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

[Sandover]

Greetings Pharaoh,

Its with pleasure that the Mayan people stumbled upon the borders of the Egyptian civilization. These early days, I have little to say, as we're just making our way in the world. I can tell you that you are the first other Civilization we have met. I believe in building good relations with all our rivals, but think that it is particularly beneficial to be friends with your nearest neighbors in these early days. Hopefully we can cultivate such a relationship.

We'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this Brave New World. Have you met any other teams yet? Mostly I'm just happy to see some unforested tiles. It seems you were able to get some of those floodplains Scooter enjoyed so much in your last game, so I assume you're pleased with your start.

Anyway, well met.

Prophet Gaspar

Prophet Gaspar,

So far I've not encountered anyone other than yourself since scouting hasn't been a priority of mine. I've only uncovered a limited area around my capital, so I'm pleased to learn I have contact with you despite my lack of effort. Nevertheless, I actually do have very good sense of my surroundings because of the geographic layout of the area (and because I spent the first turn moving my settler). I'll happily tell you what I know of the land if you're willing to reciprocate?

I'm fairly pleased with my start, yes. I sacrificed one of my food resources for the flood plains but it worked out okay in the end. There's no grassland gems like Scooter had in PBEM3 so I'm nowhere near that kind of extreme, but this version of Sandoria definitly should wound up more useful than the last one.

I take it you're located somewhere south of the jungle?

Pharaoh Sandover

It does seem like he's trying to buddy up with me, especially the way he's playing off the portrayed hatred I have for my old nemesis from PBEM3.

Who knows, maybe I can actually have a friend this game?

[Sandover]

Scooter: tech on turn 12.

The Wheel
Mysticism
Agriculture t5?
Animal Husbandry t12?

[Sandover]

Gaspar went back into the jungle, out of visibility, so that's the end of that.

No diplo response yet. Maybe a has a dedlurker he wants to run things by?

[Sandover]

scooter's capital size 2 turn 13
lewwyn tech turn 13

[Sandover]

Scooter

The Wheel
Mysticism
Agriculture t5
Animal Husbandry t12

Worker into warrior. I'm willing to bet he's researching a religious tech right now.

Gaspar

Mysticism
Mining
Bronze Working t8

Warrior into worker using a 1-pop whip. Probably getting agriculture any time now.

Lewwyn

The Wheel
Agriculture
Mining t4
Bronze Working t13

Worker into something else. Not sure. Figure he's either going animal husbandry or mysticism next.

Serdoa

The Wheel
Hunting
Fishing t5?
Mining t10?

This one is sort of a mess. Building a work boat and researching bronze working?

[Sandover]

A rather boring email exchange with Gaspar going on. Borderline waste of time to read for a neutral viewer - basically just trading map knowledge.

I like that he's being so forthcoming with info. This is what I want from a neighbour.

Pharaoh Sandover,

Good to hear Sandoria's treating you better this time. I haven't spotted any forested coast, so that's a good sign. To answer your questions: yes, I am located south of the jungle, and of course I would be willing to share information with you, and happily so. After all, a mutual exchange of information is essential to forming a strong foundation for our future relations.

As for myself, there's not much to tell about Mayan lands at the moment. I have wet rice, plains sheep and wines. Not the greatest start, but not the worst. Anywhere I could have reasonably moved to initially would have been coastal, which was undesirable, so I settled where the mapmaker placed me. The area in between you and me, as you noted, is heavily jungled. Beyond that the area is not too large, but my exploration has left much to be desired as well. Now that we've made contact with you in the north I'm sending Mortician back to explore the area closer to home, so I should have something more interesting to share a bit later. I think I have a pretty good idea of where my second city will go, but that's about the extent of my valuable scouting.

If you have divined anything interesting about the map, I'd love to hear it. My first theory was perhaps a hub/wheel map, but your location effectively doused that theory, so I'm back to square one. The only thing I'm guessing is that from the number of land tiles with 5 Civs, there's probably some "extra" land out there - whether its a wonderland or just some islands, obviously I have no idea.

Would you be interested in an arrangement where we shared information on any future contacts - not looking for any big commitments, the game is still quite young, but just a heads up that one of us has met someone else, and perhaps their relative geopositioning? Perhaps as a foundation for further cooperation down the line?

Regards,
Prophet Gaspar

Prophet Gaspar,

I also have wet rice as my main source of food. I had a grassland cattle originally but traded that one for a few flood plains. Sadly some desert tiles were included in the deal, but I can live with that. I've noted both my west and north to be coastal without a lot of room for exansion. However, there appears to be two fairly large islands located across small channels. They could be snakelike, large continents or possibly joined together further northwest. It definitly calls for some investigation down the line, but for that I need to get a boat into the water.

You already know about the jungle in my south, and I'm not really sure what I'll find eastward, though what little I can see isn't looking very fertile. In fact, diregarding my capital and the dense jungle this area isn't looking very fertile overall. The only grain resource I've found is rice, and irrigation can at this point only reach the one at Sandoria. I also see cattle and clams, so there's nothing too exciting around. A desert incense and jungle dye is what happiness resources I have available as far as I can see.

I realise this might sound like I'm trying to downplay my position, which isn't really the case. The area is lifted by virtue of Sandoria being fairly strong so I'm actually happy with my start. I have some interesting decisions to make ahead so I'm looking forward to trying to make the most of it.

Can you describe in more detail what your west/south/east looks like? You mentioned some coast, where is that? The more we can figure out about the landmass we're on the better, obviously.

What resources have you seen around your capital and in the jungle? It might be worthwhile to consider resource trades already. I'll most certainly have cattle and clams to spare at some point in the future.

I'd be happy to share information about new contacts as per your suggestion, so we have ourselves a deal.

Pharaoh Sandover

[Sandover]

Gaspar tech turn 15. Yes, that should be agriculture as predicted.

[Sandover]

Bronze working came in and copper was revealed in a good position. I have two dot maps in mind. I'll only post the one I'm close to certain I won't be using, because I didn't have time to make them both this morning.

[Sandover]

Now, here's the superior one:



Yellow cities are set in stone (bar from an extremelly minor reservation).
Pink cities are pending.

Sandoria
Only 3 tiles that's not riverside? M'yeah, this is going to be a cottage cheese capital.

Copper
Can work 2 flood plain farms and the copper tile without a border pop - excellent. Means I can skip an obelisk. Plan is to have it build an early library for quickly establishing an academy in Sandoria. I should be able to build a wonder or two in here and set it up as a GP-farm after that.

Dye
Likely third city. Will grow cottages for Sandoria and can function well without border pop. Useless in terms of production so it's likely to end up as a regular cottage city. The clam can be given to a later city further south if needed.

Moai
Not necessarily my fourth city, but an obvious city location once the copper city is placed. Pretty sure I won't consider founding it before the copper city add the clams to its third ring, to save me some effort (yes, considering border pops is a big deal when you're not creative).

Pink cities
I've made a bold assumption that there will be another seafood at the NW site. I can definitly see myself moving W one tile south and building Moai there while turning the current Moai site into a GP-farm instead (I'll definitly do that if it has a third seafood in the fog). Time (i.e. exploration) will tell.

Either way the two cities at the west coast are just fillers, and I'll rather expand south/southeast/east for obvious reasons. Darrell is currently heading through Sandoria on his way to explore around the E site, and will continue east along the coast looking for more contacts. Here's hoping it's not just plains and deserts in that direction.

Paint skills for the win, yes?

[Sandover]

Scooter: tech and pop (size 3) turn 16.
Serdoa tech and pop (size 2) turn 16.

I was wrong about scooter. He went mining.
Serdoa probably got bronze working.