Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Damn... same here, I wanted to know why they died. Soul slay spam probably.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

You should have been able to see it if it was Soul Slays. They'd be dying one by one with damage numbers and everything.

How does the replay end? What does it show happening?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

In the replay none of my units die. But it is a know bug that the replay doesn't always match the actual battle at the server. So I was hoping DR had seen the actual battle. But he also had the other replay.

Usually it is a difference in mods that causes replay bugs. But I think using linux vs windows can also cause changes.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Just a heads up: my entire town lost power last night, and it's still out today (we have a generator and the internet is working for the time being though, thankfully). Odds are extremely low that it'll affect this game, but it wouldn't be the first time our town was without power for days, so if I suddenly drop off the face of the earth I'd appreciate it if we could delay the turn.

But, again, it probably won't come to that. I'll post again when things are normal.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

No problem. I've been proactive with postponing hosting if I see turns are missing but I'll pay extra attention to make sure your turn is in.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

The power did wind up coming back on, so I should be fine now.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Damn, I don't think I can finish the planning and scripting of this turn before the deadline. (It does take a lot of time when you are trying to create new devious tricks). Could I get a 12 hour extension? That would be great.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Sure, hosting postponed by 12 hours.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Turn done. :)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Mine, unfortunately, is not. Rough work schedule, sorry. Could I request an additional 12 hour postponement? Thanks.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

No problem, hosting postponed by 12 hours.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Well, that was probably the stupidest thing I've done this game so far. When massing troops at Ene Umrul, I neglected to account for the fact that Fire Snakes need to eat, resulting in mass starvation and disease. So invasion #3 has been thwarted without even making contact with the enemy.

I think that since Summer Lions have "need not eat", I falsely assumed that this was a general rule for all magic beings. Looks like nope!

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

You know, I always had that problem with fire snakes two. They kinda suck because of that. (And somehow, they always seem to cost a lot of supplies...)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Ps: that move confused the [stars] out of me.

I went from: "ow [stars] ow [stars]" to "huh? whot?".

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Wow, those devils are very persuasive. "Dude, you should totally attack the biggest, most brutally powerful thing in this army. No really, it'll be great. I'll be right behind you."

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Yeah apparently snakes are very gullible. Who knew.

Sadly their masters are not.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Anybody lose somebody important because of the AC?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

And once again the battle reports don't match the replays. Lost 7 skrattir. Replay says I lost none.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

No. But three perfectly useless research mages with Lightless Lanterns were eaten, which is odd because I've had dozens of the suckers working around the clock for like fifty turns and have seen precisely one horror attack prior to this point. Does Astral Corruption increase the odds of that happening?

Also, my Gift of Health was forced out on the very turn on which I experimentally summoned my first Tartarian. FML.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Astral Corruption? Jotunheim, you dare bring this blight upon the world?

The Bakemono cannot abide this. You have negated our ability to use magic, and we regard this as an act of war. Our NAP is hereby abolished, and we are making preparations to attack you and rid the world of the abomination you have created.

As you have, up until now, been an honorable neighbor, we shall not attack you blindly. We grant a one-turn reprieve, and you can expect attacks starting on the following turn.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Apologies, but I'll definitely not be able to get my turn in tonight, and the timer will lapse before I wake up. May I be granted a 24 hour extension? I should have my turn in before that, but better safe than sorry.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Of course; hosting postponed until 16:30 GMT Saturday.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

We haven't stopped magic totally, we just made it a bit more, risky. We hope this finally ends the endless amounts of volcanoes popping up in our lands. And as peace with Marignon was out of the question, this is the only course of action we have left. As the foul wizards of Marignon made our lands devoid of life, we shall do the same with the astral realm.

We are saddened by your actions. And will try to dispatch your people in the most humane way possible.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I heard Shin had a bad turn? Is this true? *trollface*

By any chance, with the recent war declaration on Jotunheim, will you be leaving lands of C'tis alone? I don't think you are really getting much benefit from the land, what with the swamps and all.
We'll settle for all the provinces that have belief in the FAMOUS Sphinx.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

242 Kills? What did you do Shin? Piss him off?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

It's a sphinx... kinda hard to piss off. It just sat there and made earthquakes. That ended badly, unfortunately.

Not to fear, I've got the lizard situation under control, I think.

I may not be able to make my turn by the deadline again (sorry), will try to take it tomorrow. Valerius, if it's getting down to the wire, could you grant a 12 hour extension? Thanks!

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Sure, no problem. But I won't be able to check the server as hosting gets near so I'm going to play it safe and already postpone 12 hours. Probably a good idea anyway since there's two other turns still outstanding as well.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

We have a message for all the inhabitants of Bootcamp. We have decided that Loki is the only true god. And as we have first withdrawn the ability to do magic in the world, we will now withdraw the life. Days will become weeks, and weeks months. And in a year, only Loki, and his most trusted advisors will left be alive, to repopulate the world.

Return the dead gods to their prisons, hand over the artefacts, banish the elemental royalty, and we might let your pretenders live.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Durecellrabbit, thanks for the game btw. Do you want tips on how to improve your game? I missed a lot of tactics that I actually expected you to use against me.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I'm dead so do I need to send in this turn or do something else because the email asked for turn from me? Thanks for the game everyone.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Thanks for playing durecellrabbit and for fighting until the end. Please send in your last turn as the server is expecting it and otherwise won't host until the deadline arrives.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Hunter of Heroes? Barely more dangerous than a regular Horror apart from more health, a few more attacks, and one MR-negates instant-death attack; no threat at all to a well-equipped supercombatant without a ton of luck. Eater of Dreams? Same deal. Abomination of Desolation? Even less dangerous than the other two, without even getting the instant-death attack. Maker of Ruins? 180 armor-negating damage per round split across four weapons with 20 attack skill.

A hundred and eighty.

One of these things is not like the others!

I guess maybe I shouldn't talk down Eater of Dreams so much, since that might not have gone quite as badly if he hadn't gnawed off the Ember Lord's shield-bearing arm with a fluke hit a few turns ago.

Also, the very last Phoenix Pyre explosion? The one that went off after his fatigue was above 100 and couldn't save his life? It blinded the Maker of Ruins. SIGH.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

The Maker of Ruins also attacked me when I put BoT up. Instakilled the vamp lord. Luckily, that doesn't stop the global.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Somehow I feel less good about slaughering Shinus with Earthquake than I did a week ago...

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

No, Pjoo, the slaughtering with the earthquake was fine. I had it coming for attacking you. :)

The business with the horrors does sound disturbing. But I want to discuss a topic that hits a little closer to home: Skrattis. Those things are insanely powerful. One of my fairly well-equipped tartarians went up against 2 similarly-equipped Skrattis and got absolutely torn apart in a single round. I'm talking 28 prot 20 defense, and he got ripped to pieces.

I'm wondering if it's reasonable that the tartarian that cost me 12 death gems to summon, 15 nature gems to Gift of Reason, and a few turns drinking from the Chalice should be such easy prey for cap-only recruitables, which can be bought 1/turn for a measly 250 gold. Oh, and I'm fairly convinced that the second Skratti was an afterthought- one could have finished my tartarian just as easily.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

27 gems plus equipment. Pffffft. My 50-gem Kings of Elemental Fire never did much better. 60-gem Conjuration 9 Ember Lords can beat them though! I never get the chance to put this into practice long-term because they'd just get banished to Kokytos instantly from most of the way across the battlefield with perfect precision and no save, but they can do it!

Back in the good old days I used to be able to take them out with mage shenanigans. Teleport squads of 4-5 fire/air mages at them and then Incinerate/Orb Lightning them to death. Boy was that ever satisfying. Those days ended when they just started equipping for 100% fire/lightning resistance, though. Lost a couple of good Harbingers that way.

Sometimes I wonder if swarms of smaller elite units would be a better bet, but quickened AoE attacks kind of reduce the viability of that a lot. I did totally see a Skratti laid low by a small squad of Bandar Log's tiger riders once, but that may have been a fluke. Royal Guards have never done nearly as well, in any case.

Their innate magic resistance is kind of lowish as far as supercombatants go (it drops to 14 in werewolf form when 17-18 or so seems to be a healthy baseline for most stuff), but that plus equipment is still a lot to overcome when they're in moderate numbers or supported by an army. An Amulet of Antimagic alone puts them at a 94% resist chance without penetration, and Gygjas have no trouble forging Rainbow Armor to bring that up to 97%.

At the end of the day, though, ambidexterity + auxiliary bite attack + high strength + Quicken Self is such a brutally powerful offensive setup even with lousy weapons that their defenses hardly ever even come into play.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

A skrattir with the stone sword. Moved in to kill the SC's. Second Skrattir was there to ensure survival if you moved multiple SC's in. For 65 egems, I wouldn't think it that unfair.

Funny thing, while my skrattir killed the wendigo and the SC. I lost one to barbarians... 250 gold + 30 gems... They just don't do that well vs heavy hitting armies. Vine men no problem. Knights... you die.

The skrattir are also heavily nerfed in cbm 1.8+

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Woops, don't know if I can play the turn in the next few hours, could I get a 12 hr extension?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Sure, hosting postponed 12 hours.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Well, I think that's probably just about game right there. Jotunheim is officially impenetrable even split between two immensely distant fronts. He's got well beyond a critical mass of vampires and will only get stronger the more he turtles. I don't even have meaningful access to my own national mages anymore thanks to Burden of Time (it might not yet be impossible to take it down (again), but I've lost so much over the past couple dozen turns while inflicting close to zero damage against Jotunheim that it'd surely be impossible for me to catch up anyway). I'm way at the top of the charts in gold and gem income and I still feel totally unable to make any further progress.

The sad thing is that my brilliant and/or suicidal plan to make a decapitation airstrike against the capital with my sky pirate army never had a chance because it got intercepted with incoming troops before it got to move, resulting in being crushed with Jotunheim's full force this turn (I hadn't even allocated any gems yet, so I could save them for next turn). Which is really unfortunate, because other than that the enemy did basically what I was hoping they'd do, namely move army AWAY from the capital instead of towards it, making it impossible for non-flying troops to get there in time to break the siege (I wasn't even attempting to storm Black Alps with any seriousness). Though to be honest the vampire army might have beaten me even with zero support from anything else at this point.

Speaking of which...if I HAD managed to get that entire army to Recenna unopposed, and had been ready to storm it immediately, and all those vampires flew in to defend it the turn after...would I have had to fight them TWICE, once outside the walls and again inside? Or would they not be able to come back to life? I don't really know how immortality works in that circumstance. If it's the former I'd have surely had no chance anyway. Probably something I should have found out about beforehand, but I'm pretty much out of material over here anyway.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

So, does everyone agree that Jotun has won?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I actually kind of take it back. I have at least one thing left I have to try. Something I wrote off as pointless a long time ago but which might actually be workable via methods that I came up with after making that post. It's just really frustrating smashing your face against the brick wall of a hard turtle strategy over and over and making very little progress. Especially when Burden of Time is up after being dispelled once and your youngest national mage of note is age 45 out of 46.

The thing is that I almost never get retaliated against no matter how utterly my attacks fail. Jotunheim's got very little besides vampires in the area (hundreds and hundreds of vampires with over a dozen lords, mind you), which means he's totally unwilling to use them against my dominion. So my loss condition, basically, is to get strung along for eternity with loss after loss until some point in the distant future when Jotunheim's blood economy has carried them so far that they actually have something to invade with (possibly after controlling every part of the world except mine). So if Jotunheim wins it'll certainly have to be through a surrender rather than true conquest, but I don't really know when it's appropriate to give up.

Being left completely alone gives you lots of time to try different stuff, but there has to be a limit to what I can hope to accomplish somewhere. I just don't have the experience to see where I should draw the line.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I still have a chance, don't I? :(

Well, anyways, I am having fun time holding on to my 3 castles, 2 of them under siege, spamming arouse hunger on the one without lab, etc. Turns take around 3min each. Don't see myself dying off anytime soon either, my "NAP" with Jotunheim and Shinuyamanese unwillingness to come take more earthquakes in the face seems to have reduced intrest in me. Now if I just can get rid of these temples...

If you get the other three to agree on a winner, I'll agree with that too then. I can't do anything, neither do I have scouts or anything else to figure out how the war is going.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I personall have no problem declaring Jotunheim the winner. It's possible that Marignon and I may gave made a dent in his empire, but not much of one. He also grows stronger while Marignon's forces wither and die and I have... vine men.

That being said, if we don't close the game, may I have a 24 hour extension on this turn? Thanks.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Sure, hosting postponed 24 hours.

I guess we'll continue a bit longer to give DragonRider a chance to try his idea? If that doesn't work out and he concedes then it would be unanimous (and I assume Soyweiser would also go along with the decision ;)).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Well, I do think you guys overestimate my troops atm. But I do have around 10 vamp lords, and 300 normal vampires. A lot of skrattir, some heliophagi. Of course BoT is reducing the amount of slaves I get each turn. I did lose most of my army vs shin. But I also stopped his.

But totally do not know your positions. Currently I'm just fighting defensive, anything under my dom is mine. And vamps keep it that way.

But I can wait it out, just sit there and let all mages die, and summon troops with empowered vamps to crush what little remains. And lords can always just summon one vamp each turn.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

In order for me to take your capital (which is more or less the only way to stop the madness with the vampires), I need an army that can survive against 300 vampires and a dozen vampire lords at least four times in a row without reinforcements, plus dealing with whatever the Skratti might throw at me, and recent evidence suggests that I can't even come up with a force that can survive against them ONCE. I can't use SCs or they get banished, I can't use hordes of troops or they get Niefel Flamed (on top of whatever the vampire lords decide to do to them), I can't use communions because Burden of Time makes it impossible to keep more than a dozen or so mages alive at once (and most of that number wouldn't even survive the march). And you have more and more vampires every turn, probably. It's a pretty discouraging position to be in. Especially since I have absolutely no idea how many death gems you have, and therefore how many times you can recast Burden of Time even if I manage to dispel it again.

I'm not close to LOSING, since you don't have anything even vaguely capable of taking a fortress outside of your dominion (which has been true at basically every stage of the game since it started), but unless I can come up with a magic bullet to deal with those vampires it's mathematically impossible for me to ever win, so I have to figure you'd be able to beat me eventually, somehow. And it wouldn't be terribly fun playing for months and months with nothing happening waiting for that shoe to drop. So I'm pretty much at a loss for what to do, except for one or two remaining plans (which I don't have all that much confidence in, really, but I'd just be playing into your hands if I gave up early).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Apologies, but I've been stuck working long hours these past few days. Could I have a 24 hour extension, please?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

Sure, hosting postponed 24 hours.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Running
 

I think we should reconsider ending the game and declaring Jotunheim the winner. For real this time. My army is a shambles and what few mages remain to me are slowly withering. I have little income, and I can't spend the gems I have because I need my mages leading my vine men into combat. In short, I have no real way of offering any further resistance. All the while, Jotunheim keeps summoning more and more vampires to replenish his armies on my border.

I feel like I've fought as well as I can, but I don't really have anything more to offer up.