11p very large (TURN 69)

[StrictlyRockers]

Patala is a grave threat in this game now. They could run away with the win.

WSP is mostly accurate with his description of the break down of our NAP. Caelum was lagging on producing the items it had promised. But it was for good reason as Caelum had attempted to explain to Man. Caelum had not researched the technology to create them because Caelum was involved in a hot and heavy war on the southern front with T'ien Ch'i at the time and needed to research other things for the war effort.

It was mostly just a breakdown in communications between the two nations. Still, it should have been easy to resolve this magic item issue. The items would have been forthcoming in a couple of turns, and Caelum explained the delay to Man due to the war research efforts and the lack of Construction research.

We did have a firm border agreement and a 20 turn long NAP in place with a 3 turn warning stipulation. Man demanded additional territories in breach of our border agrement soon after it was 'signed'. Man only gave 1 or, at most, 2 turns of warning before attacking and breaking the NAP.

Perhaps Man was seizing upon an opportunistic moment when Caelum was heavily embroiled in a war on the southern border. Man is sort of correct that Caelum was not honoring the letter of the agreement by not delivering the promised magic items. No specific time table had been set for when they were supposed to be delivered, and Caelum did not have the ability to create them. Man decided 5 turns was too long to wait for the items.

Maybe Man was looking for an excuse to invade. Or maybe they really felt like the agreement was not being honored. That is debatable. Man did not make much effort to negotiate and issued demands from a percieved position of strength after wiping out Abyssia quickly. Caelum had helped kill Abyssia. Caelum attemped to make it clear that we wanted peace and that the agreement would be honored.