Gentlemen

This is the future embassy of Merlot.

May I humbly beg for the position of diplomat to Merlot.

best regards


Provo

I've already expressed my reservations in your "vinegar" thread.

Here's how I see Provolution's candidacy for ambassador to Merlot:

Pro's
Provolution has a lot of experience with the people on Merlot, namely Indiansmoke. This would obviously be vital for our dealings with them, and dealings with other players regarding them, and we could maybe even use any connections he has to meddle with their domestic affairs.

Cons
It seems Provolution is not very well liked on Merlot, especially by their King. This could hamper diplomatic relations with them quite a bit. Even if we don't want them as allies, it is important to keep all of our options open.

As mentioned by cavscout, Provolution seems to have something against these guys (as evidenced in the "vinegar" thread). This could put us on a predetermined path of opposing Merlot and closing down options that should not be closed. Whether Provolution's judgment of Merlot's character is correct or not, we should not close down options because of that, we do not want to limit our options; instead we must take Provo's knowledge to help us make informed decisions, whether or not that means going against Merlot.


I'm going to selfishly suggest myself as ambassador:D, because a) I want to be an ambassador, and b) Team Merlot doesn't know me. At all. They won't have any preconceived emotions towards me, and I can make a good impression on them, even if we decide we want to go all out war on them. Provo will of course be the main driving force behind our dealings with them, but they'll see my name at the end of the letters we send.

As for actual dealings with Merlot, I think it would be in our interest to facilitate a regime change somehow in the future, and that would also be a lot of fun. Already on "The Mystery" thread we've seen some dissent in Merlot's ranks. What are your connections like in Merlot, Provo?

It is fairly likely Merlot is not actually CDZ's neighbour, since we met them by boat. This would be good for us since CDZ seemed to take Merlot's side in the thread.

We could also attempt to remove Indiansmoke, but it would be risky.
Obviously, you know these guys a lot better than I do, so this might be wrong.
In "The mystery" thread, Úmarth mentioned discussion and censoring, generally a post that the king would not like. I am not sure how Indiansmoke would react to this, but there's a chance that this post could have gotten him into internal trouble. Any other player feeling troubled by Indiansmoke would work, but I have no experience with any of them, so Provolution would obviously be a much better at naming those players then I would be.
If that is the case, we could contact him asking him if he could attempt to remove Indiansmoke, and have him replaced by someone less prejudiced against our team. If we succeed, we could gain ourselves a valuable ally, which would be an excellent way to neutralize any threat CDZ could be to us.
The problem is that if we fail, and our chosen player turns out to be loyal to the king that is bound to completely destroy any slim possibility we have of allying with them. The other risk is that we would have to hope the the replacement wouldn't get the boot, or that would seriously screw up any plans we had.

I should say you all can disregard my previous thoughts on ambassador, haven't said much, but then again wasn't really thinking about the Indiansmoke issue. I for one am not sure Indiansmoke will be a friendly diplomat and the whole "overthrow the King" thing and how their civilization is setup could be crazy. So, we have to be careful, however I should also say I trust all of us Q on this team and so it's not going to be our fault if things are sour, just remember that.

So, I certainly would give anyone a chance to be diplomats, or perhaps we could even do something like only sign our emails to them as "Team Quatronia." After all, I do think email communication may be a smart way to go, rather than some other chat for now. But if someone else really has a better idea it's the team's call, I'm not against Provo though but we do need to be careful - in short maybe if things would be Indiansmoke's fault/causing problems, not anything Provo does but if that is a sticky issue between the teams it may not be the best idea. And Charlemagne I'd be happy if you want to be a diplomat too, I'm sure you would be fine, so we'll see what the team thinks is best.

There's some other in-game things we want to check before our first official message to MERLOT - well I'd check tomorrow too and take some screens for the turn discussion thread, perhaps that's a good idea all around, but since I'm short on time right now, just the useful ideas we want covered:

-Check the F4 diplomacy screen, for anyone having "contact" with other teams and for that matter tech and resources just in case, though there shouldn't be any tech/resource trades available yet
-Check for espionage points, for instance check if MERLOT has any points on Vikings, that would indicate they'd met/how long ago they'd met.
-Check the top cities screen, to see whose city is where and demographics that might go along with that.

I would also think maybe in our next message to the Vikings we indicate that we did make contact with MERLOT. We said we would keep them aware of "interesting discoveries" and they'll obviously see this MERLOT workboat fairly soon - also remember at turn 50/51, the Viking culture expands, giving them more sight of various coastlines. Especially if we want to ally with Vikings and MERLOT will be an enemy, being truthful/etc... with the Vikings is definitely the best move right now.

I would really prefer being ambassador to another team, or to the main forum when the time comes (I just want a diplomatic post of some kind). I'm happy with Provo being ambassador if he can ensure he doesn't let his dislike for Merlot cloud his judgment, though I think the main problem would be Indiansmoke, so Provo could sign mine or someone else's name instead of his own so Merlot forms a different opinion.

I know everyone here has the best interest of the Continuum in mind, and our democratic system will sort out this problem of the mean monarch.

I am fine with Charlemagne being our Ambassador, but I would like to be the one telling them the lies and the bad news later.

Communique from Merlot

Greetings

The diplomatic email for Team Merlot is merlotdip@gmail.com - I am looking forward to the first official letter of greeting from Team Quatronia on behalf of our King and nation!

Sir Caledorn
Imperial Diplomat of Team Merlot

Sure, you're welcome to it when the time comes. I just didn't want that time to come prematurely:)

Here is a draft of an official greeting to Merlot. We should send this ASAP, because we might find out that they are learning alphabet soon. Comments in bold.

Greetings, NAME of Merlot.

Our explorers have travelled far indeed to meet your people, and we are honoured to have done so. Please bring these gifts of silver and grain to his Majesty King Indiansmoke. Might as well tell them what resources we have, if I am not mistaken, they'll know anyways.

We hope your great experiment in monarchy is going well, and that your serfs are not giving you any trouble. (If they are, try using more oppression.) We are happy to say that our democracy is functioning very smoothly right now.

Your exploring workboat will soon come to the lands of our neighbours, CDZ within 3-4 turns at the most. We hope to someday see the shores of fair Merlot, how far will we have to travel to do so? We would also be interested to know if the reports of your scouts match those of our own as to the size and layout of the great continent; we have seen a land of vast peninsulas and bays which is possibly star shaped. Have your people met any others besides us? I don't think we'll really be telling them anything they don't know (or are about to find out in the case of meeting CDZ), since they have been exploring.

Our sages will soon (16 turns) be able to trade technological secrets with other nations. We hope our nations will be able to benefit from such a trade when that time comes. How is your research coming along? I don't really like telling them this, but hopefully we'll find out if they're researching alphabet sooner, which is something we'd want to know right away if it's the case.

Best regards, and long live King Indiansmoke of Merlot.

Ambassador CharlemagneXLII,
The Continuum,
Quatronia.

EDIT: If it turns out Merlot has met someone, then it is very likely they have done enough exploring to know the shape of the continent, and also likely that they are not CDZ's neighbous, and that we will meet their neighbours soon.

They have not met CDZ at least, yet; they could have met their next neighbor onward, we'll see if espionage points gives any hints.

We don't have to reveal grains and silvers and spices, though we probably will eventually. More specifically - no team actually does have trade routes, so no, they can't see what resources we have right now, as we can't see theirs, and that might not change for a while - due to ocean separating everyone open borders and resource trade are a while out. So perhaps to start things off I'd reword to say "we have an abundance of (list resources) and our cartographers have guessed other resources are clustered elsewhere - what would you have to trade someday" or something like that.

As for the other lines of thought:
-Yes, I like telling them they will meet CDZ soon, it is honest, and they will see that shortly anyway
-I also like telling them we are going for alphabet, the way you put it is great. At this point, I think most of our team likes how we are sitting and that is the strategy now - we'll get alphabet, all these other teams will know we have alphabet, and thus we should have a bunch of great trades to pick and work out.
-I would not tell them too much about the map though. They have not explored to their west at all, and if they didn't go north with another boat, they may not know all that much. What I'm thinking is maybe cut off after "peninsulas and bays" and don't exactly hint at the locations of everywhere around the Star that we know exists.

Sent this:

Greetings, Sir Caledorn of Merlot.

Our explorers have travelled far indeed to meet your people, and we are honoured to have done so.Our lands have silver, wheat and spices in abundance, and we hope that someday our peoples can engage in trading. What surplus resources do you possess? In the meantime, please bring these gifts of the finest Quatronian silver and grain to his Majesty King Indiansmoke.

We hope your great experiment in monarchy is going well, and that your serfs are not giving you any trouble. (If they are, try using more oppression.) We are happy to say that our democracy is functioning very smoothly right now.

Your exploring workboat will soon come to the lands of our neighbours, CDZ within 4-5 turns. We hope to someday see the shores of fair Merlot, how far will we have to travel to do so? We would also be interested to know if the reports of your scouts match those of our own as to the size and layout of the great continent; we have seen a land of vast peninsulas and bays. Have your people met any others besides us?

Our sages will soon (16 turns) be able to trade technological secrets with other nations. We hope our nations will be able to benefit from such a trade when that time comes. How is your research coming along?

Best regards, and long live King Indiansmoke of Merlot.

Ambassador CharlemagneXLII,
The Continuum,
Quatronia

Sounds great, nice work. We sure do have a lot of early contact and diplo to keep up with but hopefully it goes well.

Very good note, it will be interesting to see how they respond.

Please send this off, very good.

Warm greetings to you, Ambassador CharlemagneXLII of Quatronia!

The people of Merlot are truly honoured to meet your people, and we would like to state our good intentions and extend our hope for a peaceful and mutually beneficial future for both our nations. In our lands we have found wine, corn and gems in abundance, and nothing would please us more than to be able to negotiate trade agreements with your people! My King offer his heartfelt thanks for your wonderful gifts of silver and grain, and offers gifts of gems and corn back to your people.

Our nation thrives under the leadership of His Majesty, King Indiansmoke I! His wisdom and benevolence is known all throughout our lands, and he is greatly loved by the people.

Your exploring workboat are just a few turns away from our borders, and we can confirm that our explorers have also discovered a continent that appears to have fjords and peninsulas.

We are looking forward to working together with your people, possibly both by exchanging technological advances and resources.

Sir Caledorn
Imperial Diplomat of Merlot

((Pardon for the late reply - the weekend was kind of busy for me))

So they didn't tell us what we really wanted to know, what they are researching. Should we mention an idea of tech trading between us them and CDZ? This way they might open up and tell us what techs they have. Other than that, I don't think there's much to do with these guys except to string them along until alphabet.

We should probably send them something now:
Dear Sir Caledorn of Merlot:
We are glad to hear your great experiment in monarchy is doing well, and indeed thriving, as you say. While we believe that trading resources might not be possible until astronomy, we look forward to the day we can kick back by popping open an imported bottle of the finest from the vineyards of Merlot.

In regards to technology trading, what is your research path? As we mentioned, our people will soon have alphabet, and we hope to trade knowledge with your kingdom. We might even be able to bring your people knowledge we acquire from other nations. This is a lie, but might convince them to trade.

Ambassador CharlemagneXLII,
The Continuum,
Quatronia.

A few tweaks to avoid lying:

Dear Sir Caledorn of Merlot:
We are glad to hear your great experiment in monarchy is doing well, and indeed thriving. While we believe that trading resources might not be possible until astronomy, we look forward to the day we can kick back by popping open an imported bottle of the finest from the vineyards of Merlot. :)

In regards to technology trading, what did you have in mind? We are very eager to get some beneficial trades going between our two peoples. If you could give us an idea of what you are looking to trade for we could get the ball rolling.

Sent cavscout's version. This will come at the same time as Amazon's greeting to Merlot.

This arrived in our gmail inbox:

Greetings to Ambassador CharlemagneXLII and all of Quatronia,
I personally apologize for the lateness of a reply. The people of Merlot have been very busy in both internal and external affairs, please do not take this as a sign of distrust!

His Majesty, King Indiansmoke I, wishes for us to forge an open and mutually beneficial relationship which will help advance both our empires to great new heights of magnificence. With the blessing of His Majesty himself, we are hopeful that this may last for many, many years.

To prove our noble intentions, our brave scientists are currently researching Monarchy, and we are looking forward to exchange technologies which both parties can agree are for the good of both lands.

The citizens of Merlot await your reply,
Sir Snaker8
Imperial Diplomat of Merlot
on behalf of Emperor Indiansmoke I

When we are to sink Merlots boat, I will, per agreement, be the one to tell Indie the bad message when we are about to sink their boat :)

You can take it now if you like. Being ambassador to Merlot doesn't entail much though, we don't have much to say to them now, except to make up some fun reason why their workboat is gone. I'm sorry about the confusion earlier, in retrospect our diplomatic relations with Merlot haven't been very important, I was just worried in case we needed these guys with us for whatever reason. I'll volunteer to take over Sirius unless somebody else wants it.

Also, I wouldn't put it past these guys to copy/paste everything we send them and post it in the main forum.

Yeah... gloating if we get a few licks in on them might feel good at the time. But it's never beneficial in the long run.

Anything we say should be good natured. A little playful joshing is always good as long as we don't get carried away. If we get nasty it just reflects poorly on our character. Remember, the Merlot players are decent guys and this is just a game afterall.

I would suggest not even sending them a reply right now, its the easiest way to stall.

No, my intention is not to gloat, but to make Indiansmoke struggle with their diplomacy. Yet, the message to Merlot, I will craft, per agreement.

No, my intention is not to gloat, but to make Indiansmoke struggle with their diplomacy. Yet, the message to Merlot, I will craft, per agreement.

Sure, draft something up and we will all take a look at it.

They sent this:
Greetings Ambassador Charlemagne XLII of the Noble Quatronians!

I would like to officially inform you of the appointment of Sir Snaker8 as the Ambassador of Merlot to your glorious nation!

It is my hope that this appointment makes communication swifter and easier between our teams.

Best Regards,
Sir Caledorn
Imperial Head Diplomat of Merlot
on behalf of Emperor Indiansmoke I

Provo, you can go ahead and send a similar message saying you are the new ambassador. I suggest replacing "appointed" with "elected" or something to that regard.

Sure, draft something up and we will all take a look at it.
Yes, please do this before sending anything.

Draft something up but don't send it just yet. A change in diplomat may signal something to Indiansmoke. I'd rather stitch up the ETTT with CDZ before we unzip our fly ;)

What's crazy is we might even end up allied with Merlot...soon as a 4th member of the ETTT or later down the road if/when the 4 ETTT members start to turn on each other.

So lets not completely burn any bridges!

As per my last turn report, we may need to keep relations polite for the time being. I'd rather not loose the Rio Grande.

Provo, just give the word and I'll send them a message that you are the new diplomat. They'll be at our borders within 4 turns, we'll have to give them a "You shall not pass" message then.

We won't have to give them a no-passage message then, we just need to make certain we can destroy their boat before they make contact with the Mavs.

I think we should role play it more. We could send them a warning message when we first see the boats. Something like "Beware of the treacherous waters ahead! A black knight patrols these waters .... and none shall pass."

That way we they see DeNile the penny should drop.

I like those suggestions regarding the roleplaying. Anyway, their boat appears to be 3-4 turns out, so a warning message now or next turn is probably fine, and our galley with be back in time.

Our borders won't stop them, the only way is to kill that boat. We should only warn them when its too late to avoid our attack. We don't want to tip our hand too early and we need to make sure our boats can find safe harbor too.

Yeah, our borders won't stop MERLOT right now, but that doesn't mean we couldn't suggest diplomatically that we've "claimed the area" or don't want them going past.

I can certainly see the other side about how we should warn them - if it's on shorter warning or catches them off guard, maybe that's good, and I could of course live with it if the team wants. Personally I'd rather give them fair warning though...I even know MERLOT has the whole king situation but they are a team of lots of people and I'm ok with being diplomatic on an issue like this. (if they do turn around, we don't lose anything really, and I don't think potential consequences for our exploring workboat which we'd give to AMAZON anyway if it gets there are my largest concern.)


Edit: It's been pointed out/I should have realized from other discussion that our best outcome really would be having the MERLOT workboat just dead. So that should color what we do about giving warning I guess - the off chance they would actually step down and turn back and keep their boat alive is something we'd like to avoid. So I think I probably should support discarding the overly restrained approach, not give them too much warning or options and making quick work of their boat.

Kill it. Kill it with fire.

Keep it short and simple, Black Knight style :D


NONE SHALL PASS!

Regards,
The Q Continuum

Sounds good. Its probably easiest if you send it immediately after sinking it. Provolution, if you want a more elaborate message, now is the time.

Sent your note, Galdarian, with the subject line "Territorial Integrity".

Indiansmoke will now be aware as he has since logged in. Fellow Q, the genie is out of the bottle and it doesn't want to go back in.

Yeah but genies are like level 7 creatures, a mere trifle compared to our power ;)

Actually, this is just a relief/good news we got this worked out, can transfer our settlers over and all in peace now, and it's great that Mavericks even are none the wiser.

I suggest offering peace to Merlot, so we don't have restrictions on unit movement.