RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, I guess so. It's just hard to watch a trainwreck in progress that's only going to help put the strongest civ in the game in an even stronger position. WK declaring on Plako was never going to be pretty for him, but it didn't have to be this bad this quickly.

I guess it's just a fact that a lot of how well someone does in these games depends not just on how well they play, but on how well (or not) their neighbours play. I think Plako and Locke really scored big time in this game in terms of the relative strength of their neighbours.

Oh well, no point being bitter... only thing to do is just move on and do our best to keep up as Plako grows.

[Senseless]

Does our NAP with Plako prevent us from supplying someone he's at war with with resources? (Explicitly or otherwise?) If not, it might be worth doing so, or at least trying to convince another civ to do so. It seems like there's not a whole lot we can really do to Plako any time soon. He's far away, and we aren't really in any position to pursue a war. The OB embargo fell through. Propping WK is the only step we can take that can be expected to do any reasonable amount of damage to Plako. Plako needs to be slowed, and it's better that he has to plow through stacks of whipped axes and spears than a bunch of pure archers.

As to annoying Plako, I'm not sure how much of a concern this is. He's the world power, to be sure, but he isn't really in a position to harm us, either, is he? The distance and geography involved makes invasion tricky. Plus, he's in a war right now with WK and is probably going to want to spend the subsequent turns growing and recovering, instead of banging the drum again immediately. Of course, if we supply WK with any kind of aid it is going to be something he'll remember. However, we are one of his major rivals at this point. It seems like he'll be gunning for us at some point in the future regardless of what we do in this conflict. If we're going to be fighting Plako at some point, why not do him some additional damage now while it costs us relatively little?

[Lord Parkin]

Good points, Senseless.

There isn't anything explicitly forbidding giving a strategic resource to an enemy in our arrangement with Plako. However, he'd certainly be pretty annoyed if we did it, and it might move us up on his priority list (as opposed to, say, attacking Locke, Nakor or Rego later).

My main concern about irritating Plako is that I genuinely do hope for us to have a very long-term friendship with him. It's just logical for the two strongest nations to stick together for as long as possible rather than wasting their energy trying to bring each other down. So in my view, preserving our long-term relationship is more important than throwing a small obstacle in his way now.
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Seeing if someone else can spare a source of metal to WK seems like it might be an idea though. Perhaps it'd be best to convince WK to ask them himself... I'll have to check who's actually got spare metal to offer. (We don't, incidentally - if we sent WK metal we'd also lose our own source. Our second one won't be hooked up for another ~10 turns.)

[Lord Parkin]

Code of Laws is in, and we've started on Civil Service. There are a few reasonably high priority techs for us after that:

- Iron Working, relatively cheap and enabling the jungle chops which will open up 3 more good city sites for us as well as revealing Iron
- Metal Casting, for cheap Forges which would obviously be very useful for the +25% hammers and +3 happiness
- Calendar, to hook up our Silks (+1-2 happiness) as well as potentially to make a shot at the Mausoleum of Mausollus
- Aesthetics + Literature, to get the National Epic for a huge boost in our great person points

We need to decide what the most urgent techs are from that list to finalise our tech path after Civil Service. Any comments (or suggestions for additions to the list) are welcome.

[Lord Parkin]

Time for some pictures.

Lynx and Acinonyx are both growing fast now. Lynx is building a Lighthouse while Acinonyx is working on a Library.

Pantherinae just finished a Settler which will found the Sheep-Rice city next turn. We'll now grow Pantherinae to size 10 while building a Market, then probably build another Settler or Worker.

Leopardus, a new city on the north-eastern island, was founded this turn. Once the borders expand there it'll become a very decent city.



The capital's up to size 14, and has just started working on the Apostolic Palace. We're working cottages to grow faster, but will switch back to hammer tiles once we reach our happiness cap there and churn out the wonder faster.

Tigris will be a Settler/Worker-pump for the near future, building at least two more Settlers after it finishes the current one. The only short break will be to build a Work Boat to net the Fish at Leopardus once the borders expand there.

Onca has also become something of a Settler/Worker pump now that it's reached size 8. Currently it's building a Settler for the Horse island directly below the city.

Magadan and Evermore are both building Christian missionaries right now. Magadan isn't the ideal place to build them, but we need to get our religion spread around quickly and I want the capital to work on the AP, so we haven't got much choice. I'll probably switch Magadan back to a Library after the current missionary. Evermore might continue to build a few more missionaries after the current one, or else work on a Market.



Jubatus will get out a Work Boat for the Clams in 5 turns, then will begin on a Granary and Lighthouse combo (aided by chops).

Felidae will have Christianity spread to it next turn, and will proceed to chop out its Market very quickly. We'll then chop out a Settler and a Courthouse there in some order. (The borders are expanding there next turn, and our Workers have already been at work pre-chopping the forests.)

Pardalis is another new city that was just founded this turn. We'll chop out a Granary and Library here as soon as we can. We can start to share the Pigs with this city once Felidae reaches size 12.

Pardus is working on a Courthouse at the moment. Haven't yet tested the relative benefits of building it vs whipping it. If we do whip it, we need to figure out whether 2-pop whipping is better than 3-pop whipping. If anyone wants to test it out, go ahead - the city is size 6, working the Corn + 2 Ivory + 3 grassland hills presently.



Leo has just completed two chops into its Courthouse, and will whip it to completion next turn.



We're only at 14 cities (still more to come over the next few turns), and look at the demographics! We're now #1 in food, as well as maintaining our position at or near the top in GNP. We're also closing in on Plako in MFG, placing a close second at present. All in all, things are definitely looking healthy for us.

[Lord Parkin]

Locke and Nakor have both started putting espionage into us. Need to talk with them and try to discourage that. Locke's just putting in a bit, but Nakor seems like he's putting everything into us, which is kind of an aggressive move.

I've arranged a resource trade with Plako to tide us over when Felidae and the capital next grow. We're giving Corn in return for Clam + Crab from him... +2 health where it counts both ways. We'll renegotiate later - actually we'll have Clam shortly and Crab in a dozen or so turns anyway, but this way we avoid losing any food to unhealthiness in the interim.

Locke just recently finished Alphabet, and last turn he bulbed Philosophy (and founded Taoism) with a Great Scientist he just got. He's now 4 techs ahead of us - Archery, Alphabet, Monarchy and Philosophy. We're only one tech ahead of him - Theology. Seems like his overall tech rate might be a little ahead of ours, though it's fairly close. Might have some competition from him on getting Liberalism if he keeps up with the Great Scientist bulbs.

Rego should be sending us that 100 gold this turn, by the way.

[nabaxo]

We're becoming more and more of a target here the larger we grow. Might be time to start thinking of and building defences.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, Pardus is already a military city for us (just stopping briefly for a Courthouse)... I'm thinking of converting Onca over to one as well after the current Settler. We still have long NAPs with all our near neighbours, but it'd be good to have enough of an army around to deter any opportunistic invaders. Things do feel a bit light at the moment, even for me.

[Senseless]

The IR-metalworking path seems like the better option for now. I say we grab these two techs, start building forges everywhere and pumping out a few settlers while researching aesthetics-literature. Once we get these techs we can start building the National Epic in some forge-boosted city. Normally I'd prioritize literature more, but without the added bonus of the Great Library there's really no reason to bee line for it.

I agree with the rising need for military. Surprising, I know.

[Lord Parkin]

The IR-metalworking path seems like the better option for now. I say we grab these two techs, start building forges everywhere and pumping out a few settlers while researching aesthetics-literature. Once we get these techs we can start building the National Epic in some forge-boosted city. Normally I'd prioritize literature more, but without the added bonus of the Great Library there's really no reason to bee line for it.

I think I tend to agree. Not sure on the specific order of Iron Working and Metal Casting - depends how soon we want to settle the jungle spots - but I think they need to be the next two techs regardless.

I now think there's not much point in hurrying out Aesthetics-Literature until we're in a position where we're able to start the National Epic, and at the moment our cities are busy with other things. By the way, I'm leaning towards putting National Epic in the capital at the moment, since I'm intending on building a lot of wonders there. Will decide for sure later - any feedback is welcome.

Delaying Calendar seems to make sense for the same reason. We may as well wait until we've actually got a city ready to build the Mausoleum - possibly the capital or possibly a new city with a lot of chops available. As for the Silk happiness, we really don't need that right now.

Before I forget, this reminds me - I'm intending on building the Forbidden Palace in Felidae as soon as we've got 8 Courthouses. Should help a lot with our maintenance issues.

I agree with the rising need for military. Surprising, I know.

Really? I never would have guessed.

I'm now fairly settled on the idea of Onca becoming a military churning city in the near future, so your wish for a larger military will be granted.