Mongoose - Starting (at last!)

[WonderLlama]

I guess I should have had multiple air domes up sooner. I didn't anticipate anything quite so damaging. I certainly had the air gems for it.

I have set myself to AI. I also thought there could be only one winner, although it wouldn't surprise me if R'yleh could just claim it.

[Sensori]

WonderLlama said:
I guess I should have had multiple air domes up sooner. I didn't anticipate anything quite so damaging. I certainly had the air gems for it.

I have set myself to AI. I also thought there could be only one winner, although it wouldn't surprise me if R'yleh could just claim it.

After all things have been said and done, you played your game pretty damn well. I never (well, before I realized your god was an Oracle and you took the Chalice from me) expected that you went the Wish way. That was the way I intended to go originally too, but never had the chance thanks to all the wars that depleted my gems turn after turn for a long long time. I however did expect to see a lot of nasties from you, which in someways I did, although due to your Wishing for things like magical power instead of using the gems for troops, I don't think I saw quite as much as I had feared, much to my relief. A really strong immobile mage isn't as a big of a threat as a huge army of moving killers. You can just besiege him and keep him locked up.

There's one thing that I wondered about as we finally managed to get past Arco and Marignon and head into your lands. I don't quite understand why you let me take over your lands so easily. All I used was a bunch remote summons which I expected to be destroyed very quickly (they were worthless chaff after all). I was surprised that you didn't even try beating them back at the time. Considering that I knew that you were stronger than either of us (Abysia and me) alone (took our combined efforts to beat you back)... It was a really big surprise. Of course NOW it'd be a lot harder because I've been able to start hoarding gems and whatnot, but at the time...

[llamabeast]

Okay, it sounds like this game is over, so I'll end it. I hope you all enjoyed it.

[Sensori]

Thanks Llamabeast for awesome hosting! And yeah, the game was fun (or more like nerve wrecking, but fun nonetheless) for quite a while. Only in the last, what, about 10 turns, prolly less, it's been very obvious that Caelum was stuck in a downward spiral and the interest (on my part) towards the game started to wind down.

I also remembered why I never play a lot of PBEM games at once in any game, and why I always took some time out from them when they ended. I get crazy stress from those turns which can pretty much make or break the game for you and your side. Too many things could go wrong, and if they do, it could be the end of you... It stresses me out completely.

WonderLlama could've caused the game take a LOT more time if he had wanted to since his capital was close to impenetrable due to his awesomely powerful Pretender, so thanks to him for not doing that. Only way to get him out would've been dominion death... And that would've taken a long long time.

[fabio80mi]

I would like to take the time for some messages =)

First of all to Llamabeast : THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSTING!
The service was wonderful and you were very present when problems arised ! a really plus

Thank to all other players that contribute to make this game so exciting , in particular :

Sensori which was my allie for the most part of the game and from whom i've learned a lot
To the 'forces of good', Marignon+Arco+Caelum that really made the game interesting and helped me improve my skills a great deal to survive your onslaught
To Wonderllama a particular note for being a worthy adversary ^_^
Eldanesh who was a friend in the beginning of the game and only due to war with my other allie ended up out of the game

For the other players i didn't have much contact with u.. hope to play other games though and meet u there!

[WonderLlama]

Sensori said:
There's one thing that I wondered about as we finally managed to get past Arco and Marignon and head into your lands. I don't quite understand why you let me take over your lands so easily. All I used was a bunch remote summons which I expected to be destroyed very quickly (they were worthless chaff after all). I was surprised that you didn't even try beating them back at the time. Considering that I knew that you were stronger than either of us (Abysia and me) alone (took our combined efforts to beat you back)... It was a really big surprise. Of course NOW it'd be a lot harder because I've been able to start hoarding gems and whatnot, but at the time...

I'm sure I should have done more to retake them, but I didn't know what. I didn't actually have that many forces yet. I tried once, telporting in mages and hawks, but you teleported in more troops of your own, and that was a disaster. I could have sent a few tartarians, but I had learned not to send those against you without a non-comander one to soak up enslaves. I also had a mobile army tied up against Pangea. I attacked Pangea hoping to persuade him that he couldn't win by joining the winning alliance and kicking me when I was down. Would have done that differently had I realised allied victories were allowed.

I would like to thank you all as well. My allies, for being friendly, and very talkative, so we had a well-coordinated alliance. Fabio80mi, I din't have any clue how to use blood magic, so I learned a lot from you. Sensori, I learned so many things from you. I never thought about using remote summoning spells and teleports at the same time before for one thing. BigAndScary, that Medusa battle was fun at a time when the game was getting pretty frustrating for me.

But mostly, thanks because the game was fun.

[BigandScary]

I just want to clear up a few things. When I invaded you WonderLlama, it was because of and alliance I formed with Abysia and R'lyeh at about turn 40, mabye earlier. In this game, other than mabye Arco and Marignon(I didn't have much contact with them at full strength so I don't know) I was the weakest nation in this. it was my job to invade Caelum's and Marignon's northern borders when I did, mainly to draw their troops north, away from the real fighting. And I have to say WonderLlama, your army was impressive...41 caelian seraphs. Good stuff.

Thanks for a great game, especially to my ally fabio80mi and my greatest ally Sensori.

And thank you llamabeast.

[WonderLlama]

BigandScary said:
I just want to clear up a few things. When I invaded you WonderLlama, it was because of and alliance I formed with Abysia and R'lyeh at about turn 40, mabye earlier. In this game, other than mabye Arco and Marignon(I didn't have much contact with them at full strength so I don't know) I was the weakest nation in this. it was my job to invade Caelum's and Marignon's northern borders when I did, mainly to draw their troops north, away from the real fighting. And I have to say WonderLlama, your army was impressive...41 caelian seraphs. Good stuff.

Thanks for a great game, especially to my ally fabio80mi and my greatest ally Sensori.

And thank you llamabeast.

Oh yes, I understand. I'm not upset about it. I'm just saying that was my strategy. I was hoping I could send you back to being neutral, in your own self-interest. Wasn't bitter. But since your self-interest was for the alliance to win, not for yourself to end up relatively strong, that didn't work for me. Well, that and you held up way better than I expected.

[Sensori]

WonderLlama said:
But since your self-interest was for the alliance to win, not for yourself to end up relatively strong, that didn't work for me. Well, that and you held up way better than I expected.

Actually that's not 100% true. I only contacted him about the "ends when we are done with Caelum" part of the alliance very close to the end, mostly because the game was turning quite stale (at least for me ;p) and I didn't wanna go through another war again. I just wanted to end it, and since we had made that deal with Abysia long ago when he was in dire straits...

I like to think the way he acted was more related to how you killed Ermor (his ally) and then I helped him survive the war with Ulm. That made us a lot more inclined to help each other than you, methinks.

EDIT:

As for allied victories, they are always "allowed", just that some people really dislike them while others (like me) really don't care. I don't really care about playing this game very "competitively" like some others - I don't find that fun at all. Big wars between undefined multiple nations and uncertainty of victory/defeat is where I get my kicks from (and stress). I'm a fan of alliances because it makes the endgame far less tedious by removing that awkward phase where you have to fight your former allies, and it gives a certain clarity.

[BigandScary]

I was stting at home, wondering which side I would choose...whichever one I did would be the one who finished me. I much prefer the alliance victory.