Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I will stale that turn, my email address is no more accepted by a mail server in between so the new one must be registered (Astyreal I sent you a pm for the change). No big deal.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Can we add some time this weekend? 24/36h would be much appreciated, as I'm not sure I will get it done tonight, and the holiday will take up most of my time. Thank you and Happy Easter.

I PM'd Lanka asking that he not go AI. I was not convincing enough. We were having a good war. :mad:

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

the lizards of C'tis need Nature gems, and a few pearls wouldn't hurt either. in return we offer Fire, Water and Earth gems.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Bad form on Lanka's behalf, could have got a sub easily enough. Thats one player I won't play with again.

Personally I'm enjoying the game : )

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

But he is right, the pace is very slow, he probably does not expect that and it has disappointed him. Certainly not entirely his fault.
(Another demotivating thing is stealth troops, argh)
The admin have change my game mail address, so I am back to play.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

seems like Lanka still has a lot of provinces, the most forts and is doing relatively well on the other graphs. I really don't see why he gave up already and why we're not holding the game and looking for a sub if he won't keep playing...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I'd be more than happy to jump back in, though not everyone may think that's a good idea. It would definitely help me pay attention and admin this game. Plus I am lousy folks, you really don't have to worry.

I'll postpone hosting and let folks chime in.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Actually I think he nuked Lanka by setting them to AI. Don't know if you can set it back to human.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

It would require a rollback. Mayhem would be sure to follow.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

yes rollback suck and cause some mayhem, unless nobody resends his turn besides Lanka, that way nobody will gain an advantage by knowing the results of the turn's actions, while we can still give Lanka to a sub.

even if everybody does submit their turns again, than we still all know what will happen, so it's not really unfair, just will allow players to fix mistakes they made, which would suck for their enemies. but I much rather have that than have Lanka as AI with 19 provinces, 6 forts, very respectable gem income, dominion and income... cause right now Lanka's neighbors would hugely benefit from having to fight an AI instead of a real player, which will cause a major imbalance in the game.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I'm happy for Astyreal to go in for Lanka. Can you just sub in and take over without a rollback?

A rollback wouldn't bother me as nothing particularly major happened last turn...Helheim and Vanheim....hmmm they might disagree.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Yeah, in the last round I made quite a big mistake, and I lost an important battle with Helheim (matter of settings and commands in battle). Hey GE how do you know such a thing? XD
I promise that I will try to repeat everything the same as it was.

Hey, technically I have all the old orders in my email, maybe it solves the problem of rollback?

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I obviously do not care about a rollback, as I have stale the last two turns...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

i'll wait for helheim and vanheim to chime in.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

On second thought I am a bit reluctant to do it because if there were important battles, I don't want to mess with things. Sounds like the rollback stands a good chance of being a big mess.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well not really, there is no way Helheim can come back from where it is against Vanheim (not the current players fault - he was dealt a rough hand when he subbed in). Put bluntly Vanheim has a huge advantage in almost every way and all it will do is shorten or lengthen the time in which Helheim will be vanquished.

If the unthinkable should happen and Helheim beats Vanheim back...well I have large and experienced armies ready to thank Helheim for their non-assistance in our war with Hinnom.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I believe we would have to go back two turns to retrieve Lanka as a playable nation. I am only willing to do this if we have unanimous consent. I was at war with Lanka, and would prefer to have continued our war. When he announced that he was going AI, I did something really, really stoopid. I have come to accept it and play on. I know that in time, I will probably (barring future stupidity) have the most to gain from his going AI, so if everyone else wants to do it, I would certainly rather have a real player controlling the demons. But, if we roll back, I will use that turn minus the stupid move. It was really stupid, but was only done because my opponent was going AI.

Astyreal, I wish there was an easy way to get you back into this. Lanka is in a strong enough position to be playable. Can you turn off quickhost until this is decided?

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

You know what, I am going to pass. It's just too complicated, and seems it will introduce as many problems as it solves.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Everyone's gone kinda quiet on this, so I guess it's no longer a possibility. This is a newbie game, and in that spirit I will try to give a DAR (as they're calling it in tophats) so any who read this will understand my old position (I no longer claim the right to change my turn if we rollback).

Tien Ch'i and Lanka had peace for the early stages of development, and a NAP, which was ended according to proper form around turn 20. We asked the demons to reconsider, but they said they were hungry. We advised them that, after eating us, they would only be hungry again in an hour, but they would not be deterred.

A seemingly endless string of losses followed, and the proud Empire of the East was desperate. The sacred, regenerating demons were large and indeed very hungry. Finally, at the end of our string, two things happened.

1) Our god broke free, reinvigorating our defense of our cap, and

2) Our generals learned something called a communion. Lots of mages working together to cast spells that are far more powerful than than simply casting them in succession would be.

Few demons crawled away from the epic battle at our capital that day. And in the next few months, a series of victories followed, on two fronts. As our main communion army (under the command of our god, Gan Ning) rested and studied on our side of the bridge to Lanka, awaiting the ground troops who would be there in one month to begin the invasion, we received word that the demon leadership was about to commit some odd suicide pact.

Furious that he was being robbed of the victory he believed he had earned, Gan Ning, several immortal heroes (immortal on this side of the bridge), and a bunch of communion mages said f*** this, and charged the demon army on the other side of the bridge. Before his top advisors got home from work to try and change his mind, the turn had hosted.

The leaderless demons are already hungry again.



I honestly don't know where I stand on the issue of rolling back anymore. Lanka should probably have a player, since I'm sure I can rebuild most of my army, call back my god, and so on. But this game which was so fun just a few turns ago, is a mess for me now. I still want to thank Humakty for forcing me to learn communions, and I will continue to play. :cool:

Sorry for taking up so much time, it won't happen again.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

@Stagger Lee : Well, the fight was very fun for me too. :) It happens I scripted tons of stuff before going AI, which probably helped the AI a little. (mostly tons of summons !) Overall you learnt me TC is a very bad target for mid game warring !

@all : I went AI for several reasons, mostly very personnal ones I wont expose here, but also because the pace of PBEM games tends not to fit with what I like (really too slow).

The way people reacted make me think that I should have stalled, which is stupid, because the AI actually plays its turns (and I guess it will use my kitted thug, and my mages already recruited), even if in a non optimal way. Stagger Lee would already be sitting in my cap if I had stalled for two or more turns. Finding a sub can take some time, and I really couldn't play in the meanwhile.

So I'm not going AI because of a bad position (actually I went to war because I was in a bad position !), I have no other games ongoing and probably won't ever partake in another PBEM game. Especially looking at the reactions of some guys around here. (I knew I should have corrupted some of you with gems, just so that you wouldn't come crying).

Actually a guy replacing me would have found an effective demon factory, but not much more due to bad choices in the first 20 turns (my bless was a bit too mild too, I wanted average scales, which is stupid with a sacred troop strategy, as you can't buff troops as you do with thugs), and it would have required an experienced player to turn the tides of the war once more. The only good point being the impressive gem income, but I lacked mages and research to exploit it in the very short delay I had.

I swear I haven't helped anyone in any way, be it with gems/gold/whatever.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

personal reasons are fine, turning AI in your position however is NOT!

no, you should have started looking for a sub, not stall! do your turns until you find a sub or ask the host to freeze the game until you find 1 if it's so bad for you to continue, but turning it AI was like the worst thing you could have done, especially now that it won't be reversed!

no, that's very far from the truth. we're "crying" because you grossly disrupted the game balance, not because you didn't bribe us! please stop making a fool out of yourself...

are you kidding? not having a huge bless for Lanka is not as bad as you might think, heck having average scales benefits Lanka just like any other nation, so it wasn't a game breaking choice at all! also, this is a newbie game, so obviously we're all expected to make mistakes and learn from them, you on the other hand instantly threw out the towel as soon as you failed capturing TC's capital and saw his counter attack. this is nothing short of cowardice, and instead of learning from your mistake and moving forward you've decided to alienate yourself.

also, even if your position was actually bad, not like it is now, than you should have still started looking for a sub. maybe an intermediate player would have carried on for you and actually do well against us newbies. maybe someone else would have come in and lost horrible(due to your mistakes), but even than at least he gave out a fight to whoever killed him, the AI on the other hand is just awful!

well, we're all newbies so I don't expect you to realize this on your own but you actually did help a few people, A LOT in fact! those people are your neighbors, and especially TC who you were at war with before going AI. now TC will roll over the AI easily and win a war he shouldn't have won, or at least not so easily. your other neighbors(Ermor perhaps) can also take some easy land now that you've turned AI, which gives them an unfair advantage over the rest of the players.

this, by the way, is the reason why I and many others around here are so angry with people just dropping the towel and going AI when they were in a perfectly playable position! but well, you've decided to give up on PBEMs altogether, so you won't really suffer the consequences of this action of yours, which would have been allowing you to play in PBEM games because of your attitude and actions.

but oh well, you've ruined our game already, at least you seem to be wanting to stay out. hopefully your neighbors won't have to large of an advantage from your sudden vanishing so we'll still have a decent game going...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

@13lackGu4rd : Oh booh, poor yourself, condemned to loose your war with ermor because of my actions (and also your crappy playstyle). I'll go into an hundred years mourning, in the hope you'll forgive me one day. Or hope you grow up and become a strategist, able to react properly to unplanned events.

Of course I'm willing to stay out, playing with peoples like you is an offend to common sense !

Please consider this answer as valid for any other very offending post in the vein of the above one.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

actually, this has nothing to do about me and my own personal war. it has to do with the entire game. too bad you've just proven to be a noob instead of a newbie but oh well, each to his own I guess, but at least I won't see seeing you around here often(well, at least according to your own words)...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well, no need for trash-talking. It is completely useless.

Actually (As I already say to Stagger Lee), I will not grab anything from Lanka : I am attacking C'tis and be attacked by Vanheim, so there is no way I can take benefit from Humakty's leaving. I regret it.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well now that C'tis has just declared war on every other nation. We need to dispel "Burden of Time" very soon.

Who here can cast dispel? Unfortunately I won't be able to cast for a few turns.

If each nation can supply at least 20 (more is better for a better chance of dispel) astral gems to the caster.

Without a dispel we're all pretty much screwed.

Anyone else that trades gems with C'tis is a fool, I strongly recommend against it.

~Ulm

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Death is just a matter of time, you know ?

That is probably our fate...

:rolleyes:

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

lol... Burden of Time is not as bad as Arcane Nexus, Forge of the Ancients, Arcane Corruption or Utter Dark... heck, if you don't have any old guys and have plenty of Death mages(say Sauromatia, Helheim, etc) than you won't suffer too much from it at all... yeah we'll all get the occasional old age but I used it mainly against Ermor who I'm at war with, shouldn't be too harmful for plenty of you guys...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Ruler of Ctis thinks his expensive global is no threat to others, should be ignored and that ganging up on him or dispelling it is not necessary.

Makes you wonder why he cast it then.

This is a fun read, this thread :]

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

never said it was no threat, all I said was that it wasn't as much of a threat as those other nasty globals I mentioned... also I clearly said why I cast it, as a defensive measure against Ermor and his old Augur Elders and almost old Augurs...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Oooh, someone's mighty defensive about their harmless global.

:lol

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Here, in the glorious Empire of the East we revere our elders. We listen to them, respect them, visit them every other weekend (when there's no good game on TCTV). And if we hadn't inadvertently killed them all a few months ago we'd be really mad!

That said, we are not interested in aging the next generation ahead of schedule. Casting of Burden of Time is an act of unprovoked aggression, which cannot go unanswered.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

To be honest, I'm not interested in removing the BoT spell, at least for now. Sorry.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well being a long lived nation, I guess Vanheim can afford that luxery ; )

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I would like to buy some S gems. I pay gold or A/E/D/N gems.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

It looks like Blackguard has gone AI, so I am surrounded by 2 AI nations (Lanka, at peace and C'tis, at war)...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Which is very hypocritical considering the flaming he gave the Lanka player for going AI without first looking for a sub :confused:

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

not hypocritical considering I was pretty much dead... almost no provinces, cap under siege and soon to break, etc... Lanka still had A LOT of provinces, plenty of producing forts, his cap, etc... I didn't.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well, I can't comment too much on your (former) nations longevity, only what info I could glean from the graphs -

What worried me was your massive lead in research, a good amount of gems - until the globals were dispelled, I figured you kept a small army to pay for all the death mages you would be recruiting etc who needs an army when you can mass skelly spam.

I figured by now some tartarians should be starting to appear on the hall of fame.

Take a look at Helheim - They have had less then 6 provinces all game and yet he still clings to survival and proves to be a thorn in both Vanheims and my side.

Well I guess if the game isn't fun for you anymore you can just quit?

Maybe you should take a look at this thread and remember the commitment to being a "good" player you pledged to be on Page 12. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...=43620&page=12

Good Luck in the NaVII game I guess.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

my main problem was a few stales(completely my fault) that really destroyed my tempo in the game, and caused me to respond late to Ermor's last push into my capital. I did have a few tarts summoned in the end but not enough N gems to GoR them, that Mother Oak that you dispelled was my last chance at that... had 2 GoRed Tart Monstrums(or whatever they're called, the crappy Manticore types) that I tried to break out the siege on my cap with, as a desperate attempt, which failed miserably for obvious reasons, and it was way past the point in which skelli spam would be enough to hold off a massive army with a lot of quality mages supporting it. also that Burden of Time that you foolishly thought was a "screw you world, I'm going to win" act, was in fact a desperate attempt to slow down Ermor's advance, hopefully diseasing his mages and even national troops, to buy me time to scrape together more N gems to really get the Tart factory going...

oh and don't you preach morals on me, look at Baalz's thread yourself, scroll down to the section on when it's alright to turn AI, losing your capital was 1 of them, and while I didn't technically lose it yet, it was "only" under siege, I was unable to do anything without money(upkeep>income), gems(those critical N gems mainly, which only got worst with the loss of land) and army(again money issues) so really, if that's not a dead end than I have no idea what is...

next time get all your facts straight before hurling insults on somebody, trying to be all mucho. it just makes you look foolish and bad, not to mention alienate yourself in the process!

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Where did I hurl insults?

I believe my post was quite moderate, no personal attacks etc. I don't believe my posts were macho ..foolish or even making me look bad for pointing a few things out - i.e. Dom3 etiquette.

If anyone should feel insulted it should be the other players in the game - Lanka's player included as its now a case of "The pot calling the kettle black" so to speak.
I had no idea you'd set your nation to AI till Num pointed it out, a post in this thread requesting either a sub - yes some people will take up what seems to be a dead end challenge or letting the rest of the players know of your decision would have been a small courtesy.

Anyway good day too you sir *tips hat*

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

I was referring to this part of your post:
[quote=GameExtremist;743210]Well I guess if the game isn't fun for you anymore you can just quit?

the message here was very clear, despite trying to hide it with smooth talk, sorry but I *can* read between the lines... also it shows that you love to jump the gun, talking about things you have no idea about, and automatically think you're right despite admitting you don't know the situation!

and here you continue... I clearly explained why my situation was very different from Lanka, and you still offend me by smooth talking with the whole "the pot calling the kettle black" crap. seriously, do you think I'm that *stupid* to not see what you're doing here...?

first of all, here you admit that you have no knowledge at all of my situation, yet you happily lash out at me. who is the hypocrite now heh? second of all, the only people who *might* have been able to turn my situation around, if at all, are very experienced players and especially people like Sensori who is the master of making comebacks from hopeless situations. the problem here is that this was a newbie game so it would have been even more unfair to let somebody very experienced to take my place, and another newbie just didn't stand a chance anyway which is why I turned AI in the first place...

perhaps I should have posted about it in here first, but after the lynch on me, which you started by the way, I really didn't feel like doing that. I already felt like I was fighting against the game, with only Vanheim somewhat by my side, but even he canceled our NAP when he was Ermor was overrunning me... so again, go ahead and blame me, but look in the mirror first!

good day to you too

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

You turned IA ? How funny ! But, I know, you're very different. Sure...

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Game_Extremist do you think you are going to crush everything ? Well, the remnants of your opponents... Is there a chance to stand against your armies ?
I do not have a lot of scouts, that is why I am asking.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well there is really only you and Lanka that can pose any sort of resistance I think, Vanheim and I had a epic battle last turn, which was entertaining. Unless you have some SC's up your sleeve its probably not going to be easy to stop me.

I'm surprised Lanka is doing do well, I have spies too and it (the AI) has really creamed Tien Chi.

I'm happy to keep playing if others are...If not I don't mind if people set to AI, it gives me a chance to try some stuff out.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Lanka has completely taken the edge against Tien Chi, I do not know the story. But I am backstabbing Lanka, demons are suffering many losses since (The AI is so bad).
I only have a few SC, and they are very bad tuned. My armies are slow and not adapted to counter SCs, I guess. So you are probably going to get rid of Ermor soon and quick. I do not have Tartarians, as I did not managed to reach enough nature and death paths on my pretender (Empowerment cost much and I waste lot of time, gold and gems in secondary goals, as I was battling with C'tis for a long time).
I have hard times in finishing the last sauromancers in the C'tis capital, that means a lot.

@All the players : Do not hesitate to write and explain what were your plans, strategy, goals. I would be glad to read that.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Maybe if Lanka would be ruled by a living player we could face weak resistance. I am already finished. It was blitzkrieg. GameExtremist, you are not a noob.
2-3 years of absence, and so you can see it is not enough to become a noob again :)

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Well, I'm done. My strategy was simple and not clearly defined. I wanted a chance to try an astral heavy nation. My pretender was s9e6 I think. I eventually wanted celestial soldiers and thought maybe MR would be important, but I also wanted good scales. In most of my games so far, I have sacrificed scales for bless, or SC pretender. I knew this was also a chance to try clamming, which is not usual now, and I haven't played enough to be sick of that game.

I tried to rebuild after my disaster when Lanka went AI, and should have been able to. BoT killed or rendered useless all my replacement celestial masters. I tried to regroup again, managing to kill a bunch of my masters of the way in various ways, usually with poorly planned communions and lots of dead slaves after a victory, leaving me weaker for the rampaging hordes of Lanka. A well set up empire, and even when I was winning battles, I never took Lanka land, just retook TC territory.

I just retook my cap again, for the third and final time. If I lose it again, I won't even try. I got nothing left for this game. I wish I could say it's been fun, but it hasn't. Not for a long time. Someone once said you learn more from one desperate situation than you do from ten easy victories. I hope I have learned something here. For one thing, a stale turn will always be better than a stoopid charge just 'cuz you're pissed off.

Good game to those still in, and congratulations GE if you get concessions. From where I sit, some of you had some real epic battles, and hopefully some fun. :envy:

See ya

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Thanks for answering, it's hard to figure out what were the other player's strategies and moves.
Haha that is clearly my thought about mine :D.
I wanted a SC pretender (In my other game, Rattlehead, my C'tis pretender was useless, with strong scales and dominions, but it has fitted very well), but I missed magic diversity, and did not reached good numbers in nature and death paths... So I had a good early game. But with a lot of wastes and mountains and lack of magic paths, I missed both gold and gems incomes.
War with C'tis was successful at the end (I suspect Blackguard to play in too much games for his available time, and so I luckily had reasonable success against him ;)) but I have no endgame plan : No tartarian, few SCs (Fire Kings), too much standard troops, lot of summon tries. No chance (I guess) when Ulm is coming...
Anyway, I had fun, I hope I learned some things, I will continue playing a little.... See you.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

so, this game is finally over heh? well, cooling down is a wonderful think I gotta say ;)

so anyway, my 2 cents. started the game pretty well with my Prince of Death, found Niefelheim too early on my north, very close to me, fortunately he didn't want an early war with me, than he started staling and was subbed. anyway, before I knew whether I had to face some crazy blessed giants on my doorsteps I immediately rushed enchantment3 to give me skelli spam as a stopping power for whatever rush might emerge from the north. than I found Ermor and Vanheim. at first I didn't know where Vanheim was, but we were fighting over the same indies, so I just let him keep a fort he had up and I built my own fort next to it, to block an incoming offensive should it ever come. my scouts reported that most of Ermor's province had no PD at all, some at 1 and not much above it. seemed like a perfect target to blitz, so I prepared some black servants with those skelli amulets, to hopefully raid all those juicy 0-5 PD provinces with just animate skeletons from the amulet. unfortunately I had to give Ermor 3 turns notice due to our previous NAP, and I guess he upgraded his PD immensely during that time cause my first strike was a horrible failure. I did capture a few provinces here and there, but not nearly as much as I hoped. than we basically got locked into this war that I eventually lost. my main mistakes were twofold. the first was that I didn't focus my research enough to really abuse my research lead, instead I went for as many globals as I could(Mother Oak, GoH, Well of Misery, eventually BoT) which forced me to not focus on a single field. the second is that I completely ignored gem generator making, mainly clams. nonetheless, these wouldn't have been too critical if it wasn't for a few careless stales of mine, that really destroyed my tempo and gave Ermor just enough breathing room to commit into a successful offensive and slowly but surely bring me down. at the end I was desperate, which was why I put up the BoT up, and if it wasn't for those crucial stales I would have had a few GoRed healthy tarts to hold off Ermor's push into my peninsula and cap, unfortunately due to the stales(and scattered research) when I eventually got the tarts out it was already too little too late, and I got 2 Monstrums instead of more useful tarts...

I guess Ulm did focus a lot on gem gens, as everybody should under vanilla settings, while I suspect the rest of you didn't. this, combined with his obvious experience lead to his easy victory with a relatively mediocre nation, especially compared to all the powerhouse nations we had(Lanka, Niefelheim, etc). still, if I hadn't messed up my research plans and tempo I could have probably still beaten Ermor back, than Lanka and TC and burst into Ulm with an armada of fully equipped tarts, which are much easier for me as C'tis to amass than for Ulm.

and well, it's not that I was in too many games per se, as I had plenty of free time for them, it's just that I lost my focus a bit too often which lead to my very poor game play.

Re: EA: Vanilla, Newbie game [GOOD AGAIN!]
 

Prentender and scales -

I went with a dormant oracle with E9S4N4, Reason was being a Prot bless for my sacreds with a little regeneration mixed in, astral to help gain access to the high end of that path later on.

scales were Turmoil 1, Cold 1, Growth 3, Luck 1 .

I don't clearly remember why I chose those scales...all I know is that Luck 1 paid big dividends in gold and gems over the game (I usually pick misfortune).

Early Expansion and the Hinnom War. Turn 1 - 30ish?

I started in the NW part of the map, my cap 2 provinces from Hinnoms cap, so we met very early on, I tried to expand away from him and avoid confict but he came straight at me with an army of chariots 40+ http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Avvite_Charioteer led by a thugged out Melquart and Kohens http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Melqart (early game SC)...which I had nothing to counter with and he crushed my initial army, luckily he left his provinces with NO PDwhich enabled me to raid him and hurt him economically preventing more of those nasty chariots and melquarts.

Now he should have crushed me and could have taken my cap, but instead he went on a tour through my provinces and still DIDNT build any PD in my captured lands...so I was able to recapture with a simple scout that followed his main army. Meanwhile he was busy trying to recap his lands I had taken with indys while I built 21+ PD in each.

My forces built up and I sent armies north of our position and took lands up there, still avoiding a direct conflict with his main force, he then sent another chariot army north...oh great I thought but funnily enough he split it in two and I was able to encircle the two havles seperately and rout them ... meaning they were totally wiped out!

Now the saving grace in these battles was letting him come to me...he would set his chariots in a wall so they would span the width of the battlefield....sooo I set all my army at ther very back of the field all my mages were E2N2 spammed Earth meld so the chariots arrived in smaller lots and my steel maidens and sacreds were able to hack them to bits rather then be overwhelmed by the chariot mass. The strategy worked well.

After that it was a matter of grinding his economy down (giants costs LOTS OF $$$ and eat lots too) and we reversed roles his main army becoming the mouse and my growing force becoming the cat. Eventually I had it holed out and let it starve, Krec started staling around then which was disappointing as I believed he could still have put up a fight.

Arco, Helheim and consolidation Turn 30+ to 45+?

Were both near to Hinnom and Ulm, Helheim signed an early NAP with Hinnom much to my disgust as it crippled his expansion (locked onto a peninsula) and meant I didn't have the ally I hoped for against Hinnom, Arco refused a NAP too and attacked...seeming like they were going for a turtle strategy building lots of forts but not having many provinces.

I turned my full attention on Arco once Hinnom was defeated, of which went AI soon after...I went on a massive site searching (with spells) mission with my E2N2 mages but I was alos fortunate to find 2 that gave me A2 illusionists...sweet :), A death indy site was found with one of my D1 randoms, enabling me to bootleg into death too.

Arco proved harder then I thought to bring down....I guess he had a lot of mages with gems and it took a long while to bring all my armies across the map, eventually they fell and I turned to removing Helheim which although seemingly weak were giving Vanheim a challange...Helheims pretender ...oh wow what a great build and strategy...I salute the 2nd player who still has Zynoggoly doing hit and run attacks.

Research
After my goal of researching earth meld (alteration 2)http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Earth_Meld I went straight to construction and didn't stop till I hit Const 8 nad had my warrior smiths with their 25% forge bonus making earth boots and dwarvern hammers (a further +25% forge bonus).

Thats right ...I had access to artifacts around turn 30 something...which I didn't want anyone to know this :angel

There was also some excellent battle spells like legions of steel etc..

Gargoyles, Golems and Gift of Reason

I began making Gargoyles, gift of reasoning them and kitting them out...the first one Artabanes was given monolith armour and the Stone sword and a few other trinkets...this combo proved to be lethal, armies melt before this guy - Helheims main army did, he literally petrified 200+ undead, the great thing about this was 0 fatigue...and immune to the nasty self-petrification effect of the stone sword. The others were thugged out with the nastiest things I could forge and used as raiders. The Golems were my astral mages used to forge astral artifacts and boosters.

Neifelheim and Vanheim Turn 45+ to 70

After Arco fell I considered moving south to kill the crippled Tien Chi, however he was proving to be a nice buffer between Lanka (who was unpredictable being AI) and I now had a narrow land bridge to Neifelheim, he refused my NAP and attacked with a large army of Skinshifters (70+ I think)....I didn't feel to worried, Its expensive to keep all those giants around so I decided I could outraid him with my gargoyles and just surround his main army and rout it...so I did that, By now I had access to every path (even blood - I have this guy to bootleg with http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Treelord_%28Barkheart%29 ) so it was only a matter of deciding what to throw at him, I used warriors of muselpheim and rings of cold resistance to protect my army from the ineveitable cold (ulms troops have 25% cold res to start with) and tore it too shreds with everything else.


Now at this time Vanheim wanted out of our NAP, So after the alloted 3 turns, I turned my attention from Neifelheim of which had been hit very hard losing 20+ provinces and 3 forts in a handful of turns, oh Neifelheim had death scales too which was strangling his gold flow....made my job alot easier - I didn't gain much in gold from Neifels provinces....but that was more then made up for from the gems....all those provinces had lots and lot of gems...

Anyway back to Van, I hit Van after the NAP expired with my armies...armies of mages and thugs now....Having Forge of the Ancients up means my smiths and others are pumping out the max (50) items a turn, my biggest dilemma was not running out gems but emptying my item treasury every turn so I could fill it up again. Battlefield wide spells like armies of gold, storm warriors, mass regeneration were used...and as John Madlock knows Van was taken quickly as he really didn't have the resources to stop me...oh we had/have a second front in the ocean being fought over, but gargoyles with rings of water breathing and an army with goblets of water breathing seem to be winning too.

Gem Generators

Contrary to opinion I don't have any clams, I have about 10 fever fetishes as I only have a handful of fire mages which are too busy making items then site searching, all my gems are from the 2 globals i have and the huge amount of site searched provinces.


Why was Ulm so successful


I think some critical mistakes by Hinnom (like the fact he didn't crush me like an experienced player would have) and the fact his two neighbours Arco and Helheim were so weak was the biggest factor. Once I started building momentum it felt like a juggernaut that couldn't be stopped.( I nearly made one of those by the way :p)

Oh and Artabanes the Stone sword wielding Gargoyle. (The counter to this is the shatter spell).

While it might seem I'm uber experienced...the truth is I am currently in five games, already been knocked out of 2 others already. E.g. My idea to use Earth Meld against the chariots was taken from the Tophats game where my strategy as Arco revolved around trampling Van with elephants...he then taught me how effective false fetters (Air version of earth meld) was in stopping big rampaging tramplers ;) . You learn lots by playing against more experienced players and these forums are great for tips....Dom3wiki is great too!

The Future
Should the game continue - I'd like too even if people concede to me and go AI.

I intend to mop up Vanheim and Neifelheim (still has a nice juicy army in his cap). Kill that damn lump of rock they call Helheims pretender.

I just wished for my first Seraph, I am going to Gift of reason him, transfer the chains of tartarus and some other goodies and start wishing for doom horrors.

From there I'll probably use my demon fighting army (I have started mass producing demon banes and herald lances for Lanka) to head south in Lanka and send the current Van/Neifel Army into Ermor....