Holy sh*t!

[notyoueither]

I am feeling a gamble may be in order. My civ senses tell me so. Get GP. Now!

If necessary, install RP in Northern Stormia/ Estonia. Hunker down and prepare to defend ourselves. Let the carrion of ND, GoW and Lego contemplate the world of just the three of them. Let them begin to tear each other to pieces. Then, after we see who will have cavalry and who will not... then we can pick and choose our victim(s).

If we are without SP, we are dead. If we stall ourselves and I am right that we control more than our share of SP, we are letting go a fleeting advantage. In either case, the only path is to discover SP and have it.

I am proposing a risky venture. I would not do so without good reason. My reason is this...

During the ISDG, vondrack and I got to the point of finishing each others' sentences. It was/is spooky. Quite simply, we connect. When I read that chat log, it is plain to me that one of two conditions applies. Either Lego has all the SP, or we do. From their cageyness, my money is on we do. That would explain why they do not want to help our ally when help for our ally seems to be the only break on ND domination of Bob.

Do you agree?

[asleepathewheel]

I don't know....

I'm thinking that we should beeline for astronomy and land on lego rather than Bob.

I think they need to get slapped around a bit.

Especially if they have a lot of defensive units on GoW territory.

[notyoueither]

How does astronomy help us? We already have sea-worthy ships.

We do not have SP and muskets yet, let alone cavalry, and we have no prospects of trading for it.

[Theseus]

My initial reaction?

I trust nye's instincts, implicitly. (Damn, this is a lot harder than dealing with AI civs!! ). But I come to a different conclusion.

I'd like to sleep on it though... back up, I'm gonna have a Chivas, and let mind mind wander. We might want to have a chat for blue skying what the heck is going on, and what we should do.

My gut thought for the night:

ND and GoW have NOTHING else... they are totally committed.

Think it through from there.

Fortune favors the bold.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by notyoueither
How does astronomy help us? We already have sea-worthy ships.

We do not have SP and muskets yet, let alone cavalry, and we have no prospects of trading for it.

My bad. confused about the abilities of our ships, crossing the ocean.

[Theseus]

Astronomy still helps... we have a transportation constraint.

[Octavian X]

I really don't want to see this thing as drawn out as nye sees it. Hunkering down for an invasion that could possibly never come? My idea is that GoW and ND's goal in this war is simply control of Bob, not necessairily our complete destruction. Not to mention that, if they do get control all of Bob, defending against their invasion (if it does happen) would be much more difficult.

However, I support pursuing an alliance with Lego for the time being, and deciding on a course for action if they do accept our offers. The way Lego swings will fundamentally change the tide of the war.

[OPD]

If the worst comes to the worst we can always just block any atempt at an invasion by manning all coast tiles. See how safe Lego feel with a fleet of GoW and ND ships full of units with nothing to do.

From the amount of desert visible on lego I'd guess they have at least one supply of SP, perhpas RP has alot or all of Bob's supply..... The problem is that their alliance need only have one source between them all and given the amount of land they have between them they will likely have that.

4 turns invention followed by rapid GP sounds cool. We should also watch for any movement on bob that could be SP related, new cities, workers building a road to nowhere, etc.

Landing on Lego with a **** load of Cav sounds very appealing.

At the moment we are in a good position in terms of threat. They know we have a large navy and large army but haven't seen either, and so are probably wondering what we are doing. Lego may be worried were going to land on them, and GoW/ND must be wondering where we're going to land on bob.

[DeepO]

Something very fishy is going on, I agree on that for sure, nye. Us having all the SP though, would be the same chance of them having it all... My guess is that they want us to force things, possibly by attacking ND, or by attacking GoW, thus forcing them to intervene.

As to why they suspect something preparing: They know we're the strongest army, and they count units... they also know that in S-Bob, only one third of our troops are present... so of course they anticipate something happening with the rest of them.

So, how to proceed? Well... going after invention might be worth it, but if we go that path, we have to push forward to get to Cavs asap. That means we possibly try to get a beachhead in the North, while spending all on research instead of upgrade gold, and keep to what we have in the South. We save on knights, when getting GP make some move to where SP is (either inside ND, or from our beachhead N, if we keep it), upgrade, and try to get both ND and Gow.

Other option is to forget research for another 10 turns, and use the momentum we're creating in units to strike a decisive blow to GoW, possible conquering any possible SP sources we can't see. Risky.

Last option is to keep out of the North, and try to defend the South, while saving on knights, and going for Mil Trad.

Any way, Astro isn't really important right now. BTW, if Lego has GP, do they have Astro as well? We need some investigation done here... and I can't (sorry).
There is one consequence that I fear we're forgetting here: we can't have Lego invading Stormia from the East. can we please get some galleys there, on the lookout (fortified or moving to cover more ground)? We need at least 1 turn of warning from that side, we simply can't let them land. Once they are on Stormia, we will have a huge problem with internal defense if we plan on going invading... better to block their access.

DeepO

[Cort Haus]

A Lego 'leak' that we are without gunpowder would certainly have the effect on GS that we are experiencing. ie - er, what do we do now?

How credible is the Lego source, and is he speaking for himself or his team? The source reported 2 things (1) we have no SP and (2) Lego are allied to GoW. The first would be a good ruse to rattle us if they wanted, but why the second? Vondrack effectively admitted it in another chat. Are we supposed to be demoralised into ineffectiveness by this double-blow?

[Theseus]

Someone needs to initiate direct contact with Lego.

[Shiber]

Arnie is on Poly IRC, requesting a chat.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Theseus
Someone needs to initiate direct contact with Lego.

Sorry... can't be me. I'm too irregular lately to be of any help as an ambassador. Next time I can check this site is probably on Sunday.

Arrian used to be vice ambassador, and nye was also involved, I hope you guys can take over. And offer my apologies to Lego / vondrack for my lack of involvement, please.

DeepO