RP Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Darius I of the Holy Roman Empire

[Nakor]

Talked to Dantski, a bit cryptic all around...

me: Hi Dantski!
Julius: hi nakor
me: How are things?
Julius: lets just say i was amused
me: you were amused? why?
Julius: by my neighbours wariness of my power rating
me: both your neighbours?
or have you met more?
Julius: well the indians didn't have my demographics until just now
and no ive not met anyone new
me: aha!
Julius: and by your EP spending id guess the same for you
me: Yep, still had no time and luck to travel east... working on it now...
Saw you swapped to slavery! Did you just whip your settler?
Julius: yeah got s skirmisher in a double animal battle next turn
or worker
i have no immediate plans to settle your way
if thats your concern
me: no, not really.. it looks like there's a lot of fertile land around.
Guess you found a nice copper resource as well
Julius: 2
although i dont expect to get both
me: 2! we spotted 2 as well...
Julius: seen any golf silver gems ivory?
me: yep. you?
Julius: did spot a gold
little way off though
and what did you see?
me: gold as well/. did we see the same?
Julius: umm depends where, didn't think you'd scouted much my way
me: nope, mine is rather close to home.
we did scout your capitals borders!

Julius: mmm so thats an 8 commerce tile
for you anyway
yeah i saw your warrior
mine went unseen earlier it appears!
so do you still have no designs on early religion?
none taken as yet
me: nope, not yet, but it's an option. still don't know how agresive everyone is going to play.
do you have plans in that direction?
Julius: not originally
me: 8 commerce tile indeed but it's in bit of a rocky environment...
and now?
Julius: since these games are often sparse in certain resources
extra happy would sure help
me: Indeed! Don't you have a workable happy resource nearby?
Or only after calender?
Julius: can never have enough!
me: There's that!
Julius: i think everyone started with some inside their city
and i expect noone to have metal in their capital
me: guess so to. I think Ivory is out for this game.
Julius: and ivory might be nonexistant
snap
me: Well, maybe we got Iron...\
haven't researced that yet.
I guess the no-tech-trading will really affect the game...
Julius: hmm only 37 turns left on our NAP
i dont expect you to tell me
but did you go worker first?
Sent at 4:43 PM on Tuesday
me: doesn't our demographics tell you that?
Julius: since i wasn't planning on attacking i never looked
me: aha... did you go worker first?
Julius: and your EP spending makes it hard to see your demos
got a warrior first
me: well, we do have a worker around...
Julius: yeah 3 food out of the gate
im guessing worker first then
me: guess it payed of so far
Julius: question for you is will it pay off if i decided not to extend our NAP?
not saying that i will attack
me: So, are your long term plans aggressive or more builder orientated?
Julius: but im happy if my financial neighbours are building military
me: Indeed, good question.
Julius: although aggression your way would've been better with skirms
me: Let's say we hope that our people can work cooperatively alongside yours.
Julius: than waiting
yeah same here
everyone needs allies
me: indeed they do!
Julius: and if you want to win you need enemies too!
me: probably yes
Julius: hmm
me: hmm?
Julius: i had something typed out
but it made no sense
heh
me: have that all the time!
Julius: i think that playing peacefully wont be enough at the end
except id liek to say that more eloquently
me: don't think so either
but rushing might cost to much in the long run
unless you're awfully quick...
Julius: shrug lets say if i attacked you with your pants down
i could run over your civ in 15 turns with minimal losses
maybe only building 15 military units?
me: skirmishers are good!
Julius: getting good land is worth that in the long run id say
i like rushing with war chariots
me: it is... should I get worried or are you trying to convince me to build more military?
Julius: not so such with anything else
me: got AH and Wheel yet?

Julius: started with wheel
me: meaning you got AH
Julius: doesn't mean i have horses
me: we could trade...
Julius: trade?
me: after currency...
right?
no, writing...
Julius: uhh what would we trade?
me: need more sleep...
Julius: what time is it there?
me: maybe, in a few turns, we might be able to offer something
Julius: still not sure what you mean
me: almost dinnertime, but the 4 week old is stealing my sleep
Julius: ahh now i see
me: resources
trade
oh, he's pooping as well...
Julius: ok ok deal with that
me: talk to you later then
bye
Julius: bye

What do you make of that?

[Nakor]

Is this a good site?

[DMOC]

Julius: yeah got s skirmisher in a double animal battle next turn
or worker
i have no immediate plans to settle your way
if thats your concern
me: no, not really.. it looks like there's a lot of fertile land around.
Guess you found a nice copper resource as well
Julius: 2
although i dont expect to get both
me: 2! we spotted 2 as well...
Julius: seen any golf silver gems ivory?
me: yep. you?
Julius: did spot a gold
little way off though
and what did you see?
me: gold as well/. did we see the same?
Julius: umm depends where, didn't think you'd scouted much my way
me: nope, mine is rather close to home.
we did scout your capitals borders!

This is good news concerning the copper site, if that's to be our first city.

Julius: question for you is will it pay off if i decided not to extend our NAP?
not saying that i will attack
me: So, are your long term plans aggressive or more builder orientated?
Julius: but im happy if my financial neighbours are building military
me: Indeed, good question.
Julius: although aggression your way would've been better with skirms
me: Let's say we hope that our people can work cooperatively alongside yours.
Julius: than waiting
yeah same here
everyone needs allies
me: indeed they do!

This sounded a bit threatening to me ... although it's hard to tell really. He never did say if he was going to have aggressive or building plan. What we need to do is be "conservative" (i.e. assume he's going to aggressive route) and keep checking the power graph to make sure we're even. The fact that we've never met anyone else is nice since Dantski can't blame us for putting EP all on him.

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About the copper city - yes, that's the site I had in mind. There are 7 tiles in between that city site and Dantski's capital, so that's a bit risky. There's 8 tiles between that city site and our capital.

I'm still debating whether we should farm the rice first or mine the copper first, but I think mining is the best to go.

1. Safer
2. The rice can grow the city to size 2 easily enough, for whipping a monument.
3. The rice isn't irrigated (so only 4 food - that's a +1 for a farm. Not inspiring).
4. The copper gives us production for axes

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We need to have a backup plan in case Dantski beats us to the city site. Any ideas? It would probably be settling on the sugar city, the site we originally decided was going to be first. To keep an eye on Dantski's settlers, it may be wise to have that warrior in the screenshot the post above me to be put on the hill 2N of him. This way he gets a nice amount of line-of-sight.

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Thanksgiving break right now so hopefully this gives me time to check the game for specifics.

[T-hawk]

One tile west of your marked location would get the same resources, faster growth (cow instead of copper before border pop), and leave no forests in first-ring for enemy defense.

[shadyforce]

It gets you less river tiles though and the forest can always be chopped.

[Nakor]

Thanks for the input, guys!

The idea is to get the copper online a.s.a.p., therefore the proposed site.

I'll do what you suggest, DMOC, and will move the warrior to the hill.

Still no thoughts on what to research next?

[DMOC]

One tile west of your marked location would get the same resources, faster growth (cow instead of copper before border pop), and leave no forests in first-ring for enemy defense.

Yes, but as Nakor said, I think we should be cautious of Dantski, hence the location next to the copper. The site you proposed was my first instinct to put the city.

Okay, so about research, what are our options?

-Pottery
-Writing
-Iron Working
-Meditation
-Polytheism
-Sailing

Right?

I'd say that we should head for Pottery or Iron Working (one of the two) unless shooting for an early religious wonder is our plan (not likely with our low production capability and lack of connected marble).

[Nakor]

Ok, let's go for Pottery first. Once there's still no religion founded after that (5 to 8 turns), we can consider trying one. Our research is pretty fast, number 1/2 in GNP.

Settler is done in Rolan, he'll start moving north. Warrior due in 2 (but will be 3 with the civics swap we're going to do now).
Worker is building roads to second city (do you have a nice idea for a name?) and will mine the copper there.

First warrior is on the hill close to Dantski, second warrior is moving to escort the settler.

Things are getting interesting now.

Do we build a worker after the warrior and whip him? Or are we going to build some military and another settler?

BTW, we've got horses outside our BFC, as does Dantski.

[Nakor]

So, we're in slavey now.
Warrior due in 1 turn, going to do police duty in Rolan or move east to explore.

The warrior guarding Dantski is moving to the new city site and will arrive there in 3 turns, at the same time as the settler.

Second warrior is guarding the worker making a road to second city site.

Pottery due in 4 turns, our GNP is still number one!
What will happen once we get the gold online...

So, what to build next and when to whip?
My knowledge of how to use slavery effectively is really bad, so I need your help, DMOC.

[DMOC]

I'll check the game for specifics. However, Nakor, you'll want to know some general facts:

-Whipping is best done by whipping 2 population points, so that 60 hammers goes into production for the price of 1 happy face
-The amount of overflow as a result of the whip cannot exceed the build cost of whatever we're producing next - those extra hammers go to waste