Here is my status at the end of our previous three player game. This is before Thygs did his turn so he would have gained a bit, but at the end of my turn I would have regained plus a bit. I was never as big as the Python thought, just brilliant in my play (!). There was no coordination at all between the Python and I, although we had a sight treaty so we knew what was going on in the wide world of Thygs.
I was within striking distance of two new Thygosonian islands, and all of my current invasions had a steady supply of reinforcements. Thygs picked the right time to pull up stumps. Here is the arc of my main invasion, with Great Paul Island on the left. There was a steady wave of red across the arc, plus laden sneak transports in some of the cities within range of Thygs.
Thygs played well, and is definitely more aggressive and adept at the multi transport invasion. I think he stopped exploring too soon, and was distracted by his early conflict with the Python. The Python made a fighting retreat, while still putting maximum focus on exploration.
The Python also spent a lot of time flying over my empire and trying to learn as much as possible about my game play, so I did a number of deliberately uncharacteristic moves. I guess that's a compliment!
"just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you ..."
>:-o
Posted by: Thygocanberra | Thursday, 08 January 2015 at 02:25 PM
There was actually a point at which I thought Python was going to do a grand stab and attack me. The sight treaty even went off for a turn and I thought "here it comes".
Posted by: Paul | Thursday, 08 January 2015 at 08:12 AM
Actually, I found a bug in my plane strategy. At the beginning of the game, I press X for explore for all new planes. This sends them off to the unexplored areas (which is where the game is won). However, if you are in a TEAM alliance, pressing X causes the planes to cluster around your ally. I could not determine why. This brings me to one of y favourite quotes from L'Empereur: "I would rather fight the allies than be one of them".
In the mid game when exploration is complete, I create complex flight paths. However, we never got that far. Looking at Paul's numbers, I suggest there were about 50 neutrals at the game's end.
Re Paul's brilliant play, I concur completely. I feel I need a 10% lead in cities before I can relax against Paul, and even then he has an uncanny knack of taking my cities that hide transports.
Paul's small lead in cities explains one thing: I was expecting a colossal backstab from him on the turn Peter resigned. Nothing personal to be sure, but just to see if it worked, from the point of view of a scientific experiment. I had a few things hiding, but would have lost upward of 50 cities in the first turn of his treachery.
Posted by: PythonMagus | Wednesday, 07 January 2015 at 11:53 PM