Stab triangle (like a love triangle but with backstabbing)

[ilorametis1]

I was playing a game as France and was pretty confident I'd got both England and Germany on my side to attack the other, letting me choose my ally. However from things they'd each said they both thought the same. In the end I was right, England and I attacked Germany in the same turn Germany tried to attack England.

But that got me thinking about a funny situation: what if England had been planning to side with Germany and attacked me the same turn? E attacks F attacks G attacks E.

Anyone had something like that happen? How did it resolve? I imagine none of the attacks would be effective but would be an interesting diplomatic situation.

[FloridaMan]

Anyone had something like that happen? How did it resolve? I imagine none of the attacks would be effective but would be an interesting diplomatic situation.

This has happened to me, in both the Western Triangle and the Eastern Triangle.

It's not the worst thing to have happen, of course (that's both of your neighbors/all of your neighbors choosing to attack you in unison), but it can put a real damper on the game.

I think you have to really start getting a better feel for the players at that point. See if you can persuade the one who's attacking you to back off, and simultaneously try to persuade the one you attacked that you've made a mistake, and you're going to pull back and shift into attacking the other person. And get a really solid grasp on how the relationships are changing, because if you don't, they're probably both going to attack you. It's important to have at least one ally early on, so when a "stab triangle" happens, it's likely how you handle it will decide how the rest of your game proceeds.

[Jack007]

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