Relations with CivPlayers

[kjn]

I'm making a new thread here, since this topic ties together dotmapping, diplomacy, and our in-game actions in the near and mid term.

I think we and CivPlayers has just jointly managed to mess up our projected dotmaps.




Their newest city of Xochicalco (settled T89) stops our city 1S of the wines, but I think they had projected a city 2W of Brick by Brick.

The only legal spots that can pick up the flood plains in the middle are now the two forested riverside plains tiles, 3W of Brick by Brick and 3E of Tlaxcala.

The projected white dot city also messes up a road connection to Brick by Brick. Even if we place a city 3E of white dot, on the plains hill, the road will go very close by CivPlayers borders, making Brick by Brick isolated. I have no doubt we could hold the city with a set of walls, but we won't be able to keep our horses connected in case of war.

Ie, I think this will be our main area of tension and conflict over the coming turns.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Won't we keep the horses connected across the lake?

[mostly_harmless]

Scrap the southern connection and shift focus to the northern shore of the sea. We have an axe exploring there at the moment. Germans are tied in a conflict with WPC so are unlikely to push south and the terrain is mostly jungle.

mh

[kjn]

Won't we keep the horses connected across the lake?

It's not keeping them connected from Brick by Brick I'm worried about, it's the horse tile itself.

A hypothetical CivPlayers city 3W of BbB will claim the two hills directly overlooking the horse tile, and it's easily pillaged or blocked from there.

[novice]

Scrap the southern connection and shift focus to the northern shore of the sea. We have an axe exploring there at the moment. Germans are tied in a conflict with WPC so are unlikely to push south and the terrain is mostly jungle.

mh

I had the same thought. It would be interesting to see if a city 3NW of BbB is viable.

[Ceiliazul]

I agree with KJN's strategic analysis. A city 3E of white dot is a heck of a lot better than an island of egyptian culture. If we can later connect thru the jungle that's a bonus, but we need to push for that Southern connection.

Also note that a city ON one of those FP is possible. A 3rd city in this area would be a reasonable and highly damaging (to us) course for Civplayers in this situation. Supported by the culture of their other cities, a city on FP would likely win the fight whatever narrow landbridge we can secure.

So goals:
-get a southern connection soon
-get a northern connection someday
-dissuade CivPlayers from cramming another city in there. This may involve reparations.

[scooter]

Well this is not ideal. Agree with what's been said - that we probably need to focus more on a northern connection. If they were determined though, this will be a tough spot to hold.


Let's talk a bit about relations. Things are going to be tricky. They've very, very likely seen that stone and were planning on getting it themselves. They're not going to be thrilled. Further, any idea of a border plan is pretty shot - any sort of dotmap is exceedingly messy now. This probably ends in conflict, I think we would just prefer that conflict to be on our terms (i.e. not now).

So, gameplan. Push for a NAP. I'll have to be pretty proactive and not let them stall us, but if we can get ourselves a nice NAP with them, take it. Also, we'll need to ferry over a couple axe/spears to be safe. If they want some sort of border agreement, we'll consider it. Really depends on what they have in mind. I'll open this up a bit - any thoughts from the group? We may have to be willing to "pay them off" them to be honest. Not offering it up front, but being willing to do so if things seem sour. Like I said, I don't think they're going to be happy about this at all, especially when BBB looks so exposed like it will.


Request: Can we get a screenshot of the diplo adviser screen so we can see who they've met so far that we know?

[Gold Ergo Sum]

We need a southern lake city IMO.

We need to tell them that spot is super close to our capital, and definitely falls in our sphere of influence. If they want to war with us, we have far more resources to apply to it.

[kjn]

@scotter: Look in the latest C&D report.

CivPlayers has met the Germans, but not CFC or WPC.

[Sian]

a very important think talking for getting a city somewhere between GM and BbB (by following the coast) ... it'll stop them from being able to boat our tasty insides