[Omnirizon]

To play Devil's Advocate in this thread:

A NAP is only as good as the wars your neighbor is involved in. NAP = "I'm at war with someone else, and don't want to have to worry about you". As the people in this thread have stated, NAPs are most heavily utilized in the early game while everyone figures out which direction they wish to go. After that, a person sending you a NAP is up to no good: "We just formed a border, I'm exhausted from war, don't attack me so I can build up an army to attack you".


Notice some of the trickery people here have used NAPs for; implying NAPs to string people along, using them to see what people's intentions are, some people set expiration dates on NAPs, the other player often forgets, and the former will be free and clear to launch a surprise attack.


These people's words say "We never break NAPs, you shouldn't either". But if you read between the lines they say "We abuse them to the fullest". That is the secret art of NAPing. That's why when you see one past around turn 5, be suspicious. Accept it, but don't think it means "let's really be friends". At that point in the game, the NAP is more for the benefit of the sending player.


I've _bent_ a NAP, on my very first MP game, by sending notification of termination a couple of turns before the set expiration of a long term peace (peace term + NAP makes unclear math sometimes. I've learned either don't mix them or be VERY clear on how they work together). I sent it early because I wanted a piece of action before it was all over. I won't do that again because if I had waited then the other nation would have taken all the losses and I could have just rolled in to take all their new land. In fact, when I sent the notification the receiving player got so mad they disengaged the original attacker, and set all their armies on my border, and I took all the losses. Then the originally attacking player took all my land too. But it was a newbie game. I learned.

The moral of all this lesson, don't break NAPs. Know all their hidden rules, honor them completely, and thus abuse them to the fullest.