[SPOILERS] Team SsS

[Sandover]

Time for some more diplomacy. Exploit, Spectre and the Kittens are currently discussing the option of signing peace with DJ accompanied by NAPs to secure Exploit's front. I won't post those messages in here, but I do have something else to show you.

First off is the response from JANK regarding our request for their spare units from the Aztec campaign;

Hello Team SsS,

I'm sure we'd be able to come to some arrangement. I don't think we'd want to participate ourselves though a deal for our units could probably be worked out. Do you mind sharing any specifics as to the target/timeframe?

I'll discuss with Nakor about how many units and what not (we can only offer axes and quecha's for now and soon maybe a chariot or two) and I'm sure we'll come to an agreement.

Also we should probably peacefully discuss settling arrangements between our civs. We noticed your 2nd city was towards us (for the copper I believe) so hopefully we can divide the rest of the land available between us diplomatically so we can focus on establishing borders with enemies rather than friends first. Do you have a reasonable understanding of the lay of the land between us? We have atleast the immediate vacinity scouted so we could probably negotiate a little. What do you guys think?

Athlete for Team JANK

I find that the best way to compensate them is probably to allow them some generous settling agreements in our west. If we're successful in our war we'll have plenty of land to ourselves either way. Here's my response;

Dear JANK,

We intend to make an assault on Cath Bruig (Portugal) as soon as we can field a decent amount of Spraetorians. The exact time frame is heavily dependant on where/if we can find Iron but we hope to dispatch the initial strike force around turn 80 the latest. Axes (and even quechuas) will do fine as additions to our army as we are merely looking for more men to throw at what we imagine will be heavily fortified enemy cities, filled with axemen and archers.

I must admit that the amount of scouting we have done westwards is... well, we actually have not done any scouting at all beyond our second city of Scooterville. We are, however, willing to agree to unfavorable settling agreements in exchange for a fair amount of units, no matter what the land to our west looks like. Maybe you can provide us with a map of the area, if you believe this kind of compensation would be worthwhile for you? We can also discuss providing you with some Spraetorians at a later date in return for your units, but on our end we would prefer not to let go of any units we produce as long as we can still use them against the Hydra.

Also, it is vital that whatever units you can spare make way towards SsS as soon as possible. Even before a trade has been established. Time is of the essence if we are to make a crippling blow to the Hydra - and not just scratch it on the surface.

Regards,
Sandover
Team SsS

And in addition to this I also decided to send an official message to the entire Heracles, now that we have finally made contact with the majority of them. It's pretty self-explainatory;

Please forward to Babylon and Mali.

Dear Heracles,

I know we, the SsS, have not made our voices heard a lot up until now. We have simply lacked the necessary contacts to send around messages without causing too much of a strain on the foreign departments of the free nation of Tech and the brave fighting nation of JANK. The time has now come, however, when we share with all of you the details of what we know and how we view the situation going forward.

First of all I would like to publicly announce what most if not all of you already know; that the SsS Empire will soon be gearing for war. Our researchers have been hard at work and Iron Working is now due to be discovered on turn 68. A settler, designated for Iron, will complete on the same turn. We have a Saxeman ready (yes, that's how it's spelled!) to act as escort and another one, that we had to delay slightly to time the settler properly, will be ready on turn 69. We currently do not have a Saxeman heading for Tech, as we believe hooking up Iron is of outmost importance to the cause of Heracles at this point and escorting the settler therefore takes priority. It should, however, only be a short matter of time before one is dispatched unless peace is obtained on that front.

In two turns SsS will enter into production mode. Our cities are prepared with granaries and barracks, whatever forests remain within our borders will be harvested and we are ready to apply the whip as needed. Soon SsS Spraetorians will be ready to fight the battle against the Hydra. A battle that will be brought upon the nation of Cath Bruig (Portugal), who will have to take the punishment for the abomination that they and their allies foolishly have created. I believe that peace with DJ (India) will only serve our cause as it lets the northern chariots and whatever offensive units Tech might produce to help SsS in our struggle, just as much as it leaves the door open for a Spraetorian detour into DJ territory.

We are currently hard at work trying to ensure a trade with JANK, where their spare units from the Aztec campaign is allowed to be recruited under the SsS banner. We envision an army so large and powerful that not even the aid of their allies will give Cath Bruig any hope of survival. An army, that once its initial mission is complete, is so sturdy that it can still devastate DJ and even the numbers while grinding one of the Hydra's ringleaders into the dust. But I am getting ahead of myself here, so lets move on to other matters.

If Cath Bruig did indeed whip a pair of chariots, they can cause some trouble over here as well, not just at the Tech border. With no current access to Spearmen we could be in some serious trouble getting hold of Iron in case they decide to harrass our escort with those chariots. Not to mention the risk of an invasion, though we can probably handle that without too much effort. I just wanted to make you all aware of that fact.

Lastly, I believe it makes sense to update you on SsS' diplomatic position. The Hydra have not given up on trying to recruit us, so we are playing along as best as we can now that Operation Tuesday 65 has been discontinued, though we are not sure to what degree they still view us as potentially neutral. France, HRE, and India have simply stopped talking to us without any prior statement, so we are only communicating with Cath Bruig at this time. I am as of recently trying to make the Hydra believe that SsS is preparing hard-on to get DJ killed so that they will be less prepared for an assault on Cath Bruig, but I can only guess whether I will be successful or not in that regard.

May the mighty S protect you all.

Regards,
Sandover
Team SsS

[Sandover]

Picture Update:

What a lovely screenshot, huh?

Expect some more detailed picture updates once Iron Working is finished.

[scooter]

Good message from Exploit:

Dear Sandover,

The nation of Tech Peddlers heils mighty SsS and seeks to aid your military conquest of Cath Bruig to the best of our abilities. The Tech assessment of the Heracles alliance is that the majority of our allies seek to be researchers and have solid leader traits to be very effective in that role. Good researchers however make poor military leaders and most of our allies appear to have little appetite for the rigors of war therefore Tech proposes to switch to a military role after completing Alphabet.

The role change would likely only be until Cath Bruig and DJ were destroyed at which point Tech Peddlers intends to revert to the researcher role. I believe that a militant Tech combined with the SsS war machine will be very effective in achieving our objectives however as this plan varies from our original plan, of SsS warmongering while Tech researched, I would like to make certain that this variation is acceptable to you.
Regards,
Exploit

I think this is a very good idea... If it turns into a 2v2 - meaning Sumeria vs. India and us vs. Portugal, I think we will be in great shape. The only wildcard right now is DIM... They seem to be awfully quiet and aren't they like hugging our borders right now? I have half a mind to send them a moderately probing message to see if we can determine their intentions... I have to think if they're a Hydra member, they would aid Portugal in some way... Maybe that can wait.

Another thing on my mind is city-wise, do we have any intention of dropping down a 4th city after iron city? More cities = more pop to slave and more forests to chop = more Spraets. The two ideal spots right now is the pigs site to the south or settling on the Srhine river. Ideally we'd have iron at one of those, or even better we already have it in our land. So in either case, why not settle both spots? Any objections to doing so?

[Sandover]

I agree about Exploit. Time to kick some butt!

Can't I just kill the DIM warrior with one of our Saxemen? I'll post a screen shot soonish of our domestic area.

If we can get another settler out in between the time we finish Iron Working and the time it takes to connect iron then yes, fourth city coming up. If not, I rather rush some Spraetorians in our mature cities instead so we can send our initial strike force off as soon as possible. Thoughts?

[Sandover]

Quick answer to Exploit;

Dear Exploit,

We support your assessment of the situation and your desire to aid us in battle. Our wish is that Tech, once ready, will focus on mounted units since Chariots will make a cheap and effective counter against the Axemen SsS are likely to face, as well as being a good complement to our slow-movers. What are your thoughts on this?

Regards,
Sandover
Team SsS

[Sandover]

We also received this from Cath Bruig;

Hi SsS,

Yes, you would be correct in your first assumption. We would obviously have to confer with all other members to see if they don't have any demands about you joining at this late stage. It's hard to take an alliance very far when it contains most of the remaining civs. Perhaps it may be an option to replace a continually non-conforming current member with whom several of us are beginning to lose patience.

As for our relations with DJ, the alliance does not have a mutual defense pact clause. Although it would probably come to the aid of the more powerful researchers but it's too early to tell who they might be. To be perfectly blunt in answer to your question, we probably won't, unless you were in an anti-alliance where an attack on the DJs would more directly affect the CAN's relative power over the CANTs, but again to be blunt we would prefer you were actually in the CAN and not the CANT.

And here is now we hope the final revision of the map:

England France Egypt Carthage

Mali Babylon Byzantium Maya

----10-12tiles of desert/floodplains/jungle----
Exploit
Inca Rome India Aztecs

HRE Portugal Korea Ottomans

It's fairly important without tech brokering and before currency to have contact with as many CAN members as possible. We could find out England/Carthage/Aztec/Ottomans scout location if you are still keen and pass along your scouts' locations, although we still don't have England/Carthage/Aztec contact ourselves. If you decide not to go ahead with joining the CAN, could we make a request that you don't join a counter-alliance? We can still work closely with your team to keep Praetorians vacationing elsewhere if you were a neutral party, but we definitely can't if you join with direct rivals.

Mukha & Dantski
CBE

Apparently I've successfully worked the diplo in the sense that they still view us as neutral. And I didn't even have to lie to them to make it happen!

Now, how do we carry on with this? The way I see it we have a few options;

a) Outright lie to them that we want to join the Hydra and then give them a good ol' backstabbin'. As much as I love being deceptive I do not favor this as I'd prefer to avoid lying to people, though adding it here as an option anyway.

b) Stick to the illusion of neutrality for as long as possible, making sure they think we're going to attack either Exploit or DJ. This will probably be hard once we start trading with Heracles and kill that DIM warrior (if we decide to do so), which leads me to the next alternative.

c) Decline the Hydra, telling Cath Bruig that we will trade with Heracles to keep ourselves afloat and that we want to see DJ dead at all costs. This should lead to one out of three things;
1) they view us as part of Heracles, tips of the Hydra about our intention to attack DJ and prepare to aid them,
2) they try to establish closer relations with us on their own, leaving the Hydra in the dark,
3) they try to play us, acting as friends while warning DJ of our intentions.
Whatever happens Cath Bruig shouldn't be in a position to view themselves as an obvious target, so hopefully we will be able to catch them with their pants down.

d) Publicly announce loyalty to Heracles, making a big show out of how the ringleaders DJ will be crushed by our powerful Spraetorians and that there's nothing the Hydra can do to stop us because we're just that awesome. The Hydra now comes rushing their aid to DJ while we walk straight into the core of Cath Bruig. This kind of bluff probably has a larger chance of being called though, not to mention the risk of a large army being gathered next to Tech.

e) Tell Cath Bruig we're loyal to Heracles, but hinting at that it's only a temporary solution that's needed to take out DJ. Basically a more subtle version of d).

What do you think?

[Sandover]

Picture Update:

Three screen shots today.

1. Overview of the empire.
-A chop just made sure that the settler being made in Scooterville is timed with the discovery of Iron Working. The overflow will finish what is left on the Saxeman next turn.
-Sandograd as of now is a production city and will finish another Saxeman in three turns. Might convert to making a settler depending on Iron.
-Changed the worker plan in order to get a mine on the plains hill. At least two workers will be reassigned to the Iron settler.
-Snovice, our first Saxeman, is currently hanging out in Sandograd.
-The DIM warrior is visible south of Sandograd.

2. Smash the Lion Killer on his way back to serve as garrison at Bison Pass after meeting with the Spectre and Friendly Kitten chariots.

3. Stitch, who has found a sexy-looking gold tile to our south.

[scooter]

Well the forum just ate a long post of mine . I'll be shorter this time. Basically Exploit (I think it was him) sent an email pointing out that Portugal has whipped 5 times in the last 3 turns - which I think we can be 90% sure that it is all military - there's no other reason at all to whip 4 cities 5 times in a span of 3 turns... Let's say they are seeing through our smokescreen, or they don't think we will be peaceful. If I'm in their shoes, I'd be whipping out a chariot army ASAP and hitting us before we have Iron/spears. I think we need to consider the possibility that they are doing that right now...

Maybe we need to consider feigning interest in joining? Ideally we'll have iron in just a couple turns so we should be fine if that's what they are doing, but buying 2-3 turns might be very helpful. And yes, it's very possible that they are whipping those units to send to India/Exploit, but I don't buy it. Why not hit Rome before they turn into the most powerful civ in the game? That's what I'd do if I were them...

[scooter]

The next best choice though is to continue to push the whole "we're supporting Exploit on the India front" story. I just am getting the feeling that anything short of "we want to join" will mean chariot rush for us. Honestly they might not even believe us if we say we want to join now, but who knows. Do we have graph visibility on them? Is their power spiking?

If it is, I'd try to flip this around on them and ask them what they are doing with the military they whipped out. Ask them if they are planning on supporting India or something like that. Just curious to see what they'd say. Better yet would be to ask them in chat so you get an instant reaction - seeing how long they stumble over the question might give away their intentions.

[Sandover]

Ok, a lot has happened during the (European) night. I will update in due time but there's a lot to account for this turn and quite some diplo to deal with as well so it will take a while. Here's the most interesting tidbits though:

-Iron has been located two tiles east of our border, near Srhine.
-Spectre has met Krill and forwarded a chat with him.
-DJ and Cath Bruig have done som whipping, as pointed out by scooter, so we and especially Exploit might be in some danger.
-We need to cut to the chase with Cath Bruig if we aren't to lose all of our credibility, for several reasons.

Stay tuned for some detailed attack plans, picture updates and email exchanges later during the day.