Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Heheh.

And we're off!

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Hey, Tommo? What's the deal with the connect/disconnect thing? Connection problems?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Is not accepting my password, will try recreating an unpassworded Pretender. Two secs...

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's no-go. The game's already been created. You say you lost your password? That's no good. I'll have the server guy restart the game. This will take a few minutes. Everyone should rejoin once this is done.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Okay, game reset back to sign-in. Everyone sign in again, and this time, try not to lose your password!

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Am sure have the right password.... Someone might have submitted a Pretender over mine if thats possible. Will rejoin in a few mins. Sorr 'bout all this.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Yar. They ought to make it so this can't happen, and a password, either the correct one, or the master one, is required to overwrite an occupied slot, or at least it should print out the name of which human is in control so we can tell if it happens in advance.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

You okay there, Tommo? Awfully long time for a turn 1 turn. Still alive there, or did you run into more technical difficulties?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Can't apologise enough chaps but this time I'm getting an error saying it can't load the world map TGA file, have no idea why...

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

You will need to download it from illwinter if you have not played on it before.

[ March 05, 2004, 20:43: Message edited by: navrunner ]

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

You didn't get the World map.

Get this file: Throw the .tga into your maps directory.

http://ilabws13.informatik.uni-leipz...gex/world2.zip

It's the Torvakian World Map. It's compatible with the much more bloated Illwinter one, and I think it looks better, too.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

did anyone else get a stale turn?

or i just lucky, no big deal i will deal with it just wondering

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Hmm. I wasn't aware it was possible to stale in a Quickhost game with no force-hosting.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Well, looks like Tommo is out for the day.

So we'll pick up again tomorrow, same time, this time without all the technical difficulties.

That good for everyone?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

I can start earlier since it is the weekend.

[ March 05, 2004, 23:18: Message edited by: navrunner ]

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

works for me

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, that looks like the plan. Guess we get to write today's AARs.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Well, here we go with day 2. Soon as everyone checks in, we can start the party.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Alrighty, 30 minutes till the officially scheduled time. Everyone ready to party?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

the waiting is the hardest part

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

I occupy my time in these really long turns between sessions by micromanaging everything that I might have allowed to slide slightly during regular play. Mostly those aesthetic details, like making sure the squads of my commanders are in proper order, etc.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Welp. It's time. Tommo hasn't checked in yet. He better not have gone AWOL. We'll give him about 15 minutes to show, then I'll declare him AWOL and write the server admin to bot him.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Well, it's been over 20 minutes now. Still no show. Looks like he's officially AWOL.

If nobody has any knowledge of his whereabouts, and no objections, I'll send in the bot call in 5 minutes.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

And there's the buzzer. I do hereby declare that Tommo of Machaka is officially AWOL. Informing server op now.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Norfleet is the winner again.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Yeah, them vampire queens are pretty mean, aren't they? You were doing pretty well in the water, but once on land, they're nearly unstoppable.

I'm curious, though: Your expansion seemed consistently sluggish throughout the game: Did Machaka entirely wall you off, even after he went AWOL and had to be botted?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Yeah, The computer kept me bottled in since I was initially the path of least resistance, PD of 1 along the borders. By the time I took to the water everyone had left. So I concentrated my forces on attacking you.
How do you get the queens so high? Do you empower them in astral then start wishing?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yup. Empower to Astral 5, wear items to total of +4 Astral to get the 9 astral needed, then start wishing. I'm surprised you weren't able to retain Dominion. Marignon is normally quite good at this. Had you been able to keep dominion in your provinces, combined with your early successes in pushing them back, I wouldn't have been able to safely deploy them. Did you take a low dominion to start? It looks that way.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

One of the reasons I'm really fond of the VQ chassis is that it has a host of innate abilities plus is immortal, so it's far less likely that my 1000+ gem and 17 turn investment goes down the tubes in a lucky shot.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm surprised that you wouldn't have used that many wishes for something more durable, since vampire queens are very low in hitpoints and are undead, so are extremely vulnerable late game. A single wither bones will kill one. For the number of gems to get a VQ to astral 5 alone you could have wished for 5 or 6 doom horrors.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A power-wished Vampire Queen with Gift of Health has maybe 100+ HP. That's no slouch. I favor the vampire queen because it has a huge collection of innate powers: It's innately ethereal, flying, and immortal. With innate etherealness, I don't have to cast Body Ethereal. With innate flying, I don't have to wear a flying item, or cast flight (and have it end up casting flight on my fodder instead of my SC). Since you only get 5 spells, anything that you can get innately is something you don't need to get off an item or a spell. And nothing grants immortality!

With immortality, as long as I stay within my dominion, you can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I'll just come back and pick up all my stuff. A Doom Horror, while perhaps more potent in base stats, lacks item slots, having only a measly 2-misc. As such, if I were to make such an expensive investment, I'd end up with an SC that has 1 hp, anyway, since I'd have to slap a Ritual of Returning on to protect my investment. Toughness instantly becomes irrelevant as a result. I could use throwaway, basic off-the-grill Doom Horrors, but Last game, Navrunner already demonstrated his ability to cope with those. Besides, Doom Horrors, if I try to mass produce them, have a maddening habit of causing my lab to explode, instantly grinding everything to a halt.

So, given that I'm selecting from immortal units, what's the immortal unit with the most special abilities?

That's right, Vampire Queens. You can't beat Flying+Ethereal on an immortal chassis.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Such a vampire queen is fairly impossible to kill, but it does not really kill much against an army unless you cast soul drain or something. It did however cause my army to auto-rout after 50 turns which I did not plan for in the marathon game.

Did you successfully invade and wipe out your enemy Last game?

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I still can't imagine that you would find 10-15 or so doom horrors to be less useful than a single vampire queen, since that's the relative cost involved here.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sure you can. Quickness + dust to dust, wither bones, drain life works wonders as well. Push your dominion so you only have to kill them once.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, I ran a rather straightforward test: I started a game with two nations. On one, I produced 15 Doom Horrors. It took awhile. My lab exploded regularly. On the other, I produced the Uber-VQ.

Then I smashed them together in straight-out, head-to-head. The Vampire Queen won. I think that settles that question. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sure you can. Quickness + dust to dust, wither bones, drain life works wonders as well. Push your dominion so you only have to kill them once. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Navrunner did, in fact, attempt to use Wither Bones. It failed to have any appreciable effect, although it did do an excellent job mowing down fodder. It seemed like my VQ was actually IN the area affected, and went unharmed. I think it could be the combination of Etherealness, which is supposed to reduce the effectiveness of spells like Wither Bones, Mistform, Mirror Image, and Personal Luck. I lay them on pretty thick.

So the basic chassis isn't unstoppable....but can you find a BETTER one? What would you choose instead? I get flying, I get immortality, etherealness, flight, cold immunity and zero encumberance. This is on a standard 7-item slot chassis...with stealth!

Here's the list of stuff I like to have:
Mirror Image/Glamour, Mistform, Ethereal, Lucky, Flying, Quickness, low-to-no encumberance, a damage shield, immortality. Immunities are good, too.

The VQ gives me *4* of these, plus the cold, poison, and disease immunity. Some of these you simply can't get from any spells or items: No spell or item lowers a unit's encumberance, and encumberance is the severe bane of any aspiring SC, in my book: An SC needs to be like an energizer bunny: It keeps going, and going, and going. Note that any encumberance counts once quickened. An encumberance 4 unit will need no less than 8 points of reinvigoration per turn, a combination which will take at least two normal items or an artifact.

Re: Epic 2.08 Game
 

Yeah, was taking a fair number of provinces before he gave up after being unable to stop them.

And I wouldn't say they can't kill very much. With a good loadout, you're looking at an optimal 4+ kills a turn against weak opponents. Over 50 rounds of fighting, that's 200 kills. Solo. Obviously, this is against human-sized targets and not against Tarrasques, which will definitely require multiple hits to go down. I've killed pretty sizeable mobs with these. And if you can't be killed, you can keep killing until everyone is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.