MP: HumanWar: Odd Man Out (Game On!)

[gotchaaa]

I am with LoLoMo =)

However, I really want to found out how Pythium would fight TC =)

[LoloMo]

Is Ronj still the admin? I pmed him informing that this game has ended in a draw.

[rdonj]

Yes I am still the admin. I was expecting a bit more of a formal declaration that the game was over, it looks like there was a desire to see what the next turn looked like? Anyway I just want to make sure that everyone has decided the game is over before I shut down the game, just in case someone thought that it wasn't quite over yet.

[rdonj]

No one wants to say yea or nay?

[LoloMo]

It's a draw, last turn every one staled already. Tien Chi offered a draw, Pythium accepted, as did I (Marveni), followed by Marignon.

[rdonj]

Alright, as I said I just wanted to be especially careful about it. Shutting the game down now.

[LoloMo]

Thanks Rdnoj!

I had a pretty good start in this game, got to top 5 in the province count early game. But then Ermor, who I believe was first in province count then, decided to attack me while I was cleaning up Ulm. The next 30 turns or so then had us locked up in a slow grinding war against his blessed cavalry. I had a slight advantage, but it was at the cost of stopping my research and sending off my druids to war. When Ermor finally turned AI, my nation Marveni had pathetic research and could only hope that the great powers of Pythium and Tien Chi would decimate each other while I catch up with about 20 turns worth of research.

Even with human only opponents and Baalz's great Marveni guide, the druids are tough to use, being old and having map move of only 1. The druids can be a great strike force with the ability to teleport on top of any army, but gems are a big constraint. My feeling is that Marveni is strongest in the middle game, but have no punching power late game, and above average early game among non blessed troop nations.

[rdonj]

I basically had no real strategy . I saw that there were no banned spells and thought I would go into the game, cast something nasty and go down in a blaze of glory. I got off to a good start, sort of, with pretty solid research that had me on top or close to the top on research for most of the early game. I was all set to go forward, except that once I got into the game I did seemingly everything in my power to prevent myself from going through with it! I made an ally early, which was completely contradictory to what I was planning to do. Then I for some inane reason agreed to a 10 turn nap with someone who was no real threat to me. Then I began plotting with 3 or 4 others to sneak attack ma pythium, who was at that time clearly the strongest player (and my only other neighbor) but each of my potential allies proceeded to get dragged into wars which ended up completely derailing the plan. I really wish I'd gone through with my original plan, cast burden of time, and just invited people to kill me like I'd initially intended. Unfortunately yet another thing that went into derailing that plan was a horrible lack of D gems .

[Zeldor]

Huh, Madness ended in a draw too, too bad that both of my TC games ended without a result. But well, way too many people going AI.

My plan was to rush someone early on with Ancestor Vessels. But got a lot of really bad events early on and was surrounded with swamps, so it failed. After like 50 turns my cap got to 30k pop and I had growth2...

So I changed my plans and decided to turtle a bit [after finding sages and adepts], so I signed deals with EA Ermor [to have protection from north] and MA Machaka [west secured] and started to prepare to strike south, at either Marignon or Pythium. As Pythium was getting stronger I got into a deal with other nations to join forces and attack him together. Jomon + EA Ulm attack on Machaka delayed that plans. I decided to take some water provs from Jomon, but he did not pick the fight and went AI instead. Whole game was slowly falling apart then. MA Ulm started to stale, EA Ermor and MA Machaka went AI [and so did 2 Arcos and LA Pythium], so I had to go and grab their lands [and lose all protection from that directions] - had lots of bad luck with battles [lost and reforged Sickle like 4 or 5 times, huh]. And later everyone decided to attack me and it was 5-10 turns before I'd be ready for a war like that.

To be honest I hoped to get that game finished without having to use boring and lame late-game tactics. I have neglected them a bit, but if the game continued I'd have to use them. Started clamming [7/turn] and tart summoning [2-3] and wished for Chalice 2 turns ago. I have signed peace with Pythium and Marignon, so I'd devastate Marverni with black deaths [combined with raven feast combo they were free or even profitable], then conquer him slowly + ea ulm too [and pythium would conquer ma ulm and la pythium]. Then after 30-50 turns we'd fight again, wishing few times a turn and having 100 tarts each.

Oh, all my globals were from underwater enchant50 discount site. All except Maelstrom and Well of Misery that is.

[rdonj]

Eh, jomon was I think actually at war with machaka by the time you decided to get on board. I got into that war for two reasons. One, because it gave me a good excuse to build up my army, which at that point hadn't growed significantly in quite some time. I knew it couldn't come as a surprise that I'd use it to attack someone, so that was the best way I could think of to keep pythium guessing. The other was to ensure that I got support from jomon against pythium. Jomon was intended to kick pythium out of the water and take some of his southern provinces, I believe. La pythium was in on it as well, but got into a war with I believe ea arcoscephale.

Looking back on it I should have taken you more into confidence with regards to the plot to bring down ma pythium. I was a bit hesitant to do so, fearing you might make some kind of deal with him and bring down the plot. But the way it turned out, it clearly could not have gone worse if I'd done so :P