GS FA thread 1

[Beta]

My response:

Re: Map offer and other issues
Greetings zeit.

I understand your position on the "military advisor" matter. I will take your advice and limit the discussion to the political situation. I will send shortly a letter explaining our recent political dealings with the Bobians.

As to the trade- feudalism would be a nice-to-have. But not essential. We can create Immortals cheaper than Med. Infantry.

But we are willing to trade our world map for cash. I hate to be persistent on this, but our operation is underway as I speak. We have three warriors ready to upgrade to Immortals and go across on the next ferry trip. And our treasury is low. We need cash. Now.

May I suggest a staright deal of our world map - the current in-game map of the entire world - including the known areas of Legos - for 95 gold. But we need to do the deal this turn. Please. I will send the world map, and you put 95 gold on the table, and accept, and we complete the deal next turn.

Please let me know asap, as in this evening. We are sitting on the save awaiting conclusion of this as well as another discussion. And be prepared for some political fireworks to erupt. Wish us luck, fellow Esonians!

Regards ... Beta

[Beta]

This was the revised letter I sent to zeit. I left the unit figures in there. They will be misleading. Particulary since we have roughly 3 times that number of immortals.

Dear zeit

As per your recommendation, I have taken my previously prepared draft and deleted the specific military descriptions and questions. Again - I understand your reluctance to provide such advice from a game perspective.

But I will give you a general outline of our intentions, and our reading of the politics.

The upcoming Bob 2 mission is appropriately named Operation MacArthur. ("People of Wittlich West, I will return.") We learned a few things from our first excursion. One - don't under-estimate their reaction time. Two - take sufficient force to back your words. And three - claim the best defensive terrain quickly.

The NE corner of Bob is hilly territory, except for a plain closest to the point which overlooks North Estonia. You will see this from the map after the trade. And on that plain is Wittlich West - now named Desolation Point by GoW.

Our intent is to land in force - 6 Immortals and 6 Spearmen - and on the hills. We will use two galleys and can have everyone across very quickly. We will also be taking a settler over fairly soon to build another city. The existing city will likely then be taken by cultural conversion, or we can negotiate a sale depending how the diplomatic situation unfolds, or we simply take it by force.

We expect the initial NeuD and GoW reaction to be similar to last time. What is not clear is whether they will be willing to commit to a longer term war of attrition if we can convince them of our limited goals of 4 or 5 cities on Bob, and prove that it will be costly to kick us out. We have been trying to negotiate exactly this for some time now. An agreement that specifies the number of cities allowable - and even where. Similar to the deal we reached earlier on.

We are also counting somewhat on tensions between RolePlay and their neighbours to hopefully prevent the kind of united front we met last time - and maybe make GoW and NeuD reconsider the prospects of a two-front war.

We will continue to commit reserves to Bob, and given the supremacy of defence over offence, we expect the beach-head will hold quite well.

Any thoughts from a diplomatic angle would be appreciated. Thank-you in advance for your input. And, wish us luck.

..... BetaHound

[Beta]

Hurray!!!! Just got this back from zeit.

RE: Re: Map offer and other issues
Okay, i'll update our turn thread- delay the turn, and we'll do so ourselves if we need the time. Please send the map, and we'll reply with the gold if the team agrees.

Zeit.

[Beta]

Good thing this is just a game - or I would rot in hell for all eternity for the lies I am spinning.

[mjmacy]

Beta, you have woven an web of lies the likes of which I have never seen. I salute you. Bravo Beta Bravo.

[Konquest02]

I just hope we don't get tangled in the web we've woven...

[argha]

At least you have an edict memory with the post and can check yourself in your lies.

[Beta]

sent to GS tonight after the turn.

Hope I explained the embassy thing OK. And notice the subtle map marketing.

Greeting Nathan.

I understand zeit is away, and I wanted to update GS on what has been a busy day at Vox.

We have made a public announcement of our landing. GoW would see it next turn anyway - so we thought it best to be pro-active. This should be interesting. We had almost reached an agreement with GoW on a settlement arrangment but it fell apart at the 11th hour. We are hoping that RolePlay is the crack in the alliance and that we can exploit it. There are indications that we may be able to. We have had an embassy with Roleplay for a number of turns now, hoping to be able to negotiate them into an in-game alliance against the others - if we cannot work out a peaceful settlement. There is still a chance that this may happen - and our timing of landing in force - and hopefully getting ourselves peacefully established before chivalry - is intended to help them see the logic in a peaceful settlement. Time will tell.

Speaking of embassies, that is the other piece of news. After a long debate in the Voxian senate it was decided to also establish embassies with you and Lego. Several argued that the ability to form in-game alliances outweighed the cost in gold, and the military uses it could go to. An in-game alliance was seen to compel compliance. Others, myself included, argued that this could be accomplished out-of-game, at no cost. However, the vote was 5-3 for, with Dissident being away. So our ambassadors can finely meet on plush carpets and in comfortable chairs.

The one big advantage to you in this is that our world map now highlights the Lego capital, in addition to the large portion of the Lego coast which is visible. All of Bob is covered, including a smaller island to the west with two GoW cities. I cannot recall this being mentioned anywhere. We have offered our world map to you this turn as per zeit's instructions. This will allow discussion at your end, and if you agree, just add the gold and accept. Thank-you. The gold is appreciated - particularly with the embassy cost. (arrgghh)

Back to the alliance issue - we want to re-assure you that at no time in our negotaitions with the continental civs did we ever feign your support in our cause, nor did we ever threaten your involvement along side of us. I am not sure what the Bobians make of our relationship. Several suspect the trade agreement which has existed for awhile, but we clearly know more about them then they do about us. So we took no liberties whatsoever with your position in any of this. We would not presume to do so.

However, that being said, we would like to discuss with you the longer-term possibilities in this regards. If the Bobian landing gets really nasty - and we obviously hope it doesn't - we may want to discuss with more vigor the possibility of an alliance. It would be one way of cutting the continental civs down to size - and better that we do it on their turf than ours. Our timing is such that we want to get established - by force if necessary - well before chivalry is available. I am sure that chivalry and what it entails will heighten the tensions between RP and their neighbors (and the map explains why their neighbors might be a bit aggravated), and that we become a sideshow. That will give us an opportunity - to either firmly establish ourselves - or perhaps do some serious damage. Getting ahead of myself here. Anyways - that was some of the thinking behind the in-game alliance matter. But we do not need to decide that tonight.

It has been a long day. Sorry to ramble. But thought it best we kept you in the loop,. We will let you know how things develop.

Regards.... Beta.

[Beta]

And just received.

The Map Deal

Sorry about not getting back to you faster on the map deal; people aren't weighing in all that quickly, but so far, the response to your latest offer has been uniformly positive. Assuming the trend doesn't reverse itself all of a sudden, the deal will go through. Just thought you'd like to know.

Nathan

[Beta]

Mosr recent correspondence:

Thank-you. It will go to a good cause. .... Beta.

nbarclay wrote on 08-04-2003 06:05:

The gold for the map purchase is on its way.

[Konquest02]

This is great news... GS is even "willing" to support us in our war with GoW! I say we should not be too aggressive in our trading, so that we can keep our chances on this deal... I hope it's done fairly soon though...

--Kon--

[argha]

Go! GS, won't they be suprised when they find they financed apart of this war with them

[Beta]

Originally posted by argha
Go! GS, won't they be suprised when they find they financed apart of this war with them

Yup - that was my subtle reference to a 'good cause'.

[Eli]

I'm too excited about all this.

When is the war chat?

[Wittlich]

Nbarclay's (GS) support of our "war" on Bob in the open forum is starting to make me feel guilty....Ah well, such is life...and war.