AAR: Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16)

[jotwebe]

Originally Posted by Adam J

I think Soyweiser's point is that Mr. Auuludh shouldn't be in the front of the battleline, not that he should be back at the lab. He can enslave minds just as well from a little further back... no?
Reply With Quote

Sadly, not really: the enslave mind attack only has a range of 25, very much different from ye olde mindblaste. I think after the first battle I did put him a little bit further back, but at this point I'm not sure about that.

Usually when playing R'lyeh I actually do what you propose, but for an AAR I thought I'd do something more interesting with him. I do need a mage leader anyway, although a slave mage would have sufficed. Still and all, the whole point of the southern army is not needing reinforcements, and an enslaving mage helps with that.

Anyway, let's see how he will fare, shall we? And I will say something horrible and stupid related to just this issue of exposed mages will happen, and it will be such an utterly pointless stupid thing that I struggle to express the stupid pointlessness of it.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by jotwebe

Sadly, not really: the enslave mind attack only has a range of 25, very much different from ye olde mindblaste. I think after the first battle I did put him a little bit further back, but at this point I'm not sure about that.

Do you really need the turn 1 enslave mind attack? The battlefield is normally 60 wide (30 for each side). The enemy will reach range 25 in 1 or 2 turns. Putting him behind some troops is more than enough. (Bonus, cast twist fate, so random spells/ranged attacks cannot hurt him, at least not as soon).

Just put a few dudes in front of him, he really doesn't need to be the closest to the enemy. His huge size already draws a lot of attention.

(Ps, hoping you win, love me some lovecraft ).

[LDiCesare]

TURN 6:
Abysia was indeed friendly enough not to attack this turn.
I conquered the southern province, losing 30 chaff on the way.
I found a S1F1 site with my pretender and got a lucky 300 gold event with increased faith.
Helheim's income comes back to a decent level (about mine, which means it still sucks) while Marverni plummets.
There are f*** elephants in Tir na n'Og. They can be panicked easily but if they don't rout they'll just slaughter anything I can put in their path. I'll have to send my pretender, with awe and fear it should be a piece of cake, but meanwhile my army will be rather useless.
I stop recruiting Pans for now, they cost too much. Dryads suck at research but they're still my best option for now upkeep-wise (110 sacred for 4 pts vs 320 for 10 pts).
I recruit some minotaurs and centaur archers to expand north later. The commander moves to my capital to fetch them, then northwards. There's one mountain province which is bothering, with longdead and archers, maybe a mage inside that I'll have to check, maybe send a dryad to banish?

TURN 7:

I take the province which remains with little losses (14 maenads). The kraken comes say hello. Nasty being. I also get the visit of a short-lived Caelum scout, Caelum being to my north far away. That's good for me, they have the worst expansion so far.
Abysia is being obnoxious. I mean, I tell him 30 is a war declaration and he sends his troops 1 province to the south, where it has nowhere to go, while he still has room around his capital. The guy is a pain. I'll be ranting againt Abysia a lot from now on, sorry about it, but from this point on it's quite clear he's been planning a rush and I'm his target. It's also a very bad strategy for Abysia, as he hasn't even taken the provinces by his capital, has pitiful strategic move, no research, and leaves himself open for his other neighbour to slaughter him. And noone can take down Pangaean forts early in the game, except maybe R'lyeh with their chaff, so rushing EA Pangaea is always a very bad move.
I just hope R'lyeh won't try to get out of the pond just near me. I hate the fact they have amphibious units everywhere. Never understood why people thought fish had to get out of the water. I should stop ranting against water nations one day. Now, I'll try to single handedly tame elephants with my pretender. That's probably a recipe for failure, but it should make a nice story.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

There's one mountain province which is bothering, with longdead and archers, maybe a mage inside that I'll have to check, maybe send a dryad to banish?

Longdead and archers? That can mean only one thing, invasion! No wait... wrong movie.

Usually that contains some sort of death/blood caster. And 25% of the time (in my experience at least) those *******s have the devil a turn summoning item. A lone banishment priest isn't going to cut it.

I could be wrong of course, but I expect devils and imps, with some skelly spam for good measure in there.

[jotwebe]

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 6

Half a year has passed, and R'lyeh's grasp is ever expanding. Our battles are victorious, and our knowledge of the mysteries of what the uninitiated call "fate" provides richt bounty.



The pictures in this update are a little messed up, either because I set my formating script to first transform them to indexed colors and then scale them or because some unknown force messed with them. Take your pick.

The two events in Baptizer?



One. Thousand. Pounds of. Gold. That's R'lyeh pounds, notoriously difficult to translate into other systems of measurement. But it's a lot, more than regular our monthly income.

So what's the item then? Some boots of long strides?



Not quite. This is awesome, never mind that none of my mages can use it, and that the aboleths don't even have heads.

It is immediately spirited away to R'yeh, where it now lies on a pedestal of dark stone, its unquenchable flames fitfully flickering in the darkness of the deep guarded by lumbering shambler thralls incapable of even conceiving the concept of treason.

Meanwhile, Helheim has noticed Yöt-Webbogoth's progress and sends the following message below the waves:



To such bluster, a memorable reply is needed.


~~~
A fisher boat returns days late. Of the crew, only a young man is left, but his once red-blonde hair has turned white. He refuses to look upon the sea, and continually mumbles to himself. After some time, it was determined that the phrase he repeated incessantly was this: "That is not dead which can eternal lie. Yet with strange aeons even death may die."

Only when brought before the local herse does the fisherman snap out of his daze. "Under the waves, R'lyeh will go where it will. Over the waves, the death-gulls may fly."
~~~


Same reasoning as with Fomoria, except while Fomoria as a nation with underwater capabilities is right on top of my hit list, Helheim is not. I doubt they'd actually commit to an underwater war this early, and it would be one if they attacked. Conversely, I have little to gain by feuding with a land power before it is clear who the big dangers will be.

Also, Fomoria is a scales build while Helheim tanked his scales. That means Fomoria will get more dangerous over time, while Helheim's bless (presumably) is most powerful in the early game.

Meanwhile, in the Hungry Sea, off the fog-shrouded Fomorian coast, the Grand Army of R'lyeh, having crushed the second of the Amber Clan Kingdoms, now expands into and area dominated by barbarian triton tribes. The champions of these tribes ride huge sharks, and the tribes have suspended their usual internecine warfare to confront the invaders from the north.



There have been strange voices in the astral currents, incorporeal spirits seperated from the Shadow Shore by incomprehensible gulf of space and time. Lately their mad gibberings has grown more urgent, perhaps stirred up by the Pantokrator's disappearance.

One especially, So-Y'wsyrr, has even achieved a semblance of coherence, warning Auluudh of some dire fate should he continue to lead the army from the front. But the strange power that has come with Yöt-Webbogoth is stronger, compels him to risk himself in the clash of battle, even in the face of the terrible shark knights of the Hungry Sea.



Auluudh bends his mind-force on the sharks' streamlined predator souls, even as the gibodai gathered behind him follow his example.

In the midst of their charge, the sharks are stunned and drift aimlessly, one even turning against the triton infantry following in its wake. It is to weak to fight effectively. The tritons stab it to death, but they have been distracted.



From their left flank, a fast-moving force of tritons, some of them freshly enslaved Amber Clan warriors, falls upon them, even as the line of troll warriors meets their van.



It is too much.

In R'lyeh, meanwhile, the first of the mind lords apart from dread Auluudh swears unconditional obedience to the Kraken Cult:



He's kind of sucky. His picks are earth and astral, I'm hoping for double earth, double death, or double astral, as those will give me path diversity. He cost 420 gold, and as a non-holy unit, that's 28 gold per month as upkeep.

Strategically, the next moves are simple. Yöt-Webbogoth continues south along the east coast



while in the west, Auluudh and his army advance into Underhome.

[Mightypeon]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

TURN 6:
Abysia was indeed friendly enough not to attack this turn.
I conquered the southern province, losing 30 chaff on the way.
I found a S1F1 site with my pretender and got a lucky 300 gold event with increased faith.
Helheim's income comes back to a decent level (about mine, which means it still sucks) while Marverni plummets.
There are f*** elephants in Tir na n'Og. They can be panicked easily but if they don't rout they'll just slaughter anything I can put in their path. I'll have to send my pretender, with awe and fear it should be a piece of cake, but meanwhile my army will be rather useless.
I stop recruiting Pans for now, they cost too much. Dryads suck at research but they're still my best option for now upkeep-wise (110 sacred for 4 pts vs 320 for 10 pts).
I recruit some minotaurs and centaur archers to expand north later. The commander moves to my capital to fetch them, then northwards. There's one mountain province which is bothering, with longdead and archers, maybe a mage inside that I'll have to check, maybe send a dryad to banish?

TURN 7:

I take the province which remains with little losses (14 maenads). The kraken comes say hello. Nasty being. I also get the visit of a short-lived Caelum scout, Caelum being to my north far away. That's good for me, they have the worst expansion so far.
Abysia is being obnoxious. I mean, I tell him 30 is a war declaration and he sends his troops 1 province to the south, where it has nowhere to go, while he still has room around his capital. The guy is a pain. I'll be ranting againt Abysia a lot from now on, sorry about it, but from this point on it's quite clear he's been planning a rush and I'm his target. It's also a very bad strategy for Abysia, as he hasn't even taken the provinces by his capital, has pitiful strategic move, no research, and leaves himself open for his other neighbour to slaughter him. And noone can take down Pangaean forts early in the game, except maybe R'lyeh with their chaff, so rushing EA Pangaea is always a very bad move.
I just hope R'lyeh won't try to get out of the pond just near me. I hate the fact they have amphibious units everywhere. Never understood why people thought fish had to get out of the water. I should stop ranting against water nations one day. Now, I'll try to single handedly tame elephants with my pretender. That's probably a recipe for failure, but it should make a nice story.

Actually, Rushing EA Pan can work for some nations, but the most likely unusual rusher would be MA Ulm, which would need an all ages game. Bottomline, Sappers (siege Bonus 5 yadda yadda) can actually siege down Maenad Spam on occassion, and Black Plates laugh at unbuffed Maenads, and Ulm has quite a motive for kicking out earth powers early on, which may perhaps be what Abyssia is trying to achieve.
Although I would propably rush someone else with MA Ulm if I had the choice.

[dojango]

Originally Posted by Mightypeon

Actually, Rushing EA Pan can work for some nations, but the most likely unusual rusher would be MA Ulm, which would need an all ages game. Bottomline, Sappers (siege Bonus 5 yadda yadda) can actually siege down Maenad Spam on occassion, and Black Plates laugh at unbuffed Maenads, and Ulm has quite a motive for kicking out earth powers early on, which may perhaps be what Abyssia is trying to achieve.
Although I would propably rush someone else with MA Ulm if I had the choice.

I rushed EA Pan as EA Mictlan in New Years New Game. Basically, I hit him about turn 10, popped his forts under construction, then sat on his capitol with 40 jags or so. My plan was to domkill him with blood sac rather than siege him down, but he got impatient and tried to see if 300 maeneds can kill 40 jags backed up by imps (they can't) so the s iege was able to conclude before the domkill.

But basically, if aby can park on your cap he can blood sac you to death rather than tear down your walls. Obviously it's a pain to have so many resources tied up in a siege, but it's oft times the only way. Keep in mind, Pan's in a really desirable corner position, so taking him down should be Aby's first goal. hopefully (for Aby) R'yleh won't poach the island while he does.

[jotwebe]

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 7



SOUNDTRACK

Andrey Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 01. Pulsar (Deep Space Theme)

~~~

An uneventful month. Auluudh survives yet another battle at the head of his army, again crushing a province of brave shark riders under his slimy abdomen. The battle goes more or less exactly like the last one.



On the other side of the world, Yöt-Webbogoth falls upon yet another triton province, by the name of Blue Water. Here he fights neither the noble amber clan tritons nor the barbarian shark knight tritons: This is a triton republic of coral-towered city states. The forces they muster as they put aside traditional enmities are large, but not large enough.



They die to clouds of poisonous ink and crushing tentacles.

Above the waves, Yöt-Webbogoth's eldritch senses detect a great place of supernatural power: a forest in which time and place are... strange, and where great numbers of strange beings live, somehow without crowding it.

Pangaea.



In the west, Auluudh notes from scouts sent above the waves (imaginary scouts, there are no independent scouts underwater, and fort turns are dear. My scouting is abysmally bad) that the coast is held by a centralized empire. A few mind-probed fishermen identify it as the greater dominion of Arcoscephale.

Messages are dispatched to the beastmen and the philosophers, yet no proof remains... Time and the Dominions 3 messaging interface conquer all.

In the tumbled ruins of Moon Sea, diligent slave mages find the strongest current of them all.



A temple is built, for it is expected to have a beneficial effect on the aboleths' procreative efforts. No more shall be said.



In the uttermost north, a different sort of construction begins:



Deep under the eternal ice, enslaved tritons labour to erect a fortress. The foundation is formed by cyclopean stone blocks, but soon it will be overgrown by the twisted polypal forms of the aboleth mothers.



In R'lyeh, under the two mind lords Eshu Saath and Vkt'Ebph, another army has assembled. Yet the sea is almost completely subjugated. Originally earmarked to attack Koromoo (which the barbarian goatfaced Fomorians insist on calling "the Isle of Balor"), they have a new target that avoids political... complications.

Of course, a different rationale is given...

("We have always been at war with Eastasia")

[LDiCesare]

I rushed EA Pan as EA Mictlan in New Years New Game. Basically, I hit him about turn 10, popped his forts under construction, then sat on his capitol with 40 jags or so. My plan was to domkill him with blood sac rather than siege him down, but he got impatient and tried to see if 300 maeneds can kill 40 jags backed up by imps (they can't) so the s iege was able to conclude before the domkill.

But basically, if aby can park on your cap he can blood sac you to death rather than tear down your walls. Obviously it's a pain to have so many resources tied up in a siege, but it's oft times the only way. Keep in mind, Pan's in a really desirable corner position, so taking him down should be Aby's first goal. hopefully (for Aby) R'yleh won't poach the island while he does.

EA Mictlan can rush anybody. They even have freespawn troops (slaves) so they could counter whatever maenads one could get.
Blood sac is a viable strategy provided there's no other blood nation in the game. I mean, if Aby tried to blood-sac, I would ask for blood slaves to counter-blood sac. This would result in a stalemate during which their expensive wizard priests wouldn't be researching, and thus it would be a distinct advantage for whoever lent/gave me blood slaves, unless they were allies with Mictlan.
Also, Abysia has a very low dominion score, while I have a very high one. At this stage, it should be clear that his dominion is so low he would require a lot of energy in order to domkill me (plus building a temple, preferably protecting it with a fort). Mictlan usually has a very high dominion in order to produce ****loads of its cheap sacred units, and they also have to blood sac, so it better be effective. The situation is very different here. Abysia has a low dominion score, so is unlikely to domkill me without a lot of investment and time. Such a blood sac would inevitably piss off its other neighbours. One-on-one, the strategy would definitely work. In a game with several opponents, I predict that it may be far too expensive, as it would mark Abysia as a target for all its other neighbours.

[LDiCesare]

TURN 8:
R'lyeh sends me a silly greetings. That's ok as long as he doesn't attack me.Sorry, I didn't copy the fluff and don't care at all about messages which are not clear, and since this just ment "Hello".

My pretender proves that a lich is superior to 4 elephants:
Tir na n'Og province 12 allows the recruitment of toad shamans (amphibious, W magic, sacred). That's nice.
Looking at the dark candle in 13, I bet that Abysia's demonbred prophet is there. I move to take 30. Not that it's useful, but just to make sure Abysia doesn't try to get there for some reason. I also try to take the archers/infantry/undead province in the north. I hope longbows + minotaurs + maenad decoys + one dryad will be enough, but I'm likely short on numbers.
I recruit only 1 Pan this turn, and a scout. I hope to start building a fort next turn. I'll never be able to by the way. So far noone has a second fort but that will not last long and I'd like to lock the entry of the island.
In other news, Abysia, Helheim and Caelum didn't expand this turn. Which kind of proves Abysia is moving all its troops towards me but I wanted that not to happen so I remained blind.