Nations 2 - MA, CBM 1.92, no diplo, no indies - Larz/Mictlan wins!

[Larz]

Short recap of the game:

45F gems a turn + Conj 30 site = drown the world in Zmey

Longer recap:

That was a good game, guys. It had a nice pace and everyone stuck out to the end. I really liked the no indies aspect as it reduced some of the micromanagement for me (remembering which province has that nice indy, which one has the scouts, etc). I think the no diplo aspect of the game probably helped me as it made it harder to coordinate ganging up on me when I started taking a lead in the graphs. I kept expecting to get ganged up on, but it never happened.

My strategy was to use a good bless (with bad scales) to do quick early expansion and then to break into blood, even though MA Mictlan is not really a blood nation. I was going to use my pretender to do this but got really lucky on the second turn and got a blood hero and a blood random Nahouli (2.5% chance). So, I was able to break into blood before my pretender even woke up.

With that early expansion I was able to put up more castles and started cranking out Nahouli. They only gave me 4RP (with the drain scale I took), but are pretty cheap at 110g. Once I was able to build up a large number of these, my research really took off. Finding the Conj 30 site was another huge lucky break. Actually I also found a Conj 20 site in the same province as the Conj 30 site. For a few seconds I thought I was going to get a 50% bonus, but alas, they do not stack

I was then able to crank out the nice Mictlan national summons to get some diversity and got the two Kings of elemental fire to become my Zmey factory.

I think maybe Zmey are a little OP. I know Llama has mentioned possibly nerfing them a little in the next CBM (maybe upping the path requirements, though that wouldn't have mattered in this game). Maybe making the Lycanth amulets more expensive may help a little. For 5N they turn Zmey into Kamikaze death machines.

Thanks again everyone for a good game.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Larz

Short recap of the game:

45F gems a turn + Conj 30 site = drown the world in Zmey

Yikes. I thought you were running away with the game just looking at gem income. Finding out you had a Conj. 30 site on top of it makes me think we could have called the game 10 turns ago.

Originally Posted by Larz

I kept expecting to get ganged up on, but it never happened.

I was hoping to start a dogpile of you ASAP but it just took forever to take Pan's forts. In addition to needing them as bases I didn't want to have him at my back after I had begun fighting you so I felt I had to finish him first. Though I'm curious why Shin didn't help Van when it became clear you were getting the upper hand in that war.

Originally Posted by Larz

I think maybe Zmey are a little OP. I know Llama has mentioned possibly nerfing them a little in the next CBM (maybe upping the path requirements, though that wouldn't have mattered in this game). Maybe making the Lycanth amulets more expensive may help a little. For 5N they turn Zmey into Kamikaze death machines.

Admittedly, I have an intense hatred of lychantropos' amulets, but I think making them more expensive would be helpful. They are pretty much a perfect fit for zmey - not only do you get regen at half the cost you'd otherwise pay but it removes morale as a weakness that can be targeted.

[Reverend Zombie]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Yikes. I thought you were running away with the game just looking at gem income. Finding out you had a Conj. 30 site on top of it makes me think we could have called the game 10 turns ago.

I was hoping to start a dogpile of you ASAP but it just took forever to take Pan's forts. In addition to needing them as bases I didn't want to have him at my back after I had begun fighting you so I felt I had to finish him first. Though I'm curious why Shin didn't help Van when it became clear you were getting the upper hand in that war.

I was at "peace" with all my neighbors BUT Van--I chose them as my target pretty early on, and tried unsuccessfully to take their capital a couple of times.

I stepped aside when the Mictlan juggernaut came through, went looking for easier pickings. (Pangaea started a fight with me, too, at some point in there.)

I was pretty sure I didn't have what it took to take on Mictlan.

I was right.