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

[darrelljs]

Well I'm not sure how long Yaz will be around for - I hope it isn't very long, but Bob said earlier Exploit is in no danger of being knocked out.

Actually...I had a brief chat with him and said we were no longer dead set on elminating Sumeria .

I see this as an opportunity to restart relations. New management and all that. I think we take BP/BB, and then offer him peace, a long term NAP, a border agreement, and Mysticism/Masonry for a Settler to replace t-shirt contest.

Darrell

[sunrise089]

Chars ready to go:



Battle for BP:

Char vs Mayan char at 49.5% - Win!
Char vs Exploit warrior at 78.3% - Win!
Char vs Exploit warrior at 78.3% - Win and capture the city!

BP has a monument only.



I keep the city.

I now have to make a tough call - 3 chars in BP or 2 in BP and kill the Byz char? I decide to go 3 chars in BP for maximum chance of taking Exploit's cap if we want to do that.

The unit breakdown in the above pic is:

*3 Indian chariots in BP
*2 Indian chariots 1SE of BP
*1 Byzantine chariot 1E of BP, wounded
*1 Roman warrior and 1 Sumerian worker 1NW of BP.

Darrell - I recommend we slave granaries in 2-3 of our cities as discussed. Alternately if we want we can start three more chars and whip them next turn...that would be based around an all-out push for Exploit's cap.

Regoarrarr - Bottom power is 31k. Can we calculate what units he has based on that?

Finally for next turn we want to decide if we want to press for his cap (2 turns to hit it) or if we want to take the high-odds battles on the Byz char or Roman warrior, or do neither.

[darrelljs]

Okay, here are my thoughts (this is old news to sunrise, we had a chat earlier).

1. Whip 2 of the three Granaries. The other one is due in 2 turns anyway and the city has double whip anger.

2. Try and get Gold from Krill. Sunrise requested in game. I spoke to Krill, he isn't sure he can give it to us but will check tomorrow.

3. Send out this to Sumeria, and copy Rome, Byzantium and Maya:

Sumeria,

It has become clear to us that for some time you have been sabotaging our diplomatic relations with multiple civilizations with lies and half truths. We have decided to take action. We were initially going to demand a Settler from you as compensation for t-shirt contest, however we decided that punitive damages were also in order. We have therefore taken Bison Burgers.

It has come to our attention that you have undergone a change in leadership. We wonder if this might mean our two civs have a future together after all? We offer the following...please consider promptly as we will not leash the dogs of war during negotiations:

1. Sumeria gives India a settler to replace t-shirt contest in the next 10 turns.

2. Sumeria and India sign a NAP until turn 150.

3. Sumeria and India enter a border agreement. Sumeria gets their proposed third city location that would overlap Karaoke Nights in two places. No other cities to the east or south of Bison Burgers may be settled without consent from India. India may not settle to the west of Bison Burgers.

4. We sign open borders with each other.

5. As a token of our desire to restart relations, we will gift you Mysticism and Masonry. Your people have been deprived of culture for too long.

PARTY ON?
DJ Civ
India

I want to send this out first thing in the morning, please get back to me ASAP.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Wow...didn't see this coming:

India and Portugal,

These last two turns have been very interesting, and Sandover and I definitely did not expect to wake up to a massive rules dispute this morning! We've talked it over, and we've been extremely disappointed in the way Exploit has handled this. India, we had a conversation with you awhile back where we admitted we were a little unsure on the "who's right" on your clash with Exploit earlier. Sandover and I both admitted in our thread that there might have been some truth in what you were saying, but from the limited knowledge we had at the time, Exploit's story seemed slightly more convincing.

That said, we did promise you guys that if we ever reconsidered that - we would tell you. Given how Exploit handled things here, Sandover and I are both very doubtful that he was actually in the right on the first issue. We will never know for sure until the game is over, but regardless we'd like to, at the very least, let you know that we acknowledge that you probably were right. He seemed to have absolutely no interest in a compromise, and we couldn't help but think he might've done same thing to you. So if this email accomplishes nothing else, at least know that, like we said we would, we are admitting that we might have chosen the wrong side on that issue .


Now taking a step back from that, I know we've had quite a bit of discussion with you guys about joining the Hydra, but we said no. Here was the only two reasons we said no:

1. We were slightly unsure on what exactly transpired in the early conflict between India and Exploit, and IF what Exploit said was true (which we are doubting now), then we would not want to work with you guys.
2. We strongly disliked the tech alliance structure - we would prefer it see it fizzle out into groups of 3-4 or so. Almost all of the players who fall in the "CANT" group are in the same boat - they hate the mega-alliance thing - so we had more in common with them. CANT's only goal was to break up the Hydra, and then break up into smaller groups. To us it seemed like the quickest way to break up the mega-alliance structure into something more enjoyable for everyone.

Sandover and I had a lengthy exchange today, and we've concluded that both of those reasons are no longer valid. Exploit has quit the game (something we find pretty low and dishonorable), and we've concluded the quickest way to break up the mega-alliance may actually be to join it, if the offer is still on the table. If you'll bear with me on the length of this message, let me be more specific:

We do realize you may very well tell us to "get lost" since we turned you guys down at first, and if you do that then that's pretty understandable. From having talked to both of your teams though, we got the impression that both of you guys didn't really care for the whole mega-alliance, and were only in it to eliminate some competition more or less. If you allow us to join, we can probably help do that sooner rather than later... Let's just say Sumeria falls, and given the way Exploit talked we get the impression that's going to happen. We're then looking at a 9v6, and one of those is Inca who managed to badly bungle their rush on Ruff, rendering them nearly useless for the time being. If we were to flip over to your side, we could very rapidly leave the other 4 1/2 in the dust, allowing us to disintegrate the mega-alliance even quicker. Might even be worth considering to bring in another member of the CANT group if you guys find it strategically worthwhile, but we don't care either way because we haven't had tons of contact with the rest of the group.

If you doubt our honest intentions (understandable), we are more than willing to prove them to you if necessary. We are not at all keen on NAP's, but if that's necessary to prove ourselves for the time being then that is fine too. We are not really desperate at this point because regardless of whether or not Sumeria falls, we *can* get alphabet from a civ not in CAN. So we could stick with them if needed and drag out "alliance wars" even longer, but if you guys really want to cut down on this 10-civ alliance thing sooner rather than later, we believe we might be able to help accelerate that by joining.

Once again I am sorry for the length, but there was a lot to say, so hopefully I got it all out. We're looking forward to hearing from you soon, whether you bring a yes or a no. Either way, thanks for reading if you got this far, and good luck through the rest of the game.

Thanks,
scooter - Team SsS

[regoarrarr]

Stellar - anyone going to be around after lost for some discussion?

[darrelljs]

Probably not, I need to sign off now. I think we let Portugal take the lead on the Rome thing.

Darrell

[Rowain]

Having Rome on your side will for sure speed the demise of CANT

[darrelljs]

From the Ottomans:

Hi DJ

How are you guys doing? It's been a while since we've exchanged
messages and we would like to keep talking to your team. Maybe this
wasn't the best timing on our part given that you've just DOWed on the
Sumerian's but let's not talk about that.

What are you researching? Or are you going max gold since you're in 2
wars. We expect to have IW on T71.

Let's keep talking and PAR-TAY-ING!


Enough Talking!
WarriorKnight of A4

I've been thinking about our situation quite a bit, I'll try and find you guys online this morning for a chat.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Having Rome on your side will for sure speed the demise of CANT

Especially since they just showed up with IW.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Okay, so I'll post my thoughts for now. Basically we have two paths we can take here, and it really hinges around what to do with Sumeria.

Path 1
We finish off Sumeria. Depending on how Portugal decides to go with Rome, we would possible continue get involved there. Pros: We go from Pleased to Friendly with Portugal and CAN members look on us favorably for denying CANT Alphabet. We have more room to expand into in the west. Cons: CANT members go from Cautious/Pleased to Annoyed/Cautious.

Path 2
We offer Sumeria peace terms and they accept. We focus expansion S and E. Pros: We get a Settler to replace t-shirt contest. Sumeria is a buffer state, and a potential cheap way to expand depending on how things go. We settle closer to Krill. CANT members go to Pleased. CAN members go to Cautious (although Portugal did say if we got a Settler they'd be okay with that).

While I am advocating path 1 for diplo reasons, the reality is that Rome is possibly dead or in CAN (depending on what Portugal does), Maya/Byz are crippled tech wise, and Sumeria is just plain crippled. So we are gaining a big relations boost with teams that are likely not going to be a major factor in the game, while taking a minor relations hit with teams that are. The diplo is pretty neutral.

To me, it comes down to the Settler. I think getting the Settler, and having Sumeria store land for us to allow us to focus on expansion in the south is the better situation for us. Thoughts?

Darrell