RBP2 Lurker Discussion Thread - No Players!

[zakalwe]

If he logs in to move his war-related units during the first half, finishing up the turn in the same session doesn't seem like much extra work. I think what Athlete was saying (also judging by what he posted in his lurker thread) was that he would not hit end turn and instead let the timer run out, to ensure the game stayed on a schedule that he could deal with. That is not against the rules, as long as he makes his unit moves during the first half. (He can also change builds and whip, etc. during the second half, if he wants to.)

His post in the IT thread could have been a lot clearer though.

[Ruff_Hi]

I love the way that the two sides are spinning the current situation - here are some selected comments from the emails posted in HRE's thread ...

We did not fold like a deck of cards, and this war is by no means decided yet. I don't know if your "allies" have told you this yet, but the Jowy and Kathlete main stack was eliminated this turn, with extremely light casualties on our side, 4:1 in our favor. Maybe they'll be back later with more units, but they are effectively out of the war now. Dantski is running around with a bunch of axes deep in our territory, but they have zero chance to capture any of our core cities. Once our units finish healing, that stack is dead meat as well.

I think that with pillaging the horses, and the pressure we put on Chance, Getty, and Anti, we set the ground very well for the Imperial
Praetorians' landing next to Fred!

I think we do have a chance to do some real damage after all, although we need the Preats.

Regarding the Strategic Resources, my understanding is this: Horses have been disconnected. Copper is still connected. Is everything going well on that front? Once both are disconnected, that ought to signal a turning point in the fighting.

some worry comments from various elements of CoW in response to the broadcast Sullla email containing their 'losses'

Everything is still going according to the plan When the game was unpaused we suffered an attack by India's main stack (their only stack). I haven't talked to Ottomans yet, but personally I won 3 battles (3 HA's) and lost 8 (mostly Phalanx). Earlier I lost 4 more units (phalanx) and beat 3 (2 ha's, 1 axe). So for me it's 6 units killed, 12 lost, though their HA's were of course more expensive than my units. For Ottomans it's probably around 50:50. We've still got some troops around, we should join them up with Dantski's. We've accomplished our goal of disconnecting their horses, pillaging all tiles on our way and even destroying their troops at a good rate.

Jowy's words do the CoW a great service. We did suffer a defeat yet it was to be expected. We have disconnected their horse and with Mali's help soon have the copper disconnected. From that point on we should be able to easily out produce them.

[antisocialmunky]

I take Jowy's analysis with a grain of salt as its Jowy. Sorry buddy but they have a bigger production base, shorter supply lines, and 1/3rd of the units in this fight came from 1/2 way around the world.

Real question is what Dantski is up to, can't say its been too impressive except for the beelining to meet up with Jowy...

[Bulwark]

I'm intrigued about this line from Jowy:
"Here are some fresh intel from my part. India are 4 turns away from construction ".

If I don't remember poorly, he also had another spot on prediction when India was 2 turns away from Monarchy.

How does he do that?
Is it via the C&D method discussed in various threads?

[Ruff_Hi]

How does he do that? Is it via the C&D method discussed in various threads?

He has the most accurate form of research C&D that is in the game ... enough espionage to see what India is researching .

[Cyneheard]

No, Jowy has had at least intermittent research visibility.

C&D primarily relies on using three things:
Demographic graphs (via espionage): A team's individual power, crop yield, population, manufacturing, GNP, etc. etc. The most reliable data, but comes at a cost of requiring sufficient EPs against your opponent.
The Demographics Screen: Aggregate data on all opponents. Separating out individual teams can be difficult.
Score changes: Sometimes things can be inferred merely by score changes. For example, population in this game is worth about 2.5-3 points, so score changes of +/- that amount are almost certainly from population growth or the whip.

[scooter]

This is the reason that I almost definitely will not play another RB pitboss game. If the result of me (and Sullla, of course) playing well, balancing expansion (#1), tech (#1), and military (#1) is just going to be a dogpile by turn 100, why bother playing? So I can defend masterfully, give the other attacking teams nothing to hit, and then place my entire game in the RNG, and lose 5 Horse Archers at over 65% odds, giving them some sort of hope to accomplish something?

I will, of course, play this game to conclusion, but I highly doubt I'll play another one of these.

Was I the only one who rolled my eyes at this? This is the kind of borderline-arrogance that got them into this...

[Adlain]

i think its more fustraion than anything, the CoW are not even trying to hide their reasons for waring against Spulla now, they are basicly saying, your too good - we will kill you off early and to hell with wether or not doing so will wreak my economy this early in the game and cripple me for years to come.

dont get me wrong, i have no problem with Danski and Jowy war decing India, it makes scence from their point of veiw - leave it too late and they will be caltured to death or conqured, but i see no advantage for Nakor, Whotsit or Athleate to be waring with the this early.

but then again, i could be missing somthing and thats why id be no good at these types of games ATM.

[novice]

I'm sorry to hear that Spullla are not enjoying the game at the moment. I don't really blame them.

Looking back, it was probably Byzantium's early elimination that ruined the game for India. Without that conflict, Kathlete wouldn't have had a leftover army, and even if the CoW were put together, Byzantium would probably have chosen India's side. (At least that's my instinct, of course that team can comment on that hypothetical situation themselves...)

[Krill]

Simple way to solve this problem:

Never play with no tech trading. Same thing happened to them as happened to me in RBPB1, you have to play to game so that you can defend yourself easily and still threaten players on the attack. Spullla got the former (luckily, IMO) but not the latter.