KGB: Everything there is to know about Banana Republics.

[Blake]

Trade Screen.

They have a second city.

Diplomacy Screen.

They have not met our friends the Voxarians.

GNP Gold.

No surprises here. They've been producing a settler since forever.

MFG Production.

Again about what you'd expect from an early settler.


Annual Banana Yields.

Being so busy producing that settler, they havn't been able to ramp up banana farming operations.


Soldiers:


They have next to no ability to project power and it is likely they have have no surviving scouts.

[Blake]

We can summarize that Banana have gone with a Farmer's Gambit. They appear to have grown to size 2 then immediately started on a settler - or at least it doesn't look like they maximized hammers to pop out some units. In fact the extreme flatness of the graphs indicate they may not bother with such micro, you would expect to see spikes to minimize food overflow at growth and such.

We know they have no worker - if they did, there would be little jumps in the yield graphs.

They have not pursued military technology.

I would say that Banana are likely no threat to us. They appear to be nearly pacifist and it is likely they'll have their hands full dealing with the barbarians.

It is also interesting to note that they have not met Vox, and it appears they have no ability to scout at the moment. Since Vox have also apparently withdrawn their scouts, it is possible these two teams will remain out of contact for the forseeable future.

I don't think this matters either way though, Banana lack military technology (ie Bronze Working) and are not in a strong position to pop out another settler. Unless they get lucky and have copper within their existing borders they will not be able to quickly assemble an attack force and in any case they will have their hands full with the barbarians.

It's worth noting that an early settler is incredibly risky in MP, I suspect that Banana's plan is to simply not get in a fight here.

The fact that they went with an early settler rather than a worker indicates that their capital is ****e. Worst case scenario for us would be something like they have a capital with grassland gems on river and can thus research quickly to construction and get those Jumbos in operation. But if they indeed had a strong starting position they would've gone with a worker.

[Mudhut]

Very happy that they haven't met Vox. Makes it easy to keep them out of it.

So.... we want to Play Nicely with Banana, sending the following sort of messages:
-We want to be friends.
-We will happily build down here, while they build up there.

Any refinements?

[Hot Mustard]

I suppose Vox just got unlucky with meeting the Lion and us at the same time, and would have continued north otherwise.

The message should refrain from mentioning that we'd like them to properly improve our third capital site before we come for it.

[Blake]

By the way it is more than likely that Banana cities are garrisoned with warriors only. There are only two archer-sized jumps on their power graph and no archery-sized jump.
As such Spinebreaker could probably step into their territory and have a ~20% chance of ganking their second city *laughs evilly*.

I'm definitely not saying we should do this (in fact, i say we definitely shouln't), but it does indicate how tenious thier military situation is. It wont be too long before the Barbs get frisky and Banana are going to be scrambling for defense. When banana compare our respective soliders graph, I suspect that they'll be quite willing to jump if we tell them to. They don't even know about Vox, all they know is that they are on the same continent as the biggest military power on the map. And again, since they went fast settler, it's more than likely that they believed themselves to be alone - or at least far away from other teams (which seems accurate...), if our continent was symmetrical, with us and Vox at the bottom and Banana and ??? at the top, then I don't think Banana would've gone with that fast settler.

So with Spinebeaker, I think we should let them know that we have a fast moving unit capable of stepping into their borders and taking a shot at ganking their city, if we so choose to. So we should end Spinebeakers turn next to their borders so they know what we know - but not actually in the position where it can perform the gank. I would suggest the rice tile and next turn we can (attempt to) move to where the lion is now. I figure that we don't want to threaten Banana, but we do want to engage in some passive intimidation.

[notyoueither]

I had a hunch we would have heard from Donegal if they had contacted the Bunch.

[Metaliturtle]

The way Blake describes the bunch it's almost like they couldn't help VoX even if they wanted to.

[Arrian]

Excellent news for us.

-Arrian

[Blake]

I'm sure they can...

Vox: "Hey Banana! Give us a hand here!"

The Bunch: *clap clap clap*



The soldiers graph CLEARLY indicates the extent of their military is presently 3 warriors, with their only military techs being two of Animal Husbandry, Mining, Hunting and Sailing.

I suspect they are going for Monotheism - Mining and Hunting are only useful (for a worker-less civ) as pre-req techs to Bronze Working or Archery - or - masonry in the case of Mining. They've had a very long stretch of no military.
It'd be funny if Vox beat them to Hinduism too...

[Arrian]

Three warriors. Wow, we could really harass the heck out of them if we wanted to...

No, wrong, bad Arrian!

-Arrian

[Krill]

yup. Just imagine if they have sent out 2 warriors scouting and the third warrior escorted the settler

[Krill]

Not that we should do anything bad like that *cough*

[Arrian]

No, of course not. That would be mean.

Let's march the next outbound Skirmisher to Vox via the northeast, then southeast route (as opposed to the southeast then northeast route). You know. Just to switch things up.

-Arrian

[Krill]

Good idea

[DeepO]

Banana will quickly figure out we're not alone on the continent, or on our side of the continent. They will see we haven't met with anybody they have met (if any). There's only one explanation for such a large military, and that is if you intend to use it.

It won't take long until they find Vox. Still, pretty amazing coincidence there.

As to the plan: take Vox, and use what cats we've got left on Banana looks awesome. That is, if we reach courthouses quickly, we will need them over there.

DeepO