AAR: Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16)

[Corinthian]

Fomoria: Better used budget giants!

When I joined this game I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some practice writing stuff. So why dont I start? Inertia!

Oh well. Here is something at least.



Welcome to New Formoria! A land of huge, one eyed giants and their goat-headed offspring.



Currently this land is in disarray and chaos, the property bubble have burst and the national economy is in depression.

This was not always the case though. Before, during the early reign of the previous Pantokrator, they were living on a beautiful island called the Isle of Balor and they were prosperous and happy. But then disaster struck! The island was invaded by foreigners known as the Nemedians. At first, the Nemedians caught the Fomorians by surprise and was winning, but old King Balor conjured up a plague to strike the Nemedians and this changed the course of the war. Both friends and enemies were devastated by the plague, but eventually it resulted in Fomorias victory.

The Pantokrator was not pleased however. He had earlier put a ban on the use of biological weapons and his wrath was boundless! He cursed the Fomorians with hideous deformities and because of that, they now only have one large eye in the middle of the face. The full effect however, was not felt until the Fomorians were driven of the island by a group of international loan sharks that preyed up on the fact that in the chaos of the war, the Fomorians could not pay their mortages. The Pantokratorian courts then took their island as collateral. Both Fomorians and Nemedians, -who had discovered that they had been played for fools,- were forced to settle in what had once been the Formorians summer homes on the main continent.

The bankers renamed the island: Tory island, in honor of their Tartan master. (No! Really!:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Is...ncient_history )

But the tragedy did not end there. Only once they settled in their new lands and had offspring did the full effect of the curse become apparent. Their children were born stunted and afflicted, and almost all of them were cursed with goat heads. The pantokrator was one vengeful bastard.

Today, the giants of Fomoria are a sorry lot. They can mainly be found hanging inside the giant pub, moping. Or outside the pub were they practice their dangerous games of drunken javelin punting were they shoot javelins with their feet.. Made even more dangerous by the fact that they have no dept perception anymore. In the Pub they vent their frustrations and make ineffectual promises to one day recapture their home island, now that the Pantokrator is gone. Aaany day now Balor will lead us back in victory they say. But no one knows were the old man has disappeared to or when he will return.

[Immaculate]

Awesome. I like the goats and the loan sharks.

[Roland Jones]

Turn III: A Startling Lack of Progress



Okay, let's see here. Abysia made a Demonbred (winged assassin demon thing, pretty awesome) their prophet, there was that attack I made, and there's my ongoing attempt to get rid of the unrest from that one event. Let's take a look at the battle results, I want to see how badly I beat those-



Wait, what. What. I lost? And a Hilhirding died in the process? What the ever-loving f... Okay, okay. Let's just watch the battle and see what happened.



Started off well enough. Finn followed his orders exactly with self-buffs (since the blessing got him and his Helhirdings in the first cast, he cast something else afterward; Holy Avenger is a spell that, if the person who cast it dies, will smite several enemies, which is useful but not something I hope comes into effect). Let's take a look at the result of this.

(Weird extra images of my units are the effects of glamour; they have mirror images, as explained in my first post, which reduce the chances of them being hit as enemies strike at the wrong images.)



We see several new icons here; astute viewers familiar with Dom3 will notice that one that should be here isn't, though, since I watched the battle again when I took this and thus the Air Shield icon isn't here. Anyway, the lit candelabra means the unit is Blessed; sacred units can be blessed in battle, and your prophet and anyone who is wearing a certain item receives the effect of your blessing whether or not they're sacred. The little hydra signified regeneration, meaning he regains health every turn, and the earth elemental guy is for reinvigoration, which reduces fatigue every turn.



And here's the bless itself. Wow, that's quite a bit. While the increased morale is a part of every bless, the other parts come from my god's magic. The reinvigoration and protection both come from Earth magic, the former being the minor bless (activates at level 4 and increases from there) and the latter being its major bless effect (activates at level 9 and doesn't increase, what with 10 being the max possible that you can put on your pretender). Meanwhile, the magic resistance comes from Astral magic, the regeneration from Nature, and the strength from Blood. So, what this means is, my god has nine in Earth, and four (or five) in Astral, Nature, and Blood. I'll admit now that only the Earth and Blood parts of this are important; the other two are nice, but I mainly have those magic levels for other reasons. My god may have other magic, but none of it higher than three. Based on the information presented in this and earlier updates, can you figure out my god's paths before she is revealed?

Anyway, now that I've explained that, let's get back to the battle. Finn's buffed himself and his minions up, and is charging into battle.



The three of them wade right into the midst of the enemies and begin kicking butt and taking names. At first things are going pretty well.



Soon, though, a lucky soldier manages to hit one of the Helhirdings, breaking his glamour and allowing his allies to also hit him, soon felling him. Not only that, but soon after the other Helhirding takes some damage too, causing him to flee.



He runs like a coward, leaving Finn alone to fight the horde. Finn, meanwhile, doesn't even notice at first, and continues slaying the foes of Helheim.



After the Helhirding leaves the battlefield, though, Finn finally realizes that he's alone and runs after him. (Or, mechanically, the total health of my army, after the Helhirding left, fell below a certain percentage of what it was originally, causing a rout.) He makes it off pretty fast; the enemy soldiers stand no chance of catching him, and in fact I missed him myself trying to screenshot it.



Okay, this is ridiculous. That horrible turn two event? That was sort of funny, in a "wow that's just unbelievable" way. This, though? This has me pissed off. I'm almost out of money, I have gained no provinces, and my nation's capital is still basically useless. I have missed out on two turns of mage/thug recruitment now, and will lose at least a third after this turn too. All because of a lucky shot by a dang independent troop. Bah. Let's take a look at the score graphs.



Here we see provinces, where every nation but me has managed to take land this turn. Heck, some nations got two. This is ridiculous.



And here's the income graph for this turn, where we see that my income has hit rock bottom. While almost every other nation has also lost income overall, this is just the effect of them no longer overtaxing their capitols, although I'm curious as to whether or not something happened to Arcoscephale there. Either way, though, it's turn three and one of my graph lines has hit the bottom. This is absolutely horrible.

However, not everything that has happened this turn is bad. Those who were paying attention would have noticed a new icon in the map screen on one of my units. Let's take a closer look at the person in question...



Okay, there are two icons here that normally aren't on a Vanjarl. There's the reinvigoration icon again, even though he isn't blessed, and the star. The star signifies a "Heroic Ability", what units gain for entering the "Hall of Fame", which basically is a record of the units with the most kills and experience; non-gods get an ability that increases in effectiveness the longer they stay there.



And here's the ability in question. You know, that sounds a lot like reinvigoration...



Yep. Finn has innate reinvigoration now. While this may not seem like much, it's actually one of the best abilities he could have gotten. It stacks with his bless, and it will only increase the longer he stays in the Hall of Fame (which, since he got in early and is a pretty powerful unit, may very well be the whole game); eventually he'll be losing fatigue each turn instead of gaining it, excluding when he casts his spells at the start of a battle. This is pretty great, really.



Speaking of the Hall of Fame, here it is. Only units above Finn at the moment are two gods and the mercenaries Marverni bought; since mercs start out with exp, Finn here is doing pretty well for himself. Expect to see a lot of Helheim flags here in the future, too; powerful thugs soloing provinces rack up exp and kills like it's nothing. As I stated earlier in the thread, I have made it my goal to completely take over the Hall of Fame eventually. It might be difficult, but it's far from impossible.

Anyway, looking back up at the map, as you can see I'm attacking two provinces this turn. Finn is going back to finish off the soldiers that drove him back, and Sir Slicer is leading his army to take on that cavalry there. Screw patrolling down the unrest on my capital; I need to get some land now. It's do or die.

Next turn: Finally getting something accomplished.

[LDiCesare]

TURN 3:
World information:
Abysia has appointed a Demonbred for its prophet. Nasty demonbreds. I just hope we aren't neighbors. Like, yeah, I wrote that. In retrospect, I would write it again, demonbred or not.
My pretender routs a weak enemy thanks to Frighten/Fear/Awe.

Unfortunately, he gets a never-healing wound along the way. It will heal, but it'll take some time.

Other news include satyrs being wimps. They run from weakling deer tribe warriors but we take the province no matter what.

This turn's result is ok. I got 2 provinces, my dominion expanded to the south and noone is in sight yet. Typhia, northeast of my pretender, sports an army of statues, led by Antatus the Golem and some gargoyles. This province will be a pain to conquer, so it will be left for later. I might send a harpy to check if there's some magic item to loot from Antatus at some point. Note that 20 turns later, noone dared attack this province yet.


The swamp lets me recruit scouts, so I'll likely get some soon, but right now I pick an indie commander there while Thorion searches for magic sites. I might get air magic from a lucky deer tribe shaman in the northern province, but at 10% chance for Air 1, I'm not going to dwell too much on it.
My new Pan came with 20 maenads all for himself. That's great. He builds a raw hide shield for Thorion in order to celebrate the maenads'lust. That's why I need an indie commander. I'll be ferrying archers and maenad fodder to the nearby provinces, and I need commanders for that. Pans could lead the army, but I'll want some to do some research soon.

Now let's look at the graphs. R'lyeh took another province. I took two. Everyone else but Helheim took one. I think Helheim is dead already. Their income is simply zero! Well, they got back in the game better but I still think these initial turns will cost them a lot in the long run. Arco's income, along with Caelum, also suck. Even at 200% tax in my capital and with 2 more provinces, I'm still 5th out of 8 in income. Gold will be rare with my scales, but I knew that. Caelum is skyrocketting in research, while Arco starts strong too. Noone else researches yet, which is a bit surprising. Well, I won't be researching this turn either.
Dominion-wise, Helheim is still dead in the tracks. If he's unlucky enough for me to find him with my harpy prophet, I'll preach him dead. Caelum could have done the same, by the way, but his dominion is not that strong. But then seraphines are stealthy, and had I been Caelum or where Caelum is located, I think Helheim could be dominion dead at this point.
I don't understand how Finn of Helheim appears in the HoF with 4 kills and not dead despite the nation's province count. My Minotaur lord got a Heroic agility, which is nice.

Minotaur lords aren't really good fighters, but they have some hit points. They don't perform very well in fights so I don't think I'll ever buy more of these since even a black harpy is usually better. Indie commanders are also arguably better since they don't waste fort-time (thus mage) to build.

Abysia bought Burelk's city guards. Man, do these mercenaries suck. I'm not sure why he's wasting gold on that, but maybe they can beat some Markata province by his capital?
I'm just regrouping and searching this turn. Next turn, my prophet will keep scouting while I'll invade the southern province to reach Tir na'n Og island. Thorion will either attack indies or go fetch his shield. It would be better to attack and then have a Pan come give him the shield and site search afterwards. After all, if my attack fails, I just come back to the capital uninjured so it won't matter much.

[jotwebe]

To make up for the missing turn, and foreshadowing the next:

The Doom of the Amber Tritons

Once there was in the oceans of the Shadowshore a great and noble kingdom of tritons. This kingdom had risen in one of the millennia in which R'lyeh lay dreaming, when the polypal mothers stood barren and the aboleths, all save one, had buried themselves in the pelagic ooze to sleep.

The tritons were wise enough to avoid the deep places, and flourished. They learned the secrets of amber forging, and fashioned mighty arms and armor from it.

Then Auluudh crept up the continental shelf, out of the lightless deep into the blue and green shallows. Auluudh the Eldest, the Unsleeping Mind Lord.



And the Margrave of the Abyssal Edge in his castle of Kelp put on his finest hauberk of amber and swum up with his retainers to challenge the monster. But as the Margrave came upon Auluudh, a drowsiness came upon him, and his retainers, and they went back to his castle to sleep.

In the old triton kingdom, the tritons ruled, and the atlanteans were their servants, whom they sent up the shore to gather things and to trade with men.

They were kind masters for the most part, but the lightest servitude will chafe, while the most crushing slavery deadens all feeling. This the aboleths know, and this Auluudh knew.

So Auluudh conspired with certain atlanteans, and with the power of his ancient mind enslaved certain others, atlanteans and triton both.

And so it came to pass that when the king grew old, of his two heirs the elder grew haughty and the younger grew envious, for their tutors were enmeshed in the aboleths fetters. It is not known if the elder grew impatient as well or if the king did die a natural death, but for a surety his younger son claimed otherwise.

Each had their followers, loyal and passionate most, and some of them also old Auluudh's slaves. Words had been said that could not be unsaid, and now deeds were carried out that could not be undone. War came to the great and noble kingdom of amber, tridents flashed green and gold and blood billowed brown and the sharks glutted themselves on the dead.

Yet the brothers did not fight each other in the end.

The civil war's carnage had created in both a revulsion for bloodshed, yet the bitterness of fallen friends and the acrimony of their quarrel precluded a true peace. So it came to pass that the kingdom split into two halves, of which the elder and his followers retreated south into the Moon Sea, while the younger and his people struck out east, to make a new home in the Sea Untamed.

Of Auluudh nothing had been heard since before the outbreak of war, save perhaps that on the kingdoms north western edge the shark attacks were particularly bad, and the Margrave of the Abyssal Edge and all of his blood disappeared without a trace, while his castle of kelp fell to ruin and neglect.

More than a hundred years would pass until the stars would align, and in deep R'lyeh the Mothers would bloom and spew forth spawn in the dark, and the aboleths would stir and twist out of the sludge, and the Mind Lords would swarm out to capture fresh slaves.

And an ancient power would boil out of its lair, and the younger's kingdom would fall to its arms, while a mad prophet-slave would dance through the ruins.

And an army would assemble in the wakening city, and Auluudh would creep forth and crawl at its head, and the army would crawl out of the deep, and past the old ruin and towards the Moon Sea.

[Mightypeon]

Some rumblings concerning the city guard:

If you went for a heavy scale build, with growth and good order scales, the city guard can quickly recoup its investment by patrolling at 200%.
This will cost some income on the long run, but income early game is much more important than income in the lategame.
I am totally not sure on what scales Abyssia has, but I recruited the city guard several times as O3P3G1 Ulm and usually got about 800-900 gold in profit from it.

[Excist]

I didn't have nearly as rationale a reason as it turns out. The idea was to take a 10-20 lizard man province without my expensive sacreds getting cursed.

More details on how that worked out when I get a chance to post my AARs this weekend.

[sansanjuan]

Nice work all of you. Enjoying the read while sitting in a tent in the rain....
ssj

[Immaculate]

we barely missed the rain. we went canoeing and came to shore just as it started.

[LDiCesare]

TURN 4:

I find several interesting things this turn. A 1D income site in the marsh. Not very good but better than nothing. I also locate Abysia. Too near for my comfort, but not too near either. I'd just rather not have a neighbor that likes my hot dominion.
Abysia, Fomoria and Helheim all took 2 provinces thus turn. Caelum and I stagnate.
I do some more scouting, and attack to the south. I also recruit a Pan and a scout. The Pan will research and spawn maenads. The scout will just scout. Another Pan should bring the shield to the mountain province Thorion should conquer next turn, and then site search that. I'll need more commanders at this point, maybe a centaur priest or a dryad to fetch troops.
Nothing special worth saying this turn, since I didn't take any province, just scouted some more.