Arghh! You beat me to it. I was going to point out that Apolyton do intend to give us Equilibrium and disband their colony in exchange for us giving them silk forever after. But this agreement has only been expressed in chats as far as I know, and not consumated in any written agreement/treaty. The longer we don't claim that area, the harder it may be to get it. So, President Zoi, since Balance Of Power is out of the question, do you intend to move into Equilibrium this term??
While we should build up a force of Riders this term, in my opinion, anyone who thinks there is a point in planning for war with Apolyton isn't paying attention. Apolyton isn't interested in taking our land or knocking us out of the game. Apolyton, like us, is looking nervously across the ocean trying to figure out what they are going to do about THEM. Apolyton know we can help them 100 times more than we can hurt them right now.
If we go to war with Apolyton before we catch up to Netatolia and Webringen we will NOT win this game. The same is also true for Apolyton and they know it. So we might as well play assuming we are not going to go to war with each other.
And I agree with Hygro in that I don't think Apolyton will be switching to Communism in this game. Unless they occupy a large chunk of the other continent.
And just to keep DZ honest, here are a list of his goals he has said he would like to accomplish this term, just in this thread:
1) Keep Iceland
2) Found 3rd City on Greenland
3) Build Harbor on Greenland
4) Complete Forbidden Palace in Xin Yun Feng
5) Tech Parity with Apolyton by Astronomy
EDIT:
300 POSTS!!!! Time to make me an avatar!