[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Mardoc]

Um, so was that a double move? I railroaded Dave's territory last turn to allow him to hit Gaspar himself

Probably not. I figure if they could make it from point A to point B without being gifted, then it's not a double.

It might get a little metaphysical, though. Cause this did mean that DaveV didn't declare himself

[Commodore]

So apparently I missed a rail, meaning they did get an extra tile of movement. But I think Noble realized I'd be in a better position if I could have replayed and taken the city with a few extra muskets.

[Commodore]

This turn was the calm before the calm before the inclement weather before the storm!


Yup, that is 14 damaged infantry that next turn will be 12 healthy infantry and 2 mildly boo-boo'd infantry. I love Medic III promotions. And thanks to the joys of rail lines, I can hit Halls of Agony just north of the ruins of Kiki next turn. It is, to quote everyone's favorite rocky guy, clobberin' time.

[Commodore]

...and thanks to the joys of rail lines, I can hit Halls of Agony just north of the ruins of Kiki next turn. It is, to quote everyone's favorite rocky guy, clobberin' time.

Well poop.



Ah well. This is going to be a big turn, so I'll be playing it tonight, but I checked it at lunch time, Dave is kind of ridiculous. And I need to get these musketeers out in front catching collateral, because Gaspar is fielding tanks.


This might get very, very bloody. I think my question is; can I tech to Arty before I need to run the slider 100% to fight War Weariness?

[Commodore]

As amusing as the butt-hurt bleating is, I really do see some of the annoyance Gaspar and Noble are experiencing. Dave is no doubt talking about wanting to watch the world burn, and at the same time waves the true but tiny flag of "gives moi a better shot at winning". That being said, I think really, truly, the reason I'm getting my CoW is the same reason they ever form: Diplomacy.

In the [strike]Banter[/strike] Show Yourself Thread, Gaspar and Noble have been belittling and criticizing Dave in particular and the competition in general for quite some time. It's going to happen anytime someone lets themselves be honest...notice how scooter and Rego clam up tight in tech threads and banter when it matters, which is always? It ain't because they don't have feelings. Honestly, I see real parallels here to both 17 and 23...in 17, Darrell and NoSpace tell the primitives to go sit and spin and let the big boys have their race. And so StM and Dave went, sat, and spun. In 23, Seven had quite legitimate game mechanics beefs that were delivered with the classic Seven Spirits condensation, and so LuddiPin make the ridiculous 34865901 knight army to support Mackoti. Couple the resentment people feel when they are being ignored, minimized, or talked down to and add the very natural "dogpile the leader because they deserve it" human impulse, and you're going to see these kinds of interactions whenever communication occurs. Not all the time, but talking is a petard, and darned if it ain't a human impulse to hoist oneself with it.

Honorable mention goes to my other current games, PB5 and 34s. And particularly to 34s, where I have an army full of petards. Iron bombs rock.

[scooter]

Yep, pretty much exactly that. The original example was I believe PBEM1 where Ruff said something to MH that implied he thought MH would have no effect on the outcome of the game... Resulting in MH swinging to help Dreylin win a diplo victory. This is why I don't like banter/public threads in serious games. It works nicely in a casual sidegame like 34s, but even there I have occasionally shut my mouth for a number of reasons. In a more involved game, I'm not a big fan of the concept.

[Commodore]

So, um, I was just trying to generate myself a Great General...


Apparently, I'm reporting this turn in pieces. I'm so excited, I'm going to go play 34s and come back in a bit before I play the rest. Elated generals throw away too many troopers.

[Bigger]

As amusing as the butt-hurt bleating is, I really do see some of the annoyance Gaspar and Noble are experiencing. Dave is no doubt talking about wanting to watch the world burn, and at the same time waves the true but tiny flag of "gives moi a better shot at winning". That being said, I think really, truly, the reason I'm getting my CoW is the same reason they ever form: Diplomacy.

In the [strike]Banter[/strike] Show Yourself Thread, Gaspar and Noble have been belittling and criticizing Dave in particular and the competition in general for quite some time. It's going to happen anytime someone lets themselves be honest...notice how scooter and Rego clam up tight in tech threads and banter when it matters, which is always? It ain't because they don't have feelings. Honestly, I see real parallels here to both 17 and 23...in 17, Darrell and NoSpace tell the primitives to go sit and spin and let the big boys have their race. And so StM and Dave went, sat, and spun. In 23, Seven had quite legitimate game mechanics beefs that were delivered with the classic Seven Spirits condensation, and so LuddiPin make the ridiculous 34865901 knight army to support Mackoti. Couple the resentment people feel when they are being ignored, minimized, or talked down to and add the very natural "dogpile the leader because they deserve it" human impulse, and you're going to see these kinds of interactions whenever communication occurs. Not all the time, but talking is a petard, and darned if it ain't a human impulse to hoist oneself with it.

Honorable mention goes to my other current games, PB5 and 34s. And particularly to 34s, where I have an army full of petards. Iron bombs rock.

+1
people are so used to light or no diplo in that they don't realize the very real effect diplomacy has on any games with more than 1 human. I have the opposite opinion of Scooter - I think AI diplo just removes another weapon from those that are skilled at diplomacy and turns the game even more into a math equation. I wish there were more full diplo games, tbh, for this very reason.

[scooter]

+1
people are so used to light or no diplo in that they don't realize the very real effect diplomacy has on any games with more than 1 human. I have the opposite opinion of Scooter - I think AI diplo just removes another weapon from those that are skilled at diplomacy and turns the game even more into a math equation. I wish there were more full diplo games, tbh, for this very reason.

I actually mostly agree with you. It's a very real skill and AI diplo does remove it a lot (not completely though by any stretch)... However, it's often just not very fun, which is why we've seen full diplo games go nearly extinct.

[SevenSpirits]

I actually mostly agree with you. It's a very real skill and AI diplo does remove it a lot (not completely though by any stretch)... However, it's often just not very fun, which is why we've seen full diplo games go nearly extinct.

Yes. I like diplo, but the problem is that playing with diplo on just obliterates some other parts of the game. Most importantly, it removes almost all military considerations until the late game, which is a really big loss and IMO makes the game much less interesting overall even though it adds something cool too.

Similarly, the difference between AI diplo and always war has tradeoffs, too. AI diplo gives some really fun positive interaction while keeping at least some meaning to early military. Always War has two benefits for the almost complete lack of diplomatic interaction: it has the maximum amount of skirmishing, and it has the minimum amount of kingmaking. (In AI diplo, there are typically two ways to respond to a war declaration where you are screwed: fight it out gallantly, or give them enough stuff (cities, etc) to prolong your existence a bit more. And these decisions often have enormous impact on the game. In Always War, the choice is always to fight, never to reward the guy attacking you.)