[SPOILERS - NO PLAYERS] Tittle-tattle and other gossip

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I disagree that this a prisoner's dilemma. You mentioned a game of chicken, and I think that makes more sense. In a prisoner's dilemma, the conservative play is the winning play. You assume that the other person is going to defect (i.e. not take the risk), so you defect too. Here we've got the opposite. Here you have to assume that because your partner isn't going to take a risk and trust you, you have to be the one to take the risk. I guess my point is that if this were a true prisoner's dilemma, this hesitancy would be the correct play, but I can't believe that's right.

Well, as I see it, a prisoner's dilemma is any situation where everyone would be collectively better off if they worked together, but in any situation they would be individually  better off by being selfish, regardless of what others do. 

So here's the matrix:

Cooperate: Attack Mr. Cairo to stop the culture win.
Defect: Sit out and let someone ELSE attack Mr. Cairo to stop the culture win. Maybe pile on later.

We'll take, say, JR4 and wetbandit as examples to keep things simple.

If JR4 and wetbandit both cooperate, then Florida loses and the culture victory is stopped.
However, if JR4 cooperates, but wetbandit defects, then JR4 takes the brunt of stopping Cairo and wetbandit gets all the profits. Vice-versa if he defects and wetbandit cooperates. 
If the other guy is cooperating, you'll be individually better off if you defect - let the sucker over THERE absorb Florida's armies, then you sweep up the spoils. AND, if the other guy is defecting, well, you STILL want to defect - why attack if the other jerk isn't going to support you at all? Lose all your units and some cities for nothing? So you are always individually better off defecting.

BUT if both parties defect, then you end up overall worse off than if you had both cooperated - Mr. Cairo just wins and you get nothing. I think that's a classic prisoner's dilemma.

You are right about the game of chicken, though - whoever attacks first is going to gain the least benefit from attacking, but if no one attacks at all everyone loses (except, well, Mr. Cairo). Will anyone blink? It looks like JR4 is going to refuse to unless he gets a clear signal from someone else, and everyone else is sitting back thinking, "Well, I'm not gonna do anything unless JR4 moves first."

[GeneralKilCavalry]

A solution to the chicken problem would be to declare war without any intention of waging extended war or throwing stacks at Cairo, unless other people join in upon war dec. Cairo will probably be prepping MG's en masse, and won't have too many hitters to back up arty in an offensive. Haven't been following this game too much until just recently.

Basically, JR4 ought to nominally declare to test the waters.

[Old Harry]

Unfortunately only jr4 has built any units, so declaring might not do much good. If he does I think it more likely that everyone else just sits back and relaxes than that they're spured into action.

Still, you're right that he needs to do something, so he might as well try it.

[Charriu]

JR4 appears to not want to work with me, so its upto me and Wetbandit to take down Mr.Cairo.. I guess ill be the first to declare on him FFS.

I kicked his open borders/deals to the curb to show my stance to the world. I have full EP vision on his entire civ, and only a few cities i cant see their production. If he declares on me, he has a short window where he could do some damage to my nets. Otherwise, i have 2-3 cities finishing up some drydocks and going to pump out a navy. Not a huge one, but just large enough to out-class Mr.Cairos.

Buildings MG's/Cannons elsewhere to have enough defense against whatever kamikaze shit JR4 might try. ( OR cornflakes for that matter ) Im probably going to move most of my Wetbandit/southern cornflakes stack to defend against JR4 soon. Pictures next turn

Looks like this will get interesting soon. Good that we have a player like Superdeath in here, who is willing to breakup a stalemate.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

JR4 appears to not want to work with me, so its upto me and Wetbandit to take down Mr.Cairo.. I guess ill be the first to declare on him FFS.

I kicked his open borders/deals to the curb to show my stance to the world. I have full EP vision on his entire civ, and only a few cities i cant see their production. If he declares on me, he has a short window where he could do some damage to my nets. Otherwise, i have 2-3 cities finishing up some drydocks and going to pump out a navy. Not a huge one, but just large enough to out-class Mr.Cairos.

Buildings MG's/Cannons elsewhere to have enough defense against whatever kamikaze shit JR4 might try. ( OR cornflakes for that matter ) Im probably going to move most of my Wetbandit/southern cornflakes stack to defend against JR4 soon. Pictures next turn

Looks like this will get interesting soon. Good that we have a player like Superdeath in here, who is willing to breakup a stalemate.

Superdeath seems to be the lurker's dream.

Frequent posting, wild strategies, lots of action.

I think I made a good personal entertainment choice to dedlurk him in the ramk pitboss instead of playing myself.

Are there any threads that have good detail of the global map? Positions are hard to understand.

[Charriu]

Who would have thought, that all it takes is a canceled defensive pact to get this party started.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Who would have thought, that all it takes is a canceled defensive pact to get this party started.

For a given value of started, it seems.

Everyone's on the ledge, looking over the lip and daring the others to go first. "After you." "NO, no, after you..."

[suboptimal]

While the actual game mechanics of Civ IV were forgotten long ago I am finding the player dynamics to be quite interesting. Looks like the powder keg has been lit (exploded?). Wonder if Cornflakes will still go after Superdeath or wait to see how the larger war shakes out.

[Rusten]

JR4 still building research in all of his cities. No wonder he's on an everlasting quest to find his timing for the game.
If there was ever an appropriate time for the waiting skeleton meme.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

even though war has been declared we're still in the grand Mexican standoff mode

eventually I think someone (Superdeath?) will lose patience and attack, but no one (correctly) wants to be the first schmuck in.