Fools Lament II - Ended - Mictlan wins!!!

[Huzurdaddi]

Well I have not gone home yet, I do know that there are 4 very large enemy armies ( perhaps the largest in the world at this point ) on my border as of Last turn. I am quite sure that they were coordinating for an attack this turn.

It's not like I have Ice Devil SC's than can take down these armies single-handed either.

Perhaps if I had your type of resources I could fend them off. But it does not look like it. Maybe if I had conjuration-9 or something. But that's a pipe dream.

As I said I'm no threat to win the game. Others who have not been fighting for 15 turns straight against the powers of the world and who have been expanding madly and taking capitals here and there ( hey, who has Abysia's and Vanhiem's capital ) have a damn good shot at winning this.

The only reason I am still in this is to insure that the people who ganged up on me so early in the game do not do well in the end game. I have partially acheived this by ( somehow ) slowing my inevitable obliteration at their hands.

I fear though, that when I get home I will find that my 2 main forces have been smashed and that the gig is up. I'll still play it out but I fear for the worst.

Marignon's Purgatory was a brilliant move which saved him from Pangea and allowed him to continue his march on me. Kudos.

[Yossar]

Huzurdaddi said:( hey, who has Abysia's and Vanhiem's capital )

Not me. I briefly controlled the province of Vanheim until Joun "accidentally" killed one of the Ice Devils sitting on it and took the province. I also just lost the province of Abysia to Abysia's god, come back from the dead. But he won't Last long.

[Soapyfrog]

Ah woe is me, the games' powerhouses are SO WEAK poor fellows whatever shall they do

Hey, look on the bright side, you could be Tien Chi, and have nothing going for you, even if your graphs look good!!

Be warned, I fight like a girl!!!

[Huzurdaddi]

Well I made a mistake in Last turns orders. No idea how I did that, but it matters not. I am now AI.

The classless Alliance won. It's really too bad. As I said in game Anatoli11 you are 100% without class ( as is Rex_havoc ) if I find either of you in a game you should know that my only goal will be to wipe you out.

[Huzurdaddi]

And and Mictlain piling on at the end ... well ... that's pretty classless as well.

Sorry Yossar, but it is.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Now, I've been watching this game with interest to see if anything truly weird would evolve as a result of the rather interesting starting situation [which could lead me to update the scenario, so please provide feedback on that, if you would be so kind], but, alas, one other question really raises its ugly head after reading the Last few pages. As my knowledge of Dominions 2 MP is limited to smaller scale games with friends, I would like to know whether the level of personal attacks, *****ing (of the "I really mean it, scumbag" rather than the "please meet my propaganda department" variety), low-level vitriol, and immature behaviour shown by some players is typical of larger Dominions 2 MP games? Is quitting because you are losing typical or an aberration?

[Huzurdaddi]

Peter,

I am usually quite congenial as anyone who met me in the 1st 20 turns would have seen. I'm simply against gang banging at an early stage in the game. The *only* reason I stayed in the game was to butcher their armies as much as possible in hope that when I did die they would be destroyed by their neighbors. And I played 20 turns that I would rather have not played to be honest.

As for the scenario I think it's very nice. I really enjoyed the setup and the game *could* have been a lot of fun.

[deccan]

Peter Ebbesen said:
Now, I've been watching this game with interest to see if anything truly weird would evolve as a result of the rather interesting starting situation [which could lead me to update the scenario, so please provide feedback on that, if you would be so kind], but, alas, one other question really raises its ugly head after reading the Last few pages.

I definitely didn't plan for this map properly and so got rather huge stockfiles of gems after a while. So far the main thing I've seen is that everyone is summoning lots and lots of summonables (have to use up those gems somehow!) I've seen Bane Lords galore, Vine Ogres, lots and lots of banes, Ether Warriors (you don't see those often), firbolgs etc. and all rather well equipped too.

Peter Ebbesen said:
As my knowledge of Dominions 2 MP is limited to smaller scale games with friends, I would like to know whether the level of personal attacks, *****ing (of the "I really mean it, scumbag" rather than the "please meet my propaganda department" variety), low-level vitriol, and immature behaviour shown by some players is typical of larger Dominions 2 MP games? Is quitting because you are losing typical or an aberration?

I think that highly dependent on individuals. This is the first time I've seen this kind of personal vitriol in a game (shame on Huzz) and it's very bad.

More often I've seen people trade insults / threats / misinformation etc. through an explicitly role-played character (read Pasha's hilarious newscasts for example). As Thufir and others have pointed out, doing the same on a personal level is highly undesirable.

As for quitting while you're losing, you do see that sometimes. But strangely, I find that newbies do this less, maybe because they're in it just for the fun of the game and to learn., and so are less concerned with being a "contender" to win the game. It seems to me that veterans (and Huzz is definitely a vet) seem more concerned about winning and being competitive.

For what it's worth, I'd like to point out that Huzz has definitely spread his share of misinformation in this game. My attack on him actually Lasted only about 2 turns, but that hasn't stopped him from including me in his list of nations out to get him for everyone else to see. And he has on one occasion send me an in-game message complaining that he has almost no forces left when I first attacked him, when my scouts reported a significant force of 500+ undead quite near me (though maybe most of it was poor quality stuff).

I don't think that misinformation / lies is a bad thing in of itself. It should be properly a part of any strategy game after all. I expect it of others, and I expect others to expect it of me. But it should be clear that such things should be game-related only and should not be personal.

[Yossar]

Huzurdaddi said:
And and Mictlain piling on at the end ... well ... that's pretty classless as well.

Sorry Yossar, but it is.

The only time there was a decent drop in your troops was the one attack I made against your big army (unless someone else made you have huge losses that round). And there was never a serious drop in your number of provinces (even after you went AI, you're still tied with me for first). My attack was nothing that Marignon couldn't have made with a bunch of holy pyre casters and some fodder (was Marignon allied against you?). That implied to me that this "classless alliance" against you was largely ineffective. Maybe that wasn't true, but from the graphs, that was my take on it. You had just run over Ulm like he was nothing and I felt that you were clearly my biggest threat. I'm allied with most of my neighbors, so I cut you down a bit. See it as classless if you want, but if I'm playing to win it was the right move. I'm not playing to let you win, just as you weren't playing to let Ulm win. Was your running over Ulm classless? The only one I am cutting some slack is Jotun, and that's because even though he killed my Ice Devil, he's admitted to being a harmless newbie and I believe him.

Edit: I guess my take is this. If I had premeditated from the start to ally with everyone to take out Ermor, that would be a bit classless. But I was just making a move against who I thought was my biggest threat, so I don't see it as anything out of the ordinary. I didn't go out of my way to destroy you, and doing so didn't hurt me at all. It was just a good, tactical move. I know you don't like it, but we didn't have any prior agreement, so getting angry about it is a bit extreme.

[deccan]

Yossar said:
You had just run over Ulm like he was nothing and I felt that you were clearly my biggest threat.

Seems to me that with Ermor now AI, Mictlan is now far and away the biggest threat.

Please don't hurt me, I'm only a middling minor power. *Ducks for cover and waves newbie flag.*