RB Pitboss #3 [SPOILERS]- Suryavarman II of England

[antisocialmunky]

LOL, when it rains it pours. Looks like Mehmed is the 'owner' of the gold and corn. We shoudl book it up there with the next settler if we want it.

Emails:

To the leaders of fair Albion,


Hello and well met!


We are most pleased to have met your fine civilization. To finally hook up with you, our exploring warrior has recently managed to shrug off an attack by a lion, albeit one in a weakened state...

You are the fifth civilization we've met so far, and hope our future relations will be cordial and mutually beneficial. We would appreciate if you could direct our exploring warrior to other nations you have met up till now.

Hoping to hear from you soon,


Cordially,


Ilios for the Principality of DIM

Dear Team CHASM,

We would like to propose an intial get-to-know-each-other NAP until T75. This would give us a decent window to sort out a longer NAP, and to develop a good working relationship. How does this sound to you?

Which civs have you met so far?

We've met Babylon, who are located to your south-south-east, roughly a dozen tiles away. They don't have a spare scout to send in your direction at the moment, but they look forward to meeting you.

Babylon has also met Byzantium, whose scout is heading to meet us in the not too distant future.

We look forward to your positive feedback.

Best Wishes

It strikes me that this will be very hard to keep up if we meet with all the surviving civs. We should tell Mali of Mehmed and ask for some contacts from Mehmed starting with Mali(to keep his scout from seeing the corn and gold if he hasn't already.

[haphazard1]

OK, the diplo scene is starting to heat up at last. Very happy that our SSE neighbor is Babylon and not Rome.

Midas' Folly...sounds like they may have already claimed the gold. We would need to send a unit up there to check, but they have probably already settled that site.

We should direct Mali where to find Holy Rome, and vice versa. We can also advise Holy Rome about Babylon. Agree we should ask Holy Rome about where we might be able to contact some others in return.

Holy Rome can not see into Animal Farm, so we are safe enough moving our warrior to cover our worker for the horses. I doubt they will try for a worker steal when it would be an even fight, but one can never be sure. Sending our newest warrior to help cover Animal Farm sounds good, although I would love to explore more south of our capital. See if there is a good site to the southwest maybe.

ASM is correct that the diplo emails may get out of hand as we meet more and more civs. We should organize our diplo somehow. Maybe in our team gmail account we should have folders for Answered and Needs Response? We could also have subfolders in each per civ, would make it easier to keep track of things. We would need to make sure emails get moved to the appropriate folder once we deal with them.

Who have we already responded to? We need to keep this organized as well, so we don't double-respond to some civs and forget to respond to others.

[Cyneheard]

I chatted with both Kyan (Babylon) and Meatbalz (HRE).

I don't have time to fully summarize (the logs are in the email account), but a few things:
Gulliver should move E to meet the Byzantines, then turn N/NE for France.
Carthage is arranged to have a meeting w/ Tricky Dicky (HRE) near our territory, and we've agreed to arrange a meeting between HRE and Mali.
Tricky Dicky will be moving SW next turn, but they say they won't swipe. We'll just cover him. They are unhappy with France for threatening a 50-50 swipe at an escorted settler, and also that France settled aggressively against them. They expect war at some point.

Midas' Folly is at the gold. They have copper there, as well.

Babylon is going Writing-Alphabet. I tentatively said that we might go for HBR to trade. Byzantines are going for IW. We need something besides just chariots.

[antisocialmunky]

Hmmm, France... We should keep an eye on that closely since there is alot of nice land to the East + diplo-points. Need to see how well connected France is. If the Babylonians look trustworthy, the pigs + wine would be a good grab to lock down that border since we will control the whole area between the mountains and the lake. I would not mind HBR if we cna get an agreement for IW.

[haphazard1]

Copper at the gold site as well? Ouch for us.

Other diplo sounds good. Should get us contact (over the next dozen turns or so) with Byzantium, Carthage, and maybe France depending on how far away these civs are.

At least HRE is already angry with/focused on France, and not on us with our lack of copper.

HBR...well, we could get decent trade value from it. And I agree that we will need something tougher than chariots. But it is expensive. How soon would we be expected to be able to provide it? Need Archery as well to actually produce HAs.

Copper...where is OUR copper? Somehow we have probably missed it by one tile during our initial exploration or something.

[Cyneheard]

Alphabet's 540 beakers, HBR's 450. We'll probably be getting Writing in the bargain (and will almost certainly be able to get IW from Byz or another source). Hunting's 72 beakers, Archery is 108, Writing's 216. Babylon is about to finish up Pottery in the next couple of turns, so they'll have a jump start on Writing-Alphabet (and they are going to go for a fast Academy, surprise surprise as Pericles). I don't know when we'd be able to provide HBR, probably fairly close to when Alphabet comes in.

If HBR comes in after Alphabet, then we might have to do something like:
Trade Writing for Hunting + Archery, then Alphabet for HBR. I don't think it pays for us to go straight for Writing, it won't pay for itself by the time we'd be able to trade for it. At the same time we trade for Alpha, we can get IW (or try to get IW fronted to us so we can get our jungled silver). Babylon and Byzantium both have jungled silver. I didn't ask Meatbalz if the HRE has it, but I'm sure the answer is "yes".

Oh, and the HRE just got Bronze Working. So they didn't even know that they had copper at their site!!!

[haphazard1]

We would need to have a bunch of stuff fronted to us, since we would not have Alpha until later. If we expect to get Writing as well somehow, that means our CRE libraries would be delayed. Or am I misunderstanding?

Copper at the gold site makes me think my earlier meta-game thought was correct: copper is "between" civs in the disputed territory, along with key resources like gold. North just happens to be the only direction we have scouted far enough to find these special resources. With other civs finding us for the most part (except for Babylon), these sites may get settled quickly and we will be cut off from most of the special resources.

Writing + Alpha is going to take quite a while to research, unless someone has a lot more beakers than we do at the moment. Of course, Pottery will help that with cottages, but still...we are probably talking 25 turns minimum and more likely 30-35 as new cities eat into everyone's research rate. Can we finish HBR in that time frame, with Beaver Rock boosting our costs and maybe another city or two later?

Also, that is a long time to be surrounded by civs which have metal while we do not. But researching something with no trade value is likely to end badly longer term, however useful it would be to have IW or Writing earlier. We need to get some firm commitments on trades, willingness to front us techs if needed, etc. Not sure what we can negotiate, but we should see what people are willing to offer.

[antisocialmunky]

:-\

We need a scout the South West NOW. Its the only place where we haven't really looked at.

I also founded Beaver Rock. We are at -8 gpt which puts us at 50% break even research which gets us pots in 10 turns. This. is. brutal. I moved Gulliver SE onto the hill according to the email screenshots and saw the Wolf. I also marked some locations. I marked a hill site for wheat/silks on the 3 western hills. I marked the sugar/floodplains site to the East on the river. We could settler that and crawl south but I doubt that will be economically feasible. The only advantages we really have is a buttload of food to grow eventually and work river tiles.

I also think we should reproduce as many emails as possible here for the Lurkers, just C&P them when we refer to them.

*EDIT* I lied, Demos:



Kyan's message

Hail English Empire,

I'm going to be lazy and skip the traditional greeting seing as myself and Cyneheard have already said our hello's!

What i have done for you, however, is hire an artist to draw you a basic map. I have sent a copy to the Byzantine Empire also to aid you both in making contact.

Your Friends,

Kyan
Kysit's Periwinkles

Attached:

I believe building roads for Hammurabi is a breach of the Lurker code of conduct, Mr. Dash Hawk :-D

BTW- from the length of the black on his research bar, he's getting pots.

[Cyneheard]

Screenshots ARE allowed in this game, so we're good on that.

Chat with Meatbalz of team DIM, the Holy Roman Empire:
(Formatted for clarity, as able)

I did tell them that we don't have copper, since I was hoping to get a location from them. Since they know we're getting horses, it's not a giant "Kick Me" sign. Wolf the Quarrelsome was avenged, but not by us. We should tell Mali to head due north, and when they hit our culture go NW, and they'll meet the HRE soon.

dim.civ: catching up in-game same turn we meet
me: aye.
dim.civ: can't believe we hadn't heard of you guys yet
me: we hadn't met anyone until 3t ago. the wounded lion ate one of our explorers @ 4.4%
dim.civ: hmmm...ah that would explain why. that's terrible luck
me: yeah, it was
dim.civ: hey, we're going to be open with you. or at least i am :-p. we're fairly close, we're sort of NE of you guys. it's a wonder we haven't met until now
me: we saw the gold tile ~T20-25
dim.civ: yeah. it's a great location. you guys do C&D?
me: yes. there's corn 3E1S of that gold, we considered putting a city that way if it was available.
dim.civ: hehe, as you'll probably have guessed from the city name, we settled it
me: Let's see: you discovered BW this turn. Midas' Folly is from T41. The tile itself is updated, I've got "requires route" on it
dim.civ: yeah, BW indeed this turn. we lucked out: copper at midas' folly too
me: Nice
dim.civ: so we're defending it pretty tight. hey have you guys met anyone to your east?
me: no
dim.civ: ok, there's a civ there
me: 2 to the south: Babylon and Mali
dim.civ: ok we've met 1 to the E of you, 1 NW, and 2 much further W
we'd be happy to arrange a meet-up if you can return the favour.
we're on good terms with all except france
me: Mali shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Babylon's a long walk from where you are.
dim.civ: ok same for the 2 far W. A word about france:
we had some real issues with them early on. they acted extremely aggressively, saying they'd take a 50/50 shot at our escorted settler etc.
I think france are your neighbours to the east
me: fun times.
dim.civ: be careful in your negotiations with them. not really :-). They really ticked us off.
me: good to know, thanks for the heads up
dim.civ: not a problem. Like i said, we're going to be open
me: we're going to be putting a worker on the horse tile next turn
dim.civ: ok. Worried about us swiping it?
me: our team does have 1 paranoid member on it
dim.civ: what do you need from me to set your mind at ease?
me: NW would work, we can start directing you to Mali's warrior
dim.civ: mali's warrior's NW?
me: no, you'll go S & SW
dim.civ: ok we'd like to go SW as we've heard of yet another civ there. we have absolutely zero intention of swiping your worker
me: ok. I hope you won't mind that it'll be covered
dim.civ: but i would like to keep moving our warrior SW; and no, of course i don't mind.
me: fair enough
dim.civ: beginnings are the hardest times ;-)
me: yeah
dim.civ: but like i said, we have no intention, covered or not, of swiping your worker. Can you give mali a heads-up about us & ask if they want to arrange a meeting?
me: we will
dim.civ: i can give you directions to france (kind of did already) and set up a meeting with ottomans.
me: I think it'll be easiest if you walk 1-2 tile off of Animal Farm's borders, and we can direct Mali that way
dim.civ: let me check the game real quick. ok basically we want to end up on the forest tile currently W-SW of tricky dick in 2 turns (T49)
so we'd be moving SW and then W. like i said, there's another civ out to the SW we're supposed to be meeting
me: ok. who is it?
dim.civ: carthage. can you tell me roughly (S, SW, or SE) where mali is. no need to be too specific if you don't want to
me: we met them almost due S of where TD is
dim.civ: ok, thanks
me: I think they're somewhat W, but mostly S, of there
dim.civ: just re-reading chat above. midas' folly & how we're defending it carefully. that's not against you guys, but i think france will be coming + so do my team-mates.
me: good luck
dim.civ: thanks. what are your plans re: tech trading?
me: well, Babylon says they're going for Alpha
dim.civ: ok. i guess their plan is to get alpha + then act as go-between?
me: aye. also, they're Pericles. fast GSci from library
dim.civ: right. are you guys part of that tech trading group? we haven't really figured out our research path yet
me: we met them this turn as well. neither have we
dim.civ: they must be keen. to mention that the very same turn they meet you
me: heh, we both kind of did
dim.civ: yeah for you guys it makes sense (few contacts and all). well, we'll try to help w/ expanding your list of contacts. although i tell you, the diplo can be a pain in terms of time requirements
me: definitely
dim.civ: are you guys looking for a large tech alliance or are you leaning more towards small groups?
me: unknown
dim.civ: i hear ya. we're still trying to figure out the lay of the land as well
me: us as well
dim.civ: can i ask you a favour. can you ask babylon how many people they have in their "group"?
me: they have Byzantines
dim.civ: a 2-civ group?
me: and I think Mali [NOTE: I should've confirmed this w/ Kyan.]
dim.civ: ok, ok
me: Byz is going IW, I'm going to talk to our team about possibly going HBR
dim.civ: yeah HBR isn't bad, especially in MP
me: and we haven't seen any copper yet. You didn't happen to see any in the last few turns w/ TD? Our scouting's been atrocious (stupid lion...)
dim.civ: nope. the only one we've seen other than at midas is WAY to the W but our scouting's been pretty poor in your direction. we'll definitely let you know if we see some
me: I have to run

[Cyneheard]

Chat (same time) with Kyan of Babylon:

Mali + Babylon + Byzantines are talking a tech deal, we definitely need to be in on that. Once we meet the Byzantines, we can start discussing trades, it seems. That's why I jumped the gun on offering up HBR as an option, to make sure that we're in the conversation. Also, getting Hunting soon's good (Furs).

kttwrbpb3: Greetings English Empire! Do you have a moment to talk>
me: yes
kttwrbpb3: firstly, nice to meet you. I am Kyan from team Kysit.
may i ask who exactly i am talking to from your team?
me: I'm Cyneheard
kttwrbpb3: hello mate (see i got bored of typing official-like already ). It seems Gulliver has discovered us. how have your scouting exploits been going?
me: yeah, we saw purple and were worried that it was Rome. we've met Mali and just met HRE
kttwrbpb3: ha we're practially the anti-Rome . well, if you wish, i can arrange for you to meet Byzantine within a few turns. they have a unit close to you
me: awesome
kttwrbpb3: sure, i'll send them your way. I'd advise you to head due east
me: thanks, will do
kttwrbpb3: i believe you are north of us?
me: yes
kttwrbpb3: i don't know how well you know Mali's location, but relative to our two civ's where are you? i.e. directly above them, or above the middle ground between our two civs. sigh, im not sure that makes much sense
me: Our cap's like 10N3W of where Gulliver is, something like that. I assume we're seeing Babylon borders
kttwrbpb3: indeed, but not our capital. ok that's interesting. you're pretty much due north of mali
me: Exodus is somewhat out there
kttwrbpb3: yes that's our 2nd city. well, kind of. it's 2 tiles nearer us than Mali in a straight line. our land is rather poor so we negotiated with Mali to secure a decent location as kind of a border between our civs.
Byzantine is due east of us. we have one avenue of expansion ruled out at moment as our south is a desert.
me: France seems to be to your NE
kttwrbpb3: you have met them? or from speaking to HRE?
me: no, but we've met the HRE
kttwrbpb3: ah i see. Could you possibly pass on a message to them that we would like to meet them? It would be appreciated
me: unfortunately, their warrior is at the far NW of our territory
kttwrbpb3: ah so miles away
me: and Gulliver's good and SE
kttwrbpb3: fair enough. we aren't that close then currently so i don't see much use of a NAP but we'd be happy to sign one if your civ wants one
i know some people seem desperate for them
me: let me talk to the team about them
kttwrbpb3: fair enough
me: I'm more interested in starting to figure out research deals, but it's a little early for that
kttwrbpb3: obviously there's nothing concrete to discuss regarding it but we would be interested in potentially trading tech in the future
Mali have expressed a keen interest in this also as have Byzantine and i know that we have begun to at least slightly coordinate our research to ensure no overlap
me: ok. We're currently getting Wheel and Pottery. but everyone needs those before Alpha comes around
kttwrbpb3: sure. We're a few turns from pottery and we started with wheel. and agreed for sure on that point. after pottery completes we will be heading for writing and then quite proabably alphabet
me: ok. And I assume with Pericles we'll see a fast GSci
kttwrbpb3: indeed. if we can get there first, it would be a big boon for the civ's we're trading with. Byz are currently going for IW to remove the jungle we seem to be infested with and unlock the silver
me: you have jungled silver at your start as well?
kttwrbpb3: indeed. i would bet everyone does
me: I'll talk to the team, but we might do Hunting-Archery-HBR
kttwrbpb3: sounds good. at some point it will probably be worthwhile to get our 4 civ's at least into a convo to flesh the deals out. but as you said, everyone needs the basic economy techs
me: we'll try to direct HRE towards you, it might take a while
kttwrbpb3: thank you, we actually have a scout heading NE from our land, so if they want to meet france- maybe we could rendezvous over there somewhere
me: we'll head for the Byz contact first, then probably turn due north. FYI: HRE and France aren't on the best of terms
kttwrbpb3: ok sure, we'll let you know of anyone else we find (in any direction) although i am not expecting anyone from the south for awhile. hmm ok. Do we know why? appreciate the heads up
me: aggressive settling of France, threatened to take a 50-50 at an escorted settler
kttwrbpb3: yep that will do it ha. well in that case i'd lean my loyalties towards HRE if it came down to that. i'm not that kind of player
just as a thought, we'll be throwing some EP's at your way soon. We will only let them hit 43 though and then direct them elsewhere
me: ok. We're going to get to 43 w/ Mali first
kttwrbpb3: same with us and Byz but we will probably hit that first
ok cyneheard, i'm off. Pleasure talking to you. Anything you need throw me an email or catch me on here. Take care.
me: cya, thanks