terje439
Posts: 6813
Joined: 3/28/2004 Status: offline
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Turn 9.5 part 5 The pidgeons keep flying between Paris and London, but all of a sudden a pidgeon appears all the way from Moscow :eek: We finally reached a concensus with Britian, the messages sent from Britain was as follows; Regarding your amendments to my last message. I forgot about Switzerland myself. Thats fine. I thought Baden was west of the Rhine. Is it not? Is it south of the origin of the Rhine and thus outside the previously discussed confines? One thing about going too far east, you will begin to push protectorates into Prussian hands. Something to bear in mind. I have no interest in Sardinia or Corsica. I will send the clauses that are appropriate in game T9 for ratification. Should this be a secret or public agreement? So many bizarre secret agreements going around this game. I prefer laying my cards on the table when it comes to diplomatic and legal issues. Prussia and Sweden have a secret mutual defense . What could be less useless than a secret mutual defense arrangement? This comes back to my earlier thoughts on deterrence. Why would anyone fail to attack out of fear of an ally they dont know you have? To which I replied: Baden is actually east of the Rhine, it does however join the eastern border of Switzerland, which is why it is needed. This deal can very well be made public, actually that sounds preferable. But another question arises, what does GB think about the Russian bear? I only ask because said bear has approached me about their offered deal with Austria. L'Terje of France Reading the note carried from Moscow I wondered what to expect, it was a most pleasant surprise: Dear Terje, As you know, the Austrian Arch-Duke recently conquered Poland. He has also recently offered me a Public Treaty in which he offered to cede Polish provinces bordering Russia. He also in this treaty asked for three other clauses which I would point out to you: 1) Enforced Peace from Russia until Mar 1796 2) A Royal Wedding 3) An alliance with Russia. I am curious to know of French opinions of such diplomatic overtures and what interest France would take in such things? It was my opinion that the original offer made by Archduke Matto was superficially generous, but in actual fact, selfish. A Royal Wedding _and_ alliance between Russia and Austria as well as 3 years of Non-Aggression promise by Russia would be a TREMENDOUS advantage to Austria. Based on this, I asked for a small token of sincerity, just to sweeten the deal for Russia . . . a small one-time payment . . . $60 I believe I said . . . I was shocked at the crassness of the Austrian response! It is my understanding that you are at war with Austria at present? Consequently, I thought that some of these issues might be of great interest to you and wondered if you would have any proposals for Russia that we might take an interest in? To this I replied as best I could. I made no real firm offer but rather probed around a little to see what the Russian Bear might really want. I agree, that deal is very very good for Austria, as is the deal she offered to Preussia. While I understand that Russia would be tempted to accept, it would be worthwhile looking at what options this leaves Russia. On the other hand, atleast some of those provinces could of course be grabbed in a war with Austria. I do not however know what needs the Russian Empire has, if the need is cash, France can certainly be of help. While the French armies are alot stronger now than they were just a year ago, it will take some time before we are ready to launch a big scale attack on Austria, but the time is coming. At the present we desiree to keep letting the Austrians bleed to keep the war in existense. It is however hard for me to give a deal that completely matches Austrias due to the fact that we do not have any provinces that Russia desiree, however we are willing to do something along the following lines (open for negotiaion of course). -enforced peace for the ammount of time Russia desires -an alliance -payment of 50$ per turn Russia is at war -if desired, a royal wedding -we will agree to neutrality towards any provinces desired by Russia If there is anything else you would require, please ask. L'Terje of France OOC: Not sure how many actually reads this, but a question to you that do, how far should we go in an attempt to get Russia to join our cause?
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"Hun skal torpederes!" - Birger Eriksen ("She is to be torpedoed!")
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