[SPOILERS!] Pericles of Babylon. Kyan, Twinkletoes, Whosit.

[Whosit]

OK, just to make sure that I'm on the same page (or even in the same book as everyone), we have a tentative agreement to settle that grassland hill. Works for me . . . .

Proposal: In the event that they do not reveal Iron in their territory, perhaps we should relieve them of their Copper resource.

I would also like to make a land-grab north to prevent our Creative opponents from doing the same to us (maintenance be damned!).

Oh, and Kyan, nice story on my "harmless" personality. I suppose that calling me a paranoid schizophrenic sociopath wouldn't have exactly comforted the Byzantium delegation.

[Kyan]

Well, i was planning to write a nice overview of the length convo between ourselves and Byzantine last night but it appears they beat me to it!

[COLOR="DimGray"]Greetings esteemed leaders of Babylon,

It is with great honor that we present to you our first official proposal, which hopefully will mark the dawn of an era of mutual cooperation to advance both of our great nations into ages of wonder and marvel. We sincerely hope you will find the contents acceptable and are confident, given our good relations so far, that any amends, if needed, will be swiftly agreend upon.

After discussing our recent communications regarding settlement of the area in between our lands, we are pleased to accept the provisional agreement that was reached. To reiterate: we will settle a city on the hill overlooking a rich vein of copper directly south of it, whereas Babylon settles on the hill west of the river, surrounded by abundant and fertile land.

By ceding the area to the west of this river, we estimate that this river will eventually form an unofficial border between our lands, leading from the northern mountains to a lake in south in which it empties. The lands further north or south may deviate from this pattern, but further exploration should allow us to hold similar communications once the nature of these areas becomes clear. Additionally, we wish to make the promise that the next expansion of our glorious nation will not be in your direction, as to avoid generating the impression amongst your subjects that we are encroaching on your lands.

This official missive also contains a map composed by our finest artists that will most certainly provide detailed knowledge of the western part of our lands. We are hopeful that this map will aid your own exploration efforts, and would be greatly interested in knowing more about your eastern lands also. The area has been cleared of dangerous wildlife beforehand, so that your own exploration may not be impeded or hazardous.

In the meantime, our scout Jenkins is finishing his original assignment to explore the area to the north of our point of first contact. We are happy to share with you any points of interest are unveiled during these travels. As mentioned, we have provided additional directives for his journey to swing West afterwards, with the intention of contacting your western neigbour, Mali. This journey will likely bring Jenkins close to your borders, but we hope this will not be interpreted as hostile intent. As requested, any sightings of horses in great number will be shared with you.

Additionally, we are willing to help explore your lands for useful metals if so desired. It is likely at this point that Jenkins will be tasked with this effort, though should this change, we will ensure to inform you immediately.

Finally, we wish to share with you our desire to send another scouting force towards our east, with the intent of further exploring the area and contact other cultures. We promise to share any contact with other cultures with you, and will inform them of your civilization in return for as long as you favor this course of action.

Regarding your proposal of a formalized exchange of knowledge with the nations to your west, we would like to express out interest into joining this venture. This is another reason why we wish to contact Mali and England, as not to burden you with acting as a go-between.

In the short term, our scientists prepared an initial offer with the aim of exchanging knowledge. We have been assured that this document can be interpreted and translated by your wise scholars:

"At this moment, the proposed tech trade is uneven; before the difficulty modifier, Writing (120 beakers) and Alphabet (300) are double the price of Iron Working (200). We would therefore like to make an additional offer to even out the trade. This depends a lot on Mali's and England's efforts, but hopefully this will be a fair offer:

Writing (120) and Alphabet (300) for Iron Working (200)
Mathematics (250) for Metal Casting (450)

We are fairly sure at this point that Mali will want to get Metal Casting early. In that case we would like to make the following offer:

Hunting (40) and Archery (60) for Meditation (80) and Masonry (80)
We will then research Horseback riding (250) and gift it to you.

The latter would require a wait for a return of investment for you. That is why the second group of tech trades are favourable to you.

Hopefully these trades are acceptable to you. We are happy to consider counteroffers."

We are sure you will have noticed that part of our governing apparatus is conducting studies on your nation. Similarly, we are aware of a similar effort from your subjects. We would like to ensure that these efforts only reach a general awareness of the other's progress, and that once these studies have finished, that the efforts will then be spent elsewhere.

Finally, we have considered your offer to provide a solemn pledge not to initiate aggresion towards each other. While we wish to underline our peaceful intent, it is perhaps wise to come to a more formal agreement. We would therefore respectfully asks what form you desire such an agreement to take.

We are eagerly awaiting your response,

On behalf of the Spectre Council,
-SleepingMoogle [/COLOR]

they also enclosed the following picture:



They seem to be very friendly neighbours for sure. We will have to write a response worthy of such a message.

Byzantine also sent us a quick second message warning us of a lion near their lands.

[Kyan]

Ok, i have some bad bad news.

Novice Lionsbane.... has left us in body. His spirit will of course live on but this is a sad day indeed for Babylon. He was beaten (at around 26% odds) by the 6th lion to come his way. Bearing in mind Byzantine told us they have only battled 2 animals so far, we've hardly been lucky so far with spawns. The odds were eventually going to add up against him.

Wyrmsbane will become our new scout and i think we should send him north to find more people. We need to get this bloc up and functioning a.s.a.p.

Plako will move back to fogbust as there is no need to scout the byzantine land now since we can see it already. We do need to build some more military soon but i don't want to waste it on warriors. Warriors take 2 turns to build in Genesis, axes are only 5 currently and copper is 6 turns away from being connected at maximum. We could actually connect it faster if we needed but i think worker that builds in exodus should focus on finishing roading up the route between our two cities. This will gain us 2 commerce. Maintenance was 2.33 for Exodus so it negates that near enough.

[Kyan]

Things have got potentially worse. Wyrmsbane and Plako moved in their appropriate fashions- both onto defensive terrain. However, both found another lion.

Wyrmsbane= 2.9str vs 2.0 lion
Plako= 3.4str vs 2.0 lion

Fingers crossed. Next turn will be a big one. Both workers complete.

I would propose both cities move onto barracks whilst they grow. As soon as copper is connected Exodus can swap to an axeman. Once it's at size 2 i'm happy for us to chop out maybe a settler there instead?

Alternatively get Genesis to size 4 then chop out the settler there (prioritising the forest on the riverside grassland)?

[Kyan]

We owe Mali a communication:

Greetings Emperor Capac,

how have you been these last few years? We hope the English are posing you no trouble.

We thought it prudent to keep you informed with Byzantine. They have agreed to allow us one city in their direction also as they already have one towards us and plans for a second. They have also offered us some of their maps and a non-aggresion pact.

Byzantine currently have a warrior meandering towards your land (approaching from the north side of our lands) to meet your fine civilization. Furthermore, they have expressed interest in tech trading. They have had some suggestions thus far including but not limited to:

"At this moment, the proposed tech trade is uneven; before the difficulty modifier, Writing (120 beakers) and Alphabet (300) are double the price of Iron Working (200). We would therefore like to make an additional offer to even out the trade. This depends a lot on Mali's and England's efforts, but hopefully this will be a fair offer:

Writing (120) and Alphabet (300) for Iron Working (200)
Mathematics (250) for Metal Casting (450)

We are fairly sure at this point that Mali will want to get Metal Casting early. In that case we would like to make the following offer:

Hunting (40) and Archery (60) for Meditation (80) and Masonry (80)
We will then research Horseback riding (250) and gift it to you.

The latter would require a wait for a return of investment for you. That is why the second group of tech trades are favourable to you.

Hopefully these trades are acceptable to you. We are happy to consider counteroffers."

We find their offer of going for iron working tempting as both of our lands are blighted with this fetid jungle. Babylon will be heading for writing and alphabet as you know. We would rather get your opinion first before we agree to any trades though. After all, any deals would have to be beneficial to both ourselves and the Malinese nation for us to consider accepting them.

How are discussions with England faring? We would be interested in meeting them if possible. Perhaps they have a scout exploring that we could contact?

Your friends,

Kyan
Kysit's Periwinkles

[Twinkletoes89]

Looks sound to me. Good to have 2 very friendly neighbours E and W, and the starts of a trading bloc. For now, I would think that a 'bloc' of Us, Mali, England and Byz would be sufficient. To expand it much larger brings as many problems as benefits. A 4-strong 'bloc' with the potential for an alliance is good enough for me. If we expand it larger, the greater the chance of a fracture.

In my eyes 4 is the perfect number to cover enough trading possibilities and be a formidable enough military deterrent.

So now we just need to butter up England and we're laughing!

NOVICE NOOOOOOO!!!!! Gone, but never forgotten.

[Kyan]

TT, just a thought. You offered to take-over incans in rbpb2 for dsp once and was in the end not chosen due to being spoilt.

Well, Dsp requires a replacement in rbpb1. His civ are in a very healthy position with a lot of cities and a high score. All that info and much more would be in his thread. A regular player like yourself might be perfect to step in here?

[Whosit]

The Byzantines write long letters. *yawn* I hope I don't ramble that much.

I'm a little confused about their tech trade idea. Mainly, where is Mathematics coming from (since Writing is a pre-req). I dunno. I'm a bit tired now.

The loss of Novice is distressing, but we have to roll with the punches, I guess. I'm fairly confident our other troops will survive. At least human Barbarians haven't appeared yet.

Letter looks fine, by the way. Just tell me when we meet someone new so that I can advocate smashing them over the head with a heavy rock.

[Twinkletoes89]

Offered for PB1 - god it's been ages since I was reading that! PB2 and 3 are just too engrossing!

Don't worry, I'll still have plenty of time for PB3 - it will be my 1st priority.

Looks like another 'misclick'-type error debate could be in the offing again

[Kyan]

Interesting turn!

both cities completed their respective workers. Plako and Wyrmsbane both live. Wyrmsbane was unscathed so set off to find the civ to our north-east.
Plako will head towards gold site.

Exodus set to barracks. City grows in 5 turns allowing us to work the copper also which will speed things up considerably. The copper will also be hooked up on this turn. Exodus should then crank out axemen whilst it grows into the floodplain and marble also. The other option is to road the forest before chopping it. This allows pottery to complete before we chop meaning we can put the chop into a granary and build that. I'm thinking maybe put chop into granary, switch and build 1 axeman, finish granary, then churn out axemen?

We can replace granary with barracks if you want also. I'd be happy for that also, especially as we'll be investing about 10 hammers in one anyway.

Genesis set to settler. 10 turns to completion however the new worker moved to chop. Chop will take 4 turns. Settler due in 7 turns. Genesis can then slow build a granary whilst growing. Two workers are named Sullla and T-Hawk currently but feel free to rename. As we are short on lurker names, we can just use random RB players' names if need be.