[SPOILER] Asoka of the Vikings (Nakor & Gaspar)

[Nakor]

Should be fun indeed, GES!

Well, we go with a new turn.
Plako asks us to trade gems for silk, I agree since we don't have silk but do have 3 gems.
Philosophy in, Edu next.

Greenland finishes Settler, put it on a Berzerker.
Fishfood finishes Barracks, Berzeker there as well, though we could do a Monastry. Confu spread there of it's own.

LP has Nationalism!

46 turns before war...
Do a round through our cities an leave a possible Civics change to you.

[Gaspar]

PBEM17 Spoiler:

I'd like to cancel OB with rego just based on general principles. We don't actually have any TR with him, but just saying.

Anyway, chatter has gotten a bit quiet all around. Certainly no problems with the silk/gems deal with plako, though we're not exactly pushing the happy cap anywhere. We've cast our lot with him regardless, so no harm in buddying up. Like I said, I'd be a lot more comfortable with him winning than LP, ultimately.

As far as LP, clearly he's going to get Taj in about 5 minutes. That huge empire getting a MoM-fueled Golden Age means he's going to pull even further away. I think there is a distinct chance we're going to be throwing Frigates into Destroyers and Rifles into Machine Guns, but that said, I don't think we can actually just sit around and watch him launch a spaceship. At some point someone has to actually try and stop him.

Don't really have a problem with dialing up a few Berserkers just to have them, though I still don't think we need to be building much military. Ultimately I'd rather run wealth and push the tech rate then build a bunch of units that will obsolete before we're ready to fight. For example, running wealth in the capital would generate an additional 55 bpt. The liberalism race is overwhelming already lost, so I'm not going to make the change, but as we're racing techs, its something to consider.

Civics class has to wait until next turn. We'll pop the Gsci at Crossing, so we can then switch back to Slavery, as there are a fair few cities that could use a generous application of the whip. After that, we can head back to Caste + Pacifism, and then try and generate another before the T200 D-day. We can consider the value of popping a GMerchant for a trade mission vs. popping whatever for a Golden Age. More than likely, a GA will be the right call, since we're really going to need a boost to build enough troops in time.

[Nakor]

New turn!

Riverland finished Barracks, started another Berzerker (the fun is that they start with Amphibious, and upgraded to Rifles, we can use them very good in naval attacks...)

Used the GS to bulb most of Edu (fom 6 to 2 turns). And founded No Good at the coast near Locke.

Left all the fun to you, since I have to run!
Maybe you can give some advice on my situation in PBEM 18!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Jesus what are you guys up to? I hear nothing but screams and terror from your side of the wall.

[Gaspar]

Can't help you on PBEM18, as I'm spoiled. Though in a general sense, I'd say you're in trouble. CTONs are tricky. Good luck, though.

I understand the appeal of upgrading zerks, its just that this many turns away, I'm more concerned with our tech rate than I am with our military. Not saying we shouldn't build them, but I do think we should keep them to a relative minimum. I suppose its relatively moot, but I'd like this game to go out with a bang rather than the whimpers that most games seem to be going. People are quitting games before T100 these days, its pretty ridiculous. I guess I'm a hypocrite given PBEM12, but that game was just absurd.

Regardless, when Education comes in, all the mature cities should start building Universities instead of whatever nonsense they're currently building. Speaking of building, went ahead and made the switch to Slavery.

Then I got out my whip. I whipped so much stuff its not even worth retelling. Basically any city with a reasonable food surplus whipped its build. I also 2-pop whipped the rest of Moai in Crossing II. Next turn will need a lot of micro on account of these changes.

With that, went ahead and hit enter. Here's a shot of F1 after the whip-fest:

[Gaspar]

Jesus what are you guys up to? I hear nothing but screams and terror from your side of the wall.

Says the guy who's been sitting on a diplo message from me in FFH2PBEM7 for like 10 days.

[Gaspar]

I suspected you were busy from your PBEM18 thread, so I decided I'd take the driver's wheel on this turn.

Beaverpass: Longbowman -> Barracks (3) [Really should only build units in cities with Barracks at this point.]
Crossing: Market -> Hindu Missionary (3) [Send this to the capital for another Monastery]
Crossing II: Moai Statues -> Forge (9)
Vinland: Market -> Confucian Monastery (4) [Felt it was producing enough beakers to make it worthwhile]
Paradise: Courthouse -> Forge (16)
Dashboard Light: Granary -> Trading Post (12)
Ironic: Forge -> Library (4)
Broccoli Pie: Granary -> Forge (roughly forever)
Fisherman: Granary -> Trading Post (7)

Locke got Liberalism this turn, so we were short about 7T, don't know what he took yet since he hasn't logged in this turn, though one would have to assume Nationalism. Oh well, we'll go Printing Press first then, since that will make a more immediate impact on our finances than Free Speech (probably want to remain in Bureaucracy for a bit longer, at least until we either get Emancipation or another 20-ish turns until we have enough towns that we get more out of that than we do out the Bureaucratic capital.) Free Religion is pretty much a non-starter, I doubt we'll ever prefer it to OR/Theo/Pacifism.

I did everything, worker and tile micro this turn, so if you don't actually have time to play, just let me know and I can mash enter for you, but I did leave it in case you want to tweak something. Once Education comes in, we should swap to a University in our top 8 cities to get Oxford in play ASAP. After PP, we can discuss where we want to go techwise. Where I'd really like to go is Democracy, for USuff and Emancipation, which would be absolutely massive for us, but that would be ~35 turns and we can't do that and the Chemistry push. So I suppose instead Compass -> Optics makes most sense. We can net the whales tiles in our territory, and there are a few cities which would benefit from Harbors (Vinland most notably.) After that Astronomy -> Construction -> Engineering -> Guilds -> Gunpowder -> Chemistry I guess. I'd like to slip in Banking after Guilds if at all possible, but I suppose it depends on where we are in tech rate at that point. There's probably a logic for grabbing Construction -> Engineering before Compass -> Optics, as they'll get a greater known tech discount, giving opponents the opportunity to follow the same path while we catch up there and possibly get greater known tech on them later. Its a toss-up, however, and I don't really care either way. Regardless, all 4 of those techs will take approximately 10 turns altogether, so nothing big there.

[Nakor]

Thanks, Gaspar. PPBEM 18 is running again. Let's not spoiler here...

PP after Education sounds good, then I suggest Optics - Compass and re-evaluate where we are. Getting Astronomy soon for Obs might be better then Construction - Eng.

Beaverpass should build our final settler after the Barracks.

In foreign news, Locke went into Nationhood, so that sets Nationalism in stone.

We need to backfill the following techs as well some time: Aest - Lit - HBR - Theo.... don't know what we can do before T200... but let's wait untill we have Uni's/Obs/Oxford since that will help a lot with our research...

Took a look and hit end turn.

[Gaspar]

We got this in from LP:

Hi Nakor,

Just a heads up that you might want to keep a closer eye on Locke. He just got Liberalism (we never had a chance to compete with him there, his tech rate being faster than ours)... but more telling is what he did with it. Not sure if you noticed, but he immediately took Nationalism, adopted Nationhood, and drafted the maximum number of units (5 Macemen) this turn. In the next 4 turns he'll almost certainly draft 20 more, along with whatever else he builds/whips in that time (probably Catapults/Maces). He's obviously gearing up for war.

The most likely target seems to be Adlain, who unfortunately is probably going to be a pushover for Locke. With all that land (room for ~40 cities) as well as a powerful second Shrine, you can bet he'll soon be swooping into the lead in this game. (We're pretty much at our limit expansion-wise, due to being surrounded by strong nations. Unlike Locke, who's been exceedingly lucky with his western neighbor. I don't envy you being right next to him, especially once his empire doubles in size.)

I noticed that you "accidentally" put your espionage on us again, so I've put mine on you to counter it. Clearly we're reaching that point of the game where it doesn't make much sense to spend no espionage whatsoever on each other, but perhaps you'd be interested in a limit of some amount so our situation doesn't get too out of control. Especially given that you probably want to keep a much closer eye on Locke based on the recent situation. We could both agree not to spend beyond a certain amount of EP's per turn (say 5 or 10?) on the other once we're at par, if you want. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.

On another matter, are you in need of any resources at the moment? Let me know if you are, as I have plenty to spare. We could work out a trade of some kind... or I'd be happy to offer you them for free, long-term, if you're interested in extending our NAP.

That's about all for now. All the best!

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

Let's see if I can translate that into what he's really saying:

Hi Nakor,

Just a heads up that you might want to keep a closer eye on Locke, because I don't want you to pay much attention to us. He just got Liberalism (we didn't want to compete with him there, as we're too much of a runaway already, and we're hoping to stay under the radar for a little bit longer. Instead we grabbed Nationalism early with our massive GNP to make sure we get Taj Mahal and we're going to grab Constitution and Democracy next and run out of sight)... but more telling is what he did with it. Not sure if you noticed, but he immediately took Nationalism, adopted Nationhood, and drafted the maximum number of units (5 Macemen) this turn. In the next 4 turns he'll almost certainly draft 20 more, along with whatever else he builds/whips in that time (probably Catapults/Maces). He's obviously gearing up for war.

The most likely target seems to be Adlain, who unfortunately is probably going to be a pushover for Locke. With all that land (room for ~40 cities) as well as a powerful second Shrine, you can bet he'll soon be my new strawman so you don't realize how far ahead we are. (We're pretty much at our limit expansion-wise, due to being surrounded by strong nations, if you count being surrounded by one guy who's spent half the game at war and another with no cities larger than size 7 strong nations. Unlike Locke, who's been exceedingly lucky with his western neighbor. I don't envy you being right next to him, especially once his empire doubles in size.)

I noticed that you "accidentally" put your espionage on us again, so I've put mine on you to counter it. Clearly we're reaching that point of the game where it doesn't make much sense to spend no espionage whatsoever on each other, but perhaps you'd be interested in a limit of some amount so our situation doesn't get too out of control. Especially given that you probably want to keep a much closer eye on Locke based on the recent situation. We could both agree not to spend beyond a certain amount of EP's per turn (say 5 or 10?) on the other once we're at par, if you want. Let me know if you'd be interested in that, because I can't possibly allow you to get research visibility on us, but I really don't want to waste EPs on guppies like you.

On another matter, are you in need of any resources at the moment? Let me know if you are, because I really don't want a dogpile. While I can't lose to the dogpile, I really don't want to build icky units while Angkor Wat is still out there. We could work out a trade of some kind... or I'd be happy to offer you them for free, long-term, if you're interested in extending our NAP.

That's about all for now. Enjoy losing, suckers!

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin

Does that look about right? I'll draft a response and put it in the next post.

[NobleHelium]

I didn't read your post very closely and thought the second part was your reply to LP until I got to the end, LOL.