RB PBEM #1 - Mehmed (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

t82 -

Ankara completes Confucian Monastery (should get AP boost soon) and starts Forge.
Bursa completes Axe, starts Catapult.
Konya's borders expand and starts on a Lighthouse.

Twist starts mining the Plains Hill South of Konya.
Bilbo starts a Cottage at Ankara.
Brian finishes Mining the Copper, freeng Amber to start mining the Plains hill 1S.
Daisy moves to start a Cottage North of Gaziantep.
Marcia moves 1E of Istanbul to start another Mine.

Hmmm, looks like Athlete's been running Caste System Artists. Borders of Damascus have expanded and Tim has to move North to chop.


And mh is running Pants-down Military at Vienna.

Settler reaches Stone Dot spot, and will found next turn.

Abu Bakr (Great Prophet) heads to Ankara and will build the Confucian Shrine next turn.

South-East Barb Theatre - 8xp HA moves next to first Warrior. He should gain 1xp from being attacked, and then be able to move to take out the second Warrior for 10xp.

[Dreylin]

Ruff,

40g on the way across. Hopefully you don't need it, as I think I will for the Liberalism run.

I've attached a picture of the tiles I could do with roading - and yes I know it looks like an arrow, but those are the tiles!

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

Short update today as I've just finished driving 1600miles in three days and am feeling totally zonked.

t83 - Get my 40g back from Ruff and request Education per plan (see later e-mail)

No builds complete this turn!?

8xp HA promotes Combat1 to get >99% odds on Barb Warrior1 - wins with 09/6 strength left and 9xp. Promotes to Shock to get best odds on Barb2 and is now 3.4/6str ... >99% odds for next turn. 9xp Archer runs away from Barb2, but is close enough to lend a hand if something untoward happens with HA.

Saratian is Size2, so can be captured at will - need to start Konya on WB soon.

Abu Bakr builds Kong Miao in Ankara - +6gpt

Found Diyarbakir on Grey Dot site - start by building Culture for 2t to pop borders.

Discover Philoophy at EOT.

[Dreylin]

E-mails with Ruff:

Dreylin,

Education finished (T83). I didn't need the gold so I sent it back. I'll start hording gold (prob for at least 3 or 4 turns) and we can see what Sooooo does with his GS (due in 3). It looks like we will have at least 3 turns up on sooooo.

AP due to be finished end of my T84 - I had a forest chop into it to help it along.

Ruff

Ruff,

Philo completed. Edu requested - twice - and we still have the back-up of you offering if something goes really wrong. Based on Nationalism in 9t, Liberalism should take me about 7t to complete.

BTW, you think it's worth my offering Philo-Feud to athlete at some point? Not yet though, since that would tip them off unnecessarily.

Dreylin

[Dreylin]

A few more notes:

I've tried to talk tech with the enemy but none of them are interested.

I'll request philo from you next round - going to revolt and get another GS for my academy.

Ruff

Dreylin,

AP finished!
I got a Great Spy - what should I do with him?

I requested music and philo under different transactions - if we want to take a run at bulbing mil trad, I'll need music and I would like to convert to pacifism to run some scientists.

I'm saving $ at the moment.

Ruff

[Dreylin]

t84 - Hand Music & Philo toRuff per e-mail & DeTOG. Have received Educatin, so can start on Liberalism - 7t at max research, but do not have the gold - will probably need 1t of accumulating $ to run straight. (could grab Mach in 3t if needed)

No builds complete!?

Not much going on this turn infact ... except in the SE, where my Horse Archer successfully sees off the Barb threat and goes to 10xp! He moves next to Ruff's borders. Next turn he will promote to lvl4, Bursa will start HE, and then I'll pass him to Ruff so he can do the same.

Oh, and since there's not much else going on, here is the demographics screen.

[Dreylin]

And an e-mail to Ruff to keep him up to date:

Ruff,

Nice, the extra hammers will come in handy ... now to spread the religion around a bit more!

Sent both techs across to you, per DeTOG. I have started Liberalism; clock says it's due 7t from now, however based on actual beaker accumulation I only need to find 2 (two) additional beakers to knock that down to 6t - i.e. discovery at EOT t89. On the 6t TAT, I'm ~50g short; however I might be able to pick that up from capturing Sarmatian - due t87/88.

GSpy; couple of thoughts - 1) wander him around athlete's territory to find his new city and scout his troop levels. 2) bomb athelte. 3) gift him to me and I'll bomb athlete. Secondary benefit of 3) is that it will make it very difficult for any of the others to see my research. Right now both athlete and sooooo are putting all EPs against me; it will be a few turns, but they'll get visibility soon enough.

In other news, I will start my Heroic Epic next turn, then gift the unit, so that you can do the same.

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

A reply and then a follow-up chat:

Dreylin,

Great news re Liberalism. I'll watch sooooo and see what he does with the GS.

Do you have Drama? I am thinking of picking it up so that I can get my Globe up and running. I think I have the idea draft city in Death Valley (lots of farms) and close to the front line.

Re GSpy - I like your thinking re gifting him to you and you bombing mh or athlete. You have a NAP with Athlete so a mh bomb would prove much more useful in my opinion. Visibility into their cities is huge. And hiding your research will be a very handy if we can pull a Liberalism shuffle. Let me know if you need some $ - I have plenty (and maby 40g more based on the 4th test).

Re HEpic - I'm assuming your HA will hit the magic level 4 by killing that warrior. You'll have to wait until next turn to promote and then you can gift him to me for me to gift straight back.

This is all coming together very nicely.

Ruff

He also sent me a note about sooooo's cancelling of their NAP, but you've seen that from their threads

Ruff.Hi: greetings

me: sooooo
just read your BIG NEWS

Ruff.Hi: yes - guess I need to beef up my military, cats and horse archers, longbows, etc

me: yep
x-bows
are good also
especially since he'll likely have built a few phalanx

Ruff.Hi: right

me: has he grabbed his Iron yet?

Ruff.Hi: I will concentrate my techs on clearing some military ones (construction)
and then probably gunpowder and guilds
any luck for you re feudalism?

me: Haven't sent anything to athlete yet
figured that I'd hold off so as not to unduly tip our hand

Ruff.Hi: suggest you do that - try and break into their trading pact

me: OK, will do
Don't see any way they can beat us to Lib
unless we get greedy

Ruff.Hi: true

me: Can a GS bulb Lib?

Ruff.Hi: nope
I think Lib is right down the bulb list

me: Oh, 'cos once you have Edu, it's PP, isn't it

Ruff.Hi: no idea

me: Just checked, PP is 6th on list

Ruff.Hi: do you have a NAP with mh?

me: Lib is halfway down
and Compass is between as well
Nope
NAPs with everyone else

Ruff.Hi: but you do with athlete
right

me: yeah

Ruff.Hi: expect an email from sooooo in about 5 turns

me: Was wondering that
doubt he'll do that
why bother?

Ruff.Hi: I think me gifting GS to you is a great idea
but I would bomb mh instead of athlete

me: Well, that supposes that mh will be around long enough for it to be worthwhile
Wouldn't sooooo want to maintain the NAP with me if he'sdeclaring on you?

Ruff.Hi: good point
another good point

me: mh has zero military

Ruff.Hi: I think he is just trying to push me to a more military setting - not actual war

me: maybe I should cancel with sooooo preemptively?

Ruff.Hi: but this might be an opporunity for us given that he is concentrating his military in his blocking city
you can wait 5 turns and see what happens

me: Yeah, sure

Ruff.Hi: actually - you could just build your musket and gift them to me
is that covered by your NAP with sooooo?

me: Of course I can still gift you units....
Don't think so

Ruff.Hi: ok - so, short term plans remain the same
you on Lib
me on $
waiting to see what sooooo does with GS and then reconsidering
in the mean time, I will clear construction and start building some units

me: Sounds good
RE: GSpy?

Ruff.Hi: do you have enough info on mh to take him down with out visibility into his cities?
maybe athlete bomb is best long term plan

me: If mh, I would use Spys to revolt the cities rather than cats
steal techs aggressively
to ensure EPs are used up
athlete would be a longer-term consideration

Ruff.Hi: I'kl gift you teh GSpy and you work out what you want to do with him

me: just mulling options

Ruff.Hi: he is in my capital so will take a few turns to run over to you

me: what do you want in exchange?

Ruff.Hi: I've got a scout in MH lands at the moment - I will pass you some intell

me: Cool

Ruff.Hi: exchange? no idea
nothing springs to mind at the moment
but it will make us very strong re them from a spy point of view - that I like!!!
gtg - big party here tomorrow and have to get ready
see ya

me: see ya, have fun!
& stop watching the cricket!

Gosh, I didn't really expect Ruff to go for that suggstion of giving me the Great Spy!? Guess I have to put some more thought into what to do with him...

[Dreylin]

t85 - Borders of Diyarbakir have expanded; start Granary. Bananas are claimed back from Zapotec, and Stone is now within borders - Brian is working on Road connection, then will head to Bananas.

AP elections; I vote for Ruff.

Heroic HA promotes to lvl4; Bursa starts HE (15t, but will be speeded with chops). Heroic HAthen moves into Ruff's teritory & is gifted.

Tweak some tiles & whip Barracks into Gaziantep.

[Dreylin]

Daily exchange with Ruff:

Dreylin,

GSpy will take about 5 or 6 turns to get to you.

Sooooo has dialed up his tech rate ... it looks like he will NOT be lightbulbing Education.
sooooo - Education [7] at 70% tech, GS in 1, 223g @ -30gpt

Assuming liberalism will take him about 7 turns too and that someone will fund him, we have 14 turns before they finish liberalism. I don't think we really have time to muck around so I am finishing construction and then going gunpowder. That will take me about 15 turns. We should sandbag on Liberalism to make sooooo spend time researching some of it. Maybe you have time to squeeze Drama into your research path.

I have also started to beef up my military to match sooooo.

Ruff

Ruff,

I'm heading for Liberalism as fast as I can, and will then hold off with 1t remaining to assess the situation. I should easily be able to grab Drama before we need to finish Liberalism if sooooo does as you say. I can also grab Machinery in just a couple of turns, so if sooooo does not make an immediate push for Lib, I can then start Eng with a view to bulbing Chem if we're not being pushed. Eng would probably be the next target anyway to get the additional road movement.

Sooooo's military is still climbing steadily I see, let me know if you'll need any support from my side.

MoM due in 4t, and I'm considering using my Artist to kick off a GA straight away - would certainly help with picking up missing techs & ramping up military production, but maybe I should hold in reserve for once Gunpowder is in and I can churn out Jannissaries....

I'm about to send a quick note to athlete to see if he has any interest in trading for Philo.

Dreylin II