Another Public Service Announcement
 

Server will be reset tomorrow (Saturday, December 2nd) so I can change the server's license key. This will reset the turn timer.

Death gems sought
 

Sauromatia seeks death gems, and has a large number of fire and water gems, and smaller numbers of air and earth gems, to offer in exchange.

Please send offers by PM, or by inter-nation messenger.

Sauromatia.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

An unexpected event has occurred in Sheap's Server.

A system crash has reset the turn timer.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Unrest increased by 15

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Helheim no longer escapes justice.

That is all.

Th Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Congratulations, though I can only imagine the warped world you must live inside your head, Catsby.

ooc- Interesting game. I wonder if Vanheim will be able to overtake the T'ien Ch'i-Ulm alliance? Perhaps the alliance will not last that long anyways.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Ours is not the only power bloc that could accomplish something. We note with interest that Sauromatia still has an army of over 400 men poised to strike at our empire. And while we don't doubt our abilities to take such an army, the deaths will be staggering. Further, there is still Abysia - a proud and flaming nation to the East that continually marches armies up and down the border. It has no escaped our notice that they are seemingly winning a war against Pangaea (though a very bloody one from the look of it). Should they succeed in conquering that territory, I am unconvinced that Vanheim will still be the biggest individual position.

Finally, have you seen the armed forces of Yomi? Undisciplined and stupid as Oni are, it was nonetheless a ravenous horde of riffraff sufficient to conquer lands once belonging to Mictlan. That's not an inconsiderable military force either.

Ulm and myself have between us been the death of three false gods: Xennon, Joepas, and Aeforge. Isodea is clinging to life by the skin of her victims. But there have been seven eliminations so far, and Dreamslayer has gone AI. These next few turns will see the death of two more false gods, and still less than half the dead gods will be at the feet of the Ulm-Tien Chi alliance.

While Ulm, Tien Chi, and Vanheim are the most powerful nations by most accountings, there are still several nations which have shown themselves a power in their field.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Oh right, I'd completely forgotten about the Maverni/Atlantis Agartha kicking fest over there. That'll amount to quite a bit once they can finally put Agartha away.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Times are dire for Pangaea. If Tien Chi or Vanheim is interested in offering protection in return for our nation becoming a vassal, send me a private message and we can work out the details.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Sauromatia has an army poised to strike at your empire? You've captured half my provinces and are camped adjacent to my capital!

Truly Catsby is a master of weasel words.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Congrats to all the surviving players at this point. With all the dying off, this game is rapidly approaching the the border b/w mid and end game. I expect you will start seeing more heavy magic and SC summons and whatnot now.

Also, I wanted to take a moment and point out that both Helheim and Nefeilheim are dead, are they not? When this game began everyone thought they were unstoppable. Now you see how quickly a nation based entirely on a bless can run out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Well, Vanheim is apparently doing very well, and they took out one of the other bless nations themselves (Neifel). Helheim wasn't a heavy bless, accoding to their player, so they don't count.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Helheim didn't really play a bless strategy, and Niefelheim was destroyed by Vanheim, who also had a bless.

Not saying that blesses are unstoppable, but this game doesn't say much about the subject...

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

And Catsby, what do you mean Isodea is clinging to life by the skin of her victims? It's me! And you just said above that I had a massive army.

Grr, Catsby make me angry. I SQUISH! you.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Fear not, catsby, the armies often seen along our border is simply because mountains block army movement towards pangaea except with massive detours/passign along our border.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Agartha will never be put away. Maverni is still besieging my capitol but they destroy my walls at a slow rate and I hope to be around for abit longer. Atleast I am tying up some of Mavernis troop. Any enemies of Maverni/Atlantis can with small gifts to Agartha stall a large part of Maverni for a considerably amount of time.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Abysia desires earth and nature gems along with blood slaves. We have a huge (well over 100) suppy of water gems to trade

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

What was all the griping about helheim being uber-blessed in the earlier threads then? When the debate was raging, the nations implicated were Hel and Nief.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I think that was Helheim from some other game. It was confusion, more than anything else.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

My gripe was that I was easily taken out by uber-blessed Vanheim (Vanheres RULE) and Neifelheim (same with Neifel Giants). I never even saw a Helheim unit or province the whole time I was alive. I remember Ramshead saying he wasn't playing a bless strat though.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

No one ever said helheim used an uber bless.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Whats all this fuus about bless strategy? This is a newbie game and I am sure everyone tried to use the best strategy that fits their nation. I know I tried and I would probably used a double or perhaps triple bless myself if I were Vanheim... because that is really an effective setup for them. There were no houserules on blessings.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

no one is fussing about anything. ofn.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

So Yomi treacherously invaded us without declaring war first. Good times. Now there's just a thin line of Vine Ogres between them and my capitol as the army of the West is busily hunting Isodea in the wilds near Sauromatia.

Can we hold long enugh for the army of the North to reconnect? We shall see. Vine Ogres are tough, and we have mighty magics.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

An attack on Tien Chi, eh? Well, it is a day that ends in a 'y'.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I didn't want to insult TienChi's intelligence. How else could you interpret a complete halt of our artifact/gem relations and my armies concetrated on your boarder?

Anyways, Oni can't understand words as long as "Treacherously". Could you rephrase that in the form they could understand? Like, bloody corpses? The Oni are big into eating the living and slaughtering the innocent; not so much into civil diplomacy.

I would rather be snuffed out by the Ulm-TienChi alliance than sit by and watch my only ally be trampled do death in his own lands.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Pangaea is AI now, goodluck people!

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Foodstamp, i honestly feel our war could have went the other way had you put some decent scripting on your pans.

You fought well.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Interesting news. With the Power of the Ankh I decide who lives and who dies. Naturally, I decided that the armies of Isodea should die and that my own armies should live. I think that my reasoning here is pretty self explanatory.

Furthermore, Yomi is trapped within a web of magical power and it is now certain that the fields of Baron's Road will be heaped with the corpses of the Oni and their dogs. There is at this time nothing they can do to prevent the fate I have prepared for them, their friends cannot be saved, their god cannot be saved. It's a good feeling all around.

Pangaea has turned AI, which means that they are no longer a threat to Abysia. But it also means that they can no longer be trusted to keep their borders with Tien Chi. It is regretable, but it seems inevitable that we will drift into war with Pangaea, and through them with Abysia. It's unfortunate, but at this moment we don't see any other eventuality.

On a lighter subject, the Bracelet and Boots you ordered are ready, if you know what I mean. You will be the belle of the ball.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Attached is the results of our battle with Sauromatia.

The Great Catsby has Spoken

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Nice G drive, it describes Catsby's personality.:D

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Shovah, I made alot of mistakes this game. I am still having alot of difficulties figuring out what pans are good for beyond just spitting out manaids. In the next game I have a different strategy for using them, but it is hard for me to figure out a good strategy with them being 3-4 nature, 1-2 earth and 1-2 blood.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I think the problem wasn't with the pans, but the maenads. You had hardly anything else in your army. Maenads are like any other freespawn, they are just chaff troops. You need to back them up with heavy hitters. Earth magic isn't really good for you since the only really good earth-only combat spell is blade wind, and that will kill more maenads than Abysians. Blood has bad combat magic and always has, and Pangaea isn't really much of a blood nation anyway. IIRC you also have access to Death, and death is chock full of great summons and even has one or two battle spells you could make use of.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Pangaea does not get access to death in Early Age.

My good troops died to Neifelheim and my economy was pretty restricted after that so I did not have a chance to rebuild.

I made a ton of mistakes in this game that I learned from, so I am not complaining. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

The wild Mavernis has finally breached the walls of the peaceloving Agarthas last fortress. The last Agarthans are ready for battle, Maverni will lose many young warriors if they want this fortress.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

A good combination of Pans + maenads is to bring a horde of Maenads and then cast Mass Protection and Growing Fury on them. With some earth magic you can also cast Weapons of Sharpness or Legions of Steel, etc. Or Blade wind of course.

Generally speaking Nature is a summoning path tho, like Death.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Yeah, I thought about bladewind, but I was afraid that without earth boosting items I could not make proper use of it. I was afraid it would be more harmful to my naked girls than the enemies soldiers.

I have not heard of Mass Protection or Growing Fury, I will get ye ole grimoire our and read up on them. Legions of Steel I was thinking about. I just don't have a good mastery over researching and which spells to use yet.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

What's "Power of the Ankh"? And Frank, do you know why my flaming arrows didn't work? Or at least didn't appear to work? My men all said "flaming arrows" on them, but the arrows weren't actually flaming.

Well, at least I tried. You must admit I learned from you, I went from no magic to vicious magic (although you're sneaky use of undead made my death magic less good), and that time I had half-decent troops too. If I'd been fighting one of your earlier armies (back in the days of Arcoscephale) I think I'd have won. But in the end your army was superior in both magic and troops.

Xox, read your PMs.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Ooh, also I want to know - how is Yomi trapped within a web of magical power?

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I think he is insinuating how screwed I am in a fight against him due to his far superior magic ability. This is probably true, but I would rather make a move now and have some fun, die or not, than to sit around untill someone is just strong enough to be declared a winner.

I think it will be an interesting case study, because our armies are of equal size, but he is far more advanced in mages and research. I am interested to see how big a role it plays.

I will be satisfied if I just give him a run for his money.

(ooc) Good luck and have fun!
(ic) I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!

P.S., your flaming arrows probably would not have worked if on certain weapons. poison bows, small bows, 'throw flames' etc, are projectiles, but not affected by flaming arrows.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Are we patching to 3.04?

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

That's actually going to be a surprise. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I'll be able to give a tell-all in about 2 turns probably, but right now I have to keep mum about it or FAJ will rearrange his troops to minimize losses.

In the 3.00 version, Poison Arrows don't flame. So your "Sauromatian Archers" were shooting flaming arrows and your "Androphag Archers" were not. That's fixed later on.

It's a unique magical artifact that casts Life After Death at the beginning of every battle, which gives every living creature on my side a second chance as a soulless. Soulless are crappy beyond belief, but have no encumberance, so they are pretty much the preferred state for Wizards (commanders retain that status and spellcasters retain their paths in their second chance). The important part however is that when Shadowblasts eliminated whole squads, they didn't make holes in my army, so subsequent shadowblasts targetted the same area. In short, holding the Ankh roughly halved the effect of your magical artillery. And it caused there to be a really big pile of Undead showing up on the field which caused unscripted death mages to panic and start casting Dust to Dust (which is quite effective at taking out Soulless, but no more so than a Broadsword would be, those guys are terrible).

In short, the Ankh gives a second life to all my mages and causes warriors to turn into decoys instead of corpses when killed.

I think it's supposed to turn armed warriors into soulless warriors instead of regular soulless, which would be more threatening, but that bug affected me less than the flaming arrows bug affected you, so I'll take it.

Oh definitely. That army was powered by the fact that Evoation 6 was then new and terrifying and when combined with Demons of the Celestial Rivers (who are pretty tough), made short work of enemy forces. I mean, we defeated Arco's Myrmidons the same way we stopped Helheim's first attack into our lands: tie them up with expendible units and drop Sulphur Haze on the whole battle - everyone dies both elites and lion clan warriors. Then we pat ourselves on the back because Lion Clan Warriors are really cheap and Myrmidons/Helhirdings are really expensive. Obviously that wouldn't have been a viable strategy against a pile of Mounted Longdead.

Today we have a bunch of level 8 magics and we don't use those old "one-for-me-one-for-you" tactics. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

-Frank

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I can't connect to the server. That's bad.

-Frank

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Re arrange my troops to minimize losses?! How am I suppossed to arrange 400 bakameno archers?

P.S. I cant connect to the server either. i tried logging in to see if there was even a way to re arrange http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

To be honest we are quite offended by this. We, the proud nation of abysia simply planned to expand on past you, our neighbour but im guessing(from what you said) that that isnt possible.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Well... I''m glad it's not just me. But I'm not glad that this is happening. I'm honestly not sure if I managed to get a turn in or not. It said "turn uploaded" but then it said I hadn't done my turn, and then it closedthe connection. Ironhawk!

-Frank

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

I think he implied that you two would go through the computers lands together, sharing spoils of war.

Hes going to finish me off before he kills you, don't worry.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Sorry about that frank, i seem to have mis-read it.

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Unforutnately, sheap has not moved this game over to his linux machine yet so I am unable to check on it without his assistance. I can, however, tell you that sheap's network does appear to be up. So, it is more likely that either the server machine itself, or the dom3 server instance has crashed. This would mean that the turn-timer clock is not running, nor are turns processing. That is only a best guess tho.

Do make sure to flog Sheap about this when he gets in to work and starts posting, which should be soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP: Newbie Game EA (Open)
 

Server is nagot gick fel. Apparently Illwinter has added a "feature" that allows them to find and crash existing servers when a new patch comes out. The good news is that this means we can upgrade to the latest patch. The bad news is that we must upgrade to the latest patch. I will take care of this today. The turn timer, naturally, will be reset.