MP: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)

[otic]

Mmmmm pretender porn

It's so gratifying to finally see the root of Blackguard's power

And that tentacle is just to die for!

[Nauquan]

Just to clarify, the information was obtained after my elite squad of mermen penetrated the border to raid a possible construction site. They sucessfully killed a couple security guards and one fishy looking guy in a red robe. Before they could withdrawal this large half man half octupus teleported into our midst.

Foolishly, my squad choose to attack this beast, but when it came time to stick it with our pointy sticks, my men just stood in awe of his great big -er- tenticle. After seven of my mermen were killed by his huge -er- tenticle, the rest finally came to their senses and swam back to shore. It is obviously hard to walk with such a tremendous -er- tenticle, so he never caught up with my troops.

Anyway my men were so impressed that they had to tell everyone about it. It really isn't nice to talk about someone's -er- tenticle in public. Those responsible have been sentenced to patrol duty for a month.

[krpeters]

So, I've learned from this game what I already knew -- that if you don't expand rapidly and establish a dominating troop presence early in the game, you're done.

Ermor is officially toast, and since there is no AI option, I guess the next few turns are going to take a while for you all. Unless someone can suggest an entertaining way for me to die? There's no suicide option for my troops

Oh, wait, that's right, Bogus is still active, I can try to kill him, that should be fun.

[otic]

Since I had the privilege of observing (what I assume to be) Ermor's last stand in (118) I might be able to offer a little advice. Keep in mind that this is my first MP. Don't take any of this too seriously.

First of all, Ermor's national units were outnumbered by the enemy's national units. This is probably the result of economic imbalance or past defeats. The disparity in national units could probably have been remedied by stronger expansion.

However, the biggest factor in the battle was not a disparity in national units. I think that your enemy would have won with a force only half the size of yours. In my opinion, the most important lesson is that a powerful army is based on synergy between commanders, nationals, and summons, not on massed national units alone. The real killers were your enemy's commanders and/or summoned troops (or were they freespawn? I'm no expert on _____), which used magic and/or gear to deal severe damage while the national troops were little more than blockers.

Also, where were the undead? When I got the message "_____ has attacked Ermor in Inuptia" I really expected to see a huge number of longdead horsemen on the field. I was quite shocked to see principes instead.

Edit: After reviewing the province graph, I have to conclude that expansion had very little to do with the outcome of the war. Ermor was not very far behind his conqueror in province count until after the war was underway.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by otic

First of all, Ermor's national units were outnumbered by the enemy's national units. This is probably the result of economic imbalance or past defeats. The disparity in national units could probably have been remedied by stronger expansion.

That actually was my smaller army. The larger army was attempting to engage his main force and missed. His main force combined with some lesser forces and stomped my smaller force. But with the loss of 1/3rd of my troops, along with the combination of another player deciding to join in, I'm toast.

My frustration is seeing how completely ineffectual the smaller force was against the larger... had I at least inflicted some casualties, I wouldn't have minded so much. I took a gamble, and lost badly. I could have played defensively, and only engaged when I was certain of numerical superiority... but that inevitably leads to me parking my army on my capital and waiting to be attacked. That's simply no fun.

[Greyjoy]

I also happened to have scouts watching the fight. I think the principes actually inflicted notably more casualties on their opposite numbers than vice versa, but that's not really what the infantry swarm was for - they were mostly there to just keep the principes pinned down while the mages spammed evocations.

And yeah, I too am puzzled by Ermor's troop composition. Puzzled, but not necessarily distraught.

Do remember that nether bolts have a good chance of feebleminding targets in the area. You may not be able to win, but you can certainly annoy one or both of the *ahem* perfidious invaders.

[13lackGu4rd]

MA Ermor is first and foremost an undead nation. yes, you still have your national troops and Principes are still very solid national units, however they alone won't get you anywhere. there's a reason why you have the reanimate option on your priests(even indy priests) use it. especially H3(which you can easily recruit from your capital) as they can summon Longdead Horsemen, you know those guys that come in the level 9 conjuration spell Ghost Riders(just that in this case they come with a Wraith Lord commander, who is the main component of the squad). at this stage in the game MA Ermor should have ~300 Longdead Horsemen waiting in his capital unless he had to use them earlier in battle, but that usually isn't the case as your Principes are very strong units for the early game.

so, without knowing what happened, or even who your enemy is, it just sounds like you play MA Ermor like EA Ermor and completely forgot/ignored its undead capabilities. oh yeah and those S1D1 mages you can recruit anywhere are perfect for Nether Bolt/Dart spamming, which are very strong spells and as mentioned have a good chance of feebleminding its target(great vs enemy mages). other useful things you could have done is skelli spamming, your cap only mages have D2/3 so they can cast Raise Skeletons quite a lot before passing out from fatigue, your recruit everywhere D1 mages can only use the animate skeleton spell unless you forge them a booster(which isn't hard to do for MA Ermor).

heck, I'm surprised to see MA Ermor dying so soon, as its 1 of the strongest nation in MA. but well, it seems like a classic case of not knowing your nation's capabilities and not seeking enough information on them. if only you'd have looked for MA Ermor guides either on this forum or on the wiki you would have seen that MA Ermor is an undead power and found some very nice things to do with them.

but than again, this is a newbie game, and this is 1 thing that you learn by experience. you lost this game, now you learned about MA Ermor and what not to do in future games. learning from your own mistakes is the most powerful method of learning. so keep your head up high and get ready for more games to follow. learn from your mistakes and you'll become a better player, which will allow you to enjoy this wonderful game even more.

[Greyjoy]

Hush you, he's not dead yet.

More seriously, great post.

Edited to add: looking at the graphs, this is the Year of Surprise Attacks. Seriously, check Man out as well. (To be fair, he DID just cast an enchantment that everyone but especially me and the monkeys want out of the way and/or cast by ourselves.)

[Nauquan]

If anyone has any items that will let me get into the water (water breathing rings, barrels of air, etc.) please let me know. I would be willing to trade for them. The squishy fishies are making me feel insecure.

[krpeters]

Oh, just to let you all know, it's official -- I won, you lost.

Bogus is dead! I am the victor!

You can all continue playing your pointless game. I have achieved the secret victory condition and won!