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[crazyabe]

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Winds of the Wastes (1) Mardent23
Maces: (1) S34N1C
Acid Wands: (1) Devastator
Blizzard: (1) Taricus
Ballista: (6) NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Happerry, Kashyyk, Sosoku234, Crazyabe

[Devastator]

We also have lots of horses for draft animals, so moving ballistae should be pretty reasonable.

[Detoxicated]

Also the fun we can have with different warheads. Also, I feel we should start investing in adaptive support magic.
What do you guys say, we could also create a medicinal spell. If we created special units of armed doctors we could lessen our losses
by alot. Also the right treatment of enemy soldiers might open up the route that we recruit a few of them.

[NUKE9.13]

Regarding the expense credit. I fear that the dear merchant will first try to sell his goods to our enemies. So we shouldn't sell anything whose nature we'd really rather they didn't know of, such as the Teletalk wands. If they figured out how to make those... well, it'd be bad.
However, we do have a minor piece of magical equipment we could sell. If I recall correctly, Gust of Wind is cast using a small silver wand. Since it isn't terribly useful at the moment (whilst still being a nice enough trick to entertain the outside world), I see no reason not to sell them.

Also, a question: is this a competition (as in, whoever offers the more enticing product gets the credit), or can both sides earn an expense credit?

[Kashyyk]

It feels like a bit of a prisoner dilemma as well, what with trade and steal being the options. As we don't want to cooperate with Arstotzka I think we should just steal his stuff.

[evictedSaint]

At the moment, the trader is standing in your harbor, trying to trade with you.  Due to the language barrier, you have no idea if he's visited Arstotzka, plans to visit Arstotzka, or even knows Arstotzka exists.  All you know is that he has money and wants to buy something right now.

[NUKE9.13]

At the moment, the trader is standing in your harbor, trying to trade with you.  Due to the language barrier, you have no idea if he's visited Arstotzka, plans to visit Arstotzka, or even knows Arstotzka exists.  All you know is that he has money and wants to buy something right now.

Hmm.

It feels like a bit of a prisoner dilemma as well, what with trade and steal being the options. As we don't want to cooperate with Arstotzka I think we should just steal his stuff.

There's bound to be a downside to that. Some sort of retribution. Because otherwise it's just strictly better than trying to sell something.
...
On the other hand, two expense credits. The things we could do with that. And it would certainly deny Arstotzka any of his wealth (assuming he hasn't already visited them).

What sort of retribution could there be, I wonder? China is a long way off. They'd be hard pressed to send a fleet half way round the world to deal with our petty privateering.
Perhaps a chance of failure? If we are relying on dice to secure us his cargo, well, with our luck even taking candy from a baby would be a 50/50 proposition.
I'm inclined to compromise. We try selling him the Gust of Wind wands, and if he isn't interested, we steal his stuff.

[Mardent23]

At the moment, the trader is standing in your harbor, trying to trade with you.  Due to the language barrier, you have no idea if he's visited Arstotzka, plans to visit Arstotzka, or even knows Arstotzka exists.  All you know is that he has money and wants to buy something right now.

Hmm.

It feels like a bit of a prisoner dilemma as well, what with trade and steal being the options. As we don't want to cooperate with Arstotzka I think we should just steal his stuff.

There's bound to be a downside to that. Some sort of retribution. Because otherwise it's just strictly better than trying to sell something.
...
On the other hand, two expense credits. The things we could do with that. And it would certainly deny Arstotzka any of his wealth (assuming he hasn't already visited them).

What sort of retribution could there be, I wonder? China is a long way off. They'd be hard pressed to send a fleet half way round the world to deal with our petty privateering.
Perhaps a chance of failure? If we are relying on dice to secure us his cargo, well, with our luck even taking candy from a baby would be a 50/50 proposition.
I'm inclined to compromise. We try selling him the Gust of Wind wands, and if he isn't interested, we steal his stuff.

-1/2. Trade with him, but don't steal his wares. The last thing we need is another enemy.

[Devastator]

If we're trading we should offer something better than a gust of wind wand.  Would one of our wizards be willing to go abroad?

[NUKE9.13]

If we're trading we should offer something better than a gust of wind wand.  Would one of our wizards be willing to go abroad?

He wants some sort of magical equipment, by the sound of things.
And if I'm right, and the first thing he does with what he buys from us is sell it to the Arstotzkans, sending one of our wizards is the last thing we want to do.

On the one hand, yes, Gust of Wind is a bit shit. On the other, it's magic! To the rest of the world, even Gust of Wind is infinitely more impressive than the magic they have right now.
Plus, I can't think of anything better to trade. Teletalk wands would obviously be very well received, but they're too important. The Staff of TR is no use to someone with no magic to dispel. The wand of Heroism, we only have the one of.

[Devastator]

If we send one of our wizards, we have a solution if the wizard is being sent to Arstoszka.

That said, he's in a ship, telling him we use it to propel our ships should make it much more valuable, even if it is a bit crap.

Also, if we trade the wand of heroism, we could theoretically just use the expense credit to make it Very Expensive, and have a big net gain.

Really, it's NE and not a big enough effect to lose anything.  This trader wants singular items that are valuable, we have a singular item that's valuable, and it'll be worth way more as an expense credit than as an item this round.

Plus, well, we have enough naval control to see if this guy is going to head to Arstoska next, anyway.

Offer the Gust of Wind wand, and the Wand of Heroism if he wants more.

[evictedSaint]

Design: Ballista [6+1-1, 2-1, 3-1]

Moskurg rolls out its first siege weapon this year.

The ballista is...well, it's powerful.  It's constructed primarily out of wood with iron caps and nails holding it together.  The ammunition sits on a wooden slider in the center, and the bowstring is attached to two massive, thick arms of wood.  Rather than storing the tension in these arms like a traditional bow, two vertical cages hold the arms in twisted torsion springs made out of animal sinews.  The entire device sits on a stationary wooden stand that requires the ballista to be set up prior to firing.  There are currently two types of ammunition we can fire: small stone boulders referred to as "shot", and what essentially amounts to feather flights attached to an entire spear.  The shot tends to be less accurate, but good against massed troops and fortifications - even stone ones.  The javelin is far more accurate, but likely won't kill more than one at a time unless the enemy is standing in a line.

Using our knowledge of compound bows and the advancements we've made with archer ammunition, we've managed to get the device to about as lethal as we can get it.  The device out-ranges even Arstotzkan longbows if we use the javalin, and hits with shocking accuracy.  The siege weapon requires rather precise crafting to get to this level of quality, however, and several months of training are required to train the siege engineers in its use.  This makes the device Very Expensive, so we can only field two or three at a time. 

Even despite fully trained crews and careful manufacturing, the ballista can be...temperamental.  The crank used to wrench the bowstring back doesn't have a safety, so if the user slips before it's fully set then it'll misfire and violently spin in the opposite direction.  This has been known to break arms.  The wood must also be made of as high-quality timber as we can get and inspected for cracks before each firing event, otherwise the device can - and will - shatter when fully torqued.  This will completely destroy the ballista, and likely kill the crew.  Even when the operators are being careful and taking their time, sometimes the device will simply misfire and destroy itself. 

It's a powerful, but dangerous weapon. Very Expensive.

[Mardent23]

Excellent. The tower will  fall this year... Anyway, revision wise, what should we do?

[NUKE9.13]

Hmm. Whilst not ideal, it should be enough to give us a slight edge at sea, and a minor advantage on land.

Shall we try for halberds again? Our infantry could really use an effective weapon against plate armour.

Or should we try to make the shields cheaper? Cheaper shields and ballistae might even be enough that we could try assaulting the mountains again.

Or should we fix some of the problems with the ballista? Or make it cheaper? Or even add some bonus features, like divination-rangefinders or wind-enchantments to increase the range of projectiles?

So many choices! I think holding on to the jungle is most important right now, for which halberds would be the most useful, I feel.

Halberds: [1] NUKE9.13

[Mardent23]

Halberds: [2] NUKE9.13, Mardent23