[SPOILERS] Catherine of China

[plako]

I was way too busy when playing the turn. So I'll log in later to fix things.

I allocated all 6 scientists, but wait until the 4th library gets ready before setting the slider to 100%. I also need to make desicion between Mystisidm and Archery and whteher I really want to run all Scientists.

[plako]

I made some changes and decided to keep only scientists at Noms at this point and changed research back to Mystisicm.



I also received this from Nakor:

Hey Plako,

We would like to settle the landbridge ourselves, including the spice site, since that gives us acces north.
You can settle towards the north by that small landbridge to your north.

What is it you want exactly?

If we know both our "best" options, we can talk about how we can make this work for the both of us.

Kind regards,
Nakor

[GrafvMonteDisco]

I made some changes and decided to keep only scientists at Noms at this point and changed research back to Mystisicm.

Care to explain why?

[plako]

My response to Nakor:

Hi Nakor,

We just want what rightfully belongs to us ;-). Here is a link to a screenshot

http://img858.imageshack.us/img858/9861/...t0581a.jpg

and below i present couple of alternative ways to get you a land route to north.

In both cases I want f that might also be located 1E or NE, if that is needed to grant you acces to N.

Here are my ideas:
option 1: I would prefer to utilise our orginal agreement i.e. no settling over the borderline. You could settle spots e and a that are on your side of the border while I just settle c and promise to keep culture output of that city so that it can keep the 1st ring, but won't build e.g. library before you've established a reasonable control over the tiles bordering the lake. I can delay settling of the city so that you can get head start in culture. In the north again you could settle anywhere you like on your side of the border.

Option 2: If you ned a city on our side of the border, you position it on b or 1S or 1N of it. However I still want the spices so we settle the spot d. Again both of us will keep cultural output in reasonable level in these cities so that they occupy only 1st ring tiles. No other city should go over the original border. I could accept this with a modest price of 1 worker.

Obviovusly NAP extension would need to be part of the deal.


Kind regards,
Plako

[plako]

Care to explain why?

I want 1 extra settler and worker out fast to connect silver. It is pretty essential to raise our happy cap now.

Nakor attacking us will be very bad idea with or without us having Archery. He always needs at least double the amount of units we've to take the city. At T80 we can easily have sufficient number of axes and spears there and maybe even walls.

[GrafvMonteDisco]

why did you change your research to myst?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Is the 2nd screenshot your crappy old laptop or something? It almost looks almost as bad as mine

[plako]

Is the 2nd screenshot your crappy old laptop or something? It almost looks almost as bad as mine

Yes it is. Usually I get proper shots out of it, but this time I made couple of mistakes and couldn't force myself to restart civilization that takes 2-3 minutes in this silly machine.

[plako]

why did you change your research to myst?

I partially answered above. In addition Archery is close to 1 turn tech to us, if I optimize all for science so I'll take it if we've still time to research it before T80. Taking a shot at Monotheism is more important now in my opinion. That would give us relatively easy access to raise our happy cap with 2 and also open route to Monarchy not to mention option to get Shrine later.

[antisocialmunky]

Sounds good on 8 - is there anywhere / anyone you'd like to meet? We may be able to help with directions if that is the case.

As for the grand anti-plako conspiracy, I don't want to make this out to be anything bigger than it is. It's not like I have a ton of people contacting me all the time talking about how you're a huge runaway. It's more like just something to talk about as we shoot the breeze - hey did you see plako founded his 6th city?!?!

Now let's take Lord Parkin for an example. I certainly understand that he (who is in what I'd call 3rd place) has a vested interest in trying to make the person or persons in front of him into this monster runaway. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least share SOME of those concerns about you being tops in food and production (especially as we sit here in 10th and 10th!!!). Again, please don't take this as my saying that LP is some sort of giant anti-plako agitator.

But like you said, I'm sure that we can and will find ways to cooperate that work out for both of us. I know that if I were in your position, I'd certainly be looking for ways!

Anything else going on?

dan.
regoarrarr
zulu

Not sure if he's been paying attention but we've met everyone and founded the UN (w00t).

I think his analysis is in line with our thinking and makes sense. I suppose we should ask him what sort of 'cooperation' he means.

Also, is Parkin his neighbor? I'm not familiar with everyone's positioning right now.

So maybe respond with:

That's our line. We've already met everyone and started the UN thread.

Thanks for the info on Parkin. It sounds like he is just trying to plant the seeds of an anti-China coalition for later. I guess you really can't start too early on things like that. And of course, since we are playing to win, we would probably do something similar if we were in his shoes though.

We're definitely warming up to the idea of 'cooperation' in the near future to counter that sort of influence. What did you have in mind?

Thanks,
plako and ASM

As for Nakor, if he's not going to use his units to attack us, I guess all he really wants is the land bridge and he's willing to occupy it with force to do so. Sticking point seems to be the spices. I would offer up a third proposal which is that he trades it to us in exchange for the position if its the only thing we need. Then we should see if anyone else has one they are willing to part with or forcibly in the case of WarriorKnight.

I suppose if he feels like he needs a sufficient force to occupy the coastal pass, we're succeeding in our attempt to pin a sizeable force in an awkward position.

I'd suggest a T120 NAP, we should ask if the Barbs would be comfortable with a NAP staggered by 10 turns after them.

Something like:

Hi,

To update on the Nakor situation, he's back to 'nice' Nakor mode after threatening us with his axemans and we are negotiating with them. We're thinking about an NAP ending on T120. How does that sit with you? You're going to have a softer border with him. We have a feeling me might just be forcibly 'negotiating' for more land than he really deserves so he can play sim city ala RBPB2.

Best Regards,
plako and ASM