Posts: 813
Threads: 30
Joined: Oct 2012
OK game's over and here my thoughts on how it went and where it'll go:
The Map:
I think this played a huge role for Ruff and I due to how close we were. This really hurt any chances on our island of being peaceful. I had nothing to my north to expand to making the only choice being to go to the center towards Ruff if I wanted to stand a chance. Ruff got a little greedy, somewhat understandable though he had a lot more easy land to expand to, and that set off our first war.
If I'd just let him have the spot he wanted then I was out of the game right then as I couldn't reasonably expand. Others it looks like and I'd figured out before had a lot more space to negotiate with. Also the shape of ours led to this as him settling my direction where he wanted cut me off from all the land to the south effectively whereas others appear to be more strung out.
Also through exploring with my one galley later (it was left up top exploring after it escaped Darrell's fleet of death) I got to see that there were no other paths to island on west for me other than through that three tile fish island that was actually closer to Darell's main land. So expanding that direction would be a nightmare and be very easy to cut off my ability to defend.
Diplomacy:
I will say right from the start that no limits on tech trading with no limits on when people can communicate is a frustrating game to play.
Obviously plaid a big part. Was rather frustrating. As you saw in my thread I was somewhat torn on whether to attack Ruff or not but ultimately decided I wanted an ally and was willing to work with him. Unfortunately he chose a surprise attack while we were negotiating for middle while being dishonest about his land to his south. I don't think diplomatically I could have played any better there.
Next big diplomatic move was the infamous NAP 'stab'. After reading posts in his thread about the period I remain feeling justified in hitting him. Did he break the NAP? Maybe, maybe not. I could debate it I think. What he did obviously do is outright break his agreement to keep my plan and that convo completely confidential. Personally I think that if somebody shows themselves willing to break important deals like that then they have ZERO right to complain if you break others. You can't honestly expect the person you betrayed to not take any action and to just sit back and take it. I also think his excuse of "I didn't read it so it doesn't count" is pretty pathetic. Even if that were true I think anybody playing honestly would have accepted they agreed to it and played as such.
Looking at things I think I was screwed here diplomatically. There was obviously no chance of peace with Ruff, he was determined to kill me or get me killed. The only time I see it making sense for me to shift to be friendly with Darrell would have been after I told Ruff my plan which would be too late as they were already locked in deal to kill me. At this SL also chose to team up with them to a degree and get me killed and Krill sniffed out who would win and sided with them a little to stay friendly.
Darrell: Bit confusing of play with his 'friends with everyone' style. Think he's confusing others with it. Think he's confusing himself as well with all the deals he's signing with conflicting terms.
Ruff: Maybe it's his role playing but I think he has only himself to blame for position he got in being so aggressive and dishonest in his play. Getting lucky that for some reason SL is supporting him so much. Probably frustrated with Darrell and his double dealing now and wishes he hadn't sided with him. If he'd not betrayed me and helped Darrell then he'd probably have several cities on our continent by now and Darrell would have been further behind.
SL: Don't know what his plan is really other than to build up Ruff and throw away the game. Haven't read his thread yet, maybe there is some sort of plan. Spent resources gifting units and cities to Ruff which slows down his growth and limits his space to expand. Now with the Krill & Darrell alliance he has to work with Dreylin and Ruff and can't expand very much.
Dreylin: Also don't think he had any real plan, in part due to his play at the start where he refused to do any diplo talks.
Krill: Sitting pretty in the lead. Everybody forgot about him until after I was gone which is funny. I made for a pretty good distraction.
My Mistakes:
1) Telling Ruff my plan to attack Darrell.
2) Not cancelling my plan to hit Darrell when the plan was compromised.
3) Basically stepping out of the diplo game when things started looking gloomy (must say I was confused to see what I could do though)
4) Messing up my drop against Darrell, giving him additional time to react.
5) Building a sword in city when Darrell had units on my iron. Thankfully he didn't cut it. If he had he could have taken the city then rather than much later.
6) Not coming up with concrete plan early on for tech path and getting stuck with monarchy.
Things I've Learned:
1) No limits on tech trades + no limits on contact = frustrating amount of early diplo. Rather than the diplo growing naturally from what happens in game it is forced to happen blind from start. Can't complain too much I guess since it saved me from warrior rush.
2) Attacking and defending units are chosen based on their calculated strength and not their actual combat odds. Can really have huge effect in certain scenarios, especially with units that have bonuses against certain unit types where game may not use that unit but use weaker unit. Big effect with stack attack.
3) Need to block trade routes by declaring war on both parties to prevent them trading resources through your territory. War with only one will let the trade go through.
Probably some others that don't come to mind right now.
Where I see the game going:
Honestly I think Krill is probably going to walk right over everyone now. The only questionable factor in that is Darrell and what sort of weird decisions he's going to make to try and be friends with everyone. He won't go back on deals with Krill though based on his play so far. If Krill doesn't walk over everyone then it's Darrell's game to lose as he's got no enemies and would have been working towards victory condition the whole time during Krill's failed attack.
