MP game - "Pantheons" Started

[alexti]

The Panther said:I am playing Caelum for the first time in Slug Fest. I set up the conditions to be unfavorable to Caelum by using hard research and high strength indies.

That's about as good as it gets for Caelum. Caelum is very good researcher and lightining bolt is very low research. On top of that many other nations have hard time beating strong indies while it makes little difference to Caelum. And after that, the Caelum will have its usual window of strength well prolonged. I'm fighting (or rather was fighting) nearly everybody in DryLands (very hard research and strong indy) and they've nearly lost. The phase of the game when Caelum is very strong becomes too long and the game can be decide during that time. In other games, with regular research and indy strength Caelum (played by me in one game and by other players in few others) is nowhere as dominant and not in a single game it's a top nation (though in 2 games it's doing quite well, probably around 2nd overall).

[Pickles]

That game is a newby game Panther so 10 game vets should be winning regardless of race. (Of course I fantastically misjudged Ermor's spamming power never mind)

I can never work out what the effect of high research is so I would not have figured those settings as anti Caelum - just pro blood.

I do think it looks like a very strong nation but in normal MP games this is sort of balanced by the fact everyone can jump on you, which is not the case in a team game. Of course it is not a satifactory balance method if everyone has to jump on caelum first off or it dominates but I do not think it is that bad.

Pickles

[alexti]

Is the serve alive? I don't seem to be able to connect today...

[The Panther]

I think all sheap games have crashed, this one included.

[The Panther]

Pickles said:
I can never work out what the effect of high research is so I would not have figured those settings as anti Caelum - just pro blood.

I never thought of that before, but you are probably right about the pro-blood thing. Except for a minor diVersion or two to other paths, Mictlan can focus heavily in a single school, i.e., blood magic.

Well, it seemed anti-Caelum to me in my single player tests, for I was very very slow doing everything. But obviously, so was everyone else!

[alexti]

Caelum only needs Evo-2 to start rolling over indies. On top of that the easiest indy for them are knights and heavey cavalry in those reach provinces. Those Caelum armies become virtually unstoppable, and it takes a lot of time in very difficult research to research to counters. And after that the same thing happens with False Horrors at Alt-6.

[alexti]

The server is back

[Aku]

just caelum and jotum to do turns

[Lex]

new turn is up.. let the carnage begin