i might indeed.
I just think it might have been fair if they'd have advertised the game and acknowledged they know each other.
But not doing so, i and the others had no choice and no knowledge of it, so couldn't decide freely if we wanted to take that risk of joining.

Well, I don't always tell people when I play with friends (although it hasn't happened for quite some time now - they all got bored). As long as you play fairly then there's no issue at all.

but if they work together?
surely thats akin to having one person play those same 3 or more countries?

It depends why they're working together. If its tactically and diplomatically sound then its fair enough

Thanks Figle for lookin into everyone playing:)

I thought it was kind of an unwritten rule that you announce when you join with RL firends.

I agree with figle, if its a diplomatic move, you should be able to expect it to happen, or some kind of alliance happen.

But the question is, with three playing, they could have any three positions (England, Italy, Russia which have no connections, or France, Germany, England which share common borders) and work together to domintate the board. If they went into the game together wiht the idea that they would work as a team then fight it out, it is meta-gaming. Any three nations, when joined in an unbreakable pact, can dominate Diplomacy no matter how hard the other four, who are bound to take a stab at each other, try.