Yeah, that was my point above...the chatbox encourages communication and the making of alliances/truces and they are an important part of the game. But what it additionally does is make these treaties open to the entire board so that one can choose to set up counter-alliances, seek to join an existing one or strategize accordingly. The main issue I have with pre-alliances is that they are not announced nor transparent until the game is basically over...simply stated, this goes against the integrity of the game.

So in my case I´m allways chatting a lot with my friends. From the first Moment when I will se them. So it´s transparent.

And we´re always open to ally with other additional players. Then it´s according to our flags in he end, who is 1st, 2nd, 3rd... or maybe also 4th.

So we´re really kind. And no aggressive players - And sometimes we lose also early in the games. But of course not so often...

So I still think it´s ok to play with friends and ally with them more or less automatically.
If it is not an aggressive pre-game-alliance with the goal to cheat other players!

and of course - funk4g - you´re right!

If they don´t tell the others that they are allied and they don´t speak to each other, it´s really not fair. But see my post above...

;)