[SPOILERS] scooter Reruns Bluey

[Mjmd]

Seriously, that yielded no comments? I've spawned like 3 GGs in the last few turns!

I commented in the lurker thread does that count?

[scooter]

Seriously, that yielded no comments? I've spawned like 3 GGs in the last few turns!

I commented in the lurker thread does that count?

Normally not really, but I'll get to read it in a few days I think, so we'll count it.

[Zed-F]

Do you think Pin can successfully take it from here? What do you think is the biggest potential stumbling block that could prevent him from doing so?

Proposition: early aggression and coordination between the aggressive players on a small map with quick access to enemy capitals is potentially a game-winning play. With diplo and some luck, it's possible for the aggressive players to quickly attack the players with better scaling traits such that they never get the chance to outgrow the aggressors, and no third party arises that benefits to such a degree that they can't be dog-piled by the aggressive team and dragged down. Agree or disagree? I get the sense you don't care for this approach and you'd only consider pursuing this kind of strat if you felt forced into it, but it seems like it could be viable in the right circumstances -- this game might not quite be it but if not, it comes close.

[T-hawk]

If there's 3 left, then that swings a lot on which way an inevitable 2v1 goes, right? Or is there a tight balance where no two can fight or else the third will run away? (What other games recently got to a stage where there were exactly 3 contenders in at least somewhat roughly equal states?)

[scooter]

Do you think Pin can successfully take it from here? What do you think is the biggest potential stumbling block that could prevent him from doing so?

The biggest stumbling block is potentially him being more occupied with PB74, honestly. On paper his position is really good, but in practice he's gotta find a way to get more cities, and I'm not sure he's going to have a better window than this one that he's seemingly declining.


However, I could be wrong. It's entirely possible he's looking to do something with Liberalism right now. I was his only theoretical competition for it, and now I'm out. Thoth is miles behind in tech, and this war is very expensive for Commodore, so maybe he can leverage that. It can't wait much longer, though. So I guess a global lurker would have a better idea than me at this stage.

Proposition: early aggression and coordination between the aggressive players on a small map with quick access to enemy capitals is potentially a game-winning play. With diplo and some luck, it's possible for the aggressive players to quickly attack the players with better scaling traits such that they never get the chance to outgrow the aggressors, and no third party arises that benefits to such a degree that they can't be dog-piled by the aggressive team and dragged down. Agree or disagree? I get the sense you don't care for this approach and you'd only consider pursuing this kind of strat if you felt forced into it, but it seems like it could be viable in the right circumstances -- this game might not quite be it but if not, it comes close.

The bolded part is key here. This map I don't think was super well-suited for a Medieval game, and I would have picked extremely differently had I known the shape of the map from the start. In general, I don't think over-concluding here makes much sense. I also think just sheer neighbor luck distorted this wildly. Thoth was very fortunate to spawn next to the two players with the least early game protection, and then he was also really lucky to hit my capital on the turn he did, because I was fully aware of the threat and it was going to be covered the very next turn - I literally lost two cities to turn order in the first 30 turns.


TL;DR I don't think many lessons from this game translate to more "normal" games. Of course 2v1s are good, but it's not often a map makes one so easy so fast.

If there's 3 left, then that swings a lot on which way an inevitable 2v1 goes, right? Or is there a tight balance where no two can fight or else the third will run away? (What other games recently got to a stage where there were exactly 3 contenders in at least somewhat roughly equal states?)

So much of these depend on the player perceptions on who is actually winning. Will they look at Commodore's city count and declare him the biggest threat? Will they view Vikings with land and Astro as the biggest threat? Will Pindicator Lib something that casts him in a dominant light? Everyone is dealing with imperfect information, and I think this weird 2v1 with Thoth/Commodore where Thoth took the punches and Commodore took the rewards while Pindicator sat the whole thing out is a good example of that. I'm guessing everyone thinks at least one player is making irrational choices.


I don't think there's any 2 that are tight and will overrun the third due to trust. All 3 players have played somewhat opportunistically, so I'd expect that to continue. Meaning, a 2v1 forming could be temporary if one player gains too much from one. A lot to me depends on whether Pindicator has a grand plan or not.

[scooter]

Had a little bit of fun using my 3-move Knight to retake this city while still having enough movement points to flee out of range afterwards. It was fun, but it was also a nice way to deny him some pop/infra. I was able to slip him into the capital this turn, so that was nice.





Commodore moved enough Knights to force me to relocate my Quiet Game garrison into the capital. I have a pretty good stack though, and his lack of siege means he's going to have a really rough time cracking the capital. I'm pretty sure he has enough - or will in a turn or two - but it's going to be extremely costly. However, my culture swamping everything makes it likely worthwhile.





Would be an extremely funny culture flip if it were to happen again. Sadly there surely won't be enough time to find out.

[Qgqqqqq]

Cities can't culture flip after conquest.

[scooter]

Cities can't culture flip after conquest.

They can if the setting is enabled! (I have no idea if the setting is enabled or not. Probably not.)

[Qgqqqqq]

I am aware of that I assume it isn't.

[scooter]

It appears I have likely played my final turn, so here's a few pictures of the last days.





Got a good laugh at Commodore's GNP. Gave me some flashbacks to a particularly special moment in RB PB history.





The RNG decided to kick me one last time on the way out which I appreciated. Essentially I had a chance to recapture Mustang while getting a second Medic promo on my Medic Musket, so I took the shot. And I lost at 96.6%. Fantastic. I did recapture Mustang though. Just felt it was worthwhile to kill pop/buildings. It was recaptured the next turn of course. Commodore sent the house at my capital on his turn, and while he didn't break through, he brought me down to the edge.





So I decided to be annoying one last time and recapture Quiet Game again. In this case obviously I wanted to kill more pop/buildings, but also I noticed I was 2XP away from a GG. This allowed me to spread some XP among the remaining units and add some promos. I'm hoping this will result in a few more kills on my way out. However, he's simply got too many Knights, so I think it's over. Although Commodore better be careful - if he swings and comes up short, Thoth will burn it, which he surely does not want. (Creek was able to squeak out exactly 40h which is what the Explorer build is about.)


Also, I believe this is now 4 times I've recaptured a city Commodore captured. This Morale Knight has caused so many headaches for both Thoth and Commodore over the last dozen turns. I had the opportunity last turn to capture/delete some workers, but it was gonna be a one-way trip, so I decided it wasn't a good use of the Knight.





Another revolt.





As for the rest of the world, no idea why Pindicator has just declined to participate in this portion of the game. Former Yurisland is not exactly well-defended and hasn't been this entire time, and Pindicator has an army to match the other two players, not to mention a huge naval tech edge. Like I said previously, it sort of looks like he checked out awhile ago. Really curious to find out what's going on up here.


Anyway, had some fun in this game, but in general I don't think the map was quite right for a Medieval start. Also just generally had some fairly poor luck this game, but I had fun trying to salvage something from a crippled empire. Getting the stack wipe on Thoth was incredibly satisfying. I certainly did not expect to die in this game before PB74.