Momentum 3 - Finished - sansanjuan/Marverni and odeoderok/Ulm win!

[Valerius]

Huh, the game just hosted. Because of the glitch I mentioned above the server thought my turn was in (but it actually shows me as having staled). I didn't expect everyone to get their turns in so quickly.

Doesn't really matter, though, as I had almost nothing left anyway and couldn't have stopped that last attack.

So, how would you two like to proceed? Are you up to the micro hell of a final showdown?

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Huh, the game just hosted. Because of the glitch I mentioned above the server thought my turn was in (but it actually shows me as having staled). I didn't expect everyone to get their turns in so quickly.

Doesn't really matter, though, as I had almost nothing left anyway and couldn't have stopped that last attack.

So, how would you two like to proceed? Are you up to the micro hell of a final showdown?

I'd opt for a split. However if both you and Odeo want to continue I'd be happy to turn the Marverni reins over to you for an epic endgame.
ssj

[Valerius]

Ugh. I took over C'tis for the sake of the game but I can't manage taking over your position. But I'm of course willing to post for a sub if Odeo would like to continue. Odeo, what would you like to do?

[odeoderok]

Hi,

I'd be happy for a split! It's been a great game, but I find the prospect of another 10-30 turns of late game in the summer rather intimidating

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by odeoderok

I'd be happy for a split! It's been a great game, but I find the prospect of another 10-30 turns of late game in the summer rather intimidating

Quite understandable. I didn't envy you having to deal with all that micro.

Congratulations to the two of you on the victory!

Your alliance was very successful. I believe Zeldor made some attempts to split the two of you and I also tried to get in on your alliance (in the hopes that in the end I could perhaps get one of you to side with me against the other) but neither of us had any luck.

Now that the game is over, any comments on the game settings, especially the SC changes? My sense was that Marverni concentrated on the EDM summons, C'tis on tarts, and Ulm and TNN were a mix of the boosted elemental royalty and EDM summons. Squirrelloid mentioned that he thought the tarts were priced about right, that maybe they should cost another 5 gems. And since I didn't noticed any dominance of the elemental royalty it seems safe to say that the changes didn't make them OP.

[sansanjuan]

Thanks for adminning V!

Marverni was almost quashed by Yomi/Arco early on. An appeal for help from heard by a friendly neighbor (Ulm). TNN certainly played kingmaker(s) by siding with Marv/Ulm on that one.

I really liked the setup Val. Enjoyed the Ember Lords and Mech Giants. Got lucky with a early hero E2S3N4 The One in the Woods. D5B3 Tart was handy too. C'tis made it near impossible to leverage my mages (low hp, 0 prot) with the rain of stones spam (well played). Forge Lord workd well late game. Almost nothing to cast RoW, etc.

I did have a crazy late plan to spam horror mark spells and wail on that horror harmonica like J Giels. Never got there though.

Thank you Odeo too. I was sticking with you no matter what after that early help you gave.

-ssj

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by sansanjuan

TNN certainly played kingmaker(s) by siding with Marv/Ulm on that one.

I mentioned to Zeldor that I was paranoid about him. Despite limited resources he was inflicting a lot of damage so I decided I would dogpile him so he'd have so much to deal with that no matter how well he played it wouldn't be enough. However, live by the dogpile, die by the dogpile, and all those globals I had put up basically put a target on my back. Ermor attacked me first and cost me considerably. With C'tis poaching my southern provinces and then you and odeo attacking I was pretty much just in defensive mode.

Btw, losing Earth Bloop Deep Well was tough. I had just read some favorable comments about Mech Giants on the forum and was going to start churning them out when you took that global.

I also have to say I hate those druids. I knew going in that they would be trouble and while Rain of Stones works well against them once I switched to C'tis I only had two tarts that could do that. I got really tired of seeing them drop into provinces and start in with Living Earth.

But I had fun with my last stand for C'tis (which plays very different from my usual type of nation). The most satisfying was being able to hold off the first attempts to storm some of my forts. Fear the disintegrate spam!

Originally Posted by sansanjuan

I really liked the setup Val.

Glad you liked it! I thought it worked out pretty well - no real imbalances I can think of. And I really do like "Cripple Fight" style games of weaker nations. Not sure if there would be changes to the nation list under CBM 1.84.

[odeoderok]

Yes, the game was great! It's still hard to believe we ended up on top with the amount of pounding I took from Arco and TNN

With regard to what I was using, I started out just testing all the EDM summons (I copied the idea Oreigenes + Mage bane + Aegis from you, Valerius, it was stupendous! I think I would never have beaten TNN if you hadn't switched the gear to the Air Queen that then died, luckily, and allowed me to forge it.) After I snatched Well of Misery from C'tis I switched to Tarts, saving all other gems for the eventuality that sansanjuan would want to go head to head. I agree that Tarts could have been still more expensive.

About what sansanjuan said about my help in the early game, I chose to team up with him because of Zeldor's overweeningly arrogant diplomacy. He made first contact with me by demanding a province I controlled, and demanding and demanding again when I said no, so I attacked him out of pure irritation

I too never contemplated selling sansanjuan out, he helped me so much with items and gems when I lost some big battles against Zeldor and you Valerius.

So, to recap, I think at least 5/6 of the win should go to sansanjuan, seeing how much advice and help he gave me, and also because I had a few periods where my interest flagged a little and I just rushed the turns in. This was only my 4th game on the forums, and I must say I learned a lot (don't cast army of gold + wrathful skies!).

Thank you very much Valerius!

edit, I too had a forge lord pretender, it was good with the hammer of the forge lord. Maybe that's why we won

[Zeldor]

I told you TNN's attempt was foolish and naive and would obviously fail. And it failed.

I had bad starting location and my ally totally failed me. I could have lived there maybe forever though and helped TNN win, if he wanted. But he was too afraid to try to win the game.

Arrogant diplomacy with Ulm was the right thing to do - he was extremely weak and had easy land to grab. His armies died like flies and he let me besiege his cap for ages, while having 3x more resources and forces. And an ally that I did not have by then. So Ulm was easy picking and there was no need for me to offer him anything or a chance to let him gain from lands he conquered.