[SPOILERS]The 3 Muscateers playing Ragnar of Rome!

[Catwalk]

I have not sent TheArchDuke or superjm any messages yet. TheArchDuke is Sury of Byzantium and superjm is Willem of China. Given that they're both creative, I want to intimidate them in an attempt at convincing them that my border is not the safest to settle towards. If they offer a NAP, I will likely turn it down. The game is basically split into 3 warmongers and 3 builders:
Catwalk - Ragnar of Rome (Praetorians)
Xenon - Shaka of Ottomans (Janissaries)
Azza - Isabelle of Egypt (War Chariots)

waterbat - Louis XIV (CRE/IND) of India (Fast Worker)
TheArchDuke - Sury (CRE/EXP) of Byzantium (Cataphracts)
superjm - Willem (CRE/FIN) of China (Cho-Ko-Nu)

I will seek to maintain peace and good relations with Azza and Xenon while putting pressure on the remaining 3. waterbat and superjm have strong combos that will need to be kept in check. Too bad we can't coordinate about this, hopefully the point will come across with NAP proposals and proposals to keep borders closed with the 3 builders. Thankfully, only one of the builders and none of the other warmongers are Financial. I wish that I could have taken Hannibal of Egypt instead, would have given me plenty early strength to defend and intimidate and an awesome early economy with two extra happiness.

waterbat is the wonder whore. Without the possibility of putting a dogpile on him, I'm very concerned about him grabbing lots of wonders through a mix of focusing on wonders and scaring everybody else off of wonders. Lots of military pressure and subtle diplomatic threats will hopefully make him build up his military. Given that he doesn't have a unique military unit, he might be the easy target for determined military action, especially if there are wonders waiting as an added prize.

TheArchDuke is a hybrid builder/warmonger. Once he has cataphracts, he will have a long window of opportunity with which to punish his neighbours. If he is powerful around t80, I will start making gestures of peace towards him.

superjm has potential for a monster economy with a strong early land grab, and his unique unit can completely neutralize praetorians. I will need to keep an eye on his research somehow, but I probably won't be able to do so through C&D methods. I will likely put full EP on him after I have graphs on TheArchDuke.

[Catwalk]

Updated dotmap

This dotmap is in tentative settling order. Main changes from previous one:
e) Has been pushed back on the priority list and moved east in order to be able to grab second ring furs.
l) Has been pushed far back on the priority list, g below it can grab the pigs. Is solely a
filler city that may be postponed for a long time, if it will be founded at all.
d) I've noted down a few alternative locations, all able to get inner ring gold. They miss out on the clams, but they gain the flood plains tile that d1 is placed on. d2 is the most likely candidate, depending on what I see in the fog.
m) This one can grab second ring silver, I might settle it early if we can afford the upkeep and spare the worker turns.

Updated tech path:
Mysticism (monuments)
Masonry (marble connected, pyramids, GLH, great wall, walls)
Polytheism
Monotheism
Hunting
Iron Working
Priesthood
Monarchy
Writing
Mathematics
Currency

EDIT: Might switch Writing and Monarchy there, we likely won't revolt that soon anyway and we need the libraries. Considering bumping Monarchy down further, will see later when we want to revolt.

[Catwalk]

t29 report

DAMNIT just lost the entire post due to a misclick. Finishing this later.

Aggression

TheArchDuke has a warrior 2N1E of my warrior that I had 68% odds on, I was strongly tempted to go after it. I decided to go south instead, noting that he just put down an expansion on the PH next to the sheep. If he refuses the proposal I'm sending him next turn, I will declare war and cross the border to the expansion. At worst it might force him to get another warrior and move his worker away, at best I might catch him making a bad mistake. If I see one warrior defending the expansion, I will go for 20%-30% odds. Proposal will be as follows:
- t80 NAP (50t from now)
- OB as soon as possible
- land split in my favour for the duration of the NAP:

I will crop this screenshot so it only shows the territory up to my purple line, possibly misleading him a little about the actual land concession in the deal. If he recognizes the actual terms in the deal that's also okay, as the proposal is meant as a threat. I hope for one of the following 2 outcomes, or both:
1) He will commit to more military than he would have cared for at this stage, fearing an invasion
2) He will refrain from settling in my direction

Even if he builds up and expands in my direction, that's still largely wasted military. And if he settles in my direction, praetorians might see early use.

Mirror

This is the mirror portion of the Byzantine territory that I'm walking into. My warrior is 2S of the wheat and his new expansion is on the PH, marked by the grey circle.

Angry Angora

Settler due, worker next.

Babbling Baboon

Will grow and finish the warrior shortly. Sending the warrior exploring NW, will leave BB defenseless for a while (pop won't exceed 3). Will return the corn to AA once a cottage has been built N of the copper mine.

waterbat

Turns out I ran into waterbat instead of superjm. That's good news! Seems waterbat is much closer to me than TheArchDuke, he will be the first target for praetorian harrassment. Any guesses on how his territory is mirrored? TheArchDuke is reversed north/south relative to mine, can't figure out how waterbat's territory is mangled.

West

Not much to report here, found a sheep. The tundra hill looks like a good city site. Going NW next turn to verify this.

Demos

20 of that GNP is from extra culture, putting the average GNP of my rivals at 22. Between that and the CY + MFG values, I'm very happy with these numbers.

[Catwalk]

I decided to go ahead and send the proposal to TheArchDuke:

Greetings, TheArchDuke of Byzantium

I wish to make the following proposal. Should you choose to accept, send notification before the start of my next turn. Should you choose to decline, the proposal will automatically be withdrawn by the start of my next turn.

- NAP until t80?
- EP kept at the minimum level where we both have graphs on each other
- OB will be signed as soon as either of us discovers Writing, and OB will be binding for the duration of the NAP
- The following borders will be in place for the duration of the NAP:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2z71hnc.jpg
The purple line marks the border that Roman settlements may not cross, the grey line marks the border that Byzantine settlements may not cross. Either party is free to work the tiles between the lines.

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

I have cropped the image to give minimal information and removed the resource blurbs. The message is intended as a provocation, suggesting that I'm ready to try to raid his expansion if he declines.

[Catwalk]

Turn played, full update following later tonight. I have confirmation that the eastern and western tundra arms are mirrors, and I have met Azza to the west. This strongly suggests that we are situated as follows:

Code:

\     \     \     \
   Cat - Bat - Azz - Cat
    |  \  |  \  |  \  |
   ?1? - TAD - ?2? - ?1?
       \     \     \     \
   Cat - Bat - Azz - Cat _ Bat

All players on the same horizontal line have identical mirrors, all players below/above us have mirrors that are reversed north to south.

I am knee deep in C&D computations, that is how badly I want to win this! So far I have determined that Xenon researched Hunting straight off the bat. My initial reaction was that this was a foolish move, but it does give him a bonus on researching Animal Husbandry. Since he had Agriculture to begin with, it might be feasible to get AH in time for his worker to pasture the cows after farming the corn.

Is it correct that tech points are delayed one or two turns?

[Catwalk]

t30 report

TheArchDuke didn't respond to my proposal. Moving my warrior reveals the following:

I might have a shot at defeating that warrior, but he probably set another one to be produced in that city last turn. I also won't be able to harrass the worker properly, it will be able to finish the sheep and then run off. I think I will camp on the forest PH by the pigs if he refuses this proposal as well:

Greetings TheArchDuke of Byzantium

Proposal:

- 20t NAP, with 10t cooldown after that (can be cancelled with a 10t notice after the first 10 turns). Cooldown period can be from 5t to 20t, whichever you prefer.
- OB or not, whichever you prefer
- Borders defined as follows:
http://i48.tinypic.com/jgpedu.jpg
The purple and black lines mark our borders while the NAP is active, the grey line marks your border after cooldown has been activated

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

Hoping he will accept, but also feeling fairly confident about bothering him a little with the warrior. C&D shows that TheArchDuke is the player who went for Polytheism straight off the bat, very likely to stunt his growth considering he started with The Wheel and Mysticism.


In other news, we have met Azza:

We currently have no warrior in BB, and not planning on building one since it doesn't have enough good early tiles to work. I don't particularly need to scout Azza's lands, as they mirror my own and he's not a target. I think I will send him a friendly NAP/OB proposal and turn back next turn.


We have also gotten some more intel on Waterbat:

He has settled NW of the gold that we plan on settling soon in our mirror. This gives us useful information about seafood in the area, might revise our settlement there. I want our first praetorian to head towards waterbat, not sure how I want to play diplo with him in the meantime. I would really like to settle the tundra hill SE of my warrior, which would obviously be an incursion on his territory.

Demographics

We dropped a bit, our nice GNP had a lot to do with researching Pottery with both prerequisites. As mentioned earlier, I'm currently elbow-deep in C&D operations. If I discover anything useful, I will make sure to let you know. If I don't, I will deny ever having wasted time on it.

[Catwalk]

Here is a sneak peek on my awesome C&D spreadsheet!

This is not as hard as it sounded, and I'm finally done updating all entries from old saves. I will mainly be tracking tech and growth, maybe later I will focus on tracking military units as well.

[Sian]

*snort* ... think you forgot something in that post

[Nicolae Carpathia]

[Catwalk]

Had to encrypt it so enemy spies wouldn't get their hands on it!

t31 report
Here is a quick turn report, will update this post later tonight.
1) I decided to declare war on TheArchDuke to pillage his sheep pasture. He has 2 warriors in the city, if I move on the hill I think it will be somewhat risky of him to try to take out my warrior since he stands to lose his expansion with a bad dice roll. I want to stress him out a little and force him to commit more troops to defense, he is very far from me so I don't think I will lose out in any way on him getting more troops. C&D suggests he already has a weak start, growing his capital to size 3 and teching polytheism straight off the bat. That means no improved tiles for the first 20 turns or so, he started his first worker t11 at the earliest.
2) I sent Azza this proposal:

Greetings, Azza of Egypt

We wish to make you the following proposal:

- 20t rolling NAP with 10t cooldown
- Neither one of us will settle on tiles north or south of the 2 lake tiles between us (meaning not 2S either, etc) for the duration of this NAP
- OB when possible, if you wish

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

My warrior is currently blocking his a bit, he cannot advance towards me without moving to open grounds where I have good odds on him. The border proposal is entirely fair, as the lake tiles are a little bit closer to me than to him. Seems Azza has had a good start, I do not want to antagonize him early on but I also don't want to show weakness.