[SPOILERS] scooter, pindicator, and Huayna Capac try some fast Zulu cuisine

[NobleHelium]

We could always offer money...

[pindicator]

Next turn...



Doesn't look good for Brick.

I did swap the horse to Taco Bell to help speed up Heroic Epic a few turns.

[NobleHelium]

Clearly it's time for some "Commodore is attacking you with knights" diplo offers to Serdoa.

[pindicator]

I played and ended the turn. I may have done some things that are controversial, but hopefully nothing is too far off base.

So remember how we were thinking Xenu was the person that would be occupied and slowcheetah the one looking for someone to war with?



Things are starting to look up for xenu. This was one of Brick's war trophies, and it had suffered a revolt the previous turn, so gifting it back to Xenu isn't totally bad. But it's bad for us because Xenu's two burly neighbors are fighting each other (more like Serdoa is rolling Brick) and I'm really hoping this means Xenu doesn't decide to attack us. You know, like we feared slowcheetah may attack us if we went after xenu.

In the west, Commodore is certainly up to something...



Those workers have to be roading to somewhere, right? Well, there isn't any reason to put a city in all that jungle, so all I can think of is he's preparing an expedition to attack Serdoa. And us being the sneaky, underhanded rogues we are this game (that and wanting to give Commodore a little payback), I decided to try to warn Serdoa about it, Seven-style:



Edit: I believe Noble called this one, already though.

Clearly it's time for some "Commodore is attacking you with knights" diplo offers to Serdoa.

I didn't consciously think of it when I was playing the turn, but you were probably what gave me the idea

It'd be funny if he accepted the trade. Funny and sad...
The thing is, I'm not really sure that this is what Commodore is doing. But even if it doesn't, it may make Serdoa pull enough back from Brick to give him a chance. So hopefully this helps Brick out and reinforcements for the Brick war instead head south to combat Commodore.

I done whipped us a trireme:



And then I looked for marble trading partners.
Brick was tempting; he had just lost his bronze, so we could potentially trade him our metal for marble and get that. But Serdoa would know we supplied him, and if we're going to play the "I'm helping you to spite Commodore" angle, then we better leave Brick be there. (I also thought about gifting Azza horses again, but for similar reasons decided it best not to.)

In the end I found somebody who had 2 sources of marble, and so I decided it was worth trading our last source of wine for their marble:



If he accepts, I think we should cancel the wine to plako trade. We'll be able to get that health back with the harbors that are almost done, and this marble will let us get National Epic and Heroic Epic in short time.

[NobleHelium]

Sounds good. If I were xenu I would be taking this opportunity to attack Brick though.

[pindicator]

New Turn, Morning Update:

* Xenu started a golden age
* Plako took another city off Merohoc

For us, we have a problem out east:



I don't think he was too far ahead of us with Optics. Likely this is his first caravel and getting sight on us is a top priority (or 2nd caravel and the first went to plako). But attacking with triremes won't work now - he'll be able to pick our ships off from ocean tiles.

We can upgrade to caravels (55g apiece) and press on, or we can try to out-tech him to Astronomy. I don't think we can out-tech him, though.

In the west:



Serdoa has yet to log in since I made my requests, so no idea on the marble trade yet.

[scooter]

If he already has Caravels I don't see this going particularly well for us.

[pindicator]

If he already has Caravels I don't see this going particularly well for us.

If he dedicates himself to defending then neither do i.
We could upgrade the triremes we have now and use those as defense / scouting. But triremes in their own seem a bit worthless now.
I wouldn't whip the one in Five Guys this turn; if we want a boat i'd swap to a caravel and whip that

[pindicator]

Or...

We invade xenu

[scooter]

Or...

We invade xenu

This has been on my mind so far today. Mulling it over.