We're half way through the game and the jury has just begun with the ouster of CALIGULA and I've decided to write a confessional as to my thoughts on the players who remain.
Overall, as a group I am excited to see the showdown. These players have a mind of their own and aren't afraid to vote how they want to vote. We've seen lots of fireworks so far and I suspect there will be more in our future.
CALIGULA:
Let's start with Caligula and his route to the Supreme Court. I didn't know Deet at all before the game but I have to admit I was disappointed to see him go. He quickly emerged for me as a player to watch in the early days of the game when I felt quite sure an ORGPlanet alliance seemed inevitable on Antiquus considering how many ended up there. He seemed very tight with Khufu and Louis XIV and kept in touch with Alexander and Isabella. All of them spoke quite frequently and they were all very active. 5 players on a 10-player tribe would or even should have seemed like a sure thing, especially after Nefertiti was unanimously voted out at the first TC. Of course, Caesar had other plans...but we'll get to him later. After the shocker TC when Isabella met her end, Caligula was suddenly on the outside of a tribe he should have been dominating. Even when the tribes were reshuffled into the Greek City States, Caligula could not escape Caesar's wrath, as Caesar won Emperor and attended Athens and Sparta's joint council. He had a never-say-die attitude though and talked to everyone and managed to turn the vote against him completely around to Joan, even without the use of his veto, although he did use it. That move was crucial. Surviving that vote gave him one more round, and sure enough, the next round his tribe was immune. By the time he got to the auction he had made a truce with Caesar which is good because without a veto, and without HOH, he very easily could have ended up a nominee. He was spared the nomination block though to target players that 1. Still had vetos and 2. may not have been voted out had he also been on the block with them. Whether or not this was due to gameplay by Caligula himself or the "goodwill" of other's is negotiable, however, I'll credit Caligula with at least trying to change his fate and it got him to jury. Although Caligula diligently tried to make friends and mend fences, his efforts weren't enough to keep him in the game long enough to turn his target around.
Okay, let's turn the focus to the players still remaining.
KHUFU:
Khufu, DJ, has been a friend for a long time and has actually played for Mandie and I before. As mentioned in a previous Exclusive Interview, Khufu is smart enough to get to the end but his gameplay is a little more subtle than that of his friend, Caligula. Khufu was off to a great start in this game, winning the very first immunity and then contributing to the Antiquus team wins for the next two rounds. Round 4 Khufu received the most crowns on his tribe, which not only granted him Pharaoh status but sent him to Novus for that round's TC. It turns out this plan was very intentional. Ceasar had been eyeing the OP group from the begining and Round 4's format allowed him to put one of these votes in the Novus camp. With Khufu gone and Wang Kon on Antiquus for the round, a plea to save the endangered Ramesses allowed Caesar to turn the tables on the OP group, and sent Isabella home. I'm not sure if Isabella and Khufu would have remained allies all game, but in the beginning she and Khufu talked quite a bit. Its true that they didn't know each other very well but their shiny Mod status at the board seemed to lump them together immediately. Since Isabella's departure, Khufu has been losing allies left and right. Along with Isabella, Khufu lost Alexander in Round 6, then Louis XIV in Round 7, and finally Caligula in Round 8, and although Khufu has managed to keep his own name off the table so far, without friends Khufu does not seem much longer for this game. For someone who started off so strong, in a good tribe with many allies, his position in the game now is not one that I would have ever suspected. In fact, it took 6 rounds before Khufu was even a voting option, as he was personally or tribally immune for the first 5! I believe at this point he feels fairly helpless and has been burned talking to players from original Novus. He wasted his veto to try to save Caligula last round and its likely that unless someone else finds a use for him in their own plans that Khufu will meet his end soon. Of course, now that pretty much all of his allies are gone, Khufu doesn't, at least on the surface, appear to be all that dangerous right now, so he may be able to sneak by a few more Tribal Councils if Novus decides to focus on cannibalizing itself. Obviously the longer he can stay in it and dwindle down some more numbers, the more opportunity he may have to turn things around. A lot of luck, patience, and a little timing are going to be Khufu's best chances at getting to the end.
MUSSOLINI:
Mussolini, Joey, was always a player that I liked and this is the furthest he's made it in one of our games. In the beginning Mussolini was super outgoing and met as many people as he could before the first tribes were even drawn. Everyone seemed to like him alot and naturally he had alliances everywhere, with Napoleon perhaps the closest. He even won the first Pharaoh role of the game. Things seemed to be going just fine for Mussolini. He seemed to be set up well on the chummy Novus tribe, as half the tribe would have video chats with each other. Having been screwed in a tribal switch in our last game, Mussolini was naturally wary when he was reshuffled onto Athens, and with possible good reason, as his decision to save Caligula and vote out Joan of Arc was a bold move in some players eyes and a label of "untrustworthy" seems to have clung to Mussolini ever since. Mussi seems to be getting more and more stressed in this game too and it appears to be affecting his overall mood and possibly the way he is treating the other players. The Big Brother round seemed to take Mussi a bit by surprise and although I don't think he was really in danger, I believe he took his nominations somewhat personally. He also seemed to have a very good connection with Jackson in the beginning of the game but it has since completely deteriorated, with the most recent contribution being his pushy insistance on Jackson using his veto to save him in the last vote (versus Caligula). It was unnecessary, as there was a solid majority for Caligula to leave, and yet his buddy Napoleon did indeed use his. Paranoia, I think is starting to get Mussolini a bit, but he is one of the few players left that still has a veto (the other two being Jackson and Ramesses). He also still has a good ally in Napoleon. Both of these guys need to become aware that they will most likely be next to go if they aren't able to turn the numbers around. Maybe they are? I don't know. I think its possible but they gotta do it soon.
(gonna have to continue this later...its late)
