Rattlehead - MA Newbie game (running)

[Num]

I was about to make the same suggestion : Skor, I cannot beat your best tartarians (I do not know what to do against eartquake), and anyway I would be crushed by Shinuyama at the next stage. I do not have any more supercombatants (1 useable I think), I lack that endgame requirement since too much time, and I cannot get more right now. So I cannot win, no chance at all. We have already talked about with Dark Kitty, we knew who would be the winner if our alliance were beating Tien Chi+Machaka.

Bravo au vainqueur

That was a great time playing this game. That was my first one, Dominions is a really good game, I regret not having discovered it before 2010... Thank you all for playing.

A little comment about the only Rattlehead game (If you could do the same...) :
My plan was to play the way I did (lot of research, temples, strong dominion and scales, a not really useful dormant monolith pretender, lot of marshmasters, few troops, Spamming raise skeletons, Darkness+Foul Vapors+Poison protection, that works perfectly, I did not lose lot of battles), but I completely underestimate the SC point in the endgame (I have never played more than 50 turns in a sp, and no mp). Well I did not thought about it... I had some tarts but no more than 3 good ones, despite lot of death and nature gems. In addition, I lost so much time to get a death-4 mage. And I did not have any plan to reach the right numbers in death, astral or nature.
I did not have any access to air, earth, fire or blood paths, I did not know anything about any nations in the game, you cannot imagine the time it takes to me for understanding the game mechanics, the spells, nations, etc...
I survive the beginning thanks to Archos and Belac for not having attacked me (I saw the Archos' elephants very soon, something like turn 5, I was horrified). Thanks Archos for letting me the path to the peninsula, I was stuck so soon, you saved my game definitely. Diplomacy saved me, well everything in Dom3 is about diplomatic moves. Bad strategy, nice neighbours, that is my recipe ! Well, one of them was not that nice, sorry Belac .
I am sorry for Agartha, Marignon, Ermor and TC, you were on my way. Archos, excuse me for having abandoned you. Belac, you were too much versatile, and that was weird for your allies, well, neighbours...
Thanks DarkKitty for the endgame alliance (obviously, language has helped, but Hey ! France is the heart of the world and deserve victory ).
The Dom3 endgame seems a little standardized, that is the other bad point for me, that is disappointing after so much variety before.
Maybe I am going to play another one soon (I already played in another game but it is slower and I intentionnally do not make any diplomacy, no talk, not a lot of time so).

See you,

[Dark Kitty]

Thanks to you two and the other players, I had fun and learned a lot

About Rattlehead : I did get astral and nature on my pretender as I thought they were important paths, plus that way I could easily have access to high magic in every path but air and blood.

My plan was to turtle quietly so I could get a lot of research done until someone decided to attack me and make heavy use of Bakemono sorcerers with troops + Alteration spells, unfortunately I got in an early war with Man and it left me really behind in research for a long time.

I was never the strongest nation (until very late) and I had good diplomatic relations with many neighbours (enough I had to keep an eye out with some^^), so I didn't get ganged upon even though I casted some nice enchantments (FotA, GoH, Maelstrom, Arcane Nexus, etc...). That's probably what allowed me to survive until the late game (even though in this game, the powerful nations of the beginning, Ermor, C'tis and Tien Chi, and then Machaka later on, all made it to the endgame), and then the power of the bakemono sorcerers started to kick in with high research.
So I think the sheer reason of my victory was the strength of the bakemono sorcerers and my lack of strength in early and midgame^^ (I also received a load of gems from an anonymous donator midgame )

It was my first endgame so I learned a lot, especially about thugs and SCs.

Thanks to Num for choosing me as his endgame partner and to Skor for being a sportsman