Diplomacy Master Thread- Helping Your Opponents Beat Themselves

[Sullla]

"Just kill all but one unit in Warendorf and then let us capture the city. You do all the work and then give us the rewards."

[Cyneheard]

"Just kill all but one unit in Warendorf and then let us capture the city. You do all the work and then give us the rewards."

Under the letter of the agreement, though, they've got a right to it - they're in position.

But there's a problem:
We have odds on the Warendorf LBs with our knights. So the 1 unit left in Warendorf will be a max HP LB.

[SevenSpirits]

Cyneheard, they have a right to attack first or last imo, not a right to attack whenever they want in between our units.

[scooter]

One more comment on the Warendorf thing, even though it may be obsolete with our misclick. If they literally have just 1 chariot in range, that means we would have to reduce the longbow down roughly < 2/6str without killing it. That takes some luck to do. It's not even really a realistic request on their part. Anyway.

Chatted with Beta in-game, though the chat box stripped out most of the bulk of the chat.

1. Beta seems to have resigned to not getting anything out of the war
2. I raised the idea of them running an EE against us
3. He hoped to be able to chat with Scooter soon.

I could chat with him, but I don't really want to until I know what's going to become of this misclick situation. If we get the reload, I proceed as planned. If we don't get it, we can sell it to them as they're getting one more chance or something, I don't know. We need to sort that out first.

[Cyneheard]

Cyneheard, they have a right to attack first or last imo, not a right to attack whenever they want in between our units.

Although the misclick could really screw with all of this, so not worth going into it until that's resolved.

[Shoot the Moon]

Yeah, in all likelyhood there won't be a chance where they'd even get odds with only a chariot. Might as well give them that heads up but say if they do get odds that's fine and they can attack.

May unfortunately be moot now of course.

[scooter]

This is sort of a big deal.

Hi Scooter,

As you maybe know, our empire is diplomatically relatively isolated. We like to handle our problems by ourselves and don't see the need for entering an alliances system.
However we hear more and more frequently rumours about teams teaming up against you and WPC.
We are not really sure of what would be our place in their world order.
The world looks like to be split in 2 sides... We can either join them, remain neutral or join you.
Remaining neutral is maybe not the best strategy at the moment.
If we were to join "your" side, what would we find?

Yuufo

[sooooo]

Also, not sure if anyone else saw this from Apolyton in the story thread:

"These are good times, my Queen. Your empire is truly in her golden age. The people of Apolytan enjoy peace and prosperity, our land a.."
"Peace?" -The Queen interrupted "Perhaps, but could we just ignore what is happening around us in the world? The Zulu, while they were savage people who caused their own destruction, but did they truly deserved their fate? And the Inca? Our friends, who have seen difficult times in the past now attacked from all directions. Egypt's greed seems to have no bounds.. could we still sleep well while their hordes ravage our neighbour's land?"
"We see no threats from anywhere, and our treaties hold"
"Do you think those will protect us? For the time being, maybe, but we will need more than fragile treaties and pacts we have now. The other thinks we are weak and rightly so, I want.."-Queen Elizabeth stops as She notices three men entering the room-

-a messenger followed by two men in dark robes approaches and bow before the Queen-

"Report!"
"Your agents has just returned, My Queen I led them here as you requested. Unfortunately Mr. Jusuf didn't make it, I'm afraid He.."
"What about the mission?"
"Our agents were able to study and learn many things about our neighbours secrets and acquired several documents."
"Good. Get a team working on those documents immediately and keep me informed on the progress."
"Yes, My Queen!"

Relevant for the "Egypt's greed seems to know no bounds" part.

[scooter]

Okay, so I saw Yuufo of UniversCiv online, and I felt the need to jump to chat with him real quick. Obviously we know what's going on with Apolyton and CivPlayers, but this seemed like an opportunity to figure out if more are involved.

scooter
Hey Yuufo. You around for a few minutes?
This is scooter from Realms Beyond
Yuufo
Hey!
Sry I was washing dishes
scooter
Hey! glad I could catch you. I just got your message and noticed you were still online
no problem!
Our team will need to talk about your message, but I just thought I would check in and let you know message received, and maybe clarify with you a little bit
We've heard rumors like this too, but we weren't sure how true they were. Have your neighbors been giving you any pressure about it?
because we'd be happy to help you in any way, but I'm not quite sure if you face any threats right now
meaning: we'd be happy to offer some sort of help, but I'm trying to figure out what situation would help you
Yuufo
I think they are growing more confident. At the beginning their sounded like proposals, now it's rather more like requests
scooter
gotcha. I know Apolyton and CivPlayers have been talking about something like this. Is that who you mean? Or more like CFC or CivFr?
Yuufo
Since we are not really in the loop, they stay vague
and they made me swear not to repeat certain things, so...
we have no defined position yet
scooter
Yeah I understand that. I know you feel like you shouldn't give us names, but here's why I'm asking
Yuufo
as I said, we see ourselves as a big neutral Switzerland
scooter
for instance, if it's CFC that is pressuring you, that changes how we might work with you since they are your direct neighbors
I don't want CFC to attack you guys any more than you probably do
Yuufo
CFC have grown more powerful since they conquered the Zulus
scooter
definitely. they seem to be at war with CivFr, but I'm not sure how real that war is right now
Yuufo
sadly they don't want to give us a bit of the land
I have no more information
scooter
yeah not too surprising on them - they are squabbling over the land with CivFr right now
Hm okay. I can tell you this. We know Apoltyon and CivPlayers are interested in giving us trouble. Apolyton is rushing for Rifles and have the ability to draft them. So we know those 2 are involved. Are there more than that?
Yuufo
I suppose too.
But I can't prove it
Just that they sound really confident
scooter
I am under the impression CFC is trying to get peace with both CivFr and then NAP extension with us. If they can do that, they might look towards you, so I'm concerned about that as I don't want that to happen to you
Okay. I think it may be because they are closer to Rifling than us, but our war doesn't have much left so I think we will be okay
I'll definitely get back to you by email very soon
Yuufo
okay
thanks
scooter
I tend to believe that people who are not neighbors can work together the best, so I think we could be friends very easily. But I do understand your desire to be neutral if it's at all possible.
Yuufo
Can we expect to talk again on Sunday?
scooter
I think that should work. I'll discuss this with my teammates today
Maybe around this time tomorrow? I might be a little later, but not much later
Yuufo
I'll try
I keep gmail open
scooter
Ok. If not, that's fine, I can send an email
okay
Yuufo
Bye
scooter
bye, thanks again for the message and chat.

So my read from this along with some summary:

1) Apolyton and CivPlayers are going to war. Apolyton is about to get Rifling and mass draft them. They're asking UCiv for some aid to hit the other side. I'm guessing CivPlayers might even be funding Apolyton on their way to Rifling.

2) UCiv prefers to remain neutral, but they are concerned that may not be a good choice. They want something from or with us that will make aligning with us worthwhile.

3) Yuufo has no evidence of it being more than Apolyton or CivPlayers, but they are concerned by the confidence level. I tend to think this is from Apolyton's recent power play of mass tech stealing and bulbing, which was admittedly very nicely done and should inspire confidence for them.

So, any thoughts?

[pindicator]

This is incredibly scummy but I'm going to suggest it anyway: offer them the lion's share of WPC's land.