Invisible Swarm III: over

[PashaDawg]

If we could keep the long quickhost through the weekend, I would appreciate it. I have to leave for a conference on Thursday - Saturday.

I will be getting a substitute, but it would be helpful if there were not too many turns while I am away. (Panther is agreeable, but he would not be able to play a turn on Saturday.)

[CUnknown]

Yep, that is cool. Keeping the long quickhost.

[CUnknown]

What turn are we on, guys? 70?

I've never played a game this long before, except in single player.

[PashaDawg]

Thanks.

[Jurri]

Turn 72 is ready! What's remarkable is that even though this is one long game there hasn't been a dull turn yet.

[CUnknown]

So, what's the correct response to that god-awful (I mean false-god-awful) spell Jurri cast? I see three options:

1) stop casting anything and rely on national troops and the gem-troops I have on the field now.

2) save all my astral gems in an attempt to dispel it (then watch it come up again next turn?)

3) totally ignore it?

I guess I could combine 1) and 2), but that seems to give the spell maybe more credit than it deserves. Is it really that devastating?

I could do 3), but I'm afraid that is the dumb-*** way to go. How can I win if Jurri uses 1/2 my gems as well as all his?

Thoughts? Opinions? I can't let Jurri win another one of my games.

[Boron]

Jurri probably wins when you can't dispel the arcane nexus.
Together with his clams this is devastating.
Even if he clammed only moderately he can do so now.

Without item mod Ryleh is too easy to abuse as Jurri has shown us.

[The Panther]

If he has clams, it is essentially impossible to dispel the Nexus. You can assume he put it up with a level 10+ astral mage with 999 pearls. You can dispel it by doing the same, but he will pile up hundreds and hundreds of pearls from the Nexus before you can get enough for the dispel. Which means he just casts it again within a turn or two. And if he has an enchantment site, it is likely not possible to dispel or overwrite without a lot of luck.

If you have not nerfed clams and spells, then the Nexus + Wish is basically a game winner in the hands of a good player like Jurri.

The only real strategy is for everybody in the game to quit casting spells, convert everything to pearls and give them all to somebody who has a high level astral mage. If you have an enchantment site, you can go for an overwrite. Otherwise, you will have to dispel to make sure it is eliminated. Without casting your own spells to stop feeding him pearls, it will take many turns for him to pile up 999 pearls again just from clams and other natural income.

In a large multiplayer game, clams are the most unbalanced item in the game. Norfleet was the first player to discover this, and I think he was winning games doing that long before he started to cheat.

[CUnknown]

Sorry, I just don't agree with the idea that clams are overpowered (except on very large maps). Jurri hasn't abused anything except for the lobo guard. What is all this defeatist attitude? Pasha, I assume you're going to fight Jurri now, or stay out of the coming war, right? Fighting me is just handing the game to Jurri.

There is no way he cast that spell with 999 pearls. Not at the rate he's been teleporting -golems- around and mind hunting, etc. I'm guessing something around 400 or so pearls. And in any case, it will take a while before he even breaks even on this investment, so perhaps this is all much ado about nothing.

I've said it before, but I just have to say it again: Zen's item mod makes me want to puke. I will never play with it in one of my games. If Jurri is indeed winning this game, he's winning because of superior skill (and perhaps overly cheap lobo guard, but mostly skill), not because of clams! I could have taken him out earlier in the game.. I see now that perhaps I should have. I thought that Jeffr was a huge threat, and you know what...he was! I had to pick one threat to double on at that point, maybe I picked wrong? Who can tell.

This game is not over! I don't care what your gem income is, if you can't control the map, you're going to lose. We're going to see how good Jurri's armies are. Obviously, all he has to do is slow me down, and he'll win. With my main forces deep in Pangea and out of position, perhaps he's got enough time anyway. If that's true, I really think the Council of Philosophers should urge Pasha to attack him!

[Cainehill]

Hmm. I'm curious just what's so sickening about the item mod? Making lifedraining weapons less common is a majorly good thing about it, imo; likewise making staff of storms, etc, harder to attain.