RBP3 [Spoilers] Capac of Mali

[Swiss Pauli]

Directions to Maya:





I've made a Label called Maps in the Capac folder where all emails containing screenshots are stored. Makes them easier to find than scanning the thread.

[Swiss Pauli]

T66 Report: as you can see in the above screenshot, a barb has popped up to our south again, so another chariot goes into Blake's queue. Given we've only got two decent tiles to work there, we may as well whip at size 3, even if the barb wanders off.

Marianne moved SW to chop the forest, Jerry & Bianca are cottaging, and Carla is also chopping at Uberfish.

Mick moved towards Rome (nothing of interest), and I woke Keef (1.9) who spotted a barb across the valley. If the barb moves SW, Keef should move into the forest to defend.

I lined up a chariot in Sirian behind the settler, and a worker after that. Consecutive settlers would be too much for our economy to handle on these settings, given we owe our allies speedy Monarchy. We also need to start roading up to Pink Dot (which I'd like to name Sticky Fingers).

Having thought it over, I think Brown Dot (the FP city) should be the spot we settle after Pink. Red Dot would deny England a decent spot, but it's not very strong in the medium term, and I think we need to focus more on building ourselves up than in hampering England. Thoughts?

[Swiss Pauli]

Reply to Heracles about India and other warmongering:

(Please forward to Rome & Sumeria)

Hi All,

I wondering whether it would be better to de-couple the Maya & Sumerian deals with India?

If India feels in a stronger position, it may try to wring concessions from these deals, and it wouldn't make sense for our group if, for example, a Sumerian NAP with India was blocked by India insisting on reparations for Maya razing their city.

I think the window for an attack has likely passed: the strongest early play for this is a chariot-rush. At this point, there is probably too much distance between most teams for any sort of attack to prove decisive (with the possible exception of a Praet rush). Once we start to get Hydra-Heracles border pressure, then the next phase of wars can take place. We should also take the lessons of PB2 on board: a failed attack can leave you totally exposed.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

[Swiss Pauli]

Finally, an email from Rome :

Please forward to Babylon and Mali.

Dear Heracles,

I know we, the SsS, have not made our voices heard a lot up until now. We have simply lacked the necessary contacts to send around messages without causing too much of a strain on the foreign departments of the free nation of Tech and the brave fighting nation of JANK. The time has now come, however, when we share with all of you the details of what we know and how we view the situation going forward.

First of all I would like to publicly announce what most if not all of you already know; that the SsS Empire will soon be gearing for war. Our researchers have been hard at work and Iron Working is now due to be discovered on turn 68. A settler, designated for Iron, will complete on the same turn. We have a Saxeman ready (yes, that's how it's spelled!) to act as escort and another one, that we had to delay slightly to time the settler properly, will be ready on turn 69. We currently do not have a Saxeman heading for Tech, as we believe hooking up Iron is of outmost importance to the cause of Heracles at this point and escorting the settler therefore takes priority. It should, however, only be a short matter of time before one is dispatched unless peace is obtained on that front.

In two turns SsS will enter into production mode. Our cities are prepared with granaries and barracks, whatever forests remain within our borders will be harvested and we are ready to apply the whip as needed. Soon SsS Spraetorians will be ready to fight the battle against the Hydra. A battle that will be brought upon the nation of Cath Bruig (Portugal), who will have to take the punishment for the abomination that they and their allies foolishly have created. I believe that peace with DJ (India) will only serve our cause as it lets the northern chariots and whatever offensive units Tech might produce to help SsS in our struggle, just as much as it leaves the door open for a Spraetorian detour into DJ territory.

We are currently hard at work trying to ensure a trade with JANK, where their spare units from the Aztec campaign is allowed to be recruited under the SsS banner. We envision an army so large and powerful that not even the aid of their allies will give Cath Bruig any hope of survival. An army, that once its initial mission is complete, is so sturdy that it can still devastate DJ and even the numbers while grinding one of the Hydra's ringleaders into the dust. But I am getting ahead of myself here, so lets move on to other matters.

If Cath Bruig did indeed whip a pair of chariots, they can cause some trouble over here as well, not just at the Tech border. With no current access to Spearmen we could be in some serious trouble getting hold of Iron in case they decide to harrass our escort with those chariots. Not to mention the risk of an invasion, though we can probably handle that without too much effort. I just wanted to make you all aware of that fact.

Lastly, I believe it makes sense to update you on SsS' diplomatic position. The Hydra have not given up on trying to recruit us, so we are playing along as best as we can now that Operation Tuesday 65 has been discontinued, though we are not sure to what degree they still view us as potentially neutral. France, HRE, and India have simply stopped talking to us without any prior statement, so we are only communicating with Cath Bruig at this time. I am as of recently trying to make the Hydra believe that SsS is preparing hard-on to get DJ killed so that they will be less prepared for an assault on Cath Bruig, but I can only guess whether I will be successful or not in that regard.

May the mighty S protect you all.

Regards,
Sandover
Team SsS

[Swiss Pauli]

T67 Report: cottage complete at Sirian, so tiles swapped around to add 2gpt. That's big news for us atm The barb warrior moved 1E, and Marianne started chopping.

Settler due next turn out of Sirian, and its escorting chariot due in 2 at Uberfish (with chop).

Barb stayed on other side of valley, so Keef moved 1S. Mick moved onto the next hill, and is slowly approaching Rome.

Diplo news: Maya is negotiating peace with India. Strangely, England and Carthage have yet to receive Alphabet. This might be to keep 'known tech' discounts down, but maybe Egypt is waiting til they hand over their techs to do so.

[EDIT] We have OBs with Maya.

[Broker33]

read the chat and I think it may be good to jump on board. If we can set up with a 2 civ union and maybe work in England we have a chance to move to end game fairly well. Need to decide which way expansion is more profitiable. North or west and south.

I think the latter but will chat with you tommorow to figure it out.

[Swiss Pauli]

T68 Report:



We meet Sumeria at last! Requested OBs in game.

Keef is set to defend against the barb warrior when the turn rolls. The expected victory will give him 5 XP, so he can be promoted to Woody II. Mick edges closer to Rome.




As you can see above, the settler completed as has moved to Uberfish along with Bianca. Carla's chop will complete the chariot which times perfectly with the settler Jerry completed the sheep road.

I switched Sirian to a worker: no overflow from the settler build, so the chariot won't complete in two turns even with the chop. We can whip the worker for 2 pop next turn, and overflow into the chariot. More turn advantage to be gained from an getting the worker sooner.

[Swiss Pauli]

T69 & T70 reports: T69 was marred by the tragic death of Keef at the hands of a damned lucky barb (3.3%). Clearly not as durable as his namesake Riffs will be played throughout the empire to honour his memory The pernicious RNGod decided to then favour us by having our chariot defeat the lion without a scratch, and then similarly bonk the warrior. Typical that we've promised him to Maya

Sirian's worker was whipped, and it had enough surplus food to grow back instantly:



After the chariot, another worker methinks (unless we want to grow into unhappiness in preparation for whipping a library when we get writing).

Chariot was whipped in Blake (overflow to Granary), and two workers moved into the forest to chop it (as they could move to the cows and improve them this turn).

England seems to have settled Gibraltar as we can see from culture bleed:



Settler and chariot moved to Pink Dot, but I made the rather SP move of leaving the worker uncovered when Maya could steal it (but I'm sure they won't).

In diplo, we met Rome just as Heracles has fallen apart. The folly of Exploit's naked gambit has been fully revealed.

We're negotiating a trade round with Hydra, where it looks like we'll be providing Calendar, if they let us in.

[dsplaisted]

[Placeholder for T71 report]

[Swiss Pauli]

An update...

Hi Guys,

Heracles was Mali, Babylon, Maya, Sumeria, Inca, Rome & Byzantium. Mali and Babylon have formally left, Maya is making a deal to join Hydra/CAN (by researching MC instead of India) and Sumeria dies next turn.

Hydra/CAN is Egypt, Carthage, England, India, Azteca, Portugal, Ottomans. France may be cut out because (a) Portugal suspect them of leaking their chariot rush plan (though no Heralces correspondance indicates this to be true), and (b) they may have not played nice over early settling with HRE. Not sure who is providing IW, but HRE is HBR & Eng Monarchy.

As you can see from ss263, we've acquired techs up to Maths, so I've switched to Aesthetics at 0% as we save for Calendar. Portugal arrives at Gibraltar (Eng city E of Sticky) on T73, and they will provide Sailing, and then we'll be good to turn on research.

Cities

I've nothing fancy in mind for city management, though Uberfish might want to single whip its monument and overflow into a worker. Skirmisher lined up behind Blake's granary to secure Brown Dot. Inca is to the south and has a large army, so Blake should focus on military. Otherwise cottage cheese.

Units

Lucky Maya (chariot in ss250) has been promised to Maya a long time ago, and should head in their direction (west) once the fog in ss250 has been cleared. Jack (chariot) is heading to meet Portugal via Gibraltar, and Black is heading N to cover Sticky Fingers.

Satisfaction is covering a barb S of Sirian, and Mick is wandering, and should head south to meet France then try to meet India.

EPs

I've switched to Inca somewhat belatedly from Carthage.

Other Diplo

We're tight with Babylon as you know, and I've also developed very good relations with Maya (who have stunningly good land). I've been bigging up Carthage's land quality (and they're tight with Krill apparently). Now that we're in CAN/Hydra, England is keen to work with us & Babylon when the big group splinters (as it must).

HRE lost an escorted settler to a lion (4%) so they're behind the curve, and Aztec & Inca are recovering slowly from their war.

There's quite a few unread emails in the Capac account, and I'm not sure I'll get to them before I leave.

Bye for now

Good luck & have fun!

Swiss

Greetings to our Malinese neighbors,

In our quest to get everyone's graph information, we notice that the number required to see your graphs has gone up the last several turns and we still do not have your information. Will it be possible for you to re-assign your EP spending elsewhere so that we can complete our goal of getting your information and move on to seeking other teams' graphs?

Until later,

Mr. Nice Guy for Team Nice Shot

T71 was replayed, and it seems Daniel forgot to switch the EPs to Inca on the replay. Strictly, this would be grounds for a reload but I think it's too far down the line to bother with, though I did mention this to Carthage, and I may mention in the email thread for the sake of transparency (once the current dispute is over).