Free for All Matches - politics

Ive been an age of empires 3 fan for years! I just play by myself and it’s fun and all but recently I’ve watched some of SamuraiRevolution’s videos (he’s great!!) and some of the free for all tournaments.

I’m really interested reading the comments on there. About a year ago there was a tournament and Spongebob (Teal lol) won a semifinal match by basically mastering politics. He was attacked very early by Blue Russians, and as a result everyone went after Blue. Teal Spongebob kept trying to pit people against each other and call for help, and it worked!

I’m confused by people saying it and “dirty” and “undeserved.” I think a lot of my views are shaped by the reality TV show Survivor. Survivor is all about social politics and getting people to do your bidding, whether it’s true or not. Often times, the “best player” isn’t the winner; the winner uses politics the best and mitigates their threat level to get ahead. It seems similar to Age of Empires! But is that common? Is that expected here?

I agree it wasn’t the “classiest” approach but hey it was clever and they got the win in the end. Blue made the first big move to take someone out and as a result, he got 3 v -1ed.

I’d love to hear more serious players thoughts and all!