[Squirrelloid]

You know, i'd refrained from commenting on the forums because I wasn't involved in the game, but based on discussion on IRC...

1500 gems? Seriously? Certain examples about Kingmaking in Settlers of Catan (which were derided as unfair) pale in comparison to the size of the Kingmaking attempt that represents. Trading 100 wheat for 1 sheep seems *reasonable* in that context.

It is not a difference of kind to pass VPs than it is to pass resources without fair compensation. Archae, your allies were trying to give you the game just as much as WL's were trying to give him the game. To pretend otherwise is a farce, and makes laughable your entire claim. If you needed 1500 gems in aid to just come even (or some reasonable fascimile thereof) then on your own merits the game was already lost.

Any attempt to prevent one person from winning the game is necessarily an attempt to cause another person to win the game, because ultimately *only one person can win*. If your allies had been successful in their attempt to play kingmaker and caused you to win, they would have 'thrown' the game just as much as Aristander did. I use 'thrown' instead of thrown because you can only throw a game you can win. Clearly the other nations had already determined who the two powers that had any hope of winning were, and made a choice of which nation they favored for victor.

That Aristander's aid to WL was a better kingmaking play strikes me as superior strategy because it was more direct. Whereas your allies sent you material that would hopefully turn into VP, Aristander handed VP over directly. In both cases its an attempt to give one player more VP, one of them is just far more effective.

Either giving away anything in the game is unfair, or anything can be given freely. Since trading is allowed, and its hard to know what a fair market price for any particular good is, the boundary between 'giving' and 'trading' is rather nebulous. At which point, the only rational stance is that giving things away is fair game. So i won't fault your allies for giving you 1.5k gems, but i won't fault Aristander for giving away VP either.