RB PBEM #2 - Justinian (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

t90 - Trading with Krill: Mach/HBR for Theo & Paper

Nicaea: Buddhist Temple - Courthouse

Chops complete into Thessalonica & Adrianople, whip Forge into Nicomedia.

... and not a whole lot else going on.

[Dreylin]

t91 - trading maps with Darrell....

(see screenshots further down the post)

Nicomedia: Forge - Courthouse
Angora (NW city): Workboat - second WB

Ooooo, voting time:



I'll go for "none". I wonder why there's no option to cease trading with Krill; maybe he picked up Buddhism somehow ... nope, guess it must be because I'm already not trading with him!

Chop finishes into Angora, so the second Workboat will complete next turn as borders pop.

Actually, I've got something on in a few minutes, so I'm not going to have time to grab those map shots and record my musings right away, so they'll have to follow in a later post. Oh, and I'm going to get Krill's graphs after EOT, so I'll take some screenies of those as well.

[Dreylin]

So here are the graphs:


It's pretty darn scary how far ahead of the rest of us Krill seems to be here.



Production is a much better image, but Food again is a bit depressing:



and finally the Power graph:

[Dreylin]

And now some map shots. First the overall view:



but that's a bit bland, so how about an annotated version:



So I've circled the claimed territories & guesstimated where Darrell & Ruff are planning to split Yaz's lands. The questionmarked island to the North I believe has been ceded to Krill for settling, but since there are no cities there yet I can't be certain. The SE questionmark shows another possible island-hopping route into what I'd hoped was my Astronomy-only section.

Here's a better picture:



(and at a jaunty angle, no less!)

I also have to say that the placement of MCG mystifys me somewhat, having claimed a perfectly minable hill, but also cramped in the city that I'd expect to be put down to the West (maybe next to the Deer?). Ah well, you've probably already discussed that in th Lurker's thread, right?

[Dreylin]

t92 - another fast turn, I thnk.

A trade screen from SL pops up; seems he wants to renegotiate our trade from Wine-Cows to Wine-Wheat ... and wants me to cancel & re-propose. Well that would lose me te happiness for a turn, so I'm not going to do that, but let me think about it and I might propose the second trade and then let him cancel the first.

Yaz shows up and offers me his treasury again. He's already lost one city, so 61g is added to my coffers.

Thessalonica: Library - Market
Adrianople: Market - Longbowman
Angora: WB - Granary
Trebizond: WB - Granary

So the log says that Yaz's Buddhist city has been captured by Ruff, but not razed - which is good news. Buddhism has also spread to SL's cty of The Oval (probably manually), and he's completed the Statue of Zeus. In F4 news, Krill looks to still be saving gold, while SL has turned off his Philo research for a turn as well.

I'm still saving gold, but have switched techs to Guilds.

Whip the Couthouse into Nicaea. UoS due in 3t. Keeping as many EPs as I can afford focused on Krill.

[novice]

I love your annotated map. That jaunty angle is making me dizzy, though.

[Dreylin]

t93 - no word back from SL yet. (unless my e-mail has gone on holiday early, which it may have)

Nicaea: Couthouse - Buddhist Monastery

So I have my two Triremes positioned either side of the potential connection to Krill (once his city pops borders) and I'm ferrying over Longbows to add to the city defenses.

Net the Crabs at Angora to add another Health resource - Constantinople is back healthy again at least until it grows.

Chop/Mine completes at Nicaea to finish the new Monastery in a single turn. Nicomedia whips Courthouse for 2Pop.

Krill has blasted a turn of EPs against me, or at least what looks to have been enough to grab visibility on my research....

SL has picked up a GE; my guess is that he'll pop out the Mausoleum so that his extra GPs can give him extra-long GAs.

[Dreylin]

(unless my e-mail has gone on holiday early, which it may have)

Yep, a hiccough in my mail forwarding delayed the arrival of this:

Hey Dreylin,

Thanks for the offer of gold - I turned down research because I was micromanaging Lords to finish the SoZ in a turn that meant that I wasn't working so much commerce in my academy/CS capital - although that said - I am hurting on the gold front and need ~ 40g to finish philo at 100% still.

Did you get my note about the wheat in game?

If not - I was wondering if we could change our trade for wine at the moment? We have Cow - Wine and I would like to change it to Wheat - Wine if thats ok?

Also - I got another Engineer at the end of the turn - I was hoping for a Scientist to help bulb Education but no such luck! I am a little confused about what to do with him... He will bulb most of Engineering or I can settle for 3h, 3b, 2c or rush another wonder... perhaps the one that gives +50%gpp or the mausoleum... Damn it - I wanted a Scientist!!

Krills graphs are scary - he does have a lot of culture going on but last time i checked - he had 800g in the bank after finishing Machinery... He can go 100% for a while now... Do you think we can beat him to lib?

All the best,
Sitting Bull of the Native Americans

Well I really don't know if we can beat Krill to Lib, but we can give it a go, right? I also don't know if I should be offering advice on uses for his GE but I'm going to do it anyway since we're moving towards working together more.

Sitting Bull,

Drat. Yeah, I got your message in game and then forgot about it while I was playing the turn. I'm happy to change the deal, but I didn't want to cancel and then propose the replacement since that would leave me without Wines for a turn. If you propose the new deal on your turn, I will accept on mine and then cancel the old deal the same turn so we both retain access to the resources.

If you want my advice on how to use the GE, I'd probably rush the Mausolleum. I do have a particular fondness for that Wonder, but beyond that I believe it fits especially well with PHI trait since you are going to get quite a few Specialists through the game. I also think that I calculated during PBEM#1 that it's actually a much more efficient Wonder on Quick than on Normal because of the adjusted lengths of the Golden Ages.

Parthenon really isn't worth as much to you because you are PHI; you already get twice the gpp, so in effect it only increases your rate by 25% compared to everyone else's 50% speed-up. The only caveat to that arguement is that Krill is undoubtedly pursuing Parthenon to get the most out of his myriad wonders and Rep-driven specialists, so grabbing it would be really good for denial. He also doesn't have Calendar yet, so currently can't compete for MoM - though as I said, I'm quite fond of that wonder.... 9-)

As I said, I'm happy to send you the gold you need to get through to Philo ... and if you went straight through to Edu-Lib after that I'd be prepared to fund you through to the best of my abilities in return for the techs. The other option would be to reverse that and for me to go after Edu next; boosted by the UoS, which is about to come online. I have quite a few Buddhist buildings, so I should get a pretty good boost in the research department even without an Academy.

While on the subject, with UoS due to finish at the end of next turn, that will free up my Stone for you to build Moai. I can offer it next turn (I think) or whenever you're ready to get that going...

Regards,

Dreylinian I.

[Dreylin]

t94 - probably the last turn I'll get to play before I go on holiday.

SL offers Wine-Wheat ... I accept and will cancel the previous deal. 50g for him to finish Philo, and a map trade to round off the deal.

Adrianople: Longbow - Longbow
Nicaea: Buddhist Monastery - Market
Antioch: Forge - Market
Nicomedia: Courthouse - Buddhist Monastery

Workers work, wanderers wander, and not a whole lot else happens.

[Dreylin]

t95 - back. Some diplo outstanding but not going to follow-up on that until I have more time tomorrow, just playing a quick turn to get things rolling again.

43g from Yaz - nice.

University of Sankore movie plays ... I wonder what TF I was planning next for Constantinople. Find a note next to the city saying "needs Harbour" and am glad I planned ahead a bit!

SL got Taoism, which means that Krill either went for an Academy, or saved his Scientist for a full-value bulb of Edu.

Galley deposits first Longbow on Island of Ni! (so named because first two cities start with "Ni" and I'm British) then heads back for next.

Whip a Market into Thessalonica and a Buddhist Monastery into Nicomedia.

Great Person due in Constantinople in 3t, currently at 99% Prophet. If I hire a Scientist as a third Specialist that will go down to 2t, but also delays growth. Available tiles to work are a Grass Forest or Coastal, and the Shrine will pay off at least 11gold in the extra turn, so I think it's worthwhile. Fingers crossed that the added contamination doesn't pop me a Scientist ... though that wouldn't excatly be a disaster.

Guilds in 5t at -78gpt and I have 385g in the bank. Probably enough to make it - and I may get a few more donations from Yaz before he departs - so I start it going.