Foreign Policy Briefing

[Kassiopeia]

Except that this time I will be briefed by you.

I've been mostly gone for a month now, so I'd need some summarizing as to what's taken place. Keeping up with everything was an exercise as it was, try trying to catch up a month worth of intrigue on your own.

I take it that we've gotten closer with the Angels, while giving the norm cold shoulder at the Gaians. We've also apparently decided to renew our treaty with the Morganites (wise) and have decided to engage in some sort of probe action deferment agreement with then?

We also appear to be gunning for IntInt, to get the CDF no doubt. How's our industry coming together? (Although this is outside of FP now.)

Just tell me what you think I need to know. Link to the diplo forums and this forum when necessary, please (and to avoid having to retype things).

I should have more time to spare in the coming weeks, all the way 'til March, so I should be able to "retake" diplomacy from Googlie - although I fear he has become nigh irreplaceable in his current post.

[Snoddasmannen]

Welcome back Kass!

This is just my impression of the state of the nation

We have had some dealings with the Angels, but not much. Though I would say we're actually rather friendly with them.

The Gaian embassy was empty for so long that the building was accidentally condemned, so you're right, not much cooperation there.

We probed the Morgans (infiltration), they got a bit upset, though probably mostly because they are scared, and all it took to make them happy again was 50 ec:s to compensate for the probe defender they lost. It was fun to see how jumpy they got, they must have been scared it was step 1 of an invasion.

Also as part of the compensation with the Morgans, we agreed on a deal with them where they would supply us with IntInt as soon as they get it, after we give them SocPsych and DocLoy I think. So the CDF is on the agenda.

Other than that, we're obviously invading Arcadia (the University continent) now, and that'll be a lot of fun, and should give us more power

So it's a good time to be a Spartan in my opinion!

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
Also as part of the compensation with the Morgans, we agreed on a deal with them where they would supply us with IntInt as soon as they get it, after we give them SocPsych and DocLoy I think. So the CDF is on the agenda.

That's not true yet I fear. They're still thinking about their response. See their latest post in the Embassy.

[Kassiopeia]

BUMP. Let's do this again... I would appreciate a briefing from _Googlie_, since he's the one who's been running foreign policy while I was gone.

[Googlie]

Okay - a "stream of consciousness" reply - I'll edit it to put links in afterwards (and anyone else, if there's stuff I missed, you, too can edit this same post)

Infiltration data, probes, etc

We have Pacted with Lal, and have infiltrated Yang, the University and Morgan.

With Morgan, we chose Vander Eudaimonics as the infiltration point, and had to kill one of their unarmed synthmetal-armored probe defenders before infiltrating.

This pissed them off, so much so that they have withheld 50 ec's - the cost to instabuild a replacement - of their payments to us (for ethical calculus and for the PK's commlink which we sold to them) as well as sending us a multipoint "Treaty mates wouldn't do such things" - which Modo has turned around and sent right back to them now as we see a Morgan probefoil just off our northwestern coastline

We also renewed - for 10 years - the Morgan treaty, but kicked their "observer" off the Hunter

Pegasus is en-route to southern hades to pick up R-112 and to drop off a longstrider (rover-chassis probe team) who will infiltrate either the Gaians or the Angels - whoever he meets first

tech trades and leapfrogs

After some haggling and accusaitions flying between Angels, the Gaians and us, we got the Angels to research/acquire Doc Loyalty, which they sent us (for Doc Flex, unencumbered as to onward trading to the Gaians by the Angels) and we stole the Command Nexus from under Yang's nose (a couple of good podpops gave us instacompleted trance armored rover crawlers)

We, in turn, switched from Doc Loyalty to Doc Init, and got it next turn, then instabuilt the Maritime Control Center

Morgan was researching Social Psych, and we tried to interest them in a "we give you Social Psych and another tech or two, and you change to Int Int and send that to us." They seemed more interested in HEC, SFF and Air Power, although Neural Grafting and Biogenetics seem to be their ultimate goal (clean reactors)

The result is that there has been no movement with them on an Int Int leapfrog - so much so that their latest post indicates that they have self-researched Social Psych

We then turned to the Angels, and proposed a deal to them, which has just been accepted. They, too are currently researching Social psych (why, I don't know, as the Gians have that tech) but we are sending them Social Psych and Ethical Calculus - the latter being unencumbered as to any further trade to the Gians - in return for which the Angels will switch to Int Int and send that tech to us.

Morgan, Angels and Gians have all agreed not to build the CDF

Morgan latest offer to us was to sound us out on a deal whereby we would send them Ecol Eng, Env Econ and HEC in exchange for their researching Int Int and Syntheti Fossil Fuels. As we now have a deal to get Int int from the Angels, and as our pactmate, Lal, will have SFF in 6 turns, we have replied to Morgan saying that they dithered so long that we have struck deals with alternate sources to get Int Int and SFF

Future techs

We have the technology lead!!

Next turn we'll relieve Zak of Optical Computers (which he got from Yang), and while we have a 50:50 chance of extracting Polysoft or Superconductor from Yang (Pegasus and it's longstrider is right beside a Hive base) there's a probable Vendetta if we took it from him, and I don't think we want to deal with that yet.

The next five years

Will see us conquering North Arcadia - so far Lal has stayed out of the war - and the question is "Do we eradicate Zak, keeping his bases for ourselves - each one with its juicy Network Node - or, if he offers submission, do we leave him with one then selectively gift back some - or others that we build - to make use of his network node advantage and better research rate?"

Will also see us building the CDF - we are currently readying the necessary 5 crawlers plus the ec's needed to upgrade and rush-complete. After this, we can then pause for re-evaluation as all our short term goals will have been achieved.

Some thougts for this period (next five years') diplomacy activity:

• how to get air power
• fusion power
• MMI (for the Cyborg factory)
• Biomachinery (we cannot let the Cloning Vats fall into Morgan's lap

That about sums it up

[Kassiopeia]

I don't think any further briefing is needed. What I'm really surprised at (although I guess I shouldn't, knowing the talent we have here) is our seemingly pretty huge lead in the SP and tech departments. I can certainly see now why there's been little to no response to our liberation of Arcadia, the general feeling must be to the effect of "thank god they didn't come after us".

[Googlie]

To be honest, I, too, am (is "flabbergasted" too strong a word?) surprised that we are in the position we're in. After Yang, we are strongest militarily (but the PK's do have 19 (1-1-2) rovers running around) and are the leading technology faction.

Morgan still doesn't have the Angels or Gaians commlinks, nor do they have the Uni's or PK's. Sure, we can say "but we've focussed on units, not infrastructure or technology" - but as far as I can see so has Morgan - except that their units have been crawlers and colony pods.

There's something inside me saying "It can't last", but it has - and now we have that research powerhouse, Morgan, begging to buy techs from us to catch up!! (and they shouldn't come cheap, either - if they can reasearch a tech every 6 turns, we should charge the energy costs theyallocate for at least 4 turns 320 credits - ie 80 x 4 - but maybe start at 400 - 5 x annual allocation, still a deal - and be "beaten down" to our actual number)

And with the capture of two NN's - and more to come - if we did change to DEM and FM, we'd manage a tech every 10 turns ourselves (ignoring Drones) - none too shabby for a militaristic faction (we'd need rec commons everywhere first though)

But the question is - how long can it last? We have been incredible successful bullying in these fgirst 50 years (remember pulling the EthCalc deal ioff the Morgan table when they wanted us to eschew building the AV SP? - Now we blandly tell the Angels "We won't build that one?" That had Morgan in fits at the time, possibly losing their change to Democracy

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
But the question is - how long can it last?

Personally I'm pretty optimistic about it. Remember the Economic Planning Agency of a while ago? We've only just started into moving phase 2. So we still have lots of potentials to grow. If we don't have too much trouble with other factions and can therefore focus on economic instead of military or probe production, I can safely say: "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

[Snoddasmannen]

The Gaians and Angels are being nice to us so far. But like we talked about in the Command Center a couple of days ago, I really can't see how either of those factions can win ... So I reckon they'll have something nasty up their sleeves soon enough ... They might just have a go at Morgan, he has a weak military, and the Angels have good probe teams to defend against the Morgan legal crew. And I say to them: good luck and godspeed

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
The Gaians and Angels are being nice to us so far. But like we talked about in the Command Center a couple of days ago, I really can't see how either of those factions can win ...

The question, though, is:

"Do they know that they cannot win?"

They haven't infiltrated us or Morgan, and just see Morgan's pop lead - they can explain that away with the PTS - and our tech lead - and they can put that down to us having flex early enough to probe the AI

The Gaians did - a few turns back - say that they were handling Yang well enough (and the Hive has lost a considerable number of units) - so we have to assume that by now they have assembled a decent wormy army and are taking it to Yang. We'll soon see some Hive bases fall and be staffed by combined Gaian defenders and Angels probeteams, I bet

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Googlie
The question, though, is:

"Do they know that they cannot win?"

Excellent question, and an even better one:
"Shall we tell them?"

The Gaians did - a few turns back - say that they were handling Yang well enough (and the Hive has lost a considerable number of units) - so we have to assume that by now they have assembled a decent wormy army and are taking it to Yang. We'll soon see some Hive bases fall and be staffed by combined Gaian defenders and Angels probeteams, I bet

True, invading the Hive is possible for the Gaians, especially since they don't have to worry about perimeter defences. But I suspect it will be very difficult ... Yang has a pretty huge army and is producing lots of units. How could such an expensive campaign be comparable to our (hopefully) rapid and simple conquest of Arcadia? And if they have to share the bounty with the Angels ... well it just gets worse. I still think they have a very slim chance if any.

Hmmm, just a crazy thought: How about we throw the Angels a bone? Offer them to assist us with their probe teams in a "post-Arcadian" attack on Morgan? We could offer them cash, techs, whatever ... It could increase their at best miniscule chances of somehow winning the game.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
Excellent question, and an even better one:
"Shall we tell them?"

Actually, no. Sending an invasion would be better.