Defending Rushes, a primer on avoiding the awake SC pretender

[WingedDog]

Squirrelloid
I'm sorry, but your example 1, doesn't sound like rush protection strategy, but rather story of rush that never happened. And still your actions seem more like a gamble then a strategy to me. What *if* diplomacy wouldn't work, as I see only 3 explanation of Neifel's actions:
1) Many of his neighbors had dormant pretenders and he had a choice whom to atack;
2) He never opened scoregraphs to notice you have no awake pretender;
3) He never wanted to attack anyone that early.

But *if* he wouldn't byte your bait... with strategy you have suggested you are totally defenseless untill turn 7-8 at least, right? And if he really attacked you on turn 4-5 we probabely have:

Worst case scenario, make sure your attacker goes down with you. Host a Waterloo. Get the other neighbors up in arms against the aggressor, and since you're going to take a lot of stuffing out of your attacker, he should be pretty easy prey for your 'concerned' neighbors. The next game you're in with that opponent, he may not be so keen to rush you. Nor might other players who watched what happened. Rushers want to choose easy pickings, not hard nuts to crack. Be a hard nut and people will stop rushing you.

While I personally would prefer to defeat the attacker and to stay alive to enjoy my victory.