Text of a letter I just sent to Innovia:
Hi,

I've been going through what little correspondence there is between our teams. There seems to be some latent hostility. That's doing none of us any good, and in many ways it's doing us actual harm. Example: we should be working together as comrades in the fight against the imperialist dogs of Epsilon!

What can we do to help you fend off the attacks from Epsilon? What can Aloha do to help?

Please let us know your thoughts on the three honest teams taking out the lying infidels.

Death to Epsilon,
Peter the Piffle

OK, so Innovia still hasn't responded to our last letter [text above]

So I sent a new letter:

Hi!

I presume the pigeons can't find their way home due to the invasion: I sent a letter to you guys a week ago, and still haven't heard a single peep back!

Piffle and Aloha are allied against the Epsilonian Imperialist Dogs. If you choose to join us, we may be able to offer assistance. If you choose to go it alone, then we wish you the best. Honestly. But speaking as one who knows, there is no way you can hope to withstand their continued onslaught.

Which brings me to my main point. How many turns do you realistically think you can hold them off? Aloha and Piffle have a plan (which I'm sure you've heard before). Have you considered a scorched earth tactic? What do you think Epsilon is hoping to gain in this war? Are they keeping your cities, or razing them?

Are they going for Domination, Conquest, or Spaceship?

There is, of course, a way for the three of us to stop them.

Death to Epsion,
Peter the Piffle

[sent 5/8/08]

Finally, a response from Innovia!

Thanks for the offer but honestly I don't know what you guys could possably do for us or vice-a-versa. Epsilon claims we have less than 10 turns. I'm not sure how seriously to take that estimate. It would take most of that just to get their troops to our most distant city. We are planning to use our last troops to defend cities rather than scorch our lands. Pillaging makes our units too easy to pick off, our improvments are numerous and our army small, but mostly we couldn't care less about the state of the world after we're dead.

The only units left to upgrade are a trio of axemen. So your welcome to contribute to our coffers for that if you like.

We'll also accept any techs you'd like to offer. Railroad will open machineguns for us.

Epsilon has previously stated that want a spaceship victory, but I don't see how conquering Innovia helps them reach that goal. They are mostly keeping cities, but have razed them if it looked like we would retake it.

Hope that answers all your questions.

Good luck,
Team Innovia

I think we should send them railroad, and see if that helps them much. It's too bad that they don't want to try harder. But then again, I'm really not sure there's much they could do about their situation anyway. In hindsight, the go-it-alone attitude got them nowhere.

Maybe we should ask them if they'd object to our cavs doing some pillaging? It would mean declaring on them, so we'd have to send them railroad first. But it would allow us to raise some gold, especially if we concentrate on the cottages. It would also be nice if they would allow us (or Aloha) to capture their Workers. Or at least delete them so that Epsilon doesn't get them.

Don't know how well such a note would be received, though. Especially after that "we could care less about the state of the world after we're dead" comment. :dunno:

That's a great idea, Conroe!

If they don't care about the state of the world after they're gone, then they could hardly care whether or not Epsilon! gets to use their old cottages and such. As for the workers, I'll mention it - but I doubt Innovia has workers out and about!

Proposed letter (to be sent with the save on Monday morning, about 24 hours from now):
Dear Innovia:
We completely sympathize with your plight, and since you mentioned you could use Railroad, we're offering it to you immediately. We sincerely hope this will help you hold off Epsilon! for as long as possible.

But since you believe your defeat is a forgone conclusion, and since you don't believe in an afterlife, and care not for anything of this world after you depart it, perhaps you would agree to the following:
As Epsilon! pulls further ahead, Piffle and Aloha are trying as hard as we can to get a leg up on them. Cash is needed desperately. If you can't gift us gpt or treasury gold, we could pillage your cottages. This achieves two goals: denies their use to Epsilon!, and helps us in our quest to keep the win from Epsilon!.

We would have to declare war to pillage - but we would not attack any of your units, and we'd avoid all resources. We just need the cash.

If you aren't comfortable with that, perhaps you could gift us your treasury and gpt. In an ideal world, none of this would be necessary. But failing that, the best scenario would see you gifting us your treasury and permitting us to pillage.


Now, when it comes right down to it, we could play hardball and hold Railroad from them until they pay us Gold. But that would be the same gold they'd be using to upgrade to Machine Guns. On the other hand, even in they aren't on board with the pillaging proposal, there's really not much they can do about it.

Another way to play this is to say
"Here's Railroad. Since we desperately need gold, and you can't buy this from us since you'll need the gold to upgrade, we're going to declare war on you and pillage cottages to deny towns to Epsilon. Sorry it had to be this way."

I'm not sure which is best.

That's a great idea, Conroe!Thanks! But there is also another downside. Epsilon is going to gift us half the Innovian cities. Thus any pillaging that we do could very well end up being our own cottages. :lol:

The other thing to remember, if we end up doing this, is to make sure we don't end any turns with troops standing on mines or farms. Innovia doesn't have much of a need for cottages anymore, but they will definitely want to keep their food and production.

Another way to play this is to say ...No, the first way -- the polite way -- is the only way to play this. Give them Railroad with no strings attached. If we don't, Aloha will just beat us to it.

We now have troops in position to start Pillaging. But how do we approach this?

Should we simply declare war on Innovia, without much of an explanation to them? This has the advantage of throwing the Epsilonian analysts into confusion. The downside is.... ?

If we first notify Innovia that we are going to pillage their cottages, there's a slight chance they'll tell Epsilon our of spite. I don't think we want to risk that.

Therefore I'm of the opinion that we don't notify Innovia at all. If I am reading our history with them correctly, they have maintained a 'go-it-alone' attitude for much of the game. This line is the one that really sticks with me: mostly we couldn't care less about the state of the world after we're dead.

It would be polite of us to mention to Innovia that we have declared war on them. The last thing we need is Innovia spilling the beans about our upcoming nuclear test :eek:

Proposed note (to be sent on Friday, June 6):
Innovia,
We hate to do it this way, but we have to tell you that our nations are now at war. With the luxury trade gone, there was nothing keeping us from taking advantage of the situation at hand. When the time comes, we will do everything we can to take your cities back from Epsilon. But that time is still a long way off.

Go in peace, and best of luck,
Peter the Piffle

Thoughts? I really think we should get this out before Aloha sends off the save :run:

EDIT: sent on 6/6/08, with the subject New Development

In our gmail, from Innovia:
Piffle,

We have accepted your terms. We are committed to doing what we can to damage Epsilonian power. Epsilon has incurred significant war weariness in conquering the many cities of our nation. Those penalties will continue to damage their nation as long as we survive. Towards this end we were hoping that you would help escort our final worker back to Weaverville so that production and defense can be increased.

The attached screenshot shows were our worker will move on his homeward journey. He will be within range of Epsilonian units at a few points. We would appreciate if you would cut roads leading to, or end turns on the indicated tiles so that he returns home safe.

Thank you,
Team Innovia

I think we should try and help them out here. Any reason not to? We have 3 cavalry over there, which we're likely to lose anyway. Why not try to do some good?

I agree with helping Innovia. If anything, we can be a good sport for them.

Just opened the save to have a look around, and Epsilon has killed our 3 cavalry :sad:

So I'll send Innovia a letter explaining that we aren't in a position to help them, after all.

Letter of Apology sent to Innovia:

Guys, Epsilon took out our Cavalry. Sorry we can't help out :sad:

-Piffle