RB PBEM #1 - Mehmed (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

An a very short one from mh:

Ok, message received.

[Dreylin]

t131 - Ah, Istanbul completes its Bank and suddenly I have quite a healthy GNP again: 165gpt

athlete hit my advancing stack with his Cannon IBT - Cavalry defends successfully, but some collateral done. In the interests of speed, the advance continues: 2 of the 6 Janns are uninjured, and the 2 Cannon. The Cavalry promotes C1 and then will stop to heal for 1t - it can always catch up. The Cavalry which defeatd the Longbow in the field joins the stack.

2 fresh Cannon and a Cavalry move forward to follow the stack in case they are required; the remaining troops gather in Baghdad to heal.

Review mh's troop levels in Vienna; he's added another Cannon, and I can see an additional Cavalry on the way. There seems to ba a Cav missing ... ah, its gone off to explore my territory. I don't think we'll have any of that sort of thing going on, so I close borders.

Spread Confucianism to Kufah, and connect up the Gems outside the city. Immediately offer them to Ruff since he doesn't have them.

Review EPs; I now have enough to revolt Mecca regardless of discounts, so I switch them across to mh.

Istanbul - Cavalry, Ankara - Settler(for coastal spot immediately N), Konya - Library.

Draft: Sarmatian & Izmir.

Oh, and here's my first view of the island:

[Dreylin]

mh sends a note:

Hey Dreylin II.

Just wondering:
Any comments on closing the borders?

mh

mh,

Well, I wasn't comfortable with your Cavalry running around in my territiory; I figure if you want to scout out my defenses, you can use Spies like the rest of us.

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

Fair enough.
So what was that worker doing the whole time? That seemed odd.
Also, you realized you trapped your galley, don't you?

mh

Ah well, that probably wasn't that well thought out, was it. Oh, and Ruff informs me that mh has switched research to Steam Power....

mh,

Oh, the Worker was keeping an eye on your troop movements for me. Hadn't realised about the Galley though; that's a shme.

BTW, how is your Constitution research progressing?

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

and there's more:

mh,
Oh, the Worker was keeping an eye on your troop movements for me. Hadn't realised about the Galley though; that's a shame.
BTW, how is your Constitution research progressing?

Slowly, obviously. A terminated NAP and closed borders can do that.
Also, as Ruff has probably informed you, I misclicked this turn and spent one turn on Steam Power.

mh,

Well you can't really be surprised that I cancelled our NAP after you stole a city from me, can you?

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

And a last message from mh before he retires:

Stealing a city from you?
I think that is spinning the story a bit too much.

I made you aware of that option a long time ago (17.Oct).
It didn't draw any comments from you then.

So you saying, if you had taken Medina, you wouldn't have cancelled the NAP?
I find that hard to believe.

mh

mh,

Yes, you did mention it on Oct17; however the next time you saw fit to mention it was over 2weeks later as my army moved into place outside the walls and prepared to take the city. At that point, I made it quite clear that I was unhappy about the idea, however you brushed my arguements aside and accepted the city anyway. To me that implied that receiving Medina directly from athlete was more important to you than any consequences to our continuing relationship.

I can't say for certain that if you had not taken Medina that in turn I would not have cancelled our NAP; but your recent military build-up did begin before you received my notice of cancellation, therefore you must have suspected it was coming.

If a NAP and Open Borders with me are important to you, I'm prepared to pay you what you gave athlete (plus suitable commission) for Medina as a starting point for negotiation.

Regards,

Dreylin II.

[Dreylin]

t132 - Oooo, look at that I just popped a Gold outside Sarmatian!

Arabian forces in Mecca: 3Riflemen, Camel Archer.

Across the river I have: 2Cav, 2Cannon, 6Jann, Pike - with another Cav in range.

The Camel Archer has just completed, so I wouldn't expect to see another build complete in the next couple of turns. That means I may be able to afford the additional turn to cross the river, except the land is flat the far side so I'd be vulnerable to counter-attack. Probably need to sim it out.

Healed forces from Baghdad head back to New Damascus.

First Ironclad leaves the docks of Sarmatian and heads towards Konya.

Bursa - Cannon, Samsun - Courthouse, Gaziantep - Conf. Temple, Diyarbakir - Lighthouse, Sarmatian - Ironclad.

[Dreylin]

t133 - no further word back from mh; he must not want to talk about the potential for us to go to war...

Log tells me that Bursa's borders have popped again to match rings again with Vienna. That should hold the respective ground under my control, and somewhat aid in th culture fighting North of New Damascus.

Reviewing athlete's lands shows that Najran completed a Cannon, and Mecca added an Explorer. So 3Rifles, Camel Archer & Explorer in the city; 2Cannon, 2Cav, 6Jann, Pike across the river.

Spy revolts city (95% - using all but 69EPs)

CR2 Cannon @25% - dies, but Rifle down to ~50%
Dr2 Cannon @19% - dies, now two Rilfes at <50%

C1, Pinch Cavalry crosses river & attacks Rifle @68%(10%) - wins
C1 Cavalry crosses river & attacks Rifle @89%(4%) - wins
F2 Cavalry attacks across river Camel Archer @85%(8%) - wins

Janns left; best odds are 60% for an injured Combat2, or 48% for a fresh C1. I've heard that the odds generator is less reliable in the face of injuries, but even though I'd rather not lose the C2 Jann there's a big jump in odds.

C2 Jann (89HP) attacks Rifle(46HP) across river @60% - wins!
1xp Jann attacks Explorer across river @>99% - wins

Mecca falls to the Ottoman empire!



2Pop, Forge, Grocer, Academy & 139g.

Cortes moves up into the city to aid the healing, but the uninjured or slightly injured troops advance on Najran: 2Cannon, 2Cav (one on 92HP), 4Jann (two on 89HP), Pike (86HP).

They are WSW from Najran, which is just guarded by the new Cannon. City should fall in 2t, which will give me 5t to consolidate before the NAP with mh expires.

Workers wander around improving new cities, road network, and adding Lumbermills.

Settler from Ankara moves North to found Kayseri. Immediately steals the Wheat from Anakara and starts to grow into working the Iron.

Ankara - Levee, Konya - Cannon, Samsun - University, Kayseri - Granary.

I think about Drafting Bursa, but decide to keep it growing at this point. With the Arabian WW about to depart, I should be able to start Drafting around the provinces again if we do go to war with mh.

I have already passed Ruff his funding for next turn and still have 397g in hand; I can afford to run a turn of 100% research to knock out half of Economics. (I want to complete Econ before athlete is eliminated, to maintain the "known-civ" discount). I'll have 268g at the start of next turn, so plenty for Ruff next turn at least.

[Dreylin]

Technology planning with Ruff:

Dreylin,

I am going to see if I can knock off Divine Right in one turn after I finish RR. To do that, I might need another 150g. However, after that - I can move to feeding you coin and you can tech for a while.

Why Divine Right - for the coin wonder there. I have 14 Conf buildings, that is 28 coin before running it through banks and what not. I think that is worth it - I should be able to complete the wonder in 2 turns in FF too.

Ruff

Ruff,

That seems a solid plan to me.

My war is almost over; took Mecca this turn at a cost of 2Cannon and the remainder of my EPs against athlete. My forces should reach his remaining city next turn, and it should fall on t135.

I've got a bunch of pillage gold now, so I've just run a turn of 100% research into Economics. I need to finish it next turn if possible since athlete probably won't be around in 2t time. I've got 268g left now, so if you take 150-170g next turn I reckon I'll have plenty to finish the tech (should only take ~70% research to do so). From that, I should have something in the 10-40g range left over at the start of t135, but then I'll add pillage gold to that (been getting in the 100-140g range for that) which should keep you at or near 100% for your t136. I'll return to max-gold on t135, so after that we should be fine.

Basically, I think there's a possibility you'd need to run at 80-90% for a single turn, but shouldn't need you to drop to a turn of full gold.

Dreylin.

[Square Leg]

Hi Dreylin,

I'd just like to say a "thanks! " for the detail you have gone into when reciting your accounts of this game. It is really interesting and I have learnt a lot!

I have a question about how you plan to win this game and if you intend on turning on Ruff?