[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Truper:
So a question for the vets: did the world start feeling empty towards the end of a long game, and how did you feel about it, if so?

LOL... it reminds me of one of my first big PBEMs, I managed to conquer Atlantis early and after a while my twin capitals were past the 4Ok pop mark - great!. At this point a coalition of all the remaining players (bar just two) decided I was a really stinking squid and they poured Black Deaths on my big sea provinces like if there was no tomorrow. 14 turns after the first hit, and despite the fact I had domes of AW on every 20k+ province even before the onslaught started, Atlantis was down to 11k, R'lyeh to less than 4k (!), and although I had conquered a dozen more provinces (mostly Abysian wastelands, sheeesh!), I had 65% less pop! That was the first time I was subject to mass devastation, and it left me somewhat... shocked ;-)

Every game I played after that, especially on small crowded maps, was pretty brutal on the pop if it were to Last more than 50-60 turns. Pillaging your ennemy's territory is sometimes more profitable than storming his fortresses.

Ah, another fun 'death' game: common random events, and every player had to pick max unluck + max turmoil. I got 3 floods on my capitol in the first 8 turns, reducing it to just above 8k. A few barbarian invasions and emigrations later, I was down to less than 4k. My closest neighbor was in an even worse shape, at the same time he had just 1200 pop left at his capital. The only lucky event I had was the visit of the hero team, since I managed to convert Bogus and his fellow Troll archer to my cause ;-). After a while every regular troop you could raise was a virtual deserter because of gold shortages. At some point I suicided all my standard leaders to cut on my upkeep (I had no regular troop left for them to lead anyway), so I could buy a couple more summoners. OFC Ermor wasn't allowed in this game, but it turned out the most succesful players had 'Ermorian' dominions and pretenders (and strategies). The game Lasted more than 70 turns and I don't think the largest province was bigger than 5k in the end ;-)