Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Speaking of which; Zooko, Cohen, are those army-graphs like an open invitation or what?

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

OK, it now says 139 hrs to host.

What's going on here? I'm sorry, but no how busy our host is, I think its reasonable to ask for Graeme (yes, you, if you're actually reading this) that he could take 2 mins to say "gee guys, I'm swamped - I'm putting the game on hold for the next 5 days". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

The game is now back up and running normally. I've been away from home for the past 4 days.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

if pyth and machak get in their turns, we could get this show back on the road

:-)

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

server down

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Is the server working properly now?

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Looks good to me. Pythium alone hasn't made his turn. 48 hours until next hosting.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

48 hrs again? darn. its already been 48 since it Last hosted.

/me twiddles his thumbs

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Woot! new turn.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

wtf!!!

that was a forced stale!

i'm outta here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

was it forced or had you tried to connect, thus uploading an incomplete turn?

anyways, w/ machaka seiging your capital, and me having just killed your SC pretender, I could see there not being much future for the pyth.

still, you could put up a fight - Pythium gets a one turn recall god from it's theurgs. All he needed was some kit.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

It was a forced stale. I had not even attempted to connect since prior to the time where you had noted that I was the only one to not have submitted a turn.

It would've been nice to have had a chance to put in some orders prior to this very critical turn hosting.


F it. If this is what we call "hosting", I want no part of it. I'm AI http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

whatever. what could you have done? armies seiging your forces, a pretender who couldn't handle them, and some little force of shamblers wandering around. as it is, you can have your pretender back next turn. you lost no real forces whatsoever, since your cyclops still has great paths. For a stale, that's pretty sweet. I've had worse.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

The Last turn ran on the morning of Nov. 11. After that, you had three and a half days to get your turn in. The turn should have actually run saturday morning at the very latest, so you really should have expected to stale by this point.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

no. QH was off, so it didn't host until the morning of the 13th.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

I need to shut the server down for a few hours. If this messes up anyone's turn playing schedule, please let me know, and I'll make sure to wait for your turn before hosting.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Think I'm the only one with a turn outstanding - I checked just before you posted / took it down, and was just trying to upload. Will try again first thing in the morning.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

No problem. I'm just setting up my new computer, and had to move my old one to a new spot to make room.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

back on line.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

New Turn.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

New turn.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

ahhh, poor graeme really got bolloxed by his start position so close to ermor's cold embrace. but why, after it says his god has been extinguished, does it indicate Atlantis has yet to take it's turn?...

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Oh hoh, now! It was R'lyeh who done killed him, not my peace-loving nation! All I did was defend my holdings against the rabid pack of Atlanteans set on conquering my lands. Guess that didn't help any, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Besides, his dominion was exactly as cold as is mine; indeed, he had quite an interesting tactic involving Deep Seers and the enhanced water/ice elementals. Too bad it was wasted on the one ethereal nation in the game...

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

It wouldn't have been wasted if tramplers used their weapons on troops smaller than themselves. Icicle fists are magic after all.

As for the turn question, a player still has to log in to see that they've been eliminated if they haven't yet gone AI. This allows you to see any battles that are taking place.

As for the cold dominion, with all the water on this map, I figured that I didn't need to worry that much about land based income.

It's also somewhat unfortunate that an ancient kraken dies so easily when you send him out before all his research is finished.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

that's really my problem w/ Atlantis. every time i feel like trying them out, I give up on their pathetic pretender selection. I'm sure the kraken is fine and all, but i'd like even a half the choice that a normal land nation has.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

True enough - R'lyeh has a couple viable pretenders, but the only one of Atlantis's I find semi-viable is the Dagon, but he has all the drawbacks of any trampling pretender / commander.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

hey, i'm at a different location, and i'm really superstitious about trying to log in a check to see if the turn has hosted from a different machine ;p so if someone would post whenever the next turn happens that would be greatly appreciated.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Yeah, I've been bitten by that a couple of times too, since I use three different computers at different times of day. Now, whenever I first log into a game, I always type in the wrong password the first try. Sometimes the "Wrong Password" screen flashes up too fast to see anything, but other times, you can actually see the screen with all the nation icons for a bit before the "Wrong Password" screen flashes up.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

yah i have no idea why sometimes you can see the nation screen and sometimes you can't when you do that. however, from this machine and/or to graeme's server I'm just never able to see the nations screen.

edit: hmm, i'm guessing the amount of time the nation screen shows in that situation is basically dependent upon the ping -it will give you the screen while it is awaiting some response from the server. since i'm located in the same city as graeme, the nations screen basically doesn't show...

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

There's a new turn in.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

the server seems to have accidentally been put on a 20hrs quick host schedule. i'll send graeme a note, since this is clearly not correct.

but just a heads up - try to get your turn in quickly today i guess.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Don't worry about the timing, I'll set it back to 48 hrs now that the turns actually run.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

ok thanks graeme

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

New turn just ran, as I felt a need to upload tonight since the turns still haven't been set back to normal hosting.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

did anyone stale? the hosting schedule was at 20 hrs, and its still at 20 hrs. Perhaps graeme has some utility telling him when games have hosted, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

No one staled this time, but I would have if I'd waited to do my turn tomorrow and Graeme didn't set it back to 48 by morning.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

The hosting has now been set back to 48 hours from now.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

If anyone is waiting for a good moment to invade Ermor, I happen to know that a large Ermorian army of 180 undead units, led by his Prophet and a couple of other Wraith-Sword-wielding commanders, two priests, and four mages, is waaaaay over here in Sinai, and if he stays long enough to conquer my entire nation then he'll be stuck over here for at least four turns.

This public service announcement brought to you by,

Gan, the Great and Merciless and Temporarily Incorporeal

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

How is it temporal? Seems pretty permanent to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

New turn again!

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Next game, Gan will be back!

What are the rules for losing, exactly. I thought I had a fortress, several commanders, and two provinces. The commanders included many priests for calling Gan back. (And in fact, they had almost finished.)

I'm sure that I would have lost eventually, but I would like to know what the rules are for losing instantly.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Probably a dominion kill, where the strong dominions of your two closest friends, er, neighbors, wiped out your own. When you no longer have any provinces with a positive dominion, it's all over.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

yah check the graphs. zooko had almost no dominion left at the end - should have put half the priests on preaching

better luck next game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

New turn

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Jurri:

Hi! No hard feelings about you crushing me like that. I deserved it!

I'm a newbie. This game and another one currently on-going are my first two MP games.

My strategy was to have double-blessed giants and rush to attack my nearest neighbor. I took Earth Mother with Nature-9 and Earth-9, Niefelheim, Cold-3, and I had to pay a steep price e.g. Drain-3, Watchtower. I also took Turmoil-3, Luck-3 solely for the fun factor.My expansion against independents went well right away, and then I encountered Abysia and attacked without hesitation. I took a couple of provinces from Abyssian troops, but then my strategy fell apart when twice in a row Abysia's Virtue slew a giant and my entire army routed. I finally learned how to configure a non-commander unit or two to start at the rear and to hold-and-attack to prevent routing, and on that turn I got somewhat lucky and my Niefel Jarl's Breath of Winter killed the Virtue.

However, having lost dozens of giants to the Virtue (about half of them slain while routing) meant that I couldn't break the walls of her fortress. By the time I had recruited a new army (very slowly, due to my bad scales and expensive commanders), she was reincarnated and wearing a ring of protection from cold.

After that we spent a couple of turns in grinding war of attrition against each other before hastily calling a truce in order to prepare for the inevitable invasion from the likes of yourself. :-)

So I would say my strategy probably isn't very good -- most experienced players can probably figure out how to stop double-blessed giants in early game even if the giants don't stupidly rout. Obviously the lack of research, the bad scales, etc. are a huge disadvantage. Also if graphs are public, then perhaps the whole concept of "rush to attack your neighbor" is a bad one.

However, I might try it again sometime and see how it works when I do more things right. If I face a powerful pretender with excellent defense like the Virtue in early game, there's a chance that Breath of Winter, Hand of Death (from a Niefel Jarl) or Fists of Iron (from the Earth Mother) could kill it. My intent was to focus all resources (including the Earth Mother) on conquering a neighbor and only then to start research.

I think double-bless troops is a typical newbie strategy. For what it is worth I've done the same strategy in the other MP game I'm in (Argitoth's), and it has worked well so far. In that game I play Marignon led by the flaming head Baphomet with Fire-9 and Astral-9. The flagellants and paladins, plus a white knight or two are excellent against independents and against the player (Argitoth) that I've fought. However, once again I took Drain-3 and I have the sneaking suspicion that the other players -- those that I haven't tangled with -- are so far ahead of me in research that I am utterly doomed even if I manage to win this extremely expensive war against Argitoth.

Maybe the most important lesson for me to learn is not to start wars. Perhaps starting wars in Dom2 is like the game of global thermonuclear war in War Games. "Strange game, Professor. The only way to win is not to play.".

Regards,

Gan, the Great and Merciless and Permanently Incorporeal

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Double blessing can work - in fact, I think it's fairly viable with Jotuns. Niefelheim though - can't remember if they still get the Jotun Woodsmen, and the Niefel giants are pretty expensive to build a strategy around (especially as they're capitol only, as are the Woodsmen). When you go so heavy on a bless strategy, it doesn't make sense to build all that many non-blessed troops....

And if your troops were routing frequently, it doesn't sound like you centered it around the woodsmen / Niefels, since once blessed they wouldn't have routed. (You _were_ blessing them, right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

Also, Earth Momma doesn't go particularly well with Jotunheim, imo - her fatigue climbs _way_ too fast, since she isn't comfortable in the cold. Personally, I think Nature/Water works better with Jotunheim; possibly Nature/Fire, or Nature/Air (protection from all those nasty crossbows).

Better luck to you in the future.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

yes yes no doubt

/me whistles innocently

;p

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Yes, Niefel still gets woodsman troops, woodsman scouts (commanders), Jotun Jarls (different from Niefel Jarls) and Jotun Godes. Plus Niefel Jarls and Niefel giants. Lots of good bless troops! I really like the Woodsman Scouts. They cost no more than Woodsmen -- 50 gold, 11 resources -- and they are stealthy commanders with javelins.

They *were* blessed, but the routed because all units were either commanders or bodyguards, and one unit was killed. :-P

As to which blessings to get, I searched all of the Jotunheim pretenders to see if I could get two reasonable blessings for the cheapest price in points. Earth Mother Nature+Earth was the cheapest. I would take any pair of blessings made up of Earth, Fire, Water, Nature, Blood and Astral, except not Astral+Nature.

That's a good point about Earth Mother getting tired. I hadn't thought of that.

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

Hello archaeolept. I saw your dragon in action, he was impressive.

But I was really amazed when I tried to count how much a fire 9 astral 9 dragon costs. Urgh.
I would never have guts to pay so much for the pretender.

Care to share your scales? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Turms

I put most of my points on scales, but that did not prevent me from getting stuck in Italy...

Re: MP Game - European War 2
 

yah, you need truly atrocious scales for something like that. really, w/ zen's scale mod included such ultradragons will cease to be viable, i think. but i'm a fan of pushing bless strats when the opportunity arises. hell, when i encountered thufir's super cyclops (A4E8N3), 140 hp 30 prot mistform mirror image 14 regen, i only lost 110 gold in troops taking him down...

the scales are so bad i was trying to avoid spreading dominion, until i started to risk dominion death - i think it was around turn 20 i was down to a combined total of 7 pts of existing dominion in the world... :O

edit: hmm, it might actually have been only 5 pts - i seem to remember having dom3 in my cap, and domions of 1 in two territories.