Turn 52, 1710 BC

[nbarclay]

I was thinking 300 total for two workers, not 300 per. If I remember right, that was rougly equivalent to Republic and an early medieval tech.

The problem I see with offering Vox a temporary peace treaty is that it could easily be viewed as a step backward from their current hopes for a genuine long-term partnership. It would tend to focus their attention on the idea that we are likely to attack as soon as they're no longer of sufficient value to us, and we've already seen that an insecure Vox is an unstable Vox.

Just to illustrate my point (and since I'm having a hard time deciding what to do about the situation in any case), I'll go ahead and make you an offer in the Euro-PBEM game (and this is an official offer). If you move your spearmen out of my way so I can start settling south of the chokepoint, I'll promise not to start a war with you (barring serious, willful provocation on your part) for the next forty turns.

Now, the question is, to what extent does that offer make you feel more secure, and to what extent does that offer make you feel like you're likely to be killed off in just a little over forty turns?

Nathan

[Harovan]

I play the turn now. No techs offered by Vox.

Team Scores:

90 (+2) Gathering Storm
100 (+2) Demogyptica
78 (+2) Glory of War
96 (+1) Role Play
74 (+1) Vox Controli
72 (+1) Lux Invicta
111 (+2) Legoland

[Harovan]

I lack military orders. I would fortify the Spearman in Hurricane and move the warrior from Hurricane to Bolderberg. Objections?

[nbarclay]

How about moving the spearman from Hurricane to EotS and the warrior from EotS to Bolderberg? That way our warriors on the front lines against possible barbs are all regulars that might get promotions they can keep after being upgraded, and the vet warrior stays in the city with the barracks that can upgrade him.

[Harovan]

Hmmm... There's also a point to fortify the spearman and leave the warrior at the right flank to protect the workers around Hurricane. We have enough fog of war in the coastal mountains, there may show up barbarian horsemen. What do you think?

[Shiber]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
No techs offered by Vox.

Let's not jump to conclusions. Looking at Trip's latest thread in the PtW forum (here), we can see that Vox has nearly the least active team, only second to GoW, and have the lowest number of threads in their forum by a far margin. To quote the stats:

Forum                Posts Threads

C3PtWDG Lux Invicta     2554  247

C3PtWDG Gathering Storm 7947  215

C3PtWDG Glory of War    1687  117

C3PtWDG Legoland        2596  120

C3PtWDG Roleplay        6514  315 

C3PtWDG Vox Controli    2096   68



Average posts-per-thread:

Forum                Posts/Thread

C3PtWDG Lux Invicta     10.34

C3PtWDG Gathering Storm 36.96

C3PtWDG Glory of War    14.41

C3PtWDG Legoland        21.63

C3PtWDG Roleplay        20.68

C3PtWDG Vox Controli    30.82

So, chances are that they're just slow thinkers. They play their turns fast and without putting much thought into them, and save up their time on the counter for a "rainy day"... but apparently, they never use it when the need for that time comes, as if they're saving it for a rainier day . Well, Vox aren't exactly the brightest kids in the block...

[Harovan]

Beakers left to research (DeepO's request):

Writing: 30 of 192 (researching right now)
Mathematics: 192 of 192
Warrior Code: 66 of 72 (Vox)
Mysticism: 88 of 96 (Vox)

That's all what we're able to see this turn.

Advisors: Compared to Vox, we have a strong military. The best Voxian unit we know is the Warrior.

[nbarclay]

I'd rather use the spearman to protect the worker, since in that situation, the barbarian horseman would have the initiative. That won't be an issue after the worker moves, but at the moment, there is a place a barb could surprise attack the worker from without being seen first. Good catch noticing the possible danger.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Hmmm... There's also a point to fortify the spearman and leave the warrior at the right flank to protect the workers around Hurricane. We have enough fog of war in the coastal mountains, there may show up barbarian horsemen. What do you think?

Although I'm pretty sure that barbarian horsemen won't show up until we're in the medieval age (anyway, in my games I always saw barbarian galleys before I saw barbarian horsemen), just to be sure, I think that we should eliminate the FoW 778 of Hurricane, and in the future any other FoW tile that are two movement points away from any of our workers or cities.

[nbarclay]

Moving the spearman 4-8 onto the tile a barb horseman would have to cross to hit the worker from in the current fog would serve that purpose nicely. Then a barb horseman would have to expose himself to sight and possible counterattack to get to either Hurricane or the worker. (And on this low a level, I'd rather attack with a vet spearman than a vet warrior, since getting a spearman promoted to elite would be a lot more valuable.)

[Harovan]

Barbarian horsemen show up, once one (or two?) civs have Horseback Riding, just like barbarian galleys show up, once one (or two?) civs have Map Making. The main continent should already be close to both.

[Harovan]

Nathans Spearman move makes sense. Objections? If no, let's go ahead with the turn.

[Shiber]

Perhaps later we should ask our friends abroad if they've met any such resistance.

[nbarclay]

We know from Vox that multiple civs already have Horseback Riding. We may want to go ahead and get rid of the fog of war in the far south since we have a worker by Cyclone that could be threatened if barb horsemen show up.

[nbarclay]

On second thoght, we can't deal with the fog of war in such a way as not to leave either Cyclone or its worker vulnerable at least temporarily.