Faded Magic - no diplo, CBM 1.92, limited magic - KeithZ/Pythium wins!

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok-X

Ok, im in as Jotun. I offered it

Ok, I've switched you to the giants. Thanks for giving them a try!

Originally Posted by Samhain

I thought Ulm was considered one of the weaker nations of MA. If they are one of the more powerful options, that will kind of suck if/when I go down in flames in the first 20 turns or so. Is there a better choice of nation that is both not too micro-managey as well as weak enough to provide a good excuse for poor performance? I generally just play EA.

Under CBM 1.6, which we used in the previous game, it certainly was considered a weak nation but under 1.92 it's a different story. But I have nerfed them heavily and when you consider the presence of nations like Pythium, Jotun and Eriu (Eriu has a very strong midgame and fades late game - but here there is no traditional late game) I wouldn't at all say that Ulm stands out as stronger than the others.

As far as going down in flames in the first 20 turns, well there's no shame in that as even with strong nations luck can turn against you and you get dogpiled, etc.

In terms of low micro, I guess Ulm wouldn't be too bad from that perspective since at least they aren't into blood. And combat scripting shouldn't be too complicated since you'll be focused on buffing troops and pounding opponents with evo magic. But in the end if you do well you'll have to manage an increasing number of units and have to deal with an increasing amount of micro (this is a low magic game but unfortunately the micro won't be any better than a normal game).

Originally Posted by tratorix

In as T'ien Chi.

Welcome! I'll leave recruitment open until we hear from shard; perhaps we'll end up with a full complement of 8 players.

[Samhain]

Ok. I think I'll keep Ulm then. I already have a pretender chosen for Ulm with an RP back story. Man looked like another good choice for the same type of game play. I may try them next time.

My last game was with EA Abysia. That was nuts with micro-management. I swore if I ever played them again I would do so with little or no use of blood. That seemed less of a viable option with MA Abysia though.

The late game micro-managment of thug summoning and/or equipping is something I can usually deal in the rare situation that I make it that long.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Samhain

Ok. I think I'll keep Ulm then. I already have a pretender chosen for Ulm with an RP back story.

Nice! RP and in-character stuff is always fun.

Originally Posted by Samhain

Man looked like another good choice for the same type of game play. I may try them next time.

Olm did very well with Man last time (including some nice in-character posts) and, like Ulm, the 1.6 version was weaker than the current version of the nation.

Btw, how did you like Eriu? I know buzzsaw took over your position so you didn't get a chance to fully explore them, but they are actually also pretty good from a micro perspective (like you say equipping thugs and sending them out isn't bad). They are also another nation much stronger under the current CBM.

Originally Posted by Samhain

My last game was with EA Abysia. That was nuts with micro-management. I swore if I ever played them again I would do so with little or no use of blood. That seemed less of a viable option with MA Abysia though.

Definitely; playing MA Aby without use of those awesome warlocks would be a travesty.

[Samhain]

I'll try to post the bit of backstory by the time we start. I don't plan on doing any testing anyway, so I'll have the time. I tend to find testing does me more harm than good. I always get easy indies and awesome unexpected events then have the opposite luck when the real game starts. Since getting a taste of multiplayer, I no longer have any interest in single player regardless.

Once we get going, I can't make any promises about story updates, at least not before the final conclusion.

As for Eriu, along with its early age cousin and Last of the Tuatha in Dom2, there is probably no nation that I've played more. Though, I haven't played them otherwise in any forum game, just once I think in one of those dom3minions fast turn games where I got smeared. Pretty much all of that experience with them has been in single player.

I didn't worry much about strategy when I played single player and many of my games ended with the last dozen or so Sidhe Champion heroes marching off together for their final, tragic battle.

As you might guess from the name, I am kind of fond of Irish mythology. For the same reason, I've probably played Fomoria in more multi-player games than any other nation.

As for the Nations game, I was happy to let Buzzsaw keep my position as I've been trying to get him back into playing. We used to play with a couple of other co-workers. Since our desks are about five feet from each other, he let me see many of his turns so I could sort of keep playing vicariously through him. It was actually a lot of fun.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Samhain

I'll try to post the bit of backstory by the time we start... Once we get going, I can't make any promises about story updates, at least not before the final conclusion.

As much as I like in-character posts since this is a no-diplo game it would probably be better to have a starting in-character post and then wait until the end anyway.

Originally Posted by Samhain

I always get easy indies and awesome unexpected events then have the opposite luck when the real game starts.

Lol. I find that happens with my pretender builds. Literally every time I take rainbow that, combined with my national mages, can forge/summon anything I'd want, I find indie mages that could have done most of what I wanted my pretender to do. When I just go with scales/bless and limited diversity I don't find any good indie mages.

Originally Posted by Samhain

As for Eriu, along with its early age cousin and Last of the Tuatha in Dom2, there is probably no nation that I've played more.

You know, I never tried the LoT theme in Dom2 (only played SP in those days but, like you, now only play MP). Did they have Tuatha and/or Sidhe Lords with the same paths as now? Not that I would have thugged them out anyway as in those days I was troop focused and mainly went with something like F9W9 Vans or played Aby and spammed soul contracts.

Originally Posted by Samhain

As you might guess from the name, I am kind of fond of Irish mythology. For the same reason, I've probably played Fomoria in more multi-player games than any other nation.

Yes, I kind of figured that from the name and wanting to play Eriu in Nations. I don't know much about Irish mythology but I like the theme of the nations. Not as much as the theme of the heims but TNN/Eriu is pretty much a perfect fit for my preferred style of play so these days I play them more than Van. Giant nations are not my thing so I've never played Fomoria and only played Jotun once.

Originally Posted by Samhain

As for the Nations game, I was happy to let Buzzsaw keep my position as I've been trying to get him back into playing. We used to play with a couple of other co-workers. Since our desks are about five feet from each other, he let me see many of his turns so I could sort of keep playing vicariously through him. It was actually a lot of fun.

I got the impression he had a lot of fun with that game which of course I was glad about as my main goal when admining a game is that people enjoy themselves. Though I'm afraid I wasn't the most useful ally against Ulm and Man since I never recovered from losing my army outside the gates of Arco.

[Samhain]

I hadn't thought of the violation of the diplomacy part of RP posts. I think I'll just hold off then until the end and submit it as sort of an RP-AAR. That way too I don't have to worry about how much of my build is revealed in the story either.

As for Last of the Tuatha in Dom2, my recollection is that it is the spitting image of Tir Na N'Og in the early age of Dom3. I definitely remember Sidhe Champions, Sidhe Lords, and Ri with almost if not absolutely identical paths.

I wasn't too focused on that part of the game then, though. I tended to issue magical items based on merit for instance. One item per yellow star and a full suit for a red star. Other items issued based on valor in combat, that sort of thing. And, I never scripted at all until I played MP.

And, Buzzsaw definitely had fun in the Nations game. I thought I had a pretty good shot of getting him to join this game though at the cost of not being able to work on my turn during lunch hours. Unfortunately, he decided just this week he was taking a break from all kinds of gaming for a bit to get some things done. Perhaps he'll be in for the next one.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Samhain

I hadn't thought of the violation of the diplomacy part of RP posts. I think I'll just hold off then until the end and submit it as sort of an RP-AAR. That way too I don't have to worry about how much of my build is revealed in the story either.

Ok, that makes sense. Looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by Samhain

I wasn't too focused on that part of the game then, though. I tended to issue magical items based on merit for instance. One item per yellow star and a full suit for a red star. Other items issued based on valor in combat, that sort of thing. And, I never scripted at all until I played MP.

Wow, your heroes had to work hard for their equipment. As far as the scripting goes, well, I guess that's one way to equalize things with AI. Though it would make me sad to have a nice hero with full gear and have the AI suicide him because it just decides to cast spells rather than engage in melee.

Originally Posted by Samhain

And, Buzzsaw definitely had fun in the Nations game. I thought I had a pretty good shot of getting him to join this game though at the cost of not being able to work on my turn during lunch hours. Unfortunately, he decided just this week he was taking a break from all kinds of gaming for a bit to get some things done. Perhaps he'll be in for the next one.

Lol, I was hoping you might get him to join. But maybe we'll catch him next time around.

Originally Posted by shard

Mmmm any chance I can play MA Jomon (Shatner's/Legowarrior's mod)?

If there are balance issues then I will go for Shinuyama. I am feeling oriental today...

Welcome! I'd like to stick to base game nations so I'll sign you up for Shin.


I'll post an updated mod soon. In addition to removing gem gens and making darkness require D5 I'm making one significant change and removing the MR negates from Iron Bane (it will now require E5 and 5 gems). I was thinking about pretender builds and it occurred to me that high MR troops combined with an S bless or antimagic could basically become immune to iron bane. That means it would go from a spell that had the drawback of also harming your own troops to one that would largely only effect the enemy. That's definitely not what I was aiming for so I'm going back to my original plan of just making it more difficult and much more expensive to cast (making it MR negates was a last minute addition before I posted the mod and even then I wasn't sure it was a good idea).


One last thing: I'm thinking of switching my nation from Eriu to Caelum. I'd really like to use the various monster and thug summons but don't really trust myself not to keep using the glamoured thugs I like so much if I have them available. Playing Caelum will force me to use them as they don't have recruitable thugs. And it seems like there could be a nice synergy between flying monstrums and dragons and Caelian units. I'll miss the sleath aspect of Eriu but I also like mobility and Caelum has tons of that. I'll decide for sure by the time I post the updated mod.