Diplomacy Screen

[Gandalf Parker]

Ironhawk said:
But to include many of the above proposals would require a substantial amount of work on the part of the devs. Combined attacks in particular could be a pain. Sharing map info and moving through "friendly" provinces could also be a pain, depending on how they are implemented.

Sharing map info is easier done by screen capture and email than it is by adding it to the game.

Multiple attacks arent all that far off except that you have to attack taking turns. Thats not so unusual since I have trouble picturing many of these nations being willing to share a battle field or spoils of combat.

There are already a number of ways to move thru an allies territory. The easiest are some of the prime abilitys of certain nations (sneaking armies of Man, Ulm black-forest, Vanheim, Pangaea) which provides them with bonuses in an alliance.

There are other methods such as mass-transport spells. In some games we maintained a corridor which we did not pay for defense on since both of us would "take" the provinces back and forth as we moved thru them.

But for alot of traffic and high defense consider using a castle at a major crossroad. My army enters the province "taking" it but simply pushing your army inside the castle. I move on and you take retake the province. Its like a nice drawbridge effect.

[Cheezeninja]

how exactly does one go about trading troops? Are you talking about setting up staged battles and use of charm/hellblind heart/enslave ? Because all those require significant preparation for a good chance of success.

I find the inability to trade troops thematic. You cant simply tell a believer to suddenly believe in another god. Thats not the way belief works.

[Gandalf Parker]

There are alot of ways to accomplish it but yes it usually involves some sort of charming spell. In one game I was in I maintained an empty province near the capital that I could send a mage to so that the other guy could windride him out. In another I had my mages do transport spells dropping them into the trap-provinces. In yet another game we maintained border provinces that could be used to trade units.

One we meant to try but never got it setup before the game ended was when I had taken a really negative magic scale. I was supposed to send a sneak unit into his territory and "take" a province near his castle. He was going to make mages and walk them into it so I could do a binding spell. The big advantage was that I would have a lab full of mages that would be operating inside his majorly plus-magic scale.

Again I say that I think supporting creative play is more fun than offering menus of set choices like "ally shares everything" button.