SPOILERS-Tatan's PBEM10 Thread

[Tatan]

Yeah, yeah, I know you probably expect some big, blow-out turn report like the T50 one. But time is a choke. So I present to you the next best thing [by which I mean easiest for me ]:

[SIZE="5"]Super-Mega Picture Explosion GO![/SIZE]

Turn 75
One of my work-boats discovers Ad Hoc's borders:




Also:



Which Means:



Explanation: Buddhism has spread to enough cities to warrant Org Religion [civic costs are null so early in the game, and being ORG on top of that], plus Hereditary Rule is a necessary eventuality anyway. And I may as well pick up temples while I'm over there. GAME-MECHANICS QUESTION[S]: How does being the same state religion affect Espionage with Serdoa? I know there is some sort of discount, but towards what? Also, the old Civ 4 Vanilla trick of Religious Scouting is gone, right?

My Standings In The World
Overview of the empire:



Some day, I swear, I am going to get around to enabling Flying Camera.


Domestics:




Units:




Infrastructure:




Top 5 Cities:



Sad face.


Demographics:



Complete middle-of-the-pack.


Production:



Despite forges, being owned by Cyneheard.


GNP:



Serdoa looks high, but keep in mind his culture is huge.


Case in point:



lolololololololololololololololololololololololol[I can do this all day]lololololololololololololololololololololol


Power:



Cyneheard's been keeping up so far, but fortunately, Serdoa has not.


And finally, the only thing I'm good at:



FOOD!



Enemy Analysis
Serdoa
Cities: 7
Development: Well... not to be critical, but I think Serdoa has done a pretty mediocre opening so far. I mean, I can understand the "chase the wonder-hydra" mentality, but... seriously?! It's been wonders to the exclusion of all else, including a few pretty questionable ones. [Great Library in a city with other wonders?! The main point of the wonder is to get a free Great Scientist, but most likely that's not going to happen with his GP pool.] Of course, I'm not complaining. He's a very good neighbor to have! Temporarily, of course.
Military: roflolmao
Iron: lololololololol
Diplomacy: I'm not sure; we haven't talked much, partially because he seems to have been busy and partially because I pissed him off with the settling thing. I might want to phish Cyneheard for what his relationship with Serdoa is before attacking.
Overall Threat Level: Low. However, I need to be careful about a suicide-vendetta against me. Still, though, I'm not too worried ATM [famous last words].

Twinkletoes:
Cities: ?
Development: ?
Military: ?, but probably a fair amount due to the earlier Arab-Sumerian War.
Iron: Probably not.
Diplomacy: Obviously, him and Meatbalz are probably not buds. But that's all I know.
Overall Threat Level: Damn, I wanted to have contact with him by now. Bleh. Let's see, hm... Meta-gaming, Twinkletoes has fared okay at the economic part in PBEMs 3 & 7, then crashed militarily [and no, I don't consider that a spoiler, it's not exactly a secret]. I REALLY hope that does not happen here, because the last thing I want is for Meatbalz to run away even more than he is now [seriously, his other neighbor is already Mr. Wonder-ful]. So, threat level: low/medium.

Ad Hoc:
Cities: 8
Development: ? He hasn't claimed any wonders; interpret that as you will.
Military: He does have iron, so it can't be a joke.
Iron: Yes
Diplomacy: I know he has OB and a settling agreement with Cyneheard, so they seem to be getting along fine, and I have fairly good relations too. Of course, I'm nervous about what Cyneheard will do if both neighbors are friendly, but there's always the possibility of a grand Northern Alliance forming. Or, not. Anyway, one possibility I see is that Ad Hoc attacks TT once all the immediate land is claimed.
Overall Threat Level: Medium.

Cyneheard:
Cities: 9
Development: Great. He's kicking butt in the demographics, and he built HG to get into a commanding position, pop-wise. I know he is very close to the center right now, only one island over, so I expect him or Meatbalz to get it.
Military: Competent, enough to give someone trouble if they invaded, but not enough to actually attack someone.
Iron: In five turns [I can see the worker].
Diplomacy: Once again, pretty good. He's secured cordial relations with both his neighbors, and almost successfully organized an embargo against his top enemy, Meatbalz.
Overall Threat Level: High. Cyneheard is extremely competent, and in a good position already. I am buds with him right now, so I don't expect an attack or anything, but unless I get moving and grooving [wait, is that actually an expression?], I expect him to out-tech me eventually.

Meatbalz:
Cities: 10
Development: Great Lighthouse. 10 cities. No further words required.
Military: ?
Iron: Not connected yet, but he has some according to Cyneheard.
Diplomacy: I'm not sure, but this may be his weak point. Cyneheard is obviously already plotting against him [and so am I, for that matter], and Twinkletoes attacked him, so things can't be good there. Serdoa might have okay/good relations with him, but I don't know enough to tell. I'll put it this way: it should not be hard to organize a dog-pile if [by which I mean when] Meatbalz begins to pull ahead.
Overall Threat Level: High.

And no list of enemies is complete without myself.
Tatan:
Cities: 9
Development: BPT is at 90 at break-even teching [70%], 129 when at 100%. Decent, but needs to get better. The problem is, I have the production for libraries in my core cities, which don't need them, while my future science cities are still developing [and I am still mining the gems]. Five forges is pretty good, though!
Military: Plenty of archers for self-defense [although that is kind of redundant considering the NAP with Cyneheard], and lots of iron units in the works. Not to mention CATS!
Iron: Yes
Diplomacy: Okay. I've done great with Cyneheard, good with Ad Hoc, mediocre with Meatbalz, and poorly with Serdoa, so I guess that's a 50% batting average. Of course, pleasing Meatbalz is irrelevant, and hopefully Serdoa will be crippled soon.
Overall Threat Level: High. Low. Medium. I certainly have no idea.

Future Development
Short term: Kill Serdoa, settle remaining city sites on home island.
Mid-term: Take-over Serdoa's land, tech upwards to happiness
Long-term: KILL MEATBALZ

Umm, yeah... Wait a second, how the hell did this get so long?! So long for sleep!

Comments/Questions/Theme Suggestions/Wild Applause and General Fanfare are all welcome!

:dancing5::

[Rowain]

Comments/Questions/Theme Suggestions/Wild Applause and General Fanfare are all welcome!

[Tatan]

Well, figures that the TURN after I right a big analysis of my enemies and pull a total cop-out about TT because I don't have contact yet, I discover his borders. This is NOT the place I wanted to see him , but better him than Meatbalz or Cyneheard. Naturally I forget to check how many cities he has and whether he has iron, but I do manage a taunting post in the Public Players Thread and an email:

Ahoy!

The fair nation of Napoleon's Netherlands spied purple borders cropping up in the Holy Land in the past turn. Although I of course mourn my not getting the land, I am happy to have any one else besides Mr. Great Lighthouse occupy the center.

Speaking of which: I've heard through the Grapevine that you were at war with him earlier; Meatbalz gave me a short summary, but I was wondering what your side of the story was like. My nation has had a comparatively peaceful and boring game so far, living a simpleton life without wonders or religion, or any need for "soldiers".

I look forward to many centuries of mutual relations between our two civs.

Why on earth can't two maniacal conquerors get along? I actually sincerely want cooperation; anyone who can keep Meatbalz busy and thus not assisting Serdoa is GOOD.


Oh, speaking of which:



Curses. Well, spears and cats will still shred through them. However, more forces are being built to compensate. I need HBR relatively soon myself.


One last thing: Christianity was founded. I can't tell where, but I'm hoping it was Serdoa again, because that would indicate a) he is not going for construction, and/or b) he plans to build more wonders. But who knows.

[Tatan]

Ahoy indeed tatan!

Unfortunately Mr Great Lighthouse does control part of the centre. He took a barb city located on the SE of Treasure Island (Holy Land) and kept it rather than set up the ultimate plains hill city on it by razing and resettling it.

I was at war with him earlier. He left an empty city on the island near my borders and I just happened to be moving a chariot to scout that island at the time by galley. So I razed it. Opportunism on my part with no risk. Unfortunately I didn't write the peace treaty well enough and he has exploited it to take a lot of land on our shared island, while Mr Creative Gilgamesh's culture choked off most of the other shared island, along with finding the double iron island first which doesn't have room for a second city to share the iron. He is at a massive advantage (some of which I think is unfair with the positioning of the metal by the mapmaker).

If you are looking at long peace with your neighbours, perhaps you could sell me some iron for some much needed advantage over meatbalz? (Please do not tell him I have asked!). I am prepared to pay good money.

I also hope we can build a strong and mutually productive partnership that lasts millenia,

TT

WHAT R THIS FOOLISHNESS?! Meatbalz on the center island!

Oh, well... I guess I was mistaken. Blarg. If you do go to war with Meatbalz again, feel free to "annex" the center island then .

Sucks about the iron... while I've liked the map in general so far, the metal layout has been pretty unfair, IMO. For some reason the iron island between myself and Cyneheard actually had room for two cities, one iron for each, so I managed to work out a mutual settling deal with him. Unfortunately, this means I have only one iron, and since I'm busy building better defenses right now the iron is not for sale. However, I'm not opposed to the idea; I'll tell you if there's ever a time when I feel safe in selling it to you.

And, of course, this is all completely confidential. I don't have bad relations with Arabia, but I'm certainly not eager to help him or anything.

Would you like Open Borders? Seeing as we are at opposite ends of the Earth, the trade routes will help us both.

If you have any questions, just ask.

-Tatan

I really do want Twinkletoes to have iron, because Meatbalz needs to be brought down a notch. Seriously. Unfortunately, I don't want to commit to ten turns of enforced iron gifting until I know how the war with Serdoa goes.


And, fortuitously, as I typed the above, another email came in.

You wanted to know what wonder I'm planning on going for.

Since I know I could be in a wonder race, and have a small chance of losing the Apostolic Palace, due T86 give or take 1t, that time can't be forwarded to anyone. TT and Serdoa know that I'm going for it, since I have to decide which religion to boost, but I didn't give them an ETA.

If Meatbalz gets 268 hammers in time (not sure how), then I have no idea what I'll do.

Okay, cool. I don't give a damn about the AP right now [until I lose to it, of course].

Okay, thanks. I have no desire to go for the AP, and couldn't get there in time anyway. I'm assuming it was Meatbalz who just founded Christianity, then. If it helps you decide which religion to go for, I have Buddhism in like half my cities, so I could help more in votes if you went with the Buddha.

I really appreciate trusting me with this information [which I of course will not tell anyone else about]; if you ever want to know anything similar, just ask.

-Tatan

If he goes with Buddhism, we can start pulling screwy shenanigans with Open Borders! I can't wait!

[Tatan]

Hoooly crap, just watched the movie Hot Fuzz. Wow. That was pretty intense. I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of violence.

Downside of it, though: I am now officially scared of all the British members of Realms Beyond. Especially Sandover, whose name is very similar to Sandford!

[Actually, I don't know where Sandover is from, but for the purposes of making that joke Sandover is just going to have to move to England. Sorry!]


Anyway, I will play the return and report on it after I recover a bit [by playing Halo! More mindless violence FTW!].

[Krill]

Sandover is Finnish.

Which is reason enough to be scared of him anyway.

[Tatan]

Totally. Those dastardly Fins, and their not-being-part-of-cookie-cutter-Nordic-or-Russian-stereotypes!


Anyway, remember two posts up, where I said I would report on the turn? Turns out, nothing happened during the turn [except, I did confirm that TT was not lying; Meatbalz does in fact have a city in the center]. So, uh...



SIESTA TIME!

[Adlain]

Hoooly crap, just watched the movie Hot Fuzz. Wow. That was pretty intense. I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of violence.

Downside of it, though: I am now officially scared of all the British members of Realms Beyond. Especially Sandover, whose name is very similar to Sandford!

[Actually, I don't know where Sandover is from, but for the purposes of making that joke Sandover is just going to have to move to England. Sorry!]


Anyway, I will play the return and report on it after I recover a bit [by playing Halo! More mindless violence FTW!].

Apoligies for my absence, No internet scince Thursday hasnt been plesent..............

Anyways,good to see your still trucking along nicly, and Hot Fuzz id funny (i have it on DvD - May have to watch it tonight) and im from England so Fear me!!!!!!!!

[Tatan]

Wat u say, Leonard?! I'll have as many Gods before me as I gosh-darned want! I hold off on adopting Org Relig until my galleys are on the move [and Monarchy is in].


Glad to see you're back, Adlain. Now, a question for you. I was currently planning on bringing the following units to the party:

Main Island Assault Force [@Novgorod]
1 trireme
5 galleys
-1 ax
-3 spears
-3 swords
-3 cats

Sub-Island Assault Force [@Yakutsk]
4-5 chariots

Out of these, two cats and 2-3 chariots still need to be built. So, the question is: do you think these are enough forces? Serdoa's HA moved out of Novgorod to... somewhere else, leaving only a warrior garrison, so I should be able to take at least 2 cities on the mainland [unless Serdoa has in fact been building up his forces]. I'm not sure what the garrison looks like in Yakutsk, but if there are too many units I can simply withdraw and slave a real force out of Aren and Ehrlitan [while he can't, because Yakutsk is still like size 3].

I feel my forces are pretty balanced as is; the cats and swords can rip through any entrenched defense due to Serdoa's lack of axes, the spears will make it literally impossible to counter-attack without sustaining massive casualties, as I don't *think* Serdoa has Construction yet [famous last words], and the ax is there just in case Meatbalz sends Serdoa iron or something.

Just to make it clear, I don't expect these forces to conquer the world or anything. I hope to take Serdoa's colony for myself, and raze several of his cities, enough to cripple him pretty much permanently and give myself breathing room to send a real force.

So... what do you think, Adlain? [sorry for total question bombard!]

And if any lurkers have something to add, like, "Don't do it, he's getting Construction in 2 turns!", feel free to speak up.

EDIT: Oh, and just to clarify something: every single one of these units, with the exception of 2-3 chariots, will have a promo. Huzzah!

[Adlain]

Hehe, question bombard is fine

The attack forces look good to me, I assume we have 0 exp on any of our troops..... Future note to add some barracks if that is the case to our city builds.

How much scope do we have for whipping before we start striping our citys of useful tiles?? I know we have the pop to whip.