Re: Scorned Land
 

Still no read reciept from Lanka and he dragged out another turn to two full days. Can we get him AI'd please?

Re: Scorned Land
 

Lanka has reappeared and taken a turn. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of the continuous, dragging, 48 hour turns.

Re: Scorned Land
 

oh crap... I already turned Lanka into an AI cuz I thought they hadn't taken their turn.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I doubt he'll be too concerned. He was close to elimination anyhow.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I wanted to apologize for not not taking good care of Arco lately. I have
been unable to handle all the diplomacy, and even stalled once or twice.
My job has taken a lot of my time, lately, and this particular game is suffering.
Not that I am doing poorly or anything... Would you guys terribly mind if I let
a friend take over? He is a MP newbie, but not terrible or anything.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I don't have a problem with it.

Re: Scorned Land
 

It is your perogative to turn your nation over to anyone you want after you send all your gems to me.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Hello to all players!

I have Arcoscephale now. I am ready to follow all of Peter's treaties. I will be talking to those whom he talked to, and confirming the arrangements.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Welcome to the game, Nikolai. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif I think you just stalled a turn. I'd be careful about that in the future as it hurts your position and also slows the game down for everyone.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I'm going down soon. Wow, what a mistake on my part to start a war with the nation that can easily cast storm and mist.

I also learned not to divide your army when facing an opponent you can't see.

I'm going to fight this out to the end with Tir Na Nog, which should only be a few more turns.

Abysia

Re: Scorned Land
 

Good luck, tibbs. Take down some Tuatha with you! Wait, did I say that out loud? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Re: Scorned Land
 

Abysia has defeated the siege. At least momentarily. I think the earthquake killed the mage that would have cast mist which made a nice difference I think. Unfortunately that was the last of our earth gems so we are reduced to summoning more fire drakes. What was once 250 enemies sieging our capital has been reduced to 50. Tir Na Nog should be prepared for a very long siege indeed.

Abysia

Re: Scorned Land
 

Or perhaps not. Those 50 men sieging your capitol now are merely reinforcements. My sieging force fleed, but they'll come back, with friends. Props for putting up a hell of a fight, thought. Those assasins really caught me with my pants down and the things they did.. were not pleasant. I simply wept when my Rain caster decided to follow his script in an assasination fight.

And if it makes you feel any better, that was my only W2 mage. I've recruited like 20+ Bean Sidhes and only got one with water random. Well, who needs W2 mages when you have W1 mages and Water Bracelets?

I'll see you at fields of glory. Your end shall be swift as a sign of our respect.

Re: Scorned Land
 

The forest folk were told of that battle by a harpy scout who managed to fly into the cave fortress undetected. Apparently there were many fireworks going off, cast from both sides. I pity the poor footsoldiers who had to endure that bombardment!

Can I have the charred remains shipped to my capital, by the way? My minotaurs would love such crispy flesh burgers.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Indeed, our footsoldiers are shellshocked by all the thunderbolts and many have lost hearing in both ears.

Re: Scorned Land
 

The burning folk of Abysia have been liberated! Majestic flags of the Tir Na 'Og now fly above the temple of the ever-burning temple flame.

To Tibbs: Your God really got a epic ending. He didn't shamefully get beaten by some chaff of mine. Left with a bang. I was a bit scared at the end that my armies would flee due to friendly fire. That last unlikely hit was truly epic!

R'lyeh has cast Arcane Nexus! The non-tentacled people must unite against this threat, if we let it stay, he wins. It's just that simple. No, it really is. Who has the highest Astral caster? (Not me. I can tell you that)

Re: Scorned Land
 

I haven't checked the turn yet.. but Ryleh cast Arcane Nexus, you say? *boggle*

That is obviously a huge problem. I'm not quite sure what we can do about it, though.. unless someone has a bunch as astral gems around to dispel it. I suppose we could all pool astral gems and dispel it. I don't have many to add to the pool, though.

Another possibility is to simply all gang up and kill him. If we all attack him, he doesn't stand a chance at this stage in the game.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I thought about it, and we only have one "astral" nation left that's not AI. Mictlan, and he has S1 casters (perhaps S2 with randoms). And I just killed the only S4 caster living on land. We can't dispel it.

So we are left with only one option. Good old fashioned gang-bang. It's not fair for R'lyeh, but it is the only way the rest of us have any chance in this game.

I'm sorry if I'm being blunt, but this is the sad truth. IF WE DON'T KILL R'LYEH NOW, WE ALL LOSE. So sacrifices have to made, by all sides. He must have used all his research to reach Enchanment. We must take action now, before he can find more uses for his gems.

So, I hereby present the HVTM (Humanoids Versus Tentacled Monsters), alliance against R'lyeh. Here are the rules (which are negotiable).

1) No non-AI nation vs non-AI nation aggression until R'lyeh is done for. Going untewater is har enough without someone stabbing your back. (I know this would mean that I'd made peace with Abysia, this will happen, if he can make a case why he would be a notable ally against R'lyeh.)

2) Nations with shore-line must either a) let some non-shore-line nation access to shore by allowing them to conquer a line of provinces to the shore (the no-shore-line doing the conquering is entitled to give gold equal to the provinces income to the province-giver). b) Put ALL resources into assaulting underwater. Or the best, both.

3) Nations with no-shoreline (like me), must either a) negotiate a way to get a shoreline and assault underwater with all might or b) support shore-line nations with waterbreathing-items and far-attack spells (I have enough Air casters and gems to forge 4-5 Barrels of Air, after that, it's Manual Water-Breathing until I run out of gems).

4) Put all non-blood, non-astral gem usage to BARE ULTIMATE minimum. Only use gems to spank R'lyeh. He will get just enough gems from the water-item forging and summons we need to use.

5) We probably have to use E-mails to coordinate our efforts. My e-mail is burnasber(at)hotmail(dot)com. Once we have everybody's e-mail addresses we can group send each other all relevant information. I'm willing to do most of the work, if need for more efforts rises.

I like this game and I really don't want it to end to a "Njah-Njah, I WIN" global.

Re: Scorned Land
 

uh...what game are you talking about? "We" have Arco and Marveni (me) and anyone who happens to have some astral on their god or have found a hut that makes astral mages. Hell, a Lizard Shaman with some gear can cast dispell.

I'm glad to hear you say this. Several times i have had to accept the other players declaring someone the victor in games with no victory conditons because they have intimidated the other players by putting up some global or making some damn SCs with artifacts, and i'm sick of it. Regardless of whether or not it makes me look like a stubborn jerk i'm going to dispute anyone who tries to claim victory until i feel I have been defeated. [end rant]

Re: Scorned Land
 

I have a few S4 and S3 mages. But the strange underwater beings have stellar focus so its really pointless to try to dispel it. Burnsaber is right we all must destroy the aliens.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Everyone should definatly aviod spending gems while we work this out.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I haven't seen my destruction yet. Sounds interesting. I was one turn away from finishing my research for fire storm too! Thanks for the game and good luck against Ry'leh.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I do not want to surrender the game. This is my first outside of my close friends, and I want to learn something. Maybe I am too stupid to know when I am lost, but I want to play to my end.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Ry'leh still has far to go before he can claim victory... Does he even have a land base of operations yet? Acro and Marv are prob going to have to do most of the hard work of taking him out. Get ahold of me if you REALLY NEED a magic item to tackle the aliens.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Yeah, no way we're giving up yet, Nikolai! I have coastal provinces adjacent to him as well, although I don't have much underwater ability at the moment.

As far as I know, he doesn't have any land provinces. He's entirely ocean-based and is betting that we can't all team together to take him out underwater, apparently.

Does anyone -not- have provinces adjacent to him?

Honestly, though, I do think the best way to defeat his strategy is just to dispel it. I have 30 gems I can devote to a dispel (although I can't actually cast a dispel myself). Whoever has the highest astral caster should be the one we give our gems to. Maverni? Arcosephale? Who's got it? Clearly, we should be able to get a starshine skullcap, crystal coin, and Ring of Sorcery to the person who's going to do the Dispel. That's +3. Someone probably has a level-4 astral caster, so that would be level 7 total.

I think first we should try a cheap 40-gem dispel to see how many gems he's got tucked away in it. I mean, the thing costs 150 gems just by itself. If that fails, we all pool up like 400 gems and get rid of it. When he re-casts it, we do the same thing. If he knows we're going to dispel it, he's not going to keep casting it at 150 gems a pop.

Do people think that's a good idea, or would you rather do an underwater assault from all angles?

Re: Scorned Land
 

I'm not so experienced in global-dispelling, so I absolutely forgot that Dispel exists (thought we'd need something like S5-6 caster). Well, the first step is, of course, to find out how many gems does that beast-of-a-global have. (Mictlan hasn't reported to this thread, I'll send him an in-game message to check these forums).

Any volunteers to cast 40-gem dispel? If so, report here and cast it ASAP. I'm sure that we can divide the costs between all of us. I'm going to sen in-game message to Mictlan (Ubercat) to check these forums, he must have some astral gems.

I also suggest that everybody either PM's me how many astral gems and how much Astral income do they have (if they don't want to share that info with everybody) or just publicly tell it. We need to know if we can dispel it now, and if we can dispel it in the future, if he recasts it. I think he probably has something like 10-20 gems per turn of astral income (with Stellar Focus).

Since people will be sending me info, I'll give some in return (to be fair). I have 28 astral gems. And not much of a astral income (+1 gem per turn). I won't be giving any info you give me for any third party.

If we can dispel it, cool. No need for gangbang then. If not, we need to discuss how to get underwater. I currently have access and gems to many summons with Poor Amphibian. + I can forge all water-breathing items. I have no shore-line, though. I'd need provinces 203, 221 and 229 to get shore access.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I have S5 + gear mages and i know dispell, anyone who wants to contribute send me the gems and i will cast it, but this must be done immediatly. As to how many gems, there's no way at all to know. I will cover the 30 base for the ritual and whatever y'all contribute will be our edge.

Re: Scorned Land
 

People have PM'd me some info. And it doesn't look too bright. Unless Ulm (he hasn't contacted me) has super-horde of astral (highly unlikely) gems we need to sacrifice all our gems to the greater good. It's all or nothing!

Since Tyrant was first to volunteer, he will be the one dispelling. On turn 42, send all of your astral gems to him (also known as Maverni). If Arcane Nexus is still rolling in turn 43, we'll have to take military action.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Well, I will give contribute all my stash of astral gems, which is embarassing small. I forge all I get. Please decide who casts Dispell, and cast this turn. Tyrant has better S mages so far, so I say he casts. I am holding turn until everyone agrees. Otherwise, end of turn, I send gems to Tyrant, and hope for best. Remember, Astral Vortex brings more all the time.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Dont we need at least 150 gems for the dispel? He prob put more than that into it... If I throw in 30 gems will we even get to 150? Trying to dispel just seems pointless but if its not then Ill donate.

Re: Scorned Land
 

No, we need to exceed the amount of extra gems he put into the Nexus + 30 to cast the Dispell. I've got 35, so whatever i recieve from the rest of you will need to exceed his extra gems. We will also get a samll bonus from my caster's level. It would really be best if we did this next turn, so if Arco has not triggered the quickhost and you have not sent gems please redo your turn and do it now if you intend to help- the Nexus makes a minimum of 30 pearls a turn.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Okay, Tyrant's paln sounds better. I redid my turn and send my gems to Maverni. Let's do this!

Re: Scorned Land
 

Oh ok I see. I sent 30 gems to Maverni.

Re: Scorned Land
 

BTW- nice job whoever is playing Ryleh, turn 43 is very quick to put up the Nexus.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Tyrant, don't you think we should try a small dispel first (like maybe 40-50 gems total)? If that fails, we could save up for a larger one. I'd be happy to donate 10 gems for the small dispel. I don't think we should put, say 100 gems into the dispel -- that could end up being a waste of gems. I don't mind wasting 50 gems, that is small potatoes. If that fails we should save up maybe 300-400 gems collectively and cast it again.

Re: Scorned Land
 

If the nexus stays up, he will recast with what he gets from it. That's what I would. Tyrant, I feel I am not pulling my share with what I send. I will send so many again in next turn, as appreciation. I just have bad astral gem income despite being Arco.

Re: Scorned Land
 

I have sent 35 astral gems to Maverni. It's in your hands, Tyrant, but I think it's best to wait until we've got at least 150 astral saved up if you are trying for a big dispel right away. The worst thing that can happen is if we try for a big dispel and fail.

Re: Scorned Land
 

Pangea broke our NAP. Hopefully the dispel this turn will work or Ry'leh is in for a big payday...

failure
 

Well, y'all sent so many gems that i seriously considered trying it with less and giving rebates, but i used the full 135 (+20 bonus = 155!) and we failed anyway.http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif I'm boggled, but there it is. on the plus side that means we have a few more turns till he turns a profit (ahem).

Re: failure
 

Well, that means he has the minimum (or close to it) in his Stellar Focus. Let's dispel that one, at least. 40-50 gems should do it. Better yet, someone should over-cast it.

Everyone besides the person over-casting Stellar Focus, start saving your astral gems until we get 300.

In addition (just to be safe), the anti-Ryleh offensive should begin immediately. I can send some mechanical men down there. It won't be a whole lot of guys, but I can open up another front on him.

Ulm, are you adjacent to him at all? I feel a little guilty for cancelling our NAP at a time like this, but I have land forces that have nothing to do--they'd be useless against Ryleh anyway. My centaurs are thirsty for blood, I can't control them!

Re: failure
 

I do not share borders with Ryleh and so care a bit less about the dispel. So I will no longer contribute towards the dispel. Now I must use my enormous stash of gems for our upcoming war. Which results in a landslide of gems for the aliens... Heck, I would even support the aliens against the centaurs .

Re: Failure
 

ACH! The sidpel failed? Then you all know what's ahead of us. To arms brothers! Join HATE (Humanoids Against Tentacled Entities), together we can take him. Let mushy deeps be filled with R'lyeh brethen.

Okay we need to make some serious offense. Start making and taking plans for how to get underwater. I'm also quite sure that we need to coordinate our efforts. Could member of HATE send me their e-mail? Group-sending e-mails to the other HATE members seem to be best method of communication. We can't use the forums because, R'lyeh reads them too.

And I'd really like to see Panganea and Ulm make truce. If we want to kill R'lyeh before he finds really good uses to his gems, we are going to need everybody's help. I can forge water-breathing items for all parties. I need Charcoal Shields and Firebrands.

Re: Failure
 

I'm sure that there are more experienced players here than me. I haven't never even assaulted underwater with a pure land-mongrel nation! Those of you who have done it, speak out! How do you deal with poor amphibians being nearly useless undewater, because even with Water-breathing items your national troops are useless underwater. What combat spells even work underwater? Damn, I need to do some research. Althought I read that Shark Attack is good.

What about summons? I have access to Naiad Warriors, are they any good?

Re: Failure
 

Things I think I'm going to try: Sea King's Court, Pale Riders, Mechanical Men.. of course abominations if you have the research and the astral gems (I'm assuming no one does besides maybe Ryleh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif)..

I don't know about Naiad Warriors, I imagine they are pretty decent..

There's always the Sea King's Goblet and the Barrel of Air to get your national troops underwater, too. And once you're underwater, you can recruit tritons. Probably the best bet, though, is to get thugs equipped with Rings of Water Breathing and magic resistance items and send them underwater by themselves or in small groups. I guess. I'm not really sure what we're going to do, lol.

Piercer is a crossbow that works underwater. Incinerate is a fire spell that works. Of course water magic would be the best if you've got it.

This is going to be a tough road to hoe.. but if we all get at least one or two underwater groups together, we can outnumber Ryleh and take some provinces, at least. Any strong army of his that you see, just run away from. Don't engage. He can't stop all of us at once. Once we whittle him down to a few provinces, we'd have to start winning some battles, admittedly. Hopefully we'll have a strategy together by that point to do so.

I still remember this one game I was in, where I won every single battle I was involved in and still lost the game, pretty early, too. I was under attack from Ermor in the north, and I moved to intercept his army. Defeated it. Then Pangea attacked me from the south and since I wasn't down there, he took over several of my provinces before I got there. Once I did, I defeated his army, but I was beat-up and had to retreat from his reinforcements. I went back to my capital and started summoning troops. He took the remainder of my provinces. I finally left my capital, won another battle, but got beaten up bad again. He had more reinforcements seige my capital. I broke seige, won again, but this time was down to only my god. He seiged me again and then dominion killed me.

That is the game that is most memorable to me, so frustrating because I won every single frickin' battle!!! But, if you are outnumbered, there is basically nothing you can do. I think we can take Ryleh down, just no one engage his armies if you can help it. The goal is to take provinces, not to fight.

Edit: I change my mind about over-casting Stellar Focus, he will just over-cast it over us! He's making stupid #'s of astral gems per turn. We just need to rush his punk a$$.

Re: Failure
 

Guys! We agree to put all land warfare against players on hold, until R'lyeh is dead? And those who have no seaside, help with items? If Ulm and Pangaea will fight and feed gems to R'lyeh, I better fight my own war and wait for the hammer to fall when R'lyeh is ready to eat me.

I am in middle of R'lyeh lands, surrounded. I am not ready to fight under water, but I wil not even prepare, if we are not all into this war. I ask for items to go underwater. I will return them after war, and anyway, I can not use these item against people without seaside, can I? I have nice levels of construction, but little gems. And I have searched a lot.

If Marverni takes care of east side, and Pangaea attacks west side with me, and Ulm and Tir na Nog help with gem, and whoever else does what they can, we probably can do it. But there is no way I will waste time underwater while one of Pangaea and Ulm wins the other and gets twice as strong.

I propose peace to everyone on land until R'lyeh is dead (or until Astral Vortex goes down). But this counts only if EVERYONE is at peace. We freeze land holdings, and go to war against R'lyeh. Teach him to cast Astral Vortex!

Re: Failure
 

If Ulm agrees to help fund the war against Ryleh, I agree to peace with him (our NAP hasn't even expired yet, there have been no hostilities so far).

But, letting him sit on a vast and somewhat poorly defended empire with a huge gem income while he researches the spells he'll need to be successful in the endgame while the rest of us bang our heads into the Ryleh wall is not something I'm prepared to do.

We'd have to come up with a fair amount of money and gems he'd have to pay to us each turn, in exhange for not being directly involved in the war. Or perhaps Maverni would allow him to take a sea province so he'd be able to help in the conflict directly.

Re: Failure
 

CUnknown if you think Im going to pay you or anyone else tribute then you need to think again... If you really cared about the dispel you would have waited until we dealt with the dispel before breaking NAP with the gem leader. You think my lands are weakly defended? You are not the only nation that hides and soon you shall find out!

Re: Failure
 

I will not be going in after the squids. If they surface in my area i deal with them, but there's nothing i can do underwater at this point.

player list...
 

..there isn't one on this thread. Is this right, and who am i missing that's still in the game?

Tyrant- Marveni
Ubercat- Mictlan
Burnsaber- Tir na Nog
AreWeInsaneYet - Ryleh
Tequilich- Ulm
CUnknown- Pangaea
Nikolai- Arco

Re: Failure
 

The sad truth is, no-one of us can do anything underwater. I mean we are fighting [censored] EA R'lyeh, underwater is 100% their turf. The only thing we can is RAID. Our Armies suck underwater, but his armies can't be everywhere, once we got hold of one, it's pillage time.

Contact me for FREE Barrel of Air and Sea King's Coblet. I'm not kidding. FREE. Tyrant, Nikolai and Ubercat, this effort needs you. You have astral mages, which you can put on the raiding party to portect from Mind Hunts. I can't, since I have no Astral casters at all. I have one plan to harass R'lyeh, but I'll need Charcoal Shields and Firebrands. Is anyone up for a treade? I can supply the gems..