RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Peter of Byzantium

[darrelljs]

Athlete has a warrior 2 tiles away from Paris. So I put our 3rd warrior also in there just in case of any funny business.

He got close enough to Athens to see our borders, right?

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

Let me see just how out of sync my sandbox is now, so I can verify our Oracle plan is still valid. At the end of turn 47:

Tech: Priesthood due in 6 turns (0/89 beakers invested)
Research: 12 beakers/turn at 80%
Athens: Worker due in two turns (44/60 hammers invested)
Athens: 5/28 food invested towards size 5.
Paris: Warrior due in 6 turns (4/15 hammers invested)
Paris: Growing in 9 turns (4/22 food invested)
Paris: Border pop in 2 turns (0/10 invested)
Worker #1: Just finished road connecting cities

At the beginning of turn 48:

Tech: Priesthood due in 4 turns (27/89 beakers invested)
Research: 14 beakers/turn at 80%
Athens: Worker due in one turn (56/60 hammers invested)
Athens: 5/28 food invested towards size 5.
Paris: Warrior due in 5 turns (6/15 hammers invested)
Paris: Growing in 8 turns (6/22 food invested)
Paris: Border pop in 1 turn (5/10 invested)
Worker #1: Ready to move towards Deer

Darrell

Paris is correct, and Worker #1 is correct. We can actually get a free turn in with that worker 1N of Paris next turn (T48) - do you want to farm or road?

Athens is wrong
* We're at 48/60 on the worker, and making 12 food-hammers per turn, so we'll complete it this turn (available for action t48)
* Not sure on the 5/28 but I bet that's close.
* Research is also wrong. We do not yet have trade routes (I think we'll get them next turn as the road is complete now)
* Also Priesthood research is at 6, but we can only do 70% since the trade routes are not in yet, and we only got 8 overflow beakers

And yes, Athlete saw our Athens' borders

[regoarrarr]

Here was a message from Jowy

No worries, 2 days to reply isn't really slow in my books I live in Finland so we don't have thanksgiving here, though I have many friends from the US so I know it's quite a big deal there.

While I still plan to settle atleast one city east of my capital near the river, as a friendly gesture I have decided to go for a secondary site in another location for my second city. I haven't yet decided where to settle the next one after that. Anyway I hope you appreciate this and follow up by also expanding elsewhere.

Ah so you do have other neighbours? May I ask which way from your capital do you presume these other neighbours might be?

We need to reply to him and probably send something out to athlete. Darrell - do you have any high level thoughts you'd like to include? I'll try to get something out later today

[darrelljs]

We need to reply to him and probably send something out to athlete. Darrell - do you have any high level thoughts you'd like to include? I'll try to get something out later today

I'd actually hold off on a message to athlete, unless the ball is already in our court. We should act as if that city site was naturally ours, and the best way to do that is not bring it up. If he brings it up, and he probably will, our weapon is surprise (as in act surprised) .

Jowy...hmm, so he hasn't landed a second city yet (or is about to). That's encouraging. I think we should state some yada yadas about how we appreciate settling the second city in another direction and mention we did the same already while waiting to settle the disputed area. Here's the picture you took of the area again:



I'd say something like:

Obvously we would prefer the coastal spot that grabs the Sheep and Deer, however we recognize that this is the prime spot and in the interests of reaching a deal quickly so we can plop our cities down, we're willing to give you that spot as long as you settle on the west bank of the river (i.e. NW of the Sheep). This will allow us to squeeze an admittedly subpar city in to claim the Deer without crashing your borders. We each get one of the Food resources, and with so many grassland tiles that's more than enough.

To be honest, we see this as a fairly big concession on our part, since we are basically giving up all the river tiles on the first, best city spot. However, you were the only team that signed a long term NAP with us and you have at least appeared to act in good faith by also settling in the opposite direction. We think a key to this game is securing well intentioned neighbors; a secure border allows for a more focused military. I would hope that as we negotiate sites further down the river, there is an opportunity for you guys to offer some concessions of your own ;-).

We could always pretend to go "stockholm syndrome" on them, and have you pretend you had to convince us to do this deal. I think that is pretty deceitful so I'd rarther not do it, but it is an option.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

I actually logged on (gasp) to try to figure out what the heck was going on. It turns out that in my sandbox the city maintenance costs are 1/turn less, which is why the beaker can be at 80%. I will compensate by running a 1/turn surplus I guess.

Darrell

P.S. Research was at 0%...I left it that way. Was that an accident?

[regoarrarr]

I actually logged on (gasp) to try to figure out what the heck was going on. It turns out that in my sandbox the city maintenance costs are 1/turn less, which is why the beaker can be at 80%. I will compensate by running a 1/turn surplus I guess.

Darrell

P.S. Research was at 0%...I left it that way. Was that an accident?

No - it's (I believe) more efficient to run 1 turn of 0% and 3 turns of 100%. I will run some numbers to make sure on this. Then we'll run 2 turns of breakeven, if we need Priesthood in 6 to start the Oracle.

[darrelljs]

<runs back to change slider to 0%>

[regoarrarr]

Okay - a bit of beaker management.

It's currently T47, and we have (I believe) 8 overflow beakers. I am basing this on when I go to 0% science, it tells me that Priesthood is 81 turns away (at 1bpt).

So, I think what we should do is this:

T47, 8/89 beakers, 0 gold - run 0% science, 1 beaker and 12 gold
T48, 9/89 beakers, 12 gold
T49, 10/89 beakers, 24 gold - run 100% science, 16[20] beakers and -4 gold
T50, 30/89 beakers, 20 gold
T51, 50/89 beakers, 16 gold
T52, 70/89 beakers, 12 gold
T53, 1/X beakers, 8 gold, Priesthood discovered.

That compares to 11[14]bpt at 70% breakeven science, which puts us at

T53, 3/X beakers, 0 gold.

So the binary science way gains 8 gold for 2 beakers. The actual numbers could change based on cities growing / trade routes coming online / etc. But I think the basic theory holds.

[regoarrarr]

Okay email off to Jowy - I used most of Darrell's lines, but modified it slightly

Hey Jowy,

Thanks for your reply. There was some confusion in our team whether "second city" in your email meant the actual second city (i.e. the one founded by your first settler), or the second city founded (third total city). It was my belief from reading your email that you were referring to the actual 2nd city (first settler) but we weren't sure.

So, with all that being said, here's some thoughts on the river valley between us. I am not sure how much you were able to scout, so if any of these descriptions don't match for you, let me know and I can describe them better. Obvously we would prefer the coastal spot at the river's mouth that grabs the Sheep and Deer, however we recognize that this is the prime spot and in the interests of reaching a deal quickly so we can plop our cities down, we're willing to give you that spot as long as you settle on the west bank of the river (i.e. NW of the Sheep). This will allow us to squeeze an admittedly subpar city in to claim the Deer without crashing your borders. We each get one of the Food resources, and with so many grassland tiles that's more than enough.

To be honest, we see this as a fairly big concession on our part, since we are basically giving up all the river tiles on the best city spot. However, you were the only team that signed a long term NAP with us and you have at least appeared to act in good faith by also offering to settle in the opposite direction. We think a key to this game is securing well intentioned neighbors; a secure border allows for a more focused military. I would hope that as we negotiate sites further down the river, there is an opportunity for you guys to offer some concessions of your own ;-).

As for our other neighbors, have you not met Athlete / Kalin of the Ottomans? Their scouting warrior passed by our lands a few turns ago and we gave them directions to your city, so if they have not yet met you, they probably will be soon. I believe they are to our east, and I believe that the Incas are somewhere to our south.

[darrelljs]

Yeah, binary math works better for sure...especially early in the game when rounding away one beaker or gold piece is a big deal.

I liked your wording a lot, let's hope we can get a real partnership with Jowy.

Darrell