RBPB4 [SPOILERS] - De Gaulle of the Egyptians

[Lord Parkin]

Looks like Luddite's gearing up to hit back at Mackoti. Forwarded this on to him.

[Lord Parkin]

Also, looks like Nakor's gifting Frigates to Plako now. Hmm.

At this point they're obviously doing something Sullla always despised: no longer playing for their own victory, but instead deliberately sabotaging themselves for someone else's victory. Their questionable tech path and constant ship gifts certainly make it seem that way.

I mean, they're free to do whatever they want and all... but it's kind of lame all the same. Plako might as well be logging in and playing Nakor's turns for him at this point, for all the difference it would make.

Oh well, not much I can do about it, just thought it was worth commenting on.

[darrelljs]

If you were in Nakor's situation, how you would play the meta game? How about plako?

Darrell

[Kyan]

Also, looks like Nakor's gifting Frigates to Plako now. Hmm.

At this point they're obviously doing something Sullla always despised: no longer playing for their own victory, but instead deliberately sabotaging themselves for someone else's victory. Their questionable tech path and constant ship gifts certainly make it seem that way.

I mean, they're free to do whatever they want and all... but it's kind of lame all the same. Plako might as well be logging in and playing Nakor's turns for him at this point, for all the difference it would make.

Oh well, not much I can do about it, just thought it was worth commenting on.

I haven't read either Plako's or Gaspar's threads recently so there is no spoiler here, but try to keep in mind that this is only your perception of events.

There could easily be a fair and logical explanation. You could always contact them?

Course, if there isn't, then i agree it's very unfair and i'll say as much in their thread after the game.

[Lord Parkin]

If you were in Nakor's situation, how you would play the meta game? How about plako?

Darrell

It's not the metagame that's the problem really, it's the execution. Nakor obviously committed to warring against me a while ago - fine. But then he went and wasted time on useless techs like Constitution and Democracy (post SOL) instead of getting more important military stuff. He's also never bothered to draft, and in fact doesn't even have Rifling yet (and isn't going for it) despite having a better tech rate than most. He switched to Vassalage last turn instead of Nationhood, which disables drafting for at least 4 more turns as well as not really giving any significant benefit (given that he's not Charismatic). Plus he's gifting a large number of ships over to Plako. I mean, it's possible he's getting some stuff in return that I'm not seeing, but I just don't see what could possibly make that worthwhile to him.

I mean, let's assume that they manage to make headway in the upcoming war. Before gifting the ships, Nakor might have had a shot at leveraging his advantage to take a number of those cities himself. However, now that he's sent many of the ships to Plako, he's basically handed Plako most of those cities instead, leaving him... what exactly? A military-lite nation which isn't going to be able to capture much (if anything) in this war, and which will make a tasty target for its neighbours as soon as (or perhaps before) this war is over.

Perhaps there's stuff I'm unaware of going on behind the scenes, but that's my interpretation anyway.

I haven't read either Plako's or Gaspar's threads recently so there is no spoiler here, but try to keep in mind that this is only your perception of events.

There could easily be a fair and logical explanation. You could always contact them?

Course, if there isn't, then i agree it's very unfair and i'll say as much in their thread after the game.

I'm not saying it's unfair or illogical. It makes some sense for Nakor/Gaspar to have aligned themselves with Plako (although that was hardly the only option, nor necessarily the best). But I think the way they're going about it is highly suboptimal, and playing for Plako more than for themselves. If you're committing to a war of this magnitude, you've got to go all-out for it and make sure you can grasp a lot of the gains yourself. Delaying important military techs, not bothering to draft, gifting away a key naval advantage to a rival... it just doesn't seem like they're playing for themselves at this point. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong though.

[Lord Parkin]

Oddly enough, after researching partway into Steel the past turn or two, Nakor suddenly decided to switch to the Rifling path just a few hours after I made that post. Coincidence I guess, but still...

[Gazzahk]

So, LP, what are you actually saying?

[Lord Parkin]

Not much really, just thought it was amusing.

[nabaxo]

If you're committing to a war of this magnitude

Wait...What war?

[Lord Parkin]

Wait...What war?

It hasn't started yet, but everyone in the game knows at this point that Plako and Nakor (at minimum) are gearing up for war with me. Their NAP's expire in 6 turns and they've said they have zero interest in renewing, plus their power graphs are sharply increasing and Nakor's been gifting a whole lot of ships to Plako, so war is clearly coming at T200. That's what I've been building up for.