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

[meatbalz]

i don't think black dot is a strong enough site to justify delaying founding marble city. i'd rather eat the 1/2 g/turn extra upkeep costs from the distance and establish culture in marble city earlier. up to you though.

forgetting we had OB was a mis-step but there's been worse done by yours truly i like the declaration statement as well

[Ilios]

We'd only delay Marble city by 5 turns (T92 iso T87), and we'll easily compensate culture loss with the free Missionary as we'll be getting Confu T90 at the latest.

The problem with going Marble first, is that it will not be connected by a road network, and is not on a hill. Barbs have been hitting us pretty hard (though not as hard as other teams it would seem), and I'm still worried about an Incan strike force.

Marble is distance 9 from Cap, against 5 for Black Dot, so upkeep differnce will actually be a lot higher.

Moving to Marble takes a lot of time because of all the forests. Going Black dot first allows us to road the entire way between Singa and Marble, and lose less settler moves.

In other news, India have gotten a great prophet, so they will probably pop Theology with it...

[Ilios]

This is what France sent back:

So, you have pretended all this time? You were responsible for the CAN invite, that was all fake and a game?

your to be applauded.

They seem to think their downfall was set in motion the moment they played their little game when we first met. Oh well, I don't really care what they think...

[Ilios]

Message from Ottomans:

Hi DIM

I was wondering what your thoughts are on AWTA. We've recently been
awoken to the fact that CAN can't last forever (well we've known about
it for some time, but haven't really thought much on what would
actually happen until know), and therefore we have to keep AWTA alive.

Also we'd like to hear your opinions on what you think would happen
when CAN dissolves. Given our close relations and recent dealings
(thanks for the worker BTW), it would be good to stay together when it
breaks.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?

Enough Talking!
WarriorKnight of A4

I'm not sure what to answer them, other than we'd like to stay on good terms with the English, seeing we'll be sharing a pretty big border and we're on very good terms with them (our mutual military struggle brings us closer )They are also are the current n° 1 in Power.

[meatbalz]

yes, i'd say what we'd really like is to try and get the english and ottomans better acquainted so we can create a really strong 3-team nucleus - with all the benefits that come with it - that will hopefully last until only the 3 of us are left

[Ilios]

Yeah I'd like that as well, but for now India wants to keep the "inner circle" a secret. I'm not sure I can go along with an alliance that excludes England. But we'll see what happens, because I've got no idea what will happen once the tech trades are done.

Barbs keep hitting us from all sides, and on T79 our chariot Phobos died at the hands of a barb warrior at 7% odds. It was taken out by our warrior in DIM, temporarily leaving the defences to Carthage's healing warrior...

I'm glad we have quite a few units in our lands capable of taking out the invaders.

Here's a tactical update:



The red lines represents probable barb moves.

Barb A should suicide against the Archer in a couple of turns if we don't have two-movers available to take it out.

Barb B is a bit tricky, I'm pretty sure he will move inside our borders and so won't move SW. If he does though, I'll have to try and take him out with the Archer, because he'd be in the way of the worker and settler moves. The ideal situation ofcourse, would be it moving south and suiciding against the Archer...

Barb C will be taken out by Deimos the chariot next turn. Hopefully he won't be too damaged so I can move him north if barb B moves SE. He's got enough XP for a promotion, but I'll keep from doing that unless he gets hit hard.

The Horse Archer is going to heal for the next two turns and then go back to barb duty I guess.


On to the French theater:

Midas has finished an axe, which will be moving to Orleans via the road built by the French. He should be in position to attack the city (1S) around T90.
England will be sending an axe and a catapult. Hopefully we'll have enough troops to raze the city. (we should have 4-5 Horse Archers and a couple of chariots in support)

Our Horse Archers, War and Death, will be either moving E, SE or S, SE, to try and take out Rheims with English support. Rheims is 2S6E from Orleans. We also met Byzantium this turn.

[Ilios]

In other news, Krill has used his Prophet to bulb Theology last turn.
India also have a prophet, and I hope they don't get Theo right away and bulb CoL...

Current ETA of Code of Laws is 9 turns, with costs increasing to 14 gpt. We should still have enough in the bank, and I still hope we can cut down ETA by a turn, so Confu has a bigger chance to land in Singa Mati (i have us 2-pop whipping a settler on T89). If it lands in Midas no biggie though.

Singa Mati is currently working on a Library. I plan on switching to a settler once it reached size 6 (by T88 ), which I plan to coincide with a chop. Then 2-pop whip the settler and finish the Library.
The two workers are currenly building a cottage, and Singa's borders will pop in two turns, in time for the cottage to finish, so we can build a pasture on the sheep.

[Ilios]

Email from DJ/India:


Subject: Post-CAN

A4,

We were quite glad to receive your note, almost as good as landing the Hanging Gardens would have been! There has been too little coordination between AWTA members, however we have taken great comfort in our membership...espeically in light of the fact that France assumed they were CAN members until the last second. To that end, we agree with you that we should plan for a post CAN future, and indeed we should consider being the ones to end CAN rather than waiting for a sneak attack from supposed allies.

Assuming France passes, we will be down to 14 civilizations in the game. We think the next block should be at least 8 strong, and we think again it should be our inner alliance inside an outer alliance. The catalyst to end CAN and build a new reliance around? Plunder of course. We have just completed the sale of our Great Prophet to Egypt, which will go to another shrine. We propose forming an alliance of eight teams that surround Egypt, with the goal of taking out this most dangerous opponent and sharing the income from the shrines, independent of which civ actually controls the shrine.

If we do decide to take this path, we must be very cautious in how we recruit our additional members. We are fairly certain Egypt has a post CAN strategy, with civilizations already recruited. We have to avoid tipping them off at all costs. We propose an IM summit where we can have a frank exchange on the merits of this plan.

PARTY ON!
DJ Civ
India

Interesting... I wonder if Krill has a Post-CAN strategy that involves taking our India...

[Ilios]

...espeically in light of the fact that France assumed they were CAN members until the last second. To that end, we agree with you that we should plan for a post CAN future, and indeed we should consider being the ones to end CAN rather than waiting for a sneak attack from supposed allies.

I'm wondering if that was a small barb directed at us...

Anyway, me and Warriorknight from Ottomans had a little chat concerning the proposed anti-Krill alliance, and we've both come to the conclusion it is not in our best interest to attack Krill, as we'd have nothing to gain.
We've decided to seperately send this back to India/DJCiv, as we don't want to give them the impression we're as joined at the hip as India and Ruff.

me: what do you think of India's email?
makes me wonder if Krill has Post- CAN strategy that singles out India
Ottoman: lol
I'm not that keen on a Krill strike
3:08 AM me: me neither
Ottoman: if Carthage is on our side, I could be convinced though
otherwise, no
3:10 AM a Krill strike doesn't really help you guys much, nor does it help us much either
me: I'd rather tear Inca a new one
Ottoman: true
me: it's like I told you in the beginning of the game when the Cartel was forming
3:11 AM Krill and Egypt are eying each other and trying to get other teams to attack each other
Ottoman: yeah
me: I mean Krill and India
Ottoman: lol
3:12 AM its not really in our interest for Krill to be taken down
me: exactly
to me, the email was pretty crude
Ottoman: well, they are doing diplo, what do you expect?
3:13 AM Krill doesn't even have a shrine yet, never mind 3
me: yup
but he'll have a few soon
Ottoman: 1
3:14 AM but anyways, how should we counter?
me: he'll probably get another prophet within 10-12 turns
Ottoman: true
me: well we start by saying that we do not think it is in our interest for Krill to be taken out
3:15 AM we say it in a better way ofcourse
Ottoman: hmmm, i was thinking that we downplay Krill's strengths
me: good idea
Ottoman: instead, focus on Carthage if they don't join and Inca
me: i'm pretty sure India has been having this discussion with Byz
3:16 AM they seem to dislike Krill quite a lot
Ottoman: well, byz probably aren't on that good terms with Krill
true
might wait until catas though
me: you mean catapults?
or Cataphracs?
Ottoman: well, cataphracts
me: ok
3:17 AM Ottoman: why else should byz attack?
me: exacly
there's no use in taking Ruff apart to discuss this
he seems to be following India's call
Ottoman: true
we'll have to play our own version then
3:18 AM me: yup
Ottoman: you focus on Inca in your response and We'll focus on Carthage
me: ok
Ottoman: we don't want to be seen like India/Ruff
me: nope
3:19 AM Ottoman: this isquite a funny situation though
me:
3:20 AM also, no way you keep an anti-Krill alliance a secret for long
Ottoman: true, an anti-krill allaince would also break immediately after Krill does
3:21 AM kinda unstable if recruiting just to kill krill
me: I don't think Krill will go down that easily
Ottoman: lol, kill krill
me: hehe
Ottoman: true, but this map means everyone is surrounded from all sides
hard to play defense
3:22 AM me: yeah
he'll be safe from his west though, assuming we finally take out France
Ottoman: N is clear too, since he killed Korea
3:23 AM me: i'm pretty sure India could convince portugal as well
if he can ever get peace with Rome
3:24 AM Ottoman: well, Portugal I think is a lost hope
me: yeah
Ottoman: Rome probably isn't going to stop heading for Portugal since they razed their iron city
me: but still getting lots of techs
3:25 AM Ottoman: true

[Ilios]

The first Barb axe appeared south of Singa, so I had to double back Deimos to take him out. That meant I had to use Pestilence, our damaged Horse Archer to take out the barb warrior. I held my breath, and attacked, and won!
Also got a cool 2 XP, meaning I could promote him to Shock.

The northern barb suicided on the Archer I moved south when it moved past it.

Barb axe was taken out by Deimos the chariot.

Settler and both worker are now in position at city site 4. Since Meatbalz loves that Marble spot so much, I suggest we give him the honour in naming it, so I'll name the northern spot.

France moved its spear out of Rheims, claiming it was a misclick. I'm not so sure, because demographics show that they were only working their center tiles, and for the rest only working citizens. I think this means they have given up on the game. Can't blame them...

They sent us this:

nearing the end - be nice to know the story of the Ang-Fr being invited to the CAN then dropped. i'd appreciate knowing the whys and wherefore if you'd share?

thx in advance

I suppose I could answer that, I starting to feel sorry for them..

Our Horse Archers at Orleans took out a barb warrior, gaining a promotion next turn. If there are only 2 spears in Orleans in 3 turns, they will attack together with England's fast movers. Otherwise they will just wait until the axes arrive.