Team Info and Contacts - Templars

[Zeviz]

I like Ruff's email.

[Swiss Pauli]

Fine by me, too.

[ruff_hi]

email sent ...

Dear Sir Aidun,

Did you receive our email of Nov 12th? We didn't get a reply confirmation so it could have gone astray.

Given the length of time and the in-game developments, that email is a little dated now.

Team RB remains interested in mutually beneficial trade, including tech, resources and religion.

Regards,

Team RB

[mostly-harmless]

Did we ever get a reply from them?

mh

[Swiss Pauli]

No reply as yet. May as well let sleeping dogs lie as far as I'm concerned.

[regoarrarr]

Dear Zeviz,

Yes, we received your email of November 12. As you could perhaps have
told from my last letter, the general atmosphere in the team was one
of annoyance, and against that, even as a Foreign Affairs Minister,
the only thing I could do was insist that isolation holds no hope for
my team and that though difficult it may sometimes seem, cooperation
with your team is the way forward. It took my constant prodding, and
your most recent follow-up letter, to remind my team that silence does
not serve our purposes. I am grateful to you for that.

Meanwhile a counter border proposal has been prepared. It has been
very difficult to get this proposal passed given the atmosphere
described above. The team is not really in a mood to negotiate about
the proposal. Hence we regard it as a momentous achievement to present
this proposal. The proposal requires little explanation. What we have
drawn out is what my team by majority decided to be acceptable city
site locations for your team, much like you did in your proposal.

In this debate I assumed a somewhat odd position, which stems from my
priority to maintain a good relationship with your team. I am not
defending your team's interests, that is something that I feel is your
responsibility. Still, I do try to achieve, within the constraints
imposed on me by the 'public opinion' within my team, a solution that
is workable for both parties and that is fair to both. I hope you can
recognize this effort on my part in the proposal.

Two things, especially, I have argued for. The first is to pay heed to
your concern about the quality of land for your team and to allow your
team room to expand and to allow it more than just some low-value
land. Secondly, I realize that copper is an important resource for
you, vital for your security. For that reason I have argued to provide
for the opportunity for your team to establish a corridor from your
capital to the copper city, so that your units can reach it over land
without having to cross borders. This concern for your security has
also played an important role in the settlement of Jericho.

I hope we can resume cooperation from this point and put the issues
that have troubled our relationship over the past two months behind
us. This may not happen overnight, but I am optimistic that with
genuine devotion to cooperate for mutual benefit, our teams can grow
towards each other again, much like the friendly atmosphere at the
start of this game.

Best regards,

Sir Aidun
Foreign Affairs Minister of the Knights Templar

[regoarrarr]

Since our newest city whose name I have forgotten already violates this, I guess that shows them that they should email a bit sooner?

[ruff_hi]

What do the 'X' mean again? Are they tiles that we can settle on (and West of)? I cannot find the map that we sent to them - did we use the same approach or did we include a line for their cities and a line for ours?

I really think that we need to get some military up and running and settle Bad Ass as soon as possible. You will note that BA is 1 tile East of their stupid line (no mention of something fishy - maybe they haven't seen it yet).

I'll send an acknowledgment and will try to exclude what I really want to say ...

"Wezz been studying your death"

Sir Aidun,

Missive received and passed to team. Thank you for your effort in driving this proposal through.

Cheers,

Ruff

[sooooo]

We can tell them that we have already settled the city on the south coast, but that we agree to their proposal except we want Bass Ass (or whatever it will be called), which isn't covered. I guess they don't want us stealing their cows. But we want those cows! All the more reason to settle that city soonish.

We should add diplomatic blurb etc. Wish to remain cooperative etc. I don't think it is fair for them to give us a "take it or leave it" offer. That's not how negotiation works. Thank Sir Aidun personally for sticking up for our team, maybe mention that the author assumes a similar role in our team (a lie ).

[ruff_hi]

ok, found our proposal. Their response was that City on the Iron that was 1 tile NW of our border. We have already settled outside their proposed border (which they hadn't sent us).

Bad Ass is 1 tile outside their proposed border and I would view that as a 100% satisfactory response to their counter-proposal. Tit for tat.

Once BA is settled, then the border agreement will come into effect, that is, that particular fat lady can sing as the city sites would have been decided.

[sunrise089]

I can't imagine any sort of good proposal here. We've already violated their proposed agreement, and we fully intend to violate it again (and I doubt we can be convinced otherwise). Any non-suicidal reply will tip our hand about settling, and just see Templars grab the spot. Let's just build the settler and escorts ASAP (that is, after Yellow/Green and the two Wonders), settle Bad Ass, and then say "In the interests of peace we promise not to settle any more cities past your proposed line now."

[Sullla]

Ho ho! Templars have some surprises coming. They might want to scout out the map better, and reply to our messages faster than 30+ days later.

Should we mention that we already settled a city past their new diplo line? I mean, it's not our fault, since they didn't send us their proposal until after we settled. How does the team want to play this? (Beyond being aggressive jackas.ses, that is!)

[regoarrarr]

My first reaction is to kind of hem and haw and delay responding and such.

My second reaction though is that there is a big difference between "Sorry we've already settled east of your line" and "we saw your map and now we're going to settle east of it"

So if we don't say anything any time soon about our recent city, they may take it as us deliberately spitting on their agreement.

[sunrise089]

Originally posted by regoarrarr
My first reaction is to kind of hem and haw and delay responding and such.

My second reaction though is that there is a big difference between "Sorry we've already settled east of your line" and "we saw your map and now we're going to settle east of it"

So if we don't say anything any time soon about our recent city, they may take it as us deliberately spitting on their agreement.

I have the opposite take. What regoarrarr says is all well and good if WE'RE NOT ABOUT TO IGNORE THE AGREEMENT TO SETTLE BAD ASS

As soon as we give any sort of deference to the Templar proposal, we make our BadAss plant look that much worse. Imagine if instead of merely stealing our Iron spot, Templars had agreed to not settle the city and then gone ahead and done so.

[ruff_hi]

I think we should take a quick and slow approach ...

Sir Whats-his-face,

Team RB accepts that your team worked long and hard on this border proposal but, unfortunately, game events have over-taken you. You might want to check the current status of the game. [not sure about that last sentence - might leave it out]

That said, Team RB will review the two proposals - our original one and your counter offer and try to do what the US congress is always forced into - preparing a compromise.

We will respond shortly.

Team RB

'Shortly' in Templar's time frame is 15-20 days. Will we be in a position to settler BA by then?