[magnate]

But if you're focusing so much on making clams, you aren't using your resources to expand or defend, and surely the other players must take some responsibility for letting you get away with that? I mean, I've never tried it, but it must take a considerable number of turns for clamming to reach game-winning proportions (50? 60?), so what were your opponents doing in the meantime? If they just let you get on with it, you should be commended for your diplomacy rather than slated for your clamming! If you managed to hide the fact that you were doing it and still appear strong enough to keep them at bay, that sounds pretty good. In my limited experience of MP the game is over before anybody has the chance to make more than a couple dozen clams.

CC
[edit: that doesn't mean the games are <60 turns, just that people don't focus so much on clamming because they're busy summoning and forging etc.]