[Arryn]

Originally posted by LintMan:
Arryn: I just finished reading through your AAR from the beginnning, and I want to say: Thanks! The level of detail in which you cover all aspects of the campaign has been very educational and interesting for me.

Thanks! Just remember that I've made various mistakes along the way, and that I'm exploiting several weaknesses of the AI, which may or may not be applicable in other games.

- A few turns back, all the shield colors on your game maps changed colors - You can change them mid-game with that mod?

Yes, provided that you had already begun the game with the mod loaded, and that you overwrite the original mod icons with the new ones. If you manually edit the .dm file to point it to another icon directory with the newer icons, that should also work. The key thing is that the name of the .dm file must not change. The original Unwise mod and V'ger's updated one do NOT have the same mod and .dm names. I'm using the V'ger icons with a manually-editted Version of the original Unwise .dm file.

- Didn't you create a Bane Lord or some other undead nasty a while back? I don't recall seeing him mentioned for a while now (unless I'm forgetting things). What is he doing now?

Heh. That's pretty sharp of you to notice. His name is "Ashsoul the Bane Lord", and he's parked on his butt at Jotunheim. I prematurely summoned him way back, presuming I would grow my death gem income which I've been unable to do thus far. I have more commanders than I have troops, so he's patiently sitting idle until I find a use worthy of him.

EDIT: one such use which I've neglected until now is to make Fever Fetishes and give him one ...

- You don't have a lot of death gem production, but have you considered either using what you have to do a few death site searches to boost you income, or using them to produce a horde of spirits you could use as part of a war on Atlantis?

Gah. The Last thing I need right now is a war with Atlantis. I could scout the provinces on my list for Acashics for death first (which would be faster). I hadn't considered that. It wouldn't have made a difference until this past turn (#40) as it wasn't until I began my war against Ulm that I captured any provinces that will have death sites in them. Thanks for the suggestion, and I'll implement it as part of my turn #41 orders. It's too bad that the death site search spell costs 3 gems and not 2 like most of the other paths.

- IIRC, a few times, you mentioned a province having a VP, making it likely to have magic sites. What is a VP?

Victory Point

- Have you considered using mercenaries at all? Do you not like them? It seems like they could be a pretty good value in some cases. I don't recall you mentioning them at all here.

Yes, I have considered it. And they can be useful at times. I'm kicking myself for getting so wrapped up in defending my border with Ulm (spending all my gold on PD) that I overlooked Orion and his knights were available Last turn (#40). Vanheim hired them. That's a mistake that will soon come back to bite me, HARD.

[ March 19, 2004, 19:11: Message edited by: Arryn ]