Team Info and Contacts - Templars

[Zeviz]

So with Imperio possibly gearing up towards us, good relations with templars are even more important.

They were okay with us settling a city (BA) to act as a land bridge between cape town and the rest of our civ, right?

So I say we draw a map saying we'll settle one city in this general area and nothing else further

How's that?

Sounds good. Than I'll pad it with lots of diplo-talk they seem to enjoy so much.

[sooooo]

Yeah, I agree. Simply say we will settle one city in the "connecting zone" between our capital and our copper city, as they allowed us to, and that's it. The tone of the templar's message is quite peaceful, talking about holidays etc, which is nice.

[sunrise089]

Please don't send anything before posting a draft here first though. I'm nervous at the prospect of giving too much away about our settlement plans. No need to do so 20 turns before we settle the spot IMHO.

[mostly-harmless]

What sunrise said.
And again, Templars proposal did explicitly not allow for Bad Ass! So lets not pretend we will follow there suggestion, if we do not so.

If they really that incompetent, I would not find it unlikely that we settle another city south of Jerusalem in 30 turns.

mh

[ruff_hi]

I totally agree with sunrise on this. I haven't even acknowledged receipt. I am going to review the above email and see if I can 'look into their minds'.

Are we looking to keep them off balance, make friends, progress the friendship, other?

[Zeviz]

We are looking to either stall for time, or make friends, depending on whom we plan to attack first when the time comes. (If we have a solid NAP with Imperio when we are ready to go on offensive, we can attack Templars first. If Imperio refuses to renew a NAP and starts building troops, we have to start with them, which would mean that we need Templar friendship.)

[ruff_hi]

comments on email from Templars ...

We have discussed your most recent letter to us. In the light of the
efficiency and productivity of our negotiations, we deem that you
could best provide feedback on the border proposal we sent to you in
our last letter and how it is affected by the settlement of a city by
your team in the south.

I really don't like the word 'deem' here - as if they have the power to tell as what to do ... hmm - probably just me over-reacting. My guess is that they haven't scouted out our new city in the South and, thus, don't know where it is.

For the members of the Templar team the conclusion of the border
negotiations with your team is important. The members are pleased to
note that your team has mentioned explicitly the mutually beneficial
character, a principle of great importance to the team, of the trade
proposed by your team. The members maintain, however, that the border
negotiations take priority over other discussions. This is especially
because the failure to reach an agreement on a border in the past has
negatively affected discussion among the members on trade and
religious exchange.

We've thrown in a whole lot of filler on the BA and they think we really mean it. I cannot believe that they have stopped other parts of the game just because we haven't finalized a BA. We should never finalize a BA and they will stay isolated.

It is my hope that we can continue the positive atmosphere that
breathes from your letter for the renewed border negotiations and what
other discussion could possibly come afterwards.

More filler - this time from them. Note that he said 'my hope' and not the 'hope of Templars'. I am pretty sure that Templars as a whole don't like us.

We've finished settling in the South and thus have no interested in a BA there. We obviously have a desire to settle in the North but I wouldn't explicitly mention that we don't care about the South. I think we should include something like ...

"The Southern area, with its jungle, would require a fair amount of time to develop. We would be willing to invest that time."

[Swiss Pauli]

Seeing as the 2nd paragraph does actually ask for our feedback, we should give them some. I made a bit of a hash of this...someone else can get the original and make a clean job:



Legend:

Red Square: illegal city placement
Grey Square: these tiles do not make for a bridging city
Blue X: our bridging city
Yellow X: possible Templar cities
Blue X with black outline: mistake, should not be added to the final version.

[Zeviz]

I like this, but what should we say about the south? (On one hand, if they are too lazy to scout where our new city is, I don't want to give them free info. On the other hand, we can't just ignore south.) We could say something like "the borders in the south have already been established by natural settling patterns".

[mostly-harmless]

First of all I don't think a map is needed anymore.

We reserve the right to ensure a secure land bridge to Cape Town.
I am fine with Zeviz natural settling patterns.

mh

[Zeviz]

Did we send them "message recieved"? If not, we should send a brief "message recieved, still discussing" note as soon as we can.

[ruff_hi]

suggested email ...

Sir A-guy,

We've received your email and the team is looking at it. There is considerable discussion about the BA in our team (no doubt in your team too) and so this might take us a small amount of time.

Its a pity that we cannot agree on other trade issues without settling the BA as this is limiting development.

Finally, I am assuming that your team will be getting together to watch The Last Templar on NBC. http://www.nbc.com/the-last-templar/

Team RB

[sooooo]

Lol, looks fine.

[Zeviz]

Looks good. Just make sure to call him "Aidun", rather than "A-guy".

[ruff_hi]

email sent - with correct name