[Spoilers] SavageMoogle of the Celts

[SleepingMoogle]

Man, your contact with Twinkletoes AND Sandover was pretty fortuitous!
And just before the Raging Highland Barbs began eating all your scouts, too.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Turn 52 was uneventful. Mostly killing barbs and positioning to kill some more.

Diplomacy continues in the meantime. First the German response was pretty good:

Exalted Brennus,

My military generals pass on their thanks for your intelligence on the movements of the foul brigands who are actively facilitating terrorism within my lands and attacks upon our military units. Directly due to your information, we have captured some of their militants who we believe assisted in the assassination of our noble scout, Ryan Giggs.

Due to such good information, we are amenable to a map exchange to assist in our bilateral operations against the barbarian hordes and to try and begin towards a route of safe passage for our merchants. Our cartographers agree in your assumptions on the map and the locations of our peers in this world.

If there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask.

Yours faithfully,

Chancellor Twinkletoes of the Germano-British Republic

Esteemed Chancellor Twinkletoes,

We are happy to have assisted your efforts on repelling these barbarian invaders. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Ryan Giggs, and hopefully your capture of the suspected assassins will have given them some small measure of justice.

Your positive response to the suggestion to exchange maps was also warmly received by our ruling council. Cartographers have begun to draw up maps, and they should hopefully be included in the next set of messages. We are looking forward to mutually expanding our knowledge of the known world.

Something that may not have been communicated clearly in my previous correspondences is that both the Etheopian and Khmer leaders have expressed interest in contacting you. An Etheopian scout is currently traversing the mountain range that separates our lands, and may reach your borders before long, but if you wish to establish communications beforehand, the Celts would be happy to act as an intermediary (as per the game rules). Should this be of interest to you, please don't hesitate to let us know.

-SleepingMoogle

So my sharing the barb's location helped in getting a map exchange going. Excellent! I expect that this will mostly gain me visibility on the lands north and west of Germany, but it should help plot a route for my scout at least. We may be able to make a start on a possible land-division as well. When the turn comes around to me again, I'll make a few snapshots and send them over to Twinkletoes.

I haven't received confirmation from either Twinkletoes or Sandover about the pre-contact communicating with me as an intermediary yet. Scooter's scout will probably make his way to German borders soon enough, but to make sure there's not going to be any later issues with this rule (it is the first time we're using it after all), I'd like to have the confirmation from both Civs before I'll let them send messages to each other.

Egyptian messages continue at a fairly leisurely pace:

Dear Advisor,

I suggest that your scouts make full use of the safety provided by the Germanic tribe, before taking on a southwestern route once they reach the western end of Germany. If they manage to survive passage through the barbarian civilization that has established a foothold in the area, your scouts will eventually come into contact with my people. Once that happens I will be able to provide shelter and further directions for your party.

How should my scout proceed to come into contact with your lands? Is there a neighbour of yours that I can receive directions to?

Regards,

Pharaoh Sandover of Egypt

Esteemed Pharaoh Sandover,

We would like to extend our gratitude for your warning, and have passed on this information to our scouting party. Your message was slightly worrying; while we have seen a number of warbands, they were generally unorganized and easily repelled. If they are banding together and raising cities of their own, it could mean we may see attacks that better organized and equipped in the future. While we have not yet seen such settlements near our lands, we will most certainly keep an eye out for them.

Celtic lands are located to the east of Germany, however a number of mountain ranges make traversing the area difficult. There is one narrow pass roughly southeast of the German city of Jive. Further passages may be present further to the north, but the land is quite inhospitable and cold, and has as yet not been mapped by our scouts.

Our scouting efforts south of our lands have resulted in contact with the Etheopian civilization, and lands inhabited by the Khmer towards the southwest. Communication between our Civilizations has been quite cordial thus far, and both have expressed interest in contacting other Civilizations. An Etheopian party is actually traversing the mountain pass in between Germany and Celtica, so if your scouts travel further east, it is likely they will meet each other before long. If you are interested in establishing communications beforehand, then Celtica will agree to act as an intermediary (as per the game rules). If this possibility appeals to you, please don't hesitate to confirm your interest.

Our cartographers have theorized that another civilization exists roughly south of Egyptian lands. We would be very interested if you were able to confirm this; if you have established contact with these people already, we would also be looking forward to establishing communications if possible.

On behalf of Brennus the Great,
-SleepingMoogle

Aside from hinting at the presence of a barb city, Sandover's last message didn't really say much. So my return message was a bit more direct this time. I'm hoping to find out whether or not Sandover has contacted Bob already (Timmy hasn't yet so far), and to see if exchanging messages with him as an intermediary is an option. Additionally, perhaps me sharing some details on the land east of Germany will prompt him to be a little more free with information as well. If Sandover's messages continue to be rather non-commital and be limited on information, I'll probably start sharing less as well. Sharing information should go both ways after all. At least I'm beginning to see what Twinkletoes meant in his original message about the Egyptians.

Finally a quick note to scooter:

SleepingMoogle,

Yes it has been awhile, great to hear from you! I hope the barbarians aren't giving you too much trouble! I'm guessing you finally broke through those peaks up to the west of your capital huh? I had to backtrack two different times because I kept hitting dead ends, but I think I finally found the passageway (in the middle of the ridge line)...

Thank you for informing me of meeting new neighbors! Hopefully that means I can catch up on EP's now . Ethiopia would definitely like to be able to establish contact with both of these two civilizations, so you can let either/both of them know that they can contact me.

Thank you for the updated map! Is TT directly north of Timmy or is it offset? I ask because I know where Timmy is located (sent a scout that way awhile back), and if TT is directly north of him then I have a ways to go before I reach his cities.

Just so you know, I am still following our agreement regarding founding cities, my third city went to my southwest, and my fourth city will also be to the west. I have one city planned just to my northwest (I'll screenshot it sometime) but it's going to wait for a bit still. If you're about ready to expand south, just let me know (if that's alright) and we'll make sure we don't have any border issues . Thanks!

scooter

Greetings scooter,

Barbarian incursions have been manageable so far, but this was largely because the warbands so far have been disorganized and ill-equipped. Communications with Pharaoh Sandover of Egypt have hinted at a more organized group of barbarians that have united and raised a city of their own somewhere between Egyptian and German lands. Although Celtic scouts have not yet found similar settlements, if the eastern wildfolk were to follow this example, future attacks may see more coordination and weaponry more sophisticated than wooden clubs.

German lands appear to be slightly more east than the Khmer, but the difference is not that large. If your scout has traversed the mountain range, he should find the German border to the west-northwest within a few turns. Both Germany and Egypt have both been made aware of your interest in contacting them, as well as your scouting mission, unfortunately I have not yet received confirmation of advance communications between your civilizations. In my last messages to them, I have requested clarification on this point and hopefully will be able to confirm communications in the next message.

As for settling, for now the previously requested city site south of Bibracte has not yet been settled but we plan to do so in the near future. Other future city sites are being considered, but we pledge to bring any suitable sites that are placed towards south will be brought to your attention first.

Regards,
-SleepingMoogle

This information should help scooter find German lands. Given that he is close to finding them on his own, I saw no harm in sharing it with him. Relations with Germany and Etheopia are cordial enough right now that I don't really see them banding together against me just yet. If there's indications of that, I'll see if I can make Egypt and the Khmer more appealing targets, and perhaps solidify friendships by spreading religion around once the civilizations are linked and sending missionaries doesn't require a multiple defender escort.

It's good to hear that Scooter's cities are headed towards Timmy at least. But this message has reminded me I need to find more city locations in the near future. I'll have a look at possibly locations when the turn comes back to me.

A message from Timmy that I haven't replied to yet (I will do so once I have confirmation that Egypt and Germany want the inter-civ contact):

Greeings. Times have been...busy, as you might guess from the date of my last thread post
As always, appreciate the sharing of information. I have not met Rome yet, though I have an archer wandering west finally (Perhaps that is for the best, not to meet the man with Praetorians too soon...). Sadly, encountering wounded barb warriors would suggest that both your and Scooter's scouts met their ends not far west of my lands.

Yes, would be happy to exchange contacts with the new northern civs. I'm curious if anyone has meet Bobchillingworth yet - I suppose it's possible he's still isolated if he had poor luck with animals/barbs killing scouts.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 53:

The Settler is on his way towards the western city spot, taking the safe route from Celtic lands. An Archer is headed towards the site as well using a more southerly route. Having roads would have helped a lot here, but so far there have been more pressing tasks for my Workers.

Over at Vienne, the two approaching barbs have reached the choke point SW of the city. I moved the Archer out of the city to block the passage, which should make at least one of the warriors to attack him in between turns. The second may move NE past him, which will place him next to another Archer to be destroyed next turn.

South of Bibracte, the third barbarian didn't attack the Archer next to him in between turns, so I'll have to catch him with the Archers at the city itself. A fourth barb Warrior has appeared out of the fog to the far SE and will most likely move towards the capital over the next couple of turns. To make the intercepting a bit easier, Bibracte is training an additional Archer which will finish at the end of the turn due to overflow from the Settler. Next turn I'll adopt Organized Religion and get started on two Buddhist missionaries for my other two cities.

Vienne reached size 3 and currently has to work an unimproved tile. The Gold mine will finish next turn, after which the Worker will road the tile and link up the third city. I'm considering letting the city grow towards size 5 and then 2-pop whip the Jewish Monastery to completion, with overflow going into a Worker. I could really use some extra ones as soon as Mathematics finishes. The Worker at Bibracte is farming a grassland tile, and will chop and farm the tile NW of the city next. Maybe he will follow that up by placing a road between Bibracte and Vienne to aid troop movement. More likely though, he'll chop the remaining grassland tiles to aid production.

Here's a picture taken at the end of the turn:



I'm awaiting a message from Twinkletoes soon. Once I have received it, I'll cover diplomacy in a later post.

Quick edit: I spotted a potential production city site to the SW of the third city site, but it's still mostly fog-covered. Once I have the manpower, I'll send a scout to defog the tiles to see if the site is any good.

[SleepingMoogle]

As Bobchillingworth reminded me, one does not actually need permission to contact Civ X if you haven't met them yet while Civ Y, who you have met, has. I would still prefer to have some sort of agreement in place to act as intermediaries (how else would messages be delivered?), but since I haven't heard any opposition for Egypt, Germany, Etheopia and the Khmer to get in touch with each other, I let all of them know that the floodgates have opened.

Apparently, I beat Bob to Stonehenge by a single turn. (!) So neither of the Industrious Civs went for the Great Wall. I guess it just shows how badly I am at gauging the pre-game decisions of my opponents. Hopefully it's something I will improve on in time.

Anyway, the conversation with Bob didn't really go into any details. He has a scout somewhere near Egyptian/German lands so we may be able to contact each other in-game soon. Other than that, we probably need to talk a bit more one of these days to set up some sort of diplomatic relationship.

Now for messages:

This was Timmy's last message to me:

Greeings. Times have been...busy, as you might guess from the date of my last thread post
As always, appreciate the sharing of information. I have not met Rome yet, though I have an archer wandering west finally (Perhaps that is for the best, not to meet the man with Praetorians too soon...). Sadly, encountering wounded barb warriors would suggest that both your and Scooter's scouts met their ends not far west of my lands.

Yes, would be happy to exchange contacts with the new northern civs. I'm curious if anyone has meet Bobchillingworth yet - I suppose it's possible he's still isolated if he had poor luck with animals/barbs killing scouts.

Greetings,

Our Scout indeed was not heard from for quite some time, and your message looks to confirm what we had feared. We thank you for mentioning this; an effort will be made to ensure future scouts will be better able to defend themselves from barbarian aggression.

We would also like to congratulate your scouting party for making over to our lands. If you wish to reach the Germans and Egyptians, your scout should start traveling towards the northwest. The land is quite rugged, but there are mountain passes leading further west, and these eventually lead to the German border. Chancellor Twinkletoes and Pharaoh Sandover have both expressed interest in setting up communications, so you are free to send messages to both if you wish.

From communications with Sandover, it is apparent that the Romans have made contact with Egypt. We have requested a similar advanced communications with Egypt acting as an intermediary, so hopefully I will be able to include more details about them in a future message.

Regards,
-SleepingMoogle

Not too much to add here. A Khmer scout popped up southwest of my borders so I let him know where to go to reach Twinkletoes (that would seem better than having him tour my lands as we have open borders). Also, he is now free to contact Sandover and Twinkletoes if he wishes.

SleepingMoogle,

Well I hope you don't have too much trouble with the barbarians! I do appreciate you informing me of meeting new contacts in the north, hopefully they give the okay on opening up communication. I was hoping to meet the southeastern civ west of Timmy (Bobchillingworth according to your map), but my scout died about a half dozen turns ago, which was really unfortunate.

Thanks for sticking with our deal regarding cities - good to know we're on the same page in that area. We will do the same - no need to worry about any "Pink Dot" settlements .

scooter

A message from scooter. I sent him a short message back noting that he was free to contact Sandover and Twinkletoes as well. It is good to know what we are not encroaching on each others territories so far.

Dear Advisor,

Your theory is correct. I have made contact with a Roman tribe of the southern deserts, under the leadership of Bobchillingworth. Am I correct in my understanding that Brennus the Great would willingly grant me contact with Khmer and Ethiopia in exchange for my helping you to get in touch with Rome? If you can confirm that this is the case I will proceed by asking Bobchillingworth for his approval of such an arrengement.

Until I hear from you again,

Pharoah Sandover of Egypt

Pharaoh Sandover,

The proposed exchange of communications through each other as an intermediary was indeed correct. Both Etheopia and the Khmer empires have expressed interest in establishing contact, and so this exchange would be beneficial to all nations involved.

-SleepingMoogle

Sandover sent this message at around the same time Bob and I started our conversation, so while the approval is a bit pointless now, it's good to make sure this is what everyone wants.

Likely, this will be the extent of my direct diplomacy with Sandover so far. At this moment I'm not convinced that trading maps with him will really benefit me. By all accounts, I may make contact with a Roman scouting unit before long, so I don't really need his maps to plot a route anymore. Additionally, I assume there will be a fair bit of overlap between Germany's and Egypts maps.

The best case scenario for me would be for Sandover's scout to meet up with the scouts of scooter and timmy and then turn around. This should keep my lands a bit of a question mark for him.

Finally Germany:

Exalted Brennus,

We thank you for the receipt of your map. As promised, here is our current scouting towards your position. As you will see, we encountered a long line of peaks which restricted our scouting a considerable amount. Once we reached the top of it, our scout was mercilessly slain by the infidel barbarians.

I apologise that our maps are not as substantial as yours at this time, but with the huge amount of barbarians harassing our borders, we have struggled to send out a replacement scout at this time. Once I have more information on this area, I will dispatch it to you forthwith

Yours thankfully,

Chancellor Twinkletoes of the Germano-British Republic

P.S - If possible, I would prefer it if you could direct the emissaries of the Khmer and Ethiopian civilisations towards my lands, as the sooner we all meet officially, the sooner we can build up mutual co-operation. I should have a Roman ambassador on my borders in the near future, and I shall direct them towards you.

Hey Twinkletoes, your previous mail didn't have any attachments, so for now I am still mapless. If you could try resending it that would be great. Back to the message now:

Chancellor Twinkletoes,

We have provided directions to Etheopia and the Khmer. Barring unexpected events, the former should arrive at your border soon, and the latter won't be too far behind. In the meantime, Celtic diplomats have agreed to carry back and forth messages, the first of which should doubtlessly arrive soon.

-SleepingMoogle

As noted, unfortunately no map was attached to the message so I requested for him to resend it. For now I just let him know that contacting scooter and Timmy is okay. Once I've had a look at the map, we'll be able to continue.

Alright, that's it for now. The last few days have been pretty heavy in diplomacy, but most of it has been wrapped up now. As a quick question, is there anything you'd like be to write about, or any screenshots you'd like to see over the next few turns? A little bit of variety would be good, and I can be terribly unoriginal at times.

[Tatan]

Now that you scouted more land around the immediate area, some dotmaps would be nice!

[SleepingMoogle]

Now that you scouted more land around the immediate area, some dotmaps would be nice!

I'll see what I can do once the saves comes back to me. Right now Sandover's being lazy.

In the meantime, we can have a look at the map that Twinkletoes sent:



He wasn't kidding when he mentioned his scouting efforts had been close to home. But fortunately for me, the land directly east of Germany doesn't look very rich. Hopefully the land to his west and south will appear more tempting for Twinkletoes to settle.

The triple deer in the NE part of the screenshot is a location I'm sure TT will want to settle eventually, but given his concern about barbs, it will probably be a while before he'll consider planting a city so far away and exposed from his capital.

The mountain range to in the southeast appears to be an extension of the peaks my scout already uncovered. Scooter mentioned in one of his messages that his scout had to double back eventually. Here's a screenshot of the area that I made a few turns ago:



I'll want to push for controlling that narrow bottleneck. Whoever controls it will have a very easy time to defend against their enemies.

Edit: Okay, perhaps the Silks/Pig location is worth considering as well, but it'll still be pretty far away from his capital. At this point it probably won't bother me if he does settle that site, but that bottleneck will be mine.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 54 and the Celts find themselves in a pickle. Both barbs near Vienne attacked the Archer that was blocking their path, unfortunately the second managed to win against low odds. Rats.



Brennus was not very pleased when the news was brought to him.

The weakened barb will most likely either attack the Archer defending Vienne next turn, or a fortified Warrior on the hill next to him. Either way should result in an easy win for me (and I've said that before *cough*), but it still stings losing out on a unit. I was considering sending one of them to defog some tiles to my west (more on that later), and right now just don't have the units to spare anymore. Bibracte will have to train some more units later instead, which will take some time to travel to the western borders.

The Settler is still en route towards the third city site. An archer is already near it to ensure there's no barbs around. Once the city is founded (T57), I'll try to get it linked to the rest of my Civ, and get the Corn and Copper hooked up. Christianity should be founded there in T59, courtesy of my great Prophet, and between the free Monument and being a Holy city, the borders should expand quickly. After knocking out a Granary, I think getting a Barracks and assisting with military units will be next on the agenda. Bibracte is pretty far from the front lines, and could use some assistance so it can go back to training workers and/or Settlers.

Vienne is still putting hammers into a Jewish Monastery. It will grow to size 4 soon, courtesy of its Granary. The gold will be mined next turn, giving the citizens something new to work, but I'm planning to 2-pop whip the Monastery just before the city grows to size 5, and have the overflow go into a Worker. After that, I'll hopefully have spread Buddhism to the city so I can construct a Buddhist Monastery.

Bibracte finished another Archer this turn, and I adopted Organized Religion to start a Buddhist Missionary. I'll whip him to completion next turn, with the overflow will go into another. This one will spread Buddhism to my third city. After that, I will most likely construct a Granary, and a Worker/Settler pair (in no particular order), and raise more military units as needed. Once the third city is linked up and has hooked up the Copper, I'll certainly get out a few Axemen as well.

One interesting tidbit is that Bobchillingworth turned out to be the founder of Hinduism instead of Germany. (!) He adopted it as his state religion this turn. That's.. interesting. Although it will be hard getting the religion to spread to my lands, in a way it's also good for me as I can leverage my own religions to both my neighbours now. Assuming neither of them reaches Code of Laws first and snatches Confucianism of course.

Things have quited down a bit on the diplomatic scene, although I now have official permission from Sandover to use him as an intermediary to contact Bobchillingworth. The 'other player' that Bob mentioned in his post in the IT thread was me if anyone was wondering. It's good to see that the permission clause was added to the rule though. Anyway, I'll use the opportunity to try to get Bob and me to meet up with our scouts soon. Also for the record, I've given permission to scooter and timmy to contact Twinkletoes and Sandover using the Celts as an intermediary.

Dear Advisor,

Your leader, Brennus the Great, is allowed to make contact with Rome.

Thank you for the exchange,

Pharaoh Sandover of Egypt

Now for some dotmaps. First, let's have a look at the lands south of Celtic cities:



Yellow dot will be my fourth city, and grab the Horse and Incenses there. I already have discussed this position with scooter, and have his blessing to settle the spot. Given the rest of Celtic lands, the tiles surrounding it actually aren't too bad. I will most likely end up using it as a commerce city, but that's still a while away.

Purple dot is a tentative site that is more a filler than anything else. This spot I've not contacted scooter about, mostly because I won't settle it for a while. City 5 will likely go to the west, but this might be a good site for City 6 if I'm to make a claim for the lands south of it. As noted in the screenshot, scooter's border is not very far away (if you look really closely, you might see the Great Wall at the edge of the fog), so we will have to decide on how to divide up the remaining strip of land pretty soon. Given the shape of the mountains in the far east, I'd say that position is scooter's, however I will want to get my hands on the land west of that. It has a lot of grassland, and that's something in short supply up in the north.

Now for the west:



This is what I meant with scouting towards the west. That bubble of black is covering a large part of what might be my preferred position for city 5. It is hard to see in the screenshot, but there's a number of hills either next to the fog, or peeking out from underneath it. I'm hoping there's more hills and a second food resource hiding on the remaining tiles, which would make this a dynamite production city (in PBEM3 at least ).

Lastly the north:



I don't really intent on Settling towards the north until after the more fertile land is taken. There's not a lot of redeeming features, and I doubt anyone will contest the land that is behind my borders anyway. Red dot may be the first of those cities, grabbing the deer and not much else. Blue dot is an awful city that I might consider if I need the Silver for happiness at some point. My borders already include two of the three Fur resources, so I can just camp these eventually and trade them for other resources as needed first.

All in all, my lands just aren't that great, and I'll probably end up butting heads with either scooter or Twinkletoes eventually trying to expand. Until then, my expansion will mostly go west and a little to the south, claiming as much of the fertile land as possible.

[SleepingMoogle]

No real time to write up anything about T55, but fortunately both barbs attacked and died. This leaves just one more barb to clean up south of Bibracte since no others came out of the fog in between turns. One Archer who was doing Bibracte zone defense is on his way towards the third city site now, to reinforce the area there and provide Worker cover.

Bibracte was whipped this turn to finish its Missionary. I think that instead of letting the overflow go into another, I'll first build a Worker instead. After that, a second Missionary, and possibly a Granary, then 1-2 Archers and another Settler.

Vienne reached size 4 after the turn ended. I'll two-pop whip the Jewish Monastery to completion once the city is closing in on size 5, with the overflow going into a Worker. After that a Buddhist monastery is probably next after which the city can take over missionary spam from my capital.

1 more turn before Mathematics. The Worker near Bibracte has moved into a forest to start chopping next turn. Worker two finished mining the gold, and will next build a road to link Vienne with city 3.

That's about it for now. Sorry for the briefness, but not too much is happening at the moment.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 56:



The current Barb invasion isn't quite over yet it seems. After the loss of an Archer earlier, Vienne's defenses consist of another Archer and a Warrior. I don't really want to play those odds again, so I swapped Vienne to build an Archer and whip it to completion next turn (hopefully the overflow will mostly complete the Monastery). With the Warrior defending the city itself, I'll probably send the two Archers to the forested tile NE of the city so they can intercept the Barbs in case they decide to head towards Bibracte instead.

South of Bibracte, the approaching Barb made the error of moving out of the forest onto a clear plains tile and was shot down by one of the Archers there. I'll leave the Archer in place for a few turns to heal, while the second is moving back to the city to provide zone defense against the Barbs approaching from the north. Another Barb appeared out of the fog to the far south, but he will probably run into the Archer that was on his way to the third city site anyway.

The first Buddhist Missionary finished this turn and is travelling to spread the faith in Vienne. Given my chronic lack a proper workforce, the overflow went into a Worker (which will finish on T58 ). I'm thinking that the other Worker near Bibracte (currently chopping the forest NW of the city), will make his way towards Vienne while laying down a road for easier travelling between the cities on the way, and the new Worker will take over improving Bibracte's tiles.

The Archer-Settler pair reached their destination and will found the new city on the next turn. Something interesting while moving the Settler:



Those two suggested locations to the west suggest there may be resources hiding underneath the fog there. I should really try to defog them sometime soon.

Mathematics finished after the turn ended, moving me into the Classical age. Research will go into Iron Working next.

[SleepingMoogle]

So it looks like an Ivory resource was accidentally left on the map. Whoever claims it gets a bonus happiness resource no one else has access to. While I did agree that War Elephants should still be banned, I wouldn't be completely unsympathetic if Timmy were to claim it and request permission to build his UU.

Anyway, I received an interesting message from Sandover:

Dear Advisor,

I've exchanged pleasantries and more with Scooter. I am yet to contact Timmy, as Scooter tells me he's sort of an isolationist, but I appreciate having the option available should I desire to do so.

I trust that Bobchillingworth is addressing your leader, Brennus the Great, as respectfully as he has done to me? Also, my messengers are no longer able to return from Germany with words from their leader. Should I fear a diplomatic lockout, or are you faced with similar problems?

I've asked around, wondering who founded Judaism (I already know Bob got Hinduism), and it appears likely that your people are the creators. Can you confirm this? I'm also eager to hear what your plans are for the Prophet you're bound to generate. I'm mainly wondering whether there's competition for a Theology bulb? It's a shame that my people still lack an official religion to follow, as I pride myself by virtue of my Spiritual beliefs.

Looking forward to hear back from you,

Pharaoh Sandover of Egypt

So it looks like Twinkletoes has had enough of Sandover's questioning. He mentioned the Egyptians were overly curious in his first message, although I hadn't realized it bothered him to this extent. It is useful information for me though: if I ever decide to go after Germany in order to expand my lands, getting Sandover to team up with me might not be too hard to accomplish.

Where the fears of a diplomatic lockout came from I'm not too sure about. Timmy can be a bit slow in responding to messages because he appears to have a number of IRL commitments that limit the time he can spend on the game, but he never gave me the impression he assumed an isolationist role. Anyway, I sent him back a message:

Greetings Pharaoh Sandover,

I am sorry to hear that your diplomatic efforts with Chancellor Twinkletoes appear to have reached an impasse. Our communications with Germany thus far have not hinted at this development, so this comes as a surprise to King Brennus as well. Please rest assured though that the Celtic people bear the Egypt no ill will, and that we have no intention of halting diplomatic efforts at this time. Hopefully this situation is but a temporary one, and Egypt-German communication will soon resume.

It has indeed proven tricky to receive prompt responses from Timmy of the Khmer. As best we can determine, Timmy has a myriad of responsibilities that keep him quite occupied at times, and this may extend the response time. We are happy to hear that your exchange of messages with scooter of Etheopia is bearing fruit though. In response to your querry, we have indeed initiated contact with Bobchillingworth of Rome. Our exchanges thus far have been mostly informal, but your messengers have performed their duties admirably so far, and we would once more like to thank you for Egypts consent to act as an intermediary between the Celtic and Roman nations.

On the topic of religion, it is true that the Celtic people are devout in their beliefs and ever in search of answers from the divine. While we have adopted Buddhism as a state religion, King Brennus has generously recognized the Jewish faith which was founded in one of our cities, and allowed for the construction of structures suitable for worship.

It is unfortunate that Egypt has not yet found a suitable religion for its citizens to follow. Travel outside of established borders is at best hazardous these days, with many independent tribes praying on unwary travelers and as such the spread of currently established religions is much hampered. Perhaps once the situation has improved somewhat, we could discuss for the possibility of an exchange of resources? While it is perhaps not a suitable description of our faithful, a number of priests have offered to spread the faith to other countries should the opportunity present itself. Perhaps such an exchange would be of interest?

-SleepingMoogle

Aside from assuring him that I wasn't going to cut communications (perhaps the first step towards a later alliance?), and wishing him the best of luck with reestablishing contact, I admitted to being the founder of Judaism because I already adopted OR anyhow. That little fact should be obvious to Sandover as soon as he checks his event log, so sharing it won't do any harm.

I did not mention the prophet though. Although I don't really see how Sandover can steal Christianity away from me, rubbing it in that I'd soon be sporting 3 religions seemed a bit counterproductive if I want to cultivate him as a long-term ally. If he asks again, I might as well tell him though. The prophet is only two turns away now.

Also, a first tentative proposal to spread missionaries around. I'm not quite sure yet what I'd want for it in return, but I'm sure we can think of something.

[SleepingMoogle]

To-do list for diplomacy:

*Arrange for Bob and my scouts to meet. I still don't know exactly where his is at the moment.

*Get back to Twinkletoes about the map exchange (in typical fashion, I completely forgot about this) *cough* and ask about German-Egypt relations.