Karan Game (in progress)

[st.patrik]

This is a thread for discussion about said game.

The first question I have is 'why hasn't there been a turn for several days?'

Abysia? Caelum?

[st.patrik]

Here's the list of players, for reference:

Zen.............................Abysia............ ...........moebius@cableone.net
st.patrik......................Man................ ...........st.patrik@myrealbox.com / st.patrik@sbcglobal.net
J Stanley...................R'lyeh.................. ......darthtoby@postmark.net
navrunner.................Arcoscephale..........di gnavi@juno.com
Baalz ........................C'Tis..................... .....dominions.20.dre@neverbox.com
Alexti..........................Pangaea........... .......alexti.gpl@videotron.ca
Fahdiz.......................Caelum............... ......spiller@easystreet.com
teraswaerto...............Mictlan................. .....taneli.virtanen@pp1.inet.fi
condors.....................Ulm................... .........lordmalbin@hotmail.com
pirateiam...................Machaka............... ...cengle36@rochester.rr.com

[fahdiz]

I took my turn. I've been taking them regularly except for yesterday, too...so I'm not sure what the answer to your question is.

I haven't exactly kept to the schedule. Since it's the early part of the game and I don't want someone to lose because of a stale turn. So I've always been the Last one to take my turn (on average) in order to force host. I'm also looking for any inconsistancies where the game suddenly fubars, or goes awry or anything. I can change it to quickhost with a timer if anyone would like to, but I always put it to quickhost on the weekends and turn it off 12 hours before a scheduled hosting.

I'm open to any opinions/suggestions/rants.

[ March 24, 2004, 08:00: Message edited by: Zen ]

[st.patrik]

Ok guys, no big deal on the turns this week.

I don't want us to slide with this though - easy way to lose interest. So I've talked to Zen about force-hosting if people don't get their turns in.

If there's a special circumstance e-mail Zen or me and we'll be flexible, but in general lets keep this game rolling.

...and may the best god win.

TURN 22

[ March 24, 2004, 08:00: Message edited by: Zen ]

TURN 23

If people would like I will post here when the turn is hosted (if I am awake, which I should be as I like to keep track of the turns).

If not I can send out Emails (but they become very cluttered).

[ March 24, 2004, 08:01: Message edited by: Zen ]

[st.patrik]

for me, posting here is fine

Turn 24

It's hosting time and Caelum still has not taken their turn. At current I am waiting until Patrik gives me the go ahead for a force on it.

[st.patrik]

I also couldn't connect this morning.

[st.patrik]

I sent a message to fahdiz, since the server now is working. Let's force host tonight, come what may.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Zen:
It's hosting time and Caelum still has not taken their turn. At current I am waiting until Patrik gives me the go ahead for a force on it. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sorry, ran into some stuff I had to take care of Last night. I have a pretty short window at night with which I can take turns. I apologize.

Knowing that I am lame http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif , I tried to log in this morning and take my turn, but I couldn't get into the server. Is it down?

[ March 26, 2004, 12:45: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

Turn 25

Got all angry because of the post Caelum? Apologize about your Mammoths.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Zen:
Turn 25

Got all angry because of the post Caelum? Apologize about your Mammoths. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Heh. I don't get angry about games. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif I had nowhere else to go.

[st.patrik]

Hey Zen - what's up? Abysia is the only nation yet to play - it has been so for 24 hours. Give your people orders!

I was away over the weekend and just barely got back home. So my people now have the orders they are supposed to. Feel the wrath of wrath I say!

Turn 26

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Zen:
Feel the wrath of wrath I say!<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh, crap.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Booyah

Turn 27

Turn 29

The server will be changing IP's and I will be having a replacement while I am away (After Saturday) the game is on quickhost lets see how many turns we can play. Also Patrik if you could reply to my Email/Ingame message so I can leave. My surrogate will be versed in my diplomacy and hopefully the Daemon Tribune will stay strong in my absence.

[st.patrik]

Zen - i have replied to your message in-game. If you need me to e-mail you, let me know. Otherwise have a great trip (wherever you're going).

[Graeme Dice]

Hello everyone. I'll be running the server while Zen is away. The new IP address is:
68.148.43.136
port: 11111


Currently only Arcoscephale and C'Tis haven't played their turns.
Let me know if it's not working.

[alexti]

Graeme, will you be playing for Zen's Abysia?

[Graeme Dice]

Yes, I am playing Zen's Abysia, and I will make sure to honour all the alliances and so forth.

[Pirateiam]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Yes, I am playing Zen's Abysia, and I will make sure to honour all the alliances and so forth. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thats good! Did he tell you about the 80 Fire gems I lent him and he would pay me back next turn?? lol just kidding

[fahdiz]

Graeme, are we upgrading the game to 2.11?

[Pirateiam]

Yes yes we must upgrade!!! So many fixes that I have been waiting for and I would like to start a SP game to try them out.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Pirateiam:
Yes yes we must upgrade!!! So many fixes that I have been waiting for and I would like to start a SP game to try them out. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'll put in my "yes" vote as well.

[st.patrik]

Let's upgrade after hosting on friday night/saturday morning. That way people will have all weekend (if they need it) to download and install the patch, and if there are any serious problems with the patch they have a couple of days to come out.

[Graeme Dice]

Let me know when you want to upgrade then. For now, I'll leave it as a 2.08 server.

[alexti]

Is the server up? I couldn't connect for the past hour or two.

[Graeme Dice]

The server should be up now at
IP:68.148.43.237
port:11111

[fahdiz]

Unfortunately I arrived home Last night to find that my home computer is on the fritz. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif I hope to have it fixed by the weekend, but until then I won't be able to take my turn.

Do you want to make me AI controlled so you don't have to wait?

Sorry. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[st.patrik]

keep us updated - if it's only a couple of days I think we should wait. If it's a week or more that might be a different story.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
keep us updated - if it's only a couple of days I think we should wait. If it's a week or more that might be a different story. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Dear Lord...it better not be a week.

I'm a computer tech so luckily I have a lot of tools/knowledge at my disposal. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Pirateiam]

The server is down. Has it changed again?

[alexti]

So far we haven't even reached a new turn that fahdiz hasn't played. What happened to Ulm?

[Graeme Dice]

The server should still be at the address and port listed below. Are people able to access it at all, or do I need to see about fixing something else?

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
The server should still be at the address and port listed below. Are people able to access it at all, or do I need to see about fixing something else? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">i can connect ok as of a little while ago.

[Teraswaerto]

I haven't been able to connect to the server since yesterday.

[Pirateiam]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
The server should be up now at
IP:68.148.43.237
port:11111 <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I think the person playing Ulm has lost what the new IP address is. Try the above address.

[ April 09, 2004, 14:09: Message edited by: Pirateiam ]

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
I haven't been able to connect to the server since yesterday. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

I had entered the IP address incorrectly. Can connect now.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

[ April 09, 2004, 15:46: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[Graeme Dice]

Is it all right to update the server now? Someone has sent a turn done with 2.11, so I either have to update it or wait.

[st.patrik]

Yes - let's go ahead and update to 2.11

however, I suggest backing up the turn, just in case something goes wrong.

[Pirateiam]

OK I updated. Is the server IP address the same? I can not get on the Last one we were using?

[Graeme Dice]

The server is now back up as a 2.11 server, I've backed up the old files, and it should now be at:
68.148.43.237
port 11111

Let me know if there were any problems.

[fahdiz]

I got my computer back up and running today, so I've gone ahead and updated to 2.11 and I'll be taking my turn tonight. Thanks for your patience, guys.

[fahdiz]

I did have one network error, after I'd already finished my turn, but I tried logging in a couple more times and didn't get the error again.

Personally I think your server is just laughing at me for the rented-mule beating which I'm currently receiving. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Note to self: don't attack first anymore. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ April 12, 2004, 03:32: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

[condors]

anyone else having problems connecting?

[Graeme Dice]

I've rebooted now in case that might have been causing the problem. Server IP and port should still be the same.

Currently, only C'Tis hasn't played their turn.

[Pirateiam]

I was sent a message from Arcosophale on the Last turn. He sounded like he was about to resign. Whoever is playing Arco are you still playing?

[Pirateiam]

Nevermind he is still in.

[fahdiz]

Graeme, just took my turn and received a "disconnected from the network" error after clicking "End Turn"...then I restarted Dom II, logged back into the game (networking was very slow), took my other turn, and had a total lockup at the end.

All of it appears to be network related...possibly because of 2.11?

[Graeme Dice]

My computer can barely manage to run the server as it's quite old, and it crashes with a temp file error after each hosting. I also had to reboot my computer Last night, which could be the source of the problem as well.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
My computer can barely manage to run the server as it's quite old, and it crashes with a temp file error after each hosting. I also had to reboot my computer Last night, which could be the source of the problem as well. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ah, I see. Well, in the next couple of turns you'll probably have one less nation for your processor to grumble over http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif so there's my unintended present to you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I must say I've learned a lot, as this was (I hesitate to say "is", as it will be over for me very soon) my first multiplayer game. I know I've learned some very important things about player alliances which I don't have to deal with in single-player games.

So thanks, all, for a great learning experience! I'll be honing my skills a bit before trying multiplayer again, I think...

[st.patrik]

MP is the best way to learn. - and that's coming from someone who still has a lot to learn.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
MP is the best way to learn. - and that's coming from someone who still has a lot to learn. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Very true, I agree. However I knew nothing about how to play Caelum well when I joined this game, and coming to the forum I learned some basic things about Caelum pretender creation, scales, and so on which would have helped tremendously in the early going. I really screwed up my pretender build and scales. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Playing with the forum-discovered tactics in SP has helped me tenfold.

And as I also mentioned (or at least implied), I thought that we were supposed to simply slug it out, like a human-controlled Version of the SP game. I found out quite quickly that I was dead wrong, and soon after just "dead". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

By the way, Graeme, I just tried to log in and the game hung for me at "Waiting for game info". Is the server having problems?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by fahdiz:
By the way, Graeme, I just tried to log in and the game hung for me at "Waiting for game info". Is the server having problems? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The server always crashes after everyone has all of their turns in. I just have to restart it at that point.

[st.patrik]

Hey all - I will be out of town starting in a few minutes (10 am EST friday) until sometime around noon on sunday. I have played the most recent turn, but probably will slow things down a little by not playing tomorrow. Apologies to all involved - hopefully this won't be a big delay/frustration.

st.patrik

[Teraswaerto]

st.patrik, your PM message box is full, so no new one's can be sent. Make some room.

[st.patrik]

I'm having trouble connecting - it everything running as it should be? Anyone else experiencing this?

[Graeme Dice]

Sorry guys, my computer crashed just before I had to leave to go climbing. I'll be back at home in about half an hour and it will be up again.

I'll also be gone for the weekend, and again for three days at the beginning of June, so there will be some delays involved.

[Graeme Dice]

The server was down Last night, and will be down again tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[condors]

i am currently having pc problems not sure when i will be able to take my next turn

ulm

[st.patrik]

we should set a time to patch to 2.12

from my (biased) position it should be soon, to give me a shot at getting Graeme's Ice Devils with elemental attacks...

but seriously, we should figure out a time to all patch, so that the game doesn't crash when we host due to different Versions.

I suggest that we do this asap, especially if condors won't be able to take his turn for a day or two, that will give people time to patch. What does everyone think?

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by condors:
i am currently having pc problems not sure when i will be able to take my next turn

ulm <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">condors - how long do you think it will take to get you up and running? I assume you aren't excited about the idea of being set to AI controlled?

If it's going to be awhile would you be open to getting a friend to stand in for you?

hope the problems get cleared up quick.

[Teraswaerto]

I think we should patch as soon as possible.

[Graeme Dice]

I am planning to run this turn with Version 2.11, as long as nobody has uploaded a 2.12 turn file. The turn after will be run with 2.12.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
from my (biased) position it should be soon, to give me a shot at getting Graeme's Ice Devils with elemental attacks... <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What, you think I don't have any rings of tamed lightning? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I am planning to run this turn with Version 2.11, as long as nobody has uploaded a 2.12 turn file. The turn after will be run with 2.12. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">this sounds reasonable - however much I desire your Ice Devils to have a window of vulnerability I guess it makes sense http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[condors]

i got nothing

not sure how long but i can't get dom2 to run anymore i click on the icon hear a beep but just sit at the desktop

[condors]

i don't want to hold up the game the ai can play for me

[st.patrik]

are you pretty sure you can't get it to work in the next couple of days?

if you can't, regretfully I agree it probably would be best to go AI.

[Graeme Dice]

Make sure that there isn't an error listed in your stderr.txt file in the game directory, and that your temp folders have been cleared of dominions related files.

[st.patrik]

I think if we can't get something straightened out by early next week we should switch Ulm to AI. If you have reason to believe that the problem will be fixed sometime soon condors, please post here, otherwise I say we should get on with the game rather than making everyone wait.

[condors]

you can make me ai i still haven't gotten it working yet

[Graeme Dice]

I can set you to AI tonight then. It's strange that you can't get it working though.

[Graeme Dice]

I actually don't have the master password it seems, so should I just force host so that we can move on?

[Graeme Dice]

We are now on turn 79, and are running with Version 2.12

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I actually don't have the master password it seems, so should I just force host so that we can move on? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have the master password - I can e-mail it to you, or set Ulm to AI myself (if I as a non-host can do that).

[Graeme Dice]

You should be able to set him to AI now in Version 2.12.

[st.patrik]

ok, I'll give it a shot tonight - I'll let you know if I have any difficulties

[st.patrik]

alright, either I have the wrong password, or it doesn't work if someone other than the host tries to change it. Maybe if condors can e-mail me (or Graeme) his password we can make it work. Alternatively I can send you (Graeme) what I think the master password is, and you can give it a shot.

[Graeme Dice]

Could I get everybody to resubmit their turns? We're getting a "kv:bad mt0" error on hosting.

[Pirateiam]

I say since it is turn 79 the few of us that are left we call it a draw? Everyone is a winner! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

lol

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Pirateiam:
I say since it is turn 79 the few of us that are left we call it a draw? Everyone is a winner! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

lol <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">the game is definitely somewhat stalled at the moment - shame really.

If everyone is in favour of quitting, I'm ok with that. What are your opinions?

[Graeme Dice]

I'd like to continue playing, since I've really been enjoying this game, but I am also okay with ending it now if everyone else agrees.

[Graeme Dice]

It appears that the game itself has become corrupted in some manner, since it will not host even when I remove all .2h files from the directory.

It looks like we've reached the end of the game, since I can't figure out any way to get it to work properly.

[st.patrik]

well that is a shame.

it was fun playing with you all, even though Graeme was kicking my *** with those Ice Devils. Hey, I did manage to kill one though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Hey Alex T - how about you tell us what happened that you were able to knock Marignon out so quickly?

In fact, I would be interested in hearing any and all of your game-summaries: why you chose the pretender you did, how it worked out, and why you made the decisions in-game that you did, etc.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
well that is a shame.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is, I'll send the game into Illwinter perhaps once they get back from Origins to see if they can figure out what went wrong with it.

it was fun playing with you all, even though Graeme was kicking my *** with those Ice Devils. Hey, I did manage to kill one though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Machaka also killed one. You probably would have killed many more now that your Tuatha could zap them with thunderstrike.


In fact, I would be interested in hearing any and all of your game-summaries: why you chose the pretender you did, how it worked out, and why you made the decisions in-game that you did, etc. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'll write something up tonight starting from where I took over from Zen.

For my part of Abysia I have to say:

I killed Miasma C'tis VQ about 10 times from turn 8-18.

I killed Pangaea's Blue Dragon on turn 4 (I believe) thus solidifying a alliance of epic prooportions (I think).

I also had a crew of about 20ish (can't remember exactly) Devils by turn 15.

Lava Warriors rule!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ June 21, 2004, 17:30: Message edited by: Zen ]

[alexti]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by st.patrik:
well that is a shame.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is, I'll send the game into Illwinter perhaps once they get back from Origins to see if they can figure out what went wrong with it.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It looks that upgrading the Version is not a good idea. There's another game (where Patrick is Pangaea and Graeme was Caelum) which after upgrade has became between life and death too.

My story was simple. I took good scales and blue dragon with water-4 (or maybe water-3) The dragon got killed early on when I've attacked the same indy province as Abysia. Overall my pretender was quite useless, I ended up using him as a raider and just calling him back every time he got killed.

At the same time, Marignon has attacked me (on turn 3 or 4 I think), but he had no answer to centaur warriors. While fighting Marignon I've started paying tribute to Abysia to make sure they will attack somebody else. About when I've finished Marignon, my relationship with Abysia were converted into alliance and quickly after Caelum has attacked Abysia. I've joined the war and pushed Caelum back, defeating his pretender's army couple of times (though his God has managed to flee every time). After that the situation has stabilized for a while until I got attacked by both Mictlan and Man. Initially, I've lost most of my provinces and got sieged in the castles, but then I've organized some kind of order and pushed the enemies back after killing couple of hundred of Mictlan's devils (in separate battles) and SCs including his God. I defeated Man's trolls and sidhes several times as well and things were starting to look better as I took few fortresses and good provinces from Mictlan. But then he has gathered a strong army and beaten my advancing forces and Ulm has attacked me at the same time. The balance has seemed to be reestablished and at that stage the game stopped.

It was fun game, the balance was shifting from one side to another and it was very enjoyable to play.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I'll write something up tonight starting from where I took over from Zen. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">When I took over, I took stock of the situation and saw that I had several key provinces fortified, and that I was besieging C'Tis. In the first few turns, I basically went about setting up a blood economy, and getting rid of the Last remnants of the Lizards. Mictlan managed to grab a province down in that region though, which caused me to have to divert a relatively large force to keep it occuppied.

I used the robe of the sea that I had traded to Man to summon the ice devils, as to my surprise Mictlan had skipped them for the archdevils. I also managed to grab the death 4 heliophagus, which was a nice bonus as it gave me a place to put mage bane. I then basically focused on defending my key bloodhunting ppovinces with castles using the income from Pangaea's fever fetish supply. I also tried to make sure that I moved my forces in a group that I felt was powerful enough to take on just about anything that could be thrown at it. This led to less raiding capability, but also relatively smaller losses.

[Pirateiam]

Well my summary of my game as Machaka is centered on diplomacy. I had never played Machaka so I had no specific strategy. On turn 7 I was attacked by Arcosophale so right of the start I was in a life death struggle. I killed his Pretendar Griffon (can't remember its name) 3 times. He sieged my capital then I sieged his capital. We raided each other to death. This went on for 40 turns so I knew I was dead if anyone attacked me while this war was ongoing. I made alliances with both Abysia and Man hoping to keep out of any conflict with them since I was so weak from the war and way behind in research. I finally got the upper hand on Arco and with Man's (St Patricks) help finally stamped him out. Then the inevitable fight between Man and Abysia came about and I had to make a tough decision. I basically just decided on Man because he had helped me out the most. I then proceeded to (with over confidence) invade Abysia took a few provinces. Sieged his capital then got crushed by overland spells and mass devils. It was a bLast playing with you all and I learned alot! Thanks all and thanks Zen and Graeme for hosting.

Machaka

[ June 22, 2004, 03:37: Message edited by: Pirateiam ]

[st.patrik]

Well my story is this:

One of my starting provinces was a sage province, so I got a jump on research, while building a bunch of longbows for initial expansion. Things were pretty peaceful to begin with - the only conflict I had was with Caelum, who attacked one province and wiped out a chunk of my guys. I deflected his assault by pointing out the threat of Pangaea (who was doing pretty well against Marignon by then). After that we had peace, and I made something of an alliance with Mictlan. Later I decided to move against Caelum, but unfortunately was a move or two late, and so Pangaea got his capital.

I figured a war would be coming with Pangaea at some point, since he had now 3 capitals (his own, Marignon's, and Caelum's) and so I tried to find out where everyone stood, to see if an alliance against him could be made. Around this time Machaka asked me for help against Arco, and also I came to realise that Abysia and Pangaea were allied. I asked Mictlan to delay our assault on Pangaea/Abysia until I could clean up Arco, which wasn't very hard as it turns out. But the delay may have cost us against Pan and Abysia. When we finally moved I took down a pretty large Pan army on Caelum's capital with very few losses - in general my sidhe were very effective against regular armies, but pretty ineffective against SCs.

When Abysia jumped in I was on the defensive - I didn't have much that could penetrate his IDs, and he could chew through a whole army of sidhe without a problem. I resorted to guerilla warfare, trying to harry him enough that he would lose out economically. Meanwhile Machaka was attacking from the other side, so his attention was somewhat diverted.

I tried attacking his main army with a couple of Iron Dragons, combined with Foul Vapours and Wrathful Skies, but although I killed quite a few devils, I didn't manage to take out the big guys.

In the end I hadn't gained really any ground, and had lost a lot of guys, but wasn't rolled over either. I managed to take one of the IDs down with a Magic Duel, and was hopeful about turning the tide with elemental armour being nerfed, but who can say how it would have gone.

In retrospect I think I should have prepared more for dealing with SCs and less for dealing with conventional armies - I had great troops for taking out conventional armies, but they weren't right for taking down SCs.

[ June 22, 2004, 14:14: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

[Teraswaerto]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
Hadn't checked this thread for a while...

I was Mictlan in this game, had a fire 9 moloch as my pretender, and the blessing worked out quite nicely as a expansion tool in the beginning. I made a bunch of Soul Contracts and concentrated on getting demon SCs after that. I made loads of mistakes, but hopefully learned something too.

I made an early alliance with Ulm, who supplied me with quite a few magic items and gems later on.

Around the same time I met Pangaea, who was just finishing his war with Marignon. I contemplated attacking him then, but decided against it, figuring I'd be better off developing a good blood economy before any wars.

Man and I started planning our war against Pangaea something like 30 turns before we attacked him, and I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. We waited too long.

I summoned all the Arch Devils, 1 Heliophagus, and a bunch of succubi, and started stocking up on slaves for Send Horror and Hordes From Hell, and made loads of Blood booster items. Major mistake, should've gotten all the SC-type demons I could.

When the war started I spread my forces too thin, spending too much effort on taking all of Pangaeas provinces & too little on dealing with his armies. I underestimated the effectiveness of Lamias and Iron Dragons, and managed to get too many of my SCs and devils killed, particularly in an attempt to rout-kill Abysia's IDs, which failed miserably.

After a series of defeats I finally wised up and consolidated my forces and managed to defeat Pangaea's big invading army, though probably this turn in the tide would've been only temporary had the game Lasted longer.

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
I underestimated the effectiveness of Lamias and Iron Dragons, and managed to get too many of my SCs and devils killed, particularly in an attempt to rout-kill Abysia's IDs, which failed miserably. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yeah that didn't work out so good. honestly I thought you had more than you had as far as tough SC-type dudes go.

I agree we waited too long - I wanted to finish up Arco so that I wouldn't have to worry about him attacking my flank, but it cost us in the end.

ah well, next time maybe we'll do better http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
and managed to get too many of my SCs and devils killed, particularly in an attempt to rout-kill Abysia's IDs, which failed miserably. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yeah that didn't work out so good. honestly I thought you had more than you had as far as tough SC-type dudes go.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I had several more, but they were not within flying distance of the province where the battle took place.

[alexti]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
Man and I started planning our war against Pangaea something like 30 turns before we attacked him, and I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. We waited too long.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree on this. After 2 early wars I was in a bad shape, my research was way behind, I had nothing but regular armies and my infrastructure was virtually non-existent. But by the time you've attacked I had my armies almost ready. I would prefer to have 2-3 peaceful turns more, but that was ok, I just had to sit for a couple of turns in my forts while you were beating my money-eating outdated armies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
I agree we waited too long - I wanted to finish up Arco so that I wouldn't have to worry about him attacking my flank, but it cost us in the end. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, I already had all the ice devils summoned by the time C'Tis died, so what you would have mostly gained was not having to deal with the 8 soul contracts I had working.

[st.patrik]

maybe what we should have done was to get Mictlan to attack Pan, but me not attack Abysia until I had cleaned up Arco. Since Abysia didn't connect anywhere with Mictlan he might not have been able to jump in with much force. However, hindsight is 20/20.

Honestly I think one of the reasons why I hesitated was because I had a bad feeling about attacking you guys.

[Graeme Dice]

What I really want to know is just how many clams and what kind of astral income R'Lyeh had by the end. It must have been huge by turn 80. Pan and I also had an alliance, and were almost certain that Man and Mictlan were allied, so as soon as Mictlan began attacking Pan I would have jumped in and started attacking Man.

[ June 23, 2004, 15:45: Message edited by: Graeme Dice ]

[Teraswaerto]

What we should've done was attack Pangaea while he was still fighting Caelum, since the birdmen would've been a "free" ally at that point, though from what I saw, Caelum's war machine was rather underwhelming...

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
from what I saw, Caelum's war machine was rather underwhelming... <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">this is definitely true - perhaps because he lost a bunch of mammoths to Abysia early on.

But I think you're right about attacking when Caelum was going down.

Graeme, you really would have attacked me without me attacking you, just because Mictlan attacked Pangaea? This is surprising to me - even if you're pretty certain people are allied, it's still something of a step to attack unprovoked.

I should point out the one good thing gained by waiting: an ally in Machaka. This wouldn't have come without us beating up on Arco together.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
Graeme, you really would have attacked me without me attacking you, just because Mictlan attacked Pangaea? This is surprising to me - even if you're pretty certain people are allied, it's still something of a step to attack unprovoked. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It was our battle plan to keep you from continuing to gain strength while Pan and Mictlan battled each other.

[J Stanley]

Heh forgot about this thread... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Anyway, I was R'yleh. My clam hoarding was very inefficent as I do not have the patience for it, and it was something I had learned on my own vs. the AI which is kinda forgiving in those matters. Regardless, I was getting right around 400 astral pearls a turn (that includes the Arcane Nexus.) I really did not know which side to join in the battle. Pangaea and I had signed a NA pact right in the begining, then Abysia invited me to attack C'tis so I liked them. But Mictlan and I had done some trades, and then Man pressed the "which side will you take" issue which I gave a non-answer to. So, I was either going to do nothing but cast the fun spells I had never cast before, or attack Ulm, who I had not heard a word from.