Dealing with tribute demands - Term 2

These are the instructions that I posted for the turnchat that will occur starting at 23:30 GMT (instructions taking effect at 0:00)today regarding tribute demands:

Reject a tribute demand if:
-More than 100 gold or 5 gold per turn is demanded or any amount that is greater than 60% of our treasury or would put us in a defecit of 4 gpt or more is demanded
-A technology is demanded
-Contacts are demanded

If a demand does not violate these guidelines, pay the tribute demand.

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Obviously, however, this is just a start. What changes should be made to these instructions, and how do they look overall? I would like to hear any proposal that anybody has for this, as tribute demands are a very real possibility during this upcoming term.

I have requested a citizen complaint against you bootstoots for violating section I of the CoL. Your posting of instructions in that term one game play instruction thread is inappropriate. May I suggest that we slow down a bit here as we glide into term two?

This thread that you've started is what (among other things) needs to be addressed first before we start playing in term two!

As for your specific proposals for dealing with tribute demands, I am inclined to refuse all demands at this point. We've made a big deal out of stockpiling gold in our treasury at the expense of early research. Have we done this just to give the gold away to bullying neighbors? I say, 'NO!'. Let's refuse all tribute demands for the time being.

Originally posted by donsig
I have requested a citizen complaint against you bootstoots for violating section I of the CoL. Your posting of instructions in that term one game play instruction thread is inappropriate.

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Was that the sound of nits being picked?

This is easy enough to avoid, by editing the instructions to say "if any tribute demands are received after 00:00:01 GMT on 1 Feb ..."

Back on topic, we really need relative military strength information before making a decision on what tribute to pay, if any. We are:

• Strong vs Russia
• Average vs. Babylon

It would take the Babylonians 11 turns to reach our lands, if they have no units in the fog. They could have 3-5 units lurking just outside visual range.

CC or not. I like bootstoots proposed policy.

Thank you boots for bringing it to the forums.

Originally posted by DaveShack


Was that the sound of nits being picked?

This is easy enough to avoid, by editing the instructions to say "if any tribute demands are received after 00:00:01 GMT on 1 Feb ..."

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Actually, I posted in my instructions that they are only valid after 0:00 GMT on February 1.

What factors actually influence whether the AI declares war or not if we refuse their demands? The relative strength of their military is obviously one factor, but are there others? What about the aggression factor of the AI, or their attitude to us? Do these have any influence?

To summarise:
If it’s just a case of relative strengths, I would be inclined to refuse all demands from Russia at the present time – they are weak, have only 3 cities, one of which is building a Wonder, and appear to be surrounded by Jungle.

The Babylonians on the other hand are strong, with 5 cities and have their unique unit. Are we in a position to defend our country at the moment? And if not could we quickly gear up to do so? If fear that the answer to both those questions is no, so we may have to give in to Babylonian demands for the time being.

edit: corrected the aggression levels!

Originally posted by DaveShack


Was that the sound of nits being picked?

This is easy enough to avoid, by editing the instructions to say "if any tribute demands are received after 00:00:01 GMT on 1 Feb ..."

Click to expand...

Not quite. If you read the Three books you will see that only certain individuals are permitted to post instructions in the game play instruction thread. Bootstoots is not one of them. Once zorven creates a turn chat instruction thread for the first term two play session then bootstoots can post instructions. It's really very simple.

Originally posted by Furiey


The Babylonians on the other hand are strong, with 5 cities and have their unique unit. Are we in a position to defend our country at the moment? And if not could we quickly gear up to do so? If fear that the answer to both those questions is no, so we may have to give in to Babylonian demands for the time being.

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We should also take into account how far Babylon is from us. If they are so far away that we would have time to prepare for any attack then we can safely refuse their demands.

You raise an excellent point though. We should be working on making our military stronger than Babylon's, then we'd have even more reason to refuse any demands they make.

Just get a defensive militry, growth is still our top priority, right? So, if we have two spearman on the frontier city, we'll be able to refuse any tributes safely; if it does lead to war, we've a fairly goood road networ to bring in reinforcements.

I don't see why we should give in the demands.

Here were the instructions that I posted in the turnchat instruction thread. I feel that they are a good compromise; however I would like citizen input on what I should post for next chat.

Tribute Demands: Reject all tribute demands from Russia unless the demand is trivial (10 gold or less). From Babylon, pay all tribute demands that do not exceed 40 gold or 2 gpt or that include technologies, cities, or contacts. If the demand exceeds 40 gold, 2 gpt, or includes contacts, techs, or cities, reject the demand.

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well, i have noticed in regent and above levels, the ai always declares wars if u dont meet demands. of course i only play ptw so i dont know how it is in vanilla

I would like to see proposals for how we deal with any demands from Babylon. We seem to be on shaky ground with them based on the potential peace renegotiations.

Unless it's spare change the Babylonians demand, I say we throw out all demands (and the Babylonian messengers who bring them). The BAbylonians and us are seperated by a vast jungle, which restricts and slows their movement and supply-lines. If they declare war we'll have sufficient time to prepare. I'm not fearing the Babylonians a single bit.