RBP3 Lurker Discussion Thread - No Players!

[darrelljs]

This game shows why I'm not a fan of the Tech Trading Pitboss/PBEM games. You always end up with two big alliances (necessary for trading purposes to avoid falling behind) followed by long periods of stalemate, broken only when one of the alliances convinces one or two of the civs to backstab their friends and join the other side. We saw it in Pitboss #1, and the same thing seems to be happening here.

That's for sure. I realized it a few months into the game and essentially quit on my poor team. I have never actively hated an activity I spent so much time on as this game . I made my retirement official and now plan on thoroughly spoiling myself so they can't talk me out of it.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

So, a few of reactions .

1. Its surprising to me you guys thought we were going to win the game. I don't think we ever felt we were in the lead .

2. We saw our "inner 4" alliance like what Ruff/Dreylin had in PBEM 1. Basically its a "we work together until the end of the game, and dissolve when are positions are equal and dominant". It appears you guys thought it was something less.

3. We didn't realize you were upset with us for not chatting with you on a regular basis. In line with #2, we spent almost all of our diplo effort external to the alliance. I basically checked out of the game because I got tired of spending 2 hours a day on IM/e-mail with Byz/Maya/Portugal/Egypt/etc. It was just too much work and had nothing to do with civ. It seems we took you guys for granted, sorry about that.

Darrell

[Mukha]

I basically checked out of the game because I got tired of spending 2 hours a day on IM/e-mail with ...Portugal

Nice to know how much you valued Portugal's relations. Is there any other ally that did more ally type things for India than Portugal?

Settler, PAT information etc.

I never did trust Ottos/HRE. Although I did trust you guys, thought we could have taken each other to the end game. AWTA was formed by decree it seems and not born out of friendly actions. Where did Portugal fit in?

I'm sure if we both rejoined our respective teams and went on our marathon planning/chat sessions again we could sort these traitors out. Is it too late for that?

[darrelljs]

Now now...no need to get upset . I valud the alliance which was why I put the time in. My problem was that wasn't what I was looking for, I wanted to play civ but it was really a big game of survivor. I agree that our relationship with portugal ended up being probably our second strongest (behind aztecs). We turned down a chance to join PAT largely for that reason...

Darrell

[Mukha]

I think my post needed a smiley of some description. I'm not upset, enjoyed my time though I feel exactly the same way about it all as you. Most of the time spent with the game seemed to go towards avoiding the wrath of the mob.

As far as Cuddle is concerned, it seemed clear from very early on that only your team, Ottomans, and Portugal were willing to put the effort in and also were the only teams who had realized the style of game. Cuddle should have been continually trying to split PAT so that the next one voted off the battleground would be a PATtie, that should have been easier once it was clear that Cuddle wasn't falling behind.

The way I see the situation now is there are a few small informal or semi-formal alliances plus a few loners.

England/Egypt/Carthage
Mali/Babylon
HRE/Ottomans
India/Aztecs maybe Portugal. Don't think Portugal have been keeping up relations though.

Loners:
Incans
Byzantium
Rome
Mayans
Maybe Portugal. Portugal are at least viewed as a team who won't have anyone come to their aid.

Also, just what turn did India finally realize that Portugal = Cath Bruig? I should have changed the name up to keep you guys guessing.

[darrelljs]

I think we thought Cath Bruig was Krill for some reason . Eventually he told us it was you though.

Cuddle sucked for the reasons you stated (although I'd add Byz to the list of teams putting in the work). Most of the teams had checked out, and the teams that were willing to put in the work eventually ran out of gas. Early on Byz/India almost convinced Babylon/Maya to leave PAT and join Cuddle. It didn't happen the first time, but I think if we had kept on them it would probably have worked eventually . Instead, PAT kept at Cuddle and took HRE/Ottomans.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

If PAT are looking for an oppetunity to dump us then is there a possible allience we can make with Bzy, Babylon and maybe Mali? Is there a likely combination of our friends that could make a competitive allience?

I bet they could pick up India and Portugal for sure. And just maybe Aztecs now that Ottomans/HRE left. I would love to see this happen, would make the game more interesting .

Darrell

[Mukha]

I bet they could pick up India and Portugal for sure. And just maybe Aztecs now that Ottomans/HRE left. I would love to see this happen, would make the game more interesting .

Darrell

Morgan is Maya now right? I keep losing track with subs. I think it's a little paranoia there from Maya, but they are definitely feeling their loneliness. I'm not sure they could pick up Portugal, I logged into the Portugal email account to see what Donovan had been sending/receiving and there hadn't been an email received since the Otto switch and nothing sent since Dantski.

Teams I want to win because they are nice (or because I gave them a free settler, ):

Portugal
India
Aztecs
Maya

Teams who are going to win because they aren't:
Egypt (unless there's another change really soon)
England

There needs to be more chatter about bringing down Egypt and England a bit.

Changing the subject, whatever happened to Cataphracts? Could have sworn they were a unit in my copy of Civilopedia. So much effort to get Guilds and then... Curassiers?

[Bobchillingworth]

Changing the subject, whatever happened to Cataphracts? Could have sworn they were a unit in my copy of Civilopedia. So much effort to get Guilds and then... Curassiers?

Since I've checked out of this game (which most players seem to want to end anyway, and have for some time), I'm finally making it official with a post here.


I built quite a few cataphracts, sent out several increasingly desperate emails begging Sunrise (who at his own request was selected as the military leader/coordinator for CUDDLE) for some sort of tactical directives, but I never received any response. With no one to tell me exactly who I should attack with my cataphracts or where, no idea of how CUDDLE was faring in its various wars, and no one really pushing me to do anything, I defaulted to non-action. I did get some personal benefit for Byzantium out of my UU though. It kept other civs off my back, let me play catch-up for expansion in peace, and I suspect helped me get my couple of NAPs with England and Egypt on the side (I haven't read their threads yet).



And yeah, this game was a disaster, or at least a real chore to play after the first couple heady months. I can't really complain about my start, considering that I think I had one of the best, but the map was pretty boring. Few choke-points, no naval units or islands (despite most people having been in favor of at least galleys...), massive stretches of boring flatland with little resource variation. Combined with the giant inevitable alliances the game devolved into, the impossible task of maintaining regular diplomacy with over a dozen other teams, and the incessant pauses and reloads at the end, it was the archenemy of fun.


That's not to say that I didn't enjoy any of it- quite the opposite! For months I was enthralled with playing as part of a team in a public game with some very accomplished civers as competitors. I invested uncountable hours in it quite willingly, and got rather taken away with the diplomacy (I'm actually kind of hesitant to read some of the other team's threads... I have no doubts that I came across as occasionally unhinged in my chats). But as the game fell prey to increasing player ennui and the general principles of entropy, the charm and my enjoyment quickly evaporated. It probably didn't help that in the last few months I was in two other games which were far more interesting.