Thought I'd come and have a look on the externals to see how my old mates in NOB!! were doing...then thought I'd post something as a 'goodbye'. So here's a (somewhat biased) summary of NOB!! v CIALIS & T_T from my perspective.
The PnP
PnP is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. Does skullcrusher really expect NOB!! to waste nukes/nobles at a distance of 100 hours? Of course not. Do colpo and areyaen really class every former member of T_T as a refugee? Sure; but only if it acts as a disincentive to others to recruit more from the same source. NOB!!'s PnP style was always highly combative, but then again, so was their game play.
So a few people get upset that a smallish rim tribe talk themselves up - well how many worlds have you seen where the PnP revolves solely around 2 or 3 uber-tribes? Variety is the spice of life. Has NOB!! won all the banter? No, but they don't do too bad considering English is a foreign language for most of them.
(btw best throw in quick mention of the mods here - 2 infractions, 1 1/2 of which were thoroughly deserved - and I was the polite one in the pack - seriously though, thanks for your work - without someone holding posters to account these forum would be awful)
The Stats
Lies, damn lies and statistics.... but what do those stats really show? Cut aside all the usual haggling over total captures and who is/isn't on the score card then the results are all pretty clear and one-sided. NOB!! took and held a whole bunch of villas and lost none for more than a few hours. Why? Because a small group of able players with good technical skills and excellent internal comms will always prevail against a larger but less functional tribe. At the end of the day, noble trains (even from 100 hours out) can and would crush the smaller tribe.... but only if there were:
a. Enough of them,
b. Enough nukes with them, and
c. Enough fakes to disguise them.
Why weren't there enough? Because neither CIALIS nor T_T as tribes made enough effort. A few players tried, but that's not enough - losing nuke after nuke or train after train gets depressing when there's nothing to show for it, and even more depressing when you realise that your tribe-mates aren't putting in their share of the work.... A NOB!! victory or a T_T/CIALIS loss? In the end it amounts to the same thing.
The Outcome
Nothing succeeds like success, but failure has few friends... so after a month or so is it a surprise that NOB!! has a few more members and that both CIALIS and T_T are on route to being gone and forgotten? At the same time, a bunch of players have defected to other tribes, such as SIKE, in the hope that they'll find tribe-mates that are prepared to match them in commitment to the game.... that's the story of TW, world after world.
All the flaming and noise aside, what we've seen here is a small rim tribe proving that you don't have to belong to a big tribe to have fun playing TW.
Sadly, reality (in the form of an angry wife) curtailed my time on TW, so I'm also on route to being gone and forgotten but, for the record, I'd just like to say that of the half dozen worlds I've played, W39 gave me more fun than any since my first, all down to the 'crack' I had with my friends in NOB!! Top quality players who aren't afraid to take chances and who back each other to the hilt.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I'm probably too much of an addict to stay away for ever, but for now it's time to say 'Goodbye, good luck, and best wishes to friend and foe alike' - enjoy the fights but never forget that a NOB!! in the hand isn't worth two in the bush...
(oops I feel another infraction coming on)