Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Perhaps if you realized why I'm still kicking your armies around with less provinces you might have been able to prevent it :D

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Mysterio sees all that is happening, and laughs. All is going towards the plan.

Now, If he could just find a way out of hell, all would be good.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Hey guys I'm going away for the (US) holiday weekend on saturday morning. Won't be back until monday evening some time. I'm not in control of my ride so I dont know when I will return on monday.

The next turn should be up soonish so I should be able to get that done before I go away. But if the new turn generates quickly, can you please delay it until tuesday night?

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Go ahead and get turn 31 in if ya can. Delay granted (if needed).

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

On behalf of the noob team, I've no choice but to concede the game to the vets at turn 31. I'm proud of the fact that we've lasted longer than the vets did in the previous game and (as of turn 31) all our nations were still alive.

I believe we had become complacent and lost the hunger that we had in the previous game. The noobs simply could not match the maniacal revenge driven determination of the vet team. Communication problems added to our woes and our numerical superiority was simply not enough to combat the experience of the vets. Nor was it enough to overcome the considerable initial advantages granted to the vet team, for which I take full responsibility.

I will allow the game to continue for a few more turns for education's sake.

My congratulations to the vets. It will soon be time for our final showdown.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Not to be an ungracious winner, but I would venture that the much larger map size had something to do with that. ;)

In any case, thanks to all the newbs for playing, it was well fought. I look forward exchanging impressions of the game from both sides.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Awww... Mysterio never even broke out of hades. What a shame.

Good game though Sept and noobs. We had lots of fun.

Well, maybe if we play a turn or two more, Mysterio will be able to break out and see all the lands his Jarls conquered for him.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Awww, and I just got Circle Masters too! I was finally going to have non-pitiful research :)

Good game tho, noobs! I think that both CTis and Sauro, my two enemies, must have learned a ton. CTis in particular I want to say performed admirably under difficult conditions - well done, Darloth!

And sept dont beat yourself up over the game settings. Truthfully, I think that this game was set up almost perfectly. Even with our comparative early advantage in size, all us vets knew that with the right tactics you noobs would have slaughtered us anyway. It was just a matter of experience and agressiveness - which to me, is the heart of what this game is about, right? So well done there also, I say.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Well, I think we stuck to our game plan, coordinated well, and reacted well a few things went to ****. Our wars were never really about territory control, although I'm sure none of us liked getting raided (Lingchih especially :D). Basically the plan on every front was a) smash army b) stop recruitment (squat on forts) c) bring in a siege force and move on to smash the next guy. We kind of left qm to his own devices, since the map layout made it tough initially to get him support.

Lanka, you probably the most aggressive opponent I faced, which was great because playing cautious lets us build up an even bigger advantage. Initially I was supposed to kill you, but you kept on blundering into Niefel, and then we discovered Abysia and priorities changed. One thing I'd advise you to do is script and place your troops. Ganas are great for tanking Skinshifters and unkitted Jarls, and then put your sticks and stones guys just behind them on fire closest. A barrage of high damage missiles is a great counter to Jarls. You didn't face off against my lightning squads much, but one possible counter you could have used would be to leave the troops at home and bring out your recruitable air mage demons, casting resist lightning and then either skellyspam or thug equipment.

Abysia, I feel kind of bad for you because there wasn't much you could have done to save yourself. We felt that you were a pretty big threat to Niefel and lightning is pretty much the perfect Abysia counter, so...

I'll do more commentary after we play out the next few turms.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Thanks for the game, folks. I have to say that I learned on the last turn more than I think I learned in the rest of the game. Namely, that splitting up my army to fight on multiple fronts when the opponents are doing it too is not necessarily suicide and that I really REALLY need to have a means of doing more than just fire damage in an army. That was just sad...

On the plus side, even though the attacking force was but a single unit, my indie researchers really gave that one unit what-for with them all casting gifts from heaven until they eventually hit in that communion. I should have tried something with those guys and communions earlier.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Good game, it was fun, and well fought noobs. Just some coordination and aggression more and tables would've been turned, I've seen that noobs have learned some dirty tricks. Which is always good.

One thing is that everyone but Sept missed and that was raiding me. I've been topping the gem, gold and research charts for a better half of the game and that's something you do not want. Just for the next time. ;)

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

I have a question for TC actually, why was that lightning immune flying air shielded hounds+mages army you had never deployed offensively against me? You could really have caused problems for me if you had managed to get it into contact with my EK group.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

I protested this concession along with some others on the newb team, but apparently not enough to stop it. This was a disappointing game, as I wasn't close enough to any of the vets (without plowing through an unresponsive 'teammate' which in hindsight I should have done early on) to get attacked until I finally paved a way to Caelum. Soon after that war started (which was shaping up to be pretty interesting), the game ends...

Except for us, my dear Caelum. Except for us. My vans thirst for the blood of eagle kings. Let's do this. LETS. DO. THIS.

I learned things, which was good. Definitely have stuff to apply to future MP games, like expanding faster, raiding more, being more aggressive, expanding my array of dirty tricks early on, etc. If this is done again it would reaaaally be helpful to fill the noob team people who are dom3 noobs but who are comfortable with the arcane arts of forum technology and communicating with people. 6 or so from our team were using the forum but if we had all 10 checking it a couple times per turn it would have helped a lot.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Tried to, but even flying they arrived after your mammoth walked into the next province.
Otherwise I'd have had a few EKs of my own.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

One thing I learnt for this. Apart from some of the obvious battle blunders. Is to spread my research out a little more. Kinda concentrated to much on blood research while not getting a working blood income.

LOL, and I had to be aggresive with Lanka. As I was quickly surrounded on all sides.
I just wish I was able to get up to those annoying vet castles. Hold them long enough to send armies past them deeper into vet territory.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Movement doesn't work like that. You need to anticipate your opponent's moves or be the attacking party.

As to the time of concession, I think we also thought that it was a bit early, though the end result is probably set already.

And yea, noob team doesn't need to be any bigger, just more coordinated. Especially if you already got into each other's way.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Well, I meant offensively, or in support of Vanheim's offensive. Seemed once I got my army out, I didn't really see it again. Which was an interesting situation anyway since I wasn't really sure what was going on as qm had done the last two turns for me. Took a bit of thinking as to how I was going to get everyone out alive.



Stretch, I've given orders for this turn, LETS DO THIS indeed.

Oh and one great trick you could have used to get on the offensive is using sailing to skip over the friendly coast and straight to the undefended Caelum farmland. I played that front pretty cautiously when it was opened because I was worried about sailing raiders, when it became obvious you weren't using sailing I was able to move my forces out of response range of my heartland with some confidence.

Maybe later on you sailed your current raiders in, but by that time it was a bit late.

I do agree that the concession seemed a little early, but we probably had inevability around when Ironhawk unleased his bag of tricks on C'tis and Atlantis started his Argatha offensive and I beat off your first army. I would greatly like to play out the next few turns.

On communication, if/when the vet forums are opened you guys will probably see that we posted a lot of information there but made very few decisions there. Fortunately for our team we were all frequent IRC-goers and there was this magical timezone when atul had just got up, qm was home from work, and lingchih was about to go to bed (IH and I have an anytime schedule, I suspect we are both students) where we got most of our planning, coordination and decision making done. I'll see if I can't dig through the chatlogs and find some choice quotes.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Now how bout telling us who or what Mysterio is?

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

The concensus among those noobs still active was that we should continue for a few more turns but most including myself believed it would be an uphill battle at best. Frankly, when I returned during turn 10, I knew we were in deep ****. Vanheim was actually supposed to have the front with Hinnom but it seems Formoria expanded in the wrong direction.

To my way of thinking either we win as a team or we don't win at all. I will certainly be more strict regarding communication in the future.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

I'll post of pic of the fabled Mysterio when he finally breaks free. I haven't even seen him yet.

I will also open up the vet board for viewing by anyone, once we finish up.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Mysterio was a Master Druid, btw. We almost all had master druids. It was the best choice for the game settings. Sorry if you thought he was some kind of uber-monster. Sometimes the lesser pretenders are the way to go.

It was a bit like in WoW, when your whole party is Shamen.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Thanks, TheDemon. I'd like to fight this war for a bit as it's been fun building up and I'd like to see how things turn out.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Depending on what supporting magic you want with your E9 bless a CBM master druid is a pretty good choice, or a great enchantress. Our nations all put a minor nature bless to work, plus we had pretty poor natural nature access, so the druid made a lot of sense. Doesn't hurt that he makes a great rainbow as well.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

I decided to leave TC stalling - not switching to AI as it would definitely attack someone.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

So what's the deal? Turn hosted and it seems at least some of the players are happy to reclaim their lands / spam send lesser horrors. This game going on or what?

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

The declaration of concession was something more like a declaration of intention to concede. Several of the noobs wanted to keep playing, so there will be at least a few more turns I guess.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

The game's over as far as bragging rights are concerned, but Caelum and I are having some war games and I seem to be playing whack-a-mole with some damned flying Melqart. I'm not sure which other newbs are still interested in duking it out with a particular vet at this stage, but I think there are a few.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Fine by me, the early concession would've prevented me from using all my new toys.

Now please, a list of still active noobs. I want to hurt someone who's still standing.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Mictlan, C'tis, and vanheim are the only ones that are definitely still playing so far as I can tell.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Attack me please.
Or tell me where you forces are next turn.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Feel free to bring that Wyrm back over, or whatever other armies you have waiting around that need some exercise, atul. I'd rather none of the remaining vets go the rituals/death-by-a-thousand-cuts route as my goose is obviously cooked. I'd rather bring the armies of the apocalypse together for some awesome last stand battles, almost definitely ending with your armies going at it over the bones of my capital, while my scouts watch and take notes.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

People are getting in their last licks as I mentioned.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Well, I invite Atlantis to defend 140, Hinnom to take 167 and Niefel to defend Lanka.

It's a shame only now that the game is ended I have enough blood slaves for all my needs. :D

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

The Team Vet forum is now open for public viewing, but is locked to prevent any new posts.

http://teamvet.forumotion.net/your-first-forum-f1/

Caution: unlike this forum, there are some naughty words in there.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Perhaps start a new forum section on the vets site for commentary? I also want to post some IRC logs because the forums don't really reflect our planning process that well, but I don't want to crap up this thread with 3 posts of chatlogs no one wants to read.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Naughty words? You vets are truly evil.

Nice job on the maps. Hope you didn't give away all your tricks to the public and those who would use it to defeat your ilk in the next game.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Ironically as the game grew into the heavilly tactical stage past turn 20 or so, we started posting maps less and less. I think their main purpose was to help everyone familiarize themselves with fronts they couldn't see. Also as we got used to IRC meetings every two days we shared a lot of intel there.

Anyway, here's a taste of vets IRC:

(11:49:08 AM) Ironhawk: i still cant believe i got the plague
(11:49:11 AM) Ironhawk: in my cap, no less!!!

(7:39:11 PM) Lingchih: he had almost won too. the mage had run up to attack him

(8:06:26 PM) Lingchih: did you read how my Jarl got killed, Hawk?
(8:06:47 PM) Ironhawk: yeah you got killed by a sleep touch, eh? thats hard luck too
(8:06:58 PM) Lingchih: almost made me cry
A few days later...
(7:34:04 PM) qm: holy crap, now _I_ lost a sc to sleep touch

(10:35:29 PM) Lingchih: well, this conversation has degenerated to the point where we are talking about maggots in ears. Are we done?

(11:30:55 AM) TheDemon: I'm probably the worst army vs army player ever
This fact proved several times during this very game


Oh and sometimes we talk strategy too:

(5:27:43 PM) TheDemon: qm needs 400, we have about 600 total to give out
(5:28:29 PM) TheDemon: how much would you need in handouts for a fort started next turn?
(5:31:24 PM) Ironhawk: 600?
(5:31:54 PM) TheDemon: might be a bit out of our reach for this turn
(5:32:48 PM) Ironhawk: yeah i dont want it this turn, either. want to see if I luck out with the search
(5:36:17 PM) TheDemon: so for the fort plan this turn, atul sends qm 300, I send qm 100, I keep 250, we have 2 forts starting next turn
That's us on turn 7 or so talking gold-sharing for forts

(1:48:30 PM) atul: Dunno about this whole C'tis debacle
(1:48:49 PM) TheDemon: well, basically we underestimated him a little
(1:49:06 PM) atul: we did, that I admit
(1:49:50 PM) TheDemon: if we figure out how many jarls ling will have, and how many will potentially die, we just send him the equipment to deal with c'tis and I think we have it though
(1:50:06 PM) atul: Yeah well, that's one of my problems
(1:50:25 PM) TheDemon: I don't think the current "make a bunch of stuff" is good enough, we need specifics
(1:55:22 PM) TheDemon: but we need a count on the jarls
(1:55:29 PM) atul: indeed
(1:56:04 PM) atul: Ever heard of "beer distribution game"?
(1:56:10 PM) TheDemon: no
(1:56:27 PM) atul: That's a classic game in system operations research
(1:56:44 PM) atul: has this line of orders with delays and delays in supply
(1:56:54 PM) TheDemon: oh, I have, but they didn't call it that
(1:56:57 PM) atul: Basically it proves how much people make mistakes
(1:57:01 PM) TheDemon: I took a whole class on modelling supply chains
(1:57:07 PM) atul: And we're enacting it now
(1:57:27 PM) atul: My minor's in operations research, we played it as a part of some course
(1:58:04 PM) atul: Anyway, this "I need a bunch, NOW" thing was the stuff that led to a downfall. :p
After Ling lost a few Jarls to C'tis and was in a bit of a panic, and atul and I putting our degrees to use.


(12:43:28 PM) TheDemon: ok. the way I see it is we have 1 turn before you'll need to have your armies in 51/73 to surface against abysia
(12:43:33 PM) TheDemon: as in one extra turn
(12:44:04 PM) TheDemon: I'm hitting 116 this turn, that means the soonest I can clear PD on 88 or something is in 2 turns
(12:44:31 PM) TheDemon: likely it'll be more like 3 as I think my next move is to siege the cap or chase down army remenants
(12:44:48 PM) atul: So if I go to 6 I'll be too late?
(12:45:00 PM) TheDemon: no, if you go to 6 you could make it on time
(12:45:38 PM) atul: 6 this turn, back to 20 - 51 - 88 or so?
(12:45:55 PM) TheDemon: next turn 6 & 116. turn after, 32 and cap. 3 turns from now, 51 and 88, 4 turns from now 88 and wherever
(12:46:03 PM) TheDemon: yeah basically
(12:46:48 PM) TheDemon: let's compare that to a "siege c'tis" plan
(12:54:19 PM) TheDemon: so under "siege c'tis". next turn: atul in 6 and ling in 37.
(12:54:19 PM) TheDemon: 2 turns: atul in 32, ling in 34.
(12:54:19 PM) TheDemon: 3 turns: atul in wherever, ling in 14.
(12:54:19 PM) TheDemon: 4 turns: atul in 11, ling in 272
(12:54:19 PM) TheDemon: 5 turns atul in 273, ling in 260
How we killed Abysia, planning stages.


(11:46:53 AM) Ironhawk: so, i tested out the vanjarl shockwave plan. it has potential
(11:47:03 AM) atul: good
(11:47:28 AM) Ironhawk: I have a strong feeling tho that I will need to use 3A mages (like Vanlade, or Handgodrotts), instead of Vanjarls
(11:47:40 AM) Ironhawk: and there will be a maximum limit on the number of troops I can fight
(11:47:52 AM) Ironhawk: since we cannot afford to forge all the reinvig items

(9:46:05 PM) atul: Did IH yet figure out a solution against Sauro?
(9:46:31 PM) Lingchih: hmm. dunno. ask him, I guesss
(9:46:42 PM) Ironhawk: about to do my tests
(9:46:57 PM) atul: Because I had one idea
(9:47:09 PM) atul: He's got 2 leaders
(9:47:14 PM) Ironhawk: unfortunately CTis didnt step into my trap and now im in a position where I may step into his
(9:47:19 PM) Ironhawk: yah
(9:47:24 PM) atul: TheDemon has seeking arrow
(9:47:33 PM) atul: he has hydras in his army
(9:48:06 PM) atul: basically if you kill both the commanders and attack that province with just a single commander, all the units should be up in one bunch
(9:48:12 PM) atul: and hydras do the killing
Ironhawk and atul brainstorming raiding strategies.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Demon, you didn't include any of my drunken ramblings from IRC.

Thanks. :)

Well, actually, you kind of did so.

OK, you can now use the basket to post comments on the Vet board.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Actually, theDemon has stepped in and set up a place for comments on the board. Please use that.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Nice to see the vet forum is open. I'll have to give it a look through. Just looking at the first few threads, you guys had a much higher level of organization than the noobs did this time. I expect that had something to do with the win as well. The noobs didn't even have maps this time, except to show where capitols were placed. One player was going to do them, but had memory issues with their computer and was never able to get one out. I think everyone else eventually forgot about it.... Being able to see what borders look like is definitely very useful for a team game like this I think, it makes the situation of other nations much more real and understandable for one thing.


So who do you guys nominate as graduates for this game? I'm going to assume one of them is C'tis, since he stymied you for a while :)

Oh, I will open the noob forum soon also. I was going to do it once the game was completely through. But with you opening yours up I'm thinking maybe I'll open it sooner. I will ask the noobs what they think about it.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Personally, if I were to play in the next game, I would mind at all some less newbish newbs in the next game as long as it's accounted for in the player ratios.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

It's fine if you don't until we're officialy done. The vets forum doesn't have very much scripting info in it or tactical info because most of that was on IRC. Lots of intel, but not so much that can be used against us.

I'd also echo qm's sentiment, I think even if we restarted this game right now with the same players, it would be a lot more challenging for the vet team. C'tis and TC were the ones that stood out for me, TC for his good use of magic, C'tis because every time we had a new trick he'd try something different in response.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Yeah Darloth did a good job. The sauro player did an ok job too - however the only reason he survived was because CTis kept sucking away resources. Honorable mention goes out to whoever thought up the Rain of Toads plan, also. That was a real concern for us, as you can see in our forums. It effectively shut down Niefel for 10 or more turns. In a non-team game that would be have been a death sentence.

So, the vets had talked a couple of times throughout the game about putting together a list of advice for the noobs. We never got around to it but I thought I'd just post some ramblings:

1) Expand FAST - We specifically designed our nations for truly insane expansion speeds so you dont have to shoot for that, but you get the idea.

2) Focus on military gains, not territory gains - I think a lot of the noobs felt a false sense of security when they were able to tie up our raiders or push into vet lands. In dom3 wars, territories change hands rapidly becoming almost valueless except for their location and what you can attack/defend from them. To win, you have to destroy enemy armies and disable enemy production (capture or seige forts). If you arent doing those things you arent winning.

3) Predict Raiders, dont chase them - Dom3 movement mechanics will never allow you to catch raiders if they move away. You have to guess where they will go next to intercept them. Or use magical transport to attack them before the movement phase.

4) Dont buy more than 10 PD!! - Almost uniformly, all vets will purchase only 1pd in any of their provinces. PD are usually bad troops. PD cannot be moved if the front moves away. PD becomes insanely cost-inefficient over 15 or so. And lastly, no determined army or raider will be stopped by just PD. While there are certain exceptions to this rule based on nation and situation, I believe that all noobs should adopt it.

6) Fort production - Almost halfway through the game, we vets marveled at the fact that many noobs still had only their capital forts. Almost from turn 1, any vet will be planning where they can build thier 2nd (and maybe 3rd!) forts. Forts not only give you more mages (!!!!!!) but they also give you more troops and a defensive advantage.

6) Mages - Once any decent amount of research has been done it is suicide to send a large army out into the field without backup of mages. The number one thing that vets do when planning campaigns is figure out what assortment of mages to bring and how to script them.

7) Skelly Spam - the Ench 3 spell Raise Dead is very cheap and quite powerful. So much so that it has its own tactic name. Both my enemies could have used this very effectively early on.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Can someone post a link to the noob forums? I'd like to read them...

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

As I said I am considering opening up the noob forum early, but I won't do so unless I get approval from the noobs. There should be a link to the forum on the first page of this thread, you just won't be able to see anything interesting yet. I'll announce in here when the noob's forum is open for public viewing. If I open it before the game officially closes down however I will leave out the last several turn threads so that there is still some mystery.

Illuminated One (mictlan) is the one who came up with the rain of toads deluge. He had planned from turn one to lock 1 person down perpetually. I haven't read through all of your forum yet (comparing your turns with the noob turns side by side. It's an interesting contrast.), but it seems he managed to go for a double lockdown. There was some talk of try to lock down all of your caps if I recall, with priority going to caelum/niefel/helheim. I guess somewhere in there the priorities changed.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Yes, good job by Illuminated on shutting down vet caps.
Amazing stuff in the vet forum, the organization was equal too if not better than the noobs organization in the original game. This time we had played it somewhat footloose and fancy free and it cost us. Though I doubt I will ever have the time or devotion to take it to some of the extremes the vets did in their intricate planning and chatting sessions.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Not sure why you guys didn't go for more cap shutdown than you did. Had you shut down the Caelum cap for more than 5 turns it would have put me out of the game. I was pretty much exclusively using EKs and summons, next to zero troops and very few non-cap mages. That also meant that my expenses were basically a static 400/turn. I mean, I'd spend extra if I had it, but raiding me wasn't going to accomplish much I'm afraid. Niefel, Hinnom and Helheim are all somewhat cap-vulnerable too, but they have good troops they can recruit in their other forts. Not so with Caelum.

Once I realized I wasn't an immediate target I wasn't too worried as I had beelined it to Enchant 4 pretty early and from there it's only a few RP to level 5 and Dome of Solid Air.

On PD - it has its uses, but more than 10 is the exception not the rule, and divining what those uses are is pretty tricky. Often, too much PD in a defensive battle can be a liability rather than an asset as when they get mowed down they can accidentally cause a rout, or they can get caught in your AoE spells and effects (like Hydras, for example). One of the big reasons why I stuck with between 5 to 10 PD for all my lands was because if I ever had to deploy an EK group defensively, I would end up killing all my PD by accident, and they would cause a premature rout even if all that killed them was my own thunder strike spam.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Well, I thought about locking down three caps, had the mages for that. Rdonj put Caelum high on the priority list but I used them against whoever was most scary at the moment, but Caelum would have been next.
But I lacked the bloodslaves through almost all of the game.
When I started it I had two bloodhunting provinces, and with the continous rituals I had trouble expanding it. By the time I could have thought about the third the casts were ineffective against Hinnom and Abysia and Lanka were going down so I focused on blood summons instead.
Kind of surprising that Niefel almost despaired, he seemed never to run out of Jarls.

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

Ha, one turn notice for a nation who'se troops don't fly nor teleport and who is looking at the other direction currently. All right, if it pleases you I can put troops into that pit and leave Abysia for you, but if you were looking for a fight it went to C'tis direction. Sorry.

Hope you like what little I managed to gather, though.

And Sept, what extremes are you talking about? I don't recall any excessive stuff, though we had to plan around you and ourselves every now and then.

And isn't the game over officially if noobs have waved the white flag? Open the forums, rdonj! :p

Re: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game running.
 

I have high hopes for being able to devote more attention to Noobs vs. Vets III over the summer when I'm not in final exams crunch mode. In the latter half of this game, I ended up staling a few turns and not being able to devote myself to planning and talking to my team. Sorry about that, all.

One of the biggest things I learned: I really don't like Agartha. :doh: