RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Speaker and Sullla

[Speaker]

"Judaism has spread in Corinth."

Saves us a missionary later.

[Krill]

You'd rather keep Corinth than replant it in a better position?

[Speaker]

You'd rather keep Corinth than replant it in a better position?

Corinth is in a decent spot. It's Thebes that's in a bad spot. Saving 100 hammers means we can plant a city in another spot, like, the Ivory-rich middle island.

[Sullla]

Well we don't know that there's ivory there yet, it's just my personal guess. Let's get there and find out one way or another.

So we talked it out and decided to keep a watch over that barb city, but not to do anything about it for the moment. Maybe we'll come back with swords or horse archers later on... it's in a nice spot, after all.

Let's run through some diplomacy. plako sent us this:

Dear Killer Angels,

After negotiations we've found a way to peace. The price is high. We had to give city of Wonsan out so we've only our capital on mainland now and we signed NAP until turn 150. We're not gonna be openly hostile towards Whosit, but I'm very much intrested in assisting anyone brave enough to face the Praetorians especially after turn 150.

Whosit will be very dangerous now. We are weak. Kodii has killed zulus that were Rome's neighbour in the North-east and his retreat from the game might give Whosit too good opportunities to expand to that direction.

Best regards,
plako

It's pretty much what we expected, although nice to know some more details. This game does indeed look like it will be contested between ourselves and Whosit. We have the economic power, he has the military and territorial advantage. This should be a fun contest going forward; I think the biggest question is how good of a job Whosit does at building his economy (which is pretty sad at the moment). If he fails to keep up in tech, all the land in the world won't do very much.

Here's my proposal to send back to Broker/plako:

Dear Broker and plako,

That's a high price for peace, but your team made the right decision. You can't do anything if you're dead, and everything sounds like Whosit would have eliminated all of your mainland cities if the war had continued. Now you two have a chance to rebuild and still play a role in the game later on.

We know that Whosit has a ton of empty land to expand into, and expect him to pose a major threat to everyone else in the game. But he's pretty over-extended at the moment, and he'll have to spend a while consolidating the territory that he conquered.

In the meantime, I think the best option is for your team to rebuild and repair as best you can after this setback. You've got a shield of protection for the next 70-something turns, and that's a very long time! A lot can change in that span.

One possibility down the road - and I have no idea if this will happen, just floating an idea - would be for your team to run a high rate of gold and gift it to our team to fund research. In return, we would gift you contemporary military units to defend against or attack Whosit. Again, it's just a thought, but it would let your team play an important role in the game... and get a measure of revenge at the same time!

Hang in there for the moment,
Sullla
The Killer Angels

I can tone down that rhetoric if desired, but I doubt this team will be passing notes on to Whosit... or if it would matter if they did. Whosit has to know already that we are his main competition to win this game. Ideally, we'd like to prop up and support weaker teams (like Broker and Nakor) against Whosit in return for gold concessions. Something like that would probably work.

Let's chase up Dantski, who's been quiet lately:

Dear Dantski,

Hey, we haven't heard from you in a couple days, so I hope all is well in the Romalinese empire. As you probably know, our Non-Aggression Pact is set to expire in a couple of turns, running out at the start of Turn 90. How would you like to renew for another 20 turns, extending until the start of Turn 110? The peace has benefited both of our teams thus far, and I'm sure you would agree with us in wanting to avoid a military buildup along our borders.

Cheers,
Sullla
The Killer Angels

I mention the border above because we know from our scouting that Djenne is very lightly defended (one warrior inside!) and Dantski has been sending his new military units south. I honestly have no idea what he'll say to this, but I hope for a positive response. We're not really in a position to fight currently. Dantski going after Nakor would be ideal for us.

Catching up with Jowy:

Dear Jowy,

It appears as though Judaism has spread on its own to Corinth this turn! You're probably less interested in a missionary as a result, but we'd still be willing to negotiate a minor deal for religious spread into your capital. As an example, we could agree to send a Jewish missionary to Athens in return for a 10-turn extension of our Non-Aggression Pact. That costs you absolutely nothing if you intend to stay at peace with us... and if you don't, then we wouldn't want to send you the missionary! :)

Anyway, stay in touch with us and let us know how things are going. Best wishes,

Sullla
The Killer Angels

I'm not as certain as Speaker that we'll be attacking Jowy and taking his cities. Of course, if we run out of territory completely to expand, I can't say what will happen...

Do we send off a message congratulation Whosit? I think not in this case... we probably don't have a lot to say to him. I should send something to athlete and kalin though, we haven't emailed them in a while:

Dear Rebel Alliance,

Been a long time since we last spoke - happy new year! Your team did a convincing job of finishing off sunrise and regoarrarr. How are things going now? I imagine there's a lot of rebuilding to be done afterwards, removing the Byzantine stink from Istanbul and all that. :)

We've heard that there are some barbs running around in your area, and it looks like one of them may have gotten one of your horse archers. Any truth to those rumors? We'd appreciate it if you could tell us more about what we may be facing from our northeast border.

Cheers,
Sullla
The Killer Angels

That's just a message fishing for information - you never know what other teams will reveal! And it never hurts to keep talking either.

I'll wait to send these off until tomorrow morning, in case we get any comments or feedback.

[Sareln]

IMO, I would leave the last paragraph out in the Broker/Plako Message. They've just been stomped militarily,, laying out the idea that you're even interested in their gold might come across as too heavy. Instead, perhaps ask them if they want to start brainstorming how you might help them get back on their feet?

[antisocialmunky]

Agreed, its a little over eager. Sareln has a good point.

[Speaker]

Probably a good idea as Sareln and antisocial say. I know you want to keep them interested. Maybe tell them we'll brainstorm a few ideas in our thread on how we can work together down the road, and we can send a follow up email soon.

[sunrise089]

IMO, I would leave the last paragraph out in the Broker/Plako Message. They've just been stomped militarily,, laying out the idea that you're even interested in their gold might come across as too heavy. Instead, perhaps ask them if they want to start brainstorming how you might help them get back on their feet?

Right, plus how silly would it be to be reduced to just funneling gold to someone to fund their research. That would be humiliating

[novice]

Right, plus how silly would it be to be reduced to just funneling gold to someone to fund their research. That would be humiliating

[Sullla]

Finishing up this turn:

* I sent off the messages this morning. Thanks to the commentors on the Broker/plako email; I took out the last paragraph as requested and replaced it with a line about "brainstorming a way we can work together." This is why it's worth the effort to post drafts!

* Micro plan for the next half-dozen turns is finished. This takes us up to Turn 95: http://www.cassiopeiathedog.net/Images/P...ullla7.xls I have the comments inside the document, so here I'll just say that we mostly keep growing, building more cottages, and teching ahead. All military builds should be considered placeholders, and Speaker can change them around as he sees fit.

* Soldier count graphs are updated for the current turn:



In the last three turns, Jowy has built zero military units, Nakor built zero military units, Dantski built one chariot, athlete lost a chariot (to a barb, apparently) and built a replacement unit, while Whosit added some significant force. Looks like 14k, which best guess would be Praetorian (8k) + axe (6k). Pretty quiet overall, good news for us here.

* You can see the full results in the Excel table, along with tons of other goodies:

http://www.cassiopeiathedog.net/Images/P.../RBPB2.xls

I'll just throw out the military estimates of our two neighbors here:

Jowy
2 scouts
2 warriors
5 archers
3 phalanxes
1 spear
1 chariot

Dantski
4 warriors
3 skirmishers
1 axeman
1 chariot

And that concludes a very long turn! I'm taking a break from the game until tonight. Have a good one, and let's go Ravens!