The Council

[CommandoBob]

If this deal with Saber happens and we owe gold to The Council, I would rather pay per turn than try to caculate how much we have accumulated over a number of turns and then try to determine a lump sum amount.

This would mean:

• At the end of the turn we check the stat box in the right hand corner of the screen to see our income for that turn. Then we send half of that (rounding down) to The Council.
  
  
• We would send to The Council, via our Ambassador or Turn Player or both, a small screen shot of the stat box but with our total gold edited out. This would serve as verification of the amount sent over.
  
  
• It would begin on the turn we send our last researched tech to them (we send gold that turn) and end on the turn we get their last AA tech (we send no gold that turn).

I prefer this method because the bookkeeping is simplier. We don't have to total up how much we gained or worry about spending too much if we rush something. They get half, they can verify that they got half and we can spend our gold as freely as we want.

 

[aluka]

That sounds like a good way to go about it. I'd round up every second time we got an odd number of gold though.

 

[azzaman333]

Sending a short note to Gen_W asking about the Saber trade.

 

[CommandoBob]

On Republic (FYI)
We'll be learning Republic by Turn 82 (Turn 80 just sent to GONG). They (The Council) said they were holding off on us sending them Code of Laws in order to make Saber pay a higher price for it. Fine. We can send it anytime they are ready.

They know we're learing Republic but the MAAP has us learning it on Turn 87, not Turn 82.

After Republic we have only Mysticism and Polytheism to learn to fulfill our research part of the MAAP.

Looking Ahead
The Council has been very helpful to us so far.

Are we willing to work as closely with them in the Middle Ages?

I'm think we should at least mention the idea to them. I'm sure they have thought of it.

 

[azzaman333]

Got this;

Hey Azzaman!

Still no word from Saber on the proposed trade, but we expect to hear back soon. We'll keep you posted!

How's the research coming on Republic?

All the Best,
General_W, member of The Council

Will reply with this in 24 hours assuming no one disagrees.

Good luck with the Saber trade.

We should be able to get Repblic by turn 82, which leads us to the question of what kind of alliance, if any, we want to take into the Middle Ages. We are discussing what sort of tech plan we may have, and when we sort out the details we shall send you a copy of our proposed plan.

Also, we are slightly worried that there may be some leeches in this world planning on building the Great Library and thieving our technologies. Have you heard plans from another civ that there are resources being hoarded for such a building?

azzaman333, FREE Ambassador to the Council.

 

[CommandoBob]

I favor looking into working with The Council in the MA (just so everyone knows). But please note this is only favor. We still need to work out the details. And diplomacy could be tricky as we meet more people.

Favor doesn't mean must have. I think we need to explore it, get a good plan together and then see if both sides like it. We may not.

I would like us to offer the tech research plan this time, instead of The Council, if possible.

Something to ask The Council. Have they heard of anyone building this thing called a Great Library? I'd hate for a third party to be a parasite and obtain what we both have learned and shared with each other by such a cheesy investment. Unless it was one of us D), but even then, by the time this Great Library Thingee was completed we would have outgrown the need for it, like training wheels on a bicycle.

 

[azzaman333]

I'll send this now;

Good luck with the Saber trade.

We should be able to get Repblic by turn 82, which leads us to the question of what kind of alliance, if any, we want to take into the Middle Ages. We are discussing what sort of tech plan we may have, and when we sort out the details we shall send you a copy of our proposed plan.

Also, we are slightly worried that there may be some leeches in this world planning on building the Great Library and thieving our technologies. Have you heard plans from another civ that there are resources being hoarded for such a building?

azzaman333, FREE Ambassador to the Council.

EDIT; Sent

 

[CommandoBob]

I checked the Wonder Screen on Turn 81. I found:



I haven't seen anything about them building the Great Library, so it may have been begun before we made contact. I'm not upset that they are. I am embarrassed that I didn't think to check the Wonder Screen before.

Sorry, azzaman333, I didn't want to make you look bad to The Council, but it seems I did.

 

[Joe Harker]

I would like to see what you have been doing carry on to the middle ages providing everything is fair for us. But I don't mind if we break ties but if we do, i would do it gently and not all of a sudden, don't want to anger them!

 

[CommandoBob]

Just received from The Council

Dear FREE,

Word has reached us from overseas that Saber now possesses knowledge
of Code of Laws. If you would please send us this tech now, we'd
appreciate it!

As for the Great Library, we haven't heard so much as a whisper about
it from overseas… As you may have noticed, we are using the Great
Library as a pre-build... but that's just to rattle anyone at Saber
that's paying attention!
The idea that someone else may build the GLib is certainly a valid
concern, but it's an awfully expensive denial wonder, so I don't know
what we can really do about that possibility though? Unless you plan
on building it?

Also, just to keep you in the loop – we're sending a note to Saber to
push them on responding to our trade offer… since they're apparently
taking their sweet time.

Hope all is well in the land of FREEdom!

Your friends and allies,
The Council, by the hand of General_W

 

[CommandoBob]

Impressions
I don't think we plan to build the Great Library. No one here has really talked about it and as long as we team up with The Council to share techs I don't think we need it.

Is it a pre-build for something? Maybe. Who knows? Are they building it to mess with Saber's mind? Possibly. Do we care? Nah, not now. Later; perhaps.

I could be reading too much into this, but I sort of pick up that The Council is not all that well pleased with Saber.

Of course, Saber could be going through a change of leadership and that might slow down their response time to Council.

Actions
I'll send Code of Laws this turn (Turn 82).

I did not reply to their message.

 

[CommandoBob]

I got this via PM and email today.

Greetings Friends from FREE!

We thank you for sending us your new Code of Laws. This will certainly help us to run our Council meetings more efficiently. We are a bit concerned about the reports of anarchy in your country but hope your expiriment with republic works well for you and quiets the unrest. We would like to request that you send us the secrets of republic now (with accept!).

We have been trying to learn how to ride horses since we liked the idea of trying to figure out which horse can run the fastest. Perhaps one day when we learn the secrets of currency we'll be able to easily place wagers on this. Right now all we can bet on is who will be able to stay on a horse the longest before getting thrown off and all we have are these huge colorful rocks to wager with. Ah, well, I digress from official business so back to it. We will have mastered these beasts soon and will send you the secrets of horseback riding at our first opportunity.

Have your people met any other civilizations yet? Have you done much exploring?

donsig
Speaking with the words of The Council

We did send Republic this turn (Turn 85, they receive on Turn 86).

We will learn Mysticism next turn (Turn 86), leaving only Polytheism for us to research.

On donsig
I don't trust him. From MTDG-I he seemed to be a smoooth talker. And a bit condescending in tone.

This is MTDG 2 and I'll try to take him at face value. I got into MTDG-I rather late to comprehend everything. So I consider myself 'cautious' concerning donsig. I would like to be proved wrong concerning him.

Techs
According to the MAAP, they were supposed to research Currency before Horseback Riding. I would like to know why that changed. I can understand that the deal with SABER may have affected their research order. But if it did, I would expect a courtesy note letting us know that a change was taking place.

 

[vikingruler]

i agree with you CB, however after I looked at the tech tree again I noticed they get a slightly better deal. though they probably won't break the alliance (and we most certainty won't) we should be a little more careful and cautious for now on. maybe just be more defensive in letters and making sure we have a formidable army.

 

[CommandoBob]

i agree with you CB but they haven't given us anything lately, though there is obviously some reasons I just think we should be a little more defensive, maybe just be more cautious when talking to them.

We swapped pretty good until the SABER deal came around; the one for Currency/Construction. The Council asked us not to send Code of Laws until SABER had researched it.

The deal with SABER involved The Council learning Construction and trying to trade that to SABER for Currency and a lesser tech (Mysticism and Horseback Riding were mentioned).

When mentioned earlier, General_W speculated that Construction was 8 turns away (Post #31). I did not note the Turn # of that communication. But Post #40 is at Turn 77.

Maybe SABER did not want to trade?

So unless something bad happened, I think that The Council should have learned Construction by now.

EDIT:
Just checked email; nothing new.

 

[azzaman333]

I have sent this to donsig, to clarify and reinforce our alliance.

Hi. There are a couple of things our people would like clarified from you.

In previous communications you have stated that we should've been able to expect Construction from you, yet we hear you are learning Horseback Riding? We are confused as to what your intentions are, as there are some who suspect you aren't being honest with us, and had a plan to trade for Construction that went along the lines of trading for it and the on-selling it to us.

As to your questions;

Have your people met any other civilizations yet? Have you done much exploring?

We do not feel comfortable disclosing this information until we know that you are being upfront and honest with us, and aren't doing any shady back-room deals.

Azzaman333; FREE-Council Ambassador​

 

[Empiremaker]

We shoud ell them that we've only met them. THey promptly infromed us of meeting SABER, and they acted in our intrest in dealing with SABER.

 

[azzaman333]

We shoud ell them that we've only met them. THey promptly infromed us of meeting SABER, and they acted in our intrest in dealing with SABER.

I will, but I'm a little worried that they may be abusing our trust and good will.

 

[Kuningas]

Do you think they get techs from a third party? Even if they do, unfortunely we have to trust and cooperate with them as they are our only contact.

 

[Kuningas]

Tech cost has dropped for Construction, Currency and HBR. The Council must have made the deal with Saber.

 

[Kuningas]

My mistake. The Council have popped Currency from a goody hut.

We should send accepted Mysticism to them in next turn. They can then research Polytheism.

Dear Azzaman and all FREE people:

You latest letter was received with some shock in The Chambers of The Council! From our point of view, we have bent over backwards to be totally open and honest even above our treaties requirements. We hope we're just taking this letter as more harsh than it was intended.

We finished research on Construction 4 turns ago, and just didn't think about sending it. We apologize. We're happy to send it immediately.
We've actually been focused on trying to pop Currency and thus avoid making any extra deals with team Saber. To do this, we needed Horseback Riding, and then to block Mysticism. We figured, the less we can trade with other teams – the better for both us. Please understand, there was nothing malicious here (quite the opposite!), and we're disappointed that you would even consider that.

Hopefully we don't have to remind you that every trade with a nation outside of our Treaty has been approved by you even before we began negotiations, and there have been no trades that you were not aware of. We just finished HBR last turn, and our gamble paid off as we have also popped Currency the same turn! Because Currency was popped, the potential trade with SABER is off the table, and we have just sent a note to Saber telling them this.

We are a little dismayed at your reluctance to be open with us about any foreign contact you have made. After all, we were very forthcoming with you right from the start, holding nothing back even before our treaty with you was signed. We'll remind you that in Section 3, Point 2 of our treaty you agreed to "immediately notify the other of the contact" and we're saddened that you're not sticking with this for reasons we don't really comprehend? We're happy to chalk this up to a simple mistake like our delay in sending Construction, and we hope to all have a good chuckle about the miscommunications with you later.

Since, as mentioned, we popped Currency from a hut this last turn, we both need to decide how to proceed with the MAAP. We have now finished our part of the joint research programme, and are waiting for you to research Mysticism and Polytheism.

We think it would be beneficial if The Council researches Mysticism. We can start next turn (turn 87) and finish 4 turns later, so please let us know before our next turn what you would like - we would hate to do double research effort! We will of course send Mysticism to you right away, and then you can start on Polytheism.

As compensation for this shift in research effort, we'd like to propose that you can either pay us half the beaker cost in gold (that's 60 gold), or we simply regard this as a research credit for The Council in some Middle Age tech deal that we'll hammer out later. The Council would prefer the latter option, but in any case, this doesn't need to be decided right away.

Finally, we'd just like to note that we think some of this breakdown in communication was due to General_W's family emergency that has had him in the hospital all week taking care of his 2 month old daughter. She's doing much better and should be going home from the Hospital this weekend, and we expect the General to return to active duty and hopefully help prevent any future misunderstandings.

We hope to have cleared up any doubts some of you may have had about our intentions or our actions.

The Council