[SPOILERS] Twinkletoes - Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!

[Twinkletoes89]

I'm too sleepy to reply now, so my responses should be up tomorrow at some point...

[spacemanmf]

Beat you to it spacemanmf but thanks for the post anyway!

Oops - my bad.

[Twinkletoes89]

Sorry for not posting in so long - RL has taken my time away from doing anything other than the basics in PBEM3.

Unfortunately this meant that I could not partake in any real diplomacy - and although I sent a message in-game to Sandover to tell him this and respond to his ONE message - he has thrown a strop and declared war on me!

His reasoning is basically - you ignored me (untrue), misled him (untrue) and should be eager to ''bend over and kiss his hand'' for his power advantage being higher than mine (never going to happen).

If he makes a serious attack - I will fire up my golden age, go big style military and bleed him as white as I can. I have spears for his chariots and good pop to whip. I will make him hurt.

I repeat my earlier statement - he had better be role-playing his diplomacy or he really is dreadful at it - he just comes across as a bit of a petulant child.

[Twinkletoes89]

Ok guys, I know I haven't updated in a long time, but as its turn 100 you deserve some form of update and things have changed considerably - and you may be surprised and you definitely will want my reasoning for it.

Here is an overhead shot of my 'empire':



Some nice cities at high pop but thats about it. My only strength is that they all have pretty decent production levels.

Now for a bit of honesty. The main reason I have stopped posting updates is that I have been thoroughly ashamed of my play. I have played poorly from a sub-par opening which was much too oracle focused and not expansion oriented all the way through to my low score and power which made me a tempting target for Sandover. I am sorry if you guys were expecting better.

Because of the DoW by Sandover, I had to do something quickly. My defences were not strong enough to avoid the loss of at least a couple of cities and a damn lot of pillaging by his chariots. My only choice was to try and befriend Sandover and secure my immediate future and see if I could develop this into a proper partnership.

To start this, we had a long chat where we cleared the air considerably and I must admit that I misplayed diplomacy with him early on which led to further hostility and he capitalised on it with his attack which I was not prepared for. With my poor play, I was trying to catch up all the time and neglected my military for much too long and would have been crippled irreperably by Sandover.

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This is what my new diplo plan is.

I have offered a game-long alliance to Sandover, where I will support him as best I can using my considerable production to build plenty of military for him to use against Rome, and then eventually against Moogle. He has not signed this and agreed to it - but I cannot see him getting a better offer anywhere else and I really have no other option at this stage. Moogle is too weak and the others are too far away/unwilling to help me enough.

At this point in time (as you can see) I am quickly mass-producing catapults for Sandover's assault on Rome in the near future. I have been at this footing for a while now but its how I can best contribute and demonstrate my willingness to help and gain kudos for him to sign the alliance. I am churning them out at a good rate and he will have a considerable amount for his assault in the near future.

In return - all I asked for was funding to get Currency (my economy really has been THAT BAD since my rapid catch-up expansion!) and a few units to help hold the chokepoint city (Samba) between me and Moogle. I hold the only land passage through to my lands and I will soon be moving onto Feudalism research, at which point I will spam longbows into that city and I should be able to prevent any retribution for my massive gifting to Sandover to hit Rome. I also have a guarantee that these catapults cannot be turned on me.

I have played badly in this game - but my strengths right now are my production and the fact that I will always be a good ally. If i can manage to help Sandover win by me allying with him and I can manage a respectable placing - then that is better than going alone and getting crushed in the near future. I know not all of you will agree with me and some may think it is against the 'RB spirit' - but I really see no alternative at this time and i am playing to do the best for my civ and this is it.

[Twinkletoes89]

Two updates in a day - I know crazy huh!

Right then, I have a feeling right now that Sandover might just be messing with me once again. If he is - I am going to go spare and will make him hurt as much as I can.

Look at this message:

Dear Chancellor,

Bob decided to ask for a secure border at the last minute before his Khmer campaign. I am no liar, and do not wish to hit him now as that would mean he'd never carry out the Khmer business (I want Timmy taken down a notch), so I'm calling off the invasion. Lets discuss where we can go from here.

My interpretation of your willingness to place your civ at an economical low to support my war effort is that you're either prioritizing securing your western border to a very high degree, or eager to have a real effect on the game while you're still strong enough. Either way, now that the attack on Rome isn't happening, I thought of an idea that will let you have both of that - if you're willing to give up a little in return.

My suggestion is that instead of giving me those Catapults you send them east, taking the battle to Moogle. I will supply you with elite units for you campaign - dual-promo Crossbowmen - and a NAP extension. What I ask of you in return is the city of Waltz and the Pig spot down at the coast, that you seem to be ages away from settling anyway, so that I may expand my territory a little. I'm sure that's not a very large price to pay for a real opportunity to gain some glory for Germany, not to mention the potential land gains you can make over there. I'm able to see Moogle's research, and he's slogging his way through Code of Laws at most, so you'll be facing ancient units for a while still. Meanwhile, I tech my way into the next age while I wait for the developements in the south to have their course before I... "get myself involved", so to speak.

What do say? I really hope we can keep working together, at least for the immediate future, as you've clearly shown that you're willing to aid me.

Regards,

Pharaoh Sandover of Egypt

He obviously doesn't realise a good thing when he sees it. He plans for a war with bob, and bob tells him that he is planning on war with timmy asap - and he gives him A SAFE BORDER!!!!!

I mean wth? Surely you make no guarantees and then hit him when he starts on timmy so he is stuck with a two front war. Garrisons will be weaker and so he can take more cities for less losses than if he attacked him later when he has a safe border with scooter.

I am now pretty sure that he will attack me instead - and for dubious reasons once more. I have offered great assistance to him at a very favourable rate and he seems to have spurned it.

I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.

Here was my response anyway:

Dear Pharaoh,

I must say I find myself disappointed. I was getting geared up for helping you to war while keeping a strong defensive border with Moogle until a later war when things would be easier.

I do not understand why you gave such an assurance to bob when he tells you that he is sending his forces to his other flank. To attack at the same time would mean you make much greater gains with fewer losses. Attacking a Rome while it is distracted is one of the best times to attack them! If you've made an agreement there is no going back but I think you may regret it. A Rome with more land means more units are needed later.

My reason for offering to work with you was to demonstrate how valuable an ally I can be and to try and improve my civilisation's welfare by helping a stronger civ to win so I can come second. On my own my civ is weak, but I can provide good assistance to a strong ally willing to help.

For me to attack Moogle, I would need a cast-iron long term NAP and a LOT of military support. In a war with Moogle, I am currently in a much better position to defend than attack. I would be happy to concede the pig spot in return - but I will not even consider giving up Waltz unless I made major gains with Moogle.

The other problem is that my economy can not withstand taking much (if any) of Moogle's land. I am researching at a low rate and I will not be able to afford the maintenance of both the army and the cities I take into Moogle's land. I am not going to attack if i cannot hold my gains - as then either timmy or scooter get to exploit the bounties of my hard work.

I really wish you had at least attempted to discuss this with me before you made a commitment to bob which means a huge change to both yours and my civs. I have tried really hard to assist you as an ally and I am worried you do not want the same commitment.

Yours faithfully,

[Twinkletoes89]

Well just a quick update to let you know the situation regarding my civ.

If my intelligence is correct (and scooter, bob and timmy all say it is) - then Sandover will declare war on me next turn with roughly 40 units.

I will sacrifice Waltz as it is surrounded bu hills which means it would be hard to attack out at the stack because of the extra defensive terrain.

Instead I am defending my key cities of Foxtrot and Quickstep, with at least 8 to 10 catapults to soften them up in each city and my best hope, Vassalage powered Longbows.

Thanks to funding from Moogle and Scooter, I managed to research it with 4 turns to spare before the predicted DoW turn, so I revolted to Vassalage and am now churning out Longbows as fast as I can. I am producing them almost every turn without whipping, as I want to save the whipping until the DoW.

Everyone wants Sandover bled by this war and I am hoping that my catapults, spears and Longbows will be enough to hurt him hard.

This has the potential to be my last move or my finest hour in this game - and I hope it is the latter. I have played dreadfully but if I can take one major positive out of this game then I will be happy. I will not win this game, but I want to play as big a part in the outcome as possible until someone defeats me later.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well it turns out it was neither my last move nor my finest hour. 90% of my units are unharmed and Sandover is high-tailing it home because everyone is piling in on him now.

If his diplo had been a little better and his domination a bit more hidden, then he would have probably been allowed to hit me fully before the pile on. I was two turns from attacking out and quite possibly destroying a lot of his units (especially as timmy has gifted me a lot of double-promo Horse Archers and I recieved a GG through hitting some of his exposed units).

My aims are thus: Retake Quickstep (Sacrificed to retreat all quality units into one uberstack) and then try and kill as much of Sandover as I can.

I cannot win, and I will be pinching every penny in maintenance when I go outside my borders - but I really want Sandover to hurt for twice deceiving me and attacking me.

When the pile on became obvious to Sandover (a mistake by my friends I think - should've kept quiet until he had been hit my by uberstack and crippled at least partially) - he offered me a game-long alliance and support, but I offered that and was betrayed and now I just want his blood as my chances of winning are long gone and I want to go out in a blaze of glory, not mediocrity.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well I obviously fucked up!

A message from Sandover crowing over me pursuing him has only one meaning.

On the upside it has probably solved my maintenance payment issues. I will not know the extent of the damage until tomorrow but I would be surprised if it wasn't horrendous.

Kind of sums up my play in this game. I have possibly played the worst game of MP Civ anyone could ever play. I am truly ashamed.

[Whosit]

I don't know what happened, but I know that he does get to use any roads that are in neutral territory. I forget about things like that, myself. Or Combat Engineers.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well this will likely be my last post in this thread so I might as well end it in the appropriate way, by addressing the lurkers and the other players in the game.

Firstly to the lurkers:

I am sure you have been laughing your socks off at my play in this game. The more I look back, the more I want to delete its existence and am totally ashamed by it. I tried my best and tried to make an interesting thread that people would like to read and enjoy. But it was nowhere near the standard it should've been. If Spullla's thread is an example of just how well to play a game, then mine is the exact opposite. Mine will be the example of how to play the shittest opening known to man, and even after landing the Oracle and taking the correct tech, I never used it. I failed in every single department; Growth, production, city placement, worker plans, diplomacy.

I could write post after post, each detailing a single mistake I made in this game and it would more than double the post count in this thread, and then there would be another hundred more the lurkers saw and I missed.

And to the players in the game:

If you didn't know it at the start, you now know just how badly I played this game. I didn't mean to be so bad and I honestly hoped to make this a good 6 way contest. I was horrendously out of my depth and didn't realise it until it was much too late.

At some point or another, I am sure that I let you all down in different ways and a couple of times over. All I can say is that once I realised how badly I had played, I began to bring myself away from the game just so I didn't have to be constantly reminded of my failures. I failed in my diplomatic dealings and I tried to make up for it but even when I had the support to fight Sandover at the last, I cocked up big style.

Regarding my final capitulation to Sandover, you all have an email explaining my reasons and I will not repeat them here.

So finally, an apology to everyone involved in the game and those who lurked it. I let you all down in terms of quality civ play, but I assure you that I am improving and I hope you will play or lurk with me again in the future.