| “ | Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war. | ” |
–Randolph Bourne | ||
Diplomacy is one of the most crucial aspects of gameplay in KoDP. Raiding, small battles and all out war can be very taxing on your clan, they can even spell game-over for you if several foes decide to tackle your clan together. Hence investing in a few goods will can save you a lot of trouble, it can net you various treasures and is needed to successfully complete the game.
Alliances[]
Alliances are important in a harsh land like Dragon Pass, but having too many clans to please can also be as taxing as war.
There are several benefits to having allies:
- They will warn you of approaching raids if they spot them, which buys you time to muster your troops.
- They will help you during raids if you call on them.
- Trade routes are easier to establish with allied clans.
- You can call on them to help power a heroquest .
However, an alliance goes both ways: your allies may call on you for a raid, and expect you to warn them if trouble is on the horizon. Failure to do either of those things will engender bad feelings on both sides and eventually break the alliance.
It goes without saying that raiding your allies will ruin the alliance. (Cattle raids are fine, and expected, even between allies, as long as they don't escalate to a full raid.)