External Consulate - MAs against the Byzantines?

[Bertie]

The Byzantines have declared war on us. We wish to get as much of the world as possible embroiled in this war in order to weaken them and to punish the Byzantines. We can enter into MAs with China & Portugal for free, and with Japan & the Hittites for a tech. Maya will enter into a MA for 12 GPT; France against both the Byzantines & Persia for 28 GPT. The External Consulate recommends we make all of these deals. We particularly want to weaken France and Maya. We currently are producing 77 GPT.

Because the Gold Per Turn for the French deal is significant, we’re polling two different options:

Whether we should enter into MAs with China, Portugal, Japan, Hittites, Maya, and France.

Or whether we should just enter into MAs with China, Portungal, Japan, Hitties, & Maya.

Discussion of this can be found HERE.

The poll will close three days after the poll was opened.
The poll is public and other users can see how you voted.
Select one option only.

 

[greekguy]

I don't think spending 28 gpt to get France into war is a good idea. That's a lot of gold to give France, since they are so far away from Byzantine they won't really attack them at all, unlike the other civs. MA's with the other civs would greaten weaken their tech and culture pace and push us ahead in both races.

 

[zyxy]

The statement of the poll is a bit ambiguous: it says MA's vs Byzantines, but the explanation given by Bertie also includes an MA with France vs Persia.

I agree with greekguy that the French deal is too expensive, and that the alliance with France vs Byz is rather useless. I would be in favor of an alliance with France vs Persia. They will do it either for ROP + 10 gpt + 1 gold or for 11 gpt + 18 gold. I see no objection against the first.

A bit of tactical advice: in the alliance with the Maya we should include some lump sum on our side. That way, if they break the alliance they get a rep hit (unless I am mistaken once more). They will enter the alliance for 11 gpt + 12 gold, ROP has no value.

All other alliances look good to me. COL seems to be the right tech to give away, as Japan and Hittites are the only ones who don't have it yet. In fact, China will give us Monarchy for alliances vs Persia and Byz and 77 gold, we may want to consider that as it is fairly cheap (Monarchy seems to cost around 1000 gold to buy).

Should I now vote "other" or "option 2"?

 

[Bertie]

The statement of the poll is a bit ambiguous: it says MA's vs Byzantines, but the explanation given by Bertie also includes an MA with France vs Persia.

. . .

Should I now vote "other" or "option 2"?

I'd suggest option 2 is the closest match to what you want, although I'm really not trying to influence you to vote that way. Your suggestion for involving France with Persia only has merit.

The thread title is a bit confusing, I agree. For our purposes these are both one war, and a phony war at that. Except that Over There is at risk, we expect other countries to do all of our fighting. The real question is how best to get as many civs involved in the dogpile as possible.

 

[Nobody]

i vote for option one. If your going to start a world war you can't go about it halfarssed.

A question, in the real world has anyone ever done anything this sick?

 

[zyxy]

A question, in the real world has anyone ever done anything this sick?

Me personally? No.

But countries paying other countries to fight for you? Sure. The (Eastern) Roman Empire did it during its long decline, and I think that England was for a long time trying to maintain the balance of power in Europe this way. How fitting...

@Bertie: I also thought option 2. And I think your proposal is doing a splendid job of getting a few wars started!