RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)

[atul]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Also, had R'lyeh not attacked Ctis and instead attacked Ashdod the smaller neighbors of Ashdod (Ulm, TC) might have had more courage in joining the attack and so on and so forth.

Assuming total knowledge of geography and easy access to everywhere. At the point I could've attacked Ashdod TC (for example) could have done the same only through me. So it was a move that most probably would have resulted in me being pushed into the sea, TC fighting Ashdod in my former lands and C'tis growing vast on my northern border. In the long run it might've been the right thing to do but it would have also meant that I'd be out of the game for leader position.

I hoped TC would have seen me attacking in other direction and thus become confident enough to go against Ulm et al and in the end Ashdod, but it really seemed that the nations in the west were locked into a stalemate staring at each other angrily until Ashdod came in and wiped the board.

Heh, hindsight is fun.

[WraithLord]

I think the nations were missing a leader, I know I was expecting you to take that role

Most of the game you were in the leading position with Ashdod and when he cast the FotA and started growing exponentially I was sure you'd confront him. What would have bought time for Marignon to wipe off Ermor (And secure his VP) and for me to recover from my losses and setback caused by war with Pythium.

I am confident that had Abysia been given 4-5 more turns to summon forge and research it could have made some difference. I had huge stockpiles of gems and was just bootstrapping my summon/forge/research machine as evident by the battle at 128. Of course this was not meant to happen

[Zeldor]

WraithLord:

You should have attacked my Ermor early on. I lost my whole initial army to you. You had heat aura troops and I had F9 bles for my vestals. Your troops owned my vestals and I think it was really big mistake on your side not to pursue. I don't know what I'd have to do to stop you.

I had so many bad things happen to me that I launched suicide attack on Machaka, which turned much better than I expected [but spider webs own ethereality], but then came Marignon and mopped everything

[WraithLord]

The army that beat you was my starting and only army
I had no gold with which to even recruit more units. I didn't know whether or not you has an awake SC (unlikely seeing your bless but possible nonetheless). I was in truth dismayed by my horrible economy and hence switched to an extra timid modus operandi.

[Zeldor]

I almost panicked when I lost my army there, I expected your invasion to be imminent, considering that situation. Huh :P What a lame part of the world

[atul]

Heh, anyone who's played with me can tell you I need a kick into pants to start any sort of leading business. With this no-names-don't-ask-don't-tell regulation no kicking and thus no leading.

I was really hurting for income (R'lyeh upkeep is nuts) and gems that I just didn't find any of, guess my major motivation was not to go into a war where I didn't know for certain whether I'd get anything out of. My bad, can't promise it won't happen again.

[calmon]

Thanks all!

I really like the RAND games! Its a lot of fun to set/understand the signs in a correct way.

Ashdod was the nation i got and i've to say its a really strong one. Like other giant races you can easely play with imprissoned pretender, fair bless, really good scales and nonetheless get a very good early expansion. With early wizards and some later animists i got access into all categories of sitesearching (besides blood).

I really like the adon, 3 misc slots + magic diversity (some can use teleport). This capital only commanders + fire/air royality were my only SCs in the game. I build them nearly from the start on (+ some talmai elder) with the plan to equip them later.

With my globals up and after r'lyeh decided to attack c'tis i was quite happy to have the whole north in war.

This gave me the chance to act by myself by attacking the peaceful south in form of niefelheim. I luckily didn't share a border to the research strong TC at this time. Instead ulm reacted and attacked me with some smaller forces. Because i was really happy with TC's position in the corner only neighboured with ulm and r'lyeh i decided not to go into ulmish lands and just killed his expanding troops.

Maybe TC tried to get a border with me or just wanted more lands, however he decided to go in war with ulm. This leads to a war between both without my presence. I just cast some damaging army spells against TC to slow him down.

This was the perferct time to attack r'lyeh...

[PashaDawg]

I have backups of all turns, in case anybody wants some with the master password.

[Shmonk]

Great game, calmon. I was Ulm, stuck between Jotunheim and TC. When I saw you take on the giants I figured I'd try to grab some of the territory you were taking of his, but as soon as I did I was attacked by TC. I was just prolonging my downfall to TC the last 10-15 turns, or I would have tried to go at you... and get defeated easily, I was not prepared for a battle against Ashdod.

Gotta love RAND games, thanks for hosting Pasha!!

[Lingchih]

Originally Posted by PashaDawg

I have backups of all turns, in case anybody wants some with the master password.

Umm, please don't share any that show Mari's Cyclops' battles against the Machakan Fetish pretender. Those are kind of embarrasing.