This will be the thread where nominations for all future elections to head The Office of the Foreign Ministry will be discussed.


4) The Office of the Foreign Ministry

A) Chief Foreign Minister
- The Chief Foreign Minister (CFM) is the head of all Foreign Activities and is responsible for the management of all relationships with other teams.
- The Chief Foreign Minister is responsible to post orders for each turn in a timely fashion for the President to follow.
- The CFM is in charge of all the following departments and may run them as he sees fit, including appointing any citizen to run the department in the CFM’s place. Any departmental disagreements will be settled by the CFM. The CFM is responsible to run a “Foreign Office” thread with a summary of the current happenings in all Foreign Ministry departments.

B) Department of State
- Run by the Chief Foreign Minister or an appointee of the CFM.
- Responsible for all treaties (War, Peace, Mutual Defense, Open Borders, Alliances, etc.)
- In charge of any correspondence with another team. No game related material may be passed to another team without the approval of this department.
- Responsible to maintain the “Department of State” thread.

C) Department of Trade
- Run by the Chief Foreign Minister or an appointee of the CFM.
- Responsible for all exchanges of Technology, Gold, or Units with another team.
- Responsible to broker any deals where goods or units are exchanged – approval for some deals may need to come from the Department of the Budget or from the Secretary General of Defense.
- Responsible to maintain the “Department of Trade” thread.

D) Department of Intelligence and Analysis
- Run by the Chief Foreign Minister or an appointee of the CFM.
- Responsible to keep up with and analyze all information gleaned from the F9 (info) screen.
- Responsible for any spies produced
- Responsible for digging out and collecting any informative tid-bits from things in chats with other teams or stuff posted in the UN forum.
- Responsible to maintain the “Department of Intelligence and Analysis” thread and with all the info gleaned from the F9 (info) screens. (Score, Demographics, Top 5 Cities, and Statistics)

E) Department of Propaganda
- Run by the Chief Foreign Minister or an appointee of the CFM.
- Responsible for any “news” or non-official correspondence sent out to other teams.
- Responsible to maintain the “Department of Propaganda” thread and.


Good Luck to all the candidates going for Chief Foreign Minister :goodjob:

I hereby nominate fe3333au for the post of Chief Foreign Minister.

This is going to be a useless job for a while. :lol:

This is going to be a useless job for a while. :lol:
Why do you think we have nominated Irongold? :mischief: ;)

:lol: Nice one oh nemesis :thumbsup: ... I'm actually going to decline and go for ather position :mischief:

Reason ... I would prefer that someone with cIV go for it ... I will of course offer to assist is any way I can ... and maybe handle some of the anal analysis stuff :)

Anyone for this ... Damn I wish this hadn't been stickied.

I nominate Twistlok and brooklynprop.

Unfortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), this office will likely see zero events this term. But, with a Sirian map, who knows?

Don't know Pete ... the Department of Intelligence and Analysis will certainly be active from day 1 (might not have much info but it should provide an analysis from genesis to the final round)

:bump: Opened on the 3rd March 11pm ... so will close 10th March 11.00pm +10 GMT

So we need feedback from those nominated and any other nominations confirmed by then !!

Nominations close in 8 hours ... so far no one has accepted :(

Unfortunately the Constitution does not cater for this event ... However in other situations where a Minister is Absent, the position is eventually appointed or controlled by the President.

Therefore if we eventually have NO nominations, I propose that this position will be controled by the President until a person is appointed. and the at the Constitution is ammended after discussion here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=160733) :D

:nospam: Please keep khis thread clear of non nomination related banter !!!

Nomination Period Closed ...

Term 1 ... Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry is -

:twitch: Due to NO nominations, this position will be controled by the President until a person is appointed. :(

:bump: Any of the new players interested in holding this post for the first term?

Have we PM's the nominees? They are both active.

could i... maybe.... you know run...

Yes!

By the powers invested in me as Epsilonian President, I hereby appoint Kentharu to head the Office of the Foreign Ministry!

Quick, tie him down before he gets away!

:clap: Excellent we have a full Ministerial body now :D

sweet :D even though we won't meet anyone for a long while

We are now on turn 15 of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 18-20) are now open.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

I nominate Memphus. He has already been performing the DIA duties during Term 1.

I second the nomination

Unfortunately, Memphus has already accepted the nomination for him to be Domestic Minister. According to our constitution, he cannot run for both positions in the same election.

Perhaps we nominate someone else to hold the official title of Foreign Minister, and then Memphus can be appointed to handle the DIA duties.

I nominate General_W and Peter Grimes (separately, of course!), as I know both of them are good at writing letters and handling diplomatic issues. I'm sure that if and when we meet other teams, they are more than capable of writing introductory letters, setting diplomatic goals, and if needed, appointing others to hold chats.

Thanks Gbno1fan!

- I'll run the Ministry with nothing to do! (yet)

Do I get a cool office if I win the election?

I have a reputation for being a bit long-winded... but IF I'm elected and IF we meet anyone - I promise to keep everyone in the loop and offer everyone a chance to give input and help edit any formal letters to other teams.

have a reputation for being a bit long-winded :lol: wherever did that reputation come from :mischief:

Naturally, General_W didn't inform the electorate of something else he has a reputation for: Divisive campaign tactics, graft, puppy-eating, and gloobing. If you don't know what gloobing is, do some research. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudslinging)

I will throw my hat into this viper pit, if only to keep things honest. We all know the levels to which General_Weasel is willing to stoop: I'm here to keep us civilized, with chins up, and heads held high.

Diplomatic Goals of Term 2:
Prevent other teams from learning about Epsilon's weaknesses: a love of Rice, a psychotic fear of Bears and Lions, and a fanatical awe of all things pentaferous.

:clap: An election champagne and campaign to look forward to :D

For those not familiar with these two ... hold on to your horses and chickens for these two are 'scarily' political ;)

Ah, but does the public know about Peter's carrer (or lack there of) with the Navy? He wrongly received over 26.7 medals! :p

'twill be interesting to find out the winner to this exercise in elections our consition. (and one of the first real elections for Epsilon IIRC to.)

When speaking of a candidate's carrer (sic), it is customary to reference sources. If Lost has no sources for his assertion of my having undeservedly recieved (the highly suspicious number of) 26.7 medals, then clearly this is nothing more than a Gratuitous Allegation. Once we have a Code of Laws it will become clear why this class of statement is only excreted to the tabloids and the shredders.

So I will let the facts stand: I have never recieved a single medal (or commendation) from the Navy, nor have I ever served in any branch of the military. I am a regular citizen, like the rest of you, who respects the honor of elected positions, and will accept one only if a majority of my colleagues approves. Point of fact: I do not consider General_W (nor his lackey Lost_Civantares) to be colleagues, as both of them are clearly of inbred stock, of which neither I, nor the majority of Epsilonians are.

as both of them are clearly of inbred stock :rotfl: outstanding Peter :D

"Do not let yourselves be lead by the snout by those who would lead you astray from the true path, for only those who follow the way of Sirianism will come to truth, all others lead to nothing but darkness and strife. Those who follow the false gods will stumble and fail, to be lost in the dust of the world."
- II Sirian 54:25b

For those who still will not follow those of truth, but blindly walk unto death, may I refer you these pictures (may our lord Sirian clear your mind with them):

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4813/custommedalandbox9xh.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=custommedalandbox9xh.jpg)
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7876/ibmmedalbacksmall1fd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Although they are but a few of the many, they have proven helpful to me in my quest to prove the rightousness of the canadates here before us for this honored and great position. What are you saying? You can not read the text? Well, I asked hallowed Sirian to grant clearness to the eyes, but evidently he has not done so. :p May this honored and great text serve to help you:

"And so, after the great trial it was evident to all that those who had followed in the ways of Sirian had prospered and come to great wealth, acompanied by great insight (emphisis added) into the hearts of all, those of truth, and of falsehood and stone. But to those not of the way of Epsilon and Wonderous Sirian, dullness was given, and hardship came out of the earth, the the people cried out in distress, but there was no relief, for Sirian had forsaken them."
-IV Sirian 23:71,72

May the way become clear for us all, for it must be evident to all that General_W is the true choice! (Why you ask? Why because if my first name is Peter, than someone else whose name is Peter can not be the right choice! :p )

(On the editor's side of things I kept on having to retype Sirian because I was used to writting "our great Meleet" or honored lord Meleet" from the civ3 MTDG TNT bible! It was kind of weird for me :crazyeye: :lol: )

nor the majority of Epsilonians are.
So when are we planning to refute this spurrious notion and start the elections? I severely doubt that we want anymore nominations to this post...

I have nothing to say in response; I merely point to my accuser's signature.

Go Peter :clap: ... Gentlemen back to your corners ... OK ready ... <ding>

Merely moving on and denying the facts will get you nowhere O brother of our sacred clan.

"For to those who brought wisdom to the world, tempered with justice and kindness, Our lord Sirian came, and enriched them, and so it should be with us, knowing that in all that we do we should do to the name of hollowed Sirian, and then rest in the knowledge that Great and Honored Sirian will guide thee unto the reward that will be given unto thee for the betterment of all mankind."
- I Sirian 2:56

Wow General_W ... call off your attack dog ... Peter is one of us!!!

I find it interesting that the Dog is yelping while his master is napping!

I have a feeling that General_W isn't interested in accepting this nomination, so it's time for the pups to be laid to bed.

Ah, my dear friend Peter… you'll not have it so easy!

I have already accepted this nomination, and now, before all these witnesses, I do give my solemn pledge to save the office of the Foreign Ministry from the clutches of those that would usurp the office for personal gain.

Unlike my opponent – who is so quick to hurl vile accusations at our Brother Epsilonians, and is so eager to employ labeling and name-calling against members-in-good-standing of the Secret Order of Epsilon – I will not descend to this level of internal backbiting and mudslinging.

No – For I have the foresight to see that our true enemies lie outside… not here within the eternal city of Epsilon Eridani.
I ask you – my fellow members of the Eternal Order of Epsilon… do you want a Foreign Minister that knows our battles lie out in the great unknown black? Or one who seems bent on starting a war here at home?

I pledge my absolute, undying, and total fidelity to Epsilon Team and the advancement of our cause and brotherhood. I will work tirelessly to promote unity and advancement here at home… and to promote disorder and chaos in the ranks of our Foreign enemies.

My worthy opponent? I believe his actions speak for themselves.

That is all from me.
I will be happy to answer any policy questions.

Epsilon Forever.
Forever Epsilon.

- General W


Nice work! :goodjob: your loyalty will be remembered if I win this election…

Take heed now of the words from our honored Epsilonian Bible, for do not let the word of Sirian fall on deaf ears, for so shall your words fall if you do not cherish all before you:

"Take hold of the moment and do not let go, for only through those who rise through the words of Lord Sirian will come to victory. Although they may come to seeming victory for a time, it will only be to fall the deeper. So it is if you let them hold control over you, for if they do, their short rise will be yours, but so will their great fall. So watch. Test. And trust only in the words of honored Sirian to provide light for your path".
-Sirianic Proverbs 29:18-22

I say not unto you that you are not of true epsilonian flesh and darkness, but that a dagger must be proven before it may be used in a time of subterfuge and danger. As it is for the smallest, so must it be for the largest things of Epsilon.

May through our lord Epsilon these things be proven true, as they have with the secret fire of long past Epsilonian tradition.


Epsilon Forever -- Eternal Epsilon
Forever Epsilon -- Epsilon Eternal


I thank you greatly, but all I do all for great Epsilon and Honored Lord Sirian. May Sirian bless the true canadate! :goodjob: It has been fun and interesting to cultivate the knowlage of Sirian in those that need it most :mischief: ;)

Secrets within secrets .. hmmm ... is our mighty order splintering?

I see the signs ... they are obvious and dire. :(

lost_civantares and General_W ... :nono: Take care that you do not get too smug and secure when you flaunt your exclusive cabaling activities to us ... you may find that this will backfire.

One should read the facts O friend fe3333au before one makes acusations. Only General_W and I, the supporter of the oppressed, has been to ones to adhear to that which is of Epsilon, I have done nothing to say that you are not of Epsilon, just to warn that you better be. All throughout this time you have been loudly telling everyone that I am trying to betray the team, when in fact that it is you that has been spreading this devisve opinion,

"There will be many people in the midst of you, some false, but others preaching truely in my name. Watch them, decide, and find who is in fact of Truth. For only then can you bring them to you as those who are the trusted of Sirian, for to be good is better than to be lucky O my people, there will be many in the later days, and only the few are of His trusted elite."
- The Sirianic Lamentation 17:29-37

How like a zealot to pollute scripture for their own purpose ... however perhaps another time or place would be best to discuss your short commings :smug:

A question to the candidates ... how and in what form will you be presenting the data accumulated in the scoring screens that unfortunately our previous Foreign Minister forgot to do ... and will you be presenting the data in an ongoing and updatable format or just term by term.

The period for nominations is now closed. This will go to vote.

Please visit this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171136) to cast your vote, or continue discussion with the candidates.

I think that it was a tad on the good side that this closed before it was too late for me....:mischief:

I rest my candidacy on my statements in this thread. There have been gratuitous allegations, libelous falsehoods, and political lies issued against me. None have been issued against my opponent, General_W.... I feel very adolescent in pointing out how Interesting that is!

In any case, I will be quick to note that General_W would make an adept Foreign Minister. I would not hesitate to vote for him myself (if no one else were running). But I will simply point out the type of Character that tends to gravitate towards My Opponent, and the schizo-fanatic qualities exhibited already: Do any of us really want that to be the Face of Epsilon?

I do not have a psychotic message to spread to the world; if that's the face you want to project, then you must support General_W and his Cronies.

If you are of a more enlightened and rational mind, as most of us Epsilonians are, then I am clearly the better voice for our team.

First of all, I am not going, nor planning on being the foreign minister. Secondly, while I have raised some issues, it was you first who started the "issues" by supplying statements such as:

Naturally, General_W didn't inform the electorate of something else he has a reputation for: Divisive campaign tactics, graft, puppy-eating, and gloobing. If you don't know what gloobing is, do some research.

I will throw my hat into this viper pit, if only to keep things honest. We all know the levels to which General_Weasel is willing to stoop: I'm here to keep us civilized, with chins up, and heads held high.

Diplomatic Goals of Term 2:
Prevent other teams from learning about Epsilon's weaknesses: a love of Rice, a psychotic fear of Bears and Lions, and a fanatical awe of all things pentaferous.

I had said nothing prior to this about Canadate Peter's abilities, and neither had General_W. In fact General_W was being entirely honest about what he thought he was able of, but Peter decided to loudly splice his thoughts in, whether or honored assembly needed them or not (didn't I hear something about "adolescents"....). I simply saw the case of the oppressed, pointed out some weaknesses in the earlier history of Canadate Peter, and was jumped on when I dared to put forth the words of Great Sirian, and had my words twisted and my name maligned (deviously calling me nothing but a "lackey" and "schizo-fanatic" springs to mind). Altough I might be hard on those whom I feel oppress others (and notice that I never declared our friend Peter evil, I simpley implied the fact that Peter must be tested first before he can be trusted, and I would like to see at least some proof of his ability preferably before I can have much trust in his abilities to represent the name of Eternal Epsilon before the UN, the meeting place of humanity), it is something that I should have as the minister of defense. Peter is not running for the minister of defense (where you'll notice he is with MIA, where the current situation, and in fact any game during the time period being played now in the civ3 MTDG) where it is good, in many ways, to be "psychotic", as peter grimes, so kindly put it, but for the position of head of the Foreign Ministry, and especially at a time where critical alliences and friendships will be formed, ones that will either spur us on to victory, or ignominous defeat, such rampent and spiteful talk, spurting out and then attacking all who come to the defense of the poor attacked, is someone that can not be trusted with this position of honor and great defrence.

I have asked time and again for proof of the ability of Canadate peter grimes, but he has given us nothing but negitive proof.

Canadate peter grimes has attack the sacred name of Epsilon. He has either foolishly decided that bravado was the right way to go, and said crazy (and he called me psychotic?) or he has decided that he doesn't want Epsilon to win, and decided to push the hitherto respected name of Epsilon into the mud and dirt of the pub and Off topic threads. Why would someone running for such an important post do something like this? Look closely at his unguarded words, and think what damage he could do later if in such a flustered state as Canadate peter grimes was previously, and will again if elected:
Diplomatic Goals of Term 2:
Prevent other teams from learning about Epsilon's weaknesses: a love of Rice, a psychotic fear of Bears and Lions, and a fanatical awe of all things pentaferous.

[and also:]

Naturally, General_W didn't inform the electorate of something else he has a reputation for: Divisive campaign tactics, graft, puppy-eating, and gloobing. If you don't know what gloobing is, do some research. Here he is not only insulting Epsilon that they are not smart enough to know simple words like gloobing, that our team is nothing but a viper's pit, and that we are cowards of even simple things like bears, but he's also decided to make up some thing that will detract from Canadate General_W's election prospects. Additionally he decides later on that I have made up my reports on Canadate peter grime's previous history, and when I prove my statements and give him the oppertunity to doubt my evidence if he so wished, he ignores me and thereby louses any ability to make a reasonable defence, and ends up in his present tail spin.


One must be able to keep ones self neutral in a tense situation, and Canadate peter grimes has done nothing but prove that he can't handle even a minor dispute and frustration such as has happened here. He has loudly and quite blatently tried to slather disrepute on people that he has no reason to do so, and, contrasted to General_W's quiet listening, only speaking up only once, and then doing nothing but encouraging those who would defend the rights of Epsilonians and the culture of Epsilon, decided that it was he, Great Canadate peter grimes, that quiet and kindly man, that was the right man for the job, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The actions of these two canadates speak well of who they actually are. Who do you think is the right man for this important post of honor during the formulative years in our Great nation's history?

We are now on turn 15 of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 18-20) are now open.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

i nominate General_W cause he is awesome and knows what he is doing, his foreign ministry thread is superbly planned and laid out

and he probably has cookies to :)

I Second that and would urge that in this term (pendign his victory) he continue to do the same as last as we must be meeting someone soon :D

Thank you gentlemen!

I'll be happy to keep serving. I must warn everyone though – I'll be gone on vacation from July 7th through the 14th – and most likely won't have any internet access. (at the lake).

I can easily appoint a deputy to run things while I'm gone – but if someone else want to officially take over, I'm cool with that :)

If I am reelected, rest assured I will continue the reporting I've started – and always be on the lookout for new ways to refine and make things more clear.

The nomination period is now closed.

Due to lack of competition, the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry for Term 3 is General_W.

We are now on turn 15 of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 18-20) are now open.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

I strongly Nominate General W as he is a fimilar contact for our current deals with Pfiffle

I definitly second, my trust in him over the past 2 terms (in addition to my quite, uh, "active" campaigning ;))has been proven to be placed correctly. :)

I appreciate the confidence Gentlemen!
Thank you!

I will tentatively accept – but I do need to issue a caveat.

As you've noticed, I've fallen way behind in keeping up on the intelligence thread.
I feel perfectly capable of keeping up on any actual diplomacy… and I follow these threads very actively, so I'm confident I'm well informed on what's going on in the team.
My point? It may be a while (if ever) before I can catch up on the intelligence thread. I may just need to start over at some point in the future. I haven't gotten any complaints about my tardiness – so maybe that thread was only of limited use anyway?

If people want to re-elect me to this post, I'll keep doing the best job I know how on all aspects of our Foreign Ministry… but the intelligence thread may continue to suffer for a while.
(Reasons- if you care – just moved into the country – now I've got very poor internet at home, and my responsibilities in the Civ3 MTDG may be taking a big increase here soon)

Anyway – if someone else would like this job, I'll be happy to continue in a role as "Ambassador to Piffle" if I can best be of service that way.


So yeah – that's a long winded way of saying "I humbly accept – but if someone else wants the job, please run!"

:salute:

Hi,

It may be a while (if ever) before I can catch up on the intelligence thread. I may just need to start over at some point in the future. I haven't gotten any complaints about my tardiness – so maybe that thread was only of limited use anyway?
It was of great use to me! I don't have the time to download and open the save, so I loved to see what had changed during the turns, and where everyone else stood. It was a great thread! :goodjob:

However, I also see how much work it must have been to do this, so I won't complain - just letting you know that the thread was much appreciated. ;)


Sorry that I've been so quiet, but as long as the CS plan seems to work smoothly, I don't see much to discuss so...

-Kylearan

The nomination period is now closed.

Due to lack of competition, the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry for Term 4 is General_W.

Thanks!
I'm honored to serve again.

:salute:

Hopefully I'll be able to re-start the intelligence thread soon.

We are now on turn 15 of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 18-20) are now open.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

It would be a shame to change faces in our diplomatic relations with Pfiffle (we should save the for the :backstab:)

GO GENERAL_W!!! :goodjob:

Definitely Seconded. (Remember we're MIA quality here though :p )

Thanks Gentlemen!

I accept. :salute:

I promise to more active in this next term! Otherwise more of the same :)

Hey General - any chance of reviving the CIA?.... or is that just a tremendous amount of catch-up at this point?

I could help, if given instructions. Work will be letting up soon.

Actually, I’ve been thinking about that.
I plan to revive it here soon – but I think that the whole “score tracker” thing is more effort than it’s worth.
With the game getting more complicated, it’s going to be harder and harder to tell what’s going on just from the score.

What WILL be useful is as we meet nations I can keep track of their technologies, cities, and watch for international trading. Right now, Piffle is the only one we can keep close tabs on, but that will probably change here soon.

So - my plan at this time is to bring the CIA thread back – but with a more narrow focus.
What do you think of that?

I am all for that.

To me the score tracker served it purpose :goodjob: , we pulled of a CS slingshpt in multiplayer :eek: (I am still amazed that we did this :D )

So any CIA thread now would be beneficial

The nomination period is now closed.

Due to lack of competition, the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry for Term 5 is General_W.

:woohoo: (10 char)

We are now on turn 15 of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 18-20) are now open.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

Ends With A Double U

and commands great amies.

General_W!

Thanks Memphus!

I don't think it's a secret that I like this job… so I'll be happy to run again.

Hopefully everyone has been happy with the way I've run this department the last several terms!
But I don't want to discourage anyone from running against me – a battle of ideas is always a healthy thing in my opinion.

:salute:

The nomination period is now closed.

Due to lack of competition, the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry for Term 6 is General_W.

It's time for nominations!

Please post your choice for head of the Foreign Ministry.

Polls to be posted if needed on turn 18 of the current term.

Go General Go!

The relationships are off on a good foot, I feel it best to keep the same face :)

Thank you Mr. President.
I accept. :salute:

My job is becoming a fair amount of work – but I really enjoy it.
We're in a very critical time for diplomacy, and I love being a part of it.

Here's my Campaign Platform:

Continued Detailed Updates
Not only will my turn updates continue, but I'll continue to refine them based on team suggestions and my own on-going analysis of how I can present those reams of information in the most concise and intelligible way.
I hope people have found them to be useful and informative.


Balanced Approach to Diplomacy
As much as possible, I'll continue to offer all formal team letters on our forum for at least 24 hours for comment from the team before I take any action. However, there are times in diplomacy where speed becomes a major concern. In those cases, I will negotiate and makes deals to the best of my ability and in keeping with the sense I have of the team's position.
Thus, I'll continue to try to balance seeking maximum input with still keeping our diplomacy on track and moving and doing everything I can to avoid losing a deal due to being too slow.



Aggressive Pursuit of Trade Deals
Since we are, and have been, the unquestioned score leader in this game, that puts us in a precarious international position. We are at grave risk of becoming a rallying cry for those who would like to unite the bloodthirsty in a war of conquest. (Or short of that, just an alliance to exclude us from trading technology or resources).
To prevent that – it is very important that we build the kind of relationships with at least 1 or preferably 2 foreign powers where they feel that they have much more to gain from trading with us than they do from fighting us. This may require making some deals that might not seem in our immediate best interest… but is far better then ending up on the wrong side of a 4 vs. 1 world war.
Even though I'm ready and willing to make those kind of self-sacrifice trades when I think it would be beneficial to building an alliance… that's NOT where I think negotiations should start. As DaveMcW as calculated for us – at 40% gold to beakers and 80% beakers to beakers – Epsilon still comes out ahead on any deals. I'll use that as my baseline – try to negotiate for deals even more in our favor, hit those benchmarks when necessary, and only go below them when it appears vital to preventing an anti-Epsilon faction taking power in our rival's government.
I'm also a very big fan of the multiple-trade deal, where we try to trade each advance we get to as many people as possible – plugging the secondary market and bringing home maximum trade benefit to the Golden Halls.


Generally, More of the Same
I've been serving as Chief Foreign Minister since term 2 now, so I think everyone is pretty well acquainted with my style. I hope it's not considered bragging to say that I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished diplomatically in that time. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible without all the great feedback from this wonderful team. A very special thanks to all who have contributed so far.
If elected, I promise to continue things much as they are now, and hope all of you will continue to speak up as much as possible.


Epsilon Forever!
Forever Epsilon!

:salute:

It seems that we get a fair amount of useful information from chats, would those be something we could do more of?

I certainly like to conduct chats – and I agree that they are tremendously useful - but there's just a couple problems.

1) They can be very hard to arrange. With my work, and marriage, and work for my church, and baby on the way... It's hard for me to set aside all the time needed for even just 1 chat.
I will do my best to have them as much as possible - but it will have to be on a mostly chance basis. :sad:

2) It limits team input. In order for a chat to be really a success I have to make snap decisions on what to reveal / what not to reveal and how much to offer vs. how much to hold back, etc. I hate leaving the team out of these key discussions. I understand we can always come back later and just disavow whatever I said, but I think that destroys confidence in our good-faith bargaining. I feel more comfortable conducting a chat when I know I’m on firm footing with where the team would like to go… so I can do my best to negotiate in that direction.

Neither of those reasons are sufficient cause for neglecting chatting as a vital avenue of diplomacy… but I hope it helps you understand why I view them as being of more limited use.

If more people would like to speak up and say that the REALLY think I should be doing more chatting, I will certainly look to cut back on some of my letter writing in favor of trying to track down people on Instant Messengers. :)


EDIT: Another long-winded response to a short question! :lol:

Hi,

With my work, and marriage, and work for my church, and baby on the way... It's hard for me to set aside all the time needed for even just 1 chat.
I find it truly amazing that you find the time to do anything at all for the team, let alone writing all the well-crafted letters that you do... :eek: Great job! :goodjob:

(Sadly, I'm extremely busy at the moment and don't have the time to participate much in any discussions, as you've probably noticed. :sad: Here's hoping that I will have more time to spare again soon!)

-Kylearan

Welcome General_W to the rights, responsibilities, and paycheck, of Head of the office of the Epsilonian Foreign Ministry! May you snatch peace from unwanted war, information from the jaws of those least expecting it, and huge tributes of gold in exchange for little else then your wonderous speaking typing ability... :mischief: :D

You are now the minister for the entirety of term 7. :goodjob:

[party] Hooray!

First of all, I'd like to thank my gracious opponent in this race... :mischief:

And Thanks Kylearan - I hope we see more of you around the boards in the coming months also! I always enjoy your well thought-out feedback.

We are now on turn 19(!) of the current term.

Nominations for the next elections (to take place during turns 20-21) are now open.

The next term will last from turn 142 until turn 160.

Please post your nominations for the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry in this thread.

cough cough General_W :king:

I accept. :salute:

But with my baby girl due any day, my attention to my post may suffer a bit. I feel good with where we're at diplomatically – so if someone wants to take my place, I'll gladly step back into a supporting role for a while.

The nomination period is now closed.

Due to lack of competition, the Head of the Office of the Foreign Ministry for Term 8 is General_W.

Congrats General_W Winning yet again...and yes you can still win even if there is no contest :goodjob:

All must fall before me!! :mwaha: