[SPOILERS] Vive l'Afrique libre : Bowsling and Aivoturso are Mansa Musa of the Zulu

[Aivoturso]

BTW, we'll research writing next turn (turn 63) and we're building our 4th settler. If you happen to play our next turn, change one citizen in Alcatraz from sea to mined hill. It's working the sea to get the writing one turn earlier. Also, we can now build Impi. My plan is to build at least one in Cosa Nostra after it finishes the Granary.

[Aivoturso]

Next consideration will be where we'll plant our fourth city. I'm thinking of hooking up the gold for luxury. Extra commerce does not hurt either. Exact position is still under consideration.

[Aivoturso]

We reached Yossadorn's border. They are not that far away. But there is still room between us. Oh and we are researching Mysticism. I'm thinking of maybe going for OR, but it might be way too late already for that.

[Aivoturso]

New message from Yossadorn:

Hi guys,

Thanks for accepting Open Borders. Unrestricted right of passage sounds good to us. Thanks for the heads up about possible barbs to the west. We'll be careful with our explorations out that way. We agree about notifying each other when we meet other teams. Good idea!

Sorry we can't help locate resources. The pace of this game is so much faster than the ISDG, we haven't been doing nearly as much demo-hacking. We've also noticed the inland snaky seas. We settled our capital on the coast of one, and so did the gladiators. If you have found one but haven't unfogged the far coast, that might be a good place to look for another team.

Cheers,

Blame Caledorn

[Aivoturso]

Met Classical Hero's team. Didn't just yet send a greeting to them as there is a full strength barbarian standing next to their city. Can't see the city square this turn, but I think postponing the message to the next turn seems prudent at the moment.

[Aivoturso]

Classical sent us a proposal about OB with no trespassing without prior agreement. I declined since I needed to see to city of Leatherface first. Leatherface is 1 square closer to our capital than it is to theirs. It is defended by a single warrior and is size 2. So without any prebuilds, they won't be able to whip a warrior. With our Impi a turn away from Leatherface I believe it is a perfect opportunity to play it a bit on rough side. Here's what I sent to CH via ingame: "Hi Classical Hero and Halvgud. We believe that we must start border discussions immediately before making any other deals. Our borders are very close to each other so a common understanding of acceptable settling positions is a must." I also promised I'll send a proposal in team email shortly, but for some odd reason that part did not copy-paste. I'll compose the message now and post it here.

[Aivoturso]

OK, here's what I sent to CH and HG:

Hi Classical Hero and Halvgud,

As we said in our in-game message, we fear that our borders are so close that things might escalate out of control easily. Therefore we'd like to start discussing borders before the situation gets too explosive.

We already noticed that your city of Leather Face is actually closer to our capital than it is yours. That is understandable since you get stone resource out of that city. However, if you continue to expand this far to east, it'll leave us very little room to expand peacefully. So we suggest a following agreement as basis of our further dealings:
1) You will not settle any more cities further east than the longitude that goes 2 west from Leather Face.
2) In exchange we will not settle any cities any further west than the longitude that Leather Face is on. And we will not settle within 3 squares radius of Leather Face.
3) Previous points apply on the settlements on the continent we are on.
4) Exceptions can of course be done by mutual agreement. Hostilities will cancel the deal automatically.
How does that sound to you? If we can agree on a border agreement we believe we can have a mutually beneficial relationship. E.g. our close borders give us perfect opportunity to initiate foreign trade early and get an early boost to our economies. Hoping to hear from you soon.

Best Regards,
Aivoturso and Bowsling