Diplomacy Master Thread- Helping Your Opponents Beat Themselves

[scooter]

I do too, but I've been trying not to post over there given that I do diplo for our team. However, under the circumstances, I think it might be best if it came from me.

[Ruff_Hi]

Early morning email from WPC ...

Hi Scooter. Looks like you are going to have to replay your turn.

And I would like to ask that when you take Wilhelmshaven and Warendorf, that you not capture them, but raze them instead. We could then rebuild with our own cities.

And please leave the last two cities for us to capture.

The original plan was to split the number of cities, but the German defence strategy clearly advantaged RB and allowed you to capture the bulk of the German territory.

If you captured the remaining 4 cities, and with no way to transfer them to us, it would mean we get absolutely nothing out of this war.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Beta of WPC

I don't think we can do that and claim that we replayed the turn.

[SleepingMoogle]

Uhm.. no. Aside from not wanting to do that, I'm pretty sure that the general expectation is for us to replay the turn with the same actions/moves as the last one. Razing the cities instead of capturing them will only cause more controversy.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Uhm.. no. Aside from not wanting to do that, I'm pretty sure that the general expectation is for us to replay the turn with the same actions/moves as the last one. Razing the cities instead of capturing them will only cause more controversy.

+1. Sorry WPC, we don't need another controversy. I just hope it doesn't cost us several extra units this time.

[MWIN]

What about northern two cities though?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

What about northern two cities though?

Sure, whatever, let them have them *IF* they can get some units up there to take them. No delay is possible, really, for ending this war. We have to get our defense back to the west before the next round of hostilities. If they fiddle around and don't have units in position, we complete this war without them and deal with the fallout. National security first and all that.

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, no. And we're capturing both tundra cities next turn if possible.

[sunrise089]

How I'd frame it (as a WPC appeaser):

*We simply can't replay the turn differently. It's against the spirit (and letter?) of reloading, especially a reload we ourselves caused (twice!), and given the emotions of the other teams it's important we not further inflame things. We're sorry the attempt at redlining the last defender didn't work out, and we'll actually probably lose more units this time around, but there's nothing we can do sadly.

*If WPC can get units to the northern cities they can of course capture them under our original agreement. If they need our assistance capturing the cities or damaging the defenders we need a sense of how soon they'll be in position to execute. Speed is of the essence for us because 1) we expect to be invaded with rifles in the near future and need all of our units in position to deal with that thread, and 2) if we eliminate the German cities that deletes any remaining forces in the field.

*In addition we will of course do what we can to kill German units in the open and help protect WPC's territory.

I think even if the 'give WPC nothing' camp has won the vote we should endeavor to frame this as nicely as possible. WPC's email explicitly states they're worried about getting nothing at all, so any bone we can throw may go a long way. I know WPC won't be around forever, but for now I'd sure love to know about any hostile moves on that front from an ally rather than an enraged WPC providing someone else scouting info or trying to poach a city or something.

EDIT: Probably not worth a fourth poll, but considering all the factors IMHO it wouldn't be terrible to raze the tundra cities, end the war, and tell WPC they can resettle.

[NobleHelium]

Well I don't think it's worthwhile to say that if they can get units up to the tundra cities then we might let them capture them. We need to capture them asap and that means one of them next turn, and their units are too far away and too slow. There's no point in giving them false hopes as far as I can see.

[scooter]

We can have those tundra cities captured in 2 turns. WPC would take probably 7-8 turns. Not an option.

Anyway, if I were WPC and I said "we're getting nothing from this war!" and RB said "uh you could settle some crappy tundra spots if you want!" I'd probably not be happy with that. I don't see how that helps anything.