I've enjoyed watching from the sidelines as this unfolded after the
untimely demise of the Wizard nation.
First, I'll repeat that Mike was a great GM. Except for the super weird
dust-up with the original Nomad player, this game hit practically no bumps
and stayed largely on schedule. Results were practically instantaneous.
Very impressive for such a big game.
I shared everyone's initial concern with the size of the game. I dealt
with it by focusing all my attention on my immediate neighbors and largely
ignoring the rest of the map. This was quite clearly a mistake, as it's
obvious from everyone else's remarks that I was not involved in any of the
big-picture discussions that my "allies" were having with their neighbors.
I completely misplayed the first few turns of this game and I almost
recovered from it. In fits of disjointed late-night diplomatic nonsense,
I cut competing deals with the Samurai, the Hobbits, and the Pirates,
which
then had to be reconciled at the end of the first full year. I chose the
Samurai deal (which offered the prospect of long-term cooperation with the
Elves against the Hobbits) at the expense of the Hobbits and barely
muddled through with the Pirates. Ross would have been a fine partner as
the Hobbits and in retrospect a partnership with him probably made more
strategic sense. Meanwhile I made a strange move into the middle island
and left myself in a totally incoherent strategic position as I stabbed
the
Hobbits.
The Samurai-Elves partnership went along fine for awhile and we succeeded
in outmaneuvering the Hobbits (it was inevitable with the numbers arrayed
against him), but the Elves stretched far too thin and got their legs
taken
out by the Ogres and Undead (and in retrospect with the sign-off of my
erstwhile Samurai ally). In an amusing series of events, Georg continued
to work with us even after we stabbed him to the point where John and I
became convinced he hadn't noticed he'd been stabbed. It was all very
surreal.
I was on the verge of cutting a deal with the Archers against the Pirates
(perhaps... I'd be interested in the Archers' view of whether that was
ever
going to happen) to move on the Pirates when I made the fatal mistake of
delaying one turn too long while trying to mop things up elsewhere. That
one turn allowed the Pirates to turn on me with the cooperation of the
Samurai, and it was all over. Somehow I was still oblivious to the
airtight relationship between the Samurai and the Ogres and thought I
could
squirm out of an impossible strategic situation. I was still thinking the
Undead and Ogres were the unbreakable pair.
You saw my subequent appeal to the world for vassalization and I was
deeply disappointed that nobody thought my Wizardly powers worth the
effort.
Congrats to the participants in the tie. You guys earned it with great
effort and some savvy deals. Looking forward to playing with any and all
of you in the future.
Brian the Wizard