[Spoiler] RB Pitboss #2 - Shaka of Rome

[Whosit]

Message to India, a.k.a., the Killer Angels:

Salutations Speaker and Sullla of the Killer Angels,

My Scout, Bib Fortuna, came across your Warrior, Jubal Early. Are you perhaps hunting the pirate and smuggler known as Malcolm Reynolds? If you are, I wish you the best of luck; the Empire is well aware of the threat that pirates and rebels present. With that piece of business aside, I would like to simply add that I hope our two empires can coexist peacefully and forge agreements to our mutal benefit.

Best regards,

Whosit, Galactic Emperor

Short and to the point, hopefully cementing the friendship of our two civilizations through a mutual love of a semi-obscure sci-fi television show.

Took a closer look at a spot Holy Rome settled. I think it might get both plains copper and plains iron in the same BFC! Wow!

So, yeah, I'll play around a bit and try to figure out the best course of action.

[newbie]

I'm not entirely sure what they mean by "the soap's have been taking lessons . . . ." Any lurkers have a non-spoiler guess?

I think they mean that "the diplomatic correspondance is like a soap-opera". And they are getting popcorn to watch it.

[Swiss Pauli]

If that's by parallel to "it pleases us", that's active voice with an active subject-verb-object construction. "We are pleased" is definitely passive (who or what did the pleasing?) so I'd argue that the original questionable phrase "we are rejoiced" is also passive.

This wouldn't be Realms Beyond if we didn't micro-analyze everything.

Fundamentally, 'we' can't be used in a passive construction (try it), and you've also got the sense of the verb wrong, as 'pleased' is a predicate and 'are' the verb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)

[Rowain]

Short and to the point, hopefully cementing the friendship of our two civilizations through a mutual love of a semi-obscure sci-fi television show.

Note: India is running a Civil-war-theme so it would be the other jubal Early

[Whosit]

Note: India is running a Civil-war-theme so it would be the other jubal Early

God damn it.

I picked up on the theme regarding the city names, but when I saw "Jubal Early," Firefly was the first thing that came to my mind. Hopefully they'll know what I'm talking about, or I'm just gonna look like an idiot right off the bat.

[Whosit]

Oh, and some new diplomatic correspondence from the Ottomans:

[quote]Greetings Emperor Whosit,

I'll apologize in advance for holding up the turn. We are still hoping to avoid a reload but it does appear it might be headed that way. Also again if you feel this is too intrusive I do apologize.

We the Ottomans have been friendly with both Rome and Korea upon initial meetings of our civs and have found the kindness returned. To have learnt of the war under such terms as it happened was disturbing and we were thrilled you were able to quickly make amends with Korea. However we hear it is probably to be short lived, and hopefully this doesn't sound too much like we are droning on and on, but we do have some concerns about this.

As previously mentioned the Inca are already expanding south. With the Zulu now gone there is a lot of land to be had compared to everywhere else. To enter into a war at this point given that there's so much room for peaceful expansion almost seems backwards. It would probably leave you and any surviving civ (if any) backwards in comparison. And if there are none, then you will need to negotiate land arrangements with your new neighbours.

It will also make you appear quite the aggressor and with aggressive praetorians running around with no target, somebody is going to get an itchy trigger finger. We're not against you using your agg praets by any means, but Korea would make a strong ally to guard your back while they are focused elsewhere. The point here is even Aggressive Rome can be hurt when facing 2 fronts.

As we are friendly with both nations we would like to be able to remain friendly with both, and create mutually beneficial relationships. It might be hard to maintain two friendly relationships though if one of them were to suddenly cease to exist!

With our greatest respects,

Athlete for A/K
Ottomans[quote]

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one. OK, well, I know how to interpret it, but I'm not sure how I want to respond. Clearly, I blew my best chance; I think Korea is building/whipping Chariots now. Still, that's nothing compared to aggressive Praetorians. If I believe that I can defeat the Koreans with relative ease, I can't think of a reason not to. Yeah, I can expand into Zulu lands . . . but if I can also expand into Korean lands, that surely must benefit me!

I'm also not too worried about getting in war with anyone else afterwards, unless they're making a veiled threat. Everyone else would be too far away to effectively make war against me, I think. At least, at this early stage of the game.

But, as I've mentioned a few times before, the real reason I want to conquer Korea is to control the Border River. I think that it's the best, and closest, land for commerce. Yes, there is a river to my east, but it's further away and would require more resources to settle and defend right now than I think that I can afford. Controlling this nearby river, and planting cottages everywhere seems like the best way to build up a financial base for the Empire.

If any lurkers think that my logic is wrong here, please tell me.

The biggest question now, of course, is if I can still conquer Korea when the element of mostly-surprise is gone. I'll have to overwhelm them by force. I'm going to play a few more sets of testing; I've got to figure out the most efficient way to bring Kuat up to speed quickly enough to contribute to the war effort. Carida and Imperial Center (especially with the recently discovered Iron deposits!) should be enough to overwhelm at least one of Korea's border cities. If I can get three cities churning out soldiers, I should be able to overrun Korea by sheer force of numbers (and, hopefully, superior units). On paper, not a bad plan, but I'll have to see what they do.

Other good news: The extra production from the Iron mine will let me finish Worker #5 in just 1 turn! A granary may be worth it next, but I'll have to sim it both ways before I decide if it's worth spending the hammers on a Granary when I could be building Praetorians.

Unfortunately, I may not have enough forces until Turn 80, but I'll see.

Not sure how to reply to the Ottomans just yet. I don't really want to confirm or deny my plans for aggression, but I do take issue that they think they can control my policy. Let 'em get away with it once, and it goes to their head. I suppose I could always do some sort of delaying tactic along the lines of "we will consider your request, but wonder if you had something specific in mind when you discuss cooperation" etc. But, really, if I have a clear advantage in war (so long as Korea does not have access to Copper or Iron), I should be golden . . . right? Well, plako surely has a defense plan, and will have probably figured out that I scored Iron Working soon, but . . . I cannot let myself become too overconfident. Still . . . it seems like I'm still in a fairly strong military position.

[Whosit]

Because I am such a loser, I felt compelled to send this to team S&S:

Dear Speaker and Sullla,

It has come to my attention that I may have misidentified Jubal Early. The theme underlying the names of your cities should have tipped me off. I hope that you will pardon the instincts of a sci-fi fan. In any case, I am still pleased to make your acquaintance.

Best regards,

Whosit, Galactic Emperor

I guess I'd rather be seen as apologetic than wrong.

[Rowain]

Korean lands are close to your capital so from upkeep-pov it is better to take them instead settling far away lands.
OTOH learning IW and building Praets instead of learning Writing building Libs/settlers/Workers is ofcourse the prize you pay for it.
If it is worth in the end is a decision only you can make.

[Jabah]

If you want to hit Korea fast and hard, I don't think you have time to build a fancy granary
Praetorians and spear non-stop from now, with possible whipping ? (probably not from your 1st two cities).
Or whip that granary into a praet if you have enough food (which I doubt, you have only a cow 1st ring).

From what I could see from your Screenshot, korae can't see your Iron tile (because a mine on a grass would be quite explicite for them - except if they have IW themself). You could build a praet into 1t short, start another unit (spear) (even do it again with an axe) and then finish 3 units in 3t in each city, possibly whipping the last one into another preat and BOOM instant army without notice.

Also, you should try to move out of Carida any praet asap, as they can see inside the city (on hill, with 2SW being Korean culture).

[novice]

Pretty lucky with the iron there. I would try to attack Korea just because I can. Aggressive praetorians and iron in your captial is just too much of a temptation, regardless of whether or not it makes economic sense.

You should (in principle) be more tight lipped in the IT thread, no need to let everyone know that you've met Spulller. Can't imagine that it matters much at this point in time, though.