[SPOILERS - PBEM16] Dazedroyalty - Gilgamesh of Babylon

[Sandover]

If in doubt, do whatever pisses off scooter the most.

[dazedroyalty]

If in doubt, do whatever pisses off scooter the most.

I really wanted to settle there next but as I looked at it more, there is just too much jungle and I don't have IW or enough workers yet to make that a real possibility. So, I'm headed for copper instead. I will try to get pink dot for city #5 though if I manage to put off the official settling agreement with scooter. honestly, I'd like to argue for that spot anyways because scooter, as I pointed out, has land to the NW that he can settle and I don't have a comparable settling area.

[dazedroyalty]

Aight, so I just found mh's borders (finally) with my scout. It took a long time but I now know where everyone is. I should be able to get a picture up tonight/tomorrow. I also plan to update my world map and share that with you all. I don't think mh likes having my warrior on his borders given the fact that as soon as he got the save, I suddenly got the following email from him:

Hi Dazed,
welcome to my borders. Can I help you with directions?

mh

He also chatted me up on my RB account and my personal account at the same time. Given that these are the very first communications he has ever initiated with me and that he went a little overboard on his communication (3 methods of contact all at once) I can only assume that 1) he doesn't like having a warrior on his border and/or 2) he has some unprotected cities/workers/settlers around. If I were to read in to the "Can I help you with directions?" I would say he really means, "Tell me how to get you to leave my borders." Given our diplomatic history, I have no intentions of leaving especially if my presence makes him uncomfortable.

My response was simple:

mh,

I'm glad to finally find you since you're the only one whose map I haven't been able to trade with. I'm just going to be exploring around your borders to get as much scouting information as possible.

dazed

It's pretty blunt but that's how all of his diplo has been so I don't feel a particular need to be gracious. I don't need directions anywhere because I have found what I was looking for!

[dazedroyalty]

Scooter asked me for an updated screenshot of the land near pink dot beyond what the combined world map shows. So I responded:

'd love to tell you more about it but I don't have any additional information beyond what that amalgamation has. For me, most of that area is still unknown which will make our negotiations more difficult. I am working to get that area de-fogged more but if you have a warrior close by, that will probably be faster. When I get the turn next, though, I will be glad to send you what I have.

I have been looking at the world map too and I will tell you that a straight equidistant split between the two of us will not be workable for me since you have land to your NW to settle while I am basically on the coast with the only city sites available to me are crammed in coastal ones. Have you been able to explore your NW any more since you sent the last screenshot?

Dazed

I don't know if that was the best way to bring it up but I am honestly of the opinion that spliting the land between us 50-50 is actually a loss for me. Since I am in a strong position, I have no intention of agreeing to that kind of deal.

[dazedroyalty]

Discussion with Krill:

Hey, Dazed, just a quick offer for you. Would you be interested in curtailing EP expenditure on each other at 43 so we both have graphs on each other? FWIW I'm starting to reapply EP on you now that I have mh graphs.

Krill,

Congrats on killing Serdoa's Quechuas. What were the odds for you?

I am glad to agree to curtail EP expenditure at 43. Obviously, this is not an unending agreement since neither of us knows the future but currently, I have no plans to switch EPs back toward you. If you want a notification when cancelled clause, I'd be agreeable to that too.

Dazed

The odds? Basically Serdoa lucked out again and won two 50/50 battles...but I had 2 extra warriors ready in any event. It's nice to have enough workers around to road and keep extra units in the FoW.

Yeah, I'd appreciate a simple notification upon cancelling clause for the EP deal. I understand where you are coming from on there.

50/50 battles? Was he not on defensive terrain? If so, that's silly.

I don't have any plans to end the EP deal but I've read in other PBEMs in which there was no "out" for EP deals and 100 or 150 turns later one party still assumes its active and the other decides its is no longer binding because it clearly wasn't meant forever. Just trying to avoid such situations.

Dazed

Oh, he tried moving on defensive terrain, but I already had warriors in place to stop him from even entering my borders and stick to defensive terrain. So he wandered around a bit and put a river between the warriors blocking the defensive terrain but didn't realise I had 2 warriors hidden in the FoW on roads, and roads to his units. Or decided to put a bet on that I didn't actually have any units and got lucky with the 50/50 battles.

I don't really mind notifying him if I switch EPs. Besides have his demos I am not planning to run espionage missions. Plus if we have mutual agreements not to run EPs, I know he isn't gonna run spy missions against me. I'd be more worried about EPs from Krill than Scooter. Once I get mh's graphs, I'll probably direct towards scooter--mainly because scooter doesn't check EPs often and I think I can get away with it for a while! :D

[dazedroyalty]

Serdoa sent me this message over night:

Krill has killed my two warriors for the loss of two of his. So he had many and now has some less - the same as for me. Still at war though

Kind regards,
Serdoa

I take it as a good sign that he felt it was worth giving me a heads up. In other words, he felt like I had some stake in the battle and that somehow we are in it together. That's good! The alternative interpretation is that he's pissed he lost them and is blaming me for being in the war so he wanted to let me know how much I've cost him. I could be reading serdoa totally wrong but I think he is genuinely feeling like we're on good terms.

Simple response:

Oh no! How'd that happen? I assume you were on defensive terrain and he sacrificed two warriors to soften yours up?

Dazed

[Ichabod]

How's the game going, dazed? The lurkers are getting restless!

[dazedroyalty]

You ask and you will receive. Here's an overview from last turn:



Krill is really annoyed about the map and claims that this game no longer has any test value and that he would like to call it quits now. He says that if I win it's just because of my land and if he loses it's just because of his. I think he did get screwed a bit on land but he's also being a bit of whiner.

Scooter and I had a long chat last night to try to divide up our land. He basically indicated that if I had settled pink dot, he would have had "no choice" but to go to war with me. I'll try to make a picture of what we agreed and post that in a minute. The funny thing is that he feels like he's conceding "his" land to me for the sake of working together. I was tempting to point out that as CRE I'd win any border fights and that my Bowmen mean that he won't be able to hurt me for quite a long time, but I didn't think playing the strong arm card would get me where I wanted to be. Truth is, I want to have one friendly neighbor and it is not gonna be Krill or mh for sure and Serdoa is not looking like a good partner (from an ingame perspective, not because it's Serdoa).

Here's the demo's from turn 43:



Also, Krill's power just shot up because he completed IW. So if I see another spike, that means a praet was completed. My current tech path is still IW next so I can get to clearing jungle ASAP.

[dazedroyalty]

I don't have a good current picture of the area that is easily accessible right now, however, here's what I can show you:

I agreed to let him try to rush and steal from Serdoa further west of the city you see here. Scooter likes to think of that river being the "natural" divider between us, hence why he feels like my city is taking "his" tiles. Now what I didn't agree to was not to settle a city southeast of his cow/gold city. In fact, I have to in order to work the dyes and gem. I need to rework some dot map stuff but it'll definitely happen somehow.

I can't say this agreement totally pleases me but like I said, my goal was to keep Scooter friendly without giving up all of that land. The corn will help that city grow faster sooner. The ivory will be happiness plus let me build WE (even tho they are nerfed some). Finally, by moving West (instead of south like he originally suggested), I get closer to the contested middle of the map, which is good.

[dazedroyalty]

The deal is not 100% final as we were gonna sleep on it and finalize today, so if anyone has comments, now is the time!