LOL... I remember when Athan said about how Zenima was a great player and would be here til the end. I also remember how Athan talked about its mine being this wonderful active player. It was fairly obvious that Zenima would be quitting which is why I laughed when the whole TRA concept came about. TRA was formed because Athan didnt want to deal with inactives anymore. Even with 23 people, there were still inactives... As far as top 12 goes. Asc and Indo will be here til the end... As will I. Who else will be?
This is going to be my last post in this thread and, outside of the milestones thread, my last post in the Alpha world. I figure I owe you guys a bit of an explanation as to what happened. Heck, outside of the milestones thread, I won't be reading this section anymore. That's in the spoiler below for those who care.
[spr]When TA fell apart, I was being swamped in real life. I remember I hadn't logged on the day before, and logged on to quite a surprise. I almost quit then. Then it fell apart, all that happened, Ascension became the new "TA", Athan split to form TRA, which sounded more fun....if I could play actively. Plus, more of my cities were in o44 than any other ocean, so it more or less seemed a logical choice. Also tried to stay out of the politics cause I was sick of it. Was a bit more active than usual, for a little while. Then I started falling under again and real life, and hit VM to make up for it. This was before any war was declared.
One day, my VM was about to run out, so I tried to purchase new days. It failed, and I didn't have time to send a support ticket in and wait, so I had to log on and do so then. Hit VM the morning after. Guess what happens the next day? Stopped 2, maybe 3 CS, while 2 got through, neither of which I should've let through. Darn sleep. But eh, they got through, and I now had two weeks and one day of VM left. Which were hectic. Then the day came. I actually went on Skype, as during those hectic days I had decided I would quit, due to the hecticness, and the fact that Helghast was still called Helghast, and do my best to see most of my cities go to allies. Skype hasn't been too cooperative though, so I suppose it didn't send the message that I sent based on Athan's statement that I quit without notice.
You won't believe this next part. There was quite the snowstorm going on, and boom, there was a blackout. This was, I don't know, an hour, half an hour, after I tried to send the message? Seriously, of all the rotten luck. No way at all to access the internet, snowed in. Didn't get power back until most of my cities were gone and I was alliance-less. Just hit log out then, no point in sticking around, didn't really feel like saying goodbyes. Didn't really have many goodbyes to give either for that matter, the list of people I talked to had shrunk incredibly.
So for all of those who read this and care, goodbye and so long! I'm reachable by PM here if you want an ego-boost from a personalized goodbye, or questions answered.[/spr]
Now, a bit on the Top 4 so no one can complain about off-topicness and all. I'd like to say it's completely unbiased, but I'd be lying.
Ascension: Nowadays, their size seems to be all they have. War-wise, they have three alliances they can reasonably fight, and last I checked they were fighting all 3. They're also currently losing all three wars, based on past 90 days, though based on 2 of them, doesn't look like they're fighting that much. Looks like they're focused on Phoenix over the LoT family, if that war is still going on. If mflip and Dim are part of the leadership team, size is all they'll have for the rest of the world. But that sentence has a heck lot of bias in it, so you'll want to ignore it if you don't want bias. I will give mflip this though: he tries. He tries hard. Heck, keep him out of diplomacy and he'll be awesome as a leader.
Oh, and Dim, if you see this, a suggestion: don't block people. Sometimes you misunderstand their intent, and then give them no chance to explain themselves. You drove the semi-final nail into TA's coffin. Which was all but nailed shut at that point, but whatever. I'm not gonna hold a grudge anymore, but it's really the blocking that got at me, not the rest of your actions, as paranoid-infested as they may have been. I will say that was poorly word, and I'm sorry for that. Sorry about that whole bit really, that was a rushed and poorly thought-out action on my part.
That said, back to the thoughts:
Phoenix: Helghast was a solid alliance (even though I didn't like some of them based on stories), and TRA had potential, but nothing more. Combined, they're destined for great things. Maybe. Apparently they beat nExus, though Athan doesn't claim all the credit so there's more to the story than I know, and they're beating Ascension. Anyways, their biggest problem is that it'll be impossible to build a wonder out of reach of another alliance, so they'd have to actively defend their wonders. Oh, and I like the new name. Almost makes me wish I'd tried to stay.
Lords of Titus: I'm calling it right now, they will win the wonder race. Only chance Ascension and Phoenix have is a temporary truce to build a pair of wonders each, out of LoT's reach. Or if IAM turns traitor, but I don't think that'll happen. Or if they all quit, but that's even less likely than IAM turning traitor. I'd say or if they had internal troubles, but they already went through that.
Indomitus: Sabotus does have what it takes to be a leader on paper. However, as I have not seen him in action, I cannot say how good a leader he truly is. If he's seriously whipped TDA into fighting shape though, all I got to say is wow. Unfortunately, I can't really tell, cause I don't know what they're up to right now. They're Ascension's main potential obstacle to a good wonder spot, but as they are allies (or were, but I'm pretty sure they still are), it likely won't be much of a problem. War stats involving Phoenix, LoT, and/or IAM (the possible enemies I can think of) for past 90 days are meh, but unlike with Ascension, they're meh on both sides, except against LoT, who are the only alliance of those three they're losing to. But of course, could be they're warring neither of the three.
Anyways, spent too much time on this already. Good luck to those of you still playing, let's hope your luck is much better than mine was!
Goodbye Alpha, it was fun while it lasted!
~Zen