[no players] Six little newbies sitting on a tree...

[WilliamLP]

As for Couerva's psyche, even from PB37 if was clear that that's the area that psychological robustness needs the most work, even more than figuring out a focused mid-game strategy, and an ability to commit to a decisive plan. I would even say the former is probably connected to the latter.

Well said. His anger and insistence on being retroactively right about everything is causing him to underestimate Charriu's intelligence, and part of strategy is being able to guess what is going on in another player's head correctly. (Know thy enemy and all that.)

I've seen several players, in the past, who see poor Civ mechanics or inexperience with war, and mistake it for lack of intelligence and general strategy.

[Mardoc]

As for Couerva's psyche, even from PB37 if was clear that that's the area that psychological robustness needs the most work, even more than figuring out a focused mid-game strategy, and an ability to commit to a decisive plan. I would even say the former is probably connected to the latter.

Well said. His anger and insistence on being retroactively right about everything is causing him to underestimate Charriu's intelligence, and part of strategy is being able to guess what is going on in another player's head correctly. (Know thy enemy and all that.)

I've seen several players, in the past, who see poor Civ mechanics or inexperience with war, and mistake it for lack of intelligence and general strategy.

Speaking of which: to get peace, he needs to inflict some pain on Charriu. Kill some units, inflict some war weariness, threaten a city...something more than simply 'reinforce the city so it can't be attacked and offer peace'. Charriu's making this possible by splitting his stack, but if Coeurva only builds archers, it won't matter. Right now, the only downside to Charriu remaining at war is what, the temptation to build more units when he should be building infrastructure?

Also, now that Coer has Stonehenge, it's not that long until he gets the +40% cultural borders, right? Maybe 10 more turns? That should make him more of a rock...and still won't matter unless he displays some initiative.

[Bacchus]

Still not a slither of recognition from shallow_thought that religions exist:

After that, Maths, then the real meat - Currency, Calendar, Construction (with Masonry thrown in somewhere). The exact order will depend on events, but this should mean we start getting some value out of our land and crop yield.

The 'that' in that quote is Mysticism. To build a monument. Because religion culture is for pussies.

[Commodore]

Alarming breakdown in Rome. The map is working out really well for how I hoped the game would go. But I never imagined it would be this stressful for them.

The lack of Chinese religion is confusing.

[WilliamLP]

Where is this among the greatest meltdowns in RB history?

[Hollybombay]

i dont know, but this is just hysterical. Why is he having such a fit over a random stack hitting him due to his stonehedge "culture bomb" ? Or is he really that delusional to think that Charriu was building that stack the WHOLE time to attack him?

Also is shallow thought actually ahead of everyone in the game currently? Or is that just the general consensus.

[Commodore]

Where is this among the greatest meltdowns in RB history?

Eh, I've had better. And caused better. But it's pretty good.

I'm still not seeing how unsustainable this is. It's a setback, but Coeur can definitely still win. Shallow Thought is still struggling economically as only Coeur and Magic Science apparently got the memo that riverside cottages are awesome. This game has legs. Coeur is back in the pack and Shallow is slightly ahead, but assuming no epic meltdown (or superepic meltdown that hands Rome to OT4E) there is plenty of play left. It's anyone's game. Unless you're RFS.

[Lewwyn]

Did someone say meltdown?

[Krill]

Praets and some painful whips. Should have kept some workers in Henge city to road back with flexibility, but learn something new every day.

Also I'm struggling to think of a game I've not had to vent in at some point. PBEM2 and Darrell gifting Steel to everyone was pretty spectacular. Sullla in PB2 was more in keeping with current presentation though.

[Bacchus]

So, I got a wider ranging question here. It's clear that the last thing that's going to Coeurva's mind is that he can achieve peace just by vacating Schilda. He is dead set on Charriu's actions being driven by some insane bloodlust, rather than very clear and contained goals. Similar thing happened in PB37, where Krill thought we were intent on warring for wars sake and would never give him peace, whereas, in the second war especially, we had a clear limited goal in kicking him out of an island city overhanging our core and bay of interest. My question is this: can an attacker with limited goals ever hope the defender to figure out those goals under AI Diplo? If so, how can the defender? A vigorous attack to cause maximum discomfort and force a peace, after all, looks exactly like an attack simply meant to cause pain for pain's sake.