Term 5 - Military Department: War and Introducing the Age of the Builder (hopefully)

[Feodor Ardent]

At Emperor level a simple "Get off our land" most often results in the enemy's middle finger being raised in our direction, shortly followed by employment of his trigger finger also - at least in my experience. If we really want them to stay out then we'll have to physically prevent them from getting in in the first place.

Exactly right. Blocking the roads on our own land does not irritate the trespasser; challenging him does.

 

[Feodor Ardent]

Once all of this is accomplished, we have nothing to fear from enemy troops anyway. A border blockade is not a military solution...we are going to trick the AI into thinking we have created a wall of soldiers. This solution to troops crossing our borders is temporary, and should work until we have the manpower to set up a true blockade.

Quite right. What we are doing here is compensating for the that peculiar "Trespasser" bug that has been written into every version of Civ. For some reason, while the AI civs get quite annoyed when you cross into their territory, their units tend to simply ignore yours, and the only way to stop trespass is to start a war fierce enough to destroy you or them.

In Civ I and Civ II, blocking the path of a trespasser antagonizes the opponent and can cause a war. In Civ III, that is not a serious problem. You can recruit border guards, MPs, Highway Patrol, whatever you care to call them, from your military or civilian units.

As I noted elsewhere, I like to use "explorer" units to serve in the role of scouts, diplomatic envoys, cops, and border guards, because Sid didn't get around to providing those units in the game. Even though, in this case, a border guard would resolve one of the AIs more persistantly unrealistic bugs.

True story from history: In the dark days of 1940, as the British were planning the Dunquerque evacution and Hitler's Panzers were overunning northern France and closing on Paris, Mussolini was debating whether to join his Axis partner in the war. At a diplomatic cocktail party somewhere overseas, a noxious Italian Facist diplomat was expounding on the possibilities of war, mortifying all attending because the ashen-faced French ambassador was among those obliged to listen to his bombast.

"Really, now," the Italian loudly gloated, "If our glorious legions were to march across the border today, what would be there to stop them?"

The Ambassador looked at him sadly, with just a trace of scorn, and gravely replied, "Monsieur forgets the French Customs Service."

 

[Donovan Zoi]

Fine.....you've talked me into it. If "Hands Across Padmativa" is our best option for now, let's do it. Just no singing, please.

Maybe I am too used to playing on monarch, where if I told someone to vacate, they would be gone with a quickness. In my games, I am very protective of my borders from Day One and if someone poses a threat by having even 5+ units on my property, their prez will get a visit. If they do declare war, the majority of their units are outside of my borders and can be dealt with by my defending troops.

eyrei, I think you are doing a great job in weighing the pros and cons of every diplomatic issue we face, but it would be refreshing to ---just once--- show some of these wanderers the door.

 

[donsig]

Maybe we should just chop the trees down, paint 'em black and point 'em at the border so the other countries will think we have cannons there.

If we had enough workers we could get 'em over there building roads. They would form part of the wall as long as they were building roads. I do think we should be using spears/pikes/muskets/rifles for the wall though merely because in an emergency in the west or south we could always abandon the wall and use the units for defence if need be.

 

[FortyJ]

As there may be a turn chat early in the term (ie. Saturday or Sunday), I would like to suggest that the current officials carry out their responsibilities in preparation for that potential turn chat.

I have replaced the offensive units (Cavalry and Knights) with defensive units along the "Line". We should continue to reinforce this line and the cities in the area with additional units. We also need a plan of action with respect to Babylon. I don't think that conquering them (a la India...) is advisable for various reasons. Instead, I'd like to see a "Scorched Earth" policy that would destroy their ablility to access (and trade) their resources and luxuries. We should be able to get at least one GL from these actions and eventually extort some tech from them.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and your service this term.

 

[Shaitan]

Code of Standards change needs sponsor!

Please see this post if you are willing to sponsor the COS change to allow guilty pleas.

 

[Falcon02]

ahh.. another "spam" all the exec. Govt. Forums with an issue poster

 

[Shaitan]

Nay, good sir. I asked for support from each Leader on a personal and individual basis.

 

[GenMarshall]

Term - 6 Military Department