AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

Started this game from a discussion on the Elemental: War of Magic forums.

Its two humans vs three easy AI's, I'm Bandar Log and the other human is Man.

I've played a fair bit of SP and one MP game, the other human has only recently purchased the game and has little experience. I hope we do beat the AI's but its no worry if we don't, its all a learning experience.

Turn 1:
http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...1Beginning.jpg

The world as I know it.

I spend two turns recruiting Elephants and making my initial Bandar Commander my prophet:

From this:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...PreProphet.jpg
To this:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...rn2Prophet.jpg

I then start recruiting Guru's to research, with the occasional Rishi. My target is Alteration 3 for the ever popular Body Ethereal

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...dyEthereal.jpg

Also at Alteration 3 is Protection, which is a cast on others version of Barkskin.

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...n3Barkskin.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...Protection.jpg

Its probably no surprise to anyone, I'm going for the transparent trampling elephant hoard. Protection is a bonus buff my Guru's can cast after the trampling has begun.

I spend the next couple of turns stomping indies and recruiting mages to research. In one of my newly conquered provinces I can recruit scouts so each turn I recruit on and send them out to explore the world. I find my fellow human in the forest to the south of my starting position (see the picture below). A good position as we both have one less border to defend.

Turns 8 and 9 bring these events:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...rianAttack.jpg

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...pireAttack.jpg

Two provinces lost :(

At turn 10 I have located Machaka to my west:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t.../Turn10Map.jpg

And on Turn 12 I find the Machaka home castle and some Marignon provinces (not in the pic, they are south of Machaka):

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...n12Machaka.jpg

Thats where we are up to now. I will research Alt 3 this turn and have sent 4 Guru's to join my main army. I'm creating a second army in my home castle and am two turns from completing my second castle (on the turn 12 map, to the right of the selected province is an amazon indie province and to the right of that is where my castle will be).

Any discussion, tips or cheering greatly appreciated :)

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

So whats your Pretender design?
Earth + Nature obviously but how much?

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...nbowGranny.jpg

Very standard Dom 6, Order 3, Heat 3, Misfortune 1, and Magic 1.

I'm using her to site search and she has found some good gem sites. Currently playing turn 19, I'll do an update around turn 22.

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

No astral on your rainbow? Against AI, you don't really fear magic duels. Your wizards have ample access to S though, but S+E could have given a stone coin.
What are the nations in play? I suppose Machaka and Marignon are ai?
You didn't talk of Man, so I guess that's the fellow human player?

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

what map is that, it looks great. All my color schemes are all washed out.

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

It's a random map.

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

I guess the bless is for the whites ones and thugs/SCs?

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

I thought Astral was well covered by the monkeys so I'd branch Rainbow Granny out into other areas. This doesn't explain why I gave her 4 Nature. Perhaps I should have said in the opening post that I've played a fair bit, but still have lots to learn :)

Man is the other human player and he went a Crone pretender as well. He said he went Astral, Air and Water. As said in the first post, he's very new to Dom 3 but you wouldn't know by the way he's playing, as will be shown the indies have proven no worries and I think he's well poised to stomp the easy AI's.

Updates:

Turn 13 rolls around and Rainbow Granny, Lady of Many Titles Given Her Starting Dominion wakes (see previous post). She sets out site searching, for as long as her withered legs allow.

On turn 15 we spy Marignons pretender:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...nCyclops-1.jpg

A Cyclops. Maybe too tough for Man at this stage? I'm sure the AI won't have given it a weapon and shield but its kinda tough enough at this stage not to need it if it has an army with it.

On turn 16 Atlantis is found:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...tisSpotted.jpg

Geez it has not done much!

On turn 19 vs an indie province our prophet (with +6 invigoration) switches from Smite spammer to ghostly dual wielding ape of limited death!

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...ealProphet.jpg

Got to love the Dom 3 possibilities :)

Turn 19 marks when we decide to attack Machaka to stomp their temple. We bring up a second army from the home castle to increase options.

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...tleMachaka.jpg

The temple gets the raw end of an elephants foot and Machaka captures 2 of our provinces. We decide to send the first army to shut down recruitment at Machakas (lone) castle and send the second army to the province north of the castle, expecting Machaka to attack there.

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...20Decision.jpg

Machaka does attack that province and its this:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...achakaArmy.jpg

vs this:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...rn21MyArmy.jpg

Poor lone spider rider.....

The attack on Machakas castle is a success but the walls are being repaired quicker than they are pulled down. No worries, his economy is stuffed and that was the short term goal.

On turn 21 a Guru summons these:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...n21Summons.jpg

Totally at risk of pointy objects falling from the sky, I wouldn't even trust their Awe (0) to save them from too much. At least the have the standard effect, might help keep the monkeys from running away.

I'm setting up to move a bigger army to the Machaka castle when look who turns up:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t.../FatherTed.jpg

No! Not Father Ted! What level of priest would Ted be? Would he even be Holy 1? He would definitely come with the Holy Stone of Clonrichert item :)

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...2SuperHero.jpg

Bogus!!!!!

Up to turn 23 and all is well. Charts:

Provinces:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...3Provinces.jpg

Man is supposed to be the noob and he's in the lead. Great effort!

Forts, Man and I have 2 and the AI's have 1.

Income:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...rn23Income.jpg

I take it the -30% income penalty for easy AI is reflected on the charts.

Gem Income:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...3GemIncome.jpg

Rainbow Granny's site searching is paying off.

Research:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...23Research.jpg

Go Man!

Dominion, to save a chart who cares about dominion? In this game its not important. Actually early in the game I saw Man building a temple and suggested to him he spends the gold on troops and forts (just remembered they are not called castles). Then I realised Man has temples at 200 gold, pretty cheap. Any opinions on early investment in temples when they are this cheap?

Army size:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t...23ArmySize.jpg

Not much to say about this, except perhaps that there is no Better AI mod in play so how much of what the AI has is just chaff? I'm Bandar Log so how much of what I have is chaff? Answer: most of it :)

Finally the world as it is known, and my gem stocks:

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/t.../Turn23Map.jpg

Cheers for the comments :up:

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

Super write-up so far, thanks :)
I'm Man btw and I appreciate being able to look at the game from this perspective. I am very new to the game and some concepts still elude me.

For instance: Atlantis definitely has not done much. He is sitting down in the corner with ~150 troops and a pretender. I feel like I should be more worried but I just swept through the independents in the SE and left the water alone for now. I did start building more temples in that area as his dominion keeps rising. It has spread to the NW a bit and is getting stronger. Is this something I should be worried about? I keep meaning to pull out the manual and look closer at the dominion section.

Re: AAR two biologicals vs three silicones
 

You should not build temples in the open without a fort to protect them, even against the AI, when they border an AI province. If he invades there, you'll lose the temple. Pumping up PD there will make him look elsewhere, though.
Atlantis has a hard time getting out of water, however, and is not very efficient there, so you shouldn't worry too much.

You only need enough temples to stay in your own dominion if you've got good scales, and to make sure you are not completely overrun with black candles. The ai will not dominion-kill you. Since Man has very little in the way of sacreds, I'd probably avoid temples altogether, unless you find a fancy province like something with amazons ans want the priestesses or sacred cavalry or fliers.