I think in the latest turns we were concentrating too much on the military and not enough on the weapon that can win even the most difficult war: diplomacy!
It is true that this war was inevitable, and even talking with GS or GoW wouldn't have changed anything, but now that it has started, it is time to stop it
Basically, we would be able to defeat any of our opponents, but not 2 or 3 at once. So we have to break this alliance. This must be our primary goal.
In a way we already have ND on our side: they didn't attack us, they don't want us completely destroyed and they don't want an even more powerful GoW. There are only 2 problems:
1. they are weak, therefor they are not really able to help us militarily
2. they would help us only when the situation becomes desperate for us, which is too late.
At this point I don't think that ND wants to help GoW and GS even more, but they don't really have a chance to do otherwise. They fear a miltary intervention against them.
However, we should try to seek ways of cooperation that can't be detected by GS and GoW, yet it'd help ND and us. More about this in the ND diplo thread.
So we have to focus on someone else. We must break the GS - GoW alliance. For this, we need to pick one of our enemies, the most vulnerable one and convince it that there are better ways than war to achieve victory.
IMO it is quite obvious that this team is GS. Why is that? Let's analyze a bit their situation.
No military victory is possible in this game, and a diplo win has even less chances. Their only chance to win is the space race. In order to achieve this, they need 3 things. We can call these the GS objectives:
O1. technology power: they already have this one
O2. relatively weak opponents, which means from their PoV: no other team capable of building the spaceship before them and no other team being capable to threaten them militarily, should they be close to the spaceship win.
O3. resources: their continent is small, and they may very well lack one of the two resources needed for the spaceship: aluminium and uranium.
What is GS seeking with this war? Well, they are trying to achieve point 2. and maybe point. 3 , though the latest may be quite difficult to achieve. I think they are hoping to cripple us and don't really believe in a total military occupation of Legos.
There is one crucial thing: the cost of the war. GS is obviously prepared to pay a price, but how big? That's the question.
We have to convince GS that:
1. the price will be too high compared with the results if they choose to continue the war, and
2. they can obtain more or the same, with a lesser price
All right. How do we do that? Well, here comes the diplomacy Up until here, it was only an analysis. We will have to use true facts and half-true arguments, in order to make them think what we want them to think.
1. Argument: we don't have enough army to defend both coasts, therefor we will concentrate on only one, turtling on the other one, hoping to rezist until we defeat the first invador and proceed to attack the second one. Now, willingly or not, GS is the team we will attack with all we have as soon as they land (and even before ) This is for many reasons: they have the bigger army, they don't have bombers, and so on. This will have the following possible outcome: the GS army will be destroyed, while GoW has a good shot to become even more powerful, becoming a threat to GS and ND.
2. Argument: we will be weakened anyway, we are technologically behind, so O2 will be achieved. If they continue the war, O2 will be again in danger, because GoW will become too powerful
Argument: we can offer the resources needed to build the spaceship. This latest argument is maybe the strongest and most dangereous one, as it can grant victory to GS. Should our attack on the GS armada go well, we may drop this.
That's pretty much it. I'm sure we can refine this, so as soon as GS will begin having heavy losses and we will begin losing the war on the east coast (seems very possible atm), I think GS will be ready to talk.
It is true that this war was inevitable, and even talking with GS or GoW wouldn't have changed anything, but now that it has started, it is time to stop it
Basically, we would be able to defeat any of our opponents, but not 2 or 3 at once. So we have to break this alliance. This must be our primary goal.
In a way we already have ND on our side: they didn't attack us, they don't want us completely destroyed and they don't want an even more powerful GoW. There are only 2 problems:
1. they are weak, therefor they are not really able to help us militarily
2. they would help us only when the situation becomes desperate for us, which is too late.
At this point I don't think that ND wants to help GoW and GS even more, but they don't really have a chance to do otherwise. They fear a miltary intervention against them.
However, we should try to seek ways of cooperation that can't be detected by GS and GoW, yet it'd help ND and us. More about this in the ND diplo thread.
So we have to focus on someone else. We must break the GS - GoW alliance. For this, we need to pick one of our enemies, the most vulnerable one and convince it that there are better ways than war to achieve victory.
IMO it is quite obvious that this team is GS. Why is that? Let's analyze a bit their situation.
No military victory is possible in this game, and a diplo win has even less chances. Their only chance to win is the space race. In order to achieve this, they need 3 things. We can call these the GS objectives:
O1. technology power: they already have this one
O2. relatively weak opponents, which means from their PoV: no other team capable of building the spaceship before them and no other team being capable to threaten them militarily, should they be close to the spaceship win.
O3. resources: their continent is small, and they may very well lack one of the two resources needed for the spaceship: aluminium and uranium.
What is GS seeking with this war? Well, they are trying to achieve point 2. and maybe point. 3 , though the latest may be quite difficult to achieve. I think they are hoping to cripple us and don't really believe in a total military occupation of Legos.
There is one crucial thing: the cost of the war. GS is obviously prepared to pay a price, but how big? That's the question.
We have to convince GS that:
1. the price will be too high compared with the results if they choose to continue the war, and
2. they can obtain more or the same, with a lesser price
All right. How do we do that? Well, here comes the diplomacy Up until here, it was only an analysis. We will have to use true facts and half-true arguments, in order to make them think what we want them to think.
1. Argument: we don't have enough army to defend both coasts, therefor we will concentrate on only one, turtling on the other one, hoping to rezist until we defeat the first invador and proceed to attack the second one. Now, willingly or not, GS is the team we will attack with all we have as soon as they land (and even before ) This is for many reasons: they have the bigger army, they don't have bombers, and so on. This will have the following possible outcome: the GS army will be destroyed, while GoW has a good shot to become even more powerful, becoming a threat to GS and ND.
2. Argument: we will be weakened anyway, we are technologically behind, so O2 will be achieved. If they continue the war, O2 will be again in danger, because GoW will become too powerful
Argument: we can offer the resources needed to build the spaceship. This latest argument is maybe the strongest and most dangereous one, as it can grant victory to GS. Should our attack on the GS armada go well, we may drop this.
That's pretty much it. I'm sure we can refine this, so as soon as GS will begin having heavy losses and we will begin losing the war on the east coast (seems very possible atm), I think GS will be ready to talk.
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