Gordito -
I am basing my report on observations in the game.
Game 3272604
1) You immediately tried to establish a border agreement with Snake.
2) When I attacked you, your response was to encourage snake to take me out.
3) While you and Snake did not share a border, you again suggested a border agreement. (neither of these accepted in chat by Snake, but you both appear to have one in practice)
4) For a while now, Snake has had many territs with single armies touching your territories with 10+ armies. On borders with other players, Snake maintains an equivalent army build up in comparison with his neighbor, 6,8,10 armies. But with you, only a single army. Clearly he isn't too worried about you coming in on him.
5) You have had many times in the game where you could have gained a bonus for yourself while taking a bonus from Snake without any substantial risk. (i.e. taking 1 territory with 1 army on it with connecting territs only having single armies as well). You fail to take advantage of these situations and when confronted seem to make a point of only taking enough to show an effort while ensuring you leave Snake with a bonus. (like in the last turn, you took 2 spots of his, but left him with a flush bonus that would have only required attacking a single territ with 1 army on it, you had 13 armies there). With that bonus, he built up his border with another neighbor and left his borders with you at 1 army.)
I wasn't the only one to notice the oddity of this behavior.
Whether you have an actual agreed to secret alliance or are just playing the game for your mutual benefit, the effect is the same. 2 Players who are playing using tactics to avoid attacking each other and focus on other players. These are the exact actions I would expect 2 players with a secret alliance to behave in a game.
Your comments about number of games played is irrelevant. 400 is plenty of games played. You play tons of little 1vs1 games. I could say I am the more experienced player because I have been a member longer than you have. But again, irrelevant. How you play is what matters.
While you have a lot of games, most of them are either private or some sort of team games. Clearly in team games you should work together (maybe it's just a habit now). And in private games, I could care less what you do. So lets look at the normal, Standard / Terminator, Public games that you and Snake have played in together. Here they are...
Game 1273743 - Gordito
Game 1207483 - Gordito
Game 1207473 - Someone Else
Game 1082189 - Gordito
Game 1008333 - Gordito (In this game, Snake even says he will help Gordito wipe out the rest of the players)
Game 675681 - Someone Else (Gordito and Snake gang up on one of the players. The player they don't gang up on end up wins)
Game 675665 - Gordito (3-Player game, hard to judge, but Snake and Gordito take out the other guy first)
Game 672252 - Someone Else (large Map, Gordito and Snake split apart)
These are really the only ones that matter because they are the only ones that are public and where you aren't on the same team as Snake.
For the Record, you won 62% of the time in these games, higher than your current 51% average.
In my opinion, when you look at the play in these games, it seems clear that in most of them you are both focused on other players, mostly to the exclusion of each other. In one, 1008333 Snake even says he will just help you wipe out the rest of the players. In some, the players even complain about you two ganging up on people.
I don't know if it's your intention or not, but when you two play in the same game, you tend to avoid any substantive encounters with each other until you have both wiped out the rest of the players. This in effect, even if not in verbal agreement, has the result of an unfair advantage and looks to the rest of the players in the game to be a secret alliance.
As to the "sore loser" comment... Simply untrue. Read the text of our game. I have expressed displeasure in what I saw as an alliance. Win or lose, I hate when other people cheat or work together giving themselves an unfair advantage. I am happy to win or lose in any game that is a
fair game.
I think anyone reading the comments in the first game will also see that I was direct about my issue, but tempered in my discussion about it while Gordito took every opportunity to try and get in digs or jabs at me. I think this just serves to reflect on the type of person he is.
congrats to u - great accomplishment !!
