Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Fantomen will be subbing for me. I will provide her e-mail address on the 15th or 16th.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Great! Thanks Immaculate for arranging and thanks Fantomen for subbing!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Holey, stealing a minor province without land connection in the turn the NAP is accepted and then renouncing me after *you* convinced me to attack Pan (and staying off the war yourself) is reason enough to attack you. Especially after your demanding and absolutly unfitting message the turn after.

I didnt break a NAP since... 2010?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Drunk?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Vagr- you should have Fantomen's e-mail address; i PMed you.

Say something if you don't.

i.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Fantomen, you should receive turn 46 for Atlantis soon.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

thanks.

and Ossa- our babies seem to be just fine after all... despite your alpha strike.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Odeoderok needs a postponement, 24 h added to the timer.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I've recieved the turn and should have time to update myself tonight. I should be ok with the timer but an extra day just to make sure wouldn't hurt. Immac has updated me on the wars I'm in etc.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

@Immaculate :
It might be the case that I underestimated your thugs by some degree;)

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I've postponed the hosting by 24h just in case.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

So turn is finally in. Now I'll be up to speed.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I am back. Fanto- we should talk tonight.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Ok, send me your email and I'll change it back. I've added 24 h to the timer, say if you need more.

Fantomen, thanks for subbing!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

You should have the turn any minute now. I've postponed by 48 h as requested.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Ossa, Odeorock,

We need to talk. And we need to stop fighting among ourselves (this is more for Ossa than Odeorock obviously) and turn our attention on Abysia.

Can we meet on gamesurge chat?

Follow this link:
https://gamesurge.net/chat/

and type "/join #dominions"
without the quotation marks.

Then look for me and write my name. It will make a 'bing' sound for me and i will know you are available to coordinate with.

Thanks... we can't let abysia run away with this. That would be very poor sportsmanship of us indeed. He is very near the point where we will be able to resist him but ultimately not stop him. There is a certain point where if we work together we can still stop him. Beyond that point its a mopping up operation. Lets make him earn this and give him a sound thrashing.

See you on the 'chat'.

I.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Marignon, your people are known as the Conquerors of the Sea. It is your destiny to triumph over Atlantis and establish successful fish soup companies in the process. We promised support and kept that promise.

T'ien Ch'i, you basically wrote the book on the Art of War. So please don't let yourself be fooled by the sweet talks of the fishlords. You've seen what they are capable of and you know where the increase in our magic resources came from. And without our intervention, where would the balance of strength be now?

At all; let it be known that Abysia is not greedy. At this point we are only interested in the lands of Ulm and the process of annexing them is almost over. It is in Atlantis' interests to portray Abysia as the run away empire but if that was accurate we would not bother negotiating. As it is, this 'sound thrashing' seems an overkill and makes one wonder who will benefit the most of it?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Help! We're being Oppressed!

(Ulm)

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

The Abysian diplomat speaks falsehoods- already they have moved beyond the lands that were historically Ulmish into the heart of the Atlantean nation. Their words are falsehoods. Except these:

I do not believe they have reached that point where they can no longer be stopped. They have not tilted the balance in favor of 'run away empire' quite yet. They are very nearly there and if you sit idly by they will be but at the moment they can still be stopped. If you strive for godhood you must act against them now.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

The high lord of Marignon have looked into our holy fires and divined that the Abysian diplomat speaks the truth. We shall put the fishmen in their place (our oven in this case) - especially as it was a threat from Atlantis that started this war!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Hmm.. Are you sure? I could have sworn that 77 and the provinces immediately north - east of it were Ulm's originally. Perhaps I'm mistaken. Not saying it would have changed the plans, the original ownership was beside the point really. Just wanted to localise my goal for the Atlantian expedition.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I won't be able to play this game after December 15th. I am currently looking for a sub.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Sorry to hear that. RL of course takes priority. I hope everything is ok!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I havn't found a sub; do you want me to go AI? If not, please feel free to change the e-mail address of the turn to someone else.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Let's see if we can get a sub still. Marignon and you should be able judge the position most accurately but I take it you have large armies of good quality and plenty of the Angakok-thugs left.

Can you get the current turn in? And don't worry about it, we'll sort it out somehow. You've done an exemplary job of taking care of you own play breaks/ sub findings.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I may be able to get my current turn in. I won't set myself to AI if i do.

And thank-you.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Heads up everyone. I've delayed the hosting until Atlantis is resolved. I've got couple of possible sub candidates so don't lose hope!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Howdi.
Im playing Atlantis now. If someone could tell me about the relationship between Aby and Atlantis and TC and Atlantis, that would be great.
In addition, i need some gems. Does anyone feel like trading with me in general ?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Thanks Ragnarok-X!

I've PMed you my view of the situation. You could try contacting Immaculate as well. As I said it's been somewhat like a Marignon-Abysia vs Atlantis-TC recently. I've got my hands full with TC and should not bother you but will defend the borders naturally.


Againg thanks for subbing and let us know if you need more time for the turn.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

My war with TC has turned heavily in my favor, they've lost most of the troops and mages. I've also built up armies and thug squads similar to those now in TC at Marignon's and Atlantis' borders.

I've heard both Marignon and TC and it seems that people are willing to concede. So what do you think? A last push from all of you or shall we call it a game?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

That is interesting. Marignon did actually agree to forfeiting the game, is that correct ?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

If the game gets called i would like to hear about Vagr's game. What was with your army graph for example? What were your research goals and in what order? Expansion policy?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I'd agree to concede this game to Abyssia. I wouldnt stand a fighting chance either.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Ok. So I assume that we can finish the game then. I'll close it tomorrow unless there's a last minute change of heart.

Thanks everyone for the game! All in all a very easy game for the admin, subs were found quickly and not too much staling etc.

I'll try to answer this with a short recap later. Also some feedback on the elemental royalties.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Hm. I only played like 4 or 5 turns. Damn.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

Yeah, good game, thanks to everyone. I read in a strategy guide that sloth 3 could be good for LA T'ien C'hi. Well, it wasn't. Less than 100 resources in the capital with holys costing 31 res each was not good. It also didn't help that my first expansion army was killed by indies.

So considering all that, I did better than I expected, although I never had a snowball's chance in hell against vargr. Thanks for the game!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I think Marrignon decided the game by not attacking Abysia. Am i wrong?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - running
 

I guess most of the advantage in teaming up was already lost. The majority of my forces in TC were released from that war and now ready to move on and support those dedicated for Marignon. Only few turns away from Marignon heart lands.

Odeoderok, I agree completely. You rallied admirably after a miserable start and then went on to beat Mictlan and grow into a contender for the late game. It was inspiring to watch!

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - finished - Abysia wins
 

As requested, here's a summary of my game:

My pretender was Conqueror Worm, the Green Dragon. Dom 9, growth scales. Dragon for fast expansion, year one rush deterrent and to free money for research and early forts. High dominion for spreading the joy of warm weather to my enemies and advantage on the battlefield. I didn't aim for a domkill victory but I did quite a lot of blood sac anyway, and unless I'm mistaken, Ulm was technically domkilled. Nature dragon to diversify into high level nature and later air magic. As for scales, I still can't play any game without G3. The 0.3% / tick is just that good. Doubly so with a blood nation and then there's the old age thing.

Early reasearch was basic Evoc, Blood and Conj (battle magic, Smoulderghosts). Thau 4 (Prison of Fire) quite early as well. Then Const 6 (boosters) and I squeezed Ench 6 (Eternal Pyre) and Blood 6-7 soon after. Few turns to Conj 6 (Zmeys, Spectres), then switched to Const 8 and back again for Conj 8. Normally I would put priority on Blood but as I said in the OP, I wanted to test the new elemental uniques. So Blood 8-9 came late, but I got Gorilon the heliophagus (for vampires) on the first try and actually all the Demon Lords in the end. Pazuzu gave me the Air Queens so I didn't need much of the Faerie Courts. For the end game, Evoc 7 (Fire Storm), Alt 7-8 (Fog Warriors, Will of the Fates, Disintegrate), Conj 9 (Ember Lords) and Ench 8.

Throughout the game, the bulk of my troops was mixed squads of Smoulderghosts and Light Abysian Infantries. Both relatively cheap, easy to mass, FR100 and map move 2. The tower shield / ethereal is nice and the Smoulderghosts buff overall morale. Indy crossbowmen and heavy cavalry were used as well. Later on I had several hundred vampires. I used them as patrollers and counter riders in own dominion. I like vampires, especially the lords: immortal, Life for a Life, Disintegrate, stealthy, flying.. I had some sea troll courts, living statues, dark vines etc as well but those in smaller numbers. Decoys and such.

I summoned the following elemental royalty: Pyriphlogos, Rhuax, Antrax, Nephele, Thuella and Pedoseidon. At least in this game the CBM buffs worked well. Pyriphlogos is awesome with the F8 battlemagic, Rhuax with automatic Heat from Hell especially for Abysia. Mists of Deception (Nephele) and obviously auto-Storm (Aella) should work well for air nations. Didn’t get to use Thuella’s thunder weapon or fight against the Earth Kings/Water Queens.

Zmeys continue to be very good. They do ask for a reinvig item in prolonged fights now but other than that, pretty badass summons still.

Early expansion went well as expected. My neighbors were Bogarus, Ulm and TC. I feared Bogarus the most for their good diversity and research so I decided to attack them while I was still bigger. Marignon actually raided some of my coastal provinces around that time (damn sailors!) but that was resolved with the courage of my infantry and the silver tongue of my diplomats. I got them as an ally in the end but still had to bear the brunt of Bogarus forces. Special mention to Bullock who nearly trampled me with a 30+ mage communion. The decisive battle was actually fought at my capital!

TC fought Mictlan and Marignon attacked Atlantis. I used the opportunity to invade Ulm but I did promise support for Marignon and kept that promise to consolidate good relations later. Atlantis suggested I attack Marignon instead. While I agree on Immac’s assesment of Marignon's late game power, I think I made the right decision: I didn't want to be in the finals with a water nation, I didn’t want to deal with the possible Burden of Time, and I estimated that with this setup both Marignon and Atlantis would be locked in an exhausting war longer than me. Of course Ulm with the freespawn hordes was a pain to root out and I spent far too much time sieging their cap, but as I hoped, the Atlantis-Marignon and TC-Mictlan wars lasted long enough for me to be ready for the next war.

By the time TC declared war, Marignon was still busy with Atlantis and I was more than ready to attack TC anyway. In the end I had about 200 blood slaves / turn without pushing it or hurting gold income (did I say growth is good), ability to summon and kit a Zmey / Ember Lord per/turn while still accumulating F gems and access to many of the high level A/N/E/S buffs for several armies. TC fought well but I just had way too much of everything. So yes, in retrospect, maybe I should have been ganked earlier but I didn't honestly realize this myself either until in the very last couple of turns.

Again, thanks everyone for the game! I hope you enjoyed it and looking forward to seeing you in other games.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - finished - Abysia wins
 

How did you establish your death gem income for the smoulderghosts, site-searching?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - finished - Abysia wins
 

As soon as a D2 Anathemant was hired, I put him to manual site search duty indefinitely. And when I had some initial income I did pretty thorough remote searches in all paths available. My D income was actually quite good early on, that must have influenced my troop strategy as well. Much worse luck with astral, earth and nature.

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - finished - Abysia wins
 

You broke into earth?

Re: Rock and a Hard Place - LA game - finished - Abysia wins
 

The Warlocks have a earth random. I got the Pebble Skin Suit, then Bloodstone and lucked into a E2 Spectre. Later on I had Belphegor and Pedoseidon.

But there just weren't many earth sites in my lands so I never did much else than some minor forging. Girdles, Crystal Shields etc.

Gem diversity of course improved with conquest. :) In the end I had enough air as well for battles, items and domes.