Banana: Diplomacy Thread #2

[sooooo]

Email sent.

[MyOtherCar]

very nice ... you mentioned gunpowder without actually mentioning gunpowder. I like it .

He did?

[T-hawk]

Yeah, I don't see any reference to Gunpowder either, unless Ruff means it by the note about freeing up one of our stacks.

Banana actually makes a good point about our need for Gunpowder. We're doing fine on defense without it. We want it for offense. And I can understand Banana not wanting to facilitate that. If we conquer our continent, Banana's not going to win, as surely as if PAL conquered theirs. I'm pretty sure that's what he was hinting at, and we'll need to tread carefully here.

[timmy827]

When I logged in Banana has accepted the deal we proposed (map trade + giving them the 12g interest). I panicked thinking I had to make a decision and combed this thread carefully to make sure that's what we wanted before realizing that we (sooooo?) had initiated the deal

They included the message "maybe this will inspire you to bust a move on Optics/Astronomy", as their caravel/explorer has reached the New World:


Looking at what M-H was interested in, we now see Maygar and Eisenburg:

Both were right where the signs were marked, removed them.
The new Banana city is 3S of Fried Banana, not too exciting. Picks up the cow right outside the capitals BFC but not much else.

[ruff_hi]

He did?

Yeah, I don't see any reference to Gunpowder either, unless Ruff means it by the note about freeing up one of our stacks.

Of course he did ... it is right here:

Imperio shockingly contacted us by email last turn. There's a lot of negotiating to be done, but they might be willing to back down against us. That's good, since if we can do that, and we had gunpowder, we can take out templars quicker and concentrate (ie come to your rescue) more on PAL.

[sooooo]

I'm not going to send anything off about this for a while, but for my own and your reference, here are our tech deals with banana. The techs we supplied are listed first in each case.

Monarchy+Aesthetics+Literature for Machinery. We supplied all 3 techs upfront.

Horseback Riding for Compass. A tech-for tech trade, nothing supplied upfront.

Construction for Calendar. We supplied construction upfront.

Engineering for Feudalism. We supplied engineering upfront.

Nationalism for Guilds (includes gift/bribe for not trading with Imperio). Banana supplied Guilds upfront

Drama for nothing. This was supplied for free on the turn we discovered it. Though maybe it should be combined with the next deal.

Astronomy for Banking + Gunpowder. Banana have supplied banking upfront.

So in conclusion we have supplied 6 techs upfront. Banana have supplied 2.

I'm pretty sure we can persuade them to supply gunpowder upfront too if we write a good email and give them an accurate eta for astronomy.

[ruff_hi]

In other news ... Banana is now #3 in score, passing Imperio. I know it doesn't mean much, but it is an improvement.

[sunrise089]

I think it's great news. Now if only the tactical situation wasn't so one-sided...

[Swiss Pauli]

Had a look in-game this morning, and Banana have pushed back the borders of Pi-Ram somewhat. This is to be expected given that Pi-Ram is the Taoist holy city when PAL is in Confu, and all its culture must have come from an artist bomb.

There might even be a chance for Foster to steal Pi-Ram's horses if it can push out a whole load of culture whilst PAL are distracted by Rabbits and their quest for Iron. Can Team RB Micro take a look at this to see whether Banana can realistically do anything?

[Dreylin]

From the civics thread:

We probably need to ask Banana if/when they are going to Mercantilism, since if we do so then they will lose routes with us and take a commerce hit as a result.

[sooooo]

Meh, not much commerce. They have 7 cities, 14 trade routes. If we go mercantilism they'll still get routes to 11 overseas cities (templars+imperio) and will get 3 routes to PAL cities.

But if they declare war on Templars and/or close borders with PAL then they'll probably be best in mercantilism because they are in representation.

[T-hawk]

In the tech-fronting department, we could also point out that Banana has gotten ahead of us recently because we've allowed asymmetrical Open Borders. They have trade routes to us but we don't to them. In our own self-interest, we should have closed borders with Banana as we did with PAL, but we've left it open to unilaterally help Banana. (Somebody with a better diplomatic tongue than me needs to wordsmith that point. )


We wouldn't want to, but we could even threaten to cancel Open Borders as a threat. "You want Gunpowder time to line up with Astronomy? Well now it does, mwa ha ha!"

[Dreylin]

We wouldn't want to, but we could even threaten to cancel Open Borders as a threat. "You want Gunpowder time to line up with Astronomy? Well now it does, mwa ha ha!"

Yeah, lets get a better diplomatic tongue to write that one!

[Dreylin]

Message from Banana - looks like Imperio has been in touch....

Hello Realms Team!

Thank you for all of the vital info last turn. We are going to try to be ready for anything re: PAL. And of course, we won't share this info with Imperio, even though we just started trading emails.

Hey, question. What are the chances of you offering Nationalism to Imperio for Gunpowder and peace? I am not sure if that is in your best interests, but it would be a way for you to get Gunpowder easily and solve our temporary tech difference. We will be researching Chemistry next, which may time an Astronomy/Chemistry deal better between us. It could also lure Imperio to our side and alienate PAL. I am sure they will be upgrading their Macemen to Muskets the minute they get their hands on it.

I noticed you were on in-game recently with Imperio. Are you both talking? Keep me posted on the juicy details!

So, how did you like our map? I think we were like 4 tiles ahead of PAL getting to the island, and I am hoping to find some huts. BTW, I must really like you guys to give away this vital info. Please keep that in mind the next time I whine about our tech difference.

That's all for now; I am writing from an undisclosed location and don't have much time (ok, it's the 15-minute express internet at the Library). I'll be in touch!

Regards,
Donovan

[sooooo]

I like this, I think we should write an email to both banana and imperio. We trade nationalism to Imperio for gunpowder. Imperio and banana trade banking for gunpowder.