[SPOILERS] - GES & TT, Huayna Capac of the Zulu

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Nothing to nudge about. The last turn took 3 days I think.

Just finished the most recent one late last night.

We met Mardoc.



Sent this:

SS,

You probably don't realize it, but we met yesterday.

This map is pretty bizarre. Not sure what to think of it yet.

Is your scout as far away from home as mine? I think I am on the far side of the world from where I saw you.

GES

Our scout just keeps getting farther from home, but it's a little late to turn back now.





Had this exchange with Plako:

Hi,

Nice to meet you. My scout is pretty far away from home so it was a pleasure to find some company.

I prefer emails as a communication mean. However I can also use google chat or MSN. I've same ID in both of them i.e. my email address.

BR,
plako

I sent:

Plako,

I noticed you in the middle of BFE too. This map has me seriously confused.

Feel free to communicate with me however is easiest for you.

GES

I need to look up the map exchange rules. Might be best if we could exchange some screenshots and then head back home to scout our vicinity. But it is fun discovering this map.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I just had a long convo with Seven Spirits:

Mardoc: Hi there, got a couple minutes?

me: Sure. This is my personal email, so I am on it most of the day. Feel free to hit my up any time. If I am at work, I might not answer immediately.

Mardoc: sounds good
this is seven btw

me: Yeah, I realized that when I saw the email.

Mardoc: our nation humbly greets yours!

me: Indeed. We come in peace.
LOL.

Mardoc: so I think we might benefit from exchanging map knowledge
are you interested?

me: As if I could attack you if I wanted. Who the hell knows where anyone is at.

Mardoc: hehe
well, it turns out I have figured out the entire map layout

me: Better man than I.
Yeah, I was just posting my thread that I thought we might want to do a map exchange.
How do we do that? Just send screenshots?

Mardoc: I guess we can do that
though in our case we don't need all of them since we know the layout
which of our units did you meet btw?

me: I passed by pretty quickly, but I think it was your warrior.
Let me look.
I took a screen.

Mardoc: ok. and where did you come from?
SE?

me: Yeah, AC your warrior.
I came from way far away. Like 60 tiles away or something. Roughly south I guess.

Mardoc: so what you see now is the south edge of our lands
how many tiles south of that is the south edge of yours?
9?

me: uhh, let me look
Sent at 9:50 AM on Saturday

me: No way. Like 25-30 or so.
Sent at 9:52 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: ok, seems plausible enough actually

me: Yeah, I was thinking we were all on separate little islands, but I am not sure.

Mardoc: well, how about you send a screenshot. if it shoots down our map theory (which I am pretty confident in though) I'll just send you our screenshots otherwise I'll send you the extrapolated map layout image
Sent at 9:55 AM on Saturday

me: Sounds fair enough. I am a fairly trusting guy in diplomacy, probably because I haven't played in any of these to be really backstabbed before, so I am willing to send a couple screenshots to give you a decent picture of things and trust that you will reciprocate.

Mardoc: appreciated, I am the same way
I'll most certainly reciprocate, we really just want to make friends at this point
Sent at 9:58 AM on Saturday

me: Well, I am pretty friendly. While I would be honored to win, the people of my civ are mainly just looking to flourish, survive to make their mark on the world, and to find some strong allies to move forward with towards prosperity.
Sent at 9:59 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: cool, me too. I think that's the best way to play
(I won't speak for mardoc though, maybe he's a bloodthirsty villain, we haven't discussed this yet )

me: Haha. You might be dealing with TT at some point too.
But he strikes me as a pretty agreeable fellow, so I wouldn't expect much Hyde to my Jekyll.

Mardoc: ok

me: Did you receive the screens yet?

Mardoc: just now
Sent at 10:03 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: ok, this will take a minute for me to reconcile
Sent at 10:05 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: ok
this is amazing info for both of us
I had a theory that all the teams were in a diagonal line, NW to SE
instead it now looks like we are in two such lines, with one dummy platform
the desert in your pic
I'll send the diagram of what one line would look like now

me: Cool. thanks
Glad the info could prove useful to us.

Mardoc: sent
Sent at 10:09 AM on Saturday

me: What is confusing some to me is how close I am to that desert patch and how far away you are. If that is some sort of centralized hub, wouldn't you expect us to all be equi-distant?

Mardoc: there's no center
it's just two diagonal rows (I think) of four people each
I will have to work out the details and double check it but that is my intuition

me: And you now think the diagonals are running in an X fashion, or parallel?

Mardoc: in parallel
though... I'm not sure. basically I need to sit down and look at it really carefully again
there are a multiple of seven land tiles on the map, that would make an eighth platform somewhat surprising acually

me: What I find strange
Looking at your land and mine
We both have jungle, forest, and tundra forest all basically intermixed, which I assume is meant to throw us off as to latitude?

Mardoc: yeah there is no latitude
it's definitely just a hand-drawn map
I think our platforms are all identical
btw, I would appreciate getting a clearer shot of your resources on your platform when possible

me: Let me see if I even have one.
My gut is that they are the same just from looking at yours

Mardoc: yeah but we don't know ours, we sent our warrior directly to the railroad
he'll be able to start uncovering info next turn
Sent at 10:18 AM on Saturday

me: I think you've seen about as much of your land as I did. I've uncovered an extra marble, wheat and clams that you haven't
Gimme a sec

Mardoc: thanks
Sent at 10:19 AM on Saturday

me: Don't have one of the clams.
Others are inbound
If you look at pic 113 I sent you
You can very vaguely make out the clam tiles
without the resources on

Mardoc: aha

me: You got the screens yet?

Mardoc: yes
thanks very much
oh interesting, you have sugars
we have incense
and the area to our nw has dyes
Sent at 10:24 AM on Saturday

me: So do you think the actual "mainland" sections are attached at all, or is the only attachment by rail? At first, I figured the rails were just there as a way to travel faster, but now it seems all might be separate

Mardoc: I think everyone has a separate 15x15 mainland win the peaks in the center
they are connected by rails

me: Well, my goal now is to scout the east, NE of my land to check out the clams spot. If you check out the NW, we could exchange screens and save each other some time.
I am wondering if everyone has marble. My guess is that half the teams have stone.

Mardoc: ok, cool

me: If you have stone, we might be able to pull some swaps depending on what wonders we want to build

Mardoc: yes

me: I am industrious, so I guess I have to build some. lol

Mardoc: hehe
so I will try to come up with an improved map theory and send it to you

me: Alright. Here is an idea. Which direction should I send my scout to realize land you haven't seen yet?

Mardoc: it might take a couple turns because if that desert is really a dummy island, we have some slightly weird map info
ah, let's see
Sent at 10:29 AM on Saturday

me: If you could send me a general T6 whenever you get one just so I can see what else has been revealed, I'd be willing to make a standing deal to swap screens regularly until the mystery gets solved.

Mardoc: well our scout has gone west from where you are for quite a ways
and our warrior (now a few tiles east of you) will go east
I'd say go SW
you'll hit the NW corner of your own platform

me: Ok, so on that diagonal near where I first met you?

Mardoc: no, west to the intersection first
then I guess se or sw both work
I'd pick sw

me: That is what I mean, in that first screenshot, there is a SW diagonal at the intersection
That one?

Mardoc: the intersection to your west which you haven't seen yet
at the bottom left or our platform

me: Oh, OK, near the wheat/incense?

Mardoc: *of
Sent at 10:34 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: ps I didn't mean to ignore your earlier suggestion of swapping screens until we've figured out the map
let's do that
I'll send you an update after we mmove this turn

me: Well, like I said, feel free to hit me up anytime. I look forward to a hopefully fruitful continuing exchange of information.
If you want to discuss an NAP or something at some point soon, I am open to that too.
I know these Impi tend to make people expect the worst.

Mardoc: ah yeah
well, I'm not worried about an actual war at all
but, want to have a formal mini-nap to protect against wanton opportunism?

me: I hear these things are nasty chokers, but I just don't see how that benefits anyone with 8 teams in the game. Maybe in a 1 v 1 situaiton?

Mardoc: like, we each must give a 3-turn warning before declaring
yeah
and actually they are pointless on railroads, only useful once you've actually invaded someone else's square

me: That 3-turn NAP thing sounds good, just to prevent worker steals and the like.

Mardoc: ok, cool

me: Have you met anyone else?

Mardoc: also I suggest we include not pillaging railroads near each other in that, is that ok?

me: I passed by plako, but haven't talked to him really.

Mardoc: aha
no, haven't met anyone else

me: Yeah, agreed on not pillaging railroads. Seems that would be sad, given all the work that was put into the map.

Mardoc: yes

me: If I can get plako to give us some screens, would you want to include him in this discussion, or would you prefer to keep this information more private?

Mardoc: hmmm
Sent at 10:43 AM on Saturday

Mardoc: well, I don't think we need him
and, it would be pretty silly if it then grew to a scouting group that is everyone in the game, or even just more than half of them
on the other hand, it's your diplo, I'll let you decide
Sent at 10:46 AM on Saturday

me: No, I have no problem with keeping this scouting info between us. If someone offers me a map exchange, I will only give screens that I personally made.

Mardoc: ok, cool, sounds good
I will hold to the same terms then

me: But if someone is nice enough to give me other screens and not put a caveat on it, I will bring them to our exchange. I have no problem being free with information as long as I feel it is reciprocated.

Mardoc: all right

Mardoc: ok, well, I think that's it for me for now. cheers sir, and I will get back to you with more map info
Sent at 10:54 AM on Saturday

me: Thanks. Appreciate the convo.

We received these screens and will get updated screens at the end of Turn 6.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Received this email from SS:

I figured out the map for real this time. We are all in a diagonal row after all, it's just that it wraps twice in the horizontal direction. Toroidal layouts are kind of hard to visualize, but hopefully this picture makes it clear.

More later.

Seven

He attached this pic:



After some brief back and forth emails, SS determined that plako is likely at G.

I sent this to SS:

Based on your conception of things:

1) Everyone has a pretty safe, equal chunk of land to expand into.
2) There doesn't seem to be any juicy pieces of land for everyone to compete over in neutral territory.
3) Navies will be pretty much useless.

GES

SS responded:

Yup, I agree.

It's an interesting choice. When I saw the railroad, I definitely expected us to be competing for a bunch of land in the south.

Seven

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Save is taking forever. Some pics from last turn.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Received this from SevenSpirits. The revealed platform is Amelia:



This is the map data I revealed this turn:





Worker due in 2 turns. Then things get more interesting.

[Sciz]

Just because of you having Omar in the first post i'm gonna be following this thread only for this game.

The Wire ftw, and Omar is the best character

Edit: also Hamsterdam obviously needs to be a city

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Hamsterdam indeed. Glad to have you aboard. If you are indeed Dedlurking, I am willing to share the game password with you and email you the save whenever you want so that you can have a look around. Just let me know, and I will forward it to you. TT is also dedlurking/partnering.

I received this from Mardoc/SS:

Hey again,

Mardoc and I were discussing the sharing of map info, since people will figure it out soon anyway, and we're both thinking that sharing it at this point is good.

Basically I'm planning to send Amelia a message saying roughly "hey, we figured out the layout of the entire world, and after some discussion decided we're happy to share it with you for free as a gesture of friendship. sound good?" [wait for affirmative reply] "here you go! I am in X direction from you. GES also helped with the map, be nice to him too. and I'd appreciate it if you didn't pass it on yourself."

I think similar messages would help both our teams make better friends more quickly. So here's my suggestion: we give each other full permission to send such messages to the other players. (For now, just Amelia and Plako of course.) The only information we share is the attached diagram and optionally our own home location in relation to the contacted player. Sound good? I'll let you know if we meet anyone so we don't both try to give the same person the same gift, heh.

Seven

So I am going to pass the information along to plako.

[Twinkletoes89]

Sounds good so far! Though the map is definitely one of the more unusual maps in RB history!

[Sciz]

Yeah I'll be dedicatedly lurking, but you don't need to send me the save, It's more exciting without it anyways

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Finally another turn.

I got these from Mardoc/SS last turn:





Screen from this turn:



Worker due next turn finally.