Re: When are we starting?
 

ok, found the list of players... so
C'tis - Puffyn - recieved
Ermor - Zen - waiting
Man - The Panther - waiting
Marignon - Sedna - recieved
Pangaea - Alneyan - recieved
Pythium - Quantum Mechani - waiting
T'ien Ch'i - PashaDawg - recieved
Ulm - Griffin - waiting
Vanheim - Djo - recieved


Again, send pretender files (from the newlords directory) to The_Tauren[AT]Comcast[DOT]net

Re: When are we starting?
 

I haven't heard from Quantum Mechani for at least a few days. Anyone has news from him? I will drop Griffin a mail about sending in his Pretender; you can probably get Panther's Pretender without my meddling.

The settings are on the first post of the thread, as usual. The map is wrong though (it should be Inland as main choice), and two entries have two different settings: in those cases, go with Panther's suggestions, as the balance leaned that way. I will edit the settings to reflect that though.

Re: When are we starting?
 

Möööööööööp!

<- A Honk!

Sorry for the delay, i sent my pretender a few minutes ago!

Re: When are we starting?
 

Actually, no one except Panther really said anything about independents strength.

I'm ok with whatever is decided, but I'd like something a little softer, maybe independents at 7.3 or so.

(OK, newbie question: v. diff research, indies=9, non-combat pretender, not playing Ulm or other nation with heavy inf starting army: appoximately on what turn would you expect to start expanding?)

(edited for clarity)

Re: When are we starting?
 

That would depend on your luck, and your Pretender. I usually pick a Pretender able to take provinces without breaking a sweat, thanks to a couple of spells (Invulnerability, Mistform, Mirror Image, Body Ethereal, Personal Luck, Quickness, Breath of Winter, Soul Vortex and Fire Shield among others. Oh, and Air Shield too. A Virtue with Invulnerability, Mistform, Body Ethereal, Quickness and Luck/Mirror Image works quite well, among other things.

Otherwise, Centaur Warriors for Pangaea should do the trick, perhaps massed longbowmen for Man, maybe the Elephant/high morale troops combination for Arcoscephale and Caelum, or even assassins... I am not too sure of the specifics though, as my troops usually do poorly against the independents. The only time I did manage to slaughter independents was with Arcoscephale and a Fire-9 blessing: the Pretender, a priestess and ten Heart Companions had the firepower to take down knight provinces while only taking a few losses, and Fire-9 is cheap. Problem is, that sort of setup won't be much of a help later on in the game, as I found out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: When are we starting?
 

Well, I am king of stalling right now. I am working hard on Selena, my Great Enchantress Pretender, and I have pretty much decided what she ought to look like. Except for 2-3 scales which I have not fully resolved as yet.

I will be out of town from Friday-Tuesday this weekend and am not sure how much time I will have to devote to Dominions while on my vacation. So if we do wait for all players to chime in and post their Turn 0 yarns, I will not be complaining at all.

Furthermore, I think that if the missing players do not post Turn 0 yarns, then I think they may not be all that dedicated to writing the later yarns either. At my last check, there were still three missing Turn 0 yarns.

Just my opinion, whatever that is worth.

One thing of note, I plan of putting things in my yarns that will sort of reveal what I am doing (like my pretender choice for instance). I will also be doing thematic things instead of maybe what is best for winning the game. But this game is not so much about winning as it is about writing, in my opinion.

Oh, and both those lizards and the Inquisitors scare me already! What happened to the Age of Man???


Panther

Re: When are we starting?
 

My own yarn 0 has been delayed due to final exams, if anyone is wondering. Final exams aren't half as bad here as they are somewhere else, but they still make me busy. The worst is over now though, so I should be able to finish my yarn in the next couple of days; writing some more serious English after having done English papers is much harder than writing some serious English to get away from mind-boggling Spanish. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: When are we starting?
 

Let's see, about that djo question on taking independants.

When I last played Vanheim, I got a fire 9 bless. I then got a prophet capable of casting divine blessing (must be a level 4 priest) and built as many vans as I could afford each turn. I took my first level 9 independant on Turn 4 doing this (I did choose the weakest looking neighbor), using the starting light infantry as targets and the vans on the edge to do the killing. By the time I lost much of my starting infantry several provinces later, I had enough fire-9 vans to take pretty much anything, usually losing either 0 or 1 van per province. Also, when I later got Alt 3 plus Evo 1, my phoenix could go solo against most level 9 indies.

The van is the single best national troop in the game for the price, imho. You should not build much of anything else, unless you want some valkries for wait and attack rear. However, if you do not take a high-power bless, then the choice of the van is not as clear.

Later, when you run into human enemies, you will need meat shields to support your vans. Summons work best for this.


Panther

Re: When are we starting?
 

Multiple things to say...

Re: start date: I'm patient--if people want to wait a bit to start, fine by me; I think it's more important to be steady once we've started.

I second that...and I don't intend to use anyone's info against them, not in a big way, anyway. If one's writing goes well, one may find one's characters refusing to do what you want in any case.


And thanks, Panther, for the advice; that's just about exactly what I was seeing in my test games. The 9 indies look scary after getting used to 6's in SP. And I feel bad about all those poor huskarls dying, too.

I had a blast doing F9 as Marignon in SP--flaming flocks of flagellents!

Re: When are we starting?
 

I just resent my pretender. Apparently it wasn't sent when I originally thought.

Also about the game being about winning and/or fun. My particular choice of nation with the game settings should seal the deal with I'm in it for the fun and not the winning. Ermor on very difficult research is about as much of a handicap as I can get. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

My pretender chassis was chosen because of story and I kept the pretender with the best titles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

My story will be a little slow in the beginning. As much of my backstory and coming about of the nation of Ermor has quite a bit of entwining with other nations. But don't worry I will be writing out my yarns as quick as humanly possible.