Re: Methadone - running
 

Ehm - now, will there be an "end game" before Marignon is killed off, or is that still an actual goal? You're talking all "have to prepare to kill Abysia or die trying"... if Marignon isn't a priority any longer, please give me a hint at least how one deals with such a Sacred Statue :)

New game: Will have to see, first get this one here finished for sure. I'm in three games right now, and I definitely can't take more than that - although Bazooko pretty much could lead into a workload reduction soonish... ;)

In these three games, I've been picking Abysia all the time (all three ages) to get a feeling what they are like - will be damn tough to play something ELSE than Abysia ;)

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You can poke your head in the castle (siege it, break the walls, send in a scout on retreat to storm). Once you actually seen the statue, you'll have a better handle on how to kill it.

There are spells and items that target lifeless units, but depending on what kind of gear the statue has you may not need any of that.

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I've been trying to kill Mictlan's monolith in Bazooko, and I got pretty much toasted by it - just by spells. My troops weren't hard enough to poke through its armor really. Of course I didn't have all kind of mages available...

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Gath wishes to announce that we will not permit Marignon's capitol to fall into Abysian hands. We will begin taking preventative measures to avoid such an occurrence.

Re: Methadone - running
 

*ahem*

(first - vfb, your Doom horror screenshot looked as if the camera was rotated somehow, or was it just the horror teleporting around so it ended up north of that commander? If it was rotated - how does one do that?)

Now Gath shows its real, ugly true face, a death mask of war: While Abysia has offered Gath to capture the Marignon capital, Gath does not mention this offer at all and instead uses a lame excuse to turn against the peace loving citizens of the lava lands.... while we are just making sure that everybody interested can swim in cozy pools of lava, and breed special cows that can live even under the harshest conditions (see below), Gath continues its tradition of betrayal that it showed when casting the BurdenOfTime ritual, under which all free people in the world have to suffer.

Abysian cow, grazing:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...doomhorror.jpg

But we will stand upright, we will defend our lava pies, protect our sweet virgins from the aggressors. Can you imagine what those death glorifying, insensitive giants would do to a harmless girl, waiting to be sacrificed in honour of its god (yeah, they might have to spend some "quality time" before in the temple, but their final purpose is defined).....

Defend those lovelies - this is Magmalia, an Abysian sweetheart (of the month)!
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...ian_virgin.jpg

Re: Methadone - running
 

To rotate the camera in battles, first press shift-F. This turns on free-camera-move, where you can use the Home-End-Del-PageUp-PageDown-Insert, and num pad 7 and 9, to rotate and move the camera.

But I tried pressing shift-F to rotate the devil-girl image above, and it's just not working! :shock:

PS Very nice picture of the grazing cow too! :D

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Jim's mages get affected every turn, but really....not too many have died yet. They will, though as my mages are all old to begin with.

You don't suppose VFB had THAT in mind when he cast the global, do you?????

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Nah, I don't think he put more thought into the choice of his global than just writing all their names on a wheel of fortune and then using it to decide which one to cast....

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Gath initially merely considered that Marignon's mages were old, and ours were not, so it made sense to speed up their departure from this world. It was only too late that we realized our poor allies also had mages with old age. It's nothing to do at all with any rumors of gankfests.

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Do we have an auto-host (that'd ask to be turned off for now, or at least postponed for 1, maybe 2 days), or can I just take my time to consider all the options (and then finally pick the wrong ones, of course :p)..?

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Take your time, there is no timer. It's much faster for me to do my turn, because I'm all out of options. :D

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Now that the time "pressure" feeling was gone, I finished my move ;)

Not much happening, though, heavy infantry moves so damn slowly :p

At least I got me a prophet that's not going to age :)

On the matter of BoT: It seems to add several years to the age, potentially depending on how old the unit already is (means - the older you are, the more you age by BoT). All old units I checked took 1-3 additional years and lost 2-5 HP due to disease. But I thought to have had a 5 years aging as well last turn, not sure though.

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DANG!!!! Marignon assassinated my Pretender!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dumb little prophet scout with a black heart and soul contract!!!

I never scripted Jo-El for anything and the knucklehead is sitting there casting worthless spells like breath of winter and resist magic.

Damn what a discouraging turn of events!!!!!!

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Wow. That is a damn innovative strategy there.

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Archaeolept has left us with all sorts of interesting surprises set up. :)

Marignon has only about 4 provinces left but Gath is still getting horror attacks, and when the AI broke siege in one fight, the Marignon mages had many blood slaves in the battle.

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Re: Prophet sneaking - Dang, how ..*** unfortunate. Did you mean Lifelong protection, or really Soul Contract?
I have had several assassins from Marignon as well, although they couldn't show the right papers to my border patrols, thus getting sent back where they belonged.
Do you mean I need to worry about my new prophet as well getting sneak attacked? :p

Re: Horrors - With open hostilities declared by the coward forces of Gath, Abysia decided to resort to every means we have to defend our magma virgins and lava pies, thus even the temporary recruitment of Horror forces might be included....

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Oh! So Gath has multiple sources of our horrible problems then. Just when I thought they'd be tapering off...

And you should be able to see the Helio in Marignonland now, since Gath has had to execute a tactical maneuver to improve our strategic positioning, aka getting the fork out of town.

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Re: Horrors - Well, it was the misguided government of Gath asking for those measures, you know... we were all about cleansing the unholy forces of Marignon from this world, when the death cultists of Gath decided that it's a good idea to burden old people with age....

But don't worry, where those horrors were coming from, there are more... :p

About the Heliophagus - yep, I saw it. Still, with AI scripting, I don't consider it as dangerous as it would be in human hands.

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Toran, i meant lifelong protection...the one that kicks out two imps per round of battle.

Jo-El was a reasearcher, not fighter.

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Yep, I assumed that Jo-El wasn't a fighter, considering his magic paths and appearance. Still, I happened to have a lot more units non-scripted than just my pretender *sigh* :)

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Well, that's just because you've got too many units. :P

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Damn I keep forgetting about those stinkin HORRORS!!! Well, I had body guards this time, but lotta good Militia is against horrors!!!

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Is there an award for acute stupidity out there? I'd like to be nominated....

"Yes, you have this unit that can cast GoH, you also have quite a few gems to invest. Now cast it - your unit may defend, and even if you don't make it, the spell is cast at least."

I managed to forget about the point that says "... or until the unit dies". .... .... ....

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HAHAHAHA!!! I think you fit right in, Toran!!

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Never been one much for MMP games online. I found kind of a fun one called wizard101. Kind of childish, but it is fun.

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Well, since you've shown yourself to be able to attack with impunity a province bordering my cap, and still have massive numbers of devils all over your lands, you've pretty much got this one in the bag.

So chalk up your failed GoH as a nice learning experience, which is pretty much what the rest of this game is. Even if Man hadn't allied with you against me, I still don't think I could have won 1 on 1, since half my lands have no people living in them.

Sending your Eternal-Pyre casting Arch-devil in combat to the front lines is not a really great idea either, but since you don't really need those gems anyway, it won't make a big difference.

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Ouch, thanks for reminding me of this one - that's the same thing I was forgetting about the GoH. Shows I just don't have any experience with Globals, doesn't it?

Thanks, it's (been) definitely teaching me quite a few things. To be honest, you noticed that I was playing badly the last few turns, it was just that I've been able to apply enough brute force to get through in spite of that.

I had been wondering why you didn't try to ally with Man - I had been fearing that all the time, telling him that I would be the major threat yaddayadda. Of course, casting BoT wouldn't be helping to convince him that you're the good guy ;)

I will believe you if you say that, since I don't know what your armies can do - I haven't met your thugs in a fight right now & can't predict how they would fare against my devils. Or the other forces coming to support them.

In the battle in Nifel this turn, where three of your horrors attacked my devilish forces - there were three horrors rushing in. Were these just 3x Send Lesser Horrors, or how was that achieved?

Other than that - if the game is over from your experience, I don't want to push you into playing on longer than you enjoy it. I know that I've got plenty of stuff left to learn, but I can understand as well if you want to focus on other games.
In worst case, I'd ask you for the files so I could play the game vs. the AI at home, although that one isn't playing nearly as clever as you are, of course.

That BoT was a master piece to the right time, though. It's almost too easy to cast...?

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What's "MMP"? But yep, it looks *slightly* childish :p In dire need of games where the other players respond "instantly", no waiting for a game to host..? :)

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The 3 Lesser horrors were just from 3 casts. I really needed a couple of AC upgrades on my horrors, but the roll of the dice didn't go my way.

I only cast BoT after Man told me he was joining forces with you, to gang up on me once Marignon was destroyed. It's always a difficult decision what to do when one is not in a position to win. Hastening my death is not a totally terrible thing, because I really couldn't compete at blood hunting, and AC makes it tough to use the D gems income which is all I got out of taking over most of Ermor.

Your devils are going to cause havoc for my thugs, because that's what they are ... thugs, not SCs, and they need a chance to buff up before they can fight effectively. It's the paralyzing poison from the tail attack that's most worrisome. Plus all my thug gear is still undead-killing weapons -- charcoal shields and flame brands aren't the best weapons against Aby. :)

I'll play a few more turns and see if I can kill some devils off before I'm completely wiped out.

Re: Methadone - running
 

They probably rolled your way when my Naiad tried the GoH (just using 53 gems, I wasn't lucky with my nature gems, even though searching all my provinces) - she got doom horrored, and her body guards didn't stand a chance....

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...doomhorror.jpg

Ah, ok, well, I wasn't sure he'd really join me until he went into your territory deeply. You know, people tend to be unpredictable ;)

I found that you either need Blood or Astral on your mages to deal with horror attacks (blood for LifeForALife/Leech, astral for Returning), or some devils as bodyguards against everything up to a normal horror. Against the big guys, only Astral is helping. Would you agree? Is there more one can do?

Where's the line between Thugs and SCs? Reading the forums, it's often a wide grey area, with only pretenders definitely being SCs. I was thinking of my Arch Devils as thugs as well (if not just mobile Fire artillery platforms when unequipped).
What do you think about my devils' equipment, is it acceptable, or what would be better improved with them? I found myself a bit lost browsing the forums for "how to equip well".

Hm, I never watched that in battle, but that was just because usually nothing survived a single devil strike. Wasn't fighting giant creatures until now. It's that strong?

Yep, sure, but I was expecting you'd have exchanged that already for other stuff, possibly Earth based, because you probably had quite a bit of Earth income (wouldn't Gath be blood hunting to forge BloodStones, especially with your pretender being forgy as well?)

Well, your BoT helped definitely in reducing my devil recruiting powers, several SoulContractors are going to deliver their souls pretty soon...

Another question - battle positioning, old stuff... "attack rear" is obvious in what you WANT it to do - now, what's causing flyers still to engage the front units even when they have this order? Do they need to be in a certain distance from those rear units to engage them instead of his front line forces, or....?

Re: Methadone - running
 

HOLY SUMAC, BATMAN?? Whatever disease causing spell you cast on me, Gath it is devastating. Of course, I'm all diseased anyway from not having enough to eat in a blighted land.

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In CBM, farstrike works pretty well against lesser or normal horrors, assuming you've got bodyguards that can stick it out for 2 or 3 turns at least.

I've made some minor death stuff and not gotten killed, just by scripting raise skeletons. They eventually overwhelm a lesser horror.

I always think I'm missing something if I've got an empty slot on a thug/SC :). Got regen, luck, reinvig? Add some MR, or attack or resistances. Tough to craft some items with AC up though.

Attack rear is iffy. You might get there, you might not. There's a morale check involved. More units == less chance to get by.

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That would be leprosy. I think I only got 1/3rd of your guys. Good thing devils are immune, or you would have missed out on all the fun. :D

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Hm, ok, got to add FarStrike to the list. I guess when playing against you again, I just need to expect AC from you, at least if you get the remote chance of acquiring some blood :p

With my death stuff, I didn't take chances. My revenants (that I summoned just to cast Dark Knowledge) were unprotected mostly and I just lost two of them over the course of the game, but my more important guys were set to cast "Undead Horde". Didn't want to take the risk of a normal horror coming for me ;)

Are the various pieces of equipment I used acceptable? Are there certain ones you'd say they are useless/bad picks?
I was especially worried if the armor was a good pick, with so many different armor pieces around to pick from.... *sigh*

Hm, well, if you have an Arch Devil that's equipped to take out even heavily protected guys, and then see him killing off one peasant after the other (vs. Marignon), you wonder if you're doing something wrong. Although morale shouldn't be my devils' problem..?

I also noticed how stupid it was to make Igarak a prophet - I absolutely forgot about the dominion effect on the prophet. I seem to be forgetting about quite a few things..... :p

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Hey, I can make stupid mistakes too! Charcoal shield? Wadda I need that for against Aby? Fire Shield's not gonna help. Might as well throw it on some other unit. (Instant 500 fatigue as I'm swarmed by devils and only have 50%FR ... duh.)

So, Gath surrenders to the mighty power of Abysia. Congrats and good game!

I'll have to let the AI handle your cleanup duties! Have fun. :D The game will continue running on the server, unless Man goes AI too. In that case, let me know and I'll ship you the files.

Re: Methadone - running
 

Could you do me a favour and zip the files you have there right now, so I could use the current turn as a "start" to work from? Maybe even without Gath already being AI (dunno if you can still change that), and your password, if it's nothing critical.

I was just about to see what the Demon Lords would do, was going to summon my 2nd one, after Belial was supposed to bring up GoH this month. (This time for real! And staying! Just spent 50 pearls on him so he would be able to use his Returning escape pod, no need to duke it out against a Doom Horror).

Thanks for the game then, for sure! It was fun, even though you might say that I just took the easy route of picking the easy sides in conflicts (joining Marignon against Ulm, while you took on Ermor - then fighting Man+Gath, finally attacking Marignon). The game of diplomacy/cowardness, I know....

At least I managed to dig into every path except Air (my pretender design was crappy :p), gave me a good insight in how to do it (you can read the guides, but playing is different).

A few questions left, though, if you don't mind -

a) Did you really intend to use your prophet against my arch devils with their dozens of "minor" devils? Could they have managed, even when they had not been fatigued?

b) I thought when an army is intercepted that it's going to stay where it was intercepted, but my devils were flying to another province attacking it (after you hit me in my originating province). Is that only for flying units, or is the mechanism actually different from what I thought it is?

c) I had a few SoulContracts, as one might have guessed - are they considered worth the blood in general? I mean, my devils worked off in the end, but I poured about 650 slaves into them, which wouldn't be considered a minor amount as well...

d) Research centers/mages - obviously, if you mass your mages researching/ritualizing in just a few fortresses, they're vulnerable to remote attacks (Leprosy being a major threat). Do people usually disperse them more, or put up multiple layers of domes, or what would be a smart way to do it?

e) Display of dominion strength - you get your own dominion displayed in every province you own, got that. But what does it require to see the dom strength in an enemy province? I see it only sometimes, no matter if there's a scout or not. Is it only when there's positive dominion of mine next to it?

Again, a big THANKS to all participants :)

(now, what am I going to play in my next game? I only know how to play Abysia a bit *shiver*)

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a) Yes, and probably not.

b) It's only intercepted if it loses.

c) I think they are worth it if you can make them early enough.

d) domes, usually.

I've got a .tgz of each game turn, I can send you the one previous to me going AI.

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AS for dominion strength, you can see dominion in provinces adjacent to yours and your units, I believe. But I don't know if its always accurate/

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Toran, I played my turn but I have no chance against you. I will play if you want to see what the demon lords are like

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Re: dom strength - I don't see it always when it's adjacent to my units (e.g. with scouts), only if it's non-scouts. But if it's non-scout units, it's usually my own province, so it could be more related to that "own province rule".

As for playing on - if you both see that game decided, it's ok for me to call it. I'll let VFB send me the game files so I can come up with a strategy how to defeat the Sacred Statue of Marignon; the Demon Lords will be probably just nice, but not worth the additional effort of you playing "with" me.

So, thanks again for the game - it's been my first completed MP dom3 game, you know :)

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OK, let's call it a victory for Toran and move on. COngrats Toran. Nice job!