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

[Sandover]

Owned?

[Sandover]

What's the point of participating in a game where you mark one of the players as an enemy before the game even starts?

That isn't it. Look again.

[Sandover]

How to beat scooter in diplomacy? Be a complete asshole. If you can't fight him at his level bring him down to yours.

Scooter, this one's for you. I'm not telling you this in real time because I don't want you to take advantage of this knowledge, and because I'm certain you'll be easier to beat while frustrated.

When Lewwyn and Serdoa ended up in war there was but one simply goal you had to achieve to secure victory: neutralize Sandover. Did you do anything past strong-arming me into signing that early NAP with you to achieve that? Nope, you didn't. That's a severe mistake on your part, and now you're facing the consequences. Maybe your alliance with Lewwyn is preventing you to do that, or maybe you thought the NAP itself would do the trick on it's own. I don't know, but you didn't play it right.

Didn't you think for one minute, after losing a city to Lewwyn and being forced to emergency whip an ancient army, that I would seek for security at any cost? That I wouldn't rearrange my priorities and abandon victory hopes in order to make sure I survive and don't end up getting crushed from all directions? That Gaspar wouldn't be in the best position to gain something from it, having remained friends with me thus far? That's what you should've realised, as someone in pole position, and come calling out to me with promises of at least a safe border. Instead, you remain silent, while Gaspar reap the benefits of my failure to read Lewwyn. THAT is what happened. I never had you pegged as a definite enemy. You brought this on yourself by not reading the game right.

[Sandover]

You wouldn't even make peace if I helped you take all of Lewwyn's land and let you keep it?

Now that's more like it! I doubt he'll give me a deal not including a lengthy NAP, but if he doesn't I can take him up on that and hit him later together with Gaspar. It's a small chance, but worth checking up upon.

I'm interested. Present me a more detailed offer.

[Sandover]

Meh, forget it. Too much work. I'd rather kill you. Prepare yourself.

And that's the end of that.

Your Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover,


It seems you've certainly managed to get in scooter's head - I just recently received an email from him all but conceding the game and attempting to get me to flip against you. I'm sure you received a similar approach first. Regardless, I'm guessing that once he gets Cataphracts up the situation will be a bit of a stalemate. So I figured I'd touch base with you with what you think would be best militarily. I should have Education in 2T (by the by, I'll need the stone back for Oxford as soon as you're done with Notre Dame) and I expect to land Liberalism in 7-8T. I'll grab Nationalism, build Taj and should be able to chain 3 Golden Ages together to get all the military techs I'll need plus start building a military. So I expect I'll have overwhelming force in 25T. My current plan is to tech to Rifling and draft a ton of Rifles since I suspect that's what you'll most need to turn the tide there. However, it probably wouldn't be much harder to tech to Cavs and use that instead. While I wouldn't be able to get the same number of troops, the mobility would be huge given how much space there is between me and scooter. I guess I just wanted to ask you if you thought you'd be able to hold out until the Cavalry literally arrives, or if you think you'll need Rifles ASAP.


I'm sort of assuming that taking down Lewwyn and Serdoa will be trivial, and there's a decent chance scooter might do our work for us there, so I haven't considered their situations in the slightest.


Prophet Gaspar

Prophet Gaspar,

The Sandoverian school of diplomacy is good at that - getting into
peoples' heads. I gave scooter a decent roundabout. Nevertheless, I'm
sure he's on his way to regaining his posture, if he hasn't already,
so it isn't time to celebrate just yet.

2 more turns of work on Notre Dame should do the trick, so you can
have your stone back as soon as the deal is due for cancelation.

I'm not all that far away from Guilds right now, so scooter won't have
an easy time with me I'm sure. Maybe he can defeat me if he go all in,
but even that is very doubtful, as I have the defensive advantage.
Knights beat Cataphracts any day of the week if I can hit them with
some collateral first, which I can. He need a serious numerical
advantage to get through.

As for you, I'm not really sure what approach is best. I suggest you
go with whatever you feel most comfortable with. Once you're there,
you can send me whatever amount of units I need to hold firm against
scooter while you go for Lewwyn. He will fall easy, and we will gain
more land while scooter gains none, easing our way to victory. I want
Thespis Hill back from Lewwyn, but you may keep everything else.
Whether Serdoa comes next or not isn't something I'm concerned about,
but I'd like to at least bump scooter down below me in the scoreboard
before officially handing you the victory. I have a personal thing
going with Lewwyn in that regard.

His Dark Lordship, Pharaoh Sandover

I'll be more than happy coming out of this game with a second place finish. Going to play better next time, I promise!

[Sandover]

Turn 107

(In pictures, because I'm tired.)

[Sandover]

Turn 109

I haven't forgotten Mardoc's request for a state of the empire thingie, but it won't be today (either). Maybe tomorrow?

Scooter is a jerk. Look at this:



He's charging in with an empty (I hope) galley, forcing me to defend the clams with my galley. He's preventing me to do more of that sexy boating action. He's got an advantage in that I need to defend a lot of maritime resources, while he's got none of that problem.

Still only seeing horse archers across the border, and I might have guilds in 1 more turn from now. If not, 2 turns. Feeling pretty relaxed about the whole 1v2 thing right about now. (Serdoa made peace with Lewwyn despite saying he never would. Oh well.)

[Sandover]

Sorry about Mushroom Bush. That makes it 1-1 I believe.

Oh so he did have a unit on that galley. Whoops!

No it's actually 4-1 in favour of me by my count.

I was trying to out-smart scooter by placing two units on my galley, making him think I was just trying to make him think I was doing that. If that makes sense. The gamble failed, but it would have been brilliant if I hadn't so I don't regret anything!

Wanna know something fun though? Upon ending turn I realised he can raze Dance Party if he's got another unit on that galley. And I have more than twenty unit that could've been in there preventing that from happening! Double whoops!

Oh man, this is hilarious in a not-so-funny way. Sorry folks, but this is officially going to be my last PBEM ever. When you can no longer make yourself justice it's time to quit.

[Sandover]

[COLOR="Silver"]I'm not sure what kind of crazy mathematics you Egyptians use, but give me another point please.
[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Yellow"]1-0 I trapped your warrior.
2-0 I took the hill SW of Candy Land.
3-0 I built a windmill on said hill and called you Don Quijote!!!

You know about the rest.
[/COLOR]

Ah I see. Well you get -3 points for defending Mushroom Bush AND Dance Party with just a single warrior, so I'm winning now.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Only -3? That's pretty generous of you! I actually wrote in my thread
yesterday you would likely raze that one as well. I realised literally
the second after clicking enter that I had forgotten about moving a
defender in there, but decided it would be like cheating to replay the
turn at that stage.

I'm not going to play any more PBEMs after this one as it's clear to
me I'm only able to focus properly when I'm winning. :P
[/COLOR]

[Ichabod]

Well, there's a werewolf game almost starting, so if you want to quit with PBEMs...

There's no need to quit playing PBEMs, you just have to make sure you win all games you play

Don't quit!