RBP3 [Spoilers] Capac of Mali

[dsplaisted]

I agree that we should chop versus whipping the Settler. Perhaps we should whip a worker afterwards, though.

Why is it risky to road 3 tiles? We can have a Warrior guard the worker, and if an animal shows up we can always run away.

Do we still think the proposed city site is the best? It's got no hills and no rivers...

[Swiss Pauli]

We don't really have enough warriors to explore, cover the worker, and wait for settler the forest.

Overall, whilst not a perfect spot, I think it's the best in the area: it gets our strategic resources online quickly, has the horses (and the whip) for production and has some food (FP & Cows) and lets us settle a city on the hill 3 tiles south.

1N and we only have the horse to improve until we have a monument, and has less food. 1S not only blocks the mentioned city, but would be next to a hill.

1W is more risky to reach, and though we'd gain another grass hill, we have to wait for a monument to get the cows improved.

[dsplaisted]

Can't the same warrior guard the worker building the road and then move onto the forest to guard the Settler?

[Swiss Pauli]

I think that would only let us move onto the forest on T50, which is cutting it very fine: a barb on the forest on T50 would lose us the turn we gain by roading.

[Broker33]

arent horses, cows and copper with 1 desert hill fairly decent production. Gets us the respources quick and should turn out to be a decent city. I think the spot is fine.

[Swiss Pauli]

Played T46 & T47. Jerry is roading towards city 3, and I pulled Mick back for extra fogbusting. Marianne is chopping the plains forest for the settler. When done, she should chop a forest for Uberfish's granary then cottage Uberfish's FPs.

Once the settler is out, we should whip a worker in Sirian, then go for a granary.

Incoming message from Babylon:

Greetings Emperor Capac,

How have you been these last few years? We hope the English are posing you no trouble.

We thought it prudent to keep you informed with Byzantine. They have agreed to allow us one city in their direction also as they already have one towards us and plans for a second. They have also offered us some of their maps and a non-aggresion pact.

Byzantine currently have a warrior meandering towards your land (approaching from the north side of our lands) to meet your fine civilization. Furthermore, they have expressed interest in tech trading. They have had some suggestions thus far including but not limited to:

"At this moment, the proposed tech trade is uneven; before the difficulty modifier, Writing (120 beakers) and Alphabet (300) are double the price of Iron Working (200). We would therefore like to make an additional offer to even out the trade. This depends a lot on Mali's and England's efforts, but hopefully this will be a fair offer:

Writing (120) and Alphabet (300) for Iron Working (200)
Mathematics (250) for Metal Casting (450)

We are fairly sure at this point that Mali will want to get Metal Casting early. In that case we would like to make the following offer:

Hunting (40) and Archery (60) for Meditation (80) and Masonry (80)
We will then research Horseback riding (250) and gift it to you.

The latter would require a wait for a return of investment for you. That is why the second group of tech trades are favourable to you.

Hopefully these trades are acceptable to you. We are happy to consider counteroffers."

We find their offer of going for iron working tempting as both of our lands are blighted with this fetid jungle. Babylon will be heading for writing and alphabet as you know. We would rather get your opinion first before we agree to any trades though. After all, any deals would have to be beneficial to both ourselves and the Malinese nation for us to consider accepting them.

How are discussions with England faring? We would be interested in meeting them if possible. Perhaps they have a scout exploring that we could contact?

Your friends,

Kyan
Kysit's Periwinkles

I'll draft a response to Babylon. Frankly, I find Byzatium's offers a bit weird (Writing's a pre-req for Maths, for example), but in principle tech trading has to be a good thing for us.

In lieu of any feedback regarding England's proposal for a NAP, I'm going to offer them a nop-strings, get-to-know-you NAP until T75.

[Swiss Pauli]

T48 played. No news today Workers roading/chopping & all warriors fortified. Had a glance at the demogs and we're 4th in food and 7th in production which is pretty decent.

Email to Babylon:

Dear Kyan,

Our discussions with England are still in the preliminary phase, but they seem friendly enough so far. We can see that your discussions with Byzantium are much more advanced! We've pointed them in your general direction, but they haven't had a chance to confirm whether they have a 'spare' scout who can meet you.

We lok forward to meeting Byzantium: kindly warn them that a bear has been sighted to the east-northeat of our capital, so their scouts best stick to defensive terrain!

It goes without saying that we would like to trade techs with you, Byzantium and - we hope - England, but the proposals below aren't that appealing. As we see it, the key techs on the table for Research Round 1 are:

Alphabet 300 (pre-req: Writing)
Mathematics 250 (pre-req: Writing)
Monarchy 300 (pre-req: Priest/Mono)
Iron Working 200 (pre-req: BW)

We think that Aesthetics, HBR & MC would more properly belong in a 2nd round of trading, or could be added to this round should other civs which to trade with us.

In the above trades, we think that the civ trading IW for Alpha & Monarchy should make up the beaker deficit in these trades. For the others, then the civ giving fewer beakers should try to even up with a cheap tech, but should also have the option to carry over to a later trade. What do you think of this concept?

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

Added the line about the bear to the draft as it doesn't hurt to be friendly

I thought about saying we'd like to supply Monarchy in this round (which would fit with a play for (late) Oracle, but didn't want to press the point at this stage.

[Swiss Pauli]

Email to England:

Dear Team CHASM,

We would like to propose an intial get-to-know-each-other NAP until T75. This would give us a decent window to sort out a longer NAP, and to develop a good working relationship. How does this sound to you?

Which civs have you met so far?

We've met Babylon, who are located to your south-south-east, roughly a dozen tiles away. They don't have a spare scout to send in your direction at the moment, but they look forward to meeting you.

Babylon has also met Byzantium, whose scout is heading to meet us in the not too distant future.

We look forward to your positive feedback.

Best Wishes

Emperor Capac

They had all their EPs towards us which might well mean that they haven't met (m)any other civs. I sent it this morning, and they're all US-based, so maybe they will reply tonight.

[Swiss Pauli]

T49 played. Marianne is under Brian (oooer) roading, and Jerry finished the chop (I got them the wrong way round earlier).



The Mayan warrior will get bumped when the turn rolls. Anyone know to which tile? If we want to keep Marianne covered, and have a warrior in the forest next turn, we'll need to move Mick this turn. Given that Maya seems friendly, I don't see the need, but wouldn't have any major objection to being extra-cautious.

Please move him (or not) and end turn.

Keef has healed and moved NE on the wheat...more of which in this email from England:

Greetings, Emperor Capac.

We thought it might be good to give an update of our political situation. We met your Babylonian neighbors to the east, and the Holy Roman Empire, as well. We offered to arrange a meeting between you and the HRE. If Keef is healthy and heads due north from the wheat tile, he'll meet their exploring warrior. The Babylonians are directing us to a meeting with the Byzantines, which should be in the next few turns. We also heard rumors of another civ in the West.

We are planning on spending no more than 43EP on you for graphs we would appreciate it if you did the same, and will reach 43EP on T55. Good luck!

PS. Have you seen any good sites S of the small mountain range? Sullla has been unkind to us resource wise. We'll keep an eye out for sites near you when our scouting warriors get there.

Very good. I'll write to them about Maya, and how we directed them round to meet Babylon & Byzantium, then up north to England. Looks like they will meet each other sooner than I thought

[Swiss Pauli]

Email to England:

Hail Team Chasm!

Thanks for your email.

We met Ragnar of Maya towards the end of last turn, and directed them east around our lands to meet Babylon & Byzantium, and advised them you that you were located to north from there. From your email, it looks like you'll have a warrior in the east-northeast of our capital as well, so it seems you meet Maya fairly soon. It will take them another 8-10 turns to get around our capital to meet you all.

Thanks for arranging the meeting with HRE. Keef moved to the wheat tile on T49. We'll limit our EPs to 43 towards you as well.

There is a good site south of the mountain range, and we settled Uberfish there Our scouting is by no means complete, but it's generally quite hilly terrain to the east, lacking in food specials, with a river and some FPs to the west. Don't know how far you've scouted to your capital's west, but there's a river sugar 2SW of the wheat. We'd describe the food situation in our hinterland as 'average', and it seems you're also underwhelmed.

We've just started to get the ball rolling on tech trading discussions. Have you got any thoughts on how best to approach this? No-one wants to get left out, of course, but ending up in a UTA/NUTA replay would be a little...unimaginitive at best.

Best Wishes,

Emperor Capac