[PB25 Spoiler] General Flauros leads the Creole Calabim

[Dreylin]

What was the offer you made to Commodore?

[Tasunke]

I offered peace for his 5 cities on this side of the Channel.

[Tasunke]

Ok, so he responded with 2 cities + 300 gold.

I countered with same 2 cities + 400 gold. Honestly? I kind of like the deal. I figured he wouldn't part with Deadman Switch, and re-looking at the map ... he probably has a point about his hold on Last Command, and even Odd Girl Out.

I don't like Giftie Gie's location though ... I'd rather have razed it and built a settler, but C'est la vie. Its a learning experience to have a bit more combat engineers you think you need. All I rly needed was to send 1 more worker north, and I could have razed Giftie Gie.

Even so, with this peace deal, assuming Commodore acepts, I think we will be in a fairly decent position moving forward. I switched a decent number of cities to Econ deals ... Library + Observatory, w/ Banks .... I think it'll be a pretty sweet deal. After Banking I think we will go Nationalism(?) for Mercantilism. But that will mean having to power through Meditation + Philosophy. So eh .... I still think its worth it, but we *could* get Education a bit sooner than that.

Still, demographics paint a pretty sore picture ... I'm running at an average of 5th place out of 6 people, and Elkad isn't that far behind. I'm basically tied for last place.

IF I can hold the cities in the middle east (or wait .. Netherlands?) then maybe I can focus on improving my situation, and let Commodore be someone else's problem

Everything rests on whether or not Commodore accepts the peace offer ... and since he was the original author of it, I'm certainly optimistic. I guess if he rejects the offer, I don't have much choice other than to Kamikaze into him. But I'd rather focus on the economy.

[Tasunke]

Ok, so Commodore accepted the peace offer.

And I see a giant HAK army w/ my visibility near Gavagai's lands.

Well .... I have a few options now. I can solely focus on economy, and play Switzerland ... OR I can play Mercenary. Now, as Mercenary, I would help HAK dogpile Carthage for a sizable amount of gold ... (I'd like to catch up in beakers of course), or I could use mah Galleons to leave HAK's army stranded ... if Gavagai and/or Commodore were willing to pony up some cash moneys.

Now, I'd rather deal with HAK solely for the reason that I've had favorable dealings with them in the past, and they were good on their word Gold-wise. Once they are in gold production mode I'll probably offer them some sort of deal to 'buy' my assistance with Gavagai .... hopefully he will understand what I mean (I think I might include the cities of his that border Gavagai + my cities bordering Gavagai)

Of course, since I *am* a mercenary, I won't rule out any options of the reverse .... but I think I'll give HAK first option. (probably)

Of course, if he were to give *me* an offer at the beginning of the next turn, that definitely simplifies things for sure ... I wonder though if he knows me well enough to predict what I would do if he gives me more gold (aka: assistance vs Gavagai)

Given the damage I've done to Commodore, plus the Island foothold I gave him, I do hope that HAK sees that his investment paid off just as profitably as my own gains. The Elkad cities will hopefully give a net profit, b/c the war vs Elkad was definitely a costly affair (for the Zulu), even if I only inherited the tail end of the delimma. Krill and GermanJoey definitely did well to put me in a position to take Elkad on straightaway.

(This turn I killed 3 caravels, 1 galley, and 6 Knights) - I lost 1 HA, 1 Pikeman, 1 Knight, 1 Galleon

so three choices ... Peace (probably), vs Gavagai (maybe), or vs HAK (ehhh ... how much gold do u have to spare Commodore? :P)

** I'm estimating that War vs Gavagai is worth around 1000 gold, while war vs HAK is worth close to 2000 gold.

[Tasunke]

Actually while I think about it, helping HAK vs Gavagai would probably be more profitable in terms of land gained (in addition to gold) ... tho I don't see myself lending my Merc assistance without the gold to back the war tho

[Tasunke]

Actually, I think I might pre-signal with Mom Fotress vs. Gav/border cities + Gold n Silver

I wonder how much he is willing to pay for my opening a 2nd front.

------------------

and so, assuming Donovan is warring vs Retep, this is very good news!

Zulu w/ Elkad land might be able to catch up with Zoi in demos, and if Zoi goes for Retep, (and if I go for Gavagai) then both of us might have a chance at catching up with HAK + Commodore

like

1st Commodore
2nd HAK
3rd Donovan
4th Retep
5th Me
6th Gavagai

if HAK (with that huge army I saw), and I take on Gavagai, well ... could be fun! :P

Meanwhile, if Zoi is able to take on Retep, cool!

Hmm ... I can't see Retep's demographics, haven't even met him .... but, he has to be either 4th or 5th place ... b/c Gavagai is definitely 6th. And I'm 5th in most demos so ... the ranking makes sense to me at least.

[Tasunke]

Sory guys, but I'll need more time. Wanted to play a quick turn in the morning but turned out that I have a situation which can't be possibly resolved during my short window. Really sorry for trouble. Will play in 11 hours.

weeeelp....

price 4 killin Gavagai just went down

[BRickAstley]

Pretty sure changing your name to 'Merc Tasunke' is a bit past toeing the line of 'AI Diplomacy'

[Tasunke]

I'll change it but ... I also call bullshit.

Tasunke = Mercenary is FFH2 canon, it'd be like 'Sea Captain Falamar' or 'General Flowers' (or well, the Knight of Flowers)

I might be willing to say gray area on this one, but its not like I named myself Gun4Hire, or LetsAttackGavagai.

Let's not forget that this is the same game where Commodore logged in during my turn half to check my diplomacy, after people have told me that I can't log in during other people's turn halves to do diplomacy. Granted, I of course was happily surprised that he did so, because I thought it was a bs rule to begin with (and one people never said was actually a rule, just a good rule of thumb) ... but I abided by it anyways.

And I'll abide by this too, even if I also think its bs. The fact that my character name and myself are both mercenaries is kind of not-coincidental, to be sure, but if I was warring on the high seas with Commodore I'd probably rename myself as 'Captain Falamar' ... and in any case, naming myself 'Mercenary' actually gives too much information to 'potential targets' so its suboptimal play to do so.

Nothing against you Brick, I'm just saying sometimes its about context. And yes, I did send out multiple Mercenary contract offers on the same turn I called myself 'merc tasunke' but I just added the part in my name for flavor.

I'll concede that Mercing is a diplomatic action, while Naval Battles and Land Battles aren't .... so in the latter cases there isn't any gray area to be had, while there is an argument for the former. But yea ... I did it for the lulz, not to give people hints at diplomacy. I'm fairly certain the intent was there in the message without additional info.

With that being said, I can see the opposing view points, so ofc I'll take the name down at the soonest opportunity. And in all likelihood, I doubt ppl will pay me to join in a war but hey, you never know

[Tasunke]

So ... I'm sort of gearing up for a potential war w/ Gavagai, while at the same time I offered Commodore my assistance for a paltry 2000 gold upfront (he had that much saved up ... somehow).

I sincerely doubt that Commodore will accept, although I'm prepared to act appropriately in case he does. Meanwhile I sent a second (and final?) offer to HAK to help him w/ Gavagai for Cash moneys. I'm not sure if mercenary work is a common practice on these forums, but I do hope that HAK sees the wisdom in purchasing my services.

I see a string of happy caravels descending unto the South, towards HAK, I can only assume that Commodore is going on the offensive.

A few interesting points about the Global War:

1) I see at least 4 galleys in HAK's western Channel

2) if the Galleys sink, his army is left on *my* continent

3) if I wanted war with HAK though, I really wouldn't want his army on *my* continent.

4) if HAK is victorious vs Gavagai, I'll possibly have to deal with his army invading my lands, starting with MoM's fortress.

4-B) I'm so damn lucky I built a Castle there

5) I'd rather frame it as me helping HAK, rather than me taking land that HAK might otherwise have gotten on his own. I don't want to be seen as a nuisance that needs to be dealt with. I'd rather be seen as an ally ... because that's the only chance I have of coming out on top.

5-B) If I can gain some cities off of Gavagai, I might have a long-distance chance at the mantle, or at least at parity/ survival. Without Elkad + Gavagai cities (or the peninsula from Commodore), there wasn't any way I was going to achieve a chance at winning.

6) The deal I got from Commodore, plus Donovan's likely war against Retep, opens the way for me to seek a solution for the Gavagai situation.

7) Gavagai was my initial pegged target from the start, but Elkad stubbornly refused to Capitulate/ Give me any cities for peace. Commodore proved far wiser than he. Even if Elkad had refused to give me any cities, Commodore showed wisdom in at least countering my offer .... and, perhaps people will come to see, in time, that I am not one to simply reject Counter-offers outright. If there is profit to be had in a peace deal, why not take it? Could I have continued to Threaten Commodore? Why, that is obvious. But if my soldiers can be used vs Gavagai instead .... well. I haven't counted the exact numbers, but even though the armies in the south do appear to be massive, I wonder if 15 knights could possibly tip the scales?