Team Info and Contacts - Imperio

[ruff_hi]

lets send a follow up to this - we need to stay active in trying to talk to these people. As was noted, they have increased their log-in rate.

[Swiss Pauli]

To be honest, I am waiting until we take Jericho to send the next email. I plan to draft something in the next couple of days. We could always send a bland 'any update' email in the meantime, though.

[Swiss Pauli]

Hi Imperio,

Do you have any feedback on our previous proposal?

We are still interested in an alliance that would be able to take on PAL. We think that the best options is for both our teams to get stronger by taking over Templars' cities, and to work together to beat PAL.

We see Damascus, Constantinople, and Acre being a good fit to your existing lands. There's also space by Acre for you to settle another strong city (seafood, river, grass hills).

Finally, let us mention Cape Town. You demanded it for peace, so it's clear that you feel it should have been your city. We must point out that the mapmaker did not put any horses or metals in the western half of our continent. So our choice was to settle Cape Town, or resign from the game in protest at an unfair map.

If you join us against Templars, then Constantinople has Copper and Horses, as well as Rice and rivers which should surely compensate you for missing out on Cape Town.

We look forward to your reply.

Right then people, do we want to follow this up with an email setting out the terms of our alliance against Templars? If we do then we should cover:

1. Jericho is ours, and we're confident we will hold it.

2. We have a large army at Cape Town to deal with any attempt they make against our city.

3. We sign a peace treaty & open borders.

4. Each side sends a military observer (a weak unit) to ensure that the stacks at Cape/Chichen do actually move against Templars.

5. We fight Templars until they are eliminated, then a 20 turn NAP begins between us. This gives us the time to work on an alliance to defeat PAL. If we can't agree a long-term alliance then we have 20 turns to prepare for a long fight against each other for 2nd place behind PAL.


Whilst it looks like we can take Templars without Imperio's aid, I still don't rate our chances of winning the game against a PAL-Imperio alliance of convenience. Thus I'd favour trying to bring in Imperio now, when we have something to offer (a share of Templar's lands).

[sooooo]

I agree we should send something along those lines to Imperio. We should make the point that they must act quickly, because we will be in a position to strike against Constantinople in the next 2 turns.

[Zeviz]

I also agree that we should send something along these lines, saying that Templar defenses are already crumbling. We should not mention attack on Constantinopole, because it will work only if it's a complete surprise.

[Swiss Pauli]

Here we go:

Hi Imperio,

We have now taken Jericho from Templars, and we are confident that we will keep the city if Templars try to take it back. As your spies may have told you, we still have a large army at Cape Town as well.

We are still interested in an alliance with you that would eliminate Templars, and then attack PAL. The details of our proposal are as follows:

1. We sign a peace treaty and open borders.

2. Imperio declares war on Templars.

3. We agree a NAP until Templars are eliminated from the game.

4. To ensure that our respective armies at Cape Town/Chichen Itza do attack Templars, we each send a military observer (e.g. a chariot) to travel with the other team's army.

5. If the armies at Cape Town/Chichen Itza have not moved to Templars borders within 5 turns of agreeing the Peace Treaty, our alliance is cancelled.

6. When Templars are eliminated, there will be a 20 turn NAP between Realms Beyond and Imperio. This period shall be used to work out an alliance to attack PAL. If we cannot agree an alliance to attack PAL, then we have 20 turns to prepare for a long war against each other to see who finishes the game in 2nd place behind PAL.

Now that we have added detail to our proposal, we hope you will find it interesting. We look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Team RB

[ruff_hi]

I especially like the end of #6. Re #6, is that 40 turns after eliminating Templars that the TRB / Imperio war breaks out or is our second mention of '20' the same as the first? If you are suggesting the later, I would change it to ...

If we cannot agree an alliance to attack PAL, then we have the 20 turns of the NAP to prepare for a long war against each other to see who finishes the game in 2nd place behind PAL.

[mostly-harmless]

Wait until we have better idea about Constantinople and have consolidated Jerichos defenses.

No need to rush this now.

mh

[Swiss Pauli]

We do need to rush this: if we're going to tie up a deal together then it needs to be in place before any confrontation at Cape Town which will hurt us both (even if we come out on top as expected). Jericho will be fine.

If we raze Constantinople then we can follow up by email explaining it was a tactical necessity.

[mostly-harmless]

Well, I diasgree. A battle at Capee Town will benefit us more. Even with a balanced outcome, we have a better position to re-fill the ranks, Imperio will be hurt more. But with our superior military command, we will have a better outcome than "balanced".

Lets solve the Constantinople situation first, then we launch another round of diplo towards Imp and Tem.

mh

[Zeviz]

We should include alliance against PAL in the original proposal. It would be suicidal for Imperio to agree to join us against Templars without a guarantee that our armies will go against PAL next. If Imperio can't stop us while allied with Templars, how will they stop us when Templars are gone?

So any alliance we propose has to last until the elimination of PAL

[Swiss Pauli]

@mh - the big winners of an Imperio-RB confrontation are PAL and Templars. Templars have made the right decision by moving to attack us, so we have to cover three fronts right now, which will be a real pain even if we do come out on top.

@Zeviz - concluding an alliance now to last until PAL is eliminated is completely unrealistic: just how are we supposed to structure such a deal? We have offered them a good chunk of Templars lands, and made it clear that we want to ally with them to attack PAL, as well as giving them the security of a NAP (so they can use that time to ally with PAL if they want). Also, by not allying with us now they risk that we get all Templars lands, so there's a carrot and a stick at work here.

[Zeviz]

I guess we can send your proposal and see if they come back saying "what guarantee can you give that you will not turn against us after Templars are gone?", but we should at least remove the "if we can not agree on an alliance" part of point 6. (That part makes it sound like we aren't really serious about allying with them against PAL.)

[sooooo]

I do like the email but I am with mh in preferring to send after we have moved but before Imperio do.

[Swiss Pauli]

Another version:

Hi Imperio,

We have now taken Jericho from Templars, and we are confident that we will keep the city if Templars try to take it back. As your spies may have told you, we still have a large army at Cape Town as well.

We are still interested in an alliance with you that would eliminate Templars, and then attack PAL. The details of our proposal are as follows:

1. We sign a peace treaty and open borders.

2. Imperio declares war on Templars.

3. We agree a NAP until Templars are eliminated from the game.

4. To ensure that our respective armies at Cape Town/Chichen Itza do attack Templars, we each send a military observer (e.g. a chariot) to travel with the other team's army.

5. If the armies at Cape Town/Chichen Itza have not moved to Templars borders within 5 turns of agreeing the Peace Treaty, our alliance is cancelled.

6. Imperio will attack and capture Damascus, Constantinople and Acre. Realms Beyond will defend Jericho, attack & capture Jerusalem.

7. When Templars are eliminated, there will be a 20 turn NAP between Realms Beyond and Imperio. This period shall be used to work out an alliance to attack PAL.

It is clear that if we cannot agree an alliance to attack PAL, then we will probably end up fighting each other. We don't think this would be a good idea: PAL will support the team that seems to be losing, and we will end up in a stalemate until PAL wins the game. We would like to repeat our strong desire to fight PAL, not each other.

Now that we have added detail to our earlier proposals, we hope you will find it interesting. We look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Team RB