I was kidding Minister!

*phew* well, better safe than sorry!

Btw: can one of the mods pause the game? FD will need some time to get the hang of it.

I will allow groza to finish out the season he started and then I will add FD and reset the builds season so he has a full 48 hours to talk to players, get a feeling for this game and determine builds.

I find it odd to wait, but sure.

The idea is groza has already spent time and energy in the current phase, and with the season beyond half over, we would reduce the amount of list time by having him complete the season.

Could be, but I'm trying to work with it and it's not really possible. He's a lame duck now that we know he's leaving.

Because how can I now really deal with him? Diplomacy is about looking into the future and dealing with eventualities. In practice, I'm trying to negotiate about his build already, but how can I? He understandably can't commit to anything.

Although I like groza, I think this can't wait. I really think we should move in FD immediately so that Russia becomes a power just like any other, that can actually make diplomatic promises.

If someone will get him the password, ill take care of it. I understand where you're coming from

I've already given him the password. To be honest, though I have been in contact with FD already about intentions, I agree with MoW.
I also second the need for a pause, to let him catch up on making a relationship with other players. I'll toss in a pause vote for now. I personally don't mind one way or the other, but if it were someone else getting replaced I certainly wouldn't want to spend a lot of energy making a deal with them only to find out that their replacement doesn't agree with the deal (which, incidentally, is similar to the situation that caused me to get the transfer letter I'm stressing over.)

By the way, I would be happy to play again with any of you sometime when I'm not involved in any other games. I've got to keep myself to one game at a time (plus possibly a live gunboat now and again) but I'm hoping not to disappear completely again.

The game is paused and Grozas spot is ready for FD to takeover

Cool, we'll just sit tight!

not me. im standing loose.

Bump. I'm hanging back.

Bump.

I've been poking him-- every day he doesn't join is a day I risk accidentally opening up the game and retaking my seat just to get the "you've got mail" icon to go away :)

sorry, thats probably from me

Alright, I'm going to manually join the game for him so you don't have to worry about opening the game by mistake groza. Note, the game still needs to be paused until FD posts that he's ready.

Thanks jmo. I thought I blew it when I opened safari on my phone because that game was the last thing I had open, but it looks like I was safe.

Can we actually continue with FD? He still hasn't gone in himself and we need him to be here for diplomacy and during each phase. Can he commit to it?

Bump

The players can unpause as they're ready.

Should we pause it again? Fortress door has not shown up yet.

Yes, we should. Can a mod pause for us? A shame that the tempo is out of the game.

Bump for a mod pause please.

I'll message him...

I don't think he's been online since I manually added him to the game.

Now I hate to bring this up, but since we have had to replace one player already and we have only made one season's worth of moves...has there been any consideration given to just reshuffling and starting over? The whole eastern half of the board had been thrown off and, IMO, I think that it is something we should consider. Of course, if not I will completely understand. But from a teaching perspective, this is making it a little difficult.

I hate to comment here, but I agree with jimgov. Perhaps a restart with each players second choice or just random chance for the assignments.