Planetary Diplomacy

Your board keeps a short list of where it stands with each of the other planets. Each one is marked Enemy, None, Peace or Allied. Open it from InterPlanetary Operations with Diplomacy List. You also see the mark for a planet whenever you name one, on the line that reads "Our current relations with...".

Only your board's Coordinator can change the list. It is on the Coordinator Menu, under Diplomacy Modification.

What it does and does not do

The list is a note from your Coordinator to the barons on your own board. It tells you what your board thinks of a planet. Mostly it only describes:

• It does not stop an attack. You can still attack a planet marked Allied, and a planet marked Enemy can still attack you.
• The other planets never see it. They keep their own list, and it may say something quite different about you.

Two things do use it:

• Trading. You may only buy at another planet's market while your board marks that planet Allied. Both boards must agree: yours has to call theirs Allied for your bid to go, and theirs has to call yours Allied to fill it. If an alliance ends while your bid is travelling, your gold comes back.
• Messages. Writing to Allied Planets from the IP Messages menu sends to every planet the list marks Allied.

So ask your Coordinator to mark a planet Allied before you plan to trade there.

Using it

Read the list before you commit forces. Your Coordinator marks a planet Enemy after seeing something you may not have seen — a raid on a neighbour, a strike on your own board, a message that went badly. It is the cheapest warning you will get.

If you disagree with a mark, say so. The Coordinator is elected, and the list follows whoever holds the post.