To be honest this was my first go at the Ancient Med board; I would have preferred the Sail-Ho tournament. This was also my first Dip game in 5 or so years, so I was glad it was gunboat.

My approach to this was fairly simple, and was based more on my strategy for playing Chromatic, which is similar in style -- a board with 5 powers where it's easier to go one way or the other than it is to go across. So I needed Rome to choose to go after Greece, and I had to choose between Egypt and Rome. When it came to the first builds, I chose to go after Egypt, mainly because it was the easier nut to crack. I was hoping that Rome would realize how poorly Greece was defended, and would go after the easier nut there, instead of me. But he didn't.

Losing Saguntum was expected; I figured I'd finish off Egypt and then focus on holding off Rome defensively until either he went after Greece instead or until Greece decided to help me out. What I didn't expect was what I strongly believe to have been the least strategic attack of the game -- Persia forcing me to disband while at the same time being unable to build with the taken centers, and stab which allowed Egypt to survive for another year. I might have respected Persia if he'd gotten the build; after all, he had Greece to deal with, too. But he didn't. It was pointless and useless and all it did was force me to disband. At that point, I knew I couldn't win; I couldn't hold off Rome for long, or Persia if I made a disband on that end of the board, and even Greece might be able to poach a center from my carcass.

At this point, I decided to be kingmaker. I couldn't help Greece. I wouldn't help Persia. So I disbanded most favorably to Rome and hoped he would turn on Greece as soon as possible. His first set of moves at that point seemed to not be helpful to me, so I made sure he couldn't get all my centers. At that point, Greece finally seemed to realize what was happening, but it was too late.

Thanks to Vegas for running the game. It was fun. Wish there were more gunboats on DC. Beyond that, good game, all. Bittersweet Congrats to Rome, Mockingly Villainous Curses to Persia, and Good Luck to all the rest. See y'all around, I'm sure.