Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Welcome the the steep slope that is the Dom 3 learning curve Lunaje.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Probably would have beaten me too, I had the wrong weapon for the job there and Bad Touch was busy smashing zombies for a while. Should have had boots of quickness too. As it was, I'm kind of surprised Bad Touch didn't get blinded, you're devil must have cast blindness at least 20 times- even with his resistance there's a fair chance of one getting thru.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Well, I think, we may end this game. Marverni has clearly won.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Hard to disagree with your statement Shard.....do others have a different opinion?

Gotta love these square maps.... not...no more of them for me. Wraparounds are far superior in every respect.

HD

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Pretty flattering for you guys to think so, but probably premature to call the game... both Abysia and T'ien C'hi clearly have the power to challenge my claim.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

I don't know if Marverni has clearly won, but it certainly has a clear lead on many aspects. It is just that AdamJ hasn't attacked us to test his tools.
But I would say it's premature to call the game, even when I haven't had much fun the last turns fighting with Tien Chi over that bottleneck in the north. Feels like moving to the far end of the world to get a fight.
Agree with HD that wraparound maps are probably better, at least for large scale fights.
I would prefer to finish this properly, it may even be quick.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

You are kidding, right? You lead Every. Single. Graph. By a large margin.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

If you consider everyone elses gems in aggregate you all have quite a bit more then myself. Plus my army isn't that much larger then yours and Abysia's, and it has more ground to cover. Plus it's largely barechest warriors now, which are awesomely cheap. You've got a ridiculously defensible position on that peninsula, I'm surprised Abysia tried to pick on you up there but then I guess it was you or me and you looked like an easier target since I had some pretty serious armies camped on his border after I took down Pan. I can't even get a scout up there so I have no idea what you're doing up there.

If anything you should be most worried about my research advantage, but that's an advantage which won't necessarily last as you start hitting the big spells as well, and I can't imagine you're more then a few turns away. I'd be surprised if you didn't have all the tools to start pulling out Tartarians between your gift of health and I'm pretty sure you have that spiffy sceptre that gives +3 death. I agree I'm well positioned right now, but it just seems a bit premature to call the game.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Even if we all unite against you - effectiveness of gem-usage will differ, you know? And it isn`t gonna happen, for Aby decided to go berserk on me, together with his Lanka vassal.
[sarcasm]Because mundane armies matter at this stage of the game.[/sarcasm]
Tartarians? What for? They are a waste of N gems and mage-time after all the nerf and introduction of new summons. BTW, I don`t have the scepter. Someone else forged it.
And your gold advantage. And your recruit-everywhere-ridiculously-good-mage advantage. And your "can-cast-Master-Enslave-without-communion" advantage.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Btw, Lanka is not "my vassal" to any extent. But there is this part of the game where you can actually talk to people and work something out.

And I didn't "go berserk" on you. We clashed over Helheim, and what was I going to do? Sit around quietly in the northern border, while having a leading research neighbor with no so many land passings to the rest of the world? You didn't try to talk to me once, and neither did I, but I'm not the one complaining about Marverni development here.

As for the global picture, I didn't even share a border with Marverni when all this started to happen. And I expected Pangea to have a better time while AdamJ was busy north, but it went down fast. And Shard Phoenix, I did not go after you because looking for an easier target, on the contrary, TC was a dangerous neighbor to had if I wanted to put a fight to Marverni; and I thought there was a window of opportunity to secure that border. Not what happened, as we all can see. But I'm not outraged about this turn of events.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Then how about you cease your hostilities and withdraw forces? :)
I`ll happily withdraw my zmey and any other raiders.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Tartarians are nerfed and a waste of nature gems? Seriously? And the gold advantage isn't nearly enough to give me the game, I've got less then a 1/3 of total worldwide gold income, which means everyone else together earns over double what I get.

And I don't get your master enslave issue- the druids are awesome, I'll agree, but they can't cast master enslave without a communion unless I gave one of my rare S4s a starshine cap, a ring of wizardry and crystal coin (70 gems)whereby they reach S7. Then I need someone else to cast banner of the northern star to get him to S8. Then I need to blow 8 astral gems and pray that the very fragile and very comatose druid doesn't get killed and lose his 70 gems of equipment because a single master enslave with -3 penetration (-4 from spell +1 from ring) isn't likely to be all that devastating to any army worth blowing all that gems on.

I'm just saying it's early to call the game, there's alot of unknown factors out there which could swing an advantage to someone else, heck Abysia could be sitting on an blood magic or alteration site and be sandbagging- we know he invested alot of research in blood since he's got those arch devils and that tainted earth king hanging out over there. But hey, it's your prerogative, if you want to quit we can't stop you.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Replace ring with crystal shield and eye of the void - and you still have free slot for rune smasher.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Good tip... Unfortunately I am short on water-fire cross paths. Don't suppose you are willing to trade?

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Empower your pretender to 1w. :)

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

That's one idea, however I'm pretty sure my pretender and the 50 water gems have better uses.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Well, you can also empower unfrozen mage in fire. Or a spectre - they have good chance of getting W random too. And neither unfrozens nor spectres have old age issues, unlike your druids.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Sorry to do this last second but any chance of a 3 hr extension?

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Atlantis has stalled 5 out of the past 6 turns...

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

I didn't notice that. Maybe we should ask what happened, I'll send him a PM.

Adam J - sent you a PM too.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

No notice from Shard yet. Any ideas on what we should do regarding this?
Atlantis is mostly sea provinces afaik, but has a decent position to do something.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

He vanished from the other game I'm in too (and quite impolitely left some large armies squatting outside my capital!), so I think he's gone for good. The best solution would be to look for a sub, but that might be tough...

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Damn Shardphoenix, new found respect for master enslave... can't believe you got both of my air queens. 18 magic resistance gets no respect. I knew I shouldn't have advanced with that big an army. Anyways, what are we doing about Atlantis? With C'tis destruction, DarkAvenger gave me admin duties. Should we start sub hunting since Atlantis would probably be pretty helpful in stopping my druid juggernaut.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

A sub for Atlantis would be ok, though it's pretty late game and at least for me the resources difference it's starting to be a heavy burden for the fight. I can't even get my beloved pyre back.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Damn, looks like LlamaServer doesn`t even SEND the turn to me.
I request 24 h extension just in case.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Shardphoenix- I've extended the timer 24 hours. There was some wierd llamaserver hiccup- the timer got pushed back a couple hours on its own. I'm also curious about the turn before, the battle showed your cyclops getting surrounded and killed but he apparently made it out in reality. At least he got severely horrormarked.

Lunaje- well your assassination spell spam has done a number on my druids if it makes you feel better. I'll put out a sub request but I don't know what will happen there. A sub is unlikely but someone might like the appeal of a final battle... I've been leaving Atlantis' provinces alone although technically my NAP-3 has expired. Should we turn him AI otherwise or just leave him alone?

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

He didn`t. That battle was a disaster with my mages going totally offscript and doing crap.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Ashen angels and Earth attacks? It wasn`t him. :)

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Those I wasn't sure about, but I'm pretty certain he's the disease demons, and there's been quite a few of them.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

I need an extension of 24 hrs- got some family issues. Anyone else for a 48hr timer or even 72hr... Micro is getting tough for me.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Go ahead with the timer. Which is the current one? Seemed a little short.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

its 36 hours... pretty painful

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

OK, let`s see, how it goes now...

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Well. I`ve alchemised everything into that global, so now I`m broke. Besides, Marverni got too much momentum anyway.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Blew a couple hundred pearls taking it down just to be certain... what are your thoughts lunaje? You guys want to concede? The micro is killing me but the next few turns could be decisive- particularly if I can take abysia's cap or if I get burned and fail.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

I'm broke like, real broke. How long it will take you to bring the final battle to my cap? I would like to see that one, just for the experience.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Lunaje- good question... problem for me is the micro involved in planning that attack. Plus I'm not really keen on announcing the precise turn. Suffice it to say it should be pretty soon.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

With your income and gemincome you can replace any losses in couple turns without any real strain on economy. There`s no way we can turn that tide around, so while I might have a trick or two in reserve - I`d prefer to keep it for a game where it could make some real difference.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Should we call it a day then? Turn 73 is in like three hours.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Yes, definitely. Unless you want an epic last stand. :)

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Alrighty then, good game folks! I think I can attribute my win mostly to amazing starting location, pretty good luck with magic sites (20 percent conjuration, 40 percent thaumaturgy- the reason I had a hoard of wendigos, and of course the sorceress site, which broke me into air. And of course druids are spectacular as a recruit anywhere mage. Plus Pan was pretty foolish to go after me by himself, I did a number on his manead hoards with my druids and bladewind. Lunaje- did you have a blood site? I'm impressed by the amount of blood magic you churned out.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

That`s how Blood magic works.
Maenad-heavy EA Pan CAN go after midgame Marverni by himself - but he needs something more, than unsupported maenad hordes. I`d say alt 7, conj 3, ench 5. :)

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

I know blood is handy in that way but abysia doesn't really have amazing blood ability with cap only relatively low level blood plus maybe my scouts sucked but I didn't spot many hunters- I remote assassinated the one batch I found. And without dousing rods it takes more work too. Meanwhile he had a ton of arch devils, vamps and could still send a number of disease demons my way each turn.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Well then, good game. Congratz AdamJ.
Wow, two discount sites. I had the blood 20 discount site, yes. But I discovered it too late (didn't know then, they are pretty obvious due to unrest); I started blood late too. But also you didn't discover my other bloddhunters, there were plenty of them.
Pan was a steam roll, and early I was curious how Fomoria went away so fast. He was one of the leading nations, but didn't manage to win over C'tis and seems to have left his back unprotected.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Honestly I didn't have much to do with Fomoria, I just snatched some nearly free provinces since he was busy with Atlantis and C'tis and he was my only choice for an early war other then Pan who seemed quite a bit more prepared or Atlantis who I couldn't really effectively attack. Plus I figured my fire bless would make my sacreds pretty effective giant killers. C'tis pulled out some nasty castle defenses on Fomoria by casting foul vapors and using skelly spam to clog up the entrance to his fortress. I think Fomoria rushed that attack since he wanted to finish up C'tis and focus on me. Atlantis was pushy about getting Formoria's cap so I let him take it in order to keep the peace with him...

Pan declared war on me just as I finished off with the Fomoria war so I could pretty effectively shift my forces over to the fight with him and my other borders were secure thanks to NAPs with Ctis and Atlantis... I was hoping for a few turns of peace in order to get my research back up to speed but it obviously worked out well for me all the same. Pan scored some early raiding victories but never really won an important battle and his raiders eventually got caught without any lines of retreat. I used reverse communions which could blot out the sun with bladewinds on the second turn of each combat to deal with him maneads(two master matrixes so the communion leaders would power of spheres and earthpower all the slaves on the first turn). I had a few eye of aiming enhanced e3s2n1 mages to throw gifts of heaven at his heavier targets. He finally got his lich to start casting earthquake which was effective the first time but less so afterwards ( I made sure to have my communion leaders cast ironskin/stoneskin to get the whole communion armored up and he couldn't do a first turn earthquake with his lich).

Lunaje, the game is still running so if you want to try out a defense of your cap we can play out the next two-three turns and see how it goes.

Re: MP: RNGNoob EA Noob game, Now playing!
 

Oh, I will leave it here at this point. It's been a long game, and since we agreed on conceding victory, I would prefer to take a rest from it now.