Glory (MA game)- game is live

[fungalreason]

Just curious..... how many pearls did you have by the end, Jim? I'm guessing it's near a thousand

[chrispedersen]

Thanks to all that played. I really enjoyed the game - and appreciate all the efforts people made to be timely.

Friends, all..

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by fungalreason

Just curious..... how many pearls did you have by the end, Jim? I'm guessing it's near a thousand

Most turns, the Nexus was providing ~150 Pearls, it was ridiculous. I was holding 350 in reserve, so on the new turn I typically had around 500.

Since we're done, I'm going to come clean, because this has been really bugging me. I did NOT cast the Nexus with many extra pearls. It was a calculated risk, but also (being rather new when we started this game), I thought Dispel had to beat the total # of gems used in casting. So I thought say if you cast Nexus with 150 pearls, someone would dispel with 151, not 31 as it seems is the case. So, R'lyeh could have quite easily taken it down and kept it down, if they had chosen to do so.

All the globals make a pretty funny story, actually. I had not planned on them, other than the Deep Well, which I considered pivotal to MA Agartha success. My pretender was an Enchantress, 6E6S4N. Kind of a weird build, but the magical flexibility she gave me, made the game possible. On the way to the Deep Well, I decided to leverage her extra pearls into the Stellar Focus (which Marignon would later quietly dispel to put up the Second Sun), just for fun. By this time, no one else was casting any globals other than the Mother Oak, so I decided that since I had no one to use my Nature gems other than my pretender, that GoH would really help out my mages - that choice is really what kept me competitive through the BoT (and 2 Leprosies on my capital).

Eventually, with again, no one to use my Pearls except my pretender, I looked at my assorted gem stocks, and decided that since I was surrounded by people who it would be inconvenient to go to war with, and I was so small and inoffensive, I would see if I could get away with the Nexus. Well I did, and as you said, it was a turning point in the game. After a few turns of stocking up and getting my affairs in order, I started funneling 75-100 Pearls to Marignon on most turns, and once I got Wish, I was in fact Wishing Gems, to create and gear more Marble Oracles - and still able to tithe pearls regularly to Marignon, for whatever nefarious purposes he put them to.

R'lyeh was really pissed with me in the late stage of the game. He didn't border very much on Marignon anyways, but he seemed to devote as much resources as possible to cause my destruction, while Chris happily dissected his empire.


I suppose, as R'lyeh was AI and almost destroyed, it would have become increasingly hopeless (unless someone had Dispelled the Nexus, but then I would recast with ~500 Pearls), but it just seemed that you had an awful lot of powerful combatants out there, Fungal. But then, without much Astral magic, you would have been hard pressed against my Oracles, let alone all of the crazy things that Marignon had out there.


Well, good game everyone, I had fun! <3

[Slobby]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

R'lyeh was really pissed with me in the late stage of the game. He didn't border very much on Marignon anyways, but he seemed to devote as much resources as possible to cause my destruction, while Chris happily dissected his empire.

I wasn't pissed at you. I had just lost my previous game due to the nexus. Coming into this game, I saw I was up against the nexus once again. Marignon DoWd me once I took over, it was clear that you two had an alliance and I was faced with choices.

1. Give up provinces to Agartha and join in a 3 way alliance against Jot. Not ideal since, being the new comer, I would a) be the most likely to be targeted after Jot was finished up b) I would be at a severe disadvantage in racing to take Jot's lands being a water nation c) the nation with the nexus would become stronger and eventually unstoppable.

2. Try to put together an alliance to stop the Marignon/Agartha alliance. I approached other powers and they declined.

2 would have been ideal in helping ensure a victory for Ryleh.

Having already turned down option one I was to go it alone against the fearsome duo, despite holes in my research namely evo6. I thought I would be able to manage at first...then the Seraphs showed up. At that point there was only one thing left to do...stall long enough and try to kill your great enchantress so that the nexus would come down.

It's funny I barely thought about dispelling it. The previous game I tried that route since it was an oracle camped in the heart of enemy territory, but in the end all I accomplished was wasting gems. So this game I tried to side step the dispel and tried leprosy and finally in one final desperate attempt armageddon.

It's sad that in the end the game ended due to a bug, however, imo, it would have ended with Marignon/Agartha for the win regardless. Although it would have been interesting to see which of the two would have won a head to head war once the rest of the world was split between them.

[JimMorrison]

Well to be honest, the original plan that I had offered to Chris, was that I wanted to see him win (since he had such a powerful start, and I was so small). With all of those Pearls going straight into his Seraph production, and with the hideous ravaging that I was taking from R'lyeh, it was highly unlikely I could have even dreamed of overtaking Marignon in a 1v1 fight.


But, although you did stay stuck on me with a vengeance, I was more referring to the original player (too lazy to check first post to remind me who). He was really angry with me at the start of the war, and it affected his judgement somewhat. But I played the turtle, and he was afraid to go "all in" against me, as if he sensed that was exactly what I wanted him to do, so I could find his weakness and exploit it. But, he avoided that fate by just trying to wear me down, and in the meantime Chris just started dismantling R'lyeh with great speed.

I don't even think he much likes Marignon, it's kind of funny really, cause he played them to the hilt.

Oh and at the end there, my income was about 700, and my upkeep was over 1000. It sucked pretty badly. Though if I hadn't been getting an allowance from Marignon, I probably wouldn't have been sending him all those Pearls, so I could have found a buyer for some I'm sure (though is that self defeating? sell someone the Pearls they need to Dispel your own Nexus.....).

[chrispedersen]

Yeah. I *hate* Marignon. All the good races were originally taken, so I signed up for Machaka - but then two other people asked for it.. sooo I gave them Machaka and took.. Marignon.

Mostly to make a point.

Don't get me wrong - marignon sucks. No magic diversity, and old age mages. But my usual advice to players is - pump out the flagellants and crossbow men asap. Those were essentially the only national troops I ever built.

Ermor tried to pin me in - and when I offered a very reasonable compromise - splitting Vanheim - well when he declined he was essentially one of the perfect opponents for me.

Flame arrows, holy pyre, fireballs + flagellents with fire weapons...