First of all, it has been awhile since I played on the Zone. And I had forgotten what fun it is.
I had also forgotten that you don't have the control over the settings, etc that you do on single play.
Nevertheless, the four of us went forward with an Inland Map (which I rarely play) and "No Reveal." I was Yammy. The person who won was Phoeny.
During the first 14 minutes or so, maybe more, I was ahead by lots of points. (I thought, "Ah hah. All my practice is paying off.") I got to Tool in no time. Had folks on food,wood,gold, and stone. Got to Bronze. Still ahead in score.
One person quit, but no one seemed to notice. We were not teamed.
I was busy building STs and HCs and an extra dock with galleys - and was feeling great. Like I had finally arrived. Then I noticed someone's score began to pass mine. Not by much at first, but it was steady.
I built some transports because I was going to send the works over (as soon as I figured out where my enemies were) when suddenly I was bombarded by the biggest triremes you ever saw. (Now I have used triremes. They never looked this big.)
And the shells were huge and horrible. Just tore up everything I had along the shore. And my whole island (because that is what it looked like) was small and vulnerable. Those Triremes could almost penetrate everything as there was not much depth to the area.
I tried to rebuild. I'd lost 2 docks. God knows what else. All my STs. Poor things. I used to fear STs. But when they are your STs you realize how vulnerable they can be when 12 Triremes start firing all at once. They crumble.
Anyway, we were all civil and I told him/her that they played a great game. Because they did. And then he/she asked me to be their Zone friend and wanted to play again soon.
So it was fun. I was pretty cocky at first with my high score. But when those triremes came in firing and destroying I realized there were other smart people on the planet!
Question for me to look at: Why did I lead and then lag?
And question for you all, have you ever played inland map where you were vulnerable on 3 sides with no depth to your territory?
And finally, I want to say that it just was OK to lose to a human being, and when I saw the huge fleet of triremes he/she had created, I couldn't help but kind of be glad for them they won. Does that make sense?
Sara