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

[Ilios]

If you guys feel we should build the settler earlier, I'd be happy to re-work the micro. That would mean we couldn't get a couple of workers up there in time, because I have them building the Silver mine for commerce and extra happiness.

[Ilios]

Here's the draft I've prepared for France regarding the NAP. I haven't sent it yet, and would much appreciate your comments before sending this over to them.

To the leaders of France,


Sorry for the delay in replying, one of our team members has had a very busy week and has only now managed to chime in.

We're not big fans of NAP's to be honest, as we feel that NAP's should be earned.
For example, we only signed an NAP with our good neighbours, the Ottomans, after lenghty discussions about resource deals and settling rights. This way, we have built trust and managed to hammer out a deal which was acceptable to both parties.

Could you send us a screenshot of our borderlands (your west, northwest and north I'm assuming) and your preferred city-sites? Once we've gotten those, we can look at them and send you back our comments/wishes.

Once we've established an acceptable border, an NAP shouldn't be a problem.


Regards,


Ilios - DIM

[meatbalz]

my suggestion would be to remove the reference to our patchy knowledge of the lands, and just ask them for a screenshot of their preferred city sites.

i'd also rephrase that last sentence, right now it reads too much like we're stalling. we should make it sound like settling agreement is PART of the NAP process, rather than a pre-requisite. basically we should make them think once that's resolved an NAP shouldn't be a problem.

[/2 cents]

[Ilios]

Thanks for your input MB! I've updated the draft in the previous post, and plan on sending it over to France tonight, because it's been three days since they sent their NAP request.

[Ilios]

France's reply:

HRE,

We understand the difficulties of managing an empire, we are patient people.

Your feelings are understood, we shall ponder the matter and send our thoughts shortly. It is wise and perceptive to establish clear boundaries that suit both parties. We hope we can enjoy good relations with our neighbours and build long term friendship with mutual cooperation.

Regards

ANG-FR

Stalling mission accomplished!

Also, Carthage apparently got screenshots from France, sent them over to England, who kindly forked them over to us.

[Ilios]

After looking at the map, and thinking this through, I don't think it would be in our interest to keep Lyon.

We'd take too much of an upkeep hit (it's 6 tiles NW, 2 tiles W, so 11 distance removed for calculating distance upkeep).
We couldn't spare any workers to improve the city immediately and we need to take into account the upkeep hit we'll surely take for Marble city.

So I think we should suggest England to take the original copper site we had sort of agreed upon (2SW of Lyon), and get compensated with the Sheep/Wine site to Singa's south.

That said, I don't know if you guys have thought of which site to take next, and I was thinking of the plains hill to DIM's north as a good candidate for the city after Marble (we can probably finish a settler from Singa just a couple of turns after finishing the settler in DIM for Marble site). It's the plains hill exactly 5 tiles east from Marble (there's recent screenshot at post 606).
It claims grassland cow and a floodplain, which, when farmed would give the city a solid 6 food surplus, and grassland spices once we get Calendar.
Lot's of grassland rivers and hills, so it has the potential to become a pretty good commerce city.
It is also on a hill for excellent defenses and will give us a good forward post towards Inca.

[meatbalz]

gosh that looks like some poor land E of DIM, full of dry plains

what's the metals resource S of portugal, is that a modded grass marble tile?

my concern with not staking claim to lyons is that there is some very poor land N of it, and letting england claim the S would leave us with terrible city sites when we decide to expand that way later on. i'm not saying we keep lyon, we should raze it, but we should lay claim to part of that area if we can, given how arid the land directly N of it is.

it really appears to me we've had some poor luck in terms of the map. the most attractive land is to the N towards inca/rome + agree with the proposed site on the hill 5E of the marble.

as for wine, england have one between them and france so shouldn't object to us having the one close to our land?

[dazedroyalty]

Sorry for being AFK yesterday. I got sent on a work trip (that turned out to be a complete waste of time) so I was away from the computer all day. I agree with MB that the land to directly to the east is pretty crappy looking. In terms of city placement, I think food is king. We should settle where we can get the most food. As evidenced by Midas' w/o food, it's really slow going.

I think the reload was deserved but it's going to make us really have to be smart in delaying France....

[Ilios]

Well, the game is down, so I couldn't finish our turn.
The only thing that's left to be done, is whipping the Horse Archer at DIM (micro is a couple of posts before), and moving the chariot. I haven't moved him yet, because the barb that appeared at our borders moved out of sight to one of three tiles (either NE, E or SE). Thoughts on how to move him?
I won't have access to the game for at least 12 hours, so if either MB or Dazed can finish our turn...

Edit: England have asked us to hold the turn until at least 12pm EDT (I'm guessing that's either 5 or 6 pm CET), so no need to end turn right now. They need to play T74 before France, so they can claim first half of the turn when they declare on T75. If needed, we'll just let the turn roll, after making our moves.

[dazedroyalty]

I just tried to connect so I could make those moves but the connection timed out. Is the game still down? I had thought Sunrise said just a couple of hours...

EDIT: Just read Sunrise's update.