RBPB4 Postgame Thread

[Sareln]

Great reveal. Haven't been following the game that closely, but sounds like fun.

[Bobchillingworth]

Haha, wow. In the PB2 lurker thread I excoriated your diplo and posting style as being almost unbearably arrogant. For this game I compared you favorably to Watchmen's Rorschach and you were one of my favorites. I think you proved your point well that known identity plays a great role in how someone receives what you say, even if the essential content remains the same. I loved "Locke" because he was (unintentionally) funny. He came across like some sort of foreign exchange student with a tenuous grasp of English who was entertainingly blunt because he just didn't know any better. In comparison, I cringe reading your actual game conclusion summary because... well, see Kyan's comment :P



Conclusion: in the future, try to write more poorly =)

[Kyan]

I was also just about to carefully go through and post an overall critique of everyone's games and the things they could have done better. I'd actually already read Locke's whole thread since it was one of the shorter ones, and had some comments prepared. I'm sure no-one will take me seriously now that they know it was the great Sullla who was playing, but oh well. Basically, while I thought you guys played a strong overall game, I thought you played too conservatively - failing to take any risks which might have helped push you ahead. For instance, as far as I can tell you never made an attempt at any wonder aside from general musings about the Taj, and your attack on Adlain was IMHO far too late. There are other things too, but I'm sure no-one wants to hear more about me telling Sullla how to play the game, at least now that they know who he actually is.

Don't be silly. There are plenty of people on Realms Beyond with a sense of perspective. How's this as evidence:

I 100% believe that if Parkin and Team Spullla had started in each others locations, instead of their own, Parkin would have still won the game.

[oledavy]

There are other things too, but I'm sure no-one wants to hear more about me telling Sullla how to play the game, at least now that they know who he actually is.

I would actually be interested to hear what you have to say. No disrespect to Sulla (your posts on CFC and your website are what originally brought me to lurk and eventually join Realms Beyond), but I don't think anyone can claim a perfect game.

[antisocialmunky]

I want to hear Parkin's take. I think Locke's only mistake was not waiting for everyone to post their nasty thoughts of him before the reveal.

[plako]

Incredible Sullla. I had no idea it was you.

As for some of our endgame allies, I'm sorry to say this, but they were complete idiots. Yes, that means you plako! Plako had this giant military left over from the Greece war, and meanwhile Parkin was sitting there on his border with absolute nothing while continuing to tech ahead and build wonders. But plako refused to do anything because he had signed some kind of riduclous NAP (why you would sign that with someone who had no military is mind-boggling!!!) and then felt honor-bound to adhere to it. I asked probably 3 or 4 different times for luddite and plako to throw away their stupid NAPs, which they even admitted they had been tricked into signing, but no one listened to "Locke" who they assumed had no idea what he was talking about. Sigh. If you want to know when the game was lost, it was when 1) luddite/mackoti fought their stupid war, giving Parkin vastly more land than he should have had 2) plako did nothing with his huge military advantage while Parkin ran through triple Golden Ages.

The initial NAP was a big mistake, but as said LP had a very efficient ways to sugarcoat his offering and those days we were clear #1 and did foolishly belive that we were the ones getting most out of the deal. Biggest problem was the insane length that I never should have accpeted.

I did know that LP was in extremely strong position after it was evident he'll land the religious trifecta and Taj and did know full well that it was idiotic to wait, but then again I'm not playing to win at all costs.

[Lord Parkin]

Just read your criticisms, Sullla (holy heck that was a long post ). I'll just make a couple of quick comments for now as I don't have a lot of time:

- You seem to imply that we "lucked out" to get into the position we did by the end of the game. However, there was a heck of a lot of diplomacy going on behind the scenes that you didn't see. I was keeping very tight tabs on what others were doing vs what they were saying, and whenever anything started seeming the slightest bit fishy I would act on it. It wasn't an accident that I wasn't taken by surprise.

- What's all this about folks enabling me to not build units during my Golden Age? I was furiously drafting/whipping/building nothing but units for more than half of the length of my Golden Age. It hurt, but it was necessary.

- While I'll admit that my start was better than some, it certainly wasn't the best in the game (I might have preferred Adlain's, Rego's, Moogle's or even your location for different reasons). And the starts were, in general, far far more balanced than I've seen in most other non-mirror games I've played. Kudos to Krill and the team.

- You seem to forget that my strategy evolved as the game progressed. Had I had an aggressive or uncooperative neighbour, I would have forgotten about most of the wonders and gone the military route. I've played cutthroat games before (I even won a 32 player knockout last year), so I do have a clue what I'm doing even when I'm not wonder spamming.

Having said that, it's nice to have the feedback. It was great fun playing with you, even if I didn't know it at the time.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

There are other things too, but I'm sure no-one wants to hear more about me telling Sullla how to play the game, at least now that they know who he actually is.

I disagree with this. I am very much interested in your thoughts.

Personally, I think this game provided a much needed antiseptic for some of the stale thoughts that had become ingrained at RB after Spullla's PB2 thread.

1. People undervalued wonders--you benefited tremendously from them.

2. People tried too hard to avoid ancient wars--plako benefited greatly from his initial war.

3. Only certain traits and civs can win--if leveraged properly, most traits can be successful I feel.

4. Taking a religious path is doomed--obviously you showed that to be false.

It isn't so much that Spullla were wrong about any of those things. It is simply that if leveraged properly, or in certain situations, many styles of play can be effective. Post Pb2, it seemed everyone only adhered to the singular style established by Spullla.

[Lord Parkin]

Considering you didn't say hardly anything negative about Locke in the lurker thread all game long, I have a seriously hard time believing you actually knew about it.

Incidentally, maybe I've missed or skimmed some things... but from what I've seen so far, I don't think there was a single positive thing Krill said about my game at any point. Seems I could always count on him for some good old fashioned abuse. Oh well, different strokes.

[Krill]

*shrug* I like to see new and shiny ideas and toys. The word competent differs little in meaning to the word mediocre IMO.