Foreign Policy: RealmsBeyond

[Sommerswerd]

Maybe just say this:

Hi Team Realms Beyond,

Thanks for checking in. The Zulu have been a headache to have to deal with, that's for sure. We've successfully been able to hold off any attack from them, but we're not in position to go on the offensive ourselves and they are refusing to give us peace. It's kind of annoying, but what can you do? Thanks for the congratulations on the Pyramids! We were pretty happy to be able to pull that off. Congratulations to you on your wonders and your Golden Age. You are playing a very strong game. How are you guys doing otherwise?

As you can imagine, this war with the Spaniards has made it harder to plan things in that area around the marble. They are actually controlling the hills around the marble right now with a woodsman II Impi that we haven't been able to dislodge. We are still very confident that we will be able to chase (or fight) them away from the area where the Marble is. If anything does change, we'll let you know.

Take care,

Caledorn

 

[YossarianLives]

So do you think the proposed message is revealing too much, or is that ok to send in your opinion? Your suggestion, that we just whine a bunch about the zulu without giving RB any info to work with, is exactly what I am going for in the message. Do I pull it off, or do we need to make changes?

Whoops, wrote that before I saw your last post. I will send the revised version in a few minutes.

 

[Sommerswerd]

My point is that I don't want to give them ANY turn to work with. Just tell them we will get the Marble eventually and leave it at that. Other than that I think the message is fine.

 

[YossarianLives]

Message sent

 

[Bowsling]

Great!

 

[Sommerswerd]

So it seems that as we feared, RB went ahead and got the Marble on their own afterall. Hopefully the delay was long enough for us to snatch Taj

 

[2metraninja]

We are hooping that the marble will not be the factor who decides who gets Taj, but our superior production capabilities.

 

[Caledorn]

scooter: hey! long time no talk. We just got paper in the ISDG, you guys interested in a map swap?
Sent at 21:58 on Thursday
scooter: figure we've mostly seen each other's land already, so might be cool for both of us to get some extra info
me: heya I'm on the phone right now .. be with you asap
scooter: ok no prob!
Sent at 21:59 on Thursday
me: there we go
Sent at 22:15 on Thursday
me: I have to ask the team about that before I give you a definite response - but I will post it on the forums right away and I should have a response for you within a day or two
scooter: ok great, thanks!
yeah just let me know whenever you've got an idea of how they feel.
me: I will - you're around on GTalk around the usual times yes?
scooter: yep, should be! if you don't see me around you can always just shoot me a quick email as those come in on my phone
Sent at 22:23 on Thursday
me: great I'll get back to you as soon as I have a response
scooter: thanks!

Obviously we don't want to give RB our maps, is my gut feeling - especially not when we have all of Poly's map as well. But I need to come up with a proper formal response, and we still need to consider the iron question. But to be honest, I think that our iron question is going to be redundant now, because I suspect this map trade request is for the exact very same reason 2metra suggested asking them about the iron - and that they are trying to confuse us and make us overconfident by telling us that "We just teched paper! You don't have to worry about the Taj".

 

[YossarianLives]

Haha, how funny. This is exactly what we were planning on doing (bringing up a random off-topic issue to divert attention away from Taj).

We absolutely don't want to give them our maps. I'm not sure how best to tell them, though. Trying to be sneaky ourselves probably won't accomplish anything, but I'm still a little reluctant to flat out tell them "No, we don't want to have anything to do with your team anymore. See you on T175."

 

[Sommerswerd]

This dilemna is exactly why I suggested not talking to them at all until after Taj was done...

Anyway, the Map trade is obviously so that they can get a complete picture of all our production capabilities so they can figure out exactly when we will get Taj (and other stuff). Here's how I think it plays out...

We give them our Map, then they give it to somebody that has (or can quickly get) high enough espy on us to see inside our cities. Then they can give RB screenshots of our cities and voila! RB knows exactly where we build Taj and how long it takes.

 

[vranasm]

would it be problem to say that we're not interested since what we wanted to know we already know?

in SP you don't trade your maps with AI's deliberately too...

 

[Caledorn]

would it be problem to say that we're not interested since what we wanted to know we already know?

in SP you don't trade your maps with AI's deliberately too...

It could possibly be considered slightly rude I suppose. But do we really care about that? It would be the truth even if it's non-cooperative.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Just dont talk to them until Taj is done

 

[vranasm]

It could possibly be considered slightly rude I suppose. But do we really care about that? It would be the truth even if it's non-cooperative.

well I don't think it should be seen as such... if not agreeing to every offer we get is seen as "rude", that's not good diplomacy, but more like dictatorship.

I think they offer us exchanging world maps with the assumption we fill holes both of us have unscouted.
If one side feels that they already have everything they need, then there is no reason for the trade...

I don't see how they will see this as being "rude"...they for sure know that they are not the first ones to paper and can assume we got already world maps from someone else.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I doubt they care about us being rude. They just need our complete map for demohacking. Dont give it to them... its pointless

 

[vranasm]

I doubt they care about us being rude. They just need our complete map for demohacking. Dont give it to them... its pointless

they will probably try to do the same trick as with the marble trade... they will start to ask around us for maps... spain maybe primary target of the offer (and they can offer them nice gifts for sure), but depends how useful the spain map can be to them

i for example would expect that spain scouted our areas before declaring war, but not sure if they really did.

 

[cav scout]

I think we should just be pushovers and share maps with them... maybe they will like us then?

 

[Sommerswerd]

I think we should just be pushovers and share maps with them... maybe they will like us then?

I love you cav

Anybody see The Super starring Joe Pesci?

"You give them SH!T! That's what you give them, SH!T!"

 

[Caledorn]

I think we should just be pushovers and share maps with them... maybe they will like us then?

 

[2metraninja]

Yes, the guys are acting pro-actively and dont fear we will ask them questions. I dont get some of our members fears of talking to RB. To not "shake the stinger's hive" or what? Why would we be afraid to talk if we think we are no less witty and cunning than them and actually can outspeak and benefit in words exchange? Anyway.

We absolutely don't want to give them our maps. I'm not sure how best to tell them, though.

That one is easy. We tell them that we already have decent map of the world and we dont need theirs.

This way, we refuse to give ours and we dont say: "We wont give it".

edit: I saw that even you Sommers advise to not talk to RB at all

Thinking more on it, I think you come from the wrong conclusion that somehow making RB suspicious will make them to hurry Taj and beat us to it. Rest assured that they will do ANYTHING it takes to get it without us doing or saying anything. To make it clear, we have everything prepared to beat them and there is hardly something they can do to get it before us (if they dont have pre-chopped 13 forests in the dark.)

edit2: I saw that vranasm proposed just the same thing to tell them as reasoning why we dont want to trade maps.