to stage an attack on Munro/Broker.

Lasers is for SDI, since as of this turn rego is able to build nukes. I think however that we are not likely to be his first nuke target, so we could go without and take a chance. Broker thinks that Elkad will defy the nuke ban and eat the unhappiness to give rego and company a chance to retaliate. So Broker really wants SDI because he knows he thinks he'll be the target of rego's new nukes. This made me consider not giving him the GArt to get it faster, but it won't save that much time and is a good gesture of faith. He had a GP of his own coming out in 5 turns. If he doesn't produce that GP in 5 turns or less, I will be quite upset. With that GP I should be able to start a GAge of my own when I get another GP in 4 turns for a round of civic changes.

I will write back to Broker just to make sure that we have a deal about the GP trade and to see if I can't get Lasers as soon as he techs it.

I will also write back to Alex and try to get a feeling for what he's going to do now.

-SC

[Twinkletoes89]

Thanks for taking over - glad to see things are in good hands!

In terms of the Laser -> Advanced Flight deal, normally we just share techs gained immediately so if they get laser first I would imagine we would get it straight away, and so push for it if it 'slips their mind'. I wouldn't be surprised if whatever tech Lins is researching will be gifted around too. If you need me to 'smack them about a bit' diplomatically to get them then give me a buzz!

If you can find a good spot for The Space Elevator, hit it up straight away as that would be a huge boon, especially as the race goes close.

My one main thing I can help you with is using my diplomatic relationships with broker etc to get a bit more out of them if you are worried they are starting to withhold. You should be fine, but I am on the bench if you need to call me for help!

Good luck and keep up the good work!