Just finally finished the wildcard game.
Definitely didn't go how I predicted, and to me the single biggest factor in the game was Toku being so weak. I thought that with early metal he'd do well, but it still took him too long to hook it up and he and Bis really suffered. But Bis at least got the Great Wall and was able to recover; Toku just went fighting wars he couldn't win while sitting on four cities. Horrible horrible game from him.
Bis did pretty well by his standards but definitely didn't accomplish as much as a more capable AI could've in his place, even if you ignore everything before the Great Wall. Hammur did quite well I thought, just was screwed over by everybody attacking him. Genghis showed why I don't think he's capable of winning a game. This was basically a redux of his game the previous week, but with his first target actually having decent units. He can expand well and war decently, but he simply cannot do anything economic so I highly doubt he'll ever win.
Gilgamesh had a very nice opening, settling all around Brennus's territory then converting to his religion to pacify him. Honestly, he played pretty well all around this time; he didn't do as well economically as Mao, but otherwise he did quite nicely and even if he got a bit lucky from Toku's poor start, he deserved his win, between conquering all his territory and stringing Brennus along so handily. Definitely better than his opening round game. Brennus got a decent start, but had to attack Gilgamesh if he was ever going to have a shot, and he wasn't willing to do that. Mao clearly had the best game on the whole though, expertly teching his way out of a crowded start and fighting wars very efficiently. Had it gone just a bit differently he would've collected a well-deserved win.
All that said, this wasn't a particularly fun game for me, because the three leaders I liked the least in the game started the game with three of the best positions, and then kept those positions for the entire game with nothing happening to shake that up. It's a good thing I don't care about the picking contest, because otherwise that ending would've been massively frustrating as well (I had Gilgamesh for second place). Ah well.
We're in for a potentially interesting playoff round, ESPECIALLY the upcoming game where honestly I don't think any of the leaders are that impressive. Let's see what sort of wacky championship field we get this year... Only dark spot on the playoffs is that due to peace weight it looks like games 2 and 3 will be effectively 4- and 5-man competitions.
Definitely didn't go how I predicted, and to me the single biggest factor in the game was Toku being so weak. I thought that with early metal he'd do well, but it still took him too long to hook it up and he and Bis really suffered. But Bis at least got the Great Wall and was able to recover; Toku just went fighting wars he couldn't win while sitting on four cities. Horrible horrible game from him.
Bis did pretty well by his standards but definitely didn't accomplish as much as a more capable AI could've in his place, even if you ignore everything before the Great Wall. Hammur did quite well I thought, just was screwed over by everybody attacking him. Genghis showed why I don't think he's capable of winning a game. This was basically a redux of his game the previous week, but with his first target actually having decent units. He can expand well and war decently, but he simply cannot do anything economic so I highly doubt he'll ever win.
Gilgamesh had a very nice opening, settling all around Brennus's territory then converting to his religion to pacify him. Honestly, he played pretty well all around this time; he didn't do as well economically as Mao, but otherwise he did quite nicely and even if he got a bit lucky from Toku's poor start, he deserved his win, between conquering all his territory and stringing Brennus along so handily. Definitely better than his opening round game. Brennus got a decent start, but had to attack Gilgamesh if he was ever going to have a shot, and he wasn't willing to do that. Mao clearly had the best game on the whole though, expertly teching his way out of a crowded start and fighting wars very efficiently. Had it gone just a bit differently he would've collected a well-deserved win.
All that said, this wasn't a particularly fun game for me, because the three leaders I liked the least in the game started the game with three of the best positions, and then kept those positions for the entire game with nothing happening to shake that up. It's a good thing I don't care about the picking contest, because otherwise that ending would've been massively frustrating as well (I had Gilgamesh for second place). Ah well.
We're in for a potentially interesting playoff round, ESPECIALLY the upcoming game where honestly I don't think any of the leaders are that impressive. Let's see what sort of wacky championship field we get this year... Only dark spot on the playoffs is that due to peace weight it looks like games 2 and 3 will be effectively 4- and 5-man competitions.