Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (13/24 nations remaining)
 

The only good beast bat is a dead beast bat! ;)

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (13/24 nations remaining)
 

Damn, talk about going out with a bang. (At least as much as possible when you're facing dominion kill) That was a very (not) nice final turn. I'm really happy I managed to force that dominion kill, taking you on head-on might have proved painful.

Thanks (again) for subbing in (again) Executor.

Players dropping like flies now. 12 players left, and Ermor won't last much longer. (No offense Baalz. I have the faint suspicion your bag of tricks is mostly empty. :) )

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

well.... i am really really embarressed now. and am reminded why it is that you must test everything three times not just once. sigh. sorry for being pathetic that turn. thats probably the most expensive f*ckup i've ever had....... i am so ashamed of myself

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

What did you do? A first glance at my turn didn't reveal any screwups on your part. Or was it something invisible to others, like teleporting air-breathers into the sea or the like?

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

Reminds me of when I removed his Amulet of the Fish from my semi rainbow-Kraken pretender while he was on land... I felt so stupid and ashamed! At least there was no witness of this disaster; all soldiers guarding him that day were swiftly and discreetly beheaded.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

Well i am less ashamed, and more just confused now.

Ok, here's the story of what happened:

I wanted to know if it was possible to take the water breathing item off of units the turn you move them onto land out of the sea. So, like any intelligent person, i tested it. i took a dragon, had him kill uw indies with a ring of breathing on, threw it away, and sent him back. He survived. awesome, lets do it then. I get the next turn........ four fully kitted ember lords drowned. WTF!?!? i say. this of course led to me raging on irc about it, and Calahan decided to do some testing, because he was really confused because he had done testing for the preponderace game, and had gotten the results that my ember lords should have drowned, but the dragon definitely should have too. so we took another look. All of our tests showed that my ember lords should have survived. We also check in case it was a mod thing, but both with the cbm mod and the vanilla game, the units of many types came out of the sea alive. I sent Calahan the current turn, and the previous one, and both he and me couldnt figure out why they drowned. Cal even tested llamaserver to see if they handled it differently. same thing, the people survived. Cal is very certain that this was not the case in previous patches, since he did test it for prepo. basically, we have no idea why it happened. I have concluded that Dominions just didnt like me that turn... :P

Anyways, as you might imagine, this has really tanked my enthusiasm for this game, not to mention hurting a lot. anyways, thats the story.

the only theory Calahan came up with was this:
Calahan> The only other longshot I can think of is that I'm certain you needed items before (as I tested at one point during Prep). So maybe the patch changed something, as it changed the turn res sequence to deal with indy attacks during sieges, and TT has been effected as the game was created using 3.24 (but like I say, this is probably a long long shot, but all I can think of right now)
[16:04] <Calahan> *hasn't been effected

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

Damn, that's a mindboggler. I will admit I wouldn't have known/remembered how a situation like that would pan out myself, but the least one might expect is that testing it would return reliable info. Perhaps something for the bug thread? Have you tried starting a game under the previous version, (probably requiring a new install I suppose) then patching it and testing behaviour to see if it's consistent with this game? (ie, drowning.) Not sure if I would want to go through the trouble myself in your situation mind.

I've added 36h as per your request.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Ulm is doomed. There are only a few individuals left. Our divine lord, Pozceracz has fallen as has our capitol of Western Sembia.

If anyone is mounting serious resistance, you may have our trove of artifacts and gems. Send a message.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Darn those tartarians that get away with 3 HP!

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Meh, he had phoenix power up and running, so the only thing getting through those last 3 hit points would have accomplished would have been to give her another chance to kill some of your adorable doggies instead of having to run away.

And damn, playing those turns is really starting to take ridiculous amounts of time now. Although I havent needed it so far, I do reserve the right to extend the turn whenever I feel I need it. :)

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Priestyman is having/had some computer problems (his monitor died) and I've added 24h to give him the time to fix everything and play his turn without too much pressure.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I've been asked to post on behalf of R'lyeh/Atlantis (Maerlande/Priestyman), to ask you all to consider doing the sensible thing here and concede an honourable victory to Marverni. As it seems Marverni have had this game won for quite a while now, and the only alternative to conceding is to play out a very long winded end game in which Marverni will certainly win without any doubt, and likely without suffering any real in-game cost. But everyone will suffer a huge out-of-game cost by continuing due to having to invest crazy amounts of time just to reach the inevitable conclusion that has been growing ever more obvious with each turn.

So can I please ask if anyone objects to saying "Well played Amhazair", and conceding to Marverni at this point in time. As this is not only the correct and honourable thing to do at this stage given the in-game situation. But it will also save everyone a huge amount of time and effort, plus allow players to join, or concentrate on, other games if their time commitments here can be freed up.

Maerlande adds that he recently went "all-in" to try and fight back against Marverni, but that his resistance was mercilessly crushed. So his ability and resources to resist any further is now minimum. (ie. There's one less nation that can fight back than there used to be)


Thank you all for your time, and sorry for the sudden intrusion.

Edit - Maerlande = Eximius Sus

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (12/24 nations remaining)
 

What about the movement prevention bug?
The game decides the Ember Lord wants to stay there, then drowns when no water breathing item is found on him?

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I have no problem conceding to Amhazair, who has indeed played a masterful game. His forces are simply overwheliming at this point, crushing opposition on multiple fronts...its one of the most impressive feats I've seen in a long time.

Congratulations Amhazair!

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Agree to surrender to Marverni.
That was an interesting test of EMD-summons and I have to change my valuation of them.
Vanheim is almost defeated atm and waiting for a couple final battles.

Congratulations Amhazair!

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I do believe it is indeed too late to stop me now, even with a coördinated effort from all remaining players. Having said that, as long as not everyone is convinced I'm more than happy to play it out. (Especially Mictlan is quite strong and has moved his armies into position to attack, so if he wants to test my resistance that's fair enough for me.)

I'll add 24 more hours to give everyone a chance to chime in.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I'm a little bit torn about this:
. on one side, I know that I'm going to be the next one on Marverni's list and I'd be happy to discover competitive late game (at my expense :p ) and have some real fight eventually, because my game was very peaceful (I'm really too passive)
. on the other side, I see that much better players than me failed to stop Marverni so I know that I won't stand a chance and I don't want to drag the game too long. So, I'm ready to concede to Marverni.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I am ready to concede to Marverni, congratulations to Amhazair who makes a distinguised come back!

That was first time I got into late game. BoT + early wars with my neighbors had a very deep impact on me, and paradoxically, maybe more so against AI Nief through two disastrous battles than against human-controlled Lanka who was a fierce opponent but never inflicted me a disastrous victory. This meant that I did not have the means to take a conflictual stance with Marverni when it could have been strategically relevant to do so.

I was about to declare war, hopefully with Mictlan, now that Caelum had recovered, after the conquest of Ctis would allow me a better strategic position. Arcane Nexus was obviously the trigger to stop good neighborhood. But i was aware that this war would come too late (more so considering I would respect NAP) and would just be for honor, not for the win, and would probably just be an opportunity for Marverni to gather a nice collection of enslaved Amesha Spentas and Eagle Kings...

Also I witnessed Marverni's rise to power since its very early war against Bandar Log, and it definitily was a very nice showcase, well done!

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

results of the inquiry:

Remaining nations/players
1. Marverni: Amhazair – no comments :)
2. Ulm: Verjigorm – agree
3. Mictlan: Yandav - agree
4. Caelum: Numahr - agree
5. Vanheim: don_pablo - agree
6. Sauromatia: Aethyr - agree
7. R'lyeh: Eximius Sus - agree
8. Atlantis: Priestyman – agree

9. Pangaea: Ghoul31 – no info
10. C'tis: Trumanator - no info
11. Helheim: Nrasch – no info

~75% ready to call Amhazair the winner of this game.

The rest seem to act as apolitical minority.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

I'm just a small nation that can't do much. So I'll go along with everyone else.

grats

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (11/24 nations remaining)
 

Looks like that's settled then. Thanks all for an enjoyable game. I've added a final 24h for those who want to have a last look at the Llamaserver for some unfathomable reason, and will take the game down over the weekend.

I have kept all my turn (and 2h) files of the game, anyone who is intrested in checking (part or all of) them out, feel free to let me know.

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

Congrats again Amhazair. You were the winner in the first MP game I ever played in, and I learned a lot from you then. If anything, you have taken your awsomeness to an even higher level. :)

Please keep me in mind if you've inclined to start another game sometime; it's always great fun to play with one of the best.

Re: Troubling Times: Large EA CBM Game (Running)
 

Hah! Hah, I tell you. ;)

In other news, I had more or less considered writing an AAR for this game, and actually started writing along with the start of the game, but very much as I expected I didn't get very far. (Though I can help anyone intrested in an AAR of the first 10 turns. :D) What can I say, I'm a lazy person. I'll post a quick overview of my game tomorrow or so.

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

I wad going to spend 999 gems next turn to try to overwrite your Arcane Nexus: how many gems did you spend?

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

To be fair, it is still cursed. We had 3 major powers get subbed out (ermor,formoria,helheim) all at really bad times, and two minor powers (ctis and abysia.)

this isnt a legitimacy thing at all i promise, its just that its still cursed with making people dissapear

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

Less :D

In fact I had cast a relatively small nexus, (around 250 gems if I recall) with the idea to overcast it to 999 myself next turn too with the help of the gems it generated. I did get less pearls than I expected though, ("only" 190, while had hoped for 300'ish and expected 250 by taking my gem income and multiplying it with the total # of provinces.) so I'm guessing I would have delayed my overcasting a turn, meaning you would have gotten control.

I also have a "literariy critique" type question: As I said, I had started writing an AAR for this game, but discontinued it due to it being a lot of work. :angel

I still do have the ambition of trying it sometime though, perhaps for a smaller and/or no-diplomacy game (No promises, I am a lazy bum, and at 31 I don't think that's likely to change.) and thought it would be intresting to see if anyone would be intrested in reading this kind of AAR before going through the effort again, or if most people would think it far too long-winded or something like that. So, attached the result of my labors to this post to see what people think.

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

That aar is..... huge. That would really be a full-sized novel if you did it for then entire game. I mean someone might get a kick out of reading it, but most people probably dont have time to read 18pages to get through turn 10. But if someone wanted to reasearch all about your playstyle or something it could be good lol

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

That looks an awesome read Amhazair (which I will read for certain once a window of free dom time opens).

Not sure how many would be interested in seeing something that big as an AAR though, as it would take many sittings to read for a whole game, meaning the temptation would be very high to just skip large chunks of it if a text that size appeared "all at once" (ie. after the game). And people skipping parts would be a great shame given all the work and effort that would certainly go into it.

But what you've done there is very similar to the type of detailed DAR (D = During) that I've been itching to do for ages. And which I think players would read, regardless of text length, if the entries appeared at regular intervals (ie. every turn / 48 hours, or updated 2-3 times a week).

Doing a good detailed DAR though requires a good group of players who won't read the DAR thread, and a game with a very relaxed hosting schedule ;) ;) :poke: :poke:


ps. Congrats on the win, and possibly even more amazingly, managing to finish a game on Faerun.

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

Amhazair, thanks for posting this! I finished reading it and quite enjoyed it. I am sad that it stops right when the action between you and your neighbors seems poised to commence. :cry:

Nevertheless, what you provided is both an AAR of your early game, and sort of a proto-guide to early expansion with Marverni. Add more to it about your first war or two, and you would have near on a full fledged Marverni guide in AAR form (from someone who won the whole shebang with the strategies detailed). How awesome would that be! :up:

In spite of my not playing in Troubling Times, I've been looking in on this thread once in a while since I was curious how the game would shake out with so many players on such a large map (BTW, I just looked at the mapfile to see what indies were added to Myth Drannor. That looks like that was a nasty one! Did anyone take that province and how gnarly was it? At least there weren't any demons flying around, so that's something to be thankful for, I guess... Just a huge TNN army accompanied by gryphons and sidhe thugs & mages - oh joy. :) ).

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed reading about your first 11 turns in the game and if you choose to add to that (albeit I imagine somewhat more summarized than the detail you included for those early turns) so that we can all hear about how Marverni progressed to victory, I would be eager to read more on this from you. I've never tried Marverni before, and didn't really know much about them before reading your AAR, and now I'm thinking I may need to give them a try at some point.

Re: Troubling Times: Game over, Marverni wins
 

That was what I feared might be the case for some. I mean, I know I'd read it, but then again I readily admit I'm quite weird in a number of ways. And I can't allways tell what is and what isn't ;)

But since others apparently do find it useful, I will at least keep the idea alive. I will warn you the chances of it ever actually happening are small to moderate at best, but hey, a guy should have some unachieved ambitions, right?

At the end all VP province had been taken. (the heavily defended ones all have really good sites, so there's an incentive to go to some trouble for them) A few of them (Trollbark Forest, Vaasa and Northern Thay spring to mind) did remain independent till turns 60 or 70 though. I can't give you any details about Myth Drannor, it was held by Agartha by the time I got scouts in the area. The problem with those provinces is that, while some of them are quite impressive, they still behave as normal independents. (in other words: stupidly. And, perhaps more important, predictably) The SC/Thugs hang around behind the troops, melee surges forward in a big blob, and casters pick from the limited independant spell list. As such they're generally (relatively) easy prey for a properly scripted mid-game army.
I hadn't played them before either, and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. They're generally considered a (quite) poor nation, allthough I think they're making a bit of a comeback in the minds of people. When I started playing they were accepted to be one of the very worst nations around, which I don't think is the case anymore?

I had expected them to be poor early on, and good in mid and late game, while I found them to be mediocre early, and a real powerhouse later. Druids are really, awesome. Really, really awesome. Of course this was the perfect map for them, and I probably would have had to compromise on my scales on a smaller and/or more crowded map. (For medium games I'm leaning towards an awake great sage with decent-but-not-awesome scales to get early Gifts from Heaven, but I'd have to think it over and hash out some numbers properly to be sure.)