War with French

[YossarianLives]

We do not have a shrine.

We can't spread our religion to someone we are at war with directly. Getting an ally to do it is a pretty good idea, especially since CivFr seems to be cooperating with them still. I'm not sure we could convince them to do it, though, or whether CivFr would allow them ( they could close borders before the missionary reaches the city or completes its mission)

 

[Maga_R]

We do not have a shrine.

We can't spread our religion to someone we are at war with directly. Getting an ally to do it is a pretty good idea, especially since CivFr seems to be cooperating with them still. I'm not sure we could convince them to do it, though, or whether CivFr would allow them ( they could close borders before the missionary reaches the city or completes its mission)

So CivFr currently has no city with our religion?

Any chance of us getting a shrine anytime soon? EP discount is considerable, if I remember correctly 20%. If we plan to run many civic switching missions, shrine will pay for itself soon, as it also brings some income and auto-spread religion.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I like the idea of using espy against CivFr (and RB for that matter, once the NAP ends) since we will be in a Cold War mode with both of them, but as Maga correctly points out, using espy, like making conventional War takes planning.

We should start planning what to do with Espy and be ready for when the NAP ends. I don't know what if anything can be effectively done with espy right now.

I do think that keeping CivFr in Judaism is an appealing prospect (if they have a city with Judaism).

 

[classical_hero]

I certainly agree with most players on RB, that such spy missions are far too cheap for the effect they cause.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I certainly agree with most players on RB, that such spy missions are far too cheap for the effect they cause.

... I am re...sis...ting... the... urge... to... fight... about... this.... a...gain...

1...2...3.. breathe, Sommers, breathe

 

[2metraninja]

I certainly agree with most players on RB, that such spy missions are far too cheap for the effect they cause.

Right now it seems like not very cheap to me. Spending 500+ gold and possibly few spies just to deny them the right to whip if they so desire? They dont whip right now anyway. Maybe this will change after their GA finish, who knows?

 

[Maga_R]

I certainly agree with most players on RB, that such spy missions are far too cheap for the effect they cause.

Perhaps you are on a wrong team, then? Just kidding

Seriously, I tried them in practice, they are not cheap at all, especially with civs of the same size, as us and CuvFr. The main RB argument about such missions was that one can sacrifices an economy of a small vassal to bring down a powerful civ - that is not what we are planning to do.

And we have been paying a huge price to be able to perform such missions a bit more efficiently for more than 150 turns already Otherwise, we would go with Bistrita's suggestion to choose an expansive leader - or simply anything other then a spiritual leader ;-) - and our early game will be much easier.

So if anything, we may be actually *overpaying* for the fun of running such missions. With all these costs already paid, we now have to try to recover at least some of them by running as many CVS as makes sense to us.

 

[bistrita]

for a spy economy you need land and that was we try here with war with the zulu's but french dont agree with us

 

[Sommerswerd]

For any economy besides WE/SSE you need land

 

[2metraninja]

I saw Moineau posted in the server thread. So, he is around and is following the game if not outright pulling the strings for team CivFR.

 

[YossarianLives]

The Frenchies planted a new city this turn. I hope it was new Nobambo for us

 

[YossarianLives]

I see we're up, and we've had a couple log-ins from our team already. Any updates on the war front?

I can't wait to start logging into the game again this weekend. This long absence has been killing me!

I saw Moineau posted in the server thread. So, he is around and is following the game if not outright pulling the strings for team CivFR.

Inao and Hulmusclor are definitely their main turnplayers, but yeah, seems like Moineau is their team captain. I don't know anything about any of the three of them, anything we should be on the look-out for, or worried about?

 

[Maga_R]

Inao and Hulmusclor are definitely their main turnplayers, but yeah, seems like Moineau is their team captain. I don't know anything about any of the three of them, anything we should be on the look-out for, or worried about?

Yes, we should definitely be very worried about Moineau at least - not a good guy to try to intimidate He has been playing ladder MP since at least 8 years now, his clan was Legend Killers Team.

EDIT: BTW, we cannot be completely sure who is playing their turns - we only see what nick their player used. Not saying I think it is likely, but it is a possibility, especially since Moineau is very well-known.

 

[2metraninja]

I see we're up, and we've had a couple log-ins from our team already. Any updates on the war front?

French decided to end the skirmish (because they having bad odds against our units I guess, not because they care much for peace between us) and pulled out their knights somewhere we cant see them. They continue to use all their money for upgrades, having 1 mace and 2 more pikes upgraded in Chinook. The city they planted is not New Nobamba.

Bistrita thinks they are trying to set up a trap for us luring us to follow them. We saw at least 1 catapult coming and there can be few more.

We will have fully healed army in 3 turns and then we will see what we are to do.

Yes, we should definitely be very worried about Moineau at least - not a good guy to try to intimidate He has been playing ladder MP since at least 8 years now, his clan was Legend Killers Team.

EDIT: BTW, we cannot be completely sure who is playing their turns - we only see what nick their player used. Not saying I think it is likely, but it is a possibility, especially since Moineau is very well-known.

I see quite a few similarities in the style of the last letter from French to us and Moineau's post in the server thread, so I wont be surprised if he is the mastermind of CivFR and he wrote this letter to us.

As for his playing strength, I dont reember playing with him, but he is very good, this is what I keep hearing.

Good point about not being sure who plays French turns. I used to log in with "Nabaxo" for months when I started playing turns for Team Amazon in MTDG3. But I think that Inao and Hulk do play their turns exclusively, while Moineau is just pulling the strings and maybe logs in to play some crucial turn or battle or something.

One thing I can tell about him is he might be used to playing Quick speed too much and is less used to Normal.

 

[Maga_R]

I see quite a few similarities in the style of the last letter from French to us and Moineau's post in the server thread, so I wont be surprised if he is the mastermind of CivFR and he wrote this letter to us.

My thoughts exactly.

One thing I can tell about him is he might be used to playing Quick speed too much and is less used to Normal

Moineau is also prolly used to games ending earlier, so late game/industrial era may not be his strength.

Diplomacy does not seem to be CivFr strength, they do not show much interest in it or patience - it indeed looks like MP ladder guys may be in charge

 

[YossarianLives]

Hmm, The Frenchies settled a new city this turn, and we found out that they are researching education, not some military tech. Maybe they haven't given up on this game after all, and that last message from them was just a bluff?

This makes me think that if we can seriously threaten their core with knights, we really could get favorable peace terms from them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Just make sure we get the spies out in front before advancing so we don't run headlong into some silly trap and lose our whole army

 

[Bowsling]

When will we have city visibility on CivFr?

 

[YossarianLives]

It will still be awhile before we get visibility on any French cities. Right now we have 122 EP's against them, making about 12 EP's / turn, and we need to hit 350-400 before we can get visibility on most cities.

Here is an update on the trades that the French are receiving from other teams:

• CivPlayers - OB, Clams for Rice, Furs for free
• Poly - OB, Wheat for Sugar (as 2 separate deals)
• UCiv - OB, Pigs for Incense (Also a shared language)
• Germans - OB, Gifting them Ivory
• RB - No deals
• WPC - No contact ?!?!

Ok, and what we're all really looking for, a fresh screenshot of the war zone:

Spoiler :

As our generals mentioned, they have pulled all their units back for now. Most of our own units are healing in Ulundi. CivFr is creative, so those borders at Chinook will pop faster than we'd like (in the next 4-5 turns, depending on whether they came out of revolt last turn or just now).

Here's the good news. Instead of researching any military techs, they're currently researching Education (according to our allies). Also, they seem to have leveled off on their Power score:

Spoiler :

You can see that our own Power score hasn't recovered from the final Spanish offensive, but we're still well ahead of the Frenchies and they're not indicating any major spikes.

All in all, I think the best course of action is to keep things as quiet as possible, sneak our Knights through the desert Isthmus (keeping careful to avoid that workboat that seems to be acting as a sentry unit), and try to get peace again with an army threatening their core. If we keep our cats and defensive one-movers up in the hot war zone, I think we should be safe enough from them over there.

Thoughts?

 

[Maga_R]

Here is an update on the trades that the French are receiving from other teams:

• CivPlayers - OB, Clams for Rice, Furs for free
• Poly - OB, Wheat for Sugar (as 2 separate deals)
• UCiv - OB, Pigs for Incense (Also a shared language)
• Germans - OB, Gifting them Ivory
• RB - No deals
• WPC - No contact ?!?!

[...]
Thoughts?

Our closest allies, CP, gifting CivFr fur for free? Did OT4E ever explain?