Re: From now on, I will stay in character.
 

The attack from Tien Chi? As I recall it, it was niefelheim that decided to make any questions of alliances easier on us by declaring war.

However you have our promise that the people of whatever province of niefelheim we may conquer will be treated with utmost respect. There will not be much looting or unnecesary violence of any kind.

Re: From now on, I will stay in character.
 

We promise the exact opposite! In your lands, when we conquer them, the subjugated giants will be forced to toil needlessly as part of our unspeakable mental experiments.

Those who do not work fast enough - or maybe those who work too fast, just to mix it up - will be paralyzed and slowly eaten, fully aware but unable to move! Also, we will have cappucino machines in all our temples and our religion will be much more fun than yours, everyone will say so because we will brainwash them.

Re: From now on, I will stay in character.
 

> The attack from Tien Chi? As I recall it, it was niefelheim that decided to
> make any questions of alliances easier on us by declaring war

We do not remember declaring war. We do remember withdrawing from a NAP,
because, in our opinion, you were acting in bad faith by building an
uninterrupted wall of temples on our border, at a time where we were in
a real danger of dominion death, and your dominion was already one province
deep into our lands. And we did not attack when the NAP expired. You did,
a number of turns later, without a declaration of war.

> However you have our promise that the people of whatever province of
> niefelheim we may conquer will be treated with utmost respect. There will
> not be much looting or unnecesary violence of any kind.

Of course not. Do you really think you will have time for looting? You
really believe that you will be able to stand against Fomoria or R'lyeh once
they have beaten us? I hope we are still around to laugh at you by the time
your turn comes.

> Also, we will have cappucino machines in all our temples.

Hot drinks? Is there nothing you'll stop at? That's it. Between liars
and hot drink lovers, and fellow giants that are just better at conquering lands
than we are, is there a wonder we do better against Tien Chi and R'lyeh that
against Fomoria?

Come on, Fomoria, say something to upset us, so that we give you some fight!

Re: From now on, I will stay in character.
 

Hmmm. Well, if you insist... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

I think I could disclose the real reason behind our attack on Niefelheim this turn. All this talk about 500+ earth gem Forge of Ancients, and massive blood stones and clamming operation of Giants is just a pretend for unwashed masses in our nation, as well as arguments for our neighbors. Don't get me wrong - all this is true, but it's nothing compared to the real reason for this war.

In the heart of our war against our giant cousins is a breeding program. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

You see, after unsuccessfully trying for many generations to get rid of the dread Curse that is affecting our nation, the High Council of Fomoria was getting desperate. They have tried dreadful magic rituals, forbidden alchemy of Ancients, blood sacrifices of tens of thousands strong - nothing worked. And then, just few years ago, our divine Lord had come up with a wonderful idea.

If we can't break the Curse, perhaps we can fool it by mixing our blood with other similar race. Top secret experiments performed on Giants's prisoners have confirmed - our nations can produce offspring. And these half-breeds were indeed free of the Curse! What even better, these half giants half fomorians can breed with native fomorian, and their offspring is also unCursed! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Apparently this Curse only affects 100% pure Fomorian, even small fraction of other blood will make person immune to the Curse effects.

After that stunning discovery the fate of Giants was sealed. We are going to conquer your race, than we are going to select 10.000 strong and healthy Giants females. The rest of the population will be exterminated, to prevent possible future uprisings. Selected females will be brainwashed and transferred to breeding farms. There they will be impregnated by Fomorian males, and gave birth to the offspring, after which they will be impregnated again, et cetera. The Giants is a strong race, so our scinetists have estimated that each female will be able to give birth to 20-30 halfbreeds before her body would fail.

So you see, it's a pity that your race must die, but in doing so it will save our own race. In other words at the end it will be for a greater good. I am sure you will apprecaite it.

________________________________________________

(out of character) Was it upsetting enough, comparable to capuchino machines? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

New turn
 

Ouch.

Hmmm, perhaps I should keep my mouth shut about breeding program earlier. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Nifelheim's counterattack was very effective. He teleported more than half dozen tartarians and his pretender, all equiped with powerful battle gear, on top of many uncastled provinces that I have raided last turn.

In all but one province he won battles easily, since my tartarians were scripted to cast returning or retreat.

But I have prepared nice ambush for him in one province, teleporting two of my best tartarians there to add to the one HOF tartarian who already was there. Together my three tartarians were scripted to ambush and destroy whatever counterattack team Niefelheim would send against them.


Well, the ambush had worked, all right. They caugth up the great Seraph of Fire, Uril. (Seraph! In service of Niefelheim. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif Got it?)

7F, 8S, 5A, equiped with 2 unique artifacts - Mage Bane and Solar Brilliance.
The bloody thing had destroyed my kickass tartarians, all three of them, without breaking a sweat.

All I can say - I am glad I have decided to go after giants now and not later.


Well played Niefelheim. I will have to be more carefull in the future.

Re: New turn
 

Actually, he was sent to negotiate peace, and the mage slayer was meant to
be tribute, but you had to go and cast Rage at him.

By the way, what happened to our agreement that we will be making war on
each other, not on the peasant population? You are killing off the
peasantry in Port Hexx, Trisia, Pharaexa country. Stop it, or we assure
you, we have plenty of population killer magic of our own.

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

please delay the turn processing, it may be needed.
this mornjing when i went to do my turn dominions seems to be freezing at the waiting for game info stage when you log on.

This isn't like the old problem of that, where if you opened a second copy of dominions that one would work.
second copy is freezing just the same.
Logging in worked fine yesterday or the day before (i forget which) when i looked around to plan.

And i suspect i'm gonna be attaccked soon so i don't wanna stale another turn.

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

I can't log in either. I assume that the server is down.

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

The game server didn't crash (to the command line), but froze up, dunno why. I have restarted it now.

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

I would like to have the clock stopped, and that we look for replacements for
Tien Chi and Pangaea. It seems to me that we are getting too many stales.

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

pangaea staled? they just ended the nap though; why end a nap then stale?
my offer to just call the game and let Ich decide who the winner is by looking at everyone's positions stands http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

C'mon, the fun is just about to start. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif We are going to have some huge and intersting battles ahead of us.

Fomoria currently has the most advantage in all grpahs. But Giants have proven to be a tough nut to crack, and they have massive gem producing items economy and the Forge.

To Truidji: It's a pity that Tien Chi has stalled, but it is actually very benefitial to you, since now you only have two active oppoennts to deal with. Which is ok with me.

Personally I am fine with pausing the game and looking for new subs, as long as it would not take forever.

Just my two cents

-Corwin

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

I think this game is very interesting, but it will be less so if the small
nations get out of it. An alliance of TNN, TC and Pangea could take the
winner of the R'lyeh+Fomoria vs Niefelheim war... My only problem with TC
was the damn wall of temples. I could make peace with them.

Can we hear from the players who stalled? Would they object to giving the nation
to someone else?

Re: Signing up for DangerPudding
 

I'm still in the game!

Fomoria
 

Guys, it looks like I won't be able to continue the game anymore. My project at work has been taking increasengly large ammount of time, I have been barely making my turns for the last few turns without stalling - sometimes uploading turns few minutes before the host.

Another major factor is that frankly I think Giants have won this game. I can play cat and mouse game with them for the next 50 turns, but time is working for them due to their Forge of Ancients. According to R'leyh it was casted with 500+ earth gems, so it can't realistically be dispelled - not with my earth income at least.

Giants also have Chalice and they have at least 4 times more SCs that my nation has. And their Tartarians can be equiped almost for free. Those thay I have encountered so far routinely spot things like Rings of Wizardly, et cetera.

Last but not least, Giants have at least 2 Serpahs that they have wished for, and these things eat regular tartarians for breakfast. Finally Giants have all best battle artifacts, including Gate Stone, Mage Bane, Astral Boots, et cetera.

I have enough power to stall Giants for a very long time, but stalling will only work to their advantage. I knew I had to attack or abandon any hope of wining this war. Last turn I have thrown many of my best troops against 3 Giants castles, demolishing their walls in one turn, while blocking nearby castles to prevent non-teleporting reinforcements. I was hoping that when facing 3 sudden storms at the same time Giants will have to split their forces,so I would be able to get least one of these castle

It was not the case. Giants have repelled all three atempts, killing a lot of my troops and SCs in the process.

Perhaps there is a chance that giants could still be stopped, if all other nations would act together against them and do it in good coordination.

I did my best to form such coalition, but while the relults looked good on paper (3 major races against Giants), in reality I don't think R'leyh and Tine Chi were very active in this war, for whatever reasons. They have distructed Giants a little, but not much. I have expected R'lyeh to at least kick Giants out of the water by now, but alas, it did not happen.

I am not sure what Pangeya up to, I was hoping they will join the coalition, as they have hinted they might, but I haven't seen them fighing giants. TNN is just silent, he has not replied to any of my messages.

All in all, considering that I am in severe time crunch, and considering the situation in the game, I think the future of this game is determined - Giants have won.

They have played well, I commend their leader. Forge and "turtling" is not very exciting tactic but it is very efficient, I give them that. And Tuidji have proven to be a very good tactician and strategist, my compliments.

I have not lost a Dom3 game in a long time, but I have do admit my defeat in this one, even though I have only been playing it as a sub for the last 10 turns. I wish I would have been in this game from the beginning, I can't help but think that I would have planned things differently. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif Oh well...

Anyway, that's just my personal vision of the situation in the game. If you guys feel that there is still some hope left you may put the game on pause and look for another sub. Fomoria still has enough forces left to repell any Giants attmepts to take my castles and raid my lands for a very long time. But I don't think anything I can do at this point will affect the final outcome.

Re: Fomoria
 

The giants have absolutely no interest in raiding Fomoria, or trying to take over
their castles. We are, and remain peaceful. If you consider yourself chastised,
and apologize for your aggression and your mistreatment of our peasantry, we will
gladly sign a peace treaty.

After all, we still have to kick R'lyeh out of the water... we cannot allow these
hot drink lovers easy access to the materials for their abominable practices.

And frankly, you underestimate your alliance. Tien Chi just killed one of our
best equipped commanders, and captured the Astral Boots and the Unquenched Sword.
Well, that happened because he did not manage to kill off the hundreds of
unconscious enemies before union rules just popped him into inexistance, but hey,
he's still dead, and the artifacts gone.

As for R'lyeh, they have been fighting us. He did attack us everywhere he could,
and is besieging a castle of ours as we speak. It's just that his Pretender
got turned into sushi, and our Pretender borrowed his castle cracking troops for a
pet project of his, but forgot that most could not breath air.

Re: Fomoria
 

I didn't see any of these battles with R'leh and Tien Chi, but I will take your word for it. But no many provinces have changed hands in these wars - in fact I think you were gaining provinces on the other fronts.

As for appologizing for my agression - you can't be serious. The recent experience just proves that I was absolutely right to attack you, and so are Tien Chi and R'lyeh. If anything I regret that I haven't done it earlier - but with Sauromatian AI chewing my *** I was not really in position to fight 2 fronts war earlier. I also should not buy your clever propoganda about how weak you are, and agree not to cast population killing spells. Blanketing your entire territory with Black Plagues would go some way toward undercutting your income. Although most likely it would not make much difference at that point - with Forge and mountains of clams/stones you are on gem economy anyway.


All in all, you were simply too strong and too dangerious to be left alone, and we were too late to stop you. And even in its Dom3 version, Forge is one of the two "I won" Global, especially in the long game on the large map, such as ours. Whoever casts this spell should expect to take on the world and win. (just like you did)

Re: Fomoria
 

I would be willing to sub for you....

primarily because I want to see what another player uses for end-game. I have created my own end-game wierdness that seems to be doing well in the only end-game I am in. I'm not talking Alexander, I have one other MP game that is on Turn 86 and I have a decent chance of winning, despite one major desperate attempt to sabotage myself at the last second.

Anyway, I am familiar with basic end-game tactics, Ghost Riders, Send Horror, Tartinians, Forge(though it is my ally, and my primary source of confidence in the other game), Wish, teleport/stealth raiders, and the extreme difficulty of castle storming.

I would also be willing to temp for a week and give it back to you.

Re: Fomoria
 

Drake49, I want to warn you that I will answer any use of Mists of Deception
by starting to use every cheat or exploit I know. If you would like an
explanation I'd gladly give it to you.

Otherwise, welcome to the war. I think that Corwin's lack of time is a lot more
to blame for his bleak view of the situation than what has actually been
happening in the war. I am hurting a lot, especially now that Tien Chi's
main force has arrived on the scene, and is cracking castles in one turn.

If you need the turn delayed in order to get a better picture of the situation,
and renew Fomoria's diplomatic relations, I'm OK with it. Hell, if you want to
talk peace, I'm fine with it too, but I think that Corwin has managed to
convince everyone that I am so damn powerful I need to be stopped.

In any case, I would like to sign an agreement with you not to do anything that
kills population. I like to think that mine is a just and benevolent rule, and
that the civilian population has a hard enough time without being killed off by
various spells, pillaging, overtaxing, or patrolling.

Re: Fomoria
 

I disagree, I stand by my assesment. If there would be any real hope of victory for Fomoria in this war I would continue playing, despite my severe time crunch. But I have been playing Dom MP for 3 years, and I know hopeless situation when I see it.

If I would take over all nations in the game and would have unlimited time, maybe (and this is big "maybe") the would be a small chance of stalemate (For example if other nations have strong astral reserves/clams hordes, perhaps I would manage to cast Arcane Nexus so strong that even Giants will all their clams would not be able to dispell it quickly).

But anything less then perfect coordination of all remaining nations and total dedication of all resources against Giants, and they will win - I have no doubts whatsoever.

Anyway, it's up to you guys to decide on the future of this game, I am just sharing my vision fo the situation. Let me know what you want to do.

Good game everyone!

Re: Fomoria
 

I'm inclined to agree. My forces were basically spent (I had nothing left but freespawn, and barely enough income to pay my mages.)

This game was a very poor showing on my part. Having the forge gobbled by Niefelheim, while not surprising (of course he has a huge earth God), was a major ouch.

I also made a lot of mistakes, mainly not expanding fast enough or in enough directions.

But well played Niefelheim!

Re: Fomoria
 

Well, I prepared my turn, and it took me exactly 4 hours... If you guys think that
you should surrender, I will be happy to accept. I do not think that you should,
I do not know why my enemies are so distraught, but hey, this game is getting
to be quite demanding. I have six castles that could be stormed this turn, I
am being pressed by armies comprised by 800, mostly summoned, troops and
hundreds (no exaggeration) of mages... And my attention is the one being most spread out.

Re: Fomoria
 

Two people missed their turns according to the stats page - should I stop the game timer until things are cleared up?

Re: Fomoria
 

Is Fomoria still playing or will that nation be handed to a new sub?

Re: Fomoria
 

No, as I have indicated in my post, I am waiting for your decision guys, since I am a relatively recent sub myself, so I think it should be up to you to make this call. Do you want me to send Fomoria's password to Drake49?

Re: Fomoria
 

are you ok pangaea? cuz ya staled last turn; though it could just be an isolated thing.
and yes ich; stop the game timer; fomoria staling is a bad thing.

i'm fine with calling the game.

and pangaea declared war on me; so i can't really help fighting vs other people.

Re: Fomoria
 

Fomoria and R'lyeh are surrendering, Pangaea is stalling, Tir Na-Nog is OK
with calling the game... So Tien Chi is the only one who wants to fight me?
I am asking because I would rather not spend four hours on a turn that will
not get played.

Re: Fomoria
 

hmm, well if everyone(or most) is getting bored of the game, perhaps we might as well call it and decide a winner. I don't really know who is most likely to win if we decided to play on, except that its not likely to be me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Fomoria
 

Alright, I concede also. Congratulations Niefel!

Re: Fomoria
 

i certainly haven't expected to win for some time; even aside from the whole not caring enoguh to put in the time and having left dominions months ago.
i've more been bucking for 2nd.
never really had good expansion prospects; all the neighboring nations weren't vulnerable except for gobbling a few provinces when someone else was kililng 'em.

Re: Fomoria
 

So, I think that everyone has conceded. I think that this game was just too
big to begin with (the map is too large) I definitely do not think that I could
have stood to a combined assault - namely all nations teleporting SC killers on
top of my provinces and Fomoria telporting army killing squads on top of every
army I leave in an uncastled province. I would have lost the attrition game.

I did have a few things going for me: I do have a huge number of clams and
stones, which I mostly forged once I took over from Nick. He had done some
forging himself, but for some reason had not gone for broke, despite having the
steel forges. He had only made stones for his earth mages...

I also have one enslaving Seraph and a fighting Seraph. I am surprised the
fighting Seraph lasted so long. He actually faced a anti-SC commander under
the worst possible conditions (the anti-SC was part of a balanced army), and
somehow luckied into picking-out, attacking and killing the anti-SC first,
right after the first round of the anti-SC had taken 66% of the Seraph HPs away.

Tartarians... yeah, I am summoning six per turn, and not bothering to GoR them.
I get one or two commanders anyway. I only GoR the 'air cyclops', that is the
Cyclops that come with Earth and Air picks.

Someone did try to wish the Chalice away, twice, but I wished it back. I am
surprised that the coalition that faced me did not poll their pearls to deny me
the chalice at least half of the time. I guess you guys really did not have
clams. I have to admit, I was convinced that R'lyeh and TNN had more clams than
I did, at least until I failed to to be ground down by astral spells.

By the way, I was almost never mindhunted, to the point that I stopped
teleporting astral mages on top of my Air Cyclops. I only got attacked in the
last round, right after I had stopped protecting myself, and the attacks failed.

I am surprised that Fomoria did not use its Fomorian Kings as anti-SC. I
expected that every SC of mine would be teleport-attacked by Kings kited out with
dual firebrands, helmets of goring, boots of kicking, and birds of annoyance.
I certainly protected against that, by having 'retrievers/feebleminders'
sent to the exposed SCs... but I was never attacked by a teleporting anti-SC.
I guess Corwin was familiar with my old tricks.

Anyway. I'll go report the win.

Re: Fomoria
 

As far as Fomoria goes - one of its problem was that for all its size, it really had very few SCs comparable to Gaints. Niefelheim has outnumbered me 3:1 to 4:1 to one in teleporting SC department, based upon just teleporting SCs that he has used against me.

On top of that he had Mage Bane and Serpahs. That combo alone (of whitch I was unaware since I have not been in this game for too long) costed me a lot of my best SCs and anti-SCs in several battles. I am not even mentioning Astral Boots, Gate Stone and Solar Brilliance.

Lagging badly behind Giants in both quantity and quality of SCs, I have chosen not to waste what I still had by seeking SC vs SC duels with Niefelheim. I've spooked few of his SC in attempted ambushes (Gaints were also using ritual or returning like I did), but mostly I've used my SCs for raiding (those who had astal pick). Most of my Fomorian Kings as well as remaining SCs went into armies support. I had to use less conventional raiding tactic using "hide and seek" glamour stealthy troops protected against mindhunt, immortals in friendly domminion, Ghost raiders, et cetera. It was quite successeful raiding compaing overall. But at the end it didn't matter, since Gaints have long since switched to gem-producing items economy.

At the end I think one of the main reason for Giants victory is the fact that they had huge ammount of clams and bloodstones. While I have inherited nation which didn't have a single clam or blood stone by turn 75. Giants have masterfully translated their overwhelming gem income into all kind of benefits - tons of unique artifacts, Serpahs, Chalice, wishes, tartarians, kick-*** battle gear(I think Giants have routinely used Rings of Wizardy on their SCs where I would have used talisman of luck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ), and of course Forge of Ancients, et cetera.


Anyway, good game everyone. And congratulations to Truidjy for victory, well done.

Re: Fomoria
 

I never really got into a war with anyone; ever; so i don't know where my army is weak/strong.
I have the ultimate gateway (50 conj bonus); but only 5-10 sc tarts. since i don't have GoH or chalice; but i couldn't afford to equip too many at one time anyways.
i have a mere 65 clams; i've been using them to wish for gems each turn to maintain 4 clams/turn production; as well as various other forgings/summonings.
gateway helped me acashic record my lands by turn 60 or so.
some gem sites; but the only other cool thing i found was moon mages.
i put the clams on draconians since i needed something to spend my air on; and dracs will survive armageddon (whcih i feared) and give me freespawn troops.

i didn't really have the spare astral yet to spread around much. and i can't get demiliches up to tarts without a ring.
picked up the air queens; not that they ever done more than summon their guys since i never got to war; but nice to have.

I was mostly trying to keep my head down; gobble up provinces if there's an opening; and build up as best i can.

only snagged a few artifacts; stone sword, dimensional rod (for getting rid of scs) and sword of aurgelmer; and prob a few minor ones.
had a few troll king to help bring army of lead and petrify where i needs it.
I think that pretty much sums up everything significant about where i was in the game.

As to why i didn't join the fight against niefel: part not caring, part not knowing whether fomoria would beat niefel (who knows whos words are true); and the lack of a border. I don't like sending armies to places i don't border; makes it hard to shuffle things around; and i never sent out armies of glamour scouts to see wehre everything is.

Re: Fomoria
 

> I think Giants have routinely used Rings of Wizardy on their SCs where I would
> have used talisman of luck

I had the Forge, the Ovens, and the two artifact hammers. I was getting two rings
of wizardry per turn, at 9 pearls each. I had 5-6 waiting on Jarls, just in case
they were needed. :-)

Re: Fomoria
 

Well, I hope you like spending 80 turns playing many months long MP game in a "solo mode" with no opponents, more than you like "sending armies to places you don't border". This game must have been a real emotional rollercoaster for you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

When I was rallying people aginst Giants 7 or so turns ago I have been sinsire and very accurate in my predictions. The outcome of this game is the best proof of it.