Team Info and Contacts - Banana

[mostly-harmless]

Don't underestimate Banana. They are going for walls and castles in their cities. And they also have a much clearer view into PALs military than we have, because they have enough espionage points to have the PAL cities un-fogged.

mh

[regoarrarr]

Aren't walls and castles obsolete once gunpowder is discovered? Seems like PAL is on the same bloodbath plan that we are

[mostly-harmless]

To be honest I am puzzled by PALs strategy. Why have they not finished off Rabbits? There is lots of good lands on that side of the continent. Whereas the Banana land is not that much and probably much harder to get.

mh

[sunrise089]

Maybe PAL doesn't mind sitting pretty in the lead. I'm guessing they think they can kill their neighbors quickly with strength-12 Curaisars whenever they want to.

[sooooo]

Draft email:

Hi Donovan,

An email to update you about events on our continent.

Firstly, the war. Our military general has devised a lightning strike at Jericho. We moved a sizeable stack outside the city walls this turn and will take it next turn. We are not 100% sure if we will be able to keep the city - this depends on the templar response. If we do, and we are cautiously optimistic about this, we will probably be able to give you your iron back since the city was built on iron. We have noticed your desire to get iron back as quickly as possible and it will be prominent in our decision of whether to keep the city.

We are extremely grateful for your 120g loan and we will get nationalism next turn. Needless to say we will give it to you next turn too. All being well, the loan will be repayed on T151.

We were wondering if you had a scout in PAL lands? We are trying to estimate PAL's eta on the Taj Mahal and think they are building it in a city that neither of us could see when we traded maps. We think it is 3W, 1N of Memphis. If you could view the city just for one turn and then trade us your map, the city will be listed in our espionage screen. From the cost to sabotage production in that city we can track the hammers being put into a build. So if it wouldn't be too much trouble to get a spy or a scout to view that city it would help us out. The other remaining PAL city we think is 3N of Pi-Rameses and a look into that city would also be useful.

Other than that, your updated etas for banking and gunpowder would be useful.

If we can be of any help to you, please ask.

Realms Beyond

[T-hawk]

I like it, except that I'd like to be a bit more vague about tracking hammers via espionage. How about "We can look at the cost to sabotage production to spot a city with lots of invested hammers."

[sunrise089]

I like it, except that I'd like to be a bit more vague about tracking hammers via espionage. How about "We can look at the cost to sabotage production to spot a city with lots of invested hammers."

How about "we can gain some more information about PAL courtesy of the espionage system?"

[sooooo]

I spoke to banana in-game and he answered most of the questions in the email.

Main points:

• He will get banking next turn.
• He does not have a scout or spy in PAL lands and will not do so because of the terms of their NAP. He has also been wanting for a while to locate their final two cities.
• He has informed PAL that he will not sever relations with us and has not had a reply from them yet.
• I told him we would attack Jericho next turn and there is a chance he can get his iron back if we keep it. He was pleased and with tongue in cheek he told us to capture constantinople next for a second supply of horses.

[sooooo]

I made Sunrise's amendment and sent this email anyway:

Hi Donovan, most of our questions for you were answered when you spoke to me in-game, but I thought I'd send you the email anyway. Ignore the request for views of the PAL cities because we understand your NAP situation.

----------------

Hi Donovan,

An email to update you about events on our continent.

Firstly, the war. Our military general has devised a lightning strike at Jericho. We moved a sizeable stack outside the city walls this turn and will take it next turn. We are not 100% sure if we will be able to keep the city - this depends on the templar response. If we do, and we are cautiously optimistic about this, we will probably be able to give you your iron back since the city was built on iron. We have noticed your desire to get iron back as quickly as possible and it will be prominent in our decision of whether to keep the city.

We are extremely grateful for your 120g loan and we will get nationalism next turn. Needless to say we will give it to you next turn too. All being well, the loan will be repayed on T151.

We were wondering if you had a scout in PAL lands? We are trying to estimate PAL's eta on the Taj Mahal and think they are building it in a city that neither of us could see when we traded maps. We think it is 3W, 1N of Memphis. If you could view the city just for one turn and then trade us your map, we can gain some more information about PAL courtesy of the espionage system. So if it wouldn't be too much trouble to get a spy or a scout to view that city it would help us out. The other remaining PAL city we think is 3N of Pi-Rameses and a look into that city would also be useful.

Other than that, your updated etas for banking and gunpowder would be useful.

If we can be of any help to you, please ask.

Realms Beyond

[sooooo]

Draft email for Banana:

Hi Donovan,

Good news! We have captured the city of Jericho, killing 10 templar units with relatively minor losses on our side. We now have our own source of iron so you may cancel your iron gift to us. I don't think we can cancel the deal from our end.

We can see the other Templar stack, and it seems to account for most of the rest of Templars' power. We suspect their city of Acre will be relatively undefended if you want to try to steal it.

What is your eta for gunpowder? Still T155?

Cheers,

Realms Beyond

[mostly-harmless]

Include:

May we ask for the location of your scouting galley? We believe there is a new Imperio city on their northern coast, which we would like to have a line of sight into. Would you agree to trade maps again (and see the crumbled walls of Jericho with your own eyes.)

The idea is to get an updated map from their scouting boat (including IMperio coastal city in the north and confirmation of location of Banana's latest city).
mh

[mostly-harmless]

Had a quick chat with Banana ingame.
Canceled the iron gift.
Banana said we have to sort out something in order to get Banking from them. I am not up to date with our current deals. We gave the NAtionalism this turn.

He also asked what your ETA for Const (ie. Horses) is. I kept vague about that. There is no chance we can get hold of Const's horses, as they are hugged by Jerusalem.

mh

[Dreylin]

Interesting; from a previous e-mail we have this from Donovan:

Once Banking is discovered, I should be able to switch to Gunpowder and will hopefully get it in 9 turns or less. Hopefully this won't change the tech path we discussed earlier. Plus it will allow us to give you both Banking and Gunpowder for Astronomy.

Does that fit with the rest of our lined-up trades?

[Swiss Pauli]

We haven't confirmed the deal he proposed. I was hoping we could try for a tech Plan B, but the threat of Imperial Galleons has put me back in the Optics-Astro camp. Assuming we're all agreed with Optics-Astro, we should confirm the deal and get our hands on Banking.

[sooooo]

Yes, astro for banking+gunpowder sounds good. We will be much later than him, but he said that would be OK.