Myriad, what you have described seems a very typical sutuation as i have observed dozens if not hundreds of times... (even more so when it comes to places 2 - 4, the famous guy in 5th challenging 2nd or 3rd....)
i´d still call it an opportunistic flag and also a bit lack of honour... (esp. if you as the one having being flagged could not grow bigger exactly for the reason to accept a flag) - yet in terms of winning, it appears a valid strategy (without cheat !) btw. it`s an old chineses strategy saying that you apply another person`s sword / knife for your own purpose - don`t even ask about the morality...

It really depends what to focus on in this game.
Winning by all means, Collecting points or playing very honourable at the risk and likelihood of losing mayn possibly points.

In the short / long term view it may be helpful not to play for short term winnings as you can win friends and make them trust you- so eventually those points given away may come back to you later, in other situations.
If only considered short term, and people are mostly short term thinking and tend to forget a lot, it probably makes more sense to act opportunistic...

Myriad, what you have described seems a very typical sutuation as i have observed dozens if not hundreds of times... (even more so when it comes to places 2 - 4, the famous guy in 5th challenging 2nd or 3rd....)
i´d still call it an opportunistic flag and also a bit lack of honour... (esp. if you as the one having being flagged could not grow bigger exactly for the reason to accept a flag) - yet in terms of winning, it appears a valid strategy (without cheat !) btw. it`s an old chineses strategy saying that you apply another person`s sword / knife for your own purpose - don`t even ask about the morality...

It really depends what to focus on in this game.
Winning by all means, Collecting points or playing very honourable at the risk and likelihood of losing mayn possibly points.

In the short / long term view it may be helpful not to play for short term winnings as you can win friends and make them trust you- so eventually those points given away may come back to you later, in other situations.
If only considered short term, and people are mostly short term thinking and tend to forget a lot, it probably makes more sense to act opportunistic...

Ideally flags are for position, not for players, ergo Timme would still be good on my book. Since you weren't truced, he didn't have to help you.

"And what is the point of accepting a flag if the guy who flagged 2nd to you watches you get made 5th? You might as well have just killed the guy for his land" -- Yeah, exactly. If you can kill the free land and instead you accept the weak flag, that's the risk you take. If a flag just benefits the flagger and not the larger player, that's a sign of a weak flag and it should be killed.

Most time though what happens is that you can't just kill the flagger right away and you accept it because it's convenient, i.e. you can focus resources on other players. In that case, the flagger doesn't owe you much, the flag benefited both of you. If you want him to help you, make him understand that you want a truce, and, if he accepts it, be ready to face the counter.

if someone circle flags me there getting pged

There doesn't seem to be any clear agreement of exactly what v-flagging means.

1. Some players will say a vflag is equivalent to a truce but that would imply you fight on behalf of the person you flagged to. Usually you hear this from other players at the table wanting to form some kind of truce against the flagged players.

2. More commonly vflags are treated as just an agreement not to attack each other with no requirement to attack on behalf.

3. Also very often it's assumed that a vflagger will only accept a position lower than the player they flagged to.

Given 2. & 3. it's still possible to create a circle flag situation so there needs to be an additional rule in here somewhere.

As far as I've seen there are two common ways to solve the circle flag.

- Players who vflag fight on behalf of the person they flag to which effectively makes the vflag a truce.

- Flagged players state which position they are flagging for and get agreement from other players. e.g. in your example TimmeTimTimme would declare a flag for 2nd place leaving you and Kharon to declare your fight was 1st / 3rd.