[SPOILERS]PBEM16 Serdoa - Pacal of Inca

[Serdoa]

Yes a seafood start does take away expansives bonus. But getting the bonus for WB's too would make them extremly powerfull on Archi-maps. so hard to balance that.

You mean because of the possible scouting with them? Maybe that could be changed by not letting them move out of your borders? Of course you would have to explore with Galleys then but if everyone has to do it, it should still be balanced, no?

[Serdoa]

T44, Writing in, Poly started. Reasoning being that the religion is still available and I had a Buddishm spread to my second city so my 3rd - which needs some culture as it is a border city to Dazed - will get it for certain.

T48, Poly in, massing gold because I have no fucking clue what to tech next. I also have finished another settler and will settle city 4 next turn.

T49, City 4 settled near the gold



T50, I screw around with EP a little bit and throw away 1 turn of research to get graph visibility on everyone.

Apart from that what do we have as of now?

4 cities
3 workers (4 finished EOT)
4 Quechua
1 Archer

So pratically no military, few workers and not many cities. At least except for the newly settled city all cities are working improved tiles. Still, losing out on Expansive did hurt my game. Had I known that I would have gone for the cheap Terraces instead probably. Though my idea here was that both are 40 hammers but I will build more workers then Terraces, especially in the beginning, so it will ultimately help me more. And yes, I was aware about the fact that the Expansive bonus won't work on Food used to build the workers.

T53, after investing some turns of research into Maths I decide to switch to Sailing. Reasoning? No clue. Though I am at 5 workers now.

T55, Krill comes screwing around with a warrior and I have finished another settler

T56, Sailing finished, started Priesthood

T57, I decided to build some military. After only 7 more turns since T50, I now have:

5 cities
6 workers
4 Quechua
1 Archer
3 Axeman

Thats not too bad I feel. Of course I am still last in score and demos show that I am last in everything else as well except for Land Area. Uh, clearly this game is over for me...

T58, Priesthood finished, started Oracle. Send 4 workers to chop. Fuck up with tech (again) and start on HBR. Yeah, I really have no clear plan and that hurts. I just tech what I feel best in the situation. What maybe wouldn't be that bad except for me being barely awake when I play the turns so my take on the situation changes from turn to turn depending on how my coffee smells...

T59, Krill decides to move his warrior up again. We had our warriors next to each other on forested jungle but I guess he wants some more info on what I am doing.



Both border cities contain an axe so I move one in the direction of his warrior. I think I stayed with the eastern Quechua on the forested hill for this turn and started to move him up to Krills warrior the following turns. My western Quechua started to move towards Krill instead - and THAT will get VERY interesting shortly.

[Serdoa]

T60, Krill declares on m_h and it seems he is serious. Dazed gets a Great Scientist (ouch).

T61, I am still playing catch the warrior with Krill

T63, the actual turn. I am researching Monarchy for some turns now. I had the idea of getting Feudalism with it, like I did it in PBEM8, but I just don't see that happening. I would have to wait till T70 and I am wondering that the Oracle isn't been build already, I won't wait any longer.

In foreign news, I try to get a NAP with scooter for some time now and he always refused. Now he has units on my borders (first an Impi, after I raised concerns a scout now), scouting me.



I asked again for a NAP and this time he was considering it and asked for how long. I told him and asked for a border agreement together with the NAP and... he does not react anymore. How much do we want to bet that he is sneaking a settler up on me? We'll see how I react if he does.

I also talked with m_h about the declaration by Krill and the cultural pressure he is giving me on one city.

Hi,
yes I assume Krill is serious, which is probably a good sign for you.
As for cultural pressure. Shrug. I am a cultural civ. And barracks get +1cpt with the new mod, which is one thing that we are supposed to test. I have little control about my border pops.

As for the rest of the game. Dazed has pretty much won this already. The only way for the "balance" to get restored would have been for Krill to direct his Praets against Dazed. But he has been focussed on you, got behind, got angry because of Dazed supposedly better lands, and now probably just wants to do as much damage as possible with his Praets so he focussed me, although I was under teh impression I had an agreement with him. What can I say. Diplo in this game has been especially weird. Not really suited for a testgame anymore.
I am gearing myself up for defense now to tackle the Praets.

mh

Uh, great. So he gets attacked by Praets and has no NAP with me and this is his reaction about my concerns regarding the culture? Thats what I meant with latent aggressive. Also calling Dazed the winner right now is a little premature I think. But I tried to talk with Krill today in the morning (didn't really work that great but I assumed that already before I started the chat) and he seems to feel the same way about Dazed. I agree that Dazed is far in the front and would that be Krill I would call it. But Dazed (similar to me) does make errors sometimes. And that might cost him the lead. Calling it now over, even before we reach the ADs, is not understandable for me. I presume that m_h is simply pissed on Krills attack and lost interest and Krill is pissed on everyone and lost interest as well.

Lastly I moved a Quechua through the jungle for some time now. Guess what, I found one of Krills cities - and it has no defenders



Lets see if he gets one in next turn. Otherwise I'll raze it. Funny is that in a normal game I would try to get a NAP from him and a good border agreement. And if he is not willing, I would offer to m_h to help him and sell him razing that city for a worker or whatever. But in this game? m_h will not pay anything for me helping him and Krill won't accept any agreement which does not involve fighting me. Weird diplo.

Oh, I finished the Oracle at the end of the turn. I wonder what I should take. MC?

edit: Didn't see, Krills city is size 3 so he can at least 1 pop whip something. Thats 13 hammers I think if he has not started anything, so I should only see a Agg1 warrior in there. If so I'll probably just attack and hope for the best. We'll see.

[Rowain]

I think m_h wanted to say that he is creative (Zara as leader) so he will always get culture.

[Serdoa]

Yeah, I understand his reasoning. Of course he can't do much. 50 culture for 3rd ring border pop, 2 from creative means at most 25 turns. If he has a barracks... or a library ... in there, it's no wonder that he popped them so early.

But imagine the situation: You get attacked by Agg Praets. At the same time your other neighbour - whom you have no NAP with - complains about your culture. And you answer with "Shrug."? For me that is similar too "I don't care, live with it.". Thats not exactly the impression you should give in such a situation I feel. After all, he might be able to fend off Krill. Fending off Krill and me at the same time? I don't think so.

[darrelljs]

Thanks for the update .

Darrell

[Serdoa]

I realized now that I have in the T63 update an error as I state that I research Monarchy and then follow that with "I would have liked to take Feudalism with it". Of course there is a sentence missing: "I am also building the Oracle."

T64, Oracle finished.



I took MC. I really would have loved to wait 4-5 more turns to take Feudalism instead but I just could not. It is so late already and Dazed has all means necessary to produce them much faster then I can.

Still I think MC will be helpful. Colossus for the coastal tiles would be nice (and 3 of my 5 cities are coastal), Forges are great and I have Gold already so not only production increase but at least another happy as well. Lastly Triremes which will help to settle the islands - or rather have others not settle the islands.

In foreign news Krill moved a Praet my way



I wonder, does he just want to protect his warrior or is he actually really declaring war on mh first and then sending troops my way?

scooter decided to be annoying as well. I stated that I think he wants to sneak up a settler on me and sure enough



Well, you know what guys? Krill and mh seem to have conceded the game to Dazed already so why bother anymore with catching up? Instead, I'll produce military. I have 3 axes right now. And I have an elaborate micro plan for the next 5 turns. Someone want to guess how many axes I will have then?

[Serdoa]

Diplo: I didn't send scooter anything. Really I am not sure what to say even. Apart from "Haven't you learned yet that I go for your throat if you piss me off?"

But I send an email to mh... again asking for a NAP. I mean really, I don't know how often I have asked now for one but whatever, lets do it another time.

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hi mh,

I understand that you can't do much being creative and stuff. I just had hoped for a little heads-up. Speaking of that I have built the Oracle in the horse-city. You have 12 turns to get a settler for the pig before my borders pop. Sorry for that but there was no other city capable of producing the needed hammers (that city just had sooo many forests) in a short enough amount of time.

Speaking of that, I would like to ask - again - for a NAP. You have war with Krill, I have war with Krill. And as I told you, scooter settled up on me and tries to squeeze me in (see screenie as I know nobody believes me anymore for whatever reason...). So we both do have reasons not to go to war with each other but instead help us get the aggressors driven back. So, what do you think about a NAP till T90 - not very long so hands will not be tied forever, but long enough that we actually don't have to worry about that front and can concentrate on those which deserve a beating.

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/color]

He is at war with Krill, so he should be interested in a NAP to secure his flank. But I bet, he won't sign one with me. I am actually wondering if that all was a ploy and instead scooter, Krill and mh will act together and hit me.

[Serdoa]

T65,

Krill moved the Praet I have shown in the last turn update 1N. Except for that not much happened this turn. Well, except for that I was last (or nearly last) in soldiers on T64 and now I am first. 5 more turns, 5 more turns...

[spacemanmf]

And I have an elaborate micro plan for the next 5 turns. Someone want to guess how many axes I will have then?

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