Sparta-Morgan Relations

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Googlie
I vote we demand payment in full - no more hostage to their diplomacy

That's what has been posted in the embassy the other day. They didn't have time to respond, and take action, so the turn probably went ot with their previous proposal. We'll see what they come up with this time.

[Kassiopeia]

8 energy is ludicrous even if we *were* seriously considering peace.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
Hmm - maybe they got it from lal, with whom they now are Treatied:

Hmm, if that would be the case, perhaps we should consider asking Lal to declare war on Morgan, when we have some more credits. IIRC 75c was his price right? (Though perhaps it'll have risen now they're treatied. )

[Googlie]

I'll do the parrallel diplo-thinggy ..........................

...................... he's upped his price to 150 ec's

[Snoddasmannen]

Dangit! Morgan has offered us the Hunter back.

Good, let's get to work.

I'll need to review the archives to see how much were were paying per year on the tech purchases. Please help me out here. I see no problem with restarting the cash flow.


As to the control of the Hunter we have no problem with returning it to a Spartan port and Spartan control. We will need coordinates of where to take it. Additionally, we have no problem with giving you screenshots from the Hunter.

As to the Modo Doctraine and Yodo Doctraine I understand:

That both or factions need breathing space to feel secure.
That Morgan requires more breathing space (because Sparta has the MCC) than Sparta.

That much like the means of monitoring that the US and former USSR had during the Cold War (both had satellites up watching the others nuclear military posture to prevent a surprise attack) we need to keep monitoring units to watch the territory and seas between us. This way neither side is unpleasantly surprised.

I propose we both be free to place ships in the seas between us. Transport ships (or IODs) carrying military units will not without prior notification and agreement be allowed within 8 spaces of each others territory.

All Morgan ships that are within 8 spaces of a Spartan base will send a screen shot to Sparta. All Spartan ships within 8 spaces of a Morgan base will send a screen shot to Morgan.

The definition of ships for this doctrain includes ships, foils, and IODs, place any other waterborne (if there are any) craft.
On a related note:
Since we want to make a lot of money, and we suspect that you want to make a lot of money too, we suggest that we enter into a Pact with the same profit sharing mechanism that we used in the past.

Please let me know what you think.

Sincerly,

Mead

[Mead hopes Sparta realizes that this is really a good deal for them. At the end of the day they get the Hunter back, renewed trade, and additional intell from any ships operating near their bases. He realizes that the only real loser in this whole sad epidode is Morgan. At the end of the day, it spent a lot of ECs to buy a ship it did not want, only to turn it back over to Sparta. Sparta is out nothing, Morgan is out the cost of buying the Hunter + temporary related support and drone problems.

Anyway, as always he hopes for the best.]

It's gonna take a skilled hand to drag on negotiations with this, without making it seem obvious. They did add some stuff which are a bit iffy, but we could probably get the deal we were pretending to want within a turn or two.

One good thing you can always do is to insist on a formal apology just before striking the deal

[Googlie]

We can afford to play hardball.

Before we agree to any alignment of the Modo Doctrine and the Yoda Doctrine, we should ask for:

• The cessation of all hostile activity of Morgan towards our vassal state, the UoP (this to include overt or covert operations)
• We don't want cash-flow - we want a lump sum for all due techtrade payments, plus a 25% premium for lost revenue during the disputed years
• The return of the Hunter - they can sail it to Arcadia University and turn over contol there
• A "lost-opportunity" payment of 200 ec's due to the fact that the Hunter was mind-controlled when it was on the point of popping the two pods adjacent to it, subsequently popped by Morgan using the Hunter

This should drag out negotiations for a turn or two while our "enforcers" "persuaders" are in transit

[Modo44]

Things we can base on, to drag the negotiations out:

• They want to get away with only giving back the Hunter. But the trust has been deeply shattered, bla bla bla...
• They still didn't answer about a lump sum. Playing dumb on their side will help us immensely. Keep explaining to them.
• They apparently didn't accept the Modo Doctrine, even though they have no way to oppose it. Trying to sneak ships into Spartan waters?
• Just resuming paymenst is not enough, hance our denial of their last in-game proposition. We want to be compensated for the one-sided breach of treaties. We want at least half of the outstanding payments in lump sum. Perhaps go on as we were negotiating for the size of the lump sum, making it clear we want them to bleed (metaphorically speaking ).

Shouldn't be too dificult.

[Googlie]

Good counter proposal, Kassi.

(I particularly liked the "freer hand" comments - that will get them thinking that it's maybe your position that you are stating and that perhaps the Junta might be more aggressive and penal.)

It's good for at least another couple of turns' to-ing and fro-ing

[Kassiopeia]

I also slipped in a line about not knowing everything. This will give me a bit of "innocence" when we start bonking heads.

[Googlie]

Hmm - interesting reply from Mead. I wonder ............. are Mead and jtsisyoda giving us the "good cop - bad cop" routine?

[Modo44]

He didn't say much, really. Either he didn't achieve much when talking to the team, or Morgan is stalling as well. Still avoiding the lump sum like the plague. Whether this is just a negotiation tactic, I don't know.

[Kassiopeia]

If the Morganites are stalling too, all the more power to us. According to intel they are not gearing up for war (yet), so we have them exactly where we want them. I'll throw something back at them during the weekend to keep the negotiations alive.