MSS, you are up

[ManicStarSeed]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Overly harsh?

The bit about elimination would only lend to make them fight like mad dogs.

I see your point, I would like to keep it to the first part.... anything after the signature is just optional....

Brainstorming....

Mss

[Shiber]

No, let's not reply to the public announcement at all, but instead send rational messages to the other teams, listing and debunking all of Beta's lies and mistruths and explaining our situation and our proposal to Vox.

[ManicStarSeed]

Originally posted by Shiber
No, let's not reply to the public announcement at all, but instead send rational messages to the other teams, listing and debunking all of Beta's lies and mistruths and explaining our situation and our proposal to Vox.

Lets start with that. I think it is best to work the private diplomatic channels....Does anone know who the ND ambassador is?

Also, Shiber... Can you replace what you replaced your original message with to read...

"Our Minister of Diplomatic Affairs refuses to allow us to play this game of words until we get over emotion of this latest betrayal of trust"

Mss

[nbarclay]

I'm okay with keeping our responses private, as long as we send responses to all the teams very quickly. Key points:

1) Our goal is less to claim the entire continent than it is to avoid having to spend large sums of gold and shields for the rest of the game defending a border with a nation that has proven beyond all doubt that it cannot be trusted. After the way Vox lied to set up their invasion, and after their ongoing lies and half-truths in an effort to blacken our reputation, it would be hard to consider any peace treaty they sign worth the paper it's printed on.

2) Vox's immortals were executed for the crimes of invasion in violation of treaty, complicity in the murder of Grog, and threatening the public safety, exactly on schedule. We had already reduced all but two of them to one hit point with catapults by the time Vox moved them, and Vox knew beyond all reasonable doubt that those immortals were about to die unless we could be persuaded not to finish them off. Worse, Vox's "sign of good faith" put their immortals next to not one, not two, but three undefended Gathering Storm workers. If it was a sign of good faith, it was a remarkably clumsy one.

3) The only territory Vox offered to cede was territory that was already behind our new front lines, and which they no longer had any plausible chance of holding. In any case, no giving up of territory, short of Vox's leaving the continent, would solve the fundamental problem of our having to coexist with a neighbor that has already demonstrated both its willingness to attack us and an almost total lack of regard for the truth.

[nbarclay]

By the way, I would not use words like Manifest Destiny. I think we want to play up the idea that taking our entire continent is something Vox's untrustworthiness is forcing us into.

[ManicStarSeed]

I am in the chat room with bigfree of RP Join us if you want...
mss

[Harovan]

Very good points, Nathan. I support them wholeheartly.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by ManicStarSeed
"Our Minister of Diplomatic Affairs refuses to allow us to play this game of words until we get over emotion of this latest betrayal of trust"

Will do.

[FrustratedPoet]

That post from Beta is simply unbelievable. If these kind of tactics are what they've sunk to I'll be glad to have them out of the game.

[FrustratedPoet]

"Our Minister of Diplomatic Affairs refuses to allow us to play this game of words until we get over emotion of this latest betrayal of trust"

I don't think that's a good idea. The phrase "latest betrayal of trust" seems to be nothing other than playing a game of words.

[ManicStarSeed]

Originally posted by nbarclay
By the way, I would not use words like Manifest Destiny. I think we want to play up the idea that taking our entire continent is something Vox's untrustworthiness is forcing us into.

Good point, I do tend to "wear it on my sleve"

Mss

[vulture]

I don't think it is a pack of lies from their point of view. If they'd not really paid attention to the 'war will continue full pace until a treaty is signed' clause, and actually made some moves in good faith (getting off the eastern mountains, getting off the Inchoff mountains) then it might look to them as though we are acting in bad faith.

OTOH none of their moves really show good faith. Those immortals were dead anyway. The ones near Inchoff are more needed elsewhere. There was no point attacking Inchon last turn because by waiting a turn they got another couple of immortals in on the attack - and attacking with different stacks on different turns would just be suicidal.

[Shiber]

IMHO the chat with RP went well.
Instead of replying to Beta's announcement, publicly or privately, why don't we ask for chats with GoW, ND and Lego (or perhaps all of them at once) to explain the Voxian issue. That will allow the representatives of the other civs to ask questions and get answers on-line.

[Harovan]

I just read the chatlog.

Surprise, surprise. Togas' folks defending Vox and not wanting us to wipe them out, who would've thought that. Even threatening to intervene and make "peace keeping", ha ha ha.

Our clear answer should be: You want Vox? You can get Vox, on Bob, of course. Otherwise, stay out of our way.

That's said outright. The diplomats may convert it in a more polite form.

[nbarclay]

It was an offer to provide a peace keeping force, not a threat to intervene whether we agreed or not. The idea was that if having their forces between us would help us feel safer with Vox as a neighbor, they might be willing to provide some.