[SPOILERS] Lurkerloos and map discussion

[Sullla]

Well, what exactly did everyone think was going to happen? Both sides had exactly the same level of technology. Both sides had large numbers of catapults sitting around. Without a tech lead or a large population/land disparity, the defender always wins in Civ4. These teams have been repeating the same song and dance for centuries now. Whoever attacks first always ends up losing.

I think people are enjoying this game so much because of the contrast between some excellent play from some of the competitors, and truly awful play from some of the others. Much of the decision-making at the strategic level has been baffling.

[Krill]

It would have helped to move the stacks in at the same time, and onto the same tile...

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I had the same thought. The stack of doom works for a reason, eating up collateral being one of several. When Bigger talked about multiple stacks on multiple fronts, all I could think of was something like this happening. The worst part was they knew it was "a trap" and blithely went in anyway.

[Gavagai]

Bigger/Lewwyn actually have a significant advantage of perfect vision of almost everything Azza does... Not that they were able to exploit this advantage properly so far...

[dazedroyalty]

Agreed. They should have razed the one city they did and focused on taking out islands. I understand the frustration and focus on killing Azza because of the game long feud but they could have picked up some nice city locations while protecting their main borders. Then, with a larger empire and more tech power and Azza hurt if not crippled, they could have finished Azza off at an advantage later.

[Kofiman]

I think people are enjoying this game so much because of the contrast between some excellent play from some of the competitors, and truly awful play from some of the others. Much of the decision-making at the strategic level has been baffling.

There's entertaining bad play and there's boring bad play. Crazy strategies are generally more on the entertaining end. There's also been plenty of strange events, such as the 4-move galley fort canal boating attempt running into an opposing boating attempt, raeg-induced small-scale slugfests with lots of unit-exchange events, solid reporting, (particularly commodore with his history posts, and Thoth quoting kipling), not to mention the Island Madness™.

This is all with the backdrop of steady expansion by the leaders which looks like it'll lead to an exciting endgame.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

It's hard to see how this ends other than Plako winning. He has so much land to build up. Serdoa's geographic position (from what I can tell) is difficult. At some point, after the haves have finished gobbling up the have-nots, a contender is going to be able to fork Serdoa to pieces. Commodore and Plako's blobs are easier to defend geographically, and eventually Serdoa just won't be able to keep up with their land lead. Slowcheetah is the other contender, but I just don't see him beating Plako.

[dazedroyalty]

It's hard to see how this ends other than Plako winning. He has so much land to build up. Serdoa's geographic position (from what I can tell) is difficult. At some point, after the haves have finished gobbling up the have-nots, a contender is going to be able to fork Serdoa to pieces. Commodore and Plako's blobs are easier to defend geographically, and eventually Serdoa just won't be able to keep up with their land lead. Slowcheetah is the other contender, but I just don't see him beating Plako.

I agree that Plako most likely wins because he's incredibly competent, has executed his warring wisely and is not in a position that will be easy to attack compared to Serdoa and Slowcheetah. Slowcheetah is actually in a great position except 1) he's less experienced than Plako and 2) his islands are harder to defend. Commodore could win but I see conflict between him and Serdoa as inevitable based on their personalities.

Also, I think that pindooter choosing to refocus on Xenu probably means the loss of their best chance to hurt Slowcheetah. I don't know slowcheetah well enough to know how he'd respond to war but I'm guessing pressure on him now would be the best thing for slowing him down. However, that's not necessarily the best thing for pindooter directly.

[TheHumanHydra]

Commodore could win but I see conflict between him and Serdoa as inevitable based on their personalities.

What do you mean by this? [curious]

[dazedroyalty]

I mean commodore and him have had a history in this game and commodore in particular is likely to go to war. Serdoa isn't a warmongering per se but he's smart enough to know he can't ignore commodore and just hope for the best.