Originally Posted by SpaceViking21 (Post 789597)

Of course, all diplomacy in Dominions 3 is a farce. We're just busting Man because he's only giving the barest lip service to a coherent casus belli and (to me at least) sounds like he's putting lipstick on a landgrab rather than putting together a reasonable foreign policy.

To put it another way, everyone in Dominions 3 is after one thing. To win. Therefore, the worst possible thing you can do is make it look like you're going for the win now. You want to dress up your intentions and slowly work until you can't be stopped any more, rather than put all your chips on the table and make yourself the guy to beat. Had Man stuck to one gun (Limiting me or the stability of Ermor), any diplomacy myself or Tien tried would be our word vs theirs, at least as far as trying to start a bigger war. However, using both makes him seem duplicitous, like he's already decided what he's going to do and now he's just putting a dress on it for a night on the town, especially when the results of both actions are basically the same (taking my land on the island, or taking my land on the island and going further). It's hard to make yourself seem trustworthy when your actions aren't consistent with your words, and are instead consistent with the ultimate goal.

tl;dr version: Diplomacy in this game is ultimately a joke, but not playing the game at all, or playing it badly can be viewed as a threat.

Originally Posted by shatner (Post 790012)

We're holding a celebratory dinner in the halls of T'ien Ch'i. The sake will flow freely tonight.

Originally Posted by shatner (Post 790015)

Maybe not but you still got a lot of fort to dig through before we're well and truly dead. Also, we would have sworn the same thing about Ermor just a couple of months ago...

Originally Posted by Immaculate (Post 790025)

Olm; anyone who doesn't go to war with you has basically decided to not contest your victory- tallest tree getting cut first and all that right?