RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] Willem of Persia

[shadyforce]

My maintenance for this turn is up to 4 gold because of units abroad. Belkar's auto-path back to Central Command was careless as he is out of my culture for this turn. That will go away next turn because The Bank will be founded and Tell will be parked there but the city maintenance will increase. Either way, my treasury will be exhausted next turn and I'll need to drop my research rate, but at least Writing will be done by then.

I logged in and did some thinking about who should build The Harbour's work boat, who should build granaries, etc.

Central Command will build the WB as planned (2 turns) and then will spend 4 turns on an Immortal to send exploring to the East. Once the Immortal is done, it will have grown to size 5 to work another mine and will then build probably a settler, maybe a worker.

The Factory will work on a Granary (10 turns) once the Settler is done (1 turn left) and it will benefit from a chop and possibly a whip also.

The Bank, once founded will start a granary and The Harbour will start either a Granary or a Lighthouse once I work out which is more efficient, though I suspect it's a granary since it will only work 1 seafood tile and otherwise grass/mines for now.

[shadyforce]

Turn 67:
- The Bank has been founded and Baker and Blacksmith started working on the Ivory camp this turn.
- The other Settler has moved onto The Harbour's tile.
- Chef has completed the mine whose chop has gone into the Granary in The Factory (due in 6). He has now moved to the grass/forest/hill beside it.
- Justin Specting has found the edge of borders belonging to Krill/Memphus and we will meet them and complete the set next turn.
- Magellan's Folly continues along the coast. It's unclear whether he has come to a dead-end.
Finally the big changes:
- After a turn of 0% science, research has been dialled back up to 100% and research has been set to Alphabet.
- Central Command is slow-building an Immortal but is set to max commerce which is also max growth (I guess that Lighthouse is proving useful after all) so that Alphabet is due in roughly 12 turns (depending on the costs and income of my new cities).

Message (allegedly) from Krill, via Ruff, to myself, dsplaisted, mh/Kodii, Imhotep and Ruff/TAD:

I have received the following through subspace and I've been asked to send it on. I have no idea how genuine this message is but ...

Shadyforce, dsplaisted, mh and Kodii, and Imhotep, please?

You may have heard that I stole a worker of sunrise, and that would be true. I stole what I believe to be sunrises only worker, and then deleted it, because sunrise has managed to negotiate a 5 player tech aliance (called the UTA, or Uber Tech Alliance). The tech ring consists of sunrise, regoarrarr, the Lins, ZPV and Broker33, and they are currenty less than 15 turns away from researching Alphabet, Maths, Monarchy, HBR and IW. As far as I can tell, they are also well protected, with each player only having 1 flank not covered by a none UTA player (for instance, I have both sunrise and the Lins facing me, which is why I had to criple sunrise before I got 2v1'd). At the speed they are teching they should be at Construction, MC, Calendar, CoL and Currency by t100, easy, then stacks of war elephants, cats and HA are going to roll over us, unless they try it earlier with just HA (which ZPV may be thinking of, because his UU will be much too weak to use with WE).

The message on its own is dubious (he stole the worker ages ago and if there was a tech alliance back then, how did he know about it and why didn't he reveal it to us sooner). However, there may be something behind it.

Sunrise has said nothing to me all game, ZPV has been quiet lately, regoarrarr is asking questions about tech trading but not nswering my own and seems unwilling to discuss tech distributing/trading with me. Also, Imhotep was also unhappy with regoarrar's questions and dsplaisted mentioned how ZPV had backtracked on a proposed Metal Casting for HBR+Writing deal.

Also, even if the UTA is untrue, an opposing tech alliance of sorts is a good safety net and surely won't hurt any of us. A few people seem to be of this opinion and arrangements are being made. As the only person of the 6 (according to dsp) who has Writing, dsp suggested I research Alphabet. While I really really need Iron Working as a source of Metal, I think I can wait 12 turns and hope to get it in trade from Ruff, or in desperate circumstances, ask to borrow dsp's copper. Dsp has his heart set on Metal Casting as he has 100 hammers invested already. (He hasn't said it but I suspect he's going for Colossus himself and I also suspect he'll be in a race with ZPV for it.)

I sent an email to mh/Kodii and was on google chat with Kodii but they haven't discussed among themselves yet so I can't get any decisions out of them - the obvious disadvantage of dealing with pairs.

If this UTA turns out to be for real and there is a serious effort to ally against them, then I'm going to try and get Imhotep to join me in a pinser attack on India. The problem is that I'm an obvious target myself so I need to be wary of a Carthiginian/Indian attack on me, which is why I'm really worried about not having a metal right now, something I stupidly divulged to regoarrarr earlier.

Edit: Corrected turn number. Also, Imhotep and Ruff have made peace.

[shadyforce]

Hi Daniel (and Matthew), hi Brian,

in the light of the recent stir up in the diplo world, we would like to
approach you with a suggestion of a close tech partnership between our
three civs.
Shady is sufficiently away from us to not interfere with each other in
the land grab phase.
And I think with Daniel we have established our borders.

We see the message from Krill with some doubts. Krill and Memphus are
good players, so some of their allegations are probably down to guesswork.
Furthermore, we are hesitant to engage in a bigger alliance. We have not
yet met Imhotep. Imhotep and Ruff are also engaged in a war that will
ultimately leave one of them but possibly both of them behind.
There is also some border conflicts with Ruff that would always
overshadow a close cooperation, we think.

Our suggestion is to cooperate on the tech front but also on the
military side in the future (once everyone has a better feel for the map).
Furthermore, we would like to keep an open mind towards the alleged
members of the UTA.
For example we have very friendly relations with Broker.

If you are in general agreement to this triple alliance, we could
discuss specific techs and ETAs in the next eMail.

Regards
mh & Kodii

[shadyforce]

Diplomatic situation as of T68:

The Uber Tech Alliance (UTA), whose existence grows increasingly likely after every conversation, comprises of Sunrise as the likely ringleader, Team Lin, regoarrarr, Broker and ZPV.

Myself, dsplaisted and mh/Kodii have tentatively agreed a three-way alliance, mostly tech at the start but may evolve into a military alliance later. Dsp is loaning me his copper so I can build a spear or two while researching alphabet instead of Iron Working. We also are going to take part in the larger anti-UTA alliance with Ruff, Imhotep and possiibly Krill.

With regards to the anti-UTA alliance:
- I'm providing Alphabet (due in 9-11 turns)
- Dsplaisted is on Metal Casting (he's about 100-150 beakers into it)
- Ruff has Iron Working
- Imhotep is not teching well but claims to be on the way to Priesthood and then Maths
- MH/Kodii have not yet decided what they are doing but I'm hoping it's Writing -> Maths
- Krill, if included, will provide HBR.

I had a long chat with Krill on google chat last night. He was delighted to see me. He is very paranoid about his 2 immediate neighbours Lin and Sunrise, is absolutely convinced of the 5-way alliance, did indeed nick sunrise's worker earlier and is holding his own and expanding nicely. I think he has 5 cities atm. My opinion is he should be included in the anti-UTA rather than being screwed over - because HBR would be handy and because he is a thorn in the side of Sunrise and Lin which is good for us.

My opinion is that instead of a stupid arms race with the UTA, we need to take them down a few pegs. That way, the three-way alliance does not need Ruff, Imhotep or Krill who are not fully trusted by any of us.

It should be possible for myself and Imhotep to launch a 2-pronged assault on regoarrarr and I think Imhotep may be willing to do it. A Malinese naval assault on Carthage is also a possibility, especially if I provide a distraction in the north. And while I don't know the geography on the other border, surely some sort of assault on Broker or Team Lin is possible if Imhotep/Ruff/Krill/MH+Kodii lauch some sort of co-ordinated assault.

I like ZPV and rego, they are both nice guys and have been friendly to me so far in the game and I have enjoyed our correspondence. But I was hoping to work with them, trade techs, watch each other's backs, etc. Especially with rego who I've chatted loads with. And they have screwed me over. They are not on my side anymore and I have no problem doing whatever it takes.

So at the moment, my current plan is to research alphabet at max speed and then start churning out an army. I may settle that hilly spot south of Green Township as well because it's on a hill, a decent fortress position, and a good production spot. I'll have to see if the settler hammers are worth it though. I think I'd need another worker for a 5th city too. And with this army and hopefully Imhotep's help, I'm going to rush India.

[shadyforce]

T71:

Barb warrior threatens my city. If he attacks Belkar on the grass/hill I should be fine. If he moves south, I'll move south and if he attacks me on flat grand, I might lose to a bad dice roll, but at least my Tell (who is rushing back from The Bank) will mop up. If he moves south again, I'll hop into Central Command where I'll have odds but a bad dice-roll will mean I lose my capital.

I have decided (after chatting with Krill) that I need more workers. A lot more.

- Baker and Blacksmith are pasturing the cow. They have already camped the ivory and cottaged a grass river tile. After that, they will build a road 1NE of The Bank and then run back to Central Command where they will chop and mine the last grass/hill.
- Chef is still chop/mining near The Harbour.
- Justin Specting is travelling through Incan lands. Magellan's Folly has hit a dead end and is returning south.
- Alphabet is due in 7 turns. (Ignore the 6 in some screenies below as I had been tweaking tiles)

Here are some pics from my cities:


Central Command is configured for max commerce to speed up Alphabet. Once it grows to it's happy cap, I'll mine that last hill and it will be configured for 15 hammers/turn. I'm going to finish the spear, then go Worker->Barracks->Units.


The Factory is also helping out with research by working the lake. When the granary is done, I'll do a Worker. I've configured Chef's chop to go here. After that, chop out a bunch of units, maybe with Barracks first.

The Bank is my commerce city. I'm going to cottage everything.

My newest city is where I'm eventually going to put the Maoi Statues. In 2 turnsthe borders will pop and there's a workboat nearby to net the fish and it's going to give the mined hill back to the Factory. Unfortunately, the fish is on ocean so no 3 commerce.

Finally, here is from the demographics:

India is spiking. Is regoarrarr planning something?

[shadyforce]

T72:

The barb warrior continues south towards an undefended Central Command. I have reconfigured CC to max shields for the turn so that it can finish the spear before the barb hits the city if necessary. If the barb moves onto the Ivory then Tell will smack it and I can go back to max commerce next turn. I should be able to finish Aphabet by T78 still, but there's a chance I may be delayed until T79. This shouldn't really delay anyone significantly because Maths is the key bottleneck and it and Monarchy are well off yet.

Also, check out the power-graphs:

Horizontal units are turns up to T71. Vertical units are power in thousands up to regoarrarr's peak of That's a 10 or 11k jump for ZPV combined with a score increase as well,but his food and mfg have remained constant. That looks like HBR to me.

Here is a rough somewhat idealised plan I drew up earlier:

Code:

City plan:

T73: TF starts worker
T75: CC starts Barracks
T78: TF finishes worker (1 chop), starts Barracks
[T78: Alphabet complete, trade for HBR and Iron Working]
[T78: Configure for max shields]
T77: CC finishes Barracks (1 chop), starts Stable
T81: TF finishes Barracks (1 chop), starts Axes/Spears/Swords
T81: CC finishes stable (0 chops), starts Immortals/HAs
... build stuff ...
[T88: Trade for Maths]
... build stuff with chops ...
T95: March to India


City turns:

CC = 15h * 14 + 4 chops = 330

4 HAs = 200
4 Immortals = 120

TF = 12h * 14 + 9 chops = 438

5 Axes = 175
3 Spears = 105
4 Swords = 160


Worker turns:

22 * 2 = 44
20 * 1 = 20
17 * 1 = 17

Total = 83

13 chops @ 4 turns each = 52
5 road tiles @ 3 turns each = 15
Miscellanious wasted worker turns = ??

Total = 67

I have to say, I have two of my cities churning out units with loads of chops, I'll even need my other 2 cities to build workers and maybe archers, and this measly stack is the best I can do. That's barely enough to raze 1 Indian city and do some pillaging. In fact, I reckon I need that much at least just to fight a defensive war against what I suspect is a Carthage Numid rush possibly with help from regoarrarr. And these units aren't ready until T95... and can't attack until T100! And he'll see it coming about 20 turns beforehand because of the demogs! And he'll probably have Longbows/Elephants/Catapults by then. How are people supposed to actually attack people? I must suck at this game.

At least one small positive is that the Byzantine estimate for Maths is that it could be done as early as T82 so maybe I can get the chopping done earlier.

Had a nice alliance chat with dsplaisted, mostly_harmless and kodii. We still need a name. I believe kodii is posting the chat in their thread so check it out there.

Also conversing frequently with Krill. again, I think Krill is posting our chats in his thread. I'm enjoying out conversations and tapping him for advice. I think it's safe since his enemies are my enemies.

Dsplaisted has offered me 2 Skirmishers for a galley trade some time around the T90 mark. I think that's win-win because I'm likely going to need 2 archers at some point anyway and a galley in dsp's hand could well be used against ZPV.

Other news from elsewhere in the world:
- Team Lin has made various threats to Krill not to settle or even explore further south. Very aggresive from them. I guess they feel safe throwing their diplomatic weight around since they and sunrise has Krill in a 2v1.
- Ruff has declared war on ZPV, presumably to nick a worker or two. This is great news. Ruff is clearly on board with the anti-UTA alliance.
- I believe Ruff is sending a couple of Praets over to attack Broker and I'm told that Broker's defence amounts to a couple of warriors as garrison. (So a little more than what I have then!)

That's all I can think of right now.

[shadyforce]

T73:
2 Major pieces of good news on this turn. One local and the other global:

Here is the log with various interesting bits of information for your curiosity. But primarily, the barb warrior decided this turn to suicide against Belkar fortified on the grass/hill. As a result of this, my empire is rejigged for commerce to hopefully get Alphabet back on track for T78. Currently it is due on T79 at a sustainable rate (+1 gold per turn with 1 gold in the bank) but all 4 of my cities are due for growth in the next few turns.

Second major piece of news... and it illustrates two important tips:
1. Always keep an eye on information screens for clues.
2. Talk to everyone, talk to them often, even if just to say hello and not much more.
Here is a conversation I had with ZPV:

Hi,

I saw that Ruff declared war on you? What's going on there? I thought you guys were on opposite sides of the world?

Brian.
(shadyforce of Persia)
-----
I don't know what's going on. He has an unmoved warrior next to my undefended worker, but I have already made my moves.

If this develops, is there any chance I could borrow your horses for a few turns?

Sam aka ZPV

ZPV does not have any horses or metal. My fears about a Numid rush or a 2v1 war involving rego have just been eased considerable. But this got me thinking... I'm pretty sure that ZPV researched HBR and that wouldn't make sense unless he had horses. I immediately thought of the horse resource I can see south of Green Township and I remember ZPV's warrior Numberless fortified on that hill tile on the coast. I don't know much about Ruff's worker grab but it dawned on me that those workers could well be ones intended to hook up his new horse resource.

I send a stalling/fishing message to Sam and I also dial up Ruff to ask him about his worker grab:

Hi Sam,

Let me know how the Ruff situation goes and if you need it. You kinda got me at a bad time because there is a barb threat near my capital and I had to quick-build an immortal to stop the barb walking into my capital! But the little bugger might suicide on my nearby warrior. Also, do you happen to know if I lose my horse, does my production on horse units get wiped out? Also, is there a minimum transfer period for resource trades (isn't it 10 turns in single-player?).

I would have thought you had a horse resource of your own. Did you not just research HBR? A Carthage start that doesn't have nearby horse is kinda mean. I still hold it against Sullla for not giving me copper!
-----
Hi Brian,

I do have a horse resource, but it is not nearby, and it was not feasible for me to have it hooked up before now. Now my workers (which were on their way to hook up my horses) have been captured, and I need to ask for your help.

Yes, there is a 10-turn minimum duration, but there are ways around that (e.g. a 1-minute war, although that will cancel the trade route bonus between us)

Production on mounted units does not get wiped out - the hammers stay in the box, and can be resumed when you get horses back.

Thanks,

Sam

I also get a helpful reply from Ruff about the location of his worker steal and I also move Haley the Archer, who is parked on a hill between me and that site, in ZPV's direction. And sure enough, here is what I know, presented in a big screenshot:

It seems that Ruff's intervention has delayed ZPV's hooking up horse, and with it removed any risk of a Numid rush in the near future. What a brilliant stroke of luck. At the moment, Haley is going to wander over and see if she can cause some havok. There is every chance I can steal a worker of my own should one be in ZPV's new city. Heck the city itself might be lightly defended and I could raze it!

Any nation without metal, relying on warriors and archers for defense is vulnerable to an Immortal rush and while I'm not sure I'll commit too much resources to razing that new city, I'm building at least 1 in The Factory, which is due in 2 turns because of a chop just off-screen and it will head over to back Haley up and maybe cause some damage.

Unless I get cold feet that is.

Of course, I had to reject ZPV's request for horse. I was trying to figure out a way to say 'I don't want to give you horse' that didn't also imply '... because I'm sending units over to help Ruff out'. Here is what I sent:

Hi Sam,

I realise I'm very slow getting back to you and I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately, I don't have good news. I don't think I can afford to give you the horse for 2 primary reasons.

1. The barb threat remains and while there are other options, none of them are very nice. I'm going to continue to build the Immortal that has hammers invested in it in order to cover my capital in time. I could whip a metal unit for example, but my capital is food poor and hill heavy and without a granary it is an abbysmal waste of population for what can be dealt with using a normal build.
2. I don't particularly want to take sides and piss off Ruff/TAD. So far in the game they have shown they are not afraid to bother people with their units. They have Praets running around, one in particular which was near Imhotep (the one subject to the weird movement bug) and I'm told that it's not too far from my cities to the north-east. Since you could see Dsp's copper trade to me, Ruff could also see my horse trade to you and I don't want to take sides and piss off an obvious aggressor.

I hope that because it's only a warrior you are dealing with, you can handle it with archers. I regret that I can't help you.

Regretfully,

Brian
(shadyforce of Persia)

Other news:
- Krill wants to research Construction (after saving cash while waiting on Maths) as his next tech. He said it was because he wanted some action or something along those lines. I can't wait and I wish him well!
- Dsp and MH/Kodii, my 2 alliance buddies, are plotting an audacious plan to use MH/Kodii's Industrious trait to speed up the Forge to hopefully land Dsp the Colossus. I have to say I would like that myself, but I can't commit the resources to building it right now (not to mention the whole needing Metal Casting).
- Imhotep's tech rate is abbysmal. His land must be rotten for cottages and since Sullla would have made everyone's starts approximately balanced, he probably has great production land so he's probably sitting on some sort of army, desperate to do something with. I would LOVE to have him send it at rego but I am not sure that can afford to invade India myself so it would be poor form of me to attack him and not do anything myself.
- regoarrarr is apparantely talking to a few people about agreeing wonder splits. Hammers rego is spending on wonders is hammers he is not spending on military. My border seems more and more secure in the near future and a rush still can't be rules out.
- Regarding the rush... the truth is that while I would love to invade India, it's only worth my while if he is complete killed. Otherwise the best play is to build an army for a defensive war and expand quickly. As sick as I will be to be in just another rapid expanding race, it's probably the best play so I guess I begtter just chop out a bunch of workers and then settlers and build just enough units to cover my cities, probably without barracks/stables.
- Dsp also told the threesome alliance that ZPV is worried about being cut out of the Alphabet deal by team Lin. Could the be breaking up, or maybe they are not all as tight knit as we were led to believe, or maybe it's blatant information fishing. After talking it over, dsp's suggested plan of asking him to research Maths as a possible trade seems sound. This plan does involve informing ZPV that I have Alphabet however, but I believe that since the military threat against me is negligible in the near future, it should be safe enough.

[shadyforce]

T75:
In general I have decided against the military route so while building some more units, I'm going to build lots of workers (I need to treble my current amount) and get a few new cities. I'll chop some forests but I'll use most forests to chop workers/settlers/units when I have Maths.

Cities:
- Central Command whips the almost complete Spear (because of my stupid military police balls-up) and the overflow (30 hammers) will go into a worker.
- The Factory has just finished an Immortal with the help of a chop and will put a turn into a barracks to grow to size 4 and then it will start a worker, which will receive a chop.
- The Bank is at size 2 and will half-fill the food store before whipping the granary. Probably an axe there before it grows to size 2 where it will likely switch to a worker.
- The Harbour will grow to size 2 shortly but will need a few more turns before I can whip the granary for 1-pop. Unfortunately, it won't have a mined hill to work since The Factory will be using them both to churn out workers and later barracks and some units. Once the granary is whipped, The Harbour will most likely put turns into a Galley while growing back to whipping size. The galley is going to magically turn into 2 Skirmishers.

All cities have been reconfigured back to normal food/hammers and I've accepted the fact that I'll get Alphabet on T79.

Workers:
- Baker has gone to start a road between the Central Command - The Bank highway and The Factory's horse tile.
- Blacksmith is on his way to the grass hill north of Central Command but has put a spare turn into a cottage near the Bank.
- Chef has just finished his mine/chop near The Factory, and has now moved onto the river/grass/forest tile right beside it for the next chop.

Military:
- Tell the Archer has returned to garrison The Bank.
- Baker the warrior is running back to Central Command for military police.
- The new unnamed Immortal is heading over towards ZPV.
- Haley the archer has found Hippo...

Ruff has made peace with ZPV. I expect to be again asked for horse in the near future and will have to consider my response. Meanwhile, Haley has made the trek over to the hill tile and she sees a vacant cow and an empty city:


However, it's not clear the attack will go ahead. Both Dsp and myself have been approched by ZPV enquiring about tech trades. Fishing for information? Maybe. But it could be genuine. ZPV gave me no reason but he told dsp that Lin, who is researching Alphabet for the UTA, is renaging on their deal or something like that.

We decided that the best way was to admit that I'm doing Alphabet and see what he can offer as a trade, for 3 main reasons:
- Any blanket rejection is only likely to tip him off that we already have all our tech trades sorted.
- If he is looking to trade outside of the UTA then it could be that there are cracks in the Uber Tech Alliance and such tensions should be cultivated.
- He may be able to tech a critical tech for us (such as Maths) faster than a non-UTA member could and we can get it off him and use that to our advantage.

Other news:
- I balls up twice in the last 2 turns. While considering what to do with Baker and Blacksmith after they had roaded the cottage tile near The Bank, I accidentally hit 'Farm'. 2 worker turns wasted. Also, I orgot to move Belkar onto the road so he was not able to move into Central Command as military police and it had 2 unhappy faces (one of them whipped away)
- MH/Kodii have messed up their calculations and they can't get The Oracle on T78. Instead their best ETA is T80. Since Broker is suspected to be almost finished with it and is holding out for Monarchy, allegedly due just before T80, to grab Feudalism, then at best we have a coin-flip and we are probably not going to land The Oracle on the side of the non-UTA. I reckon our best response is to find a way to 'tip off' Broker that MH/Kodii are nearly done with it in the hope that Broker panics and finishes it off prematurely so that he doesn't get Feudalism.
- MH/Kodii also are due to complete the Pyramids next turn.
- Team Lin has captured Hun, the barbarian city between them and Krill.

[shadyforce]

T75:
At the end of T75, I logged in to see where rego's new city was and boy was I surprised. The turn ticked over shortly after so I got to see more.

Also, there was a barb warrior I didn't notice before just north of The Bank. Tell the archer was there to deal with the threat, but on the off chance I got a bad roll, I put a turn into an axe that I could whip in case he failed. This doesn't slow down the granary because I already have half the hammers, I'm just waiting for half the food box to fill and I was putting turns into an axe to regrow anyway.

Here is T76 in pictures:

[shadyforce]

Sorry, no pics and just a quick summary:

T80:
- Alphabet done. Many techs traded. Iron in proposed jungle city location.
- 2 settler, 2 axes and loads of workers due in the near future.
- Maths purchased off rego for 40 gold (and info on who I'd have gotten Maths off - with MH/Kodii's blessing of course.)

Plan for near future is to save cash, pay off rego when he gets Currency (due ~T87), build a few cities, whip/chop/build a bunch of libraries and then switch on science and probably tech Currency.