Just on a sidenote:
So back to my question: what about the payment? 
And a question in general: Do the rest of you guys apply for payment in the battles yet? Or do you just fight without?
And how do you handle this as the owner/participant?
Lets just say Mercs didn't know the rules of Strat (despite playing for 6 months) and we are going to have an extra 30K more than we originally expected upon taking this village
(thank you guys by the way) and we will be paying very generously to our mercs up to the max 1000 based on performance.
Also, justw ant to clarify there was never any diplomatic arrangement. They basically contacted us and gave us an ultimatum saying we attack neutral villages in our area (including 1 on the opposite side of our village from the one they took after us) and it would be war. They then talked to our diplomat further saying that if we stayed within these imagined lines left over from old strategus they would relocate us later, our diplomat told them he would have to consult his clan before agreeing to anything.
Before we responded back they recklessly split their forces and attacked both a village to the North and crossed right over our village to take a village to the East. While we saw them with an army headed toward our village (weren't sure if they were attacking us already) we prepared an army and when we saw the land grab they were doing (trying to take advantage of the fact an NA strategus server is not up) and they basically crossed over into our already taken territory to take a village that woudl essentially allow them to surround us, we acted upon their reckless move and attacked their first village with over 1200 men.
It kind of galls me personally that an old strategus clan feels it can intimidate a clan twice their size into doing what they want and then tries to convince everyone we are backstabbers because we didn't bend over and take it.
P.S. we may be nice and help you relocate afterwards, also never give ultimatums unless you have the balls to back them up
ALSO, IF YOU PERFORM WELL IN DEFENDING EITHER OF THE 2 NEUTRAL VILLAGES BEING ATTACKED BY THE MERCS AND THEN APPLY FOR US, I WILL BE KEEPING TRACK AND WILL ALSO GIVE A BONUS BASED ON THAT!!!!!
