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

[regoarrarr]

Email from Ruff

Greetings,

I am sending this to my three alliance members. Inca send me an email continuing my NAP discussion. I short back one that gave them 4 options (even down to a 10t one) and then caught them in chat where I offered a 5t one. Nakor was taking the line that he was only a messenger so I am calling their bluff.

The total dialog is here (http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showpost....tcount=138) - that is a link to 1 single entry in my spoiler thread - you have my permission to view it (and only it <grin>).

Cheers,

Ruff

[regoarrarr]

Advertising flyer from the Tech Peddler (Exploit)

With the advent of Writing, the Tech Peddler nation has created the first advertising flyer for its wares. I have BCC'd everyone since some members of this mailing list have not met one another in game.

Tech Peddler Products

Technology
The Tech Peddler nation is pleased to announce that on Turn 72, it's flagship line of technology products will be made available for sale. Technology products include (with beaker costs): The Wheel (108), Agriculture (108), Mining (90), Pottery (144), Animal Husbandry (180), Bronze Working (216), Writing (216), and Alphabet (540). More technology products will be added to this list as they become available.

Mercenary Units
The Tech Peddler nation maintains a large variety of military units which are available for sale based upon production cost in hammers with a 10% premium for unique units or for each unit promotion. Tech Peddler is also willing to accept military units as part of payment for its other product offerings. Note: the trade in military units requires open border agreements to facilitate the exchange of units and will come with a negotiated NAP clause of variable length depending upon the strength of the units sold.

Tech Peddler Fair Trade Policy

The Tech Peddler nation believes in open markets between all civilizations and as such makes its products available to all civilizations in the world that are not currently at war with Tech Peddler. Tech Peddler does reserve the right to refuse to trade with nations who refuse to reciprocate the sale of their technologies to Tech or who engage in activities that are clearly hostile towards Tech Peddler however every diplomatic effort will be made to resolve such barriers and resume normal trade relations.

The Tech Peddler nation believes in trades of equal value with neither party subsidizing the other. As such trades will be structured so that goods of equal value are exchanged (for instance 100 beakers of tech for 100 beakers of tech). To facilitate the exchange of goods based upon different units of measurement, Tech Peddler has developed an exchange system for the most common barter measurements (beakers, gold, hammers). In the event that a trade of equal value cannot be arranged then the difference shall be carried over as a credit towards the next trade deal.

Tech Peddler Exchange Rates

The base exchange rate formula used by the Tech Peddler nation is: 20 beakers = 4 hammers = 5 gold = 1 gpt for 10 turns

This formula is open to some negotiation for variation with individual civilizations based upon a variety of factors including bulk buys, repeat business etc.

As always customer feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
Exploit

[regoarrarr]

t93 rolled. We really need some feedback on those drafts, especially the one to exploit.

Both our warriors lived through barb attacks - southern one at 0.6/2 and 3/5XP.

Talking to Krill the Ottomans are going to move this turn and meet us, so we should heal in place.

[darrelljs]

Man that sucks for Ruff.

You know, I took a second look at it and the floodplain south of the Stone is acceptable to me. I would like to get more input ASAP before we send that note.

The other note is fine.

I thought Rome was already on board?

Darrell

[darrelljs]

I just read exploit's ad. Uh...20 beakers for 5 gold? What is he smoking?

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

The things that I don't like about it are... well the ones that I put in the email to him.

We lose the 2 hammer, we lose 1 FP, we overlap 2 tiles with HH and 1 with LN, and lose 2 hills.

And which way do you think 20 beakers to 5 gold is bad?

[darrelljs]

I'd buy techs from him all day long at that rate .

On the stone is better, since the site is a bit food poor. I just have a bad karma feeling from last game I guess.

Looking at the site again...wow, it really is food poor. We just need that floodplain to make it viable, I suggest we emphasize that to him in the e-mail.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

and lose 2 hills.

Are those the overlpa tiles with his proposed city? If so, we might not want to mention that since we are saying essentially we don't contest them.

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

Are those the overlpa tiles with his proposed city? If so, we might not want to mention that since we are saying essentially we don't contest them.

Darrell

No - they are tiles to the NE that we lose by settling 1S on the FP.

And yes, I also thought that seemed an attractive rate to buy techs at.

[regoarrarr]

Chat with Rome

me: hi there
you're lucky you haven't met krill yet
T: how's that?
me: or he'd be harassing you about oigngg last
T: the rb forum got a pm function, so don't for a second think that I've been spared
me: lol!
he's really quite funny with that turn timer stuff
T: was just about to respond to your last message, you should get the names straight!
me: yeah
Sent at 10:23 AM on Sunday
me: so you guys are researching IW?
T: will get it before too long
going to skip writing for the time being
me: glad you guys are on the other side of the world from us!!
Sent at 10:27 AM on Sunday
T: it's only a 25turn walk to your capital...
me: heh
so last time we talked you were unsure of krill's tech group?
should i wait till you reply to the emamil?
or do you want to chat now?
T: I don't mind chatting, though we haven't had time to process the last email we got from Cath Bruig yet
me: who's that?
krill?
heh sorry
T: Dantski/Mukha!
me: lol
was that one about exploit?
i mean errr tech peddler?
he sent us one last night as well
Sent at 10:31 AM on Sunday
T: meh, I was about to write something but now I forgot what I wanted to say
hate when that happens
me: heh
Sent at 10:34 AM on Sunday
me: so i guess the things we're wondering is if you are planning on participating
and what we can trade you for IW
there's a few other things but those are the main ones
Sent at 10:38 AM on Sunday
T: well, I still need to discuss it some more with my team members now that we have all the info so I cant give you a specific answer
though if we do join, writing, alpha and the religious techs comes to mind as possible trade objects
Sent at 10:40 AM on Sunday
me: ok
T: we're probably going for sailing right after IW, though I guess we could trade for it as well
obviously only speculations at this point though
me: the way i see it - at least for our civ, it seems to make a lot of sense to trade for those techs
why research them when someone else is likely already researched them
and will trade them
Sent at 10:45 AM on Sunday
T: got a question for you
how serious do you think dantski/mukha are with this sentence
me: i think they are serious with it
oh
sorry misread
go ahead
T: "Krill did mention something about feeding techs to yourselves so you could focus on the military side of things and to "have fun" as he defined it."
I kinda like what they are saying
me: i think that makes a lot of sense
when you think about it in a SP game
you have a lot of city specializtion, right?
one city is a prod city
one does commerce
one is a GP farm
etc.
i think that "Civ" specialization is the next step up from that
so maybe i'm a gold producer, portugal is a techer, you focus on military, etc
(just making those roles up)
T: right, just curious as they indicated that there wasn't any plans for having specific roles
me: yeah it's been a bit challenging early on as not everyone has met everyone
but i can definitely see that being the direction we go in
Sent at 10:50 AM on Sunday
T: is it correct that you intend this alliance to hold 10civs? sounds a bit large tbh
me: well, here's my thought on that
say we have 7 people
then the other 10 are goign to form their own alliance to stomp us
i'd rather we have a bunch, knock around the other folks
and then break up
and speaking of that, it might pay to start looking at kind of "alliances within alliances"
like you and us start forming closer relations
now
since it's in both of our best interests to make sure that we're both on the "right" side of any post-alliance breakuip
we share no border so we have no border tension there
but we have a few common neighbors that could make good errr targets
Sent at 10:53 AM on Sunday
T: Exploit seem to have some nice land...
me:
T: oops, did I say that out loud?
me: lol!
T: you two seem to have border tensions going already
me: yeah
T: smash barely made it through that small gap!
me: we're negotiating over where to put a city near that sone
stone
T: I guess you need to finish negotiations soon then since you already have a settler over there
me: right
we're plannign on foundingi this turn - the question is just where
we want tos ettle on the stone, exploit wants us 1S
Sent at 10:57 AM on Sunday
T: I suppose you will attack him eventually since everyone else around you seems to be allies already?
me: well it depends
that's certainly one possibility
but if he is sincere about this "peddling" role
and stays neutral
i could see us continuing to have decent relations
Sent at 10:59 AM on Sunday
T: from a geographic standpoint, where do you hope to find the last members for the alliance?
we're a bit worried about having close to all our neighbours as potential enemies
me: the northern ring maybe?
who would you be interested in?
T: we actually haven't figured out who all of our neighbours are yet
me: i think you have sumeria to your east, inca to yoru west, HRE to your south
and unknown to the north
T: met inca few turns ago, said babylon is up north but wasn't certain where exactly
me: yeah
the lattest we think is that this map is a greener team battleground script
so it has 4 rows of 4-5 civs in it
2 rows, strip of desert, 2 rows
the strip of desert is to our row's north
T: aight, scooter made the battleground guess quite some time ago
me: yeah it seems to make sense from everything we've beeen able to figure out
T: have you found the desert?
me: yes
but our warrior died to a lion @ 21%

T: though luck
me: yeah - our initial wariror died @ 4%!!
T: clearly you should have picked aggressive
me: clearly....
we had a few a
T: haven't lost a single unit so far!
me: Agg choices on our list
in pb1 i think i won my first 30-40 barb fights
T: that's on a lower difficulty though?
me: hmm maybe
not sure
T: I think it is, though I'm not certain
me: so maybe this is being a bit blunt, but we would be interested in a much closer relationship with you where we kick exploit's butt in the not too distant future
i know you can't commit tot hat w/o team approval
but i'm throwing it out there
you're obviously going to use praets or you wouldn't have picekd agg rome
so might as well use them there
Sent at 11:11 AM on Sunday
T: obviously yes, though we've found a bit hard to settle for an exact target as we haven't even explored the neighbourhood properly
me: yeah i understand
Sent at 11:12 AM on Sunday
T: and I wonder how much we'll struggle getting hold of iron, strat resources seems rather scarse
me: yeah we'll have to see where that is
T: in the sense that they aren't found very close to starting locations
did you manage to hook one up with your second city?
me: horse
T: cool
we found some copper but it took ages
me: yeah we have some to our north that we're hoping to settle with our next city whenever that is
Sent at 11:15 AM on Sunday
T: do you know if exploit got any resource?
me: not sure
but remember he can't build axes
he has vultures which are str 6 but don't have melee bonus
or maybe it's 25 instead of 50?
i forget
T: though on defense in a heavily fortified city they do pretty much the same job as axemen against praets
me: well we can also provide chariots
T: I assume they are 35h
uhm
not 35
25
me: 35 is what axes are
T: oh you mean the hammers?
me: yes axes cost 35 h
T: yes
thought you where talking about the melee bonus
me: ah gotcha
i'm cecking
if civ fanatics will ever load
yes - 25% bonus
T: either way, I suppose attacking dantski is definitly out of question? their cities seems to be on hills either way, which could cause some pain
me: i wouldn't say it's out of the question
but less attractive to us
is there a reason that you want to attack them?
are they close to you?
T: not closer than exploit
Sent at 11:22 AM on Sunday
T: as I said, we haven't made our minds up so I'm just bouncing some options around really
me: ok
well regardless of whether or not we end up both attacking exploit, our offer of closer relations (even within the tech group) stands
T: good to know
how long do you think the large alliance will hold before starting to break up?
me: depends on a lot of factors
T: true
me: like if we manage to kill some of the other civs
how the tech trading goes
Sent at 11:25 AM on Sunday
me: if we trade all techs and we have a 4-5 tech lead over everyone else
and we kill a efw folks like exploit etal
i could see it breaking up soonre
T: guess it depends mostly on what happens among the outsiders
whether they arrange a counter or so
Sent at 11:27 AM on Sunday
me: right
and how effective that counter is
Sent at 11:30 AM on Sunday
T: I cant think of anything else I'd like to talk about at this point, so catch you later?
me: sounds good
T: aight, bye then
me: let us know what your team thinkgs
T: sure thing, I'll keep you updated

After talking with darrell, we made the decision to push for a closer relationship with them and possibly taking out Exploit.