Election: Foreign Affairs Minister

[MrWhereItsAt]

Below you may vote for the First Foreign Affairs Minister of our new nation.

Your choices are:

GeneralTacticus
Kloreep
Banana

You have 5 days, so this closes about 0145GMT on Sat 19 April.

[banzai]
Place your bets NOWWWW!!!

[/banzai]

[E_T]

I want to see an Campain before I vote....

E_T

[BigFree]

Me too; I want to hear how they plan to have the 'ear' of opposing Nations and how they'll manipulate them into seeing things our way!

[GeneralTacticus]

Okay, given that I actually seem to have got here before my opponent gets to post, for once...

I already have a good bit of experience in running the Fopreign Affairs department from the ACDG (even if that is a different game). I intend to poll on what our attitude should be towards them, and what, in general, we should be trying to get from them. I will then use this as a general guideline, to make sure that I'm doing (generally) what the people would like me to.

Assuming that the first term lasts long enough for us to get Writing, I will attempt to establish Embassies as soon as is practical; this will allow us to keep a much closer eye on the other civilizations, and will also give us a rough idea of where they are.

Again, assuming that our first term lasts long enough, I will attempt to gain the World Maps of as many Civs as possible, but I will be very cautious about handing over our own map, unless it is absolutely necessary. If we keep our own map to ourselves, there will be much less danger of other Civs sneaking settlers in to steal the good city spots, as they won't know they're there. For similar reasons, I won't be entering into RoP agreements until we have all our decent land settled and no longer need to worry about other civs stealing it.

If a war breaks out, I will attempt to (if possible) isolate the Civ we're at war with, possibly using Military Alliances if they won't reduce our options excessively, or if we need to distract them to survive. I will be keeping notes (as much as possible, anyway) on hos strong other Civs are compared to us, to allow us to make better decisions when people start making demands of us; if the other Civ i around our power level or higher, and makes a demand that won't cripple us, then I would support granting it, except in cases where they're too far off to be much of a threat.

That's about all I can think of for now. Any questions?

[Kloreep]

I mostly agree with GeneralTacticus on strategy. Establish embassies once they have some value worth the cost (seeing a civ's capitol and/or signing treaties); don't trade our WM till much later in the game; and give in to demands from stronger civs (since this will be deity, that basically means anyone we aren't planning to take down in the near future...)

The only previous experiance I have in FA is checking for deals during a few turnchats in the last demogame; the only official DG positions I've held are Regional Advisor/Governor for Upper Apolyton in the first demogame (a deputy DM, IOW) and more recently, I was elected Master Builder of Legoland. But I want to expand beyond city planning and micromanaging, so I've chosen to run for FAM.

I plan to be at all turnchats/turnplays that fit in my schedule so that I can check for new techs/contacts etc. that other AI civs may have, and look for new trades that we can make with/for those commodities. But I don't know how many I'll be able to attend, so I'll likely appoint one (or even two) Vice Ministers who can sub for me if they're available when I'm not.

Anyway, that about sums it up. Hope I'm not incoherent; it's late at night here.

Edit: And yes, questions please. This should be an interesting campaign.

[Tarquinius]

How do you guys plan to keep up with the AI in research? I never played on deity level, but I heard it is very tough to keep up.
Do you want to buy all techs from the AI? (and if so, from what AI's do you buy? the strongest, the weakest, the ones farthest from us etc.)
Or do you want us to do our own research too?

[GeneralTacticus]

Whether or not to do our own research isn't really my department (it's the President's choice, IIRC), but I'll want us to buy from whoever offers us the best deal (obviosuly); all things being equal, I'll want to buy form those Civs that are the least threat to us. However, I'd argue that we shouldn't try to buy everything, as there wil be techs we don't immediately need, and if everyone has them they'll be very cheap to research. In addition, I will argue in favour of building the Great Library if it is in any way possible.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
If a war breaks out

just lost my vote

[Inverse Icarus]

which one of you is more pro-war?

deity with 24 civs, we're going to need a bunch of early wars.

[Beta]

Originally posted by Kloreep
I mostly agree with GeneralTacticus on strategy.

So when the two candidates agree, the obvious result is a close election.

Hurray!

[Kloreep]

Re: Tarquinius
I believe we should buy almost all of our techs; 100% research important and cheap ones like BW if necesseary, but otherwise, we should go 10% science/1 science specialist to take advantage of the 40 turns minimum rule.

I agree with GT we should buy from the weakest (or, later on, farther away civs we don't care about beefing up a little) civs, and that we should delay buying cutting-edge tech if we can; however, I disagree about researching them. Our one lone civ will only be able to do so much research, and on deity, our research is incredibly costly; whereas the AI will have a major advantage - AI civs will have normal research costs. Not to mention the free settler, which means a second city soonor, which means a second city tile full of free commerce sooner. So after we have waited for the AI to whore it around, it would be better to simply buy it; sure, we give some gold to an AI, but it's cheaper commerce-wise than research.

Of course, there is a rare exception to this: AIs have traded around techs we want, but have not yet acquired a new tech another AI has researched. In this case, it's best to snap up this new tech and then trade it around for techs, gold, maps, etc, being the civ to distribute it to all the AIs. This is the major reason I plan to either be at turnchats, or try to get a deputy to be there: so 1-turn opportunities don't slip past us. But this is pretty rare, and in general, I advocate delaying our tech purchases.

Re: UberKruX
From what I hear, deity is a cutthroat game under any circumstances; if we're going to be squished in with 24 civs, I advocate Archer-rushing as many our neighbors as possible, then continuing with swords; we'll need land. (Besides, the more civs we eliminate, the easier the job will be once we get tons of contacts post-Writing. )

[Hot Mustard]

Originally posted by Kloreep
I advocate Archer-rushing as many our neighbors as possible, then continuing with swords; we'll need land. (Besides, the more civs we eliminate, the easier the job will be once we get tons of contacts post-Writing. )

I don't forsee much Archer-rushing in this game. With an island hopping map (I believe BFM and Togas styled the map with the Archipelago, 80% water settings in mind), it is quite possible we won't have anyone on our starting island. Archer-rushes won't be as effective by the time we finish researching Alphabet, Writing, & Map Making by ourselves, not to mention having to find our neighbours.

I am test playing a SP game right now with our settings, and I was additionally sandbagged with having lots of ocean between me and all other land masses. The English just got the Great Lighthouse, so I think I'm pretty much screwed.

[Octavian X]

I'd like to ask both candidates - what experience do you have, not in the DG, but in Civ3, with foreign affairs in deity games? How do you handle diplomacy in your own games - Do you extort when possible, bow down at the slightest pressure, etc.

[Panag]

hi ,


wow , 50 / 50


may the best man win


have a nice day

[civman2000]

My vote goes to Kloreep, a fellow DIA member