RP Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Darius I of the Holy Roman Empire

[DMOC]

Okay, I guess we can do that.

SATs finished today. Now I have midterms.

[Mr. Svinlesha]

Here's wishing you well with the SATs!

Been a long, long, looong time since I had to take those.

[DMOC]

Yeah, thanks.

[Nakor]

[SIZE="5"]COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]KOREA[/SIZE]

Hi Nakor,

I just noticed there is quite a while when I sent you previous message and decided to send you one. How are things going for you? Now that Jowy has attacked Speaker/Sullla that will probably hinder the progress of India and give better position for the rest of the world.

How are your borders doing. Earlier you said there were some disputes with Dantski. What is your current relationship with him? I'm just trying to figure out the level of friendliness I should take towards him. I'm very willing to take your opinion into account.

I'm also concerned about Whosit. I've met Jowy and Athlete/Kalin in the south using boats and neither of them seem that intrested in helping us out and especially I've felt that Atlete/Kalin have quite good relationship with Whosit. We haven't yet met dsplaiseted that is a pity since I think we might have a common enemy. I hope I'm not too blunt, but how do you feel towards dsplaisted and would you feel comfortable being a mediator for a messages between us and dsplaisted and not reveal them to Whosit or his allies?

Best regards,
plako

[COLOR="Orange"]Hi Plako,

Good to hear from you!
How is life on the islands? Lot of interesting stuff to find there?
We're thinking of building a galley and get a settler on the island south of us.
Can we ask where you are expanding?

The Ottomans and Dantski joined the attack on India. Let's hope they can inflict some damage, so we lesser gods can catch up a bit.
We're currently not that worried about Dantski, obviously, since he joined the war against India.
We have our borders cut out right now and might steal some tiles from him later on with good builds.
We don't believe that he's a good negotiator/communicator, but that's not really an issue right now.

I'm concerned about Whosit as well, therefore we're trying to keep friendly with him. So far it seems to work, though his demands are becoming a bit more difficult. We hope he will expand east, since there's enough free space there.
We currently don't have contact with Inca. We met but we haven't sent messages. But with all the changes in players, we'll wait untill things are settled there. They are north of The Empire, so you might be able to slip a galley into that region.

Good luck!
Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

Just trying to find out what they know and keeping friendly.

[SIZE="4"]ROMALI[/SIZE]

[COLOR="orange"]Hi Dantski,

Haven't heard back from you regarding the two gifted axes... any thoughts yet?

Just like to let you know that I told India that we'd cancel our NAP with you.
So if you can act the part when they contact you, that would really help!

Hope to hear from you soon!
Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

Hi HRE,

Not replied since I don't know what to counter with, other than returning the 2 axes to you. I mean they're being employed against our mutual enemy so not doing anything more or less than they'd be doing under your control.

Fine with NAP cancellation and will pass on my displeasure at our diplomatic situation to Spulla if they comment on it to me.

-Dantski

[COLOR="orange"]Hi Dantski,

We DON'T cancel the NAP, we just told India so, ok?

Kind regards,
Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

[COLOR="orange"]Hi Dantski,

To be exact, the warrior we're speaking of is 1SE of Crydee and can attack your workers at Gao, so be prepared!

Good luck with the war!

Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

Not much of a talker, Dantski. Don't believe that he will make it to the end of the game. He will start lacking vital techs sooner or later and then we must make a move...

[SIZE="4"]THE EMPIRE[/SIZE]

[COLOR="Orange"]Dear Whosit,

We're still talking to India about a possible alliance.
Don't worry, we wont change sides.

I asked them if they knew if there were more parties involves, since they still seem to be in the dark about your and our involvement.
I told them that I needed to get a NAP with you first before we could consider attacking Dantski.
Of course we already have one, but I'm pretty sure that they're not aware of that.
It's a tricky business, not giving ourselves away and promising things we won't be able to do.
Don't want to do that if I can help it.

Just thought you should know this.[/COLOR]

Dear Nakor/DMOC,

Well, surely it wouldn't be too hard to convince them that those vile Imperials are stalling on the NAP talks.

I'm sure these covert talks are difficult, although I almost envy you; it seems like it is quite interesting diplomacy. Thanks for keeping me informed. There's nothing much to say from my end, although that shouldn't surprising considering how the game has been paused for the last few days.


Best regards,

Whosit, Galactic Emperor

[COLOR="orange"]Dear Whosit,

Indeed it is difficult, but it's quite a bit of fun as well! I also play Diplomacy by e-mail, and these intruiges are great fun.
Don't know if this will work out in the long run, though.

I'm indeed going to tell them that you are stalling and I'm even going to tell them (in a few days) that you forbid us to take their side in the war. I'll elaborate a bit and tell them that you will declare on us if we help them. So if they might mail you, you know what my diplomatic plan is.

Got a message from Plako asking me about my relation with the Inca's (which is non-existent) cause they are looking for an ally against you.

Dantski and Kalin declared as well, so I wonder what India will do. Antietam has got city walls, so that's a bit of a problem...

Kind regards,
Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

We need to be best buddies with The Empire for a long time. But I'm going to use their reputation to explain our actions with India and Korea.

[SIZE="4"]INDIA[/SIZE]

Dear Nakor and DMOC of Holy Rome,


Thanks very much for that last message. Just so you know, we really didn't "goad" Jowy into declaring war on us. He was refusing to sign any kind of non-aggression pact with our team, so we had a scouting warrior check out his territory, on a hill in neutral territory just outside Greek borders. That unit found a big sneak-attack force of units from both Jowy and athlete/kalin! Jowy declared war to kill our unit, and that's how it got started. Basically, we sniffed out their plan to attack!

As for the turn order in wartime, we wanted the second half of the timer because our defensive posture at the moment means that we have to wait and see what Jowy does before reacting. If we were to go first, we would have to "waste" the first turn doing nothing, since we don't know where he's going to attack. By going second, Jowy would effectively get one extra attack turn over us. He knew this, which is why he was arguing to vehemently for it. Thankfully, that issue has been cleared up now.

Anyway, we appreciate your confidence in our survival, one that we also happen to share! If this war is simply Jowy + athlete against us, we're extremely confident that we'll make it through with minimum damage. We don't really know what Dantski is going to do, but rest assured that we will honor our pledge if he would declare war on you. 10-15 turns from now would be perfect timing, giving us a chance to beat back the current invasion and then switch over to the offensive.

Ending the NAP with Dantski would be enormously appreciated on our side. Thank you very much!!! We will keep you informed on how the war progresses on our end.


Cheers,
Sullla
The Killer Angels

[COLOR="orange"]Dear Sullla,

Good to see the game is moving forward again, but we saw that both the Ottomans and Dantski declared on you as well.
We hope you're still confident to turn back the attack force. We saw some walls that might be of great assistance.

We did end our NAP with Dantski, giving us 10 turns of cooldown before we can declare. That would be t100.
Unfortunately Whosit isn't really interested in a NAP. He's wondering what the reasons are to sign one now.
We might have to tell him a bit of our plans and hope that he can agree to that.
We do know that he is good friends with the Ottomans, so let's hope that everything goes allright.
I'm sure you can imagine that we can't really help you when Preatorians are moving towards our borders.

But I'll keep you posted on the progress we make. I'm pretty certain that I can convince Whosit to sign an NAP after a few talks.

Good luck with the war!
Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

Playing a very tricky game here. I wonder if we can pull it of, though I honesty think that they are completely on to us....

[SIZE="4"]COALITION OF WILLING[/SIZE]

[Hello Friends,

I was thinking that with the main surprise mostly gone, it will be a
good idea for Dantski to declare as soon as possible and beeline for
the copper. He has a good enough stack in my opinion to get there and
disconnect it. Meanwhile we would go for the horses while pretending
to go for their capital.

Let us know your thoughts.

Best,
Kalin

Err are you sure about me going for the copper? I'm ready to declare next turn (t100) and my stack is near Gettysburg, it would be an extra 3-4 turns trek across hostile lands for my main stack to get to the horses, it may be better for HRE and my mini stack in Kumbi Saleh to combine and attack the horses.

-Dantski

Hi Dantski,

I am not sure about you going for the copper, I was just suggesting.
We can easily go for both, but the horses are by far the most
important. If you are confident you can do it, go for it. We can reach
and pillage the horses on T103 and the copper on T104.

Kalin

Dear Friends and Allies,

I wanted to send you an email just before our operation will start to
thank you all for participating. I think that we will all benefit from
this operation in one way or another. The first and foremost benefit
to us all however is that we will be able to eliminate our most
dangerous opponent, the favorite to win the game.

Before I proceed, I would like to tell you a quick story from RB PBEM
#1, a story that my teammate Athlete knows all too well The
Ottomans (Dreylin) attacked HRE (Mostly Harmless) who had an alliance
with Arabia (Athlete). The Ottomans had steel, a significant
technological advantage, but the HRE and Arabia had an alliance and
some good numbers on their side. The Ottomans were at the gates of a
city where the HRE was barely holding, but the Arabian troops were
coming to help. Together they would have stopped the Ottoman advance
for sure, and put them on the defensive. Because of lack of proper
communication and an unfortunate misclick, the HRE started to doubt
Arabia. Because of these doubts they signed a peace treaty and a NAP
just when the Arabian forces were coming to counter-attack. Divided
the two civs were much weaker and the entire Arabian civilization
collapsed, while the HRE could not do anything being weak and bound by
their treaty.

I think it's quite obvious why I brought this story here. It's
extremely important to communicate between us, and to trust each other
above all. I would like to state very clearly here, that we are
honored by your participation in the CoW, and us, the Ottomans, trust
you all. I also want to state that we have no hidden agenda here and
our purpose in the CoW is to eliminate or make India a non-factor in
this game.

Along these lines I would like to remind you that while we will all go
to war at different times for diplomatic or tactical reasons, we will
all make peace together in the same time. Also, please keep all the
members informed about your intentions, tactical issues and timelines.

Nakor said in an earlier email that we have a great collaboration
here. I will add to this one of my favorite quotes from the movie
Casablanca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_%28film%29): "I
hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!".

To Victory and Best of Luck to you all!

Kalin for Team A/K of the Ottomans

[COLOR="orange"]Dear Friends and Allies,

It's good to hear that the war is joined by 2 others. That might give India a bit more to deal with.

In their communication to us they told us they are pretty sure they can easily defeat the northern threat.
Let's hope that Dantski joining in gives them a bit more to deal with.
We're still trying to get more information but I don't know it that will work. We're spinnig an interesting tale so far, but I'm still working on how to explain our joining the attack... a lot of fun anyway.

We did spot city walls at Antietam.

Good luck!

Nakor of HRE[/COLOR]

[regoarrarr]

Thanks for posting all that diplomacy - especially all the CoW stuff.

Perhaps one of these days we should get an RB game of Diplomacy up and running!

[Nakor]

[SIZE="5"]Turn 100[/SIZE]

Krondor finished an Axe and is working on a Rathaus (will save 75% of 7 gold), done in less then 7 turns once Iron is connected in 2 turns.
La Mut expanded borders and is working the deer to speed up growth. Worker will start on the camp next turn. Granary done next turn, I believe. Axe afterwards.
Crydee needs to expand fast. Worker is pre-choping but must cottage first after 2 turns. Still working on a library.
Rolan is growing and buidling a library.
Sethanon is building a granary as well and still growing while working 2 scientists.

IW done next turn, Monarchy after that, though we need to do 1 turn Maths to keep the beakers we've got. But first 0% science for a few turns...

War stack is moving north for the inevitable declaration on India.

Here's our empire:

NORTH

You can snot ee the site of our next city, it's a bit east of the workers up north.

SOUTH


SETHANON


MILITARY


DEMOGRAPHICS

[Nakor]

regoarrarr: that would be great fun!

Don't know what my computer is doing to my pics... DMOC, feel free to post some better quality stuff.

[scooter]

Perhaps one of these days we should get an RB game of Diplomacy up and running!

I would sign up for that instantly.

[DMOC]

I'll post screenshots after my midterms (last one is on Thursday).

Looks good so far. I can't believe that iron and copper are right next to each other.

Why do we need to invest a turn in mathematics? Roland Johansen (from CivFanatics) told me that beakers from techs never decay, unlike production hammers.

[Nakor]

hmm. I thought I read that somewhere....
then we don't need to invest in Maths and will get Monarchy sooner!

Shall we revolt to Confu next turn?