never lost, let alone get close to. my friend Chris calls my "pro". I call it cunning diplomacy (in ROP recently I played Athenians against Spartans. In EB as the romani, I did that between the Ptolemaioi, Carthage, and the Aedui. In Ibfd as ERE I really played around with WRE, Sassanids, Franks, both goths and the burgundii. my best diplomacy to this day is from that ERE game).