[Zooko]

Jurri:

Hi! No hard feelings about you crushing me like that. I deserved it!

I'm a newbie. This game and another one currently on-going are my first two MP games.

My strategy was to have double-blessed giants and rush to attack my nearest neighbor. I took Earth Mother with Nature-9 and Earth-9, Niefelheim, Cold-3, and I had to pay a steep price e.g. Drain-3, Watchtower. I also took Turmoil-3, Luck-3 solely for the fun factor.My expansion against independents went well right away, and then I encountered Abysia and attacked without hesitation. I took a couple of provinces from Abyssian troops, but then my strategy fell apart when twice in a row Abysia's Virtue slew a giant and my entire army routed. I finally learned how to configure a non-commander unit or two to start at the rear and to hold-and-attack to prevent routing, and on that turn I got somewhat lucky and my Niefel Jarl's Breath of Winter killed the Virtue.

However, having lost dozens of giants to the Virtue (about half of them slain while routing) meant that I couldn't break the walls of her fortress. By the time I had recruited a new army (very slowly, due to my bad scales and expensive commanders), she was reincarnated and wearing a ring of protection from cold.

After that we spent a couple of turns in grinding war of attrition against each other before hastily calling a truce in order to prepare for the inevitable invasion from the likes of yourself. :-)

So I would say my strategy probably isn't very good -- most experienced players can probably figure out how to stop double-blessed giants in early game even if the giants don't stupidly rout. Obviously the lack of research, the bad scales, etc. are a huge disadvantage. Also if graphs are public, then perhaps the whole concept of "rush to attack your neighbor" is a bad one.

However, I might try it again sometime and see how it works when I do more things right. If I face a powerful pretender with excellent defense like the Virtue in early game, there's a chance that Breath of Winter, Hand of Death (from a Niefel Jarl) or Fists of Iron (from the Earth Mother) could kill it. My intent was to focus all resources (including the Earth Mother) on conquering a neighbor and only then to start research.

I think double-bless troops is a typical newbie strategy. For what it is worth I've done the same strategy in the other MP game I'm in (Argitoth's), and it has worked well so far. In that game I play Marignon led by the flaming head Baphomet with Fire-9 and Astral-9. The flagellants and paladins, plus a white knight or two are excellent against independents and against the player (Argitoth) that I've fought. However, once again I took Drain-3 and I have the sneaking suspicion that the other players -- those that I haven't tangled with -- are so far ahead of me in research that I am utterly doomed even if I manage to win this extremely expensive war against Argitoth.

Maybe the most important lesson for me to learn is not to start wars. Perhaps starting wars in Dom2 is like the game of global thermonuclear war in War Games. "Strange game, Professor. The only way to win is not to play.".

Regards,

Gan, the Great and Merciless and Permanently Incorporeal