[Rathar]

Well, speaking from left field and as someone who wasn't involved in the 'controversy"..

I attacked Ulm because they were clearly winning and with Mork cutting off all possibilities of growth I had no choice unless it was to involuntarily cede my provinces to them.

From my non irc (Don't trust it, never will, seems irrational yes but there ya go) vision it truly seems like what happens when one player gets huge, all the others jump on em. This tends to make the one feel picked on, and well, tis the case!! But necessary imho. My actions would have remained the same. (cept I would've figured out how to keep my army alive and then I'D be the evil empire mwah hah hah cough..) In any game of any type.

There is collusion and there are deals which smell of collusion but thats why we have descriptors in english that mean the same in the end but imply different things.

That said, I have no comment or clue about any collusion but I will say that in most any game with a balance of power situation being possible it frequently falls to one player who will NOT win to decide who does. My gaming group calls this the grovel phase..

After much blathering my point is: Work it out if workoutable, if not, end it, declare everyone winners and make another game with the things you learned.

How many of these things actually get to the end with one controlling all anyways? It usually becomes very obvious or pointless in my limited experience.

One last bit and this points no fingers, really. No really, damn it. Taking your ball and going home is lame. Cards you are dealt with suck? Play em and lose, think outside the box, offer bribes, take compromising photos and blackmail em, get in the next hand and take them to the cleaners.

Too much wisdom this late at night on insomnia drugs that don't seem to work..!

Rathar

P.S. Still looking forward to the next game!

P.s.s Stupid marble warriored, swords of sharpnessed orgevinemen!! Especially since same was within my capabilities and I overlooked it... Next time!

/rubs hands greedily and pets his cat

Rathar Kalinger

Oh, one last point. The use of the IRC channel was pretty heavily promoted in this thread so one should not be surprised that it was used. I already mentioned my feelings about IRC but in a RP sort of way I try hard to use only the ingame message system, 2 turn delay and all, no way to make certain that is the only way to go but tis the only way one should expect me to use. Seems more "natural" in these artificial envoronments. Think English east indies co. fighting the Frence rival company for nearly a year after peace had been declared due to the length of time it took for the news to percolate!