Gillette Diplomacy Thread: Dossiers, Scheming, and Puppet Strings

[Old Harry]

Possible reply to Tasunke:

Thanks for the map, I'm afraid it doesn't give us much we didn't know already. I'd like to know if they've got cities between Caprinha and the front and where they are likely to be staging re-inforcements.

The NAP date is unfortunate - Lewwyn had told us the NAP only lasted until t140 - did you get the t145 date from him or from Trolls (who I'd be a bit suspicious of)? We can set an attack date of t145 if you're stuck with that date, but t140 is better. I think you're probably right about their eta on gunpowder but it could even be five turns earlier, making a t145 attack too late...

Please don't extend to t160 - if you do then I guess we'll have to try to extend our NAP too since our border with Trolls is particularly vulnerable.

So what are your thoughts on a joint attack now? Do you have an eta for knights or maces and do you know how many you could bring to bear?

All the best

Again, I'm not sure about the red bit - I feel like them taking that NAP extension loses the game for all of us, but I don't want to come over as desparate...

[Cheater Hater]

How far could we get on the tech tree if they extended to T160? Musketmen are expensive, so we still could attack with overwhelming forces--I'd still much, much prefer earlier, so much I think you need to sound a little desperate--we need to attack at T141 if we want to have any chance.

[Old Harry]

What would it take to get rifles?

Anyway M3 seem very pleased with the NAP and sent us this:

Greetings Gillette,

We agree to a NAP to T175 with RoP included.

As for the gifting of Catapults, it is something we are seriously considering. The one caveat is that we need to confirm that you have researched Construction before we gift you any. The Trolls have Alphabet, so they would know if you have Construction or not. So if they see Catapults coming at them, with you not having the tech yet, they will know we gave them to you. We think it would be better if our involvement remained a secret for now, so as to be a surprise later.

We're sorry we signed such a long NAP with the Trolls; we hadn't expected you to go to war with them quite so soon! But we are eager to help in any way we can until it expires.

In confidence,

Obviously we'll need to do something to give them away

[Cheater Hater]

so is our plan HBR->Feudalism->Guilds->Construction, and can we get that all done before T140? Would getting Construction around T135 and suddenly having ~6 Catapults be considered suspicious?

(is it bad that I want to start working Pirates now so they attack M3 right around when they start giving us Catapults, or is that just a natural competitive tendency? )

[YossarianLives]

Yeah, I think we might have to fit Construction a little earlier in order to make M3 more comfortable gifting us more catapults. Besides, as Old Harry mentioned, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get construction early (and maybe even show off a gifted cat or two) to make Trolls think they're defending against 1-movers.

I like the reply to TEAM, including the part in red.

[Old Harry]

Just sent this to TEAM:

Thanks for the map, I'm afraid it doesn't give us much we didn't know already. I'd like to know if they've got cities between Caipirinha and the front and where they are likely to be staging reinforcements.

The NAP date is unfortunate - Lewwyn had told us the NAP only lasted until t140 - did you get the t145 date from him or from Trolls (who I'd be a bit suspicious of)? We can set an attack date of t145 if you're stuck with that date, but t140 is better. I think you're probably right about their eta on gunpowder but it could even be five turns earlier, meaning a t145 attack would be too late...

Please don't extend to t160 - if you do then I guess we'll have to try to extend our NAP too since our border with Trolls is particularly vulnerable.

So what are your thoughts on a joint attack now? Do you have an eta for knights or maces and do you know how many you could bring to bear on t141 or t145?

All the best
Old Harry
Gillette

I'll go play the turn now.

[Old Harry]

Possible reply to M3

Greetings Gillette,

We agree to a NAP to T175 with RoP included.

As for the gifting of Catapults, it is something we are seriously considering. The one caveat is that we need to confirm that you have researched Construction before we gift you any. The Trolls have Alphabet, so they would know if you have Construction or not. So if they see Catapults coming at them, with you not having the tech yet, they will know we gave them to you. We think it would be better if our involvement remained a secret for now, so as to be a surprise later.

We're sorry we signed such a long NAP with the Trolls; we hadn't expected you to go to war with them quite so soon! But we are eager to help in any way we can until it expires.

In confidence,

Hi Menagerie,

We plan for construction to be one of our next few techs.

I'm looking at our power graphs, and I think that the ending of our old NAP could be a useful disguise for building up a Troll-fighting force. This is just an idea so tell me if you think it's dumb, but how about:
- we both build up military at a moderate rate over the next few turns
- we declare war on you at around t130, we both carry on building units - you concentrate on cats while we build Zerks (I'm hoping to have about 30, but haven't gone into details yet)
- you sit your cats on our border
- we sign peace ~t137 with gifts of catapults or money to be used upon Trolls disguised somehow (not sure how to be honest)
- ~t141-145 we attack Trolls
I know that Plako, Pling and Novice are still playing for Trolls, so I presume they are hot on C&D and we'll need a good disguise.

Finally I know you've been exploring Troll lands recently - any intel on defenses or screenshots would be very helpful.

All the best
Gillette

This gives away the end of our NAP, but why not?

[Old Harry]

And this from Tasunke:

I actually got the t145 date from Plako ...

He did give me a gchat copy but ...

Well, Lewwyn hasn't confirmed nor denied this. I'll look into it.

[Old Harry]

Just sent this back to Tasunke:

Thought you'd want to know that Plako is going to research Metal Casting this turn.

Cheers
Old Harry

[Old Harry]

And sent this to M3:

Hi Menagerie,

We plan for construction to be one of our next few techs.

I'm looking at our power graphs, and I think that the ending of our old NAP could be a useful disguise for building up a Troll-fighting force. This is just an idea so tell me if you think it's dumb, but how about:
- we both build up military at a moderate rate over the next few turns
- we declare war on you at around t130, we both carry on building units - you concentrate on cats while we build Zerks (I'm hoping to have about 30 eventually, but haven't gone into details yet)
- you sit your cats on our border
- we sign peace ~t137 with whatever gifts of catapults or money for us to use against Trolls disguised somehow (not sure how to be honest)
- around t141-145 we attack Trolls
I know that Plako, Pling and Novice are still playing for Trolls, so I presume they are hot on C&D and we'll need a good disguise.

Finally I know you've been exploring Troll lands recently - any intel on defenses or screenshots would be very helpful.

All the best
Gillette