RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Iamjohn, Kodii & Zeviz

[Kodii]

I have moved our Quechuas.

We now have contact with Mortius. Unless someone wants to fire off a message to him, I can work on that later (or delay the greeting message).

The southern Quechua should move 1S next turn, and will have sight into the capital if it is on a hill. We can reevaluate at that point in regards to the rush.

[Iamjohn]

Welcome mighty Incas,

I see that your Quechua discovered our capital. Strangely it seems to me just the fact that meeting another civilization didn’t he deign to greet the encountered neighbor. Had he had no peaceful intentions?
Maybe the silence is just the initial shock of the discovery of another civilization, or maybe he intends to check whether starting with a scout Zulus, trained his first defender?

Mortius

Got this in the Team email, if you want to reflect that in our email to him Kodii.

[Iamjohn]

I'll send him a quick note telling him we're not ignoring him, just formulating a proper note of greeting.

edit:

Hey Mortius, just a quick note of apology for the slow uptake on sending a note of greeting- Both Kodii and I are extraordinarily busy this week, and that's necessitating a more methodical process when developing diplomatic correspondence...

For I/K/Z-

Iamjohn

We do need to be careful that a) we don't tip him off about our current plans, and b) don't make false promises/insinuations of peace.

[Kodii]

That's exactly what I would have sent. Good work! We'll make next turns moves and move on from there.

[Iamjohn]

Ah for the days when people trusted eachother... ;p

Hi Iamjohn/Kodii/Zeviz
*
The turn is about to end, and I still have not received any concrete information from you. Unfortunately, I must assume that your intentions are not peaceful. I believe that*you understand this does not mean my urge to war, and it is only necessary for safety reasons.
If I am wrong let me know.
*
Mortius

[Iamjohn]

Do we want to see if we can get a longish term nap from him, explain that we feel the same as him just longer term? Or do we simply want to ignore him? I do feel bad for what we're planning, but it really does seem the best point if he is undefended.

[Kodii]

We do not have sight into the capital despite being 2 tiles away. Therefore, his capital is on flat ground, and we really need to make our decision about this rush. Should we continue, we will walk into his capital two turns from now.

This is what I sent to Mortius for the time being.

Hi Mortius,

We were completely unaware that you were holding the last turn to await a response from us, much apologies. We've simply been playing turn by turn considering that Zeviz is currently not able to contribute much, and Iamjohn and I are facing time constraints in real life.

As you can imagine, we are equally concerned in being proximal to the noble Ragnar of the Zulu, and we hope we may forge some sort of cooperation together. I will have ongoing discussion with my other two counterparts and hope to provide you with details in the near future, but please understand our current inability to dedicate time into this game.

- IKZ (Kodii)

[Zeviz]

On one hand, if his capital couldn't be protected by the time we get there, there'd be no reason for him to hold the turn.

On the other hand, I am not sure what he could do to get a defender back to his capital in 2 turns. Recall back a scouting warrior?

If a builder starts next to an Aggressive Zulu in a game with no tech trading, potential for long term cooperation is not very good. So I wonder if we should check his capital for defenders, without committing to a rush. (If a player wastes early game training warriors, he'll be falling behind. So while I still don't like an idea of a rush, getting him to build warriors while we train WB and a worker might slow him down enough to decrease long-term threat.)

[Iamjohn]

Newest message from Mortius:

Hi Iamjohn, Kodii, Zeviz

Contrary to what my civ and leader choices may suggest, I'm not the type of a warlord or a general, but rather a peaceful builder The reason behind my choice was very simple, Ragnar was the only reasonable financial leader, whom I still could choose, and Zulus were the only reasonable civ for Ragnar. Besides I always treated the aggressive trait as an aid in the defense rather than in attack.

Nonetheless I understand your concern. Being in your shoes I would probably fear that one day several Impis will visit one of my cities

Typically, the time to rush with Impis is a period between 30 and 50 turn. Later it’s usually too late as it is enough time to train some Axemen. Therefore I suggest we conclude the initial NAP until turn 50 or 60. It’s enough time for you to protect against the risk of Impis’ rush and enough time for me to peacefully scout the area between us so that we can divide it fairly. Then we will be able to decide how to lay our further cooperation.


Oh …, and the NAP would allow me to concentrate on setting up the defense on the border with my second neighbor – Rome

Rome, unlike me, does not have a possibility to lead a peaceful coexistence. LiPing doesn’t have any economic traits (financial, organized or philosophical) and it’s only a matter of time, when the first praetorians will knock my door. I want to be ready for that moment. Now you understand, why I do not want to waste my resources in an unnecessary war with you.

Mortius

I'm definitely leaning towards atticking still, a)we have remarkably little land between the two of us, and b) the fact that he met Rome means there's a definite possibility that his warrior isn't home. Also c) this really seems to me to be the best/easiest oppurtunity to take out a team, and carve out some space that we could settle into.

The problem with eliminating mortius is that there won't be him acting as a buffer between the two of us.

Thoughts? I'll be back in 12hrs or so and post some other stuff once I have a chance to check some stuff.

[Zeviz]

Now I am pretty sure his capital is empty. :P

However, it's true that I'd prefer him to serve as a buffer between us and Rome.

On the other hand, if everybody started so close, elimintaing a neighbor and taking their capital spot would give us a huge advantage.

If we want peace, I'd ask for at leat 100 turn NAP, with border running along the mountain range. This would secure our southern border and let us focus on expansion.

Or, we could gamble on his capital being unprotected, and rush a settler there. (Perhaps even going WB->Settler in the capital.)

PS Perhaps we should return the northern Quecha home, to avoid finding ourselves in the same situation as Mortius.