Team Sarantium Diplomacy

[UnOrthOdOx]

A conspiracy to attack us is prime among the threats, yes.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Originally posted by polarnomad
Ok. How about?

Double checked the pricing thread.

Cost of purchase is 50 gold (2*Hammer). Otherwise

Sorry, got momentarily mixed up with ye ole Civ III pricing format.

[polarnomad]

Sent to Sarantium:

Sarantium,

Following the slaughter of our unhired neutral chariot north of Khan's Throne last turn, you find yourselves not only at war with the Horde, but also with Team Mercenary. We demand and explanation for your actions, and compensation equivalent to 2 times the hammer cost of said unit, namely 50 gold.

Team Mercenary

[polarnomad]

A response from Sarantium:

Dear Team Merc

The Chariot "could" have been rented to the Horde at any point. We had asked
to rent more units from the Mercs but we were turned down. For all we knew we
were turned down because the Mercs promised more and/or future troops to the
Horde. This "Chariot" could have well been on its way to the front for rental
by the Horde or it could have been spying our troop movements for the Horde.
We are in a state of war and cannot afford to play guessing games as to which
units threaten us and which do not. In the future I suggest you let us know
about any and all troop movements around our borders so that we fully know
what may or may not be in play. If you cannot share that info then all troops
we see gathering near our borders, while we are at war or are threatened with
war will be deemed hostile unless expressly noted otherwise. Good day!

conmcb25
Team Sarantium Minister of Nothingness

[UnOrthOdOx]

OOOOOOOoooooo... con has taken to diplomacy!



I can answer that one sometime tomorrow....

IF we want a really pissed of con, that is. Anything I say is sure to rile him up.

[Kloreep]

I'm inclined to piss him off myself. Perhaps we should state that our policy is now to attack all Sarantium troops outside their borders, since they "could" be used to attack us.

I suppose I can understand their reasoning, but We do label units that are hired, and a turn before they cross a target's border. I honestly don't know what they were thinking, this is something that we cannot tolerate for our own safety & ability to conduct business. If Sarantium won't make with the compensation, I think they should go on our blacklist till we can beat it out of them.

[OzzyKP]

Well I understand their reasoning. But yea, demand payment or go to war.

[rush]

Originally posted by Kloreep
I suppose I can understand their reasoning, but We do label units that are hired, and a turn before they cross a target's border.

Having merc units roaming near the borders would drive any team nuts. Teams would constantly worry about whether the units are going to be hired against them.

Perhaps we should re-assess our labelling and hiring policy to avoid such incidence in the future ? Possibilities are :

1) Units that are not hired are labelled as "NOT FOR HIRE" or "INTERNAL USE" while they are outside our border. "NOT FOR HIRE" units are not allowed to be hired in all situations.

2) Units that are hired are labelled as "HIRED BY XXXXX" once they stepped out of our border.

3) If we are going to implement 2, then of course, all units hired must begin their hiring inside our border. No team will be allowed to hire units roaming outside our border.

4) The hiring policy should be clearly communicated to other teams in the forum.

[polarnomad]

They "could" have contacted us about it before attacking.

EDIT: However, I do agree with rush that our current hiring policy can lead to confusion and paranoia. Perhaps this is something we should look into clarifying.

[Slade Wilson]

Because a single chariot is a terrifying WMD?

Saranitum sounds a bit upset about not being able to hire more units...i doubt their cover story in con's PM;seems more likely they just wanted to dish out some pain.

[polarnomad]

UnO, the contract thread does not specify what Sarantium is paying us for the privilege of suiciding our units. Mathematics?

[UnOrthOdOx]

Yeah, we really messed up the Sarantium contracts.

Lesson learned.

Their payment is tied into one of the tech trades, though which, I'll have to go research.

As for a response to Sarantium, it should include:

Thank you for making suggestions to improve team merc.

Team merc is essentially in beta and looking for ways to improve

We will take the suggestions under advisement.

To clarify, would you have attacked if the unit was designated for Merc use only?

According to our public pricing thread, an attack on a team Merc unit not under contract is an act of war on Team Merc, therefore pay or suffer.

Prettified a little, but I have to shut off the computer now as I clear out of this building. Next week I'll be in total flux job wise, after that I expect to be able to be on more.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Sent to Beta and Con:

Dear Sarantium

You know it's that time of year for me. So, I'm not 100% into the whole history right now.

Just wanted to inform Sarantium our contract with the Horde is now completed. And at present time, we do not have any further units rented to them.

It is time to see about clearing up the tech trades if at all possible. To do so, peace would need to be declared. Such a peace would guarantee you that for at least the 10 turn waiting period, no units could be hired to the Horde.

However, I see that you attacked and killed a chariot somewhere along the way that was not under contract. And, we asked for payment under the terms of the public thread.

Your made suggestions in your response that we have taken under advisement. We thank you for making suggestions to improve Team Mercenary. As you should be aware, we are essentially a beta test, trying to find the best way to conduct ourselves. I'm sure you guys can appreciate some of the difficulties with the concept.

To clarify, for us, if you will. Had the unit been names "merc use only" or something along those lines, would you have restrained from attacking it?

Now, I have it on my books as follows:

Team Mercenary supplies:
Masonry 114
Sailing 143
workboat/settler credit of 15
unit rental of 70
and previous credit of 69

TOTAL 411

Sarantium supplies:
Mathematics 357
IW research credit 12 (see previous correspondence and agreement)
TOTAL 369

Sarantium owes Team mercenary 42 gold/research credits

Now, we had asked you purchase the Chariot outright at a rate of 50 gold. As according to our standard procedures for such cases. However, you responded with a reasoned argument for your actions, and a suggestion to improve Team Merc.

Speaking strictly as UnO here, I'll have to run it by the team, but would you be willing to send 25 gold. 1/2 price. This satisfies our need to recoup some payment by our public statements, but also gives you credit for being reasoning and making suggestions. This also clears the door for peace, which means the tech trade and future agreements being possible. It's also a cost that would be covered in the 42 points you already were owing us in the above deal.

What say ye?

-UnOrthOdOx

[Slade Wilson]

Sarantium diplomatic message

UnO and Team Merc

Thank you for your message of a couple weeks back and sorry we did not get back to you sooner.

We acknowledge your request for reparations for the chariot, but you must also ackowledge the costs and losses incurred by Sarantium in a 'war' that Team Mercenary got paid to wage against us. How are we supposed to ignore the fact that you took money to spill our blood? You got paid to pillage our lands. If you want reparations for the Chariot then you should consider a likewise request for the damages we incurred while you were acting as paid mercenaries to kill our toops, pillage our lands and attack our cities.

Sarantium feels strongly that we are justified in insisting that all reparations for both sides be considered. To that end, Sarantium asks for a settler to rebuild our lost city. Also, Sarantium will pay the difference in the cost of the chariot, in gold (25), minus the sums the Merc team aquired when pillaging our land and sacking our city. We feel that Sarantium is being very generous in not asking for any reparations for our lost units and that Team Mercenary has no right to ask for any reparations for the units they lost lost in hostilities directed at Sarantium.

We will not be proposing peace or entertaining a cease fire at this moment.

Beta of Sarantium

Interestingly the sarantium stack on the north has halted, possibly to await our reply.

May i suggest the good old fashioned ''Nuts!'' as our response?

[UnOrthOdOx]

I'll eloquently tell them to shove it up their ass, yes.