The Bogarus Problem

[Ming]

K,

Thank you for your reply and free advice.

For your information, I have played test games against the AI using both strategies (eparch and awake pretender) and find the latter to be superior (and NOT just because it is better against the AI). Nevertheless, in deference to your ability (I can tell from your comments in other threads that you are a good and experienced player – certainly more than semi-competent!) I shall take another look and reserve my judgment. Our differences seem minor and might be no more than player preference anyway. i.e. both strategies requires compromises and it is a question of which is a better compromise.

I should, however, point out a couple of points that you seem to have overlooked in your comments:

Taking an awake pretender can still leave enough points to get good scales – the only significant trade-off is production vs sloth. The value of production diminishes over time. So in this respect you are not getting much lasting value by not choosing an awake pretender. Alternately you could invest the points in magic paths, but Bogarus’ recruitable mages already provide sufficient magic ability, so again the trade-off for taking an awake pretender is not that great.

Giving up 5-6 turns of staret recruitment in the beginning IS a major handicap. Sure you could catch-up, but you would otherwise be way ahead! What do you gain in return? Extra design points that might not make a major difference – AND your early expansion would still be slower than with an awake pretender.

Finally, using an awake pretender gives you more flexibility, not less, in the early game. With an awake pretender, you can still recruit eparchs if the situation still calls for it. Without an awake pretender, you will not have the option of calling for its help.

Anyway, as I said, I shall take another look instead of debating this further.