RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] - Louis XIV of Byzantium

[Iamjohn]

I don't know, could make it more boring if both sides decide to just tech...

[Kodii]

T70:

Success!



And our scouts have finally bore some fruit:





Someone circumnavigated on the last turn already.

[Kodii]

The marble quarry is done and is now being roaded.

I swapped Kobe from the cow to a grassland forest for the extra hammer. Kobe is set to grow in two turns either way.

I'm trying to figure out how to read information from espionage. If Broker's capital requires 804 EPs to sabotage its production, what is the size of his project?

[Kodii]

Little to update.

Diplomacy continues as we organize who is teching what. I had a chat with Ruff about this.
Krill is attempting to contact us through shadyforce, and we are likely to do so somewhere around Lin land.
Kalin has asked for directions to dsplaisted and Imhotep, and I asked for directions to sunrise and regoarrarr

Ruff has a praet sitting in Unimatrix 1

[Kodii]

From Kalin:

Gentlemen,

As you probably noticed we have a scout on your borders. Life has been
quite busy and didn't have time to write unfortunately, so I have been
moving him around what appears to be the southern border of your
capital. I would appreciate any directions that would help us meet
Imhotep and dsplaisted.

To Kalin:

Hi Kalin,

Continue due west to reach dsplaisted. From there, you can take a landbridge north to Imhotep, unless Daniel's borders have blocked it.

Similarly, you will notice our scouting warrior approaching your land. Could you direct us to sunrise and regoarrarr?

Much appreciated

From shadyforce:

Hi guys,

Krill was asking if I could help co-ordinate you and him meeting, if you are interested. Have you any scouts in the area north of India or near Team Lin?

To shadyforce:

We would definitely be interested. We have yet to meet India, but we have just arrived at the land of Team Lin from the southwest.

Chat between me and Ruff:

9:30 AM Ruff_Hi: hey guys - are you in regarding the tech alliance?
9:31 AM me: yes please!
We can research Math
Ruff_Hi: and do you have a tech to throw into the mix?
me: not at the moment
we only have the standard
Ruff_Hi: any thoughts?
9:32 AM me: in a conversation with Daniel, he suggested Math, so we're on our way to that
Ruff_Hi: you ok with Krill in or out?
me: I'm good either way, are we considering leaving him out because he's Krill?
Ruff_Hi: out because it would screw him over ... and would be fun
9:33 AM me: Well lets plan out the techs, and if we don't need him...
Ruff_Hi: krill is offering HBR
9:34 AM me: my initial thoughts are to include him, i'd feel sorry for the chap
i mean, we could cut him off at any time if we wanted, right?
9:35 AM Ruff_Hi: ok - will include
currently chatting to Krill
and have a list of techs that I will circulate later
me: alright

Chat between Krill and Ruff:

12:26 PM me: Krill?
12:27 PM Krill: Hi
me: What did you want to chat about?
Krill: Just a couple of things
like tech
me: hopefully one of them is directions to meet the others
Krill: yup, can do
12:28 PM me: ok tech and directions - anything else?
Krill: I was wondering about you views on the UTA, and the likelyhood of a 6 member counter alliance
12:29 PM me: I've emailed the others and I would say that there is general interest in an alliance
there was some comments about this being a borg trick
but your forwarded email snuffed those concerns
Krill: cool
glad that got smothered quickly
I was worried about that hapenin
me: at the moment we have 3 in, 2 no commit and yourself
12:30 PM Krill: Well, I'm in if everyone is hapy with that
me: one comment that came up was ... "why should we include Krill?"
12:31 PM Krill: I can offer HBR as a largish tech, and I'm happy to use archery, AH, pottery, and writing to smooth over any trades
and basically if you guys don't then I'll have to become a hired killer for either side
because that'll leave me on the outside of two 5 player alliances
zero chance to win, so I'd have to have some fun somehow
me: ok, 4 in, 1 no comment and yourself
12:32 PM Krill: but tbh I'd much rather just help out in an alliance
me: (I'm chatting to others at the moment)
Krill: cool, np
if they have any questions and you want to act as courier, I'm hapy to answer them
12:33 PM me: ok, seems that the group balance is 'Krill included'
we have alphabet, IW, and maths covered, you would bring HBR
Krill: Monarchy would be the biggie tech
12:34 PM (just speaking tactics atm)
me: and I have 2 no tech comments to go
Krill: but the simplest way is if the large techs haven't been started
is to just head for hte nerest one and share.
12:35 PM me: ok, checking notes and we also have MC and Monarchy in the hopper
so no duplication
Krill: cool
some infomation for you to share
if you don;t know it yet
me: wait 1
you said you were happy to balance beakers out with smaller techs
12:36 PM that will prove difficult sometimes so I am going to propose that the alliance attempts to balance beakers but waives them in situations where it isn't possible
or is happy to carry forward IOUs until currency
Krill: oh, I think we misunderstand
I'm happy to ofer more beakers on my part
me: we should also agree a beaker / gold exchange rate
Krill: yeah
I'm hpy with that
12:37 PM me: ok, tech is done
what is next
Krill: directions?
Who do you need to meet, where do you want to go?
me: I am SW of your unit
let me give you directions first - who are you missing?
Krill: Imhotep
me: Imhotep is to my NW
Krill: mh
and dsplaisted
me: mh / Kodii are to my South
12:38 PM Dsp (not totally sure but ...) is to mh / Kodii's West
Krill: cool
Who do you need?
me: you met shady?
Krill: (PS, if you want OB, I'm happy to offer them now)
me: I have sunrise outstanding
Krill: yeah, met shady, but on my border
ok
sunrise is...
12:39 PM give you exact distance to his second city, it's the nearest one
12:40 PM 20 tiles west
sorry
20 tiles east
and 9 tiles south east
of the hill my quechua was on when we met
me: ok, 20 Right and 9 down - any water in the way?
Krill: just my land
we'll need OB
me: and is that from where we met - or from my current warrior?
12:41 PM Krill: where my quechua was when we met
I don;t actually know where your warrior is anymore
me: great - I don't keep that information
Krill: ok
me: was it 1N of a mountain?
Krill: it was the grassland forest hill 1N of a peak
1W of the corn
me: bingo
going to jump in game and mark it
Krill: ok
12:42 PM I'm directly east of there
10 tiles to you reach my culture
12:43 PM me: ok - next?
Krill: tbh if you have any scouts to your east they may be closer to sunrise
me: no - that warrior is my furthest east unit
Krill: any far to the west?
12:44 PM me: yes - but I don't think they are that far
Krill: cool
do we have any eta for the other techs?
I take it you have IW already?
me: I already have IW
alphabet in 7
Krill: as rome it would almost be a travesty if you didn't
I'LL HAVE hbr BY THE TIME ALPHA LANDS
damned caps, sorry
me: ok
12:45 PM not sure on the others
Krill: just wondering, what is the remaining tech
[COLOR="Red"]12:46 PM also, a small worry on my part
the UTA is planing on trading by t80
they could be plnning to land the oracle the turn after
and getting something big
ie fuedalism
construction
somehing dangerous[/COLOR]
12:47 PM I don't have any visibility of their cities except sunrises
me: techs are:
IW, Maths, Monarch, HBR, MC and alphabet
that is 6
Krill: cool.
just need to get contact now
me: right
12:48 PM Krill: we do have m-h...
me: I've marked directions to SR in game - send warrior Nth of contact point - arg
yes
haven't got the nod from Dsp yet - but expect to
12:49 PM Krill: that is awesome
thank you
me: do you feel like bacon being pulled out of the fire?
Krill: pretty much
12:50 PM I wonder how you al feel after realising what diplomacy had hapened behind your back though
12:52 PM me: ok as long as it was only after in-game contact
Krill: er...
yeah
me: would feel pissed if it was pre-
Krill: there were doing what we seem to be doing
messages relayed between players as required
me: but would be hard to arrange that as they didn't know who was close by
Krill: at least, according to a chat with regoarrarr
me: who started it?
Krill: I don't know for sure
me: because it is a neat idea
12:53 PM how solid is it?
Krill: oh, relaying messages, or the 5 player alliance, the UTA?
me: the UTA
Krill: I have no idea
but they decided together on the tech trades.
12:54 PM I'd say it's pretty strong.
simply because there are no border issues
me: well - I think we lucked out more than anything
Krill: and for each tech they research they get 4
me: in that our techs aren't duplicated
Krill: yeah
that was insanely lucky
me: nawwwwwwww ... skill!
Krill: haha
me: anything else?
Krill: only reason I carried on with HBR was that no one would bother researching it
hmmm
12:55 PM not really.
me: you ok with me forwarding this chat to the others?
Krill: I think if we are neighbours some rough borders between us.
yeah, sure
no problem with that
12:56 PM me: oh - and I forgot the following ... should have been my very first words ...
We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. Your culture will adapt to service ours. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Krill: I think you sent them
yeah, you sent them
12:57 PM me: Thinking is irrelevant
I just re-watched the TNG eps with the battle at Wolf 359 and I Borg
so I am up on the lingo!
Krill: to each their own
I prefer the Dominion personally

To Summarize:

Ruff: IW
Imhotep: Monarchy
shadyforce: Alphabet
Us: Math
dsplaisted: MC
Krill: HBR

[mostly_harmless]

I am back and pleased to see the Great Wall is built.
From what I can see on the diplo front, we want to reveal to ourpartners our Oracle ETA once we have a solid agreement, to get maybe some techs fronted to us to oracle something nice, now that MC is already in the bag.

Will look at the Apolypton C&D thread for the Broker productiojn formula.
I think 866 is already pretty high.

mh

[Kodii]

Crossposting is always fun

I was just going suggest that we reveal our ETA for the Oracle. It is likely we can't grab anything bigger than CoL, unless we can get Math before T78

Welcome back, mh!

[Kodii]

From dsplaisted to shadyforce, us

I think I will finish Metal Casting around turn 84. M_h/Kodii, what turn do you guys expect to finish Mathematics on? If I am going to chop out the Colossus, I would definitely like to have Mathematics by then.

Also, I'm open to letting one of you go for the Colossus if you could build it quickly (I think ZPV is going to go for it, and he may finish MC before I do) and it would be beneficial to your civ. So let me know what you think.

From shadyforce:

I would love the Colossus but I'm feeling vulnerable so I'd rather use the hammers to build an army. You could always boat a few swords to Carthage and "win" the race that way?

This is my proposed response:

Our ETA for Writing is T73 and I expect Math at around T88. We can give you the exact ETA once we have Writing.

Since we are rather inland, we don't have much use for the Colossus, but thank you for the offer.

On the news of wonders, we have the Oracle due for completion on T78. Krill estimates that the UTA will complete the Oracle around T80, so hopefully we can deny them the wonder. We are most likely to take CoL with it if we are unable to make any trades before then. What is the ETA for Alphabet?

I sent a copy of the draft to ourselves in case you get it faster that way.

[Kodii]

This is from dsplaisted to the anti-UTA:

My guess is that they are going to use the Oracle to get Feudalism, since it is the most expensive thing they could get, and makes them really safe from attacks for a while. Imhotep, do you think there's a chance you could get it before them? I would say prioritize finishing the Oracle first before waiting for Monarchy to complete if you have to make that trade-off. Code of Laws would still be an excellent tech to slingshot.

We should probably let them know of our plans.

[Kodii]

I'm not sure if you're still there, but I am assuming you are, since you're still logged into the game.

I am off to have a day out at Stanley Park and downtown, and will be back in 9-10 hours. Feel free to make edits to my draft and send it off to shadyforce and dsplaisted. You may also want to put together a message for the anti-UTA about our Oracle plans.