[SPOILERS-PBEM14] Sandover(phi/spi) of Egypt

[Sandover]

Pharaoh Sandover,

To say I'm a sandboxer is definitely overstating, but since I had an early plan for a pair of wonders, I decided it was worth it. I doubt I'll do much more than that, I also prefer to play by gut. If that makes me a lesser player, so be it, I do ultimately play these games to have fun, not to impress Krill or the like.


You're gutsy to tech MC so early, but I do think forges have an exponentially higher payoff the earlier you get them online. Remains to be seen if it works out for you, but I'm sure you have the skill to pull it off.

I generally subscribe to the if the economy isn't crashing I'm doing something wrong school as well. So, currently I suppose I'm doing something wrong. So it goes, I decided I'd try and this and so I will - I really haven't built either of these wonders in quite some time. You have to sacrifice too much to get them in SP at any reasonable difficulty level, and I generally think early wonders are fools builds in MP. Still, so long as I don't let it cramp expansion afterwards, it'll be useful to have the free border pops, free beakers and the early prophet.

I haven't seen anything off the coast as of yet, I just sort of feel like something must be there. I could be wrong, but its my, ahem, gut feeling. Next city's definitely going on the floodplains. A fair few of my cities will probably be coastal however, no avoiding it with the way the land around me is laid out.

Speaking of running into something, Mortician ran into Ron Burgundy this turn. So at least the upper landbridge connects to the main body of the continent. Its a weird looking bridge though, its desert but looks out of place to be desert. I'll have more when I actually get full eyes on it.

Prophet Gaspar


P.S See, I can respond faster when I actually have something to say.

Yeah ok, that was definitly faster. Good job Gaspar.

Prophet Gaspar,

Aigth, 'fun' is certainly the key word here. A few good rounds of trashtalking is more valuable than winning in my mind, and Stonehenge into the Oracle sure sounds like an interesting experiment.

Have you, by any chance, looked into the option of bulbing theology in order to bind the AP to a religion of your own? Being spiritual I'd certainly be interested in having the AP-religion spread in Egypt, but it looks like I'll be too short on prophets to actually pull that stunt myself in a forseeable future.

Oh, and what do you intend to oracle bulb? The answer is probably among the most obvious, but I might as well ask.

Good to hear about your meeting with that filthy capitalist scum. I suppose you will be switching your EP off me and onto him now that you have the opportunity?

Speaking of filthy capitalist scum I now see Lewwyn's border through bleed-through, so I'll be in touch with him real soon.

Stonehenge + Oracle = several great prophets. I'm certainly looking to keep Gaspar as a docile southern neighbour, and any deal including concrete trading between us will serve that purpose, hence why I bring up the option of the Apostolic Palace. I might even try to trade for a great prophet just for the sake of trading.

Does this feel familiar to anyone?

[Sandover]

So looking at the score increases:

Scooter hasn't discovered a tech since bronze working (t25), and thus was not the founder of buddhism. Did he make a failed attempt at meditation or is he researching polytheism? Currently at 4+1 population.

Gaspar was the only one to get a tech this turn, and therefore founded buddhism. Heading for priesthood next. Currently at 4 population.

Lewwyn got what I think was pottery (t26) and then finished another tech recently (t29). Hard to tell if it was fishing, hunting or mysticism. Currently at 3+3 population if I recall correctly.

Serdoa did probably get fishing (t23) rather than mysticism, since he fnished another tech (t28) without founding a religion. I'm guessing that tech was bronze working. It seems that he just founded his second city, which puts him at 4+1 population.

[Mardoc]

Does this feel familiar to anyone?

Hey, as long as you don't slip and call him Bob [SIZE="1"](or chum)[/SIZE]

[Sandover]

Sandover,


Serdoa's scout spent some time scouting the land west of me instead of heading straight south, so the scout hasn't actually headed south yet... I'll try to get in touch with him and ask him if he has another unit in the area, as I know he was planning to get in contact with Lewwyn, he just apparently is not doing it with the unit that he had near me.


That wasn't me... I'm aiming for Polytheism, and I'll have it quite soon. I only eye-balled the scores, but I think it was Gaspar who got Buddhism, as I'm pretty sure his score got a sizable bump,and it would make sense because he starts with Mysticism and landed Henge already - probably going the religious route and such.


scooter

Damnit! I was hoping he'd been wasting effort on meditation.

Scooter,

Nice break going for polytheism there. Skillful calculation or just luck?

I checked the scores and it was indeed Gaspar who got buddhism. Not very surprising play on his part.

Anything interesting going on on your side of the gulf other than religious pursuit?

[Sandover]

No turn update today because:

a) I'm rather busy today.
b) Nothing worth reporting happened.
c) I need to send three diplo messages.

As you know, contact with Lewwyn was initiated. Time to try the new signature!

Ah, there you are! I've been meaning to ask you a few questions:

What have you been doing so far?
What are you doing right now?
What are you planning to do in the future?

If you have any additional information of use to me don't hesitate to share.

His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover

Yeah, I quite like it. Lets roll with it and see if it sticks.

[Sandover]

Sandover,


Eh... little bit of both. If I had gone Meditation instead of Poly, I think I would've tied (beaten) Gaspar, as I'm close enough to Poly. Not 100% sure on that though. I was pretty sure he was the only one to be worried about in terms of religion chasing though as I'd done my homework on everyone else.


Not really... just trying to identify where to place cities and such. Nothing excessively exciting, but it's still fun. Gaspar actually shocked me by responding to me in one hour in the first message I sent him, but then my recent reply has gone over 24 hours with no response still, so I figure that's probably more like it. I'm not a big fan of intentionally delaying responding to messages, so I hope that's not what he's doing.


How has Gaspar been with you? Pretty friendly? I'm mostly curious on his tone.. I just know if I was that close to you and I was chasing wonders and religions early on while next to someone with war chariots, I'd be doing all I could to stay on your good side... I know he followed PBEM3 quite closely (Serdoa and Lewwyn not so much), so I admit that to some extent, I've wondered if he would try to play us against each other given the history and all...


scooter

So scooter caught up on Gaspar's doings already? That was fast.

Scooter,

I had a surprisingly quick response from Gaspar this saturday myself so I guess he had itchy fingers for a while there or something. The norm has been 48hrs+ so far.

Yeah, friendly for sure. He hasn't pissed me off yet so I guess that he either made his homework or just isn't the type.

Oh, he's certainly trying to play me off against you. I haven't decided if it's working yet.

By the way, you should get yourself a title. Tatan, GES and Mist just helped me improve mine.

His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover

[Sandover]

Awwwwww, the sun just started to reflect from a window on the other side of the courtyard straight into my face. Why oh why did I remove the curtain?

Here's the latest correspondence with Gaspar:

Pharaoh Sandover,


Interesting is most important to me. I don't know how closely you actually lurked GE in PBEM12 (not very is my guess, considering his performance) but to me the worst part of that game was the utter lack of conflict. Other than a bit of instigating a bit in other people's problems, I had little to do other than lay down cottage after cottage for 120 turns. It was that boredom, not India's supremacy, that pushed me to instigate calling the game. I don't need war, per se, but I do need some intrigue.


As far as bulbing goes, I've given it some thought. I suspect I'll see at least 2 prophets before I can get into getting anything else going, due to these wonder pursuits. Obviously using one of them for a Shrine makes a lot of sense, but a Theology bulb has appeal, not only for the AP, but it gives some options on civics as well. Its mostly a matter of when I get around to grabbing Monotheism, as I'm going to need to spend some quality time outside of the religious branch of the tree after Priesthood comes in. Oracle will bulb Metal Casting, the cheap early forges will hopefully let me put the hammers I've invested in these wonder grabs back into more expansion.


Switched EP off you to the Corner-loving Capitalist this turn, meant to do it last turn and forgot. If you're seeing the Turkish capitalist scum this turn, I guess we all are really pretty close together. Should make for interesting times. I'm headed in his general direction as well, though I think I'm still a fair few turns away from contact.


What are you impressions of scooter this game thus far, by the by? I keep getting the feeling he's holding something back in his diplomacy. He reacted very strangely after I made some off-hand reference to being South African (in reference to being south of your Egyptian civ.) You think scooter knows something we don't?


Prophet Gaspar

Prophet Gaspar,

Oh, I definitly kept an eye on GE in that PBEM. It's just that when I told him to not build a barracks he built a barracks, claiming the promoted units would be super nice to take a city from Whosit. Sure enough the city fell, and the economy crashed. "Build more cottages" I said, followed by the city being gifted back to Whosit and even more units being trained. He's a nice guy but what's the point of electing a mentor if you're not going to listen to his advice?

Keep me updated on those prophets. If nothing else comes out of it I'll at least still be interested in hearing what they end up doing.

You should come across a marble tile in the desert I saw Ron Burgundy walk into. From there I think it's about 7 tiles to Lewwyn's border in a rough NE direction.

What do you think of the land you've explored so far? How are your prospects for expansion NE looking?

His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover

[Sandover]

And scooter sent a speedy reply. Not that we're actually saying anything useful, or even game related, but still.

Sandover,

Haha okay, well at least I know it's happening . I just suspected he might try before I even met him (as he followed PBEM3 and Serdoa/Lewwyn not so much), so when he was asking if there would be a grudge in the very first message, it made me wonder if he was doing the same with you.

His Dark Lordship? Does that make you a Sith Egyptian Pharaoh or what? Perhaps just for flavor's sake I should be Scooter Skywalker or something. The only problem is that it requires me to switch to typing my name uppercase, which I'm not sure I'm willing to compromise on. Perhaps I'll ask my lurkers.

Also, do you really have 3 ded-lurkers? If so, I'm mildly disappointed, because I thought I had the most with 3 of my own. Not sure how to get ahead other than somehow tricking one of your lurkers into reading my thread too. So for the lurkers reading this paragraph in Sandover's thread - just know that my thread is much more fun and it's not too late to swing by. :P

in-search-of-a-title scooter

in-search-of-a-title scooter,

Tatan made a reference in the PBEM3 lurker thread that I picked up on. I was the Dark Lord, and you the elves. I don't recall seeing any elves in Star Wars so I think you need to guess again. And that lowercase 's' is nothing but junk. The sooner you throw it out the better.

Oh, so you've got 3 deadlurkers? How unselfish of them to give you that extra help you need to be on pair with the other players!

Actually, neither Tatan nor Mist is a deadlurker of mine (as far as I know), but I can't really blame them for preferring my thread over yours now can I? I've only had two sign-ups as deadlurkers so far in Krill and GES, and an important related fact is that one of them is a complete idiot who couldn't keep his egoistically inflated head out of the map thread. But so it goes.

His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh of Egypt

[Sandover]

Hm, no. "His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover" is definitly better than "His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh of Egypt". I thought I could spin it a little but I miss my name in there.

[Sandover]

Looks like the trash talk started early this game.

Sandover,


Ahh, I guessed wrong then. I'm using a city theme based on board games, so I may be incorporating Bobchillingworth's suggestion of "The Game Master" but now that I have new info on the meaning of Dark Lord, I may give some thought to something Elven. I like the Game Master idea though, so I may go with that.


Touche on the ded-lurkers... Just remember that the Dark Lord loses. And now that I think about it, the Pharaohs kinda died out too. Board games are still going strong - you should try it sometime!


"AND MY AXE!!!",
scooter

Scooter,

I imagine you spent lots of time playing board games in PBEM3 while I was off conquering the world, so you should probably go with Game Master. It fits your modest nature for sure.

Also, what you say about Dark Lords and Pharaohs might be true - but have you ever seen i two-in-one version before?

Didn't think so.