RPB3 SPOILERS Bismarck of India (regoarrarr, darrelljs, sooooo, sunrise089)

[darrelljs]

It's an image of Conan? Schwarzenegger? somebody anyone with a big 2-handed sword sayign "Enough Talking" - feel free to log on to the email to check it out

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087078/quotes?qt0291666

Ruff has been calling us the Alliance, and calling Krill's larger group the cartel. I think we should swap names as everyone else is calling the larger group the alliance. I realize the names are more appropriate Ruff's way, but...

Darrell

[darrelljs]

It would be swell if HRE and the Ottomans can help Ruff and leave us to deal with Exploit.

Did you send your draft to Exploit?

Darrell

[Rowain]

I thought Cath Bruig was Krill, but maybe it's Portugal?

Krill is from Vetinari from the discworld-books. I thought HRE because darreljs(?) posted once they had a problem with SsS-diplomacy but it could also be Portugal.

[darrelljs]

Message from Exploit:

Hi DJ Civ,

Since you have already settled the stone tile, I have little choice except to declare war or accept your terms. I do not see the profit for either of us to engage in an ancient era war of attrition and two non-resource tiles are hardly worth the price of war therefore I accept your terms.

Are you still willing to agree to the 10 Turn cooldown NAP?

Regards,
Exploit

I don't see us accepting that NAP. What to do?

Darrell

[Rowain]

Do you still plan to fight an early-age war? Afterall he seems to accept your terms?

[darrelljs]

Yes. Two, apparently.

I had a long chat with Ruff and a short one with Krill. Krill, deliberately or not, is overestimating this "second alliance" threat IMO. I don't believe Exploit is teching Alphabet for any reason other than to enable his trader approach to the game. It is an interesting idea, but I don't see any need to let it play out. Anyway, all that said Krill has agreed in principle to subsidize our research as we gear our four cities for war. I think we need to plan for the future, but for now I am going to figure out the micro necessary to make all four cities production cities. sooooo, this is your big chance to shout .

I had to give Ruff the harsh reality re: Rome and Exploit. rego, he says he put some C&D info in our inbox. So, the highlights are that he expects the Incans to show up with a stack in about 6 hours. Also, he now realizes it will be some time before we can get him help, more than enough for the Incans to take out his second city and pillage his first city to dust. He is going to send his two Workers our way next turn with a Warrior escort. We will kill them to convert them to Fast Workers, use them to road up to him, then make peace and gift them back. We need to see what the Ottomans can do in terms of getting him units as well.

Full chat log:

Darrell: ruff
krill has a map of exploit's lands but he says it has your IP in it
Is it okay for him to share it with us
Ruff: my IP?
Darrell: intellectual property
you must have sent him a screenshot
Ruff: well - he sent me screenshots and asked me not to shrae
Darrell: right
Ruff: I sent him some - prob didn't say not to share ... thought it was a given
Darrell: yeah
Ruff: guess you really need to be explicit with Krill
Darrell: I asked him for it, he said you need to release it before he will share it with us
Ruff: hey - check your mail
Darrell: so I am asking for that...for permission to Krill to share it with us
okay
Ruff: I sent them to you along with some demo for rego
I can see Inca
Darrell: we've been talking a lot with the turks re: your situation
Ruff: and exploit next turn too
Darrell: so you have incan soldier points?
thats really key
and exploit soldier poitns will be key as well
let me catch you up...if you have a sec
Ruff: sure
Inca demo sent to your team yesterday - email with 2 zip files
Darrell: okay, so all this is just between us. probably a majority of it can be shared, but I have no idea what can and cant at this point. sorry about that but just too much going on right now for me to keep track of it.
first off, rome
We spoke to them about a possible joint choke of exploit. he is teching alphabet, and we need to stop that so our cartel keeps the upper leg
They had made some comments earlier that lead us to believe they wanted to kill exploit.
However, they declinced to accept our invitation to join, and they are still on the fence re: the alliance overall
Ruff: I was hoping to direct Rome at Inca
?? I thought Rome was providing IW to the Cartel\
Darrell: Futile. Their reason is that they want to wait for AGG Praets.
That was the plan, but they are still not in the cartel.
Ruff: ahh - rats
Darrell: Yes
Ruff: do they have IW?
Darrell: They are drafting some kind of letter on "terms of joining" the alliance
Ruff: they can't if they are teching letters
my vote is to include them - but I am pretty far away and they don't pose an initial threat to me
Darrell: They need two techs for Praets, but I am sure they picked up worker techs as well
Well, England/Carthage will be more likely to join the team that has AGG Praets IMO.
Ruff: sure
so a very valuable civ to get on board
Darrell: okay, so point #2 is that Portugal lacks Horse
That means we are the only civ that can choke/stop Exploit from getting Alphabet
Ruff: T72 is miles away
Darrell: That means w ewill be going all Farms and Mines and no tech, so we'll be really dependent on the alliance for our research
yeah...he wont get to it I think
sunrise is working out some kind of plan
Ruff: do you / will you have horses?
Darrell: I hope
We have Horse very soon, we just need The Wheel to connect it.
And to build Chariots of course.
Ruff: right
Darrell: We will also have Copper fairly soon
And a fourth city
Ruff: oh shut up
Darrell: All of our cities can produce
We were going to configure two for tech, but that is out the door now.
Krill is urging us to focus all effort on Exploit, and to leave you and the Ottomans to deal with the Incans.
Needless to say, we are not going to leave you out to dry.
Ruff: each RealmsBeyond pitboss game gets more bloody than the last one
Darrell: This one is going to be brutal, and sson
Ruff: next game, I am selecting Agg, Spiritual, Wheel, Mining and rushing to BW
Darrell: give me one sec
Ruff: take your time
Darrell: Okay bakc...next game will be on Civ 5
Ruff: I am not buying Civ5
lost way too much of my life to Civ4
Darrell: Right, so back to our situation, keep us up to date turn by turn on what the Incans have and our bringing obviously.
hah-hah...I will take that bet
Ruff: will do
plan on doing a blow by blow for the lurkers
this game really suffers from lack of lurkers ... too many actually playing
Darrell: what we really need to know is how many chariots do you need by when to beat back the attack
Ruff: also writing an email to Inca (in my head) offering them their last chance to pull back
Darrell: I know you cant answer now, but we'll need that info as soon as possible
Ruff: well - get rego working on telling me how many axe Inca have
and I will tell you how many chariots I need
Darrell: Yeah...he needs to C&D Exploit and Incans big time now
Ruff: lazy so and so
Darrell: In reality, I doubt we will know the answer until the stack shows up
I assume they have a hill they can park on, but no forests?
Ruff: so - this afternoon then
not to sure where they will come in from (S or N)
there will be no forest next to my capital
but there are hills
Darrell: yeah
so they get 50% defense
Ruff: +25%
Darrell: fortification should be assumed for a choke
Ruff: if they fortify, they lose
I expect them to skip my capital and head for me 2nd city
Darrell: yeah...then come back
but that will take time, you are right
8 turns for us to get the techs, another two turns to connect if we do our workers properly, another two turns to get the units out, and then the long walk north
Ruff: if they attack this turn, bypass capital, it will bt T60 before they can get back on a hill next to capital
Darrell: How many tiles between our capitals?
Ruff: I also expect them to try and remove my food (level ground)
12
I am at 5N, 12E
Darrell: t62+2+2+6=t72
Ruff: your army of fastworkers could also road towards me to speed those chariots over
Darrell: they are going to be tied up unfortunately
Ruff: seems I will have to last quite a few turns
Darrell: now
let me see
Ruff: this is going to be fun
Darrell: you have how many workers?
Ruff: 2
and they will be out of chopping options soonish
Darrell: hmm, well instead of turtling them in your capital, you can send them down to use
Ruff: too dangerous for them
Darrell: and we can use them to road up
Ruff: right
hey - you could declare on me, capture them turning them into fast workers and then gift them back later
I would be ok with that
Darrell: thats pretty smart
you know the copper north of our capital?
Ruff: just
Darrell: we will be putting a fourth city to grab that and the pig...only one spot grabs both
get them tot he copper we will take them and then road back to you
Ruff: yes - I will split off a warrior and us him to provide cover for them
and send them N of the 3 tile lake towards that copper
Darrell: a warning...exploit has a woody 2 warrior heading that way
Ruff: exploit and I are ok at the moment
Darrell: good
Ruff: I've been talking to him about selling him a missionary
we are haggling re hammer value
Darrell: his prices are stoopid
5 gold for 20 beakers? I'll take that.
Ruff: not if he gets enough buyers
if he sells a tech 3 or 4 times - he comes out in front
Darrell: No tech brokering?
still pretty tough to pull off IMO
do you know what techs he's researched and whether he has copper or horse?
Ruff: if he lands a monopoly tech, he could sell it 8 times or more
no idea
my guess is that he is on alpha
I should have his demo next turn
will send you guys a copy
Darrell: 100% correct
he just got writing, and now is onto alphabet
his eta is 72 turns
Ruff: yeah - I saw his email
Darrell: our guess is his military is non-existent, we can choke him with a few units, then mop him up at our liesure
Ruff: ok - have to work now
I will keep you guys posted re Inca and those workers
Darrell: ok, ttyl

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087078/quotes?qt0291666
Darrell

See I was right - it's Conan and Ah-nold both!

[darrelljs]

Theater pic for sunrise:



Darrell

[darrelljs]

City management pics:









I'll post my thoughts later.

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

Draft to Rome

SsS folks,

First of all thank you for your reply. One of our team members said after reading it - "I found Rome's reply very professional. They are honest about their intentions (and correct; AGG Rome doesn't need help), and are approaching the situation with a good deal of intelligence IMO. Kudos to them

It's never nice to be "rejected" for something but we do appreciate the way that you handled it.

So, having said all that - we would of course appreciate it if you would not tip Exploit off that we might be coming after him. Though at this point, we are not really sure if we'll end up doing anything or not - you have declined, and Portugal has no horses, so they can't really send any fast movers and their slower units are, well, slow. :-)

If we do end up going after him, we promise not to expand in their direction past his capital. We understand that that's somewhat of a token gesture since doing so would wreck our economy, but we wanted to find some way however small to get a +1 in relations with you guys. Of course IW is not that far away, so it may be that we end up cooperating on the battlefield, sooner rather than later!

As for skepticism of gameplay in such a large alliance, I totally agree. There is no way that say, a 10-person alliance is going to last very long. But IMO that's part of the beauty of it - it doesn't HAVE to last very long. As we've seen before, Civ is such a "strong get stronger" game - so as long as we can get a leg up on the competition, it should fuel later mid-game growth. Which is why I think any sort of smaller 4 or 5 person alliance is doomed to fail. It will just lead the remaining civs to gang up on them, which is why I think at least nominally, any type of alliance like this needs to at least include a majority.

Now, is there room for smaller "groups" inside the alliance? I think definitely yes. Those types of groups might be able to provide some of what you are finding lacking in the larger alliance.

Hope to hear from you soon and PARTY ON!

DJ Civ