Oh, the horror
 

A new turn.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Jurri you are not going to like your turn when you watch it lol.

I may be dying but I probably pissed you off this turn on what I killed.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Notice the topic of the previous post http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

...damn you, you craven bastich!

EDIT: Oh, well, at least I learned something: I really don't have a clue! I mean, I have absolutely no accurate perception on how things relate to each other: general level, sure, but just how many foul spawn do you need to counter a bunch of devils? No idea. At all. Enjoy it while you can, you miserable things; When I ascend I shall make the world have deterministic and simple rules that will prevent gits like me from fouling up a good thing!

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Well, that about does it for me. Chris has destroyed my main army and taken most of my lands. The defeat was total with no loss to Chris. Boron is taking the rest of my undefended lands in the North.

I'll keep on until I'm dead, but there isn't much I can do. I guess I'll try and buy some time, so that everyone has a better chance against the Ulm/Mictlan alliance. But, for all I know, perhaps R'leh, Arco and Abysia are already very strong. Man, this game is humbling http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I thought I was pretty succesfull until Chris and Boron double teamed me and I actually felt pretty good about the situation before their alliance. Oh, how wrong I was!

In hindsight, after seeing what Chris did to me, I guess I didn't have much of a chance, even if he had waited until I had finished Mictlan (assuming I could have, that is).

But, you never know. If I gone against Ulm one on one and had had my main force near Ulm instead of in the North fighting Mictlan, maybe it would have gone better. Maybe I would have been able to push him back fort by fort and I wouldn't have had to try to teleport and attack him at his capital.

A lot of maybes. The certainty is that Chris has wiped the floor with me. Very well played, Chris, both diplomatically and strategically/tactically http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Looking back on it, I'm trying to think what I should have done differently (besides radically altering my strategy; perhaps avoiding wars and not appearing too powerful, but that's no fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif).

I defeated a few of Ulm's inital armies, but gave way before his main army because I wanted to redeploy my main army from the North first. This took a couple of turns and allowed Chris access to my lands. Chris then avoided battle against my main force, which surprised me (I thought he would go for my capital), and went south. He and Boron had probaby agreed to a North/South split.

Time wasn't on my side. Chris's spies were killing my production (maybe I should have patrolled more but I had suffered heavy losses against Boron's Jaguars and Moloch), his assassins were killing my soft targets and his Ghost Riders took out any small armies that I sent against him.

I couldn't just defend or I would certainly be engulfed between Chris and Boron, so I tried to be aggressive in attacking the Ulm capital. I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to harm the walls and I certainly didn't know the forces he had waiting for me. I thought his main army was in the south.

One thing that surpised me was that he survived casting Ghost Riders into a Dome of Flaming Death. I had never cast that before. It sounded lethal, but it turns out it didn't do squat (maybe he had the foresight to be fire resistant). I was pyched that I had guessed the correct province he would cast into, but it was all for naught.

Ah well, it was fun a very fun game while it lasted. Good game guys http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Well the game is going to be won by either Chris or Jurri.

Pasha and Jurri are carving up my land and I am down to 4 provinces =(. So you will at least outlive me Jeffr.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Dudes, it ain't over yet! Heck I recently lost almost a third of my provinces to Aku and Chris and look at me now: I'm supposedly the runner-up! If it were indeed down to me and Chris, we might as well quit already, since I can't for the life of me see how I could beat him as things stand. (Not that I would quit because of that, really. That's only rhetorical license! Fight to the finish!) Also, if no one else has a chance, what are they to do? Is Boron the kingmaker, or what?

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Heh. Never a good idea to become the obvious front-runner : makes it just too likely that a bunch of others will gang up on you. Even happens without any diplomacy involved, just people deciding it's a good time to bite their own chunk off.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Yeah dont give up!

I am down to 4 provinces and I am fighting to the bitter end and even still I am defending modestly well.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Jeffr, dude, you are a bad-*** Pangea player and you are definitely overdue for a victory in one of these games!

About the army that broke the seige: what was preventing you from breaking in were the guardians and the wolves I had summoned with the Soulstone. But, a chunk of the strength of my attack came just a turn before I broke seige. I cast 'legion of wights', summoned more fire snakes, and built that Sword of Aurgermer (I love that thing! It is underrated as a magic item, I think) the turn before I broke seige. A lot of the items my commanders used in that battle came from my main army (love the insta-teleport through labs in this game), and they're going right back there, heh. So, it's not like I had this huge force waiting at my capital for you, most of it was assembled just for that battle. I was fortunate to have my main army on a lab the turn I needed them there. Oh, well, the huge force of smiths has been there the whole game, of course.

One on one (if Boron had stayed out of it, and let's say Jurri didn't attack me either), you would have beat me, definitely. Or at least I couldn't have attacked you, and I imagine your raids would have taken me down eventually. Your 'Gift of Health'ed centaurs are just phenomenally powerful. That is why my main army avoided yours..even if I had won, I would have been decimated. I figured that out when you slaughtered some groups I sent in the beginning.

It's hard being double-teamed. I don't think really anyone can manage it. Well, Jurri did in this game, but being a water power helps because there's only so many places we can attack.

I guess if there is a problem with your strategy, Jeffr, it's that you seem monstrously incredibly powerful and scary, heh. I freaked that you were going to roll over Boron, so I wanted to make peace with Jurri. Jurri's strategy makes him seem less scary than yours does, although you're probably equally powerful.

What was this about the Dome of Flaming Death? Was it supposed to have nuked a mage of mine? I never got a message that it was triggered.. Is there a bug with that spell in one of these mods, maybe?

Anyway, great game, Jeffr! If Boron hadn't been at war with you too, I bet you would have beaten me, or at most I would have been able to fight you to a standstill.

p.s.

One more thing I would like to note is that I believe the elemental summoning spells to have been beefed up a little too much in Zen's spell mod. I love them, but I can't help but think they're too good. For 2 gems, my lvl 2 earth-casting smiths can 'summon earthpower' then cast 'living earth' to summon 4 elementals! I think each one can do that twice per battle, if you give them maybe 4-6 gems each. That's 8 elementals! Maybe it should be like: lesser elemental is 100 fatigue, normal elemental is 150, living earth is 200 or something. Being all at 100 fatigue is really probably too good.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif It's official, this guy has the clams hoarded! He's dispelling the globals faster than the eye can see and forging 80 pearl artifacts (guess it's 40 with his superhammer, but still)!

It's a great item, I would have liked to make it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif Wish I had the pearls. Listening to the proceedings I certainly understand that I really should clam waaay more myself... I'm not sure how my strategy would adapt to that, though.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Well with zens item mod it nerfs clams a bit with it being changed from 2w to 2w2s.

Re: Oh, the horror
 

Problem is the gem cost is hardwired to the fatigue; prior to Zen's mods, hardly anyone ever summoned the elementals in battle because of the gem cost. On the other paw, one version he had the elementals costing zero gems! Can't remember who it was, but someone immediately realized that taking 10 in an elemental path meant you could essentially spam elementals forever (especially since the AI favors summoning even when it shouldn't).

Re: Oh, the horror
 

You have done very well again Jeffr. Your Pan is always amazing. Reminds me on the cradle of zen game we played where i was pythium and you pan with your e9n9 medusa.

You were leading every graph in that game too and man persuaded me into attacking you which i did since i wanted to try out something else than clamming in that game.
You put up such a good fight then that i suffered so much attrition that nasty man could kill me then. We weakened each other too much.

This game has gone similiar. You have almost wiped out me. Fortunately Jurri gave me the idea with an SC then and out of a sudden i reminded my Moloch. This helped quite a bit but was not sufficient. You would have still killed me in a 1on1.
Chris couldn't let that happen because he would have been the next of your targets.

You did put up a very good fight again in this game and kept it interesting. It is one of the fiercest and most exciting games i have played so far.
As you said yourself your only fault was maybe that you looked too strong. That wouldn't be problematic but me + Chris could develop a bit too and while alone to weak to stop you i stalled you long enough for your downfall.

It was like with LotR. You were progressing well but my last forts did hold out long enough like Minas Tirith and then finally Chris saved me like the brave Rohirrims + the Ghosts in LotR.

You can maybe still have lots of impact on the game though both for you and me the future turns are not so fun anymore since we have the ungrateful role of minor powers now who can maybe be kingmakers but maybe make no difference anymore at all.

A kinder, more gentle way
 

Hmmm, perhaps in the next game I will pursue a more peace loving game so that everyone does not feel the need to destroy me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif It seems that the good players can mask their strength.

But in this game, I only started the first war against IronHawk's Man. I was attacked first by both Machaka and Boron, so I'm not sure what I could have done differently there. Perhaps offer peace instead of seeking to wipe them out.

Chris - I did cast a Dome of Flaming Death, and the messages said that two spellcasters (that had cast Ghost Riders) were struck by the fire blast but survived. It would have been a good counter (and maybe a nasty surprise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) if the spell worked a little bit better.

Zen's item mod increases the cost of hoarding items? I'm all for that. Anything that discourages inaction is a plus in my book. From what I've seen, I like these Zen's mods.

One possible bug is that I think I read that the Hama Dryads are supposed to have Enslave Mind, but when I summoned a few, they had Steal Strength instead. Or is it a spell that doesn't show up on their unit description? They didn't seem to cast it but maybe they routed too quickly.

Now, how do I stop this tactic of casting Ghost Riders and then taking the province with a scout or spy? My initial strategy of just killing the Ghost Rider casting enemy before he could do much damage didn't work very well http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also, Chris mentioned the Soul Stone or something like that. Does this give you free wolves outside of combat?

Re: A kinder, more gentle way
 

Jeffr both me and Machaka attacked you because Ironhawk told us how scary you are.
Machaka attacked you because he tried to help Man and i attacked you because i knew your playstyle and assumed that if i do not attack you you will attack me soon anyways. I thought that my jaguar warriors are stronger http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif.

Regarding the soul stone: It gives you 1 free summoning of call of the wilds per turn.

According the Ghost riders: They are a cheesy strat. Zen made them D6 to cast (Vanilla D4) so they are not as frequent anymore but still annoying. In vanilla i always summoned a bunch of demiliches just for the purpose of Ghost Rider Summoning and as "Landsturm".
Some kind of SCs beat the ghost riders and so do very large and well composed armies. But Ghost Riders are a problem since they are so cost effective. Even if your Army is huge and basically untouchable some Ghost Riders cast upon them can force this army to spend all their gems and thus soften it up for the next combat. It is almost impossible though to do several such Armies that cannot be damaged by Ghost Riders. They are just a great great tool.
With Ashen Angel + Ghost Rider attacks you can soften up almost any Army/SC. But they are fairly late spells so they deserve to be powerful.

Re: A kinder, more gentle way
 

The soul stone allows you to cast call of the wild once a turn for free. In combat it gives you a bunch of wolves each turn.

According to the spellmod, tha hama dryad has weapon id 284, which is steal strength. Yeah, they suck.

The usual tactics against ghost riders I've seen/used include equipping a high penetration mage casting a spell that targets the wraith lords (like Charm) as the riders will dissolve if the leaders die, getting a bunch of priests casting banishment with some high protection troops to shield them, fielding SCs that can off the riders without too much trouble. (Luck and etherealness and prot of 20+, preferably combined with fireshield, in the way of an example.) Another option, especially with stealthy armies, is to sneak every other turn, which prevents the Ghost Riders from ever catching them. Then use said army to take back the ridered provinces; in theory two such groups can keep a province from enemy hands. (Attack the province on alternating turns.) Anything that can off a scout/spy is enough, so maybe army is a bit strong a word.

In this case it's probably a waste of time to try to target the casters, as they are likely lamia queens or wraith lords or demiliches; the latter are immortal and the lamias are pretty buff. Also, a prudent ghost riderer twiceborns any living mage to prevent any mishaps, especially with the increased level-demand of the mod.

Castling will also reduce the damage done; it's not an option for you with your huge castle, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif You should really try a game sometime with a 40 admin castle: It costs 300g and 2 turns less to build and offers almost the same level of resources and gold and supplies.

There's little you can do to prevent/survive a ganking, aside from aggressive diplomacy. It really doesn't matter who you play against or how: it's always preferable to attack an opponent with superior force, so weaker opponents will band up to gain an advantage. If you are the strongest there is, there's no single nation left with enough force to challenge you alone; thus you'll be ganged on, unless you can do the diplomacy to prevent it. Ask Chris how he does it: it looks like he's first convinced Aku that I am the greatest threat, and now he's convinced Boron of the same thing, while to me it's obvious he himself has more provinces and magical gem income and armies than anyone else. Even if my globals stay up.

This will turn ugly, with players like Boron around... Either he's a master schemer trying to get a benefit from driving me to a corner, or just plain clueless and misinformed.

A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Hey guys, I might have slight trouble harnessing enough computer-time to do a turn even every other day for the next two weeks. So could we switch to, say, 72h quickhost for the time being so I don't need to rush things (cuz where's the fun in that?). Sorry for the trouble and the delay, I will try and overcome the obstacles to not hold up the game untowardly much. Thanks in advance!

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Sure.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

That would be great for me, too. I am going to be lounging by a lake for 5 days starting Saturday. A 72h quickhost would prevent my substitute from needing to play too many turns.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I had to restart the server. The hosting time says 72-hours right now, but I'm going to host tomorrow sometime in the evening (maybe 10pm or something?) to keep it on track.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Not to worry, I'm well aware of the lag I'm causing. A new turn is in, and I intend to do the new one tomorrow at the latest.

I wouldn't object to a pause when Pasha's away, either, if he'd so prefer: at least to me this is so much fun that I wouldn't want to miss a turn! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

If you guys are willing to pause while I am away (from Saturday through Wednesday), it would be nice.

However, I can also get a substitute (I just asked Panther; I promised him that he would have lot's of flying horseys to play with, but he has not responded yet).

If we have it at 72 QH, very few turns would go by while I was away.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I wouldn't mind pausing, Pasha. But, if you do get a sub, on 72-h quickhost he'll only have to play like 1 turn.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Panther has agreed to sub. He will hold the reigns of the Flying Horseys of Arco while I am away. Hopefully, the Council of Philosophers will not drown him with their endless debate about the evil of AKU's devil army.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

A new turn.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

And in other news...Pasha is trying to dom kill me with his skeptics...

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

It's because the Council of Philosophers insisted. I had no choice.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Damn, my Moloch with an MR of 25 got blinded on the (I think) first shot. She was also cursed (nice move, by the way). Does the curse make it harder to resist spells or was I just unlucky?

Also, if a unit is using an item to cast spells (say, a fire scepter - many of them; how many gems do you have?), does the unit get spell fatigue? I ask because it didn't look like it, although relief was being cast a lot (not by me, of course).

A blind cursed Moloch == a dead Moloch with lots of afflictions == Chris wins again. On the plus side, I killed an assassin and now have some goodies. Woo hoo !!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I think you just got insanely unlucky. I'm not absolutely positive, if being cursed had anything to do with it or not, though.

About using an item to cast spells, I think you do still get fatigue, but definitely not as much as normal. I think you ignore the spell fatigue and just take your encumbrance fatigue. I'm not positive about this, either.

How many gems do I have? I can't say! But, remember, I am Ulm, and my smiths can make those scepters for 2 fire each.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Just Jurri left.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

When you use an item spell, you get 5 fatigue no matter the spell. Which means you can cast it nearly indefinitely even without relief.

Is this game on QH?

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Is this always true?
Or do you get 0 fatigue if you use a 0 enc chassis ?

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I believe you always get 5 fatigue no matter what. It is completely independant of the chassis or the spell. I could be wrong, of course...

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

A new turn!

Panther's right: you'll get 5 fatigue per pop, no matter your encumberance or other factors. Makes Jade Armor a good choice!

The game is on QH.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

The server is down.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

Must be storming in Georgia!
-yc

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

New turn is up!

I managed to connect and my turn was uploaded. The next turn will go back to the Dawg, who returns from his vacation on the 'morrow.

Good luck all.

Edit - Darn and OOPS! While I was examining the results of the turn, I accidently hit end of turn and it uploaded a move that consisted of exactly NOTHING. Please do not allow the next turn to host until Pasha reports that he uploaded a proper turn. Sorry...

This is actually why I greatly prefer PBEM...

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I took off quick host until Pasha says he's done his turn.

Re: A slight delay, if the gentlemen won\'t mind
 

I have returned! Thank you to Panther for filling in while I was away!

Wicked Devilry!
 

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] Wicked Devilry! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Once again, the Wicked AKU has disclosed his depraved devilry for all civilized beings to see by a vicious surprise attack on the peaceful Arco troops as they conducted a customary peace keeping mission near the Abysian capitol province.

The cruelty exhibited by AKU and his minions in this shocking deed of fiendishness is easily measured by the uncountable criminal acts performed by the aforesaid AKU, et seq. At the top of the list is that AKU not only singed His Luminescence’s fur coat, but he had the nerve to actually KILL the Shedu of Arco. And, to add to that, he then proceeded to slaughter many of his Luminescence’s prized Flying Horseys!

These acts will not go unpunished, and AKU is hereby warned to sleep with one eye open at all times!

Curse you, AKU! No doubt you will be the subject of many, many, many resolutions and declarative statements to be passed by the Arco Council of Philosophers in the next coming months.

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Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

All I am going to say is that it felt so good killing that false god and so so many super commanders including your creature of the maze hero. And ah man all those veteran wind riders of the Ulm war that were all 4 star xp lmfao. It felt good destroying that entire army with hardly any casualties.

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

I bet! But, watch out! That was just a clever Arco trick to lull you into a false sense of grandeur. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/PointRight.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/PointRight.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/PointRight.gif[/img] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/carrot.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

You weren't the only one who lost his god.
Mictlan's fragile empire is finally broken.

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

I must wonder how losing 35 of 37 devils can be called 'hardly any casualties'. You should have said 'losing nearly all my priceless, irreplacable devils', which would be a far more accurate summary. Other than the loss of the well-outfitted commanders, it was an excellent trade for Pasha, for he still has about 2 dozen fliers left. But the loss of all those nice artifacts will hurt Pasha dearly.

It was a fine battle, however, and I enjoyed watching it. I think that the teeth of the Abysian resistance is now broken with the loss of so many devils. That is, unless you have at least 5 soul contracts plus Boron is feeding you blood slaves.

It was just too bad that Pasha didn't move in the ground troops and slaughter that attack per my orginal plan. That was my fault, because I forgot to mention that wee detail to him when I turned the nation back over to him. It is pretty darn hard to keep track of what you are doing when trading back and forth between subs.

Very nice counterattack, Aku, and well executed.

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

C'est la vie! I should have anticipated a heartless counterattack from the sneaky and dastardly AKU!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

Well Panther I had to do something with my devils and I am summoning more. I have so much patrolling going on I can set taxes to 200% and several blood hunters and keep unrest at 0 lol. Also it is better they died killing the evil Shedu than not being used at all because you ****ers are DOMINION KILLING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My poor devils and impish friends wont even get the joys of death in combat because you choose to cowardly kill my dominion instead of meeting on the battlefield.

All I have to say is...COWARDS!!!

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

Not cowards... pragmatists. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

I must admit that I love a dominion killing strategy. That is Dominions at its very best! It is so darn hard to accomplish against a human player, though.

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

Take Ermor with dom 10 and spam temples and raid a bit and voila, mission accomplished http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Wicked Devilry!
 

A new turn!

Dom-killing is great fun; it's not easy though, even with Ermor. (Especially with Ermor, really, since everyone starts building priests like mad when they catch a glimpse of the nation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)