1) What if you find one of these countries on your own? Open season for farming, hit once and move on, or avoid altogether?

2) What if you're tipped about it somehow off-site? Keep in mind, this case will look indistinguishable from case 1. Should this change the ruling on 1?

3) What if you're told about it via in-game message? Obviously it's not open season then, as we've seen three countries get deleted. So if you've been messaged, is the ruling to hit once and move on? Or is acting at all going to risk deletion? Would a rule on this simply take the collusion off-site, without stopping it at all?

4) If the ruling is "hit once and move on," then it's worth pointing out that the party being tipped first will still get a large amount of land. In today's case, that player got 1590 just from the first hit.

5) I think a "hit once, move on" rule may be the best way forward, but say a latecomer to the party notices someone's suddenly being farmed into DR. This person scopes it out, finds it's a 0 defense country, and hits twice, or three times, but still gains hardly anything compared to the first people on the scene. Does this player end up being the only one punished?

6) Even if this all seems murky and hard to enforce, keep in mind how flagrantly unfair these back-ally free land giveaways are. In today's case, #4 grabbed for 6022 land. Before that point, he had 31,545 land. In other words, the free land he got in one day through today's cronyism netted him 20% of the land he'd accumulated over the first 33 days. That's definitely something we don't want to allow. In some cases, it can have big implications on the final scores. Anyone remember tduong getting massive land from Requiem and ultimately finishing in second?

2012-04-10 16:42:33 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 239A (356A)
2012-04-10 16:42:16 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 354A (669A)
2012-04-10 16:41:11 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 377A (710A)
2012-04-09 16:42:53 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 284A (420A)
2012-04-09 16:41:36 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 291A (430A)
2012-04-09 16:40:23 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 422A (788A)
2012-04-09 16:11:32 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 437A (814A)
2012-04-08 17:52:18 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 333A (486A)
2012-04-08 17:51:12 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 341A (497A)
2012-04-07 15:45:12 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 621A (1111A)
2012-04-07 15:42:39 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 654A (1153A)
2012-04-07 15:41:42 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 796A (1604A)
2012-04-06 15:40:45 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 975A (1798A)
2012-04-06 15:39:42 PS Welcome back (#62) Cobra Empire (#95) 1034A (1889A)

Requiem had posted he was quitting on the forums, tduong had PM'd him asking if he was #95 and Requiem confirmed and let tduong have his land. When Serp attacked Cobra Empire, though, he got nuked!

7) What about the case where the two countries had previously exchanged attacks, and then come to an agreement to settle the score? Is this kind of war diplomacy considered 'coordination'?

These points should help you get started, galleri. I want your report on my desk by close of business tomorrow. :)