One thing is clear ... with this sort of game diplomacy plays more an important role than in any other type of civ game, I guess being a virgin to multiteam games really helped as I had no previous experience and had to develop a system from scratch ... and you will notice that the teams we had more contact with developed a stronger relationship.
Our very first team chat which was with KISS was totally out of control and went for about
3 hours ... it was extremely frustrating for both teams and almost resulted in fists being swung. Lucky this became more structured when I took the brave step (for a noob) to structure the way that diplomacy was handled. We decided on a spokesperson for the team (with others being there only for backup and viewing), we even had a separate AIM chat opened to allow other team members to input on what was being discussed while the main meeting was happening.
I realised early that the more contact (especially in AIM) allows ideas to be bandied about and discussed ... and that sometimes things are let slip when the other is allowed to talk
... and for that reason every clink, fart and burp I shared with rivals was posted and then discected by the team for hidden meanings which sometimes verged on the paranoidal
Anyway ... I have yet to wade through the other teams forums due to health reasons ... but I know for a fact that diplomacy is crucial in this type of game ... we managed to divert an early war which IMO was the reason that MIA managed to become far stronger than anyone thought ... after all is there any other team that suspected for most of the game 80% of our units were workers ??
On a personal note ... I salute all involved and enjoyed EVERY diplomatic interaction