[SPOILERS] Bismark of Sumeria (luddite + Atlas1998)

[darrelljs]

Maybe it would have been better to just put a "for sale" sign in the public thread, and let players bid on it.

I read somewhere silent auctions result in the best price for a valuable object. I think a broadcast e-mail sent bcc style would probably be a better approach .

Darrell

[NobleHelium]

Eh, I don't think that's necessarily true. Someone may bid higher because one of his main contenders would get it otherwise, for example. You could start with that and then move to a visible auction...that might cause a lot of commotion though, that some people may not like.

[scooter]

Eh, I don't think that's necessarily true. Someone may bid higher because one of his main contenders would get it otherwise, for example. You could start with that and then move to a visible auction...that might cause a lot of commotion though, that some people may not like.

Alternatively, use a BCC email to everyone, and formulate a "top 3" offers list. Send a second email to #2 and #3 asking if they can top the #1 offer. Rinse repeat. Best of both worlds without the public thread commotion.

[NobleHelium]

Make sure not to include mackoti in the emails.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Man, mention the word auction and RB lurkers come running. It is the sign up thread all over again.

[luddite]

Why are you waiting on the heroic epic?

Because I want extra units right now, not 15 turns down the line.

I still haven't decided what to do about selling the GG. I need to think more about that.

Anyway, I moved my army forward. No sign of Mackoti's army yet. Luckily, moving into his territory isn't as expensive as I was afraid, so I can still run positive. I fired the spies and bumped up the espionage slider, to make sure I'll have enough spy points to get city visibility on Hagi next turn. One strange thing I noticed- why is mackoti researching meditation? I was expecting him to go for machinery and try to make Xbows. I don't see how meditation helps him at all, unless he wants to try for feudalism and longbows.

[luddite]

Wow, Locke just settled a city and then did 4 rounds of whipping. Including what I think is is 4 pop whip and a 3 pop whip . That, combined with his position near the weak Nakor and Adlain, and his interest in my GG, makes me think he might be going to war soon.

Here's my offer to him.

To be honest, I'm not sure what to ask for in trade. I think that a GG is worth more than a Great Scientist at this point in the game, since most people don't have any. How about a Great Scientist or Great Merchant + 700 gold? I'm not sure when exactly I'll get the GG, so if you can't get a great person for a while it's OK.

I'll go as low as a great person + 500 gold. If he won't give me that, I'll offer it to someone else. I'd like to make the deal with Locke though, since I think he'd be a great long term ally.

Oh, and SleepingMoogle declared war on Adlain today. Adlain told me in a chat that it's because Adlain settled a city that was too ambitious, with no defense, so SleepingMoogle is going to raze the city and then make peace. That's somewhat bad news from my perspective- I'd like Adlain to stay as strong as possible, to act as a buffer against everyone else.

[luddite]

Maybe I'm being too ambitious... but I can't help but get excited by this idea.

It occurs to me that my biggest advantage from being industrious Sumeria is that I really don't need a lot of technology to keep up. In particular, I don't need to research Code of Laws (thanks to Ziggurats) or any of the religious techs (thanks to Schwedagon Paya). I've got plenty of happiness too, because I already got metal casting. And even though Civil Service is always nice, I'll have enough cities that it's not crucial. What if I just go directly for guilds???

There's a real chance that I could get knights before anyone else, because they'll be stuck researching code of laws, philosophy, civil service, metal casting, calender, etc. Instead of of Bureaucracy, I could run vassalage + theocracy, and crank out level 4 knights from Murphy's and Hagi (with an instructor and stable). Without knights of their own, or pikemen, they'd have no chance. (where "they" = LP or SleepingMoogle). What's even better is that Adlain told me a while ago in a chat that he researched iron working, and noticed that iron was very scarce on this map, which makes it easier for me to cut off their only source of iron. Very tempting...

[luddite]

So I finally got enough espionage points to get city visibility on Hagi. Except... it's still not visible. What's up with that?


Still no sign of his army. I thought hard about using the galley to attack the bottom city, but in the end I decided not to risk it.


his power graph has recovered quickly, but he's still far below where he was before, or where I am now.


I decided to start building the heroic epic, since I realized that I can research construction in about 6 turns. I want to get catapults out as fast as possible.


And here's my newest idea! I don't think Silver City is in danger anymore, so I'm going to ferry the units that were guarding it over to pillage his copper. Last time he didn't react to my galley at all, so if he ignores it again this time, he'll lose his only copper.

[luddite]

Since I'm bored, here's a little analysis of the current power graph. The line at the bottom is where it was 2 turns ago. Since the power graph lags two turns behind, I added that much on to the current level, to estimate what he has right now. If this is true, he'll have just slightly less units than what he attacked me with before. I'm expecting something like 15-20 units, mostly axes with a few spears. I have 28 combat units in my main army. I think I can do it, but it might be dicey.