[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[WilliamLP]

There is no handicap discount for supply. The fifth unit is free because it costs 1 gold per 2 units, rounding down.

Equally weird! Thanks for the correction.

[WilliamLP]

In their turn, Kuro moved the warrior onto the hill, where we had three who could attack it.

Attack at 25% odds: lose, bringing him down to 50% health.
Attack at 96% odds: win

So we trade warriors, and get a promotion out of it, overall a good result if we view Civ as a zero-sum game between just two players.

It should be pointed out that Kuro appears to be _very_ into this game. He made his move, finished turn, and stayed logged in for 2 hours! And after I took the warrior out, he offered peace.

I declined for now. Does white peace mean it's enforced for 10 turns? Can a lurker tell me? If not I'm happy to take it, if so I'd rather not just because the whole point is to prevent Kuro from scouting our land.

Other than that, we founded al Dente:




It's there for only one purpose, the copper to hook up in 2 turns, but some day a month or two later it could be a really good commerce city, and at least it has the river for farms.

For tech, finishing AH seems logical since it's only 3 turns away and it gives us the ability to make Lasagne a much better site, as well as revealing horse, which is crucial.

A religion has still not fallen! I find this kind of incredible. Maybe it's everyone else thinking "I won't bother because one of the Myst civs will tech it" while us myst civs are like "Oh crap, I have so much other stuff I need first". But none of the IND civs are thinking about Oracle, really?

[NobleHelium]

If it says Peace Treaty, that means unbreakable peace for 10 turns.

[WilliamLP]

If it says Peace Treaty, that means unbreakable peace for 10 turns.

I went ahead and offered a ceasefire, knowing this. Thanks, I never knew the difference though I did know that if there was a resource or money attached it was unbreakable.

[Commodore]

Um, you lack open borders, so peace means he can't come in.

[WilliamLP]

Um, you lack open borders, so peace means he can't come in.

Yeah, I actually want to keep him from the south entirely though, including blocking with the scout. Whether or not this is worth it is a question but we do have that very nice and natural choke point. I'm just imagining having that warrior out there and having worker micro decisions be a big pain because of it hanging out in the most painful place possible in peace time. Or at least that's what I'd do if I had a warrior over by him.

[Plunder]

mmm I hope we're not throwing all our diplomacy down the drain in the future. We won't be able make war in the future just to move our scout through his territory.

ah well, what is done is done. We got a promotion, so that makes it a net win for us.

[WilliamLP]

I don't know what to make of diplomacy in these games, since it entirely depends on the personality of another player and how they will interpret and react to something. I think the best we can hope for is that we're playing against someone rational who will do things in their own self-interest, and it's in our self-interest not to have military units running around where our workers are going to be, if we can help it. Maybe they see it as an act of spite, I don't know. What I've seen observing games on this site is a lot of brilliant people who can take things personally, and reason in a shaky way that something could not possibly be motivated by desire to win or do better in the game, when it obviously was. (This, from people whose reasoning would otherwise be rock solid.) It's an interesting human tendency!

In the long run though, I think tension (and possibly war) is inevitable just because of geography, since we know absolutely nothing about each other.

Anyway, Kuro did not take the ceasefire. But... they've signaled already that they don't want war within the next 10 turns. And we haven't signaled that to them. This reassures me since if they had any designs on rushing a couple of chariots over they wouldn't offer a forced peace deal right now. So that tells me we don't need to be in "OMG NOW" mode for military production.

Working on anything else right now, Frutti would grow into unhappiness, so I'm putting excess food into a settler for the gold site until it wears off. Copper will be hooked up next turn, and AH is due in 2.

[Plunder]

Although the diplomacy in this game is rather limited, I think that at least small gestures of friendship will be returned. And now that we killed their scouting unit, I don't think we will see any nice gestures from them, such as letting our scouts pass through their territory. Maybe, if they have contact with another civ, they might choose not to open borders with us to avoid trading routes. Little things like this.

Of course, if we are being the main target for war, no gesture will change that :P But that would be the case in any game.

[WilliamLP]

Maybe, if they have contact with another civ, they might choose not to open borders with us to avoid trading routes.

I think they're going to do that, if and only if it's in their self interest, in either case.

Moving a scout through territory by declaring war after the first handful of turns? I doubt any player is ok with that, since you can't communicate what "war" means, and you could have, say a galley ready to boat a city at the same time or something.

There is a game mechanic that rewards peace too, getting more value out of trade routes for an extended peace period. I don't know exactly what that threshold is.

Anyway, there is no way to feel sorry about killing that warrior "scout". Near our territory it limits worker and settler micro in a way that might not be small. Even covering a worker with a warrior makes it a great chance to try and kill it with a coin flip - they would steal a worker if they one. If they wanted to keep it they could have just backed off.