Scooter:
Hey, you around?
YossarianLives:
Hi Scooter, sorry, just got home
Scooter:
Hey (I'm around, just invisible at the moment)
And no problem. any update on your team's thoughts on our offer?
YossarianLives:
Yeah, we recognized it as a very serious offer and had some back and forth over the weekend. But the end result was the same. Still not enough support to extend the NAP
Scooter:
hah. so what exactly is enough?
I'm beginning to suspect your interest in a NAP isn't very sincere.
YossarianLives:
No, I think at this point we're not going to be able to extend it at all. It's not that our interest isn't sincere. Well, not for everyone on the team. We just don't think that the NAP is in our interest
The GP was very tempting, though
I'm sorry, I know you've put a lot of time in trying to get this deal to go through
Scooter:
so how many cities do you think you'll get out of this?
I"ve put myself in your shoes as best I could
I wouldn't have taken the straight NAP til T200, but I would have jumped at the great person
and the only way you don't take that is if you honestly think you can topple us in a war after t175
doesn't take a wizard to do the math
YossarianLives:
Well, a GP would have been great for us, but you have enough land so that if you can develop peacefully then we lose no matter what. At least, that's what our mathematicians have convinced the team of.
Scooter:
I mean, you guys clearly see the whipping/drafting happening from our western neighbors
and our total lack of economy, which we can't repair while we draft ourselves silly and give our next great person away
so I don't totally buy that
YossarianLives:
Your economy is not lacking, you have the most beakers of anyone
Scooter:
we've been last in GNP out of the contending teams for well over a dozen turns
while everyone was building courthouses, universities, markets, grocers, we were building knights, elephants, barracks, stables, and drafting maces. so that adds up too
Anyway, if you're being totally sincere, I think your mathematicians haven't been paying close enough attention to the beaker/turn situation over the last 20 turns
YossarianLives:
I hear you. But CP can't threaten you now that you have all those units, so if you get a NAP with us, you can build all that missing infra and surge back up in GNP while handily defeating your western neighbor
Scooter:
CP can't by itself, but Apolyton's 20-30 Rifles they have right now sure can, and you know that
you DO know that right??
Anyway, I'm not trying to be overly confrontational, but here's how this process has gone internally for our team
you guys made no offers repeatedly. we finally made multiple offers, you said flat no and refused to counter. every time we come back with a new suggestion you take awhile to talk about it, say no, make no suggestion at what sounds good to you. So to some people on my team - they interpret that as you're just screwing with me. I try to assume the best, but I imagine you can see how things would build
Plus I have been aware for awhile that you, apolyton, and civplayers all agreed together to not extend the NAP with us. The details are hazy, but I know that deal existed. So it makes us suspect you had no interest in actually doing so, and were just fishing
YossarianLives:
I hear what you're saying. I really do hope you're not mad on a personal level. I have to represent what is best for my team in these dealings. I want to try to be as honest as possible without showing all our cards. There have been voices on both sides of the debate. None of our decisions on how to proceed with your team have been unanimous.
Scooter:
Personal, no, you've been totally fine of course. There is a growing suspicion though that Team CFC is choosing to not be totally level with Team RB, which is what I was explaining
YossarianLives:
In all sincerity, if you have to leave your border with us lightly defended to deal with your other neighbors, we want that opportunity to make a move. If we can tie up a significant number of troops on our end to let your neighbors make some ground against you, that works out in our favor, too
Yes, I understand that feeling
Or that suspicion, rather
Scooter:
Well sure, that's your decision to make. But you're selling it purely as opportunism right now, and if a real full blown 3v1 happens, that's an outright lie. And I think we have a lot of reason to be skeptical that you're serious about opportunism when you're clearly headed for cannons
Anyway. If a real concerted 3v1 happens, we'll hold your team responsible for orchestrating it. Not extending the NAP for the purpose of tying down units is a valid strategic choice, even if I think it's the wrong one

. But if you guys aren't being honest, that's different from our teams perspective
YossarianLives:
Ok, I understand what you're saying. Well, we do need to hold some cards close to our chest, so I don't know how much more I can say
Anyways, I have to walk the dog, so I should get going
Scooter:
Yep, I'll let you go. In all sincerity, have a nice day/night (not sure where you are actually!). Hopefully you don't take the less-than-cordial diplo personally when it happens. Just need to communicate my team's feelings completely.
tis all just part of the game and I take nothing personally. which I guess is why they make me do the diplo. hah