god dam hiders, come out and fight

your strategy is to stack and hide if you are weak, that's a defendable strategy from your point of view

others who fought and see you hide, complain about you hiding in order not to lose their own place they are fighting hard for. That's also a very reasonable strategy

so if you don't want hate for doing one logical thing, don't hate for others doing a similar logical thing

9 out of 10 times the accusation of hiding arises when someone did an early flag to a bigger player that surrounded him completely then being encapsuled warm and cosy w his 1 or 2 territory microempire simply watching the rest of the players going down fighting one after another.
Waiting like a vulture for a better placement, scavenging points upon the deaths of the fighting players.
This will work only for so long because places 4 and above will increasingly point out and complain about this "unfair hiding".

Dont get me wrong, I know where you are coming from, some setups simply make you choose to early flag to your big neighbour or face 2nd/3rd round extinction as 7th. As jurgen wrote, it *is* a possible strategy.

My advice would be that if one plans on such an early flag that will cause him to hide in the bowels of another player for the rest of the game, and if there is also a benefit for the bigger player that accepts your flag (he can concentrate on fighting outward instead of worying about you), one should point out the advantage this has for the bigger player and helps his cause - combine the flag with your eventual goal, like add a modest request for a certain position, like 5th or so, or a chance for a rolloff with a certain player or for a certain position later (this carries the risk of hysterical "truce - letscounter" accusations against the accepting player though).

still, better to clear that up early, because otoh I guess there is nothing more frustrating for such a hiding player than to stick around for 15 rounds merely watching and clicking end turn just to evenntually have the big player act upon the complaints and have you flag out or remove you as 6th or so anyhow.

I prefer to call it "dead man stacking"

it's not your fault for hiding, it's the person protecting you who is at fault for not killing you earlier.

You guys are only talking about situations that involved flagging to a big player.

I was in a game where at the begging I was fighting, but then I got stuck between two big players who started going at it with each other. Why would I start to attack one of them? It makes no sense. Later during the game some other player who probably wasn't even watching no one's but his own claimed I did nothing all game...

I'm on the same page as Earthship...

However, I prefer to say that I'm a "Dead Frog Hopping"

Jurgen did not mention anything about flags. The fact remains that you probably fought for some period of time, then sat. Sitting was your strategy to not get killed or to get a better place or whatever. Other people who fought all game for their place see that you sat for some length of time and feel that since you sat and didn't fight for a place, you don't deserve one. Both viewpoints are legitimate.

If noone objects, I am gonna IP check if superxchloe isn't one of my alts :-)

ummm how about grow up and flag out if you're so weak that you can't fight at your own will? i don't know about you guys, but who really cares to finish a game that you don't have a chance at 1st in?