Airstrip One Palace Court - No Players!

[Mortius]

Things were looking bad for the NUTA. Myself, dsp and MH/Kodii were already worried about the way Ruff and Imhotep seemed to be free-riding and disinterested. MH/Kodii in particular have been paranoid about him for the whole game.

It turns out that Ruff had some units near an undefended MHK city

Am I the only one, who can't understand what is going on there???

MH was worried about Ruff, even more he was almost sure Ruff wants only a free ride and then will attack, yet he leaves his city on the border undefended????? : and his entire army consist of [SIZE="7"]one[/SIZE] axe.

Am I missing something???

[sooooo]

That border city of MH's is indefendable anyway. It's almost sealed by Ruff's territory. Must be pretty awkward, having praets and having to join a tech alliance and yet having a neighbour inside said alliance who plants a city inside "your" territory and doesn't defend it.

Seems like ZPV and MH/Kodii have decided that "Pink Dot"s are a good thing and founded cities in ridiculous places, way too far away. Our Pink Dot worked out because it was on a hill and not actually that far away, but the cities of the aforementioned teams are completely indefensible.

I like Shady's empire but am still concerned that he'll get dogpiled. However, he seems to have a decent clue about how to progress.

I don't like Broker's empire but he seems to be landing the wonders. That will cost him later though and I don't see him being a big player in this game.

Krill/Memphus of course have the best empire despite some below-average terrain but they are still in the doghouse diplomatically. However, if the UTA should fracture and/or Krill wins his war then he's going to be the favourite.

[athlete4life10]

My current favourite is ZPV.

Well this goes for all those who agreed here....my how things change

ZPV has been really stunted...lost 3 workers and had his horse city razed. Well done by Shady to punish that over extension by ZPV.

I never vocalized it but I did favour ZPV as a top player at the time that ranking came out so I'm hanging my head to. Even then though I was rooting for Krill/Memphus as to me it almost feels like they're the underdog. Not in talent or anything like that but they seem to have been alienated before Krill ever typed his first diplomatic e-mail (if "diplomatic" is the right word ). That they were able to form the NUTA is great but they've played a great expansion game and I'm eagerly waiting for them to go to battle. I almost wonder if they're a bit late though as Dreylin seems to be getting prepared...I just don't know if he'll have enough...the help from Broker (I think it's him sending the HAs) should be a big key in his success (or failure YAY [sorry Dreylin]) defending.

[Sullla]

Well this game continues to be daily popcorn fodder. Right when it looks like you know what's going to happen, somebody gets their cities razed out of the blue!

I just wish a few more people were updating their spoiler threads. Right now, it's like reading a book where a third of the chapters are missing...

[Cyneheard]

Agreed, Sullla. I'm still hoping for a good explanation from Ruff about why he really acted the way he did.

[Mortius]

My personal view on the current situation:


1. Dsplaisted (IMO he is in the best position to win the game now)

+ He secured The Great Lighthouse, and will secure The Colossus in several turns. The Great Lighthous is great on this map, +4 Gold per every coastal city allows REXing, without sacrificing the research.
+ He has got an undisputed land to settle.
+ His land is very defendable.
+ He is in no real threat now, and is unlikely he will be in the near future
+ Nobody expect him to win, which is a big plus too.
+ The upcoming world war would not affect him directly. He can expand instead of wasting resources on troops, and at the end he can annex i.e. ZPVC… territory.
+ He proved he can think off and execute detailed plans for several turns ahead.


2. Reggoarar (If he survive the incoming Imhotep attack without much casualties, he will be in a position to win the game)

+ His diplomacy skill is great. Many multiplayer games, can be won by diplomacy alone, and Civilization is no different here.
+ He is a good player, can consider the possibilities and chose the best one.
+ His empire is quite big, and cities well placed.
+ He has an undisputed land to his north, with places for many good cities.

- He was thrown into the world war, and he will be the first victim of the upcoming mass attack from Imhotep. Fortunately for him he can build Macemen now, who counter Preats, not even speaking about Impis.
- His empire in its present shape is not very defendable, with a broad border with Shadyforce and two border cities in the north.


3. Krill (He could win this game, but ...)

+ His expansion phase was great.
+ He has the big and very defendable empire.
+ He is a very good player, knows the secrets of a FFA game, and can use it to his advantages.
+ His western flank is secured by allies, and he can focus on one direction only.

- His diplomacy is lacking. He made many long time enemies, and not only for that game but for future games too (i.e. Kalin).
- Saying “everyone, enemies and allies are doing exactly what I want” isn’t the best way to win the game.


4. Shadyforce (Everything depends, when Imhotep will step into the world war, and if Shady can use it to his advantage)

+ His empire is quite good, and cities well placed.
+ He probably choose the best leader for this game.
+ Taking into account his financial trait and his land, his research rate can explode, if he has time to expand.
+ If Imhotep strikes Reggo hard, Shady would be in a position to annex his land and become the true candidate to win the game.
+ If he annex Reggoarar’s land his empire would be defendable at last.

- His empire in its present shape is not very defendable, with a broad border with Reggoarrar


5. Broker (Too slow expansion)

+ His land is defendable.
+ He has got an undisputed land to settle (not as good as regoarrar though)
+ He is in no real threat now.

- He has wasted his chance to REX (up to now).
- I am not sure he can leverage the strong points of his empire (cheap rathauses).


6. Ruff (Hesitation isn’t the good thing here)

+ He is in no real threat now.
+ He has MH/Kodi to the south, and in the future he can potentially annex their territory with all the wonders.

- He didn’t conquer MH/Kodi, when he could do it with easy.
- He wasted the operational window for his aggressive Preats.
- He has no much space for expand, and no close enemies to unleash the Preats.


7. Imhotep (Old habits die hard)

+ He is in no real threat now.
+ He has got an undisputed land to settle to the north.

- He played the game as it was a standard multiplayer, and it wasn’t very effective.
- Neglecting the economy is not the way to go here.
- He has no close enemies to unleash the Impis.
- If he brings Preats and Impis to the upcoming war with Reggo, I doubt it will be effective.


8. Mostly Harmless (If his GREAT luck remains, he can win the game, in a way we can’t predict)

+ He is in no real threat now.
+ He has The Pyramids and The Great Library and can run the specialist economy.
+ He has the new secret trait “Great luck”. Three times Ruff wanted to attack him. The first savior was Imhotep, who planted a city near Ruff’s capital, second was Krill who informed about UTA and created NUTA, the third was Reggoarrar, who requested the reload. With such luck, he can even win the game.

- In this game he did everything to loose, neglecting military, planting cities half a world away, to much focusing on wonders, not expanding enough etc, … yet he still lives, which is the miracle itself.
- The good luck can end someday.


9. Sunrise (The wasted start can ruin the whole game)

+ He has two religions.
+ His land is quite secure if he has some sentries to the north.

- His opening religion heavy strategy was …. “not very good”.
- His expansion is lacking (4 cities on turn 100 isn’t an overwhelming number)
- It’s possible Krill will attack not Lins but Sunrise directly from the north.
- He has no land to expand, besides it’s nearest surrounding.


10. Lins (It’s a sin to take an Imperialistic leader and not REXing early)

+ They have allies to the East and South, and can focus on the northern border only.

- They didn’t expanded the way they could, taking into account theirs Imperialistic trait.
- They have a strong enemy to the north.
- They have non defendable northern border (three cities wide).
- Theirs economy is sinking.
- They will probably receive the first blow from Krill and will be stuck in a war for very long.


11. ZPVC…. (The wasted potential)

+ Cothons are great on this map.

- He has launched the Numids rush in the era of Elephants.
- He planted cities far away, and didn’t defend it enough.
- He has lost two cities at the start of the war as a outcome of the previous point.
- He didn’t expand enough (he prepared the suicidal Numid rush instead).
- Lins start to settle his land to the west.

[Swiss Pauli]

Frankly, I'm not sure how useful analysis of the individual civs is at this stage: it's all about the UTA/NUTA situation. If/when these two blocs collapse then, as Krill has outlined, other alliances will develop. Unbeknownst to rest, there's a gang of three in existence already (mh, dsp & shady).

@Mortius - I think your point about Krill being a megalomaniac is incorrect: he posted that in his private thread about everyone suddenly falling into line with his wishes with a sense of disbelief (which you may well have missed). The fact is that they are doing exactly what he wants (fighting, crashing economies), and he can also take a great deal of credit for shady's attack on ZPV.

[Mortius]

Frankly, I'm not sure how useful analysis of the individual civs is at this stage: it's all about the UTA/NUTA situation.

Maybe you are right, but:
- the winner will be only one.
- some people inside UTA/NUTA are in better position, than others.
- it’s only a matter of time when NUTA or/and UTA collapse.

@Mortius - I think your point about Krill being a megalomaniac is incorrect: he posted that in his private thread about everyone suddenly falling into line with his wishes with a sense of disbelief (which you may well have missed). The fact is that they are doing exactly what he wants (fighting, crashing economies), and he can also take a great deal of credit for shady's attack on ZPV.

Knowing it is one thing, but saying it to others is … not very wise.
Look, how Reggo use this to his advantage. He included Krill’s sentence in his emails to others, to seed uncertainty among NUTA.

[Mortius]

I want to point one thing out.
Today I wrote a post in this topic and going back to the pitboss general forum I noticed the view counter to be 4444. During that time only me and one player were logged. After a while I hit refresh button, and saw the counter went up to 4445. I started to pay attention on other players threads view counts and noticed the same situation.
I don’t have any proofs, so I don’t want to put that player's name here, but it’s rather obvious at last one player was reading other players threads.

Maybe that’s the reason some players are so lazy updating their threads, not wanting others to know their plans.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I want to point one thing out.
Today I wrote a post in this topic and going back to the pitboss general forum I noticed the view counter to be 4444. During that time only me and one player were logged. After a while I hit refresh button, and saw the counter went up to 4445.

Have you noted if there were any guests viewing? There's still the possibility that an anonymous guest was the reason the view counter went up, while the logged-in player simply read his thread, wrote a PM or something similar.

Oh, and by the way: You can click on someone's name in the "currently active users" list to see what they are doing, for example which thread they are currently reading...

-Kylearan