[SPOILERS-PBEM15] Mansa Musa of the Ottomans

[Piet]

Sandboxed a little this morning - the turns are currently so slowly that I have a lot of time in between .

If I try for G. LH., I could have it in T56 in the capital, while not setting back expansion too much (5 cities in T56 - capital,gold,horses,northern pigs,clams/banana).
I could get it faster in the gold city (Morpork), but
a) the lighthouse is pretty worthless there and
b) it is a border city - dont want to put too much culture in this city without speaking to T-I first and also dont want to put an attractive target just behind the border.

Opposed to this, the capital can use the Lighthouse well, so even if I lose the wonder it will not be so critical.

I know T56 is not a competitive date if Ioan goes for it soon, but if he doesnt it should be mine - he is the only other person with a coastal cap.

*************

A quirk in this plan is I really need a longer NAP for it to work, since it will delay IW quite some time.

Tech path will be Mysticism > Sailing > Writing > Masonry > Math > IW in this case, with IW due around the 55ties. With our NAP running till T60, this is too late.

If I dont get a longer NAP with T-I in the next few turns, it has to be Mysticism > Sailing > Writing > Masonry > IW > Hunting, with IW due around T48. Or I have to discover Copper in time. In this case evrything will be delayed a little - a few hammers less chopping the two forests at the cap.

Will probably start to discuss a NAP-extension with T-I when I discover writing, along with an OB proposal.
I strongly believe a longer NAP will also be favourable for him - although it depends on the quality and quantity of his avaiable land, I suppose.

[Piet]

T29 finally in.

Morpork is founded & working the cows. I am the 3rd one with a second city (Jkaen founded this turn), not bad with my rather slow WB start & growing to 4 for the whip (of course, this whip helped ).



Not too many news in the west. I think I will move back now with my westernmost warrior and scout the neutral Zone a little bit. The southern warrior will head further west roughly along the coast.



Demos - after founding Morpork - still looking crappy after the whip.

[Piet]

Sent a message to T-I about some things, last but not least a NAP extension :

From : The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork
To : The Emperor of Holy Rome

Hi T-I,

just wanted to chat a little bit about the future of our yet little nations.

First, as you've perhaps already seen, I founded my second city 1W of the gold, as planned. I will soon build a monument there, but I am not planning further culture buildings in the moment (a library will be built eventually, but not in the next 20-30 turns), to not interfere too much with your planned settlement 5S of your capital.

Second, I would like to get a trade connection up at some time. How do you think about a road between our nations to get international trade routes ? Of course, this also requires open borders (and in consequence, writing in one of our tech pools), so this is not really urgent, just an idea at the moment.

Third, I would like to exchange a bit of scouting info. I still have discovered no other nations, but have quite some land left to explore yet mainly in the WSW of our cap. The prominent feature I found is a large saltwater bay west of our capital (approx. a dozen tiles W and a few tiles north of it) - dont know a lot about its dimensions yet.

Finally, with quite some land yet to settle and no immediate need for military buildup, I would like to extend our NAP a bit - say, to T90 or T100 - so we can try crashing and recovering our economy by mad expansion :-).

What do you think ?

Best regards,

Piet

[Piet]

Reply from T-I

Hi Piet,

Thanks for the message. I have little time to reply right now (I'm at work) but I'll give a fuller reply this evening. The big news is that I have met Ioan to the west (just this turn). Your other plans I broadly agree with, but will discuss in more detail later on.

Best regards,
T-I

Big news, indeed. Perhaps a meeting can be arranged.

[Piet]

some more diplo

> OK, now I'm back at home I can give your message a bit more attention
>
> Congrats on the second city - that will be very strong with a gold
> resource
> in the first ring! Your culture plans sound fine to me -- many thanks for
> thinking of me when you planted.
>
> Trade connections. It might be a bit worker-intensive for the short-term,
> but I'm starting to build roads, so it's definitely a possibility. I'll
> have
> a few more workers in a few more turns (as will you, I'm sure) so we can
> think about it after we have a couple more cities? It shouldn't be very
> far
> to road in any case, and one of us is bound to pick up writing soon
> (probably you with the gold in your second city).
>
> Thirdly, scouting info. Just this morning I met Ioan to the west -- he's
> the
> only other neighbour I have met so far. Ioan is directly west of me,
> probably about 10W of my capital or thereabouts. Other than that, I've
> discovered very little apart from the lands around my capital, and a
> mountain range WSW of my cap, which seems like a fairly natural border for
> us.
>
> As for the NAP -- we still have quite a way to run on our current one,
> although at the moment I'm definitely of the opinion that we should extend
> it. I'd like to wait a few more turns before fully committing to it,
> though.
>
> Kind regards,
> T-I

Sounds good generally.

I will proably send one of my warriors in Ioans direction in the next couple of turns, perhaps T-I can help to make contact.

With the NAP decision, I have time until T42 (when I have to decide between Math-preferred or IW-if I found no metal). I am positive to T-I deciding by then.

My reply

Hi T-I,

Glad to hear you like the proposals in general. You are right that these are rather long-term-plans and I am in no hurry to agree upon something right now, just wanted to lay out my current thoughts as a base to discuss on later.

About the road connection : According to my plans, a worker with some spare time to build a road should be in the area around T45 at best, probably a little bit later - there are much more important things to do atm. Writing will probably be in at this point.

Nice you met Ioan. I suppose I should also expect to discover a neighbour in my W in the next couple of turns.

About the NAP extension - as already said above, it is no problem for me if we delay a decision about this by a few turns. So just take your time to decide on it.

Best regards,

Piet

[Piet]

T30 in.

Switched Ankh back to food, granary finished next turn, then rapidly growing. Research switched back to 100%.

Met Ioan with my northwestern scout (actually he met me - his borders popped into view). Sent a short Hello :

Hi Ioan,

I just played my turn and ma warrior discoved your borders (in fact, they expanded into my view, creative and all that :-)).

Just wanted to drop a short "Hi", since I am a bit in a hurry right now. More later.

Greetings from Ankh-Morpork,

Piet

and got this back :

Hi Peter !

Well ... probably I'll see your warrior too when I'll receive the save.
I assume that you came from Mark ( v8mark ) direction, East of my "empire" - no ?

Glad to meet you too - but, as usual, I need to ask which are your intention in the moment ? Should I switch to warrior-building in order to prevent a super-early warrior rush ?
Or we wil exchange maps and sign a 20-30 turns NAP ?

Best regards,

Ioan

Giving his borders popped this turn it should be his second city I discovered which was founded 3 Turns ago.

Screenies :





TT got a tech, T-I founded his second city and had his capital grown to S4

[Piet]

Answer to Ioan

Hi Ioan,

I am not sure if you will see my warrior this turn - I moved parallel to your borders this turn, but was on a hill at the turns beginning. But I do not have my map at hand right now, so I am not 100% sure.

The borders I found probably belong to your second city, which was due for a border pop this turn. As you already guessed, my warrior arrived from the SE - my capital is roughly ESE from your borders - S (and a bit W) from Mark's.

And no - you will not have to pump warriors soon, at least not because of me :-). As tempting as it is to have a glance at your city's garrison (or maybe non-garrison ;-)) I prefer to not be tied up in a super-early war. So a short-time-NAP between us should be fine.

In addition, I would like some kind of border agreement along with this NAP - with you being creative and having founded Hinduism on top of this you will be able to grab land much more efficient as I am - so I need to make sure I get a fair share of the land between us.

We can exchange maps of our border region this evening - this should be helpful in further discussions.

One additional question - you already met Mark and me - any other contacts you have made ?

Best regards,

Piet

[Piet]

Hi Spaceman,

I will be on business trip next week (2nd to 5th) - are you willing and able to play a few turns for me then ?

[spacemanmf]

Hello sir. Of course, no problem.

[Piet]

Great, thank you.

I will send you a PM with details this or next evening. Have you a certain mail address where you would like to have the saves sent to - so I can inform Jkaen ?