RB Pitboss #1 SPOILER - Hatshepsut / India

[Rowain]

Thanks for your detailed plans on SoL :-)


PS your globeshot-link does not work for me.

[regoarrarr]

PS your globeshot-link does not work for me.

Does anyone else have this problem? The link is

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/2403/globeshot3.jpg

[Rowain]

Does anyone else have this problem? The link is

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/2403/globeshot3.jpg

Now both work

Thanks anyway

[regoarrarr]

Now both work

Thanks anyway

I would often have similar problems with images that Sullla would post when doing reports on the Apolyton demogame.

They wouldn't show up because I wasn't logged in according to something, even though I was logged in (obviously because even to read the thread I'd have to be logged in as it was a private forum).

The solution I figured out in that case was to find the URL fo the image, click that directly, then it would make me log in (again) and then I could see both the direct image and the image embedded in the thread.

Probably not the same thing but hey glad it works for you now!

[regoarrarr]

Logged in real quick to take a look around.

Executed part 2 of my SoL strategy (workshopping the 2nd dye at Green, and then roading my 3rd dye elsewhere to keep happiness). That dropped my SoL time to 4 turns, T215, which should be 1t ahead of anyone else.

I continued to check the other civs - mostly just Broker and Munro's capital.

Broker's capital of Customs is up to 562 hammers, right on schedule with my projections

Munro's capital of NIH is up to 535, up from 334 the turn before. It actually is making more per turn than customs but it will still only be at 1339/1500 on T215

My empire production remains comfortably at #1. I've been tracking percentage above #2 (Munro), and I have gone quickly from 10-20-37 and now 37 again this turn. It's like 930 to 670 - something like that

[regoarrarr]

Email sent to shadyforce and dsplaisted

Brian and I have been passing emails back and forth lately. I am assuming that he has kept you filled in at least on the basic substance of things, but if not, it basically revolves around your guys' war with Elkad, and what my reaction will be. As you are aware, I initiated the 10 turn cooldown phase of our agreement on T205, though as I mentioned in that email, that does not necessarily indicate that I will be attacking you, or Brian, or anyone on T215.

So basically our conversations and general musings have been about what exactly we CAN expect around then. They range from the extremes of declare war on Brian on T215 and actively funnel troops / support to Elkad to standing by and allowing you to eliminate Elkad. And of course there's the middle grounds of keeping enough troops on our border to divert resources that you could use in the Carthaginian War.

So as part of these conversations that we've been having, I mentioned that I didn't want to attack Brian for any types of territorial gain but that my main desires were to create a "nicer" border for myself. So there are a few ways to achieve that. One would be some sort of war of conquest against the two of you, likely aided by the "Broker faction".

Another option would be some sort of game long NAP with the two of you (and probably Sunrise). I know Brian's feelings on the general concept of NAPs but the main hesitance I would have about joining up with you would be that later on in the game you guys use our long border to mount an attack on me. I have to weigh that possibility in my decisions now. But if that possibility were off the table (due to a NAP), then I think that would definitely affect my decisions now.

So when I mentioned that to Brian, he suggested that I'd need to talk to you about that. So.... here I am! :-)

So what are your thoughts in the matter? Obviously in this post-Exploit world, it seems like we are coming closely to a crossroads. I understand this is a lot to digest and you may need some time but hopefully you will be able to get back to me before too long - it is likely very soon that decisions are going to start to be getting made that will limit options, if they haven't been already

[regoarrarr]

Email to Munro

First of all congratulations on the Pentagon! I had been toying around with building that but never got around to it and then last night while I was checking around in-game I saw that you had already built it! Guess that takes care of my decision at least! I have to say that I almost never play Civ into the modern age, so I'm pretty clueless about which wonders and buildings (and units too I guess) are most useful, though I am learning a bit following along with the RB PBEM game.

Seems like we are living in some interesting times now, here in the post-Exploit world! It seems in most of my conversations with various folks, that the remaining civs are being lumped into one of 3 "factions" - mine, dsplaisted's and Broker's.

Most people seem to be lumping you into the "Broker" faction, but judging from our previous emails, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. I mean obviously the two of you guys have worked together in the past, and you probably owe at least part of the credit to your late resurgence to his friendship, right?

I guess that's kind of a dangerous question, right? For all you know, Broker has sent me to you to test your loyalties!!! Mwahahahaha :-). Though honestly, I myself feel kind of part of his "faction", at least from the standpoint that I have enjoyed working with him and would not mind that continuing on.

But I am a bit worried that HE (and Dreylin) is tired of working with ME. Nothing concrete of course, just kind of a feeling based on our most recent conversations over the past few days / weeks. I guess I'm not really looking for you to give any kind of concrete pledges of allegiance or anything. After all, there's a decent chance that even if you were Broker's right hand man, that you might cozy up to me and see if I was being seditious or try and get information out of me.

So I'm not looking for anything like that. I guess I'm most interested in your take on the world - where do you see things going from here. I guess I see for the most part, most of us are concentrating on infrastructure at this point (save the Carthaginian War that is going on). But at some point, it seems that our happy little peace is going to end, and it behooves both of us to make sure that we are both on the "right" side of that conflict. So I guess it helps if we can both help each other to figure out what that "right" side is!!! :-)

Anyways hope to hear from you soon

[regoarrarr]

Well turn flipped and Broker indeed got the SoL.

[regoarrarr]

Email to elkad

Hi Elkad,

You may already know this / be planning on it, but the last time I looked at the battle situation (and described it to sunrise), sunrise seemed to think that with a few artillery attacks (I saw you had 4 in Utica) that even Cavalry should be able to have decent odds, since shady's stack was pretty short on MGs.

That leaves you having to deal with dsplaisted errr twinkletoes stack that's a few tiles north but hey that might at least buy you a few turns.

Anyway I'm sure sunrise would be happy to comment himself if you talked to him

[regoarrarr]

Email to twinkletoes

Hi Twinkletoes,

How are things going - I am dan aka regoarrarr of India. Thanks for taking over. This game sure has been an interesting one, and it's unfortunate that we've had to have a good number of replacements. Still, I guess at least we have managed to find replacements each time and kept the game moving. This is probably fairly standard for pitboss games of this size I guess? I don't know what your background is, but I have not played much MP - this is/was my very first pitboss game. I guess the frustrating part is that it kind of just changes the whole alliance / diplomacy angle of things, and I suppose it can be argued that that can be a good thing....

As for this game, I'm sure that Daniel has gotten you up to speed on how things have gone so far this game. But I figure that it doesn't hurt for me to give my take on things. And plus, you're not here to tell me to stop so I'm going anyways :-). Feel free to delete as necessary :-D

Basically at this point, the end-game seems to have devolved into 3 "factions". There's the you faction, which is yourself and shadyforce. The "me" faction, which is myself and sunrise, and then the "Broker" faction, which is himself and Dreylin, and possibly Munro and Elkad (the two of them are sort of wildcards).

Obviously shadyforce and yourself are engaged in a war on Elkad, which started a few turns ago. I am assuming that you are still continuing the war left to you by your predecessor, given your comments in the email / technical thread - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

So I guess at this point it seems likely that war is going to break out between the 3 factions, witih a 2 v. 1. To me at least, it's still up in the air how that will all work out. I asusme you're just as much in the dark, given that you only started here a week or so ago.

I had sent an email to Daniel a few days ago talking about the possibilities of entering into a game long NAP. The context was my relationship with Brian / shadyforce. We've had a good relationship throughout the game, even though we've been on opposite sides of the war for most of the game. Still, geography is destiny, and attacking him does make at least some sense (really for both of us to tell the truth). In that email, which I sent to dsplaisted and shadyforce, I talked about really what I was looking for was a sense of security, and that while I didn't exactly relish the thought of fighting a war over the long Indo-Persian border, I was not sure how else I could protect myself from having to fight off a long invasion myself, should it come to that. But in all the craziness of the Mali changeover, I never really got a reply back. Well, honestly, Daniel wasn't the most prolific diplomat in the first place.... If you need or would like me to resend that email just let me know.

Of course, there's a new option on the table now depending on your relaitonship with shadyforce going forward. Obviously I don't think anyone would fault you if you continued to work with him based on Daniel's relationship with him. Still, I think there are honorable ways to extricate yourself from the commitments of your predecessors (i.e. not a sneak attack in the middle of the night), if that's something that you think might be in Mali's best interests. Something to noodle on anyways....

In any case, that's about all I've got for now - feel free to reply back with thoughts or questions.