MP: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game Over. Vets defeat Noobs.

[Ironhawk]

Awww, and I just got Circle Masters too! I was finally going to have non-pitiful research

Good game tho, noobs! I think that both CTis and Sauro, my two enemies, must have learned a ton. CTis in particular I want to say performed admirably under difficult conditions - well done, Darloth!

And sept dont beat yourself up over the game settings. Truthfully, I think that this game was set up almost perfectly. Even with our comparative early advantage in size, all us vets knew that with the right tactics you noobs would have slaughtered us anyway. It was just a matter of experience and agressiveness - which to me, is the heart of what this game is about, right? So well done there also, I say.

[Stretch]

I protested this concession along with some others on the newb team, but apparently not enough to stop it. This was a disappointing game, as I wasn't close enough to any of the vets (without plowing through an unresponsive 'teammate' which in hindsight I should have done early on) to get attacked until I finally paved a way to Caelum. Soon after that war started (which was shaping up to be pretty interesting), the game ends...

Except for us, my dear Caelum. Except for us. My vans thirst for the blood of eagle kings. Let's do this. LETS. DO. THIS.

I learned things, which was good. Definitely have stuff to apply to future MP games, like expanding faster, raiding more, being more aggressive, expanding my array of dirty tricks early on, etc. If this is done again it would reaaaally be helpful to fill the noob team people who are dom3 noobs but who are comfortable with the arcane arts of forum technology and communicating with people. 6 or so from our team were using the forum but if we had all 10 checking it a couple times per turn it would have helped a lot.

[TheDemon]

Well, I think we stuck to our game plan, coordinated well, and reacted well a few things went to ****. Our wars were never really about territory control, although I'm sure none of us liked getting raided (Lingchih especially ). Basically the plan on every front was a) smash army b) stop recruitment (squat on forts) c) bring in a siege force and move on to smash the next guy. We kind of left qm to his own devices, since the map layout made it tough initially to get him support.

Lanka, you probably the most aggressive opponent I faced, which was great because playing cautious lets us build up an even bigger advantage. Initially I was supposed to kill you, but you kept on blundering into Niefel, and then we discovered Abysia and priorities changed. One thing I'd advise you to do is script and place your troops. Ganas are great for tanking Skinshifters and unkitted Jarls, and then put your sticks and stones guys just behind them on fire closest. A barrage of high damage missiles is a great counter to Jarls. You didn't face off against my lightning squads much, but one possible counter you could have used would be to leave the troops at home and bring out your recruitable air mage demons, casting resist lightning and then either skellyspam or thug equipment.

Abysia, I feel kind of bad for you because there wasn't much you could have done to save yourself. We felt that you were a pretty big threat to Niefel and lightning is pretty much the perfect Abysia counter, so...

I'll do more commentary after we play out the next few turms.

[LumenPlacidum]

Thanks for the game, folks. I have to say that I learned on the last turn more than I think I learned in the rest of the game. Namely, that splitting up my army to fight on multiple fronts when the opponents are doing it too is not necessarily suicide and that I really REALLY need to have a means of doing more than just fire damage in an army. That was just sad...

On the plus side, even though the attacking force was but a single unit, my indie researchers really gave that one unit what-for with them all casting gifts from heaven until they eventually hit in that communion. I should have tried something with those guys and communions earlier.

[atul]

Good game, it was fun, and well fought noobs. Just some coordination and aggression more and tables would've been turned, I've seen that noobs have learned some dirty tricks. Which is always good.

One thing is that everyone but Sept missed and that was raiding me. I've been topping the gem, gold and research charts for a better half of the game and that's something you do not want. Just for the next time.

[TheDemon]

I have a question for TC actually, why was that lightning immune flying air shielded hounds+mages army you had never deployed offensively against me? You could really have caused problems for me if you had managed to get it into contact with my EK group.

[P3D]

Originally Posted by TheDemon

I have a question for TC actually, why was that lightning immune flying air shielded hounds+mages army you had never deployed offensively against me? You could really have caused problems for me if you had managed to get it into contact with my EK group.

Tried to, but even flying they arrived after your mammoth walked into the next province.
Otherwise I'd have had a few EKs of my own.

[atul]

Originally Posted by P3D

Tried to, but even flying they arrived after your mammoth walked into the next province.
Otherwise I'd have had a few EKs of my own.

Movement doesn't work like that. You need to anticipate your opponent's moves or be the attacking party.

As to the time of concession, I think we also thought that it was a bit early, though the end result is probably set already.

And yea, noob team doesn't need to be any bigger, just more coordinated. Especially if you already got into each other's way.

[TheDemon]

Originally Posted by P3D

Tried to, but even flying they arrived after your mammoth walked into the next province.
Otherwise I'd have had a few EKs of my own.

Well, I meant offensively, or in support of Vanheim's offensive. Seemed once I got my army out, I didn't really see it again. Which was an interesting situation anyway since I wasn't really sure what was going on as qm had done the last two turns for me. Took a bit of thinking as to how I was going to get everyone out alive.



Stretch, I've given orders for this turn, LETS DO THIS indeed.

Oh and one great trick you could have used to get on the offensive is using sailing to skip over the friendly coast and straight to the undefended Caelum farmland. I played that front pretty cautiously when it was opened because I was worried about sailing raiders, when it became obvious you weren't using sailing I was able to move my forces out of response range of my heartland with some confidence.

Maybe later on you sailed your current raiders in, but by that time it was a bit late.

I do agree that the concession seemed a little early, but we probably had inevability around when Ironhawk unleased his bag of tricks on C'tis and Atlantis started his Argatha offensive and I beat off your first army. I would greatly like to play out the next few turns.

On communication, if/when the vet forums are opened you guys will probably see that we posted a lot of information there but made very few decisions there. Fortunately for our team we were all frequent IRC-goers and there was this magical timezone when atul had just got up, qm was home from work, and lingchih was about to go to bed (IH and I have an anytime schedule, I suspect we are both students) where we got most of our planning, coordination and decision making done. I'll see if I can't dig through the chatlogs and find some choice quotes.

[Septimius Severus]

Originally Posted by TheDemon

I do agree that the concession seemed a little early, but we probably had inevability around when Ironhawk unleased his bag of tricks on C'tis and Atlantis started his Argatha offensive and I beat off your first army. I would greatly like to play out the next few turns.

The concensus among those noobs still active was that we should continue for a few more turns but most including myself believed it would be an uphill battle at best. Frankly, when I returned during turn 10, I knew we were in deep ****. Vanheim was actually supposed to have the front with Hinnom but it seems Formoria expanded in the wrong direction.

To my way of thinking either we win as a team or we don't win at all. I will certainly be more strict regarding communication in the future.