I am going to try to make this diplo summary informative but concise. If anyone has any questions or wants more info, let me know and I’m happy to expand on this. I’ll start with the southern teams.
Gladiators of Rome
Rome was the first team we met, and we were sweating when they refused to talk to us and rushed to IW. Luckily, they took the same approach with every other team they met, so we were easily able to form a coalition with their other neighbors to counter any aggression they might direct at us. Recently, they began communicating with Asterix, so the idea was floated amongst the anti-Rome coalition to cooperate with Rome on the condition that the praets were sent north against the score-leaders, Care Bears of India. However, suspicion around Asterix quickly caused that idea to collapse. So now Rome is pretty screwed. They can either attack out with their praets and get dogpiled, or they can sit quietly while their praets obsolete and they wither into irrelevance.
Dinosaurs of England
This was actually one of the last teams we met, but the geo-political situation meant that we started cooperating pretty quickly. We have a NAP with them to T135, a screenshot-sharing agreement, and of course, a defensive pact (along with EggHeads). Dinosaurs suggested we call ourselves the 3 Musketeers, so you might see me using that term occasionally. We also have OB, and they recently approved me to move through their lands. I might just gift the quechua to them that is over there, our economic situation really feels that dire. The main thing stopping me is wanting to have a front seat when the praets roll into their lands. We actually know very little about what their diplomacy has been like with the other teams. Maybe I’ll have to look into that
Marathon Cannibal Ponies of Sumeria
I have very little to say about this team. Diplo with them has been slow and short. We do have a NAP until T110, and I don’t have any intentions of renewing it. All I can really hope is that nobody else rolls over them before we have a chance to attack them ourselves.
BowAivo of Zululand
Rounding up the southern teams is BowAivo. They have not done much diplomatically. I chatted with Bowsling once but it was mostly about baseball playoffs. Email replies from them take at least a week if not more. We do have a NAP with them until T140, which I now regret. In Aivo’s last email, he said he views us as a long-term ally and wants to keep cooperating. I am just going to string them along for as long as possible, which shouldn’t be too difficult at their current pace. They haven’t yet replied to my last email from sometime last week, in which I asked what kind of cooperation they were thinking about. I believe other teams have had similar diplo experiences with them.
And moving up to the northern teams.
EggHeads of Byzantium
I consider EggHeads our closest ally, although I guess that is debatable. I am chatting frequently with TeddyKGB, who says that DMOC is captain and he is simply a ded-lurker even though he logs in 20 times each turn and sends most of their emails. We share information and screenshots pretty freely. We had agreed to help each other against Rome long before Dinos were brought into the mix. Teddy definitely likes to chat with everyone about this game. Unfortunately for him, he does this maybe too often in an inebriated state, and has upset several teams by a lack of follow-up to the agreements he makes. Specifically, both Orgy and Asterix have told us that they don’t trust Teddy. Especially Asterix, who seems to mention a mistrust of this team in almost every conversation. Since they are our northeastern neighbor, and we want to stay at peace with all the northern teams, I think it’s important to maintain good relations with EggHeads. However, things do seem a little more strained recently. My T100 post has the best example, with them expressing interest in a fur resource that is closer to us, which might cause problems in the future. However, if they keep upsetting the other northern teams, they might need us even more than we need them, so let the vodka continue flowing!
Care Bears of India
These guys seem to be the clear leaders of the game, and they’re playing a really smart diplo game that has minimized the chances they’ll get dogpiled. They have been pleasant and cooperative with us since we’ve met them. I’ve avoided any deals with them simply because they’ve been the score leader by a wide margin. EggHeads and Asterix are their two closest neighbors, but after some early talk of cooperation against India, those two are now going at each other like cats and dogs, leaving Care Bears relatively safe. In fact, I hear rumors that EggHeads might have something in the works to bring them in with us against Rome (they are located northeast of Rome but I don’t have good vision of the area to know how close they might actually be). If I were a betting man, my money would still be on this team to take home the win.
Asterix of Ottomans
Well, as far as diplo goes, I could probably write the most about this team. However, I don’t think everyone wants to hear all the drama, so I’ll keep it brief. Asterix seems very interested in having close ties to us, having floated the idea of allying with us against EggHeads after India has been taken care of (I don’t know how India would get taken care of, but that’s beside the point). Caledorn is pretty skeptical of trusting Asterix too much. Ultimately, we’re about as far as we can get from each other, so I’m not too worried either way. My plan is to keep this team close to us as much as possible, while also being cautious what information we give away. Future cooperation is possible, but not a priority at this point.
SuttOxy of Native America
This is another team that seems to like to chat a lot about the game, but I haven’t experienced it too much since we are located pretty far from them. The chats I have had with Suttree have been pretty pleasant. I was a little concerned with an early email that I felt contained a thinly veiled threat that we might get dogpiled if we maintain a dominant position in the south, but I’m not sure that’s really how it was intended. I have heard from several teams that Suttree only agrees to deals that clearly favor his team, but that has not been my experience. When we needed right of passage to move our scout through their land, Suttree readily agreed, and gave us a path to follow that actually revealed some of their core cities, including their capital.
Orgy of Netherlands
This is the last team we met. Although we’ve known where they were located on the map for awhile, I purposely avoided sending a scout directly from our land because I did not want LP to know we are to their southeast. Now that LP is gone and Arkipeller is running the team, though, everything changes. Arki and Caledorn are close rl friends, and Arki seems ready to form a close alliance with us. We currently have a number of agreements with them, including a long NAP, OB, EP spending limits, an agreement not to share info about each other with other teams, and first dibs for trades. As for diplo with other teams, I think they’ve been struggling. They are one of the teams that told us they’ve had trouble with EggHeads, and they allowed Suttree to raze one of their cities when Arki accidently broke a settling agreement that LP had agreed to.
Hopefully that wasn’t too wordy. If you want to know more about any of the teams, just ask
Gladiators of Rome
Rome was the first team we met, and we were sweating when they refused to talk to us and rushed to IW. Luckily, they took the same approach with every other team they met, so we were easily able to form a coalition with their other neighbors to counter any aggression they might direct at us. Recently, they began communicating with Asterix, so the idea was floated amongst the anti-Rome coalition to cooperate with Rome on the condition that the praets were sent north against the score-leaders, Care Bears of India. However, suspicion around Asterix quickly caused that idea to collapse. So now Rome is pretty screwed. They can either attack out with their praets and get dogpiled, or they can sit quietly while their praets obsolete and they wither into irrelevance.
Dinosaurs of England
This was actually one of the last teams we met, but the geo-political situation meant that we started cooperating pretty quickly. We have a NAP with them to T135, a screenshot-sharing agreement, and of course, a defensive pact (along with EggHeads). Dinosaurs suggested we call ourselves the 3 Musketeers, so you might see me using that term occasionally. We also have OB, and they recently approved me to move through their lands. I might just gift the quechua to them that is over there, our economic situation really feels that dire. The main thing stopping me is wanting to have a front seat when the praets roll into their lands. We actually know very little about what their diplomacy has been like with the other teams. Maybe I’ll have to look into that
Marathon Cannibal Ponies of Sumeria
I have very little to say about this team. Diplo with them has been slow and short. We do have a NAP until T110, and I don’t have any intentions of renewing it. All I can really hope is that nobody else rolls over them before we have a chance to attack them ourselves.
BowAivo of Zululand
Rounding up the southern teams is BowAivo. They have not done much diplomatically. I chatted with Bowsling once but it was mostly about baseball playoffs. Email replies from them take at least a week if not more. We do have a NAP with them until T140, which I now regret. In Aivo’s last email, he said he views us as a long-term ally and wants to keep cooperating. I am just going to string them along for as long as possible, which shouldn’t be too difficult at their current pace. They haven’t yet replied to my last email from sometime last week, in which I asked what kind of cooperation they were thinking about. I believe other teams have had similar diplo experiences with them.
And moving up to the northern teams.
EggHeads of Byzantium
I consider EggHeads our closest ally, although I guess that is debatable. I am chatting frequently with TeddyKGB, who says that DMOC is captain and he is simply a ded-lurker even though he logs in 20 times each turn and sends most of their emails. We share information and screenshots pretty freely. We had agreed to help each other against Rome long before Dinos were brought into the mix. Teddy definitely likes to chat with everyone about this game. Unfortunately for him, he does this maybe too often in an inebriated state, and has upset several teams by a lack of follow-up to the agreements he makes. Specifically, both Orgy and Asterix have told us that they don’t trust Teddy. Especially Asterix, who seems to mention a mistrust of this team in almost every conversation. Since they are our northeastern neighbor, and we want to stay at peace with all the northern teams, I think it’s important to maintain good relations with EggHeads. However, things do seem a little more strained recently. My T100 post has the best example, with them expressing interest in a fur resource that is closer to us, which might cause problems in the future. However, if they keep upsetting the other northern teams, they might need us even more than we need them, so let the vodka continue flowing!
Care Bears of India
These guys seem to be the clear leaders of the game, and they’re playing a really smart diplo game that has minimized the chances they’ll get dogpiled. They have been pleasant and cooperative with us since we’ve met them. I’ve avoided any deals with them simply because they’ve been the score leader by a wide margin. EggHeads and Asterix are their two closest neighbors, but after some early talk of cooperation against India, those two are now going at each other like cats and dogs, leaving Care Bears relatively safe. In fact, I hear rumors that EggHeads might have something in the works to bring them in with us against Rome (they are located northeast of Rome but I don’t have good vision of the area to know how close they might actually be). If I were a betting man, my money would still be on this team to take home the win.
Asterix of Ottomans
Well, as far as diplo goes, I could probably write the most about this team. However, I don’t think everyone wants to hear all the drama, so I’ll keep it brief. Asterix seems very interested in having close ties to us, having floated the idea of allying with us against EggHeads after India has been taken care of (I don’t know how India would get taken care of, but that’s beside the point). Caledorn is pretty skeptical of trusting Asterix too much. Ultimately, we’re about as far as we can get from each other, so I’m not too worried either way. My plan is to keep this team close to us as much as possible, while also being cautious what information we give away. Future cooperation is possible, but not a priority at this point.
SuttOxy of Native America
This is another team that seems to like to chat a lot about the game, but I haven’t experienced it too much since we are located pretty far from them. The chats I have had with Suttree have been pretty pleasant. I was a little concerned with an early email that I felt contained a thinly veiled threat that we might get dogpiled if we maintain a dominant position in the south, but I’m not sure that’s really how it was intended. I have heard from several teams that Suttree only agrees to deals that clearly favor his team, but that has not been my experience. When we needed right of passage to move our scout through their land, Suttree readily agreed, and gave us a path to follow that actually revealed some of their core cities, including their capital.
Orgy of Netherlands
This is the last team we met. Although we’ve known where they were located on the map for awhile, I purposely avoided sending a scout directly from our land because I did not want LP to know we are to their southeast. Now that LP is gone and Arkipeller is running the team, though, everything changes. Arki and Caledorn are close rl friends, and Arki seems ready to form a close alliance with us. We currently have a number of agreements with them, including a long NAP, OB, EP spending limits, an agreement not to share info about each other with other teams, and first dibs for trades. As for diplo with other teams, I think they’ve been struggling. They are one of the teams that told us they’ve had trouble with EggHeads, and they allowed Suttree to raze one of their cities when Arki accidently broke a settling agreement that LP had agreed to.
Hopefully that wasn’t too wordy. If you want to know more about any of the teams, just ask