Runoff for FAM election

[Sharpe]

We should try to get this resolved before we are too far into the month (thank goodness the terms are now 2 months long now... taking a while to resolve this)

I left the number of days open for the vote because I know that Kloreep is away for a bit (and he might be needed for a tiebreaker perhaps ...)

[ZargonX]

Oh, I see how it is. Zargon says he'll put up the poll tonight, but some people just can't wait. Who's paying you off, Sharpe? Huh? Who is it!?

[Sharpe]

Yeah, Nimitz told me that you would do it today AFTER I set up the poll.... (besides your today only had 35 minutes left hehe....)

[vondrack]

vondrack's campaign speech

In the previous election thread, someone (Tibi?) asked the candidates for their views on the PtWDG politics and our foreign affairs/plans. With one vote for me and one vote for Nimitz... I guess there are still votes out there that can be gained by a good speech. So...

Fellow Legomen,

Let me start my speech with a brief recap of our current diplomatic situation... At the moment, we are allied to the teams of Glory of War & Neu Demogyptica against the team of Gathering Storm - and subsequently, more or less against The Roleplayers, too. Our reason to side with our allies is primarily well calculated, based upon a hopefully justified assumption that they will not, even if seizing the whole of Bob after defeating GS & RP, be able to keep pace with our own progress, largely unhindered by any wars so far.

With our evergrowing economic potential, I believe we have the power to ensure our goal is fulfilled, sooner or later. But what happens next? What threats shall we face after this war is over? What could possibly take the victory from our hands then?

There is only one really significant threat I can think of. All remaining teams (perhaps excluding Voxes) uniting against us, throwing everything they would have at us. That could hurt.

Can we do anything to prevent that happening? Is this threat real at all?

GS will do pretty much anything to win the game, even if respecting a certain code of honour along the way. They would ally against us with their former foes at once, if it improved their chances of winning, while lowering our own chances. I do not believe we can do anything to change that. Their nature is simply very competitive.

So, I believe that our primary focus should be keeping GoW & ND diplomatically as far from GS as possible, so that they do not even start thinking about an anti-Lego coalition. We've got an extremely favourable "starting position", as personal grudges separate these teams rather well at present... while our own relations with GoW & ND are just great, thanks to our help to their cause so far.

The only thing that could possibly change the situation, is, IMHO, if we somehow betrayed GoW & ND. Because of the trust they have put in us so far, they'd most likely start seeing us as an evil even worse than GS. And as the unlikely alliance against RP shows, GoW & ND value feelings like this over the cold-blooded calculations.

So... I'm finally getting to the point of my speech... I suggest we stick with our current allies until the very end of this war, ensuring that what we decided would be best for us, eventually happens (while, OTOH, not really minding if that "eventually" comes a bit later... ). I would strongly suggest we truly help our allies with the war efforts, as the goodwill we gain that way is our best insurance against them considering an anti-Lego alliance with GS (though not an insurance all that great, of course).

OTOH, once the war is over, I'd do my best to "normalize" our relations with GS... helping them generally catch up, so that we have a potential ally in case things go wrong and GoW & ND start looking in our direction.

If elected, I will focus primarily on two things:

a) to further strenghten friendly relations with our current allies by looking for ways to provide them with valuable help... that will cost us as little as possible, though

b) to keep our relations with GS as long-term-grudge-free as possible, so that they do not "shut the door" permanently, becoming our enemies for the rest of the game.

As for the means... you know'em all. You've read dozens of chatlogs and helped me to polish dozens of diplomatic notes to other teams... I would keep doing thing pretty much the same way as until now.

If you believe that what I have done as the FAM so far was fine and if you believe that what I suggest above is the way to go, I will be honoured to get your votes and serve another term.

Thank you,
vondrack

[Tiberius]

Nimitz? Do you have a vision on Legoland's foreign policy?

I'd be nice to hear both sides

[Nimitz]

I do, just give me a little while to get it together and also don't expect it to be as good as vondrack as I am not very good a speeches.

[Tiberius]

Isn't a FAM supposed to be good at speeches?

Anyway, most of people have voted already.

[vondrack]

Nimitz, was your chat with GS last night an example of how you intend to run our foreign affairs? Like acting on your own, not consulting with the team, not letting others know what you are going to do?

He?

[Sharpe]

Don't blame Nimitz - it was me that arranged the chat because several of us had requested a chat with GS for quite some time now and a certain FAM had seemed to do nothing about it... I just invited whoever was online at the time to join us.

[redstar1]

Since when has that stopped rival politicians blaming each other

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Sharpe
Don't blame Nimitz - it was me that arranged the chat because several of us had requested a chat with GS for quite some time now and a certain FAM had seemed to do nothing about it... I just invited whoever was online at the time to join us.

Cool. So I assume it was an EMERGENCY CHAT dealing with an EMERGENCY SITUATION, am I right? Because otherwise, I'd suppose you would propose a chat I could at least try to attend to. It was YOU asking GS for the chat, so it was YOU proposing the date and time.

May I ask you AGAIN what it was you wanted to tell GS and what it was you did manage to tell them that called for this "emergency" chat? Can you list the stuff they were told they were not aware of? Did we really want to tell them that stuff?

Perhaps if I did not chat with them it was because there was nothing to tell them, eh? There was actually only ONE thing we needed to tell them - that our sole goal is to prevent them from gaining ground on Bob. That there is no hostility going beyond this. But you somehow failed to tell them...

[ZargonX]

Bother... are we going to end in a tie again? If any of you lurkers are reading this and haven't voted, now would be a good time to do so

[Tiberius]

We either need a President again, or a new rule for tie breaks.

[Nimitz]

Yes, well is Kloreep Back if not his vote can break the tie?

[ZargonX]

Kloreep is not back yet as far as I know. I guess he will be the tiebreaker. No pressure