RARE HERBS WITHIN 5SQ's!

 

First-come first-served? For me you should expect to be contested.

Hear, hear! :)

And I also agree that Sov, while far from perfect IS the only in-game mechanic (other than stationing a permanent garrison on a tile) for defining a claim on land outside of your city tile (which you kinda claim by default, merely by virtue of the fact that the city exists), and that other arbitrary forms of claims (random forum post, because I have hairy feet, because I mentioned it at a bar after my fifth mojito of the evening on a Tuesday following a full moon...or whatever) are a) outside the parameters of the game (even if they are INSIDE the parameters of social conventions that may have sprung up around the game), and b) as such, carry less weight than the mechanic designed to convey ownership that's built into the fabric of the game.

As to the point about someone 20+ tiles claiming sov right next to one of your cities...by all means, let him.  It's literally 20x cheaper for you to counter the claim, meaning that it's 20x easier to bump him off and rub out his claim on the tile in question, tho if he feels that it's somehow "worth" the extravagant expense of maintaining the tile against all claims, and you do nothing to counter it, then yes...he's paying for his right to the claim.   (tho I can't honestly fathom why someone would do this...at that point, it'd be more cost effective to simply plant a new city close to the tile in question).

Proximity without action =! a claim.  

1. Emphasis regarding 'this' is mine

2. bonus for the town it relates to"

Then we're essentially saying the same thing, with the following caveat...it IS different because the former "blanket declaration" relies on word of mouth (not everyone will see this forum thread) and established social convention vs. in game mechanic with an associated cost and bonus function.

That's an important distinction, IMO.

** Edit:  I'd add this bit also...Violation of national sovereignty is a valid reason to go to war (this has been true for literally hundreds of centuries...pretty much since the invention of agriculture).

Violation of an informal social convention...not so much (in the history of history, no successful civilization I am aware of made a habit of going to war for a violated informal social convention).

Then again, in our own real world history, we've proven repeatedly that we're willing to go to wary for all sorts of silly reasons, whether there's a strong basis for it or not, so I'm not surprised to see Illy following the same arc.  (if there's a fight, maybe we can call it the War of the Colonel's Eleven Herbs and Spices!)

Still, one's got a clear, rational basis, and the other does not.

IMO, again.