Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Thanks all! :)

I really like the RAND games! Its a lot of fun to set/understand the signs in a correct way.

Ashdod was the nation i got and i've to say its a really strong one. Like other giant races you can easely play with imprissoned pretender, fair bless, really good scales and nonetheless get a very good early expansion. With early wizards and some later animists i got access into all categories of sitesearching (besides blood).

I really like the adon, 3 misc slots + magic diversity (some can use teleport). This capital only commanders + fire/air royality were my only SCs in the game. I build them nearly from the start on (+ some talmai elder) with the plan to equip them later.

With my globals up and after r'lyeh decided to attack c'tis i was quite happy to have the whole north in war.

This gave me the chance to act by myself by attacking the peaceful south in form of niefelheim. I luckily didn't share a border to the research strong TC at this time. Instead ulm reacted and attacked me with some smaller forces. Because i was really happy with TC's position in the corner only neighboured with ulm and r'lyeh i decided not to go into ulmish lands and just killed his expanding troops.

Maybe TC tried to get a border with me or just wanted more lands, however he decided to go in war with ulm. This leads to a war between both without my presence. I just cast some damaging army spells against TC to slow him down.

This was the perferct time to attack r'lyeh...

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

I have backups of all turns, in case anybody wants some with the master password. :)

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Great game, calmon. I was Ulm, stuck between Jotunheim and TC. When I saw you take on the giants I figured I'd try to grab some of the territory you were taking of his, but as soon as I did I was attacked by TC. I was just prolonging my downfall to TC the last 10-15 turns, or I would have tried to go at you... and get defeated easily, I was not prepared for a battle against Ashdod.

Gotta love RAND games, thanks for hosting Pasha!!

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Umm, please don't share any that show Mari's Cyclops' battles against the Machakan Fetish pretender. Those are kind of embarrasing. ;)

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Pasha, I would much like to see the turns. Can you please send some to me?

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

I was dealt Jotunheim for this game, and for the first time ever in my dominions career I went for a heavy bless strategy. (Though even now I went with E9/N8 over dual 9's in favor of squeezing 3S on my pretender in order to be able to eventually forge the rings with boosters. Due to circumstances I never even got around to forging them, but I still think that in order to actually challenge for the win - as opposed to just hang around in early game and then slowly peter out - the S was worth it. )

Expansion with blessed giants was a breeze, and I was right along with the leading nations early on. When expanding towards the richer middle part of the map though, I started to get worried about leaving my flanks unguarded, and when I noticed that Caelum was completely surrounded by me and Gath, leaving them with no way out except through one of us, I decided to attack them, slowing down my expansion in the middle. Looking back this probably was a mistake, and by the time I looked to resume my expansion again Ashdod had me surounded.

So I was then faced with the choice between attacking Ulm, (who I thought I should be able to beat, but only with difficulty) turning my back on the already powerful Ashdod, or attacking Ashdod (who I knew to be stronger than me) in the hope that his other neighbours had also identified the threat and would join me against him.

Not having much faith in my fellow men - and shortly afterwards starting to see many other nations at war with each other - I instead sat around twiddling my thumbs, seeing my early game advantage quickly disappear. I did keep watching for the slightest sign of others gathering forces to attack Ashdod, ready to throw my full weight at them too, but didn't see anything of the kind untill Ashdod attacked me, conquering every single one of my provinces in one single turn, leaving me with nothing more than a last stand or two in my castles, which I organised as well as I could, but didn't really hurt him badly. (even though I managed to win one)

So, very well done Calmon. Even though I had my full attention focused on you from the beginning of the game, I never even managed to be a speed bump. Nice play.

Pasha thanks once more for the smooth hosting, it was a pleasure, as it was the last time.

A final word on the map: It felt really weird, having two enemy capitals so close by on either side, while at the same time having enormous amounts of space to expand towards in the middle. While certainly not a 'standard' setup, I kinda liked the change of pace of having to mentally juggle beween expanding as far as possible and not leaving your flanks uncovered. Even though I probably didn't deal with it as well as I could have.

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Oh the inhumanity!!!!
:)

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

Pasha, thanks again for hosting this game. You know, your RAND games are actually my favorite and I'm really looking forward to them, but I hope the next one will be after asia twist since this poor slob would hate to miss it.
I don't want to nag or something but I'd really like to see the game turns. Thanks! Sorry. For I did nag.

Amhazair, you know we are very alike in respect to bless strat -- I have never used a bless strat. in MP. Its not that I have something against bless strat. but b/c everyone uses them I kinda prefer to "work" harder coming up with non bless game plans. I guess sometime I'll break my personal record and use a heavy bless and by then I'd probably go for crap scales and triple bless :D

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

I will plan to host another RAND game in a few months. :) Of course, others are welcome to host them, too, if someone cannot wait.

Wraith: turns sent!

Pasha

Re: RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)
 

If you plan to host another one Pasha, I hope you invite me to again play in it. This was one of the most interesting games I have played, and I think I learned quite a lot from it.

Thanks for hosting, and everyone, beware of Ashdod. Not that Calmon did not play an awesome game... he did. But they do seem overpowered to me. After all, every other nation in this game quailed at attacking them. That does say something about the power of Ashdod.