[Spoilers] Pericles of the Graeco-Mayans

[Sylon]

As some of you have read from Mackoti's thread, he has sent me a rather tactless email accusing me of aggressively spending EPs on him. This came as quite the surprise, as I had not checked the EP screen for a long time, but it turns out that I was in fact spending EPs on him. When I think back to it, the last time I checked the EP screen was way back, when my EP ratio with Mackoti was 61-43 or something along those lines, in his favour. I vaguely remember saying something like 'He may not be so peaceful after all!' and focusing EPs on him to rebalance it. After that, I promptly forgot about it.

Well, he's not entirely wrong. While I was not intentionally spending EPs on him, to say that I have entirely peaceful intentions towards him would be rather misleading. For now, however, my aggressive action shall be limited to 'Look guys Mackoti has stone marble math calendar great engineer and the sky is falling!'

Without further ado, here is the email exchange.

[COLOR="Yellow"]When i played the save i cheked espionage,and i had a big surprize , practicaly you are spending 3 points of your espionage on me.Wich is reason behind that, are we enemies and you must see my research, or are you checkin for someone else?. If you check you'll see i did spend only 61 points on you but from now one may all espionage will be against you(ye i see this espionaje stuff like an agresiv move on your side), and after CoL i will assign some spyes(ye for me are wort like 4 science 4 espionage), so what i ask from you is to be in good faith and remove espionage from me and i wil set on you until i get 114(that i think you have against me).
Regards,
Mack[/COLOR]

Now that I re-read it, Mackoti's message isn't all that threatening. And now that I re-read it, I finally understand what he meant by 'and after CoL i will assign some spyes(ye for me are wort like 4 science 4 espionage)'; that is to say, he intends to assign some spy specialists after getting CoL.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Mackoti,

I went and checked the save, and it turns out that you're right- I am in fact spending 3 espionage points on you. I was under the impression that I had spread out my espionage points between you, Kodii and Pegasus (I have an agreement with Ruff not to spend any espionage points on him); but it would seem that I was mistaken.

To show that I did not have any malicious intent on my part, I shall stop spending EP's against you until our espionage points are equal. I apologise for the mistake.

Also, just in case: Spies are banned from this game.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

And here is my earlier reply. Believe me, if I had understood that he had intended to assign spy specialists, I would have made my message more aggressive and pull a bluff instead. Less beakers and a higher chance of spawning a useless Great Spy instead of someone else more useful would be a huge boon to me.

And now, for the sky-falling part:

[COLOR="Cyan"]On the bright side, Banana Island and Centralia Minor is one and the same. I should arrive at your city soon.

On the not-so-bright side, Mackoti has a Great Engineer, Calendar*, Stone and Marble. I suspect he's in the middle of building the Hanging Gardens, judging by his production spike, and barring a miracle, he'll probably land the Mausoleum too.

You don't happen to have Calendar, by any chance, do you?

Sylon

*He hooked up his incense resource. Expect his population to soar in the coming turns as his happiness cap is lifted.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Plum"]Hi Sylon,

Calendar is my next tech (6 turns at 100%) but I am saving gold to complete it. How are you going with Currency?

BTW - that Combat One, Woodie Two warrior is only 5XP (minimum) as that unit starts with Combat One for free.

Ruff[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Slowly chugging away with 8 turns left to currency at 40% (Slight deficit). Still, things should pick up from there thanks to the multiplicative effect of it.

...Of course, I'll be founding two more cities in two turns, so I expect my tech rate to plunge even further. Thankfully enough I've got some libraries up. If you see a GS spawning in the next few turns, that would be me.

How did you get a Combat One warrior for free? As far as I know, events are disabled.[/COLOR] (He later taught me that Quechas started with Combat I. I didn't know that, naturally.)

Sylon

And on the Kodii front:

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Kodii,

Just a quick update on the central front. You've probably noticed, but Mackoti has Calendar. I don't know how much you've explored of his territory, but just in case: He has both Stone and Marble. He also got a Great Engineer 3 turns back (Though, I only noticed it this turn). Needless to say, things are looking quite worrying. I suspect he's in the middle of building the Hanging Gardens, and would most likely snag the Mausoleum.

It would appear that he might turn out to be a formidable force after all, by virtue of his rich lands. He literally won the jackpot right there.

Also, one more thing: Pegasus has access to the islands, so you might find yourself struggling with him for the islands to your South.

Sincerely frustratingly worriedly,
Sylon

P.S. Merry Christmas! [/COLOR]

I have yet to receive a reply. I had to dance around a bit there, to avoid giving away anything I saw in Pegasus' borders (Anything outside his borders, however, are fine).

I've yet to come up with a message to Pegasus, though getting him on my side would be extremely useful. I'm struggling over how much I should say; I did agree to side with Kodii, after all, and would very much prefer Kodii over Pegasus in the long run. Kodii can actually influence events in Wonderland while simultaneously not being a threat since our capitals are on the opposite sides of the world.

It's quite a dilemma. Maybe I'll share with him info on the fish-fish-sugar island between himself and Mackoti, and the island to his immediate north, while withholding the rest of the information. But I can't figure out a way to slip it in without making it look rather suspicious! Ah, decisions, decisions...

[Sylon]

[COLOR="Wheat"]Hi Sylon,

Thanks for the update, and apologies for the lack of updates from my end. I've just finished my winter exams which took a LOT out of me.

I have noticed that mackoti is in quite a strong position at the moment, and hopefully he does not get the chance to run away with it. I regret that I had the feud with Pegasus (having been able to avoid it by simply settling my original site) and also not being able to strategize as well as I would have liked, due to time issues.

I can tell you that I am currently backfilling my lands and eyeing expansion to the islands. My largest cities have trade routes with yours, so hopefully you are benefitting economically from our good relations as well.

How are you faring along the tech tree? I fear that I am slowly becoming quite backwards. I will have Metal Casting in 3 turns.

- Kodii[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Kodii,

I'm currently chugging along slowly with 8 turns to Currency at a deficit. This will be fluctuate with my gold running out soon and libraries coming up. My tech rate, as you can tell from the chart, is abysmal due to my high maintenance costs. The sooner I get COL, the better.Then, perhaps, I can get Iron Working... Darn jungle.

All my mainland cities appear to have pre-emptively embraced mercantilism- They are all trading through my island city of Rhodos, since it gives 2 commerce just like a mainland trade route. Rhodos has a single measly trade route into Mackoti's lands for 3 commerce.

Speaking of Pegasus, I saw his settler a few turns back- Did he manage to make it to settle in Wonderland?

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Wheat"]Yes, I do believe mackoti settled another city north of my Grandview, and Pegasus settled directly east of mackoti's city. I do not have a very good layout of the land there, as I do not have Open Borders with either mackoti or Pegasus.

One of the reasons I suppose you have less connection with the islands is because you have quite a large amount of "backfill" land compared to the rest of us, but only because you were smart enough to settle out into the Wonderland.

- Kodii[/COLOR]

Jackpot! With this, Pegasus and I may have finally gotten some common ground.

True to his character, Mackoti has named his newest city 'I WILL FIGHT'. Yes, in allcaps. Pegasus' naming scheme is more benign.

And so I begin working on an email...

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Pegasus,

No doubt you've noticed my chariot poking around in your lands; I hope you don't mind. It goes without saying, but your explorers are always welcome in Greece, should you decide to send them this way.

My explorations are by and large complete for the time being, with only a small portion of the islands still unexplored. Since you were kind enough to let my workboat sail through your lands to link up the eastern portion of the map, I shall share with you a description of the two islands to your north.

The island to the north of Cat's Lair, as you are aware, has a source of clams. It also has silks and unirrigated grassland rice. The island spans a mere five tiles, two of them hills, and has a handful of forests.

The island to the north of the spices north of Snowman Kingdom is, thankfully, one tile closer to your peninsula than it is to Mackoti's, putting it firmly in your territory. It has two fish tiles and one sugar, and spans five tiles.

Putting that aside, how are things shaping up on your end? The West is fairly peaceful, as can be seen by Ruff's low military count and my own lack of soldiers. This has led to an increased rate of expansion, though with my economy in the shape as it is (Thessaloniki is taking huge chunks out of my treasury) that might not be such a good idea. Nevertheless, I shall endeavour to connect the two ends of my empire! That way, perhaps, the Thessalonians would not feel so lonely.

Sincerely,
Sylon

P.S. Have a very merry Christmas![/COLOR]

There! I'd say that should do the trick. Hopefully this time we'll have more to discuss to keep communication channels open.

On another note, here's my communications with Ruff.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Ruff,

The Great Explorers, Twice Circumnavigators of the World, have arrived at Blue Jay. I've already given it to you. As for your work boat in return, the site I wish to hook up is 7E of your workboat. That said, I'm thinking of another deal: You keep the workboat (Sparte can build one in 3 turns), and I'll trade the workboat I just gave you and 10 gold (Once I get Currency) in exchange for a missionary for Sparte. How does that sound?

On another note, it seems that both Mackoti and Pegasus settled the remaining Wonderland site. The stage is set for things to become more interesting!

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Plum"]Sylon,

Too late - I've already gifted you the WB. I'll trade you a missionary for a new WB in the future if you are interested.

Ruff[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Alright then. Mind you, I don't need the missionary immediately; I still have yet to tech to Meditation to build monasteries. I don't mind paying you in advance, though.

Well, if you should need another workboat, I can get one up fairly quickly. Centralia Minor isn't too far from Rhodos, so it's not a problem. Alternatively, if I manage to found Confucianism, we could do a missionary swap.

Sylon[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Plum"]Take your time - it might be a while before I can build a missionary. I'll let you know

Ruff[/COLOR]

Apparently he's not so keen on the swap, then. Also, the save is still either with Mackoti or Pegasus, since it's 6:30am and 4:30am in their time zones respectively. So he couldn't have already gifted the workboat.

Well, it's not a big deal. For all I know, he might be keen on the swap, but would prefer to get another workboat from me since Centralia Minor is quite a distance from his lands.

EDIT: Also, if Ruff posts this conversation and wonders if I had figured out that he was lying, could someone please pop over to his thread and say 'Yes'?

[novice]

EDIT: Also, if Ruff posts this conversation and wonders if I had figured out that he was lying, could someone please pop over to his thread and say 'Yes'?

We can't do that, that would be acting on your behalf based on spoiler knowledge. Also we would be supplying Ruff with spoiler knowledge.

You would have to send Ruff a message yourself, don't know how you'd phrase it though.

[Sylon]

I'll just leave it as it is. Pegasus has been sending out automated GPS updates whenever he plays his turn recently, so he should have a 'd'oh!' moment when he sees that.

[Sylon]

A very merry Christmas to all you lurkers!

Alas, even as the festive cheer fills the air, things are looking grave in the game. First, a look at the charts:



Mackoti is solidly leading in score, with over a 100-point lead over the next Kodii and Pegasus. Granted, score at this stage doesn't show much. Perhaps the next few graphs will convince you.



That's right- He just surpassed Kodii in GNP. Granted, some of that is culture, but still.



Production-wise, he's winding down somehow. More likely, he's assigning more citizens as scientists. Doesn't change the fact that's he's ahead of everyone else.

Also, Pegasus has stone and is building the HG in his capital- he already has a Hammam there.



If food graphs show the true progression of a civilisation, then this is one terrifying civilisation indeed. In order to get the food graphs I have right now, I had to wreck my economy. He, on the other hand...

On a side note, Ruff's growing at an oddly slow rate. Building Stonehenge seems to have cost him quite a lot.



Finally, a graph Mackoti isn't leading in. Pegasus has the largest soldier count, but a look through his territory suggests that this is largely made out of archers. He also has quite a few barracks, which feel like a waste. He's still lacking in libraries, after all.

Kodii's graph is probably inflated with skirmisher numbers.

Ruff's graph is... Very low. I don't think he has anything other than warriors.



Demographics.



And finally, screenshot of the five greatest cities in the world. Note also the box on the right- I almost jumped when I saw that.



And here is the Mausoleum. He must have used a Great Engineer. I can see the rationale for building the Mausoleum there, to win the culture fight, but... If there's a good way of painting a target on your forehead, it's building such an important wonder in a border city flanked by two different civs who can hit it in one turn with two-movers.

In other words, he's practically secured his status as 'dogpile target #1'.

Why yes, I am plotting someone's demise on Christmas day. Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud.

[novice]

And here is the Mausoleum. He must have used a Great Engineer. I can see the rationale for building the Mausoleum there, to win the culture fight, but... If there's a good way of painting a target on your forehead, it's building such an important wonder in a border city flanked by two different civs who can hit it in one turn with two-movers.

How long will that be possible though, with that cultural output pushing borders?

[Sylon]

First ring tiles are a lot harder to take away than second ring tiles, as the floodplain wheat tile proves. And, there's the fact that Mackoti has no religions, while I can get Buddhism and possibly Judaism, with associated monasteries, in Thessaloniki. Of course, that too is temporary...

Maybe I'll build the Shwedagon Paya, or something. We'll see.

'Course, if that doesn't work, there's still use for two movers- Kodii can flank his hill city and sheep city, while I can flank the hill city and former Second. I'll post a picture once the save comes around to illustrate my point.

[Sylon]

And here are the promised war plans.



With a stack of two movers on the gems tile (blue dot), I can strike at both Oradea and Curtici. Kodii, on the other hand, can flank Curtici and IWF with a two-mover stack on the oasis tile in his territory, but would have to suffer the river penalty while doing so. A better spot to launch his attack would be from the green dot, which allows him to avoid the river penalty. Pegasus, should he decide to join in (Doesn't look like it, though, since IWF would be completely indefensible and swallowed up by Kodii's culture) can hit IWF on the first turn.



This here is even better- with a stack of galleys on this blue dot, I can flank Resita, Timisoara and Oradea. This alone should illustrate the importance of naval dominance, but that isn't all.


(The side of the image was cut off, don't mind it)

Thanks to my early acquisition of Rhodos, I am capable of flanking his north as well! He hasn't settled the northern islands yet, but I'm sure you're aware that he plans to. The light blue dot is the direct attack dot, which allows me to strike at his capital, and possibly his island city quickly. Darker blue dot, on the other hand, allows me to strike at his island city should it be on the island to the right, while giving me the flexibility of landing on the hill to avoid the amphibious penalty. (The forests are undoubtedly gone by this stage.)

In other words, if it comes to war and I have the naval advantage, he's fu- um, he'll be in a pickle.

Ahem.

[Sylon]

First, a minor summary of my recent diplo with Ruff:

-I agreed to send him a settler, previously intended to build Thebai, in exchange for two missionaries and a cat later. Not a good deal, since hammers at this stage are worth more than hammers later, but it's helping an ally out.

-Ruff still has his work boat- it would appear that was an honest mistake.

And then, there was this:

[COLOR="Plum"]Sylon,

I am getting concerned about Macki. He is doing very well and I wanted to talk to you about how we should respond. He has a nap with you through to T125? Or is it T115? I have a NAP with him through to T100 and I'm not in a hurry to extend that. If I did, he could totally ignore us while working on either Peg or Kodii with the aim of taking the other out. If it was me, I would be trying to work with Peg and take out Kodii.

Maybe if a war was to break out over there, then that might open the door for me (us?) launching a war against Macki. Something to consider.

Ruff[/COLOR]

It was here, on Christmas day, where I got the idea of a dogpile. On a related note, the Christmas graph update was inspired by this.

[COLOR="Cyan"]...Now, on the topic of Mackoti. My NAP with Mackoti is until T125. Coincidentally, that is the amount of turns it will take for me to tech currency, code of laws, construction and iron working.

I am, however, not terribly worried about his joining up with either Kodii or Pegasus to destroy the other. Kodii he has terrible relations with, starting from the whole 'Second' debacle. They don't even have Open Borders! And that's despite being neighbours for the past 40 or so turns.

Now, the danger of a Mackoti-Pegasus alliance was on my mind before, but recent events suggest that such an alliance will not come to fruition. As I mentioned several emails before, Mackoti and Pegasus have both settled in the remaining Wonderland site. Thus, if you would take a look at Mackoti's city list, his newest city is named 'I WILL FIGHT' in allcaps. It's the 'Second' debacle happening all over again, except this time there's actual border tension. I'll have to take a look myself with my scouting chariot to confirm it, but this bodes well.

And then, of course, there is the fact that Kodii has skirmishers. And, I believe, Masonry (but no Stone). This makes him extremely difficult to attack, and that's assuming we sit idly by.

Have a very Merry Christmas,
Sylon[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Plum"]I'll keep my ears open re the other guys and let you know if I find anything out.

Cheers,

Ruff[/COLOR]

And in regards to Kodii,

[COLOR="Wheat"]Hello Sylon,

mackoti has asked for a 15 turn NAP extension. What are you thoughts in regards to diplomacy towards him? I am wary of his large scale expansion at the moment.

Also, do we want to have a EP spending agreement? Right now I am blindly allotting each of you 1 EP, but I don't think it necessary to continue spending against you so long as you aren't spending against me. Do you agree?

I hope the holidays are treating you well!

- Kodii[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Kodii,

I, too, am wary of him- an understandable sentiment, seeing as we have the same amount of cities, yet has has thrice my GNP!

I currently have an NAP with him until T125, which will give me time to get my economy into shape and get some catapults. I am, admittedly, worried if that might be too late- yet, on the other hand, he has masonry and stone, meaning lots of walls, and that's not something easy to get around without catapults.

On the subject of EP spending, unfortunately, there are some rather irksome circumstances surrounding EP spending at the moment. The story starts way back, about 30 or so turns back, when I noticed Mackoti had 60 EPs to my 40 or so. In an effort to rebalance it, I assigned 3 EPs to him. I promptly forgot all about it, and just a few turns ago he called me on it, demanding to know why I had 3 EP/turn and over a hundred EPs assigned to him and accusing me of aggression. In order to cool his temper (for now), and because it was an honest mistake, I agreed to stop spending EPs on him until our EPs were balanced again.

In addition, I have a no-EP agreement with Ruff dating way back, around T40 or so when we were still arranging to meet each other's warriors. As such, I apologise, but I'm a bit stuck in my EP spending at the moment. In the meantime, please feel free to match my 2 EP/turn with two of yours.

On another note, I'm sure you've noticed that Mackoti has built the Mausoleum in Curtici, the border city. It just stole my floodplains incense away from me, in fact. He seems to be very keen to justify a dogpile on him.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Wheat"]Sylon,

How about I also extend my NAP with mackoti until T125 as well?

No worries about the EPs.

I have also noted the cultural aggression by mackoti, and he will soon be "stealing" some of my city's tiles. I am not happy with that and I agree that he is asking for trouble. I may point that out to him in my next message, although it may be best not to alert him of my displeasure at this point in time.

- Kodii[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Kodii,

Regarding the NAP, that should be fine. On another note, since your tiles are in your city's first ring, you should be able to hold onto them just fine. If you're worried, though, you could always build a monastery there. Library(2)+Judaism(1)+Temple(1)+Monastery(2)= 6 culture, though Mackoti could always build a library in turn. And of course, there's the hammer cost to worry about.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

------

So, what do I plan to do from here on? I'll continue pushing for diplomacy on the Pegasus front, in the hopes of securing at least an assurance of neutrality in this conflict, in order to free Kodii up to send more troops. I'll push for a division of Mackoti's lands, with Ruff getting all the islands to the north (and settling rights on unsettled islands), Kodii getting Curtici and IWF, and I getting the rest of the land.

The ceding of the islands to Ruff is designed to secure me an NAP while encouraging him to attack wholeheartedly. As it happens, I can't actually hold the islands- they're too far away with this game's maintenance costs. The ceding of Curtici and IWF to Kodii is a little more controversial, considering Curtici has the Mausoleum. However, it is quite obvious that in any potential partition of Mackoti's lands, Kodii will want it for himself. Not ceding it to him would breed ill will, and promote discord in the alliance, considering I stand to gain so much. By ceding Curtici and IWF, I can encourage him to attack wholeheartedly while securing an NAP.

Still, I must not be too quick to build castles in the sky. For now, I'll have to focus on the ground.

[Sylon]

Currency came in this turn. Gold jumped from +1 at 20% to +13 at 20% at the end of the turn. I got a Great Scientist some turns back, I settled him in Athenai.

A little bit of diplomacy:

[COLOR="Yellow"]I supose you are the one with a great scientist, congrats first to it.How does look one of those?Actualy i was aiming for an scientist too but i got that ingineer at 6% , that ruined a litlle bit my research plans but i am not complain .
How are the things in your end? Here i have a little tension because Kodii is not speaking with me an i have to keep 2 cities on military for now.From the demos we have both same strenght because i know he got a tech wich gives a lot of power points.
You are keeping touch with him or he is just ignoring me?
Regards,
Mackoti[/COLOR]

Well, that puts me in quite a tight spot. I took some time to compose my message, but ultimately I managed to steer the middle ground.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Mackoti,

My apologies for the late reply; as I mentioned in an earlier email, I am recovering from a cold at the moment.

I have in fact been in touch with Kodii. That said, his responses are sometimes delayed, and it would appear that his schedule is fairly busy, which may account for his silence towards you.

I do not know if he is ignoring you, or merely does not have anything to say. To use a similar example, I, too, have been unable to initiate contact with Pegasus, as I do not have anything to discuss with him.

If I may so suggest, it might be better if you simply sent a friendly, casual email asking him how things are going, etc etc. Perhaps you might want to tell him that it was I who got the scientist- undoubtedly he would have figured it out himself, but this act of 'giving' information, so to speak, will help build relations.

This approach is better than simply confronting him about the communication silence, as it would allow you to get a better idea of how he thinks. If I may be so blunt, you do tend to have a tendency to jump to conclusions and overreact aggressively; thus in this case I would encourage you to take things slowly and carefully.

I hope diplomacy goes well for you, and would like to wish you a happy new year. Should you need any help regarding this, feel free to ask.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

Even better, I managed to evade the question entirely! There is not a single lie in the entirety of the message, yet all the important things (i.e. we're plotting together to destroy you) have been left out entirely.

On a side note, Mackoti is lying. As seen in the above email, he has in fact asked Kodii for an NAP extension. Kodii's email came a day before this one.

And to divert the topic completely, does anyone here happen to have know any good remedies for body ache? It tends to act up whenever I'm ill.