Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree with Peter that Ether Gate, despite its cost, is worth it. A truly impressive summons. This spell is high on my "cast next" list (behind summoning a couple of H4 Arch Angels) after I run out of targets for Acashic Record ...

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, right. I am playing on a world map against 16 impossible AI opponents (now 15), all with absurdly boosted magic skills. Sure, I will spend all my time on dispelling global enchantments, just to see the AIs vie for the free slots. NO WAY! I will only dispel those that directly threaten my way of life, or when I finally have some of my own enchantments I want to slot into their place, especially as I only have one mage capable of astral magic - Angerboda the great hag - and she has better things to do.

EDIT: The inquistive reader will remember that I have had a Skratti in Niefelheim whose sole job has been to produce clams of pearl since around turn 20 or so. He may be getting a bit bored by now, but it has assured that my astral income is the highest gem income of all - despite not having searched for astral, due to a lack of astral mages http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Of course, I am hampered here by my own restriction on only using midgets as an absolutely Last resort, but that is my choice and putting restrictions on my play makes for more interesting games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

The hallmark of a superior player in any game is to make use of what he has when an unanticipated situation arises [while still obeying any restrictions he has laid on himself], ignoring conventional wisdom when appropriate. In this case, land troops that can stand up to masses of regenerating trolls and archers are needed - and Ether Gate provides a convenient answer as it provides an instant army and can be cast with magical resources currently on hand. The fact that I also gain extra mages [SSSDD*] that fill out a lacking area (astral magic) is icing on the cake.

Assigning a value of 15 astral gems to the Ether Lord [a bit low], the cost of each Ether Warrior is a mere 5 astral gems - and you get all of them at the cost of one summoning turn from one leader. Name any unit summoning spell of level 6 or lower that provides more bang for the buck or any spell of level six or lower that, powered by 90 astral gems, can defeat several large armies in a sequence of battles. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I would value them less in MP, as their ethereality is worth less against a devious player that knows to attack with magic weaponry of one sort or another, but this is SP.

[ March 12, 2004, 07:48: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

Peter, you're probably wasting your time. Those that think the spell isn't worth it have likely never used it, or used it properly. The spell not only gives you another caster that can in turn cast the spell, but the 15 warriors are pretty hard to kill (high prot & ethereal, high morale, good MR), and cannot be banished like undead can (which are the only other comparably-tough summons to them). You simply have to see this force in action to appreciate it. You and I can talk about it until our fingers cramp up and it still wouldn't do justice to the spell.

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">.. and can Gate his instant army around. And in general gives a Astrally weak nation like Jotunheim a good astral mage, with added Death for that extra yummy Nether Darts goodness.

I couldn't comment on whether the spell is a contender in Multiplayer games, where the astral pearls might indeed be needed elsewhere, but in single player games it is both fun and very useful.

PS: I've only played Jotunheim once, but Angerboda turned up shortly after I had cast "Illwinter", and her character description mentions something about her turning up because she had sensed the approach of the Illwinter. Is she really keyed to this event, or is it just a bit of background colour?

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Just color.

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I cast my first Ether Gate in SP the other night...and I concur. It is a fantastic summon, well worth the 90 Astral. They are just beastly against enemy summons, hacking about with those Moon Blades. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ March 15, 2004, 16:51: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

I love the way you do your AAR with touched-up screen captures. Some of the more interesting battles might be fun to watch as mpegs (movies).

If you run into space troubles with your hompage site let me know and I can set you up with a hosted account

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">My pleasure. It is a style that I have long enjoyed in writing my Europa Universalis 2 AARs, and Dominions 2 accomodates that style very well.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I tried applying an Indeo Video compression codec to an avi of a 1 minute battle for test purposes this afternoon, but even with hefty blurring, low quality, and only 7 FPS, it ran to rather more megabytes than my puny account can reasonably support. (A typical jpg runs to 80K-100K with the compression factor I use, a blurred stuttering movie runs to many megabytes, and a clear one to dozens)

For test purposes, I used the following free software: MandSofts Screen Movie Studio for the capture and VirtualDub, a SourceForge project, which is exceedingly easy to use for video manipulation.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That might be an option with respect to battle-movies.

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I will have to try those. In another thread here someone recommended FRAPS which is free and works but not real well.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A whole battle might be abit much I guess. I really had fun playing with zooming camera (PageUp/PageDown/arrow-keys) to do a zooming fly-by of a battle in progress. If I ever let one of my test games get to where there are thousands on the battlefield the way other peoples do then Id love to capture a fly-over of the battle to offer Online.

Re: Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"
 

...Some Say In Ice: The Fall of Caelum

The dawn is always bright in the snow-tipped Himalayan mountains as the day’s first rays of glorious light reflect from the ice-covered heights and form ethereal light-patterns in the snow. The gentle sounds of the nearby river soothe my passionate soul as it flows ever eastwards towards distant Hebei. Only the sound of Jotuns shoring up the river disturbs the silence, but they are only doing their job.

Red, bright red, flows the river, and with it the lifeblood of Caelum, spilled on the field of battle and in the first bright days of slaughter following the conquest.

As I stretch to my full height, I notice another winter wolf rising from the depression where I have rested, a spirit of the living ice, formed by the loving ice that ever yearns to embrace me. They make decent servants but poor company, alas. I kick the cur and it slavishly yelps its appreciation as it jumps at my feet.

As I survey the cracked ice and the field of slaughter, my gaze falls on the fallen trolls, frozen in their final moments, on the half-dozen Jotuns, felled by the magic of the High Seraphs, and on the hundreds of corpses sinking into the ice’s final embrace, the unyielding cold absorbing the Last heat of the once-living. It is a scene of horror, I guess, in the eyes of the weak, yet I see it and it is good.

No shade remains nor will any tomb be raised for the five Ether Warriors who fell in the battle. Their Lasting legacy will be the dozens of soldiers struck down by the nether energies of their lords’, corpses shredded and partially shifted into the ether, and the bloody path the warriors follows, which guarantees them a place in the legends of my people.

I have ordered the two clans to cut their separate path through the remaining possessions of Caelum, and they go about their work with a vile joy that is literally out of this work. Their effectiveness is impressive, though, for none can stand against them.

News is good these days. My growing giant armies in the north have reconquered Siberia and now guard Kamchatka from the huge American continent. Subjected to constant attacks from the die-hard Caelumese American forces, they yet hold. With the north and east secured, and with the wary peace with the star-spawned monsters that infest the seas off my eastern coast holding, I can now turn my attention to the west, to Arcoscephale. For too long have they threatened my capital, for too long have they escaped my righteous wrath!

Now it is time for Tjodulf and I to part ways. While I take care of the west, he can take care of the South. From Australia a most unbecoming heat streams ever northwards, disturbing the nice weather of Asia. Tjodulf must put an end to it, no matter the cost.

http://pi2r.homepage.dk/dominions2/a...winter_map.jpg

One day, I will have to find this pretender god of Pythium. A mage most puissant, no doubt, he will be yet another victim of my destiny unless he chooses to serve me. I always reward my servants well, which is why I have good servants, and true.

Where Seraphs once ruled in the Himalayas, now the Palace of the Heirarchs throng with the living dead, a stable for the undead horsemen that arrive in ever increasing numbers from the dark ladies of Hebei. Angerboda’s cadre of mages grows stronger with each passing season and the shades of long dead barbarian kings, reanimated by her unholy magic, now strive to obey her bidding where they once ruled in life. With more than two dozen astral gems generated each month by the numerous clams of pearls created by the Skrattis, she has now turned her formidable attention to finding the magic of the land.

http://pi2r.homepage.dk/dominions2/a...nter_magic.jpg


Even so, one must take precautions and not trust the undead further than one can scatter their bones. They tend to take orders much too literally. As a tactic, “forming the square” makes sense at times, but the Bane Lords take this tactic to absurd extremes.

http://pi2r.homepage.dk/dominions2/a...r_skirmish.jpg

Ah, well, in this as in so many other respects, you get what you pay for, and what I wish to pay for I wish to pay for in blood. The Skrattis are out in force now, harvesting the midgets for virgins brimming with life force, and though virgins are few and far between as many treacherously evade their rightful fate by sinful disobedience to their god’s order to stay chaste, that does have the added benefit of increasing the herds, so to speak. If I cannot harvest them, I will harvest their children. They are only midgets, after all, and live but to serve my will.

The day will dawn when I bring on the illwinter to rouse the Rimtursar. It is only a matter of time. But for now it is time for Angerboda to cast the Gift of Health with such an overwhelming force that it will master one of the existing global enchantments and I, I will begin, at long Last, to regain my lost powers by drawing on the powers of the gems to re-empower my mastery over the elements. The Niefel giants deserve no less for their good service.

http://pi2r.homepage.dk/dominions2/a...ing_heroes.jpg

[ March 20, 2004, 17:53: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]