[no players] Warsighs of the Newb: An Experiment in Lurking.

[NobleHelium]

I don't think Sisu looked good in the demos either, he just looked good in score. My rule of thumb is that the leader in score can't be treated as the real leader unless he leads by at least 100 points.

[NobleHelium]

Suttree declares war to Boldy, because aparently he needs to declare war to everyone...

Accurate...

[Sullla]

Someone will have to explain to me after this game is over why retep is so keen to pick a fight with the game's top military power. I don't doubt that he can take some cities, but it feels silly to invest that much effort when he could settle uninhabited islands instead, and now Xenu and Boldly will spend the rest of their game trying to make retep's life miserable. Furthermore, now that wetbandit has finally posted some images, he's not even that far behind:



I still think that retep wins, but isn't engaging in a bloody war against Xenu/Boldly pretty much the only possible scenario where he can lose this game?

[Jowy]

It's like he plays Civ for fun, eww

[scooter]

now Xenu and Boldly will spend the rest of their game trying to make retep's life miserable.

More than anything, this is why I think it's an amazingly bad decision. Xenu and Boldly are not the types to roll over or just take peace forever after you lift a couple cities from them. Xenu is (in)famous for his blinding rage and oh look:

Yeah he can go fuck himself with an offer like that.

It probably will make this game a whole lot more interesting, though.

[Commodore]

Greens game, still. I don't think anyone has played perfectly, which is a bit much to expect even from a veteran crowd, and these guys have been a pretty amazing set of newbies. Honestly though as long as retep just takes their island holdings he's fine, not like they can get at him with the naval disparity as it is. He'll have frigates before they sniff galleons and destroyers before they figure out frigates.

[Krill]

Someone will have to explain to me after this game is over why retep is so keen to pick a fight with the game's top military power. I don't doubt that he can take some cities, but it feels silly to invest that much effort when he could settle uninhabited islands instead, and now Xenu and Boldly will spend the rest of their game trying to make retep's life miserable. Furthermore, now that wetbandit has finally posted some images, he's not even that far behind:



I still think that retep wins, but isn't engaging in a bloody war against Xenu/Boldly pretty much the only possible scenario where he can lose this game?

How are Boldly and Xenu going to do anything to Retep when they can't even stay at breakeven at max tax?

[Gavagai]

I strongly doubt that retep could win this easily, war with Boldy or not. He has much less land than William or Wetbandit. His power comes mostly from 1) wonders and 2) no fronts to defend; but the role of wonders will naturally decline over time and if he wants more land, he will eventually have to clash with some other civ. On the other hand, at some point William and Bandit will become strong enough to take land from Molach and Oxy cost efficiently and at that point retep's lack of land would become critical. He had to leverage his tech advantage while he had one and convert it into more land. His alternatives were to take islands in the east or Boldy's land in the west. And I'm not sure that even with islands he would be big enough. On the other hand, holding Boldly's land would be difficult; even if he defeats his hordes of 'phracts (which is by itself definitely doable), he will have to face Suttree, who is much more dangerous long-term. Defending this front would be a really heavy burden.

[Gavagai]

I think William has a decent chance to win at this point. He borders with Oxy and Boldly. Both are very backward and Boldly is going to collapse under retep's attack. Throw in Kuro and you will have a pretty large quantity of land for William to take. Of course, he would need to play it out carefully; badly managed war with Kuro really put him off.
On the other hand, Wetbandit has Molach in his way. Molach is teching very well, he already has Rifling, I think. Wetbandit will need tanks to make this war worth trouble.

[Zed-F]

Would it be considered terribly unsportsmanlike for Boldly to trade his island cities he can't hold to someone else that is in a better position to build a navy to defend them, in exchange for enough money to kick-start his economy again? I was going to ask Boldly, but I'm not sure I should be giving him ideas.