Team Info and Contacts - Templars

[mostly-harmless]

I would not send a message regarding double move for now. This can serve as ammunition for later diplo conflicts. At the moment it serves no purposes other than to vent our frustration.
Lets sit and wait for their response.
If we appear to have lost a race, it would give Templars a moral boost. If we appear not caring for Jericho, they might regret their hasty city placement, because they could have gone for a more favorable Iron city (after all they got heavy tile overlapping now and loose an Iron mine tile.)

mh

[Zeviz]

I agree.

We can keep playing along with this stalling game, until we are ready to come and get our iron.

[sooooo]

Yeah, if we send an angry message we tell them that we were planning to swipe that city site on the borders of their capital. Bad relations will ensue.

[mostly-harmless]

I am very surprised that Templars have not send us a pacifying message yet. It is what we would have done in their case.

mh

[Zeviz]

Originally posted by mostly-harmless
I am very surprised that Templars have not send us a pacifying message yet. It is what we would have done in their case.

mh

I suspect they want to settle the Marble spot before restarting negotiations. We can't really blame them for following our philosophy of settle first, talk later.

Perhaps offering them a border agreement was a mistake, because it revealed to them the extent of our territorial ambitions. In the future, we should probably ask the other side to draw up a map first.

[Sullla]

But that works both ways diplomatically - if they respond in kind to our aggressive settling, they have no grounds for protest. Given that we're in good position to end up winning all but one settling race, that's a pretty good result for us.

And if they want to get that marble spot before us, they better do it in the next two turns. I don't see that happening.

[sooooo]

I think they did not write a pacifying message because they did not consider the region to be contested. It is very close to their capital and Damascus.

[mostly-harmless]

Still, they double moved their settler there showing unprecedented activity.
And we had a Chariot camped on the Iron.

It was also clear from our draft border agreement that we considered that region was contested.

Being perhaps too paranoid, but I hope this absent of communication does not hint on a second settler heading for Southern Marble.

mh

[Swiss Pauli]

I think they're smart enough to realise a pacifying message won't wash: they knew that we'd know they double moved.

And when it comes to a proper reply, then they're probably struggling to come up with something that doesn't betray the fact that their whole idea was to stall our expansion.

Lastly, I don't think they will have a settler ready in the short term as their army is committed to defending Jericho.

[sooooo]

Oh, haha, I think I know the reason they double moved: Krill asked them what time their settler was due to the spot, like he did to us. Hence I doubt they even know if they were competing for the spot with us or with Imperio. Maybe they even slaved their settler to get it there quicker.

Krill: can you stop doing that please?

[mostly-harmless]

No Slavery for Templars yet. But your theory makes some sense. Ack.

mh

[Swiss Pauli]

They didn't slave the settler cos they're not running the civic. And I think the double move might have been caused by them thinking that our chariot was waiting for an imminent settler.

[ruff_hi]

The current situation between us and Templars is ...

1) we suggested a border
2) they laughed and said try again
3) we said, no - you give it a try
4) they said (in game) - how about this!

I believe that our correct response to this is to settle a city quickly (which we are) but settle it so that it takes a city site within the 'contested area'. Does the fish-marble site do that? What about we head towards the stone rice site and settle there as a suitable response? We could also call the city 'Response'.

[Swiss Pauli]

We don't have the military to be so provocative, and rice/stone will take too long to get up to speed, so the marble is a better spot. It's still a contested one, but not as much as rice/stone would be.

[mostly-harmless]

I was playing with that idea as well, but:
1. The spot (on the grassland hill) is really surrounded by jungle and would need serious worker action. More suitable for a commerce city with little production. So not good as a front line city.
2. Jerusalems culture already would claim two tiles of the inner circle, meaning they can walk up to the city in peace time. Again not good to defend.
3. I consider that area to be Templars last good settlement spot. Settling there ourselves now, will box them in at a time, where we can't back up our claims with units I am afraid.

Lets see it like this: With Southern Marble and Pink Dot we have two good production cities close by. When the conflict comes we can easily take whatever Templars settled in that area complete with towns & villages and what not.

mh