RBP3 - [SPOILERS] - Team DIM (Mehmed of HRE)

[dazedroyalty]

no problem, MB. glad the week is over/slowing down.!

[Ilios]

Yeah you got us worried there buddy! Welcome back!

Message from France:

Subject: Espionage

Our Apologies Team DIM.

You have asked before I seem to remember. It is nothing more than forgetfulness on our part.

I will login in immediately and change the allocation

KM
ANG-FR

I don't really believe their "forgetfulness", as they changed their EP's from 4 to 1 towards us. Anyway, I'm going to keep an eye on EP...

[dazedroyalty]

In my mind there are two options. One, they're trying to be very sly and changed down to 1 in hopes they wouldn't be noticed. Two, they're just not very bright and didn't realize. While I'm not a fan of theirs, I don't have any reason to think they're particularly dull, so I assume it's the first option as well.

[Ilios]

France have switched their EP's. I'm going to add 3 more to them, because chances are they can just see our research.

I had a short chat with Mukha from Portugal yesterday:

Willem: ahh right, I might not be available in an hour and a half
good good, just so much to do now we have all these techs
we were wondering
if you had considered attacking rome a bit earlier?
because at the moment they don't have hunting or animal husbandry
6:59 PM their last tech was researched t49, so they're clearly going for IW
their best defensive unit would be either axemen or warriors
7:01 PM me: well at the moment we're a bit light on defense
Willem: are you worried about inca?
me: when did you want to head for themN
7:02 PM no not really
Willem: we can get horses off krill this turn, and have 6 chariots complete by t69 or more
up to 10 chariots if we went insane
with an attack on rome's capital t71-74
7:03 PM do you have visibility on their second city?
me: we've had some bad luck with barbs, so our lands aren't as developped as we'd like
Willem: and their sources of copper?
me: we have our warrior around their lands
Willem: ahh damn, we've been quite lucky with barbs so far
7:04 PM me: so there's no way we can get more than 2 chariots by T69
but 6 chariots is pretty good man
Willem: well we have exploit to worry about as well
7:05 PM you didn't want to take part in the screenshot swap with CAN?
me: exploit has india to think of as well
Willem: how about just a trade between us two?
me: yeah i did
but I just keep forgetting
Willem: we would really like to see what you can see of roman lands?
i can log in now and take some new shots, satellite view 1280x720, bare map, resources tagged
7:06 PM me: I'll try and see if I can get a couple of screenshots tonight
Willem: can you see their copper or second city?
me: I can see their borders
Willem: also with sailing, did you get a trade network with them?
me: but not the actual city
no, with Inca atm
7:07 PM Willem: so when you say you can have 2 chariots by t69
7:08 PM is that the turn you would complete them? or turn they could be attacking?
me: hehe the turn I'd complete them
no horse atm
Willem: ahh right
ok
me: will be online T66
7:09 PM but if you do attack them
Willem: just a single unit if you have one to pillage a copper at their second city
would be such a huge help
me: we have our warrior up there
7:10 PM don't know if he'd be of much help?
we're like a tile from their lands
Willem: hmm, dunno, they have combat I warriors
me: if there's some forests remaining
ours is woody I
7:11 PM Willem: do you have copper connected?
me: yup
Willem: so if you built an axe or 2 when would it reach rome?
me: but I'm not sure you realise the distance involved
7:12 PM we're like 12-15 tiles removed
Willem: yeah, we have revealed some of the territory between you two
you're about the same distance from them as us
me: so an axe is actually a bad idea, since we'll have Horse Archers by T72
Willem: their capital is 8N13W of ours and i think 13N8E of yours?
7:13 PM ahh ok
well we need to be attacking before t74 i think
or around there
me: yeah probably
Willem: because they could get hunting off exploit then
and also might have finished IW
me: India not planning on choking Exploit?
7:14 PM Willem: they are I think
me: well they took a setback with the loss of their copper city
Willem: but maya sort of dented their plans a bit
yeah, they want our help, but we are more concerned with rome
me: we are too
sorry we can't be more of help atm
Willem: we could go with our insane chariot plan and send 5 at exploit and 5 at rome
7:15 PM me: we could follow up
Willem: of course our cities would then spend rest of game unhappy
me: hehe
7:16 PM Willem: so do you think you could send a screenshot with bare map and resources tagged tonight?
i'll do that now
me: I can do that, but later on

Basically, they want to attack Rome with 6 chariots by T70, and they want our help. Unfortunately, I don't see us contributing more than 2 chariots by that time. They got Horses from Krill, and while Rome does have copper connected, they don't have Hunting or AH, which makes a chariot rush possible. You can gather from Civstats what they've whipped for this turn...

Mukha also gave me the link to this:

http://league.civplayers.com/forum/index...pic=4442.0

This almost 100% sure the map we're currently playing.

[Ilios]

I've played the turn. Singa Mati founded, both workers start working on the pasture. As predicted, founding on the river gives us a trade connection with England, giving us a cool 2 commerce per city. Our costs increased to 6/turn at 100% research (should have been 7, but the extra population cancelled out some unit upkeep).



Tricky sent north to try and take out the barb warrior and fogbust between our lands and Ottomans'.

Portugal have sent us screenshots of the lands they know. We have wheat and Fur to DIM's east, so we could put another city there after Marble city.

[Ilios]

T66 played.


Horse got connected in Singa. Should we chop out the forest now to speed up the monument? I was thinking we could farm the wheat instead and wait for Maths to arrive around T71-72.

Granary finishes in DIM next turn, overflow into a chariot.

Worker finishes in Midas next turn, overflow into a granary.

Portugal have again asked for our help against Rome. I told them we could get two chariots built by T70 (might be a turn later though). Do we lend a hand? Portugal should have at least 6 chariots, and Rome does not have Hunting, so no Spearman to defend.

[dazedroyalty]

Are they trying to take Rome out or harass them? I'm willing to contribute troops to harrass or help them out, but not a full invasion force.

[Ilios]

Are they trying to take Rome out or harass them? I'm willing to contribute troops to harrass or help them out, but not a full invasion force.

As we don't have the troops for an invasion force, I think we can rule out that option...
Portugal hasn't really put any pressure on us, so I'm thinking they will try and take out Rome alone. We can send a couple of chariots as reserve force should Portugal require assistance. In any case, we won't be able to whip DIM effectively till around T72. Even, the chariot we're getting from Ottomans around T75, still leaves us pretty weak on defense. I'd like to chop out a couple of Horse Archers before building a Barracks to be on the safe side.

Interesting E-mail frolm Portugal:

Hi guys,

We would like to discuss the possibility of having France replaced with Babylon. This might come across as a little backstabby, but then the way I see it is you have to be friends before you can backstab and we've had a grand total of 34 words from France. Yes I'm keeping count and ranking your friendliness by your word count . They also continued to ignore our directions to meet Ottomans even though they didn't have pottery so they can't be getting much in the way of commerce (says the 4 city broke civ ). I know we can't be alone in not wanting France in the CAN as they were originally vetoed. I think Babylon are especially keen not be left struggling in the CANTs and they could be one of the few Alphabet researchers left out there. Babylon could possibly make a strike against France with our permisssion and our pledge not to come to French aid or we could just leave France out of the next round fairly peacefully. A downside is that France were in a better location strategically and this would put Babylon between Mali and Byzantium, but they do have a fairly powerful defensive UU (although it isn't much use against skirmishers or the ubiquitous HA). They already have the important financial techs so it doesn't need to be obvious that they have joined with us until the next round of trading although it could be obvious sooner depending on what ETA they gave others for Alphabet.

As the Ottomans have finally chased down the French warrior this turn for contact could they cancel their pottery gift until we discuss this unless they think this idea is too Machiavellian and far fetched. We feel that the French were signed on a little too hastily before getting to know them and their style of play, but we are happy to have our minds changed if other people have had better relations with them and can see a way that the French could develop into a powerful, trustworthy ally.

Mukha
CBE

[Ilios]

Diplo-update:


I've been relaying messages between Cartel members who haven't met yet. Portugal met England this turn, and they will meet Carthage next turn.

Ruff has been having fun sticking the different Cartel member maps together.
Here's the result of the Aztec-Indian-Ottoman-HRE maps:

[meatbalz]

i think the diplo situation has made us and rome enemies anyway, so we should prioritise harming them before they can get their UU into play if that's possible. even one praet on defence would seriously diminish the effectiveness of a chariot rush.

seeing india's lands makes me sad :-(

as for france... yeah, in an ideal world they'd be on the opposite side to us. they're certainly not making any friends with their playing style. it might be a bit late to exclude them though. if the coalition is serious about backstabbing them, the ideal thing to do would be make france research their assigned tech, trade it to everyone, and then not trade them anything back