Hello folks. Longtime lurker here, new registrant. I had an odd situation in a multiplayer game last night that led me to ask the question - is it possible to have permanent alliances with more than a single civilization?

The settings: Civ Vanilla, 2 human players, 7 AI's

I had wiped out Caesar and become friendly with both Elizabeth and Kublai Khan; in fact, after a lengthy campaign against Washington with both of them, I signed defensive pacts with each civ on the same turn. So far, so good. I checked in periodically to find out when I could flip from defensive pact to permanent alliance - sure enough, as soon as it became available, I signed a permanent alliance with Elizabeth....

And Khan cancels his defensive pact?

Odd, I think to myself. When I mouse over, it says he doesn't like me enough any longer, even though we're still friendly. The only negative modifier is that we're separate religions, so I declare Free Religion, but he still won't go for it. So I think to myself, "Maybe he doesn't like my ally; Elizabeth and Khan aren't exactly the best of friends." So I test the theory with my human counterpart; he and I were able to sign a defensive pact, but though we waited for the proper number of turns, permanent alliance never became an option.

Is this simply not allowed by game mechanics, or have I missed something?

One quick bump; afterward, I'll let this thread fade. Sorry for the double-post.

Not sure about the mechanics, but you can only have one PA at a time. So, you and Liz can have one, but no other civs can join in.