Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Greetings,
I wish to study the ways of nature, and perhaps gain a better understanding on it's dwellers, the Panii. I wish to trade give water or death gems in exchange for NATURE gems. I would buy nature gems for gold too. Thanks a lot for your interest, and please private message or e-mail me. You offer the price!!!

I think the last events that lead to the attack of my port by the Kingdom of Pangaea from an another continent where part of a missunderstanding. I state again to the world and to the panii, that I do NOT wish war with them. "My numbers were drastically depleted", as Pangaea's king (or thane or warchief or despot... ) said earlier. I bring the world of peace to their capital with 3 chosen priests (who made their name know in the field of negociations and peace making). Their escort will consist only a few servants, not more then a few giants and a handfull amazon horseman to lead the way in the lands, since my giants tend to loose the road in those lands. I hope you will not attack them, and our peace negotiations can start.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Neifelheim indeed attacked our province and took it from us. They have told that army was only escorting their diplomat to Pangaean land. Everyone can believe if they will.

Now we have settled things with Neifelheim again to a such degree that we dont have to open hotilities against them. As their diplomatic convoy advanced - we took the province Eldercate back to our hands. But still we do declare now that all non agression pacts we have must be nullified as this world seems to be too full of greedy opportunists that Vanheim must take preventive actions against any such a foe that might even thing of attacking us in the future!

-Jörund, prophet of the True God

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I will send 25 death gems to Pangaea this turn, and after the 50 nature gems have arrived I will send the remaining 25. I hope you will honour trade. Until we are officially in peace I will not cease fire, and not stop the war effort. If you are ready to negociate the terms of peace, don't hesitate to send me a message.

To Vanheim... I'm sorry, that you don't trust me any more. I told you (and everyone else) that the convoy NOT intended to stay on your lands, and it was meant only as a peacekeeping force in the Niefel-Pan border. In the other hand I hope that your sneaking troups are not in my lands preparing for an attack. If that's the case, then I wish you a fair fight and hounourable death. I declare that the alliance with Vanheim is invalid, but we are not in war.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Just checking in on the games to make sure everything is going smoothly. Glad to see that war is raging across the face of the world. As it should be http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Carry on.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

OOC

to WszaboPeter, give me a break. I am going to send 25 nature gems to compensate for the death gems, but I refuse to flatter you or any other cheese ball *heim build with negotiations, because that would insenuate there was more cunning to your playstyles than "Build sacred units, build 1 commander, wipe out 10 times your number". 357 varied units versus 33 of one unit type?


I tested the multiplayer waters and it was too cold for my liking. Maybe I will try again when the Balance mod comes out. I WILL finish this game out, so don't worry about stale turns.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

All this talk about the Heims has got me curious. I hope i survive long enough to be crushed by them. I would like to see what the hubub is all about.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I think it is possible to beat them, but I think it will require MASSED damage casters (Which my nation lacks) and upper end summons with solid morale (Still a bit early in the game for that).

Its a bit early for me to do a Post Mortem of this game, but I made a few mistakes when dealing with the *heims. But I honestly do not feel if these mistakes were rectified, I would have stood much of a chance. I could have shaped my nation from the start to deal with double bless heims and I think I would still be in the exact same situation I am facing at the moment.

I am not mad at all, I don't blame these players for choosing strategies that are known game winners, rather than rolling the dice with their own strategies. Lack of originality is hardly an offence in online games, especially when your primary focus is winning at all costs. Some veterans talk about how you can beat them with this and this, if that were the case, most nations would be built in that fashion and the heims would be a non issue.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

The hubub about the EA 'heims is pretty simple, they have very powerful (multiple attacks, glamour, high defence, berserk/mounted, good other stats) sacred troops (regular for van, flying or mounted for hel), access to good earth magic (and therefore bladewind, the EA army destroyed), access to very strong commanders who can be easily made into thugs (can cast air buffs, only missing foot slots, great stats ect) and, of course, they have amazing regular troops because, almost all of their units have above average stats and glamour (therefore they are extremely hard to hit and have stealth+25).

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I actually investigated the power of the Helheim bless strategy last night and I do have to admit that it is overpowered in dom3. Not massively so but still, overpowered. I did find several counters that I felt would work very well against a strategy of this kind but I would not expect a new player to come up with them when a Heim army was knocking at thier door.

That said, I think it would be premature to give up on this game, or MP games in the near future. First because bless strategies run out of steam as the game goes on. And second because, in the next newbie game I host I believe I will just make it a house rule that the Heims are not allowed to use a bless strategy. Or just not allow those nations in the game at all.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

It definitely is possible to beat a 'heim bless but to do so you have to devote your nation just to doing that. So, if you prepare for the bless, you will lose, because other nations will outgrow you or out-research you; if you don't prepare, you will lose, because you will get overrun by the bless-heims. I won't guarantee every nation has a good defense against them, but all the few that I've looked at so far do.

Basically I think Glamour is just too good to have on a recruitable unit, and the defense 19 on the Helhirdings is pretty huge. Normal troops will simply not hit them. You *must* use magic. Neifelheim bless works a little differently, of course.

One of the things that makes Heim blesses so strong is the relative lack of constraint on the Holy resource. Compare a Helhirding or Vanhere to a C'Tis serpent dancer or sacred serpent. The bless is the same, and C'tis has plenty of priests, but you are just not going to make the bulk of your army out of sacreds with C'Tis because you will not have enough holy points. With the heims, and their high-quality, high-cost sacreds, you can make almost your entire army sacred.

I do think the 'heims are a little too strong but they are obviously not the only way you can build a strong nation, Tien Chi is dominating this game magically for instance. But then, they were also fortunate enough to not have a starting position right next to a bless rusher.