Diplo for Team BABE

[killercane]

What good fortune. I think the BABEs will be good allies. Here is their message:

Hello Gong of the Pyramid Gongs,

Fancy meeting you guys. We've decided to take our sea expedition to view this wonderful, wonderous, wonder you've built. Rumors around Babe the pyramid is made of beer. Our ladies like beer so maybe we should schedule a time for some discussion.

Looking forward to our future together.

xxoo
Babe envoy Charlize Theron

Here's a picture of me so you recognize me.

 

[killercane]

Im thinking we should hold off on playing the save fast until we talk to them. Diplomatic messages sent to their email and a pm to Wotan.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

It looks like we may have 24 hrs. before we get the turn, which gives us ~48 to get the next turn in. I think we should go ahead and talk to them. These threads for each team are certainly good ideas. Somebody should send a nice reply with pictures as RF suggested and schedule talks. I also think we should have much to offer Team Babe. Rock stars like babes.

 

[Daghdha]

EXCELLENT NEWS
I think it will be easy for me and Bugsy to ease into the Babes...camp. That is not to say we should have monopoly on Babe contact. I can write a Hello guys-draft and post later today.

Oh, I couldn't wait that long. Here goes (not sent but open for comments from you guys):

Hail Babe keepers

We are so thrilled to meet you we promptly decided to set up a temporary suit for diplomacy/chit chat/beer guzzling. To honor your mode of transportation we've placed it on a boat. For those of you familiar with Admiral K's floating device experiments this is one of his remaining gems. Luckily enough this one didn't get smouldered by the light greens. Please fill her up with Babes and we'll come sing & dance!


Daghie of the Gongers

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

The save has just been passed to Team Free. If CommandoBob stays to his usual schedule we can expect to get the save ~2 AM EST (GMT-5), but we don't know that for sure.

I've not been checking googlemail until Turn Tracker notifies us we have the save and only checked yesterday since the site was down. I think we have already sent a reply to the Babes as the following reply is in the inbox posted ~7 hours ago:

Charlize,

Dont know why you are sending me an email so soon after last night. Arent you supposed to wait 2 days? Anyways, we are always ready for a chat. Contact any of our members tonight/tomorrow so we can go about some "exchanges".


Kool and the GONG

It is a good idea, I think, for those handling Diplo to start looking in googlemail regularly as other teams might also hail us, especially after a turn is passed. Also, I suggest any communications we send to a team should be copied and posted in the respective Team Diplo threads as they are sent to keep the team informed and also not duplicate any efforts.

I'm still just a little hazy on how this works exactly, so any instructions a TP might need should also be posted in Dept. of Turnplay. I've definitely looking forward to seeing how this part of the game works.

Edit: I see I didn't notice that killercane already informed us that a message had bee sent.

 

[Daghdha]

On diplo, the Council seems to be on an alienating trip with this note in the UN:

in any case, we have issued a warning to all travelers to stay far away until the outbreak is fully controlled… we don't want to risk infection spreading overseas…

This is basically saying "Keep off of our Island because we're farming and if you show hostility we will land a bunch of A-Cav's on your buttocks"

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

This is a very good observation Daghie! It does seem to signal that they are at least survivalists, if not wholly isolationist. We simply don't know if this policy is a pre-determined plan or if there plans have changed in light of recent developments. With both us and the Babes having writing it might be possible to get contact with the Council soon, although I don't think they are under any obligation to reveal any contacts they may have. Imo, caution should is greatly advised when dealing with such a team as it could be disruptive to our "honor" which I think is a valuable asset to retain.

I think Gong is looking to win, but may I offer the suggestion we seek to only win with our honor intact. It is possible to mislead others about what we know, but imo it is better to just leave out what we are not ready to reveal. If asked directly, we should say something to the effect "Gong is not ready to discuss this atm" with all the style Gong can muster. These thoughts are merely suggestions and I give them only in the hopes they might be helpful to the team.

 

[Daghdha]

I think Gong is looking to win, but may I offer the suggestion we seek to only win with our honor intact. It is possible to mislead others about what we know, but imo it is better to just leave out what we are not ready to reveal. If asked directly, we should say something to the effect "Gong is not ready to discuss this atm" with all the style Gong can muster. These thoughts are merely suggestions and I give them only in the hopes they might be helpful to the team.

I agree fully! Keeping an intact honour is essential and makes it possible to go down singin' and dancin' if it comes to that. My take on the first round of negotiations w Babes is this:
1. Have fun and keep the banter personal, i.e not too much roleplaying. I know Tubby and Whomper at least prefer it that way.
2. Find out if we are the first contact they have made. In mtdg1 it was very useful to make an early alliance with a longlasting peace treaty in it. KISS and MIA arranged a colaboration that was big picture-like (peace/techs/booze) and it served us well. I suggest we aim at something similar. We should find out if Babes share this view or not. What they do know is that early wars are usually bad.
3. Sharing info is all about trust and that is a tricky thing. You have, to some extent, make a leap of faith when called for. Otherweise you will be seen as greedy/paranoid/dull and that is a bad position. Haggling is fun and recomended if done tounge in cheek.

 

[killercane]

I would assume the BABES sent galleys/curraghs out in all 4 directions, with the Lighthouse they should have all contacts rather quickly. I think they will be pretty forthcoming and good allies. Our major tradebait is the religious branch of the tech tree, it will be interesting to see how far BABE is. If we can trade everything up to Monarchy (incl. CB, myst, poly, and monarchy for their GA), 1) do we want to and 2) what do we want? I would guess they have CoL, Republic, and we know they have MM.

We might work on a deal where we give them more than they give us, and we get consideration when they tech broker to other people since they will have a lot of contacts. Such as we research Construction, in addition to the other things, and try to get them to work out a free tech deal with a scientific civ that we would get. Unlikely that that works but who knows!

Dags' message is excellent, lets send it on if it hasnt been already.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

I've just sent the message, so you might expect a reply soon. I think others should handle sending and recieving messages since I'm a little technically challenged and misunderstood that it had not been sent. I can post notices that such communications are there, if that would be helpful.

If any of the ideas about Team Babes plans I've been speculating about are true, offering them a means to enable their GA should be an excellent way to form a long-lasting alliance.

It seems to me it is in the interests of both non-scientific teams for one of us to get the Library, but more discussion and consideration of this is needed. I also think it will be good to continue to seek contacts for ourselves, even though they will have the lead on this. If they are a Republic, we should definitely seek that in exchange for Monarchy, as we don't know where other teams might be on the Library. Giving Monarchy when we most likely have the means to build the HG at Sugar Mtn. is, imo, a most gracious concession. It will be even more clear how to proceed as we get more information.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

I really must keep my hands off communications and will sit back to watch developments as it now appears two messages have been sent. I'll wait to see what develops before posting any more thoughts as well.

 

[jb1964]

This is all very good news as this is the part of the game that I enjoy the most.

Who is our diplomatic leader?

 

[Daghdha]

I really must keep my hands off communications and will sit back to watch developments as it now appears two messages have been sent. I'll wait to see what develops before posting any more thoughts as well.

That is all OK in anarchy. Such things happen and not to be too sorry for. Having said that I agree we should start thinking about how to arrange the diplo work. I think it's fun and will take part, but I cannot guaratee I will be able to do it on a day to day basis.

 

[killercane]

I had a talk with Whomp tonight (well still talking). Highlights soon! A disclaimer though, I would rather not be the diplomat on a regular basis (doing it for the Civ 4 game). Who wants to do it?

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Well, I do have time, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the best the team has for this. I could pick up the ball whenever daghie or others can't find time, though. I think I would like to see some examples of how communications go and a bit of advice on how it works, before I try. Looking forward to the update.

 

[killercane]

Well crap. Does anyone know how to copy an MSN conversation to clipboard from your saved conversations? I closed the window too fast.

Highlights
- BABE has Philo, CoL, Republic, MM, wheel and HBR on us (and IW). They got the free tech with philo, with which they took MM.
- We have Poly and Monarchy on them.
- They are against speeding up the scientific civs to get more use out of their UU. They are looking for a long term partner. Might be BS, might not be.
- They are in anarchy, 6 turns left out of 7.
- They are currently finishing Masonry with scientists in anarchy.
- They have horses on the island off their coast, no iron. The assumption is that we will have iron there, and no horses.
- They have 1 hut left to pop.
- They are located right south of where our curragh is, and I gave them directions to us and the second safe landing west.
-Prince Myshkin is the man in their opinion
-Wotan is really into the human vs human aspect of the game (its his first PBEM)
-We agreed on 20 turn peace and will work to come up with a satisfactory agreement.

I proposed to them that we trade techs across. This is WAY in our favor by like 500 beakers or more. However, it will allow us both 3 chances at popping a tech from the remaining huts (us-2, them-1), and if we dont get a tech, we can pay them gold in return (probably discounted I think, negotiable). We could both then be medieval by turn 100.

Do we want to do something like this? What strings do we want attached? No trade clauses without the others consent? What other deals can we broker?

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Does anyone know how to copy an MSN conversation to clipboard from your saved conversations?

It took me 2 hrs. to figure out photobucket. But, I'm sure you'll get some help there.

Very nice, killercane. We've recently received the save and have until about ~12:00 PM EST (GMT-5) to send on the save. There is quite a bit to think about here, but a deal is certain to be made. I need to get some sleep, atm, and suggest the team post all their opinions and ideas about this proposal. I'll check back in around 4-5 PM EST to see what the team makes of this and offer any thoughts I have, before taking the next turn. There really is no "man" on team Gong, I only have more time.

 

[Daghdha]

The tech deal would be tooooo good. I haven't seen Ironhorse Island (thanks Lemmy) but striking a long term deal w Babes (no BS) would be super. The map may be set up just like that with built-in conflicts. If we and Babes can deflate ours and others don't, then we're in the drivers seat w babes which is usually a nice position.

 

[RFHolloway]

Don't expect too much from me on the diplo front, hey I'm only just working out how to take advantage of the AI on deals. Real people like Wotan - hey I'm out of my league.

For those of you who know game theory remember Iterated prisoners dilemma. Play nice, retaliate if necessary, forgive isolated infringements, and when the time horizon is short all bets are off.

(see Robert Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation" for more information)

 

[markh]

Sorry, I do not understand the tech deal. Forgive me I am just a bloody German and my English is limited. Does "trading across" mean we get all their techs for all of ours ?