Embassy to mavericks

[Provolution]

Gentlemen

The appointed ambassador to the Mavericks per earlier designation is: Bowsling



They got their capital at Pop 3 and a new city at Pop 1, and possess Hinduism as their religion. Certainly a very good target for our UU, granted we get horses soon.

We need to send them a first diplomatic note, to be timed with the discovery of the second neighbor, if we can stall it a little bit, thats good, so we can coordinate the two dialogues in tandem and in same pace.

 

[Earthling]

Bowsling expressed interest that he might want to be a diplomat, if he is going to be able to be around, that's fine with me, I could also do it otherwise. As I just mentioned I think a couple of people perhaps had specific teams they were interested in working with (AMAZON) but since we're probably going to meet *another* team shortly I could be up there if it's someone surprising.

Handling two neighbors will be interesting - obviously it can't be hidden too easily nor hidden forever. At the least we'll have to see what to do with espionage. In the short term though neither team obviously has sent boats anywhere near us - 10 to 15 turns out from actually scouting our lands, so we don't have to tell them everything. Still, it's good to have what allies we can and cooperating on tech would be great of course. I'm very curious as to what India is doing as well, they may be positioned to be strong economically, and almost certainly could do something like pick up more religious tech/wonders (like the Oracle).

But not to distract - I agree we could work on composing messages, I'll wait for confirmation on who will be the first envoy in particular here, cause I'm sure Bowsling will do well and we'll all be supporting our diplomats to any team in whatever case.

 

[cav scout]

So we're going to just start off with just official messages through email right? They will all be in Bowsling's name but will be composed jointly by the team. We should be careful about pm's and msn chats until we get a feel for these guys.

And if/when we do get to the point where informal communication is ok we should make sure we present a unified front, with the ambassador being the only one talking to them.

 

[RegentMan]

Aye- one person to chat with each team. That way things stay consistant and organized.

 

[Earthling]

Yeah, I really think only one person on chat is fine, more could definitely cause trouble. And I'd really rather do without a lot of out-of-game chat, it's worked out poorly in my experience in the past, but it's up to individual diplomats making the call and what other teams want.

 

[cav scout]

but it's up to individual diplomats making the call and what other teams want.

I agree that we will have to work out the communication channels jointly with the other teams.

But I disagree that our individual diplomats should be given carte blanche to say/do whatever they want. Out-of-control diplo with different people from the same team saying different things (contrary to the will of the team) was the bane of the last MTDG.

Our Diplo moves, just like our in-game moves, should be decided on jointly by the team. We can think of our ambassadors as "diplomatic turn-players" who execute the agreed upon diplo strategy.

Our ambassadors will need to be saavy communicators who serve as the "face" of our team and the single point of contact for other nations. This can require an even greater time commitment than the turn players- I hope everyone volunteering is up for this.

 

[Earthling]

Yes, it's true I'd expect this to take as much time as turnplaying, definitely. Also, I agree with what you've said, and certainly recall the last game having some frustrating things. What I should say I meant, is I'd give the diplomats and the preferences of the other teams leeway on the "form" of the contact. Diplomats shouldn't reveal secrets about our nation or whatever whimsically - but deciding whether they want to write scrolls in aulde English in honoure of the embassy to the Lord of the Nobles, the Northerly Lands, and Kingdom of Merlot or communicate on chat - that's what I'm fine with people doing either way, don't want to spoil the fun.

In other words - and again from the last game - it's possible some teams will "insist" on communicating via some letters or messages or whatever, and I'm perfectly fine with our team NOT being the team doing so. If one diplomat to one other nation gets on chat all the time and another nation only wants email - that's ok, I would trust all our team members and diplomats there. The one-diplomat-per-nation rule I agree with and of course we'll try to keep things up with notifying the team on it all.

 

[RegentMan]

Our Diplo moves, just like our in-game moves, should be decided on jointly by the team. We can think of our ambassadors as "diplomatic turn-players" who execute the agreed upon diplo strategy.

Absolutely. I hope I didn't imply otherwise.

 

[Provolution]

Ambassador Bowsling

I suggest these instructions should be made on the policy of information disclosure to Mavericks.

1. We do not mention the other workboat
2. We are vague and forgetful about when we sent out this boat, when confronted, we need to talk internally on the real activity to this.
3. We readily admit we are the ones with Buddhism and Stonehenge, as they figured it out anyhow
4. We do admit we have meditation and the basic techs, which are obvious
5. We do not hint our tech route, wonder plans and such
6. If we are to negotiate a technology pact, we need to make sure we keep the IW-Compass track, also metal casting. This will allow us to get early location gains on the border.
7. We need a non-aggression treaty lasting a few turns, ideally for 50 or so turns up to turn 100, then we call for a renewal.
8. We may need to negotiate a border, AFTER we settled the southern peninsula, then we see what we need based on resources.
9. We should have some roleplay in check with the maverick, even with some cheap hints in the Western style, gambler/poker/gunslinger genre, as this is a kind of Americana bunch (Daveshack from Arizona etc) with a witty hint to peacenik Ghandi. Humor goes a long way with these guys
10. Make sure we get a phony DOW, so we do not get a premature open border agreement here.

 

[Earthling]

I do not believe we will actually need to go through their borders. Surely if their island is like ours then then it would take them 500/5000 culture pops to actually cover the entire coastline right now; we should be able to sail by. This is the case with our city - we won't be able to take over the coastline on the other continent without cities over there. Note if they have an inlet/bay going up towards the middle spoke hub we can also just move onwards. So in short, no OB is probably ok and we probably don't need a phony DoW yet either.

I mostly agree with the other sentiments; tech, expansion, and relations. If India is likely to get the Oracle they may want to force their hand in some tech trading; anyway since we are probably not competing on the Oracle, and don't know what other teams would be, I'm not against encouraging them to do that if they want.

I also agree being fully open about Meditation/Stonehenge only makes obvious sense, and we should be proud of it anyway, it's a good start.

 

[cav scout]

Well Bowsling or whoever our ambassador turns out to be doesn't have to worry about diplomatic instructions too much at this point. All communications will be through the team email to start with and we will craft any letters we send jointly here in this thread.

 

[Earthling]

We don't have official contact yet but I think it is possible this turn. However the turn has a day left and if we're waiting for our diplomat (Bowsling) and whomever else to be ready I'll wait too. I agree, we basically just get to them our team email with an initial message and we can work through that in the short term, and long term too if they are ok with that format. Anyway, I've already said anyone who wants to log-in can do so but no one else has gotten back, and we can do it tomorrow I guess.

For the record I'm still worried that some team - and possibly them, India, has contact with another team, and that's why they've been running out the turn timer and all. Certainly by this point ANY two teams could be in contact - our workboats toured around a bit, up that one coastline that went nowhere, and we didn't meet a workboat coming from the other side. If two teams sent early workboats towards each other, they would know by now. This could most likely be India and MERLOT; my second explanation is that MERLOT's turnplaying is just really confused/falling apart right now (they are possibly the ones who lag in demographics? and score) and thus I've just been overanalyzing a delay caused by that, usually MERLOT has been the very last to play.

 

[cav scout]

I'm a little worried that we haven't heard from Bowsling for a while. I would love to see him as our ambassador. An active and vibrant team makes the MTDG so much more fun and max participation should be our goal. But if he is too busy the handle the heavy workload that diplo requires perhaps someone else should start off as our first ambassador?

 

[Provolution]

Earthling , can you please represent us to Mavericks as originally planned ? If Bowsling shows up, he gets the position back, but we cannot be kept hostages by someones absence.

 

[Earthling]

I can do that, yes, and I'm more than happy for Bowsling to be able to do what he wants if he is around. Don't fault him for being busy or anything though.

I didn't exactly find it when I mentioned this in passing before but you guys both had specific teams you wanted to work with, or is that right? AMAZONs and someone else perhaps. I'm good for diplomacy probably with 1-2 teams and anyone else's preferences come first so that's fine. (Being a diplomat to too many teams is probably a bit much for one person. Hopefully we have a solid corps by the time we actually contact all five other teams)

Anyway, I could be a contact for Mavericks, certainly I'll be around and hopefully have the time, and I know we have a good team backing for official documents and envoys.

 

[TyBoy]

Could you elaborate on #6? I don't understand what you mean by it or what effect metal casting or compass would have on our border.

 

[Provolution]

6#.- We need to be able to grab Iron Working soon, in case Iron is on the very border peninsula or so with India. Without iron working in place, we dont know under which premises we are dealing with a settlement race.

 

[Provolution]

We need someone to be our Ambassador for the Mavericks, can someone volunteer please?

This job is interesting, as we need to keep them in the dark regarding the CDZ boat heading their way, in order for us to process deals with them before they meet.

 

[Provolution]

Bowsling, can you take this Embassy ?

 

[Bowsling]

Yep, sorry, I was just away for a while, so I couldn't reply.
How can I access the team email?
I'm going to PM contact to DMOC, just vague now, saying that we wish for peace, good thing we found civilized people in a barbaric world, etc. Will post soon.