RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Moving the warrior 1SE makes the most sense to me. Making contact earlier seems to be more important. We can always scout the area near luddite on the warrior's return trip. Given the NAP we have with him scouting him immediately isn't as important.

Actually, I just thought of another factor... we'll be producing 3 new Warriors in the capital during the next few turns, one of which can start exploring to the south to meet the potential people there with minimal delay (only the turns to produce him). On the other hand, it's far less efficient to send the current Warrior south, because then a future Warrior exploring towards luddite has to travel all the distance that's already been travelled to the west before he can start delving into new territory.

So sending our present Warrior NW/W while sending a Warrior produced in the capital soon down south seems like the most logical idea, after thinking about it. Any agreements/disagreements there?

On a related note, anyone know how agreements between players work? I've never played an MP game at RB before so I'm not sure exactly how common it is for players to break explicit peace treaties.

Generally you'll find that most players are fairly good at keeping their word in multiplayer once you've arranged an agreement with them. (This is for the simple reason that regular backstabbers get a reputation and find it hard to make friends in future games.) However, there's no way to ever be 100% sure that someone won't backstab you on an agreement at some point. You just have to go with gut feeling and intuition on that one.

[Bruindane]

On a related note, anyone know how agreements between players work? I've never played an MP game at RB before so I'm not sure exactly how common it is for players to break explicit peace treaties.

Having spent countless hours reading old threads (not playing) reveal that plenty of battle plans are tied to NAPs expiring, so it is generally understood to be binding.

However, more complex NAPs sometimes appear to be broken ("voided") due to interpretative differences of some sub-clause. The length, being inclusive or exclusive, is sometimes disputed. And players worry if their NAP will be broken, so apparently it could happen, but generally does not.

[Lord Parkin]

Okay, decided to move the Warrior 1NW this turn. We can still choose to turn him back if we want, though I do think now that heading towards luddite might be preferable.



So, the first genuinely decent city site we've found, and it's closer to luddite than us. Murphy's law.

Maybe it's just within sniping range if we really try hard for it, but that would (a) hurt our economy, and (b) potentially annoy luddite. Ah well, I guess we'll have to see if it's possible later on in the game. By continuing to explore towards luddite, we'll at least be able to figure out exactly how close the city site is to him, and thus what our chances are.

Man, it's certainly proving to be difficult to find decent city locations near our capital. I guess at least that might make it a better choice to go for early Stonehenge, since there doesn't seem to be much worth rushing to settle at the moment.

[Irgy]

Man, it's certainly proving to be difficult to find decent city locations near our capital. I guess at least that might make it a better choice to go for early Stonehenge, since there doesn't seem to be much worth rushing to settle at the moment.

There's still plenty of land to be revealed quite close to the capital on the other sides though.

By the way, do you plan to build a scout among the warriors, for making faster contact?

I think on the whole you're right to continue the warrior on in the direction it was going.

[Lord Parkin]

There's still plenty of land to be revealed quite close to the capital on the other sides though.

That's true. Maybe we've just happened to head in a direction that's particularly low on food, and we have better options elsewhere. I sure hope so anyway. Will have to get out and explore a bit more with the next 3 Warriors before the first Settler arrives.

By the way, do you plan to build a scout among the warriors, for making faster contact?

I've been considering it, though I'm still not quite sure. A Warrior has the advantage that we can call it back to provide valuable defence in the event of a rival Warrior suddenly turning up. However, that advantage is useless if it's travelling too far away. A Scout would certainly be better if we were planning on heading around the world to meet people with the 2 moves, especially as it'd have no risk of death to barbs.

We'd definitely only have room for 1 Scout build (if any) in the first 40-50 turns though, as we'll need a minimum of 2 Warriors for "just in case" home defence (one for the capital and one for city #2). So I guess it's a choice between either 1 Warrior and 1 Scout after the current Warrior + Worker, or just 2 Warriors after the Worker.

I think on the whole you're right to continue the warrior on in the direction it was going.

Okay, glad you think so. It probably makes very little difference anyway. Actually, assuming that we're on a 5x2 map and each of the lines of 5 are located right near the poles (we know at least us and luddite probably are, anyway)... it may even be about the same distance to meet luddite's western neighbour as to meet any southern civs. Travelling north-south across a map with normal X/Y dimensions should be roughly equivalent to travelling across 2/5 of the map east-west.

That's assuming of course that we're not blocked off by mountains or coast in one direction or other... but then since we have no way of knowing either way about that at this point, it's effectively an equal risk with either choice. We at least know for certain that we can reach one civ's land without reaching a dead end by going west (luddite), so that's something.

[Lord Parkin]

New turn is up. Haven't had the chance to log in yet, but can see from Civstats that plako's score went up again, 7 turns after he got Hunting. Another 7-turn tech... that has to be Fishing, no question. Kind of an oddball tech path for a landlocked start though. Unless they're planning on a really early second city to grab a seafood resource, I think that was probably a dubious move on their part.

[Lord Parkin]

Warrior moved 1NW this turn, onto a land bridge.



From the way the coast shapes, it looks like this could potentially be the only direct route through to luddite for us, unless there's one further up north or a lot further south. Lucky him, looks like he has an easily defensible point if we ever decide to invade. At least it isn't a hill tile on that choke point.

Hmm, actually, I wonder if we could claim that choke point as our own before he does. Probably not, I'm guessing his capital can't be too far away from there. Ah well, we have a few choke points of our own, just not as good ones. Maybe we have better ones to the south or east though.

Anyway... shall the Warrior continue 1NW next turn, or go 1W? 1NW seems to make a lot more sense, in my opinion. Thoughts?

[Lord Parkin]

Moved Bob the Warrior 1NW again. Our new Warrior (Joe) was built in the capital last turn - I realised I forgot to ask for suggestions about where to go first with him, but I decided to go 1SW for now. We probably want him not to stray too far away, although we can always build another emergency Warrior in 2 turns for defence if needed (since we're putting 3 hammers into one now), so it doesn't matter too much if Joe explores a little. I suggest we start exploring some of the land immediately around the capital to figure out where the first Settler might go.



The Worker also finished improving the first Deer to 5f/1h last turn, so he moved onto the second Deer this turn. Four more turns and we'll have our second Camp, just in time for Animal Husbandry to arrive to hook up that Cow... then the hammers will really start churning out.

Next turn our capital will grow to size 2, and we'll switch production from a Warrior to a Worker. This second Worker will help out the first to improve the Cow, then can start building farms or (more likely) roads at a fast pace.

Where shall the Warriors go next turn? I suggest Bob (the Warrior near luddite) continues 1NW, while Joe (the Warrior just built at our capital) heads 1SW to give us an idea if we have a peninsula or a land bridge down there. Any alternative suggestions?

[Lord Parkin]

Luddite was the only one to have a score increase this turn. It was only 2 points, suggesting a population increase - which is confirmed by checking the Top 5 Cities screen. His capital, Guinness, is the only one which is not "unknown", and also the only one in the game which is at size 2.

I was initially slightly confused about how he grew to size 2 faster than anyone else, but then I remembered that he's Expansive. That makes sense, if he got the Worker out a turn earlier and started growing a turn earlier. I guess the question then becomes, why didn't WarlordDR (Washington) and Locke (Isabella) grow this turn? Both had the same option as luddite to grow by now, so why didn't they? Must have been either suboptimal Worker use, or building another Worker/Settler right out of the gate after the first Worker. Either way, a little dubious. (Sunrise is also expansive with Shaka, but settled a turn late so we wouldn't expect growth this turn anyway.)

[Irgy]

There's much more uncertainty in the land around the capital to the east, I'd have sent the warrior that way. If you're planning to circle around anticlockwise though then the direction you've started off in makes sense.

I usually start planning my spawnbusting around now, but there's no need to with no barbarians (that is the setting, right? Or am I getting games mixed up again?).