Something has just occurred to me. I have always played PBEM's by the rule that a human player cannot gain techs or money from the AI via negotiations. I was just wondering if everyone else plays by this rule as I cannot recall seeing it written down for a long time. If everyone else plays this way then great. If not then I'm missing out and should start doing so immediately! I'm guessing the old hands here play by this rule, but I wonder if everyone knows it?
Also I think it might be worth having a sticky thread (always at the top of the page) just for house rules. Many of the house rules will be the same in most scenarios. If there are any additions then they can be listed in the first post of a new thread. Just an idea.
Here are some of the universal house rules I would suggest:
-No re-loading to improve combat outcomes
-No re-homing trade units
-No ship chaining
-Black clicking is banned. Using this trick eliminates the element of surprise and a lot of the fun that that brings!
-Stack size checking is permitted. Although you may not know the composition of your enemy, you may know roughly how big it is.
-It's not allowed to to buy any project AND to complete it in the same turn.
-Do not destroy Stackable.
Optional rules (depending on the scenario):
-Do not sell building "City Walls" and you have to rebuild City Walls immediately after you conquered a city.
-No exchange / donation / purchase etc of technologies / units / cities.
-City swapping is permitted.
-No sneak attacks. One turn peace after declaration of war.
-Trade embargo is allowed (Kontinentalsperre).
-You cannot build a new palace while you already have one.
-No founding of new cities, only reconstruction of existing ones that have been razed (though with "City Walls" this will be hard!)
-No feeding of cities with food caravans.