funny you should mention how "antiethical" you find this kittens, since you pulled this exact crap on me.

he didn't even give me second after he stole first...

i guess it was my fault for letting him build. Let this be a lesson to you all. If kittens (or anybody else for that matter) flags, you still need to protect yourself.

i agree with drzedd, it isn't a problem, it's just a part of the game that you ahve to deal with.

If you are first, confront the 2 2nds with the problem before they become too strong (force them to fight, demand reflag if there is an obvious weaker one,....)

If you are one of the 2 2nds check your other 2nd and 1st and make the most of it: you might have to take on the 2nd guy or in some cases where you feel 1st isn't good (or strong) enough to control the situation, why not go for it?

So you see, there are special strategies for equal flag games (can also be 2 3rd/4th). Last month I was in a game were at least 5 (but I even think it were 6) players were (mostly ninja) flagged as 2nd... guess who won it ;-)

I did it once. The guy in 1st was of course pissed, but still it was a whole lot of fun. The other player flagged for 2nd didnt interfere so actually it was a fair 1vs1.

Let me point something out: I did it once. only once. I'm still as trustworthy as before.

as someone involved in one of the cases kittens is talking about, let me tell you what happened.

myself and another player both flagged for 2nd.
we had, say, 9 territories each. kittens had 12 or so.
while we were fighting with each other, kittens started attacking us (otherwise known as dom rape). since neither of us felt like being his whore, we attacked him back and killed him.

we didn't plan to do it, it happened as a response to kitten's play. we weren't even sure what was going to happen and who'd get what position during the whole time we were teaching him a lesson.

rigor mortis in the case you describe, you were probably right in attacking. If no warning is given by 1st I do the same. If 1st asks first if both are ok with a fight for 2nd and 1st asks if he can take 1 land each to get to 14 lands for safety reasons, I back down and agree.

It all comes down to diplomacy and an experienced player (being the guy in 1st or one of the 2nds as well) can sense what the best option is.

Personally, if I am in the postion of 1st with 12 lands, I mainly use 2 options. If I know the 2 2nds had a history of aggression (in previous games, or during the actual game, or both)--> I go for the take 1 land from both and propose them to fight. Just don't be too greedy with the land grab, usually I take none.

If i sense a risk for them taking me on, i quickly dicide who gets 2nd and explain it clearly in the chat. 95% of the time that 2nd will settle for 2nd and help me get the other complaining one get 3rd. Reasons can be very differerent: help from one in the game; 1 not attacking me; 1 specifically attacking me; better dom; 1 player having had the better chances for 1st if a certain event hadn't happend; knowing which of the other 2 players is most likely to accept 2nd... thousands of possible reasons, it's just up to you to find the best one to secure your 1st.

Another aspect of these 2 2nds games is the damage control if the 2 2nds gang up on you. you might need good diplomatic skills to convince one of them 2nd is actually safer and you will help them get it anyways.

This only has a 50% succes rate (unless you are montecarlo where he probably can get to an 85% succes rate). Don't complain if it doesn't work, just start doing further damage control. Either quickly sacrifice and get as much dom as possible before flagging is a good option. If your first 4/5 rolls work, shift back to normal play and maybe you can overpower them after all. If you are on a roll, you might get them to doubt and re-offer 2nd, you might be surprised how far you can push people to chicken out.
If one of both 2nds only has a small attack front with you, you might wanna focus on the other one 1st so you can maybe secure the win after all. Maybe Olkainry and pepecolo remember this game (i think ledegomeur went out as 4th/5th as well) where I had 10 lands compared to their respective 12 and 8 (or 9?) where i got the 1st place by using this strategy.

finally, if the loss is certain, accept defeat but you still might wanna invest some diplomacy by helping 1 of the 2nd secure 1st. Don't do this to annoy the other one because you can gain a lifetime pge for it as well. Just explain in the chat why you think it would be fair the one you chose deserves 1st more. Only do this if you have good reasons because remember it is supposed to help you with your reputation of being a fair player. Like I said it is an investment and if you end the game in a fair and honourable way, the same players might remember your conduct and -out of respect-leave you with the 1st place next time they get in a similar situation with you .

Damn, this will probably not be enough to get me the longest post award. Maybe it qualifies for most mistakes or worst written ;-)

rigor mortis you are not telling the whole story.

I made explicitly clear, that I would take 1 territory from each you equally, to speed the game up. IS that concept to hard to grasp?

Dom rape? Are you joking? Don't make up excuses now to justify your unsportsmen like conduct.

no. first you attacked. then when you saw we might do something about it you started talking about "speeding up the game", as if we don't know how dom works.

"I made explicitly clear, that I would take 1 territory from each you equally, to speed the game up. IS that concept to hard to grasp?"

even if this is the case, why do they have to yield to your demand?

CuteKittens is a moron, trying to reason with it is a losing battle.