DIPLO: Legoland Comments

[DeepO]

CoL... remind me please... I somehow forgot the abbreviation

DeepO

[vulture]

CoL = Code of Laws. Before my time, but I believe there was some controversy over the deals with GoW...

[Shiber]

We sold CoL to GoW with an NDA, they violated the NDA by selling it to Lego and then said "Oops! Here, have contact with Lego and some gold instead".

[DeepO]

Ah yeah, right. Almost forgotten that one. See what comes from not keeping a book of grudges?

DeepO

[Arrian]

I don't think I ever KNEW about that one.



-Arrian

[DeepO]

Just got an official note from Legoland, that they think we're going for Bob, and will intervene if we would gain more of RP's cities. They are worried because we got NM... I explained to them it was only temporary. I hope that was not too much info, but if we don't keep the Legos happy, they are going to confront us. They know we're the ones to beat, and not anybody on Bob...

DeepO

[vulture]

They are going to join in on ND and GoW's side soon anyway, no matter what we do (unless we start to lose this war quite badly, when they might help us). These things aren't determined by how nice everyone is to each other, and good diplomacy can only get you so far. GoW's and ND's diplomacy with us was always far better than RP's, but we've ended up siding with RP because it was in our interests to do so, which was more or less inevitable given that RP could always offer us a far better deal that GoW or ND could manage. Now there is a danger that the reverse situation will be true. Lego aren't going to sit by while we gain a sizeable chunk of Bob (and the fact that we are involved in this war will push them to research magnetism now for sure) - it would be suicide for them. And GoW and ND, if they get desperate, can make them a better offer than we would be willing to match - our best course in such an event would just to be to go to war with them and see who is left standing. So while we can try to keep Lego on our side, lets prepare for the fact that within 5-10 turns they are going to declare war on us and RP and land an invasion force on eastern Bob, probably right in the path of the route we are taking to attack ND cities, assuming things go well. There really isn't an alternative course of action that makes sense for Lego.

[vulture]

Footnote: it might be worth a second note to Lego to clarify why we needed NM for a while - point them to the map and show that there are no roads that skirt around NM, so either we have to move off the roads, or borrow the city for a turn or two to move units through it, saving several turns of transit time. That would mean giving away the location of our landing site, but I don't personally have a problem with that, since the info isn't really of much use (and our landing site changes once we get our new port up, and some roads built in the NM area).

[DeepO]

vulture, I agree. It seems inevitable that we're going to go to war. Diplomacy can only get us so far, but as long as we can avoid it, we should stay on friendly terms with them. And yes, they will go for magnetism, but that was their plan all along: the only place where we can be seriously damaged is on South Stormia, which can only be reached by galleon.

As to the reason we needed NM: I think I said we needed it for both the placement of a city, and for troop transportation. I didn't want to go into too much detail. One mistake I made was not realizing during our last chat, that the next turn Lego was going to see, we were in possession of NM. If I had realized it, I would have anticipated this, by saying it would be a temp. town.

DeepO

[Shiber]

I think we ought to invite Lego to Bob on our side, saying that we would be much in their debt and very accommodating.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Shiber
I think we ought to invite Lego to Bob on our side, saying that we would be much in their debt and very accommodating.

intriguing. We take ND's land, lego takes GoW's land, balance is still in place. doubtful

Lego has a voidable agreement with ND and GoW to stay off bob. They have a NAP with RP until 1000, right? We have only a tech deal. Luckily for us, our front is on the other half of the world. But will they take Nd's cities as they fall to us?


I daresay that lego building up their military helps us out in the long run, fewer temples libraries and other culture producing things.

[asleepathewheel]

Maybe we can get an agreement with lego that neither will enter the other's historical territory, ie. we not land on lego, they not land on stormia for a long time. (Looking for when they can actually reach us, that's a long coastline for us to defend)
No agreements with bob, just our home territory (and legos minor I guess)

[DeepO]

Hmmm... I doubt they would go for it. And if they would, that treaty wouldn't be worth the paper it is printed on once Lego thinks it needs to attack us. The only limit would be on our own freedom, not on Lego's...

If they would take ND's cities once they fall to us, we should push ahead, and attack without pity. Any delay means they have time to react. Once we have put most of our troops on Bob, it would be a good idea to sail around the South tip, and be on the lookout near Legoland as well. Or keep some RP galleys doing so.

DeepO

[Shiber]

We should at least try it.
If we don't try to push in proposals and don't maintain contact, GoW-ND will snatch Lego from us.

[Shiber]

...if they haven't done that already.