first, in mid game, why did infect noble straight through to the east leaving a front for both south and north instead of having a decent cluster so it wouldn't be hard to defend?
In mid-game, Infect had an end-game agreement with both DSy4 (to the north) and Ronin (to the south). So they were busy trying to clean up their east (it's always wise to have your back against the rim) and were pushing hard through the west. As per their end game agreement with DSy4, the fight would begin when Infect had nobled the southern half of the map and DSy4 had nobled the northern half of the map.
second, why did ronin recruit people other side of infect? in that position it would've been safer for infect to team up with dsy4 no?
DSy4 had been doing things that unnerved Infect, and a few comments they made was making it difficult for Infect to trust DSy4 wouldn't hit them hard if they became immersed in a battle elsewhere. Infect had the choice of fighting Ronin and hoping that DSy4 didn't hit them from behind, or hitting DSy4 and hoping Ronin didn't hit them from behind.
In the end, comments made by DSy4 caused Infect to decide the agreement between the two tribes was null and declare on them in order to have an end game war with Ronin. Ronin agreed to an end game war and both tribes set a date for the first of the year.
Tensions were high right before the fight, since both sides were expecting the other to attack in advance to get an advantage. It was made even more tense by esteemed players like Googly having some of his spies in Infect intentionally start skirmishes with Ronin to try to cause a premature fight.
Honestly, in the end no tribe acted flawlessly. Each worked hard to get where they were, and the politics were a lot of fun. It was very easy to not take Ronin seriously, especially since I made it very clear that most of my players were first-time scrubs and plucky do-gooders with more heart than skill. When we jumped the map, it just looked like a cute little attempt from a naive group of players who didn't understand how proper clustering in a church world looked.
When DSy4 decided to hit us, they became a little overly confident at both their success and their binding agreement with Infect. So when Infect ended that agreement mid-war (which had been planned out when DSy4 hit - we were giving it a few weeks for DSy4 to be fully immersed before making a move), they were caught completely off guard. All of their nukes were en route to smash Ronin's shaky cluster up north, and all of their defense was on our border as a show of full strength. Infect was able to completely steamroll their border and rip through morale faster than they ripped through villages.
DSy4 didn't see it coming: they were played. It was a mistake by a player that had a lot of promise as a duke, but was unfortunately dropped into the duke position during end game, which is not where you want to get a grip on politics.
Infect's mistake, if you can even call it a mistake, was being able to fight tribes that were mostly defense-based. Infect can handle being on the offense, but they were never completely challenged on the defense. That's not to say they couldn't defend - obviously they can - but that it had been a long, long time since they had been thrust into desperate situations that demanded that they rely on one another for survival. In that, they had a group of very aggressive players who weren't wholly familiar with relying on one another.
Ronin, on the other hand, declared war on tribes three times their size, lept 200 hours across the map and picked a fight with tribes that were ten times the size of what they had in the area, and wouldn't back down from a fight when DSy4 pushed their weight around. We struggled up north - which was expected - but 90% of our defense stayed down south. We were fighting DSy4 mostly with what we had laying around up north.
After all, agreement or not, we didn't trust any of the large tribes in the game. If Infect decided to side with DSy4 we were prepared to lose the north and take the fight to Infect. If we did, DSy4 would win the world (and Infect knew this).
What Ronin did was foolish and reckless and honestly, shouldn't have worked. Each tribe made mistakes, and while we snarl and snap at one another, in the end DSy4 played a great game to get where they were - they simply became overconfident and had activity issues in the end that new leadership could hide but couldn't fix. In the end, Infect played a good game to get to the top and stay there through the world.
But where Infect expected a clean easy fight, Ronin expected a dirty one and prepared for it. When Infect pulled a dirty trick, Ronin had tricks already lined up that could be used to counter the tricks. Each time Infect attempted an underhanded move, Ronin was able to parry it or match it with something worse.
The end game war wasn't an easy one. Infect expected an easier fight, and at times they might have been lead to believe that they had players lined up to be recruited (my guys are lovely, but they can be hateful sometimes, and stringing Infect along was a bit of a laugh for them
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
, Infect believed they had tribes on their side that were not.
The only tribe who genuinely joined them were the cowards in TR, who sold out their own players in order to get a chance at end game. An act I still consider the lowest thing that has been done in this world. They were meatshields and extra fodder for Infect.
The only player who genuinely joined them was quickly unburdened of their account. I think they were more of a disappointment to Infect than they were to Ronin.