Re: Pity
 

Well, crap.

I'll do my best to get my turns in, but uni stuff has got my *** beat. I don't really have the time to complete my turns consistently, even on a weekly basis. I'll do my best, but I will inevitably stale a few rounds here and there.

Re: Pity
 

If it would help you out I wouldn't mind moving to for example a 48hr schedule?

48 hr schedule?
 

I'd certainly be up for doing this. We can keep it on quick host so if we get the turns in early we can keep it moving.

Re: 48 hr schedule?
 

OK, executive decision time here, we're moving to 48 hour host and leaving quick host on.

Re: The game, from Maverni\'s viewpoint
 

I played Maverni in this, and made just about every mistake you can. I thought this was going supposed to be a newbie game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Anyway... the game starts, I try to expand quickly. End up choosing to traverse the mountains because it seems like there's more room there. I probably would have done better by expanding south and just fortifying a natural chokepoint. I receive a message from Caelum asking me to turn over 3 lands. Doing so would leave me FAR behind in territories and completely cut off any room to expand. I didn't think I had any option. In fact the request was so unreasonable, I assumed his message was simply an excuse to instigate war. Therefore I decided to take a more aggressive response.

I attack, and send out messages to negotiate a NAP with the only other neighbor I knew about at that point, Yomi. Unfortunately, I was way too late on the diplomatic front. He attacked the SAME turn (Hadn't received any messages at that time, so I probably should have been more on guard).

Basically I knew at that point I was screwed. I somehow ended up 2 front war while playing a weaker nation. I also hadn't found any Indy provinces that could make scouts so I had no clue who my enemies' neighbors were. So all I could do was make forum posts and hope someone would pick up on the hint and join forces with me against one of them...

I knew my army couldn't take Caelum's head on. My initial plan was to simply avoid his troops, pillage and disrupt what I could, and research up to something that could deal with the mammoths. However, Yomi's attack forced me to pull mages off research to defend. At that point, I could only hope for luck or aid from some outside source... it didn't come.

I split forces and tried to send one squad to deal with one of Caelums armies that was marching through my lands. The Caelum strike force ended up not having enough chaff, and lost half my mages. This is when I realized my pretender was awful. I really should have gone with a SC of some sort. Mammoths just trampled everything I had. The other force was fairly successful at fending off Yomi's first wave, but having little income, and minimal research at this point made it just a waiting game. Yomi's Blade winds and fireballs sealed my fate.

Caelum offered peace when I was down to 2 or 3 lands. But I sent an antagonistic reply simply to ensure my swift demise. I was out of the game, and I was pretty sure the two of them were allied by then anyway.. so why bother?

That's about it from my end. I had fun even though I got crushed. At least I learned to spend more time figuring out and/or testing a good pretender design for nations I play http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The game, from Maverni\'s viewpoint
 

Nice summary fungal - had no idea what happened to you really, I was 100% underwater back then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Hey great idea to move to 48 hour hosting. I am pretty busy at work too and was pretty sure I would stale once this weekend as it was. Everyone accommodated my trip over Labor Day so I feel if sum1won needs more time for turns that's totally fine.

Anyway thanks Warhammer, quickhost will allow us to play faster when everyone is around, and this way the game won't be distorted by stales.

Cheers! Oceania

Re: The game, from Maverni\'s viewpoint
 

That last battle may have cost C'tis quite a bit. 23 commanders and 50 ghosts gone.

And an artifact.

Still, the top 5 targets were not eliminated. This time. Ah, well.

Its worth mentioning at this point that Caelum and I weren't allied at any point. I had just attacked when he sent a message to me asking for help.

Caelum
 

Well, when he publicly invites you to take his provinces so he can kamakaze his army, it is almost just as well.

Re: Caelum
 

Accidently subimitted a half-finished turn last round. Apologies to all.

Re: Caelum
 

Heh. Thanks for clearing up the Marverni end of things, Fungal. I can see how you would think my initial 'offer' was just an excuse for war--it wasn't, but heck it was a reasonable conclusion, and I may have shot my own foot off for my campaign by being so, uuuh...'direct' with you. And the fact that Yomi attacked you the same turn you attacked my neighbouring province goes a long way towards explaining what was happening from your side! : )

You know, I'm doubly glad I didn't just go A.I. after all. I've been able to hurt Tien-Chi all out of proportion to my current power level. How many leader-turns, and hundreds of gems, have been used up in rituals trying to weaken my army and leaders? How many hundreds of Tien-Chi's units have I killed? (Over 200 in just this last turn's battle!) How many turns and armies have been wasted maneuvering armies around in an attempt to take me out of the game? Now I'm down to one. single. province.

And *I'm still heeeeeeeeeeere!* : )

Vengeance against the backstabbing liar aside, I'm actually kind of curious now to see just how long I *will* last. Oceania can safely ignore me now (assuming he's so inclined), since I have no intentions of risking my final bastion of defense in any sorties against him.

Tien-Chi cannot however. Because if he does, then I'll simply wait. Until he's in the middle a war with someone else. And then begin to expand outwards once more. (There are three particularly juicy Tien-Chi controlled plains provinces nearby!) So, waste more gems and/or units taking me out of the game entirely--while the other players who don't have to bother with annoying little ol' me continue to grow unhindered--or leave me there and risk having me gobble up some provinces later on. Either way, Tien-Chi, I bleed you a bit more before I'm truly done.

And the real irony in all of this is that Tien-Chi and I could have been true allies. Together we probably could have taken out Oceania, particularly since Yomi and C'tis went to war on the same turn. But I guess Tien-Chi was the scorpion, I was the frog, and now (I hope!) he drowns with me.

It's wierd. I've been enjoying myself more these last ten turns or so, in the role of righteous avenger, controlling but one army flying around harrassing Tien-Chi (and taking a few nibbles at Oceania as well), and preparing for the inevitable turtling-up in my home province...I've been enjoying the game more now than I have since I sensed everyone wanting to gang up on the poor winged folk in the middle, oh, 30 turns or so ago.

It will also be interesting to see if Yomi and/or C'tis will become foolish/desperate enough to consider anything approaching an alliance with Tien-Chi. Guys, all I can say is, watch your backs if you do. Carefully.

And what the heck's going on with the two of you, anyways? That's a pretty tepid war you have going on, there...; )

Re: Caelum
 

Most of the losses have been heavily equipped mages and commanders.

Re: Caelum
 

Ah yes, that would make sense. You two have been all about the leaders from the beginning. I should have realized that. ; )

And Tien-Chi...tsk tsk. Some more gems lost to rituals to try to weaken me. Over 200 more of your units ground to bits by my apparently vast, single-province power. And I'm still here, waiting to kill more of your forces.

Bring it!

Re: Caelum
 

Actually aside from the guy that I had teleported in, most of those losses are losses I can afford. The guy with the gems that fought you single handedly and was going to cast a couple of essential spells for my army that attacked that turn, that was a big loss.

Re: Caelum
 

I have midterms this week, so would it be possible to extend hosting time until sometime saturday? Thank you.

Re: Caelum
 

Ack! Just got this, I will push it back.

Turn due
 

Pushed back to this weekend.

Re: Turn due
 

by the way, good luck with your midterms sum1!

Re: Turn due
 

Heh. I should check this thread more often. Yes, hope you, err, *had* good luck with the midterms, sum1won...

Just came by to make a comment: *TWO* 'huge barbarian hordes' attacking my home province. In a row, these past two turns. *snarl* --Never. EVER. Taking Misfortune-3 again. I'm experimenting with Misfortune-1 right now, which seems one HELLuva lot more handleable...

Oh. And...

...still here. ; )

Re: Turn due
 

What should we do about the patch? Anyone know?

Re: Turn due
 

I think we should probably all apply the patch, but that is just me. I think we should wait until this turn is run though.

Re: Turn due
 

Thank you to everyone for the wishes. They aren't actually over, so if it is possible, I'd like another extension to friday, though I've gotten over the hump.

Re: Turn due
 

Llama Server says we're on Turn 73, but that's not right, is it? I sent in my Turn 72 but I never got a turn file resolving that turn. Anyone know whats going on? I really hope I didn't lose my turn file and now have to redo it.

Re: Turn due
 

Weird. Fixed.

Re: Turn due
 

Okay yep, I set it back and resubmitted all your turns, and now it's hosted. Hope that's all good now. It was presumably some weird side effect of the patch issue. This seems to be the only game affected.

Re: Turn due
 

I'd like to thank C'tis for a very, very fun war. I learned a lot from fighting you.

Re: Turn due
 

Hmm, have we all upgraded the patch? I get an error message when I try to load this next turn saying my Dom3 version isn't up to date.

I want to patch; MA Tien-Chi is one of my favourite nations for example, and I want to see what goodies they received. But I've been holding back until we decided here, just in case...

Re: Turn due
 

Yes, patch is mandatory for this game I'm pretty sure.

Re: Turn due
 

Aww...looks like I'm finally, finally done. All that's left is to hope I hampered the buggerer sufficiently enough for Oceania or Yomi to take him down.

Tien-Chi has lost *hundreds* of gems to spellcasting. Dozens of cold and fire spells cast at my home province. Gems given to leaders to cast spells in battle, attempting to take me out. Melancholia alone was cast, what, 4 times? 3 at least! 20 Earth Gems each time! Then there's the hundreds of units lost in trying to take me down--maybe even over a thousand in total. Over 25 leaders, at least 12 of them potential researchers, kept busy for nearly twenty turns maneuvering into position and trying to take me out, as well as the leaders that wasted research/crafting time zapping my home province. And for a lot of that time, I was 200-taxing and patrol-killing my home population off, so that there were 7,500 people left when I was finally defeated (I only wish I had thought of doing that earlier so there would have been nothing left).

Now it's up to you guys. I hope my efforts make a difference--and enough of a difference--in the end! Take him down.

Warhammer, if you hadn't been such a filthy, manipulating, backstabbing liar, I wouldn't have tried so hard, for so long, and so stubbornly, to do my damnedest to ensure you lost this game.

*shrug* All I can hope is that this is a lesson you are capable of learning, and carrying on to your next games.

Was it worth it? ; )

Taking notes
 

Dang right it was worth it. I made the player with the most provinces take himself out of the game.

Re: Taking notes
 

Heh. Wow. More lies, concentrated crap in one sentence. Let's see...

1) I didn't have the most provinces when you played me. Nowhere near it, and I hadn't for around 10 turns by then. That would be what we call, another 'lie'. And a foolish one too, since a simple F2-check by the other players will prove it. (The fact that I wasn't the most powerful player, btw, was one reason why I figured you wouldn't betray me, despite the signs; it would have been stupid to do so.)

2) You didn't get me to take myself out of the game. You motivated me to stay as long as I could just as my interest in the game was flagging--as I told you it was, in our private messages--so that I could do you as much damage as possible. Which was the opposite effect you apparently intended. Good job there. --Oceania took me out of the game, by taking too many provinces for me to recover from.

3) I even offered to let you wait one turn while I attacked Oceania--who, of course, did have by far the most provinces at that time. So you could have had it all--Oceania and I at each others' throats, while you 'helped' take out the most powerful nation in the game. Oceania. After he and I were committed to a war with each other. Instead, you've only weakened yourself severely. (Another reason your betrayal surprised me; I was expecting self-interest.) So not only are you a backstabbing liar, you were *stupid* about it, too. (Noticing a theme?) You really were the scorpion stinging the frog. Know the parable? May want to look it up if not, cuz you obviously haven't learned the lesson.

4) Thanks for confirming the type of person you are.

Note that I don't begrudge the loss of the game. Oceania and I end well, and *he* is the direct cause of my losing the game. He's the one that took a bunch of provinces from me just as I defeated Helheim, and he's the one that took 1/3 of my remaining provinces just after you backstabbed me. He played well, and he beat me, so I tip my hat to him in friendly respect. Yomi, Marverni, and Helheim get the same. I exclude Lanka *only* cuz we didn't really interact. C'tis I eye warily, cuz it is possible his was unintentional. Tien-Chi, on the other hand...

Anyways. Impressive job. It only took you fifteen turns or more, and at least five serious attempts, to take out my final province.

I think I'm done wasting time and space on you, even though I enjoy writing for the sake of writing. Unless that is, your own posts continue to mimic what comes out your butt.

Re: Taking notes
 

Greetings everybody, just a note to let you all know that I am going AI this turn. This was my second MP game, and I had a blast in addition to learning a lot.

To Yomi, thanks for a good fight. Looking back, even though I managed to hurt you a few times I think, I probably never had a real chance with my over-reliance on undead units. But that's one of the lessons learned I guess. It was nevertheless a lot of fun with some great battles.


Hope you all have a good rest of the game, it seems there's plenty of potential for some truly epic fights.

Re: Taking notes
 

I think that this game may be just about over, especially given how badly my last few turns were played. Still, I should have had sent him in with a few more death gems. A few more bone grindings may have routed Oceania. I've got two tartarians left who can give a fair fight, but I think that my SCs have not been deployed well.

I do have one challenge left- I challenge any one of your commanders, deity or otherwise, to a duel against any one of my commanders. I want to see who can field the greatest champion.

Re: Taking notes
 

I got lucky to intercept your Dai Oni army depleted from your war with C'tis.

My bet is Tien Chi would like to continue, but I'll let him decide. We still have an NAP, so he needs to give me three turns notice before he attacks me anyway.

As for the duel, how would we make that happen? I like the idea.

Re: Taking notes
 

I'm thinking that we should prepare a specific field for the event- use ghost riders or some such to make it neutrel, so we have an equal chance of first attack. Morale shouldn't matter too much, so I have no real preference on dominion.

I'd like to suggest no spells beyond divine ones cast in the duel, but if you would prefer, we can allow spell casting. I personally think that allowing for spell casting would give my commanders an immense advantage, as I believe that I have more magical diversity than you and possess blood magic, but we can do it either way.

I would like to pause the war for a season or so as we prepare our respective commanders and move them to the front, though.

If you like, we can send in two or three champions, though I may need some resources to fix/replace the third.

Re: Taking notes
 

Yes, I want the game to go on.

Regarding an NAP, I don't think we ever had one in writing. We started against Lanka and took him down and agreed not to go after each other, but I don't think we ever had an official NAP. I could be wrong about that though.

Re: Taking notes
 

Warhammer, are you still planning to do your write-up after the game finishes? If so I would be interested to read it, as I'm playing EA Tien Chi in my first MP game and since you seem to have pretty much won, you obviuosly had an effective strategy with them!

Re: Taking notes
 

Warhammer has "pretty much won." Hehe! Let's just say you are mistaken. But Warhammer/Tien Chi is clearly in second place.

Warhammer, we do have an NAP with 3-turn warning, from ages ago. I will honor it unless you dishonor it.

sum1, as Tien Chi wants to continue, I will continue fighting you as normal, so no dueling as of yet. If either I or Warhammer decide to throw in the towel and you are still around, I like the idea. It would be interesting either with casting or without.

Re: Taking notes
 

I wouldn't say I pretty much have this won, but I think I would put up a good fight either way. Oceania is running first by a good margin right now, but I figure making it to the end game is a win.

Re: Taking notes
 

Regarding the NAP, I seriously don't think we ever made one. The closest thing I have was that we should proceed in NAP mode from a note back on 8/20. But, there was nothing more definitive than that. I am willing to be proven wrong, but I can't find anything other than that.

For the record, I'm willing to honor it if it is there, but I really don't think we ever made one. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but this has a big effect on what happens in the next few turns (obviously).

I really do want to continue this game because I think there is still stuff to be determined.

Re: Taking notes
 

I'm happy to continue the game. My recollection is that we had a 3-turn NAP. It has been a long time since we discussed it though, and maybe it was just a general NAP.

If you want to break the NAP right now, I think that's fine and honorable, as it means no sneak attacks - we can both attack each other this turn. Or, if you want to keep the NAP for some additional number of turns, that's fine too. Let me know, obviously it affects my decisions a bunch too.

Re: Taking notes
 

Also to be clear, I think Yomi is basically defeated now, but since we've never fought and you are much larger than Yomi, there's no way to say I will beat you yet.

Re: Taking notes
 

Tell you what, let's consider this turn the notification and after the next turn, everything is fair game, ok?

For the record, you probably will win, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Re: Taking notes
 

Quite fair Warhammer. See you on the battlefield!

Re: Taking notes
 

Would you care for me to participate in this skirmish, or no?

Skirmish
 

I have no problem with it, I still need to deal with Caelum and C'tis.

Re: Skirmish
 

So, last turn I definitely forgot that the turn was due until 8 minutes before, so it didn't turn out too well, I'm thinking.

Re: Taking notes
 

Snacktime, how did you interpret this? I meant one thing, but this can mean something else as well. I want to make sure we are on the same page.

EDIT: Meaning I can see where attacks this turn can be justified or not...

Re: Taking notes
 

I thought you meant we could attack each other this turn that we are currently doing, but now I see what you're saying. I haven't done my turn yet, so you tell me. It's fine either way, I think the only way it's a big advantage to someone is if one person attacks a turn ahead of the other.

Also, and I hate to do this, but can we delay the turn clock until Monday? I am going out of town this weekend and unexpectedly won't have internet due to a broken wireless card without time to fix. I don't think I'll have time to do my current turn before I go.

Let me know, and thanks a lot.

Re: Taking notes
 

I will delay the turn.

Yes, we can attack each other this turn. That was what I meant, but I saw where it could be interpreted to mean next turn. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

Re: Taking notes
 

I don't understand the clock listed on llamaserver any more. the real time right now is 16:16 gmt monday, october 22. but llamaserver says its 15:16 gmt right now, and that last update was at 17:05, both Sunday Oct 21. It also says next turn is due by 7:05 gmt on Monday, Oct 22, but that has already passed.

Anyway I will be able to do my turn within 10 hours, which would seem to be soon enough according to llamaserver's weird clock, but who knows.