Invisible Swarm III: over

[CUnknown]

Yep, that is cool. Keeping the long quickhost.

[CUnknown]

What turn are we on, guys? 70?

I've never played a game this long before, except in single player.

[PashaDawg]

Thanks.

[Jurri]

Turn 72 is ready! What's remarkable is that even though this is one long game there hasn't been a dull turn yet.

[CUnknown]

So, what's the correct response to that god-awful (I mean false-god-awful) spell Jurri cast? I see three options:

1) stop casting anything and rely on national troops and the gem-troops I have on the field now.

2) save all my astral gems in an attempt to dispel it (then watch it come up again next turn?)

3) totally ignore it?

I guess I could combine 1) and 2), but that seems to give the spell maybe more credit than it deserves. Is it really that devastating?

I could do 3), but I'm afraid that is the dumb-*** way to go. How can I win if Jurri uses 1/2 my gems as well as all his?

Thoughts? Opinions? I can't let Jurri win another one of my games.

[Boron]

Jurri probably wins when you can't dispel the arcane nexus.
Together with his clams this is devastating.
Even if he clammed only moderately he can do so now.

Without item mod Ryleh is too easy to abuse as Jurri has shown us.

[The Panther]

If he has clams, it is essentially impossible to dispel the Nexus. You can assume he put it up with a level 10+ astral mage with 999 pearls. You can dispel it by doing the same, but he will pile up hundreds and hundreds of pearls from the Nexus before you can get enough for the dispel. Which means he just casts it again within a turn or two. And if he has an enchantment site, it is likely not possible to dispel or overwrite without a lot of luck.

If you have not nerfed clams and spells, then the Nexus + Wish is basically a game winner in the hands of a good player like Jurri.

The only real strategy is for everybody in the game to quit casting spells, convert everything to pearls and give them all to somebody who has a high level astral mage. If you have an enchantment site, you can go for an overwrite. Otherwise, you will have to dispel to make sure it is eliminated. Without casting your own spells to stop feeding him pearls, it will take many turns for him to pile up 999 pearls again just from clams and other natural income.

In a large multiplayer game, clams are the most unbalanced item in the game. Norfleet was the first player to discover this, and I think he was winning games doing that long before he started to cheat.