Emphyrio wrote: ↑
March 24th, 2024, 02:25
Decline I don't think it's fair to blame the map settings. The throne settings were slightly too easy for my taste, but I played by the same rules everybody else did. At the time when I started rushing the thrones I was twice as big as anybody else.
I disagree, the setting as it played out massively favorited Mekone. You mentioned it in your text as well:
* Mekone has expensive heavy hitters with magic weapons (who incidentally hard counter Ubar) that heavily favor a quick win early to early-mid game. In "normal" games this is harder to pull off due to the price tag on those Giganti. But on this smallish high income map Mekone was the perfect pick.
* The VC 4x2 Thrones is also heavily in favor towards Mekone's strong early-mid, making a quick win possible. Mekone's strength tapers off considerably once real magic hits the field so if the thrones were bigger and/or just more of them you would have had to deal with e.g. myself actually hitting my research goals.
* Also your starting position was ideal for a quick win, with so many thrones in easy reach. (As an aside I would argue I had the worst starting position with zero accessible thrones within 3 provinces of my cap.)
I think these three factors combined had a huge impact on your quick victory. And you understood to masterfully exploit both what your nation and what the map had to offer you. So, well deserved, GG.
And yeah I also don't get why you pulled back from my cap, there's not a lot Ubar can do vs Mekone's Hoplites that early in the game. I assumed you wanted to conserve as much as possible in order to assist a throne victory (which was correct?)
now i have to keep playing
