Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Oh, looks like the llamaserver is sick:

Last updated at 00:35 GMT on Monday December 15th
Current time: 06:50 GMT

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

All is well as the new turn has been hosted. Time for a new round of forging and ritual spells. I'm going to be honest, Astral Corruption, not that big of a deal when you know how to work around it.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

I hope you are being facetious, AoE. If not, you need to share some advice.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

I think, given how good of a blood nation Mictlan is, it isn't that bad for him. Honestly, it isn't too bad for me either since the only thing I do at this point that doesn't involve no magic or only blood magic is thugging out my vampires.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

If you think about it, I'm the only one in the alliance that isn't a natural blood nation and I said it first. Admittedly Marignon's problem stems more from Burden of Time. A spell I also care less and less about as each turn passes.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yeah, the BoT is my main problem. I needed to have my major summons done before it was cast, and I didn't. So now I can't keep my mages alive for long.

Other major problem is the Doom Horror that seems to have it out for my pretender.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Ah yes, Utterdark. Another failed attempt to cripple his foes in a pure act of desperation. Let the games begin.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Uggh. What a dump of a world. Horrible old age and disease, the magic ways corrupted, and now everlasting darkness.

You can have this world. Kali is going to stay in Hell and rule there. It's a much nicer place.

OOC. It's pretty cool to see all these globals, that are rarely ever cast in MP, in action.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

OOC, I don't mind the spells that effect everyone equally. It would be a bigger deal if Mictlan had tons of freespawn undead, but they don't, so I don't mind.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yeah, this world is looking less and less pleasant... fortunately my vampires and freespawn do ok in such a world.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Crushed is the first line of defense for the nation of Mictlan. Though a few have lost faith in our victory, those brave men who fought at Hesperia did not doubt in themselves.

The path to their fortifcations is cleared, yet still there is much of their forces to face. In the darkness, a whole nation prays that they will be victorious by the years end.

pwned.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

OK folks, going AI next turn. Gifts are in the mail. (Except the message system would only let me send 20 messages, so the rest will have to be sent next turn, and hope the AI doesn't cancel it).

Bogarus is pretty much subdued. Marignon should also not be much of a problem on AI, as it has no troops, no money, and just a handful of mages.

Nice playing with you guys. I really enjoyed the posts early in the game.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yeah, that utterdark really is the nail in the coffin wasn't it? If it wasn't for my continuing cycle of count summoning and freespawn thralls and wolves I would be packing it in right now too (although those attacks by shades are a real nuisance, especially given my complete inability to install any kind of provincial defence in a province once taken).

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Mictlan is looking forward to the Christmas presents we will be assuredly be receiving from Marignon, especially now that the evil Ghost of Hunter has been killed and we are now such fine upstanding citizens of the world.

We also are overjoyed Man fell for our secret plan to reduce Mictlan's overbearing salary costs and future pension liabilities.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yes, to Mictlan we sent a very special present. It's in a large box, and if you hear ticking coming from inside, don't worry. It's probably just a very nice clock.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

In a tragic case of a misplaced Starshine Skullcap, Dr Doom was unable to cast Returning when he was attacked by a horror following a minor summon.

It is believed that a tragic cry of "DOH!" was heard echoing across the desolate wastelands of Mictlan. And then the grass in the world grew green, and birds chirped, and eggs hatched merrily, as the Burden of Time lifted. And the Darkness across the land lifted too, and there was light, and you could see for bloody miles!

I hate it when that happens. :D

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yay! While the vampire counts and lords of Ulm were more than capable of going it alone, without their human servants to assist them they were getting annoyed with having to perform the more menial tasks required to run a nation.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Reactions from the council of Man as messages were received:

1st message: Nods of approval
2nd message: Considerable happiness
3rd message: Joyful exuberance
4th message: Uncontrollable excitement
Messages 5 through 13: Open mouth drooling (the happy kind)
...
Message 23: Mass Suicide

Another magic fading event at the worse possible moment. That would be the forth one this game.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

If it makes you feel any better, I had a lab burn down, and it's hard to build a new lab out of blood slaves. :)

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

OK, final gifts from Marignon have gone out, and the nation has been set to AI.

I found it strangely fitting for this game, that on my final turn, my pretender Kali finally came back... and was immediately killed by a horror.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Lol... you know I haven't seen a horror except those attacking my smiths this entire game. Not a single important unit attacked by one.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yeah, even though Kali is not shown as horror marked, I think the game must have decided she is horribly horror marked, in some way. That would be the only explanation for all these doom horror attacks.

Anyway, it means you guys won't have to worry about my Maloch.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Kali's Horror Marked. It's the symbol between the "Flight" icon and the "Demon" icon.

He/She's also in the HoF, which will get her attacked by the Hunter of Heroes when AC is up.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

About Kali, that's just rude. Except for maybe Ulm, it seems we all had unfortunate things happen to us this turn.

I have no hope that Atlantis will submit their turn. I hope he does, but after his stale from last turn and his inactivity as a player, I hold no hope. Sad because I would really like to see the results of my orders.

Edit: Its wierd, but none of my heros have been attacked by a doom horror or any such horror. My god has been attacked for casting spells, but not since he made it to the hall of fame. He did face down a large horror way back when, but he took it down without taking a hit. I've also noticed the attacks against me are much sparser, maybe there is a limited number of them per nation?

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Oh, I was too self-engrossed wallowing in my own stupidity to notice Atlantis staled last turn. When was Mr Miagi due back?

Maybe I'll get lucky this month and the Hunter of Heroes will finally show up and take a swipe at your Hedda mummy. Mmmm, loaded up with gems, and the Chalice too. Irresistible! But 165 kills is a little on the low side to be getting his attention.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

I think Mr. Miagi said he was out for a month or so.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Atlantis is in, yay! :)

This month's award for most fearless warrior goes to Aelfwold, Judge of Man, who picked up a Lycanthrope ammy last month from a slain Bane Lord. So this month he charged forward to kill some lessor horrors all on his lonesome, and might even have accomplished his task, had he not been shot by his own troops. :D

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Fear not. Those shots were intended. Knowing that he was under the influance of the 'ammy', our advisors realized that the only way to peel him away from the captivating power was to get him directly to the Sweet Prince Clinic for Disenchantment and Rehibilitation.

Secretly our mages cast a spell of returning on him so that his foolish attempts to get himself killed would instead bring him home. Yet, realizing he could be struck down by a horror and marked for life, our general made the bold decision to fire a volly of arrows upon him. You will be happy to know that Aelfwold is physically well, though still enthralled at the moment.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Oh. :shock: Chalk up a surprise for me then. :D

I see the "Ritual of Returning" icon on him now ... doh! How do you cast that on another commander? I thought it only affects the caster.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

It's a secret, but I'll let you know once our little war is over.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Sure, there's no need to divulge your ultimate secret weaponry while we're still at war.

I suppose if you had Virtue on a communion master, then since the Returning effect is triggered like Charge Body on copper plate, then the slaves could end up with Ritual of Returning set. But even your Castellan has Ritual of Returning, and he couldn't have been a communion slave. So you'll have to fill me in on all the gory details after Mictlan has finally finished conquering the world. :D

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Mictlan is willing to concede defeat to the forces of Man. While the last remaining army of Mictlan was out in the fields of Hesperia being slaughtered, the Popular People's Front for a New Mictlan slew the Chief Priest of Propaganda in a daring coup.

gg, AoE

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

You have been an amazing opponent vfb. I swear I was doomed to die a slow and painful death a couple of times during this game. I think I lost my composure once. I don't think I've ever had a one-on-one battle go on for as long as this one has. Such conflicts are always satisfying.

It sort of sucks that you had to lose your powerful death caster to such an unfortunate mistake. If it makes you feel better, I lost a unique mage of my own to a tragic back-to-back horror attack. He got attacked, cast returning, got attacked AGAIN (in the same ritual phase), and didn't have gems for his script.

Now for your reward. A unique quirk of the armor of virtue is that it doesn't cast ritual of returning out of combat. Strangely, as soon as you enter combat an AoE 1 cloud is set over the wearer. Any unit within the cloud gets the returning effect. Thusly, a size 2 unit could place returning on 2 other size 2 units within one combat. It might even be possible to enchant more units if you can somehow get them under the cloud. I removed the armor of virtue from my berserked thug because he wasn't getting the effect. Apparently it isn't good enough to start under the cloud at the start of the first round. Maybe it's triggered at the end of the round? Anyhow, I assume the AoE cloud was chosen over the caster buff effect in order to avoid matrix communions from exploiting the effect, though it's current configuration seems to lend returning too easily. Maybe it was to make the item better rather then worse?

Thank you very much. GG.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Congrats, AoE. You made LA Man work. I really did not think you could.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Thanks AoE, I'm glad you enjoyed our little war, I did too! I've got new respect for Man's economic prowess, and also for Defenders. They're a really nice little unit: a Kite Shield, great Defense, good protection, great precision, plus a crossbow.

I don't have anything remotely resembling and army in the south, just a bunch of 60-year-old diseased Mictlan slaves, so I think it's safe for Mictlan to go AI without affecting the Atlantis-Ulm war, assuming that it's still ongoing.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Indeed it is. Ulm is pursuing total victory against the Atlantian hordes! Or at least a bloody stalemate... actually that is what we appear to have at the moment.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Happy new year everyone!

Its a little sad to not have anybody witness the wonderful (or awful depending on your perspective) things that I do. That's okay though. I'm sure in several rounds that will change. Assuming the AI stops throwing undead hordes and such at me. Its also been a pain to tear down these stupid walls.

How are things going on the southern fronts?

Also, I've been debating who to give the nation kill to for Bogarus. They are almost defeated as far as I can tell. Atlantis was the one who crushed the player and made him go AI, but Marrignon also did their part to sweep them away. Marignon also is the one who holds the capitol. Does anybody have an opinion?

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

I'd say Atlantis, Marignon only fought Bogarus after they went AI.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

That is a reasonable answer. Based on that I decided to rename it as a player kill rather then a nation kill. That said it should really be up to the person who is going AI to decide who gets the mark for defeating them.

I assume that its okay for me to get a mark for defeating Mictlan. I'd like to know if Lingchih will credit his demise to any particular player.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Yes, Man definitely gets the credit for defeating Mictlan!

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

And yes, Mictlan definitely gets the credit for killing Marignon. Kind of funny, since we never fought. But his globals crippled me badly.
Atlantis was the only player I ever fought in this game, but I drove him back pretty easily, and then we signed a truce.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

No wonder I started having problems... I was wondering how Atlantis was managing to commit such a large force against me if they were also fighting up north... guess they didn't have as large of an army as I thought after all.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

They were still keeping a contingent up north, though not a large one, as I recall. We never had an NAP, just a turn to turn cease fire agreement.

Sorry, should have told you. Burden of time was killing me and I was just trying to hold out as long as I could.

Tip to anyone that needs it. Burden of Time is the nuke against LA Marignon. Most of your mages start out old or close to it from the start, and BoT just kills them in droves. I would have somehow had to have Gift of Health up to withstand several turns of BoT.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Well, vfb gets another victory before his exit. Congrats!

Hmm... I think Marignon can survive as well as most other human nations provided they don't heavily investment in goetic masters and inquisitors. Those are the only commanders that start out old I believe. You only need a few high inquisitors for dominion spread via blood sacrifice. Cutting back on geotic masters isn't so harmful to your blood income because of the diabolist. You also have access to royal navigators everywhere you set up shop. They are great mages in my opinion. The other bonus to using more royal navigators and diabolists is that you don't need a temple in every castle. Thanks to blood sacrifice you can use a few well placed temples to get a good spread of your dominion. You can even cut back on labs and put the money toward more castles and such by investing in chartmakers for research and communion slaves.

I survived thanks to a heavy investment in magisters and some cunning use of death magic. Granted, you can't really use death magic easily, but blood magic can easily fill in the gaps. Had I splurged on a massive number of magister arcanas instead I would probably be in the same position. Hmmm... I also had growth 3, which certianly helped a lot.

In my personal opinion the nation most effected by BoT has to be Abysia. Not only do they have a lot of old age fire mages, but they also have a smaller life span then humans. It appears that only two of the casters aren't dangerously close to old age or actually old, and those two are in no way decent battle mages. Let's not also forget their main battle tank unit, the warbred, who start at age 15 and are old at age 17.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Heh, I lost to LA Aby in a different game where I had also cast BoT. It was too late to make much difference because Aby had already gone deep into blood and had a crapload of devil armies.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Have you ever played MA Marignon, AoE? Your Inquisitors are your army leaders. You have to have them.

The Goetic Masters are your only good blood mages. You have to have them.

Yes, Royal Navigators, and Chartmakers, are key. You have to have them as well. But you can not round out a flaming arrows army with them, which is what Mari fights with.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Inquisitors:
Indy commanders are plentiful, cheap, and everywhere. This is most true in the late age. I never use mages for their leadership. It is certainly a useful trait at times, but your castle recruitment should never be controlled by the need to shuttle units around. Besides, more expendable commanders with your roaming armies allows you to be more resistant to assassinations. Sermon of courage can be useful, but Marignon already has a national troop advantage of above average moral. Moral 11 for gold 10 units is rather good. Also, their only magic is fire one. They are clearly not lending that much magical support. Certianly not flamming arrows.

Goetic Masters:
These guys are great. They are the backbone of your blood magic and supplies half of your battlefield magic options. I also agree that blood one mages are a pretty bad substitute when blood hunting. However, you can still do quite well with a handful. Several for blood hunting, several more casting ritual spells, and one with each large army for your flaming arrows. Though that is a spell you could save for only hard targets. If you've crushed the main opposition, your masters can just stay behind and blood hunt the newly conquered zone.

Royal Navigators:
The rest of the battle magic is better handled by the navigators. Once you realize that inquisitors are for dominion control you will have more opportunities for making these guys. Bring three of these to a battle, communion and lay out four thunder strikes in a row, or don't communion and cast lightning bolt 15 times. People tend to forget that Marignon can cast powerful lightning spells. They are also more mobile. One in three can cloud trapeze and all of them have sailing. Want to know what makes flaming arrows better when your front liners have no shields? Wind guide. In fact, I might suggest you go for wind guide before flaming arrows since your ranged attacks are already armor piercing.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

So Atlantis went AI? I guess it is just down to Man and Ulm... And I honestly have no clue how strong you are, not having seen you the entire game.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

My scouts tended to die from burden of time... and now gold is too short to spend that way.

Re: Collider - Small Late Age Game (running)
 

Gold is plentiful still for me. I can see a little of what I'm in for. Do you want to deal with these AIs first or shuold I start warming you up?