I am biased in this because of the diplo I've done with the Trolls.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I was going to ask if settling for the marble would work but does Trolls' city cut that option off?
1) Who is more annoying?
Menagarie
2) Dispute things now, or later? & 3) Be forthright, or backstab?
Undecided - we could push for a tile or two extra on the border agreement (I think they'll negotiate) or agree and settle where we want later. Just after we tech something really powerful
Although as Scooter has said that's not a great way to foster good feeling. So I'm leaning towards being forthright.
4) How to treat the team we will keep as friend, given we feel unfairly treated?
Depends how much we dislike Trolls' copper city. Have they stuck to the spirit of the agreement? If so I don't feel too bad about them...
Have there been any large overview pictures of our terrain that I've missed? I'd want to have a clear look at the land (including the new map info from Menagerie) before we make any long-lasting enemies. Two other things I want to know (and we might know, but I just missed):
1. Do we have any idea who has the gold between Menagerie/Pirates?
2. Who started the war between Menagerie/Pirates?
From the email, it sounds like Pirates settled the gold in-between the two and caused the skirmish, but I don't know who actually started the war. If Pirates did take the gold (and presumably can defend it), that would explain Menagerie wanting everything else in their territory.
Do we plan to accept their border agreement, or call it unacceptable?
They seem to understand that we are (at least in our own eyes) backed into a corner and therefore potentially crazy, so that's good.
Contacting Pirates before one of negotiates long deals with them could be really great, I don't see it happening though. So instead I will hope that pirates remain stubborn and belligerent.
How far is our exploring warrior from contacting pirates? Now would be a good time to know what they think of m3.
I vote negotiate - come up with some flannel about how we'll want a lot more land if we're letting them cut us off from the centre. I'm not sure being cut off from the other two teams is that bad for us. We might lose trade routes in a war, but we gain some security. And if we could negotiate more territory in return i'd be pleased...
At this point, we are not in any position to get into a real war, so we probably just want to delay as much as possible. What if we send this back to them:
I'm sure they'll reject it, but it should buy us time.
Also, I agree that we need to meet Pirates ASAP. We probably need to turn northeast soon to avoid hitting TEAM instead.
Hmmm. I don't even really like that split, but I think I'm kind of greedy regarding this.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Hey if we draft something, it's probably going to have to be someone other than me this time - headed out of town and I'll be sporadic. I would think we should just be kind of insistent on that passageway. They say it's not their fault Trolls settled there... Well it's also not our fault they settled their capital away from us. ALso note to them that everyone seems to be settling clockwise, even though we don't really know that for sure (it's true for 3/5 though at least). I feel like they're just negotiating tough here a little and we may still be able to out-stubborn them. I feel like their Pirates war is a huge blessing in that regard.
![[Image: border_zps1d092e89.png]](http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii549/YossarianLives/border_zps1d092e89.png)