[Spoilers] Bacchus debuts on RB showing unmatched vision and slick dice-rolling

[Ceiliazul]

can we see an f5 shot? (click ctrl-b to show bare map before f5 to make the map much easier to see...)

thanks :-)

[Bacchus]

Sure, will do this evening, also having revealed a bit more of America from that yonder hill. I wish I scouted Mongolia too, but then I probably would have missed my chance to defog the Greek cities.

[Gavagai]

Are you sure that you want to weaken Willem against Retep?

[Bacchus]

Ok, strategic considerations made explicit:

William is in a very strong position -- he has plenty of land, and good land. His two other neighbors are reasonably far and both are early-unit specialists, one with very combative traits. Retep is losing the long-term struggle against Willian, there is no question about this, even now their power is at parity, but William already has a stronger economy, which will keep on getting stronger. I mean, just look at Carmen -- if he spams cottages there to his heart's content, it will be a gold mine. So yes, in terms of our local conflict I do want to weaken William, and not only to keep retep alive longer, but also to encourage retep himself to attack -- your enemy losing a city gives a good boost to morale.

There are other considerations. One is the set of consequences for me of starting a war with William. This is only possible under AI Diplo, to be sure -- otherwise the two would have concurred to eliminate me as a nuisance, in fact that agreement would have given retep a chance to play the builder game and thus actually benefit William, who would escape a constant arms race. But under AI Diplo, it seems certain that William simply can't launch any operations against me, not without opening himself up to an attack from retep. Another is far more long-term and has to do with Greece. If I weaken William and the Inca/Khmer conflict drags on, Greece is in a perfect position for expansion. If I let William swallow retep, or at least squeeze retep in so that he is inconsequential, William has a much better chance of standing firm against Ichabod. However, any Greece/Inca conflict is far enough for me to have settled the east coast and build up a small galley fleet, so that if I see Greece launching a successful bid for expansion I can send out a raider force right into his heartland to give William a little breathing space.

Hence, for now, unless retep starts any move against me, which will force a return of chariots, I lean towards weakening William a little.

[Bacchus]

That f5 shot:


There are still wonders to explore, and as I pointed previously, the big question is whether this continues to snake around after Greece. Another big one is how does the landmass look to our west, which is what I am going to find out next. The northern scout will waste a turn in a forest out of view, then return to check on Carmen and if there are no troops there, our chariots will move onto the hill and within striking distance. This turn, after William's move, there was one damaged Quechua in Carmen, the other went off somewhere, I would imagine east to fogbust. He also brought a worker onto the scene to chop a forest, but the chop will never complete.

[Bacchus]

Serdoa never got into the game and is subbing out. Which means that, apart from Greece, Plako has excellent chances of winning. It also means, that hopefully our southern lands will be uncontested for a long, long time.

[Bacchus]

Oh, Azza


Is he rushing or being rushed? That is the question.

[Bacchus]

Moved chariots, sent retep a peace offer. Also de-fogged Boston, picture to come later. It's strange.

[Mardoc]

Thanks for keeping up the good reporting despite the war! I'm enjoying lurking.

[Bacchus]

So, last turn retep accepted our peace offer! We are safe for ten turns at least, so I went ahead and moved the chariots within striking distance of Carmen. There is only one Quechua there currently, and William has already taken his move (I've been going second for a while now). Added bonus -- unless he can conjure up another defender for the city, we will capture the worker too! Sorry for not posting pics, but busy with RL.

And thanks Mardoc, I really appreciate getting feedback on the posts. I'm actually feeling quite positive about the whole thing now, a ten-turner with Retep lets us get to four cities no problem. Now, he might use enforced peace for an annoying plant, but he would have to do two of these to _really_ screw us over, one of which is just nuts for him.