RBP3 - [SPOILERS] - Team DIM (Mehmed of HRE)

[dazedroyalty]

I'm pretty sure that the 10 turn minimum still is in effect even in MP. Perhaps a lurker can confirm. Portugal's response was really good. I definitely don't think it's a good idea to tell France that they're out. That's like announcing: BUILD MORE UNITS B/C WE'RE COMING!

I'm glad that there is a plan in place for France. I'd like to see some screenshots with unit movements by turn developed so we can be sure it'll work well.

I'll post more if the internet comes back on at work. I've gotta run now - just on a quick lunch break.

[Ilios]

I sent this back to the English:

Hi,


I think it's clear we're not planning on telling France they're out of the Cartel. Mukha did a pretty good job patching things up.


Re the axeman, I'd wish you'd informed us a couple of turns earlier. I don't know if you realise this, but Midas' borders only popped recently, and it's Corn has only been farmed last turn. We've been pretty much stunting the city's growth to keep working that gold mine to finish HBR as fast as possible. We could have whipped an Axe from DIM a couple of turns earlier to be ready for the assault. The only solution I can think of is providing you with copper for a couple of turns (don't know if minimum 10 turns apply as in SP), for you to chop/whip the axe in a city close to the front.


Also, I can't remember when Lyon got founded, but have you considered that it could have popped its border by T75, which would mean France would spot your stack on T74?


Anyway let me know if there's anything else we can do.


Regards,


Ilios - DIM

And this is what they sent back:

Ilios,

Agreed, Mukha's response was really good. Writing + Aesthetics is probably the simplest way to go. Every hammer they spend on libraries isn't being spent on troops.

Sorry, we just realized this turn that an axe coming along would make a big difference; the tac plan's been in a state of flux, but it's finally locked in now. It was only last turn that we learned of their copper having a chance of being online soon. Lyons was founded on T63. So, since they haven't had writing, unless they chopped a monument instantly we won't have to worry about a border popping. If the border HAS popped, then we're also looking at 1t being stuck in their culture. If they spend 90 hammers on a library there after getting Writing this turn, then Lyons deserves to fall, and there isn't a chance they'll have the units capable of stopping us.

A copper loan wouldn't be helpful for this assault, since our front city is going to be building chariots on T70, 71 and 72 anyway, the last 2 courtesy of Math. An axe built there would have a tough time reaching Lyons in time anyway; Midas is closer. Stealth and speed are more important than adding an extra unit. After IW comes in, we'll see what our iron situation is in our territory, and at that point we should determine what to do with Lyons if it's size 2. The minimum of 10t wouldn't apply if we'd made it a resource trade (like one of our health resources), and then canceled the trade; this has been done already this game by Krill.

Cyneheard

Good, so no hard feelings...

Other news:

* for some reason, India made peace with Sumeria...
* Maya wants in the Cartel
* Babylon and Mali are more or less in the Cartel
* Ottomans will be picking up our worker on T75, and we'll get a shiny new chariot in return. We'll finish a Worker in Singa on T77, keeping us at 5 workers for 3 cities. They finish IW on T71.
* Carthage finishes Maths on T70 (you should see their lands, commerce galore)
* England will start researching Monarchy next turn, to be finished around T79-80
* India is researching Metal Casting

[meatbalz]

good news all around. i'm as puzzled as you are why india made peace w/ sumeria. they must really have hated exploit.

[Ilios]

First up diplo-news:

France told Rome about Portugal's imminent attack!

Mukha was chatting with Morgan, and let him know the whips were the army preparations against Rome. And France went straight to Rome with the information!

India took Sumeria's capital, which would have been Yaz' last city if he didn't panick found one, which means he managed to trade around Alphabet.

Rome has sent us a stern warning asking us to immediately remove our warrior from their borders. I plan on sending them a request to at least move NW on a forest. Rome now has Hunting, so might have a Spear in it's capital.

[dazedroyalty]

FRANCE!!! ARGH!!!!!!

Either they never really wanted to be in the group or are just operating under the assumption that they're gonna be kicked.

[Ilios]

Ok here was the situation last turn.

Dazed and I agreed to move the warrior outside of Singa on the forest west, hoping the barb warrior would suicide against it. Tricky moved to cover the worker to Singa's north.




This is the tactical situation on T72. The barb warrior ignored our warrior, and instead moved to Singa's NW. I will move both warriors inside the city, and have changed production to an Archer, to be whipped next turn in case the barb manages to kill our unit inside the city, AND manages to kill our warrior when we attack outside of the city.
As you can see, barbs are amassing on our borders, which is why I had to move our chariot towards the eastern barb, instead of moving him towards the Roman front.
The northern barb warrior is still far off, which means our Horse Archer from DIM will be ready when it enters our borders. The blue circle on the map indicates our Iron resource.



I have spread around HBR to our closest neighbours, Krill and Portugal. I'm willing to spread it India and Aztec as well, but I'm not convinced we want to give the tech to our newest members, Babylon and Maya (whom we both haven't met) and Mali.

There has been some more diplo going on, including France asking us for an NAP. I'll try to update later this evening.

[dazedroyalty]

Hello barbs! I guess the upside is that since it's a pretty tight map, we won't have the level of barbs we WOULD have had if there was more open space.

Obviously, I do not want a NAP with France but finding a way to dance around it will be a challenge for sure! Turns aren't quick enough that we can ignore it until the war starts. Have they been officially removed now?

[Ilios]

As we wait for the Roman request for a reload to happen, here's the diplo-update I promised yesterday.

India:

Hey guys,
It seems like it's been awhile since we talked last, so I thought I would drop you guys a quick note to see what's going on. Seems like the world is a-changin' pretty quickly.
Over on our part of the world, you'll probably have noticed that we took a city from Exploit. What is going on over on your side of the world? We are on Metal Casting right now - you guys are on HBR, right? What is the ETA for that?
PARTY ON!
DJ Civ
India

Hey,




Congrats on taking Exploit's city! I'm guessing it was the one to your west, on flatland. Didn't he have any idea you were planning on attacking him? Or was he still defending it with warriors?


Things are heating up here as well, as Portugal is about to declare on Rome. As for us, well, let's say we have a little surprise in store for the French...


We will discover HBR on T72, unless something catastrophic happens to our nation. When will you guys finish Metal Casting? (lots and lots of beakers needed!)

DIM,

Thanks...we are behind in our correspondence due to the number of teams in this game. We took the Sumerian capital but unfortunately he founded a "blaze of glory" city to live long enough to get Alphabet out. We'll remove him from the game next turn. He was still defending with Warriors even though he suspected an attack, which I think is all that needs to be said about that :-).

I've heard about the nasty French from a few civs now, it sounds like they tipped Rome off about the impending Portuguese attack.

Metal Casting ETA is after the end of the game right now, our cities are whipped to the ground. We think in about 10 turns we'll have a "real estimate" as we grow and start getting Cottages/Silver online. We plan on sending an update at that time. Its an 800 beaker tech, but a key one so we are going to push economy full speed. That's great news on HBR, Chariots are so passe' now that CANS bizarre Hunting monopoly is over. Any thoughts where you are going after HBR?


PARTY ON!
DJ Civ
India

DJ,


Congrats on taking Sumeria out of the game! I didn't really get Exploit's game plan as well.

Yeah, France, don't talk to me about them...

I've heard that Maya will be taking over your MC duty, and that you'll be going Aesthetics instead. We are currently saving gold, and will probably head for CoL after.

Unless you guys are in desperate need for Horse Archers, we would like to hold off gifting HBR to you until T75. We are currently involved in a grand scheme re France, and need to keep up appearances. This means we will only gift/trade HBR with Carthage, England and Ottomans. (basically, we don't want France to claim the tech because everyone else got it)

We'll keep you updated should anything important come up.
Ruff indicated he would like for us (Ottomans, DJ, Aztec, HRE) to meet up and discuss the future of the Cartel, which has now grown to unsustainable proportions.


Regards,


Ilios - DIM

[Ilios]

England:

This you guys need to agree and sign off before I reply. England have indicated they would like a reply regarding the NAP before they attack France on T75.

Team DIM,

Iron Working has come in, and we have an iron source within our borders. I can't say when it will be connected, but no later than T80. (Happens when it's not near our workers). So, we do need to talk about settling, of the sheep/wines, anything in the central area between AF, BR, and Midas, and the northern parts of soon-to-be-ex France.
We realize that we haven't signed a formal NAP extension, either.
So, here's our NAP proposal:
Auto-renewing NAP with a 10t cooldown. The earliest it could be canceled is T100. So, a cancellation on turn X would allow either side to declare war on turn X+10.
No ROP for armies either at war with either civ. Both sides agree to use good faith judgment on "Why are these 10 HAs moving through my territory towards the other side?"
43EP limit.
No scouting restrictions. We'll try to send a unit to defog to SN so we can get trade routes with your cities.

The settlin plan is another thing we need to discuss thoroughly. England now want the Wine/Sheep spot to Singa's south. And they want to place a filler city to grab the Spices to Midas' SE. They've offered to hand over Lyon to DIM, provided they don't lose too many units. I don't have enough info about those lands yet before we can agree to that, but one thing is for sure: there is still lots and lots of land to fill, so we need to take that into account before we start assigning land to our nation.

Ottomans:

DIM

Actually, we have revised the plan and we will found the gold city on
T76. When do you plan to have the border site founded?

We can have a chariot at the border site by T75. If you can't found
the city by then, we could fogbust or head towards your cities or
something like that.

You mentioned that we could pick up the worker at T75 near your horse
city. Is there any chance that you could have a worker closer to our
gold city? If not then we don't see how we can pick up the worker from
down there unless we use our chariot. What are your thoughts on this?

Just so it's in writing, we won't trade IW to you guys until next turn
when you get HBR to help mislead France.

A4,


Unfortunately, we are preparing for war, so won't be able to found the city before T80. We can't get a worker there before that time.
I was going to suggest you position a chariot between Numedia and Singa, allowing our worker to use it as cover. Then the turn after we move the worker into your borders, and you move the chariot in ours.
What do you think?

As always, highest regards,


Ilios - DIM

DIM

That's ok, we understand we you can't found the city by then. War does
delay stuff like that.

Your idea re:the exchange sounds good, however we'll have to delay the
worker deal for 1 turn since our chariot won't be able to get to
either staging tile by then (The one 2W or the one 2W1N of your nearby
sheep tile). Since we can get to both tiles the same turn, which one
would you prefer?

Many thanks for HBR. We hope that IW is useful to you guys. What will
you be heading for next?

A4


While it doesn't really matter where the worker and chariot meet, I suppose it's best if we agree to a tile so our worker doesn't find himself eating by barbs...
Let's meet on the tile 2W, 1N of the Singa sheep tile.


We will be saving some gold for a couple of turns, and will probably head for Code of Laws after that.


Regards,


Ilios - DIM

[Ilios]

This is an interesting email from Rome, sent around T68 to most of the nations outside of the Cartel. This was forwarded to Portugal, who in turn sent it over to us.

Please forward to Babylon and Mali.

Dear Heracles,

I know we, the SsS, have not made our voices heard a lot up until now. We have simply lacked the necessary contacts to send around messages without causing too much of a strain on the foreign departments of the free nation of Tech and the brave fighting nation of JANK. The time has now come, however, when we share with all of you the details of what we know and how we view the situation going forward.

First of all I would like to publicly announce what most if not all of you already know; that the SsS Empire will soon be gearing for war. Our researchers have been hard at work and Iron Working is now due to be discovered on turn 68. A settler, designated for Iron, will complete on the same turn. We have a Saxeman ready (yes, that's how it's spelled!) to act as escort and another one, that we had to delay slightly to time the settler properly, will be ready on turn 69. We currently do not have a Saxeman heading for Tech, as we believe hooking up Iron is of outmost importance to the cause of Heracles at this point and escorting the settler therefore takes priority. It should, however, only be a short matter of time before one is dispatched unless peace is obtained on that front.

In two turns SsS will enter into production mode. Our cities are prepared with granaries and barracks, whatever forests remain within our borders will be harvested and we are ready to apply the whip as needed. Soon SsS Spraetorians will be ready to fight the battle against the Hydra. A battle that will be brought upon the nation of Cath Bruig (Portugal), who will have to take the punishment for the abomination that they and their allies foolishly have created. I believe that peace with DJ (India) will only serve our cause as it lets the northern chariots and whatever offensive units Tech might produce to help SsS in our struggle, just as much as it leaves the door open for a Spraetorian detour into DJ territory.

We are currently hard at work trying to ensure a trade with JANK, where their spare units from the Aztec campaign is allowed to be recruited under the SsS banner. We envision an army so large and powerful that not even the aid of their allies will give Cath Bruig any hope of survival. An army, that once its initial mission is complete, is so sturdy that it can still devastate DJ and even the numbers while grinding one of the Hydra's ringleaders into the dust. But I am getting ahead of myself here, so lets move on to other matters.

If Cath Bruig did indeed whip a pair of chariots, they can cause some trouble over here as well, not just at the Tech border. With no current access to Spearmen we could be in some serious trouble getting hold of Iron in case they decide to harrass our escort with those chariots. Not to mention the risk of an invasion, though we can probably handle that without too much effort. I just wanted to make you all aware of that fact.

Lastly, I believe it makes sense to update you on SsS' diplomatic position. The Hydra have not given up on trying to recruit us, so we are playing along as best as we can now that Operation Tuesday 65 has been discontinued, though we are not sure to what degree they still view us as potentially neutral. France, HRE, and India have simply stopped talking to us without any prior statement, so we are only communicating with Cath Bruig at this time. I am as of recently trying to make the Hydra believe that SsS is preparing hard-on to get DJ killed so that they will be less prepared for an assault on Cath Bruig, but I can only guess whether I will be successful or not in that regard.

May the mighty S protect you all.

Regards,
Sandover
Team SsS