[LURKERS] To Lurk, Perchance to Scheme no More

[Bobchillingworth]

I think Dave forgot about the Bounty Hunter promotion. I suppose he'll remember once he takes another look at one of his opponent's Hunters.

[Bobchillingworth]

I suppose one nice thing about the donut being kind of small is that jalapeno's early elimination only freed up 3-4 city sites for his two neighbors.


Also glad everyone is on roughly equal footing atm, although Dave's looking vulnerable to Plako.

[Qgqqqqq]

Otoh, that means the same proportionally, and the relative strength is reached early, so early war (where assistance is all the more unlikely).

[Bobchillingworth]

Gotta feel for Dave, it's tough when the game rewards what objectively looks like questionable play (attacking with only three units at poor odds?)

[Qgqqqqq]

Agreed.

I disagree with Dave that Auroracher will do well out of this. I think plako is a stronger long-term threw than Dave is giving him credit for, and I think he's overestimating what this fight is costing plako.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thought experiment: Say Dave is beaten back to one city, but has a decentish force to survive the next ~20t. Do you build a settler and make a dash for the ice, knowing that you cannot win the game with just that?

[Qgqqqqq]

And Auro is settling FZ. Interesting.

I am pretty sure you guys made it impossible to get there by sea without Optics but TRs are still avilable at Sailing, pretty clever actually!

One teensy thing wrong with this statement, unfortunately.

[Bobchillingworth]

Looks like Auro might have overreached here. He could def. take Mardoc in a straight fight, and maybe Plako, but I think he's outmatched against all three opponents, two of whom have specialized into their own T3 units and another who has an empire and army of equivalent size.

[Bobchillingworth]

Also, hey, this map has sort of started working like we initially envisioned! Still kind of surprised only one (?) person has begun colonizing the Forbidden Zone, but I imagine that will change if the rest of them can manage to slot in any Settler builds. The islands seem to have worked out well, at least.

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm surprised even one has done so already. You've got to remember just how expensive initial expansion is - opening a new front against barbs/opponents and thus requiring substantial escort that can't versatilely shift to defending a different front, the same for workers sent, coupled with long travel time increasing the delay on investment. It may well be that expending that investment on mainland moroi would allow Auro to close off the game in the next 20t (especially given that he's turning off tech, when the only way the star can really help the mainland lies in commerce [and later, happiness res.]).

OTOH, the cost diminishes pretty quickly with further expansions. So I expect early expansion there will help Auro considerably if this goes later.