Re: Bug?
 

Well, you made the mistake of having multiple small forces spread across your big(ish) territory. If you have had one or two main strike forces I would have considered to go after some easy pray, since you had 3 forts that time. But this way it was a chance that comes only once in a decade.
Thanks a for the game anyway.

Re: Bug?
 

Now looking to trade for nature gems: I have astral, fire, limited quantities of air, limited quantities of death

Gem Brokers, Unlimited
T'ien Ch'i

Re: Bug?
 

Give violent humans nothing! They can still be stopped from owning whole island, if other folks not give them what they need!

They in need because siege force all wiped out when try to storm cave castle. We like fight in darkness!

Re: Bug?
 

Yeah, as I mentioned I thought you were tied up with Abyssia (at least briefly), and I was routing everything I had into Yomi to try and press my advantage to bring that to a quick end so I could quickly swing around to move on you. You were too on the ball for that though. You had about a two turn window before my armies would have been built back up and able to repulse you (or at least stall you while my eastern armies finished up Yomi), and you capitalized on it perfectly. Well done!

Advice for Marverni
 

Other people should feel free to expand.

Firstly, maerverni is not a strong position in the early game, even in experienced hands. Starting out in between two double-bless face-huggers, you were probably screwed no matter what you did.

But and however, you did make some defensive mistakes -
1) Don't split your army against a stronger opponent. Against a weaker opponent, you can split your army, but against a stronger opponent, it enables me to eat you piecemeal. If this means leaving one border completely undefended, this is what you have to do.

2) You want to fight as close to your capital as possible, so that you've had a few extra turns to reinforce. In fact, you want to make me *siege* your capital with your forces in it.

3) Get useful combat magic as soon as possible. Druids with gifts from heaven probably would not have been enough to save you - but it would have caused me horrific losses, especially in the afformentioned castle siege.

If you were heading for Gifts of Heaven as fast as you could and hadn't reached it yet, you probably should have just retreated. I know that's hard to do being attacked from both sides, though.

In general, I think Marverni is a poor choice for novice players, especially in MP, because you're so vulnerable to the rush. It's very powerful in the mid-game (with the ability to recruit druids everywhere. Aiee!) but the marverni national troops are weak even by human standards, even though they have competitive requisites.

Good game and good luck!

Re: Advice for Marverni
 

Thanks for the sound advice.

I've learned that MP is very different from SP.

It didn't help that my first battle against the independents resulted in 50 out of about 65 casualties. The only guys holding the field were the two commanders. That set me back a bit.

I was still in exploration mode when the south front got attacked. My first battle with the Abysians was both forces unknowingly moving to the same province. The battle was won, but at horrific cost. I was unprepared for that encounter.

I agree though, that I should have pulled everyone to the home castle to at least cause some pain.

BTW, I set Marverni to AI. I have no leaders or money.

Thanks for the game.

Weird bug
 

Okay, that's really odd. And frustrating.

Terrel, read the report from the battle in Tirranea. Then watch the battle, all the way through to the end. My forces actually won the battle, yet the report credits yours with victory in the province. The report's casualty counts appear accurate, but it claims that you held the province while the battle movie shows that you did not do so (and nor was it a double-rout). The strategic map shows a big army there now, as if you hadn't routed at all.

DrPraetorius, is there a turn file you can send in on the bug report thread?

Fighting a losing war can be fun, but the fun seeps out fast when a bug just reverses my successes.

Re: Weird bug
 

Ewierl - are you running 3.04?

I'll put the entire game in a .zip - and post it in the bugrep - you can explain the bug in your reply.

Re: Weird bug
 

No, I'm in 3.06. I've added my commentary in the bugrep thread.

Grumble... trying to decide whether or not this has sapped my enthusiasm enough to hand over to the AI. I'll be going away for the weekend regardless, so if I do keep playing, I'll have to make you all wait from Friday night to about Monday midday (eastern US time) regardless.

Re: Weird bug
 

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been locked out of the forum all day today (totally bizarre - I saw nothing but sql errors when I tried to pull up the web page...) Anyhow, things look pretty much as you describe them on my end, as well. The only thing I can say is that I have several times seen odd things that seemed quite inconsistent in the battle replay before, and usually at the end of the battle (I think I've seen commanders disappearing before without any conceivable cause of death).

Anyhow, I'm not trying to paper this over, or anything like that, but the one possible explanation I can think of is that if there is a limited duration for which the battle can last (and I think there is). If there is such a duration, and you did in fact rout me, but the rout was complete on the exact same turn that the duration limit was up, and their rules are such that ties go to the defender, then that might explain all the displays that we both saw.

Regardless of the explanation of this bug/inconsistency, I would say you're putting up an extraordinary fight Ewierl, and through all the mistakes I've made, I've gotta say that I'm really enjoying this war. Hope this bug doesn't leave too much of a sour taste in your mouth!