Okay, this was the eventful turn. First contact with Azza, and he offered a map trade, which i reckon makes us the two most knowledgeable civs in the world. More on that later.
First tho, Serdoa was logged on when I got on, and rung me up with a trade offer:
To be clear: since we were both on, i asked "for?" because he was not able to mark anything on my list we would have wanted in return. Since in regular AI diplo, you are able to mark what you want from the other person, I considered this exchange completely within the rules. No more words were said after this either.
That said, I was somewhat surprised. I took it to mean that he was wanting to be peaceable after taking my barb city away. I figured, eh, why not keep it away from him for a bit, and speed up my walls for free for a touch.
So, my maps from Azza revealed the entirety of what I know know is the western half of our continent.
In the southwest, Commodore vs. Scooter, with nakor hiding on an island to the east. Commodore appears to be winning in land area here, not sure how that'll go.
Goodness, Azza and BigLew have been busy. Note Serdoa's former barb city blocking off expansion to Lew's east.
And Serdoa's already physically close. I'm very worried now that Serdoa's gonna use the 10 turns of peace from the stone to settle up on me, but I'm hoping that he didn't plan it out THAT far ahead. It's very clear that I need to concentrate on settling in this direction soon, in order to make sure I get land secured.
The problem is Serdoa's been snowballing. Mids & oracle & colossus? damn man. He's in a good central location with good land, and all 6 of his neighbors are fighting in pairs with each other, while he's completely free to gobble up land. If this keeps up, and no one of the pairs crumbles easily, he'll have Krill-PB5-like dominance in no time. I'll do my part to take my lands and keep him from running away, but if I have any realistic chance of turning myself into a winning position, other players also have to try and make something happen.
So....
Let's see if we can redirect the warmongerer.
Here's my reasoning. Xenu and I have a well defined border, and a good amount of places we could expand to. We're also both bottom half of the scoreboard, and little will be gained from fighting each other. If i give him the map. he knows nothing new about ym territory to use against me. If i give him the map, he'll see the current pairs of dogfights, and serdoa's unchallengedness. If i give him the map, he'll see Serdoa's expanding in what should be part of Xenu's part of the wilds. If i give him the map, i'm trying to say "hey, let's be friendly against the big threat". and If i give him the useless resource trade, I'm showing him i'm planning to keep the peace longer and not use Terrapin to attack him.
Plus look at Lakamba, it's got the buddhist shrine, oracle, and colossus. So juicy and full of wonders. Couldn't it use some drunken Portuguese love, marauding through the streets til the city is razed? So tempting....
I fully expect Xenu to reject the trade and declare on me in 5 or so turns anyways. I'm just doing my best to nudge him in a direction that if he sees it, will be better for both of us.
Oh also, I'm trading maps woth Bigwyn ASAP. That barb cvity Serdoa took is closer to them, and I'm sure they planned to expand there. Let's get everyone to go in and take their slice of the Serdoa pie.
First tho, Serdoa was logged on when I got on, and rung me up with a trade offer:
To be clear: since we were both on, i asked "for?" because he was not able to mark anything on my list we would have wanted in return. Since in regular AI diplo, you are able to mark what you want from the other person, I considered this exchange completely within the rules. No more words were said after this either.
That said, I was somewhat surprised. I took it to mean that he was wanting to be peaceable after taking my barb city away. I figured, eh, why not keep it away from him for a bit, and speed up my walls for free for a touch.
So, my maps from Azza revealed the entirety of what I know know is the western half of our continent.
In the southwest, Commodore vs. Scooter, with nakor hiding on an island to the east. Commodore appears to be winning in land area here, not sure how that'll go.
Goodness, Azza and BigLew have been busy. Note Serdoa's former barb city blocking off expansion to Lew's east.
And Serdoa's already physically close. I'm very worried now that Serdoa's gonna use the 10 turns of peace from the stone to settle up on me, but I'm hoping that he didn't plan it out THAT far ahead. It's very clear that I need to concentrate on settling in this direction soon, in order to make sure I get land secured.
The problem is Serdoa's been snowballing. Mids & oracle & colossus? damn man. He's in a good central location with good land, and all 6 of his neighbors are fighting in pairs with each other, while he's completely free to gobble up land. If this keeps up, and no one of the pairs crumbles easily, he'll have Krill-PB5-like dominance in no time. I'll do my part to take my lands and keep him from running away, but if I have any realistic chance of turning myself into a winning position, other players also have to try and make something happen.
So....
Let's see if we can redirect the warmongerer.
Here's my reasoning. Xenu and I have a well defined border, and a good amount of places we could expand to. We're also both bottom half of the scoreboard, and little will be gained from fighting each other. If i give him the map. he knows nothing new about ym territory to use against me. If i give him the map, he'll see the current pairs of dogfights, and serdoa's unchallengedness. If i give him the map, he'll see Serdoa's expanding in what should be part of Xenu's part of the wilds. If i give him the map, i'm trying to say "hey, let's be friendly against the big threat". and If i give him the useless resource trade, I'm showing him i'm planning to keep the peace longer and not use Terrapin to attack him.
Plus look at Lakamba, it's got the buddhist shrine, oracle, and colossus. So juicy and full of wonders. Couldn't it use some drunken Portuguese love, marauding through the streets til the city is razed? So tempting....
I fully expect Xenu to reject the trade and declare on me in 5 or so turns anyways. I'm just doing my best to nudge him in a direction that if he sees it, will be better for both of us.
Oh also, I'm trading maps woth Bigwyn ASAP. That barb cvity Serdoa took is closer to them, and I'm sure they planned to expand there. Let's get everyone to go in and take their slice of the Serdoa pie.