Diplomacy Master Thread- Helping Your Opponents Beat Themselves

[Ellimist]

I'm fine with that CivFr draft, including the 120 gold thing, but I do wonder if that's the right gift to get the attitude we want. Do we have any resources they need? How much gold were they likely to get from the merchant?

[scooter]

I'm fine with that CivFr draft, including the 120 gold thing, but I do wonder if that's the right gift to get the attitude we want. Do we have any resources they need? How much gold were they likely to get from the merchant?

I'm of course completely open to alternative suggestions, I'm definitely not married to the idea of a gold gift and/or that exact number. That's just my best suggestion. If someone can think of something concrete that might work better, suggest away.

[scooter]

Ok, I got permission to post this. Speaker offered to check on the CivFr situation as he knows a couple of them from ladder games way back. This was his thoughts:

I caught up with <removed> from CivFr two nights ago and chatted with him for a while. He didn't really have authorization to talk about what was going on because it was so important, but I didn't get any sense that the war dec had to do with us. He sent me a Facebook message this morning saying the same thing as they sent you guys, about the great merchant. I don't think he would lie about it. I've read the discussion so far on this forum about how to respond and I disagree wholly with it. If you want to make true allies with CivFr, I think you need to offer them something of real value. Respond with rhetoric, and I doubt you will get anywhere. They don't speak English well, so they have no interest in sending back and forth useless "talk." We are not allies yet. I would consider sending them some gold, if it doesn't break the NAP against CFC. That is a pretty powerful gift in these games, since gold is so finite. Might be worth it after engineering is finished.

Speaker

PS- CicFr is very impressed with how well RB has played so far.

Hopefully that explains a little better where I was coming from with my suggested draft. Anyway, discuss away, I'll check in to see where things are headed in the morning.

I'll likely send the WPC message first thing in the morning if nobody has any issues with it, no need to delay that message. The CivFr message isn't as big of a rush, so we can spend a little bit of time getting it right if necessary.

[NobleHelium]

I...really don't think we should be offering gold to CivFr out of the blue like that.

Edit: Just read Speaker's message. That's more convincing.

[Speaker]

I...really don't think we should be offering gold to CivFr out of the blue like that.

Edit: Just read Speaker's message. That's more convincing.

It's not out of the blue. They suggested it (bolded by me below for emphasis)

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

[NobleHelium]

Oh okay. I missed that part. Since they asked specifically for it, it's not a bad idea then, if that's what we decide to do.

[Ellimist]

Can we give them anything else they would value? Resource gifts are nice because they're an ongoing thing that the other team can grow to rely on, but if gold is the best option available, then let's do it.

Do we know how much gold they were expecting from the great merchant, or perhaps the amount they would need to upgrade some units? The best amount to send is tricky to determine out of context.

[Bigger]

Can we give them anything else they would value? Resource gifts are nice because they're an ongoing thing that the other team can grow to rely on, but if gold is the best option available, then let's do it.

Do we know how much gold they were expecting from the great merchant, or perhaps the amount they would need to upgrade some units? The best amount to send is tricky to determine out of context.

we can't send enough gold to make up for the great merchant, nor should we try - we didn't mess up their great merchant plans.

[Ellimist]

Can we give them anything else they would value? Resource gifts are nice because they're an ongoing thing that the other team can grow to rely on, but if gold is the best option available, then let's do it.

Do we know how much gold they were expecting from the great merchant, or perhaps the amount they would need to upgrade some units? The best amount to send is tricky to determine out of context.

we can't send enough gold to make up for the great merchant, nor should we try - we didn't mess up their great merchant plans.

I was thinking more like 20-25% of the great merchant's value, if that was a reasonable amount for us to afford.

[Speaker]

I was thinking more like 20-25% of the great merchant's value, if that was a reasonable amount for us to afford.

Here is the value of a great merchant Sullla and I used in PB2 near enough to this time frame in the game: