Re: Something\'s Wrong
Ok, looks like I'm bowing out this turn. I would like to offer some justification for this though, for the players that were not involved in the recent negotiations. For those that were involved, I hope you don't see this as some kind of parting stab, it is just something I feel I have to get off of my chest, and something I feel it is only fair to let the other players know about.
Anyway, my involvement in the issue started some turns ago when several nations decided to attack attack me. This far from surprised me, from the graphs I looked the clear leader, and ganging was probably inevitable at some point. So, nations kept on declaring war until it was 4vs.1. By this time I was well aware of the fact that beset from four sides I really didn't have any hope of beating them all back, and any nations that could aid me were not enough and/or unresponsive. I still had not given up at this point though since I figured with some diplomacy I could maybe get some of the attackers to back off or even switch sides to give me a fighting chance.
Through all this my life had been fairly busy and I did not have time/energy to write yarns. Then I finally got a good opportunity to work on them and catch up, which happily coincided with a pause in the game. On catching up, I received an E-mail from the players that had been attacking me. It turned out that they had been in a special alliance of people that kept up on yarning, with the intent of keeping them yarning by threat of expulsion, and punishing the players that had given up on yarns. In particular, the agreement called for all players to assist in alliances wars, always come to mutual defense, not fight serious wars with one another, and participate in join victory. Now that I had caught up, their rules forced them to offer me membership.
But the problem was, that of course no one wanted to give up the war gains they had made. Naturally, I was not happy entering an agreement that effectively signed away those lands either. Aside from that, I did not see a lot of fun in joining since everything from that point on for the alliance would be mop up. In any case, negotiations went on and on, with me holding off submitting until I final staled, the final straw on my waining interest in the game.
So I guess my personal gripe is putting a lot of effort into both the game and the yarns and finding my self in an unavoidable pitfall. I could not have written yarns any sooner, even if had known that failing to do so would bring most of my neighbors down on me. In theory I could have expanded less, researched less, and not drawn attention. But really, has _anyone_ ever in a dominions game purposely not taken an independent province when you could have easily done so, not site site searched, or not researched with mages for the sole reason of not looking more powerful? It is effectively purposely playing the game badly, and personally I cannot stomach doing that.
Now, if the yarnspinners alliance had not been in place I may well have faced a similar ganging problem, but with some important differences:
*The attacks would likely have waited longer and/or been more timid as they could never be sure of other nations support
*They would not by any means be bound together rock solidly, using diplomacy to split them apart would have been possible, particularly after I appeared a little less powerful.
*By fighting to the death well I could offer other nations a better chance of winning. With the power of the four nations solidly together for a joint victory, this was not a realistic idea.
But I think the real issue with the alliance was it's secrecy. I'm not sure if the alliance was conceived before the start of the game, but if so, it gave those nations who were thus aware of it a very large advantage. Secondly, if four players are planning to win the game jointly, they should declare so when the decision is reached, because otherwise it is like playing graphs off for some nations and graphs on for others. I have no problem with the yarn encouraging aspect, but this could have been handled just as well or better without the secrecy, or better yet by giving the overseer greater power of rewards or punishments. It certainly does contain a trace of irony that alliance is actually the cause for me to stop yarning.
Anyway, I hope no one was offended by my whiny rant, I hold no hard feelings toward any of the players involved. Hopefully in addition to making me feel better it can help prevent similar situations occurring to other players.
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