I was just going to briefly reply to Sendric's EOG, but this turned into a long post and so I just made it a full EOG. This was my first game on Redscape, nice to meet several new players (and some familiar ones). Read on if you're curious about the mess that was South America.
Coming in as a replacement for Brazil, things were not looking good. The UK was demanding crippling payment for being given nukes prior to my joining (1 BB per turn in perpetuity), Argentina was pressuring me to pay the UK and had several armies which looked menacing, and the previous player had neglected the naval side which I thought was critical to defending my coastal SCs. Ecuador had nukes as well, and I wasn't sure what to make of that in the beginning.
I decided that the UK and Argentina were probably working to screw me over, hence the quick nuke of Argentina's dangerous new fleet. I tried to form an alliance with Bolivia, but he seemed extremely reluctant to consider Argentina's armies a threat, preferring to focus on Ecuador, so I eventually took a centre from him to improve my defense, assuming he was with Argentina as well. I knew I would need help from somewhere to have a chance against Argentina, so I begged the US to nuke him as well, in exchange for my pledge to vote for him if he dropped two nukes. One came quick, which was vital, but the second never came (he was clearly busy).
This was going to be an ugly grind, and I knew simply holding on against Argentina was probably the best I could do. I needed to gain more centres so I'd have enough units to cover my awkwardly large territory; France was saying he was my ally, but merely cut off an expansion route, complicated my defense, and was not helping me at all, so I took Guyana in order to gain an SC and be able to field fleets on my coast. I desperately needed an ally though, to tip the balance against Argentina.
I'd been talking to Zambia early on, and of course he was dying to help. :) I knew he would be in a position to take the lion's share, if not all, the rewards, but I had pretty much no options. So we coordinated against Argentina, which was fun. I tried reopening talks with Argentina at that point, offering to let up if he simply turned around and defended himself, so I could focus on Bolivia before Mexico swallowed all of him up. Both Argentina and Bolivia attacked me until they were eliminated though, so no luck there. Mexico and Cuba were drawn in (I'd tried getting Ecuador's ear before, but he seemed resigned to his fate against them), and I tried to make those two my allies as their forces encroached on South America. Of course I'd raised my concerns about the North American alliance to the African countries, but they weren't in a hurry to act against them directly.
Cuba was talkative, and very powerful (so few units needed to protect his empire, left a lot of nukes available), and while we were friendly for a bit, in the end I couldn't offer him enough. I went back and forth with France; I needed his SCs to survive, then apologized and made peace, back and forth. He wasn't doing much from my point of view other than letting himself become a late-game target, unable to project power or defend himself at all. I regretted not simply taking two of his islands in the late game; I didn't because Cuba seemed to want him alive, although it was obvious it was to set up a final grab in the end. Earlier I'd tried getting Congo to attack him as well, but he declined for the same reason (plainly stated, being saved as a late game target). Controlling the mid Atlantic would have been interesting, but was not to be. Zambia then started asking me to turn over the few votes I'd managed to take in my nearly fruitless war against Bolivia and Argentina; he made a statesmanlike pitch for them, I politely declined, and prepared for the worst.
My situation was pretty untenable, surrounded by supposed "friends" as they gobbled up South America. I tried to make a pitch for being a support country, but in the end Cuba, Zambia, and Congo predictably all turned on me at the same time (with Mexico and France also joining in). Two of those countries ended up winning, so what can I say, I was up against the best! ;)
Throughout the game I was aware of a powerful North American alliance, and a powerful African alliance. I'm not surprised at the final result; congratulations in particular to Cuba and Zambia, whose effective communication and tactics I experienced up front.
The many nuclear exchanges between the superpowers were highly entertaining. I wish I'd had had some of those hidden units to play with; I saw them used effectively both for and against me. This is a wacky variant, and epic. I wouldn't call it balanced, but that's not really the point. I feel like the nukes should be tweaked a bit, but I'm not sure how, and they are undeniably amusing as is. The coalition victory conditions are interesting, if imperfect. It's a bit of a political campaigning popularity contest in the end, with the lower class countries maybe at a bit of an advantage with their lower vote requirements.
In conclusion, I think Paraguay probably could have been nuked some more.
Coming in as a replacement for Brazil, things were not looking good. The UK was demanding crippling payment for being given nukes prior to my joining (1 BB per turn in perpetuity), Argentina was pressuring me to pay the UK and had several armies which looked menacing, and the previous player had neglected the naval side which I thought was critical to defending my coastal SCs. Ecuador had nukes as well, and I wasn't sure what to make of that in the beginning.
I decided that the UK and Argentina were probably working to screw me over, hence the quick nuke of Argentina's dangerous new fleet. I tried to form an alliance with Bolivia, but he seemed extremely reluctant to consider Argentina's armies a threat, preferring to focus on Ecuador, so I eventually took a centre from him to improve my defense, assuming he was with Argentina as well. I knew I would need help from somewhere to have a chance against Argentina, so I begged the US to nuke him as well, in exchange for my pledge to vote for him if he dropped two nukes. One came quick, which was vital, but the second never came (he was clearly busy).
This was going to be an ugly grind, and I knew simply holding on against Argentina was probably the best I could do. I needed to gain more centres so I'd have enough units to cover my awkwardly large territory; France was saying he was my ally, but merely cut off an expansion route, complicated my defense, and was not helping me at all, so I took Guyana in order to gain an SC and be able to field fleets on my coast. I desperately needed an ally though, to tip the balance against Argentina.
I'd been talking to Zambia early on, and of course he was dying to help. :) I knew he would be in a position to take the lion's share, if not all, the rewards, but I had pretty much no options. So we coordinated against Argentina, which was fun. I tried reopening talks with Argentina at that point, offering to let up if he simply turned around and defended himself, so I could focus on Bolivia before Mexico swallowed all of him up. Both Argentina and Bolivia attacked me until they were eliminated though, so no luck there. Mexico and Cuba were drawn in (I'd tried getting Ecuador's ear before, but he seemed resigned to his fate against them), and I tried to make those two my allies as their forces encroached on South America. Of course I'd raised my concerns about the North American alliance to the African countries, but they weren't in a hurry to act against them directly.
Cuba was talkative, and very powerful (so few units needed to protect his empire, left a lot of nukes available), and while we were friendly for a bit, in the end I couldn't offer him enough. I went back and forth with France; I needed his SCs to survive, then apologized and made peace, back and forth. He wasn't doing much from my point of view other than letting himself become a late-game target, unable to project power or defend himself at all. I regretted not simply taking two of his islands in the late game; I didn't because Cuba seemed to want him alive, although it was obvious it was to set up a final grab in the end. Earlier I'd tried getting Congo to attack him as well, but he declined for the same reason (plainly stated, being saved as a late game target). Controlling the mid Atlantic would have been interesting, but was not to be. Zambia then started asking me to turn over the few votes I'd managed to take in my nearly fruitless war against Bolivia and Argentina; he made a statesmanlike pitch for them, I politely declined, and prepared for the worst.
My situation was pretty untenable, surrounded by supposed "friends" as they gobbled up South America. I tried to make a pitch for being a support country, but in the end Cuba, Zambia, and Congo predictably all turned on me at the same time (with Mexico and France also joining in). Two of those countries ended up winning, so what can I say, I was up against the best! ;)
Throughout the game I was aware of a powerful North American alliance, and a powerful African alliance. I'm not surprised at the final result; congratulations in particular to Cuba and Zambia, whose effective communication and tactics I experienced up front.
The many nuclear exchanges between the superpowers were highly entertaining. I wish I'd had had some of those hidden units to play with; I saw them used effectively both for and against me. This is a wacky variant, and epic. I wouldn't call it balanced, but that's not really the point. I feel like the nukes should be tweaked a bit, but I'm not sure how, and they are undeniably amusing as is. The coalition victory conditions are interesting, if imperfect. It's a bit of a political campaigning popularity contest in the end, with the lower class countries maybe at a bit of an advantage with their lower vote requirements.
In conclusion, I think Paraguay probably could have been nuked some more.
Last edited by zurn on 16 Jul 2015, 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.