V. Diplomacy

In this section...
Entering messages
Alliances
Treachery

Military might is essential for any ambitious ruler, but its application is expensive and tends to make a lot of enemies very quickly. It's much more efficient to have a "friend" fight your battles for you.

Much thought must be devoted to the manipulation of other empires. Use the forum and your messengers to make your enemies believe what you want them to believe. The importance of skillful diplomacy in Fortunes of War can not be understated. It could even be argued that this is primarily a political game rather than a military one.
A good lie is the best weapon.

Keep in mind, too, that the other players aren't mindless AI routines. The good players will be striking your most vulnerable areas in the most ruthless way possible. Even the poor players are very dangerous, especially if you anger them to the point where they don't care if they go down as long as they take you with them. If this happens, be assured that a third player will note the opportunity and be fully willing to exploit it.

Both public and private messages are signed with a signet. This image will be your nation's generic image for now. Eventually, we would like to use your Social Geometries signet image for non-aliased games but that's a bit of a ways off right now.

Heroes and legends can also generate their own mail to make offers and declarations to rulers. Their messages are signed with their portrait.

Viewing messages

When you hit the Diplomacy button you'll see a bar on the top of the main window with four options on the top -- Summary, Forum, Inbox, and Outbox. These are the four methods we've provided to sort your correspondence.

Summary: This will give you a list of all of a current turn's communications. It includes private messages, forum postings, and leader and mercenary offers. The summary view is tied to the time bar. That is, if you move the time bar, you can look at the summaries for all turns that have happened thus far. This is the default view for diplomacy.

Forum: This view shows all forum messages posted thus far in the game.

Inbox: The inbox shows all all private messages received in the game.

Outbox: The outbox shows both messages you have composed in the current turn, and messages you have already sent. Messages you're currently composing are shown first, and they may be edited after you save them. Messages are actually sent when you send in your move.

Composing new messages

You may enter a message by either hitting the "Compose a message" link available at the top of each diplomacy page or by hitting the "Reply" link attached to each message you receive. Either function will give you a window which allows you to send to other players or the forum.

Once you enter a messsage, it is placed in your outbox. This can be used as print preview function if you wish. Go to your outbox, view the message, and if you don't like the look of it, select "Edit message" and make your changes. You may also cancel the message entirely if you have second thoughts.

Messages are sent the next time you end turn.

Changing your attitude

At the top of each diplomacy page, you'll see a link that says "Change attitude". If you press this you'll get a window which allows you to set your diplomatic stance towards other nations.

The actual diplomatic state between two empires is the most hostile stance of the two players in question. For example, if Rome has an attitude of neutrality towards Carthage, but Carthage has an attitude of war towards Rome, then a state of war exists between Rome and Carthage.

Diplomatic states are discussed at length in the next section.

Alliances

There are three possible diplomatic states between nations:

  1. War: units may attack that player's cities and units freely.
  2. Neutrality: units may attack that player's units, but not his cities
  3. Alliance: units may not attack a player's units or cities. A player's units may freely pass through his ally's units as if they were his own.

During the alliance phase, the host program will check each player's stance towards the other. The actual condition is the most hostile of the two stances. For example, player A offers an alliance towards player B, while player B offers neutrality to player A. The players will therefore be in a state of neutrality.

Each day the reports file lists your stance, the other player's stance towards you, and the actual relationship between your empires. The report uses these icons:

War
Neutrality
Alliance

For example, you might get a report that looks like this:

Empire Relation Our stance Their stance
Rome
Carthage

This would mean you were at war with Rome and in a state of neutrality with Carthage. The Romans want to continue the war against your wishes while the Carthaginans have offered you an alliance which you have refused.

Relations change the next turn. This means that one typically declares war one turn and attacks the next.

In the global section of each day's reports there is a table listing the current diplomatic state of all nations towards each other. You will not know other player's stances toward each other, though.

Treachery

Remember: you can always make new friends

There's always the Pearl Harbour option. If you wish, you may go to war immediately without bothering with troublesome paperwork. This will enable you to attack the same turn you declare war. The opposing player will learn of your new attitude as his cities burn.

There is a price for treachery, however. When used against a neutral player, the attacking player loses 5 fame points and 10 happiness points. When used against an ally, the player loses 12 fame and 20 happiness. And of course the reports file is modified to note what a scumbag the attacking player is.

You will also lose an honour point for treacherously attacking a neutral player and three honour points for betraying an ally. Honour scores are recorded on our server and are available for the whole world to see. It will be interesting to see who gets the title of the least trustworthy player on the planet.

Next section: Economics