RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Chat with Adlain. Summary of key points:

- Apparently I'm about to meet WarriorKnight, which is nice. Adlain's sent him directions to my Warrior. In return, I sent Adlain directions to Mackoti and Luddite.
- Discussed the issue of Plako and his strong position. Adlain rightly pointed out that I'm in a reasonable position myself, but I downplayed it a little (as you do). Either way, it's a fact that Plako's much more of a runaway risk than me at the moment.
- Gave Adlain some advice about founding more cities soon. Figure it can't hurt to have Locke's western neighbour a bit stronger... I don't want to find two supercivs developing in the south.
- Discovered that there's a body of water between Adlain and WarriorKnight, a bit like the one between Rego and myself but smaller. Interesting.
- Discussed the map in general. Adlain seems to think there's some greater significance to the civ colour changes. I rather doubt it myself.

Adlain: Hi Lord Parkin
me: Hi there
Nice to meet you at last
Adlain: Likewise
I have just spotted WarriorKnighes Scout Just south of my Own scout
thought you would like to know
me: Hmm... where's your own scout?
Relative to our meeting place?
Adlain: East, South East
me: Ok
Ok, I can see your scout
so he's presently 1S of that?
Adlain: Just double checking
me: ok, thanks
Adlain: he is 3S of your warrior
me: Ok, awesome
Should meet him this turn then, if he moves north or northeast
Thanks for the info
Adlain: i will try to arrange for him to move north or north east next turn to meet you
me: Cool
Adlain: meh - im too slow at typing
me: Or this turn, as he hasn't played since it flipped
no worries
Adlain: I have sent an email to Warrior Knoght with your warriors Position and your desire to meet
me: Ok, thanks
Adlain: So, back to PB4
Whats all the Worry about Plako comming from
your not the first to say your worried about plakos position in thw world
me: Mostly from demographics and graphs
Not sure if you noticed earlier, but plako got a city gifted from WarriorKnight early in the game
Add to that his Cre/Imp traits, and he's off to a very strong start
Doubling everyone else in food, way ahead in production and commerce too
All the signs of an early runaway
Adlain: fair enough, im working on the Graphs myself for plako, although with Regoarrarr getting the GL i doubt plako wll stay #1 in commerce for long
me: Yeah, he's already convinced SleepingMoogle to open borders with him, don't know how
Either way, looks like there'll definitely be problem civs in this game
Adlain: you sound so innocent while saying that

me: heh
well in all honesty, I'm not one of the problems right at the moment :P
I got Stonehenge, sure, which was expected for my traits, and is pushing my score up a bit. Aside from that, I haven't done much but build Settlers.
Standard stuff really
My demographics are nothing to be desired :P
Adlain: my score could do with a push i know that much
me: Perhaps founding more cities would be an idea? Three is quite low this early on...
I think most people have 4-5 now
Adlain: True, i am working on that
me: Cool
Adlain: it is certainly likly to change within a short period of time
me: You're next to Locke, right? And WK's on your other side?
Adlain: Yes and no
me: ok
Adlain: Locke is my neibour
me: Hmm, what's to your west then?
Adlain: but WK is blocked off by a rather large pond
me: Ah, ok
Interesting
Same thing between myself and Rego, except the "pond" extends over most of the map
Is there anyone you've yet to meet that I could help you find, by the way?
Adlain: Im lacking Luddite and Makoti
me: Ok... Mackoti is east of SleepingMoogle, and Luddite's east of Mackoti
you can find Mackoti if you head NE to Moogle's city of Dream then head east
To get to Luddite you'll need Open Borders with Mackoti as he's blocked off a choke point
Adlain: sounds about right
Ta for the info
me: No worries
Adlain: there certainly are alot of choke points in this map
me: Indeed. Krill seems to have had fun designing it
Adlain: Krill always has fun making maps
me: Looks like a cross between lakes and snaky continents with a bit of a maze theme
Adlain: im still trying to work out the significance of the colour changes he make to our civs
with Krill there has to be a reason behind it
me: There is none, he was just joking
I presume it just came from starting the map with random civs then reallocating them to players or something
Or maybe he wanted to change them for aesthetic reasons
(Maybe he really wanted to make me pink :P )
Either way, you can see what colour everyone is right from the start in the scores, so it makes no difference
Adlain: i dont know - but im trying to keep an eye out for a reason anyways
me: Ok, fair enough... I don't think there is one though
Adlain: True, this make no differance to the game as such
me: Except Egypt is cooler in yellow :P
Adlain: lol
anyways - i have to dash
it was nice talking to you Lord Parkin, hopefuly we can talk again soon
me: indeed
see you later
thanks for the chat

[Cyneheard]

Chat with Adlain. Summary of key points:

- Apparently I'm about to meet WarriorKnight, which is nice.

If you haven't, then we have a problem in the United Nations. Besides Libya.

[Lord Parkin]

If you haven't, then we have a problem in the United Nations. Besides Libya.

Heh, very true.

Just got this from WarriorKnight:

Hi there!

My scout has met Bob Brown and thus we officially have contact.

You were the last person I had to meet, so thanks for helping me complete my contact list. In exchange if you didn't know already, Locke has a scout 3S,2E of Bob Brown, so if you keep heading south you should meet him and that should complete your set right?

If you want to chat or send me a message, this G-Mail address is the best place to send it to.

All the Best,
WarriorKnight

So we have indeed met.

[Lord Parkin]

Reply to WarriorKnight:

Hi WarriorKnight,

Good to meet you at last!

Locke's indeed the last person I have to meet, so thanks for the tip on where he is at the moment. Maybe you could send him a quick message to let him know where to find me, just in case he heads in the wrong direction? Thanks for your help anyway.

Must have sucked taking over from a civ that was in a losing position in a war when you entered the game. I'd be very interested to hear more about that story from your perspective, if you're willing to share. Plako's becoming quite the concern for everyone, I think... even for those of us otherwise doing alright (like myself), Plako's still almost doubling our food and production demographics, which is scary this early on. If he continues to run away with the game, he'll probably have to be dealt with at some point.

Anyway, great to make contact, and look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

[Lord Parkin]

Message from Nakor:

Hey LP,

Just move west and a bit north, then you'll be able to find Locke.

Good Locke... uhm.... luck...

Kind regards,
Nakor

Sounds like we'll probably meet Locke first up north anyway, but nice of them to direct us anyway. Was kind of hoping to hear back some more about the Plako situation, but maybe that's still in progress.

[Irgy]

At some point in time a summary of the diplomatic situation overall might be nice. Could be good to get your own thoughts in order as well.

Probably not just yet though, better once you have complete contact, and probably once the diplomacy has settled at least a little. I gather it's still a lot of just putting out the initial contacts and no strong commitments yet.

[Lord Parkin]

No, sounds like a reasonable idea. I can do a brief summary of the civs now, even though I've only got a good feel for some of them.

Luddite - Probably the closest to an ally to us out of all the civs in the game. Certainly the one who seems most open with me and who I trust the most. I expect our good relations with him to continue for a long time.

Plako - Friendly enough for now, but his frontrunner position in the game as well as his position as our southern neighbour does naturally make him a bit of a rival. Not necessarily the case that we can't be allies though, just a little more difficult.

Mackoti - Seems a bit unpredictable, but friendly enough for now. I'm confident he'll be a reasonable friend as long as we don't share a border. If we start sharing a border, I think the situation between us will have to change, because I wouldn't entirely trust him not to invade if he saw an advantage.

Rego - I have to say, right now I don't really trust him. He just seems to be far too cagey and self-interested for my liking. Out of all the civs I've entered into diplo with, he seems to be the one most out for himself. More than once I've got the vibe that he's disinterested in (or just oblivious to) returning favours once he gets what he wants. My opinion of him could change in the future if his attitude changes, though - we've only chatted twice, so perhaps things will improve.

SleepingMoogle - We've had a surprising amount of very friendly diplomacy with him... more than with anyone else except Luddite, I think. He does seem the type of guy to be friendly with everyone though... as evidenced by all the back-and-forth diplomacy about meeting people. He'll probably be most peoples' friend in this game, which could be an issue later on as it may be difficult to convince him to do anything about Rego. He seems like he could be a little oblivious to things that put other civs at a considerable advantage (like signing Open Borders with Rego when he got the Great Lighthouse). This may make it easy for the other players to take advantage of him.

Nakor - So far shaping up to be a potential ally later on (if he doesn't get bulldozed by Plako), although his diplomacy does tend to be a bit sporadic at times, which isn't entirely ideal in a potential ally. Will have to see how things go over time.

Adlain - Only just made contact, seems friendly enough. Will probably be a non-factor in this game. At this point I wouldn't be too surprised if he's eliminated before we get the chance to talk trades.

WarriorKnight - Only just made contact, no opinion yet.

Locke - Yet to make contact.

[Lord Parkin]

New message from Mackoti:

hi,
For sure both of you, are very fast its imposible to keep up with you guys,6 cities already well done. Well i coud have 6 too if wasn't for this expansive Mids i hope this invesment will pay off.
About plako will live and see, if he is to strong then we will have no choise(he he).But you know same thing could happen to you if you prove to be to strong??(he he again) not a threat because i realy want a lon cooperation with you.

Regards,
Mackoti

Pretty much exactly confirming what I just wrote above. He's friendly enough for now, but if we start sharing a border then all that will probably change.

[Lord Parkin]

Message sent to Plako:

Hi Plako,

Just to let you know, we happened to bump into a scout of WarriorKnight's up north, so it's just Locke that we have left to meet now. Thanks so much for your help anyway though, it's still much appreciated.

From what we've seen so far of the map, there seems to be a complete coastal route north-south between us. The lake that's north of you extends right from the very top of the map near us down you. (It's the same lake that blocks us off from Rego.) So as long as you found a city that's on the coast to the north of you, we'll both be able to get trade routes very easily. We actually already have a city on that lake ourselves... perhaps you do too, actually.

Anyway, just thought this information would be useful to you. It certainly seems good for both of us that we should be able to get trade routes with one another relatively easily - that'll improve both of our economies. It'll also be nice to trade resources we might be missing with one another when the time comes, if you're up for that.

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

[Lord Parkin]

Message from WarriorKnight:

Hi Lord Parkin

I informed Locke of your whereabouts, so hopefully you should be meeting up with him soon.

As for my encounter with plako, well yeah giving a city away for peace hurt and evidently helped plako a lot. I only joined in at the end of the war so my story is rather unimpressive, and you know how it ended. Nonetheless I think I'm doing ok given my start.

As for dealing with a runaway plako, just between the two of us all I'm saying for now is that I might be interested in a little payback at some point.

All the best,
WarriorKnight