Nations 2 - MA, CBM 1.92, no diplo, no indies - Larz/Mictlan wins!

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Larz

Short recap of the game:

45F gems a turn + Conj 30 site = drown the world in Zmey

Yikes. I thought you were running away with the game just looking at gem income. Finding out you had a Conj. 30 site on top of it makes me think we could have called the game 10 turns ago.

Originally Posted by Larz

I kept expecting to get ganged up on, but it never happened.

I was hoping to start a dogpile of you ASAP but it just took forever to take Pan's forts. In addition to needing them as bases I didn't want to have him at my back after I had begun fighting you so I felt I had to finish him first. Though I'm curious why Shin didn't help Van when it became clear you were getting the upper hand in that war.

Originally Posted by Larz

I think maybe Zmey are a little OP. I know Llama has mentioned possibly nerfing them a little in the next CBM (maybe upping the path requirements, though that wouldn't have mattered in this game). Maybe making the Lycanth amulets more expensive may help a little. For 5N they turn Zmey into Kamikaze death machines.

Admittedly, I have an intense hatred of lychantropos' amulets, but I think making them more expensive would be helpful. They are pretty much a perfect fit for zmey - not only do you get regen at half the cost you'd otherwise pay but it removes morale as a weakness that can be targeted.

[Reverend Zombie]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Yikes. I thought you were running away with the game just looking at gem income. Finding out you had a Conj. 30 site on top of it makes me think we could have called the game 10 turns ago.

I was hoping to start a dogpile of you ASAP but it just took forever to take Pan's forts. In addition to needing them as bases I didn't want to have him at my back after I had begun fighting you so I felt I had to finish him first. Though I'm curious why Shin didn't help Van when it became clear you were getting the upper hand in that war.

I was at "peace" with all my neighbors BUT Van--I chose them as my target pretty early on, and tried unsuccessfully to take their capital a couple of times.

I stepped aside when the Mictlan juggernaut came through, went looking for easier pickings. (Pangaea started a fight with me, too, at some point in there.)

I was pretty sure I didn't have what it took to take on Mictlan.

I was right.

[Valerius]

Indeed, all hail Mictlan! My stale last turn was unfortunate but I don't think it made any difference. I don't know if everyone noticed but the earth blood deep well I used all my E gems to put up a few turns ago was casually dispelled just a turn later.

It looked to me like Mictlan was the front runner from fairly early on. It seemed like his war with Van was hard fought, with Van recovering from Mictlan's surprise attack before Mictlan finally won out.

When I opened my first turn I cursed myself for not doing fixed starts since I was on a peninsula with only two neighboring provinces. On top of that I lost my starting army in its first fight and Van soon appeared to my east and Pan to my west. It appeared Shin was off to a slow start as well so I was able to expand a bit to the south but I still finished expansion with only 6 provinces - not an auspicious start.

Soon after, Pan launched an attack with his E9 sacreds backed by an army of maenads. My cap walls were immediately breached and I just managed to fend him off. Then I had my one piece of luck this game when C'tis launched what seemed to be a suicide run, attacking Pan, Shin and even Van and myself. This provided a distraction to Pan and I was able to field a couple of thugs and some thunderstrikers and eventually besiege his cap and two other forts. I don't think I would have ever taken his cap if he hadn't tried to break my siege and lost most of his Pans when his forces were routed. Even with that, it took forever to make progress, what with hundreds of maenads already inside. Then I had to redirect those forces to his other two forts, which had their own maenad garrisons.

Mictlan was obviously running away with the game so once I finally finished off Pan I was going to prepare for a couple of turns and then launch an attack on Mictlan, hoping Shin would join in. I was dismayed when Shin attacked me before I could do this and tried to send a signal that I didn't want to fight by only defending and not launching any counterattacks. I don't know if this would have worked but it become a moot point when Mictlan launched a broad attack on Shin. I immediately attacked Mictlan since of course if Shin fell the game was over. But of course it turned out to be too late.

Btw, I have to say I wasn't too fond of my "absolutely no indies" settings this game. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had gotten off to a better start but I don't think so.

Thanks everyone for playing!