Wetbandit offered us Coal for Coal. He`s still not building any units. I think that he may very well be happy to concede to Mr. Cairo at this point and wants us to attack someone else. Or he might be signalling that he now has Factories everywhere and is ready to start a buildup, who knows?
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To be perfectly honest, I don`t see how we`re possibly going to win without any other players piling on Mr. Cairo. We can`t match his buildup even when going all-out on military, which is somewhat surprising. So, I`m actually thinking that it might be time to call it a day and concede. I`ll sleep on it. What do you think, RefSteel and BaII? This game has just stalled over the last 50 turns and there is no way to stage a surprise attack.
I mean as the primary turnplayer if you want to concede then I don't think there's a reason to say no. But it does seem like the only way to stop Mr. Cairo is a dogpile. I personally think his position is that safe if everyone dogpiles it's just that from the looks of it we're going to have to be the ones who start the conflict and we'll likely not be able to gain anything since our stack would probably get wiped?
Obviously there's ways to stop Mr. Cairo from winning but I don't know if it will help us win is the problem.
You`re right. We do risk losing our entire stack if we move it adjacent to Mr. Cairo`s border city and even if we somehow can raze one of his soon-to-be legendary cities it won`t really do anything for us except helping Wetbandit or Superdeath get back into contention. In order to have any chance of winning we need to get a 2 against 1 going immediately. Wetbandit isn`t doing much to help us out and I don`t think Donovan or Superdeath are anywhere near interested in helping us by attacking Mr. Cairo.
I think it`s likely that everyone else has conceded to Mr. Cairo already but I`m not 100 % sure.
I'm happy with whatever decision you make; I'd say the best thing to do depends on how you feel about the game at this point:
1) If you'd rather not continue playing at this stage, definitely concede officially, even though you intend to go on playing if anyone else (other than Mr. Cairo) is still committed.
2) If you do want to continue playing only if others (apart from Mr. Cairo) are engaged and enjoying it too, you can post a concession contingent on everyone else having definitely conceded.
3) If the only path to victory you see is someone else leading an attack on Mr. Cairo (which we would join) then ... well, have another look at that power graph, and how everybody's teching. At what point would anybody launch such an attack with any hope of success? Nobody's been building up power apart from us and Mr. Cairo, and they're all already well behind. So at this point, I think this case converges with #2.
4) If you think we can (or will be able to) successfully invade someone else and use the resulting land advantage to move toward victory again - whether by snowballing through others' territory, eventually being able to overwhelm Mr. Cairo with military, hitting space before he hits culture (or space) or any other way - and you still think it would be fun to try, then there's no reason to concede yet. (This also applies if you think we can find some way of invading Mr. Cairo effectively and still winning the game, but it sounds like we're all agreed that we can't right now.)
Regardless, thanks for bringing us along for the ride this long!
The power graph shows that we`re still not able to close the gap in power. Wetbandit is building a few units here and there but that`s hardly enough to attack Mr. Cairo successfully. At least Wetbandit sent back the Horse for Horse deal that we sent him last turn.
I have thought long and hard about whether to concede or not.
As long as everyone else has conceded to Mr. Cairo I`m willing to concede to him as well.
I`m still happy to play on if someone feels that he has a chance of stopping Mr. Cairo.
This game hasn`t been called yet. I`d like to reiterate that I`m happy to keep on playing anyway. If you sign up for a game that can possibly last for a year then you need to be ready to play the late game as well. Is it okay to withdraw the concession? I`ve certainly gained something by doing it, like discovering that at least one of the other players except Mr. Cairo thinks he has a more than decent chance of winning. My concession yesterday was more down to a nightmare-like week at work than anything. I`m really looking forward to a couple of weeks off work.
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In game there was an interesting development. Take a look at this; Superdeath no longer has a Defensive Pact with Mr. Cairo! They also canceled Open Borders. Now, that`s obviously good news for us. Mr. Cairo is looking more exposed without the safety net of DPs. He must be rather nervous as the game is definitely his to lose.
Wetbandit decided to move his Cavalry north, towards Mr. Cairo`s border. He could`t be thinking about an attack supported by Airships, right? I still believe that Wetbandit is very much waiting for us to move in. So, how do you feel about declaring war next turn and throw everything but the kitchen sink at YeeHawdists the turn after? We`d definitely need to step on flatland before making an attack. We do risk a lot that way of course but why not take a gamble.. We`re finishing another 9 units end of turn to add to our army.
Heh, I`m sure that the lurkers approve of that drastic turn of events (well, except those he`s cheering for Mr. Cairo).
Maybe wait 1-2 more turns? Unless you think those 1-2t's are critical to Mr. Cairo building enough defenses since I'm worried if we wait to long Mr. Cairo might be able to get MG's and make it difficult to attack into a city unless he's already basically had them.
Also waiting 1-2 more turns also gives Superdeath some time to set up as well unless you think he's also in position to strike since it certainly looks like Wetbandit is ready although their lack of growth in the power graph isn't exactly reassuring.
As a side note if we expect the stack to get compeletly annihlated so we not bring everything? Like maybe leave behind some cats at home since they'll always be useful even though we can build cannons right now.
(December 12th, 2019, 15:09)JR4 Wrote: Is it okay to withdraw the concession? I`ve certainly gained something by doing it, like discovering that at least one of the other players except Mr. Cairo thinks he has a more than decent chance of winning. My concession yesterday was more down to a nightmare-like week at work than anything. I`m really looking forward to a couple of weeks off work.
I'm sorry to hear about the nightmare-like work week - and glad to hear you'll have some time off to recuperate!
As for concession, of course you can withdraw one if you no longer wish to concede. The information you gained - that not all other players are ready to concede yet - is assumed to be the default state of the game, which is part of the reason it's okay to make a concession contingent on everyone else having conceded: The only thing you know now that you didn't before was that you aren't the lone would-be contender dragging all the other players through a chore they don't want to complete. Of course, that does raise the question: If everyone else does decide they want to concede to Mr. Cairo later on, do you want to play on anyway?
(I don't have time to properly address the strategic questions about attacking Mr. Cairo. I wouldn't try it, but as I've said before, I'm a very conservative - probably too-conservative) player in general.)
Good to hear you're still up for this. It can really hard to keep engaged and keep enjoying these games sometimes, even when it's going well.
I do wonder what the consequences actually are if you do try an attack on Mr. Cairo and it doesn't go to your benefit? You lose a solid second place? You end up dragging you both down and hand the game to someone else? Personally, those might give me pause, but I'm not the average RB player ... I certainly think the community wouldn't blame you for rolling the dice. You would be shaking things up to give yourself a chance to win, even if the odds were long, not just trying to spoil someone else's game.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Superdeath moved a few random Cannons into our territory. That sure looks to me like a hint of him being willing to help out in a war (but I`m still somewhat wary of being tricked). I think we`re best served to wait for a little bit longer before actually going in or finding a better target than Mr. Cairo.
@Shallow_thought: I don`t care particularly much about finishing second or fourth in this game and I`m still willing to take big risks in order to have a chance of winning. Some players would surely be reluctant to attack the game leader without the element of surprise. I think it`s perfectly okay to attack Mr. Cairo here as something has to be done to stop him from running away. If anything, I believe that the average RB player is too afraid of acting as a "kingmaker".
