Team Piffle

[Robi D]

This was in our gmail box

Aloha BCLG

Regretably we must decline your proposed trade of Theology in exchange
for Paper. That amounts to a 15% discount and as we are currently in
last place, it is more than we can afford.

We must also regretably decline your offer of Dyes for 15 gpt. While
we are sure they are lovely, our citizens are currently quite content.
Our citizens are a poor people. Recently our government opened up a
state-subsidized Winery. Since then the people have seen fit to honor
the name of Pifflenatress. They may be drunk, but they are happy
drunks!

Now if we may discuss another issue of a more delicate nature? One of
our Spearmen has reported seeing an Aloha Scout. We were wondering if
you could explain your intentions vis-a-vis the mapping of our
territory? Frankly our scholars can think of no peaceful reason
why another civilization would want to map our territory.

We have no objections to your Galley sailing our coast. As we can
think of many reasons why a peaceful civilization would explore the
coastline. It opens up trade routes after all. However, why would a
peaceful civilization need detailed maps of another's territory and
defenses?

As I say, our scholars are mystified. Hopefully you can clarify this for them?

Yours in Peace!
Pifflenatress

Now i don't see what the issue is with our scout. Frankly their scholars arn't particularly bright IMHO.

I don't see why we should pander to them on this issue. First our scout was there before they even built the city. Second, it a scout not half our army and finally we do have an open borders agreement and when the agreement was made there was no mention of restrictions.

Bascially if they don't like it they can always end the OB, but then they have more to lose at the great lighthouse needs OB's to be effective so they can get stuffed.

However we have to act nice and give them a good reason to zip it. I'll be heading off tomorrow so i wont be around to discuss a response so here is my suggestion

Dear Piffle,

We are quite mystified ourselves by your apparent alarm to one of our scouting parties. We have many scouting parties that are heading in many different directions accross the globe as we speak and they all wondering around in the pursuit of peaceful exploration to expand our knowledge of the world around us.

Furthermore we have had Open Borders for many turns now. When put the agreement into place there was no mention of any restrictions of movement through our respective territories, land or sea. If you so wished you are free to go through our territory with a scouting unit.

Finally, if we are to cooperate in an attack on Epsilon then we will need knowledge of possible land and sea routes that our forces could use in the attack. We understand that circumstances can change during the course of time are we more than happy to discuss amendments to our current agreements that are in place, but we must stress that at this current time we have acted in accordance with the agreements in place

Yours in friendship
Aloha

Feel free to use/discard as you see fit.

By playing the epsilon card it will give us an insight into whether they are really eager to attack them or not. Also if they want to go and place major restrictions on the OB then we can say no thanks and cancel it. They have more to lose than we do since the GL is useless without trade routes.

See you all when i get back

 

[Robi D]

Ok having loaded the save all i can say is WTH!?!

Given Piffle's letter i assumed our scout was in their borders, but not only is he not in them he is nowhere near them! I mean are they trying to piss us off

Having seen the position of our scout i would change my suggested response to this:

Dear Piffle,

We are quite mystified ourselves by your apparent alarm to one of our scouting parties. We have many scouting parties that are heading in many different directions accross the globe as we speak and they all wondering around in the pursuit of peaceful exploration to expand our knowledge of the world around us.

What we do not understand why would would have an issue with our scout. Firstly he is in unclaimed territory a fair distance outside you borders and secondly we have had Open Borders for many turns now. When put the agreement into place there was no mention of any restrictions of movement through our respective territories, land or sea.

Finally, if we are to cooperate in an attack on Epsilon then we will need knowledge of possible land and sea routes that our forces could use in the attack as we will not send our men and women into battle blindly

Yours in friendship
Aloha

 

[robboo]

They are actt like a team with something to hide. Supposedly we are supposed to be their great help against Epsilon.

I say we close borders if they disagree with the traveling through their territory.

 

[BCLG100]

No we leave em open-maybe close if they come near- i'll send that letter if its cool robi?

 

[BCLG100]

casey j says:
hey i was looking at mtdg today
casey j says:
you guys dont want to trade, what was it, theology?
Simon says:
you offered us theology in your e-mail
Simon says:
but we already have theology
Simon says:
so thats why we proposed a different one
casey j says:
ah ok i see it
casey j says:
theology for paper??
casey j says:
and 15 gpt?
Simon says:
we thought you'd made a typo
casey j says:
thats crazy talk
Simon says:
and one of you genius's would have checked the save to see that we already had theology
casey j says:
hey we are kind of slow
casey j says:
i dont even check in every day
Simon says:
well happy resources are scarce on this map
casey j says:
what are we going to do about the others?
Simon says:
btw we replied to your message
casey j says:
which message?
Simon says:
erm about what our scout was doing
casey j says:
ok here we are, innovia is the one who lacks theology
Simon says:
yeah
casey j says:
oh well, we are interested in long term peace, are you guys interested in that?
Simon says:
i can certainly post about it
Simon says:
we hadnt really discussed prolonged peace deals tbh
casey j says:
how do you see the game playing out, someone is going to go to war before long surely, we can make sure we arent on the short end of the stick
casey j says:
epsilon is pretty slick
Simon says:
how do you mean?
casey j says:
they are working everyone pretty well
casey j says:
on the trade and diplo front
Simon says:
yeah we've noticed that- we get an e-mail pretty much everytime we research something
casey j says:
do you guys have a long term peace with innovia or just tech trading with them?
Simon says:
just tech trading iirc
casey j says:
well we could team up vs. epsilon or innovia if you want
casey j says:
i say, portugal vs. spain, maybe with rome included when we get peace
casey j says:
india and maya vs. inca, or india and inca vs. maya
Simon says:

Simon says:
portugal and spain???
casey j says:
ha woops
casey j says:
talking about sgotm
Simon says:
ah right had no clue what was going on
casey j says:
could we work out a tech deal and long term peace vs. one or the other of those two?
Simon says:
i think we'd definatly prefer to not go to war with innovia
casey j says:
are they strong or just pretty straight shooters
Simon says:
how do you mean?
casey j says:
why you would rather not go to war with them
Simon says:
ah right, we just like dealing with them i think
Simon says:
we've had good diplomatic communications throughout
casey j says:
what do you think about epsilon?
Simon says:
hmmm, we're pretty concerned but we still havnt found them yet so theres little we can do
Simon says:
hows about you?
casey j says:
they are right up above us, you will meet them soon
casey j says:
well we have traded w/ them, but they are not the best of friends
casey j says:
we told them we were going to trade w/ innovia and they went ahead and traded
Simon says:
we've tried keeping trade down to a minimum with them
casey j says:
so we are not on best of terms, but not worst either, we can swing either way
Simon says:
there were bands going around of trying to organise a world wide trade embargo on them
casey j says:
hmm that prolly wont work though
Simon says:
how so?
casey j says:
they seem to be in tight with loco
Simon says:
hmmm im not sure
Simon says:
how did you think that?
casey j says:
they mentioned loco in their emails to us, for tech trades
casey j says:
several times
Simon says:
ah
Simon says:
we havnt heard anything along them lines
Simon says:
one thing we've noticed about loco is that they're very unwilling to keep up regular diplomatic communication
Simon says:
but this was before epsilon even met them
casey j says:
i dont know, epsilon seems persistent
casey j says:
so maybe they had a breakthrough there
Simon says:
well if you propose tech trades then they do
Simon says:
but i dont have a single one of them on msn
casey j says:
of epsilon or loco?
Simon says:
loco
Simon says:
brb
casey j says:
aight, im getting off here, have to catch american idol with the missus
Simon says:
enjoy that, your testes staying there?
casey j says:
ha
Simon says:
i'll definatly propose the long term peace to the gang though

convo i had with cane before- key is that they want a NAP, im not quite sure how to go about avoiding this

 

[robboo]

Simple..we are not interested in long term deals until we know where everyone is at. Besides according to this its just Tubby talking.

How long before we can attack them??? That gives us all teh time we need to agree to. Say we need 20 turns. Then we agree to 20 turns off NAP then we tellthem nah we dont want to get tied down...and then we kill them.

OR we just say we dont want any long term deals that or not enforceable in the game. The only way to enforce deals is with "code" generated deals..therefore. NO deal. ( this is my favorite...since you can defend it by saying we dont want to be backstabbed...)

In additon...Tubby coudl have sadi "we coudl go either way with Epsilon...so be our friend or else. he basically threathened you in a passive aggresive manner. Which is very Tubby like in diplo..

 

[BCLG100]

yeah but as i said, that was cane= killercane.

 

[robboo]

opps..wrong casey. same result.

 

[robboo]

UPDATE from Sweet...

They seem to be getting a bit annoyed with us. The scout questions was mainly due to what they preceive as a lack of willinginess on our part to trade and a high value of 15gpt for the resource. We are making them nervous

I said that we offered high in hopes of negotiation and tech-wise we are not able to trade somethings due to previous deals.

I suggest that BC talk to them and calm them down a bit. We need to get them to relax so they are less than prepared for our attack. I suggest doing it by email so that they not bring up the NAP. Also do it without suggestign you knwo they are nervous. Mayeb something that says we are just sending this message to let you know we are still here if you have any offers. We hope you reconsider our resource offer perhaps if the price is too steep you could give us a counter offer.

 

[BCLG100]

Ive been talking to cane regular-we have a pbem going. Nothing special has come up.

 

[Kuningas]

We could propose tech swap Music for Paper. Beaker cost is equal (858).

 

[BCLG100]

I'll bring it up next time im talking to cane

 

[Robi D]

I would also make a point that happiness resources arn't easy to come by in this game so 15gpt isn't unresonable. If they can trade one back to us then thats fine.

 

[BCLG100]

I have told them that already- they still felt it was very steep.

 

[robboo]

did they offer a counter offer??

Can we just hurry up and kill them... I am ready for some action.

 

[Robi D]

Ok i'm running a little low on inspiration, this is what i've got so far.

Greetings Piffle,

It been a while since our last contact, so i thought i might start my new job by saying hi. Unfortunately last time we could quite work out a deal but maybe we can work something out this time around.

If you would like we can organise a time for a chat and discuss the possibilities.

All the best
Robi D, Aloha

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[BCLG100]

thats about all i can think of, maybe congratulate them on reaching liberalism first?

 

[Robi D]

thats about all i can think of, maybe congratulate them on reaching liberalism first?

I can add that to pad out the letter a little

 

[Robi D]

Greetings Piffle,

It been a while since our last contact, so i thought i might start my new job by saying hi. First of all i would like to offer congratulations on the discovery of Liberalism. Does this mean you have all turned into a bunch of unwashed liberal hippies now

Unfortunately last time we could quite work out a deal but maybe we can work something out this time around. If you would like we can organise a time for a chat and discuss the possibilities.

All the best
Robi D, Aloha

How is that? Lame joke i know, but i can't think of anything funnier that does not involve us crushing Piffle with our mighty Cossaks

 

[BCLG100]

Got this from piffle before, maybe include this

Is there any interest in banking in the MTDG? Perhaps for gold?

KC

tbh i cant see a great desire for it i think they're just using it to start convo/make us look bad for not wanting it.