Game 238. How much longer?

General
#21

Marc (if I remember correctly),

I could agree with most points of your analysis. We made some assumptions that turned out to be wrong, like:

  • being able to contain you in Mordor while we clear up the North. your successful market manipulation allowed you to field large armies and you could outrecruit the gondors. the additional pop centres in WOTR are clearly an advantage for the DS, and we underestimated the corsairs. COR, QA and KE have the potential to become economical supporters of the whole team and we left them quite unmolested for a long time
  • being able to run the agent race. we dedicated a lot of resources to that, still, the three elven nations, woodies and duns have a hard time to make up the CL bonus. we had a good start on this but some individual mistakes (of which I had my fair share) did spoil it. yet, the enormous stealth bonuses of some of the silvan agents might be good for a surprise, they are oh so hard to find :smiley:
  • winning the emis game. I guess we had a good start on the emis side and wise pop center placement has allowed those of our nations that are still in the game a prolonged survival. yet we could not bring that to an offensive impact
    all in all, one could safely say that your team was more homogeneous and coherent than ours. yet you tried to make us look like losers long before the game was decided, and such behaviour really sucks IMHO. it might be a part of your strategy to try and discourage your enemy, but for me (and others) it took part of the fun out of the game and made it a dogged, grim thing. Apart from humorous taunts, I would never question the skill of my opponents on the board in such an aggressive, arrogant way. This is a question of style - you have yours, I have mine.

So let me depart in peaceful disapproval. Regarding the current situation of the game, I doubt anybody of you can still accuse us for going on. Do I see a little bead of sweat on your foreheads? no? must have been a trick of the light, then… :wink:

#22

It seems you still don’t realize just how badly you were beaten (with a stick in your sleep) in those first 10 turns. We were able to acomplish each and every one of our goals in those first few turns. With VERY little difficluty or meaningful opposition. We swept the East, put major preasure on the Gondors, had drastically increased our gold reserves, had kept the Gap of Rohan nations away from Morannon, had made you pay dearly for the few gains in the North, and were poised to sweep across the board… as we did over the next 15 turns.

As for the One Ring… No. We’re not really worried. We know we totally dominated your team in every way… You’re just bugs that refuse to realize just how completely you were outplayed.

#23

“You have your style - I have mine”

quod erat demonstrandum :slight_smile:

#24

My style is politely dropping the game once it is clear I’m beaten. Let players move on to a more fun and rewarding experience.

Your style is forcing the oposition to waste $600+ and 3 months on an utterly unchallenging game against opposition that had dilusions of adequacy.

Hidden bases my arse. Noldor and Silvan were eliminated last turn. You have 1 nation left… The Rangers. We’re taking that nations last MT this turn. Do you really think you have ANY chance of surviving our 20+ assassin grade agents we have staked on Barad Dur?

It seems you’ve maintained your cluelessness to the last!

Go away cockaroach.

#25

I have a bit of a different take, apparently, than my teammates. Well done to the free for getting the Ring. There will be a wee bit of a challenge in dropping it in the lava, but I actually find it cool to have a game end this way. The armies of Sauron are burning Bree and the Shire while the last few free people frantically search for the One Ring…

Ironically enough, the game could end with all free nations eliminated (the Rangers will lose their capital this turn, and may go broke in any case)…with the Ring dropped into the hot stuff by the last surviving Ranger. I have no idea who “wins” if that is the case, but given the overall course of the game it’d be a nice recovery by the so-called good guys.

Hey, my nation no longer matters much anyhow. Armies, I’ve got plenty, but that isn’t the thing that counts now.

Looking forward to the results!

Marc/Sailor 238

#26

Gentlemen, I have been following this thread with some interest. It reflects, I think, an important Real Life lesson.

This game is a game of erosion. You erode the enemy’s means and will to resist. The will to resist is more imortant. Even the Confederates and Imperial Japan surrendered when they still retained the means of resistance.

If you insult and irritate your foe you only motivate them to prolong resistance. They downgrade relations with you from ‘neutral’ to ‘hated’. It is easier to surrender to a person you like than a person you do not like.

Let me propose that Bernard is not keeping the game going past its just limits, but that persons on the opposing team are.

#27

Well, Edward, I never expected any support from your part but that analysis is quite correct. Ironically, if the DS had adopted to a more friendly tone throughout the game, it might have ended some turns ago. While they are now facing a possible defeat, however small that chance might be. As a stout reader of Terry Pratchett, I know that it’s the million-to-one-chance, which usually works best :smiley:
Seeing what will happen is worth all the money, at least for me. And I am glad that this made it worthwhile for at least some of the opponents, too.
As for Darrell, you can stop insulting me now. Your goal is long achieved: you cannot sink any lower in my esteem, you have hit rock bottom.

#28

game is over.

it ended with Khamul holding th eone ring, and the elimination of every free nation. I special serviced the last turn.

#29

The unfriendliness was a direct result of a totally clueless FP squad not having a freakin’ clue just how badly they were getting their collective butt kicked.

We cleared Rhun and the Iron Hills, were hammering Mirkwood, were burning down the Gondors, and even holding our own in the far north… EVERYTHING we wanted to, we were easily able to do…almost as if the FP weren’t even trying.

AND THAT WAS ONLY TURN 10!!!

Seeing the route was on, we asked “How much longer”… the FP were all like in shock or something!!! “WHA?? How rude!”

Bunk. You guys sucked!!! By turn 10 it was over. The next 19 turns were a complete and utter waste of time and money… a boring game against totally inept opposition.

Defeat was never even a remote possibility. We wanted you to bring us the ring to help get the game over that much sooner. Why do you think Biblo didn’t move the turn you cuaght up with him? We cursed him to hold him in place so you could catch him… We had SOOO much agent power in Barad Dur that you never had a chance.

You make posts about how you have all these super secret off-map pop in an attempt to distract and confuse. I called the bluff and proved we knew exactly your situation. You had 1 nation. 1 major town, and that was going to fall last turn… And it did… You thought we were clueless, when in fact, it was you that was truely clueless.

Once again, YOU GUYS SUCK!!! You suck at play, losing EVERY one of your cities and major towns in 29 turns. You suck as a player, forcing us to take each and every one of your major towns and cities to eliminate you by brute force… The WORST kind of bug.

You’re the worst kind of sucky player… You suck so badly that you don’t even realize how badly you suck. Totally clueless.

We dictated EVERY aspect of this game, even getting you to bring us the One Ring.

GAME OVER!!! THANK GAWD… The roach has no rock left to hide under.

#30

Well Darrell I was wrong assuming you could sink no further. But remembering the PRS discussion long time ago should have told me what would happen if I asked you to stop insulting me/us. Paradox psychology would have helped here, I guess.
I don’t know what RL problems you must compensate with acting like that, but be sure you have my pity. I also pity your teammates for having to tolerate how you disgrace yourself continually. But as Steve does already have a cloak of sarcasm, I hope it also works against this kind of mental bluntness :wink:

Congrats to those of our opponents who showed at least some dignity. I guess our chances were slightly better than one in a million, else it would have worked :smiley:

#31

Welldone DS
Terry - NM

#32

Khamul got the Ring – let’s hear it for the Nazgul!

That said, this game should have been over 10 turns ago, and the handwriting was on the wall 18 turns ago. I don’t think the FP ever seriously inconvenienced us or derailed any of our plans. They had a lot of determination, but I’d have preferred more capable opponents.

A couple of questions:

  1. Why <i>didn’t</i> you blow the Anduin bridges? We kept thinking you were going to for, oh, six or eight turns, but what kept you from blowing them as we marched huge armies out of Mordor, and over the bridges, and into South Gondor (wrecking his entire position)

  2. We managed to double your neato agents Ulbar and Baragund fairly early in the game – not always helpful, since they were seldom in the doubling nations’ pop-centers, but we could always track them. I’m still wondering, though, why you spent three critical turns with them sitting around doing nothing but executing hostages. Why execute hostages in the first place (since once the character dies he can be replaced, but a hostage is forever)? And why have your two top assassins do the executions instead of a new A30?

#33

the old cloak of sarcasm, wow.

sm

#34

The Game is over, and well Played by the DS, although not well spoken, and without any since of honor,dignity, and most assuredly respect to their opponents by those respected few who displayed such verbalization.

The World is yours, till next game, and as a bug that keeps you playing Mr. Muller, I glad it costs the DS every red cent, every LB., Every last Euro. I know that quick victories are not so much worth as are long hard played ones, and so Congradultions in your hollow Victory Mr. Muller. Well earned. And just for squatts and giggles, you suck too! :stuck_out_tongue:

For those DS who have Honor, respect, and Dignity, I salute you and say well played! :o

Victory to the Dark Lord! :wink:

Ryan DR 238

#35

Or Perhaps that was aimed at Darren…oh well :stuck_out_tongue:

#36

tony,

  1. when we realized that we could not win the military game, we decided to try for a ring victory. blowing the bridges would have meant more of your forces in mirkwood and an earlier end for the sinda, which was our most potent nation for a long time, and the most capable for finding the ring and make way for it

  2. silvan was on the brink of termination when you first moved troops on his capital. it looked as if he would fall, so he thought better to execute his hostages. but then you failed to take his cap repeatedly and we got him a backup, so he played on.

#37

OK, the Sinda thing makes sense.

But you weren’t blowing the bridges really early – turns 8-10 or so. Had you already decided you couldn’t win a military victory that early?

#38

Gentlemen of the Game 238 FP,
I wish to compliment you on your honorable behavior if the face of some very low class remarks tossed your way by some of my DS teammates. Have no doubt that we had our internal discussions about the appropriateness of some of the posts in this thread, and they do not represent the views of all of us.

While I won’t pretend that the game was not a route, I applaud your efforts at the end of the game to try to grab a last minute victory. Despite some of the messages that ran before the turn, we were NOT certain of final victory at Barad-Dur.

Unfortunately, this will be my final mepbm game so I will not face any of you again, but I hope you all the best of luck in the future.
Tim Minnig
Khand 238

#39

@ tony - I can’t remember when we actually were discussing this, definitely not that early. your failed attempt on pelargir and our recapture of minas arthor might have given us some unjustified hope that we were able to contain you. you have to take into account that we had lost naval superiority completely to you (which was a key to your domination of the south) and bridges down would have meant very long way for the gondor troops.

@ tim - I appreciate your statement. I hope this game is not the reason for you quitting.

#40

Hey, even I was failry polite for the first 18-20 turns…

But once we had taken all of Rhun, Mirkwood, Gondor, and Rohan…

**** MAN… I’m going to call a ****ing cockroach a ****ing cockroach. Act honorably, I’ll treat you honorably. Act like a pathetic ****ing jerk, and I’m going to treat you like a pathetic ****ing jerk.

There was NO reason for them to force us to take every one of their pops, except the fact that they are pathetic ****ing jerks! They suck in every way. I will not applogize, or even think about backing down.

They are sucky players. Sucky because they couldn’t even slow us down… Sucky because they forced us into playing a COMPLETLY unchallenging game… for an extra 15 meaningless turns that did NOTHING except prove how sucky they are.

AND YES, this game IS the reason Tim is leaving the game. It was so boring for so long… Hell, all of us were ready to quit MEPBM for good. It was like beating up a bunch of 1st graders… girl 1st graders in wheelchairs… electric wheel chairs that they have to coltrol with the mouth-thingy cause they’re paralized from the neck down.