Diplomacy Master Thread- Helping Your Opponents Beat Themselves

[NobleHelium]

Yeah I definitely don't think we should offer stone before we finish the GW.

[Ceiliazul]

Methinks they wanted to make some kind of political statement.

This is nagging at me too. So far we've agreed to every lopsided demand... maybe they're trying to see just how soft we are?

[scooter]

Here's the main part of the chat. I'll try to catch him on the wonder thing before he goes.

scooter hey Caledorn
you around?
Caledorn heya
scooter hey! ok, so one of our turn players just posted a screenshot of the stone area. it showed you guys have got a settler way out there 1W of the rice. are you guys really wanting to plant on that tile?
Caledorn I cannot respond to that question I'm afraid
I'm sorry
scooter I'm not sure I follow..?
Caledorn I can't respond to the teams settling plans without the approval of the team is what I mean
scooter well, surely we would find out this/next turn, so I guess I'm confused what the harm is
but that location is... not ideal
Caledorn The discussions are pretty active at the moment (as I'm sure you have guessed), and my freedom to speak on certain things is limited by the team until we have come to an agreement
scooter yeah that makes sense. I guess it's a confusing move, as I thought we were close to a deal where we'd give you that stone anyways, and this seems geared towards forcing the issue and making our borders pretty tight
Caledorn I am sure everything will resolve amicably if we (that is our teams) come to a solution we're both happy with
that much I can say
scooter for sure. yeah I don't want any damage to be done, which is why I thought i'd catch you on here immediately
i'm assuming this is because you need the stone sooner than you would've otherwise gotten it
Caledorn I understand your concerns yes
The stone is an important part of this, yes - I won't pretend that it isn't, as it's pretty obvious
scooter understood. pyramids play?
Caledorn now there's something I can't respond to again, and I'm sure you know that laughs
scooter worth a shot to ask!
Caledorn of course I would have done the same!
scooter well, I do need to speak plainly and honestly - that spot is not a spot we would be happy with you guys settling. It's 3 tiles away from 2 cities of ours and heavily encroaches on both of them.
if there's anything we can do/say to dissuade you from settling on that spot, please let me know
Caledorn I understand that sentiment
Considering the heavy discussion going on in the team right now, I feel obliged to let the team make a decision before I make a statement here that can commit us to one action or another.
You have the idea about what our concern is though, as that is pretty obvious
And I'm sure we can come to an agreement that makes both our teams happy.
scooter yeah I definitely understand being in a rush to get stone hooked.
well that's what I'm attempting here . ok, here's the best we can do:
Starfall's borders pop on t107
so that stone could be hooked on exactly t107. it will take a lot of work to manage that, but it's possible
to do you one better, we could gifft your our sole source on T106, MAYBE T105, but I really don't know if that's possible. T106 most likely
so... if your team can manage to wait a couple more turns for stone, we could take care of that much
Caledorn my turn: pyramids play?
scooter as is I'm guessing you probably wouldn't be able to hook that stone much before then anyways unless you have a massive army of workers ready to rock
well you didn't tell, so I'm not sure I can either
Caledorn smiles that is perfectly fair
your offer is a good one, so I will deliver it into the discussions that's going on, and I will get back to you on what the sentiment is for this

[Bigger]

yeah ok, sounds like they want the pyramids to me. so just tell him bluntly we don't.

I doubt they'd settle like that for the great wall, and they can't get HG.

[Sullla]

I agree with Bigger. They are obviously going for the Pyramids here. Just let them know that we are not building the Pyramids, we're building HG instead, and we can get them stone faster than they can get it themselves with their idiot plant. That should be enough to warn them away... I hope.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Surely they've worked out we're not SPI and we've teched Monarchy and are going incredibly wide, meaning the 5 or so cities that +3 happy wouldn't be worth it for us.

[Ceiliazul]

Can we get some mention of confidentiality before you tell him our plans?

[scooter]

Follow-up:

scooter: ok, so I just got some feedback from my teammates, and I got some permission to speak a little more freely about stone/wonders
the only thing I ask is that you are sworn to secrecy - this is shared with your team and our team only
Caledorn: that is perfectly acceptable. I can use my power as the foreign minister for CFC to bind my team to that promise.
and just to make sure that is clear, I do use that power, so I bind us to that
scooter: ok great. you do not have to confirm/deny, but our best guess is you're aiming at the pyramids, which would make sense. We are hoping to complete Hanging Gardens in the next couple turns, which we are predicting is not the stone wonder you are pursuing
we have no intentions to steal pyramids from you, if that is indeed your target
we of course can't promise the same for every other team in the game
but if that eases any of your concerns about using the stone, I hope that helps
Caledorn: 2 seconds - I just have to look something up
scooter: and this will all be quite amusing if we've totally guessed wrong
Caledorn: okay, based on that I feel comfortable with telling you that we are indeed not aiming for the HG. Of course, the HG is not a wonder we would deny having, as it's a very sweet wonder. But that is indeed not the one we are aiming for right now.
now, as I still cannot confirm/deny your team's theories, I can just say that it is obvious that if we are indeed aiming for the pyramids, we would need stone quickly as the pyramids are long overdue anyways.
scooter: understood! I'm kind of surprised they have not yet fallen.
Caledorn: so am I, personally
t100+ seems very late for them

Yeah they want Pyramids. All we can really do is hope they take the sensible route.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Methinks they wanted to make some kind of political statement.

This is nagging at me too. So far we've agreed to every lopsided demand... maybe they're trying to see just how soft we are?

At this point we are rolling over on demand without even a token attempt at negotiating something fair. CFC settling that tile would be a deal breaker for any future deal and we should tell them that. No trading stone before any of the wonders we care about are done.


Man, NAP stabbing would be so tempting....

[scooter]

Caledorn has also said he will get a response back to me as fast as possible. Hopefully that means tomorrow morning. Alright, I'm headed to bed. Now we wait and hope.