I recently initiated a new Getai campaign, this time VH/M. For many tension-filled turns, I watched as Makedonia slowly inched upwards, gobbling up Serdike and trying to envelope me by striking at Tylis and Singidunum while I frantically attempted to build up my economic base and raise an army.

Much of my income at the time didn't come from trade or conquest but from other factions' gifts. I accepted no less than 20-25,000 mnai, I believe (to do this, I simply offered a single payment of 100 mnai, to which they responded by giving me a large sum of money in the spirit of brotherhood, etc).

However, soon the factions began to realize that their "investments" were getting no returns from me, and so whenever I tried getting more gifts, they countered by demanding a massive tribute spanning several turns, clearly an offer in their favor.

At one point, I accidentally accepted a deal of this type and was forced to pay 2400 mnai for two turns to the Romani in return for 250 mnai. On the second turn, however, I discovered that I had the option of canceling the tribute. The Romani representative took this announcement gravely, saying that "You left us few, that is to say, no, other options."

From there on, I made these types of deals with three factions (Romani, KH, and Lusotannan), getting several thousand mnai that very turn in return for a gargantuan tribute, which I promptly canceled. In this way, I jumped from 6600 to 30,000 mnai within three-fourths of a year. While each of the diplomats claimed "You left us no other choice", they willingly agreed to the same type of deal the next turn, three times in a row. Despite having taken about 12,000 mani from the Lusotannan, they remain my firm ally, and the others have exhibited no hostility.

However, I feel bad about ripping the AI so badly (and blatantly), and although I can RP this as wily double-dealing, I'm still of the opinion that it can be construed almost as cheating.

Has anybody else employed this method? Any opinions on how extensively it should be used? I suppose it could help those factions that fall immediately into backbreaking debt, but otherwise it just seems like it's a way to take advantage of the system. Thoughts?