[SPOILERS!] Pericles of Babylon. Kyan, Twinkletoes, Whosit.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well Swiss did mention they had circled their land starting east so they would VERY likely have already seen the marble. Their capital was size 3 and they are getting BW same turn as us. There's no chance they went settler first. I am 100% confident they can't beat us to the spot if we want it. I can't see them being happy with the hill but it's worth an ask. As Whosit says- we can at least then look nice by conceding and moving 2 tiles further east. The 'desert' site is actually on our side of the middle ground between the two civs. The divide falls exactly between our two proposed sites.

I still heavily favour yellow dot as we can play it off as a 'nice' move diplomatically whilst securing a spot or near the same quality. It also makes our empire much more compact for easier defence. The difference between the two reminds me HEAVILY of a certain other civ in a certain other game if you get my drift. They got greedy for two more tiles (exact same as us) and look what happened.

You can't be 100% but I would still like an answer to this question. Why are we asking them now?

[Kyan]

You can't be 100% but I would still like an answer to this question. Why are we asking them now?

I can indeed. Their city is too big for them to have both a worker and settler out without chopping-which they haven't done.

Yellow dot isn't aggresive and it could build us some nice diplo points. Why specifically now? Well, it's a good a time as any and it needs to be discussed.
It looks a LOT better to ask than to take and then ask and it takes awhile to communicate.

[Twinkletoes89]

I have no problem with asking, but why i it so urgent to talk? We could wait until our settler is built and on their way to Exodus. Then when it is near, we can discuss 'urgent negotiation' with them. Originally push for purple, but then concede Yellow which we are planning already. If we play it too soon, our gain is negated.

We have to wait, conceding something only works when we have something to threaten with. We need to say 'Hey we have a settler over here already and we are looking to settle here (purple dot). If they say OK then hooray, and no problems. If they say no then we negotiate like we were always planning to do. We cave in too soon and we look weak, we start strong and then be 'merciful and gracious' then we gain points and don't look like an easy pushover.

I really really am against this negotiation now. You can do it, but you do it against my consent. We have nothing to gain now, what good does diplomacy points do us now? They are more valuable later when there is something to cash in

The play is correct, the timing most definitely is not.

[Whosit]

Also, your sim was based on the city producing no food or production? Which wouldn't be the case.

OK, I forgot about the 1 hammer from the city. Works out almost the same, though (city food feeds citizen 1).

I think I have to agree with TT, thinking about it. The letter you showed us was just a draft, right? If nothing else, our position will be stronger when the Settler is on site. That way, they either have to concede because we are there, or it's more clearly a concession on our part for backing off.

Best time to bring it up: Maybe the turn before Settler would reach YELLOW dot (because we are assuming they won't give us Purple).

So let's wait on that, but otherwise, the letter itself looks good.

[Kyan]

[COLOR="Sienna"]Dear Kyan,

Many thanks for your letter.

We're happy to trade screenshots with you, and so here is our hinterland as revealed thus far: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u113/...0098-2.jpg

As you can see, the strongest city site we can see would be the one taking in corn, pigs and marble. From our recent conversation, we understand that your capital is in this direction. We look forward to receiving your screenshot in return. We'll be scouting north and northwest as priorities, and will be happy to share our results with you.

We're not sure whether we're in the northern, or southern hemispheres. I'm sure river's drain in one direction dependent on hemisphere, but I cannot recall which way. The jungle suggests we may lie near the equator, and, as you can see, we have FPs to our north.

As to religions and such, it seems to us that a good bet for a CRE-PHI team to found a religion would be a Philo bulb. Assuming roughly similar starts, it probably won't be too long before a 'mystic' civ founds Hinduism. We need mysticism for border pops, so it might be a better 'fit' for us to head that way. We intend to complete some core techs before embarking further down the trees limbs, so nothing is set in stone for us yet.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac[/COLOR]

[Whosit]

Tch. Well, that's almost pitiful. Considering that's all they've scouted, I have no idea how we can negotiate the Marble from them. Let me know if you have any ideas, TT (I wonder if sunrise will tag you, too). :P

There's that crazy option of letting them get the Oracle, but I don't like it much.

[Kyan]

Tch. Well, that's almost pitiful. Considering that's all they've scouted, I have no idea how we can negotiate the Marble from them. Let me know if you have any ideas, TT (I wonder if sunrise will tag you, too). :P

There's that crazy option of letting them get the Oracle, but I don't like it much.

Hmm, well the desert tile is 2 tiles nearer our capital than theirs. I reckon i can get that spot 'approved' by them.

Also note that they cant currently see the pigs 2S of the corn so that would be a viable site for them. Still, we are asking to use pretty much every resource they've discovered thus far haha.

What's the sunrise tagging thing?

[Kyan]

Oh and i'm still not adverse at all to the 'letting them have oracle providing we get metal casting' plan. I think that providing we can trust them, this is actually the most favourable way forward. Whether we can in fact trust them or not though is the BIG question.

We've found juicy sites to the south and east now coupled with our initial two northerly ones plus it would pretty much cement our two as firm allies (again, we have to decide if this is what we want but of the two players on that team that have played previous games at RB i think both have proved their loyalty big-time).

[Whosit]

What's the sunrise tagging thing?

From last evening's MP game. Tagged by 20 Horse Archers.

[Kyan]

Ouch. Maybe you can get some revenge in this game?

I played the last 2 turns as per instructions. Nothing exciting really happened. A lion appeared near Banshee so i moved him into a forest to taunt him into attacking (at around 4.5% odds) which the lion took and lost. Banshee needs 2 turns to heal to full (he's at 1.7) which i am going to let him do seeing as we can afford the delay on his movements for now. Nothing else exciting to report. Will formulate a draft reply to Mali later today.