So addressing comments I haven't responded to...
Thanks guys.
I don't disagree on the learning from great players thing but excepting the aforementioned PBEM14, that's all I've done. PBEM12 - Kyan; PB4 - Spulla, plako, mackoti, LP; PBEM24 - mackoti; PBEM26 - rego, pindicator; FFH7 - Kyan et al; PBEM29 - mackoti, novice, SevenSpirits. I think its good to challenge yourself. I have learned a ton from those games and I am definitely a much better player than I was a year ago. I also think its good to be able to recognize when you're not good enough.
In terms of you as a player - I didn't mean to diminish your growth as a player to simply your spreadsheets (though I think you underestimate how awesome they are.) You're very clearly a thoughtful person and it comes out in your play (as it did in werewolf games.) Suffice to say your recent play has been very impressive in my book, as was your help here early on. And its one thing to know to focus on one thing - we discussed it ourselves quite often both in thread and out. Its another to maintain the focus to execute it. That's where we failed.
Nonetheless, I quite appreciate the analysis.
I saved this for last as its most relevant to the game at hand. Yes, I think they're very worried about mackoti - we underestimated him for probably the billionth time (at least I did) and he's obviously got the hammer at the moment. Lewwyn is in deep, deep trouble and given Lewwyn's current pseudo-Zen approach and oft-stated (to me at least) desire to cut his involvement in games here I wonder if he's going to be going balls to the wall (so to speak) to defend. Regardless, I suspect mack will have a large portion of his empire before he's done.
In terms of us - yeah, I think to some extent that they're extending a hand in friendship. The question is, do we want that? They've been at least as lousy a neighbor to us as we've been to them. So based on that, no reason to care. They have a city that is uniquely positioned to navally fork like half our empire. They have cultural control of a major portion of the East Indies and they shut us out of the tundra. So on a tactical level, they're our most natural enemy.
So the only reason I can see to kiss and make-up would be if we could somehow make a game of it from here if we did so. Do you see a way for that to happen? Does anyone? I don't see a way back into this for us. They will have rifles in probably 10 turns or less. Cavs won't be far behind that, Destroyers not far behind that. We're a billion years away from that. We are ~25t from economic explosion. In 25t its probably not an exaggeration to say that mackoti will be fielding Infantry and N7 not far behind that (or vice-verse.) So lurkers, teammates, global lurkers - tell me what incentive I have to play for here? A quiet 3rd place finish doesn't appeal to me, all caveats about not wanting to finish last aside. Right now the best gambit I see is to get a quick edge somewhere and try and hurt one or both of the leaders a bit before inevitably going down in a smoldering heap. But I'm open to discussion on the topic. As long as that's the case, I don't really care if N7 want to be friends.
Nicolae Carpathia Wrote:Boy you ain't going anywhere
Ichabod Wrote:I'm planning a new FFH Game as soon as PBEM X is over and I need players. You are recruited to play that game. There'll probably be a game with diplomacy, so get ready for it.
Thanks guys.
Serdoa Wrote:Hey Gaspar, I wanted to comment on that for quite some time now (basically since I saw it). I agree with the sentiments that groups should be setup so that the skill-disparity is not too great. But when I look at PBEM25 despite me feeling quite outmatched by plako and mackoti (later on when I realized how much better they played and what errors I did) I wouldn't want to miss the experience. I think my game improved quite a lot by playing against those guys and learning from them. And I surely am not the only one who experienced that. Though of course if the whole game is thrown out of whack because of a massive skill-disparity, that is no fun either.
Apart from that and completely unrelated to your game here and to the topic discussed, I don't think that I have lept past the PBEM14-group. And if, then I'd say that spreadsheets have the least to do with it. Didn't need one to tell you at the start of this game to concentrate on one thing, did I?
I don't disagree on the learning from great players thing but excepting the aforementioned PBEM14, that's all I've done. PBEM12 - Kyan; PB4 - Spulla, plako, mackoti, LP; PBEM24 - mackoti; PBEM26 - rego, pindicator; FFH7 - Kyan et al; PBEM29 - mackoti, novice, SevenSpirits. I think its good to challenge yourself. I have learned a ton from those games and I am definitely a much better player than I was a year ago. I also think its good to be able to recognize when you're not good enough.
In terms of you as a player - I didn't mean to diminish your growth as a player to simply your spreadsheets (though I think you underestimate how awesome they are.) You're very clearly a thoughtful person and it comes out in your play (as it did in werewolf games.) Suffice to say your recent play has been very impressive in my book, as was your help here early on. And its one thing to know to focus on one thing - we discussed it ourselves quite often both in thread and out. Its another to maintain the focus to execute it. That's where we failed.
Nonetheless, I quite appreciate the analysis.
oledavy Wrote:Why do you think they offered that trade?
It looks to me like they're trying to extend a hand of friendship. They have to be pretty worried about Mackoti's position in this game.
I saved this for last as its most relevant to the game at hand. Yes, I think they're very worried about mackoti - we underestimated him for probably the billionth time (at least I did) and he's obviously got the hammer at the moment. Lewwyn is in deep, deep trouble and given Lewwyn's current pseudo-Zen approach and oft-stated (to me at least) desire to cut his involvement in games here I wonder if he's going to be going balls to the wall (so to speak) to defend. Regardless, I suspect mack will have a large portion of his empire before he's done.
In terms of us - yeah, I think to some extent that they're extending a hand in friendship. The question is, do we want that? They've been at least as lousy a neighbor to us as we've been to them. So based on that, no reason to care. They have a city that is uniquely positioned to navally fork like half our empire. They have cultural control of a major portion of the East Indies and they shut us out of the tundra. So on a tactical level, they're our most natural enemy.
So the only reason I can see to kiss and make-up would be if we could somehow make a game of it from here if we did so. Do you see a way for that to happen? Does anyone? I don't see a way back into this for us. They will have rifles in probably 10 turns or less. Cavs won't be far behind that, Destroyers not far behind that. We're a billion years away from that. We are ~25t from economic explosion. In 25t its probably not an exaggeration to say that mackoti will be fielding Infantry and N7 not far behind that (or vice-verse.) So lurkers, teammates, global lurkers - tell me what incentive I have to play for here? A quiet 3rd place finish doesn't appeal to me, all caveats about not wanting to finish last aside. Right now the best gambit I see is to get a quick edge somewhere and try and hurt one or both of the leaders a bit before inevitably going down in a smoldering heap. But I'm open to discussion on the topic. As long as that's the case, I don't really care if N7 want to be friends.
I've got some dirt on my shoulder, can you brush it off for me?
![[Image: help-wanted.jpeg]](http://dsm5-reform.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/help-wanted.jpeg)
