Re: New turn
 

:-)

But still I'd really like to play for 2 or 3 more turns and see the final battle in Arcoscephale, for the fun of it.. Probably not much work for you to play a turn currently ;-) .. Really curious if you can beat what's coming to you this time.
I think I will have won the game in 3 turns anyway even without Arcoscephale.

You could ofcourse have Abysia & Atlantis put to AI if they don't have the patience anymore, and you wait for my last castle storming, Cor?

It is too bad indeed that Oceania AI attacked Atlantis. I would also be curious to see Atlantis SC pretender in action against one of my bigger armies..

I decided not to go strongly for magic at all this game, even though it had such high site rating to start with. Just build expensive elite units that stay alive long so the investments don't go to waste and expand fast and aggressively to the economic strongpoints: the plains with rivers. With my high income, I could speed up research once I had some extra fortresses.
I also learned a lot this game. Especially about the power of some higher level spells such as Fire Storm, massing elemental summonings and communions. Phew!
By the way, my globals really weren't cast that strongly, but no one seemed to want to try and dispel them. Dispelling does not seem to be tried a lot in other games as well. Nobody wants to risk losing their precious pearls I suppose?

Re: New turn
 

I am up for another few turns, But I warn you, There will be no "final storming of Arco". We are invincible here.

I kept expecting you to cast Nukes on my capital, kill all the pop and let me have it until you dominion killed me. Not sure what I could have done about that.

I also found out that you cannot seduce commanders if you only have a single province. I kitted out a thug with seduction and then couldn't use her. Very sad.

Re: New turn
 

Of course Rico and his evil troops have won 10-20 turns ago. My god is dead (his death was as heroic as it was unspectacular), I'm holding 2 or 3 provinces and as it was my first MP-game I have learnt a lot about Abysia and their expensive troops (and I'll never have a drain 3 dominion again. Fire Storm is a must-have for them (who thought that??))

So if all agree he is the offical winner.

Re: New turn
 

I think we all agree that RicoRico is the winner. He wants to play a few more turns. If you want to go AI that is fine. I will stick around until he storms my castle again, unless he takes forever.

Re: New turn
 

Hmmm so put me to ai

Re: New turn
 

Atlantis, Did you want to submit a turn? Or are you out?

Re: New turn
 

ok great, just to play that one more castle storming :-)

Re: New turn
 

Pheeeuuww!
That was a long and heavy battle!
Clogging that gate sure can stop an army for a long time.. Perhaps I should have positioned my SC Bane Lord at pole position to clear that up.. Unfortunately I could not see him in action in this battle...
This time, I would have been very surprised if you would have won again. Perhaps berserk was the keyword here, otherwise we may have routed before you did. I threw in a host of battlefield spells though, that will have helped
;-)

Pity I did not get to battle Atlantis' pretender, it was looking awesomely menacing, with his Aegis, trampling, invulnerability, 15 reinvigoration, over 300 hitpoints, and some nice combat enhancement spells..

Well, thanks a lot everyone for playing, I had good fun!

Re: New turn
 

Very nice job, I took a lot of the things I did wrong this game and have hopefully improved upon them. Doing much better in perpetuality and in a winning race in mid_unlucky.

Really wish I was able to see some of the epic battles you guys had over in the east.

Re: New turn
 

Perhaps Cor could place some screenshots? :-)

I'm wondering, can you see a battle if you have an astral window on a province?

Re: New turn
 

I am in the midst of moving right now. Maybe I can get some screen shots soon, If i cant it will be at least a week.

Quite a battle.



If there was a "second place" it would be Juterea. I guess i would be third.


I wonder who caused the most casualties to sauromatia. Any opionion Rico?

Re: New turn
 

well, casualty wise.. hmm.. obviously it would be either Abysia or Arco..

Those fire storms of Abysia hurt quite a lot and killed a great many soldiers.. However, I think Arco's defenses must have cost me more... Entire armies were annihilated by the sheer force of lightning and air elementals!
I think if Arco would have been more aggressive, they could have hurt me even more.. My back lands were not heavily guarded most of the time, and may have been taken by their elephants & air queens or teleported mages or something.. The magic advantage may have gone a long way earlier in the game..
I was just going for military power at first, which did not make me very flexible in the beginning. Well, maybe I did not need to with my hydra's.. I do like those!
What kept you from going all out on my inner lands?

So Arco I think killed most of my units, but Abysia gave me more trouble because he was more aggressive.
I guess I was happy being at peace with the water dwellers for so long though...

Re: New turn
 

Yes! We are number one at something!

As to why I did not push into your undefended lands, i cannot say. I guess I play a very defensive game until I have a clear advantage. I also did not have enough scouts in your lands. towards the end I was pulling them all back home and giving them ethereal crossbows. I guess i just chalk it up to inexperince on my part. Oh yeah, and i could not have brought along my watchers, which I was so fond of.

Early arco does not have elephants, they have chariots, size 5. Which dont pose threat to the Hydras. I found early in the game that i could not deal enough damage to the hydras with spells to really stop them. In retrospect charm would have been really good. I did not start using it until it was too late.

Re: New turn
 

I have not forgot about the screen shots.... Check back tommorrow evening.

Re: New turn
 

hmm yes charm with some penetration items could have been nice.. for you :-)

and those seducing commanders, they were too expensive? I was worrying a bit about them in the beginning..

another thing I thought was: why did no one dispel my globals? I can imagine you did not want to waste gems. But actually, they were not verywell protected and could be easily dispelled with 40 astral pearls or so ;-)

defending only I think will never make you more powerful if you do it too long I think.. I got a huge income because I just kept on taking provinces, that way I could buy more mages and fortresses and be strong in all aspects...

(sorry I always like to analyse games a bit ;-) )

Re: New turn
 

Bad news. I lost the game files, so no pictures.

I agree, agressiveness is rewarded in Dominions. I have played too much Masters of Orion and CIV, where defensive tatics can win the day, I have yet to get out of that mindset.

THe seducing commanders are expensive, I had a few but they where tied up with forging and summoning. They tend to be rather fragile if they are not kitted out. I was afraid of skeley spaming commanders. I should have just scriped them to do summon swarm or creeping doom and not worried about it.

As far as the dispel, I play too conservative. I was afraid of wasting gems. I never had enough astral pearls to go around anyway and there were no commanders to cast it with out boosts.

Re: New turn
 

This is my last post until I get internet in Hawaii, in a week or two. Aloha!