RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Indeed. Fortunately we should be able to blast our way through to Rifling before too long, which will make us pretty much untouchable for a while. But before this, we'll definitely be building up a decent number of Maces and Crossbows.

[Lord Parkin]

Switched to Paper. Our GNP has cracked 550 temporarily while we research at 80% for the next two turns... hope it doesn't attract too much attention.

[Lord Parkin]

Rego founded a city just across from our Horse island city which blocks off another potential city we could have founded on the Horse island (due to the 2 tile boundary and the island not actually being an island). Not a big deal, but he did say in the past that he'd talk to us before founding that city, and he didn't. Once again, the lack of communication bothers me more than the actual action. Ah well, this city site was far less important than the one Luddite nicked, so it's not worth making a fuss over.

Incidentally, we may have a chance of culture-pushing Luddite out of that new city he founded, due to all our religious buildings. It would be hilarious if we managed that.

[Lord Parkin]

Message sent to Mackoti, confirming our arrangement and requesting a renewed NAP.

Hi Mackoti and Ioan,

It seems that Luddite has not moved his stack further towards me, at least for now, so it seems he may not be planning on declaring war right away. We'll still stay alert though, and watch what happens over the next few turns. I see you have a Warrior right near our border; if you're intending on heading him back through Luddite's territory, it would be great if you could update us on any units of Luddite's that you see.

It sounds like we have an agreement about the "mutual war pact" against Luddite. If Luddite declares war on either of us at any point from now on, the other one of us will also declare war and make it a 2 vs 1 battle - forcing him to split his forces and further weaken himself as we consume his empire. Whether this happens before turn 190, at turn 190, or after turn 190 - we're agreed that we'll be fighting our mutual enemy together at some point. I'm looking forward to it.

On a side note, now that we have this "mutual war pact" against Luddite, I can't see there being any reason we'd want to declare war on each other for a long time (since that would void the 2 vs 1 pact). So, shall we make our alliance official and sign a new NAP? (I think our last one technically ended ages ago at 1 AD.) It sounds like we'll most likely be warring against Luddite starting around turn 190-200, and the war will probably last around 10-20 turns. I'm figuring that we won't want to immediately re-declare war on each other right after that campaign, so how does a NAP until at least turn 220 sound to you? I'm happy to go longer or shorter if you'd like - just let me know.

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

[Lord Parkin]

Demographics this turn are below.

The AP is really starting to come into its own, evidenced by our very high MFG count.

Having two prerequisites for Paper as well as deficit researching is artificially inflating our GNP a bit, but it's still pretty impressive regardless.



Our turn ended prematurely because Rego exited out of the diplo screen while I was typing, causing a "space" to go through as an "end turn". I hate that design bug. Ah well, only thing I was waiting for was the chance to move our scouting Chariot once we've confirmed that Luddite is retreating.

[Lord Parkin]

Response from Ioan. Looks like we'll get the long NAP. Just have to confirm a specific end date.

Hi LP,

A NAP until turn 200+ sounds great.

Also I'm satisfied that Luddite didn't declare yet - because ( after thinking a little bit ) I'd like to not break the NAP with it right now. You know ... our previous move was a diplo-disaster and our "public prestige" needs sort of clean-up. But for sure we will support you on long-term - it's anyway the best thing for us.

Best regards,

Ioan

[Gold Ergo Sum]

How much MFG has the AP added to your civ since you built it?

I think shrine, AP, Sankore, and Minaret can be VERY powerful if you really commit to them all, but I haven't seen it in action in a MP game very often. I will be curious to see what the effect is if you manage to grab them all.

[Lord Parkin]

I've done it a few times before. The combination of AP + Sankore + SM (+ Sistine if you can manage it) is a ridiculously powerful one. It's contributed to an eventual victory for me in several previous MP games, including this one and this one.

At present we've completed 12 Christian Monasteries and 12 Christian Temples. That's netting us 48 bonus base hammers already - not including multiplication by Forges, Organized Religion, and (in some cases) the Industrious and Bureaucracy bonuses. The realistic number of actual hammers gained per turn at this point would be well above that, probably around 70-80. And that's only going to go up over the coming turns. Eventually, with ~30 cities each with both Christian buildings, we'll be netting ~120 base hammers from the AP, and 180-200+ actual hammers before long (and more like 250+ actual hammers once Factories and Coal Plants come in).

[Lord Parkin]

I've done it a few times before. The combination of AP + Sankore + SM (+ Sistine if you can manage it) is a ridiculously powerful one. It's contributed to an eventual victory for me in several previous MP games, including this one and this one.

Of course, the downside of succeeding with such a plan is that it has a tendency to make you dogpiling target #1 for the rest of the game.

If you're powerful enough and have the right friends though, it doesn't usually matter too much. It's certainly daft not to try building the religious trio just because you don't want to look too powerful, though. That's about as silly as permanently stagnating your cities solely to keep your score down. It should be up to the other players to try to keep up with you; not your responsibility to try and drag yourself down to the status quo.

[Lord Parkin]

So, we complete the Forbidden Palace next turn, which should immediately subtract ~20 or more gold per turn from our distance maintenance costs.

I'll take a screenie of the F2 screen both this turn and next for comparison. Here's the before shot:



I'm planning on completing the Statue of Zeus the turn after next. The options are either Leo (southernmost city, border with Plako/Nakor) or Puma (border city with Luddite). I'm leaning towards the border city with Luddite because the culture there will be very useful (it might even help us flip/AP force him out of the city he founded). Of course, we'll have to garrison with troops to make sure we can hold it - but we'd have to do the same with the southernmost city too. We'll grab ~350 fail gold from prebuilds after finishing it too.

Paper is in, and we're onto Sankore in the capital. The Mausoleum of Mausollus and the Parthenon are also underway in other high-hammer cities.