[LURKERS] Setting Up Tents for a Ren Faire

[Krill]

Um. Didn't mack say something about Democracy? For Emancipation?

[The Black Sword]

I don't think so, someone was talking about Emancipation earlier in the thread and I said it'd be cool to see Mack try it(having both Fin and Spi). Not sure if it'd actually be worthwhile though, I think you'd still need to win the Statue.

[Fluffball]

He just recently responded to my question saying he wants to get into SP ASAP, so I doubt he would be looking to have many cottages. The ones he has are probably well on their way to being developed and he won't build more, is my guess.

[OT4E]

Yeah, I agree that winning the wonder won't decide the game, but if you research Democracy then you have to land it or it's a massive waste of resources.

If people let you why not?

[Fluffball]

I agree with Scooter that it's really weird REM is trying this race to SoL when he knows he's behind in tech AND the GE. And the double factor of it seems like the entire world is going to let Mackoti do whatever he wants militarily. I think that's partly on Scooter as well though. On that note, are NAPs typically upheld at RB? I would be breaking them left and right if it won me the game.

[MJW (ya that one)]

I agree with Scooter that it's really weird REM is trying this race to SoL when he knows he's behind in tech AND the GE. And the double factor of it seems like the entire world is going to let Mackoti do whatever he wants militarily. I think that's partly on Scooter as well though. On that note, are NAPs  typically upheld at RB? I would be breaking them left and right if it won me the game.

Diplo is off for this game. People hate you breaking NAPs but mackoti successfully did it at least once. We probably won't have diplo again due to the massive time sink (the only way around that would be a silly gimmick setup like allowing you to only say ~200 words per turn in a public diplo thread).

[Krill]

No diplo games don't have NAP, only self interest. Wars aren't cheap.

[Fluffball]

No I know there is no official diplo, I just wondered if people freaked about breaking NAPs or dogpiles and what not that are clearly implied. Like Mack clearly has a NAP with Scooter, and if I were Scooter I would 100% break it. Whip knights everywhere but capital, get the SoL, backstab Mack when he invades Al. And now I can never play a MP game here haha.

It's pretty clear at this point no one is going to stop Mack taking whatever he wants, so you might as well go to war with him. No one has the capability to hit Scooter hard.

[The Black Sword]

Well usually we have rules that discourage the type of NAP Scooter and Mack have, because NAPs are boring. The best play is to NAP up with everyone and run farmers gambits. One person could choose to break a NAP and in that single game they'd have an advantage if they timed it right. But for all future games they'd be at a disadvantage because no-one would agree/trust further NAPs and they're the only player that actually has to build defenses.

In the past we've had rules that say no using numbers(spelling messages with city names too) in the diplo screen specifically to combat these type NAPs. I'm not sure why that rule wasn't included here tbh, probably just an oversight because it hasn't come up in so long.

As for your proposed path of action, I can't see that benefiting scooter. You're trying to invade someone with more and better quality(Galleons, Phracts) military than you, who is also closer to the next level of Mil Tech. The only advantage is the element of surprise, which might not even work given how paranoid Mack can be. Even if you do get the jump on him, he'll surely devote his entire game to destroying yours, you'd need to absolutely cripple him in the first strike. The most likely result would be handing the game to REM/Nic.

[Fluffball]

As for your proposed path of action, I can't see that benefiting scooter. You're trying to invade someone with more and better quality(Galleons, Phracts) military than you, who is also closer to the next level of Mil Tech. The only advantage is the element of surprise, which might not even work given how paranoid Mack can be. Even if you do get the jump on him, he'll surely devote his entire game to destroying yours, you'd need to absolutely cripple him in the first strike. The most likely result would be handing the game to REM/Nic.

Presumably his military is going to be on the other side since he's trusting in NAPs with 2 players, if not worst thing you've done is bulked up your border against his heavy aggression. 

But the bigger point is I am a bit dumbfounded why no one seems to care Mack is building military and no one else is when he already has superior units. This is a point where literally every other player needs to be building large amounts of military. I've never really gotten a clear mental picture how this map lays out and who has easy access to who, but REM and Scooter seem to be putting themselves in the exact same situation they were in in PB33, where they let someone else take an overwhelming lead and then are counting on a dogpile being able to stop that in the distant future. Maybe they'll get their countdown right this time.  

Of course I'm always reading pretty deeply into this, anything could change well before Mack totally absorbs all the easy land around him. Perhaps Al has seen this and is on the verge of gunpowder, he stopped updating his thread. Perhaps REM and Scooter are readying their whips hands but not till SoL is secure. I dunno.