RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)

[WraithLord]

I have learned from bitter experience that in RAND games, when there is a top dog and you see a weak target, you need to resist the temptation and attack the top dog . Blindly, no questions asked no expectation made (of other nations to join).

I was TC in previous RAND, had a solid position, could have made a move to stop Micah, but instead I attacked what I thought was a weak target (Jomon or Yomi) and thus did a double wrong, for not only did I not help stop Micah - I had also prevented my target from doing that.

Same in this game. Had Pythium not attacked me, I could have been in a much stronger position to help against Ashdod. Pythium, alive, would have made a great difference what with his astral dominance. He could have MHed most of Ashdod's teleporting SCs. Now, I did my best to convey to Pythium that I don't want to fight him. At first when he attacked me I didn't retaliate, I let him capture and keep my provinces in hopes that he'll understand that the greater threat was Ashdod but he kept attacking (probably took my reaction as a sign of weakness) and after sometime I had to respond which led to a bitter war that spent both of us (me coming victories wasn't such a blessing since by then I was depleted).
Also, had R'lyeh not attacked Ctis and instead attacked Ashdod the smaller neighbors of Ashdod (Ulm, TC) might have had more courage in joining the attack and so on and so forth.

But that's all part of the fun in RAND, Its much more a practice in psychology than the diplomacy games. Bottom line, ppl were either afraid to attack Ashdod, or they had chosen weaker targets instead, or couldn't do nothing about it since were chosen as said weaker targets (like Aby who got jumped by Pythium).