Team Info and Contacts - Templars

[mostly-harmless]

I am with sunrise here, leave the line in.
Looks good.
Send it asap please.

mh

[Sullla]

That's a very nicely worded message, and I heartily approve. Great work.

(And then... the Templars waiting game began... again...)

[sooooo]

Email and pm sent.

[mostly-harmless]

No answer yet?
They also have not researched drama yet, indicating that they are doing something else right now.
On top of that they are marching their army to the border.

Their soldier points have increased a lot in the last turns, so we can assume there is more hidden in the fog.

I am in favor of a short stern warning. I know I will be outvoted on the idea again. So I won't spent much time in phrasing it :

BUGGER OFF!

mh

[sooooo]

I got this via pm.

Dear Zevis Interin Ambassador of Team Realms Beyond.

I posted your message in our forum and there is I believe a generally positive attitude to tech exchange that RB have proposed. We acknowledge the generosity in the deal offered.

There is still discusssion ongoing about the NAP extension. I will get back to you when that is complete.

Yours Templars

Hercules.

[sunrise089]

A joke perhaps?

[Kylearan]

Hi,

maybe it's a silly attempt to make us think they won't attack, so that we move units out of Pink to reinforce Cape against Imperio?

-Kylearan

[mostly-harmless]

For us to take this message seriously in the charged atmosphere on our continent, we would ask you to move your units sitting next to our borders back one tile east.
TeamRB

Those guys are funny.

mh

[Sullla]

Well let's wait and see what happens. I agree that this is probably BS, but if it isn't, and Imperio is the only ones attacking us, all the better. We may as well go on pretending that Templars are our friends diplomatically (and preparing militarily as though they aren't) right up until they commit themselves one way or another.

Why not send a message back asking them when we can make the agreed-upon tech deal? It certainly won't hurt, and it could potentially help. We can also remind them that there's no way in hell they're getting the trade done without the NAP portion of the agreement.

[sooooo]

Did they move any more units towards our border last turn? Sunrise?

I think templars will be playing a waiting game to see who comes out on top during our war. Can they see both of our demographics?

[mostly-harmless]

Either Templars are committed to attack us, then it does not matter what we send them or if we send them anything at all. Or they are not committed to the attack, in which case we can forget to trade for Drama, as they have still not finished Divine Right or whatever they are researching since 9 turns and Drama will take another 5 turns on top of that.

From their lack of response up to now and their marching up their army to our borders (nicely timed with Imperios stack) it is safe to assume they are committed.

So not waste diplo on them and send a simple:

ok.

mh

[regoarrarr]

I disagree m-h. I think we should continue to try and play nice with them diplomatically (while preparing for the worst).

I think that we should send them a short email saying something along the lines of

"It appears war is about to break out. We have more than enough to handle Imperio's stack. And we have more than enough to handle your stack. If you both attack, and continue pressing the attack, we may slowly lose ground but in the end, PAL is just going to win. How about the 2 of us NAP, and team up and hit IMPERIO!"

[sunrise089]

@Sooooo - No more troop than the seven they had.

@Rego, M_H - I think a conventional friendly email is probably the way to go. I think it's useless but cheap to produce. I'll give it a shot in a bit.

[sunrise089]

Proposal:

Noble Templar,

We were pleased to see your latest email, and happy that diplomatic channels remain open and cordial. Our relationship with Imperio is a sad example of how a breakdown in communications can hurt both teams, and unfortunately it only takes one difficult party to ruin a close working relationship no matter how committed the other party is to cooperation and friendship.

Despite the current stressful situation on our continent, RB would still be happy to make the previously-discussed trade with the Templars. And we remain as committed to the NAP as ever. We would love to agree to a NAP now and make the trade as soon as you have Drama available. Do you have an ETA on the tech?

RB would also like to re-affirm our case for peace on our continent. Perhaps your civilization has some influence on Imperio and can convince them to see reason. RB is more than capable and more than willing to defend ourselves, but even a victorious war will be bittersweet not only because it allows PAL to continue running away with the game, but because it demonstrates a failure of our earnest efforts to build peaceful relationships with our neighbors.

I'm reminded of the time before the first world war when "the lamps were going out all over Europe." The civilizations then felt compelled by inertia to a bitter and bloody war. And yet, so long as there was still peace, war was never truly inevitable.

It is our earnest hope that peace can still be secured across our entire continent. If others' actions make that impossible however, we still the seeds of Templar-RB cooperation can still bear fruit.

We're sure Templars would like time to ensure our trade offers are truly in your best interest. Please be aware though that events are moving beyond RB's ability to set the pace. The quicker we can secure our tech trade and NAP the quicker we can ensure the competitiveness of both our fine civilizations.

-RB

[regoarrarr]

I like it