Bah.
 

It's a good thing I already took death scales. The only two death sites I found are both a Well of Pestilence, at +1 each.

Most of my random gem events have been kind enough to hand me death.

I don't believe I ever saw an anonymous assassination before... and it showed up as an "unexpected event" in a completely illogical place.

So, while it makes me uncomfortable, I'll assume none of my neighbors had anything to do with it.

But then again... looking at another province, the assassin in my territory was clearly Pythium's. This one wasn't trying to assassinate, at least not yet, but it's also quite troubling.

I'll have to reallocate my forces. Hopefully it will only be a matter of caution, but I have to prepare for war with Pythium. At the moment, I'll restrict myself to sealing off my lands and finding (and killing), any assassins in my lands.

Re: Bah.
 

There is a random assassination event where you get attacked by a ninja. That's the only one I know of. But I don't think there's any way anyone could assassinate you and make it look like an unexpected event.

Re: Bah.
 

That's why I'm not going to go to war, yet, and am dividing up my huge, useless swarms of light infantry to patrol.

The other assassin, from Pythium, may merely have been passing through.

Ulm quit
 

Sorry, but I quit. Getting bored. Good luck to Shinuyama in conquering my territory. Agartha and Pythium, you may have some too if you want, Ulm is going to be ruled by AI.

Still really interesting who is gonna be the winner...
My bets: Shinuyama - 1st, R'lyen or Agartha - 2nd.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Hello two AIs. This may give me a slighty unfair advantage- up until that flying army of Pythium's decides to do something. Or I met up with Shinuyama in the division of Ulm.

Goodbye my death gems. Hopefully I can carve them out of Ulm's empire, then Pan's.

May I ask, Graywind, why the game bored you, if you're still around?

Re: Ulm quit
 

This is just speculation, but...

It may have had something to do with losing a few battles in the war he started against me -- not wanting to go through the micro of constantly making and bringing up new troops to reinforce an assault that may or may not have succeeded.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Gee, Pythium, I would never have figured out we were at war if you hadn't sent that declaration of war. After all, it only arrived once you sat yourself down on my fortress. Fortunately, I was expecting something along those lines and pulled back my patrollers...

Our original pact did not specify any nonaggression, it simply stated the division of our border, and expanding past that is war. So I have no ill will, but surely you could have picked a better time... I was about to have fun going after Ulm...

So, pooh. At least I've got Jotun's capital for those needed death gems.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Lessons learned... (partially classified)

Agarthan PD of 5 > two Call of the Winds
Shatter works on Water Elementals (who would have guessed)
Draconians have a good strength value, and so do larger water elementals. They make marble oracles cry.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Wow. I was expecting Rl'yeh to pull a D-Day eventually, but this seems more like a d-day. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Still, there may still be some tricks up his tentacled sleeves.

Also - geez, that's a big AI Pan army. It's comforting to see that they're sticking to the plan I had with them before they went AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Ulm quit
 

I'd considered letting you keep wasting your black hawks, but I couldn't bare watching the slaughter of such a noble species. Please, please, please stop casting it.

Three Great hawks and 60 black hawks. Three castings of Call of the Winds. They just got beat by five province defense (or 5 li, 5 mi).
15 gems < 15 gold...
Maybe against a less armored race... People have claimed Agarthan PD is horrible... but maybe they were facing the wrong enemy.

But even knowing the gems you're spending, I can't bear to watch it anymore... Except with a kind of sick fascination. I'm torn between raising my pd levels and seeing how far they can go without any further investment. Heck, maybe we can agree on an experimental province.

................

Do let me know if they managed to fly to safety, okay? I really am sympathizing for the poor beasts.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Some great hawks are still alive.
But yeah, what a suprise that they couldn't defeat even a few wee soldiers in dented old armour.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Strength 4 versus protection 9 and 14, not counting shields?
In all fairness, they might have survived if you had a way of keeping up their morale. They weren't willing to stay the fight, though. And that would have defeated the whole 'behind enemy lines' deal.

My national recruits may do sad, sad damage, but they are well protected. Even my light infantry.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Damn misfortune. Guess what? Knights attack my provinces again!

Out of curiosity, CelestialGoblyn, how much food does that big army of yours take, between the elephants and draconians? How much is available to you in that province?

I can't quite figure out why your Theurgs aren't suffering from scurvy, but soon you won't have much left except angels bearing bottles.

While we fight, R'lyeh grows stronger, and Pangaea unconquered. You might even manage to win on an open battlefield, but you certainly haven't had any luck cracking open my fortresses. I can pretty much pick and choose my battles.

I'd be willing to sue for peace, and even provide you with astral pearls if you were to take down R'lyeh's forge. I'd even let you take down Earth Blood Deep Well without retaliation if you stripped down Forge of the Ancients first.

There'd obviously be more negotiation than this, but I'm interested in peace. Even with R'lyeh, though I'm not opposed to the removal of their global spells.

Re: Ulm quit
 

While I might apologise for disposing of a bargaining chip, Forge is already down. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Of course, now Well of Misery is up. Except for the "handing him fifty million Death gems" part, this might actually be a blessing.

Re: Ulm quit
 

A pity, pity. Well, at least they haven't taken a single one of my forts yet, and I'm still capable of assaulting Ulm, albeit at a snail's pace, and questionable success, but with very limited risk.

As long as Pythium doesn't get a fort in my lands or nature mages + gems for bags of endless booze, they'll find it a bit hard to eat. I've learned a couple important lessons from other games about holding down the forts, and from reading up on Ulm.

Heck, thanks to my death and heat scales, their is a friendly province twice removed from my unsieged capital that has 76 food. I'd hate to think what its like for invaders.

Re: Ulm quit
 

I think I got confused as to who's playing whom.

Ignore the bulk of my PM, Shuma. I'd assumed I was speaking to pythium, without double-checking the player list.

I do have those pearls, however.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Stalled... I'm gonna have to sort hings out and catch up from my mistakes.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Any chance of getting a freeze until Wednesday, 16:00 GMT? Aka noon?

Re: Ulm quit
 

(I'm playing Pythium. And I'm not checking this thread often enough.)
Sue for peace? Well, of course.
We're talking provinces here, though. Gem-bearing provinces.
If you are willing to cede a few provinces to me, I can agree on peace.

(By the way, freezing the game for a while is all okay with me.)

Re: Ulm quit
 

I'm fine with a pause.

Re: Ulm quit
 

I offered peace in part because of the Forge of the Ancients. As that spell is down AND I'm not willing to cede any further territory, I'm not looking with favor upon peace.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Dammit. I woulda sworn I'd sent in my turn...
Dammit!

I can see I'm going to stale, I know I did my turn, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Re: Ulm quit
 

I would not mind a pause However, I will be away Friday and Saturday and Sunday (Labor Day Weekend) so I would like to extend the pause until next Monday.

Re: Ulm quit
 

Dispelling my forge of the ancients was understandable but dispelling my well of misery was just well not very nice....

Thank you, invaders
 

This has to be the only time I've ever been glad to be hit by a barrage of my opponent's spells. I had spent most of my turn preparing for Pythium to storm my fortress, only to send in the order file for the wrong game... So when I realized this, I was thinking I'd just lost my pretender, a fort, yadda yadda yadda.

Thank you for being so cautious as to scout my forces first. Thank you. Still not a bad idea, but my salvation this time. If I had sent in the right turn file, I would be resenting that, but...

So... What spell was cast on my province? I can't see any noticeable result. I suppose it had to do with Draconians or eagles.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Duh... what's with the bolts of flame hitting my flying mages?
I mean, which spell does this?

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

If you tell me what you were casting, I'll tell you what killed off ten of your mages.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Cloud Trapeze.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Dome of Flaming Death.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

I just defeated Bogus with 4 casulties. 1 commander, 3 statues. Its times like these that remind me why I like Agartha.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

The castle is mine, your cyclops is dead.
You have chosen a bad castle to defend yourself in.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Who said I chose it? Remember, I stalled earlier, and got stuck there. Still, it is a valid kill, because I did have time to prepare defense though I was stuck in a position not of my choosing.

That said, I want to see the replay, and see if I gave myself some stupid battle lineup that promoted my death.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

I'm never taking misfortune 2 again, even with order 3. I'm in the middle of a war and I'm hit by barbarians and knights and bogus... Well... on I go. Why people like the order misfortune combo I just cannot comprehend.

Will I take your capital before you catch up with me?
Is there anything earth mages can do against ethereal, lucky, high defense angels? Will I figure it out in time?

Next time on:
The conquest of Agartha.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

I'd appreciate a slower game. Both long term and for this labor day weekend.

Until Tuesday, could we set the game to a 48 hour cycle?
And after that, 30 hour, maybe?

Edit: I'm impressed. Opposition = hurt. So much for my sentinels... Important lesson.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Slowing the game down's fine by me.

Also, I need to drum it into my head. "Defend" means "Defend Castle", not 'Defend Province". Stop leaving the PD to fight the invading snakes alone.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

invading ?
that MY castle your sitting in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Who's administering this game, by the way? Did Llama hand it off, or is he the one? If we can't switch to a slower schedule, I'll settle for one 6hr postponement. Locally, this turn is due 7:00 AM. I can't manage that, especially as currently exhausted I am.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

I'm afraid I can't keep this 24 hour schedule. Or rather, by keeping it, it hurts my sleep, controls my life.

With great regret, I must go over to AI.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Hey guys,

Sorry, I've not been reading this thread, cos like all the games I was thinking it had an admin to sort it. The admin was Atreides, and since he's no longer in the game I guess he's not watching the thread closely, fair enough.

Would someone else volunteer to take over admin duty please?

And for the moment I'll change the hosting schedule to 48 hours - I'm impressed it's lasted so long on 24. Hope this is what everyone wants.

LP - very sorry you were driven to turn AI. You could have PMed me if you were getting desperate.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Yeah, _there_ is D-Day from the gibbering hordes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I don't see much I can do about this, but it'll surely be fun to try.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

I just thought geographically speaking Marignon would be the easiest territory to capture and hold. I believed I could strengthen my position before Shinuyama became a threat.

I was wrong.

Shinuyama has completed his conquest of the southern continent and has invaded one of my Sea territories in violation of our NAP. I cannot blame Shinyama he is so powerful he thinks he is beyond any reckoning for his actions.

Shinuyama is mighty, as everyone knows he has started many global enchantments. I think our only chance is to band together against him, even then it may be too late.

As a newbie, I sure would not mind some advice.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

That land had been sitting unused for 3-4 turns before I moved in. It seemed like a waste of gems and gold to let it sit there. I am not in violation of the NAP considering it was not under your control at the time and I would gladly cede it to you if you asked.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Shinuyama allready started attacking me so i´m with you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
And i offer peace to Marignon.
Good fighting till now but we both have to focus our forces elsewhere before its too late http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

My most humble apologies to Shinuyama, he did NOT break or NAP.

I know I took the territory long ago, but I may have lost it to independents at one point.

Shinuyama you may keep the provence. . . for now.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Anyone who wants peace can have it, anyone who'd prefer to continue overrunning me while Shinuyama takes over can do that too. I'm really not in a position to dictate. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Well...wow. I thought Rl'yeh was in a great position and then, BAM, out of the blue, dominion kill.

I suppose this means we're all doomed now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Not if we work together.
Or at least negotiate something reasonable.
For example, I don't really mind those Tartarians running around and stuff, but that LIGHTNING is starting to get on my nerves.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Wow, So was it a dominion Kill. No message except that my pretender was permanently banished. At first I thought my pretender got hit by LIGHTNING, but as I had the Ankh I thought I would get life after death.

My pretender had a dominion of 9 so I did not worry about dominion. I was preoccupied with building labs and constructing Starspawn.

Well another lesson learned for this newbie.
Thanks everyone.

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

was fun playing with you.
till next time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Thank you, invaders
 

Well. I think that at this point I can call Shinuyama the winner, and I'll be going AI. Well played. And also, ow. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif