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Hello friends. I've started a new series of articles. This series will be an exploration of my thoughts on why players get backstabbed.

The Top 5 Reasons You Got Backstabbed: #1 Annoyance

Please, please, please confine comments in this threat to THIS particular explanation for stabs: a player's irritating press style. I will be writing 4 more posts on other reasons for stabs and we will have plenty of time to discuss them later.

Now bo will finally understand why he keeps getting stabbed!

Fully agreed that annoyance is definitely one of the primary reasons to get you stabbed (or avoids to repair things later on).

I will never stab just for the sole fact that someone annoys me, like you also imply. But when I need to stab, for example to make further progress, I will almost always attack the player that I find most unpleasant, and vice versa enter into / continue an alliance with someone that is pleasant to play with.

I also always try to discover as soon as possible which players will/could get annoying before they do. Sometimes that's obvious, sometimes it isn't but there are almost always signals that for example, although trying to be friendly at first, a player will become selfish as soon as he is in a position.

And one of the things I resent most are threats, definitely when they are premature. Threatening to throw the game when it is too early or for no good reason never works, and instead gets me rather persistent of not giving in to such threat.

So, you're trying to tell me i'm annoying?

A good read! I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering what mistake your brutal stab against me will be used to exemplify...

Annoyance does not cause me to be more likely to stab someone. Not at all. But it does make it more enjoyable to stab them.

I don’t find annoyance in over press, i do find annoyance in less press. The game revolves around developing relationships, and if you aren’t an active presser, those relationships can’t develop. Even if you make up your mind real early that you are going in a certain direction, actively pressing the player you are going to attack, is a good thing. The Diplomacy board is fluid and ever changing, you want to be able to repair relationships, when the board changes.

People who are just annoying, are easy to find an excuse to move against, but if tactics require you to work with them, that’s a real thing. Especially if the annoying player is either in good tactical position or has good ideas for expansion

Great article, Swords! Always get to learn or renew something while reading these