My thoughts on interesting things in the latest game that didn't make it into the writeup:
-Mao getting super squeezed early on was a big early development. He had an Indian Holy City crammed up on his eastern border and a Khmer Creative city on his western border, which meant that he could only found a single city to the south before being limited to just tundra fishing villages. He did quite well with those, though, and looked like a potential candidate to win before he got dogpiled.
-Willem's timing for the revenge strike on Suryavarman was super-impeccably timed: not only did he attack when the Khmer were busy trying to conquer China, he attacked right after the Khmer had an entire stack wiped out in Chinese territory! Truly the perfect time to strike.
-I'm not inclined to give Sury as much credit as Sullla was. Sury had a great opening and was the biggest leader to watch at the end of the landgrab phase, but then he destroyed his game by going to war too early, and then never staying at peace. His too-early strike against Willem dragged him down to the bottom of the standings, and going after Mao right afterwards ensured he couldn't recover... especially when Willem backstabbed him. Strong opening but then he really threw it all away.
-I'll also contest the statement that JC's attack of AC was the 'correct' move. Attacking SOMEBODY would've been smart, but if he'd gone after the weak Willem instead, he probably would've gotten most of the territory over a far-away Augustus and maybe had a shot at winning. As it was, his long war against Augustus sealed his fate in third place.
-I found it interesting that up until about the time of the dogpile of Mao, there was no clear game leader. Some leaders were doing better than others, but it wasn't until this point that any one really started looking to be in a sustainable strong position (ironically, the first one to get there was Augustus).
-It was also very interesting that Asoka, Willem, and Julius clearly played bad openings - Willem giving away his capital, Asoka leaving himself so vulnerable for so long, and Julius just generally failing. They all go very lucky at some point - Willem having Sury go the other way and Julius leave him alone, Asoka going unattacked when he had no metal for so long, Julius's losing war with Mao turning into a 3v1 in his favor. Yet when the dust cleared, they were the clear top three leaders of the game! It was a duo of impressive comebacks for Willem and Julius, while I thought Asoka played well once he finally got metal, and I think the others would've been hard-pressed to stop him from the conclusion of the Chinese conquest on.
Overall a very wacky game for a wacky season. This felt weirder, for lack of a better term, but it also had more twists and turns then, say, Playoff One. At this point I honestly don't think it would be that surprising to see Gandhi win a Domination Victory this week!
-Mao getting super squeezed early on was a big early development. He had an Indian Holy City crammed up on his eastern border and a Khmer Creative city on his western border, which meant that he could only found a single city to the south before being limited to just tundra fishing villages. He did quite well with those, though, and looked like a potential candidate to win before he got dogpiled.
-Willem's timing for the revenge strike on Suryavarman was super-impeccably timed: not only did he attack when the Khmer were busy trying to conquer China, he attacked right after the Khmer had an entire stack wiped out in Chinese territory! Truly the perfect time to strike.
-I'm not inclined to give Sury as much credit as Sullla was. Sury had a great opening and was the biggest leader to watch at the end of the landgrab phase, but then he destroyed his game by going to war too early, and then never staying at peace. His too-early strike against Willem dragged him down to the bottom of the standings, and going after Mao right afterwards ensured he couldn't recover... especially when Willem backstabbed him. Strong opening but then he really threw it all away.
-I'll also contest the statement that JC's attack of AC was the 'correct' move. Attacking SOMEBODY would've been smart, but if he'd gone after the weak Willem instead, he probably would've gotten most of the territory over a far-away Augustus and maybe had a shot at winning. As it was, his long war against Augustus sealed his fate in third place.
-I found it interesting that up until about the time of the dogpile of Mao, there was no clear game leader. Some leaders were doing better than others, but it wasn't until this point that any one really started looking to be in a sustainable strong position (ironically, the first one to get there was Augustus).
-It was also very interesting that Asoka, Willem, and Julius clearly played bad openings - Willem giving away his capital, Asoka leaving himself so vulnerable for so long, and Julius just generally failing. They all go very lucky at some point - Willem having Sury go the other way and Julius leave him alone, Asoka going unattacked when he had no metal for so long, Julius's losing war with Mao turning into a 3v1 in his favor. Yet when the dust cleared, they were the clear top three leaders of the game! It was a duo of impressive comebacks for Willem and Julius, while I thought Asoka played well once he finally got metal, and I think the others would've been hard-pressed to stop him from the conclusion of the Chinese conquest on.
Overall a very wacky game for a wacky season. This felt weirder, for lack of a better term, but it also had more twists and turns then, say, Playoff One. At this point I honestly don't think it would be that surprising to see Gandhi win a Domination Victory this week!