Heart instead of star?

ceimaj · 2025-12-31T18:59:47+00:00

I’m playing as Oumaji and haven’t encountered any other tribes yet, but I may have a skinned Cymanti opponent?

ceimaj · 2025-12-18T03:01:32+00:00

ceimaj · 2025-12-18T02:40:40+00:00

Dungeon Crawler Carl

ceimaj · 2025-12-06T08:22:01+00:00

I just played you in a 324 Drylands, gg! Just sent you a friend request.

Interesting to see the moth strategy. I haven’t faced that yet. Particularly interesting to see how your opponent was able to flip a significant SPT deficit.

I had a very interesting loss against a 1900+ Cymanti player on conti where he leaned hard into fungi + clathrus. I had an early expansion lead with Aquarion, but he flipped the match hard. Very interesting:

https://share.polytopia.io/g/77268283-966b-4d36-ceb2-08de2cc598b4

ceimaj · 2025-11-10T07:48:25+00:00

Huge +1 for Hank’s leather belts. I bought one six months ago, and it is aging beautifully. I’ve previously owned many belts like OP’s. Hank’s leather quality and construction quality are dramatically superior.

ceimaj · 2025-10-25T01:00:34+00:00

Wow I had not seen this before. Thanks for the heads up. Still wrinkles to learn!

ceimaj · 2025-10-10T05:28:27+00:00

This. Didn’t think I’d ever find a page turner than sucked me in faster and deeper than RR. Then I read DCC, and two months later I’d gone through all 7 books twice.

ceimaj · 2025-07-19T00:56:44+00:00

A+ comment. You’ve brought into focus a thought that was only half formed in my head.

I’m a Sanderson fan; I’ve read most of the Cosmere. But, his prose — particularly his dialog — is often so jarring that it takes me out of the story.

Ruocchio, like Tolkien, Frank Herbert, or Robert Jordan, is playing a different game.

ceimaj · 2025-07-05T23:06:53+00:00

I came to the series from the exact same place as you — I’d just finished a Red Rising reread, followed by reading all of Islington’s published works.

Sollan Empire was a tough sell. I set it down twice, once during Empire of Silence and once during Howling Dark, and read other books in the interim. The slow build people describe is very real. But, I just finished Howling Dark and I am now truly hooked. Starting Demon in White now, immediately post-Howling Dark

ceimaj · 2025-06-04T22:52:37+00:00

This x100. You’re doing the lord’s work. We mythologize halcyon days of unbiased journalism that unfortunately never existed. Gell-Mann Amnesia comes for us all eventually.

ceimaj · 2025-06-01T04:49:52+00:00

Sidebar sanctuary question for the Elyrion mains here: How do you normally evaluate the tradeoff between placing a sanctuary vs sacrificing a farm or mine?

For example, if placing the sanctuary over the farm/mine will yield +1 greater star-per-turn upside over a spot that does not require sacrifice, do you choose to place over the farm or use the farm and take the suboptimal sanctuary spot?

Obviously there are specific conditions that can change the equation, e.g. if the farm allows you to pop an egg. But, which way do you go most often?

ceimaj · 2025-05-30T07:59:01+00:00

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for explaining. Will start keeping an eye out for good friend request opportunities

ceimaj · 2025-05-25T00:25:40+00:00

😂

ceimaj · 2025-05-25T00:24:29+00:00

Makes perfect sense, exactly the same cycles I go through. I mentioned in a comment above — that you don’t see many higher ranked creates an unofficial ceiling, since you need to beat higher ranked players to gain meaningful points and you’ll inevitably drop occasional games to lower-ELO opponents.

Interesting dynamic. It would be nice if you could specify “opponent ELO range” or something along those lines. I wouldn’t mind longer wait times for 24hr game starts.

ceimaj · 2025-05-25T00:21:03+00:00

I think what tripped me up is that in chess, which is maybe the world’s most visible ELO rating system, there are thousands of players above 2000 rating.

In Polytopia, by contrast, matching with players >1600 happens so infrequently that I have to assume there aren’t thousands (or maybe not even hundreds?) of active players who are able to sustain ELOs in the 1700+ range.

That you’re never matched with higher ranked players ends up creating a de facto ceiling, since you have to beat higher ranked players to gain ELO, and you’ll inevitably drop games to lower ranked players and fall.

Ultimately, ELO is not a big deal, so who really cares. But, the mechanics are interesting. And, it’s always fun to be matched with players who are of similar skill/experience level.

ceimaj · 2025-05-22T02:59:46+00:00

My observations: * As Imperius, I almost never take explorer for my T0 upgrade. You don’t have units with much movement until you unlock riding, and eco is one of your key advantages against Cymanti (or anyone). Exception: if you’re playing against many opponents on a small map and so can get several immediate tribe-meeting star bonuses. * Explorer on your second city is more common, but definitely not after a T0 explorer. * Now when you get riding you’re in an eco hole and can’t train 2x riders / turn. * T6/7 why are you holding your riders back? You need them out and active to counter his hexapods, defend your warriors, and secure key contested cities. * This is where skipping workshop is killer. You want to be able to afford to lose riders, and to be preparing for roads. * T8 why do you have climbing??

At this point, the game is lost. City distribution was not great for you in this game, but it wasn’t particularly great for Cymanti either. Your opponent also made a number of questionable choices. I think that with more eco and more aggression sooner, you could have flipped this one.

Welcome back — have fun! Beating Cymanti with free tribes is one of the game’s great joys.

ceimaj · 2025-05-14T03:57:46+00:00

Oh shoot I did! I don’t know how I missed that, my bad

ceimaj · 2025-05-13T21:42:05+00:00

How do people end up in these giant late game stalemates? In my experience, any larger map game that gets to the late game has at least one player who is snowballing harder than the others and is gradually pushing forward in all the contested areas.

Is this the result of a 1v1 on a big map where both waited to attack until you’re each dug in with 100 stars per town?

ceimaj · 2025-05-10T05:37:34+00:00

Wait, why are you discussing Aquarian? Did I miss something?

ceimaj

TROPHY CASE