Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

When you call your god back there is a decent chance that some of the afflictions won't be there. Most times with 4 afflictions at death it will come back with 2 with a "call god". So, if you are lucky you may come back healed of the nastiest of the afflictions. And you may need the luck. With your awake god dead You are vulnerable to being rushed by an aggresive neighbor...

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

The Great Old Man King of Agartha was sad to hear that one of his old war buddies was killed. He wasn't entirely sure who he was sad for, but he told the public relations committee to send our deepest sympathies.

*Patpat* There, there.

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Hmmm...well, thanks Agartha! And thanks for the help Rytek...

I am now diseased, the effect of which seems to be to generate further afflictions (I figure losing 2hp per turn isn't a big deal in an SC, particularly in his own dominion.

Is diseased also an afflication? Will he come back diseased?

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

Yes, its an affliction. Disease is probably one of the ones you would hope would be gone when your pretender returned.

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Ah, disease. The people of Agartha know it well. Our Prophet is diseased. He frequents the bars a bit too often, we think. But the Old Man King would like to point out that it's not an age thing. He can still whomp on little whippersnappers.

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

Still looking for that ring of water breathing. The people of Bogarus are skilled in construction if you want something made in return.

Jazzepi

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The very great and wise Old Man King spoke to his small cultist country of Agartha this day. It was slightly after 2 in the afternoon, as that's when most of the population would be up after the nation-wide kegger they'd thrown in celebration of the defeat of the archer-ridden provinces of the north.

He told them, "the Silent Fish peoples creep ever closer to our borders, and if we aren't vigilant, it'll be like the great tomato famine of aught 4!"

The people of Agartha, unnerved by this, demanded to know what was to be done.

The Old Man King, in all his infinite wisdom, responded that, "a bicycle won't get you through them pearly gates."

It was then the people of Agartha knew fear.

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

Hah, nice bless Mictlan.

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What can I say, I'm a sucker for the classics :D

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The Old Man King seeks advice from the other pretenders of the world. His vast armies of blind men with sticks were thwarted by huge hordes of barbarians with heavy/light infantry and crossbows.

This setback has made his plans of a trampoline garden fizzle. He was most irritable and demanded that the entire army intelligence division to be flogged. In the interest of preventing more innocent blind men and women from being flogged -- what exactly would YOU do when confronted by 60/70 of those ruffians? They're scallawags, even!

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The Mageocracy of Caelum wouldn't care for such a pesky amount of little humans. Strike them down with thunder! Let the raptors descent upon them! Crush them beneath the wooly feet of mammoths! Make an impression that doesn't leave them second-guessing who's the rightful owner of the province.

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Thunder mammoths you say? Of course! The Agarthan people will always remember your kindness, even if the Old Man King forgets. The blind stick-bearers will start breeding exploding mammoths immediately.

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On this day of winter, the Angakut went to walk upon the frozen coast, and there they found a spirit. A great spirit, now bereft of a home. And the Angakut knew both joy and sorrow. Joy, for this spirit no longer stood against the lord of ice and bones. Sorrow, for their cousins of lost Atlantis had followed this spirit, and the Angakut were now the last of their kind.

A mighty sacrifice was prepared to propitiate this fallen spirit. A hundred seals were slain, their blood and entrails burned upon altars of stone, that the smoke might guide the spirit to its final rest. A hundred skulls were set upon the coast, that the ice would bind them together into a tomb for this great spirit. The first barrow was raised upon the coast of ice and bone, and the name inscribed thereon was Dwr Serol.

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Um,I didn't think that would work. Starting next to a S9,F9,W9 Mictlan is probably every Patala's player nightmare. Jaguar warriors are fierce indeed with a blessing like that.

Beware the words of the tiny markata chittering the praise of our lord Rytek. Or the slithering tounges of transformed Naga mage/priests whispering about the coming of the lord Rytek.

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Looks like it's game over for Mictlan. Despite the best efforts of my heroic priests, there just wasn't enough enthusiastic volunteers queuing up to have their blood spilt in the name of Dwr Serol.

Possibly a lucky escape for the wee monkeys I think :-) As it was certainly a brave move by them to initiate a war against a rampant jag warrior army. But fortune certainly favoured the brave on this occasion :-) and if starting next door to tripled blessed jags is LA Patala's version of a nightmare start, then starting next to two awake Dom10 pretender's is certainly LA Mictlan's idea of double a nightmare!

I'm actually at somewhat of a loss to know how I could have avoided the dom-kill to be honest. I was sacrificing constantly from turn 2, and blood hunting from turn 6. I had one faith decreasing event, not in my capital, but it rubbed out a white candle none the less. Also lucked out on my first two blood hunting turns, which didn't help. Actually had a haul of 7 slaves arriving at my capital this turn, which would probably have saved the day. A classic case of a turn too late if ever there was one :-)

Maybe the neighbours I was given really was just a case of really bad luck, since there's no way the 1 slave income my capital gives stood a chance of being enough to hold their dominion out. I could of course have taken an awake pretender to trigger more temple checks, but then that does seriously defeat the point of playing LA Mictlan in the first place. I even held a VP province for 5 turns, which is supposed to act as a Dom5 temple. But I didn't get a squeak out of it at all, so I have major doubts that VP provinces work for EA/LA Mictlan like they do for all the other nations. If anyone has any advice on how I could have avoided (as I see it) the inevitable dom-kill from my starting location, then I'd love to hear it for any future LA Mictlan games I play. (EA Mictlan would probably have been fine in a similar start-up due to the 3 blood slave capital income)

I'll finish by wishing everyone the best of luck. Hope you enjoy the rest of the game, and many apologies if Mictlan's sudden demise causes any big unbalancing issues with regards the nation who takes up my previous home :-)

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Well, I had my Pfofet sitting at your capitol on turn 4 or 5 although I did not preach at that point. On turn 3 as I saw it was Mictlan who bordered me with a weak dominion I slipped a few of my steathy priest your way as well,just in case. The turn you eliminated Hectors Heavy horse, I realized that there was no way to beat you militarily. Either now, or midgame you would have had your way with the monkeys. My one and only advice would have been to open negotiations with me the turn you killed my mercs and tried to get some time to build your dominion. If you had offered me an iron clad NAP and the province that we blundered into each other I would have accepted and moved my profet out. That province is only 2 turns from my capitol and you should have realized your presence there with a bless like that would have put me on the defensive. As I saw it, you bypassed 2 other neutral territories closer to your home to take a closer to my capitol province. I too had my choice of 3 provinces, 1 closer to your capital which was doable, the blooddruid province which was doable with the mercs but would have left them doubtful on turn 3 for another province. And the province I chose which was closer to my capitol.

Oh, and one other thing. I was following your post asking weather a victory province acted like a temple, so I knew you were worried about dominion.

I think you really did get an unlucky start. Starting next to 2 awake high dominion pretenders. And one of them with a +50 stealth profet sitting in your capitol by turn 5. Not much you could have done with the build and position you had. And I agree that I got away by the narrowest of margins.

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Thanks for the AAR and feedback Rytek. Very much appreciated, and it certainly helped explain a thing or two. I should have paid more attention to those turn 2 prophet announcements!

This was also my first ever game as EA/LA Mictlan so had no idea if the lack of dominion spread was 'normal' or not. Knew LA Mictlan's dominion would be bad early on, but no idea how bad. And I was also somewhat relying on the VP province I picked up to hold my dominion over until the slaves came in. Will do some major testing regarding that at some point (will post my results)

With hindsight I should definitely have contacted you about diplomacy. I wasn't actually intending to fight you to be honest, which is why I moved away from your capital instead of towards it. When I clashed with your mercs, I only took that province since it seemed the most reliable to capture with just a handful of troops (still very much learning just how big a force is needed to conquer certain Indy's)

Although to be honest diplomacy is the one area of Dominions that is doing my head in with MP games. Most of my games are turning out to have less to do with strategy, tactics, skill etc. ie. the things a game should be decided on, and far more to do with how sweet tongued you can be. I personally think that far too much diplomacy goes on in MP games, especially considering the whole "there can be only one" nature of the game itself. But if you don't do diplomacy, you will lose to those who do. Think I might limit myself solely to RAND games in the future, where diplomacy and communicating is banned. Be interested to see how some players cope in that environment.

But thanks again for the lesson Rytek :-) much has been learned. Certainly look forward to playing in future games with you (and all the other players in this game of course)

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Yeah, bad luck Calahan. One of the things I wanted in setting up this game for new players was that it would have open discussion of rules, how things work etc (how we lose!). And the fact that there are a couple of more experience players involved is actually adding a lot to that experience.

For the record, you were desperately unlucky that one of those Dominion 10 neighbours didn't send his Dominion 10 (actually 9) super combatant pretender to attack some lizards in a swamp...

Interesting comments about Diplomacy Calahan. To be honest, I've found that every time I've taken a strong bless it's lead to unfriendly neighbours. In the book I Claudius, the Emperor Claudius maintain good relations with many people simply by seeming innocuous....

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Diplomacy. True. But even in the movie,"Highlander" they had negotiated truces and friends. You must think of diplomacy as being another "tactic" to use.

Even in a Rand game you will need to use diplomacy. It will just be harder to do. You admit that you were trying to show me that you did not want to fight me by pulling back. In a Rand game you will be hoping the other player is savvy enough to read what you are trying to tell him. It is either that or to war with every neighbor you come in contact with. And I am a savvy player and would have realized that is what you intended. But it would have been as you say, a case of being 1 turn too late, if I had waited and instead you had pressed the attack. I would have been in a bad situation with you parked next to my capitol.

In a multiplayer game like dominions, diplomacy must always be in your bag of tricks. And don't forget stealth and scouting. Many players disregard them until it is too late.

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Sorry to hear about you getting snuffed out of existence like that. I think the blind peoples of Agartha would be really irate if they suddenly ceased to exist. :x

About the diplomacy, I think seeming innocuous is better than seeming nonthreatening. If you act like you'd be an easy target, you're probably inviting different people to attack you than you would if you seemed to be a powerhouse. I think the diplomacy bit is what makes it so much more interesting than SP. It sort of makes it that even when you can't really impact the game with your troops (because indies destroy you and you remain a tiny country forever...) you can still remain a player through diplomacy.

Or maybe that's wishful thinking. *Grins*

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I'm a bit confused about this game. I just got back from holiday to find it "Waiting for pretenders", but a bit screwed up by a bug that reared its head while I was away. Anyway, I fixed the screwup, but accidentally started the game too. Sorry about that. You can always "restart" it (which returns it to the "Waiting for pretenders" state).

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Oh, I see there's an Archaean2 as well. Interesting. Probably Archaean had been abandoned then. You may want to "Declare game finished" on it.

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Okay, I killed the newly started but erroneous game "Archaean". Please continue about your business!

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Thanks Llamabest! Was going to point out the bug to you but I saw that it was fixed.

On the topic of bugs - the status page for this game is a bit wacky right now - waiting for lots of different armies that aren't in the game (and of ages that aren't in this game either!). No hurry!

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

Umm...everyone, I've sent in my latest turn, for this and another game, and they haven't hosted. Not sure what's going on, but I may delay hosting if we approach the auto-host time.

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

Send Llamabeast an e-mail.

Jazzepi

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Think it's time for me to call it quits on this game guys. With my pretender falling prey to lizards early on I was way behind anyway, but my turn just staled (the email was sent, but no biggie - like I say I was a long shot anyway) and it was a really crucial one. There's just no way back after losing three provinces when you only have like 8 anyway. Do let me know how the battle between out pretenders goes midgard.

Can I get a volunteer to take over the admin of the game? All you need to do is occasionally delay hosting if people need it. Post here or PM me and I'll send the password.

Well, it was fun while it lasted - good luck everyone! For the record it was also evidence of just how ridiculously easy it is to set up and run a game using llamaserver - I encourage others to do the same.

See you all in another game no doubt!

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Ok guys... No volunteers yet. In my mind the admin thing can easily be a group exercise - if no one volunteers within a few days I'll just post the password here and that way anyone can take care of delaying hosting.

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I'll take over if you can't find anyone.

Also, the forges of Bogarus are still open. Need something forged? We've got level 4 construction.

We're also looking for some items. Specifically rainbow armor and the +4 reinvig boots.

Jazzepi

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The Old Man King of Agartha, after witnessing his strategy's failings, has decided to step down from his throne. Well, figuratively. He couldn't step down from it now anyway, since it's currently occupied by the big, smelly fishie butts of Atlantis!

Woe to our mages. Woe to our umbrals. Woe to the sizzling hamsters we created as we tried to breed exploding mammoths. Woe to the chaff archers we used.

Woe.

Incidentally, The Old Man King has donned his cheerleader's outfit and is currently rooting for Caelum. Rah to the thunder mammoths! Rah to the eagle people!

Rah!

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Bad luck Agartha. The old man was a great entertainer at least!

I'm personally rooting for Patala at this point - go Patala! Beat that Midgard a@@!!!

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The next few turns may be the most critical in this game.

LA Pangaea has dissolved our NAP though it matters little since he is already launching aggressive actions against our nation 3 turns before the NAP has ended.

That being said, if Evil Homer wins this war, the rest of the nations in this game have an uphill battle ahead of them.

Evil Homer will control virtually the entire southern continent with the exception of a few fringe provinces held by Atlantis and Patala. He will control 3 capitals and be in a perfect position to strike against the northern nations.

I would imagine he has signed NAPs with his neighbors in preparation for this war, but I implore you to dissolve these NAPs and attack him before he has too strong of a position in this game considering his MP experience in relation to the rest of us. If you feel bound by honor or loath to end a NAP signed so soon, keep in mind that he has 0 respect for NAPs ending ours a mere turn after it was signed and moving stealthed border armies into our provinces before the NAP has ended.

Death to the dishonorable.

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Pangea needs to be set to AI. They've staled the last like 9 turns or something.

Jazzepi

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Bogarus would like to purchase the following.

3-4x Dwarven hammers
1x Crystal coin

We have high level construction, and plenty of gems. Can trade gems or items of your choice.

Jazzepi

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Damn those werewolves are tough. I underestimated them. I hate it when casters don't follow script. Not sure why foul vapors wasnt cast. And not sure why the Sidda spammed paralyze when I told it to do thunderstrike.

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I'll play if someone drops out....you can PM me and I will be checking the this game forum:D

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sorry thought you where restarting:doh:

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/shrug

My volva's think it is very important to cast body ethereal, so I know what you mean ;). I am pretty shocked with FOTA up you don't have more enemies :)

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Because I am obviously terrible as shown by the last turn. No need to worry.

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So, here we have it. The largest nation in the game and the second largest nation(Atlantis and Midgard) have reformed their unholy alliance. After feasting upon the corpse that is Pangea (they did not even have to deal with an AI as Pangea has staled for the past dozen turns) Atlantis now turns his hungry eyes upon the lands of Patala. What will the other nations do when Atlantis and Midgard have gobbled our lands and then their alliance turns their eye upon them. Shall we be gobbled up 1 by 1 by their alliance?

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You have 3 enchantments up including the Forge. A slew of thugs and supercombatants decked out in unique gear. I am pretty sure your cries may fall on deaf ears ;).

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If that were true I would be the one taking land, and killing armies. Not the other way around. Thugs and SC's don't fare well against the equivelent of 250 Super blessed magic wielding sacreds that Atlantis has invading.

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If you guys help Rytek, your supporting the same policies that have been in place for the past 8 years. A vote for Atlantis/Midgard is a vote for change, and more importantly, a vote for the common militiaman instead of the SCs on Wall Street.

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I am not asking the others to help me. Rather, I am asking them to help their selves. Now is the time for the other pretenders to grab a slice of Atlantis or Midgard. While Patala hosts Atlantis and Midgards armies the only thing that may happend is that I beat them off and defend my lands. I hardly have the resources to fight a 2 front war against 2 larger opponents and still build up. On the other hand, if I lose the war Atlantis will have grabbed the lions share of my lands and then who will be strong enough to oppose him?

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Alternately, we of Atlantis propose that now is a good time for other nations to take a piece of Patala. Left alone for too long, Patala has amassed a powerful collection of enchantments. It's only a matter of time before they raise an Arcane Nexus, and then all other nations are in dire threat. It was this conclusion that led us to declare war in the first place.

Further, while we admittedly control more territory than Patala, we cannot match their gem income or research, and it's those, rather than easily claimed territories, that will win the prize.

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Patala's Worm is highly incapable of casting an arcane nexus. Furthermore, my best recruitable mage is S2 and my best summons is S3 with 1 misc slot. Hardly a threat to building an S9 mage anytime soon,especially fighting a 2 front war against larger enemies. Atlantis on the other hand has a natural S9 pretender capable of casting it right now.

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My apologies for staling. I got called in to work today and missed turns on two different games /cries

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No one else cares that Patala has Tarts?

Several nations border Patala. Forge is up. He is mere turns away from throwing up Arcane Nexus. Are you guys content with keeping peace with his nation for now so you can lose last?

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Jazzepi, can you delay hosting? I see you are online here. Only 3 hours left and I don't want Atlantis to stale. Add 24hrs for him please. And maybe we should move to a 48hr turn?

Re: Archaean - New LA Game - Upload pretenders
 

No worries on my account. Just had a long day. Though I have to admit I wouldn't mind going to 48hrs. I'm finding a lot to cover each turn.