[SPOILERS] Team Orgynized: Parkin/Arki/Magno embark on a kinky adventure

[Arkipeller]

Is it neccesary to tell them that we lost our scout? I rather prefer we neglected that part

It does explain why we might take a while to meet our eastern neighbours. Though they could have a Scout headed our way for all we know. Can leave the info out though - it's already rather too long. And it's probably better for them not to know that it might take us quite a while to map the land between us.

Anything else to change before I send it?

It's just that they don't need the explanation why we don't know more of the map.

[WilliamLP]

I think based on a personality read from three of the people on the list from other games, and their introduction email, I'm not sure if they'll appreciate the light humorous roll playing tone or not or if they'll just roll their eyes. I think they are very much just gamers not looking for a story experience. So maybe it's worth de-flourishing the language a bit with this team? I could be wrong, maybe they'll smile at it.

So if I understand, the renegotiation part boils down to: "A NAP will always extend unless it is explicitly cancelled 5 (or we want 10) turns in advance"? This seems fine to me.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, I think you're right - probably best to match their writing style, which was to the point and businesslike. Okay, bit of a rewrite:

Greetings HBHR, Kurumi, Oxyphenbutazone, suttree, and other followers of the Eagles & Condors,

Nice to meet you folks! It sounds like we're on much the same page regarding our approach to the early game. Thanks for the info on the separation of our capitals, that's pretty close to what we expected.

We agree to limit our espionage ratio to 43/43 while we accumulate EP on other teams. We'd be happy to extend this agreement for longer if we become close partners.

We have no desire to engage in war at any time in the near future, so we'd be glad to sign a NAP together until turn 60. We're slightly confused by your renegotiation clause, however... perhaps you could elaborate on this. Does it mean no extensions to our NAP are possible prior to turn 55? Or does it mean that by turn 55 we must have made a decision one way or the other as to whether the NAP will continue? We strongly feel that if things are going well between our nations, we should not restrict ourselves from being able to extend our cooperation much earlier than 5 turns prior to the expiry date. Also, in the unlikely event that we decide to waste our resources fighting one another very early in the game, we would prefer 10 turns of advance notice rather than only 5.

We would like to clarify that to us non-aggression includes not aggressively planting cities close to the other nation without discussion. Since we have not yet revealed all the land between our nations, we propose a very simple agreement for now: neither of us would settle more than 5 tiles from our capital in the direction of the other nation without first coming to a mutual agreement. Given the 14 tile distance between our capitals, this would mean the BFC of cities freely placed (with no discussion required) would not extend further than the halfway point between our nations. How does this sound to you? Once we've both got a good idea of the land between us, we can of course work out a more intricate border agreement to divide resources near the halfway point between ourselves.

We note you've made contact with the Margarita team - we met them a few turns ago, though we've heard no response to our initial greeting. We actually assumed they were our western neighbour, but from your message it sounds like they must be your western neighbour instead? We haven't yet made contact with our eastern neighbour (or anyone else for that matter), but we'll gladly let you know who they are as soon as we meet them.

Like your team, we are available via email or chat to discuss the game and coordinate our efforts. Please give us some advance notice if you'd like to chat so we can try to arrange for as many of our team members to be present as possible. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with you!

Kind regards,
Team Orgynized

[Lord Parkin]

Sent the revised message to Eagles & Condors.

Oh, and we finally heard back from the Margarita!

Hello Dear Orgy Nized,

I hope that Orgy is going well, I am sorry to be so late to the party. The reason I was so slow to reply is that my team has undergoing very turbulent implosion and explosion and general snafuty snafu. What is left in the ashes after this reorganization is just poor me, Maga or Margarita, whichever you prefer, but please - not Margarine. Master/Monster/slaze is out of the picture and it seems that no followers left, either.

So actually looks like great time to get drunk in a nice company - so I am gratefully accepting your kind invitation . My scout - or scoutess actually - would definitely want to jojn in debauchery :P. There is only one problem - I wanted to give her more appropriate name for that - like Behemoth or Sasha Grey - but have no clue how people are renaming their units. I was clicking everywhere but cannot find it - can you please enlighten me how to do it?

I think Sasha Grey would be actually most appropriate name - seems like rather interesting lady, btw. Have never heard of her until couple days ago, but then I have read info on her on wikipedia, especially some of the awards she got - one of the was for a best three-way scene (blush) - if you know what I mean. So kinda fitting with your style - feel free to use as a name or invite to the party .

Talking about party - or actually reading about it in your email - already put me in the mood as if I down three Margaritas. I and I am rather busy atm with other things, so let me blunt and to the point: I like you guys . I have know before that you are excellent players and I can trust your word, but I see already that you would be a ton of fun to work together - and to party together . So I would gladly have a longer NAP with you, as it is a natural foundation for closer friendship and collaboration. When you guys met my Scoutess, you probably naturally assumed that I am your Western neighbor - but actually there is another civ, Native Americans, in between us. So since we are not even neighbors - no "our close borders spark tension problems" I thought than a long NAP will be neat, mostly just to say "we like each other and would like to work together long term". I do not have anything specific in mind at the moment - but I am sure we will figure out something or will have fun trying. In terms of a NAP length, I was thinking like until turn 183, of course with a possibility of extension. No particular reason for turn 183 - other than it is Famke Janssen's height in centimeters . But if you like Keira Knightley or Jessica Alba better, it is completely fine, too, as well Emma Watson and Evangeline Lilly. What the heck, we can start even as low as Elisha Cuthbert. But 50 turns - it is more like Jennifer Aniston's doggie height - not that have anything against doggie's, but even my cat behemoth is three times as high as that. But if you want to start small, it is fine, too - as I said, nothing against doggies, too. Just wanted to indicate early on, that we would like to move into directions of Famke Janssen or Keira Knightley at some point.

Flirtatious Regards,

Your well-curved Margarita

Wow, apparently we hit the right note there. An offer of a NAP until T183 right out of the gate? Way to go Maga. A player after my own heart.

Not entirely sure that's a 100% serious offer, but it does kind of seem that way. I'm half tempted to see just how far we could push it to try to set some sort of record. Repropose to something beyond T200 maybe? (Suggest we measure from Zeng Jinlian?) Realistically I can't see any reason we'd want to attack a non-neighbour much earlier than T200 anyway. I've tried playing a game on the same settings as this map, and the high maintenance means that even taking neighboring cities in the mid-game is incredibly expensive - let alone cities on the other side of the world. And if slaze is no longer on the team then they may be less of a long term threat anyway... though I'd probably take the deal either way. I'd be very surprised if that kind of offer will be on the table for any other nations we interact with, and having one guaranteed long-term friend (especially a non-neighbour) is never a bad thing.

Any objections to signing such a long NAP with a non-neighbour before we go ahead and follow up on the offer?

[WilliamLP]

How sure are we she's far away? We did see her scout pretty early, she can't be that far, right?

Without Slaze, she's very amusing but I'm skeptical about her actual Civ skill! So should we be worried about too long a NAP with someone who may eventually have our easiest land to expand into?

[Lord Parkin]

How sure are we she's far away? We did see her scout pretty early, she can't be that far, right?

Her capital should be 28-30 tiles away if the 14 tile distance between civs mentioned by Eagles & Condors is standard. She met us on turn 15, which means 16 turns of movement. The maximum distance she could have travelled in that time is therefore 32 tiles - perhaps subtract a couple for the odd single move east or north/south move, maybe add one or two if the Scout started to the east of the Settler.

Both her message and the message from Eagles & Condors confirm the same information about Eagles & Condors being our western neighbours. So unless they're collaborating together to pretend (and why would they, since it doesn't gain them anything and for all they know we can corroborate the information for ourselves shortly anyway) we know Maga can't be our western neighbour, and therefore based on the assumption of similar distances between civs she must be something close to 30 tiles away.

Without Slaze, she's very amusing but I'm skeptical about her actual Civ skill! So should we be worried about too long a NAP with someone who may eventually have our easiest land to expand into?

I don't think so. If her civ turns out to be a pushover, that'll be a shame but we're unlikely to lay claim to anything. Eagles & Condors and whoever are her western neighbours would have dibs on that land. Setting up a non-contiguous empire, especially right in the face of a neighboring civ, is just asking for trouble.

I suppose if Eagles & Condors were to crumble then we might start to be interested in Maga's land, but realistically that's not going to happen anytime soon. They have a great leader, have many players who seem like they know what they're doing, and are probably not going to be easily moved. So I think we won't have to worry about any border contact with Maga until somewhere close to T200 at minimum, assuming we're both still around.

[WilliamLP]

How sure are we she's far away? We did see her scout pretty early, she can't be that far, right?

Her capital should be 28-30 tiles away if the 14 tile distance between civs mentioned by Eagles & Condors is standard. She met us on turn 15, which means 16 turns of movement. The maximum distance she could have travelled in that time is therefore 32 tiles - perhaps subtract a couple for the odd single move east or north/south move, maybe add one or two if the Scout started to the east of the Settler.

Can we rule out some sort of triangle? Like one is NW 14 and one is SW 14?

[Lord Parkin]

Based on Maga's reply I'm fairly confident that's not the case. She talks about the Native Americans being "in between" us, which doesn't make sense if there's a triangle setup. She also says we are not neighbours.

...you probably naturally assumed that I am your Western neighbor - but actually there is another civ, Native Americans, in between us.

...we are not even neighbors - no "our close borders spark tension problems"...

[antisocialmunky]

Its a match made in NAP heaven (or hell).

[WilliamLP]

Based on Maga's reply I'm fairly confident that's not the case. She talks about the Native Americans being "in between" us, which doesn't make sense if there's a triangle setup. She also says we are not neighbours.

Ah, nice! Maybe that also means Team Birdies will have a more appealing target to attack to their other side, rather than us.