Scorched earth

KissBlade · #1 November 17th, 2007, 04:10 PM

I would actually be quite frustrated if the player gave as little fight as you proposed Baalz. War is suppose to be taxing and expensive. Say you play in a game against a similarly skilled opponent. You take one of his provinces and you KNOW you can't hold it. There's a lab there. What'd you do? Burn it down obviously. Raise taxes to 200, etc. The fact that you are picking on a nation that you expected to just "roll over and die" and then whining that they're not rolling over the way you want is silly IMO. I deal with scorched earth very simply. If I war, I expect to wipe them out before they know what's going on. If a nation is going to scorched earth itself while fighting, all the easier since I'll just let him self destruct. Gold isn't even that relevant in the game compared to gem income anyway. The reason I'm so flustered at this topic is that you don't realize it's VERY VERY ANNOYING when a weak player just rolls over and dies because that upsets game dynamic even MORE. There were MP games I've played where I literally predicted, "if player A starts next to player B, player A will win the game".

Lazy_Perfectionist · #2 November 17th, 2007, 04:24 PM

... On the flip side of the question, when is going AI okay?

Reverend Zombie · #3 November 17th, 2007, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
... On the flip side of the question, when is going AI okay?

For sure when you are down to your last castle, and can't summon or recruit!

Lingchih · #4 November 17th, 2007, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
... On the flip side of the question, when is going AI okay?

For sure not when you are one of the top nations, and you just decide the game has become boring for you (re: Man in one of Zachariah's games a few months back).

I generally go AI when I am down to my capitol, I'm in the red financially and can't recruit, and I have no chance of making a comeback. Although I have gone AI earlier in a few games that I knew I was going to lose. I'm sorry for that though, and will endeavor to stick with games longer in the future.

KissBlade · #5 November 18th, 2007, 12:37 AM

On this note though, I am against the idea of "giving provinces" to other players. Gem/item/gold trading to your allies I can understand. Province trading is annoying simply because if you have a NAP with who the province is given away too, you're essentially "off limits" to them. Also province donating pretty much prevents you from ever coming back the game yourself if you're the one doing it.

Foodstamp · #6 November 18th, 2007, 01:28 AM

I can't believe people can actually get upset if someone has a scorched earth policy when it is completely acceptable for over half the player base in a game to dog pile a single player.

Kissblade grats on post 777, this monkeys gone to heaven.

Burnsaber · #7 November 19th, 2007, 06:57 AM

Quote:

KissBlade said:
I would actually be quite frustrated if the player gave as little fight as you proposed Baalz. War is suppose to be taxing and expensive. Say you play in a game against a similarly skilled opponent. You take one of his provinces and you KNOW you can't hold it. There's a lab there. What'd you do? Burn it down obviously. Raise taxes to 200, etc. The fact that you are picking on a nation that you expected to just "roll over and die" and then whining that they're not rolling over the way you want is silly IMO. I deal with scorched earth very simply. If I war, I expect to wipe them out before they know what's going on. If a nation is going to scorched earth itself while fighting, all the easier since I'll just let him self destruct. Gold isn't even that relevant in the game compared to gem income anyway. The reason I'm so flustered at this topic is that you don't realize it's VERY VERY ANNOYING when a weak player just rolls over and dies because that upsets game dynamic even MORE. There were MP games I've played where I literally predicted, "if player A starts next to player B, player A will win the game".

I second this.

I've used Scroched Earth once in a recent MP game. My neighbour managed to luck out with indy mages (he basically had good access to path level 3 mages in ALL paths expect blood) and managed to get to artifacts first. His research chart was way off to skies. Then war becan. I really didn't have much anything to bring against his armies, they were almost invincible to me. He had me beaten in every category, gem income, research, income.. It was like Germany against Poland in WW2. What should I have done? Just said, "well done, go ahead and win the game" and go AI? That wouldn't have been really too much fun for me.

Instead I decided to give other players in that game a fighting chance against this monster nation and commenced operation scorched earth, complete with forging Implementor Axes, sending raiding forces, trying to cripple his armies with "Bone Grinding" and just trying to cause general mayhem. I sended my magical items to other nations as a way to try to balance the scales of power.

It's obvious that Implementor Axes are meant to be forged and used, since they're actually in the game. If someone doesn't like that, he can just house rule them out.

EDIT: I didn't actually have any grudges or any feelings of spite against the player who invaded me. He managed to become powerfull by being a much better player than me and having some luck on the side. I have nothing against that. I just didn't have anything to bring against him (due to some mistakes on my part). IMHO it would have felt like cheating towards other players in the game if I just had given my stuff for free to the monster nation.