Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2004-02-12 17:31:29
Converted from Phorums BB System

I'm not sure how you can keep saying that hosing the loser doesn't help win the game.

You get a limited number of actions in a turn. Every action has a cost and every action has the potential to gain.

The cost of attacking someone who is weak and underprotected is low. The battle is much easier than attacking someone with a strong army (unless you have bad unit match ups). The potential gain is gaining cubes (often easier than trading and sometimes the only way you can get cubes that the bank is out of) plus the potential (if the timing is right) of gaining the recent victory victory points.

You seem to be concentrating on this notion that all you are doing is keeping 1 opponent weak, thus allowing another opponent to win.

That's just false.

You're not just keeping 1 opponent weak, your keeping one of only 2 opponents who can attack you weak. I'd rather have 1 big army adjacent to me than 2.

You're most likely gaining production, while it can be useful to smack an enemy who has the potential to win buildings with some city destruction or to steal a particularly valuable production tile the best use is usually attacking resources (which IIRC is the only 1 of the 3 options there's no building to help protect).

You will often be gaining victory points from winning battles. Not all of them, someone else is bound to slip a battle in ahead of you, but a few.

The production you gain will almost certainly be targeted at production you have trouble getting any other way. Since like players sit opposite each other, chances are the guy next to you produces alot of what you produce a little of. Towards the end of the game the 5 cubes pales in comparison to what a good Gather action brings in BUT, unlike gather your opponents don't get to collect too meaning that the net advantage is often better or at least close. And secondly as mentioned its the easiest way to get the cubes you have trouble getting.

Consider: I and the player to my right both want to build and recruit but we are both short of the cubes we need to accomplish this.

The player to my left is vulnerable. I take advantage of that to get the cubes I need to build and recruit later as described above.

What does the player to my right do to get the cubes he needs assuming the player to his right is not similiarly vulnerable.

1) he Gathers. Ok. On my turn I gained 5 cubes and no one else gained any. But with a Gather, everyone gets a shot. Is there a Gather option that allows him to produce 5 more cubes than me? If not, I came out ahead between those two actions.

Further, the Terrain or Resource Gather action that is most likely to give him a large production advantage over me (i.e. the terrain that he has more of than I do) is likely NOT the type of resource that he's short of and needs to get. The type of resource he's short of and needs to get is probably the terrain type that he DOESN'T have alot of...but chances are...if he doesn't have alot of it, I do...because that's how the alternate races are set up. So its entirely possible that I actually get MORE cubes than him on his Gather action, if he is forced to Gather something scarce to him.


2) Trade. I spend an action attacking, he spends an action trading. I gained 5 cubes of the type I needed. He traded for cubes of the type he needed, but even given best case (no cost for the trade) he didn't actually gain any total cubes. I'm still 5 cubes better off.


So kindly explain to me how beating on a weak opponent to get the cubes I need is NOT a superior option to the choices I have available to get the cubes I need...

Unless I already have every cube I want, you'd be hard put to find a better way to get the cubes you need.


Its hardly a strategy that doesn't have benefits. ANY strategy can be misapplied certainly. But this one is a good idea far more often than its not.