[spoiler] Azza's 5 step program to flawless victory

[Azza]

A quick look at the demographics.



Pretty good, but the worrying thing is that it's Catwalk beating me in every single important category. On top of that, he's a single tech away from Cuirassiers. I'm ramping up my production of Pikes, because things could be about to get very messy.

The wildcard in this is superjm, who is giving some serious hurt to Xenon and Sareln. If he can turn those lands profitable soon enough, he could legitimately threaten Catwalk. Hopefully Catwalk goes after him, because he's about to get a lot scarier than me. If only I'd got the Pyramids...

[Azza]

So, why I think the limited diplo system doesn't work.

Firstly, there's no flexibility in it. If you don't think of something you could potentially deal pre-game, you can't deal it even when it could be a wise idea. For example, I could've negotiated with Waterbat on getting first to Music, which would've saved him a lot of frustration (as evidenced in the tech thread when I got Music), and I could've gone after Shwedagon Paya when I was ready.

Secondly, the scope of what's actually allowed is unclear. As far as I'm aware, I'm allowed to say what I want, and what I'm willing to give up for it, but not why. However, the why can often be figured out from the what, and the line can get quite blurry between the two. But, at the same time, you can't justify deals to people who don't see the game the same way you do. This is my biggest frustration right now, as Catwalk is in a position to potentially run away with the game, but Superjm won't sign a deal to help keep him occupied building military instead of infrastructure, and Waterbat signed peace only a couple of turns into the war on his end. Xenon and Sareln would just get steamrolled by Catwalk, so getting them to declare would be counterproductive. Overall, it's an ambiguous restriction, and it's one that causes more frustration than time it would save.

Thirdly, and it ties into the second part, is that it actually makes diplo much more frustrating to conduct. In most of my full diplo games elsewhere, I'd create a dedicated forum for my alliance to coordinate and the like. Getting people to collaborate their tech choices, their troop movements and timings was so much easier to do than what you have to deal with when communicating only by email with predetermined diplo. As a result, diplo remains necessary, but the reward is much worse when putting in a comparable effort.

Finally, the interaction between different people is barely any greater than AI diplo. You can't chat about the game, you can't speculate with your rivals, you can't have any banter. The most enjoyable aspect of full diplo, ie the actual human to human interaction, is stripped away for the sake of saving time. If you want to discuss a game with others, they either have to be your dedlurker (so you're talking from the same perspective) or you both have to be lurkers (so you're not even playing!). At least with AI diplo, there's no pretense of human interaction. You're playing against people, but you only deal with them inside the constructs of the game. Here you have to personally contact others outside of the game to deliver emotionless, personality free deals. What's the point in talking to other people if you have to act like a robot?


Hopefully my rambling is coherent enough to follow. I appreciate the idea behind the diplo system, but it doesn't really have any advantages over flat AI diplo, or at least what small advantages there are get cancelled out by the flaws.

[Azza]

The stack of the Cat.



Where are the Catapults? If he's only built the 3, I'm suddenly much more optimistic about my chances of winning. I expect he has more in the fog somewhere though.

[Azza]

Tried to send my 4 knights in to flank damage his catapults. Resulted in 3 dead knights, losing at odds of 73.4%, 72.8% and 54.2%, and a win at 67.8%.

At least I can't be accused of reloading to improve my combat odds...

[Azza]

Sigh, F lost to Catwalk, as well as any chance I had of winning this game. Superjm is too busy fighting the nothing civs to do anything to Catwalk, and I don't know what waterbat's doing but it's not helping.

[Azza]

Catwalk has rifles. Great, just what I needed when I'm about to get Cuirassiers.

[Azza]

If this were a singleplayer game, I'd probably be retiring at this point. Catwalk has a large stack about to be bearing down on Student T. If I lose it, my game is as good as over. And still no one bothers to attack Catwalk, letting him run away with his tech lead...

[Azza]

Update, I guess.

I want F back, but there's a couple of units in my way...


There's also the issue of the size of the armies in general.


And the fact that Catwalk/Slowcheetah is probably #1 in every single one of these categories.


So I'm pretty annoyed at this game.

[Azza]

Offered Catcheetah a peace treaty, since if no one else is going to bother to attack him, screw everyone else. I'll just attack Xenon instead.

[Azza]

Rome has airships. The futility of my position is increasing.