Nations - MA, CBM 1.6, max lvl 6, NI, Assimilation - Olm/Man and Louist/Ulm win!

[Olm]

But as I just have seen in the Hall of Fame, the Prince of Death just went to hell. How did that happen?

[ghoul31]

Originally Posted by Olm

Wow, great battle. But I wonder how that would have ended with 20 mages casting Mind Burn. MR 17 is not that much. And just a hint to Arco: Antimagic (MR +4 to all allies) should drastically reduce your losses due to petrification.

Yea its my fault for not giving them mage support. But I don't understand why he was immune to trample.

[Valerius]

Ghoul, it's kind of disappointing you think I setup games to favor myself but I'll mention a few things. First off, I was originally going to play Eriu but when Samhain expressed an interest in them I switched to Pan, since I was having fun with them in Celebrities. Second, if I create games to favor myself I'm quite a failure at it since I've never won one of my modified rules games. Lastly, Arco (and Eriu) are the two nations in this game best equipped to kill the gorgon. As Olm mentioned, I attacked that force because it was a large amount of low to average MR units with no mage support. The exact same techniques you used against Ulm's PoD would have worked against the gorgon - perhaps even more effective since sometime soon those mind burns will turn to soul slays.

Having said that, I'm inclined to agree with you that she's OP. My previous times playing Pan I went with an oracle for a scales strategy. I thought I'd try something different and thought she would also be a useful deterrent against a rush. But like I said, I think she's too much for these settings and that makes it not fun. So I'm going to assign her to a non-combat role, where I can actually also find good use for her. I didn't really put too much thought into her, other than as a rush deterrent, so this isn't a huge sacrifice. Most of my planning was based on strategies for my other units and that is unaffected.

[Olm]

It was almost noon. Wulfhere, the Lord Warden, was late. He just hated to wait, and rather let his opponents do so. He was late, but not too late. Admittedly he had the shortest distance to travel, as the Arena is located in his homeprovince of Livenmark. On the way to the entrance he thought about the things to come. He was chosen by the Mistress to fight for his nation in the death match competition. A great honor, sure, but he could not be proud about it. The war against Pangaea went not so well, he heard. And not one item of power could be spared to raise his chances in the competition. So he went with the usual gear of his caste. What enemies would he meat? Black Knights of Ulm, armored to the teeth, and perhaps with a magic weapon? Or one of the Chariots of Arcoscephale, that could just trample you in the dust. Or perhaps some mages? He did not fear, but he did not give himself a great chance of survival either. Death comes to everyone, and his death would probably come soon.
Wulfhere entered the arena just in time, and met a surprise. He expected lots of visitors to watch the fights and he expected to see the champions doing some final training. But nothing of that could be seen. The Arena was almost empty. There was only one person present. A grizzled old veteran stood in the midst of the fighting pit, wearing an old, battered armor, a black helmet and leaning on a strange looking trident. His face looked somewhat sad, but the look brightened just a little bit as he saw Wulfhere.
"So one came at last!" he greated. "My name is Hector, and I have been in possession of the Champion's Trident for almost 30 years. Now I thought it would be a good idea to pass it along to younger folks. But as it looks, I am almost the only one who thinks this a good idea." He forces a thin smile and looks around. "Well, the time is up, and you are the only challenger. So what are we to do?"
Wulfhere could not believe it. All the other nations did not send anyone? Nobody took the challenge? Perhaps the war went even worse for the other nations? So he would live the day!
"Well as you came all the way from....?" Hector asked. "Ah, just a ten minutes march from here, across the street and than into merchants lane and....." "Yes well, I don't want to know that exactly." Hector interrupted "At least you took the time to come. So we can as well do some sparring. I might be old, but I still have some tricks I could show you!"
And this they did. The two trained the whole day, and man did Hector know some tricks. When the sone set in the east, Wulfhere was bruised and beaten all over his body. But he really really learned a lot.
"You did well, young lad" Hector said. "Now you should belong to the best fighters in the world. And now you really deserve this!" With those words he handed over the Champion's Trident, took one last look, turned around and left the darkening arena without looking back once more.
Wulfhere stood there for a long time, looking at the trident, touching, feeling, caressing it. He thought of what might come, and how he and his new weapon would serve the Mistress. And he thought about the other nations, that missed an opportunity. The arena already lay in utter darkness when he finally left and directed his strides home. Great deeds were awaiting.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by ghoul31

Yea its my fault for not giving them mage support. But I don't understand why he was immune to trample.

She's size 4 so the chariots couldn't trample her. She's also got awe so between that and their low MR killing them quickly the elephants didn't get many hits on her (not enough to pop mistform).

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Olm

It was almost noon. Wulfhere, the Lord Warden, was late...

Great post, thanks! That was funny and really nicely written.

[Olm]

Originally Posted by Valerius

So I'm going to assign her to a non-combat role, where I can actually also find good use for her.

So you say I squeezed my brain into coming up with a counter strategy for the Gorgon for nothing? All my preparations are void? She never will step into one of my devious traps?

I don't like this. I would rather have you use her to the best of her abilities. And when she crushes me, at least I learned something.

[Olm]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Great post, thanks! That was funny and really nicely written.

Thanks. English is not my mother language, so it's not that polished. But when I realized I was the only one to compete in the death match, this story came to my mind and I wanted to share it.
The DM was quite beneficial for me. Wulfhere went from noob right into the HoF. And the trident is not so bad. Probably perfect to stick it into a Gorgon

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Olm

So you say I squeezed my brain into coming up with a counter strategy for the Gorgon for nothing? All my preparations are void? She never will step into one of my devious traps?

I don't like this. I would rather have you use her to the best of her abilities. And when she crushes me, at least I learned something.

The thing is, I *really * dislike OP things so the thought that I might be using one is painful. Not really sure what to do here. Like I said, I don't really find her very fun to use so I don't care either way about removing or not removing her from combat. It's up to you guys. I can remove her, remove her until there's more time to develop counters, or continue using her and let that factor into everyone's assessment of my threat level.

Originally Posted by Olm

Thanks. English is not my mother language, so it's not that polished. But when I realized I was the only one to compete in the death match, this story came to my mind and I wanted to share it.
The DM was quite beneficial for me. Wulfhere went from noob right into the HoF. And the trident is not so bad. Probably perfect to stick it into a Gorgon

It's really good and even more impressive since English isn't your native language. Hope you are inspired to write more.

Btw, post-CBM 1.6 the trident becomes a helmet and gains some nice bonuses so it's really worth getting since it leaves your hand slots free for other weapons. I used CBM 1.6 for this game because I'm most familiar with it.

[Louist]

Originally Posted by Olm

But as I just have seen in the Hall of Fame, the Prince of Death just went to hell. How did that happen?

Arco resumed his attack on me, so I sent my Prince to continue his harassment and liberation of provinces. Unfortunately for him, Pan's Gorgon routed a number of units, most notably Arco's Son of Titan into the province I was attack. His hero sword made rather short work of our poor Prince, dealing 45 damage a blow.