Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

The Caster doesn't need an army.

Machaka spiders? Uh what a good lunch for my SC ...

Try to play against Norfleet at least once, after we can talk again about that.

I mention Norfleet cause he's a skilled player, that adopt (if not invented) this strategy.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I wasn't talking about the cheap spider knights

and I'm sure my SC could easily tango with your SC

[ May 26, 2004, 20:19: Message edited by: NTJedi ]

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Unless, of course, that the gems you have on your commanders are there for a reason. In which case you have to reassign gems to every commander who happened by a laboratory each turn. Result: Extensive, pointless micromangement.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes if player "C" was retarded. All 3 of them should attack you immediatly if they know what is good for them. You are twice their size. If they don't gang up now then all is lost. Comming in 2nd is still losing.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You'd be surprised at just how effective webs, especially web spit, can be against a lone SC. They bring the SCs defense down to 3, and force it to spend one of its moves breaking free, so they half the effectiveness, and make it so that all of your units can hit. Tangle vines work in much the same way.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

I think Cohen misunderestimates how effective Machaka Spiders backed by Mandragorae are.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes if player "C" was retarded. All 3 of them should attack you immediatly if they know what is good for them. You are twice their size. If they don't gang up now then all is lost. Comming in 2nd is still losing. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I completely agree... but the strongest player should still use his strength to try and intimidate the others. The biggest rebel should be the first one to go down.
Another method the strongest player can use is providing a good trading market for one or more players thus helping convince them to follow his demands.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

I am sorry I misinterpreted you sentiment(?) I am only human.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Let me bend that in neon, then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I really do not like games where "caring to do lots of micromangement"="winning". I hope you can understand this sentiment. I also thought that dom2 was one of the games where this was not the case. Alas, I was wrong.

I should have left it at that, yes. But then I thought that we could mod us out of this. I have realized an hour ago that the server implementation does not allow that in several ways.

And now I'll leave these forums to cool off. Send me a private email if you need me for anything.

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Quit lab-spamming, then. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Can I get some cheese with that...
 

Frankly I do not understand what the problem with
castle spamming is. I play Vans. If you go to
war with me, you will lose every single
unfortified temple in, oh, about five turns.

There are some people on this thread who are
familiar with the experience. At least one
of them has taken up castling religiously, so
now instead of burninating his empire, I
am besieging three castles, and gambling on his
Vampire Queen not being called up from the dead
too quickly.

Do you honestly propose that we start using rules
that _enforce_ leaving your provinces
vulnerable? Or do you accuse people building a
castle in each province of playing a cheap game?

Personally I do not build castles extensively.
Not because I am ashamed of it, or because I do
not think it is a good idea. Mostly, it is
because I cannot afford it, or because I am
hoping that I can get away with it unless I am
facing Vanheim, Man, Ulm, Pangea, Caelum, ...
you know, what, nevermind! :-)

Once the game gets going, and supercombatants
raise their ugly heads, having provinces without
a castle is a waste of your 200 gold coins, and
of most of the income you can get from the
province.

So lets see. Why do people whine about castling?
1. Because they do not like micromanaging, and
want to deny others the benefits of doing it?
2. Because they like their administration bonus,
and do not want to give it up?
3. Because they have trouble to keep supply
adequate without a fortified city?
4. Because their strategy is not able to support
the expense of castling?
5. Because they like being able to raid
indiscriminately?
6. Because they need something to whine about?

Guys, castling is not only the one in-game answer
to raiding, it is also perfectly realistic. I am
from Europe. In most places, it is enough to
look at the highest place in sight, and you will
see a castle. This is certainly the case in
France, Germany and Spain. Why? Because building
a castle that allows you to protect your villagers
and lifestock, and strike at the invaders, should
they separate for pillaging, WORKS!

Now, people are proposing solutions to alleviate
the need of castling. I'm all for that! Make
temples take a turn to demolish. Make it
impossible to bump taxes unless you have held the
province for a whole turn. Make it a bit easy to
intercept a moving army. Fine! Thank you very
much! I do not want to pay 500 coins for my
temple. I could use some ressources. But the
problem is not castling. The problem is the
wack-a-mole approach to handling an army moving
in your lands.

My way of handling this? Introduce loyalty in
provinces. Make those who move between loyal
provinces move first, as opposed to those moving
between occupied provinces. This simulates the
army supported by the population having access to
better logistics, better recon, and not being
harrassed by loyalists. Hell, introduce a new
command 'move while intercepting' that will
deflect the path of the army to coincide with the
targeted invader's destination.

Of course this is complex, and will not happen in
a patch. But do NOT cripple castling without
coming up with an answer to raiding first, or the
next whine fest will be:

So his IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE Vans slaughtered my 400
coins strong PD, burned my 200 coins temple,
jacked the taxes to net 200 coins, and then left
me with 50% unrest. Oh, they hid on the next
turn, so there WAS NOTHING I COULD DO!

WHAAAAAAH!'