[SPOILERS]The 3 Muscateers playing Ragnar of Rome!

[Catwalk]

Sending Azza this proposal:

Greetings Azza of Egypt

I wish to make you the following counter proposal:

- 20t NAP (lasting until the start of t54, our current NAP expires t42)
- Borders defined as follows for the duration of the NAP:

Purple circles mark my sites, yellow circles mark your potential sites. The red line is 9 tiles west/east of our respective capitals.

Respectfully,
Catwalk of Rome

I think this agreement favours me slightly, as he will likely want to settle on his marble as well. If he declines this proposal, I will probably send him one where my SW circle is moved S of the mountain if the tile there is suitable for it. It looks like it's an unforested tundra hill tile, maybe with a resource on it. In turn, he will get to settle the tundra hill S of the yellow circles. If he refuses, the original proposal isn't all that bad if I can get him to agree not to settle on the grassland as that would steal a deer and a crab tile from me.

[Catwalk]

cheetah, are you playing? Else I can do it now.

Azza accepted the above deal, so we have another safe border. I want to prioritize negotiations with Xenon next, as soon as my warrior up there has explored a bit more.

[Catwalk]

t36 report

Azza has revolted to Slavery. It is interesting that Azza didn't do this sooner, considering that he is Spiritual. The Info tab shows that all but Arch have revolted to Slavery. Also of interest is that Arch has decreed Buddhism to be the state religion, confirming our earlier suspicion that he founded Buddhism. What's more interesting is that Arch has built Stonehenge. Combined with Creative and Buddhism, this means that Arch has way more culture than he will be needing in the foreseeable future. I'm pretty sure Arch only has two cities, if so that means he built it without the Stone discount. He is definitely not off to a good start.

I redid my micro a tiny bit, moving the settler ahead in the queue and waiting to grow to size 5. I will still be able to get the road connection and chop on time, and I will have two workers available to farm the wheat in a hurry. Followed by connecting the furs, deer and sheep as soon as borders pop. I'm unlikely to work the furs much, giving only 1 food and 5 commerce. The tundra deer isn't bad, 4 food and 1 production.

I'm done exploring over here, so I will return my warrior as I currently have 5 units outside my borders. Is it correct that every 2 units exceeding the limit will cost me 1 gold in upkeep? My workers will be costing me extra in the coming turns, until my two expansions go up and secure cultural control.

Lots of flood plains! Health will be a problem, I think the best course of action is to space cities tightly as I don't want them growing big enough to run into major health problems. I don't know how far away Xenon is, I hope to find the halfway point soon so we can start discussing borders. Xenon is another neighbour I want peaceful relations with, as I won't be able to bully him as easily given his Aggressive trait.

waterbat seems to have founded his stone city first (unless he's up to 4 cities already), which is a very long reach. Guessing his first warrior went in that direction and he started drafting stone plans. Probably not Stonehenge since he is Creative, leaving Pyramids. Landing Pyramids would make him a powerful competitor, and since he is not Financial he needs that boost. That might leave GLH up for grabs, should we make a run for it? I will send him the above proposal in a few turns (with a 20t NAP) and see if he's going to bite. I won't realistically be settling that site in 20t, maybe in 25t. For now, I'm going to keep my warrior in the area and fortify it E of the deer tile. If I manage to get good border agreements all around, I can delay Iron Working and focus on getting Currency faster.



Graphs & Demos

I finally have graphs on Arch, so here is a full set of graphs and demos!

Arch is clearly falling behind on crops, prioritizing production instead.

Culture confirms that Arch is still at 2 cities, and we see the revolt to Buddhism this turn.

I'm still cautiously optimistic about the demographics, although the average numbers include 2 weak opponents.

In other news, waterbat and superjm had a war previously and I am the only player who has contacted all rivals. Noone is focusing EP on me yet: Xenon has 10 points, Arch has 7 points and superjm has 6 points.

Tech path:
Polytheism => Monotheism => Writing => Mathematics => Currency => Priesthood => Monarchy => Iron Working

Currently leaning towards delaying Monarchy and Iron Working. Still debating when to get Priesthood, when that decision needs to be made I need to examine how soon I want libraries and how soon I can get foreign trade routes.

[slowcheetah]

I probably can't get to the save before about half three GMT today. I'll play it then unless one of you guys does.

[Catwalk]

Got the save, playing now.

[Catwalk]

t37 report

Thinking about moving the location of Dingy Dingo.
A:
- don't have to spend 6 worker turns constructing a quarry
- hill defense
- 2 production on city tile
- 4 production total
- can build a lighthouse
- 2 FP + oasis in inner ring
B:
- 7 production total, with the stone tile
- 3 FP + oasis in inner ring
- can settle 1t faster
- slightly lower upkeep
- makes the clams filler city impossible

C:
- grabs a fish from Azza
- clams in inner circle, no other food
- loses the incense

I'm having a hard time deciding between A and B, don't think C is worth it as it's too slow to get going.

waterbat is sending his entire army after me I was planning on going back to the deer tile to fortify, but I decided to pursue Magellan's instead. With 4 warriors out and knowing the map, I think I have good chances of landing it. That means all my warriors will keep exploring, the warrior by Arch will break off and continue E instead of N as planned. I might run through waterbat's territory, I know that he has nothing better than warriors so far. I might even be able to pillage his grassland mine or slow down his expansion east a little bit. I'm not worried about declaring war on him, I want him to feel a little paranoid about his Roman neighbour.

[slowcheetah]

I'd definitely go A, it'll have a pretty quick start with the oasis and the three hammer city centre. Additionally B isn't coastal so will never get fully improved clams.

[Catwalk]

Yeah, I'm still mostly on A. I guess we'll just have to whip lots to get anything done, so we may need farms on a good portion of those FP tiles.

[slowcheetah]

Maybe one farm might be helpful, but we can still have a +7 food surplus at size 6 working the unlighthoused clam and 5 floodplains. Should be enough to be going on with.

The coast will also help with health which could be an issue in floodplain paradise.

[slowcheetah]

Also good moves with waterbat. Noone is comfortable being next to Agg, Cra (Crazy) Rome.