We finish Pottery next turn and will move on to writing. If they have some offer to make we're telling them we will trade Iron, but nobody can trade techs yet because they broke the deal long ago and I'm sick of waiting for them now.
I agree that BAT is probably not going to Alpha by the shortest path. Quite understandably, as it is much better from their POV to go for pottery first, and perhaps even a few other techs. But what deal did they break? All I can find is a rather vague agreement in a chat that we will swap techs when BAT discovers Alpha. It is unclear which techs will be swapped, or when this will be done (BAT has given timelines of their research but no real commitments). Similarly, for research paths they have stated their intent, but no firm commitment. Our case would be stronger if there was an actual treaty in place, but there is none as far as I can find.
In any case, IMO we should not rub BAT the wrong way for no good reason. BAT may still prove useful to us. How about a letter along these lines:
dear friends of BAT,
happy new year blabla.
We would like to discuss research plans with you. CFC's scientists have worked very hard lately and are about to uncover the secrets of pottery. We would of course be happy to share this technology with you, if you wish - of course this requires knowledge of the Alphabet. In our forums we are discussing what to research next, and your progress plays an important part in this. From the chats between our two nations we recall that you were planning to discover Alphabet around this time. Could you tell us how this research is progressing? Are you researching Alphabet already, and can you give us an updated ETA?
Another subject that has crossed our mind is the signing of open borders. Would you be interested in that?
closing sentence blabla
Feel free to use/edit/discard etc. The purpose of the message is to hear them out on their progress, both in the direction of Writing/Alphabet and in the direction of pottery. If they respond that they have writing, then we can ask for OB and see what happens. If they respond that they don't have writing, then we can act up, or simply say that we will start researching Writing "because we need libraries soon".
I'll take that line out but the message looks too short. I think its a good opportunity for us if we take the lead with the treaty. I don't mind kissing up a little bit, their OOC comments about the PTW DG were quite humble. It is a first step toward tricking them into trusting us, but we'll keep that to ourselves for now.
I agree it's a good opportunity. So perhaps we should discuss what we want in this treaty
. I think a 50 turn peace would be beneficial to us. A land division agreement (i.e., no settling or large armies on the other side of a demarcation line) with the line running somewhere through the isthmus connecting our lands would be great, and would definitely be a concession from CGA to us. We can lengthen the message by adding a vague statement on such ideas, if our team can agree on this.
Yes these messages are lame and in need of much improvment. Offering COG a non-aggression treaty is a great idea (or even better just a border agreement), but doesn't make much sense for GWT and talking to about tech trades so far from alphabet annoys me.
What do you mean by a border agreement? OB? We could add that or a peace treaty to give the messages more substance.
I agree tech treaties are not that useful at this stage. Although we could talk about a division of research, just to prepare the stage for trading. It seems GWT wants to go IW now, that's too bad. Maybe we can prevent COG from doing the same, and send them towards Monarchy?