[spoilers] Gaspar and Commodore welcome you to the islands, mon!

[Commodore]

On crappy hotel wireless, not not able to do much and gmail is slow as Christmas, but I am still watching. You're doing fine, no worries, we're just cramped beyond all belief in here. Good thing folks are probably going to be making mostly archery and melee defenders...Numidians will be essential.

X Marks the spot he'd presumably be referring to as his borders. Looks like a change of plans might be in order. Perhaps a Yuris/Us coalition against Sian, with ironclad settling agreement? Or vice-versa. Things are going to get interesting quickly.

That's um...interesting. Also, terrifying. It's in Yuri's nature to be peaceful and focus on settling, although he will also go mad if he's settled against. Sian is a balanced player, for a newbie by my read.

There is a third option, which is same plan only more. Try and land the 'mids and bulb our way to victory while claiming only three essential sites between us and our neighbors: The copper, the super-food deer spot, and the wet wheat island. Make it a solid settling agreement, send the neighbors off to fight their own neighbors, and REX to the wide open north and west (assuming north and west are open, naturally).

[Gaspar]

Would you believe another turn? I might have an idea what's going on in this game by the time you're back, Commodore. Ok, probably not.

One change I think we need to make to our plans given the proximity of neighbors is that we need to get Copper settled and/or our borders expanded. So we either put city 5 on the copper or we tech Mysticism. What say you?

Ok, what say you about meeting Rego on the other side of the map?



I'm guessing yuris is between us and him.

More later.

[Gaspar]

Sent this off to rego:

Hey rego,

For what its worth, it appears we've met. Commodore is the diplomatic arm of the empire but I thought it rude not to say hi. Hi.

I've no plans for world domination yet, how bout you?

Gaspar

[Gaspar]

Response:

Nice to meet you! You guys are my first contact and I was wondering how long it would be.... We only recently got Sailing so we haven't really been able to scout the map very much.

Have you come from very far? Obviously you can see the borders of my "main" island just to your workboat's north.

I would definitely be interested in closer relations with you. As a start, if you're going for circumnav, I'd be happy to direct you whichever direction you need to go - just let me know. I decided from the start to not pursue it as there were too many civs with Fishing starts - I didn't really think I could compete. So let me know on that one. Also be happy to discuss / trade map info - like I said I don't have a ton of map info but I've got a bit to share.

Commodore - I know you're out of town this weekend but you both know where to reach me. Of course at the pace this game goes by the time you're back the game might be over! ;-)

Your Mom of the Ottomans.

[Gaspar]

Here's a zoomed out picture of the world. I actually think we're relatively close to circumnavigation N-S by this view. E-W is harder to tell.

[Gaspar]

In honor of meeting rego, I thought I might spam rego-style. Globe view revealed Incan culture, so here's a new conjecture on player alignment:

[Gaspar]

Last thought before calling it a night:

We could get NAPs/settling agreements with all 3-parties if we wanted - of course they want to NAP us - our start has been terrible. Buddy up, kill us later. The question we have to ask, and I think is critical in most early game NAPs:

Do we realistically think we can outplay Sian, Yuri and/or rego over the course of x turns? If the answer is yes - then we should NAP them. If the answer is no, better to let them build some military.

Right now I'm inclined to NAP Sian and rego (due to distance) and drive a hard bargain with yuri. While I think we can outplay Yuri, his leader combo screams fisherman's gambit - why should we help him out? I surely don't care about Quechua's, I plan to settle that copper and probably never build an archer.

What do you think, Commodore (and/or Mardoc, Lewwyn, if you're still reading)?

[Serdoa]

Not Lewwyn, but: CHARIOT RUSH!!!!

[Commodore]

Last thought before calling it a night:

We could get NAPs/settling agreements with all 3-parties if we wanted - of course they want to NAP us - our start has been terrible. Buddy up, kill us later. The question we have to ask, and I think is critical in most early game NAPs:

Do we realistically think we can outplay Sian, Yuri and/or rego over the course of x turns?

What do you think, Commodore (and/or Mardoc, Lewwyn, if you're still reading)?

Answers are yes, probably, and probably not. Sadly, Rego is the furthest away. I'm agreeing with the Yuri=fisherman's gambit, and we can call him on it...but do we want to take him out and take away pressure on Rego? Sian, I feel, will be solid, not stupid, and slowly fall behind.

[Commodore]

Got some solid connection time, so played.

In the zen Moogle sense: