(Slowly trying to catch up....)
Some great analysis, Swiss! Thanks for the game overview! (I know, I know, old news, but still...) I observe that I was (using out-of-date and otherwise inaccurate information and thus totally) wrong about many, many things - for instance, HRE's second city is obviously not by "Mali's" copper, but by "their own." It's just that their copper is relatively far from their capital, and they took advantage of their NAP to aggressively settle the far side of the copper ... sort of like a wiser (especially due to their existing NAP but also because it allows them to actually, you know, use the copper before they're smashed) and more conservative version of what Byzantium did.
I'm really disappointed in Rome's NAP breaking move. First of all ... really? Was that strictly necessary? Second of all, after honorably holding to his NAP at the first game-permitted opportunity to break it, just after joining the game, with a guaranteed Worker steal before him (at a time in the game when a free worker would have catapulted him toward victory) and an essentially guaranteed opportunity to eliminate Korea from the game entirely, he now violates the NAP, with workers no longer at such a premium, having already warned Korea that the NAP would be ending, 8 turns from its natural expiration ... when his mobile army consists of a single spear?! Meanwhile, knowing horses are Korea's only strategic resource, when he has ironworking due in 3, he switches both his cities to Axes! It ... just ... it's unfathomable to me. My best guess is just that the uncertainty and slow turns have been getting to him, and he felt he had to do something, no matter how dishonorable and crazy. (Oh, and checking Civstats and their threads, yeah, he double-moved to start the war, though perhaps unintentionally, and within the letter of this game's utterly preposterous rules.)
Some great analysis, Swiss! Thanks for the game overview! (I know, I know, old news, but still...) I observe that I was (using out-of-date and otherwise inaccurate information and thus totally) wrong about many, many things - for instance, HRE's second city is obviously not by "Mali's" copper, but by "their own." It's just that their copper is relatively far from their capital, and they took advantage of their NAP to aggressively settle the far side of the copper ... sort of like a wiser (especially due to their existing NAP but also because it allows them to actually, you know, use the copper before they're smashed) and more conservative version of what Byzantium did.
I'm really disappointed in Rome's NAP breaking move. First of all ... really? Was that strictly necessary? Second of all, after honorably holding to his NAP at the first game-permitted opportunity to break it, just after joining the game, with a guaranteed Worker steal before him (at a time in the game when a free worker would have catapulted him toward victory) and an essentially guaranteed opportunity to eliminate Korea from the game entirely, he now violates the NAP, with workers no longer at such a premium, having already warned Korea that the NAP would be ending, 8 turns from its natural expiration ... when his mobile army consists of a single spear?! Meanwhile, knowing horses are Korea's only strategic resource, when he has ironworking due in 3, he switches both his cities to Axes! It ... just ... it's unfathomable to me. My best guess is just that the uncertainty and slow turns have been getting to him, and he felt he had to do something, no matter how dishonorable and crazy. (Oh, and checking Civstats and their threads, yeah, he double-moved to start the war, though perhaps unintentionally, and within the letter of this game's utterly preposterous rules.)
Maniac Marshall Wrote:It's still very early, and a LOT can happen, but, IMO, the HRE bears watching as a dark horse candidate to win this game if world politics continue down their current path.I suspect that's right. I don't really think Mali and Greece will be able to do much damage to India - they'll just tank their own economies, and end up losing the war even 2v1 ... but in so doing, they might slow down the juggernaut enough to give someone else a chance to win. That's if they team up against India though, and at the moment ... I just don't see it.