PBEM 57 Postgame Thread

[Commodore]

Well, that was fun.


I'll have more thoughts later, but really, awesome game there Ox, and good solid defending Queeg/Ruff, borders were going to be static for a long long time. I had fun, for all that I screwed the pooch in several places; I think I show pretty clearly how *not* to use an early golden age. Ox, you took the right trait for this map and used it well; Phi is just so huge with these limited tiles. Nobody really made a mess of things/fouled up, good game all.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah, PHI was much better then I expected, and you used it very well. I was surprised just how peaceful the map design turned out to be, I never would have called that. In retrospect, Iwas disappointed with the way the map seemed to only favor conflict over the grassy area and only towards that opponent - I don't think any over route had good prospects for making gains without exposing that area to another player, I for one never really felt afraid of Commodore because any attack he made wouldn't have much gain, and only serve to expose me more to Oxy. Maybe it was a function more of the players then the map - I'm certainly more of a builder - but that's what it felt like to me.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

I think the general pacifism of the game was a combination of four generally builder-y players and the fact that I got HBR early, forcing people to respond with spears, and then I didn't get that aggressive with the HA's. This prompted heavily defensive armies from everyone, making attack unrealistic. Also, the tech speed was pretty fast which discourages warring.

Commodore, why did you follow me to nationalism and then make no attempt to steal Taj from me? It was empty research until mil trad and you had to delay MC for a very long time.

Q, looking at your army, I think you would have held out for a while. My main army was 18 cavs, 17 rifles, 12 cats and a bunch of obsolete crap, but they were pretty evenly spread out across my empire. I was heading to communism, so you probably would have gotten steel before me, so making substantial gains would have been very hard. My plan was to force you to continue to strangle your economy to build an army and then focus my offensive efforts on Commodore, as he was the only one who could win at that point. Once I saw he invaded Ruff, I moved half my army up there, getting ready to vulture whatever gains he made, while keeping about 8 rifles on your border. At the time the game ended, I was getting ready to raze his city adjacent to Lupin with about 25 mounted units. My MFG and GNP were already double everyone else's.

Ruff, retrospectively, do you think your early academy/monarchy strategy backfired? I was surprised by the lack of growth in your capital, despite the very early revolt into HR. Also, did you ever consider going to education for Oxford, or were you too concerned with surviving at that point?

Overall, great game everyone. It was a lot of fun

EDIT: Commodore and Ruff: do you mind if you post your passwords?

[Commodore]

Commodore, why did you follow me to nationalism and then make no attempt to steal Taj from me? It was empty research until mil trad and you had to delay MC for a very long time.

EDIT: Commodore and Ruff: do you mind if you post your passwords?

"Nappy"

I did attempt to steal the Taj; I was going to 1-turn it I believe the turn after you completed it. Just not enough time, alas.

Honestly where I really fell down was in my Great Person management here; in a small map like this there is nothing more vital. I would have been better if I kept Restricted, that should tell you how big a deal Phi is.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks. I wonder if I could've made any gains while you were out of position...probably not, but would've been fun trying.

I also found it funny the deep beelines that Commodore and myself did, both ignoring MC for far too long. I think I could have got Taj if I'd tried hard enough, but I didn't think of it until after I was committed to the music line, and then ended up delaying using my GP for far too long. I think that's the biggest thing I'll take out of this, the importance of managing GP.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Looking at everyone's saves, it seems like I had a pretty insurmountable lead. Just looking at 100% bpts:

Commodore: 500
Q: 393
Ruff: 350(GA)
Oxy: 891

And this was before I researched communism and launched my third golden age to get into state property. That said, looking at everyone's armies, I doubt I would have made substantial progress. Though I was about to raze Cahoots and pillage all of its cottages into the ground, which would have been a substantial blow. I may have tried pressing further into Commodore's territory considering his military losses. I think the mounted stack after losses was 13 cavs, 2 knights and 4 horse archers, which probably could have razed another city, so I suspect the game would have soon been over even if Commodore had captured Ruff's capital.

I do think PHI was a big part of my win here, as it let me spawn 3 GP to build an academy, bulb philo and trigger a GA to beat Commodore to lib by what ultimately ammounted to one turn. And then the speedy Oxford build really helped to cement my lead while continued production of GP kept the golden ages coming.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah, no one was matching you. You'd gone big military ages before and we were having to sacrifice economy just to safeguard against it, whilst your economy was still clocking up a storm.