RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] Willem of Persia

[shadyforce]

Quick diplomatic update:

I consider the gang up against Exploit to be a terrible plan. I don't think it's going to be pulled off succesfully despite Rego being married to the idea. Logistically, who contributes what as well as the status of Elkad and Munro and cooperation between Byzantium and the HRE and the unknown loyalties of Dler all contribute to the mess.

I much prefer a plan where Exploit joins me, Daniel, Rego, Sunrise an optionally Dler. But Rego is lukewarm to the idea, Dler's loyalty is unknown, the Dler/Munro vassalage has thrown a spanner in the works especially because it's pretty likely that those 2 have aligned themselvs wiith Exploit.

Dler vassalizing Munro is quite strange and annoying. That civ was pretty closely aligned with myself and Daniel for the whole game and now all of a sudden some new guy comes in, doesn't check his pms and email (or at least doesn't reply to them) and goes off and does something like this on his own. It's likely that Daniel and myself will be considering ourselves a twosome from here on but we shall see.

The whole diplomatic structure of the game is one big bloody mess. But I suppose that's what we all wanted when we were locked into various alliances earlier.

[Yazilliclick]

"Careful what you wish for, you may just get it" comes to mind

[shadyforce]

Turn 181:

Daniel and I have declared on and advanced towards Imhotep. Daniel has already captured Thangorodrim on the declaration turn and I'll capture Gorgoroth next turn. Unfortunately, Imhotep's territory becomes a bottleneck and whoever holds Thangorodrim effectively cuts off the other from the rest of Imhotep's territory. This is an unfortunate consequence of Daniel not being able to attack Munro as he was originally intending to do.

[Krill]

Any thoughts on the gran alliance idea?

[spacemanmf]

Heh heh, a gran alliance. That sounds terrifying!

[shadyforce]

If by 'grand alliance' you mean everyone against exploit then:

I am against a big invasion of Exploit because of reasons I gave above, because I get none of the land that gets captured and as long as Exploit is a threat, Rego needs to stay on my good side or be facing his nightmare scenario of being sandwiched between us.

A tech embargo against Exploit, as proposed by Rego, I have no strong opinions on. It does indeed slow down the score leader a bit but doesn't make Rego's position any stronger (maybe just safer). It is also unenforceable and easily changed later if some new runaway tech alliance emerges. But that doesn't make it a bad idea for right now.

But I wouldn't go as far to say everyone is 'allied'.

TBH, I have no idea what way the game is going to go in the next 10-20 turns. Daniel is going to gobble up some of Imhotep's land but apart from that, I don't know who is going to do what. We have no other 'victims'. Elkad's position is fairly fortified, an attack on Rego seems unlikely, an attack on Lins needs Exploit on board, Broker is untouchable in his corner, a Sunrise attack achieve's nothing and Munro is now under the vassal protection of Dler which removes him as a target for the foreseeable future.

Oh, one other thing: I don't trust Dler, not in the slightest. He is not on board with this threesome. His story about how he ended up vassalizing Munro does not add up with either civstats or what Exploit said. Maybe he should be our next victim.

[shadyforce]

Wow... that's a lot of units.

[shadyforce]

Ok so Imhotep has gifted all but Angband and his capital to Exploit. Including cities to the north-west near Rego, one of which I was intending to boat with 2 full Galleons. Oh and Daniel has just captured Angband this turn so just the capital left.

Exploit has also sent myself and Daniel a message asking for some sort of peace treaty / cooperation and he's willing to trade some of those cities to us in exchange.

To be honest, I'm very annoyed by this move in the first place and he could well find out that this move is what solidifies myself and Daniel in a war against him rather than as neutrals taking cities off a disinterested Imhotep. I haven't spoken to Daniel so I'm not sure what he thinks. He is the main belligerent, I'm just giving him a bit of support.

Not that I think this is a bad move by Exploit. On the contrary he has secured himself yet another bargaining chip to try and get us on his side. He's playing a good game. But I'm starting to believe that this 'everyone gang up on Exploit' is going to become a reality because I was sceptical before.

And I guess I still think my best move is to help out Daniel somewhat but really just focus on infrastructure and growing my cities since I'm well behind. I haven't really played a good game so far and I'm probably too far behind the actual contenders to win this thing. But I guess we'll see what the future brings.

[Krill]

I for one still think you can win, it's just that you need to be ballsy and take a few risks to see it happen.

[shadyforce]

T188:

Ok so some infra is getting done. Biology has seriously helped the growth curve of some cities, especially the ones that have gone the farm+lumbermill/workshop route which are now good backup unit producers. Globe Theatre is underway in The Lighthouse and The Airport pops to it's third ring next turn, it has a Granary and Theatre already, and will then start the National Park.

Military wise, I'm drafting most cities every 10 turns, I have a two Galleons in the lake between myself, Rego and formerly Imhotep and I'm building a third and a Frigate. I have some Machine Guns almost done, Cannon and Cavalry and a lot of my Rifles are heading up to the lake to get ferried over to help the fight against Exploit.

Here's a screenie:


And here is an overview of my empire, starting with the South-West:


Core:


And North-East: