Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

This game has grown so terribly boring for me.

We all agree I have no chance of going anywhere. At this point I do my turns just to stick it to Ermor as much as I can. I've been dead in the water for like 2 weeks now but he hasn't finished me off!

I'm trying to be a good sport. I really am, but this much micromanagement in a game I'm in 2nd to last(sorry Agartha!) is a little ridiculous. How would you guys feel about my nation going AI?

Heck now that Ermor can cast Ghost Riders I really shouldn't last much longer anyway.

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

I would like to see you stick around. From my point of view, it seems like your war against Ermor has been pretty exciting, and you are still in a position to be a factor in the late game.

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

There is no shame in being last. I have been pondering going AI as well. But I stick it out just to stick it to ermor.

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

I am solidly in the running for last place myself, although I control the water. There is little I can do on land. I am staying in the game though, just for the fun of it. Summon some Abominations, send my water queens out if there is a good place to strike, build up my Wishers. Who knows? R'lyeh might yet play a part in the end game.

But, of course, we are friends to all in the game at this point, and wish no harm to anyone. We are just trying to build that damn spaceship, so we can get off this hellhole planet.

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

All this hatred directed at poor me. What ever could I have done to deserve that? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edit: To actually respond to your question: I am at the moment still busy formulating my overall strategy, but for now my thinking is you are just too far away from my heartlands to make war against you very effective, and I don't think I'll be spending the huge amount of resources necessary to project power all the way over there and actually take you out anytime soon. I'll be more than happy if I can just keep you busy. If you were to go AI that would make my job much easier, which would be a pity for your allies.

P.S. If you want to reduce your micro: I would be very happy to make peace with you, you know. That way you'd have a lot less micromanagement to attend too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

R'lyeh is in running for last place? "Summon some Abominations, send my water queens out if there is a good place to strike, build up my Wishers."?!?
What am I still doing in this game?
You can claim last place once Agartha, Vanheim and myself have been crushed.

BigDisAwesome, I also hope you stick around. From a purely selfish point of view, I suspect my chances of survival would be even more grim without you in the fight. And with Pan attacking, he's going to be able to devote a lot less resources to us. Gives you a chance to recover.

Re: Priori - New MA Game (Sign Up Now!)
 

Eh I can stick around I suppose. What are the chances of us moving to a 72 hour hosting time? We are on turn 60 or something after all.

Feeling the love!
 

Hmm, I've been thinking about this a bit, and I have to ask: Why do you want to 'stick it to Ermor' so badly?

I haven't asked for these wars; I've actively sought peace the entire game, including offering it a few times during our wars. It seems to me that we have had one of the most amicable knock-down, all-out conflicts you can have in a MP game, with much banter and good-natured posturing back and forth. Indeed, to a large extent the players have been the fun part of this game for me.

I'm not trying to be defensive (or offensive!) here. Just honestly curious. Did I earn wrath somehow, or is that 'stick it to Ermor' just part of the game? ; )

Re: Feeling the love!
 

I think it depends on your style of play. I am playing MA Ermor in another game, and have amicable relations with most of the other players, and this is way into late game. But, I am not uber powerful in that game, just a middle of the road power.

Ermor always elicits some suspicion, and if you play very aggressively, and take the lead the lead in the game, then you will of course cause the "stick it to Ermor" effect to happen.

If on the other hand, you expand to middling size, play nice with the neighbors, and quietly sit back and summon your Tartatians and recruit massive numbers of shadow vestals and longdead horsemen, you can come out swinging in the late game.

Re: Feeling the love!
 

For me it was the huge lead in provinces, forts, gems and the potential represented by that commanding lead in those areas.

Eventually you would be able to just swarm territory and race for the win.

If we sat around, we'd get squished.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

"Tithonos looked up to the divine form of Vitae, God of Gods, Prince of Fate, God of the Sacred Eye, Guardian of the Bridge, God of the Celestial Bodies, the feeling of awe clearly visible on his features. Next to the fountain a beautiful young girl with a glazed look in her eyes spoke: 'We are beset by enemies on all sides, Tithonos, and our future is grim. But we are certain you will serve us well in this difficult time. Your strength is still unequalled, and we will make good use of it. It's time for you to move out.' Tithonos stood up from his kneeling position, and couldn't resist showing of his massive muscles to good effect after the compliment. His reply was simple and to the point though. 'As you command master, so shall it be.' And the little girl remained standing next to the fountain, watching as rank after rank of centaurs and satyrs escorted the thaumaturgs out the gates of the former Abysian capital, to face Ermors enemies on the field of battle."

In its unbridled imperial arrogance the forest dwellers of Pangaea had seen fit to invade the heartlands of our peaceful nation, in order to colonize it for their own nefarious purposes. Being threatened in our very existance by this uwarranted act of agression Ermor's senate authorized the redirection of all resources of the nation into organizing the defence of the threatened territories.

The colonizing army is now ours.

The senate wishes to extend its thanks to the Pangaean government for the gift of quality troops, a commodity Ermor used to be short on.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Ahahahahha.. Man that was brutal.

"And thus ended the story of Pangea's expeditionary army"

I got utterly schooled there. How does one protect against master enslave?! Mightve helped a bit if my guys had cast the spells they were supposed to but no they just stared in horror at the debacle. My near total lack of endgame experience will slay me!

Treat Tithonos well!

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I've been on the receiving end of master enslaves when storming an enemy castle twice now. The first time I didn't see it comming, and the result was pretty much the same as here, total annihilation of my attacking army. The second time was just this past month. I knew I would be hit by it, and I thought I had prepared well for it. I had a massive army, with a big communion of my own, and I hoped to use master enslave myself to get some of my troops back and steel my opponents too. I had several mages capable of casting massive damage spells, battlefield buffs, and enough pearls to cast master enslave 5 times. And the communion had enough endurance for my slaves to survive all that spellcasting without passing out. Or so I thought. What happened was that I got hit by the first enslave and when it was my turn, instead of hitting back with everything I had prepared, my key mages decided to melee with my own enslaved troops. (Which is what happened to your army too. Mages in melee have 50% chance of attacking instead of casting spells, and with so many of your troops enslaved, every one of your mages was probably engaged in melee. ) The result, despite all my preparation was, once again, total annihilation.

As to how to defend against master enslave? Difficult, very difficult. Antimagic/army of lead helps a lot, but not if the defender manages to get off his enslave on the first turn. In this particular situation, I see no way you could have conquered the castle with a regular army. (which doesn't necessarily mean there is no way of course) What would probably have worked was you sending in a SC and/or several thugs with really high MR (end 20's, preferably begin 30 if you can manage it) so they could not only survive master enslave, but the inevitable soul slays as well. With a MR like that I would have been very unlikely to kill them, and they would have made short work of the few troops and many mages I had in the castle.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I'm afraid I'll just have to use him as cannon fodder, along with the other centaurs I captured. Unforunately as he was enslaved, he no longer is a commander, and there's no way I can gather the nature gems to GoR him. And without items he's just an elite unit, nothing more.

Since we've been following his carreer since the beginning of the game (yes, I read the entire thread) I felt he deserved a fitting farewell though.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Field some strong SCs. Armies alone are usually not enough in a protracted end game.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I came home with a blinding headache today, and really (really!) don't feel up to playing my turn now. Am gona hit the sack instead.

I haven't been in this game long enough to have seen how you all feel about timer extensions? If it's possible to delay hosting by 24h that would be wonderful, if not I'll just have to stale. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Either way, I wish you all a pleasant night. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

P.S. Of course, I'm also getting a new computer tomorrow, and I'm technically ignorant, so worst case scenario I screw something up and don't manage to get everything on line tomorrow either. I hope to manage though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I don't have a problem with an extension. I may need to ask for one this weekend myself.

It is usually best to PM Velusion, since he's not playing and thus not following the thread too closely. Which I will do, since you're hopefully unconscious by now.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I think the rule so far is that you have to pay everyone 10 gems of your choice for one.. Yeah uhh yeah..

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Extension please, I can't log onto the server and I need to get to bed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I reset the clock's timer.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

We of R'lyeh declare war on C'tis, for the unlawful imprisoning of the water queen Limne. C'tis can end this war at any time, by handing over Limne. But until then, we are at war.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Through scrying and other means, we have just noticed that C'tis is probably the second most powerful nation in the world, and greatly overpowers us.

We hereby rescind the declaration of war. You can keep her. Limne seems quite happy where she is, after all.

The councilors who urged war have been mind-flayed.

-R'lyeh

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

R'lyeh,

You flatter us with such a title. If we are the "second most powerful" nation in these lands, than surely we are neck and neck with other "second most powerful" nations.

Limne will be honored this month. She shall become the new voice of the Thing of Eternity. She misses her sisters greatly and hopes to act as a liaison to the peoples of R'lyeh in the future, on more peaceful terms than were proposed.

For the months to come, no harm shall come to R'lyeh from our hands unless it is an act of retaliation. We respect your dominion over the seas as long as you respect our claim to the humid air, the tepid waters and the lands that buffer them.

So say the High Priests of C'tis speaking as regent to the queen soon to be crowned, she who would speak for the living symbol of our people, the Thing of Eternity.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Well, that went badly. Man is pretty much beaten now. My god is dead, and probably still feeble minded if I manage to call him back. I lost my only real army and a lot of mages, plus some booster items I really couldn't afford to lose.
Fog Warriors, Mass protect and Regen, with Lightning spam and storm of Thorns just doesn't stand up to Fog Warriors, Army of Gold, Darkness and Nether Dart spam. At least I prolonged the battle long enough to kill off a lot of communion slaves.

Since I've never had the money to castle everywhere, I've got no real defense against Ghost riders. (Is there any other defense? Small forces wandering around retaking the provinces works, or huge amounts of PD, backed up by a couple mages everywhere. But that just begs for multiple castings to wipe out the investment.)

Good work, Amhazair. I suspect a lot of my earlier success were due to Indy not being interested.

I'm not giving up yet. I've still got a couple of surprises up my sleeve, but the writing is definitely on the wall.

C'tis: If you're not second most powerful, it's between you and Pangaea. Who else do you think might qualify?

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I agree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

I stupidly managed not to notice there was a forest dome up over that province, and the nice surprise I had prepared to teleport in got blocked by it. I nearly fainted when I read the 'spell got cancelled by dome' message. As a result part of my scripting was un-optimized, since I was counting on the unspecified surprise party.

Luckily I happened to have just enough force on the field to carry the day, but I was worried there at times. Perhaps if your pretender had survived for a longer time, drawing fire and killing stuff things could have been different. (Did you swap his equipment around? I seem to remember him having a higher MR in previous battles. )

And loosing 32 communion slaves hurts a lot. I would call that battle more of a draw than a win for me, actually. But you're probably right that I can replace my army easier than you can.

Re: second most powerful nation: I'm curious about how strong Ulm is, actually. According to my sources they've been at peace the entire game, their graphs are decent enough, and I've seen a couple of nasties walking around in their lands. No idea if they managed to build up their magical diversity though, or how strong they will turn out to be once they go to war. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Great, so I was supposed to be even more overwhelmed. Was it your Oracle? Or some other Master Enslaver?

He didn't last long enough to cast Resist Magic, which I can't script early because the AI will override it with Astral Shield. You got lucky and feebleminded him, then he couldn't shrug off the Soul slays.

You lost 32 Thaumaturges and a bunch of replaceable undead. I lost my god, a kitted out Banelord (closest thing to an SC I've been able to muster), most of my troops and battle mages (such as they are). This isn't a draw, it's a disaster.

I'm curious about Ulm, too. He's been uncommunicative since early on. It would be interesting to see how much he's been able to build up and diversify. Unless he's got a serious master plan, he should probably intervene pretty soon. I think things will be shaking out fairly shortly.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

As I hinted at earlier, I'm going to be away this weekend. Depending on when this turn hosts, I may or may not need an extension, but I'm going to ask for an extra 24 hours just to be safe.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Machaka and Ulm just to name a couple.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Hmmm, as suggested above, Ulm is an unknown and could be quite a surprise. My feeling is he's not going to be that impressive, but I don't have a lot to base that on.

As for Machaka, you rolled over a nice chunk of his territory with little real opposition. That seems to have stalled, but not reversed, you'd know better than I why, but unless he actually starts taking back territory, I'm leaving you ranked above him. Losing the Earth gem global will hurt him too.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Well, 3/4 of the way till host time, and only two nations have taken their turn. And two nations staled again last turn. It would seem that interest in this game has waned. Shall we call it a draw?

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Well, actually there still are 54h left. Thejeff asked for an extension over the weekend, and people might just be taking advantage of the extra time. (My turn is done, except that I'm hoping to hear back from someone about something, so I haven't submitted yet. )

As for waning intrest, you'd best ask that to the people longer in the game than me. For me it's still shiny and new. Makes me feel like a vi-i-i-irgin... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

To all the people who feel like they are on the brink of elimination but are still having fun with this game...

I am giving up my C'tis position. If you are about to be eliminated and would like to take over a strong position let me know. You can flip yourself to AI and have my spot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Man, everyone is losing morale myself included! 700 troops. my pretender (lesson learned, pretender MR is [censored] in others lands) and ungodly gems lost to no real gain.

Brutal!

The endgame with its reliance on a handful of spells/summons is dull especially if you havent got death and astral casters.
Oh well I'll limp along but..

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

C'tis uninterested, Pangaea demotivated, R'lyeh raised the question, Ermor already left, Vanheim already mentioned he would prefer to call it a day, Agartha, well... you know... , Man thinks he will die quite soon. Not many nations left then.

As I said, I just stepped in, and am ready to keep playing, but it's not like I've had much time to form an emotional attachment to the game either. Up to you guys.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Not dead yet! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/Injured.gif

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Says the guy whose turns take like 5 minutes! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I'll keep playing if you like. It's not too bad. I'll even come over and fight you in a few turns, Amahzair, if you like. Though all I have are some Aboms and water queens that suck on land. I was just commenting on the lack of interest of most everyone else.

Actually, it would be better if you would come fight me, since then I could get an Army of Lead off before you master enslave. Either way though.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Well I'm not thrilled to be still be dragging along just waiting to get gobbled up, but I'll tough it out til someone pulls ahead.

The thing is I don't know if there is a clearcut winner right now.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

It's one of those tough endgames. Several really strong players with vast lands to try and conquer. Me, in the water with no one really able to root me out. A nice Burden of Time might speed things up quite a bit, but I could dispel it, and my guys live to like 1000 anyway.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I'm OK either way. My turns are depressing, but I suspect they're going to be getting shorter and easier as my options get fewer.

I've known for a long time I was in no position to win and now I'm not even in a position to have much effect. I'll slow Ermor down a bit, make him waste more resources, but that's all.

As far as a clear winner, if C'tis is dropping and Pangaea thinks he's outmatched, that leaves Ermor. Unless anyone else thinks they're in the running? Machaka? Ulm? Lingchih seems to think he could hold out, but that's not a victory. Vanheim, Agartha and I are out of the running.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

So half of us staled this turn. I assume that means the game is dead?

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I guess so. I played my turn, but without much interest. I think it should be called a draw though. Ermor is strongest, but who knows if they would have actually won.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I didn't mean to stale I just didn't seem to be able to count correctly. Missed it by minutes dang.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Oh, absolutely. It's way too early to declare a winner. I have to admit I was feeling like everything was going according to plan, but a grand alliance of everyone and everything should still be able to stop me.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

I could not find a replacement so I moved myself to AI this turn. I just can't keep up with the micromanagement of the end game at this point with everything else I have going on. I am hoping to have things back to normal before the upcoming megagame. If so, I look forward to seeing you guys in that one.

This game truly was very fun, I had a blast and MA C'tis has found a place in my heart. Goodluck to the remaining contenders.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Well that sucks pretty hard for me and Man. That NAP we had doesn't mean much to the computer...

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Lo siento http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif.

I offered all the nations on the brink to take over the position.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

We are pleased to announce that Argatha now controls TWO provinces! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cake.gif[/img] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

Go Agartha!

With the setting of C'tis to AI I think we might be done here. Having to fight an all attention consuming war against one player with a really decked out AI at your back sounds sucky.

I will still fight but with my highest astral mage at 5 and death at 4 I don't have what it takes in the limited funnels of the end games. Learned a ton though! I had never played Pangea before let alone survived past turn 20 or so in a MP game on these forums.

Re: Ermor still stands strong!
 

R'lyeh will keep playing until the game is obviously done. I can Wish now, summon Tartarians, all that end game crap. It looks like Machaka has quit the game, so I will just go through him (Machaka... if you are still playing, and don't want me to go through you, say so now).

If someone could send me some earth gems, I would appreciate it. I have all kinds of gems to trade.