Five players. Me, purple, yellow, red and brown.

Nobody is flagged yet, but red and yellow have said they won't attack each other. Yellow and purple are the strongest. Then me, then red, then brown.

I am fighting purple and I am losing it. So I flag 3rd. I don't specifically say who I flag, I just flag.

Brown decides his moment has arrived and attacks me. Purple and red attack brown. Brown is defeated and now red flags 3rd as well (he got enough land from brown, while I lost some).

Purple and yellow are now left to fight for 1st.

I have no connection to red, so we can't fight each other.

I have a good reserve so I attack yellow who is fighting with purple for 1st. Remember that red and yellow have a truce.

My attack against yellow creates an outcry and purple attacks me and I am defeated.

I have nothing against purple attacking me, but I am not sure I fully understand why my play was thought to be so unfair.

Yes, I was flagged 3rd, but I flagged first and there was no way I could fight with red for 3rd as red and yellow were truced and yellow was between me and red. I also never said anything like I would flag specifically flag yellow. I was fighting purple when I flagged.

If I would have just stood and waited I would almost certainly had got 4th, because of the truce between red and yellow and because red was now stronger than me.