Hello! Sorry I didn't realize there was a discussion in one of my previous games until I accidentally read this.
I don't remember the names of the players involved. I remember player A declared war against me in Age IV in a situation such that I couldn't avoid ending in 4th place. My response was to declare war against player B in such a way as to try to force player A to end up in 3rd place, and ultimately lower his final tournament score. It was definitely intentional from me, and it was in no way an agreement between player B and me.
This move obviously makes no sense in a standalone game, but I believe it to be a legitimate tournament tactic. The idea is of course to make player A (or other players) more reluctant to put me (or other players) in the same situation in upcoming games in the tournament. Just to make it clear, I was very much still playing for a win -- not in the game (that one was hopelessly lost) but in the tournament.
I'm surprised to see now that some players are asking for a ban for this. If this is understood to be against tournament rules then I apologize. I just don't remember reading anything about that anywhere before. It still looks like a valid resource to me (in the same way that it's acceptable to look at global tournament standings to decide, under equal conditions, who will be the target of an aggression -- either to influence the final score directly, or to make an educated guess about who the strongest player may be), but I certainly wouldn't use it if I know it's breaking the rules.
