Lego FA thread 1

[Beta]

This message from Lego is also posted in its entirety in the poll on Printing press. I post it here for chronological purposes only. Please debate it in the poll. Thanks.

research cooperation
Hi, Beta!

We've been discussing the research strategy that would maximize our (yours & ours) gains... after lot of pondering, we believe that it would be best for you to go for Printing Press @ 40 turns. Here is why (feel free to argue - and keep in mind the information below is STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, please... post this PM in your team forum in full or in part, but make sure all Voxians understand the information is CLASSIFIED):

1) Right after your "hop", you will have no choice but to go for a 40-turn research.

2) ATM, Lego is doing Astronomy, GS is doing Banking. These two techs are therefore out of question, as they will be discovered within ~10-15 turns.

3) This leaves only 2 techs "available": Printing Press & Invention.

4) We are almost 100% sure that GoW will do Invention as fast as possible, because they have been prebuilding Leo's in the Imperial City for ages.

5) ND and RP are very likely to end up warring each other soon (if not them, then I don't really know who could be ND's target - and that ND is going to attack someone, is beyond any doubts). Warring parties are unlikely to do any serious research.

6) This leaves Printing Press pretty much "unclaimed", likely for many turns - even @ the 40 turn research, you could be the first ones to discover it, acquiring a valuable asset.

After the initial 40 turn period, we'll see - we are not sure if your new empire could be ready to start doing faster research so soon, but - you can always pleasantly surprise us...

Let us know if this is okay with you.

There's another possibility, which seems to be a close second - that assumes you'd shut your research down completely until GoW discovers Invention (or until we discover Astronomy) and pick a more expensive tech (Gunpowder or Navigation) only then, to maximize the efficiency of the 40-turn research. But that involves significantly more risk than going for PP right now - Gunpowder, as a strategic tech, is very likely to be researched by someone else (someone faster). And we plan doing Navigation ourselves.

So, our recommendation would be: go for PP, please.

Looking forward to seeing your people on Legos Minor (btw, I believe we can consider The New Voice transfer successful now - our guardian units should be able to handle anything that approaches your new capital for those 2-3 turns you will need to hop the rest of your battered nation there).

Take care,
vondrack

P.S.: to prevent unnecessary research delays, we will be sending you Theology this turn.

[Beta]

Rec'd from vondrack regarding the investigation deal. He is keeping this very low key within Lego.

RE: confidential
Hi, Beta!

As you put it - as long as it is Bobian cities, no problem at all. Anything that helps the war on Bob to finally start is fine. I think it's actually a pretty sweet deal... if they pay the costs and give you something extra, cool.

If they ask you to investigate our cities, then it might be a good idea to still do the investigation for them, but tell us GoW requested it (being sort of a "double agent"). For us, the very information that GoW is looking our way is much more important than anything else - GoW could investigate our cities through someone else or directly themselves... we would not be able to prevent that. So knowing they're gathering intel on us is THE information we would need most. We could even 'stage' a stronger or weaker garrison for them as needed... making you report true, but intentionally distorted information leading GoW to incorrect conclusions.

I would consider investigating GS cities not kosher - after all, they have been quite generous to you and this would be a rather poor way of saying 'appreciated'.

So - I would say, go for it, but request GS not be part of the contract (this might even start speculations about your relations/loyalty to us, which would be just fine).

As for the mechanics... you need an embassy with the target civ. Then you just double click your capital's 'star' to open the embassy screen, pick the target civ & city, check the 'safe' method (the only one available) and that's it. One important thing to keep in mind - AFAIK, you can investigate only cities you "know" about. Cities that do not show on your world map will not be available for investigation.

So... my recommendation would be to accept the offer... and keep us informed.

Take care & give my best regards to other Voxians.
We are looking forward to greeting your nation on Legos Minor.

vondrack

[HarryH]

Sounds good. Vondrack is correct. You can only investigate cities you know about.

[HarryH]

Sent to Lego with the 10BC save:

Our evacuation has been completed. Our units are now in Legos Minor. Your units can now go home or to where ever you need them. Thanks for your assistance. We will try to get ourselves built up as quickly as possible so we can provide some benefit to repay your generosity.

[HarryH]

A quick response from Vondrack:

Welcome to Legos Minor!

Just for your information - Gaul, the Southern Guard, shall leave on foot southwards, across the isthmus connecting Legos Minor to Legos Major. The other two Guards shall be picked up by a boat on the NE coast of Legos Minor - they are going to start moving this turn. We will do our best to not interfere with the movement of your own units - feel free to tell us where to (not) go.

Good luck!

vondrack

And my reply:

Your untis are ahead of ours. As long as you head away from our new capital you will stay out of our way. Avoid the proposed city sites as that is where our settlers and their escorts are headed. All the workers around our capital will be busy for a few turns so you will have plenty of time to move without being in their way.

[Beta]

My recent correspondence with vondrack. Please consider this quite confidential. Thanks! My comments are next to the arrows. We should consider repaying the gold we owe them, if you think we can afford it. Or at least maybe 10 gpt or something like that.

Hi, Beta!

Just finished my work today - 2am+ here, so I am going to be quite
brief. Sorry.

> Re ptwdg - we are laying real low - and I have not been doing any
> side chats or inquiries, so no, we are not clued in.

The most you can do for us is to ignore this thing altogether. This is
not your war. Stay low, build up - we may very well need your help in
the near future... if the war with GS goes wrong, we will need every
dime... you are free to happily trade with anybody and everybody. Be
nice and make friends. You may very well happen to end up acting as an
intermediator, middle-man, or neutral party once the war is under way.

BTW - whenever you'd be able to repay the last part of the loan (70g,
IIRC), please, do not hesitate to do so. We are quite badly in need of
gold. We need to upgrade some horses to knights to be sent over to
Bob, while still researching as fast as possible. 70g is almost one
whole knight upgrade. Though - do not understand this as a reminder. I
am very well aware of your current situation.

As for our tech cooperation: we can currently provide Education,
Astronomy will be ready in 4 turns. Once you have real need for any of
these, just ask. I assume that you will want Astronomy once you build
your first harbor - it will open up the sea trade routes for you.

BTW... it would be wise to use some opportunity and talk to GoW about
trading for Invention. As Invention will be "their" tech, you will
need to get it before we will be able to give you gunpowder. From
gunpowder on, we will most probably be the principal alliance
researcher, so later techs should be free for you.

> Although I'm sure the public forum gives some idea of the underlying
> reality.

Not all of it. I think the most important part (the extent of Lego involvement) is missing. And I am doing my best to confuse GS as much as possible, still waiting for what they are going to do.

> Man - it is uglier than the Vox-GS event. And my only observation is
> that GS seems even touchier about this war than they did about the
> Vox war.

I am just dead tired of them... those guys simply don't know how to
have fun... it's sad. Many Legos feel the same way, I think - there
was not a single voice against our involvement in this war.

I am having troubles keeping my eyes open, so... good night!

Take care,
vondrack

[Wittlich]

Interesting....very interesting.

[HarryH]

Very interesting. I did not know that Lego was ready to get directly involved in the war. Once we become a republic (should be next turn) we can run some calculations on our gpt situation and see where we stand. I was hoping to use the money to rush an improvement or two, but Lego should be paid first as long as we don't run out of money and start auto-disbanding units.

[Rhothaerill]

Well with luck GoW will actually pay us so we can repay Lego what we owe them. They certainly deserve it after the nice things they've done for us.

[Jon Miller]

lego should be paid if at all possible

if they do well it helps us out too

Jon Miller

[Beta]

To Lego. Harry - please remember to send them 70 gold next turn, and our in-game map if you want.

And btw - while writing this I recall that we agreed to keep a warrior around for Lego to kill if they wanted to trigger their GA. We may want to produce one before we hook up the iron.

My message:

Greetings vondrack and citizens of Lego!

Vox Controli is getting re-established, thanks to your nation. Again - we want to express our gratitude for giving us Legos Minor, for establishing a city, and for protecting it during the Voxodus. You are generous and noble neighbours and we vow to repay you for your generosity and friendship. And as stated earlier - we will never cross you in this game.

So - to business. We are now a Republic - and a proud one at that. We have 8 cities - more than Vox has ever had. With a ninth on its way via galley.

Our cashflow is OK, and we will repay the remaining 70 gold we owe you next turn. Thank you again for the financing. Just too bad it didn't work out. Oh well. Maybe next time.

We are busy optimizing the use of the land that our Island has to offer. We will make it work- harbors are a priority right now. Along with some libraries.

By the way - I hope you are not offended but we have renamed the island 'Voxtavia'. We will send you an in-game map soon as well and you will see the names of the new cities. The capitol remains The New Voice as you have named it.

Also - a word of thanks to vondrack for the city site plan. After review by our team - we could not improve upon it - so the city sites will be familiar to you.

Trust all is well with Lego!

Regards ... Beta.

[HarryH]

And btw - while writing this I recall that we agreed to keep a warrior around for Lego to kill if they wanted to trigger their GA. We may want to produce one before we hook up the iron.

From my initial post in the Rebuilding thread:

Our desert cities will be the last ones to be founded. I suggest we leave one or both disconnected from our iron (that means no roads or harbors) so they can produce warriors if Lego wants to do war games to try to produce a leader.

Panama Vox will be founded in about 4 turns. The northern desert city will not be founded for about 20 turns. A settler will be built in Hope after the granary is completed. These cities will be slow to produce warriors for a while. If we want we could change Phoenix to warrior. This will delay its library and impact its longer term growth a bit, but it will be a slow grower anyway for a while until we can get workers in that area to speed up production.

[Wittlich]

I think that Phoenix should build a warrior first. We can then move the warrior into position and Lego can attack him at their leisure inorder to trigger their golden age.

[Wittlich]

Concerning Lego generating a great leader ... I would imagine it would take more than just "a" warrior to do it, but then, if they are very, very lucky...

[HarryH]

Phoenix can build a warrior in 5 turns. Before then the galley bringing the settler to the Panama Vox site will have dropped them off. It could be sent up to Phoenix to be ready to pick up the warrior and ship him across to Legoland. We could have a warrior in position for them within 10 turns. It will cost us 1 gpt for a few turns, more if they do not want to kill it right away, but shortly after the warrior is created we will get a few more citizens and more gpt.