Grumbling that you got a couple friends on Turn 0, yes. Shame that. Did we quit? Did we propose tying their hands behind their backs? No, we spouted off, as people are wont to do, and kept on playing. Things have been looking up. I propose that in Game 13, the FP keep playing until things work themselves out - either looking up or looking down.
Yes, it would be “nice” if neutrals took longer to decide. Yes, I “feel” that way. But we can’t make them do X or Y, and any “incentives” to change how the game works, how it was designed, will do greater damage than any perceived good (ie, adding “rewards” for declaring later, or for the side with fewer nations, etc…).
So we’re stuck with, alas yet again, a CHOICE. And after you make a choice and take actions, you have to take responsibility for the results that you produce. If you CHOOSE to join an Indie game, you CHOOSE to invest in an opportunity to play in a certain environment where there are things beyond your control. There are people on your team who will not do what you want them to do or what you believe is the best thing to do. You have to find a way to deal with that just like you do in the office.
Sometimes you can influence other people, sometimes you can’t. You have to accept that. Sometimes others influence you, sometimes they don’t. They have to accept that. If you don’t like it, don’t play Indie games, play Gunboat - that’s why Gunboat was invented for crissake…!
If you don’t like Neutrals, find 5 or 11 others who don’t like neutrals and challenge another team to a game without Neutrals. Even better, you get to pick the nation you play there without getting stuck with your 14th choice… The Circle of Wraith, or the Nomads, or the Praetorians, or someone else will answer your call for a game.
But once you’ve made a choice and taken action (signed up for an started a game) you can’t say that the world is all wrong - it isn’t, it’s simply the way it is. “Oh, you can send an email to MEGames and they’ll forward it to any nation you ask them to? You can say anything you want in that message? You can even pretend to be someone else? Cool~! I’ll do that next time~!” THAT is how you are supposed to respond when the last neutral goes against you and says it’s because “You never tried to contact me.” Lesson learned.