AARs

[Morg]

This is your AAR for you to describe how the game unfolded according to your experiences.

This was an enjoyable game to watch unfold. Congratulations to all players and especially to Pharaoh of Nerds as the Solo Winner.

[sjg11]

Well played Messenia! You deserved the game. Sorry for my NMR in that last phase, it wasn't acceptable, but this week has been nuts and I just completely forgot about this to be honest with you.

[Phatality]

Good game all, especially Pharaoh. I apologize to Morg for almost always sending my orders in pretty late but thankfully I never NMR'd and he was a great host.

I felt like I was fighting a losing battle from the start when I took over. I tried to side with either Pharaoh or Mr. Bump but there was just too much incentive for them to continue fighting me rather than take me on as a new ally. I think there might've been the possibility of my Abydus/Byzantium fleet keeping me alive to force the four way draw (which was denied many times) but Pharaoh prevailed. I joined in August and it had been going since June so I was hoping people would get tired and settle for a draw but unfortunately that didn't work out for me.

I was kinda dismayed the lack of diplomacy towards me, I felt I didn't have much wiggle room to make stuff happen as much as I tried so I resigned myself to trying to make the draw happen. I didn't think Mr. Bump was genuine when he wanted to support me into Iria and I was ultimately just trying to keep one center alive.

I probably could've kept the three centers in the inset together if I had planned it better, but I thought it was worth taking a shot at allying with Pharaoh against Mr. Bump. Great game all and thanks to Morg for hosting.

[Pharaoh of nerds]

This was a lot of fun, thanks for playing to the end.
I started out by sending messages to basically everyone offering alliances or proposing divisions of SCs between us. I could only realistically attack either Elia or Sparta. Both seemed very receptive to my proposals, but Argos told me he would attack Sparta with me so I told Sparta and Sparta let slip that he was opening very anti-Argos (I don't know if he'd been planning on doing so or not before I told him). So I took the opening and stabbed Sparta and quickly took most of his centers.
Meanwhile, I made a non-agression pact with Elia and we agreed I'd get Sicily and Cumae, he'd get Rhegium. I got to Sicily, then before he could get to Cumae, Delphi attacked him and took control of the seas around Elia. In the east, I allied with Athens and between us we crushed Argos. During that time, I made a few supports to try to prop up Elia enough to stop Delphi's advance. I let Elia take Rhegium even though I could very well have taken if for myself, because we made a deal that I'd get it in a year or two once he retook one or two of his home centers (with my support). Once Athens and I ate Argos' centers between us (he hung on a few more years in Mainiana and Mycenae), Athens stabbed me and moved to Laconicus Sinus, but he got nothing and I was able to remove the fleet and then advance to a stalemate. In the west, I took Rhegium and helped Elia get back some centers as per our deal, then I stabbed him. I was able to get a few fleets up there, and came into conflict with Delphi - instead of working together like we would against an enemy stronger than us, we fought over his scraps. When the new Athens came, I was worried about the growth of Thebes so I negotiated an end to the naval stalemate by a series of moves that would not pose any risk to either of us. Then I came to the conclusion that Thebes was going to get his centers anyway, so I stabbed and raced him to them. Those, combined with steady advances against Delphi, eventually put me over the top.