[triqui]

Originally Posted by shatner

Or undeath, as the case may be. I am deliberately trying to play differently in each MP game I am in, just to get a feel for the MP experience. In my first MP game ever (which is still ongoing) I'm playing as EA T'ien Ch'i and being super-honorable. In this game, when Jotunhiem and I agreed your empire needed a haircut, we decided to sow a little misinformation along the way.

That said, I was deliberate in never offering nor accepting an NAP from you. When you smelled BS and demanded one, I came clean instead. I used weasel words and deliberately left some truths out when dealing with you but I am not, nor ever will be, a pact-breaker. For example, Marignon and I have a fairly long NAP agreement in place. I will not be crossing his border in any way (troops, remote attack spells, even anonymous attack spells) while that agreement holds true. And given how busy I'm likely to be for the next umpteen turns, I'm not likely to want to wage war on Marignon even then.

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Before all the warring and the scheming, back during an innocent time of murdering indies, I was trying to hire cheap researchers, build castles and expand with cheap-but-effective archer+tower shield troops against the indies. Then Marignon showed up with water blessed Knights of the Chalice and ruined both of my expansion armies. It would have been 3 or 4 turns of frantic research and expensive re-arming before I would have had a chance of even slowing those guys down so I ran with my tail between my legs and cried "peace!" And when Marignon said "sure, for another three of your provinces" I said "Sure!" because keeping peace between me and Marignon at that moment was about the most important thing I could do unless I wanted to completely de-rail my early game booming.

Diplomacy can suck when you are at a disadvantage and the other guys knows that, but it is often better than the alternatives.

I'm positive that no NAP was offered or accepted. That's my point. I should had enforced one. When both you and Jotun offered a "stable border" right in the begining, I accepted, trying to buy your confidence (as my plan was not being overly aggresive). I should had not accepted. I was the 800 lb gorilla in the early game, so I should had enforced my conditions, just like Marignon did. If you want stable borders, then NAP. If you don't NAP, it's free for all (and since you are not interested in NAP, then you are interested in waring me, so It's better being the one that jumps than the one that got jumped).

I, however, feel that I've been cheated. You offered a deal about not using your troops against me and giving me info about Jotun plans, I agreed, and I paid 400g for that. I did not receive what I paid for, and that's breaking a pact. Imho, that's not different to agreeing to pay 15 gems for a item, paying the gems, and never getting the item. That said, it's not the end of the world, I'm not going to rage-quite. Just that I feel I was cheated, and I can't change what I feel. However, this is a wargame, and we are entitled to war each other, sooner or later. Only one can win, and we all know that any alliance or deal made, must end sooner or later, becouse in the end game everybody has to kill everyone else.

It's not like I'm going to hate you and attack you on sight in any game we cross, I'm not that childish. It's just that I have a different approach to making deals. My approach is not the only valid, though, and we are here to learn. As I told you, I learnt a very valuable lesson today: "Don't trust."

There's a poker saying: in every poker table, there's a fish. If you don't know who the fish is, then you are the fish. I was the fish in this negotiation. I could had jumped on you much earlier, and I did not. Compassion is a bad trait in war

That said: I also like to play vastly different. I don't have a lot of MP games in my back (this is my sixth I think), and most of them were done with my RL friends (so it's a sliglthly different metagame). But, however, I like to make different tactics and approachs. In LA with Marignon (a nation often played as late-game and research) I tried to rush the first nation I crossed with (which happened to be you, to my dismay, as I got crushed). In this MA game, I built a very strong early game Nation with triple bless, but my strategy was actually better suited for midgame. I've learned in both games, and I'll do better in next games

To SpaceViking21: Let's see how short is the short Straw. I'm not dead yet :P