I don't quite follow. Playing a game with friends doesn't mean I can't trick them. It's the spirit that counts. Tricking them so everyone can have a laugh about it when it comes out is a different thing. Tricking characters and not necesarily players is also important.
And I don't think I ever said smarter or more manipulative. Sorry if I sounded like that. I was trying to point out that the NPCs brought more to the game than just sheer numbers of military troops. And, as we've seen in this thread, both sides have tried to play the other, so I think it's all fair in the end. :-)
I didn't say you couldn't trick people and laugh about it. It was just that you had what I read as an arrogant tone that implied we were dunces for falling for something obvious.
