Glory of War - correspondence & foreign affairs

[vondrack]

PMed Panzer32 with the following message:

Hello, Panzer!

With your public declaration of war on GS, I believe it is time to start talking about the details of our business. I would imagine that a trilateral chat of Lego + ND + GoW would be useful now.

Off the cuff, here is a couple of points we would like to discuss (NONE of them are requests or demands! many of them are just ideas we'd like to know your opinion on!).

1) Lego unit help: catapults for capture, worker transfers/exchanges
2) Lego gold help: this is something we do not have much of ATM, but if you urgently need some gold, we might put something together
3) mutual help: tech exchange (Astronomy for Invention)
4) mutual help: luxury exchange (once we discover Astronomy, we could provide you with our dyes)
5) troop transfer: we believe we should start moving our troops to Bob almost immediately, gathering them somewhere well behind the front lines, assembling a stack that will be able to strike at GS, should they advance into your/ND core territory. With a "fleet" consisting currently of two galleys only, it will take some time, even if we plan to build a couple of caravels ASAP.
6) possibility of establishing a stronghold on Bob - just one small, coastal, no-culture city with walls/barracks meant only for recovery/upgrading of our troops. Would be abandoned or handed over to you after the war.
7) Right of Passage agreements

Other ideas/topics would emerge in the chat, I imagine...

Cheers,
vondrack

P.S.: a very similar PM sent to Darekill/ND.

[vondrack]

Just in case you wonder how Imperial City looks like...

[vondrack]

A short email update from Hot Enamel:

70ad
We used 3 riders to do a stack of Pillaging - Basically cutting off GS from
RP.
GS/RP tried to sink our east coast galleys, but failed.

90ad
Upon opening the save .. we lost 1 of the 3 riders to GS
Still no GA ... We cant find any units to kill, and we dont feel wasting our
riders throwing them against fortified GS Pikes in cities.
5 turns from Invention @-48gpt
9 turns from finishing sistines
GS/RP sank our galleys on the east coast...we were trying to get them home
for healing & defense
We have no navy left on our east coast..(no roads & cities defended by reg
MI as well

110ad
We will probably lose the last 2 pillaging riders .. they are on a
mountain... maybe we will get lucky and start our GA
4 turns from invention
Our moves this turn will be very interesting We will either fail and lose
our entire Rider force.. or achieve a devastating blow to the RP/GS alliance

[lmtoops]

Wonder what this devastating blow is? My guess it's a direct attack on Pamplona, but I'm wrong alot (just ask my wife )

[vondrack]

Panzer32 PMed with the following message:

Hello, Panzer!

Just to briefly let you know that we shall be posting a public announcement about our support of the new Voxian settlements on Legos Minor. It is something that has been planned for and promised to Vox a long time ago and basically says nothing else but that they are under our protection (which, ATM, means very little, as nobody is threatening them) and that anybody messing with them will have to mess with us, too. Who knows, if we are lucky, we may confuse the GS strategists a little bit regarding Lego current 'urgent' business and short-term goals.

You can safely ignore the announcement, it is not meant to threaten GoW in any way, as we very well know your eyes are focused elsewhere...

Wish you good luck for this turn!
vondrack

[vondrack]

A brief message from Aggie, the new Emperor of GoW (he checked with me earlier today and I informed him of the Astro being available, our negotiations with GS, and the earlier departure date for our first LEF group):

I am glad to inform you that we are 1 turn from invention, and that it will be sent immediately upon completion next turn. I also sent wines if you need it. Maybe it could push some cities into WLTK.Also I really see no need for astronomy as of now for us(it could give GS a hint of cooperation). That is good news about Gs, I suspect they are spending more than they like to support RP's army and upgrade units and that has slowed their research. Also do not be alarmed if you see us and Nd at war. This was done to allow us to build hordes of Horse for upgrade to surprise GS. Assuming Gs doesn't get Leos(something that I don't think will happen,since they can't get invention before we finish) we will be in good shape. Glad to hear about the knights too. The more forces here, the more it frees up of ours to head south. Sincerly and with best wishes,
Aggie(Emperor of Glory of War)

[ZargonX]

Good news a-plenty! We get invention, we don't have to give them astro yet, we get wines, and they're keeping GS bogged down! I will pen a response for them shortly.

[vondrack]

Today's communications with GoW:

I am embarrassed to say that I forget how long until GP. The reason I am asking is that I was figuring upgrades etc and was trying figure when the 25gpt ends. With it we are able to upgrade 2 every turn and on the 4th we can upgrade 3. Without it we can upgrade 3 everyturn. Just curious. FYI I am seeing 310/330 as the begining of the major offensive in the south. A large GS force (8knight/8pike/8catapult) has begun moving in the south. An attack was considered last turn, but we could only bring 8 full riders and 12 answars to attack. Next turn we will have 13 full riders if needed.(I don't know if ND will have additional Answars). Also GS has gifted Toledo back to RP. You will also notice that us and ND will be at war in the next save, as you probably guess this is strictly for iron purposes. We might take you up on your iron offer soon. Then we will just declare war for a turn to get it cut off. This assumes that no one can see the war. The only problem with doing this with nd is that it bothers the ROP and can slow down our movement and since we are on their tiles, their production. So probably after this round of war/peace/iron we will use your iron. I normally would frown on such "artificial wars", but since GS always stated that the 20 turn trades were artificial and not binding to them, I figure its acceptable for all of us.
Aggie

I took the liberty of handling this on my own - we are not strapped for cash and every GoW rider fighting the GS troops makes our own knights less likely to get into real action:

Hello, Aggie!

We will discover gunpowder on Turn 142 (270AD), so you will receive it from us on Turn 143 (290AD). As for money - if it is important, you can stop sending the gold at once. We still have some moderate savings allowing us to fund the rest of the fast research and finish our own upgrades (just one more horse to go). Plus, we should cash a barb camp in 2 turns, further improving our balance.

As for iron - feel free to ask at any time.

Cheers,
Radek aka vondrack

And Aggie's response:

Thanks very much. The extra gold will help quite a bit. It will allow us to send a 10 rider force south in 290 instead of a 8 rider force(for a total of 32 riders in the south). Only 2 difference, but that 2 gives a little more margin of error for this force(Since I have a special mssion in mind for this force and it will be on its on more or less). Sounds like you have everything in good shape in Legoland. I'll just Pm when we need iron. Best wishes,
Aggie

[Tiberius]

Pretty exciting the life in south Bob, don't you think ?

[vondrack]

I think we really started in the right place for a builder team...

I am sooooo glad we do not have to face all these riders and ansars ourselves...

[vondrack]

Short message from Aggie:

I was unable to move the worker in your units path, since even if I activated him he still would have been stuck where he was. Just wanted you to know so you could plan movement.

Also could you send Iron this turn. I don't know if we'll need to accept but it would be a good backup if we need it. I am still debating if I want to upgrade this turn or wait another turn.

As always best wishes.
Aggie

[vondrack]

Brief PM from Aggie:

Could you please send iron next turn. when it is time for us to break it this time, we'll provide a worker.
thanks.
Patrick

[vondrack]

Alright... should we proceed with the AS plan as introduced in the Next Turn thread (and so far, the initial feedback seems to be positive), we better start massaging GoW for tech deals, ensuring they do not divert from their proclaimed Military Tradition beeline.

ATM, we would be looking for trading Banking + gold for Chemistry. There is a beaker difference of almost 200b between the techs, so we should throw in some extra gold, if for nothing else, then to at least acknowledge we know the techs are different price. I would start at Banking + 100g for Chemistry, to be exchanged upon the discovery of Chemistry. Negotiable up to 150g extra, but that would make me a little bit upset, as we'd be paying almost the full nominal beaker difference. Not that it would matter that much - should that be the key part allowing to strike the deal as described below, I'd not haggle over the amount in gold too much.

Important part goes here: I would ONLY strike this deal in case we make it Part I of a two-part deal, incorporating a follow-up trade of Astronomy + gold for Metallurgy. This is important in order to keep GoW from researching Economics, potentially becoming our AS competitor. We would also ensure that we could research Military Theory at any time (or have Voxes research it for us). There is, again, a beaker cost difference of almost 200b between the techs, so I'd go for the same extra gold payment as in the Banking/Chemistry deal.

If they ask for 250g extra (125g+125g) for both techs, I'd take it. The strategic importance of keeping GoW on the path we want them to follow is, IMHO, well worth the money.

The trade agreement proposal would have to include a wording that would oblige GoW to go for Metallurgy right after completing Chemistry (if they take it, good, if not, we'd at least know they intend to try something else and could prepare for that).

We better start doing something about this NOW, before someone else decides to do Banking, lowering the market prices or prearranging any deals.

[ZargonX]

Received from UnO:

Greetings ZargonX!

Just wanted to drop you guys a line, as I have recently been promoted to the new Consul of Foreign Affairs along with the promotion of Master Zen to Emperor. As such, I hope to be speaking with you all allot more in the near future, and hope we can continue our history that has been mutually beneficial to this point.

What is the current structure of your government? Is there a designated person I should be contacting? etc.

Respectfully
UnOrthOdOx

[ZargonX]

My response:

Greetings, friend from across the sea!

First of all, congratulations on your promotion! Since we at Lego abolished all formal government structure, I haven't had many opportunities to get promoted unless I make up the office myself. Ah well.

In terms of contact, feel free to contact myself or Vondrack. Vondrack has been handling most of the official team chats, but I am also available during different hours than him, as well as by PM.

Good luck in your new position, and the people of Lego look forward to carrying on the proud tradition of cooperation between our two nations!

-ZargonX