[SPOILERS] Bismark of Sumeria (luddite + Atlas1998)

[luddite]

Well, that's part of why I, too, would appreciate you giving us your diplo information - less to read to figure out what's going on. Plus, of course, he can't tell us anything about your thoughts and plans that you don't tell him first.

If it were just quoting your e-mails, then it wouldn't benefit me as much, but if you tell us why you include any particular clause, or what you're not telling him (like, say, the potential rockthrower's benefit to ceding the Pyramids to him ), then it would add a lot to my understanding of the game despite what he posts.

Hmm... so I guess I can't persuade you to build the pyramids in PBEM11 now?

[Mardoc]

Hmm... so I guess I can't persuade you to build the pyramids in PBEM11 now?

Maybe if you ask me nicely.

Just gotta run it by SevenSpirits and novice first...

[luddite]

Here's the message I got from Mackoti. Looks like English might be a problem with him, but that's OK.

Hi, nice to met someone .As a sign of a good faith i will not go towards to your capital.Actualy i am not coming from south. I am in north like you and meeting you here just verify my teory that everyone of us has an own see and between us is another one.As you see i gave you alot of information because i want like us to have o good relantion.Distance between us is quite big so i think will have no problems with settling agreements.
So what i propose , a long Nap until turn 100, you will find the choke point between our civs ,no one setlle that one(there are wines).
About wonders we like to get Great lighose and will be great if you dont compete as a compensation we will not go for oracle.
Best regards,
Mackoti

This confirms that they are going for the Great Lighthouse. It does mess with my map diagram a little- how are they coming from the north? Did they loop around the western sea? Anyway it seems like they really want to make nice and have a very long NAP- that makes sense, since the Great Lighthouse will set them back a little early on, but give them a long term edge if they can stay at peace.

I'm not sure how to respond to this. One option of course is to refuse the NAP and try to take the Great Lighthouse from him. Or, I could agree but try to get some sort of territorial concessions from him, and just out expand him. A third option might be to refuse the NAP (or agree to just a short one) and not do anything, just keep him easy. I need to think more about what to do.

[luddite]

CowTown complete! Must be scary to live in a town where the cows are twice as tall as the buildings, and the workers are four times as big as the cows !


Meanwhile Gaspar/Nakor have grown in population score. Not sure why nobody else did. From the "top 5 cities" screen and demographics I can see that there's four other civs with a pop 3 city. I guess that means that WarlordDr has not yet researched another tech beyond hunting. That must mean that he's switched techs- either he changed his mind like me, or he's deliberately hiding his research. Everyone except for sunrise/regorrar has gotten a lot of points from land score.

[Kylearan]

I have no idea if this is a good move or not, but cow town is innovative for sure.

[luddite]

haha, I still have my doubts about that. But in my sims, it seems like that was the only way to guarantee getting the oracle, and I still think that the Colossus will be huge on this map.

Here's what my scout has revealed of the southwest:


Those must be the wines that Mackoti told me not to settle. Uh... no. That's clearly my territory, and it's very good land. I'm going to settle there, and in fact I'll make it a priority. I've changed my dot map accordingly, assuming that I still have a secure eastern border with Parkin.

As far as long term strategy goes, I'm leaning towards accepting Mackoti's NAP proposal, assuming he also agrees to let me have the wine land. The reasons being:

1)If they're on the other side of that sea, it's kind of hard for me to attack them, and there's no guarantee I'd win or get the Great Lighthouse. Even if I did, someone else over there might come take it from me.

2)I think I'm better off playing peacefully, and using my own wonders to gain a long term edge. Let other people try and take the Great Lighthouse from him, if they want. It's hard for me to build units if I'm building the orace and colossus.

3)I'm going to forget about the pyramids. On this map, I think the pyramids are more of a liability than a help, because there's so much space and not enough food. They have anti-synnergy with the Collossus, because if I'm working specialists then I'm not working coast. My new plan is to run a forge engineer in city 3, which would generate a GE around turn 100. Then I could use him to make the Great Library. In combination, build the Temple of Artemis, for some serious GPP. With the ToA, Great Library, and National Epic in the same city, you can generate 28 gpp for free! I'll let Parkin build the pyramids, and in return I'll ask him to not to build the ToA, and recognize my rights to settle along the eastern border. I'd like to get a firm settling agreement with him, so that I can hurry down to settle the wine space.

[luddite]

SleepingMoogle, Parkin, Adlain, and Mackoti researched a new tech this turn. I have no idea what they researched, though.

My settler is out, and the worker finished a road just in time to get him to the city site.

[luddite]

Plako's score just increased by 2 points in the middle of this turn, which can only mean that he founded a city. Also, the rival best for crop yield just went up. This confirms my suspicions that he was going for an early settler with fishing. I'm surprised he got it just 1 turn before I got mine, though.

[luddite]

I've founded my new city. It should be able to finish the granary just before starting the oracle. My worker is farming the wheat, of course. Thanks to the trade routes and the river, this city is immediately profitable.

Maybe I should be using German beers instead of Irish? I am Bismarck, after all.

Founding that city puts me in the number 1 food spot. Take that, Plako!

[luddite]

Just for fun, I did a few tests to see how quickly the other civs could get the Great Lighthouse. I think Regoarrar/Sunrise could get it as early as T54 if they really focus on it (and don't build any settlers), and Plako and the Dutch can both get it about turn 56. I didn't test it for SleepingMoogle, but he's probably out of the running. It'll be really interesting to see who wins that race. It's basically a question of who's willing to sacrifice the most to get it.