What Could Go Wrong (Newbie MA CBM1.92) [In Progress!]

[parone]

well, it's nice to at least put up a bit of a fight...

[Austen]

I actually wrote th following on my iPad a couple days ago, but I'm just now posting it:

I think it's interesting how we have different viewpoints about how things have been going. Â*As we're all ostensibly noobs here, it would seem that there's a lot e don't reall know or understand about how things work.

It can also be difficult to really figure things out as you really only have your own viewpoint. Â*The opportunities to learn are somewhat tempered by the notion that telling the other person what is going on from your perspective can give your opponent an edge in the game. Â*As such, things tend to stay tight-lipped until it no longer matters and by that point your memory is foggy and there's not as much of a burning desire to figure things out.

I'm going to break from that a little as I'm sort of finding that knowledge in defeat might be preferable to ignorance in victory. Â*Not to say I'm going to post screenshots of my maps, but perhaps there is a useful middle ground.

So from my perspective:

- Round 1 - I really hated how this went. Â*I changed which guys I was using for some of my raiders and when I did, I forgot to give the new ones orders so they sat there and durdled while your Ulm's PD calmly walked up to them and smashed them to bits. Â*While I did successfully raid some provinces with guys that had orders, I lost multiple (I think 3) guys just because I was dumb.

Also that same turn, when Ulm's initially attacked Recenna, I had a very detailed battle plan with intricate orders for everyone there. Â*Somehow though, some key mages did not get set to patrol. Â*I know they were initially, but before the turn was submitted, I somehow turned some of them to Defend. Â* The dorks who had all the troops stayed on Patrol though, so when combat happened, all my troops attacked and the mage support didn't so my guys got wrecked.

Ulm posted that I won this round, and in some ways I see it, but I lost 3 raiders and a lot of good troops pointlessly without inflicting reciprocal damage, so it didn't feel great for me either.

- Round 2 - This one seemed I may be forgetting a bit as it was the quietest round so far. Â*I think the main takeaway I had from this one was a very real concern about how poorly my small battlegroups fare against comparable size units from Ulm.

- Random thoughts/observations:
1. I've been really impressed with sailing. Â*It's something I had never paid any attention to at all and literally didn't even think about until this game was well afoot. Â*It actually only got my attention by accident. Â*

In the war with C'Tis, I was moving dome troops through friendly provinces and I saw I could move a stack 2 provinces even though there were troops in it with map movement 1 which I found puzzling. Â*Eventually I figured out that they were sailing and not traveling by land. Â*Since then, I've realized in a map with some water like this it's completely nuts.

2. I've been really disappointed with my Global Enchants. Â*
- Gift of health - I can't complain too much about this one as the main reason I cast it was because I was fighting C'Tis at the time and they had it up. Â*I had extra nature gems sort of laying around, so I cast it mostly to take it down from them, but from my perspective it hasn't seemed that great.

-Mechanical Militia - I guess this could be event in SP, I dunno, but I think I am going to speak to the manager and ask for my gems back.

[Austen]

And I don't know what those weird symbols are...

[parone]

i don't think we have to worry about giving anything away. it appears we are going to bludgeon eachother to death, which is going to allow the giants or fish men to win this one(and yes, i remmember this war was my idea-sorry austen)

actually, i have to deploy more forces to retake provinces due to your mechanical militia. so it has had some effect, especially considering the number of "retakes" with your heavy raiding.

those symbols are battlefield enchantments, i think. you are the one casting them!(and they are irritating!)

your sailing, along with stealth troops, makes it a nightmare to try to keep you out of the interior. you are using these two tactics in tandem very well. as you know, many of my commanders, troops, mages, raiders are in my interior instead of yours.

as far as your orders/scripting getting messed up, i think we've all had it happen. sometimes i catch it, sometime i don't. it is very easy to make the mistakes you are talking about.

you are right, first round might have been a draw. i had big plans for round one, and no respect for your capabilities, so when you pulled off what you did, i was surprised. but i guess it goes both ways.

as far as small armies vs small armies, much of my reasearch has been in battle magic, and of course, ulm's heavies are her best asset. so on even terms, i think you are right, it is a tough match up for vanheim. of course, vanheim's stealth and speed are very tough for me to counter. classic big strong fat guy vs quick little guy scenario here.

so i guess we see it much the same.

[Austen]

Well what do you think about round 7? It was kind of a funny one... the graphs look very much in your favor, but I was actually quite pleased with the results from my side. Curious what you think.

Also, I'll try to do some more pseudo-AAR soon if you thought it was useful. The symbols thing I was talking about earlier are the high ascii characters in my thoughts on rounds 1 and 2.

[parone]

i concur. your adjustments to defense were costly for me. also, i am obviously havin some frustration in larger engagements. your large advantage in magic/research is really telling.

on the other hand, economically, i think things are going poorly for you. perhaps i can choke you out that way.

i would say more, but to be honest, i think the scales are tipping in your favor, and as such, i don't want to give TOO much away.

one thing is for sure, i have learned what it is i don't know...

[parone]

congrats on uttonshire. your encircle and destroy strat probably just won you this game. im just hoping now that i can hang onto you like a black iron anchor so that you go down with me!

seriously, you really schooled me there. your mistform sailing ethereal covert raiders have literally made it so that i dread opening my turns for this game.

[Austen]

While Utonshire has been the biggest actions and was clearly a good victory for me, it certainly has not won me our little war, much less the whole game.

I still took decent losses there. I also suffered crushing defeats in 3 or 4 medium sized engagements. Additionally, you still have an enormous army ready to storm my capitol while I've never seriously threatened you anywhere. You've also greatly limited my raiding despite the dread it causes you while you are raiding very effectively now and I have no real counters.

So it was a good victory for me in one spot, but I certainly don't think it was decisive. My take going into that fight was "I can't win the war here, but I can lose it." If you had beaten my army there I would have been pretty much knocked out.

Also, as you mentioned earlier, the disparity in provinces which leads to a disparity in income and gem income is non-trivial. And I hear Ulm can make good use of gems

[parone]

win or lose, that was a great manuevre. also, you killed my zemy, and that hurt.

i wish i had been able to cast fanatasism in that battle. big, big oversight.

[Austen]

Ulm needs some extra time, and so do I quite frankly, so I am going to push the timer out on the next turn for another day or so.