Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

No, that works. I will play my turn tomorrow after work which is 18 or so hjours from now. I will send it in 3-4 hours before 01 AM Tuesday.

thank you.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Need another 24H, thank you. And sorry about this.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Postponed.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Thank you, and I only needed some 24 minutes thou...

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Wow. How ****in retarted. Who the **** decided on no graphs and victory points and stuff. What a damn waste of time. Never again.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

I havn't seen the turn but i suspect i know what you are upset about.

If it is what i think it is, i am very sorry...

What specifically are you upset about?

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Lol

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Simply beautiful.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Well, Anaconda, did you ever fight anyone besides Indis in this game :D

At least i humihilated Utgard and made an Arch Devil my prophet. It was fun while it did last.

Immac: Its not your fault, not at all.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

So my shishi drop worked? I won?

If so thats the greatest comeback i have ever had. I thought i was dead. I opened a turn (don't remember which but its the one when bogarus and pythium forces were spilling across my border and i had a central fort under siege by skinshifters with no real answer to them- all while fighting patala in their homeland), went ai, thought about it- didn't submit, opened it again fresh and played it out... Thats how close i was.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

You have me to blame. Then again, you knew what you were entering when you signed up! :D

I suppose it was a misjudgement to have the victory points set so low. Usually a game is "over" when someone has enough VPs anyway. Guess this time was the exception.

Sorry and thanks to the people who participated.

Guess we can't continue the game anymore, or is there a method to play despite it being over?

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Nothing can be done about it.

Funny how you played your trump card, but it was trumped by another trump card. lol.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

What do you mean by trump card?

i.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

And does anyone want to give a brief and unoffocial AAR just to hear how things went, what their plans were etcetera?

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

For Bogarus, things were uneventful. I made NAPs with all of my neighbors, except Pythium. For much of the game, I intended to focus my attacks on Pythium. But as fate would have it, we became staunch allies. Then I decided to attack Ulm, when it seemed he was powerful, but we had a NAP with a most annoying clause of "will have to go on for 20 turns before can be cancelled", and I didn't realize it. So to pass the time I moved my armies to Mictlan, where they were promptly annihilated.
I realized I had to modernize, so I redoubled my research. By this time I had produced some 50 storm demons and had planned to have all my Starets cast Hellfire on the enemy, thinking that those forces combined would make short work of any foe. Then I intended to attack Ulm as I finally could. I took a handful of provinces, then it came to my attention that Mictlan was growing strong again and beat Midgard, so I tried to make peace with Ulm and planned with Pythium to attack Mictlan with all of our strength, I also tried to convince Ulm to do the same.
And then the game was over. :)

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Bogarus trump was obviously the Gift of Health he did cast this turn.

My Plan ?
Well, i was metagaming. Halberds kill Giants good and in addition i had ghoul guardians who could chop down wereskrattis.
Basicly, Utgard expanded too much into my direction and i was forced to attack him. I won 2 major battles and then i lost a major battle because i had a all my ranged troops on attack instead of fire.
I then got soul slay and a huge communion did take out loads of giants which is good, cuz i rather soul slay one size 4 giant than one size 2 human.

This turn, i had planned a blood communion with hellbind heart on a douzen skratti thugs and i they would have been mine. Then i would have conquered the sea above my capitol and attacked pythium together with ctis.
I had a couple devils under possesion (GoR) thugged out and one arch devil prophet.
My gem income was really, really bad despite more than average searchin imho.
But i had great research due to 3 quick forts and magic 3.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Well, i got to see the turn. I guess thats it.

Thank you all for a really great game. Sorry i whined about the 4v1.

Immac.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Hey all, thanks for a fun game. A surprising, and impressive, victory for Mictlan.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Good game, everyone. I really thought I had Mictlan on the ropes--and then they come around and win everything!

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

you did have me on the ropes. i had no real good response to your shifters for a long time.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Umm guys? Why has this game not been declared over yet?

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 Soon to start
 

Didn't realize I had to do that.

Game has been declared over now.

Is there some weird thing I need to do in addition to this?

Don't think so but now Immaculate can get a big neon sign saying "I WON AN MP GAME. I'M NO LONGER A NEWBIE"
Congrats by the way.

BTW it may sound rude but it's not meant to be, I was just emphasising how important a win is in an MP game and how Immaculate should be proud of his achievement.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

I suppose congratulations are in order, especially since he was in dire straits at one point and managed to pull through, and won using cunning even. :)

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

this is actually my second win- i got another while we were playing this as patala.

i took no offense

in this game i learnt,
1) defensive movement traps are the shiznit.
2) slingers are the counters to a) hydras, and b) skinshifters
3) horrors are not as good as i think they are.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

What do you mean by movement traps?

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

You set up a trap for the opponent's movement phase. If you know (or can guess) where the opponent will move to, you set up some PD to tie up the opponent while you put one or two mages in the back to actually kill the enemy. Its a very cost-effective way to kill opponent forces.

This is based on the idea that the defender always 'moves first'. Ie- reinforcements always arrive before the opponent attacks UNLESS he attacks during the magic movement phase.

As an example, Archmage sent a thug, a vanjarl with a golden shield and a firebrand (and maybe a luck amulet- i don't recall) scripted to bless, mistform, mirror image (and maybe air shield) via cloud trapeeze into one province. Thats a pretty hefty opponent in my back row when my main armies were elsewhere fighting his main armies of skinshifters, etc. So what i did was send 4 turkeys (1s2n) to two of the neighboring provinces (2 in each). each had 3 nature gems and was scriped to cast, "Swarm, Swarm, eagle eyes, Vine arrow, Vine arrow". And i bought about 5-11 PD in each of the provinces, maybe less. So when he moved, and he did, he thought he would be attacking mostly PD but ended up moving into a 'defensive movement trap' and losing a vanjarl and 20-25 gem worth of equipment to my four nature gems.

Thats what i meant.



EDIT: i think you need this tool i your toolbox to move from newbie to intermediate level play. my 2 cents.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

Hmm, interesting.

I didn't know defenders moved first. But I will from now on, thanks. :)

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

So I realised I hadn't written a quick AAR yet and probably should.

My quick AAR

I choose a rainbow Serpent King (thematic reasons) god whom i hoped would forge all the boosters i needed for my low level mages. I used Hydras to expand as only a few of them can take on almost any independent with ease. Once I made two small armies of Hydras I began recruiting Comitatense and Palatines from my capital and used Serpent Priests for research. I researched thaumaturgy and conjuration for site searching spells and path boosting spells then went for construction for boosters. After that I went for evocation for Falling Fires. Once I knew who my neighbours were (C'tis = North, Ulm = East, Mictlan = West, Bogarus = South) I realised I had to assess the dangers they posed at various stages in the game and act accordingly.
I reasoned that Ulm is good early game because of their powerful infantry but their low magic resistance made them weak end game so I thought iron bane would be a useful spell against them as well as curse of stones.
Mictlan is dangerous right through the game because of their Jaguar Warriors and buffed Jaguar Warriors are even worse but Jaguar Warriors have low protection so if used archers and flaming arrows with a lucky Heliodromus that would be effective. Also high fire bless seems like the staple for Mictlan so my Solaris troops with their 50% fire res would be useful, especially boosted with fire fend or warriors of Muspelheim. Luckily those spells were in the same school.
C'tis is powerful end game because that's when they can start spawning armies of undead at once and backed with powerful battle magic I reckoned I would have difficulty dealing with them, I had researched thaumaturgy so I had dust to dust and evocation for Falling Fires to deal with the living troops and I got cleansing water as well for the undead.
Bogarus has excellent mages and exponential research so he would be a real threat in midgame when he had high level magic and I only had mid/low level magic but I didn't think if him as a threat for early game. I also felt I needed an ally so I befriended him.

Mictlan offered an NAP early on, presumably to secure his safety as he attacked Patala but i'm not sure and (though i didn't realise it due to my misunderstanding) Ulm offered an NAP too. I accepted and just sat around for a few turns with no real plan in mind but to create and extensive scouting network and research as much as possible. When it became clear Mictlan was on the ropes I decided to break our NAP in the hoped I would gain some valuable lands. Meanwhile I noted hat Ulm was defeating Utgard. I decided to use my Hydras and unfortunately they got slaughtered so with a huge army of Jaguar Warriors about to attack and no Hydras I made my peace with Mictlan and retreated. I decided to attack Ulm to secure Utgard's future and attacked unfortunately breaching the terms of our NAP and I retreated. Realising what a threat Mictlan was now he was knocking on Midgard's door I worked with Bogarus to take down Mictlan. I also knew C'tis was planning an attack on me so I was forced to split my forces. Then the game was over.

Things i've learned:
*Hydras are useful in expansion but need buffs to survive fighting against other nations.
*Poorly placed scouts can mean the difference between seeing an army of reinforcements and not seeing one.
*I need to communicate more with my neighbours, the only one I was taking with was Bogarus and sometimes Mictlan so I wasn't entirely sure whether C'tis was really planning an attack and I didn't know of Ulm's involvement.
*My choice of god and scales was bad compared to what it should have been, if I had gone with a Forge Lord and better scales to complement my resource hungry troops and my money hungry Maenads I would have been better off.
*Site searching spells aren't all that useful and because of that I lacked magic gems throughout most of the game. I should have sent out my god to do lots of site searching.
*Luck with enemy dominions (from what i've read) actually causes misfortune, I didn't have any luck but I think Bogarus did and his dominions started to encroach on my territory a bit (not that I'm blaming you for that Bogarus, it's not real,y in your control and I should have been managing my dominion better) so I had some bad luck. Also building temples with good scales is a good idea as it spreads your dominion and gives you greater income for more temples and troops.
*Serpent Priests were probably not the most cost efficient mage for research and I probably should have gone for the Renata.

Just some of the things I learnt, it was a great learning experience and lots of fun. Thanks everyone.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

I love the serpent king- one of my favorite pretenders and definitely my favorite rainbow. nice write-up.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

Thanks. The Serpent King was definitely a better choice then some of the others not only because it's thematic but because he demands a heat scale of 1 or 2 to prevent encumberance which nets some extra points and boosts the Heliodromus and Leo because of their fire power ability. But upon reflection I wanted to use my pretender for forging and without the Dwarven Hammer the Forge Lord was the best option for me to save those extra gems that I desperately needed.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

I think a rainbow nets you more gems than the forge lord saves you. my 2cents.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

Hmm possibly, depending on how fortunate you are with sites.

Re: I Would Be Sovereign - Newbie-intermediate game 8/8 - WINNER IMMACULATE(Mictlan)
 

Oh yeah, a word of Pretender Choice.
I did play LA Ulm and took a Blood Fountain, albeit without any Death on it. So i didnt play into Ulms greatest strength.
Doh.