Pirates doing Diplomacy?

[luddite]

I think that's fine.

[Viqsi]

Any objections to the reply?

None. Thought it'd already been sent.

[thestick]

Sent. I hope they aren't irritated by the 7-day gap between first contact and a reply. Then again, they haven't sent us a 'formal' greeting yet.

[luddite]

We finally got a reply from M3:

Pirates,

Thank you again for your frank reply. How about the following peace agreement?

We keep Tortuga, and you agree not to try and retake it. We sign a
non-aggression pact for, say, 50 turns to start. We agree not to
settle any cities north-east of Tortuga, and you agree not to settle
any more cities west of Barbados.

Now, multiple times in your previous emails you have expressed a
desire to work together to keep up with the other teams. Without
revealing anything of your plans you don't want to (and assuming
something like the above agreement is acceptable!), what kind of
cooperation did you have in mind? If we're not going to fight, you're
right that we are going to need to work together, and if we're going
to work together, we might as well start now!

Sincerely,

TheHumanHydra

Do we want to make peace? if we do, i think we should ask for more than 50 turns.

[Viqsi]

"Not west of Barbados" is bullshit. That's basically denying us much of our first ring. And it also denies us our closest horses resource. Tortuga is too close to us to allow it to define borders like that. They're basically demanding immediate access to Barbados if and when they please by turning its first ring and our best chances at horses into a "demilitarized zone", and "in return" they're "generously" allowing us the opportunity to give them a nice long border that they can easily invade.

"Not west of Tortuga" would be painful, but theoretically doable. But having our CAPITAL CITY as the border is IMO completely unacceptable.

EDIT: Peace duration is beyond my ability to figure at this time.

[kp]

I agre with viqsi. Not brig able to settle west of Barbados is unacceptable. Can't have capital as the border city. We might as well continue fighting.

[Viqsi]

I agre with viqsi. Not brig able to settle west of Barbados is unacceptable. Can't have capital as the border city. We might as well continue fighting.

I'd at least try to see if they're willing to negotiate the border before committing to war. Maybe have it as a diagonal rather than a straight line.

[Cornflakes]

This is an old picture but it is the best shot of the region that I have at the moment. Tortuga-now-Talking-Parrot significantly cramps our attempts to claim horses (it already has a monument, so borders pop in 9-turns). Both purple and yellow dots are ultimately indefensible as long as Talking Parrot stands, as is any flatland position in the area. So I don't think we need to push too hard for western expansion. It hurts not being able to claim the horses but maybe include a condition that M3 gifts us horses for the duration of the NAP?

Would "no settling west of Barbados" include the 1-tile island? We should definitely keep that open to us for settling. (Note also that yellow dot is also too close and would prevent settling the island)

What about to the south? We should be clear that we get to settle either of those red-dot hills to the south or one of the surrounding grassland "mini-dots" at our choice as fits our future dotmap.

[Viqsi]

Does it still have that monument post-conquest? That could be a casualty of the takeover.

I just can't see any arrangement that works without "Talking Parrot" being dust.

[luddite]

I agree with cornflakes. I think we can push for the south and for them to give us horses, but we can't expect much more than that. We don't have much leverage here.