Playing against humans : a low profile strategy.

[Arnelos]

I haven't read all the above, so my apologies if I'm just repeating what someone else said, but...

In Human diplomacy, the primary attribute which will aid us in detering invasion is a position of strength. Not TOO MUCH strength to the point of threatening hegemony, but strength. It will not hurt us in the least to REX like mad so that we have more territory. It would hurt us if we then used that additional strength to attempt to threaten our neighbors.

As Teddy Roosevelt said it, it's best to:

"Speak softly, but carry a big stick"

In other words... we want to be the toughest guy on the block, but we don't want to be OBNOXIOUS about it. The right combination of diplomacy and strength will leave our nation secure for some time to come.

[DAVOUT]

REXing like mad is what you do with the AI who did not read T Roosevelt. So you just treat 6 humans as one AI. You may be right, but the whole point is not to become strong, but when this strenght will be shown.

[Nuclear Winter]

I agree with arnelos, if we don´t rex fastly we won´t have power to defend our nation nor to trade...
rex fast, but keeping friendly to all, no one would dare to attack us,or at least one of our allies would take the opportunity to help in the war. Also being strong the enemy would have a veeery hard time convinving other nations that an attack would be secure... every nation invited to a joint attack would think :´´If [insert ennemy´s name] is calling us for an attack on Rp, they must be thinking of using us as an human shield and enweaken us!´´
Just think on how they are secretive and paranoid now (it´s just the start of the game!), multiply by 10, when there is rela danger of war, and they won´t even dare to Pm other teams!
We are the most likely to win because we know what risks are worth taking, as with the public minimap. They don´t. They argue and fear the slightest details. Details given can earn trust, and there is no secrecy that beats being the most trusted nation; as long as we keep our alliances clear and fair, and if we get to the point were others look at our diplomatic missives and think ´´This means only what it appears, and brings no trap or trick behind´´ we can even get to be the only ones making long term trades (those involving payment per turn or those involving luxuries or things alike that can be lost with a war)!

[E_T]

One thing that we need to do is to start looking in the PTW & PBEM forums. Tho open publishing of Ideas from other members of the other teams, as well as people who are not currently on any team, can let us see what the general strateries have been for winning a fully human game like this.

I also Agree with both Arnelos & Nuclear Winter's estimates on this and getting the thoughput to produce a large Military force requires a larg number of cities. You can also bet that the others will be doing the same.

E_T

[Aidun]

Well yes rexing is OK, but please keep in mind that too much rexing can be seen as a threat:

Posted by astrologix in the The Map Room thread:
E_T, your map is great.

However, I wonder if we'll be able to build the #'s 2 & 3 cities as a priority.

These sites are far from Madrid and thus long in time to reach and their production will be quite a lot corrupted.

It'll be difficult too to defend those cities against possible attacks from ND.

Posted by Aidun in the The Map Room thread:
And attacks will come quite soon when the #2 and #3 cities are founded. If I was ND, I should see this as a lay up to and attack. #2 and #3 are TOO close to their capital. I think they shall see this as a thread. There is much diplomacy needed if we want to prevent war with ND. I think that plan is too risky to be done without negotiating with ND. We cannot afford war with ND in the very near future.

Aidun

[DAVOUT]

Interesting.

REXing has a cost; its only purpose is to grab land, not to build strenght. The real production of shields is always made in the core cities. The early rushes are made when the core cities have been settled. Incidentally the weight of the land in the score is heavier than the pop.

Also interesting to observe that GS has the lowest score. Either they had an awful start, or ... they dont master the art of rexing like mad.

[OliverFA]

I'm not saying that we should REX like mad, neither that we should build PMC like mad. What I think is that this strategy from Davout can be useful if used wisely. For example, at the beginning it doesn't make much sense because noone represents a real danger, but if sometime in the future we feel like everyone is worried about us, then we wouldn't like to feed their fears with a high score (unless it is much more higher than anyone else). Also, it makes sense to REX to west if we finally confirm it is unpopulated, but we should be more carefull placing our cities on north, because ND or someone else could steal them from us easier.

[DAVOUT]

Rexing like mad : copyright Arnelos

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
Rexing like mad : copyright Arnelos

d*** straight!