Diplomacy and alliances

Version 5.0

How to contact other players

You automatically have diplomatic contact with all empires that are adjacent to at least one of your fields. In addition, diplomatic contact is established when a ship passes another player's coastal hex or when two players' ships meet. Once diplomatic contact has been established, it is maintained for the rest of the game. If you enter into an alliance with another player as a liege or vassal, you automatically receive their diplomatic contacts and vice versa.

Concluding contracts

Contracts are concluded between individual players (1) or alliances. An alliance is treated as a single player (2). In an alliance, only the feudal lord can conclude contracts (see alliances.

You can tell whether a player is in an alliance by the crest next to his name (3). You can also see whether the player is playing as a Settler or a Warrior (4). The diplomacy menu also shows the current diplomatic status (5) and the treaties on offer (6).

The basic diplomatic stance towards other players is neutral. In the 'Stance' menu, you can make a diplomatic proposal to a player (7), e.g. a non-aggression pact. However, such treaties only come into effect if the other party also wants to enter into the same treaty. Exceptions are declarations of war, which can also be made unilaterally, and the ending of a war by the aggressor. Of course, you do not need the consent of the other empire to dissolve treaties.

The following diplomatic relations are possible:

Peace

A peace treaty is a prerequisite for trade or research agreements. No espionage actions against the contract partner are possible. The termination of a peace by switching to "Neutral" lasts 96 ticks, unless both parties agree.

Non-aggression pact

Terminating a non-aggression pact by switching to "Neutral" takes 48 ticks. Espionage actions are possible.

Neutral

The initial state of diplomatic relations. Declarations of war take 12 ticks.

War

Opposing countries can only be attacked if you have previously declared war on the corresponding player. An attack is possible from the first war tick, i.e. the corresponding attack moves can already be entered in the tick before the war begins. It is not possible to declare war against players under noob-protection.

A declaration of war takes 12 ticks. You can only declare war on neutral opponents; if a peace treaty or NAP exists, it must first be terminated by declaring neutrality. Declarations of war cannot be withdrawn.

Temporary wars and honor

Wars are always limited in time and last 50 (raid), 200 (blitzkrieg), or 400 (campaign, warriors only) ticks. At the end of this time, the war ends automatically. Of course, you can start a new war against the same player at any time after a war has ended, but at the then current honor conditions (see below).

Wars against smaller players/alliances cost honor. In the "Honor" column (8) you can see how much honor the conquest of a field of this player would cost, depending on the type of declaration of war. In general, a war against a player who has at least 90% (campaign), 80% (blitzkrieg) or 70% (raid) of your own points is honorable, whereby the points of alliances are added together and existing wars of the defender are also taken into account (for more information, see Honor).

If a war is honorable, you can even gain honor if you conquer one of your opponent's castles. Before sending a declaration of war, a separate pop-up shows how much honor you would lose per field or castle. The declaration of war can still be canceled at this point.

As soon as the war has begun, you will see the remaining duration of the war in the diplomacy display (9) and how much honor you will gain or lose per conquered field or per conquered castle (castle icon) (10).

Counterattack

A special form of war is the counterattack. The defender in a war can announce a counterattack at any time. The duration of a counterattack is always 50% of the duration of the current war. For example, if a blitzkrieg (200 ticks) is being waged against a player, he can announce a counterattack lasting 100 ticks. As soon as the war has ended, it immediately switches to the counterattack. In simple terms, the counterattack extends the total duration of the war by 50%.

The advantage of the counterattack is that it can never cost honor, even if the player launching the counterattack is stronger than the original attacker.

Ending a war

Ending a war prematurely takes 50 ticks. By ending a war, diplomatic relations are set to neutral. Only the player who declared war first can end the war unilaterally. Even if the opponent has replied to the declaration of war, he cannot end the war of his own accord.

As soon as the opponent has announced a counterattack, the war can no longer be ended prematurely!

The "End war" action can no longer be canceled.

Trade agreement

A trade agreement between two countries gives both countries a bonus on income from gold, iron ore, raw wood, quarry stone, coal and grain. The smaller partner in a trade agreement benefits more from it than the larger partner. You can have as many trade agreements as you like. Contracts with players with whom you are not in an alliance can lead to a maximum bonus of 15%. In addition, there is a 15% bonus for each alliance partner (regardless of their size). This means that you can achieve a maximum bonus of 45% with a full alliance (with an honor value of 1000 - see Honor)

Research cooperation

Similar to the trade agreement, the production of research points increases for both countries. Here, too, you can achieve a maximum bonus of 45% with 1000 honor: 15% through contracts with players outside your own alliance and a flat 15% for each alliance partner.

Becoming a vassal

As a vassal, you serve your liege. You automatically enter into a military alliance and also a trade and research cooperation with your liege lord and his other vassals (flat-rate bonus 15% per ally). Alliances have a minimum duration of 200 ticks. If you leave a vassal relationship, you are only neutral to your former allies after a waiting period of 150 ticks. This period can be reduced to 100 ticks if both parties agree to the withdrawal. Alliances can therefore be dissolved at the earliest 300 ticks after joining.

Becoming a liege lord

As a liege lord, you can accept up to two vassals into your realm. As a liege lord, you can demand tribute (9) from your vassals. This is a percentage of all goods produced by your vassal. How much tribute (max. 9%) you can demand also depends on the rank of your vassal. The higher the difference in rank between the feudal lord and the vassal, the more tribute can be demanded.

Noob protection

In order to give beginners or new starters some time to get their bearings and to build up, they are under "diplomatic protection" for a certain period of time. These players are shown in green in the diplomacy list, cannot declare wars and cannot receive declarations of war. Furthermore, they cannot become victims of espionage actions and cannot carry out any themselves. This protection expires when 60,000 points are reached at the start of a round. Every 50 rounds, this point limit is increased by 6,000 points for starting players.

Vacation mode

A player on vacation cannot be attacked and no espionage actions can be carried out on his fields. When declaring war, vacation periods are included in the honor calculation: For example, if a player of an ally is on leave, his points do not count in proportion to his absence. In the diplo you can see the vacation mode by the fact that the player name is displayed in green and has a small umbrella to the left of it. More details on vacation mode can be found here.

Alliances

Alliances are formed by a player accepting up to two other players as vassals via diplomacy, i.e. becoming their liege lord. This requires a diplomatic contact, either through a land border or a ship encounter.

If you are in an alliance, you accept all of the feudal lord's treaties. The feudal lord is solely responsible for diplomacy. The vassals can no longer conclude their own treaties. If the feudal lord goes to war, all vassals must automatically follow.

Alliances have a minimum duration of 200 ticks before a request for withdrawal can be made. A unilateral withdrawal from the alliance takes 150 ticks, an amicable withdrawal 100 ticks (alliances can therefore be dissolved after 300 ticks at the earliest). New vassals can only be accepted in times of peace, i.e. when neither the feudal lord nor the new vassal are at war or have an ongoing declaration of war. No wars can be declared while an alliance is dissolving.

The feudal lord can levy tribute for any vassal who is lower in rank. The tribute can be a maximum of twice as high as the difference in rank. For example, a feudal lord who is two ranks above his vassal could demand up to 4% tribute. The set amount of tribute is not automatically adjusted if the rank ratio between the feudal lord and the vassal changes. The vassal has no possibility to do anything against the tribute except to separate from this alliance. However, a good vassal prefers to help his vassals with advice and action rather than burdening them with tributes.

When an alliance is founded, an alliance depot is created, which is located in the warehouse.

In addition to cooperating on research and trade, you also enter into a military alliance. This means:

• Armies can cross the lands of allies as if they were their own lands.
• Armies can defend the lands of allies and attack them together. Joint espionage actions and fleet battles are of course also possible.
• Armies, ships and spies can use the buildings of allies (castles, harbors, guilds) for resting, repairing, shipping and training.
• However, troops can only be shipped using your own ships.

If the feudal lord is destroyed or deleted due to inactivity, the alliance will not be dissolved, but the alliance member with the most points will automatically take over as the new feudal lord. Ongoing diplomacy changes (e.g. alliance withdrawal) remain unchanged.

What allies must consider:

• If several players of an alliance attack together, the owner of the field from which the attack took place receives the field. If the attack was launched from different fields, the decision is made at random. All actively involved attackers are credited with any loss of honor if the field was captured. Honor gained when a castle is captured, however, is only credited to the conqueror of the field.
• If a player alone conquers a territory from the land of his vassal or feudal lord, the conqueror is also the owner of the territory. Dadurch können durchaus Inselsituationen eigener Gebiete vorkommen.
• Allied armies are destroyed if they were in the territory of a destroyed ally and return to the next castle after a few turns. The same happens if an ally is destroyed due to inactivity or if an alliance is dissolved. If you help defend a castle, your own armies will fight to the last man and will be destroyed if this castle is conquered. However, you will then also receive the battle reports.
• The situation is similar with ships in allied harbors. If an allied harbor is demolished or destroyed by the destruction of its owner, the ships are moved to a water hex in front of it. If an allied harbor is captured, all ships anchored there are destroyed, not just those of the ally.

Special Rules

Arranging wars only to increase the honor penalty of potential opponents (self-serving wars) are prohibited. Therefore wars have to be actively conducted (this means conquering fields, spy actions, ship battles, etc.). Administrator will check wars regulatory and breaking this rule is punished with temporal bans. However, we hope that our players stick to this rule and the administrators don't have to interfere. Every player agrees to this rule by accepting our TOU.