Limited truces have worked fine for me, on the relatively few occasions I have used them. I remember Cona Chris bending over backwards in an Invention game to eliminate me without attacking via the specified border (and succeeding + winning).  Of course, not everyone has his memory, so I agree ill intent is likely not the only and perhaps even not the most common reason for truces breaking.

BorisTheFrugal wrote:

As a matter of fact:  If I were in your shoes where I was trucemate with any of the fine people who have responded to this forum post so far, and I'd just pinned them into a corner like you describe....and then they came to me in a private message and said "Wow, good job, I didn't see that coming, I'll just have to accept this fate and fold away my turns until you build up enough cards to take me out"..... I'd be absolutely dumbfounded and likely ask if they had any recent head trauma.

You can take me off that list.

Two caveats, first:

1. I never have and never will suggest or agree to a "last two" agreement (barring prior shenanigans in that game).

2. I'm accepting the premise that everything happened exactly as Big Skin described it in this situation.

3. I haven't reviewed the history of the game in question.

Given the exact wording as written, I agree with the other player's interpretation regarding the first attack. "Respect your bonus" can only reasonably be read as referring to continent bonuses. There are a number of ways that this seems quite clear to me, but I'll stick with one for now: if "a bonus is a bonus" were the case in this agreement, the suggestion wouldn't say "respect your bonus" it would say "will not attack you". That the proposal is not "I will not attack you" indicates that "respect your bonus" and "will not attack you" are not equivalent. I would never expect that someone who proposed a mutual "respect your bonus" agreement would never attack me.

That having been established already in this game, in this relationship, the other player has hardly a leg to stand on in the second instance. Assuming, as they claim, that Big Skin maneuvered the situation perfectly a second time even after having been attacked the first time - well, if I were in those shoes, my position would absolutely be "wow, great job, guess you got me." If I said I would not break a player's bonus until myself and that player were the last players remaining (and again, to be clear, I would definitely never say that)? Well, that's just what I'd do. To the exclusion of preserving the possibility of a win.

And one last point - there is no agreed upon standard of truce breaking at this site, implicit or otherwise. Absolutely not.