Fellow Apolytonians, I have a suggestion. We need a think tank, to encourage and focus discussion and analysis about our foreign relations. I envision something like the War Academy, but this one devoted to matters of state.
My suggestion grows out of long looks at the map that opened before us yesterday, and the flurry of threads it has inspired.
Given our start position, given the breadth of our continent (Abananaba?), given the various positions of our AI rivals, it's becoming more and more clear that we will not be able to simply conquer or build our way to victory. We will have to bargain at the table, and intrigue among the courts of our enemies and allies. Our very survival will hinge on our ability to play a dangerous diplomacy game with supreme skill and imagination.
(Reminds me of England, 1500-1945: an island power on the edge of a continent teeming with more powerful threats, constantly realigning itself, straining to preserve a balance of power.)
We need the best minds of our nation working on this aspect of the game. Techs and resources will remain vital, of course. But we need to weighing foreign policy moves with as much wisdom, as much audacity, as we do projects like tech-whoring or oscillating war.
Who should we be cultivating, what techs or resources or gold should we be gifting where, to strengthen which allies when? With whom should we ally in what wars? When should we permit ROPs, and (later) with whom should we strike MPPs? These answers to these questions will shift continually in the centuries ahead. And we desperately need to find the right answers.
We should set up a think tank to give analysis and debate form. I don't know what to call it, I don't presume to have enough experience to run it (a la Sir Ralph in the War Academy). I just know we need it.
What do you think?
My suggestion grows out of long looks at the map that opened before us yesterday, and the flurry of threads it has inspired.
Given our start position, given the breadth of our continent (Abananaba?), given the various positions of our AI rivals, it's becoming more and more clear that we will not be able to simply conquer or build our way to victory. We will have to bargain at the table, and intrigue among the courts of our enemies and allies. Our very survival will hinge on our ability to play a dangerous diplomacy game with supreme skill and imagination.
(Reminds me of England, 1500-1945: an island power on the edge of a continent teeming with more powerful threats, constantly realigning itself, straining to preserve a balance of power.)
We need the best minds of our nation working on this aspect of the game. Techs and resources will remain vital, of course. But we need to weighing foreign policy moves with as much wisdom, as much audacity, as we do projects like tech-whoring or oscillating war.
Who should we be cultivating, what techs or resources or gold should we be gifting where, to strengthen which allies when? With whom should we ally in what wars? When should we permit ROPs, and (later) with whom should we strike MPPs? These answers to these questions will shift continually in the centuries ahead. And we desperately need to find the right answers.
We should set up a think tank to give analysis and debate form. I don't know what to call it, I don't presume to have enough experience to run it (a la Sir Ralph in the War Academy). I just know we need it.
What do you think?
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