[SPOILERS] - WK does it again

[WarriorKnight]

Demogs seem to indicate that mackoti/dave settled a city last turn. Judging by the amount of land he gained when settling, he probably put it NW of the pigs. That actually doesn't look like too bad of a spot, despite having 6 tiles of overlap, it has 2 food, copper and is close by.

I might actually be convincing myself to settle there . Although I might go 1N to get horses instead of copper. Need to think about it more.

[WarriorKnight]

Things are starting to happen now, so I don't have much of an excuse to be lazy in posting anymore. I'll try to be a little more frequent with updates.

Firstly, settled York E of the corn. Sadly I'm the last to a 2nd city, which isn't great, but at least I wasn't too far behind most of the group in the second city race.

Serdoa built Stonehenge. As he's playing De Gaulle it was only a matter of time, although I still think T25 is a tad too early, especially when there isn't much land to go around.

More Roman spying:



Since his borders of his 2nd city have expanded already, my area confirms he settled 1NW of the pigs. Hurray for C&D. The spot NE of my warrior looks tempting for a 3rd city someday with 2 Deer, corn, copper 3N of the warrior. I may just place my 3rd city there in my area (although my spot seems to be missing a incense happy resource, not sure what that's about but I won't complain until I see most of the map).

Diplomatically TMIT just sent a message:

WarriorKnight:

I'd like to give you a quick update on transpirings and keep an open line of communication.

I have met Serdoa, who is to my east/southeast. He and I have agreed to sign a NAP until turn 60 and have begun border settling discussions. I'd like to do the same with your fine empire, as Serdoa has pointed out and I have confirmed through my own scouting that we all seem to have mirrored land (2 cow plots north of the capitol, corn next to a lake to the south, whales, etc)...which means we can predict the locations of a lot of resources as we continue scouting.

In addition to map details (which you probably know by now also), the only thing I know is that Serdoa also has a 2nd city; which strategic resource he opted to settle first is still unknown to me.

I'd like to set up a NAP with you as well, and am open to discussion as to the duration. I feel that our empires get better as time goes on and as such a NAP would be beneficial to both of us, allowing us more border security early on to develop our lands. I understand that, say, Roman legions may force any given empire's hand when it comes to military, but the way I see it going economy until forced otherwise can only benefit our civs.

If you're interested, let me know. I usually get back to emails within 24 hours, although actual timings may vary when I'm sleeping.

-TMIT

Quite a bit of info there. With Serdoa to his ESE (and therefore to my SSW), I know where everyone is:

dave NNE
TMIT ESE
Serdoa SSW
plako WNW

Also note the stuff about deals with Serdoa. That's quite a lot of info there to someone you just met, he might be a good friend later on.

Making a border agreement with him is probably a good idea, with everyone surrounding everyone, there's no way you can focus on all 4 at once, so negotiating 1 or 2 agreements doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Anyway, here's what I sent back:

Hi TMIT

It's nice to hear from you. Now that things are starting to happen in-game somewhat, we can accomplish more than just exchange greetings, and I look forward to future co-operation with you.

I have not managed to meet anyone else yet, but my own exploring has confirmed that we do have mirrored land to an extent (I've spotted a couple of inconsistencies here and there, nothing too major though). I believe that everyone has a 2nd city by now, with ours being settled just last turn. Thanks for the info on Serdoa, I'll let you know when I meet someone.

I would also be interested in working out a border agreement with you, although I'll have to turn down the NAP for the moment. The reason being that while I am not against signing NAP's, I have been burnt in previous games by blindly signing them with everyone, and for now at least I'd like to make sure that I don't repeat the same mistake again. I don't intend this to be a sign of hostility (really, that would only mean everyone else gets ahead) and would be happy to consider a NAP later on once we have shared more than just greetings.

I would be happy to set up a border agreement though, as doing so would allow us to focus our immediate expansion attention elsewhere. How much of the land between our borders do you know (via direct scouting or indirect scouting near someone else)? If you don't have a complete picture, I would be happy to send a screenshot to help us set up a agreement.

Regards,
WarriorKnight

The stuff about NAP's is true BTW, I'm giving it a test run this game to see how effective refusing to sign a NAP early on works out (unless of course my neighbour is Rome, then any early NAP is a good NAP).

And I guess since I've gone into pretty much everything else:



Somehow 1st in food, but since my cap will 2 pop whip a worker next turn that will change. I wonder how many other people will soon be on 3 workers?

[novice]

Is a border agreement feasible without a NAP?

[WarriorKnight]

Are you saying a border agreement is useless without a NAP?

I guess a border agreement is an extension of a NAP, because otherwise there's nothing to enforce it. Since he proposed it though, I don't see why he'd want to renege on it unless he's particularly intimidated about not signing a NAP, but I doubt that will make him change his plans.

[WarriorKnight]

Current situation:



My current plan is to build/chop a settler from both cities to get to 4 cities quickly. After that I'll probably sit on 4 cities for a bit until I get my finances in order then try and grab as much land as possible while it's still out there.



I actually kinda like my position, despite being tied last in pop I'm 2nd in food (only 1 behind the leader). I'm also 2nd in GNP despite Serdoa building a wonder (although I am CRE). That's counteracted by being last in MFG, although this early workers/settlers can be built with food as well so it's not that important.

[WarriorKnight]

Domestically, not much has happened. I finally finished both settlers and they'll be settled within the next 2-3 turns.

Diplomatically though, I have recently met both Serdoa and plako. Serdoa has met everyone now while plako is still missing TMIT. I've got a border agreement and NAP with plako (yes, I know I signed a NAP upon first contact but read on) while am setting one up with Serdoa. The interesting thing is that the two of them seem to have some diplo troubles of their own.

Serdoa:

What I mean with getting heat from plako and mackoti is that they try to push hard for agreements which favor them. mackoti I had not expected anything else, after all, he has Praets. But plako also presses pretty hard for land and was rather unreasonable when I offered a fair split. We'll see how that evolves down the line.

plako:

[COLOR="Sienna"]btw. Rome did pretty much fool me in NAP negoriations. They suggested tehmsleves a border agreement and long NAP, but ehn it was time to say yes they pulled away using bad cop/good cop approach

OleDavy doing all the talk and then when everything was ready Mackoti apparently said no[/COLOR]

hardly suprising given preats, why would they want to sign anything?

[COLOR="Sienna"]I don't lnow we negotiated quite a ehile and most of the deal came from them

I've a bad feeling though since Serdoa has felt pretty cold too[/COLOR]

Now I expect no less from mackoti, being in charge of AGG Rome (that's more or less why I've avoided contact so far). But I wonder if plako and Serdoa's diplo troubles will lead to anything? Anyway, since plako hasn't managed to get along with mackoti or Serdoa (and lacking contact with TMIT), I'm apparently his best option for a friend. Serdoa I haven't managed to talk with as much yet, but I doubt we'll have the same troubles.

I think I'm in a pretty good position diplo-wise. If I only knew what Rome were thinking, I could say for sure (they could possibly attack me since we haven't met yet and can't really read it).

[WarriorKnight]

Up to 4 cities, and since everyone else probably has 3 cities that' good news. Only problem is that maintenance is shocking on this map, and I'm down to 20% break even already, which this early is pretty bad. I do have pottery though, so once I get both cities up and running and lay down some cottages it should be back to reasonable levels.

[WarriorKnight]

I've been busy recently so it's been quiet on the diplo front until this:

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hi,

It seems I'm not very popular in this game. I really appreciate the deal we signed since that is the only one I've got. Unfortunately it seems to me I'm at minimum facing Praetorians and probably also Serdoa and/or TMIT. Needless to say I'll be focusing my military might in the near future and expansion and economy will be coming after that.

How do you see the game currently? I don't feel good about my prospects currently, but this proably brings you opportunities assuming I can survive with smallish losses. Would you be intrested in helping me somehow? I totally understand, if this doesn't intrest you, but nevertheless no harm asking.

Best regards,
Plako[/COLOR]

Well, if plako really is asking for assistance, then it's seems likely that most of the early game action/attention is going to be somewhere else. Score one for me.

Onto the task at hand though, I really don't want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. If this were tech trading, then I might consider it, but sending military aid wouldn't really help me much at all (plako would be grateful obviously but that would definitely annoy some people, and since everyone is everyone's neighbour, just isn't worth it).

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hi plako,

So you think the preats are coming after you? That sucks. You are the Natives though, so you do have Dogs and boosted archers (not much but better than nothing). Serdoa/TMIT jumping in is news to me, I'm surprised that they would consider it (since early war isn't really either one's strength). I'll ask around and see if I can learn anything interesting.

As for me, I'm still trying to find out where I stand in this game. I'm happy to exchange info with you, but I don't really have any other meaningful way to be able to provide assistance, so for now at least I'll have to leave it at that.

Regards,
WK[/COLOR]

And since it's been a while:



Kinda surprised someone has a lower GNP than me. Perhaps someone else severely underestimated map expenses? I'm not too worried about that 37 GNP (that's probably Serdoa with Stonehenge, monuments and Buddhism, and I also know that plako got Hindu) and once I get writing and cheap Libraries online, I should be in good shape.

[WarriorKnight]

I should update, but it's T50 next turn so for the sake of prosperity I'll hold off until then. Writing has finished (finally) and now I'm heading for Monarchy. Since Judaism isn't founded yet I'll see if I can grab that via Mono, but no big loss if I don't.

Cheap libraries are being built everywhere, once that's done my tech rate should be a bit better.

[WarriorKnight]

Alright, screen shot overview dump:



Just finished a settler for City 5, which will go to the NE to work the silver. I'll probably just crank military in here for a while (and workers if I need them).




York will whip a Library shortly, then work scientists until the happy cap gets a bit better.




Beautiful city, can hire scientists with 3 food resources or build stuff with copper/hills as needed. Future production city.




Kind of a hybrid, good mix of prod and commerce. Not really sure which direction to put it in yet.




Looks pretty good IMO. Only problem is soldiers, but I have a NAP with the 3 civs I've met. As for Rome, I've just met them and hopefully things can work out between us so I don't really need to focus on troops right now.

Mentioned tech path above, but I finished masonry (not really sure why I went for that first and not Poly) and heading for Mono.