Sometimes two is all it takes.
While I generally agree with the statements that diplomacy played a huge role in this game, I reject those that imply that I won this game without going to war. While Ra and I were fighting Landgrab, Loner, Zavulon, Forger, and Siggi there were certainly a large number of battles which could have gone either way and if we had lost even a couple of those critical battles during the time between turn 150 and 170, the tide of war could have turned against us. It wasn't all without luck, and we did spend an excruciating amount of time coordinating the details of ship movements. Our worst performance on the battlefield was in the battle of Turning World at p272 in turn 169 which was discussed here (http://planets.nu/#/activity/2604452) and that was really more of a stalemate than a defeat.
At the end of the day, Ra and I did a better job of maximizing each of our advantages while neutralizing those of our enemies. Since Ra's strategy was to help me overcome our enemies and then to come after me himself in the endgame, during the time we were fighting together, our interests were in almost perfect alignment. Our enemies, on the other hand, were fighting us with different goals; they were all fighting to defeat me while taking minimal losses in order to preserve their own chance at victory. For that reason, I don't think they trusted each other enough to work together with the synergy necessary to pull off such an upset.
Later in the game, after we had delivered significant blows to the Colonies, the Empire, the Fascists, and the Robots had been eliminated, the remaining players each realized that they had taken their shot and missed. I choose to believe that they saw that, as an Emperor, I wouldn't be such a bad one. I had demonstrated on the battlefield the qualities of mercy and humility. I also like to think that it was only after crushing them on the battlefield that they really stepped in line and started supporting my bid for the throne which was critical in discouraging Ra from making his move against me. Siggi told me this in 99 and turn 163. Forger told me this in turn 162. Even Ra told me this in turn 178 but I am supposed to not hold him to it. Diplomacy and another quality, leadership, are how I managed to head off that second resurgence of wars which could have started as soon as Loner was defeated if Ra had decided to make his move against me. If he had had a realistic chance at winning it I think that he would have went ahead and taken it (and I wouldn't have thought less of him for doing so) but without the support of one or two of the remaining players in the game he saw that Forger was ready to sweep mines for me and Siggi was prepared to trade me additional d19s and he had the wisdom to see that the war was over before it had begun.
@Talespin The expression we used to use was that "the game was mine to lose" at turn 100. I certainly had the advantage at that point, but the conclusion was far from foregone at that point. I could have been less trusting of Ra and failed to embrace the partnership or I could have been less generous and lost him to the other side's offers to woo him away. I could have been more careless in my attacks against Loner or Siggi and incurred significant losses. I could easily have continued with my attack against Redwolfe and pushed the Lizards into the conflict instead of swallowing my pride and aborting the launch sequence at the last minute and that may have triggered the others to rally against me sooner than anticipated. There are dozens of things that could have gone the other way; I just managed to navigate through to the end without stepping in any of those potential landmines. It was exhausting, but worthwhile. |
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