Imperio: Diplomacy Thread #2

[Swiss Pauli]

From what we can see, Imperio is a minimum of 2 turns away from attacking Damascus (more likely 3 as they have 2 Muskets en route), and 3-4 away from Constantinople, as they seem to lack roads near the border.

If we take Constaninople and Imperio does manage to road the tiles, then I think their culture will stop 2 tiles away from the city. This would only leave us exposed to their small amount of 2-movers (against which we have plentiful counter-units).

The downside is losing the element of surprise against Imperio, but the fact that they've missed turns recently means we can't rely on them even as an enemy, so we should press on and deal with their mega-stack as and when we need to.

[Sullla]

Should we send off a quick email to Imperio asking:

- When are you entering the war against Templars?
- Where are you planning to attack?

Obviously we would like to know this info, but alternately we could simply stay quiet and watch to see where their stack goes. What does everyone think is the better play?

[Swiss Pauli]

We already asked them for their plans 5 days ago and got no reply, so maybe we should sit tight and wait for them to take the initiative?

[sooooo]

Probably we should wait and see what they do.

[mostly-harmless]

Wait and see.

mh

[MyOtherCar]

I agree, next turn will make clear where their stack is headed for sure.

[sooooo]

I thought of this ruse to hook in imperio: We could offer them to bombard the defences of Constantinople and attack with some troops in return for the gold they get from plundering the city when they capture it. We could say that our obsolete troops are costing a lot of maintenence and it would be nice to "convert" them into gold.

Whether they actually give us the money is irrelevant, but if they agree to the plan then they'll capture the city and have their stack right next to ours and we'll get the first catapult strike in. The point is that it gives us an excuse to have our troops standing near the city.

[Sullla]

We don't even need to go that far - we can simply tell them that we have an army in the area, and would like to help them capture the city to get revenge on Templars. Or does that sound more suspicious? I'm not sure. Whatever we think will work best at persuading them.

Anyway, we need to wait and watch where the Imperio stack moves before sending them any further messages. If they spend one more turn moving towards Constantinople, then I think we're good to go forward with sooooo's message (or some similar variation).

Thank goodness that Imperio fell asleep for those four or five turns, so that we were already in possession of Jerusalem when they moved on Constantinople. If we play our cards right, this could line up absolutely PERFECTLY for us, with Imperio using up a sizable portion of their uberstack to kill the last major Templar army, and then our own fully healthy forces crushing the remnants of both!

[Kodii]

I was thinking of sending a message along the lines of:

Hi, we noticed that you have been inactive over the last few turns. As such, we have moved our troops to Constantinople to bombard their defences to help you capture the city faster. I hope you don't mind!

[sooooo]

We don't even need to go that far - we can simply tell them that we have an army in the area, and would like to help them capture the city to get revenge on Templars.

Hi, we noticed that you have been inactive over the last few turns. As such, we have moved our troops to Constantinople to bombard their defences to help you capture the city faster. I hope you don't mind!

Eeek, both of these are very transparent. Imperio may act strangely sometimes but they weren't born yesterday. We need to phrase it so that we seem to have a decent incentive to be there, not just to help them or for revenge.

[sooooo]

An email from Imperio:

Hola RB,

Primero disculpad nuevamente unestra mala comunicación. Ahora mismo esta naldorinho sólo controlando la partida y no puede con todo .

Quiero felicitaros por la captura de Jerusalem, sois unas máquinas de guerra perfectas . Entiendo que nos ayudaréis con la guerra a Templars ¿es asi? Bueno entonces nosotros atacaremos el turno 164 exactamente, serÃa interesante que el turno siguiente (163) vosotros hicieráis una avanzada militar para distraerlo aunqe sin arriesgar vuestras tropas.

Sobre lo de cerrar fronteras lo veo complicado. De momento queremos tener a PAL como neutral y tratar de convencerles de que nosotros no somos un peligro, si cerramos fronteras PAL va a empezar a desconfiar.

Muchas gracias por todo!

Un saludo
Naldorinho

Errrr .... let's go run this through babelfish.

[sooooo]

The direct translation from the fish in someone's ear:

Hello RB, First you excuse again unestra bad communication. Right now this naldorinho only controlling the game and cannot yet: (. I want felicitaros by the capture of Jerusalem, you are perfect machines military: p. I understand that you will help us with the war to Templars it is thus? Good then we will exactly attack the turn 164, would be interesting that the following turn (163) you hicieráis a military outpost to distract it aunqe without risking your troops. On the one to close I see it to borders complicated. At the moment we want to have to the PAL like neutral and to try to convince to them that we are not a danger, if we closed borders the PAL is going to begin to distrust. Thank you very much by everything! A greeting Naldorinho

[sooooo]

I want some felicitaros too! Maybe with a salsa dip.

[Swiss Pauli]

All very friendly as far as I can tell, but no mention of which city they're targeting: Naldo's a one-man-show...thanks for Jerusalem...we're a proper war machine...something about distracting Templars on 163 (I think)...they're trying not to stir up PAL.

EDIT: we can wait til our US members wake up for a translation, as there's nothing too urgent. And either Naldo's great at bluffing, or they don't expect our backstab at all.

[sooooo]

Naldo seems like a nice guy. I'm going to feel slightly bad when we betray them - I have been pming him and I think I'm going to get some abuse.

I think him asking for a distraction is a nice coincidence. Around 25 units outside their city is a good distraction!