I recently went back and re-read the Neptune's Pride diary that I wrote back in May and it spurred me on to write a summary of the Smallworld game we played in Alans. In a lot of ways Smallworld is very similar to Neptune's Pride. Like NP the combat mechanic is simple and so players cannot rely at simply fighting well to win, they need help from other players in the game. No matter how good you are at planning your attacks, at the end of the day you're going to lose if your opponent has more units than you, this is true for both NP and Smallworld.
With that said, I was very much aware that I'd need help in this game if I was going to win it. The number one thing I learned from Neptune's Pride is that I can't dip my finger in too many pies. I went into Neptune’s pride far too overconfident and immediately started Machiavellian-esque tactics right from the beginning. But what ended up happening was that I tried to do it to too many people and just ended up annoying everyone from the get go. This meant any diplomatic manoeuvrings I tried throughout the game failed because people read my messages with a hostile attitude.
I knew that if I tried the same tactics in Smallworld I’d just draw attention to myself which would probably end up on the other 3 players turning on me. So the aim of the game was to try and blind myself to the whole board and just focus on my immediate surroundings. My game plan had two points to it. 1) Don’t anger the whole board & 2) have at least one ally for the majority of the game. This plan (especially point 1) was bolstered by the fact that I picked the Ratmen with the bonus points for swamp zones. It meant that with my greater numbers I could expand rapidly and I would be harvesting more VPs than anyone right from the start, doubly so because I was getting extra points for the swamp zones.
With the headstart I got with my Race + Trait combo, it became immediately apparent to me that if I could just stick to my area and hold my own, I’d be in with a strong chance of winning the game. However, Smallworld’s board is quite small which inevitably leads to conflict. So in order for my plan of splendid isolation to work, I’d need a friend. At the beginning Alan started looking for allies so I hopped on that opportunity. Alan showed with Neptune's Pride that he's good at these types of games and I thought with him at my side he could protect me while I farmed Victory Points. That never came to a head though because Alan was swayed by the others not to side with me. I was surprised by Alan's play all game to be honest; he constantly jumped from one plan to the next every turn. But when I looked back at his Neptune's Pride game it made sense. He was completely isolated all game, penned in by Gus & I. He fought extremely well, effectively holding off the two of us, but he was never called on for much diplomacy at all. He had to weather the storm against myself and Gus and then once he broke us, he went on to fight the rest of the map. The one time I actually trusted him he broke a ceasefire we had both agreed on once he saw I was weak. So it's actually not that surprising that he flip-flopped so much in this game.
In place of Alan I found an ally in Dippi after about 3 turns. I was absolutely delighted with this. Dippi started off with an incredibly aggressive combo of Amazons & The Dragon and in my opinion he could have beaten anyone in the game at that point. The funny thing was, he never had to. He was left completely alone for the whole game with a lot of free land to expand into. Expanding on this; now would be a good time to talk about how we all set up in the beginning. The board is a rectangle and I assume in a four player game the idea is that each player occupies a corner and then eventually expands into each other. However, when we started to deploy this never actually happened. Alan & Dippi fought for the top right, leaving the bottom right relatively untouched. I think what brought this on was Alan's flying power which he felt he had to utilise right from the off. But really all it did was spread him too thin and ultimately resulted in him occupying the bottom left with Gus.
So really the layout for a large portion of the game was me in the top left, Jason in the top right, no one in the bottom right and Alan & Gus in the bottom left. This was great for Jason, good/bad for me, but disastrous for Alan & Gus. For Jason it meant that instead of expanding into a player for territory he could expand into neutral ground. For me, while it meant I now had 2 players to my south, it also meant I could trust Jason because the obvious route for him was south and not into me. For Gus & Alan it meant that they occupied the same territory and were constantly clashing with each other. This meant that they were constantly hamstringing each other all game.
So once the board positions started to settle I had to adapt. I gained Jason as an ally which was huge. In terms of military strength he was the strongest player by a country mile. If he decided to expand into me I would have been screwed. But gaining him as an ally meant not only could I focus on Alan & Gus but I had a voice to back me up in every debate we had and that was perhaps even more crucial. My number one goal for the rest of the game was to stop Alan & Gus uniting and pushing against me. If they kept fighting each other and Jason just expanded south I believed I'd win the game since I was harvesting victory points at a furious rate. This was something Gus spotted right at the beginning, but unfortunately for him he couldn't convince either Jason or Alan to do anything about it. Jason himself believed he was winning the race against me and wouldn't have to risk a war to win, and Alan was too easily swayed by the joint voices of Jason & I.
So what ended up happening was perfect for me. I was left pretty much alone for the entire game. Alan and Gus just kept fighting each other. It was strange, both players kept identifying the need to join forces and go for me but every turn they'd turn on each other. I lost count the amount of times they’d broker a peace only to go back to taking a territory or two off each other the very next turn. What this ended up doing was effectively putting them both out of the running for the game and leaving myself and Jason to race each other. Both of us thought we were ahead on Victory Points. I think what swung it for me was that I got a much better start than him. I had the highest number of units at the beginning which meant I got more territory and I also had a perk that doubled the victory points of swamps. That perk lasted for a good 5 or 6 turns so even when Jason overtook me in territory held I was still generating more Victory points than him.
In the last 3 or so turns it became very apparent that it was going to boil down to a race between myself and Jason. This led to some tension between us that came to a head in the redeployment turns of Gus and Jason. Fergus had brought a new race into play and placed them in the bottom right corner of the map (the space Jason was expanding into). The problem here was that Gus had the diplomacy trait which meant he could effectively stop Jason's movement south. This was around the time that Jason decided to also bring a new race into the game. When he brought them in he had a choice, he could deploy them back in his old position but be trapped between his ally (me) and Gus who was immune to him, or he could deploy in the bottom left hand side of the map which was essentially the map’s war zone all game. He chose to deploy in his old spot and that scared the hell out of me.
After his choice to redeploy up by me I started preparing for a war. Since it was a race between me and Jason, every Victory Point was crucial. Every turn I played I was expanding into new zones, whether it be filling out the neutral zones left around my area or into the war zone where Gus and Alan had been beating the crap out of each other all game in. The point is, I was taking zones every turn, which translated into even more victory points. Jason however was stifled. He couldn't move into Gus because of the diplomacy trait so the only place he could move into was west and into me. When he deployed his troops near my border I was sure he was going to attack. I didn't think he thought he was far enough ahead to just sit on what he had and wait for the end. But that's what ended up happening.
In the end I think four factors won the game for me. The first, and biggest factor, is that despite Alan & Gus wanting to attack me all game, I was only attacked once...on the last turn. Even when they had a chance to bring in new races and deploy into me, they still chose to fight each other. The second factor was having Jason as a permanent ally. This didn't so much help me in a military sense (we never fought together in an actual battle) but it helped me focus on just one area. It actually makes an interesting comparison to the Neptune's Pride game. Myself and Gus wanted to expand west into Alan and split his territory before focusing on everyone else, but I was too scared of Jason, on my right, to commit fully. What ended up happening was I split my forces and fought a war on two fronts, eventually letting Alan back into the game and of course he went on to win it. With this game I never once worried about Jason until the very end which allowed me to fully focus on Gus & Alan.
The third factor was my race+trait combo. I had ratmen and bonus swamp points at the beginning, which as previously discussed allowed me to build up the masses of victory points. But then I picked the Sorcerer + Heroic trait. Because Sorcerers can effectively boost their numbers in a battle it meant that at the end game I probably had the strongest army which I think deterred Gus & Alan from deciding to attack me.
Finally Jason's decision to honour our agreement in the final three turns. If Jason attacked me when he redeployed his new race of giants I don't know what would have happened. I think it would have been a lot closer certainly and Alan & Gus would have had a lot more to say.
In regards to the other players I think Alan played a lot like I played in Neptune's Pride. He was loud, tried too many things, flip-flopped a lot which inevitably ended up with him in constant war. Gus was the opposite, he saw how it was but wasn't loud enough to sway the opinions of anyone else. This was unfortunate for him because Alan chose his territory to redeploy in. I reckon had he done that to either myself or Jason we would have eventually convinced him to side with us. Gus was just never able to do that. Jason's game was very similar to mine; we both had a very easy ride. I mean, he didn't lose a single territory and I lost one. But the difference in it was I just had the better start. I am unsure what I would have done in his position. When Gus with his diplomacy redeployed into the bottom right hand corner of the map it effectively meant Jason had to betray me or lose the game. I think had he known I was so far ahead things might have gone differently, but he thought he was close enough that he could both honour his agreement and win the game.
Comparing the Smallworld and Neptune’s Pride I think Alan definitely comes off the worst in terms of trust. In Neptune’s Pride he backstabbed me mercilessly when I was down and in this game he was constantly switching plans and going back on agreements. He won Neptune’s Pride because he fought the battles exceptionally well, but he never really had that opportunity in this game because right from the beginning he was on the back foot. Jason has proved to be a pretty solid ally and good diplomat. In Neptune’s Pride he looked out of the game when myself and Gerry were attacking him on two fronts, but he managed to turn the tides by agreeing a ceasefire with Gerry which ended up screwing me. This effectively flipped him from losing the game to becoming relevant right up to the end. In this game he was a staunch ally and I’d definitely trust him again. I still don’t know what to make of Gus. In Neptune’s Pride he got off to a horrific start because he didn’t realise the game had begun and by the time he had I had taken most of his planets. Similarly in this game he was hamstrung by the constant battle he had with Alan. I think I need to see him play a game where he doesn’t get off to such a bad start in order to properly give my opinion. In terms of myself I think two things really helped me in this game. Firstly I was dealing with reasonable people. There were heated debates sure, but everyone listened to everyone else and there was no enmity. This was in stark contrast to the Neptune’s Pride game which had John & Flav who are about as angry and hostile as anyone you’d meet on the internet. This meant that anytime I tried to talk I was angrily shot down which effectively stopped a lot of my communication with the East. In Smallworld I was constantly able to influence people and was never shot down. Secondly, I never had to actually fight a proper battle. In Neptune’s Pride Alan outplayed me on the strategic front. Despite having Gus attacking him from the North, I was never able to get the best of him. In Smallworld my battle strategy was never actually tested. I spent the whole game conquering neutral zones. The only battle I had to fight was one of words. It would have been interesting to see how I fared if Gus and Alan actually united, or Jason betrayed me.
I recently went back and re-read the Neptune's Pride diary that I wrote back in May and it spurred me on to write a summary of the Smallworld game we played in Alans. In a lot of ways Smallworld is very similar to Neptune's Pride. Like NP the combat mechanic is simple and so players cannot rely at simply fighting well to win, they need help from other players in the game. No matter how good you are at planning your attacks, at the end of the day you're going to lose if your opponent has more units than you, this is true for both NP and Smallworld.
With that said, I was very much aware that I'd need help in this game if I was going to win it. The number one thing I learned from Neptune's Pride is that I can't dip my finger in too many pies. I went into Neptune’s pride far too overconfident and immediately started Machiavellian-esque tactics right from the beginning. But what ended up happening was that I tried to do it to too many people and just ended up annoying everyone from the get go. This meant any diplomatic manoeuvrings I tried throughout the game failed because people read my messages with a hostile attitude.
I knew that if I tried the same tactics in Smallworld I’d just draw attention to myself which would probably end up on the other 3 players turning on me. So the aim of the game was to try and blind myself to the whole board and just focus on my immediate surroundings. My game plan had two points to it. 1) Don’t anger the whole board & 2) have at least one ally for the majority of the game. This plan (especially point 1) was bolstered by the fact that I picked the Ratmen with the bonus points for swamp zones. It meant that with my greater numbers I could expand rapidly and I would be harvesting more VPs than anyone right from the start, doubly so because I was getting extra points for the swamp zones.
With the headstart I got with my Race + Trait combo, it became immediately apparent to me that if I could just stick to my area and hold my own, I’d be in with a strong chance of winning the game. However, Smallworld’s board is quite small which inevitably leads to conflict. So in order for my plan of splendid isolation to work, I’d need a friend. At the beginning Alan started looking for allies so I hopped on that opportunity. Alan showed with Neptune's Pride that he's good at these types of games and I thought with him at my side he could protect me while I farmed Victory Points. That never came to a head though because Alan was swayed by the others not to side with me. I was surprised by Alan's play all game to be honest; he constantly jumped from one plan to the next every turn. But when I looked back at his Neptune's Pride game it made sense. He was completely isolated all game, penned in by Gus & I. He fought extremely well, effectively holding off the two of us, but he was never called on for much diplomacy at all. He had to weather the storm against myself and Gus and then once he broke us, he went on to fight the rest of the map. The one time I actually trusted him he broke a ceasefire we had both agreed on once he saw I was weak. So it's actually not that surprising that he flip-flopped so much in this game.
In place of Alan I found an ally in Dippi after about 3 turns. I was absolutely delighted with this. Dippi started off with an incredibly aggressive combo of Amazons & The Dragon and in my opinion he could have beaten anyone in the game at that point. The funny thing was, he never had to. He was left completely alone for the whole game with a lot of free land to expand into. Expanding on this; now would be a good time to talk about how we all set up in the beginning. The board is a rectangle and I assume in a four player game the idea is that each player occupies a corner and then eventually expands into each other. However, when we started to deploy this never actually happened. Alan & Dippi fought for the top right, leaving the bottom right relatively untouched. I think what brought this on was Alan's flying power which he felt he had to utilise right from the off. But really all it did was spread him too thin and ultimately resulted in him occupying the bottom left with Gus.
So really the layout for a large portion of the game was me in the top left, Jason in the top right, no one in the bottom right and Alan & Gus in the bottom left. This was great for Jason, good/bad for me, but disastrous for Alan & Gus. For Jason it meant that instead of expanding into a player for territory he could expand into neutral ground. For me, while it meant I now had 2 players to my south, it also meant I could trust Jason because the obvious route for him was south and not into me. For Gus & Alan it meant that they occupied the same territory and were constantly clashing with each other. This meant that they were constantly hamstringing each other all game.
So once the board positions started to settle I had to adapt. I gained Jason as an ally which was huge. In terms of military strength he was the strongest player by a country mile. If he decided to expand into me I would have been screwed. But gaining him as an ally meant not only could I focus on Alan & Gus but I had a voice to back me up in every debate we had and that was perhaps even more crucial. My number one goal for the rest of the game was to stop Alan & Gus uniting and pushing against me. If they kept fighting each other and Jason just expanded south I believed I'd win the game since I was harvesting victory points at a furious rate. This was something Gus spotted right at the beginning, but unfortunately for him he couldn't convince either Jason or Alan to do anything about it. Jason himself believed he was winning the race against me and wouldn't have to risk a war to win, and Alan was too easily swayed by the joint voices of Jason & I.
So what ended up happening was perfect for me. I was left pretty much alone for the entire game. Alan and Gus just kept fighting each other. It was strange, both players kept identifying the need to join forces and go for me but every turn they'd turn on each other. I lost count the amount of times they’d broker a peace only to go back to taking a territory or two off each other the very next turn. What this ended up doing was effectively putting them both out of the running for the game and leaving myself and Jason to race each other. Both of us thought we were ahead on Victory Points. I think what swung it for me was that I got a much better start than him. I had the highest number of units at the beginning which meant I got more territory and I also had a perk that doubled the victory points of swamps. That perk lasted for a good 5 or 6 turns so even when Jason overtook me in territory held I was still generating more Victory points than him.
In the last 3 or so turns it became very apparent that it was going to boil down to a race between myself and Jason. This led to some tension between us that came to a head in the redeployment turns of Gus and Jason. Fergus had brought a new race into play and placed them in the bottom right corner of the map (the space Jason was expanding into). The problem here was that Gus had the diplomacy trait which meant he could effectively stop Jason's movement south. This was around the time that Jason decided to also bring a new race into the game. When he brought them in he had a choice, he could deploy them back in his old position but be trapped between his ally (me) and Gus who was immune to him, or he could deploy in the bottom left hand side of the map which was essentially the map’s war zone all game. He chose to deploy in his old spot and that scared the hell out of me.
After his choice to redeploy up by me I started preparing for a war. Since it was a race between me and Jason, every Victory Point was crucial. Every turn I played I was expanding into new zones, whether it be filling out the neutral zones left around my area or into the war zone where Gus and Alan had been beating the crap out of each other all game in. The point is, I was taking zones every turn, which translated into even more victory points. Jason however was stifled. He couldn't move into Gus because of the diplomacy trait so the only place he could move into was west and into me. When he deployed his troops near my border I was sure he was going to attack. I didn't think he thought he was far enough ahead to just sit on what he had and wait for the end. But that's what ended up happening.
In the end I think four factors won the game for me. The first, and biggest factor, is that despite Alan & Gus wanting to attack me all game, I was only attacked once...on the last turn. Even when they had a chance to bring in new races and deploy into me, they still chose to fight each other. The second factor was having Jason as a permanent ally. This didn't so much help me in a military sense (we never fought together in an actual battle) but it helped me focus on just one area. It actually makes an interesting comparison to the Neptune's Pride game. Myself and Gus wanted to expand west into Alan and split his territory before focusing on everyone else, but I was too scared of Jason, on my right, to commit fully. What ended up happening was I split my forces and fought a war on two fronts, eventually letting Alan back into the game and of course he went on to win it. With this game I never once worried about Jason until the very end which allowed me to fully focus on Gus & Alan.
The third factor was my race+trait combo. I had ratmen and bonus swamp points at the beginning, which as previously discussed allowed me to build up the masses of victory points. But then I picked the Sorcerer + Heroic trait. Because Sorcerers can effectively boost their numbers in a battle it meant that at the end game I probably had the strongest army which I think deterred Gus & Alan from deciding to attack me.
Finally Jason's decision to honour our agreement in the final three turns. If Jason attacked me when he redeployed his new race of giants I don't know what would have happened. I think it would have been a lot closer certainly and Alan & Gus would have had a lot more to say.
In regards to the other players I think Alan played a lot like I played in Neptune's Pride. He was loud, tried too many things, flip-flopped a lot which inevitably ended up with him in constant war. Gus was the opposite, he saw how it was but wasn't loud enough to sway the opinions of anyone else. This was unfortunate for him because Alan chose his territory to redeploy in. I reckon had he done that to either myself or Jason we would have eventually convinced him to side with us. Gus was just never able to do that. Jason's game was very similar to mine; we both had a very easy ride. I mean, he didn't lose a single territory and I lost one. But the difference in it was I just had the better start. I am unsure what I would have done in his position. When Gus with his diplomacy redeployed into the bottom right hand corner of the map it effectively meant Jason had to betray me or lose the game. I think had he known I was so far ahead things might have gone differently, but he thought he was close enough that he could both honour his agreement and win the game.
Comparing the Smallworld and Neptune’s Pride I think Alan definitely comes off the worst in terms of trust. In Neptune’s Pride he backstabbed me mercilessly when I was down and in this game he was constantly switching plans and going back on agreements. He won Neptune’s Pride because he fought the battles exceptionally well, but he never really had that opportunity in this game because right from the beginning he was on the back foot. Jason has proved to be a pretty solid ally and good diplomat. In Neptune’s Pride he looked out of the game when myself and Gerry were attacking him on two fronts, but he managed to turn the tides by agreeing a ceasefire with Gerry which ended up screwing me. This effectively flipped him from losing the game to becoming relevant right up to the end. In this game he was a staunch ally and I’d definitely trust him again. I still don’t know what to make of Gus. In Neptune’s Pride he got off to a horrific start because he didn’t realise the game had begun and by the time he had I had taken most of his planets. Similarly in this game he was hamstrung by the constant battle he had with Alan. I think I need to see him play a game where he doesn’t get off to such a bad start in order to properly give my opinion. In terms of myself I think two things really helped me in this game. Firstly I was dealing with reasonable people. There were heated debates sure, but everyone listened to everyone else and there was no enmity. This was in stark contrast to the Neptune’s Pride game which had John & Flav who are about as angry and hostile as anyone you’d meet on the internet. This meant that anytime I tried to talk I was angrily shot down which effectively stopped a lot of my communication with the East. In Smallworld I was constantly able to influence people and was never shot down. Secondly, I never had to actually fight a proper battle. In Neptune’s Pride Alan outplayed me on the strategic front. Despite having Gus attacking him from the North, I was never able to get the best of him. In Smallworld my battle strategy was never actually tested. I spent the whole game conquering neutral zones. The only battle I had to fight was one of words. It would have been interesting to see how I fared if Gus and Alan actually united, or Jason betrayed me.
