RAND REDUX - ASHDOD WINS (Calmon)

[WraithLord]

Pasha, I would much like to see the turns. Can you please send some to me?

[Amhazair]

I was dealt Jotunheim for this game, and for the first time ever in my dominions career I went for a heavy bless strategy. (Though even now I went with E9/N8 over dual 9's in favor of squeezing 3S on my pretender in order to be able to eventually forge the rings with boosters. Due to circumstances I never even got around to forging them, but I still think that in order to actually challenge for the win - as opposed to just hang around in early game and then slowly peter out - the S was worth it. )

Expansion with blessed giants was a breeze, and I was right along with the leading nations early on. When expanding towards the richer middle part of the map though, I started to get worried about leaving my flanks unguarded, and when I noticed that Caelum was completely surrounded by me and Gath, leaving them with no way out except through one of us, I decided to attack them, slowing down my expansion in the middle. Looking back this probably was a mistake, and by the time I looked to resume my expansion again Ashdod had me surounded.

So I was then faced with the choice between attacking Ulm, (who I thought I should be able to beat, but only with difficulty) turning my back on the already powerful Ashdod, or attacking Ashdod (who I knew to be stronger than me) in the hope that his other neighbours had also identified the threat and would join me against him.

Not having much faith in my fellow men - and shortly afterwards starting to see many other nations at war with each other - I instead sat around twiddling my thumbs, seeing my early game advantage quickly disappear. I did keep watching for the slightest sign of others gathering forces to attack Ashdod, ready to throw my full weight at them too, but didn't see anything of the kind untill Ashdod attacked me, conquering every single one of my provinces in one single turn, leaving me with nothing more than a last stand or two in my castles, which I organised as well as I could, but didn't really hurt him badly. (even though I managed to win one)

So, very well done Calmon. Even though I had my full attention focused on you from the beginning of the game, I never even managed to be a speed bump. Nice play.

Pasha thanks once more for the smooth hosting, it was a pleasure, as it was the last time.

A final word on the map: It felt really weird, having two enemy capitals so close by on either side, while at the same time having enormous amounts of space to expand towards in the middle. While certainly not a 'standard' setup, I kinda liked the change of pace of having to mentally juggle beween expanding as far as possible and not leaving your flanks uncovered. Even though I probably didn't deal with it as well as I could have.

[DonCorazon]

Originally Posted by Amhazair

Expansion with blessed giants was a breeze...when I noticed that Caelum was completely surrounded by me and Gath, leaving them with no way out except through one of us, I decided to attack them, ...

Oh the inhumanity!!!!

[WraithLord]

Pasha, thanks again for hosting this game. You know, your RAND games are actually my favorite and I'm really looking forward to them, but I hope the next one will be after asia twist since this poor slob would hate to miss it.
I don't want to nag or something but I'd really like to see the game turns. Thanks! Sorry. For I did nag.

Amhazair, you know we are very alike in respect to bless strat -- I have never used a bless strat. in MP. Its not that I have something against bless strat. but b/c everyone uses them I kinda prefer to "work" harder coming up with non bless game plans. I guess sometime I'll break my personal record and use a heavy bless and by then I'd probably go for crap scales and triple bless

[Lingchih]

If you plan to host another one Pasha, I hope you invite me to again play in it. This was one of the most interesting games I have played, and I think I learned quite a lot from it.

Thanks for hosting, and everyone, beware of Ashdod. Not that Calmon did not play an awesome game... he did. But they do seem overpowered to me. After all, every other nation in this game quailed at attacking them. That does say something about the power of Ashdod.

[WraithLord]

The northern nations didn't quail at attacking Marignon. They were too busy spending each other. When the north started all these little wars Ashdod was yet to be in such a leading position. Abysia would have attacked Ashdod w/o a second thought had the war with Pythium coupled with its terrible scales not put it in an ineffectual position.

That of course doesn't change the fact that Ashdod is very strong. Some toning down may indeed be required.

[Zeldor]

I just hope Pasha uses a bit bigger map next time I don't like huge crowds...

[WraithLord]

I have watched the replays. Turn 40 was the turning point. Ashdod really took all of Jotun's lands in one turn.

The significance of this occurrence was apparently lost on Ashdod's neighbors.

Nice play Calmon, you made the right calls all along the way.

[Zenzei]

Congrats to Calmon from me aswell, very well played.

I was TC in this game and I must say it really wasn't my kind of nation. All their stuff was just way to much all over the place and I felt they didn't have good access to anything good, most notably thug chassises. Flaming arrows/arrow fend was the only solid strategy I could figure out for them but I did the fatal mistake of taking sloth 3 scale and thus accumulating any meaningful force took more time than forever. I reckon TC is potentially monstrous with all their magic diversity but I prefer nations with more focus.

As for game turning point, I felt it was when Ashdod cast the gem globals in consecutive turns and nobody was able to anything about it in form of dispelling or attacking.

Thanks to Pasha for excellent hosting and I really liked the RAND game concept, it was awesome to just play for a change. I would certainly be willing to participate this sort of game again sometime.

[calmon]

Time for a LA RAND, isn't it?