[Spoilers] Pericles of the Graeco-Mayans

[SleepingMoogle]

If the game is played on quick speed, the timer will most likely be reduced by 2/3. So you may only have 6 turns for units in that case.

[Sylon]

the decay timer on the work boat will only have two turns remaining on it?

Right, at least by my understanding.

Alright. Thanks.

If the game is played on quick speed, the timer will most likely be reduced by 2/3. So you may only have 6 turns for units in that case.

The game is on Normal speed.

[Sylon]

Decided to ditch the workboat and let it rot. It's not entirely a waste of hammers, though, since investing hammers in it once allows me to whip it without the penalty later. Unless it is possible for a build to be entirely undone?



We have horses! This, along with Holkans, takes care of our defense needs. That said, we should have some copper- possibly under the capital itself.



It would appear that the Glorious City has been surpassed by another player. Still, if the demographics are anything to go by, it would appear that this player is working one improved fish tile and two unimproved tiles, for a total food of 11. Growing his capital must mean that he delayed his worker, which puts him behind the other players.

[Sylon]

Athenai's borders pop again this turn, revealing a new landmass!



In other news, Mackoti's capital has grown to size 3, and Kodii has 5 more tiles in his borders than I do.

[Sylon]

Exploration of the strange and bizarre East Orient have uncovered more strange and bizarre things. Like that Floodplains wheat, which will provide a whopping 7 food once farmed, or those forested pigs... Well, technically, wild boars do live in forests, so that's not all that odd.

Sent out two diplomacy messages to keep communication channels open. First, to Ruff:

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Ruff_Hi,

How have your explorations been? Have you made contact with Mackoti yet? My explorations to the East have revealed some very interesting and obviously WB-ed terrain. Forest pigs are one thing, but floodplains wheat and incense are some ridiculously good tiles.

On the diplo front, I have yet to meet anyone else apart from Mackoti and yourself. Have you met your other neighbour yet?

I wish you good luck and hope that our cooperation continues.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

Upon re-reading this, it does seem to come off as prying too much. Granted, the actual information that could be obtained from these questions is virtually none, but nevertheless it is the feel of the piece that matters.

Speaking of the feel of the piece, it sounds less like a diplo message for a game where empires rise and fall and more of a holiday greeting letter to a relative. How have you been? Has your mother's health been good lately? I heard chrysanthemum tea is good for the body, etc etc.

Anyway, moving on, I sent another message to Mackoti.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Mackoti,

Have you met Ruff yet? The arranged meeting should be happening within these few turns, I hope you don't miss each other as a result of my vague directions.

How have your explorations been? My exploration has mainly been directed East. The terrain there is quite odd, to say the least, with some obviously edited tiles like floodplains wheat and forested cows. I believe you might have already come across some of these.

It would make it easier to contact other civilisations if we shared some map info with each other; would you like that? For the count, my capital is to the North-East of your Quecha, at the end of a long peninsula. It's a dead end, so you'll have to head South if you want to meet other players.

I wish you good luck and hope we continue to get along.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

I've completely dropped the role-playing; in exchange, I appear to have taken up the mantle of 'old kindly grandmother knitting by the fireplace'. This may not be an entirely good thing.

[Sylon]

The turn passed by fairly uneventfully.

We've received a reply from Ruff:

[COLOR="Plum"]Greetings Sylon,

As you can see, I've met the team to your NE. My warrior is proceeding into WonderLand (the central area as I call it) which looks ... well ... wonderful.

I haven't met anyone else yet - I will inform you if I do met anyone else.

Regards,

Ruff[/COLOR]

Wonderland certainly sounds better than 'Unnaturalia', which frankly looks extremely messy. We'll go with that.

[Sylon]

It appears that Ruff has met Pegasus! I sent a quick email to him:

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Ruff_Hi,

Wonderland certainly sounds great! Or at least, it sounds better than 'Unnaturalia', my previously-chosen name for it. I think I shall go with 'Wonderland' too.

More importantly, it is good to see you have met Pegasus. Would it be possible to arrange a meeting between us, or is he still too far away at the moment?

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

Right now, Pytheas (The Easternly explorer) is exploring quite far to the East, and I would rather not have to backtrack if I can afford it. That probably means sending Euthymenes out a safe distance to try and meet Pegasus- Assuming, of course, that Pegasus is nearby at all.

The layout of the map should be obvious from here, with the order going in clockwise: Mackoti-Kodii-Pegasus-Ruff-Sylon. It seems like poor Pegasus drew the short end of the stick, being sandwiched between Kodii and Ruff.



The wheat farm completed last turn, and the worker is currently pasturing the horses. The settler will be done in 5 turns.

It appears that Ruff is building a Settler, since his capital has been locked at Size 1 for a couple of turns- Most likely, he's using his fast workers to chop it. The other players, having grown their capitals to size 3, are only starting their Settlers right about now. Of course, they might make up for it by having a better second city site- That is to say, a site with more than one food source.

That said, I'm pretty satisfied with Sparte's (Green dot's) tiles. Even if it can't work half of them until Bureaucracy comes around.



For reference:

[Sylon]

I made contact with Kodii this turn.



Alas, I unwittingly moved my warrior away before snapping a screenshot; he is on the grassland cows you see to the right.

I sent an email each to Ruff and Mackoti, informing them of this meeting, and proceeded to send a greeting to Kodii:

[COLOR="Cyan"]Greetings, Kodii of the Mali! The city-state of Athenai extends its hand to you in friendship. May our peoples grow and prosper in harmony, working together for the good of civilisation!

I see you are already acquainted with this strange land of milk and honey (and forest cows). Our explorers call it Wonderland, what do yours call it?

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

Nice and welcoming, while not revealing too much. I was thinking of inviting him to the meeting, but will wait for Ruff to reply to my diplo message before bringing it up.



A run down of all the cities. Kodii, Pegasus and Mackoti have all grown their capitals last turn.



Demographics for Turn 30. It is worth noting that someone- Probably Ruff- has been chopping his forests, causing his health cap to drop.

[Sylon]

The turn opens with a bit of diplomacy.

[COLOR="LemonChiffon"]Hello Sylon,

It brings me great pleasure to finally meet such a noble individual as yourself. Similarly, we would like to extend a friendly hand and hope for peaceful co-existance.

Our explorers have not yet reached their full potential with their scouting, as some bad turns prevented them from maximizing their coverage. However, we are very pleased with the land around us, and hopefully you feel the same about your land. We have not yet named this strange land.

I would like to bring you warning of a bear in the northern vicinity of where our warriors met. May neither of our scouts meet such a tragic end!

- Kodii[/COLOR]

It would appear that I am the first player he has met. At the very least, he seems to be going on with the roleplaying at full steam, which indicates he hasn't gotten tired of it yet. If I am indeed the first player he has met, this could be a good chance to forge some goodwill between him and myself by sharing some map information with him.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Dear Kodii,

We have heard tales of wild and ferocious beasts from the other explorers we have come across, but so far fortune has smiled upon us, and we have yet to encounter any of them.

The lands surrounding the glorious city of Athenai are rich and rish with bountiful harvests from the land and the sea. Nonetheless, we are scholars and philosophers, not merchants, and while the abundant coast is pleasant to behold as one muses on the nature of humanity, we would have preferred to keep our feet on drier ground.

Let us set our lamentations aside, however. We would like to invite your warrior to join a meeting between the civilisations of this vast land. The Turkish explorer is, as I have been told, several days (tiles) to our North-West, while the Indian warrior, whom I have already had the pleasure to be acquainted with, is also traveling East. Alas, the Incan explorer cannot be reached at this time, and as such the meeting will only contain the three of us- Four, if you should decide to come along. It would be a good way to exchange knowledge between our civilisations and open relations with each other.

I await your reply and look forward to further cooperation between our peoples.

Sincerely,
Sylon[/COLOR]

I originally intended to write a perfectly normal, casual message, but after reading Kodii's message my instincts got the better of me and I started to write a single short paragraph on wild beasts, and from there it simply snowballed. I suppose I'm not quite tired of roleplaying either, though it is quite exhausting.

Game-wise, it would appear that Ruff either finished his Settler last turn, or swapped to a warrior as a forward escort for said settler, since Delhi grew this turn. My own settler is due in three turns, Bronze Working in 4.

[Sylon]

Met Pegasus last turn.



It was late, so I went to sleep. I woke up to find two messages in my mailbox: Pegasus' greeting and the save!

No, I'm not surprised at Pegasus' greeting. But the save took less than twelve hours to arrive- It's a new record.

[COLOR="PaleGreen"]Greetings Sylon of Athenai,

We have heard great news from our wandering warrior Cheetarah of passing by your warrior 2 East of the Deer and 1 East of the Corn. She moved south of the Mountain pass this turn, discovering the wonderful lands we seem to be blessed with.

We hope you have faired well over these starting turns and welcome the Athenai with open arms. I understand you have already met the Indians, who have kindly pointed me to head East in hope that we can meet.

So far I have met Kodii of Mali, Ruff and your good self. How have you fared? Should you require me to arrange for you to meet with any of those I have met, please feel free to request.

Kind Regards,


Pegasus[/COLOR]

And my reply.

[COLOR="Cyan"]Greetings, Pegasus of the Thundera! The city-state of Athenai extends its hand to you in friendship. May our peoples work hand in hand to bring knowledge and splendour to all!

We have met Ruff, Kodii, Mackoti, and yourself already. Mackoti's Quecha is currently 1 NW of my warrior's position last turn- you might have already met him yourself.

In the spirit of cooperation, we would like to share with you what we happen to know about this map. Based on the order and direction I met the other civilisations, I have drawn up the following map:

-----M-----
-S------K-
--R----P--

I know for sure that Ruff is to my South, and the shape of the landmass I have seen thus far makes me suspect that Mackoti is to the North, but for the Eastern half of the landmass I cannot speak. Could you confirm if your position on this landmass is correct?

I look forward to our civilisations working together and wish you luck in your endeavours.

Sincerely,
Sylon, First Citizen of Athenai[/COLOR]

I will confess to copying and pasting the first line from Kodii's greeting message- which was in turn copied from Ruff's. Pah, diplomacy is tiring. :zzz:

I sent similar map-related messages to Kodii and Ruff- to check with Kodii on the validity of the map, and to keep Ruff updated so he doesn't think I'm plotting against him if someone mentions it to him. Mackoti has yet to reply to any of my diplo messages since the first one, and I've sent him 3 messages since then, along with 2 remainders to join the PBEM tracker earlier (Which went unanswered). I've given up on diplomacy with him. This sets my plans awry, since without a clear communication channel I have no hope of pushing him towards the Oracle in the hopes of denying it to the other civs.



The settler finished at the end of last turn. Sparte will be founded in three turns, once it arrives where Euthymenes is fortified.

To finish off, here are the five great capitals of the world: