RBP3 [SPOILERS] - Zara of the Ottomans

[ad hoc]

I think he will teleport to the iron tile though.

Won't he jump to one of the diagonals as they are closer to Ophir than the iron?

i'd also move the HA from aquilonia anyway, its not doing any good as MP at the moment and another one completes next turn.

[WarriorKnight]

It'd also be good to play before Carthage next turn if we want to close borders with them, they have a Numidian Cavalry on our road system ready to move into our capital.

Yeah, don't want them seeing more of our land.

The only concern I have is they have a warrior sitting around in Ophir at the moment, which will probably bounce down next to our iron once we close borders, and we've got two workers in the area laying down roads. Maybe we should move a HA over to the area also? If we move one this turn it can cover the worker who's roading the iron outside our borders. They could pillage the road out of spite also I guess. It'll be outside of our borders for two turns (I forgot about the anarchy turn when planning this). Alternatively we could not quite complete the road and send both workers into the foresthill to chop for a turn. This might be a good precaution anyway.

EDIT: This is impossible. There is no road on the iron to make it possible. If the warrior pops onto the iron tile it's best not to complete it, as he can pillage it. I think if he pops next to the iron then he can't pillage it before the border covers the tile, but will need to check if this happens. I think he will teleport to the iron tile though.

Won't he jump to one of the diagonals as they are closer to Ophir than the iron?

Unit teleportation is wierd. I'm not entirely sure where it'll end up but it usually heads back to where the borders of the unit are. I don't believe that it will end north of Ophir. It's possible that he could end up on the iron. Depending on the borders he could also end up S of Aquilonia! Need to see where he is before we can start guessing where he ends up.

EDIT: OK he's located in Ophir. It seems most likely that he'll get booted to the iron tile, so ignore what I said earlier.

i'd also move the HA from aquilonia anyway, its not doing any good as MP at the moment and another one completes next turn.

He's called "Barb Hunter" for a reason.

Actually I was mainly keeping there as a staging tile and to make Carthage believe that we are using him for MP (rather than reserves for an attack). He doesn't really have much other uses ATM though (if we get attacked, he can move into Zingara easy.

I agree here, let's stick to short term NAPs for the moment. I think I would just ignore their proposal and say "thanks for signing the NAP til t120". Either that or say we'd like a short term one up front and we'll consider discussing a longer term one down the road. Actually, that's probably better for mending fences for the moment. We can burn those fences later

Have we got Open Borders with them?

That's being friendly.

Since they actually mentioned that they would be happy with a T120 NAP, I'll stick with that and the idea of "indefinite NAP? lolz" theme.

Dialing down our research has us at #3 on the GNP demog, and someone has surpassed us in production. I think Krill's production spiked recently so it might be him? Let's keep an eye on his power graph.

Hmmm. Well we've been focusing on GNP ATM (and we've been quite good at that, suprisingly). We can always stuff for production too. (I quiet like the idea of whipping some 6-8 knights right when guilds comes in and showing Krill their shiny armour)

Also Ruff sent us back our map:

Here you go. You included another sc of the north of Portugal but it didn't touch any of your other screenshots so I couldn't stitch it in.

Problem is that Peg didn't include all of the territory so a bit got left out. Why is that?

[ad hoc]

well as discussed with WK, finished our turn

[WarriorKnight]

Well, we have currency. Offered it to everyone. Set research to Construction (we can get that in 5 turns at 100%).

I couldn't close OB though. I'm paranoid that they'll declare and steal a worker or 2. I don't know the worker patterns but I think we should send a HA up there to guard our 2 workers. I'll let Sockboy do it as he knows what the workers should be doing.

Otherwise, things are looking good, we're 1st in everything again! (Of course, when we go in anarchy, we'll be 14th in GNP )

I'll do a (brief) empire overview next turn, as it's getting around that time again.

[WarriorKnight]

Well it looks like Carthage have logged in already.

I guess it doesn't matter that much. They can't move their units again this turn. I guess we can't control when they log in (yes I logged in before them but didn't want to move the workers while they could still move their unit).

Guess we'll cancel after they move their unit, no biggie.

Oh, and Krill finally completed the AP in Hindu. Given that we have Hindu, this could be interesting (or harmful). Keep in mind that you have to vote when you log in (I think).

[Sockboy]

T97 micro done, although I haven't revolted yet. We should do that. I have whipped the courthouse in Nemedia though.

India caught me up for a chat in game and claimed that they're not passing Aethetics around until the Incans (Edit : I think he said/meant the Malinese) get it. After we finished chatting I checked the tech screen and it looks like they've already got it, so we should pick it up off them. They asked for currency and I couldn't see any reason to deny them.

I've moved both workers onto the plainshill and covered them with Barb Hunter (losing a worker turn, but oh well). That'll be fine v their warrior. Down near the NCs we have two workers north of Zingara, I don't think thy're in danger, but if you want we can cover them with the HA chilling in Zingara. I think we should check after we close borders if there's any danger. I'll try and keep these workers all paired up in future when working near/outside our borders, it's slightly less efficient but we can then just have a couple of troops guarding them rather than sparing four troops for worker guard duty. I'm pretty sure the other workers are relatively safe from being poached for the moment, they're mostly safely within our borders.

Techwise we're sitting around 50% science breakeven at the moment. With construction listed as 5 turns at 100%, we should be good to save for 5 turns before turning up the research. We might need funding towards the end due to an extra city to maintain, although merchants might help offset the cost. This could change a bit with Caste Systems though, are we running scientists or merchants again? We really do need to know by next turn. Anyway I'll have a look at it next turn.

Final thought: I think we should move Livia onto Lancre's city tile next and further if possible. Krill will probably close borders, but it'd be good to see as much of his land as possible.

[Sockboy]

I've gone ahead and revolted, I really don't see any benefit in whipping any of the other cities. I've taken a few screen shots of the demogs and stuff so we can compare how we perform under Caste Systems.

We need to start thinking about what troop(s) we're going to garrison in our new city. I think the spear making it's way down towards Zingara is a good choice, but am open to other suggestions. Having a few HAs stationed between the new city (which also needs a name) and Zingara is probably a good idea.

Buildwise: I want the new city to chop out a granary and barracks first, then maybe a courthouse before heading onto miltary builds. If there's enough chops I might also consider a stables, but we can probably use it for catapults/single-movers.

Whilst on the topic, at some stage we'll need to get a Hammam in Cimmeria but I think it can still wait for a bit. It's probably a good idea to store the upcoming chop into the Hammam though.

[WarriorKnight]

T97 micro done, although I haven't revolted yet. We should do that. I have whipped the courthouse in Nemedia though.

I was wondering if we could whip anything else this turn. Most of the cities shouldn't be whipped but maybe Brythunia could be whipped (for a courthouse) or maybe Zingara for another archer? What do you think?

India caught me up for a chat in game and claimed that they're not passing Aethetics around until the Incans (Edit : I think he said/meant the Malinese) get it. After we finished chatting I checked the tech screen and it looks like they've already got it, so we should pick it up off them. They asked for currency and I couldn't see any reason to deny them.

We are giving everyone currency since it's important. I thought I offered it to them (as well as everyone esle in CUDDLE) but oh well.

Mali have Aesthetics, but we don't really need it ATM. Only use would be to build some wonders that we have no plans on. In the meantime, might as well keep our score as low as possible to hide our lead.

I've moved both workers onto the plainshill and covered them with Barb Hunter (losing a worker turn, but oh well). That'll be fine v their warrior. Down near the NCs we have two workers north of Zingara, I don't think thy're in danger, but if you want we can cover them with the HA chilling in Zingara. I think we should check after we close borders if there's any danger. I'll try and keep these workers all paired up in future when working near/outside our borders, it's slightly less efficient but we can then just have a couple of troops guarding them rather than sparing four troops for worker guard duty. I'm pretty sure the other workers are relatively safe from being poached for the moment, they're mostly safely within our borders.

Good work.

Agree with pairing them for troop efficiency. Although 2 units per worker seems a bit OTT, I think it'll be fine for now.

Techwise we're sitting around 50% science breakeven at the moment. With construction listed as 5 turns at 100%, we should be good to save for 5 turns before turning up the research. We might need funding towards the end due to an extra city to maintain, although merchants might help offset the cost. This could change a bit with Caste Systems though, are we running scientists or merchants again? We really do need to know by next turn. Anyway I'll have a look at it next turn.

Don't convert yet. We might not have to convert at all. I'll keep you informed.

EDIT: Too late, looks like we already have. Never mind that then. I'm talking with Mukha to see what the possible options are.

Final thought: I think we should move Livia onto Lancre's city tile next and further if possible. Krill will probably close borders, but it'd be good to see as much of his land as possible.

Will do.

[Sockboy]

Agree with pairing them for troop efficiency. Although 2 units per worker seems a bit OTT, I think it'll be fine for now.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear here, there are two pairs of workers in the area with each pair protected by a single HA. The warrior is the only unit of concern in the area, so I can't see there being any problems here. If we have more exposed workers down near Zingara then it's probably worth covering them with an additional spear or something.

Most of the cities shouldn't be whipped but maybe Brythunia could be whipped (for a courthouse) or maybe Zingara for another archer? What do you think?

They were the two I thought about, the other cities just don't benefit at all. Neither one really has enough food bonus to be worthwhile whipping and both still have a lot of room for growth. We've already got heaps of production, I don't think we need to whip. Hopefully I don't regret not whipping the archer though

I thought I offered it to them (as well as everyone esle in CUDDLE) but oh well.

Not sure, but maybe because I logged in something happened to the diplo screen? Agree that Aethetics is low priority but we should make sure we get it before CUDDLE fractures

Don't convert yet. We might not have to convert at all. I'll keep you informed.

Doh! I think we needed to revolt to get a great person in time to matter, but there's been a lot of back and forth on this. We really need to have our direction sorted by next turn! I know it's very fluid with so many teams on board, but we(CUDDLE) have got to get ourselves sorted out. TBH I don't think there's a whole lot in it for us either way, generating merchants/scientists is pretty much a wash I think.

[WarriorKnight]

Doh! I think we needed to revolt to get a great person in time to matter, but there's been a lot of back and forth on this. We really need to have our direction sorted by next turn! I know it's very fluid with so many teams on board, but we(CUDDLE) have got to get ourselves sorted out. TBH I don't think there's a whole lot in it for us either way, generating merchants/scientists is pretty much a wash I think.

Don't worry about it. I've got it all sorted out now. We will be running Scientists.

Here is the current tech path for everyone. I included it in my latest message to CUDDLE:

Ottoman: Construction->Paper(?)->Education(?)(bulb)->???
Portugal: Lit(?)->Philosophy(?)(bulb)->Feudalism->Calendar(?)
HRE: Metal Casting->CS (bulb)->???
Byz: Machinery->Guilds (bulb)
India: Saving $
Inca: Saving $
Rome: Monarchy(?)->cash
Aztec: Saving $

The funding situation is:

Inca will fund DIM for the foreseeable future
Byz is fine for the next 8 turns or so.
That leaves India and Ruff to fund us and Portugal while Rome techs the last thing needed.

Because of Ruff's huge pile of $, we don't need to save gold immediately when we come out of anarchy. That means we can go straight onto Construction. After that finishes (T103ish?) we can start paper. I know we were meant to bulb that, but Byz finishes Machinery quite late, and doesn't need paper for the GM bulb until they have enough beakers in it to finish the tech.

Since we might not have had to bulb, that's why I asked not to revolt yet. However, the bulbs were also meant to help catch up, and we can bulb education with it after we get paper (or get an academy, but I think edu for liberalism is more important ATM).

Lit is listed 1st for Portugal since it seems that CUDDLE is now really focused on the Great Library, or at least denying it to PAT. The question is whether we want India (IND, but not teching. Kinda makes the beakers worthless) to build it or someone else who could use the beakers(most likely Portugal since they have marble & a suitable location, but they haven't told anyone else yet).

Any questions?

Also, have we canceled OB yet?