I've posted my thoughts elsewhere already, but lets kick off here with a re-hash:
Initially I took over Gillette in a good position with a decent oracle-plan in place and we played a fairly solid game with a couple of terrible city locations (that I was glad Trolls eventually razed). Looking at the lurker thread it's pretty clear our lack of warfare helped us keep up with Trolls and with our long lack of copper was very fortunate. We had a decent military build-up against the Trolls around t140 that was foiled by their crazy tech speed and our failure to actually coordinate the dogpile with Tasunke (as well as a couple of tactical errors).
After that war we discovered and went all-out to colonise Smoothfoundland (obsoleting the Collossus so early was pretty painful, but needed). I think we had ten settlers in transit from the mainland at one point. We held off settling the south coast of the continent, but should perhaps have stopped after about five cities because getting to State Property was an absolute slog. The war with Trolls at t200 was always coming and our only aim was for Occam to survive - all the other cities were expendable. Thanks to the river around the city Trolls could never get odds on our cannons and loaned rifles, so it just wasn't possible for them to win there.
I've no idea about Pirates beyond the fact they were surprisingly far advanced by the end of the game (I think they might have been ahead of us?) Similarly I'd love to know what happened to TEAM and will read up eventually.
M3 never really had an opportunity to attack us with our holy city culture on their border. I thought about attacking their holy city and great lighthouse cities on several occasions, but decided that would hand the game to Trolls (who had done other things to be annoying too). M3 should probably have done better with TGL and the extra land they took from Pirates, I dunno if it was a lack of workers or failure to develop their capital, but they didn't tech as fast as they should.
Trolls were the best organised team and featured three of the best players on RB. The only flaw in their game was diplo - they automatically got a -1 for being the obvious leaders and in my dealings with plako I always felt like he'd run rings around me. If he did the same with the others there would be a lack of a +1 fair trade bonus. I doubt that I spent much more time doing diplo than Trolls, but I think that I generally offered generous terms.
The wonders Trolls placed in their border city were particularly annoying - obviously not against the letter of our agreement and very good civ play - but I'd explained that we were worried about their culture, so if they wanted friendly relations it was a bad move and the main reason we decided to attack t140 - our border was indefensible so we had to attack. When they went for the top of the tree we thought we had a chance to attack them, but then they just bulbed and golden-aged their way to maces and engineering and we were screwed and had to take an unfavourable peace.
Then I guess we beat Trolls to circumnavigation by a few turns, after which it would have been hard not to rule the waves (although I did manage to lose Rapier to some serious
). Then we could use Smoothfoundland to build airships while the mainland built cannons for the t200 war. I know airships are frowned upon generally, but the vision they gave and the edge they provided at sea were vital and let us prolong the war to a point where the other teams could join in. At which point the whipping and drafting Trolls had done to build their armies brought them to their knees.
I can't remember who said it's better to be lucky than good. Anyone know?
Initially I took over Gillette in a good position with a decent oracle-plan in place and we played a fairly solid game with a couple of terrible city locations (that I was glad Trolls eventually razed). Looking at the lurker thread it's pretty clear our lack of warfare helped us keep up with Trolls and with our long lack of copper was very fortunate. We had a decent military build-up against the Trolls around t140 that was foiled by their crazy tech speed and our failure to actually coordinate the dogpile with Tasunke (as well as a couple of tactical errors).
After that war we discovered and went all-out to colonise Smoothfoundland (obsoleting the Collossus so early was pretty painful, but needed). I think we had ten settlers in transit from the mainland at one point. We held off settling the south coast of the continent, but should perhaps have stopped after about five cities because getting to State Property was an absolute slog. The war with Trolls at t200 was always coming and our only aim was for Occam to survive - all the other cities were expendable. Thanks to the river around the city Trolls could never get odds on our cannons and loaned rifles, so it just wasn't possible for them to win there.
I've no idea about Pirates beyond the fact they were surprisingly far advanced by the end of the game (I think they might have been ahead of us?) Similarly I'd love to know what happened to TEAM and will read up eventually.
M3 never really had an opportunity to attack us with our holy city culture on their border. I thought about attacking their holy city and great lighthouse cities on several occasions, but decided that would hand the game to Trolls (who had done other things to be annoying too). M3 should probably have done better with TGL and the extra land they took from Pirates, I dunno if it was a lack of workers or failure to develop their capital, but they didn't tech as fast as they should.
Trolls were the best organised team and featured three of the best players on RB. The only flaw in their game was diplo - they automatically got a -1 for being the obvious leaders and in my dealings with plako I always felt like he'd run rings around me. If he did the same with the others there would be a lack of a +1 fair trade bonus. I doubt that I spent much more time doing diplo than Trolls, but I think that I generally offered generous terms.
The wonders Trolls placed in their border city were particularly annoying - obviously not against the letter of our agreement and very good civ play - but I'd explained that we were worried about their culture, so if they wanted friendly relations it was a bad move and the main reason we decided to attack t140 - our border was indefensible so we had to attack. When they went for the top of the tree we thought we had a chance to attack them, but then they just bulbed and golden-aged their way to maces and engineering and we were screwed and had to take an unfavourable peace.
Then I guess we beat Trolls to circumnavigation by a few turns, after which it would have been hard not to rule the waves (although I did manage to lose Rapier to some serious
). Then we could use Smoothfoundland to build airships while the mainland built cannons for the t200 war. I know airships are frowned upon generally, but the vision they gave and the edge they provided at sea were vital and let us prolong the war to a point where the other teams could join in. At which point the whipping and drafting Trolls had done to build their armies brought them to their knees.I can't remember who said it's better to be lucky than good. Anyone know?
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
In progress: Rimworld
