This is the next part of a series where I discuss how to play Neptune’s Pride. In this part I’m going to cover diplomatic relations with other players – you are very unlikely to win a game if you play in isolation so this is incredibly important.

Diplomacy

This game is all about diplomacy, so don’t be afraid to talk to other players. The chances are that at least some of them will be talking amongst themselves, and if you are not in on those discussions you are setting yourself up to be the target of a combined attack. I tend to put other players into three broad categories – immediate allies, immediate enemies, and distant allies.

Immediate allies and enemies

Everyone with whom you share a border falls into one of these two groups. At the start of the game send a message to all of these people and suggest an alliance, or at the very least a non-aggression pact. Your ideal goal is to obtain friendly relations with all of your neighbors except one – the friendly neighbors become your immediate allies and the unfriendly/non responsive ones your immediate enemies. Expand into your enemies space while trying not to annoy your allies (do this by trading them tech and info, and even fleets if necessary). If all your neighbors turn out to be friendly you have two options – either turn one of them into an enemy yourself (by attacking them) or wait until one of them decides to attack you. In the early stages expansion is key so don’t be afraid to ruffle a few feathers – its all in the spirit of the game!

Distant Allies

As well as contacting your immediate neighbors you should also be contacting the more distant players as eventually you are likely to come into contact with them. Your goal with these players is to feed them useful information and the odd tech to keep them sweet – later in the game it is likely that one of them will be quite powerful and you want them on your side if that happens. All of the players you aren’t neighbors with should be in this category. If you end up with distant enemies you are hopefully doing very well in your game (with lots of tech and stars) and should endeavour to turn them into distant allies before they form an alliance against you.

Keep an eye open

As well as forming your own allies, try and identify other alliances which have formed. Sometimes this is easy, and sometimes you just have to go on gut instinct. The two most obvious signs are tech trading and weak shared borders. Look for players who have similar tech levels, and in particular look for players who seem to be quite a way ahead of the curve. In most cases this indicates a tech cartel (explained later). The other easy way, although it requires scanning, is to look at borders between players. If the border is heavily fortified you can assume the players are either at war or at least don’t trust each other. If the border has not much there it is likely you are looking at an alliance. Bear these in mind when choosing who to attack – if you manipulate things correctly you can end up with extra allies to aid your assault, but if not you might find more resitance than you were bargaining for.

Don’t be a twat

While everything might start out all nice and friendly at some point there will be backstabbing, and you will probably be both the recipient and the deliverer. Remember that when you get down to it this is just a game, don’t take it personally or make life miserable for other people. A large part of the fun is the plotting and scheming that goes on in the background, so if you wake up to find that the rest of the galaxy has allied against you don’t sulk about it, just laugh it off and work out where you went wrong with your diplomacy. Likewise don’t antagonise people who you are beating. No one likes a sore loser or a boastful victor.

Next time I’m going to tell you all about resource management and technology