Darrell - thought you might be feeling like that. 
True on smiting Spullla now being a good opportunity, but AFAIK Dantski is the only person in a sensible position to do so and he's locked himself into 10 turns of peace...
I think writing the game off this early is a little premature. HRE has a strong economy, plako/broker have played an excellent game after getting praet stomped, Slaze might well be a contendor as he's just in some temporary economic mess with some strong military options, Kathlete and Whosit both have a lot of land at the moment... wait and see, says I!

True on smiting Spullla now being a good opportunity, but AFAIK Dantski is the only person in a sensible position to do so and he's locked himself into 10 turns of peace...
I think writing the game off this early is a little premature. HRE has a strong economy, plako/broker have played an excellent game after getting praet stomped, Slaze might well be a contendor as he's just in some temporary economic mess with some strong military options, Kathlete and Whosit both have a lot of land at the moment... wait and see, says I!
