[LURKERS] To Lurk, Perchance to Scheme no More

[Bobchillingworth]

I'm cool with them being able to pillage them for cash. Makes affording expansion a little easier and gives them an incentive to send something that way other than the weak Scout.

[Qgqqqqq]

But advantages RAI players (which is just Mahala, iirc?).

[Bobchillingworth]

True. Between the extra starting unit, ice landmass and RAI citadel pillaging we probably gave too many inadvertent advantages to plako. It's not clear that he has actually realized he possesses any of them though.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah. I suppose on the one hand it demonstrates that we were being effectively "civ-blind" in how we map made. On the other hand, of course, it imbalanced the game.

It's possible he's not rushing out of courtesy, tbh.

[Qgqqqqq]

Scratch that early map prediction. Apparently Jale declared on Mardoc rather early too, which must mean there's land connection through S-N axis. This also means that Jale sent his warrior scouting as well or then killed Mardoc's other scout that found him (IIRC Mardoc lost his scout recently).

Hmm, or perhaps there's another area where they might be fighting...

[Bobchillingworth]

Ah, shoot. Sorry, Jalepeno, we should have placed everyone's extra scout in the ice realm to start.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hmm, I feel a little better knowing that Plako actually sent his extra scout through his portal, so our only fault here was in perhaps not putting enough distance between players. Plako also got super lucky spawning a wolf from a wolfpack kill- I'm not certain what the odds of that are, but it's low.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah, that's a factor of distance, not scouts. Although it's an area where we can be rightly criticized, as the map dimensions, instructions, and land area do indicate towards greater distance between players than we planned out. I'm happy with our decision, and think it broadly led to a map where more diverse playstyles were possible, but I understand if players are annoyed by it.

[Qgqqqqq]

GG Jalepeno! Sorry for your quick exit, if not for that I thought you were in a good position, especially with the early decision to pillage.


Hmm, I'd missed the fact that this meant an additional area of land is available to players, I wonder if anyone takes advantage of that.

Also, DaveV tacit commentary on what he expects of the ice zone has been hilarious. Like dude, were you expecting nothing of us? I've never placed an extra player unit without some purpose - even if it's only for a challenge area that Dave normally dismisses - what would be the point of that hunter if he protected the shoreline?

[Qgqqqqq]

I don't know why I keep reading the tech threads of games I follow


Anyway, I'm honestly proud of the response to plako's successful rush. Whilst we weren't in line with the map distances players were expecting, Dovellio rushes are a feature of FFH games, and I'm glad that there's been no suggestion from any player that the game should now be called, even though it catapults plako into a commanding position.

It's also a validation of Dave's cautious style of play, which I often disagree with. Without checking, I'd be confident that he would have had a good chance of surviving such a rush, and likely continues to be heartily secure despite his neighbor. There are games that puts you behind, but there are games where that is the difference between survival and an early crippling/exit.