RB Pitboss #3 [SPOILERS]- Suryavarman II of England

[haphazard1]

Yes, meant NE with Gulliver.

Note the "have knowledge of" phrasing -- we haven't actually met all of these civs, but we know people who have and have an idea where they are. We will meet all of them fairly soon. Why let them know how little scouting we have actually done?

[Cyneheard]

We know where Carthage is, and will meet them soon. I don't want to make it sound like we have contact with the Maya, when that's likely 20t away.

Oh, and from the Mali screenshot they sent us, I've matched it to our scouting data. That's really crappy land between us. They've got that nice dry corn + GH pigs + marble city (likely the location of Blake), but there's nothing between those mountains and their land.

Mali's capital is 11S4W of London. Their city of Uberfish is 8S5W of London. A hypothetical spot that gets them all 3 resources would be 11S1E of London.



Note the desert hill in the NE of Mali's pic, and the desert tile 1SW of there. That desert tile's 3S and 3E away from Royal Guard.

[antisocialmunky]

Nvm, misunderstood. That is a nice spot. That is like a slightly less good beaver rock. I'm more curious what's NW.

[antisocialmunky]

double

[haphazard1]

Nice work, Cyneheard.

That puts Uberfish 4S3W of Royal Guard. 1S on to the hill, then 1SW and we would probably see their borders.

Does not leave much room. We can do something with the silks, although it is looking like it will have to be that desert tile south of London or something further west with the other dry wheat. If RG reveals something next turn from that hill, then maybe one more city could go in that area.

If you want to be more cautious on the message to Byz that is fine. Maybe something like "we know x, y, z and have heard rumors of several others"?

[Cyneheard]

Greetings to the Spectre Council from the lords of Avalon!

We were pleased to receive a report from our explorer Gulliver that he made contact with Jenkins, as arranged by our Babylonian friends. It is good to meet proper civilizations and not just barbs as we explore this world.

We have knowledge of a number of civilizations -- Mali, HRE, Babylon obviously, and are meeting Carthage soon. May we inquire which civilizations you have met?

We look forward to strong relations which will benefit both of our great peoples.

Team CHASM, lords of Avalon

And sent. I also cleaned up our inbox: Auto-filtered the new turn message to go to its own label, and skip the inbox.

[Cyneheard]

T54 rolled quickly.

EDIT: Gulliver was attacked in the IT by something, probably a wolf. Is at 1.8/2 health (2t to heal), and has 4/5 XP. I moved him onto the forest, we can heal him there, or press on. I think we should heal.

We have Mali's charts, and will finish off the last 3 EP against them this turn (they have fewer EP on us, so we got visibility first). Separate analysis to follow in a separate post.

Royal Guard found a food resource. It's the worst one there is, but that + part-time pigs is enough to make that a somewhat-viable city.



Richard continues to head for Carthaginian Space:



Demogs:



Analysis to follow, in chat with Babylon at the moment.

[Cyneheard]

Charts:

Power:



Our is currently 32k. Theirs is 25k. They have all of 3 warriors in their empire. One of those warriors is exploring. We have 6.

Crop Yield:



These are a turn old. Ours dropped to 22 by going max-hammers @ London. Last turn, we were +1 on them, so they have 25 food. Not bad for 6 pop, but clearly it's at the expense of everything else.

MFG:



It's all of 6. Our is 21 now, it was 18 (switched Rice to GHM).

GNP:



They're 7 behind us, but we get 6 free Creative culture.

[Cyneheard]

Demogs + Charts are going to be put off for a while.

Diplomacy time!

Had 3 chats, with the HRE, Babylon, and Byzantium. This will be in several posts.

First post:
The Holy Roman Empire.
Their offer:
An 8-team alliance, called "The Cartel".
HRE/England/Carthage/Egypt (Krill)/India (Team Regorise)/Portugal/Ottomans/Aztec
Krill is about to Oracle Alphabet, T62. This means I need to change my predicted tech path for him again. After Polytheism, he's gone Priesthood-Pottery, with Writing up next. I don't think he even has Mining yet.
So we'd be going 100% cash once we finish Pottery. Once Alphabet comes in, and everyone trades around what they've got, then teams start on their agreed-upon techs. What techs those are, well, I think Krill's going to have the unenviable position of coordinating all of that.

I don't see how the other offer can come close to that. Approx. T85 Alphabet from Babylon + a first round of trades (IW, HBR, Math, something else (Monarchy?)) isn't bad, but not good enough.

1) Do we take this deal? I think we'd be crazy not to.
2) How do we break it to the southern neighbors, without spilling the beans too much? We've agreed to share contact info with Babylon, so that's going to bite us, we'll have to tell them who we meet when.

Random side note: I'm shifting our EP to Babylon. With Mali's charts in, they're the team I most want to keep an eye on.

Next post: HRE chat.

[Cyneheard]

Chat with HRE:

me: how goes it?
DIM: aw too busy man
me: ok. quick question: who else are we meeting, besides Carthage?
DIM: Egypt and Carthage and India
me: ok. Inca seem to be forming a group, and Babylon-Mali-Maya-Byz are another
DIM: then who is left for Inca to join?
me: there's still 7 other teams out there: France, Aztecs, Portugal
DIM: yeah France poor buggers. they still haven't met another team i think
me: really?
DIM: we've met 9 so far, and F4 gives not one line
me: 9? Well done. That scout's been useful.
DIM: yeah, allthough he did die early
me: such is a scout's lot in life with Emperor Barbs on the loose
DIM: yeah. I hope you guys decide to join us. we've come up with a brilliant plan
me: Besides steamrolling France?
DIM: hehe, yeah you guys are invited to the party . dogpile his ass
me: have you met Rome yet? I think they're due north of you.
DIM: I can already tell you you should start saving gold. they are NE but we haven't met them yet?
me: Saving gold...well, we need Hunting for our furs. and is France due east, or SE, of you?
DIM: SE
me: saving gold? Upgrades?
This is where it gets interesting
DIM: I'll give you the plan
me: this is strictly confidential, regardless of our diplomacy decisions.
DIM: Krill will finish the Oracle on T62. he will take Alphabet. We first trade around the cheap techs
me: that explains why he doesn't have BW
DIM: then everyone goes full bore on an assigned tech: Maths/Monarchy/IW/HBR/MC/Currency/etc. That's why we need to save gold
me: ah, ok. We're 2t from Pottery, so are finishing that. [OOC: Actually 3t, but whatever]
DIM: ok. can I count you in?
me: Probably, obviously need to talk it over. But that looks a lot stronger than the deal being set up to our S
DIM: 8 teams so far
me: 8! We're definitely in, if that's the case.
DIM: welcome
me: and we're in good position to build quickly. We've been #1 or 2 in MFG and Crop Yield for some time now. We'll have 5 workers for our 3 cities in like 2t
DIM: commerce is important now, don't overextend. upkeep will tank your economy
me: true. but with Hunting coming in soon, we'll get our furs online, and lots of cottages
DIM: same here. allthough we don't have yummy furs...
me: you have gold. Much better.
DIM: . members of Alliance so far: India/Egypt/Portugal/Ottomans/Aztec/HRE/Carthage/England. pretty solid
me: aye
DIM: has the southern alliance approached you yet?
me: yes
DIM: don't say no right away
me: not officially turning them down.
DIM: good, because the shit will hit the fan once they find out about the Cartel.
me: And by Southern, you mean Babylon/Mali/Byz/Maya, right?
DIM: yup
me: are they on the chopping block?
DIM: they probably will be
me: Babylon will have its Academy ~T70-71. T71, if they manage their micro right
DIM: that's not really a problem
me: wouldn't think so, they're a T85 Alpha or so. I've got to go, get some work done, and post all these chats and such. You'll hear from us in the next 24 hours
DIM: good, you'll need to move the warior north
me: straight north?
DIM: to meet the other members
me: ok.
DIM: sec. i'll need to coordinate with Krill, but for the time being keep moving west until after the peak tile NW NW of you
me: ok, so we'll go W next turn, and follow you
DIM: no our warrior is heading back to HRE
me: ah
DIM: don't follow him
me: it would be obvious when that happens
DIM: hehe true
me: so relative to TD, where exactly is the meetingplace?
DIM: depends, I need to check with the others. I don't have their exact locations atm
me: ok
DIM: move W and you'll meet carthage
me: ok, and they can direct us from there
DIM: carthage needs to meet the others as well, it's going to be hell logistically
me: oh, I'm sure