TucoTuco - MA game for new/newish players (upload)

[Psycho]

I am taking over Pangaea starting from this turn. I've been informed that I have NAPs with Tien Chi and Vanheim and no relations with Caelum. I will be here for just a week, so I will not be making any diplomatic changes, except if Caelum wants a NAP that can be negotiated (PM me about it if interested).

to Caelum: I suppose you are the one who defeated Bandar Log, but I will send a small army to take their last province. Their misfortune scales are hurting me, so I want their dominion dead. You can take the province later if you want.

[JimMorrison]

I want their dominion dead too.

< shrug >

Knowing you all have a NAP makes me just want to go AI though.

I'm finding that I'm not overly fond of 8 player games, not a very complex dynamic.....

[Darkstone]

8 player games may not be as complex, but they involve less provinces, smaller armies, and more mid-game action. Most importantly there's less micro and the turns go by much quicker, which is a major plus if you survive till endgame.

[JimMorrison]

"Not as complex" seems to oversimplify the oversimplification.

One player goes AI, a couple others get rushed out, and then what? Giant NAP party that systematically eliminates 1 player at a time. The only overarching strategy involved is largely luck based - do you start close to the right people and ally them in the beginning? At least in a larger game, there are usually at least 2 competing alliances.

I was going to babble on about the situation, but it sounded too pathetic. Suffice to say, I had hatched a pretty plan to ally with Pan and crush Vanheim from both sides - but with that out of the question, it seems the only variable left in my game, is how long I can manage to last against a much stronger Vanheim. If I didn't have such a well developed sense of honor, I would go AI and save myself the trouble.

[Darkstone]

If I was so strong, why haven't I attacked yet?

I wouldn't count you out just yet Jim... considering my position in the center is strategically weak, and NAP's tend to evaporate at the worst possible moments. Where as you have the mobility to attack from wherever you choose... I'm limited in that any force I send in any particular route, is committed.

Lastly, even if you didn't have a sense of humor, I'm not sure you'd get upset if you'd lose any particular game... since you're such an active player (a truly jaw-dropping amount of games).

[JimMorrison]

Well you're correct, I found it not entirely funny that you stripped 3 territories off of me when I was at my most vulnerable, and specifically told me, in the middle of that process, that it wasn't an act of war.

And you are also correct, that at this point I may partly sound fatalistic because I am dreaming of a different start for my lovely Caelum. I won't suicide the nation or go AI, but I'm not looking at the game as an economy that lasts to the end - more rather planning each move based on what does the most damage in the short term. Ironically, since I feel that if I don't behave that way, I won't have a long term, it also coincides with doing what is best FOR the long term, which I won't have if I don't fight like a cornered dog. With wings.

I still don't find it particularly funny to lose my only non-mountain provinces the way that I did. But I don't hold it against you, it's those bloody Vans, they're bastards.


You're actually quite lucky right now Darkstone, I'm reasonably certain that if our other players weren't represented by subs atm, the aforementioned NAPs would in fact be dissolving as we speak. I do what I can.


Oh also, not sure if I was misunderstood. It's less that I am bitter about my own position in this game, just that I really prefer larger maps with more players, and I'm bitter that I placed myself into a small one, and then chucked my pretender into Inkpot End in the first year. <3

[Darkstone]

Let's clear a few misconceptions up.

You shouldn't have grabbed territory so far from your capital and so close to mine, if you had no ability or desire to defend it. As for it being or not being an act of war, I said I was willing to consider not being at war, as much as being at war.

I attempted and began negotiations, and you decided to end them. So instead of keeping that third province and getting a couple items for a NAP with me, or making some yet different arrangement, you chose war. I still believe you chose rashly, as you didn't get anything out of it except possibly some sense of satisfaction, but this really shouldn't be that big of a deal.

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Secondly, I'm not sure what you are fatalistic about, each of the 4 major nations left has a good shot at winning the game.

As for starts... well, since you play so many games, I'm sure you realized that luck has a lot to do with how your game turns out, even if you pick the same nation on the same map, against the same players, with the same game setting.

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As for the NAPs, anything is possible.

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Lastly, if you prefer bigger games, I guess you can make that happen easily in the future, but complaining about it now doesn't make a lot of sense. As for your pretender, that sucks. You didn't run off and cry like Bandar (who was next to both Arco and Caelum who lost their pretenders just like Bandar). People who expect their game to go perfectly shouldn't play Dominions.

Sticking to a commitment deserves respect, and I think the other players recognized that, in regards to Arco, you, etc.

At least, I did.