u/XanderBoyMercury

I'm on my first playthrough in the tutorial level. I've played civ before but I always kinda fumbled my way through it so I thought I'd really take the time to figure out how this game works. I'm 138 turns in. I've been threatened by the Cravers, but I was easily able to fend them off as my pirate fighting fleet was and is massive.

That said...What exactly is this nonsense? Accept an unreasonable and unachievable demand or get screwed for 10 turns?

Is this the normal type of "New Empire" encounter I should expect to see here? Is there a counter to things like this?