RBP3 [SPOILERS] - Friendly Kittens (Ragnar of Maya)

[Maniac Marshall]

Well, almost everyone has played. Given the dire situation, and given we got a picture of the whereabouts of exploits warrior from Byz, I've decided to move the chariot south to look around, and move the warrior back south to cover the two cities that people can see are open for invasion. Under the circumstances, we should probably let that second chariot be the MP unit for the capital. until it can switch places with the warrior. If this isnt agreed on, there is still plenty of time to get the warrior up there before the city grows.

EDIT: Nevermind. When I moved the chariot the first square, I ran into a DIFFERENT warrior of exploits. I'll edit in a picture shortly



As a result of this, I have not finished the chariot's move. I intended to move it one SW onto the hill for a look around, and that may still be our best bet, but I dono. I'll rifle off a greeting to him shortly.

[Maniac Marshall]

Sent this off to Exploit. sorry for the format, but I have to go back to work now.

While out scouting for mice, our charioteer, Salthi, has noticed a cute little warrior from your civilization. Our leader, King Ragnar is currently busy with very important things (ie. I have to go back to work shortly), but he hopes that we can sit down over milk and cookies later and have a productive discussion about the future of both our peoples. Let us know if this will be acceptable to you, and if so, when would be a good time for you (later tonite or sometime tomorrow preferably.)

ManiCat Marshall for King Ragnar Lodbrok of the Friendly Kitten Empire.

[Cull]

As a result of this, I have not finished the chariot's move. I intended to move it one SW onto the hill for a look around, and that may still be our best bet, but I dono. I'll rifle off a greeting to him shortly.

SE right? If yes, then that seems like the best move to me.

[Maniac Marshall]

I meant SE, yes. We got a long email earlier.

To: Mali, Byzantine, Maya, Inca, Sumeria and Rome
From: Babylon

Ok guys, it's cards on the table time. We face a threat that could potentially overrun all of us. We need to know exactly what we're facing so i'm putting together a dossier to try and coordinate our efforts.

Please forward this on to Sumeria, Rome and Maya.


The Hydra

We suspect The Hydra to consist of:

Egypt, India, HRE, Ottomans, Carthage, Portugal, England and the Aztecs.

The bold and italicised i consider to be 100% definite. Portugal and Aztec is based off logical guess-work. I would be surprised if they aren't included.

The rest of the civ's - those reading this and also France who none of us have contact with- are left out of this bloc. As far as i'm concerned we NEED to work together to mutually ensure our survival. This is a temporary measure as far as i am concerned. We (Babylon) won't be declaring war or attacking any of you in the fore-seable future but we don't expect or want this to last all game. RBPB1 was ruined by this thing and a repeat performance is not what anyone wants.

We would be happy to offer NAP's of reasonable length to anyone who is worried in that regard.

Hydra's Objectives:

Get a super early alphabet and a whole lot of civ's together and tech their way to an irreversible advantage.

How Are They Getting Alphabet?

Currently we do not know 100%. I suspect there are two methods of them getting there a lot faster than us:

a) Beelining it and skipping mining/BW
b) Oracle

I am leaning towards use of the Oracle which points the finger at two, possibly 3 civ's in my eyes:

Aztec - they've had plenty of time to get the necessary techs and would want the prophet for a shrine for buddhism.

Egypt - same as above but for hinduism. And who would put it beyond Krill to organise this?

India - they have mysticism at the least and are industrious.

What to do?

We need to organise and fast. I believe Byz are sending a chariot up to meet France as soon as possible. We all need to get contact. Inca, sumeria and Rome- i appreciate this won't be easy for you guys but we'll do what we can and operate by proxy for now if we have to. I'm relying on some people forwarding replies and the like for now.

Secondly, we need to damage them somehow. We have no idea how France will feel about the whole thing but it's best to work under the assumption that we're currently the under-dog. Our main advantage is the potential for surprise. If we can land a few crippling blows early this could really turn the tide.

War?

Babylon are more than happy to launch a joint attack with Byzantine upon England. They are currently running a pure farmer's gambit and i feel confident of success if we can strike strong and decisively. This would have to be focused on soon though. I would prefer not to delay our alphabet research by getting hunting for spearmen but i will do if necessary.

Inca are attacking Ruff as we speak. I wish them total success and let's hope Ruff was building the Oracle!

Sumeria and Rome. How are you guys faring? I'm aware you're surrounded by the Hydra and could divert forces to you rather than England if that would be preferrable.

Mali and Maya. Where do you stand on the situation? Could you spare forces to attack England or assist in the south? I believe you both have, or will soon have, horses connected.

Babylon have no visible horses anywhere near our lands (an oversight by mapmakers per chance?) but we do have copper connected. The first axeman is already making his way to meet Maya's scout and more will be coming in short order (promoted).

=========

Tech

Mali are currently after Monarchy
We are 5t from writing and then heading for alphabet
Byz are saving gold then going IW
Maya are on writing and then after alphabet
Rome are i PRESUME on IW?
Sumeria i have no idea
Inca are on pottery at moment i believe.

I think maybe inca should get a load of the filler techs- fishing etc. Sumeria i need to know what you're doing so we can coordinate appropropriately.
Byz- maybe you should now go HBR instead?
If Sumeria are after alphabet which Byz have implied then babylon can divert to whatever after writing- aesthetics or something?

I appreciate our initial concern is survival but it's not just about the short-term. We'll need to get something going for at least the first round of trades to maintain competitivity.

The Map

This is how i currently understand it. Please bear in mind this is toroidal. Script is Green Team Battleground. It's huge but with extra tiles added.

???? / Carth / England /France /
Maya / Mali / Babylon / Byz
Desssssssssssssssssssssssert
???? / Inca / Rome / Sumeria
Aztec / India / HRE / Portugal

Two of these rows started with 5 civs i expect. Korea are gone but there's no guarantee they were on a row of 4 to begin with.
Some of this is based off rough descriptions so any help here would be appreciated. ( I expect Rome or Sumeria can help a lot with the southern hemisphere).

That's enough from me for today, if you can improve this or add to it- PLEASE get the info back to me one way or another asap.

Babylon currently has contact with Mali, England (bah), Byz, Inca and are soon to meet Sumeria and Maya. Rome- you can forward your messages thru any of these.

Your friends,

Kyan
Kysit's Periwinkles

I've typed up a preliminary response to this, but will not have time to proofread this for an hour or so. Any suggestions would be hot.

Please forward on the following.

Our contacts: Byz, Mali, and just this turn Sumeria. We will meet Bab, baring a panther on steroids when the turn rolls. We're expecting to meet the vile English not long afterward.

We're almost 100% certian they are Oracling Alpha. I considered doing that myself before we decided our start was not one that was conducive to founding an early religion. I hope you are right that Ruff is the one building the Oracle, but it's most likely Krill. India has already chopped up one wonder, odds of them being able to chop up a second... iffy, though they ARE India, so it isn't out of the question. Krill has a religion, I expect this was his plan from the beginning.

Add to map information: It is 64X64. Everything exactly matces this in our sandbox to the tenth of a gold for maint cost even. Also, very doubtful India is in the bottom line. Per conversation with Byz yesterday. "Exploit has a copper he wants you to grab to keep India from getting it." So something is fishy with that map. I expect they are the ????? in the line just under us. Perhaps that is THE line of 5??? There were NOT two. 4X4 +1 = 17. I half wonder if that line was not W shaped to improve spacing, we'll see eventually I suppose.

Sparing of forces: Currently we barely have enough to hold off the Barbs, let alone contributing any forces to an offensive. I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but it's the sad truth.

Tech: You have incorrecty labled us as going for Alphabet. We are going for Math.

BTW I KNOW our reply letter needs better organized. I'll do that. Just comment on the content

[Cull]

Email content sounds good. Perhaps make Bab Babylon, as it confused me when I read it. Otherwise, it's good.

[Cull]

We have 6-7 hours on the clock left, and I get can't on civ right now, being on a bus. If it rolls we only lose half a chariot move.

[Maniac Marshall]

No worries. I will be home in 10 minutes and can play. I just want input on IF we should move the chariot S or back home, and IF we move the chariot S, do we continue south? This would put us completely at the mercy of any incoming hostiles. I need to know if this is a risk we're willing to take.

[Cull]

OH, I didn't think of that. Personally, I would like to keep the chariot near home for protection, in the early axe/chariot rush period, with all these civ just meeting us.

[Maniac Marshall]

I talked with Ref via chat and we decided to move it to the hill and look around. While I was in the game I got pestered by 2 civs with "speak to all" asking if I was going to play the turn soon. I'm not sure if this is technically illegal or not, as there was nothing discussed that couldn't be discussed in pm (and one of the civs in question HAS PM'd me before to ask when the hell I was going to quit holding the game up) but it was annoying. We really could have used the remaining time to discuss things, but in the interest of not being a dick I ended the turn.

Before that, however, we moved the Chariot to the discussed location and found this.



So, yeah, it looks like we need to move blue dot to get that gold...

So the turn rolled and all I did was select a chariot to build at the capital (we're discussing changing it to a warrior because we really just need a garrison unit there right now, but I think I favor leaving it as a chariot.) and move Yalara (who found buku forest northward), and move Prrsha to meet Babylon. I also finished Marie's chop. I'll shoot off a greeting email to them shortly which incorporates most of the 2nd draft you made last night, Ref.

Otherwise, I'll just wait the 2-3 hours till you can get back online to do anything else, Ref.

[Maniac Marshall]

Actually, I didn't send that one. I figured I'd just wait to talk to you before sending it. If you dont make it back tonite, I'll send it though. I'll put the proposed one here when finished.