Airstrip One Palace Court - No Players!

[Jabah]

I am sure the Borg will raze Imhotep silly city very soon, and probably both will come to the conclusion that their interests are not to fight each other.
(The Borg has nicer target closer and Imhotep has enough room and is far enough to avoid clashing with bad odds both being AGG with metal)

[Mortius]

I am sure the Borg will raze Imhotep silly city very soon

I am not so sure
If Imhotep puts 2 or more fortified shock promoted axes in the city (placed on the hill) it would be a little hard to take it.

[LiPing]

I am sure the Borg will raze Imhotep silly city very soon, and probably both will come to the conclusion that their interests are not to fight each other.

This idea actually interests me, question to everyone, if hypothetically you were Imhotep in the above situation, would you be willing to let it go?

[Speaker]

This idea actually interests me, question to everyone, if hypothetically you were Imhotep in the above situation, would you be willing to let it go?

I suppose it depends on Imhotep's ability to do something about it.

[Jabah]

I am not so sure
If Imhotep puts 2 or more fortified shock promoted axes in the city (placed on the hill) it would be a little hard to take it.

I am sure he would IF he had time, but it seems that an AGG preatorian is already on its way there, with expected arrival before 5t I guess, no chance for Imhotep to even connect his city to his copper network...
So in 5t the praetorian will attack a city defended by a warrior (or none).

If it happens this way, I think Imhotep should comes to his sense and should find a longer peace - deal with thge Borg.

[Swiss Pauli]

Yeah, but that city will autoraze, so what exactly does The Borg gain, except an enemy?

[Jabah]

Autorazing the city will definitly be better than giving Imhotep a chance to keep a city too close to him.

Another option would be to declare, get the praetorian next to the city and engage discussion, but The Borg should not accept anything less than having the city given to him in exchange for a definite peace treaty (and future fair compensations, but that would not fit the 'role-playing' part).

(PS will the city autoraze, it would have benn there for a bit more than 5t and could possibly have grown to size2 with the rice ??)

[Sullla]

Alright, as we get back underway again with the Pitboss game, let me do a sort of unofficial overview of where we stand. I wanted to log into the game and take some revealed-map screenshots, but you can't do that with a Multiplayer save file, not even by going into debug mode! Pretty sharp here on Firaxis' part. (There was once a time when you could go into debug mode. We had some fun MP matches in testing where everyone was frantically trying to debug in as many Modern Armors and nukes as they could! )

In lieu of a straight ranking, I'm going to divide the teams into three groups: Civs in Strong positions, Civs in Average positions, and Civs in Weak positions. Obviously, I expect much of this to change over the next few dozen turns, and naturally it's all my opinion too!

Strong Positions

[/url]

regoarrarr: I think he's in the best overall position at present. regoarrarr's Diplo experience has put him in good standing with all neighbors, and virtually everyone around India seems to be going after someone else. regoarrarr is expanding nicely, he's going to get a large share of the continent shared with shadyforce and ZPV, plus he has tons of land to the north to expand into. Imhotep, sunrise, shady, and ZPV all seem to like him and want friendly relations. And of course, as a member of the Uber Tech Alliance, regoararr's in a strong trading position. I really didn't expect regoarrarr to do so well; I'd say it's a testiment to the power of chatting up your neighbors over and over again.



ZPV: Also in a great spot. The picture above is already outdated; he's got three cities already, pushing aggressively towards shadyforce and regoarrarr, and looks set to become a major power in the south. ZPV is also a member of the Uber Tech Alliance, and with shadyforce ignoring defenses right now, he could run over his nearest neighbor and turn into a huge powerhouse in the next 25 or so turns. The one danger I see is if the move on shadyforce doesn't work as intended, or if shady gets tipped off and builds some spears. Overall though, looking good here.



dsplaisted: Just landed the Great Lighthouse, and that's a big deal on this map. With mostly_harmless and Kodii acting rather strangely over to the east, there's lots of room to expand here too. The two reasons why I put dsplaisted a little lower than the others is his absence from the Uber Tech Alliance, and the slower growth curve resulting from early fixation on the Great Lighthouse. (dsplaisted has pigs at the start, but still no Animal Husbandry!) However, this is a team that's well poised for strong economic growth now that the Lighthouse has been chopped out.

Average Positions

http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/attac...1248627468 (image too large to post directly)

League of Lin: Another member of the Uber Tech Alliance, and certainly off to a good start from a growth standpoint. The third city placement will block off Broker from moving north, and with sunrise being crippled to the east, there's going to be a good of room for the Lins to expand. The reason why I don't them higher is because they are the closest team to Krill, and combat of one sort or another looks to be coming there very shortly. The likelihood of intense warfare in the near future degrades them in my opinion to the top of the Average group.



Ruff Hi: Ruff has iron, and he has Aggressive Praetorians, and that alone puts him fairly highly on the list. But he has just about nothing else, badly lacking in basic worker techs, and no tech deals or NAPs lined up anywhere. In fact, I would put Ruff lower if it weren't for the giant target that mh and Kodii have painted on their backside. If Ruff's wars go well then he'll move up in the rankings; if they protract and drag out, the opposite will take place. I will say that pushing aggression in both directions, at Imhotep and mh/Kohii, seems like a very bad idea to me.



Broker: He's done some things really well, founding one of the two early religions and getting into the Uber Tech Alliance. But Broker hasn't done much to capitalize on these advantages... Broker's got the Organized trait and cheap rathauses, so there's absolutely no excuse not to blanket the map in workers and settlers, especially since he has positive relations with his only neighbor, the Lins. Instead, his expansion has been slow, and he keeps messing around with Stonehenge and the Oracle, which are both unnecessary! Kind of a classic case of getting distracted from what's important to go chasing after secondary goals, IMO. I'm curious where Broker goes from here.



Imhotep: I'm not entirely sure how Imhotep is doing, since he has posted much less than anyone else in this game. (That picture is from weeks ago!) So... this is kind of a mystery. A lot will depend on what happens with this Praetorian Ruff is sending after Imhotep's forward city. If they both get involved in a long war, impi against prat, it's only going to drag them both down.



Krill/Memphus: Probably no one has played a better game yet from a tactical standpoint. But I put them pretty far down the list because their game has been a strategic mess thus far, managing to get locked out of the trading loop and make enemies of everyone they encountered. Now, that's not entirely their fault as a latecomer, but it doesn't make for a good situation either. sunrise and the Lins both want a piece of Krill, and it looks like there's going to be a lot of conflict ahead in the future. IMO, Krill would have been better served not attacking sunrise and simply concentrating on expanding super-fast in the north, while subtly undermining the Uber Tech Alliance wherever and whenever strains appeared in the relationship. Of course, I'm just as happy not to see that happen, as we get a much more exciting game!

Weak Positions



shadyforce: Looks to be one of the early diplomatic victims. shady hasn't managed to get on good terms with either neighbor (ZPV and regoarrarr) and looks to be the odd man out in this England/France/Germany trio (to use a Diplomacy reference). He's just chopped out a lighthouse en route to a Great Lighthouse that dsplaisted already built, and the lack of copper in this area is going to spell major trouble if/when ZPV attacks. There *IS* iron here, but I tend to doubt shady will research there in time. Failure to line up any tech deals is a problem.



mostly_harmless/Kodii: This is the classic "WTF?!" screenshot. The minimap shows how far apart all three Byzantine cities are located, none of them connected by road. And Aggressive Rome is next door, with iron already connected and Prats coming out. Meanwhile, mh and Kodii are fooling around with building Stonehenge, which they don't need because they're Creative!!! And they don't even have a religion to create a shrine need. Geeze, guys... not your best effort, methinks. This team had better hope that Ruff and Imhotep get into a long, debilitating war against one another, because otherwise this is going south in a hurry.

[url=http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/492/civ4screenshot0454.jpg]

sunrise: I never thought I would say this, but sunrise has played the worst game thus far. Grabbing the first religion with Polytheism was a nice move. Everything after that didn't make sense. Building Stonehenge right out of the gate instead of a warrior or worker?! Teching towards Monotheism while ignoring Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry?! We all know that the Isbella strategy is a failure in Single Player, and yet sunrise embraced it here for unknown reasons. I just don't understand why he didn't go to Bronze Working after the first religion, chop out Stonehenge, and then continue chopping out workers and settlers... Was the need for a second religion really that great? Anyway, Krill made things a million times worse by stealing sunrise's only worker, landing sunrise firmly in last place. Even being a member of the Uber Tech Alliance isn't enough to salvage this position right now.

What does everyone else think? How would you evaluate where everyone stands right now in the Pitboss game?

[Iamjohn]

Very nice summary Sullla! It'll be real interesting to see how this changes over the course of the game.

Krill/Memphus: Probably no one has played a better game yet from a tactical standpoint. But I put them pretty far down the list because their game has been a strategic mess thus far, managing to get locked out of the trading loop and make enemies of everyone they encountered. Now, that's not entirely their fault as a latecomer, but it doesn't make for a good situation either. sunrise and the Lins both want a piece of Krill, and it looks like there's going to be a lot of conflict ahead in the future. IMO, Krill would have been better served not attacking sunrise and simply concentrating on expanding super-fast in the north, while subtly undermining the Uber Tech Alliance wherever and whenever strains appeared in the relationship. Of course, I'm just as happy not to see that happen, as we get a much more exciting game!

I think that the key for Krill is not getting overly involved in a war. Hopefully once the praetorians and maybe ZPV start making waves people will get distracted and leave Krill/Memphus alone. Otherwise I just don't think they'll be able to pull ahead enough to battle the number of people that are looking for his head.

Both Krill and Memphus are insanely good at deciding which out of 101 possible moves are the best both in and out of combat, and I think that will help them significantly. But diplomacy really doesn't seem to be their thing and that will really hurt them if they arn't able to be friendly imo. There's too many people making alliances, not even counting the UTA and who ever doesn't do that is doomed imo.

[Olodune]

Excellent summary Sullla

Imhotep and Ruff are a little unlucky with their positioning -- if they could build a military coalition they would be very dangerous to neighbors. Sadly, it looks like they may fight among themselves instead (apart from Ruff potentially annexing part of MH-Kodii territory). I would actually downgrade Ruff's position to "weak" in your system since the UTA is soooo far away ... and Ruff is hurting badly on the growth curve.

The two wildcards (in my mind, currently) are ZPV and Imhotep. We haven't seen much from the Zulu leader so perhaps a surprise is in order ...

ZPV's "deal" with Regoarrar sounded a bit off to me ... that said Shady sure looks like easy picking at the moment.

If Krill goes into total war mode, I don't see the Lins coming out very well.