Niccolò Machiavelli's Thread

[darrelljs]

Yeah, get it for as long as possible. Nothing wrong with boring .

Darrell

[plako]

Had this little chat with 3M. Not sure how we could help now that they're already fighting because of NAP. Most influential would be not prolonging the NAP. Opinions?

me: hi
Gillette has declared war on you

HAK: Hmm.
That's gonna be troublesome.
Didn't think I had seen many forces near our border, but must have missed something. Guess I'll have to whip out some more military when my turn comes around, if I can.
Though I do know I saw a galley too. So we'll have to protect our western shores as well.

me: Not much troops visible to me.
but their power graph has been raising

HAK: yeah, I saw that.
Well, I'll take a look tonight. I'm out (actually sitting in a Starbucks right now) and will be heading off for my tux fitting shortly.

me: sry for ruining your day. Had to go cya

HAK: heh. No biggie. It's all in the game.
If there's any sort of support you guys can think of for us, let me know. I'm sure anything would be welcome.
For now, I'll see ya later. I'm heading out now too.

[novice]

We could strongarm a longer nap from TEAM using the NAP offer from Gillette as leverage, then turn around and not renew the NAP with Gillette.

Question is whether we need to help M3, or do we think that even a successful campaign for Gillette will be a net loss for Gillette? We don't know how well M3 are able to defend. I think either way we don't want a long NAP with Gillette now in case they suddenly double their size and we want to take them down a notch.

[zakalwe]

That galley he saw must surely be carrying berserkers. Do M3 have machinery? Or feudalism? If not, this could hurt.

In any case, I agree we should backpedal on our NAP offer to Gillette ASAP.

Our bargaining position just improved massively.

[plako]

M3 don't have Machinery or Feudalism, but they do have Ballista Elephants and cats. Not ideal defenders against boating Berserkers, but on land war, pretty effective. I'm somewhat concerned Pirates join and then 3M will end up being in big trouble.

I agree we shouldn't rush to NAP with Gillette under these circumstances.

[plako]

REsponse to my NAP suggestion (sent almost week ago) from Gillette:

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.

[plako]

Not sure what to response. At least we shouldn't be in a rush to answer. Bad play from them initiating the war without having secured our border. Of course I'm still paranoid that all this is just a decoy and we're real targets .

[plako]

I've bonded with 3M so my preference is not signing NAP deal with Gillette. However this leaves a major problem. We would need to negotiate NAP with TEAM before we give definitive answer to Gillette. That is daunting task to do with Tasunke. I'm almost not sure it is worth my while. We could also sign NAP with Gillette and go after TEAM to keep us competitive in case Gillette manages to take lots of land fast from 3M.

Well I guess I had to start another NAP negotiation round with TEAM and see what they prefer so that I've done my best to help out 3M. I think I'll use approach that it is last chance for them to get it and we won't renew it after T145 unless deal is made within next 4-5 days (I think we can stall our answer to Gillette at least that much). Duration coud be between T170-T190 (let them choose the exact turn). We should be able to cribble Gillette in that time frame alongside with M3.

Opinions?

[novice]

Opinions?

It makes sense. Although I somehow think it would be more satisfactory to take out TEAM and let Gillette do their thing. After all, Gillette have been passive pushovers, TEAM have been bastards and are now completely checked out of the game.

[zakalwe]

Yeah I think we should just tell TEAM openly that we are looking to renew the NAP with ONE of our neighbors. No need to be overly hostile about it, of course.