quill18
Warlord
Thank you all for making my first emperor game such smooth sailing.
Somehow I expected a more difficult game. I think I'll make a sweeping generalization that arboria plays at least one level lower (power of the chops and all that).
Anyway, I'll try to come up with something less boring for next time
I must apologize for disappearing so completely. Unfortunately, a pair of events have kept me from having any game time: both my wife and my grandfather fell seriously ill (these were unrelated), and while they're both mostly fine now it was touch-and-go for a bit.
I'm really, really impressed by what the team did. I think part of the reason for the ease of the game is that Boreal is generally considered to be a map that's highly favorable for a human player. I believe it's disallowed in the Hall of Fame for just such a reason.
Starting with one of the rare uber-resources within the fat cross of our capital just made it that much more crazy. It enabled us to quickly research and build some key wonders and fund our aggressive early military efforts.
Finally, we obviously had some great players -- and the power of a "group mind" undeniably increased our effective skill by at least one difficulty level. I certainly came away from the game with some new tricks, despite my limited attendance. We had an excellent starting plan, and everything just snowballed from there.