Office of Diplomatic Affairs

[alva]

Would anyone mind if we gave ENG for practically for free to ND (building relations).
They are doing the research anyway, anyone will have it aswell, so we won't get much for it anyway.
(Perhaps i could try for an updated WM (they won't have much new territory on it anyway, so all it would show is new infrastructure.))

[Shiber]

We could ask them to get us a map of Lego's coast by trading with GoW, and then trading their map with us.
This will also help us tremendously when we sell our own maps to the rest of the world.

[notyoueither]

Re: Re: Offiicial Diplomatic Policies

Originally posted by OPD
Is it ok to tell them I'm really annoyed with togas and his behaviour recently because I am.

I think we need to try to leave the personal stuff behind. Telling them their king is a twit might minimise any influence you may gain.

[ManicStarSeed]

Re: Re: Offiicial Diplomatic Policies

Originally posted by OPD

Is it ok to tell them I'm really annoyed with togas and his behaviour recently because I am.

That would be trouble. We need to swallo our anger a bit and let it ride unfortunatly. We have to build a facad of trust with RP, because clearly we do not trust them entirely (mutual feeling), but we must create a sence of "warm-fuzzies" nonetheless..

BTW Folks... I intend that this thread be used to formulate the diplomatic policies, but will be editing the top post to express the finalized, up to date policy. I will edit the top post sometime in the next day.

Mss

[Shiber]

When are we expecting to have a harbor on-line?
I can assist in finalizing deals (iron with GoW if we want to, and luxes with everyone else) starting this Thursday. Just tell me who I need to talk to and what I need to propose

[vulture]

Some thoughts:

All the Bob civs are worried that we might be a factor in 'internal' affairs on Bob. Particularly if Vox do indeed disappear from our little island. Much to no-ones surprise, ND and GoW have offered NAPs. RP probably ought to be considering one too - although GoW are only seperated from us by 1 tiles of water, I think of us being closer to RP, simply because with our lighthouse shortcut, it is easier to get troops from our core to RP lands. From the chat logs, it appears that they are all worried about being on the wrong end of a 2 on 1 war on Bob, and are all worried that we are capable of shifting the balance of power.

I'd suggest that NAPs with both ND and GoW would be a bad idea. It would take RP all of three seconds to notice that if we are going to join in the fight at all, it would be against them. So I think that we can only have one NAP (or one publically announced one, but I wouldn't rely on a non-public one remaining secret, given that the Bob civs are probably all testing each other out to see how the alliances are going to stack up - it is the kind of info one team might offer up to persuade another that they are in a strong position, and then gets reported to the third team as a point of interest).

The alternative would be NAPs with all three Bob civs (if RP would go for it), as a declaration that we want to keep out of Bobs affairs for a while and let them deal with any military matters. While this has some advantages (they might let up on trying to out-maneouver us if they don't think we are a military threat for now) it does limit our ability to take advantage of the Bob situation should events turn out in a way that means we want to go and have a look around.

On the Lego front, do we really believe that they weren't one of the teams trying to organise an embargo against us. I know everyone will jump to the conclusion that it was RP, but it was ND and Lego who were stalling on buying Feudalism from us. It would make sense for Lego of course, since they particularly don't want us to get the Sistine, and don't want us growing into a threat to them. Plus why are they suddenly such good friends with Vox?

[ManicStarSeed]

Originally posted by vulture
Some thoughts:

On the Lego front, [removed most of paragraph]...why are they suddenly such good friends with Vox?

Thats got me wondering too

Mss

[ManicStarSeed]

Originally posted by Shiber
When are we expecting to have a harbor on-line?
I can assist in finalizing deals (iron with GoW if we want to, and luxes with everyone else) starting this Thursday. Just tell me who I need to talk to and what I need to propose

3 turns I believe.

They have wines.
I simple support lux for lux trades.
You could help, check in with Zeit as well.
There is nothing scheduled yet


Mss

[Arrian]

MSS & Vulture:

Clearly Lego has worked out tech deals with Vox, and don't want to lose them as a trading partner. They probably worry about being cut off by Bobian civs and us if they get too strong. If they allow Vox to survive near them, they have themselves a vassal that can assist their research & keep them on top.

Of course, I would just LOVE it if Vox were to turn on them. Wouldn't that be just hysterical?

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by ManicStarSeed

Originally posted by vulture
On the Lego front, [removed most of paragraph]...why are they suddenly such good friends with Vox?

Thats got me wondering too

Mss

Not too suddenly. Lego may well have been propping Vox up for some time. That's a lot of gold to upgrade all the immortals we've seen, and to hire the mercenaries (GoW has fessed up that a total of 6 units were contracted for).

RP is a monarchy, and until recently a very corruption weakened one. Were they rolling in gold? Maybe some, yes, no doubt. However, there had to be more. Lego is an ideal candidate for the source of that.

Another clue. vondrack stated in chat that he has become good freinds with Beta. The way you become close with someone around these parts is by frequent posting on the same topics or through frequent and productive chats. vondrack and Beta do not post on the same topics. Why would they have been chatting so much?

[DeepO]

Interesting ideas on Lego... they complement my latest thoughts on the Lego comments thread.

I'm not so sure we're doing good in letting Vox live, or let them leave with much of their potential intact. I agree we can't stop a Voxodus, but if they don't know about the teleportation thing, we could have a 1 city, undefended Vox instead of a 7 city protected Vox.

I still think that feelers should go out to all other teams besides Vox and Lego on how they see it, they are also involved. Plus, I can easily say this without asking for more work myself, as I'm no ambassador to anyone involved

DeepO

[Shiber]

We still need to send Vox a counter-offer for the peace proposal. And we would be keeping them waiting for too long if we don't send it by the end of this turn.

I think we should let Vox use the teleportation trick. That way we would get their cities faster... and they would also have to give us their cities for this to work, they won't be able to leave a "scorched earth" behind in the last minute.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by notyoueither
RP is a monarchy, and until recently a very corruption weakened one. Were they rolling in gold? Maybe some, yes, no doubt. However, there had to be more. Lego is an ideal candidate for the source of that.

Barb camps?

[Shiber]

I would like to propose the following:
Let's ask RP to pull their galley back, in return for a discounted map deal. If they keep exploring our coast, our map might be worth far less than it is now by the time that we sell it to the world.
Since they're probably roleplaying with that galley, they might be more reluctant than we would expect to pull it back... but perhaps we can join in on the roleplaying bit.

[Shiber]

Proposed message to Role Play:

Dear whoever-their-ambassador-is,

In the past, your team has shown interest in acquiring our world map.
It is now available for purchase. Would you be interested? If so, please propose your price for the map and we will get back to you shortly.

Best regards,
Whoever-sends-this.