Ok, most of my games so far have been 1v1 to get a feel of how things work, and the surrender option to call a halt to a game when it's clear you're goint to lose makes perfect sense. However, how does this work in FFA and 3v3 etc varients? In FFA I have seen a cobination of styles from those who give up as soon as a win starts to look unlikely, to those who fight to the last unit. My usual game is Diplomacy, in which fighting to the last breath is considered the only honourable choice and to not do so gives you an awful reputation, but does that attitude exist over here in this sort of game?

I ask chiefly in order to avoid making any faux pas without realising I'm doing so. I've already managed to offend BigPie to a level I'd not considered possible over a disagreement about how best to use an alliance, and ideally I only want to cause offence when I know I'm doing it :p.

When a game is created the creator can choose whether or not he wants surrenders to be instantaneous or require that everyone accepts them.

Generally, if surrenders are set to be instant, it means players are free to walk away from the game at any time. If the surrenders must be accepted, I say it means you're expected to keep playing to your last unit or until your opponent decides they want to let you go.

Most FFAs have a feature enabled that needs every participant to accept another player's surrender before it becomes effective. Until everyone has accepted, that player is required to continue taking their turn.
In team games (2v2, 3v3, etc.), surrenders sometimes happen instantly, so better use the chat here. Simply ask your teammates before surrendering, tell them why you think it's lost. Ideally those of your teammates who want to play on will give you their reasons, too.

On a related note: BigPie is not at all representative of the WL community... ;)

To avoid any kind of faux pas, the easiest way is to keep playing until you can't make a difference to the outcome of the game. In 1v1 this is easy, and it's not a lot harder in larger team games (though it becomes harder and harder for the more people in the game).

Generally I will rarely surrender in an FFA unless my death is imminent, for instance if I have base income against everyone else having 20+, or if I am being killed by someone who can easily destroy me (4x income or whatever). In either case whether I surrender or not won't make much difference, as I would be out of the game soon anyway.

Very rarely will someone be upset that you aren't surrendering in an FFA game, unless you are the second to last remaining person, facing someone who is clearly going to win. You can ruin a game by surrendering too early in FFA, so there is that to consider.

Team games should really talk about it, and make sure that everyone is agreed that you can't win (or it's very obvious). Some people like to play 3v1 after their team already surrendered, and never seem to understand that the game is already lost. For most people, it's easy to ask in team chat if it's okay to surrender, and your whole team will see that they can't win.

Cheers, all! That's a great help.

Extra cheers for Fizzer. 'Tis a great site.

Octavious there's no problem with surrendering if it is not a team game. But, if I'm playing in team, I never surrender. Just keep stalling the opponent to give your team a better chance of winning. As for people who surrender on turn 1 on a 2vs2, 3vs3, or 4vs4, people generally get upset. Looks like Warlight and Diplomacy have SOMETHING in common.

If you are playing in a team, keep playing until you are eliminated