[SPOILERS] The Reverend Suryavarman II of Babylon

[The Reverend Doctor]

Probably the most emails I've sent in 2 days has been about my stone being hooked up...

Short version:

Jowy will have his own source in about 4 turns and is going to wait for that to build the 'mids.

Seven asked for a trade to build stonehenge. I was tempted but had to defer until after I've built HG.... don't want to risk losing it (especially considering those two could be lying about what they planned to build, why would Seven want stonehenge?) My price probably would have been too high anyway.

Un-stone related news:
Nakor approached me about a sort of intelligence sharing agreement. Our borders are still relatively far away and I could see myself being friendly with ol' Naks so I told him I was on board if he wrote something something up we could agree to.

I haven't had much contact with Athlete even though our close borders are already sparking tensions! I sort of played it cool and asked if he'd give me first dips on trading for the gems he'll steal from me.

He played along but I still think he's going to attack me when he gets beserkers. He flat out told me earlier that he planned on using them, and he's signed a long NAP with Seven to his south... I think the writing is on the wall.

Since he doesn't have a thread, here's a little of Jowy's thinking:

I'm gonna use those praets the moment I get a good opening.
Not gonna force some no-gain war campaign.

Too bad. A nice stalemate war between my opponents would be perfect.

[The Reverend Doctor]

So the humble (yet mighty) Babylonian empire has been in existence for 100 turns!

Hopefully everyone does one of these so I can see how my empire management compares after 100 turns.

Overhead view of culture:

Curse Athlete and his religion!

I plan on settling one more city to the south that grabs a few floodplains/gold/and is on a plains hill. After that is settled I need to improve my economy and simultaneously prepare for war. How do people do it?

Cities Screen:

Embarrassing... unhappiness! It'll get whipped away as soon as possible without stacking whip anger.

What did I say about preparing for war? Those look like all infrastructure builds. The key is the Hanging Gardens (which I've been assured is not in danger of falling to Nakor, Jowy, or Seven.)

Settle the final city, pump all the pops up by one, then whip it away into stables! From there build/whip some HAs. Laugh in the lurker thread if I'm being paranoid, but I think Athlete is planning to attack me eventually. And I think my best shot is a decapitation strike before he can get all his pieces in place.

Military:

Somehow this isn't the weakest military in the world. Two of those bowmen have set up a tight sentry net to the south, the only place I still need to worry about barbs spawning. They have odds on anything that would try to attack them at this point (I don't know if I've ever seen barb chariots, do they exist?) There's an axeman and bowman wandering around trying to reach 10xp, I think all the others have a heroic epic eligible unit and I think I really need one too.

Tech tree:


It leaves out all the earliest techs, but this is a good snapshot of where I'm at in the tech tree after 100 turns. (I'm also missing meditation to the left.) After HBR is done in 2 turns at 0% science I need to go for metal casting. Forges are an essential build and I'll need triremes in the water to match Athlete's.

Financial Advisor at 0%:


Financial Advisor at 100%:

Just posted those for posterity/comparison purposes.

Didn't want to pointlessly post pictures of all my cities, but here's two important ones.

VII (the capital):


It'll probably finish the worker, build a unit, build a settler. Hopefully in time to settle before the HG is built. Could always skip the extra unit to beat that deadline.

Diligence (former barb city that is kind of in Athlete's grill):


Building the HG here because I want culture and it has forests-a-plenty to chop. If there's an aspect of my game that's certainly lacking compared to my opponents it's all those unimproved tiles being worked!

Overall impression: Not too shabby. I like that my empire is compact (helps maintenance and keeps lines of re-enforcement short.) It's too bad I've gotten random spreads of 3 different religions, if those had all been one I'd have switched by now for sure.

The first part of our game has probably been a bit boring for the lurkers, seeing as we all started so isolated. But I think things are heating up for the next 100 turns.

Next up I'll write about my impressions and relations with my opponents.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Like I promised, my impressions of everyone else's games, and how I'm getting along with them.

Athlete(6 cities): For comparison I just founded my 7th ctiy. He has been sitting in last place but that doesn't mean much this early, we're all close changing positions. Demogs and his stories indicate he may have a harder time with the barbs then I have. (He also has some high xp units, so it hasn't all been bad)

I ran into some of his borders really far south recently, and think that might have been a mistake. He settled (or captured from barbs?) a city like 12-15 tiles south of his holy city and capital. Hopefully it's hurting his economy and will be hard to defend.

Too bad about the NAP with Seven he signed. I wouldn't be planning to bring the fight to him otherwise. Founding a religion on the center continent was a good move though, I'd love to be crushing him with my creative culture...

Nakor(5 cities): Nakor and I recently signed an intelligence agreement and it seems we've both been pretty open with each other and forthright in our intentions to be friendly (at least I have!). Recently founded confucianism and is going for construction next. He's been approached by Jowy for an NAP which is good news for him, no praetorians on his doorstep!

Jowy(9 cities): I don't know how he's affording that expansion. I'm starting to get the feeling he chose aggressive Rome just for the threat of pumped up praetorians more than to actually use them. He might have been able to bully his way to land encroaching on his neighbors who won't mess with those super units. (Although he did say he's use them if a good opportunity presented itself.)

If he can follow up that expansion with some growth/teching he could be a monster. He's building the pyramids soon.

Haven't had a whole lot of contact with Jowy. Pleasant emails occasionally but he's pretty far away and we just haven't had much to discuss yet.

Seven(8 cities): He's been on top of the scoreboard for a while now. (Athlete and I were just discussing that India is getting a good rep in these games, people who are competent keep picking them!)

Built the great lighthouse early. Founded some religions. Then he oracled fuedalism. Has longbows in his back pocket if praetorians come knocking (which I hope they do), but is settling cities with no defenders! Someone should call the bluff he's running.

We've been pretty honest, it'll be a while before we have designs on each others' territory so I see no reason not to be friendly. Haven't discussed any plans with him in case he's buddies with Athlete. He did mention he'd like to build stonehenge but may not after I didn't trade him stone.

Not particularly deep insight is it?

[The Reverend Doctor]

I should add the overall participating in one of these PBEM games here has been a very pleasant experience.

I feel like I could attack any one of my opponents in game but still chat with them out of character or post in their other games' threads. So a big for the community here and their making it so easy to stick around and get in on the fun.

[Rowain]

Thanks for your big update
and Good Luck for the next 100 turns.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Hey we're back!

Thanks to Ruff Hi for taking over for Jowy.

Had a bit of a dilemma this turn....


My axe is standing on the ruins of a just razed size 1 barb city.

If I could've, I might have let it grow and tried to keep it. However, it would've extended my empire a bit more than I was ready for. And most importantly, Athlete had an axe in the area to do the same (and Nakor apparently, but couldn't see his until I burned the city).

I called it a dilemma because it was making sense to me to let it grow and let Athlete capture it... I want his empire to be extended farther than he can support it right now, and this city would've been a good 9 tiles or so from the nearest large city. Since Nakor's unit was in the area I think I made the right move.

Horseback Riding came in at the beginning of the turn after finishing it with 4 turns of specialist only research. Next up is slamming iron working at 100%. ETA: 2 turns.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Ironworking came in this turn.... do we have any?


Yes we do!

And in a bit of dumb luck it's in a spot I hadn't cottaged yet because I don't have quite enough workers (although their numbers have been increasing! 1:1 with number of cities now.)

ETA on Hanging Gardens is 5 turns but that may be delayed as I don't think I can get a new city founded for 6 or 7.

[pocketbeetle]

Just echoing Rowain's thanks, following along here.

What happened to Metal Casting for triremes after HBR?
Did chopping jungle become a higher priority?
Where is your tech path taking you next?

[The Reverend Doctor]

Thanks for following along!

What happened to Metal Casting for triremes after HBR?

There are two reasons I went iron working first.
1. I inexpertly thought it was a prerequisite and would give a discount. I mean, it made sense in my head so I ran with it.
2. Everyone has it so I figured we had some close and revealing it would help the production of my empire. Metal Casting is next.

Where is your tech path taking you next?

I'll have everything I want militarily for my (still sort of planned) strike on Athlete after metal casting, and I don't plan ahead as much as I should. That being said, I think the next couple techs I'll pick up are currency and calendar. Trade routes/markets of course and I also have 4 calendar-enabling happiness resources in my land that can help me move some troops on Hereditary Rule happiness patrol in the back lines up.

A picture that makes me intentions pretty clear. (put in spoilers 'cause it's wide)

Hanging Gardens is on ice in Diligence a turn away from completion. Waiting to finish my naming scheme and found Temperance (had to look that one up). Hopefully delaying it doesn't screw me.

You can also see from that picture that Buddhism spread for the third time to the capital. It'll definitely be worth switching, perhaps right as I conquer the holy city!

[The Reverend Doctor]

Can I make a chinese-newyear resolution to update this thread regularly?

The game is about to get interesting, I don't have any screen shots for you but this email I just sent Nakor explains a ton about what's been happening.

In the spirit of our intelligence sharing agreement I suppose it's time to put all my cards on the table.

Please, even if you don't agree to the proposal below, don't tell anyone that I offered it. I'm trusting you with some information very important to my game.

......
......

That was me giving you time to think twice about reading further if you couldn't agree to its confidentiality. (I'm sort of kidding, I would probably read it anyway if I were you.)




Anyway. Here's my situation at present. I intend to attack Athlete as I think he's spread himself a little thin, and also has the lowest power in the game. I'm sort of out of settle-able land and I suppose war is the step after that (my economy would never catch the other players who made bolder land grabs.)

I realized that a spike in my power graph combined with kicking him out of my land would telegraph my attack, so I hinted that I'd be attacking you while you were more concerned with Ruff's praetorians in the south. I simply told him to agree to not tell you about my troop movements or get out of my territory.

Here's where the proposal I mentioned early comes in:

I'd like to actually declare war on you. Athlete is probably still on edge (if he ever bought the stuff about me attacking you in the first place) but I think that could fool him.

Obviously nothing would stop me from doing this without your help, but I'd like you on board.

Here's what I propose: I declare war in about 2 turns (we can work this out more specifically). If Athlete (or anyone for that matter) asks any questions just tell them half-truths: you know, you see HAs and cats coming toward you, we didn't have an NAP. Most importantly, don't tell them it's a fake war. Obviously I wouldn't actually kill any units.

In return I would gift you a worker at the war's end (or if it can happen inconspicuously, I'd let you capture one) I also would give you a gift of incense or banana (your choice, don't know what you have down there) for 15 turns after peace is reestablished and I have calendar (my next tech). I also would help where I could if Ruff does come calling in the south. I could feed him whatever information about our war helps most, either that your north is deserted or nothing at all you decide.

Consider this next part ancillary but separate from that proposal:

Here's where this idea gets crazy.

Let me capture Antioch from you.

While in my possession I will build either an expansive granary or creative library and gift it back as soon as the ruse is up.

In exchange for letting me capture Antioch I will give you a Great Scientist that was recently born in my lands. To be paid as soon as we're at peace and I can safely get him to your lands.

Please, again, don't tell anyone about this even if you can't agree.

Regards,
James (the reverend doctor)

Things that may have been folly:
1. Giving up a great scientist.

(although I thought about what I would want if I were in Nakor's shoes and that was about fair.)

2. Telling him all this at all.

(he may be allied with Athlete. Even if he isn't, Athlete might see through all this.)

3. Going to war at all.

(I'm sort of out of room to expand though, not to mention I know I'd lose all interest in this game if I just teched along marginally and waited for Athlete to gain more land and come at me with beserkers. This should spice things up and may be my best chance to be a power player.)

Something interesting about the pbem format and diplomacy. I don't know Athlete personally but I feel a little bad about (*sort of) lying to him. Hopefully he's like me and decided not to take anything about this game personally as long as everyone was nice enough about it out of character.

*It's been pretty hard trying to convince Athlete I wasn't attacking him while all the time specifically not saying outright "i'm not attacking you" Lots of changing the subject in our convos.