410ad -- Life in Estonia

[Togas]

Here is the 410 AD save. You will notice that we did not offer peace. After much discussion it was decided to wait for a formal peace treaty before offering peace. However, we do not intend to pursue you in estonia. So
consider this a "cease fire" at this point, to allow peace to break out. I look forward to your response. Also please send all formal response to MZ since he is our COFA and also since I intend to semi-retire to devote more time to the ISDG. However feel free to send anything unofficially if it helps.

Best wishes and happy holidays.
Aggie

Save is in. I'll play it tonight. Not much for us to do, really. I'll post shots when I'm done.

What I'd LIKE for us to do, however, is to stir up some RP about this situation. We're all new characters. We should form a new government. We should address our issues and our roles and get some planning in place.

--Togas

[Aidun]

Now that my illness is over, I'll see if I can do some good roleplay, though christmas is a timeconsuming event.

Aidun

[Togas]

We need to rename these cities, and we need to consider if we want to do any terrain improvements or changes.

I moved all of our workers to "the voice". One pike fort in Miller Town (capital), one sent to Hideout.

Pinta moved on it's slow trek to the new world.

Voice finished temple, starts on barracks.
Miller finished pike, starts on barracks.
Hideout finishes temple in 1 turn.

--Togas

[Togas]

here's the shot

[Nuclear Winter]

Holy sh*t! look at the size of that yellow thing on the minimap!
Well, any chance we´ll ever get the rest of northern estonia, like beta-by-the-sea and elipolis?

[CiverDan]

speaking of which...there is a fairly good chance that Whittlich and/or Beta may try to flip, being so close to our capital. I am assuming we refuse the flip if it happens. [edit: I see they plan on giving us those 2 cities]

On the General State of the game:

Currently there are 2 players with lots of land (Lego & ND) , 2 with smaller land area but strong teams still in ther own right (GS & Vox) and 2 Minor Players (us and Vox). Bob is the only continent where control of the land area hasn't been decided for all practical proposes. Given GoW's "mercenery" game plan, ND is probably (rightfully) afraid that either GS or Lego will hire them to attack ND. Such a move could potentially end up as a dogpile against ND. Clearly what happens with Bob and ND/GoW will determine the direction that the game takes.

[Nuclear Winter]

Ehm, I really dunno what is the current tought amongst the GSers, but I´d like to see some planing for a future war to retake our homeland. Even if we loose on score or whatever this way, we need to end the game with old Spania restored, and that should be our main goal, even if impossible.

[Togas]

Agreed on that. Our long term goal must be to retake Spain by whatever means possible.

--Togas

[Aidun]

And so it will be!

Viva España!
Viva el Rei

Aidun

[Togas]

btw, Cort Haus suggested that we build a lot of 20 sheild catapults for our seawall. They don't need barracks and they're faster to build.

I think it's an excellent solution. For now I'd like to have one city build barracks and pikes, the rest build cats as well as cultural and other structures (libraries, markets, temples).

--Togas

[Aidun]

That is a good idea Togas, but please keep in mind that it is better to buld improvements than military, because we have to catch up with the others while they're warring.

Something you might consider interesting:
I had a chat with Sharpe (and Kloreep was present too) in the Tabemono channel, which I always visit when I am online with mIRC. I told him about the sudden breakdown of my monitor that I had to look for a new one. We chatted a bit about monitors and then he told me that he found it a pity that Pamplona had fallen and that he was no longer on Lego.
This is no lie, Sharpe is no longer on the Lego memberlist.

The exit of Sharpe makes me believe that I know what process is going on in the Lego team and I think I can guess what Vondrack is now up to.

During the war, Sharpe was anti-ND-GoW and pro-us. Because I believe that Lego was not really an ally of ND, they were one of GoW.The structure of the alliance was then Lego-GoW-ND.

Now that Vondrack is aparently loosing his opponents in the team, that means he can get to closer ties with GoW, at the cost of GoW's ties with ND. This means that any future war will be between Lego-GoW and ND. That is something ND cannot win.

Aidun

[Arnelos]

I like that suggestion as well. Hell, if we produce extra, they can be upgraded to cannons (eventually) and handed over to GS for use in any wars... we could essentially be a (more) efficient artillery factory than GS could manage on their own in the north.

[Arnelos]

Aidun,

That is possible, as it is also still possible that Glory of War plans to backstab Legoland rather than Neu Demogyptica. That said, I tend to agree with your assessment that GoW will side with Legoland over Neu Demogyptica, but not because of Sharpe. My impression of Glory of War, as a team, is that they will be more likely to side with Legoland, though that might seem obscenely odd in context of the SPDG past.

Thing is, Glory of War still has time and opportunity to play Legoland and Neu Demogyptica off of one another and try to side with the highest bidder or some such thing.

There lies a faint opportunity for us/GS in this situation. Legoland and ND, if either of them have the faintest bit of common sense, must understand that if a conflict between ND and Legoland is assumed, this gives Glory of War the upper hand. It may be possible for us to encourage one or the other that we hear that Glory of War is siding with the other one... of course, Roleplay Team isn't exactly believable on these counts, so we may have to be clever about using third parties (such as Vox Controli, whom Legoland would believe, or Gathering Storm, who despite being biased, would at least be believable regarding any supposed offers they received from GoW...).

What I'm thinking is that we let slip to Vox Controli perhaps some details of a supposed deal GoW had lined up as a possibility with us for everyone in the game potentially going after Legoland in the future. We try to sound CAUTIOUS about Glory of War's sincerity rather than encouraging Vox Controli to believe it. We play it that we didn't really believe Glory of War's offer was sincere. The reason we'd be telling Vox Controli (suposedly) was that Roleplay Team doesn't have much left to live for and we're just chatting with the other team (Vox) which doesn't have all that much left to do about old times. Since Rhothaerill (who now manages Vox Controli, Beta is their ambassador) is on the American Imperialist team with me (we're the Prez and VP) and I chat with him often, I could easily do this.

Hopefully, Rhothaerill and/or Beta then might carry that news to Legoland with the attached bit that Roleplay Team was SKEPTICAL of GoW's sincerity. The "fact" that Roleplay was skeptical is likely to make the story more believable than it might have otherwise been to Legoland.

Meanwhile, we have Gathering Storm contact Legoland directly and, while they're chatting about something ELSE, mention that Glory of War had offered Gathering Storm the opportunity to buy GoW's services against Legoland in the future, should Gathering Storm desire that. The offer was not followed up on, but GS thought it might be good to let Legoland know about it.

Normally, such a direct approach would be incredibly suspicious, but Gathering Storm has cobbled together enough credibility for itself that Legoland may very well find the lie believable. Furthermore, when and if Legoland asks Glory of War about it, any insistence that Glory of War makes (given their record of sincerity...) is likely to make Legoland more suspicious rather than less.

Ultimately, floating the suggestion that Glory of War may be plotting against Legoland in the long run for their own victory may not actually anything. It may be a seed that takes a long time to bear fruit. But sewing a seed of distrust into the Legoland-GoW alliance wouldn't exactly be a bad idea, if possible. I honestly doubt we'd necessarily succeed at the attempt and GoW-Legoland might STILL strike ND and that might make them so close that our attempt is meaningless by comparison, but that bit of distrust may be useful down the road if ND is taken down the powerful civs remaining are Legoland, GoW, and GS.

As for ND, it's much more difficult to pull something like this off. The tack with them is to be absolutely blunt about our concerns. Show them the evidence we have, our suspicions, what we've got. We tell them that we honestly believe based upon what we know of these people (GoW and Lego) in real life that they are plotting agianst ND. We tell ND that we (RP and GS) are willing to work with ND, but we'll only do so for a price (namely getting much of Spain back).

ND may be unwilling to pay that price until the day GoW and Legoland attack them, which is a liability of this plan, I'll grant. That said, should this eventually take place, they're going to NEED our help and if their survival instinct outmatches their excessive pride, they'll agree to pay much of Spain in return for the aid of Gathering Storm.

No guarantee that any of this would work, but it's certainly worth a shot. We should probably set up a chat with Gathering Storm to discuss ideas like this.

[Nuclear Winter]

I can do the talking with Rothaeril, if needed be, just let me know what he must start to think, and I´ll do my work.

[Aidun]

Let's do it.

About sharpe: I don't see his exit as the cause of an eventual extra shift of Lego towards GoW. I see his exit as the result of that and an indication that something is changing inside Lego.

Sharpe also was a bit of the doves-camp, maybe his exit is an indication that Legoland is shifting to less isolationist position.

This is however all guessing, though interesting to think of. Especially what the consequences of such shifts can be and what can be our opportunities is such a scenario.

Aidun