Alpaca: 10 player game to test new server(started)

[llamabeast]

Hi guys,

I'm sorry, I've postponed the hosting _again_, though only by 6 hours.

So, I only have the internet at work at the moment. On Friday I downloaded my turn and took it home, but somehow took back the wrong turn. Yesterday I came in to the office and downloaded it again, but on trying it this morning it turned out to be corrupted! So now I'm downloading it a third time, and I'll cycle back in later on to send the turn in. Having no internet at home is proving quite crazy!

[Xietor]

The Mighty Gorgon:

http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.p...jh0g8s&thumb=4

A quarter to anyone that knows from their memory from whence her name came.

[llamabeast]

I hear word that both Ermor and Vanheim concede. Is this correct? Has Marignon's blitz on Vanheim and Pangaea's annihilation of its armies finished it off at last? Has Ermor decided it is content to occupy it's corner of the world?

[Xietor]

Ermor and Vanheim have both told me they recognize they cannot prevail-and that they concede.

While I have never met Llamabeast before this MP game, we have been allies from the start. And while I would fight an enemy to the bitter end, I will accept a co-champion ending with a friend.

I do think I could ultimately prevail-as I am sure Llamabeast does as well. The map is evenly split. But the game has gone on for over 5 months, and it would be a hard grind for either of us to prevail.

This game had many very experienced players in it. All of the best races were represented, Pythium, Ermor, Ryleh, Caelum, Arcos., Marignon, Man, Vanheim, and Pangaea(i feel bad for shinuyama). And there were many high level battles and wars.

It was also my 1st big mp game with players from this forum. And I learned some new things-many of them the hard way. But hopefully I was able to bring some new tactics to these players as well. Who else plays pangaea with a heavy drain scale?

I did some small blood hunting this game-something I rarely do. But I saw early on the high caliber of play in this game, and knew that if I refused to blood hunt, I likely would not have a fighting chance to prevail. So it is a example of the high level of skill the players in this game have that I was forced to rely on armies of Vampire Lords and blood magic to supplement my armies.

I did not make Blood Stones, however. Micromanagement does have its limits!

Good Game All!

[Valerius]

Congratulations Llamabeast/Xietor! Well played. As always, llama, thanks for hosting.

This was my first real MP game and it was a very good learning experience.

But since the game is over I'd like to know who stole the Chalice from me this turn. This is an outrage!

Also the thread in the main forum reminded me to ask who wished for the Dark Knight a few turns back? Or does he just disappear if that random event occurs again? Just so you know I didn't script his attack commanders order to anyone else.

[Xietor]

That would be Llamabeast with the wishes. It certainly was not me. It would have been an interesting fight with his angels v my immortals in my dominion(which blankets most of the world).

At least I would not have had to suffer Arcane Nexus-i did have the s gems to dispel anything. I had Pythium/arcos capitals for a long time and nothing to spend my s gems on!

I am hoping Llamabeast did not wish for the Dark Knight for unlawful purposes! Why anyone would think a Dark Knight is worth 100 s gems beats me. It is illegal to copy their orders, and they are not that feared a unit.

[llamabeast]

Argh, now I've lost my USB pen-disk thing, so I won't even be able to see the last turn until tomorrow.

Anyway, huzzah for victory! Or at least being in the last two.

Valerius, you scared me witless for most of the game. I think your tactic of rapid expansion followed by turtling and inoffensiveness was a cunning one. We were all scared of you, but never ganged up becuase you weren't expanding any more. However, I think you're right that you made a mistake in not getting any allies. And after the mid-game I think you definitely would have done well to start expanding again. Once Pangaea and myself had finally grown larger than you you were pretty much doomed I think.

As for my game - I had a lot of luck I think. I managed to get a lot of territory without really being in a war where I was in danger of losing much. My first war was against Pythium, and I was thoroughly outplayed by Dr. P. But Pangaea came to the rescue, and due to Xietor's impressive honesty we stuck to the original deal and I got a load of territory, despite having fought appallingly. Then came a war against Man. Man put up a good fight, but it was three on one (with Pangaea and Ermor helping), so ultimately he was doomed - and again I gained loads of land. Then came a prolonged period of stagnation, which I didn't really enjoy (note to self - always be at war in Dominions: cold wars are not fun - which makes me think your game must have been very strange Valerius).

We attempted to organise a joint attack on Vanheim (because he was so scary), but that fell apart when Arcos agreed to peace with Vanheim. Pangaea moved swiftly to take apart the weakened Arcoscephalian empire - if he wasn't going to be on our side, he was better out of the picture. Once again I got in on a winning war, with my new legion of SCs flying in to rapidly overwhelm southern Arcoscephale. Then, after a bit more Cold War time, we decided to go for Caelum. At this point we fully expected world war, but for some reason Vanheim still remained quiescent. Once again my SCs pulled off a blitz, so again I got a heap of territory without a very hard fight. The only really difficult part was killing Caelum's Father of Winters, which was a real beast to take down, and killed several of my SCs before it fell.

Then R'lyeh rose up from the seas, and attacked me all over with demon lords. Happily I had some purpose-built Harbingers with boots of quickness and flambeaus, who largely made short work of the invaders. After that R'lyeh fell quiet, and it was just a matter of the last great war, the invasion of Vanheim.

My plan there was just to sweep in and take territory before he could react. I assumed I would not be able to beat his Tartarians, but I figured they couldn't be everywhere at once. I also made a lot of use of Ghost Riders, which is frankly a ridiculously good spell. It seems my Shock and Awe tactics worked pretty well. I did lose a vast army horribly and instaneously to Vanheim's earthquake trap at the beginning of the war though.

The remaining mystery is Ermor... what was he up to?

It was indeed me who took the Chalice. I had lots of sick mages in my capital, some of my angels had afflictions (my lovely Seraph was out of action from a blow to the head for ages), and I wanted to get started making more Tartarians. But obviously that never got off the ground. It was, however, the first time I've ever cast Wish, either in single or multiplayer.

And no, I didn't Wish for the Dark Knight - I mean come on, I only just posted to say that abusing him would be illegal in my games! But every time the Bogus event happens all of those heroes disappear to the new location, even if they've been charmed.

Great game guys, thanks for playing. Hope to play with you all again soon (once I've got my internet connection up, grr). You're all excellent sports and great fun to play with.

[Xietor]

Val played a great game. It is my opinion though he made a critical error when man was fighting ermor. Vanheim should have attacked ermor and got the ne corner of the map. Caelum and Man were logical allies for vanheim.

I get bored with peace, and I do not think i had any periods of peace the entire game. It is hard sometimes to attack a neighbor who is honorable, but you have to expand to remain in the hunt. Of course, nothing beats attacking a player you want to bring down a notch. Or one who betrayed you. That gets my juices flowing pretty good. But sometimes you have to attack players you like.

[llamabeast]

Well, so the first ever LlamaServer game is finished after 107 turns. That was pretty epic wasn't it? And it caught a lot of bugs in the early days, so thanks a lot for your help with that aspect of things guys.

Agreed with Xietor's comments, I think I'm going to be a crazy warmonger in future!

[Valerius]

I think you're both right: there was a point where I needed to start expanding again. I'm not sure exactly when it was but at some point Caelum lost his research lead to me and if I wasn't the first to get to Constr. 8 I was the first to be able to mass produce unique items. I also had a good set of Alt. 9 for my vans and tartarians on the way.

Xietor, your ideas about allying with Caelum/Man make sense. And I did think about how getting the northeast corner would be really good for me. And I knew it would be bad for me if Man fell. But in the end it's like you said: Caelum, Man or Ermor had all been good neighbors and I didn't want to attack any of them so I stayed out of it.

I was aware of the fact that people are wary of Vanheim at the beginning of the game and I think this lasted into the mid-game because I got the research lead and because I had such a good starting position and got a lot of provinces to begin with. I think I became too cautious in my play because I was worried about an alliance against me.

Also, you're both right that the latter half of the game wasn't too exciting for me. By far the most exciting part was fighting Arco. Other than that it was kind of fun to forge many unique items and finish researching all paths. But after that I lost my focus: I would just summon three tartarians a turn, GoR the best one and repeat the process. I agree that being at peace for too long is boring.

Llama, I also want to second what you said: I really enjoyed playing with everyone. We had good group of people.