SPOILERS-Tatan's PBEM10 Thread

[novice]

Weakness:
Diplomacy. Mackoti is a professed non-English speaker [I think?], and his posts are always a bit... confusing. I know this sounds terrible, but this is something I need to press. Although I'm no silver-tongued slick-skinned grease-mouthed diplomat, I might be able to estrange Mackoti from Serdoa, or at least get him to stop supplying Serdoa with Iron. And I DEFINITELY need to get to him before Cyneheard works his wicked ways on Mackoti himself. Unfortunately, Mackoti has yet to give an email address, so for now I shall wait, and plot, and scheme, and connive, and-oh, you get the picture.

Serdoa is non-English as well so for all you know they'll bond tight.

[Adlain]

Well, Adlain went AFK [stop doing PBEM11 stuff! I want to actually win a game for once! ]

More in a bit.

Heh, sorry about that: been alittle busy lately, most people slow down at Christmas but I get sent on a ruddy course that's eating up most of my time and will do for the next 13 weeks, Inc christmas eve. yea it's safe to say I wasn't amused when I found out.

I hope once I get into a routine I will be able to free up some more time to spend helping you out. But I am still reading, just don't always have time to respond meaningfully.

[Tatan]

Don't worry about it, Adlain, I was just teasing. It's just that I'm one of those weird people whose schedule actually gets clearer around the winter holidays, and as such I have nothing better to do but sit around and civ. Seriously, if it weren't for these so-called beings named "relatives" I would be trapped at the computer for the entire last half of December!


Anyway, here's the massive, almost scooter-length essay I wrote for Mackoti.

Ahoy! The glorious Dutch Empire welcomes you to the mystic world of squares and triangles bequeathed upon us by the god Kyan!

[/flowery language] Hey, Mackoti, thanks for taking over for Meatbalz. I don't know if you've gotten to look around in the save yet, so allow me to inform you a little about me. I am Napoleon of the Dutch, and I am fairly far to your NE, with wonder-whore Serdoa [Qin of the Russians] between us. As you have no doubt noticed, you have the Great Lighthouse, and a commanding position in this game, along with Cyneheard [Cyrus of the Carthaginians], who is in the far north near me. You've actually managed to take over at a fairly pivotal point in time, the game being at Turn 100 precisely. I suspect a new round of warfare will be breaking out soon... but nothing is certain with a new leader.

A brief, completely biased history of the east [not the west, I have hardly any info from over there]. Everyone started out in development relatively even, but soon there began to appear gaps; Meatbalz did managed to snag the GL, but was sneak-attacked by Twinkletoes [Ghenghis of Sumeria, and your neighbor to the west], so he did not soar ahead in development [that is only happening now]. Cyneheard managed to keep pace by building the Hanging Gardens and getting mad population. Meanwhile, Serdoa [the only Industrious leader in the game] went on a wonder rampage [Seriously! Look at the Top Five Cities Screen's list of wonders!], but then failed to acquire a metal [more on this in a bit]. He was running a paper-military, so I did an opportunistic attack on him. My attempt to raze a core city failed due to my mis-allocation of resources [read: weed] and some poor RNG luck, but I did overwhelm Serdoa's forces on the island between us and got ceded his city there in the peace treaty. The reason I settled for peace after only a few turns was because Meatbalz decided to supply Serdoa with Iron; you probably know the terms of the deal better than me from his thread, but after that our relations went cold.

I was talking to Meatbalz more in recent turns, but then he became busy and stopped responding to my messages. I'm hoping we can do better. There is one thing I do wish to discuss. About the map: Kyan gave everyone horses at their home island, but put iron in various awkward spots between players, and took away copper entirely [we do have ivory, but War Elephants are banned]. I took careful steps to isolate Serdoa and made sure he had only horses; however, right now, you are supplying Serdoa with iron, again. This allows him to build knights, which are pretty much the best unit at this stage of the game. Now, I still have some deals going with Serdoa, but I'm still kinda concerned about a sneak-attack. So let me be frank: I want you to cancel this deal. I know that the terms are most likely pretty good, but still, the fact remains that you are giving him the ability to build anything he wants despite his inability to acquire a metal resource. I'm willing to offer you quite a lot, if you want compensation. Just send me an email at this address [where you will be sending turn, too, FYI] with your desire, and we should be able to work something out. I know you've said that diplomacy is not your strong suit, but I would really like to use this opportunity to reboot Arabian-Dutch relations.

Anyway, sorry about long-winded email + gruff demand on your very first turn, but at least it's something to think about while the game stalls during my vacation.

-Tatan

Goals of this email:
1) Try to establish a friendly tone. First impressions mean a lot, especially when you're completely new to a situation like this.
2) Give Mackoti an idea of what's happened in the game so far. Tinted with my own bias, of course.
3) Attempt to alienate him from Serdoa. If Mackoti reads my message first or if Serdoa doesn't send a message at all, then I look like a much better ally and trading partner.


Anyway, that's my best shot at being manipulative. If it works, I might have a shot at getting back in the game.

[Tatan]

This might not have been a good idea, but I decided to chase up Serdoa. Forcefully.

Hey. I know it is the holidays, but you still have not responded to my message that I sent 10 days ago. If I do not receive some sort of resonse within a week or so, I'm going to have to assume that you are hostile. You have failed to deliver the missionaries, or even let me know when they will arrive. The gold gifting seems to have dried up, a while ago, actually. And you acquired iron from Meatbalz [now Mackoti] and are cranking out knights. Please, if I am wrong correct me, but right now your actions are extremely suspicious.

-Tatan

Hopefully, with this will at very least read as an indicator of if Serdoa is attacking me. In which case I am extremely worried.

[scooter]

Finally got caught up on the last 2-3 pages of your thread, and:

Anyway, here's the massive, almost scooter-length essay I wrote for Mackoti.

Have I really gotten that much of a reputation??

[Tatan]

Have I really gotten that much of a reputation??

Well...


Since this game looks like it WILL continue [], thanks to serious haxxorz, time to share the email Serdoa pinged me with more than a week ago.

Hi Tatan,

sorry for not responding. I lost some interest, especially with the long pause now and thought I won't involve in diplomacy as long as the game is not moving. Anyway, as for your question: I am not sure what to do. I am not really motivated to play on with a new player taking mb's spot, as that will surely screw with some plans I had. I had some good relations with mb and therefore still saw chances for my civ. With mackoti I do not see that happening.

So, right now I am pondering with either putting everything against you and see what happens or against mackoti. I have not finally decided.

Kind regards,
Serdoa

Oh. Well. Ur, crap. Need to think of some way of making myself less attractive target. Fortunately, I already demanded that Mackoti stop trading with Serdoa ; that could turn out either really good or really bad for me, depending on how open they are with each other.

Heeeeeeey, Adlain, if you're still around, any bright ideas? I'm stuck.

[Adlain]

Heeeeeeey, Adlain, if you're still around, any bright ideas? I'm stuck.

Follow my 3 step plan to Enlightenment:

1) Take Gun

2) Place Muzzle under the Chin

3) Pull Trigger and feel the understanding our our predicerment fully

If my 3 Step plan is not to your liking - i will try to come up with some concorete Ideas this evning

[Tatan]

Still working on Turn 100 update [I have little time and I took 50+ pictures ], but a quick update:

Serdoa's kicking my ass.

He landed ten knights next to Aren, which is doomed, which sucks, because it was finally growing out into the Moai Statue Sweet Zone. I probably just lost any chances of winning, so... IT'S TIME TO START SCREWING AROUND!

I'll go into more detail later, but I am relocating mace armies to the area, and converting my cities to whipping mode. Right now, I have more troops on the island, but 50% is obsolete crap, so I'll have to catch him off-guard with a wave of cats and maces. Unless he lands significantly more troops and/or sneak-attacks my home island, I won't lose any more cities besides Yakkity Yak [former Yakutsk], which is doomed to fall if Serdoa bothers to make a move towards it.

And of course I also sent NAP proposals to Cyneheard and Mackoti. Hey, it's worth a try, right? Even if Cyneheard is probably going to attack me too now, if only out of opportunity. I really hope he doesn't, not just because it would be really annoying and I would get crushed, but also because I'm looking forward to an epic East Indiamen show-down with Serdoa. Seriously, I am NOT making peace with him again; I totally butchered the last treaty, which he didn't even bother obeying anyway, so as far as I concerned, Meatbalz truly has been replaced.

The arch-enemy slot has now changed names. Now it say

[SIZE="7"]SERDOA!!![/SIZE]

[Tatan]

Geez, it feels like forever since I've looked at the save.

Let's take care of menial things first.



Score! Trent wins, dropping down only to 1.4 strength.


Twinkletoes invited my workboat to a delicious banquet at Shuruppak.



Unforutunately, everyone present died of plague. Seriously, though, what is TT doing?! Mackoti has one of the biggest and most advanced armies, AND anyone looking at the diplo screen will quickly recognize his trade relationship with Serdoa; TT is the only logical target.


Skirting the Red Dwarf:



It's also worth pointing out that I moved my other caravel two tiles away from Carthaginian borders, prudently keeping my discovery of Optics secret, only to then look at the trade screen and discover that Cyneheard has connected his Whales, and thus must has Optics. So if he looks carefully enough, I'm found out.


Cyneheard continues to scare me with unusual tile improvements.



That name doesn't fool me; I'm desperate for workers right now [more on that later], and I can't see how Cyneheard has enough to randomly build a fort. Besides, the two workers a couple tiles to the south who are building roads on the border [!!!] aren't named. I have no idea why build a fort, but it CAN'T BE GOOD!!!!212!2!2!1!!!

[Tatan]

Ma' Beuatiful Cities


Rubbing up against the happiness limit in my best cities. You'll notice when I go through each city I am emphasizing science as much as possible, along with food [for moar specialists!].


My Slice Of The Orange


Let's take a closer look, shall we?


Isoceles Island


Tha' home turf. My most productive area, although quickly being surpassed in commerce. I am in desperate need of tile improvements here, since after colonizing the other islands all my workers have been concentrated there; right now I'm training a few extra workers and bringing my overseas workers back home.

Darujhistan

No longer the crown jewel of the empire, but still a solid commerce/production hybrid. I really should have farmed those plains tiles by now for growing more [also, why am I loaning away that pigs tile? ]. I probaby could get more benefit out of another civic than Big B; more on that later.

Mott

Military crank, with some commerce on the side [that's going to be a common theme, because I NEED COMMERCE]. And, oh, THAT's why Mott is borrowing Darujhistan's pig, it doesn't have any more food, either! Irrigation will be key.

Pale

Also strong in production, but Pale has enough food to grow up and out. In reflections, this was a MUCH better Moai city, mainly because it wouldn't have been taken by Russian marauders . Also, witness my apparent fail to run a specialist despite being a turn away from a GP. However, that might be a good thing; again, more to come in upcoming posts.

Genabaris

The last of my four core homeland cities, and largely identical to the last three, only newer. A little far away from the Serdoa-front, so Gen'bar will probably start acting as the regional troop producer in the Northwest.

Stratego

A newbie city still in need of improvements [see, I told you, I'm desperate for them!]. I'm going to need to spread Buddhism here to snag those seafoods, since Sneaky Serdoa won't be doing it.

Diplomacy

Like its namesake, my city of Diplomacy is weak. Due to the small amount of land I'll probably just max out the pop on seafood and then use plains mines/lumbermills for production. I don't need Buddhism here, fortunately.


Population Province


The southern buffer island that is home to my two most populous cities and two out three of my top three commerciest cities. Ehrlitan and Yakkity Yak are both in significant need of tile improvements.

This is also the height of Population Province's glory; you can even see the invasion fleet lurking by Novgorod [which I naively assumed was Serdoa's missionary ships].

Aren

I was JUST about to begin training a garrison, too [mainly for happiness purposes]; I even flip-flopped between mace and courthouse quite a few times before snapping this picture. Not like one mace would have saved me, but still.

Ehrlitan

This babe will be a sheer beuty once I cottage those all that grassland over. Plenty of food, and enough happiness from MPs to work to use it, too. This is the best city, hands down, in the empire. I really need a library here, don't know how I've managed to miss that.

Top immediate priority in the War of Souther Aggression will be to hold this city, hopefully with minimal pillaging.

Yakkity Yak [Liberated Yakutsk]

This once-colony of brutal Russian Imperialism is now a bastion of Dutch patriotism. I had a workboat coming over here, but somehow it got distracted and netted somewhere else, so it is now building its own. Yak is weak now, but once I get the crabs and gems online and grow out it will be a beuatiful city. If Serdoa doesn't come knocking.


Cottage County


Straddling the border with Carthage, these twin cities will be the engine of my economy in only a matter of time. As long as my particular shade of Orange prevails here, at least.

Axis And Allies

The senior of the sister cities. Production poor, but enough food to whip out important infrastructure [right now I'm just waiting for the to wear off]. Eventually I'll max out growth and start running specialists.

Canasta

Like A&A, only with not enough food to whip as frequently. It will be very difficult to hold in case of an attack from Cyneheard, but at the same time probably won't be the first target of an attack, either.


Iron Island

Easily the the most strategetically important city in the entire empire, having my only metal, which is kinda important. Especially when I don't have Feudalism or even Horse Back Riding.

Monopoly

Thanks to that fish, this otherwise marginal city can pay for itself via coast-working and still be able to slave out units every couple of turns [which I do religiously]. Still, I'm going to have to start going into hyper-slave mode in the coming turns, if I'm going to have any hope of producing enough units to withstand or at least stall a raid by Cyneheard.