Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Great, thank you.

Gandalf has some questions for us players.

Please feel free to contact him directly if you like.

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Ok, just got home from work. (Hurrah to short work day due to upcoming 4th of July! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I am very tired from crunch mode of our soon-to-be-released software product, need a break from programming or I'll go nuts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif )


The game is working fine, 67 hours left until the next host. Everybody except Kalissia need to upload their turns over the next 2.5 days.

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Sorry to try and delay the game even further, but could we have a 24 hour extension in addition to the above 67 hours? I'm traveling this 4th of July weekend, and won't be back till Sunday.

Also, good luck with the programming, Corwin. We're about to enter crunch-mode at my own software shop; hopefully we can finish this game up before then. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Thanks you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


Delaying hosting is fine with me, but you should sent PM to Gandalf - he is our new host, and I don't think he reads this thread.

I will forward your PM to Gandalf and ask him to delay hosting. But please keep in mind that the current hosting is 19 hours from now (so it will host around 11AM Pacific time on Sunday). I don't know if Gandalf will see this PM in the next 19 hours (it's kind of short notice, especially since it is a long weekend).

So if you can, you may want to try to make as much of your turn as you can by Sunday morning and upload it, in case if the game will host before Gandalf will get your note.

Good luck!

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Ok, I've contacted Gandalf and forarded him AdmiralZhao's request. He had reset the timer, it is now 68 hours away.

But I would suggest let's try to get out turns as soon as we can though, we have been hanged on this turn for a while now. Mine is pretty much ready.

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

I am going on vacation, so I am switching my nation to AI. I don't believe anyone would care to sub for me. This was my first MP game game and I guess I didn't do too bad, especially considering that I fought Caelum (any archer heavy nation is nasty for Kailasa in early game) and that I had terrible events although I took luck +2 (I never once got any event gaining me more than 200 income, but my capitol temple burned twice, I was attacked by trogs etc.). Good bye everyone.

Re: Game returns from Limbo
 

Oh well, here goes my only ally.

Good game Psycho. Have fun on your vocation.

Turn Notifications?
 

Is there any way to receive e-mail turn notifications from dom3minions?

Re: Turn Notifications?
 

Yes. Look at my post on the previos page, where I quoted Gandalf's questions.

Re: Turn Notifications?
 

OK Im jumping in here. Please dont expect this. Go thru the person running the game and they will use pm's to tell me things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
And please dont post email addresses here. PM them to me.

YES: Email notification when the game processes a turn

YES: email attachment of your turn file

YES: SMS (text message) to your cell phone when the turn processes

YES: Webpage updated when the turn processes.

YES: browser download of turn files

POSSIBLE: browser upload of turn files

POSSIBLE: Instant Message when the turn processes

POSSIBLE: FAX when a turn processes.

POSSIBLE: Having your computer play a wav file to literally TELL you when the turn has processed.

POSSIBLE: Having your computer receive the turn file, copy it to the dominions directory, play a wav to notify you that the turn is available, then start dominions going directly into that game.

Did you think of something I left out? Just ask. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Turn Notifications?
 

If you're looking for a solution how to actually do this, I already had this implemented for a game of mine on the community server. It's a PHP file in the main web directory.

New turn
 

I have finally won a big battle against Mictlan, breaking a siege on one of my castles. Several SCs died/got banished on both sides, but the enemy army of 190 sacred bats and other troops is no more.

Unfortunatly Mictlan is still growing in all graphs, even on an army one, using his huge blood income to compensate for any losses in troops.


One good factor for me is that the Inferno is getting full quickly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I am getting back my SC commanders that were send to Inferno by Mictlan Lord, and it is happening faster and faster. This turn I got two of my fully equiped and woundless SCs back (Tartarian and a Demon) that were send to Inferno during the last 2 turns.

I like this feature - the more often Banish to Inferno or Claws spells are used, the less effective they are.

Nevertheless Micltan is still pressing me very hard, but at least now I am starting to fight back more efficiently.


By the way AdmiralZhao, are you selling tickets to all our big battles?!? Over the last 3 turns, whenever you and me had a big clash, I saw a someone peeking with an Astral Window, sometimes even two! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

If you have hot tickets trade business going, I want my cut, damn it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: New turn
 

Status Page
http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/Figment_chk.cgi

Scoreboard and Stats files
http://game.dom3minions.com/games/Figment/

Re: New turn
 

Wow thats really keen Gandalf! Thanks for the info!

Re: New turn
 

Expletive expletive expletive!! Another lesson learned.. If you have two games coming down to the wire on time be sure to recheck which game is closest to hosting before doing either..

Sorry about the stale, I really don't mean to be a lame gamer.

Re: Rlyeh
 

As I understand it, two missed turns means getting set AI?
Fomoria and Oceania?

Re: Rlyeh
 

Formoria at least is interested in continuing the game; it sounds like the stales were just technical difficulties. I'm not sure if Oceania wants to continue or not.

Re: Rlyeh
 

Sort of. I'm opening up Oceania up for a substitute.

(Technical difficulties? I was wondering how I could miss two turns.)

The War, view from Sauromatian throne
 

If you are going to look for sub, I would encourage you to start a thread on this MP forum. Otherwise nobody is going to notice your intention. Meanwhile if you could make this turn it would be great, since it would give your future sub a nation in better shape.

(The next hosting will occur in 48 hours)

************************************************** ***

About the game - I have to say that this is one of the most challenging and balanced Dom2/3 game that I ever played over the last 3 years. My compliments to AdmiralZhao of Mictlan.

His forces are pushing my defences extremely hard. Many dozens of fully-equiped enemy tartarians and other SCs riding the endless tidal waves of hundreds of doom bats and sacred troops, backed by various high level mages and priests, slowly devour my land and my people, despite my best efforts to stop them.

Each turn brings 40-60 battles, 3/4 against Mictlan, the rest against his allies Fomoria and Oceania.

I am desperetly fighting for every inch of the land, but I am slowly losing castles to relentless Mictlan assault. Nevertheless my main defence lines are still holding, at least for now. What worries me the most is that despite terrible losses inflicted on Mictlan as a price for conquering my land, his forces keep growing while mine are getting smaller, according to graphs. The Mictaln has turned half of the map into blood farms to feed his enormous war machine, and between magical PD global enchantment and level 9 blood combat magic, his blood priests are very difficult to kill.


Nevertheless there is still hope for besieged Sauromatian Empire. I have managed to repell two major attacks by Mictlan on my southern castles over the last two turns, killing a lot of his SCs. And I still control enemy capital.

Also my troops fare much better against Fomoria and Ocenaia, as well as Marveni's AI. However these allies of Blood Lord still distract the large part of my forces. Fomoria is especialy troublesome, with their teleporting Kings SCs.

If I could concentrate all my avaliable troops against Mictlan without worring about his allies, I think I could fight him to the standstill. Alas, I doubt it is going to happen.


All and all, the global war rages on. The next few turns are going to be very interesting to watch.


P.S. If any of the remaining human players would like to share their views on the current situation in the game, it would be great. These AARs are often a lot of fun to read.

Re: New turn
 

I have subbed this game away long ago. Fomoria is controlled by Rathar. So please send all messages about this game to him, not me. Thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif <font color="red"> </font>

Re: New turn
 

Vanheim still follows the game from beyond the grave. I hope those DX 11000s are holding up well.

Re: New turn
 

Hehe.

Well, if you are interested - Mictlan has managed to push me back all the way to my original border with the old Kingdom of Vanheim. Most of the major battles so far have been there, on my old border with you, over my heavily fortified last line of defence before my capital and its two nearby support castles. Two last attempts to penetrate this line by Mictlan have been repelled, with massive losses on both sides. Most of my castles north of that defence line have fallen to Mictlan hordes, who now controls almost all territory of what used to be Vanheim. But his troops have been meeting increasing resistance as he tries to push further south into my historical homeland.

In the center my castles are slowly falling as well, but I have managed to sneak capture a Mictlan's capital, using flying ship to leapfrog over his teritory with large army. Unless he will get it back he won't be able to build any additional capital-only mages.

Of course, being Mictlan and having easy access to tartarians and various blood summons, as well as sacreds that could be built anywhere, loss of the capital is not such a big deal to him. But still, it got to hurt somewhat. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: New turn
 

To be fair, I did stale the turn you took my capital. So you might not want to brag about that victory too much. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: New turn
 

Hey, haven't you taken one or two of my castlles, as well as successefully attacked me in about 40 places all over the map, during that "stale" turn? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Damn, I need to learn how to stale better. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif If only I knew this advanced staling technic of yours, the turn when you have attacked me 3 turns ago would went so much better for me. As it is, when I have staled recently it costed me dearly, in lost initiative, casles, territory and troops. My nation would be in siginificantly better shape now if not for that lost critical turn right after your attack. But I've chosen not to dwell on it much, concentrating on doing my best with the current situation in the game.


Anyway, how about some AAR from your side of the confilct AdmiralZhao? It's always interesting to see the war from different perspectives. This thread has been too quiet recently, despite frantic activity in the game. Let's try to change it, shall we? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: New turn
 

Please see the above posts about the technical difficulties on that turn. I'm not sure what to call it, since I was able to finish some of my attack orders, but not the forging or other orders.

I agree that your stales hurt you great deal, and that if there is one thing this game has been marred by, it has been the many technical difficulties and stales (BtW, thanks Gandalf, your hosting has noble and flawless and perfect). Really, I think that whatever the eventual outcome of the game, one stale more or less on either of our parts would have tipped the balance of the war. What I'm trying to say is, we're both winners. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I've been writing up an AAR, but I foolishly keep reading the forums before posting it. Time for bed for now though.

MOD - Arrrrgh!
 

This turn in one of the major battles against my forces Mictlan has casted Mist Of Deception on me. I was very dissapointed to see it, since it is well known that this spell is horribly broken. In all recent Dom3 games I have played over the last half year it is the only spell outlawed.

As you guys know, in our game I had 3 Air Queens for most of the game, not to mention many of Air tartaians. I also have armor of Virtue, and I have maxed research long time ago.

However, despite fighting for my survival and losing badly to the Mictlan's horeds and their allies, I never casted MOD in any of my battles. If I did, I could inflict thremendous losses on Mictlan armies without any risk for myself. Most of my fallen castles would still be in my hands as well, at the very least.

But I didn't do it, since this spell is clearly broken. If you cast this spell it is almost impossible to lose the battle against *any* army, as long as you understand its broken mechanics. The price of the victory is not high enough for me to use such cheesy tactic.

That's why I was very upset and dissapointed to see Mictlan using it against me this turn in a major battle, despite the fact that he is clearly winning the war against me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif


Now I don't want to be too harsh on AdmiralZhao. Technically he didn't break any rules. We do have rule in our game that ban any player for using MOD and retreating from the battle. But I don't think that's what he did - I think his air caster retreated by himself.


Nevertheless this tactic used by Mictlan is very dissapointing, especially from the nation who is already half-won the game. As far as I know this is the first time in our game anybody used this broken spell. This should stop.

As the result of it I have lost a mage, suffered afflictions on my best SCs and saw all enemy commanders retreat to safety, and lost the battle despite having no enemies left in the field.


Oh well, what done is done. But I would like to introduce two notions for the remaining players.

First of all - I strongly believe that MOD should be completely outlawed, as it already is in most of the serious MP games. It was never used in our game until now, and it should never be used again, since it is cheesy and broken.

Second - since Mictlan has used it on me this turn, I should have a right to do the same against him on one turn, as a compensation for his action.

Up until now I had nothing by respect for AdmiralZhao, for his smart and creative tactic and strategy. He also has honored his in-game word.

So I would like to make it clear that I am not accusing him of cheating or abusing the game - techically he didn't broke any in-game rules that we all agreed upon. And it is possible that he didn't know that MOD is so broken. If this is the case, I hope this was just an accident that will not be repeated in the future.

Let me know what you think.

Re: MOD - Arrrrgh!
 

I agree with you Corwin.

Usually in our large battles, you are at the very back, and my bats move forward to attack at a glacial pace, enduring turn after turn of spells to reach your lines. I was hoping to switch that around on you this time, by hanging back myself, and letting MoD do the work while we both hung back. The eventual intent was to force your armies/mages further forward, so that Banish to Inferno could start being effective again. The intent wasn't to hit and run; it was to arrive with 200 Army of Gold/Mass Regeneration beast bats, and sit at the far back of my lines, petrifying and charming anyone who came forward to meet us, while the MoD took care of your back line of mages.

Instead, you showed up a bit earlier than expected, and MoD
showed once again why it is hated and reviled. Feel free to use MoD in one of our future battles as payback. I won't use it again in any capacity due, since even when you try to use it in a decent fashion, it has the potential to be an exploit.

I would point out that in this instance the damage was not too great; you only lost one A2 air mage and you destroyed my army at that square. You did not take the province though, which you would have done without MoD.

Re: MOD - Arrrrgh!
 

Thank you, I appreciate your feedback and explanation. It is what I hoped it would be. I will probably use MOD against you on one of the further turns, and that will be it.

As for the results of the battle - at this point I don't care about your bats anymore - you have demonstrated you can replace them much faster than I can kill them. I was hoping to nail your commanders, but instead my SCs were running after illusions and geting affliction. Not to mention that my air mage died and I didn't get the province.

It could be worse I suppose, but considering how tough things are going for me (I have lost lthe leader position in almost all graphs), I was hoping to win at least this big battle that I have carefully scripted and prepared.

Anyway, it is now settled as far as I concenred.

If Fomoria (and Oceanina, if they have high-air mages ) will agree to join this MOD ban, it should eleminate this problem for the rest of this game.

Re: MOD - Arrrrgh!
 

Hi all. After communing with the ancestor spirits, I've decided that the only way to cleanse the MoD taint from my family's honor is to withdraw from the game. This decision is in no way related to the fact that turns are taking me 6+ hours to complete, and can no longer be reasonably combined with work and the other demands of real life. If you want, I can try to find a sub, though I think that at this point Corwin has earned his victory.

And now, here is the AAR I mentioned up stream:
Corwin's AAR is spot on; this has been the most hard fought and even game I have played. My past games have been anti-climactic, with one nation having a clear advantage in skill and material. They quickly steamroll their way to victory, their graphs shoot upwards, and the remaining players cede. Because of that, I've never fought real wars past turn 60 or so, and haven't really seen the mass tartarians that they always talk about on the forums.

This game has definitely been different, and is the first time I've seen the *real* late game. At least in the southwest quarter of the map, every province is regularly attacked by hordes of imps, troops of undead calvary, sky-covering swarms of demonic bats, Lords of Hell, unspeakable Horrors, and insane, nigh-unkillable dead Gods who wield fiery swords and awesome magics. Mortals now survive only behind the walls of their keeps, and beneath the magical domes which (mostly) keep the raining fire at bay.. It certainly captures the feel of the End Times. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

In more detail, Mictlan continues to press south, though we have been badly defeated in two major battles over the last months. The formerly pristine lands around Sauromatia are now a ruin, but the strong points guarding his capitol have held out, as their SC defenders proved slightly more super than the SC attackers I have thrown at them. Many brave beast bats lay stricken on the ground, echo-locating their last cries as they expire from the various injuries suffered from sword, stinger, claw, lightning, poison, fire, ice, exhaustion, banishment, and cleansing water. Even the survivors have PTSD, and face chronic nightmares where they are slowed to a crawl by fierce storms, while trying to escape from legions of buffed undead. Still, new beast bats are always showing up at the swampy recruitment centers, and we are moving more of them south. The bat's H3 priest-commanders tend to survive, so they at least can head back and pick up fresh troops to shuttle to the front lines. We will be making another push soon, and in the mean time our raiders continue to pillage his un-castled provinces, and are slowly expanding their area of desolation.

So, that's the general situation as of last turn. If no one is taking over Mictlan, then tomorrow I'll make a more detailed post about what went on in this game (from the Mictlan perspective), what strategies I was bringing against Sauromatia, and how I expected things to go.
Cheers,
Zhao

Re: MOD - Arrrrgh!
 

I'm good either way as I am but a bit player in this. Never used MoD in any game and shan't.

AARrrrrggh!
 

Ok, I promised Corwin that I would do a short AAR for this game, so here goes.

Mictlan had a relatively slow start, and didn't really get rolling until turn 30 or so when we conquered Abysia's 10 provinces after many costly battles against their native magma-men. I expected Absya to be a minor addition to our empire, but their lands turned out to have the Steel Ovens (20% forge bonus) and Mount Chaining (40% blood bonus). Finding these two sites as Mictlan is simply huge, and they played a pivotal role in my strategy from that point on. Shortly after Abysia fell, Nieflheim and then Vanheim declared war on me. I was pushing dominion in Abysia (for reasons I'll discuss later), and this was crucial during the war since both my enemies had to go through Abysia to reach my other lands. I dropped all my nature gems (300+) on a gift of health, and fought multiple large battles at Abysia with my double health armies and large numbers of casters as backup. At this point I basically had every mage of note within range of Abyisa, since the forging and blood sites were just a province or two away. Nielfheim and Vanhiem lost the core of their strength in these battles, including their Gods, prophets, best thugs, and most powerful mages. While they assaulted this strong point, I was using Mount Chaining and my S2B2 casters to drop as many horrors as I could behind their lines. Both empires were hollowed out in this fashion, and I was quite pleased with myself.

Then everyone else declared war on me. Even Marveni, who was supposed to be my loyal ally against the Sauromatian threat, broke from their sacred treaties. According to the score charts, Mictlan had grown enormously during just a few turns, and so was now a major threat. Unfortunately, the charts were a bit misleading, since I had only black hawks and turkey-mages in my new lands, and was only barely able to keep their former owners locked up in their castles by using horrors and a few well equipped ArchDevils. I gave the war up as lost from the start, and retreated everyone of value from my undefendable East lands to a new battle line on the Abysian border. The western most choke point of my empire was suddenly the eastern most choke point of my empire. Vast caravans of Mictlani priests and holy warriors made the journey west to the safety of Abysia, while the slaves, independent troops, and map move 1 mages stayed behind to put a noble face on things.

The eastern empire was quickly gobbled up by Sauromatia, Formoria, and Marveni, but I was able to consolidate my control of the west, and then make peace with the other nations once we no longer shared a border and once Mictlan had been halved. In most games I would not have bothered to try and make a come back from this point, since Dominions is essentially a game of geometric growth, and any major setback puts you out of the running for first place. Fortunately, Mictlan has plenty of late-game abusiveness to go along with its early game triple bless abuse. Specifically, the Onaqui bat-mages, who summon beast bats each turn. In addition to being great blood and death mages, the Onaqui summon ~4 bats per turn when they are in dom-10. And with 40% off from Mount Chaining, an Onaqui will pay for itself in beast bats in 8-9 turns. This makes it quite viable for Mictlan to Bat-spam, in addition to clam spamming and blood stone spamming. In terms of return on investment, the Onaqui compare quite favorably with clams, though of course the bats are not quite as versatile as astral pearls. Still, with Mictlan's heavy blessing and some simple buffs (blood lust, mass protection, darkness, etc.) the bats are quite sufficient to massacre mortal armies and quickly tear down castle walls. I'm not sure how well known this tactic is, but I've found it to be extremely powerful in large games where the cost of clams is increased, or where there will be plenty of time for the Onaqui to pay for themselves. Anyway, I had about 40 or so Onaqui squirreled away back there, and their free-spawn provided the core of the Mictlani armies. I'm pretty sure I went the entire game without using the actual Summon Beast Bat spell. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Which brings us up to more or less the present day of the Great War. In many ways, Sauromatia had a superior position at the start the War. Mictlan was always behind Sauromatia in research, and so Sauromatia had nearly every useful artifact. In addition, Sauromatia had all or nearly all of the Elemental Royalty, as well as a legion of fully fitted out Tartarians. A large part of the war for Mictlan was the attempt to take back the useful artifacts, and whittle down Sauromatia's advantage in SCs (especially those horrible Air Queens). Mictlan's main adavantages in the War was its allies, its globals, Sauromatia's initial stales, and the awesome power of late game blood magic. At the end of the war against Vanheim we discovered a site with a 30% conjuration bonus, but I was not able to make full use of it until very late in the war, since the site was far way from my best mages, and too close to the front lines to safely move mages in.

That was the big picture, here a few tactical notes:

- Sauromatia quickly discovered the correct counter to the beast bats, which is to bring along a Staff of Storms. The Bats have a tactical move of 2, which makes them *slow* when they can't fly. They can still fight in a storm, but they can no longer run interference on enemy mages and prevent any retreating troops from making it to safety.

- Forge of the Ancients is of course huge, and in retrospect I should have started trading for earth gems more quickly. At the last turn I had 250 earth gems saved, and was supposed to get another 350 from Oceania on the next turn. Hopefully that would have take it down.

- Banish to Inferno/Cocytos is great in the late game, since it is one of the more certain way to get rid of tartarians/Royalty (at least in the short term). I found out the hard way though that you need to have your casters at the very front if you want to catch enemy SCs at the back row. Even that can be uncertain if there is a storm limiting your vision range.

- Lightning helmets were crucial in many SC duels. I waited far too long in either getting shock resistance or equipping my own Tartarians with them.

- Phoenix Pyre is not quite the unbeatable tactic that I supposed it to be. I lost several thugs/SCs because they were fighting on their own, fell below 1/4 hitpoints, and then retreated.

- Empowering a Tartarian to cast Wish is another somewhat ill thought out idea. It's kind of annoying to have your gem production schedule disrupted because your caster wants to "Whisper to the Dead" for a month. I know at my workplace they wouldn't stand for that sort of behavior for long.

- Horrors turned out to be quite good against SCs. Baalz's post on that topic was very insightful, and I got some use out of it at the end of the game.

- The Astral Windows that Corwin kept seeing was from me checking the besieged castles to see if any reinforcements had teleported in.

Whew! I think that is about it. GG Corwin, et al.

Re: AARrrrrggh!
 

It appears that only Oceania is still playing.

Re: AARrrrrggh!
 

Wait, did I forget to send you gems? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif I really was spacing out.Barely. I'm willing to declare it a game.

Re: AARrrrrggh!
 

It looks like for the last 5 turns or more that you are the only one turning in moves. So if you want to end the game, we can end it

Re: AARrrrrggh!
 

Sure, since nobody else seems to mind.