In trying to imagine the data depicted in your pie chart, my best guess is that we have a D&D game where Trolls are one of several factions, and we have called up a graph showing power by faction. (If you have a better explanation, do share.)

According to a reference you cited elsewhere in your blog, Stephen Few’s “Save the Pies for Dessert”, there is a Secret Strength to Pies. While Few is certainly not a fan of pie charts, his paper concludes:

>> Regardless, the fact remains that a comparison of two sets of summed parts is rare in the real world. But, by all means, should you ever need to display data for this purpose, a pie chart would serve you well. Otherwise, save the pies for dessert.

http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/08-21-07.pdf

It seems that you have created an example of just this type of scenario here — where the rational player would be concerned how to set up an alliance that might defeat the threating Trolls (Elves, Dragon, Orcs, and Gremlins would potentially work) — the scenario where even Stephen Few concedes that pie charts should be superior to bar charts. QED.

For instance, if the first faction which claims a sufficient majority will be the winner, the pie chart makes the troll threat (and potential alliances) much more obvious.

If % of total (population, resources, whatever) is irrelevant, don’t use a pie chart!!!

On the other hand, if we want to see trends, a trend line chart would seem to me to be more versatile and generally effective than a series of bar charts (or pie charts).

The biggest problem I see with pie charts is people use them just be graphical when they should in fact be using a table.