Diplomacy Master Thread- Helping Your Opponents Beat Themselves

[darrelljs]

t175, huh? We are already expecting someone to declare war on us at t175. Are you in league with them? What do you know about that?

This is better than a polite decline IMO. Maybe some scooterization of the exact language, but that's the message I favor.

Darrell

[scooter]

I think we should just be honest. Wait a day or two and decline the offer. We don't even have to go into reasoning.

What is the worst that the Germans can do in these last few turns? They have been oblivious so far, but now that they realized our power, they will assume the worst case scenario if they have any sense until we get back to them. I haven't seen any stalling or outright lying draft yet that I think will fool the Germans even slightly. If anything that would just backlash when the germans share it with other teams.

Agree. There's nothing we can say that won't let the Germans know that we are going to attack them. Best not to answer for a few days, then just decline it.

This just isn't true, there's plenty we could say. This is the whole point of having diplo available as an option. Diplo is a tool just like microplans, and not leveraging it to its full extent is deliberately playing with one hand.

t175, huh? We are already expecting someone to declare war on us at t175. Are you in league with them? What do you know about that?

This is better than a polite decline IMO. Maybe some scooterization of the exact language, but that's the message I favor.

Darrell

The reason I'm iffy on this variation is it just feels like a drastic change of tone from our usual interaction with that team. The more we sound different, the more they're likely to raise their eyebrows and wonder what's up. However, maybe we can build off that and send that first instead. I'll think about the wording.

Little puzzled by the highly negative reaction to the idea of a single stalling message that isn't really genuine, but okay. Ruff's message of "we're heavily conflicted, give us a few days" manages to be both an outright lie AND a complete giveaway of our plans, so I definitely don't want to go that route.

[kjn]

I trust your judgment in the diplo here, Scooter.

Also, so we (you) don't forget it, our reply to CivPlayers should include an offer about spices-for-sugar, I think. We will get a spice back on T150 when we declare on the Germans, and CivPlayers are just about to connect their second sugar. Better tie that up ASAP.

[scooter]

I trust your judgment in the diplo here, Scooter.

Thanks, though I'm definitely not going to send a message that's against the general wishes of the team, so I'll rework a message to their team that's much closer to Seven's message in substance. Planned time to reply to them is later tomorrow, so we have plenty of discussion time here still.

Also, so we (you) don't forget it, our reply to CivPlayers should include an offer about spices-for-sugar, I think. We will get a spice back on T150 when we declare on the Germans, and CivPlayers are just about to connect their second sugar. Better tie that up ASAP.

Oh I would have missed this, thanks.

[darrelljs]

Little puzzled by the highly negative reaction to the idea of a single stalling message that isn't really genuine, but okay.

I'm all for prevarication, but negotiating a NAP we have no intention of signing is a bit too CFCish for me. Let's find a response that dodges the NAP issue entirely.

Hmm...that's pretty damn CFCish too .

Darrell

[Sisu]

I honestly think "no response until t150's message of 'nothing personal but we're conquering you'" is the best course of action.

[scooter]

How about this.

GWT,

First, we are also grateful for your team's fair treatment of us through diplomacy. We appreciate that very much!

However, we're actually expecting someone to attack us on T175, so we're pretty suspicious of any NAPs ending on that date. Is there any reason you picked that date, and/or do you know anything about plans to attack us on T175?

Thanks,
scooter - Team RB

This is basically Seven's message written in my words.

[Lord Parkin]

From Spanish Apolyton:

Sounds great!! But actually are you offering going into war against
CFC? or you will just offering ivory to help us against them?
We do not have NAP with CFC.... We are already investigation HBR.

So, been clear. Do you want to sign an alliance against CFC and attack
them? or you just want us to help you in case CFC attack you?
We can offer you now a MPP against them.

[darrelljs]

This is basically Seven's message written in my words.

Looks great to me .

Darrell

[scooter]

We should respond quickly to them so we can make the ivory trade right away. Draft:

Our NAP with them runs for another 25 turns or so turns, which must mean they are planning to attack you since they can do so at any time. The NAP we have means we can't join in on your side or sign an alliance against CFC yet, but we can definitely make the ivory trade to help you defend! We will offer the trade soon. We've been asking around for you, and it seems CFC mostly has NAPs with neighbors, so it does definitely look like you need to be prepared.