Another good one: "so and so is about to attack you. You'd better rush to defend." Surely no one falls for this one. Or do they?

Every game has these sorts of requests. Sometimes there are good reason and it really is for the best, at other times you will be taken for ride if you buy into it. I will say to my ally, please don't build there and I expect them to ask the same of me.

You have to look at the map and ask yourself, "Is it in my ally's best interest to honor the DMZ" (or whatever the situation). If yes and you think you ally also perceives the situation in the same way, then go with it, if not prepare for a stab.

In some respects however, reading the map is the easy part. Reading your ally is not so easy. Do they perceive what you perceive? Are they looking as deeply into the problem as you?

Ideally however your perceive the inevitability of stab before your ally, but not so soon that you fail to fully capitalize on the benefits of your alliance.

I am currently in a game where there is only global chat and anonymous players. One of the players has decided to communicate in a foreign language through java hash-codes (which, for those of you who don't know, looks like this -- with varying lengths: a6b75ec19ecb198a41e1c3d34). I cannot wait to see, at the end of the game, who thought that was a good idea. Luckily anonymous players means you can see who they are at the end of the game.

I often warn people they're going to be attacked. Usually it's true.

Of course, sometimes that's because I'm egging on the attacker...

I always make it explicitly clear about what a build will do to our trust/future/current state of affairs. I often request that in goodwill an ally not build in a certain SC. It can be bad form to build just because you have the space open. Longevity with an ally is generally more important than an extra unit, especially if it won't do anything other than aggravate an ally.

I warn people of attacks a lot. It's generally more believable the farther away the nation is. Example, England warns Turkey of an Austrian stab - I'd tend to believe it. Granted, a lot of other factors go into one's decision making based on press.

etc etc . . .

If I'm Austria or Italy, allied with the other, and they've kept Venice/Trieste unoccupied, I will usually delay a build rather than build in Venice/Trieste. That really reassures an ally that you're still on board.

I always find it questionable when someone shoves rusty nails under my fingernails as a method of persuasion.

Not really a "diplomatic" tactic, but i've done the "accidentally" sending a message to the wrong person ploy before.

I was in a game where i was playing as Italy and had made an early arrangement with UK and Germany to make quick work of France. Everything went perfectly and we had France's elimination in sight. I had people in Spain and Pied getting ready to take out Mars, Germany was in Burgandy ready to bump Paris to allow UK to take Brest with his fleet in MAO and army in Pic. Germany would be given Bel from UK as a reward and France would be down to 1 center.

But then things changed. Turkey had already started making a move on me from the east with one fleet, but a build coming I knew he wasn't considered too much of a threat. We had a strong alliance that was about to finish off France and would be able to make a solid push west. Recently Germany seemed to have quieted down a lot. Two hours before the round turnover, my concerns were confirmed - UK contacted me and let me know Germany had been convinced by Turkey to turn on me and was trying to convince UK to join their cause. I'd proven to have some ability in the game so they wanted me out. Lucky for me UK was a loyal ally (at least at that point in the game he was, but that's a different story).

I quickly appraised the board. The moves were obvious, Germany could just hold Mars from Burgandy screwing me out of my build making me extremely vulnerable for the Turkish fleet. He had me.

Then I remembered hours earlier about a gaff UK had made when he accidentally sent France an email instead of Germany, and i had a brainstorm. With one hour left to go i "accidentally" sent out an email to France intended for UK saying the following:

"Ok, here's the best plan of attack:

Me:
Pie-mars
Spain S pie-mars
West med-tun

Uk:
Mao-Brest
Pic-Paris

Germany:
Burg S pic-par
Mun-boh
Hol-bel
Ruhr-mun"

This worked like a charm. France, having "lucked out" in getting our move orders slipped to him realized he could foil our attack by simply bumping Burgandy with Marsailles. Little did he know that bump cut the support Germany was giving to him on the sly and ended up costing him Marsailles (germany never told him and just assumed he'd hold). This got me my build and allowed me to effectively fend off Turkey and later get my revenge on Germany.

My top dodged bullet moment!

The CRABS Treaty comes to mind. It was an extremely effective tool I designed at reigning in my allies in a tournament game as A-H even though I was surrounded. gameID=19896

Otherwise known as the the Covenant, the treaty was ratified over 1906. Here is the text:

"
The Covenant of the Quadruple-Alliance,
Strongly emphasizing that the continued need for stalemate lines is vital for our continued cooperation,
Understanding that drawing is our end,
I: Declares that all member states must uphold a secure, unbreakable stalemate with non-signatory states and do nothing that could even slightly endanger such a stalemate;
II: Declares that all member states are to advance into enemy land using the following guidelines:
1: Upholding Clause I,
2: Eliminating as many as possible, but not all, non-signatory states;
III: Establish the Common Regulatory Aegean Body of Safety (CRABS)
1: Composed of one delegation for each signatory state,
2: Be headquartered in Vienna,
3: Have the purpose of upholding the Covenant of the Quadruple-alliance;
IV: All signatory states of the Covenant must be allowed to remain in existence, protected from elimination and not be taken advantage of, even if their value to the stalemate line and/or advance has become lost or otherwise diminished;
V: Encourages states denied signatory status (France, England, Germany) to publicly proclaim their adherence to Clause II;
VI: Requires that defined four states (Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Turkey) sign the Covenant before any clause take effect.

Signatories: Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Turkey
"

My favorite is threatening to bring an alliance down on you when that alliance member is in CD. I'm still not sure if they guy was bluffing or had honestly not noticed.

The good old if you help me now in spring I will help you in Autumn in time for builds..

Always makes me wary..

I had Phonecia (?) in one of the few games of Ancient Mediterranean that I've played. It was obvious that Egypt and I would fight over neutral sc's that we both wanted. I received an " offer of an alliance " from chap with Egypt that was clearly designed to deceive me, so I sent back a reply stating that I welcomed an alliance with him if he promised to be my loyal servant and do as I instructed. Without knowing I had hit some psychological sensitivity of this chap's regarding servitude. The next thing I see is a global post full of outrage from the blighter on the subject of equality amongst players etc etc...this is several years ago, so the exact details are a bit fuzzy.
Well I realised that I had been shown what "button to press" with this chap, so I piled it on, a global post apologising to all other players for the appalling behaviour of my servant, informing them I had given my servant clear instructions on welcoming them if they chose to visit Egypt, and that they should give him a severe thrashing for any insolence or any unwelcome advances he might make to ladies in their company, and advising them not to leave valuables unattended in his presence etc etc. I also sent the poor blighter messages of instructions and reprimands for being a lazy and disobediant servant. It worked wonderfully.. botched attacks, mistaken orders from him as he worked himself into a frenzy of outrage over some side issue of being called a servant

Oh I just trawled through my old games and found the game, I had Persia. Interestingly the chap that won has since been red x'd by the Mighty Mods. It was the only game of Ancient Mediterranean I've played.

Found it as well, was quite a good read.

I like the, "You did something I don't like (violated a DMZ, etc.) so I'm not talking to you or reading your press until you stop." That just guarantees that what may have begun as a minor squabble is now me trying to see you eliminated. Has that ever actually worked on anyone?

@Hero ... I agree with you. If someone wants to stop reading my press, what possible value is gained by telling me in advance that that is what he is planning? He may as well post a "kill me" sign in global.