[no players] Lurkers' paradise for PBEM3

[Ituralde]

What in the world is Rowain thinking?

This game might be over a lot sooner than anticpiated.
Hopefully we still get to see Bacchus' run at religion.

[oledavy]

This game might be over a lot sooner than anticpiated.

I mean, can we just mention the fact that they started this game BEFORE we started PBEM4 

And we had a 3 week delay in that game.

[TheArchduke]

Reporting is nonexistent as well by now.

[Emperor K]

Maybe with the game underway again we will get some updates

[Mardoc]

This game might be over a lot sooner than anticpiated.

I mean, can we just mention the fact that they started this game BEFORE we started PBEM4 

And we had a 3 week delay in that game.

That was explicitly advertised in the sign up thread:

So, looks like there is a clear demand for a lackadasiacal summer PBEM, which is great for my taste -- I want to be playing, but I don't want this to take over any significant portion of my life.

[oledavy]

That was explicitly advertised in the sign up thread:

Fair enough 

[MJW (ya that one)]

This game:

[Sullla]

Not much commentary on this game but I want to bring up one point:

As expected the Americans have attacked. What to do here in order to inflict maximum pain before Glenkinchie falls next turn? First, some minor movements….

- I have 193 gold. I can revolt to build and finish the archer in 5 turns for 50 gold. That drops me to 143 making 11.6 per turn. 11.6 x 5 is….58. That gives me just enough. I do it to change out Strategos for Agoge. I do have a government change coming in three turns, but that count will go up once Glenkinchie falls. After making this change the Archer is complete in 4 turns, not 5. Throws off the timetable a little bit, but that’ll let me complete the chariot while I wait for the last bit of gold.

This whole paragraph makes no sense whatsoever. Suboptimal has somewhat confusingly written here that he can spend 50 gold to pay for a civics swap and take Agoge (+50% melee/ranged production) instead of Strategos (+2 Great General points/turn) in the Wildcard slot. Then he plans to use his remaining gold to upgrade the archer into a crossbow. However, he's completely overlooked the fact that archers will be obsoleted the instant that Machinery tech is finished researching and crossbows are unlocked. Crossbows are far too expensive to complete before Rowain finishes destroying his civ. Furthermore, Agoge doesn't even grant the +50% production bonus to crossbows because they are Medieval units and not Ancient/Classical ones! As written, this whole plan doesn't make any sense at all. The only way this could work would be if suboptimal stopped researching Machinery one turn away from completion, finished an archer, and then completed it on the next turn along with an upgrade to crossbow. And even in that best case scenario, he will be left with exactly one archer, which will have to spend another turn not attacking while it gets upgraded.

I know that this is a hopeless situation and all that, but it's reflective of a lack of planning and misunderstanding of game mechanics. Why was the second city building a monument when it was clear two turns ago that America was gearing up for an attack? Why build heavy chariots instead of archers, especially with the plan to tech to crossbows and grab a Great General that would boost them? Even one crossbow on the field would enormously increase the damage from those city walls. Suboptimal has done a great job of reporting this game and continuing to play out the string in a terrible situation, so I don't want to be too mean here. It's just that this whole game has been a long sequence of moves that don't make sense and put him in a bad position, continuing right down here to the final turns.

I hope he's able to look back at this game and learn from it since we can really use more people like him in the MP scene.

[Singaboy]

I am glad that at least he reports as it stands, it is very difficult to follow what is happening.

[RefSteel]

The only way this could work would be if suboptimal stopped researching Machinery one turn away from completion, finished an archer, and then completed it on the next turn along with an upgrade to crossbow.

It's a bit unclear in the post, but I think he actually did get this part right: He said earlier in the post that he switched research to Horseback Riding, with Machinery already one turn from completion. His plan seems to be to build the (one!) Archer ASAP in his capital - a four-turn build, starting now - then finish Machinery, then upgrade it to an X-Bow. That would mean that in four turns, he could plink something with his archer from his capital if anything is in range, then the next turn, he would have his (one!) X-Bow in his capital (and unable to shoot yet, but at least his capital's ranged attack would have X-Bow power ... and I guess an encampment would too if he's got one at his cap; I do't remember if he does right now) so if he's still around that long, it's better than nothing. Your other points are spot-on though - for instance, not building a single archer since losing his early set to England is the reason he had to take this convoluted path in the first place. But more importantly:

Suboptimal has done a great job of reporting this game and continuing to play out the string in a terrible situation

and

I hope he's able to look back at this game and learn from it since we can really use more people like him in the MP scene.

I thoroughly agree! It's been a pleasure following suboptimal's game both here and in PBeM7. I hope the lessons he takes from this game help him to greater success in that one!