[SPOILERS] Lurker discussion thread ... players keep out obviously

[Ravus Sol]

The Clowns are REALLY pulling ahead...

How much is due to the map, the Lizardmen or the farmer/settler gambit?

Personally I think the lizardman and Animal Husbandry tech combined into them not needing military built while going for the Farmers Gambit...

But I could be just be unwilling to admit that i biased the map when i made it...

Thoughts?

[Mist]

The Clowns are REALLY pulling ahead...

How much is due to the map, the Lizardmen or the farmer/settler gambit?

Personally I think the lizardman and Animal Husbandry tech combined into them not needing military built while going for the Farmers Gambit...

But I could be just be unwilling to admit that i biased the map when i made it...

Thoughts?

It's lizards all the way. Think how would it play out if Kyan wasn't able to bully Rawwking into effective non-war?

[uberfish]

Yeah getting 2 (!) sets of lizards at the same time as researching AH for unrelated reasons is ridiculously lucky

IMO Balseraphs have already violated their NAP with Sheaim by exploring the Pyre though.

[uberfish]

At this point the best (perhaps only) way forward for this game would be for the other players to agree that Kyan is dishonourable on the basis of the Lair incident and therefore any NAPs he extorted are meaningless.

[Ravus Sol]

It's an interesting thought. If I was playing the Sheaim I would certainly think that, consider the NAP void and start talks with the Elves about joint operations.

Just a 3-way alliance between Hippus, Elves and Sheaim would be enough to put the hurt on the Balseraphs. The middle teams may have better exploration and diplomatic options, but they are also more open to attack from multiple directions. Sheaim advance from the south. Hippus from the North and Elves back everyone up with Priests spamming Tigers. It could work.

If the Grigori & Elohim just solved their differences and grew in peace while this was going on they could come out ahead... But the Elohim seem to want to "rush" at some point. Although the idea that T100 is a rush is a tad strange.

[Ravus Sol]

Considering the possible future Elohim vs. Grigori spats I really want to see what is going on in Grigori lands...

[Amelia]

Is the Sheaim even going to survive though? There's a really really angry ogre on it's doorstep, which is higher strength than Orthus or a mistform.

Edit: Oh it went the other way... hmmm....

[Ravus Sol]

Well the Elves survived the ogre, The Sheaim will probably survive Orthus but don't look as though they consider the Clowns a threat or wish to declare their NAP broken by the dungeon popping on their borders.

(Just think if they had gotton Orthus AND the Ogre...)

We also got an update on the Grigori lands and they seem to have had no plan the last few turns! All that luck in huts and dungeons and no plan. They have 2 highly promoted Lizardmen like the Clowns yet they didn't get Animal Husbandry like they did. They also have a Hero they could have upgraded into a scout. They got 2 different techs from huts...

I feel like the Grigori should have been a Rival power to the Clowns yet due to a lack of a plan they have just huddled and closed of diplomatically while the Clowns have been making deals and plays world wide.

Am I being too nice with the Grigori Potential here?

[Mist]

Not really. They really show surprising lack of direction. They have no idea what they want to achieve with Grigori. No victory target. No long or medium term plan of any sort. No internal team communication. And even not enough focus to react to events on turn by turn basis. It's like watching an AI play. On low difficulty level.

Baring a complete disaster Kyan will win this game. Nicolae is still not comfortable with the mod. Gaspar and Rawkking will compete for the same scraps of living space, and will come out weaker from that. And even if not, Gaspar is too far to effectively contest with Kyan. Brian still didn't present a reliable and coherent plan for his war and given his initial expansion he'll be probably backward in tech. And Kyan speeds unopposed towards Puppet Fuelled Water Elemental Swarm Of Doom ™.

Did I mention Keelyn is broken and we didn't gimp Kyan's start enough?

[Sciz]

Yeah I dunno what the Grigori are doing atm. Absolutely no plan, stockpiling lots of gold for no reason, researching cartography which is a pretty useless tech...