[LURKERS] Setting Up Tents for a Ren Faire

[The Black Sword]

The difference between Mack's demos and REM's right now are in part because Mack has whipped over 20 phracts while the others have been infra building. Of course his demos will look bad now when his conquest has zero effect on them. But he's in a position to take over all of Al's land right now and it's hard to see how anyone can interfere. If he can consolidate that it will look a lot more favourable for him. Tbh I don't know which of REM or Mack are winning at the moment, which I guess means neither is a runaway. 

I think he needs to try to close out this war as soon as he can. Switch back into slavery ASAP and just whip out a hell of a lot of infra/workers/whatever he needs to consolidate while his huge Cataphract stack still make the other players too fearful of messing with him. Other players have been saying that they're fearful of dogpiling Al because they're afraid Mack will backstab them but IMHO someone helping kill Al faster (especially if they just razed the cities rather than try to hold them) would be a huge blessing for Mack. What does he care if he only gets 7-8 cities out of this war rather than 12? If he's forced to wait 10-15 more turns before he can consolidate he'll never be able to get that stuff, there will be a new crisis to deal with.

I think the problem for plako and RMOG is geography; both of their invasions points are pretty much right beside Mack's. The only person who's invasion point is far enough away from Mack that he could take and hold more than 1-2 cities max is REM. Unfortunately he's the only one where Mack really does care about taking more land.

I still think Scooter needs to move on Mack. Scooter seems pretty disheartened, so maybe he'll roll the dice and go for it. Anything Scooter can take will be magnified by the SoL.

Even if he had the army, he just doesn't have any attack vectors. He can't attack navally because he doesn't have galleons and on land Mack has only 1 hardpoint to hold on the isthmus, it's too easy for him to spot and defend an attack. If I were scooter I'd probably be eyeing up RMOG.

[Fluffball]

Tbh I don't know which of REM or Mack are winning at the moment, which I guess means neither is a runaway. 

REM is undoubtedly winning at the moment if we froze time, those wonders he has are massive. If Mack takes most of Al, he probably moves ahead. I mean ~30+ cities or whatever > ~20 even if they're mediocre. Neither is a runaway.
Nekira (sp?) gave a pretty rousing speech in Scooter's thread, who is absolutely not out of contention for winning. From the 2 threads I've observed it feels like low morale is the biggest cause of PB losses. 
Understandable since the time commit seems completely insane.

[pindicator]

That comment he made about it being a marathon is 110% spot on. I think it's been one of my biggest flaws, picking a strict strategy and then despairing when it falls apart.

[The Black Sword]

My definition of winning is to ask myself which civ I would pick to take over to get the final victory. By that criteria I honestly don't know whether it'd be mack or Rem right now. I think just looking at the economic demos and saying Rem is winning or just the military ones and saying mack is doesn't take into account the whole picture.

I agree morale is huge in these PBs though(we agree on something!  ). A number of games I've found myself behind and just have to tell myself to keep making good decisions instead of giving up. Civ has some natural rubber band mechanics and I think it's surprising how big of a deficit you can recover from. I would not put any civ beside Al at 0% chance to win yet.

[Elkad]

I find the fact that every thread says "uhoh, abandon plans for democracy/communism/whatever and go get rifling before %insert_civ_here% wins the game" at basically the same time highly entertaining.

[OT4E]

I wonder how could that happen that never before this idea came in their heads.

[picklepikkl]

Ugh, I realize in hindsight that it probably wasn't kosher of me, as a global lurker and "not a team member", to point out the 20 gpt-20g trade in scooter's thread. It didn't involve global knowledge, but it definitely prompted player action.

Oh well.

[GermanJoey]

It's fine Pickle, stuff like that is OK to say something about especially since he posted the screenshot first. (how he didn't notice it himself first after taking a screenshot, I have no idea...)

Speaking of Scooter, I really wonder what his 100% slider income is. Comparing REM's 100% income to Mack's is pretty startling... REM is bringing in 670bpt/-70gpt, while Mack's bringing in 320bpt/-230gpt. That's like, something like a 5X-6X income difference at least. 5 turn difference, though. Mack is also known to ham it up a bit in his thread w/ the doom and gloom... he does have a double gold stash (successful conquest does feed one's economy, for a time), and it wouldn't surprise me if he had realized that he'd end up with big expenses if he went for early conquest and squeezed out a bank or two in his cottage centers.

[Mardoc]

that doesn't account for the fact that he's about to have free rein of the map with Rifles while people run around with longbows,

I have the instinctive reaction that rifles aren't that bad because they're one-movers - cats + knights can still clean them up. And REM doesn't have Astronomy. Is that a reasonable reaction, or is REM in fact about ready to win this?

I suppose the fact that he's pushing for cavalry, not rifles, is an indication of something.

[Zalson]

that doesn't account for the fact that he's about to have free rein of the map with Rifles while people run around with longbows,

I have the instinctive reaction that rifles aren't that bad because they're one-movers - cats + knights can still clean them up. And REM doesn't have Astronomy. Is that a reasonable reaction, or is REM in fact about ready to win this?

I suppose the fact that he's pushing for cavalry, not rifles, is an indication of something.

Did you mean that say Rifles aren't that good (because they're one movers)? Was confused by the above.

I'm tremendously interested in all the doom and gloom around here, mostly because it is pervasive in every camp. Fun times!