RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Demographics aren't too bad. We're #1 in GNP, and even though we have Stonehenge bumping that up, the civs likely to be competing with us (Luddite and Plako) will also have a high cultural component (from Oracle and Creative). So we're definitely on the top rung there, which is nice to see. Suggests we should be able to out-tech SleepingMoogle to Maths... we'll see anyway.

As for food and production, we're doing decently. Plako is probably the leader in both of these categories, I'd guess... can't do much about that. We'll be improving our numbers (especially in food) rapidly as our three newest cities get properly online with resources.

I think we're doing about as well as we could expect at this point. Plako's going to have a bit of a lead on everyone for a while due to his free city and Cre/Imp traits, but that's ok - it takes attention away from us and focuses it on him. Quite happy for us to keep a step or two behind him for the moment - although we're not going to stop trying to compete for first place in all the demographics, of course.

[Lord Parkin]

New Worker is chopping the forest under the soon-to-be Fur city. Settler ready in 3, will found in 4. City will have an automatic connection to the empire through the river.



The Deer will be hooked up at Felidae next turn. Also, next turn we'll switch to finish off the Warrior in Magadan before the hammers decay.



New mediocre city site proposed down south, thanks to unfogged tiles from the scout. Definitely a post-Iron Working site. Could still be shifted depending on what's revealed over the next couple of turns.



Nakor has Gold...



...as does SleepingMoogle. Apparently everyone will get the benefits of economic resources (as expected), so we'll still definitely need to prioritise cottages in the near future.

[Lord Parkin]

Had a brief in-game chat with Luddite. He mentioned that he wasn't so interested in going for Artemis anymore, and offered me the chance to build it instead. I said I wasn't really interested and had other priorities (i.e. expansion) right now. All true... Artemis is a pretty average wonder anyway, IMHO, unless you have the Great Lighthouse. Still, interesting to know that he's apparently put it on the backburner for now.

Luddite also asked for some advice in dealing with Mackoti and settling the choke point. He seems to be all set for blocking them off, which is good. I suggested that he should just try to be upfront with the Dutch, and mentioned that having a partly split empire isn't the worst thing in the world if you still get more territory. I also gave a slight nudge towards encouraging him to war with Mackoti later, although I don't think it'll make much impact. Still, it'd be nice for us if he did (or if he incited them to declare on him).

[Lord Parkin]

Sent to SleepingMoogle:

Hi there,

Thanks for passing on the message to Adlain. Hope to run into him in the next turn or two, and Rego not too long after. Then it'll be just Locke and WarriorKnight to go, and I can finally start spamming in the UN thread. (Which is of course what most of this is about.)

Chatted with Luddite, by the way - he's keen to meet you, but currently blocked off by Mackoti. He thinks he'll be able to get Open Borders in a few turns and pass through though, so hopefully you'll meet him before too long. He also has a Warrior a few tiles NW of Nakor's capital, but it sounds like that's too far away to meet any of your units.

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

[Lord Parkin]

Sent to Nakor:

Hi Nakor,

Good luck in your dealings with Plako. We'd definitely be interested to hear how that turns out.

Glad to hear you're keeping up a good military. We're keeping a decent force on hand as well, just in case.

Not much else going on right now. We're hoping to meet Adlain and Rego soon, that's about it.

All the best.

Regards,
Lord Parkin

We don't actually have a particularly great military (still just Warriors), but it can't hurt to project the illusion that we're strongish. Should help to further discourage any opportunistic attacks, unlikely as they may be.

[Lord Parkin]

Received from SleepingMoogle:

Greetings,

To meet WarriorKnight, you only have to travel southwest after meeting up with Adlain and Rego. He knows approximately where you are and is moving a scout in your direction as well. Locke may be a bit more tricky. They had a scout in the area some time ago, but he's probably quite far away now. Your best bet may be to start travelling southeast after meeting WK, but I'll get in touch with Locke and ask if he has any units in the vicinity.

Thank you for getting in touch with Luddite as well. :-) I don't think I have anyone near Nakor's lands (maybe a scout north of Locke, but he's being blocked by a body of water), so negotiating open borders with Mackoti is probably the better idea. I'll see what I can do there.

Pleasant dreams,
-SleepingMoogle
Patriarch of the first tribe of Somnus

[Lord Parkin]

Sent the following to SleepingMoogle:

Hi,

Okay, thanks for that. I'll head my Warrior into the city of Dream next turn, so hopefully Adlain and Rego will be able to find me there. Thanks for the info on WarriorKnight too. I do have a unit down south near Nakor's land, so I can always meet Locke through there after Open Borders, if I can't find him up north. It's looking hopeful that I'll complete the set soon, largely thanks to you. Cheers for all your help.

Negotiating Open Borders with Mackoti is indeed probably the best idea for you to meet Luddite as soon as possible. Let me know if you manage to successfully negotiate opening them, and I can inform Luddite so he can get a unit as close as possible to meet you at the earliest opportunity.

Regards,
Lord Parkin

[Lord Parkin]

Sent to Luddite:

SleepingMoogle's got Writing, so he's going to talk with Mackoti about opening borders and sending a unit through. If he gets through and you get a unit as close to Mackoti's borders as you can, you should be able to meet him at the earliest opportunity. Will keep you informed.

[Irgy]

It'll be interesting to compare your early moves with other players' in particular detail, to see why it is that you're out expanding them despite building a wonder. There's something you do which puts you in a good position like this every game, and honestly it's still not entirely clear to me exactly what it is even reading your spoiler thread.

[Senseless]

Again, sorry for the long delay in between posts. It seems like a lot has happened since I've last checked.

Looking at our position, I would prioritize expansion and military over more wonders. I've got a few reasons for this:

1. Military: We have no defense as of right now. This has paid off in a big way, in the form of nabbing stonehenge while keeping up with Plako in terms of cities. However, our score is starting to reflect this, and our open borders arrangements will soon tip our neightbors off to this point. Yeah, it's a big map but as the Plako/DrWarlord conflict has shown, an early war is very real possibility.

2. Expansion: We have a ton of good land. Grassland plains galore, food resources, ivory. We also have several rivers near our capital for commerce cities. If we were cramped, I might agree with using our industrial trait to get more wonders

3. Diplo: We know that other industrious civs are keen on getting some of these wonders. Building them could be antagonizing them unnecessarily. Plus, any hammers that go into wonders are not going into axes. Given that we've out-expanded them up to this point, this seems like a good thing for us.

So, overall I think the play is to expand and start cottaging up, while teching to and building libraries/forges. It's the safer play, and it sets us up for the long game. Why risk getting in a wonder race we might lose now when we can sit back, tech, and beeline towards a different wonder later?