Also a response from Adlain, thanking us for the info and letting us know roughly where WK is situated.
Hi LP,
Yea, the buddisdt shrine does indeed help, although i could do with some more spread from buddism tbh - i dont seem to have had much in the way of natural spread in this game which is a shame (from my point of veiw)
I just got construction myself, so we will be evem on that score alreast - but iirc he has adopted Pacifism - so war would suprise me.
Wk has indeed settled between myself and rego - the details are hazy but i doubt it will be there long anyways.
Anyways, thanks for the heads up - it is much apreciated
That's good to hear about you staying ready with a few Catapult builds.
I think your idea about a mutual agreement to help each other if Luddite declares war on either of us is an excellent one, and fits this situation perfectly. So, this would mean if Luddite declares war on me at any point - possibly in the next few turns - you will declare war and plow through his western cities. And if Luddite declares war on you at any point - most likely turn 190, according to you - then we will declare war on him and plow through his eastern cities. If he doesn't declare war on either of us for now, we will stay at peace until he declares war on one of us. (Or until we reach a set turn, if you'd like - do you want to suggest a turn number there? Perhaps sometime after 190, or perhaps later? Then we have a guaranteed latest date for our 2 vs 1 campaign on Luddite.)
If we are agreed on this "mutual agreement to war with Luddite", then I would be happy to loan you Iron at pretty much any point that suits you. I could potentially start the loan in just a few turns, if you would like that. I just ask that you please only request it if you're going to be building Crossbows in that 10+ turn time period, so that I can use the rest of the time to build my own Crossbows.
Kind regards,
Lord Parkin
And one to Ioan, in which I assure him again that this will remain secret.
Hi Ioan,
It is indeed exciting news, and I'm glad you and Mackoti seem open to this idea.
I absolutely guarantee that this exchange will remain totally secret between us; I will not tell a soul about it. I hope you'll also keep it completely secret.
Kind regards,
Lord Parkin
I realised afterwards that I'm technically telling people about this by posting this in the thread. So make sure there's no tipping off, lurkers.
Well, Locke's not really interested in a NAP... can't say I'm too surprised. Just need to keep our eyes open and be wary of him, especially once Astronomy arrives.
Hi there. No we are not planning to go to war. We research military techs in case we need them. It is dangerous world out there. I dont think our axes and spears were scaring other teams any more. So we get some tech to keep army up to date.
I would love to trade wines but we only find one source. Have not even seen any more on map. There is not much we can do there.
On last point. Unless you are technig much faster then I think Astronomy will not appear for awhile LOL. Let me tell you straight. We have zero interest right now in fighting with your team. I dont think we could even reach you. So you really have noting to fear from us. But just as we didnt sign NAP with plako we would rather not sign formal NAP with you either. We have not signed NAP with anyone over by you: plako, regoarrarr, etc. I have no idea how things will look in future. I do not want to make bad decision for team. We would like to keep everything options open.
I hope you will see that that is not sign of hostility. It is just wanting to be practical. Please feel free to write.
Locke
Quote:Okay, I've withdrawn all my limited troops at the front. The only unit I have in your territory is the scout to watch whether your troops withdraw. The ball's in your court now.
Response from Mackoti... looks like he's in for a 2 vs 1 at some point. Hopefully he'll have our back if Luddite comes after us in a few turns as well.
Hi,
Its always good to see a good plan starting work.
This was the ideea , a common atack on Luditte if he declres or we declare war.I am more than sure that he will came after us on turn 190 so if you will be readdy than will be excelent if not lets say for begging turn 195 like a turn in wich both of us will declare war and going for revenge.
Well, Luddite has retreated for now. I'll stick around for a turn or two to make sure he continues to follow through.
Quote:Alright, I just moved all my units there away from the border, and I'll stash them in the capital for now. Sorry to cause you so much stress.
I sent him a quick reply of thanks.
If he continues to retreat this turn, then I can think we can afford to risk ekeing out Paper in 2 turns before going back to Machinery. I know it's a gamble, but my reasoning is that if we miss out on Sankore, it's going to very seriously affect our research in the future. That wonder will easily be worth well over 100 beakers per turn to us in the not too distant future. With 20 cities (our current number) with 2 Christian buildings each, and +35% research in most, Sankore means up to 108 beakers per turn with a few more whips. With 30 cities (our approximate maximum number with our claimed land), Sankore could mean 162 or more beakers per turn further down the track.
I don't think I need to emphasize any further that we do NOT want to miss out on this wonder. It's only an 8-9 turn build in the capital, too.
For the record, I fully intend on grabbing the Spiral Minaret as well down the track. In fact, I think Divine Right would be the best play for us in the near future (after Paper/Machinery/perhaps Construction/perhaps Education). No point wasting our time competing with Locke for Liberalism, so we may as well grab a tech that'll give us another wonder to net us a healthy minimum 80 gpt (quickly growing to over 100 gpt). Heck, in the long run that's far better than the single free tech from Liberalism anyway.
Also on the list for consideration right now - the Mausoleum of Mausollus in Onca (a 9 turn build) and the Parthenon in Pantherinae (also a 9 turn build). Both well worth picking up, although of course we have to weigh up how much of a risk we think Luddite is. However, I think we have more than enough other cities to whip/build units out of (especially considering that ~20 ancient units - without any Catapults - really aren't that much a threat to more advanced units), so it's definitely worth putting a few cities onto wonder duty to invest in our future position. The Mausoleum in particular would result in a massive payoff for us in the future, so it's pretty much not worth not trying for.
This is the time of the game when being an Industrious leader really starts to shine.
We're also 1 turn from the Statue of Zeus now. I'm considering prebuilding it for a couple of turns in a couple of other cities to grab us a bunch of free gold. A 3:1 gold payoff is pretty damned good, after all.
- Forbidden Palace built in Felidae (+ gold)
- Ideally Great Prophet from capital builds Christian Shrine in Evermore (++ gold)
- Statue of Zeus built, probably in Leo partly for the culture bonus (+ several hundred fail gold collected)
- University of Sankore built in capital (+++ beakers)
- Mausoleum of Mausollus hopefully built in Onca (+++ golden ages)
- Parthenon built in Pantherinae (+ great people)
This means that all going according to plan, we'll have up to six new wonders (up to four new world wonders) inside the next 10 turns. It's important to note that this will probably boost us at least a hundred extra points into the lead, possibly more. So we probably need to make sure we've extended all NAPs we want as far as they can go before the major jump just before T150 (where our last three wonders are scheduled to complete, possibly on the exact same turn). Because after we start to skyrocket into the lead, few people (aside from possibly Plako and maybe Locke) are going to want to deal with us much anymore.
Thoughts on this? I seriously think we need to take a slight gamble at this point and look to invest heavily in our long-term future. Luddite seems like he's not going to be trouble for the immediate future, and we're large enough and advanced enough that we realistically don't have much to fear from him anyway. (A razed border city is about the extent of what he could accomplish even with a best shot attempt right now before getting pummeled, especially now that we've got Mackoti willing to declare war if he tries any funny tricks.)
The plan looks good! If all those wonders go through, you absolutely need to have a military force to back-up your empire. NAPs or not, it's a little worrying.
- but iirc he has adopted Pacifism - so war would suprise me. 
payoff is pretty damned good, after all.
