Our favorite expectorant has requested a postmortem. I've spoken some about where I am now, but I realize I've not done a nice and magisterial overview. Let's discuss a bit on each player, what their path forward looks like, and how they got of where they are. We'll start with the requester:
IPECAC:
Future prospects: Grim. He ded. His citizens have a decent shot at winning...
![[Image: KTw6xwW.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/KTw6xwW.jpg)
Ipecac got one powerful asset going into this game; Chinese chucklenaughts. Easily the best unique unit on an islands map, chucks are a horror and Ipecac used those horrors to shred forward into Adrien's India early this game. He got a stroke of luck with Yuri hopping in against India as well, which let him get the Dream Situation: Profitably smash a guy, crippling him, and yet be allowed to peace out afterward. That's not a common situation; it won't happen again in this game. But Ipecac got it, so good.
All that aside, though, he did feel some extra pains. Unlike everyone else, he lacked Org for his economy's sake....I'm not sure he had an Org option in his leader set. That was a back foot, which made him more prone to aim for the soft target (India) rather than the burgeoning threat (me). Not that he could have profitably hit me. Colossus was a tremendous economy boost but as is classic, it's disincentive to hit Astronomy was fatal. You all saw what followed. He died hard, though.
ADRIEN:
Future prospects: Might actually make it to the wild card game, astonishingly enough. But he's not winning. He lost his capital and northeastern core; I handed those back but he's been unable to regrow thanks to Yuri (Ethiopia)'s constant low-level warfare. He's a nice and gnarly target though, actually getting Military Science online before Ethiopia did.
![[Image: uRZ4onQ.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/uRZ4onQ.jpg)
I know the least about Adrien's start out of all my rivals. I'm pretty sure his slowness off the bat was caused by his selection of India as his civilization. Un-nerfed fast workers aren't amazing on an islands map, and the starting techs hurt him. Whatever the reason, it's a tale as old as time...slow gazelle gets lions.
YURI:
Future prospects: Less likely to survive than India, and won't win unless a Franco-Sumerian war reaches truly stupidly apocalyptic levels. That said, roleplaying Gandhi means his citizens will probably be the most cultured, savvy, and rich people in the world.
![[Image: lwaTpdm.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/lwaTpdm.jpg)
Yuri sniped Stonehenge from me by a turn, which I'm still sore about. Otherwise, he's been a darned good neighbor...which maybe he shouldn't have been. His development early was swift and strong, but he unfortunately made a critical early mistake by attacking India as a hop-along when China chucked them. That would have been fine for a tight snipe of a city or two, but he was not prepared for a full-fledged war. And he never prepared. He's been bumping along confident in his empire edge over India, without ever making the hard whips and economy-wrecking push he needs to actually kill the dude. Oromo masses could have crushed India if he had 2:1 number advantages, but as you witnessed, it hurts. You gotta pay the toll, and it just hurt too much for Yuri to do so. The last tens turns typified things, with Ethiopia ceding Kremlin in return for a golden age. Advantages are great but you have to convert them at some point, I'm not seeing that happening here.
ALHAZARD:
Future prospects: Can win. One of the two who might win. Has a magnificent empire of glorious power and potential that looks forward to another dozen turns of golden age. But might actually be better served if he gets bad great person rolls and can't fire...
![[Image: FdnRmed.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/FdnRmed.jpg)
...because in the Always Peace version of PBEM 77, Alhazard has won the game handily. But everything I said about Ethiopia converting? Moreso here in France. Alhazard played a wonderful game, getting the critical wonders of Apostolic Palace for hammers, MoM for golden ages, Taj for golden chaining, and several lesser wonders for general aid. He's finally landed Kremlin, which is the KEY wonder on this map. Basically he's going to be playing with normal-speed whips here on quick, plus the even more sexy Universal Suffrage coinhammer options. That alone means he's going to be producing about double the amount of stuff-per-city compared to me, because multipliers. Well, he'll be able to. But that requires: Whipping. His. Pretty. Cities. And it's also risky as hell, he's got to roll the dice and expose his lovely cities to depredations of evil wicked Sumer. The risk that Alhazard faces in this game is that he can almost win with what he's got going on. He's ahead in tech, he's got amazing infrastructure, and he has first-rate wonders of the world. That's enough to be slightly ahead of me in tech for another era and a half. It's unfortunately not enough to maintain that spread through to space. So Alhazard needs to move.
...which is why the next two dozen turns are going to be a blast...
IPECAC:
Future prospects: Grim. He ded. His citizens have a decent shot at winning...
Ipecac got one powerful asset going into this game; Chinese chucklenaughts. Easily the best unique unit on an islands map, chucks are a horror and Ipecac used those horrors to shred forward into Adrien's India early this game. He got a stroke of luck with Yuri hopping in against India as well, which let him get the Dream Situation: Profitably smash a guy, crippling him, and yet be allowed to peace out afterward. That's not a common situation; it won't happen again in this game. But Ipecac got it, so good.
All that aside, though, he did feel some extra pains. Unlike everyone else, he lacked Org for his economy's sake....I'm not sure he had an Org option in his leader set. That was a back foot, which made him more prone to aim for the soft target (India) rather than the burgeoning threat (me). Not that he could have profitably hit me. Colossus was a tremendous economy boost but as is classic, it's disincentive to hit Astronomy was fatal. You all saw what followed. He died hard, though.
ADRIEN:
Future prospects: Might actually make it to the wild card game, astonishingly enough. But he's not winning. He lost his capital and northeastern core; I handed those back but he's been unable to regrow thanks to Yuri (Ethiopia)'s constant low-level warfare. He's a nice and gnarly target though, actually getting Military Science online before Ethiopia did.
I know the least about Adrien's start out of all my rivals. I'm pretty sure his slowness off the bat was caused by his selection of India as his civilization. Un-nerfed fast workers aren't amazing on an islands map, and the starting techs hurt him. Whatever the reason, it's a tale as old as time...slow gazelle gets lions.
YURI:
Future prospects: Less likely to survive than India, and won't win unless a Franco-Sumerian war reaches truly stupidly apocalyptic levels. That said, roleplaying Gandhi means his citizens will probably be the most cultured, savvy, and rich people in the world.
Yuri sniped Stonehenge from me by a turn, which I'm still sore about. Otherwise, he's been a darned good neighbor...which maybe he shouldn't have been. His development early was swift and strong, but he unfortunately made a critical early mistake by attacking India as a hop-along when China chucked them. That would have been fine for a tight snipe of a city or two, but he was not prepared for a full-fledged war. And he never prepared. He's been bumping along confident in his empire edge over India, without ever making the hard whips and economy-wrecking push he needs to actually kill the dude. Oromo masses could have crushed India if he had 2:1 number advantages, but as you witnessed, it hurts. You gotta pay the toll, and it just hurt too much for Yuri to do so. The last tens turns typified things, with Ethiopia ceding Kremlin in return for a golden age. Advantages are great but you have to convert them at some point, I'm not seeing that happening here.
ALHAZARD:
Future prospects: Can win. One of the two who might win. Has a magnificent empire of glorious power and potential that looks forward to another dozen turns of golden age. But might actually be better served if he gets bad great person rolls and can't fire...
...because in the Always Peace version of PBEM 77, Alhazard has won the game handily. But everything I said about Ethiopia converting? Moreso here in France. Alhazard played a wonderful game, getting the critical wonders of Apostolic Palace for hammers, MoM for golden ages, Taj for golden chaining, and several lesser wonders for general aid. He's finally landed Kremlin, which is the KEY wonder on this map. Basically he's going to be playing with normal-speed whips here on quick, plus the even more sexy Universal Suffrage coinhammer options. That alone means he's going to be producing about double the amount of stuff-per-city compared to me, because multipliers. Well, he'll be able to. But that requires: Whipping. His. Pretty. Cities. And it's also risky as hell, he's got to roll the dice and expose his lovely cities to depredations of evil wicked Sumer. The risk that Alhazard faces in this game is that he can almost win with what he's got going on. He's ahead in tech, he's got amazing infrastructure, and he has first-rate wonders of the world. That's enough to be slightly ahead of me in tech for another era and a half. It's unfortunately not enough to maintain that spread through to space. So Alhazard needs to move.
...which is why the next two dozen turns are going to be a blast...
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
. Just keep posting while the fun happens!
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