Gillette Diplomacy Thread: Dossiers, Scheming, and Puppet Strings

[Old Harry]

It's not too late to stop the build-up, but I'd rather go down in a blaze of glory now than with a whimper later...

The cats from m3 are a bit of a help, but yeah team aren't going to be any use unless they draw a bit of attention to that flank.

[Old Harry]

I don't like trying to engage in that much active conversation with Trolls--the only thing that will convince them that TEAM would be attacking is if we sign the NAP, which obviously we can't do :/

I don't know why things will be so bad with regard to going it alone--we're still first in power, and they won't have that many muskets by T140.

I just want them to put a few turns into civilian techs, if they can draft muskets for four turns before we attack that's 12... I dunno how many we can take out, but I think we need to burn the pyramids to count this a success, and I'd guess that'll be where they defend strongest...

[Cheater Hater]

The pyramids aren't really useful at this point though--if they Liberalism Nationalism like we expect, that means they're only one tech away from Representation (although were Pyramids/Great Library in the same city?)

Remember, they not only have to draft those muskets, they have to get them to the front lines quickly enough--just keep up the military buildup and we should be fine

[Old Harry]

Very true, but the cultural pressure that city is putting on our border is huge, and if we get rid of it it gets us some nice expansion space...

I think its a given that we'll burn a coastal city or two so if we take out pyramids city too that puts them in a nasty situation.

I'll play the turn in a few hours time C-H, then its over to you. The city micro is pretty well defined for the next 5-10 turns - can you just check that hammers and food produced by each city each turn match what the spreadsheet says? The worker micro is not thought out very far in the future, so you may have to improvise...

[Old Harry]

This just in from M3:

Hey guys,

Thank you for that information, although it is alarming. We agree that you should declare war on us as soon as possible; plako has been asking about the state of our NAP with you and a state of war would greatly simplify our attempts to deceive him! Further, it's clear he suspects you will declare war on them.

There are two Troll units in our territory right now, the scout you saw and a chariot north of there near African Safari. HAK had a thought about how to explain the transfer of catapults and phoney war: we could tell the Trolls you demanded them in exchange for peace; you would just have to show enough units on our borders for us to appear legitimately intimidated. What do you think?

Also, even if the phoney war isn't entirely convincing, hopefully the attack will be devastating enough that the Trolls won't be able to do anything about the deception. Speaking of which, how many catapults do you estimate you will require to ensure the attack's success? We're currently building them in almost all our cities.

Finally, we were wondering if you would agree to a 100-turn NAP effective from the signing of the peace in a few turns. We trust you, but we just want to have it on paper that our catapults won't be used against us in anything like the near future.

We look forward to our mutual endeavour!

THH

I think we should say that a 100 turn NAP is too much, that we'll just gift any surviving cats back to them...

[Old Harry]

This just in from M3:

Greetings. Sending a brief message to continue the coordination of our phoney war. To keep up the ruse, it would be a good idea to send at least a few of your units either into our territory or right up against our border for use in the fake intimidation. plako has already asked me what it is you've attacked with, and I need something to be able to tell him to keep up the ruse. Otherwise he'll instantly know the war is fake and that you will be coming after him shortly.
If you send some units onto the unimproved grass SW of PigPen or onto the unimproved grass east of Orient Point, that would work. I just ask that you do not move any units onto any improved tiles which we are working.
I can then try to stall plako slightly by telling him that you've moved some units into our borders, but not yet killed anything. And that we have sent you a message asking if there is any way we can prevent an all out war between us at this time.

Me telling plako that we've sent you a message such as that, should give us the turn or two of stalling necessary for us to get the catapults we've built close to the location Old Harry requested. It will seem as if we are in negotiations, while no units are being killed. In a few turns, I can then tell plako that we have come to an agreement where we give you guys some things in payment of you agreeing not to attack any of our cities. We then declare peace, and transfer the catapults to you.
If you need to speak to me live at any point, I can be reached on Gchat via hitanykey@gmail.com.

Regards,
HAK

I think we should reply:

Hi HAK,

I think you should say to Plako:
"They've moved four galleys along our coast, bypassing Orient Point, but we've seen nothing inland yet. We're packing anti-melee units into [whatever the next city is] in the hope we can put them off."

I wouldn't mention peace negotiations just yet - say you plan to counter-attack our holy city and defend your coastal cities, and can they lend some sort of support - concentrate on that - ask for Gold for defence tech and if they keep pushing about units push back about helping out...

Good luck!

I want to sent this very quickly - in the next five hours or so hopefully...

[Cheater Hater]

That sounds good--we should have a couple units I can at least start moving towards the border that can still make it to Trolls by the deadline to keep up appearances.

[Old Harry]

Great, just sent this:

Hi HAK,

We think you should say something like this to Plako:
"They've moved four galleys along our coast, bypassing Orient Point. We're packing anti-melee units into [whatever the next city is - our spying is really abysmal!] in the hope we can put them off. But we haven't seen anything from them inland yet."

I wouldn't mention peace negotiations just yet - maybe say you plan to counter-attack our holy city and defend your coastal cities, and can they lend some sort of support - really concentrate on that - ask for gold for defence tech and unit upgrades and if they keep pushing about units push back about them helping out rather than being nosey...

Good luck!
Old Harry,
Gillette

[Old Harry]

Oh, and can those units play zone defence between BOG and Halberd and still be seen by the Troll scout? I think that will be the most convincing thing we could do with them...

[Old Harry]

I think I'd like to send this to Trolls:

Hi Plako,

Sorry I didn't spot this until today.

I think we'd like something a bit longer than T180, but I'll get some feedback from the team and come back with a proper suggestion.

Old Harry

When the war with M3 finishes and we keep building units they're going to know something is up, but if we can string them along a little in the mean time that might help. What do you think?