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A spot of open diplomacy appears to be in order as I desperately need help!

If anyone has met a certain Ermor undead menace I would very much like to hear from them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

I will point out that while you may be pleased he is attacking me rather than you he will become absolutely huge if I go down as there are plenty of neutrals I am too weak to take around me (I don't even control all the provinces by my capital). So it won't just be my lands he adds and I have no other neighbours to gobble them up before he gets them. Ermor will have no trouble rolling over them if he can get past me.

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So if Ermor is attacking you...who is attacking Man? Also I'm still in the market for charcoal shield or a vine shield...

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Mictlan is attacking me. To be fair, I started it =)

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Atlantis is looking for a nature booster (thistle mace would do nicely) I could send a skull staff or perhaps some nice frost brands in return. I am also still looking for a charcoal shield.

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Well he may be attacking more than just me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif You may be fighting him too without my knowledge....

I can't survive for long. Pangaea with no Pretender (it's imprisoned http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif ) can't build good enough priests. And with bad scales can't build enough troops. So that will leave the North West third of the map solid purple. There is only me and him there. Mostly him really.... I hope the rest of you are good at fighting hoards of undead http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

From the graphs Revolution I would have thought you would have been keenest to lead a crusade against him as you perhaps have most to lose http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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He is beyond my reach.

(I respect you though, for taking over a failing nation with questionable scales and not giving up while fighting against LA Ermor... wish I could help you :/ )

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Hear ye, hear ye!

The Church of the Most Glorious and Uncompromising Fire formally rescinds all offer of bounty placed on the rogue state of Jomon!

Earlier this month, Rupert Ignatio Canelious Junior, Prophet of her most glorious and yet understated Pope-ess, Marie, presented the Conclave of Inquisitors with the head of Ryu, false god of the heathen Jomon. 100 pounds of gold has been awarded to the lucky man who was said to have fired the final crossbow bolt. He was found dead the next day, no sign of the gold..... I mean, he returned home to his wife and children, triumphant and wealthy. Obviously, only good things would ever happen to someone who had done the church, and its one true god-dess Marie, such a kindness.

The proud people of Marignon very much trust their benevolent and nurturing Inquisition with their public safety, and civil liberties. The death of the devil-serpent Ryu should only serve to convince the crude peasants of the less civilized world, that they too should seek blessings in Marie's loving arms.

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Jomon was a paper tiger, I guess! (I haven't seen the current turn yet, but fear I won't be in the game for long, now...)

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Due to some personal matters, i'm delaying the next due date (after the present turn) until Monday. While I may be able to send in turns prior to then, i'm not sure. Hopefully this isn't too distressing to anyone.

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Hey guys, if you don't mind, could we delay until sunday for me? I'm going to be at origins *glee!*

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A 4 day delay, just after another 3 day delay? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

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boo for delays http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

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Sorry for the delays, folks. But I do want to honor them when requested.

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I just kind of wish maybe we'd been told a little earlier, it doesn't sound like an unexpected thing. :S

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Heh, well I'm out of town for a couple of weeks starting on the 30th. I should be ok to get turns in on a 48 hour schedule since I'll have my laptop with me, but I'd appreciate not having the game force-host if I miss a window, especially since I'm not sure what the internet availability will be looking like. =)

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Bah! A couple of weeks of you stalling might have just let me recover. I've never liked laptops http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

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Atlantis is in the market for dwarven hammers (even one would be nice) an earth booster, and a nature booster.

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So, what's up with Calahan? I had kind of missed it happening, but he passed off Ermor to Micah, because he couldn't put in turns? I'm just asking, because he is signed up for a new game, and I thought that was odd. And not that I even would care at all, just that the game is almost entirely full of real newcomers (6 months or less on the forums), and now LA Ermor seems to permanently be in the hands of the winningest MP player in the forums, who has defeated much better than us with that same somewhat unbalanced nation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Calahan actually did come back, but preferred to let Micah keep Ermor, as Micah had played far more turns.

And yes, Micah is ridiculously good. So, i'd keep an eye on him =)

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Welllll, I have heard nasty rumors of an anomalous empty area in the NW portion of the map. The whole thing is just starting to look really silly, with an extremely good player playing the strongest nation in the game, with a distinct advantage in room to grow, while a bunch of newbs duke it out with eachother, waiting to be destroyed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I guess I really just want to be the first to congratulate the winner, Micah. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Hey now, Atlantis is doing better than I am, he's even beating me in dominion, of all things. Plus I got stuck with this absurd drain scale. Props to Pangaea for doing an excellent cockroach impression as well, I've been having a much harder time than I expected squishing him.

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Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I for one am glad to have Micah playing with us.

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JimM and All

When I signed up for this game my computer and Dominions were both running fine :-) But I only managed to make one turn before the 3.17 patch came out, and for me the patch came with problems. The combo of new patch, new windows XP SP3, and new Ati drivers, was more than my faithful old video card could handle, so it promptly decided to quit the show all together while I was fumbling around with drivers and settings trying to get Dom 3.17 to work. This sadly forced me out of the 2 MP games I was in at the time :-( while I sorted out a new video card.

I managed to find subs for both my MP games, Micah in this game, and johnarryn in Glory. I was hoping that both subs would be on a temporary basis, as both games were going to be my first real taste of MP :-) so I was eager to play them. It unfortunately took me about 2 weeks to get my computer fixed, which was far longer than I'd hoped for :-( (crappy delivery service at fault)

Once up and running again, I contacted Micah and johnarryn to tell them that I could resume my games :-) But in contacting them, I also gave them the option of continuing the games if they wished to do so. Both of them expressed an interest in continuing to play, so they both then became permanent subs for me in these games. I was happy to let them do this, as I felt it was only fair on them. Since they had both subbed me on turn 2, and all the hard work done in the game so far had been done by them. I had done nothing except design the Pretenders (which might not exactly have been a bonus for them!).

I'm grateful to both Micah and johnarryn for subbing me (thanks again guys!) I guess in an ideal world I would have found subs who had the same ability level as me, so as not to unbalance the game. But this isn't always possible due to time and the nature of subbing itself.

Sorry for all the rambling, but thought I'd give some background on why I needed to be subbed in the first place.

And my apologies to all those Micah is using, and will use, his (considerable) Dominions skill against.

Cal

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Was just curious Calahan. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Would have rather my first game involving Micah had been under other circumstances, but I'm not mad, or going to stop playing because of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Good luck in your other games. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

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Cheers JimM :-)

Just started 2 new MP games, so looking forward to 'finally' getting my Diminions MP gaming underway :-) after several false dawns. (walks round house touching every wooden object in sight)

Up til recently I had the fantastic MP experience of :-

'Glory' - 1 turn then re-start.
'Glory2' - 1 turn then my computer died.
'EndofTime'- 1 Turn then my computer died.
'Huntsgame' - 2 Turns as sub, then server (lch/GP) died.

4 games, 5 turns in total. Can anyone beat that introduction to Dominions MP-ing! :-)

New games running smoothly so far, although I'm finding time is tight at the moment since I'm bloody playing PSI-5 all the time now! :-) (downloaded it from Underdogs and running it on Dosbox)

Fecking Skronts's are doing my head in!

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Well I did try and get his neighbours to stop fighting each other but I seem to remember not all of you were interested http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

I am not very experienced either. But fighting LA Ermor and fighting Micah (or any of the other really good mp players) are two of the experiences of Dom 3 mp you want to have before you retire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif You will learn a lot for later games from doing so. And while it would have been better to have started fighting him a few turns ago it's not too late. Well it might be now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif , but fighting Ermor always has an epic feel to it.

Ermor’s three main neighbours Agartha, Marignon and Jomon should be fighting him now. Or at least preparing to fight him. They certainly shouldn’t be fighting amongst themselves and their enemies should realise that fighting these powers now helps Ermor at least as much as it helps them.

He has been throwing armies of several hundreds at me. But you are likely to face armies in the high hundreds or even in the 1-2 thousand range now. But this isn't something you can avoid. Waiting will mean fighting armies of several thousands later. It just gets worse and worse. Then his SCs and deadly global enchantments will come http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

But fighting Ermor is usually fairly straightforward at this stage. Although often hopeless as you usually get overwhelmed in the end like Pangaea (me) has been in this one. If you don’t know what to do there are guides but in essence try several or all of these:

Build Priests. You want dozens when you take on armies of several hundred undead. Spamming Banishment. So if you haven’t done so already build temples and hire some. Plus the temples will help to keep his killer dom out of your lands. Holy 2 banishment is MUCH better than holy 1, and holy 3 is much better again etc. So if you can recruit high level holy priests at your castles do so! They are worth more than mages vs Ermor usually at this stage unless those Mages have holy magic and are communionable.

So if you are fortunate enough to have communionable mages which have holy magic (e.g. like Pythium) then you can boost your holy magic to much higher levels. But you need to understand how communions work before doing this. There are guides. Because banishment costs no fatigue (except the usual spell caster encumbrance iirc) you don’t commune to spread this out and you want all your mages casting banishment after the communion is set up round 1. Therefore you need the Slaves to be casting before the Masters. Otherwise they don’t cast. The Communion is purely for the holy level boost in this case.

Jomon (in a Communion) and Marignon at least should both be able to cast Flame Arrows and other missile boosters on their armies. Set up a wall of meat shields and have lots of missile troops firing flame arrows at him.

And get some Thugs equipped with area effect damage (not cold though) to cut through the chaff. Charcoal shields should work well.

Astral and death both have decent anti undead spells and because the undead chaff has low hit points but there will be huge numbers of it look for damage spells with big area of effects even if it has low accuracy and low damage. Remember not to try and poison or freeze them though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif His most dangerous chaff is the Cavalry but be careful about targeting it as he may have it guarding commanders at the back and then your archers etc. will start to advance through his infantry chaff to get in range….

Make some supply items! Bags of Wine or Cauldrons of Broth are fairly cheap. Then try and fight in his lands rather than yours. And try and keep your army together. He can handle the attrition much better than you can. You want to kill his armies off with few casualties on your side.

Good Luck! It will be fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

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I'd have to disagree that it's in Agartha's best interest to gear up to fight me when he's getting his head kicked in by Atlantis, who's beating me in the majority of the graphs.

I'm hardly the only threat in the game, especially after the last couple of turns of spiking gold and gem income that Atlantis is pulling in.

If you gang up on me at this point you'll simply be handing the game to Atlantis, as he destroys his weaker neighbors (Agartha) and the rest of the world does him the service of destroying the major threat to his dominance. He'll be gaining rich lands while those fighting me will have nothing but gems to show for their efforts.

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I'll respectfully disagree with my friend Micah here. He is without a doubt the biggest threat. Letting him live would be a very bad idea. And I say this without designs on any of his neighbors, who I either do not border on or am at peace with.

Once Ermor gets beyond a certain point they are very nasty indeed.

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You describe some sort of choice, which is really no choice at all. Atlantis is the strongest of the living, yes, but is also has the most untenable position, stretching across the entire map.

Unfortunately, while you may say that Atlantis will "probably win" if Ermor falls, it can be said with even greater surety that Ermor "absolutely will win" if everyone continues to quibble over pie. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif There is no pie in Ermor, and it is only growing larger daily, this "no pie zone". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Mmmmmm....Pie.

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Oh Micah, what have you done? Slaughtering my poor frog people...all they ever wanted was to return to the sea and now you have brought your unholy blight and your undead legions into the sea. FOR SHAME!

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The no pie zone expands.

The question is, what will the world do? Some look to Filet Marignon, Bringer of Pie for guidance. Yet others pray to heathen gods for forgiveness for whatever terrible sins of theirs has wrought such terror on this unsuspecting world.

Indeed, it would seem that the question is on everyone's lips - "to pie, or not to pie". And in the words of Her Imperial Majesty, the Smokin Hot but Easy on the Eyes Maerie's once beloved hero and prophet Cannelious - "All men pie, but not all men truly live." It would seem he was indeed a seer as well as a prophet, as the unliving AND unpieing legions of Ashen Ermor now threaten Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Pie everywhere.

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Is there cake in Ermor?

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Ermor cannot be stopped by just one or two empires, several of us, all of us (except you Agartha, I'm going to have to kill you) need to band together to fight him. He is sweeping me from the sea and I am powerless to stop him. My Empire is sprawling and mostly indefensible until my troops gradually make their way to the new front. As he spreads through the sea his dominion will turn all our lands to dust while undead horrors sprout from the ground to join the other thousands who will be prepared to march across the world killing at whim.

Those who border Ermor need to act now before it is too late, those who do not border Ermor can support other nations in other ways, by providing gem support or casting ritual spells on Ermor (taking away his gold so that he stops putting up castles/temples would be swell).

Make no mistake, with the majority of my armies in the deep south fighting Agartha I will not be able to hold back this tide. Thousands of undead flood the ocean and face only province defense. Take up arms against Ermor now before it is too late and the decision is made for you!

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I have an abundance of fire and nature gems that I would love to trade for water and death gems.

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Seriously...I've you have water or death gems I want em. Gold, other gems, items, whatever. Send me a message and we'll work something out.

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Hosting time for the next turn has been delayed per Micah's request.

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OK I'm out. I have turned myself to AI.

Congratulations to Micah on beating me.

At least I got to see my God. He lasted one turn http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif but went down surrounded by undead foes with his last loyal servents rather than skulling around in his castle waiting for the end.

Good luck everyone and thanks for the game.

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Well played Hoplo, you proved quite the adversary...not sure how long it would have taken me to get you out of your hole, but the first failed storming attempt certainly set back my plans a touch. Makes for a better game when people play it out, even given the pretty horrid situation you were handed with crappy scales and multiple stales. Cheers.

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Gee Micah, nice scripting on your main army there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Not that it would have changed the results given all other factors, but wow, I can't say that I expected Ermor to have access to Arrow Fend, no one mentions that in the "defeat LA Ermor" suggestions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Also, I thought Fire Cloud would be more effective given the low hps of your troops, what went wrong there? Obviously part of it was your scripting that had a portion of your force move forward as a distraction, but still, I expected better overall results. I fully expect someone will say "you idiot, just spam Banish", but really with the massive MR boosts from your priests, I can't imagine Banish being as effective as fire, which you have no ready access to resistance for.

Anyway, annoying you met my force there like that..... The intent was to establish a beachhead, and have high PD there by the time you arrived, and hold the position while I prepared the real force.



ANYWAY, I will ask again in the open forum now, since I can't seem to get anywhere privately - can ANYONE make Marignon some supply items? I can trade for them, whatever, but if I don't get them, I can't even hope to advance into Ermor dominion, and therefor I have already lost this war. Erego, you have all already lost the game anyway. So, I guess what it comes down to is, send Marignon supply items, or just declare Micah the winner so the silliness ends. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif I for one want to keep fighting, but it's not a war if all I can do is defend, it's just refusing to accept reality. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Think I had about 20 PD there, so 80 troops' worth (the ones in front, of course) which will explain why the fire spells didn't do much damage in terms of actual casualties in the battle report.

Also, I can make you some supply items, what's it worth to you? =)

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The Ermorian nation would like to thank the leaders of Jomon. Their folly in declining our offers of peace has been matched only by the gross ineptitude which they have shown on the field of battle. We in Ermor had feared that they might have been more than a minor annoyance when we offered them terms for peace, but in truth they have merely proven to be a rich source of gold and gems for our glorious nation.

Truly, we of Ermor are in your debt.

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Your time will come.

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Brave words considering your prophet was last seen scurrying away from a battle in which you lost more of your living than we did of our dead. And he should be glad he managed to save his own skin, his fellow priests were not so lucky.

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I am greatly amused by the apparent lack of support that Atlantis and I are receiving from the other surviving nations.

It's probably too late already guys, hope you're all having fun out in your little la-la land where teeming hordes of rotting dead are not about to spill over the nearest hillside and eat your still twitching flesh.

O.O

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Well, Pythium made an attempt to help, he even killed 200 of my troops before losing something like 18 hydras and over 10 commanders. Very valiant. Not very effective. I had even given him a hint by telling him that skeletons are immune to poison.

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Well, that was sweet of him to at least put forth the effort. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Now if only I could get him to put forth some gold and maybe some supply items into my mailbox. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Marignon has an odd position..... Incredible casting ability, tailor made to be the bane of undead - and no native ability to sustain any sort of troop movement in Ermor dominion.

Sweet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

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Well, you can't have EVERYTHING, now can you? =)

Bad luck finding some indy shaman I suppose...I can usually snag at least one prov with them, even LA, but there have been games that I couldn't find any. Generally the games I really needed them in.

Anyhow, what's with the host delay? Did Revolution need an extension? I want to get on with the killing.

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Just popping in here to say... it looks like the end of time is now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Hmm, I'm gonna go ahead and float the idea of a concession at this point, since the micro's getting to be a bit much (ah, Ermor...) and things are looking like a pretty sure win for me. I'll keep killing if need be, of course, just thought I'd ask.

Also, judging by the graphs it's looking like Atlantis might be eating Pythium, which could explain why you're not getting much in the way of aid out of them. =)