In the inevitability of self-defense.

[polarnomad]

I was wondering how we deal with being attacked. Since our code dictates that we do not attack for our own gain, does this mean that we simply repel the attack? Or can we then assume that the offender is in breach of our neutrality agreement and lay them to rest?

EDIT: I guess my point is, could this be a loop-hole in our expansion problem?

[UnOrthOdOx]

Yes.

They attack us first, we will take 'fair compensation' from their territory. I'ld be against removing someone though.

[Kloreep]

Re: In the inevitability of self-defense.

Originally posted by polarnomad
EDIT: I guess my point is, could this be a loop-hole in our expansion problem?

Yes please.

I'm all for getting a little expansion room if someone attacks us.

I'm not sure if I agree with you, UnO. Depends on the situation and what we want. If someone had a small empire to begin with (hence their attack on us), there might not be a small enough amount of conquest for us to avoid effectively removing them from the game even if we don't actually do it.

[Octavian X]

For the sake of our image, we should certainly avoid removal of another team. Assuming we get a chance to retaliate, we should try to limit it to a fair 'compensation' for the trouble they've caused, and demand peace at that point. If 'fair' is taking two cities from a five-city civilization, so be it. After that, unless our opponent continues to be beligerent, we stop.

As a side note, once this gets fleshed out, our policy on self-defence and retribution should be posted publically with our pricing - for the sake of our philosophy, and to perhaps ward off some future mischief.

[troglodyte]

National Defence Policy

Ah, how awful, I posted similar comments in the other thread (Rough usage?) since I was wondering about the use of our units.

Not surprisingly I agree here. Our philosophy says we show self-imposed restraint, not sainthood. If the opposition attacks us they should be prepared to be roughly handled - assuming we survive the attacks. I came into this world kicking and screaming and plan to go out the same way - and take as many of the bad guys with as possible.

Seriously, we should assume from their public threads, that some, maybe many, of the players in the other teams are not totally in favour of us (while they have no objection to us playing), and may wish to have our cities for themselves. The longer thay take to do this, the stronger we will be.

Hence, I am concerned about a joint attack on us in the earlyish stages of the game by a consortium. It's easier for two or three civs to put together a good SoD than it will be for us to fend it off, assuming we all build units at the same rate. We may have to carefully balance building/expansion and our possibly escalated defence needs.

This also has obvious implications for our choice of civ (if we haven't made one yet). While I don't automatically like early UU's, we could be hard pressed by someone with a good, easily built one

[Kloreep]

You bring up a good point, which is that we are at a disadvantage in some particular situations, such as a land-sparse 3-player continent. In such a situation, someone is likely going to be eliminated, and our principles keep us from signing an alliance and being one of the two who team up.

[Togas]

Being attacked by multiple enemies is a possibility, and it may be our greatest weakness, as we will not form alliances with anyone. We will always be on our own.

To that end, we must strive to do two things very well:

1) Protect ourselves.
2) Good PR/Diplomacy

With regards to protection, walls, castles, bunkers and so forth will most certainly be built, but we will also focus most of our hammers on military units. Their military advisors must always show us to be STRONG in comparison to them.

We, basicly, need to present ourselves as the worst possible target.

Diplomaticly, we need to be easy to work with, present uncomplicated deals, offer a variety of payment options, and give good results. We need to foster a friendly relationship with our clients. We also should seek out and engage in tech trades whenever possible.

Resource trades will be difficult. War will cancel them. War will make us lose resources and luxuries. We will have to be careful when we consider them.

In any event, we decrease the likelihood that we will be attacked if we present ourselves as a difficult target, and a valuable asset.

So our image and our code of ethics may be our best defense.

--Togas