[SPOILERS] MNG as Hattie of France

[Mr. Nice Guy]

... and he didn't bite:

I don't actually need the ivory now, I needed it 15 turns ago. I just got Monarchy. If that changes at some point, I might consider paying for it.

GES

[Mr. Nice Guy]

First war was declared this turn. Yuris against RL7. Good thing too, because RL7 and GES are running away on the food/production charts.
Currency came in at end of turn. Will be a huge boon to my economy, I hope, and allow me to plant 2-3 more cities.
Between forges and MP, happiness is not going to be an issue for much longer.

[Rowain]

Always nice if others fight . Hopefully it is a real war and last a long time.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

A couple of quotes from Commodore. First, from a chat last week:

9:24 AM me: so no plans to close borders against glh-guy in the near term?

9:25 AM Darius: Not here. Which I think is actually another reason GES is mad at me.
Currency means I'm getting a lot from OB too though.

And more recently, in his most recent missive;

Finally, please keep this confidential, but I have been approached by Yuri at what I believe is RL7's behest regarding an embargo of you. I'm putting it off as best I can, although it's getting me some pretty hostile looks. I figure your GLH makes you about even with the Financial players here, and your TRs are helping my own commerce here. Just a note of warning. He didn't seem to be talking about military action, but it might be worth economically preparing for something.

So... Commodore believes GES is mad at him for not joining a potential trade embargo against me. And now Yuri and/or RL7 are trying to push for a trade embargo against me. And what do we have here? The most recent message from RL7:

We had a bit of a border dispute with Yuris, yeah. Cold war is not quite accurate. We lost a city, had to whip out an axe... Unfortunately this affects you too: as part of the peace treaty we are required to close borders with you for the time being. (I don't even think you had trade routes to us lol.) This was especially vexing as Gandalf found himself trapped in no-man's land, and had to be deleted. Hope you don't take it personally. I'd be wary of Yuris in your position. He's apparently not afraid to declare war and raze a city when NAPs don't prevent him from doing so.

Now it seems that Yuris is forcing RL7 to close borders with me. So my response to RL7:

I can't help but think that you are underselling your success a bit. Between Stonehenge and Parthenon, you are basically a team with 4 traits. Considering you and GES were... shortchanged... by Gaspar, your progress is most noteworthy. And don't forget that impressive production lead that you continue to build against the rest of the world.

I must admit that I'm disturbed to learn that your peace treaty requires you to unilaterally close borders with me. I fail to see how your open borders with me causes any damage to the Ottomans, and how closing borders with me would allow peace. Hopefully you both will reconsider this course of action. I know if I were in your shoes, I would hate to have the international community view the war and subsequent peace treaty as an act of collusion.

Yeah, I'm going to put some pressure on them. GES has had, quite consistently, the highest crop yield in the game - not to mention highest city count or tied for highest. RL7 has consistently had the top production. I have been -- AT BEST -- #2 in those critically important categories. The standard play of "dogpile TGL owner" won't be effective in this game - it will only make the two powerhouses bigger and stronger.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Yuri chimes in:

We did declare, but it was not a real war. Basically RL7 placed an
aggressive settlement, and we negotiated for its removal. We've
declared in order to raze the city, and in fact, you should see the
peace declaration on your next turn.

Unfortunately, RL7 are quite concerned about the benefits you're
getting from TGLH, and included closing borders with you as a
non-negotiable condition in our deal. We don't really want to punish
you for good play, but this deal was vital for prosperity of our
people. So, we have to inform you that we closed borders with you this
turn.

And my reply:

I'm glad that you had a successful and quick strike against RL7. No doubt you share my fears that they, as a team with essentially 2 good plus 2 half-traits (thanks to Stonhenge and Parthenon) are a bit too strong. And that's not to mention their production graph!

As for closing borders with me, I wonder if that's really wise? Here's my point of view on the situation:
*RL7, being an aggressive team, settled against you, prompting your war actions.
*Having razed said settlement, you and RL7 had peace talks.
*Having razed the settlement and won the war, you were (are?) in a position of power - even against the strongest team in the game.
*RL7 demanded that you close borders with me.
*You, having the upper hand at the negotiating table, agreed "for the vitality of your people" to do as RL7 demanded.
*You, having the upper hand at the negotiating table, were (are?) content to take no concessions from RL7.
It seems to me that you either (A) are in collusion with RL7 on your decision to close borders or (B) have made some poor diplomatic choices from a position of power.

What a shame.

[Rowain]

Great messages I especially like the one to yuri

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Great messages I especially like the one to yuri

Thanks Rowain, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying them. For what it's worth, I'm having a blast writing them.

As an aside, I will be playing a bit of the victim in my messages to other teams for a while. While I do believe some of what I'm saying (RL7 is too strong), any hurt feelings I project are an act trying to see if I can garner any sympathy. It's basically me trying to apply werewolf to Civ diplomacy. In truth, I'm having a blast as much now as ever with this game.

That having been said, I received a response from yuri:

Hi MNG,

Looks like I didn't explain the situation clearly - sorry about this.
We didn't start negotiations after razing RL7's city, the negotiations
were for us to raze it unopposed. Obviously, they had the upper hand
in this discussion

I can assure you that the decision to close borders was very difficult
for us. However, getting back city spots they blocked without military
build-up and a possibility of protracted war was of utmost importance,
and we had to agree to their terms

In domestic news, my plan to grow continues according to plan. Forges are wrapping up in most cities, and my core is now working on markets, then possibly moving on to courthouses. Calendar is complete and due in 4-5 turns. Horizontal expansion also continues - city 10 is founded next turn and city 11 will be founded after that. Then I'll have a short pause, and will found cities 12, 13, and 14 in pretty short order I think. Most likely will put a good domestic report up in the next 3 days -- 3 day weekend from work

[Rowain]

I just wonder who bullied whom to close borders with you

Those 2 might work close together.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Today has been a pretty stressful day off, personally. Things may calm down enough that tonight I can do something peaceful, like put together a series of pictures about my empire at the turn of the calendar, which actually happened this morning. If not, perhaps I'll be able to do that tomorrow or Sunday, which are also days off?

For now, though, how about a demo shot and F1 shot?



First is the F1. You can see that I've still been whipping pretty heavily. Right now I have only 2 cities above size 6. That should be changing in the next 5-10 turns, as I continue to grow and build markets followed by courthouses. I anticipate that by T85, I should have 7 or 8 cities each at size 8, with several more smaller cities. My larger cities should each have a forge and a market, with a few courthouses completed to keep costs down. Notice how helpful the GLH has been for me. No city has less than 4 commerce per turn from trade routes, and as a result,every city is contributing a net positive to the empire - even Rouen which was founded just this turn. The crazy thing that I just noticed is that once my 3 markets complete, I will be at roughly 50% slider. That will shrink slightly because I will be founding another city in 3 turns. Still, I suppose my economy isn't doing too poorly.



Hmm. I'm trying to set RL7 up as a clear runaway for his production. Yet my own production, with a far smaller population, is just 3 total hammers less than his. And after hitting end turn, my production jumped to 83, 4 points higher than rival best. Hmmm... I guess I can't use production as a sign of strength if I want to appear weak? I guess it has to be population at crop yield. Those two are my weakest areas right now. As discussed earlier, my plan is to do some growing now. In something like 4-7 more turns, I may put out an additional 2-3 settlers to fill my land and make another landgrab at the middle of the map. But until then, I think I'll just grow and consolidate.

More pictures, like I said, coming later. Thanks for enjoying what has become a wall of text!

[Rowain]

The exports/imports are interesting. If you know who the one with +38 is. Perhaps you cn use it to show downplay the effect of the GLH a bit.