Diplomacy Correspondence Tracking thread

[Lord Parkin]

From CivFr:

Dear Egyptians,

We had a great merchant which was travelling to CFC capital. We had warm them long time ago and they did agree, but now at one turn from ending his journey, they declare war treacherously to prevent him from doing his mission.

Thank you for your assistance proposition, and we would like to hear what you can propose. May be could you declare war at their back to divide their army, or give gold to help us counter their forces?

Best regards,

Mayans

[scooter]

Sent to WPC:

Beta/Tatu,

Hey, checking in on a few random things. First off, the war has begun and it's started nicely. We razed one of the western cities of the German team, and we are hoping to capture their southernmost city next turn. So I would say things are proceeding nicely . Any questions/comments from your team? I don't see anything out of the ordinary yet.

Also, we've had some interesting information from CivFR about being declared on by CFC. It was a disagreement over a great merchant apparently. Needless to say, CivFR were not happy! We thought we'd check with you guys if you've had much diplo with CivFR? We haven't had much, but with this info and the fact that they seem open to working with us, we wanted to chat more with their team and see what options were available for cooperation in the future. Given our relationship with you, we just wanted to run this by you first.

Thanks,
scooter - Team RB

[scooter]

From WPC (diplomat Tatu):

Hello Scooter,

I can reply regarding the CivFR.
This far we haven't had diplo contact with CivFR.

Location of their lands is known, but no contact.

[scooter]

From WPC:

Hi Scooter! Beta here. Tatu answered the CivFR question. I was wondering what team they were. I just knew them as the Zulu with Boa as the player.

Just waiting for our turn. No surprises from our end. The German team is slaving some more according to civstats.

We expect to take Warendorf in 2 or 3 turns. Discussing our approach now. It will probably be two.

Is your sense that the bulk of the German forces are still in the south?

Cheers! Beta

First paragraph is... odd.

[scooter]

Vaguely interesting chat with CFC:

scooter
so are you still going to insist on not telling me why you declared war on one of the strongest teams in the game?
or are you just playing hard to get? haha
YossarianLives
Have you asked them yet? [he's referring to CivFr here]
scooter
Hah, I asked first :P
YossarianLives
Alright, alright, if you keep insisting, I will go back and ask the team how much info I can divulge about that war
But I will say this. They are definitely not one of the strongest teams in the game, at least not soldier-wise
scooter
Hah, ok, fair enough.
and maybe not in current soldier counts, but in potential they're right there. but I see what you mean
YossarianLives
So wouldn't that be the best time to make our move? Before the potential is realized
Instead of giving them 25-30 turns to prepare
scooter
You can do whatever you'd like. But there's no way I'll believe you'll send your army marching into CivFr knowing that your NAP with us expires in less than 25T
that would be pretty interesting if you did though. Much popcorn would be eaten at RB
YossarianLives
Well like I said, we're most likely not going to sign another NAP extension that doesn't have anything in it for us. We know how this game works. If you get a NAP and all the German lands, you'll just sit back and build up to a victory
We need something to sweeten the deal for us if we're going to consider it
scooter
Probably not happening, so don't get your hopes up too high
YossarianLives
Did you get my message the other day? Not a Pee Wee fan?
Ok, well that's good to know then
scooter
your message?
YossarianLives
I just asked if you found a basement :D
scooter
oh. man the new gmail chat is obnoxious, I have no idea why it didnt show that to me
but I don't get the reference
YossarianLives
But if you're so keen on a NAP, I'm just trying to say it wouldn't be impossible. You just have to work with us. We can't give you this game on a silver platter. But we don't have a problem continuing to work with your team if it's also in our interest
Regarding your conquest of the Alamo. There's a bike down in the basement,
scooter
and by "probably not happening" - I just mean don't expect some crazy offer involving us gifting you land or something in exchange for a NAP anytime soon. I don't think a NAP is impossible, but I suspect you would want more than we would give. but you've never asked either, so I wouldn't know for sure
that's fair enough. I just get the impression you don't know what would be worth a NAP extension to you. maybe I'm wrong, I don't know
YossarianLives
Well, my negotiating tactic has been to try to get you to put something on the table first
But off the top of my head (and without discussing it with the team), ideally something that comes to mind is help with research (a significant GPT or arrangement to let us steal your techs)
Ideally, we would get some land that is by all rights closer to our capital than yours, which we told you we intended to settle and tried to make an equitable land split agreement before you secretly sent settlers there, but it sounds like you just said you wouldn't agree to that
scooter
haha wait, where did we secretly send settlers?
YossarianLives
Bygones and whatnot. None of the team has mentioned it since it happened. But personally I was very upset when you took the stone spot
scooter
How so? it was a spot up for grabs, and we just happened to get there first. We definitely didn't violate anything that was agreed on
YossarianLives
No, nothing had been agreed to, but we brought it up once or twice and you said you weren't ready to talk about land splits because you hadn't explored the area yet. We told you to come back to us when you were ready to talk about it. And then next thing we know you have a city settled there, and another further east north of there
scooter
furhter northeast was a barb city capture fyi, not a settler
YossarianLives
But we definitely said we intended to settle in the area but would table it until you were ready to discuss it
scooter
anyway, expansive game is getting more land than your non-exp neighbors because it's a useless trait after 100T. if you fail to do that, that's a major error
YossarianLives
Anyways, it really is bygones. We obviously were able to have really great relations well after that happened.
scooter
Yeah of course. I'm just surprised because this is the first I've heard of this being an issue
YossarianLives
Team decision was to not let it be an issue. You won the spot fair and square
And it really isn't an issue. But since I couldn't get you to put anything on the table first, I thought I'd make the strongest case possible why including a little land in a NAP extension makes sense for both sides
I think the city was settled before we received an email you "forgot" to send letting us know you'd be settling there
scooter
I can say this for sure: any offer that involves us giving up land we've settled is a non-starter. that's nothing personal, I just know for sure that would not be considered seriously
YossarianLives
But captured barb cities are maybe something different?
Or also a non-starter?
scooter
I honestly don't remember the timeline, I'd have to go back and look.
Even if I wanted to accept something like that (I don't), there's no way on earth I could convince the team to agree to that
YossarianLives
Ok, good to know
I'm playing hardball here, but the point is that a NAP extension is not out of the question. I threw out a few starting suggestions. It sounds like we're not close right now, but who knows where we might get over the next 25 turns
I'm just trying to say it's not my team that is insistent that the NAP expires at T175. We've worked well with you in the past, we want to keep working with you, but we also don't want you to run away with the game before T200
scooter
Yep, understood. Things are still changing rapidly so there's still time. I think I understand better how your team is thinking. I got the impression the situation was "give us a great NAP deal or else dogpile war" which is obviously not a positive situation
YossarianLives
Yeah, I get that. But in our view, a NAP extensions ia "a great NAP deal" for you, so we need something to even things back out
scooter
Yeah fair enough. I don't have anything to offer at the moment. Maybe that will change in the future, maybe it won't, we'll have to see
we're both involved in crucial wars right now so I'd like to see how those go
YossarianLives
Well, like you said earlier. If your war goes poorly and your army is still tied up in the opposite direction, don't expect us to still be viewing a NAP with the same interest
But something tells me your war is about to go as smoothly as ours have been
scooter
Yep, understood. and it looks like we both picked easy targets. Guess we should challenge ourselves a little more next time

[scooter]

Sent to CivFr:

Wow, that sounds like a very dirty trick by CFC. I'm sorry to hear that - they have been very difficult to us too. We are currently bound to a NAP with CFC until T175, and we are in the middle of our own war anyway as you might have seen.

However, we still want to do what we can to assist you. We are finishing Engineering at the end of T152 and really don't want to delay that, but after that we can spare some gold to help you in your conflict with CFC. We're making roughly 180 gold per turn at max tax. Also, you can run the trade mission in one of our cities if you'd like. Unlike some, we are an honest team, so if you can make it that far we will not give you any trouble.

Maybe we can work together in the future - it seems to me that we may have common enemies. We do have full maps on CFC, so if you want, we could also exchange maps with you.

Thanks,
scooter - Team RB

[scooter]

Sent to WPC:

Beta,

First to clear things up, CivFr is the Mayan team, currently in 2nd place. They're different from the Zulu team, which is Spanish Apolyton.

The German team just now ended turn, so we can both login now. We did not see their large stack last turn, so we can't confirm where it's at just yet. We will let you know as soon as we figure out it's location for sure, but we suspect it's hiding nearby in an attempt to ambush us. Thankfully, we have a sentry unit, so our visibility should be pretty good.

Wasserburg should fall to us this turn. If something unusual comes up during this turn, I will contact you ASAP. I wish us both good luck this turn.

Thanks,
scooter - Team RB

[scooter]

Chat with OT4E/CivPlayers

scooter
Hey OT4E
Request from our team: can you please stop pillaging the tiles on our front with the Germant team with your horse archer?
we value some of those tiles, and it seems like a hostile thing to do

OT4E
hi
we didnt pillage
any
may be others did
one thing
we noticed that you have razed city
we agreed not to settle to each others borders earlier
we expect you will stick to this agreement

scooter
we are razing & replacing the city. We are replacing the city in a spot that is further away from your borders, so we're actualy doing you a favor
as this should be better than if we had captured and kept the city
it will be re-settled this turn

OT4E
we appreciate it
we also wont pillage tiles
i consider it bad sportsmanship

scooter
Ok, thank you, much appreciated

OT4E
because it is somewhat abusing NAP agreement

scooter
We were locked out of the game until just now because of the mod, so all we saw upon logging in was a pillaged tile and your unit, but maybe somebody else did it. We're looking into that

OT4E
what improvement was pillaged?

scooter
I'm trying to see from the pictures. our player that logged in said it was a road and possibly a tile improvement
But I'm glad to know it wasn't your team. Anyway, my understanding is the city will be resettled 1N of its previous location, which should give us much less cultural border clashing
so hopefully that makes you feel better about seeing our settler in the area

OT4E
yes, thank you

[scooter]

Sent to CivFr:

CivFr,

We sent that last message before seeing the new turn. We see now that your team is supplying our enemy with ivory, so they now have a couple war elephants. Can you please stop this gift immediately? Our last message was genuinely intended to offer aid to your team, but we cannot do that if you're going to help out our enemy.

Thanks,
scooter - Team RB

[kjn]

Chatted with WPC's turn player in-game (T151). Missed to get a good screen shot of the conversation, but here are the highlights:

- They do not have visibility on Wismar (ie unclear if we can snipe the city next turn)
- They have a main stack 2N of Warendorf (15 cats, 20 other units), and a minor one (the one our WCs are shadowing) 1NE-E of Warendorf
- They ask that we move Ruff Going 1SW this turn, to 1E of the cow
- They said the Germans can hit that tile with 4 chariots and 2 axes
- I informed them about the possible war elephant (or cat) in Warendorf next turn, but they had already started to move onto the desert tile

Maps traded with WPC, too.