Newbie Game EA (Running)

[WSzaboPeter]

Greetings,
I wish to study the ways of nature, and perhaps gain a better understanding on it's dwellers, the Panii. I wish to trade give water or death gems in exchange for NATURE gems. I would buy nature gems for gold too. Thanks a lot for your interest, and please private message or e-mail me. You offer the price!!!

I think the last events that lead to the attack of my port by the Kingdom of Pangaea from an another continent where part of a missunderstanding. I state again to the world and to the panii, that I do NOT wish war with them. "My numbers were drastically depleted", as Pangaea's king (or thane or warchief or despot... ) said earlier. I bring the world of peace to their capital with 3 chosen priests (who made their name know in the field of negociations and peace making). Their escort will consist only a few servants, not more then a few giants and a handfull amazon horseman to lead the way in the lands, since my giants tend to loose the road in those lands. I hope you will not attack them, and our peace negotiations can start.

[Whollaborg]

Neifelheim indeed attacked our province and took it from us. They have told that army was only escorting their diplomat to Pangaean land. Everyone can believe if they will.

Now we have settled things with Neifelheim again to a such degree that we dont have to open hotilities against them. As their diplomatic convoy advanced - we took the province Eldercate back to our hands. But still we do declare now that all non agression pacts we have must be nullified as this world seems to be too full of greedy opportunists that Vanheim must take preventive actions against any such a foe that might even thing of attacking us in the future!

-Jörund, prophet of the True God

[WSzaboPeter]

I will send 25 death gems to Pangaea this turn, and after the 50 nature gems have arrived I will send the remaining 25. I hope you will honour trade. Until we are officially in peace I will not cease fire, and not stop the war effort. If you are ready to negociate the terms of peace, don't hesitate to send me a message.

To Vanheim... I'm sorry, that you don't trust me any more. I told you (and everyone else) that the convoy NOT intended to stay on your lands, and it was meant only as a peacekeeping force in the Niefel-Pan border. In the other hand I hope that your sneaking troups are not in my lands preparing for an attack. If that's the case, then I wish you a fair fight and hounourable death. I declare that the alliance with Vanheim is invalid, but we are not in war.

[Ironhawk]

Just checking in on the games to make sure everything is going smoothly. Glad to see that war is raging across the face of the world. As it should be http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Carry on.

[Foodstamp]

OOC

to WszaboPeter, give me a break. I am going to send 25 nature gems to compensate for the death gems, but I refuse to flatter you or any other cheese ball *heim build with negotiations, because that would insenuate there was more cunning to your playstyles than "Build sacred units, build 1 commander, wipe out 10 times your number". 357 varied units versus 33 of one unit type?


I tested the multiplayer waters and it was too cold for my liking. Maybe I will try again when the Balance mod comes out. I WILL finish this game out, so don't worry about stale turns.

[FAJ]

All this talk about the Heims has got me curious. I hope i survive long enough to be crushed by them. I would like to see what the hubub is all about.

[Foodstamp]

I think it is possible to beat them, but I think it will require MASSED damage casters (Which my nation lacks) and upper end summons with solid morale (Still a bit early in the game for that).

Its a bit early for me to do a Post Mortem of this game, but I made a few mistakes when dealing with the *heims. But I honestly do not feel if these mistakes were rectified, I would have stood much of a chance. I could have shaped my nation from the start to deal with double bless heims and I think I would still be in the exact same situation I am facing at the moment.

I am not mad at all, I don't blame these players for choosing strategies that are known game winners, rather than rolling the dice with their own strategies. Lack of originality is hardly an offence in online games, especially when your primary focus is winning at all costs. Some veterans talk about how you can beat them with this and this, if that were the case, most nations would be built in that fashion and the heims would be a non issue.

[Shovah32]

FAJ said:
All this talk about the Heims has got me curious. I hope i survive long enough to be crushed by them. I would like to see what the hubub is all about.



The hubub about the EA 'heims is pretty simple, they have very powerful (multiple attacks, glamour, high defence, berserk/mounted, good other stats) sacred troops (regular for van, flying or mounted for hel), access to good earth magic (and therefore bladewind, the EA army destroyed), access to very strong commanders who can be easily made into thugs (can cast air buffs, only missing foot slots, great stats ect) and, of course, they have amazing regular troops because, almost all of their units have above average stats and glamour (therefore they are extremely hard to hit and have stealth+25).

[Ironhawk]

FAJ said:
All this talk about the Heims has got me curious. I hope i survive long enough to be crushed by them. I would like to see what the hubub is all about.



I actually investigated the power of the Helheim bless strategy last night and I do have to admit that it is overpowered in dom3. Not massively so but still, overpowered. I did find several counters that I felt would work very well against a strategy of this kind but I would not expect a new player to come up with them when a Heim army was knocking at thier door.

That said, I think it would be premature to give up on this game, or MP games in the near future. First because bless strategies run out of steam as the game goes on. And second because, in the next newbie game I host I believe I will just make it a house rule that the Heims are not allowed to use a bless strategy. Or just not allow those nations in the game at all.

[Sheap]

It definitely is possible to beat a 'heim bless but to do so you have to devote your nation just to doing that. So, if you prepare for the bless, you will lose, because other nations will outgrow you or out-research you; if you don't prepare, you will lose, because you will get overrun by the bless-heims. I won't guarantee every nation has a good defense against them, but all the few that I've looked at so far do.

Basically I think Glamour is just too good to have on a recruitable unit, and the defense 19 on the Helhirdings is pretty huge. Normal troops will simply not hit them. You *must* use magic. Neifelheim bless works a little differently, of course.

One of the things that makes Heim blesses so strong is the relative lack of constraint on the Holy resource. Compare a Helhirding or Vanhere to a C'Tis serpent dancer or sacred serpent. The bless is the same, and C'tis has plenty of priests, but you are just not going to make the bulk of your army out of sacreds with C'Tis because you will not have enough holy points. With the heims, and their high-quality, high-cost sacreds, you can make almost your entire army sacred.

I do think the 'heims are a little too strong but they are obviously not the only way you can build a strong nation, Tien Chi is dominating this game magically for instance. But then, they were also fortunate enough to not have a starting position right next to a bless rusher.

[FrankTrollman]

I do think the 'heims are a little too strong but they are obviously not the only way you can build a strong nation, Tien Chi is dominating this game magically for instance. But then, they were also fortunate enough to not have a starting position right next to a bless rusher.



Uhhh.... our first war was with Helheim. They paid us 200 gold for a cease fire when we killed 20 of their Helhirdings.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

Never mind, I was right the first time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[RamsHead]

I must point out that I, as Helheim, have not used a dual bless strategy unlike *cough T'ien Ch'i and *cough Ulm who are *cough allies *cough. Excuse me, I seem to have a tickle.

[Stryke11]

Let's not forget that even without glamour, Neifelheim is also using a bless rush to devastating effect.

Ironhawk. I'd enjoy playing another newbie game if the 'heims were disallowed or neutered, but also I think for a newbie game, a bigger map with some more breathing space would be nice, too. I never expanded enough to get comfortable, and it was just my bad luck to land in the middle of the map surrounded by other nations. Not to say a bigger map would guarantee more space and time for buildup, due to random placement, but it would hopefully give newbies like me who don't know bless strategy from greek and who need some living space to get the ball rolling.

I have considered that playing some "blitz" games with experienced players would build up my strategies and knowledge base in a hurry, but I don't even know how to get involved in one of those or how it works.

Just an OT and random idea, too: Ermor has sacred units that are heavy cavalry and recruitable non prophet priests who (iirc) have the three candles to mass bless, so maybe a dual bless would work for NF Ermor. Has anyone tried this? I assume since no one has mentioned it before that there is probably some reason why it wouldn't work. I kinda like Ermor as a nation and would prefer to learn how to make them great, at least for MP, then switch to an easier nation.

[Sheap]

One reason the 'heims bless so well is free points from cold scale which can go right into pretender magic, and low resource to gold ratio on their sacreds so they can take sloth too.

For the same reason, Ermor's not an ideal bless nation because it needs to buy expensive scales. The sacred heavy cavalry will be resource limited if you take sloth, plus Ermor likes neutral temp so can't take a bunch of temperature points, leaving the points for a bless in short supply.

Niefelheim bless works differently, but all the ingredients are there: Plenty of design points and high-cost, high-quality sacred troops that don't take a lot of losses in combat.

[FrankTrollman]

RamsHead said:
I must point out that I, as Helheim, have not used a dual bless strategy unlike *cough T'ien Ch'i and *cough Ulm who are *cough allies *cough. Excuse me, I seem to have a tickle.


We have a what? You've seen our troops, and we've seen yours. Your units have a larger bless bonus in two categories than ours...

-Finger Pointing is Hilarious

[Sheap]

The server will be down for a few minutes while I monkey around with it. If you happen to be caelum and are trying to play your turn, just sit tight.

[Sheap]

Server is back up. Even though the server says 24 hours remaining, I may force-host the turn at 11:30 AM Pacific time if Caelum hasn't played by then (this is when the timer would normally expire on the quickhost). Caelum hasn't staled a turn yet AFAIK so no worries but I want to be up front about things.

[Saarud]

FrankTrollman said:

RamsHead said:
I must point out that I, as Helheim, have not used a dual bless strategy unlike *cough T'ien Ch'i and *cough Ulm who are *cough allies *cough. Excuse me, I seem to have a tickle.


We have a what? You've seen our troops, and we've seen yours. Your units have a larger bless bonus in two categories than ours...

-Finger Pointing is Hilarious



Yeah... well my bless is larger than yours anyhow... oh wait what kinda bless are we talking about? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Really this is a Newbie game and I and most others are probably playing our first MP games. I never knew using bless strategy would seem gamey. I have myself with my Agarthan nation choosed to use a bless strategy (although quite unsuccesful since I seriously suck at this game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) as I had no idea blessing is a gamey tactic.

Anyhow I agree with Stryke11 and I hope a new Newbie game on a larger map will start after 3.02 is released.

Oh and even though my Agarthan nation is among the smallest in provinces that still is alive I have the largest army... atleast something to be proud about. Yeah and I also whopped some Maverni Eponi Knights this turn.... ahhh that was sooo sweet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[WSzaboPeter]

Foodstamp said:
I refuse to flatter you or any other cheese ball *heim build with negotiations, because that would insenuate there was more cunning to your playstyles


First of all, you started a war, by attacking me. A war that you can't win. Since I wanted peace I offered you one. You refused. I wanted to trade. You refused it again. Even if I trusted you and sent half the PAYMENT before getting the gems. Now please tell me how could I offer you peace once more.
But I do it again, for the very last time. If you don't agree it, then I will crush you, and we both know you can't stop me.

[llamabeast]

Maybe, Pangaea, you should accept peace, build up your strength, and if you really want war with the 'Heims attack them later in the game when their advantages won't count for so much. So long as they don't see that coming...

[upstreamedge]

Thanks to Ironhawk for hosting this game, it is a ton of fun!

[WSzaboPeter]

llamabeast said:
Maybe, Pangaea, you should accept peace, build up your strength, and if you really want war with the 'Heims attack them later in the game when their advantages won't count for so much. So long as they don't see that coming...


Wise idea. I offered peace to C'Tis and he accepted it. The case was very similar. Someone shed Jotun blood, then I hit back, and hit hard. The difference was the mentality of the two leaders, and the fact that C'Tis will survive and Pangaea will not if they don't accept that very last chance I gave him. (I gave him something too many alread, while C'Tis accepted peace at the first offers, and thus they reduced their casualties both in manpower and in land.)

[Ironhawk]

Stryke11 said:
Not to say a bigger map would guarantee more space and time for buildup, due to random placement, but it would hopefully give newbies like me who don't know bless strategy from greek and who need some living space to get the ball rolling.



I explicitly chose a tight map for your first game so that you all could get experience. If you all had had 20 provinces to yourselves, wars would have taken forever (if they started at all). Whereas here, pretty much every player has fought one war, if not two. This will be invaluable experience, going forward.

This said, I had already planned on making the 2nd newbie game on a larger map. So you could take your combat knowledge and add long-term magic and strategy to it.


I have considered that playing some "blitz" games with experienced players would build up my strategies and knowledge base in a hurry, but I don't even know how to get involved in one of those or how it works.



Its pretty simple to get involved in a blitz game. You just go to the dominions IRC channel and ask if anyone there wants to blitz. Look at this thread for more details

The Dominions IRC Channel (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=458485&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

In particular, DominionsFan gives a link to a web client which you can use for free and instructions on how to use it towards the bottom.

[Shovah32]

As ironhawk said, just go to the dominions IRC channel (its simply called dominons) and, if there are any players there some-one will probably be up for a blitz. They can also give helpful advice for playing and making strategies.

[Stryke11]

Thanks! I'll definitely check the IRC site out!

[FrankTrollman]

OK, I'm going to offer you a riddle, and an answer.

Here is the riddle: Now that your forward army is completely stranded deep in Tien Chi teritory, surrounded by armies which can crush it in the field, with no possible line of supply back to your home, how are you going to avoid having it be destroyed, along with the hopes and dreams of empire of Sauromatian children for generations to come?

For surely it can't possibly have escaped your notice that the armies to the East and West of you are capable of slaying (or at least hamstringing) gods, and your witch kings are not gods. The armies of Sauromatia cannot stand against the hammer and annvil of Tien Chi and there is no line of escape.

What may have escaped your notice, however, is the presence of a third army whose purpose was to be to bring to bare against Helheim should they retain their current stance of intractibility, but which in this case is quite likely to be repositioned merely to cut off any potential marching deeper into Tien Chi lands. Indeed, like a bird in a cage there is nowhere for Sauromatia to fly.

And so I propose instead an answer for you: like the bird in a cage you should sing.

Having been captured by your enemies of the Middle Kingdom it is only fitting that you should take this as an opportunity - to amuse them.

And here is what I would find amusing: join us. Your base treachery will be forgiven, ironically if you perform more treachery. If you turn on your allies in Arcocephale, we will allow you to escape into their lands, where we will even allow you to keep the lands that you conquer. If instead you choose to send your soldiers into Helheim, we will allow your men and your lands to stay in your hands.

We are willing to catch and release the Sauromatian army. Of course, we're also willing to serve it for dinner. If you wish to negotiate the release of your witch kings, you can email us:

ftrollma@ucsc.edu

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[upstreamedge]

To Tien'Chi

For reasons I can not fathom our god Nagash was thourghly ammused by your letter. He kept on saying things like "cool" and "neat"(when you hear a lich say these things while laughing you will be unnerved to). Needless to say your letter has prompted Oceania to offer you an alliance, which is also funny because I do not think I have ever seen a flag of Tien'Chi before...

Well, that is what I was supposed to deliver.

[WSzaboPeter]

I send you my greetings and warmest salutations, wise rulers of Tien Chi and R'yleh. I'm interested in peace and open trade with your nation. Our armies have not met in the field of battle, but this may change in the future. To prevent that unfortunate event, I suggest an open peace and open trade treaty. If you don't accept I will not take it as an offensive act, it will NOT mean war, but if you accept it, it will benefit you. I beg your pardon for not addressing you separatelly, but my position with both of your nations is similar, since I recently found your borders, and we had no hostility in the past. If you wish to keep it this way in the future, please let me know.
Thanks a lot, I will be honoured beyond measure by your reply,
Dream Slayer, God of the Sons of Winter

[Ironhawk]

FrankTrollman said:
OK, I'm going to offer you a riddle, and an answer.



Hahhaha, funny stuff man

[Foodstamp]

WszaboPeter, You offered peace and trade and attacked me the next turn. Obviously, being drunk with power has blurred your perception of what peace is.

Your offer of peace was declined because we don't consider steps towards peace to include taking the province next to our capital, even after we ceased to attack you and ALLOWED your troops completely surrounded to find a way out of that situation.

As I have said before, you chose a cheeseball way to play this game, just like vanheim did (Versus noobies no less), and I am not going to flatter your ego with negotiations. You opted out of the diplomacy part of the game whenever you chose an overpowered strategy.

So sit back and talk about crushing people and being powerful. We both know it is a hollow victory, about as hollow as both of you guys ganging up on ermor.

As far as the gem trade goes, don't lie, we traded you 1 to 1. It would have been 50 for 50 if you were not blazing a trail into Pangaea lands. Instead, because of YOUR lack of diplomacy, you get 25 for the 25 you sent us.

You can try to discredit me all you want, but ALL of the nations that have dealt with me know I deal on an honorable basis.

If Neifelheim wants peace, it is very simple, they must move back to the southern continent. The place that I told you I would not venture into as part of our peace.

[Foodstamp]

Neifelheim,

I am truly embarrassed for you. I cannot believe the lows you are having to stoop to, just to beat my nation which you said you could do alone without any problem.

Wiping out Ermor in such a manner was not boring enough for the two of you?

Well if you must bring your girlfriend (Vanheim) to the dance, then so be it.

[WSzaboPeter]

Foodstamp said:
You offered peace and trade and attacked me the next turn.


Since you did not accepted the peace. If you don't accept the peace, that means the very fact that you wish war. And if you wish war I went with the war as far as near as the province next to your capital, and I took it. Next turn I may siege it. Then perhaps you will listen to the words of wisdom. If not, then you will suffer Ermor's fate. Then again: Why do you insist fighting wars you can't win? I offered peace, and asked nothing in exchange, and the situation was absolutelly at my favour. I could have asked gold or gems or provinces, but I asked nothing. I offered the peace simply to show my goodwill and fairness in a war started by you.

[Sheap]

The more players in the game, the smaller the map has to be relative to the number of players. You have to accept that several of the players will be eliminated before the game gets to the end phase and the game should be sized so that there are enough provinces for the remaining players. Otherwise, the game is too big and bogs down toward the end as there are just too many provinces and things going on to deal with efficiently.

[Sheap]

To the nation of Niefelheim:
R'lyeh is a peace-loving nation bearing you no ill will. We have no interest in the military affairs going on in the lands east of our aquatic realm and, as long as you do not attack our holdings, we are happy to accept a peace and trade arrangement.

-- Sheap-Niggurath

[Foodstamp]

We accepted your peace, even to the point that we were initiating trade with you. Although it was roleplaying, I said I was not going to attack Neifelheim again. You made out like you wanted peace and you know very well I accepted it, then you realized... LAWLZ, I GOT 30 GIANTS AT HIS BORDER, TO HECK WITH PEACE, WE WILL SAY HE LIED ABOUT TRADING AND WANTS TO WARZ LAWLZ.

It's one thing to roleplay, it's another to try to spin a person's OOC actions. This is just a game, so I refuse to criticize your character, but please quit trying to discredit the OOC player by saying I told you this, and then did that.

Here is the bottom line as displayed by your actions...

You are open to peace and negotiations until you realize you can take people's provinces, then all that you have said is void.

You spin it with the other players by saying "He did this, he did that".

To ensure that the 1% chance that you could lose does not happen, you hold hands with vanheim.

The above is your playstyle in a nutshell.


Now so the players do not have to go through the posts to see what I am talking about...

I said:

To the peoples of Neifelheim,

A battle to the south of the Kingdom of Pangaea was fought, and it is worth noting that this battle has made us a stronger kingdom although many centaur were lost. The battle prowess of the giants is simply incredible, and although their numbers were drastically depleted, we will not be invading the old Ermor lands again. These wounded Giants will be allowed to return home to their Mountain Kingdom if they can find a way through the surrounding Vanheim lands. This Decision has been made by the Centaur Cohort of Pangaea, and the Pan will not go against us on this for they respect our decisions most of all in times of war.

Amphious, Heirophant and Cohort leader.


You said:

I think the last events that lead to the attack of my port by the Kingdom of Pangaea from an another continent where part of a missunderstanding. I state again to the world and to the panii, that I do NOT wish war with them. "My numbers were drastically depleted", as Pangaea's king (or thane or warchief or despot... ) said earlier. I bring the world of peace to their capital with 3 chosen priests (who made their name know in the field of negociations and peace making). Their escort will consist only a few servants, not more then a few giants and a handfull amazon horseman to lead the way in the lands, since my giants tend to loose the road in those lands. I hope you will not attack them, and our peace negotiations can start.

Then in a private message that I will not repeat here, we initiated a trade agreement.

Then the very next turn you attacked me, and brought a friend to ensure victory.

So cut the crap and lets get this over with. Try to keep the rest of the spin and discrediting in character, which I absolutely don't mind.

If you want peace like you say you do, I will reiterate, remove your forces from Pangaea lands. If you do not want peace, keep your diplomacy in character to the rest of the players, not OOC lies.

We have already offered you peace, and we even thought we were at peace until you realized what kind of military advantage you had.

[RamsHead]

FrankTrollman said:

RamsHead said:
I must point out that I, as Helheim, have not used a dual bless strategy unlike *cough T'ien Ch'i and *cough Ulm who are *cough allies *cough. Excuse me, I seem to have a tickle.


We have a what? You've seen our troops, and we've seen yours. Your units have a larger bless bonus in two categories than ours...

-Finger Pointing is Hilarious


First off, you are right, you do not have a dual bless. I am in another EA game against T'ien Ch'i, and their sacreds do have the 9f9w bless. So I got confused. It was an honest mistake, and I apologize.

As far as finger pointing goes, if you would bother to pay attention, several here have talked about the Heims uberblessed units. While Helheim was not specifically mentioned, it was not discounted either. I felt I had a right to defend myself by saying that I, in fact, am not using a dual bless strategy. That is unless you consider a 4e5a bless a dual bless strategy. I also pointed out Ulm, who is using one, to show that in EA the Heims are not the only ones using it. If you have a problem with the "finger pointing" then that is your problem, not mine.

[Foodstamp]

Helheim is performing competitively against the other nations without using the played out bless strategy. /salute you for that.

As far as other nations using a double bless, I don't really think it has as big of an impact on the game than when used in conjunction with glamour or neifel giants. Some players have suggested it is insanely powerful with Mictlan but I have no experience with that nation whatsoever.

I hope maybe in a future patch instead of nerfing these bless strategies, Illwinter gives certain nations counters to the double blesses on these particular nations (The heims and possible mictlan?).

[WSzaboPeter]

Foodstamp said:
but please quit trying to discredit the OOC player by saying I told you this, and then did that.


You told me "I am willing to trade 50 nature gems for 50 death gems." in private message, recieved 11/13/06 09:49 PM, with topic GEM trade. I sent you the first 25 death gems, but I had not the remaining 25 more, but I was sure that I will have that amount within 2 turns. So I told you that the rest of the payment will be sent after I recieve the nature gems. Then when you saw that your forces where no match for the giants you said, that only 25 nature gems was agreed. I said that that WAS NOT the agreement. But newer told anyone, nor wrote that you where dishonouring the trade.


If you want peace like you say you do, I will reiterate, remove your forces from Pangaea lands.


This means peace with Pangaea. But I hope this is not a trick to gather forces or assassins or something similar. If we make peace we make it for at least 6 mounts. I ask no monetary (or magical) compensation for my lost troups. I even offer you the province of Anodyr (103), one of the provinces next to your capital. I remove all my forces from it in this order. In exchange for that province, I ask the province of Starko (93). (I think it is logical that I wish to keep those 2940 gold worth giants, that would be useless without Starko under my control.)

Finally you will agree, that you will NOT attack any of my provinces, (except 103) and you DO NOT join any alliance that has members who are in war with me. Moreover, you will not attack R'lyeh or C'Tis, only if they attack you first, or if they state in the forum that the peace and trade agreement with them is invalid.

Thanks again for accepting the peace.
DreamSlayer


R'lyeh is a peace-loving nation bearing you no ill will. We have no interest in the military affairs going on in the lands east of our aquatic realm and, as long as you do not attack our holdings, we are happy to accept a peace and trade arrangement.


We, the Sons of Winter are glad to greet our aquatic friends.

[Foodstamp]

The trade was initiated as part of our forging a peace between our two nations. You cannot expect a nation to send you 50 gems on the turn that you break the peace and you have only sent 25.

Most nations in my position would not have even honored a 1 to 1 trade after you attacked them, much less send you 50 for 25 and expect you to live up to your end of the bargain.

Pangaea cannot have peace until the forces of Neifelheim and the forces of Vanheim are moved out of our territory. This territory includes all our former holdings on the northern continent.

I want to make this clear to Neifelheim...

When you are dispelled from our lands or move out on your own accord, we will not venture south to the southern continent. At this time we will discuss NAPs or other agreements.

To Vanheim, this statement holds true for you as well. When Vanheim is removed from Pangaean lands, we will discuss the possibilities of a NAP if your even interested in such talks .

[Stryke11]

Um, now that I am banished, do I have to keep playing my turns? I know that sounds stupid, but the game didn't actually say "thanks for playing, you're done now" or anything like that, and it still gave me a view of what was in my castle province.

Also, my army routed before the battle even began. I've never seen anything like that before and have no idea why. How can armies even rout when they are inside a fortress? What, is there some kind of back door they can run out? I think fortresses should be defended to the death. No routing. They are giant stone buildings enclosed by walls that are currently being sieged by an enemy. Where do they rout to?

Finally, thanks for the info on the blitzes. I'd try it tonight but I just got Medieval II: Total War yesterday and, well, y'know. I'm bummed I can't play the Byzantines though. That's like 90% why I bought the game. I'm sure I'll be spending equal time with DomIII in a week or so http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Whollaborg]

To Pangaea,
As you see our troops fare rather well behind your lines - opposite to your troops which originally sneaked into our lands in attempt to spread ill. So this party is doing just justice as you were the third nation to attack Vanheim.

First attacker the Ermor we dealt swiftly and Niefelheim helped us without invitation. They even took the Ermorean capital before we could attack the province. This forced us to give Niefelheim the port from which they now efficiently maul Pangaea.

Second attacker, the Atlantis has managed to flee under the waves after they had done considerable harm to our plans retaliating the Ermors attack. Atlantis should consider repaying the damages but we have heard nothing from them.

Fourth attacker was Niefelheim but we decided to negotiate with them instead of force and luckily this way we avoided bloodshed between us two.

Fift attacker against Vanheim is surprisingly Caleum. They now plunder our provinces. This attack came as surprisingly as all four before. But furthermore we thought we had rather warm relations with them.

Now the situation is this: Vanheim has never been the first to attack anyone and Vanheim never will. Right Now we have plenty to do with dealing with Caleum.

Cheers,
Jörund, the Slayer of Infidels and the prophet of the True God

P.S. Lore of Vanheim does not remember as ruthless time as it is now. Never have been so many nations attacking us.

P.P.S. Archives of Eldergate do tell of more turbulent times and Vanir scholars are eager to learn from those archives as the nation we conquered seems to have knowledge. It was an old civilization before the turmoil and decadency of the Pangaea corrupted its leaders.

[Sheap]

Once you are defeated you don't play any more turns. You get the final turn so you can see your final battle (or whatever happened that eliminated you). But, there is nothing for you to do, and the game will not wait for you any more. Many players set themselves to AI rather than wait to be vanquished, but I guess Gaius Julius Carulus really did stay to defend the city to the death.

It's too bad he wasn't a commander, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Your troops will rout if you have no commanders in the fort to lead them. Otherwise, they can't rout until something happens to them. On a related note, if you try to break siege and fail, any troops that routed will go into neighboring provinces if possible and die if not possible. They won't go back into the fort, and if you didn't leave someone behind inside the fort, it will be immediately captured.

Troops routing defending a fort is silly, but that's how the game works. It's actually possible for them to rout into neighboring provinces, or at least it was in dom2 - talk about frustrating for the sieging player. Of course, in your case, that won't matter.

One other note - and this is for everyone - if you happen to be the last one to take your turn, the host will generate a new turn immediately, and it's good form to stick around and play your new turn too. You'll see this happening from the network screen right after you upload. (Anyone who's played Dom2 with me knows I'm not exactly a golden example of this principle... but still...) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Foodstamp]

To Vanheim,

We never attacked you. You uncovered an exploration force meant for other lands with your patrolling forces. If we declared war on every nation we uncovered in our lands, we would be at odds with several nations.


Fourth attacker was Niefelheim but we decided to negotiate with them instead of force and luckily this way we avoided bloodshed between us two



^^ This gave me a good laugh.

[llamabeast]

T'ien Ch'i,

The proud Sauromatian peoples laugh at your empty threats. If you can crush our army, do so. We are not so sure you can succeed, and if you do our warriors will have died with honour.

Ours is a noble nation, and we will not be toyed with or manipulated, nor even consider betraying our allies.

Let the war be a fair one,

Sauromatia.

[Sheap]

To Pangaea:
While we appreciate that Niefelheim has asked you for a peace treaty on our behalf, you should not consider the nation of R'lyeh to be allied with Niefelheim in your conflict, however it turns out. Everything we said above to them applies to you as well. We simply have no interest in the land in your part of the world and are happy to make peace and trade arrangements with any nation in that area. Given how long we have shared a border without incident I doubt these words will come as a surprise to you.

Wettest regards,
Sheap-Niggurath

[upstreamedge]

LESS COMPLAININ MORE FIGHTIN!

[WSzaboPeter]

We are waiting for Caelum, as in the last turn. I hope they will not drop. Any news?

[FrankTrollman]

llamabeast said:
T'ien Ch'i,

The proud Sauromatian peoples laugh at your empty threats. If you can crush our army, do so. We are not so sure you can succeed, and if you do our warriors will have died with honour.

Ours is a noble nation, and we will not be toyed with or manipulated, nor even consider betraying our allies.

Let the war be a fair one,

Sauromatia.



OK, we crushed your army. Ha ha?

We offered you a way out, you chose not to accept it, and now your army has been destroyed. We see you have another one, do you honestly believe the outcome will be any different?

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

Yucky: See the PM I sent you today.

[llamabeast]

T'ien Ch'i,

Your arrogance appalls us. You may have beaten us this time, with your underhand use of magic to shred our brave soldiers. But to win a battle is not to win a war. We will fight again.

Sauromatia.

(OOC) I must say I'm very impressed you've managed to get magic working so well as a newbie. I've still never managed to kill more than about two people per battle with it. How did you get the knack so fast?

[FAJ]

Maybe hes not a noob! The bastard!

Ever seen that episode of south park where butters pretends to be a freak? We will find you out!

Btw, check your PMs llamabeast

[llamabeast]

FAJ, you too.

[Stryke11]

I'd like to know, as long as it doesn't ruin his strategy or anything, how T'ien Ch'i is using the magic to full effect. My competence is pretty much troop buffing, and long distance artillery spells (lightning, all the fire shooters) that maybe kill 2-3 people per battle. I guess if you had like 15 astral mages casting mind burn every round it would make an impact http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[FrankTrollman]

(OOC) This is my first game as Tien Chi, my first multiplayer game in Dominions 3, my first EA game... but it's not my first Dominions experience. I played a lot of Dominions 2, and while a huge amount of the tactics are completely different, some skills carry over.

Dominions 2 Magic was grounded in the fact that there were much smaller armies. An invasion of 60 guys was taken seriously. As such, the king of the battlefield was spells like Mind Burn and Frozen Heart which autmatically hit. In Dominions 3, armies are much larger, so I made a gamble that spells with a small area of effect would almost always hit something, and thus be amazingly effective.

That gamble appears to have paid off - I didn't even research the classic 100 Percent accuracy spells I knew and loved in Dominions 2 because the changes in the game seemed lik they would make different research paths good.

So no, I'd never done this before, but I've done something completely different and could make a logical guess as to what I would need to do differently to adapt.

-Frank

[Ironhawk]

Another thing to consider is that new players frequently overlook the Path Buffing spells. These are spells which boost your power in a particular magic path (Summon Earthpower, Summon Storm Power, Power of the Spheres, Communion Master/Slave, etc). With these spells in hand you can turn a relatively weak battle mage into a powerhouse.

Examples:
Generic 2E mage, what can he cast? Legions of Steel maybe? blah. But cast Earthpower to take him to 3E and suddenly he can cast Bladewind, which will just slaughter all the lightly armored enemy.

Generic 2F mage can cast fireball. Pretty good. But buff him to 3F with phoenix power and he can cast Falling Fires. Then you can just watch your enemies burn in the huge AoE

[Shovah32]

Also note that summon earthpower has a double bonus as it also gives extra (+4 iirc) reinvig to the caster, letting him cast even more.

[FrankTrollman]

Oh, and I think our battle against Arco went about as well as could be expected.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

Looks like Arco's god was slain in that battle...

[FAJ]

Ok, is this game updated/patched? What version is the host running?

I just got a battle message that said I lost a battle, being beaten by the defenders; killing about 95% of their troops and a commander while loseing about 30% of mine and a commander.
When I watch the replay, The enemy routs and I win the battle (by a pretty decent margin), and the commander that is reported dead is clearly alive and well.
But, the commander, after the battle, is actually dead, and the province was not taken.

This is confusing and frustrating.

I am using v3.01. What could be so different in the two versions that would change a large victory for me, to a loss for me, with the loss of my most powerful commander?

[Sheap]

This game is still running on 3.00. It's a bad idea to upgrade a 3.00 game to 3.01 because the Hunter of Heroes doom horror will appear and kill everyone in the hall of fame. Once 3.02 comes out this bug should go away and the everyone can patch. New games can safely start on 3.01 by using a mod to eliminate the Hunter of Heroes.

If the server and client use different versions the battle replay will not match the results exactly. It is usually close, but... sometimes not. This is the only problem resulting from mixing versions.

In the meantime I recommend you install two versions of the game, one 3.00, and one 3.01, and you use each one to play games running on that version of server.

[FAJ]

But what is so different about the versions that would cause such a huge difference in the outcome?

[Sheap]

My understanding:
The game doesn't send the whole battle, just the initial setup. The results are actually computed by the client. But, different versions have different random number seeds, so the results come out different even though the algorithm is the same.

[Ironhawk]

Tons of things. Maybe some weapon or armor was tweaked. Or Spell AI. Or morale. Or several of those together. There are too many things to count that could drastically effect the outcome of a replay when compounded over multiple combat rounds.

The key thing to remember is that this is just a battle *replay* inconsistency tho. Not a problem with turn generation. Its annoying but it won't alter your gameplay.

[FAJ]

I reinstalled at 3.00. Apparantly, my Commander got killed because when My army routed (for apparantly no reason) he was too fatigued to run. He was fatigued because he cast blade wind. He died with earth gems on his person. That dumb bastard would rather die than use his earth gems to reduce fatigue. I gave them to him FOR the purpose of reducing fatigue. How can I get them to USE the gems?

[Sheap]

Most people complain that their mages use too MANY gems to reduce fatigue...

Unfortunately there is no way to control what your mages use their gems for. In dom2, they would use more gems if it would keep them from going over 100 fatigue, but if they would go over 100 fatigue anyway, they would not use gems unless necessary to keep them from going over 200. No mage would ever voluntarily go over 200 although sometimes it would happen anyway (communion slaves with more than one master). There's also a limit to using gems for fatigue reduction, the math of which I no longer remember.

Unfortunately, sleeping mages left behind on a losing battlefield is just one of the hazards of dominions combat...

[Ironhawk]

Gem usage is a complicated affair. In your particular case my first instinct is that you have been bitten by the rule where a mage cannot use more gems per spell than he has natural (unbuffed) skill in that path. So say you had a 2E mage, he would need to use a gem just to cast the spell and then perhaps another for fatigue. But even with this, he will still get 40 fatigue per shot. And that adds up fast.

[FAJ]

Serves me right for not waiting the one turn to research summon earthpower :|

TBH, I didnt know you could raise your level with gems, so I expected him to cast fire cloud, not blade wind.

[Shovah32]

You mean you gave a guy gems and sent him in unscripted? thats a little silly dont you think?

[FAJ]

I gave him gems when he left my capital, as I would have researched evo4 by the time he got to the front lines. I didnt have earthpower yet, and forgot gems boost level, so i didnt expect him to cast anything with those gems.

[FrankTrollman]

Sheap said:
Looks like Arco's god was slain in that battle...



Yep. With Arco's god dead and cursed, we can really get ready to research properly.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

The server will be rebooted tomorrow morning shortly after the turn generation (or earlier, if everyone plays their turn today). This will result in a brief outage of around 10 minutes.

[Saarud]

I'm Agartha

Tips to everyone that borders Atlantis and Maverni. They are both grinding down my huge forces but in the end I see no way I can survive and I beleive that quite soon they will break through and exterminate me.

If you border either Atlantis or Maverni... beware as I go down they will turn their forces somewhere else... perhaps against you!?!?!?

[llamabeast]

I just attacked T'ien Ch'i again, only to be met with, at a first count, 13 mages! So obviously I lost again.

I took 4 mages with me, each with level 1 in astral, and a couple of astral pearls, and scripted all of them to do magic duel, in the hope of disposing of some pesky Celestial Masters. Three of them did it and died, and the fourth one did something else.

So, I have a couple of questions - was it just bad luck that I lost all three duels, or did the Catsby do something clever? And why did my fourth mage not do what I told him?

Cheers,

llamabeast

[Shovah32]

It was probably either bad luck/superior enemy mages that had you losing. Would you like to tell us what sort of magics were employed by both sides?

[llamabeast]

What do you mean? His mages were Astral 1 also. As for how he killed my army - blade wind, magma bolts, falling frost, acid bolt etc.. Bad things. On the plus side, the Catsby is now horror marked. Is that a very significant thing? How often do horrors attack? He'd probably just blade wind them anyway.

[FrankTrollman]

Magic usually targets creatures with more hit points first. Catsby has over 300 hit points, but is himself a pretty serious Astral caster, so your magic duelers targetted him preferentially and then exploded.

As to the Horror Marking, it's pretty obnoxious. Since this is a pre-patch game, Catsby will probably be attacked by Umor the Eater of Gods within 10-20 turns. That means that he'll have to be scripted to casting Returning pretty shortly, which means that he won't be appearing in a lot of future battles.

-Frank

[Sheap]

Public service announcement: The server has been rebooted. Regardless of the apparent "hours until hosting", the next turn may be generated at 10:10 AM Pacific time tomorrow (Monday), which would be the normal generation time. Or, I might forget, and then it will generate according to the server's own timer, which will be somewhere around 4:30 PM. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Foodstamp]

To Neifelheim,

Anodyr to us was more than just a battle. It was a symbol to our people that no matter how intimidating and powerful, any foe can be conquered. We hold no illusions that we can compete alone against the evil alliance you have forged with Vanheim, but we do hope the battles over the last few months have shown the world that all is not lost and there is still hope.

As our people curse your pretender, and his unscrupulous ascent to power, we do respect your warriors. The giants that fought so bravely in Anodyr had no chance of retreat, and while many tried to flee the field in panic, the true giants of old stayed the course and fought to the bitter end.

All were killed, including the ones who tried to flee. Let it be known that the giants that fought with their last breath will be buried in their frosty halls. Ships have set sail to the south not to make war, but to return the bodies of these brave warriors that we have grown to respect so much.

We recognize that the chances of peace between our two nations is slim to none, and at this very moment you aid Vanheim, by allowing them safe passage through your lands into ours. We have seen the Vanheim war machine first hand, a keep in every province turning out Vans to annihilate the entire world.

We our a people of honor. As was promised, you are now expelled from our rightful lands and the talks of peace can begin if you so wish. We do not know what the future holds, and we can only speculate at the power of the evil force that stirs in the South, but a victory is a victory, and the glimmer of hope has been restored to our people.

[upstreamedge]

With the attacks on the nation of Oceania by R'yleh and Nifelhiem we have been forced to call all nations to take a side. Will you stand for justice and valor with Oceania and Vanheim or will you go down in history as the weak who slobbered at the feet of the strong?

make your choice...

[Sheap]

I assure you, the (apparently) simultaneous attacks by our nation and Niefelheim are purely coincidental. While we have good relations with the giants, our military operations are not coordinated with theirs.

To all unaligned nations, I assume you are all sufficiently occupied with your own problems to take an interest in what is entirely an aquatic dispute between Oceania and R'lyeh.

[Whollaborg]

To all filled with fear,

There's no alliance between Niefelheim and Vanheim.

Because of necessity we have been to common wars against Ermor and now Caelum that attacked Vanheim after Niefelheim attacked them.

Vanheim wishes now nothing more than time to lick our scratches and build prosperous well being for Vanir, Ermorean and Caelians the same.

-Jörund, The Prophet of the True God

[Ironhawk]

FrankTrollman said:
Magic usually targets creatures with more hit points first. Catsby has over 300 hit points, but is himself a pretty serious Astral caster, so your magic duelers targetted him preferentially and then exploded.



Magic Duel always attacks the strongest enemy astral mage, it doesnt care about HP. If Catsby was the strongest astral mage you had then all the other casters would have attacked him and failed due to his astral advantage. Dangerous thing tho, putting astral on your pretender. Your enemy could have gotten a lucky shot and killed your pretender with one spell!!

[WSzaboPeter]

As was promised, you are now expelled from our rightful lands and the talks of peace can begin if you so wish.


Then peace shall be. You fought bravely and a honourable battle. When Vanheim cut my supply lines (now why do you think he is my ally?), I had no chance against you. I was hopeing that your missbelieve of my alliance with Vanheim will make you think I'm stronger and you will accept a pace and I can set foot on your continent. You did well not accepting it and earning your lands and reputation with blood.
With Vanheim we are drifting towards a cold war, not alliance, since I attacked one of his allies in the same time (but not alliance) with R'yleh.

To C'Tis: The time when the mighty god of the Sons of Winther will trear it's chains is near. Our peace agreement stands until that time. I'm waiting for your proposal for the future... Until it's too late.

[llamabeast]

To C'Tis: The time when the mighty god of the Sons of Winther will trear it's chains is near. Our peace agreement stands until that time. I'm waiting for your proposal for the future... Until it's too late.



Well it's not that near is it? It's about twelve months away isn't it?

[WSzaboPeter]

llamabeast said:
Well it's not that near is it? It's about twelve months away isn't it?


Indeed, 10 more turns... Give or take a few.

[Kydorias]

Lord DreamSlayer of Neifelheim,

As far as I am concerned, I will continue to honor a non-aggression pact between our two nations. If in the future I should decide that a further buffer zone is needed between my capital and your provinces, I will notify you beforehand in order to allow you proper time to mount an adequate defence. Your past honorable actions demand no less from me.

I will recommend to you, however, that should you decide to march upon my lands, be sure you are at war with no one else for you will take heavy losses.

--Kydorias

[WSzaboPeter]

Kydorias,
My dear friend, I wish peace as much as you do. If I wanted to destroy you, I could have done it ages ago. In the other hand I left you to prosper and gain strenght, for I think your men/lizards are honourable fighters and they are better as allies then slaves. I wish you no harm, quite the contrary, I wish to propose an alliance to you, if your hearth bears no grudge against me or R'yleh, my trusted friend.

To Atlantis and Caelum:
I wish to offer peace to you. In the past we may had some minor missunderstandings that led to a full scale war, but as with Pangaea, I hope the war will end, and a new age of freedom and happyness will come.

To Jörund, The Prophet of Vanheim:
Our nations are very close to the end of the peace. When your warriors slew my prophet and my best warrior, and took ten magic items I started to suspect that your intentions are somewhat hostile, but many other Gods told me, that we are allies. I still don't understand this, but if so many GODS tell me that allies tend to kill each other as a sign of friendship, I may accept it. But since our numbers dwindled in this friendship I propose finding another way of showing it, like trade or leaving each other alone...
Thanks a lot, my dear friend.

[Sheap]

With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the US, has any thought been given to stopping the turn timer? I will still manage to play my turns but sometimes games do stop or slow down on holidays.

[Sheap]

Guess not. OK, I will be away for a week starting tomorrow and will be back on Monday. I will leave the game host running, however, if there is a problem (power failure, etc) I will not be able to fix it until Monday.

[Whollaborg]

Unfortunate slaughter of Niefelheims army,

We are very sorry for Niefelheims losses.

Our high command would not foresee the possibility of the Niefelheim giants attacking away from the city that they besiged. This would have left a hostile city with a wall behind their backs. Our command thought that giants would get hungry - so they wont leave the fortress behind their backs.
But still they left!

Meanwhile our army that was scripted to deal with a fragile mass of Calian archers killed caleians and occupied the province they were ordered to take.

Giants left their sanity alone to besiege the Caelian fortress and ran themselves in corpore to province our army was ordered to take.
Vanir watched awestruck.
Giants on the fields were running towards our victorious army!

As the giants were coming against our army so fast our men had only one choice. To obey their orders and hold the province.
Priests and mages bowed their heads and wholla! the skies opened immediately and down stuck the fury of Vanherr Thanatos. More than 20 Giants were slaughtered and 16 of our troops died as well.

We mourn for our and nifelheimian losses and only hope that our nations could forget this unfortunate accident and let it remind us of the importance of cordinating the war efforts and of the importance of communicating wishes of each party.

We hoped seriously that Niefelheim could have agreed on our very good proposition (for them) that would have given them more than half of the Caleian lands and Caelian capital to the giants.
But no, they would not agree on those terms!
Instead they claimed that in addition to more than half of the Calien lands and capital Niefelheim would like to trade our province that Calum had temporaly occupied to us! Huh.

We did not agree on such a offer.

And this resulted in chaotic advance to Calian lands and neither of us would know where other would advance. This chaos resulted in their elite Giants army falling.

Now again We have sent Niefelheim yet another proposition which we seriously hope them agree on so we would not have to weaken our offers any more.

-Jörund, The prophet of the True God


---



Thanksgiving suits us even thou we dont thank the occupation of the indians or afganistanians or iraqians or anyones lands by warmth in in these parts of the cold world. But we forgive because the occupiers never know what they are doing.
-Whollaborg

[Sheap]

The nation of R'lyeh is in need of some small number of nature gems, perhaps 15 or so. We have astral pearls, earth gems and a handful of death gems to trade.

[llamabeast]

The nation of Sauromatia would like to declare to all interested nations that it has developed some small skill in the construction of magical artifacts, and would be willing to produce and sell such artifacts for a commission.

Sauromatia.

(OOC) I can produce large numbers of items up to Construction 4, with Death 2, Astral/Nature 1. Other magical paths may be available on enquiry.

The rate will be 1.4 times the casting cost, e.g. 14 death gems for a skull mentor.

llamabeast

[llamabeast]

R'lyeh,

Sauromatia will provide the gems you seek. In return we would ask for as many death gems as possible, with astral pearls making up any shortfall.

Sauromatia.

[Whollaborg]

Niefelheim told that they are going to attack us! Splendid http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
-Jörund

[WSzaboPeter]

I told you I wish peace. And I offerd you to keep any province you wish in exchange for only one province. If you want everything and wish to gave nothing in exchange, that means war by my terms.

[Ironhawk]

I have to say, I'm really enjoying reading the diplomacy in the thread for this game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif In most games I've played a lot of diplo and trades are kept under the table and its a lot of work to find out whats going on in the game. But here you guys just put it all out for the world to see and its really fun to watch! Also, this is perhaps the most fluid diplomacy I've seen in a game. Frequently, in dominions, when a war is started there can be no peace until one or the other player is dead. But here you guys make war and peace very easily - it makes for a much more dynamic game!

[Sheap]

Sssh, Ironhawk, don't tell them how the game is "supposed" to be played, this game is far more fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[FrankTrollman]

llamabeast said:
The nation of Sauromatia would like to declare to all interested nations that it has developed some small skill in the construction of magical artifacts, and would be willing to produce and sell such artifacts for a commission.

Sauromatia.

(OOC) I can produce large numbers of items up to Construction 4, with Death 2, Astral/Nature 1. Other magical paths may be available on enquiry.

The rate will be 1.4 times the casting cost, e.g. 14 death gems for a skull mentor.

llamabeast



Fascinating. We have Construction 6 and will make a better offer to any nation which is friendly or neutral to Tien Chi.

Neutral Nations get things fir a 20% markup, friendly nations get items for even price. We know that you know who you are.

They can make Skull Mentors. We can make Skull Faces. And we'll do it too. We can make any item of up to Construction 6 except Blood items and will do so at a reasonable rate.

The nation of Tien Chi will not sit idly by while the Sauromatian dogs make magical gems through arbitrage.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Stryke11]

"Friendly" nations get a discount...heheh.

It's too bad I didn't last long enough to interact with you Trollman, it would have been fun. You seem to have the hang of this diplomacy thing.

[FAJ]

So, what is your rate? In addition to the cost of the item, what do you want.

[Shovah32]

Sauromatia charges 140% of the items cost, Tien Chi charges 120% to neutral nations and 100% to friendly nations.

[FrankTrollman]

FAJ said:
So, what is your rate? In addition to the cost of the item, what do you want.



I thought that was clear.

Neutral nations get a 20% markup. So, for example, a Staff of Elemental Mastery would cost 30 Fire and 30 Water or 30 Air and 30 Earth (normally 25 and 25, plus 20% is 30). While a Ring of Wizardry would cost 78 Astral Pearls.

Friendly nations get items at cost. Where seriously if one of our friends gives us 65 Astral Pearls we'll send them a Ring of Wizardry.

So for example:
Staff of the Treelords
Neutral Cost: 50 Nature Gems
Friendly Cost: 40 Nature Gems

Flaming Skull:
Neutral Cost: 6 Fire Gems, 6 Death Gems
Friendly Cost: 5 Fire Gems, 5 Death Gems

Clam of Pearls:
Neutral Cost: 18 Water Gems, 6 Nature Gems
Friendly Cost: 15 Water Gems, 5 Nature Gems

Ring of Sorcery:
Neutral Cost: 50 Astral Pearls
Friendly Cost: 40 Astral Pearls

Jade Armor:
Neutral Cost: 6 Water Gems, 6 Earth Gems
Friendly Cost: 5 Water Gems, 5 Earth Gems

Does this mean that we are directly subsidizing nations we want to succeed? Yes it does.

---

Furthermore, the only reason that we don't make Blood items is that we can't. If someone sends us 80 Blood Slaves and is willing to wait a few turns, we'll gladly give them several Blood items at cost. We'd be willing to send out Robes of the Archmagi for 40 Air and 40 Blood, for example - even for a neutral nation (once we had he empowerment setup).

As far as we can tell, we're the only nation to have Construction 6, so it may well be worth it to Mictlan, Niefelheim, or Abyssia to get Athames or Robes of the Archmagi for a merely ruinous startup fee (which we unfortunately can't get around).

Operators are standing by...

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Shovah32]

Would i be considered a friendly nation?

[RamsHead]

Is anyone else having trouble connecting to the server?

[Shovah32]

Yes, it seems to be down.

[Whollaborg]

Yes

[Shovah32]

Yay, i was right for once.

[Kydorias]

Uhoh...I hope Sheap hasn't left for the holidays already...

That would suck if the connection/server dropped as soon as he locked his door and jumped in his car.

Hehe, both the MP games I am in are being hosted by Sheap http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Shovah32]

Im in 3 server games (2 hosted by sheap) and 1 pbem game... i need a life :p

[Foodstamp]

Bah server is down? Now I am sad in teh pants!

[FAJ]

I was able to connect, did the whople turn, then as I ended turn, it went down! Now I have to do the whole thing over, when it comes back up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif.

BTW, as for artifcat commissions, im still confused. Am I paying for the cost of the item, plus the commission, i.e. a skull mentor would cost me 24 each, or 14 each?

[Sheap]

Remarkable, the server crashes immediately upon me leaving my apartment.

I will see what I can do, if anything.

FAJ: You probably won't have to redo your turn - your turnfile should automatically re-upload when the server comes back up.

[FrankTrollman]

A Skull Mentor from Sauromatia would cost you 14 gems.
A Skull Mentor from Tien Chi would cost you 12 gems.

But, and this is important, if you invade Sauromatia, you'll be considered a friendly nation by Tien Chi, and then you can get Skull Mentors from Tien Chi for only 10 gems.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Shovah32]

So catsby, am I a friend or am i neutral?

[Foodstamp]

Sheap don't worry about it if it is too much trouble. I plan on consuming large amounts of Thanksgiving food over the next few days to celebrate my occupation of native american, iraqi and afghanistan lands. (As suggested by a very misinformed person in this thread http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

[FAJ]

so, your forging items at the gain of 2 gems?

How much would a lightless lantern cost?

[Sheap]

Server was knocked out by power outage. I will attempt to get it back up before I head out. Otherwise, it could be down until Monday.

The 24 hour timer will be reset.

[Sheap]

By the way:
You do not have to be connected to the server to play your turn, only to upload and download. It's basically the PBEM procedure, only without the EM. I usually use this process:
1) Connect to server, download turn, get to map screen
2) Go to options and choose "quit without saving"
3) Choose "play existing game" - your game should appear.
4) Play the turn normally and hit "end turn"
5) You'll be returned to the main menu.
6) Connect to the server, choose nation and put in your password if prompted. It will say "2h file has been uploaded."
7) Congratulations, you played your turn offline.

This has some advantages such as, you can play your turn on a laptop, over flaky dialup, if the server is down, saves money if your internet is metered per-minute, etc.

[FrankTrollman]

FAJ said:
so, your forging items at the gain of 2 gems?

How much would a lightless lantern cost?



Close enough. We're forging items with a normal cost of 10 at a gain of 2 gems.

A lightless lantern would cost 6 gems (a gain of 1), unless you invaded Sauromatia or Arcocephale (in which case it would cost you only 5).

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

Good news: I have reason to believe the server will be up no later than tonight.

I hope http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sheap]

Better news: The server has been restored. However it is now undead as I used the Revive Server spell, and this has cost me ten death gems.

[llamabeast]

Okay, it looks like Sauromatia has been undercut. We will now charge the same prices as T'ien Ch'i: 120% of production cost, i.e. 12 death gems for a skull mentor.

So now you have a choice who to buy from - the poor late-arrival underdog in a war against an arrogant and ridiculously magically powerful research monster who's crushing nations left right and centre - or the research monster itself.

FAJ, as you know I'm not charging you commission anyway. Anyone else who attacks T'ien Ch'i will of course also obtain zero (or even negative!) commission rates.

Sauromatia.

[RamsHead]

Catsby, I will give you 30 air gems for a staff of storms.

[FrankTrollman]

RamsHead said:
Catsby, I will give you 30 air gems for a staff of storms.



Deal.

At Sauromatia:

Where is all this animosity coming from? To this date, despite sending a combined force of about 600 men to die in our lands, we have not once attacked you. Every battle has taken place on Tien Chi lands. We are extremely peaceful people, and we do not understand this rage you feel against us.

You attacked us without warning and we offered to spare your army and you refused. You attacked us again and we crushed your army in the field. It's like we're dealing with a petulant child.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[FAJ]

Maybe he is mad because you offer a discount fopr people attacking him, and you call him a child?

Anyways, how many lanterns can you make in a turn?

[Sir_Dr_D]

Saarud said:
I'm Agartha

Tips to everyone that borders Atlantis and Maverni. They are both grinding down my huge forces but in the end I see no way I can survive and I beleive that quite soon they will break through and exterminate me.





Atalntis and Marverni will eventually break down the forces of Agartha, yes. But a tough battle it has been. With just 5 provinces Agartha is able to create the biggest army on the map. And Agartha has used Agartha's forces very wisely.

Such is the might and valor of Agartha, that it has most impressed Atlantis.Atalntis and Marverni will eventually win, but not without great losses. Atalntis would like instead to propose a truce with the mighty Agartha

Shub Chtug
King Regeant of Atlantis.

ooc

Saarud. Despite your comments earlier I thought you have been playing quite well.Your troop setup has been very hard to find counters too.This war of ours has been quite a challenge, and very enjoyable.

[Sir_Dr_D]

Sheap, if you are leaving for a week, what is to become of R'lyeh?

[Saarud]

Darrel said:
Atalntis and Marverni will eventually break down the forces of Agartha, yes. But a tough battle it has been. With just 5 provinces Agartha is able to create the biggest army on the map. And Agartha has used Agartha's forces very wisely.

Such is the might and valor of Agartha, that it has most impressed Atlantis.Atalntis and Marverni will eventually win, but not without great losses. Atalntis would like instead to propose a truce with the mighty Agartha

Shub Chtug
King Regeant of Atlantis.

ooc

Saarud. Despite your comments earlier I thought you have been playing quite well.Your troop setup has been very hard to find counters too.This war of ours has been quite a challenge, and very enjoyable.



ooc
I agree this has been a most enjoyable conflict and I have learned alot in Dom3 warfare. My first battle in this Newbie game was my first ever MP battle and it was Maverni who invaded me. They outflanked me with fast Eponi Knight and totally annihilate me I was quite shocked but I had learned that flanks are important (against the computer thats hardly an issue).

in character:
Agartha recognize the strenght of the wet Atlantians and the wild Mavernis and even though the Agarthans would like to live in peace in their small nations the mighty god Saarud has decided that no peace can be brought to the aggressive nations of Atlantis and Maverni that have slaughtered so many Agarthans. The blodshed must continue...

ooc
While I really would like to truce both of you that would mean I had to betray either Yomi or Sauromatia, which I both have peace deals with, in order to be able to grow. That doesn't feel right as they both have been good neighbours. I do hope there is no hard feelings, as a newb I am learning alot from these battles.

[upstreamedge]

I LIKE TO EAT MAN FLESH!!!

[Shovah32]

dont we all, dont we all (although i personally prefer to skin them alive, whip them and sacrifice them at an altar of ever-burning flames)

[FAJ]

Skin them? Most of the flavor is in the skin!

[Kydorias]

upstreamedge said:
I LIKE TO EAT MAN FLESH!!!

Wow. The number of responses I can come up with...

[Sheap]

I am away from my server, but not away from the internet, I will play R'lyeh turns from my parents' barn.

[RamsHead]

So this is the beginning of the end, or at least it is for Helheim. T'ien Ch'i has invaded the nation of Helheim. I knew it was going to happen sooner than later. What is interesting is the reason for the invasion. "We cannot allow you to expand more into Ulmish territory." I believe that is the message I received, word-for-word.

For those who do not know, I was attacked by Kailasa after the initial war between me and T'ien Ch'i broke out. That is in fact one of the reasons I asked for a truce from them. Kailasa and I then started duking it out with quite a few close battles. (Awe is surprisingly effective against Helhirdings.) I managed to whittle them down, and then guess who decided to intervene, Ulm! They saw a nation scarred by war and decided to start taking the lightly defended Kailasan provinces. After all was said and done, Ulm took everything save one province I managed to hold on to, and that province wasn't even the capital! I have not once, after this was done, launched an attack on either T'ien Ch'i or Ulm. Yet, for some reason, the Not So Great Catsby has said that I cannot expand more into Ulm territory. MORE! I have not once expanded into Ulm territory.

I have been insulted repeatedly by T'ien Ch'i and taken advantage of by Ulm, and yet I have done nothing hostile to Ulm or T'ien Ch'i, after our initial conflict. I am the bad guy! Ha! That's laughable! If you want to destroy me, so be it, but don't act like a caring ally. You were just waiting for the right moment.

P.S. I better receive that staff of storms I paid for!

[AdrianP]

I had no idea that kailasa was at war with you at the time, honestly. It took me a long time to find a province with scouts and by the time I found one I had already started my war with kailasa. You were just a victim of bad timing.

[Sheap]

Soon the 3.02 patch will be released. Barring some unforeseen issue, I intend to upgrade the server to 3.02 as soon as it comes out, as it fixes the gateway spells, the Abysian sacreds, etc. without bringing a never-ending hail of Doom Horrors upon the world. I will post another notice when the upgrade happens. If you want accurate battle replays, you will have to upgrade to 3.02 as well.

[RamsHead]

AdrianP said:
I had no idea that kailasa was at war with you at the time, honestly. It took me a long time to find a province with scouts and by the time I found one I had already started my war with kailasa. You were just a victim of bad timing.


I have trouble believing this, as it was stated in this thread that Kailasa and I were at war. Oh, and you didn't think I would notice the whole "Helheim's excuses" as the title? What excuses have I made? I am not the one attacking someone.

ooc- Didn't you have something about you and I both attacking the Kailasan capital in the post, and that I didn't just hand it to you? Well of course I didn't! Did I not deserve something for my troubles? I guess your greed cancels out logic?

ic- Even if I would give you the benefit of the doubt, that still doesn't justify T'ien Ch'i's attack. They attacked me to destroy me and that is all. There is no protection of Ulm involved in the matter, because I don't pose a threat to you! At least when I attacked, I didn't try to hide my motives.

[RamsHead]

With regard to your message, I want my staff of storms!

[AdrianP]

RamsHead said:

I have trouble believing this, as it was stated in this thread that Kailasa and I were at war. Oh, and you didn't think I would notice the whole "Helheim's excuses" as the title? What excuses have I made? I am not the one attacking someone.

ooc- Didn't you have something about you and I both attacking the Kailasan capital in the post, and that I didn't just hand it to you? Well of course I didn't! Did I not deserve something for my troubles? I guess your greed cancels out logic?





I tend towards playing the game and not so much the drama so I rarely bother to read most posts here. Though I admit I am reading more often as the game matures.

There is no logic that would validate your childish claims of just deserts in regard to the capitol. This is a fantasy wargame where just deserts play little role in it . The strong persevere, the weak perish. You misplayed your hand both diplomatically and militarily and whining about isn't going to make it better.

[Foodstamp]

AdrianP,

The posting on this thread has made this game a blast. Lets try not to discourage people from posting. It only takes a few moments to post, and not too long to play a turn, so I doubt that anyone is playing the game any less than you in favor of drama.

[AdrianP]

Foodstamp said:
AdrianP,

The posting on this thread has made this game a blast. Lets try not to discourage people from posting. It only takes a few moments to post, and not too long to play a turn, so I doubt that anyone is playing the game any less than you in favor of drama.



Eh, That part about drama wasn't meant negatively, just providing some context for ramshead that I didn't take advantage of him.

[FrankTrollman]

Helheim has shown their might. It's... certainly the might of a barbarian nation. Much as we would expect the might of nations who are not in the Middle Kingdom to be.

Fifty units. Not bad exactly, just nothing that the middle kingdom would insult an opponent by bringing to the field.

Honestly, I'm not sure I need to remove them - as is they are pretty much extra Province Defense for the capitol. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[AdrianP]

Hurrah! Ulm's valiant forces have successfully destroyed Aeforge, the False God of the Helheim. May Agatha grant him peace.

[RamsHead]

ooc- Well keep in mind that I had ordered the army to retreat, so there really was no fight. Now you might be curious as to why I gave that order, and even if you are not, I am going to tell you anyway.

I knew I wouldn't be able to defeat your forces when they would storm the fort, so I decided that I would have them retreat. After that, I would move them to my capital where I could stand a better chance. Let's just say that the manual has a game crippling mistake. On pages 71 amd 72 it describes the game hosting order. Number 13 says Other Movement including Break Siege. Number 14 says Move Battles ie battles caused by movement. 15 says castle storming. I am almost 100 percent positive that I had put all my commanders on the break siege order. For some reason you and T'ien Ch'i both did your move battles before I did anything, which resulted in my retreating units having nowhere to go. The real question is why? Can anyone think of a reason for this other than a misprint?

[FrankTrollman]

For some reason you and T'ien Ch'i both did your move battles before I did anything, which resulted in my retreating units having nowhere to go. The real question is why?



Aren't retreating units assigned after Break Siege, Movement, and Sieges?

I think what's happening is not that the relevent units moved before yours did, but that the units moved before your retreating units were assigned.

By the way, your Staff is being made as we speak. It was delayed slightly when Helhirdings attacked our construction park, but everything is working fine now.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[AdrianP]

RamsHead said:
ooc- Well keep in mind that I had ordered the army to retreat, so there really was no fight. Now you might be curious as to why I gave that order, and even if you are not, I am going to tell you anyway.





Eh, you have clearly underestimated my strategy. I knew you might pull the retreat trick.( I have used it myself against the AI) I also knew you might try to break the seige that turn despite the fact I had no intention of storming just yet. That's why I left behind an army just big enough to rout your God(I didn't even want to kill your god directly anyway), knowing he would die in the retreat. The fact you had set your commanders on retreat just played into my strategy perfectly.

[RamsHead]

Trollman: You might be right about the retreating units being assigned later thing, as that seems to be the only logical answer.

AdrainP: When the difference in the number of provinces between our two nations is smaller, you can talk about strategy. Truthfully, as a small nation, it doesn't really matter what you throw at me, I had no chance of survival to begin with.

[AdrianP]

RamsHead said:

AdrainP: When the difference in the number of provinces between our two nations is smaller, you can talk about strategy. Truthfully, as a small nation, it doesn't really matter what you throw at me, I had no chance of survival to begin with.



Don't sell yourself short, you could have made a comeback if you played more aggressively when we first fought. My armies were being devastated by your god and mages. You could have held onto Kailasa if you wanted and sued for peace after destroying my third army( which was my last one in the region at the time). In fact you could have taken a huge chuck of Kailasa and I wouldn't have been able to stop you for a least 7 turns. My armies were short of sacreds and mages at the time, so you had a chance to double your territory and then entrench.

[RamsHead]

Even assuming that I could have beat back your forces, such an action would have got T'ien Ch'i knocking at my backdoor. You may not have known, but when we were having our fight over the Kailasan capital, T'ien Ch'i sent me a death threat. There was and is no possible way for me to take on two powerful nations. Secondly, I did not know that was your last army in the area. For all I knew, your troops would just keep pouring in. So further aggression would have gotten me one thing: destruction.

[FrankTrollman]

You may not have known, but when we were having our fight over the Kailasan capital, T'ien Ch'i sent me a death threat.



I told you it would work.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[AdrianP]

My God, Shadow blast sure is a nasty spell.

[Shovah32]

Yea, especially when cast by a D10 PoD http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[FrankTrollman]

I was at the receiving end of more than a bit of the shadowblast action. It killed a lot of guys, but the loss of 21 leaders probably hurt Sauromatia a bit more.

Shadowblast requires gems. If they don't have access to laboratories, they won't have the capability to throw in more shadowblasting in subsequent battles.

-Frank

[WSzaboPeter]

Greetings,
Despite the uneven odds, and the swarm of blessed vanheres the Sons of Winter took over a Vanheimian fort. This act of heroism will weaken our foes, and may be a light to any nation, showing that victory is allways possible. I send a bloody sword to every nation in the world with the wish that they will join the war against Vanheim. Even a fool would understand that if Vanheim will prosper and will take my provinces he will ascend to the role of pantokrator within a few years... And that will mean your sloughter! So the coice is fight now, or fall later. "This is as good a place to take your first step to heaven as any. It's ours. It ain't much, but it's our. Only question is how you check out. Now, you want it on your feet, or on your knees beggin'?"

[Sheap]

Arco has staled three turns in a row. Caelum has staled three of the last five and two of the last three. I will set Arco to AI control the next time they are last one out. Caelum is still playing often enough to keep me from switching them off, but I question how much longer either nation will survive.

To all, if you are effectively dead and no longer wish to continue playing, it is OK to set yourself to AI control... of course you are not required to do so if you relish the role of spoiler or just want to see how long you can hold out.

[Mind Elemental]

Hrrrm. Just how hopeless is the situation for Arco? I'll put myself down as a substitute if you don't mind a new player.

[llamabeast]

Twice before, the armies of Sauromatia have thrown themselves against the defenses of T'ien Ch'i, and twice they have been slaughtered.

Both times, the Sauromatian army was proud and strong, but consisted only of mundane troops and was torn apart by the masses of T'ien Ch'i mages. But this third time, victory seemed assured... around twenty spellcasters, most able to cast Shadow Blast, and equipped with plenty of gems - surely the Sauromatians would have better magic this time.

Well, they did. But this time they forgot to bring a proper army. So, while raining down death on the replaceable PD of T'ien Ch'i, the Sauromatian mages stood still while the common soldiers of T'ien Ch'i walked forward and cut them down. A tragic day.

Next time...

[llamabeast]

Arco's situation is really pretty bad, they only have one province left, plus a fortress under siege by T'ien Ch'i - and the T'ien Ch'i army is not to be messed with. There's no point taking over for him, it'd just be a turn or two of misery.

On the other hand, JoePa, if you'd just like to sign back in for one more turn and send me all your gems, I can try to avenge you...

I'd also like to say - Helheim, you're a legend. Good luck to the last of your brave soldiers - we'll try to continue your fight.

Now all I need to do is train up 20 enaries, and I'll be back in the position I was in last turn... only this time alone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[FrankTrollman]

Remember: you started this war, and you'll finish it.

Not once has the army of Tien Chi sortied into the lands of a nation that did not first send its troops into the lands of Tien Chi.

Several times we offered you peace, and several times you rejected it. Now it is time for you to prepare yourself for the inevitable destruction you have purchased for yourself.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Lion69]

I am going down to the vicious hordes of tien Chi
However, as long AS i hold out, my slimy friends of sauromatia will get my gems

Avenge me

Joepa

[FrankTrollman]

Lion69 said:
I am going down to the vicious hordes of tien Chi
However, as long AS i hold out, my slimy friends of sauromatia will get my gems

Avenge me

Joepa



... And your last Provinces. What a nice ally Sauromatia is to send troops into the last of your provinces, and just in time that we're nearly ready to storm your castle!

If I didn't know any better, I would think Sauromatia was opportunistically building up on the border, waiting for us to do the heavy lifting and then sweep into the province in a turn or two to have a castle all ready to storm his own self.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[FAJ]

But you DO know better.

he is probably giving him the castle, along with the gems.

[WSzaboPeter]

Hey anyone wishes to send aid to the war effort of the Sons of the Winter? We need some gold the pay for the huge swords needed to slay some Vanheres... Anyone?

I wish to sell 3 manuals of water breathing FOR MONEY! please make your offers. (Discount if you buy more then 1.)
And with every manual brought you support the war agains Vanheim.

[FrankTrollman]

Well... whatever. It is now too late for any of that. Arcocephale is no more.

Regardless, we in Tien Chi are still fighting a multiple front war for which there seems no end. We are, however, offering a special literally one-time offer to the remaining nations:

For double the gem cost, we will produce a Unique Magical Artifact and give it to you. That is, if you really want the Bell of Cleansing, that's 20 gems. If you want the Dimenional Rod, that's 30 gems.

This is literally first come first served because there's Only One of Each of these Items! If we weren't so desperate for items, we'd just keep them all and then everyone else would have nothing, but we really need gems to prosecute our wars.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[FAJ]

Check your PMs

[WSzaboPeter]

Reserved the Krupp's Bracers from TienChi. Started negotiations, don't try to buy that one.

[FrankTrollman]

Heh. This has come up so much this turn that rather than putting it into individual replies, I'm going to spam the whole thread with it:

The times for Tien Chi are too desperate to make change.


Yes, we can make the Arc (barely), or the Boots of Anteus, or The Black Mirror, or The Aegis - but we can't use gems from one category to pay for construction in another. While we are perfectly happy to build someone the Scepter of Dark Regency, we can't make it with Nature Gems. While we are ready and able to make the Aegis and send it on its way, we cannot do that with Water Gems.

We are Tien Chi. We can use any kind of gem we have. We are using every gem we have to maintain our borders and crush our enemies in the field. When we get Earth Gems, we make more Mechanical Men and put more Earth Boots on Masters of the Five Elements so that more of our heroes can spam Blade Winds and Magma Erruptions. When we get Water Gems they go into armies of Naiads and Bottles of Living Water. Our engine of war grinds against the slick oil of magical power and we don't have any reserves.

What few gems we have left over are being turned into magical artifacts for our own use (such as Winterbringer: have fun with that Sauromatia :kiss: ). While it is very true that in a very real sense it is a net profit to get 20 Fire Gems for the Twin Spear, in a much more important way it's not. We don't have spare gems to make items from one category to get ahead in the big picture.

What we can do is to take payment in another type of gem. We can make the Arc with 40 Astral and 40 Fire, and then take payment as 80 gems of any other type (even mixed types). But we actually do need those 40 Fire and 40 Astral in order to make the Arc in the first place.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Lion69]

I have been eliminated

This was my first MP game of Dominions

I had a good time, despit ethe whipping I took

Thanks for putting up with me

Phil

[Kydorias]

Take care Phil. Although I didn't get a chance to interact with you in game, I think its honorable that you played to the very last.

Good luck and I hope to see you in the next game!

--Kydorias

[Saarud]

ic: The combined forces of Maverni and Atlanteans has finally broken through the mighty Agarthans defences. As the peaceful Agartha prepares for a final stand inside their fortresses warnings are sent out to the outher nations of this world. Now Atlantis and Maverni will gather their forces against someone else... that might be you.

ooc: This game has been a blast. As this was my first MP game I made alot of mistake but in the end the skill of the Maverni player Xox and the Atlantis player Darrel was far better than mine. I salute you... but you still has to take my fortresses. I will not make it easy for you guys. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sir_Dr_D]

Saarud

The fact that it took two of us to slowly defeat you, says a lot. And I thought you played really well. There was five times that the armies of Atlantis and Agartha fought.

The first time. We an army that i was sure could crush you. I carfeully gathered information on your troops, and compared them to mine. COnfident in victory I attacked, and what happened. You surprised me with 100+ magma children. I managed to win, but barely. That attack really devested me. I had to retreat out of that province after.

The second time I was prepared for fire elementals. I had the rain spell, commanders out front with fire resitance rings, and about 8 mages. And you wiped me out with earth elementals. And the way you had most of your troops in the back with the hold order, and the few fire elementals you had out front, caused all my scripted spells to be wasted on the fire elementals.

3rd time you attacked me and pushed me back out into the sea, which was smart. You atatcked before I was ready.I had a dumb setup there to. Telling my troops to hold while the PD attacks the enemy first might be a good strategy in the water. Against blade wind it is bad.

4th and 5th. Well this time I waited till I got a big enough , and you had already been weakend. And yeah, this time I was ready for you.

And congradualtions for planning to stand firm to the end. You are a most noble opponent.

Atlantis

[llamabeast]

So, if T'ien Ch'i is still fighting on multiple fronts - who is he fighting?

Catsby, I could never honourably accept peace while you were at war with my allies, Arcoscephale and Helheim. Now, despite my best efforts to distract you and split your forces, you have defeated them. Honour no longer requires me to fight you, so if you have any desire for peace then let the bloodshed end.

On the other hand, I see that my territory represents an obvious route for the expansion of your empire, so I do not hold out much hope for your accepting my offer.

Yours,

Sauromatia.

[llamabeast]

Phil, it was good playing with you. Hopefully we'll play again sometime!

Cheers,

llamabeast

[upstreamedge]

Hi guys, it is oceania here. Sorry I have not been playing but I was away for a couple days http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif My internet is really slow at college as well so I am having trouble downloading the turns

[FrankTrollman]

If you sent magic gems that arrived this turn, your magic items are being constructed and will be sent next turn.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Shovah32]

Well done foodstamp, you beat one of my armies. You may or may not have noticed what happened but i honestly believe i could atleast have done far more casualties to you if it wasnt for a certain arrow. The only arrow to hit my only square with 3 mages in it managed to hit my only mage who had a gem scripted to cast flaming arrows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif. again, well played my friend.

[Foodstamp]

Aye, good fight. One of the great things about Pangaea is that we are lucky and the true god smiles upon us.

Good job to the north taking my province, My forces were a bit lax up there, big mistake on my part.

Goodluck in the future fights.

[Shovah32]

Same to you, same to you (im happy my main mages arent really fragile enough to get instantly killed by harpys)

[WSzaboPeter]

Pangaea is a worthy opponent, hard to kill and resiliant like the ancient trees themselves.

[llamabeast]

So Catsby, what do you make of my offer?

I have little doubt that if we remain at war, you will eventually be able to beat me, with your superior research, income (monetary and gem) and experience. But I think (or hope) I might not represent the softest of targets - mine is not the smallest or weakest of empires, and my research is no longer as embarrassing as it was. There is no need for us to remain at war, and I'm certain you will be able to find easier pickings elsewhere.

Yours,

Sauromatia.

[FrankTrollman]

So Catsby, what do you make of my offer?



You invaded us, unprovoked, four times killing hundreds of citizens of Tien Chi. During this time we were content to contain your aggression while concentrating on conquering Arcocephale and destroying the infrastructure of Helheim.

Now Arcocephale is conquered, and Helheim is reduced to a wandering nomadic tribe of pillagers in our hinterland - difficult to fight with troops but contained enough that we shall smite them from afar with magic until they no longer can push forward on any front.

And what of Sauromatia? The largest, most advanced armies the world has ever seen sit upn the Sauromatian border and we know with perfect certainty that if we do nothing that the Sauromatians will again invade our lands and kill our people. No, now is the time to strike back. Four times will the Sauromatian people feel the sting of Tien Chi invasion. And then, when they have suffered what we have suffered, when the devastation of war burns in their cities instead of ours, then we can speak of peace.

The Sauromatian people have lost nothing but pride. That ends now. We shall begin our conquest of the cities of Sauromatia this month. Your armies will crumble under the weight of ice from the sky. Your armies will drown in lava pooled from the ground. Your people will taste what it means to have a war fought on their lands.

Sauromatia will learn the taste of suffering. Then, and only then, will we entertain Sauromatia's pleas for forebearance. When the citizens of your barbarous skin eating empire have seen for themselves the reasons your armies have been turned back again and again - then we will see what peace is worth to you!

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[llamabeast]

I see.

Well, just to be clear, I think I only actually attacked you three times. (Twice you melted my mundane armies with your mages, once you killed my mages with your soldiers.) So maybe we can talk of peace after I feel the sting of T'ien Ch'i invasion three times?

Also, you were saying before that you were fighting on multiple fronts. Who are you actually fighting? Seems to me your multiple fronts are your two fronts with me.

I hope you're scared of my PD. (I'm banking on terror).

Sauromatia.

[FrankTrollman]

Well, just to be clear, I think I only actually attacked you three times.



Check your Scoregraphs again. Every invasion of Tien Chi has a marked effect on your army size.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Ironhawk]

Shovah32 said:
The only arrow to hit my only square with 3 mages in it managed to hit my only mage who had a gem scripted to cast flaming arrows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif



Which begs the question: Why did you have your mages in arrow range? Particularly your flaming arrows mage. And additionally: why did you put three mages together in the same square? Thats really dangerous. You are just asking for a ball spell or magic duel or something to kill them all in one shot. 800gp down the tubes at a stroke.

[WSzaboPeter]

Okey, I have uncountable vanhere marching towards my capital and took my largest force I was able to assembe. I lost. I send all my items, and gems and gold in stock to R'leh and next turn I declare that the Sons of Winter have been beaten.

[Sheap]

The nation of R'lyeh will miss our big friends and we wish their citizens well. We hope the victorious nation of Vanheim will not inflict too much cruelty on the population.

[Shovah32]

Ironhawk said:

Shovah32 said:
The only arrow to hit my only square with 3 mages in it managed to hit my only mage who had a gem scripted to cast flaming arrows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif



Which begs the question: Why did you have your mages in arrow range? Particularly your flaming arrows mage. And additionally: why did you put three mages together in the same square? Thats really dangerous. You are just asking for a ball spell or magic duel or something to kill them all in one shot. 800gp down the tubes at a stroke.



I forgot to put my flamign arrow mage back (my other guys were casting artillery spells so needed to be fairly close), my mages had no astral (so no magic duel problems) and i didnt put them in one square, i had them fairly spread out but, since the area they were in was filled with troops the game decided it would be fun to put 3 of my mages in the same square, you know, for fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[RamsHead]

Every month that Helheim clings to what little life it has-what, with a slain god, slain prophet, and abandoned capital-another nation seems to bite the dust. Who knows, perhaps I will win this thing yet! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Shovah32]

OKwhat in the name of god(me)? ive just had 2 assasins retreat instantly from a fight in 1 turn (they were set to attack rear to bypass guards...)

[Foodstamp]

Shovah,

It is fairly obvious what happened. Your assassins took one look at my commanders and realized there was no chance of success. They felt it better to run rather than face the smiting that was sure to come.

[Yucky]

It's been fun but I am destroyed.

Good game all!

[Shovah32]

Foodstamp said:
Shovah,

It is fairly obvious what happened. Your assassins took one look at my commanders and realized there was no chance of success. They felt it better to run rather than face the smiting that was sure to come.



Yea, 2 25 strength, high attack, dual dagger wielding demonbreds were afraid of a lvl2 priest and a basic commander. Thanks, it all makes sense now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Kydorias]

Noble Lord of Neifelheim,

I am saddened by your ill news. May the Lord of Vanheim treat your courageous fallen warriors with the utmost of respect. The legends of your Giants striding the lands will be passed along many generations of young C'Tis hatchlings, epic stories told around campfires and burning braziers well into the tropical night.

Fare thee well.

--Kydorias

[AdrianP]

I am willing to trade gems or gold for an earth boosting item that isn't a hand or boot item. Cheapest item is preferable.

[FrankTrollman]

AdrianP said:
I am willing to trade gems or gold for an earth boosting item that isn't a hand or boot item.



We have access to the Ring of Wizardry and the Tome of Gaia.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[AdrianP]

What do you want for either one? Can I get a discount for being an ally?

[FrankTrollman]

AdrianP said:
What do you want for either one? Can I get a discount for being an ally?



We're giving discounts on the Construction 6 items. That's 65 Astral Pearls and it's yours.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Shovah32]

The armies of pangaea are indeed powerful and worthy of being recognised by all beings of the world but, even they know they cannot stand against the ever-burning flame of the one true god.

[WSzaboPeter]

Dear friend in the last 3 battles everything was lost. I don't stand a chance.I lost. Now it is only a matter of time when I loose totally. That's all. I'm no fool, I see I can't do anything against a huge horde of vanhere marching towards my capital with insane number of mages mages. Plus a handfull forces to plunder my former land.
Good luck all and have fun.

[Sheap]

Server will be reset tomorrow (Saturday, December 2nd) so I can change the server's license key. This will reset the turn timer.

[llamabeast]

Sauromatia seeks death gems, and has a large number of fire and water gems, and smaller numbers of air and earth gems, to offer in exchange.

Please send offers by PM, or by inter-nation messenger.

Sauromatia.

[Sheap]

An unexpected event has occurred in Sheap's Server.

A system crash has reset the turn timer.

[FAJ]

Unrest increased by 15

[FrankTrollman]

Helheim no longer escapes justice.

That is all.

Th Great Catsby has Spoken.

[RamsHead]

Congratulations, though I can only imagine the warped world you must live inside your head, Catsby.

ooc- Interesting game. I wonder if Vanheim will be able to overtake the T'ien Ch'i-Ulm alliance? Perhaps the alliance will not last that long anyways.

[FrankTrollman]

Ours is not the only power bloc that could accomplish something. We note with interest that Sauromatia still has an army of over 400 men poised to strike at our empire. And while we don't doubt our abilities to take such an army, the deaths will be staggering. Further, there is still Abysia - a proud and flaming nation to the East that continually marches armies up and down the border. It has no escaped our notice that they are seemingly winning a war against Pangaea (though a very bloody one from the look of it). Should they succeed in conquering that territory, I am unconvinced that Vanheim will still be the biggest individual position.

Finally, have you seen the armed forces of Yomi? Undisciplined and stupid as Oni are, it was nonetheless a ravenous horde of riffraff sufficient to conquer lands once belonging to Mictlan. That's not an inconsiderable military force either.

Ulm and myself have between us been the death of three false gods: Xennon, Joepas, and Aeforge. Isodea is clinging to life by the skin of her victims. But there have been seven eliminations so far, and Dreamslayer has gone AI. These next few turns will see the death of two more false gods, and still less than half the dead gods will be at the feet of the Ulm-Tien Chi alliance.

While Ulm, Tien Chi, and Vanheim are the most powerful nations by most accountings, there are still several nations which have shown themselves a power in their field.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[FrankTrollman]

Oh right, I'd completely forgotten about the Maverni/Atlantis Agartha kicking fest over there. That'll amount to quite a bit once they can finally put Agartha away.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Foodstamp]

Times are dire for Pangaea. If Tien Chi or Vanheim is interested in offering protection in return for our nation becoming a vassal, send me a private message and we can work out the details.

[llamabeast]

Sauromatia has an army poised to strike at your empire? You've captured half my provinces and are camped adjacent to my capital!

Truly Catsby is a master of weasel words.

[Ironhawk]

Congrats to all the surviving players at this point. With all the dying off, this game is rapidly approaching the the border b/w mid and end game. I expect you will start seeing more heavy magic and SC summons and whatnot now.

Also, I wanted to take a moment and point out that both Helheim and Nefeilheim are dead, are they not? When this game began everyone thought they were unstoppable. Now you see how quickly a nation based entirely on a bless can run out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Stryke11]

Well, Vanheim is apparently doing very well, and they took out one of the other bless nations themselves (Neifel). Helheim wasn't a heavy bless, accoding to their player, so they don't count.

[Sheap]

Helheim didn't really play a bless strategy, and Niefelheim was destroyed by Vanheim, who also had a bless.

Not saying that blesses are unstoppable, but this game doesn't say much about the subject...

[llamabeast]

And Catsby, what do you mean Isodea is clinging to life by the skin of her victims? It's me! And you just said above that I had a massive army.

Grr, Catsby make me angry. I SQUISH! you.

[Shovah32]

Fear not, catsby, the armies often seen along our border is simply because mountains block army movement towards pangaea except with massive detours/passign along our border.

[Saarud]

FrankTrollman said:
Oh right, I'd completely forgotten about the Maverni/Atlantis Agartha kicking fest over there. That'll amount to quite a bit once they can finally put Agartha away.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.



Agartha will never be put away. Maverni is still besieging my capitol but they destroy my walls at a slow rate and I hope to be around for abit longer. Atleast I am tying up some of Mavernis troop. Any enemies of Maverni/Atlantis can with small gifts to Agartha stall a large part of Maverni for a considerably amount of time.

[Shovah32]

Abysia desires earth and nature gems along with blood slaves. We have a huge (well over 100) suppy of water gems to trade

[Ironhawk]

Sheap said:
Helheim didn't really play a bless strategy, and Niefelheim was destroyed by Vanheim, who also had a bless.



What was all the griping about helheim being uber-blessed in the earlier threads then? When the debate was raging, the nations implicated were Hel and Nief.

[Sheap]

I think that was Helheim from some other game. It was confusion, more than anything else.

[Stryke11]

My gripe was that I was easily taken out by uber-blessed Vanheim (Vanheres RULE) and Neifelheim (same with Neifel Giants). I never even saw a Helheim unit or province the whole time I was alive. I remember Ramshead saying he wasn't playing a bless strat though.

[Foodstamp]

No one ever said helheim used an uber bless.

[Saarud]

Whats all this fuus about bless strategy? This is a newbie game and I am sure everyone tried to use the best strategy that fits their nation. I know I tried and I would probably used a double or perhaps triple bless myself if I were Vanheim... because that is really an effective setup for them. There were no houserules on blessings.

[Foodstamp]

no one is fussing about anything. ofn.

[FrankTrollman]

So Yomi treacherously invaded us without declaring war first. Good times. Now there's just a thin line of Vine Ogres between them and my capitol as the army of the West is busily hunting Isodea in the wilds near Sauromatia.

Can we hold long enugh for the army of the North to reconnect? We shall see. Vine Ogres are tough, and we have mighty magics.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[Sheap]

An attack on Tien Chi, eh? Well, it is a day that ends in a 'y'.

[FAJ]

I didn't want to insult TienChi's intelligence. How else could you interpret a complete halt of our artifact/gem relations and my armies concetrated on your boarder?

Anyways, Oni can't understand words as long as "Treacherously". Could you rephrase that in the form they could understand? Like, bloody corpses? The Oni are big into eating the living and slaughtering the innocent; not so much into civil diplomacy.

I would rather be snuffed out by the Ulm-TienChi alliance than sit by and watch my only ally be trampled do death in his own lands.

[Foodstamp]

Pangaea is AI now, goodluck people!

[Shovah32]

Foodstamp, i honestly feel our war could have went the other way had you put some decent scripting on your pans.

You fought well.

[FrankTrollman]

Interesting news. With the Power of the Ankh I decide who lives and who dies. Naturally, I decided that the armies of Isodea should die and that my own armies should live. I think that my reasoning here is pretty self explanatory.

Furthermore, Yomi is trapped within a web of magical power and it is now certain that the fields of Baron's Road will be heaped with the corpses of the Oni and their dogs. There is at this time nothing they can do to prevent the fate I have prepared for them, their friends cannot be saved, their god cannot be saved. It's a good feeling all around.

Pangaea has turned AI, which means that they are no longer a threat to Abysia. But it also means that they can no longer be trusted to keep their borders with Tien Chi. It is regretable, but it seems inevitable that we will drift into war with Pangaea, and through them with Abysia. It's unfortunate, but at this moment we don't see any other eventuality.

On a lighter subject, the Bracelet and Boots you ordered are ready, if you know what I mean. You will be the belle of the ball.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

[FrankTrollman]

Attached is the results of our battle with Sauromatia.

The Great Catsby has Spoken

[FAJ]

Nice G drive, it describes Catsby's personality.:D

[Foodstamp]

Shovah, I made alot of mistakes this game. I am still having alot of difficulties figuring out what pans are good for beyond just spitting out manaids. In the next game I have a different strategy for using them, but it is hard for me to figure out a good strategy with them being 3-4 nature, 1-2 earth and 1-2 blood.

[Sheap]

I think the problem wasn't with the pans, but the maenads. You had hardly anything else in your army. Maenads are like any other freespawn, they are just chaff troops. You need to back them up with heavy hitters. Earth magic isn't really good for you since the only really good earth-only combat spell is blade wind, and that will kill more maenads than Abysians. Blood has bad combat magic and always has, and Pangaea isn't really much of a blood nation anyway. IIRC you also have access to Death, and death is chock full of great summons and even has one or two battle spells you could make use of.

[Foodstamp]

Pangaea does not get access to death in Early Age.

My good troops died to Neifelheim and my economy was pretty restricted after that so I did not have a chance to rebuild.

I made a ton of mistakes in this game that I learned from, so I am not complaining. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Saarud]

The wild Mavernis has finally breached the walls of the peaceloving Agarthas last fortress. The last Agarthans are ready for battle, Maverni will lose many young warriors if they want this fortress.

[Ironhawk]

Foodstamp said:
I am still having alot of difficulties figuring out what pans are good for beyond just spitting out manaids.



A good combination of Pans + maenads is to bring a horde of Maenads and then cast Mass Protection and Growing Fury on them. With some earth magic you can also cast Weapons of Sharpness or Legions of Steel, etc. Or Blade wind of course.

Generally speaking Nature is a summoning path tho, like Death.

[Foodstamp]

Yeah, I thought about bladewind, but I was afraid that without earth boosting items I could not make proper use of it. I was afraid it would be more harmful to my naked girls than the enemies soldiers.

I have not heard of Mass Protection or Growing Fury, I will get ye ole grimoire our and read up on them. Legions of Steel I was thinking about. I just don't have a good mastery over researching and which spells to use yet.

[llamabeast]

What's "Power of the Ankh"? And Frank, do you know why my flaming arrows didn't work? Or at least didn't appear to work? My men all said "flaming arrows" on them, but the arrows weren't actually flaming.

Well, at least I tried. You must admit I learned from you, I went from no magic to vicious magic (although you're sneaky use of undead made my death magic less good), and that time I had half-decent troops too. If I'd been fighting one of your earlier armies (back in the days of Arcoscephale) I think I'd have won. But in the end your army was superior in both magic and troops.

Xox, read your PMs.

[llamabeast]

Ooh, also I want to know - how is Yomi trapped within a web of magical power?

[FAJ]

I think he is insinuating how screwed I am in a fight against him due to his far superior magic ability. This is probably true, but I would rather make a move now and have some fun, die or not, than to sit around untill someone is just strong enough to be declared a winner.

I think it will be an interesting case study, because our armies are of equal size, but he is far more advanced in mages and research. I am interested to see how big a role it plays.

I will be satisfied if I just give him a run for his money.

(ooc) Good luck and have fun!
(ic) I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!

P.S., your flaming arrows probably would not have worked if on certain weapons. poison bows, small bows, 'throw flames' etc, are projectiles, but not affected by flaming arrows.

[FAJ]

Are we patching to 3.04?

[FrankTrollman]

llamabeast said:
Ooh, also I want to know - how is Yomi trapped within a web of magical power?



That's actually going to be a surprise. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I'll be able to give a tell-all in about 2 turns probably, but right now I have to keep mum about it or FAJ will rearrange his troops to minimize losses.


And Frank, do you know why my flaming arrows didn't work?



In the 3.00 version, Poison Arrows don't flame. So your "Sauromatian Archers" were shooting flaming arrows and your "Androphag Archers" were not. That's fixed later on.


What's "Power of the Ankh"?



It's a unique magical artifact that casts Life After Death at the beginning of every battle, which gives every living creature on my side a second chance as a soulless. Soulless are crappy beyond belief, but have no encumberance, so they are pretty much the preferred state for Wizards (commanders retain that status and spellcasters retain their paths in their second chance). The important part however is that when Shadowblasts eliminated whole squads, they didn't make holes in my army, so subsequent shadowblasts targetted the same area. In short, holding the Ankh roughly halved the effect of your magical artillery. And it caused there to be a really big pile of Undead showing up on the field which caused unscripted death mages to panic and start casting Dust to Dust (which is quite effective at taking out Soulless, but no more so than a Broadsword would be, those guys are terrible).

In short, the Ankh gives a second life to all my mages and causes warriors to turn into decoys instead of corpses when killed.

I think it's supposed to turn armed warriors into soulless warriors instead of regular soulless, which would be more threatening, but that bug affected me less than the flaming arrows bug affected you, so I'll take it.


If I'd been fighting one of your earlier armies (back in the days of Arcoscephale) I think I'd have won.



Oh definitely. That army was powered by the fact that Evoation 6 was then new and terrifying and when combined with Demons of the Celestial Rivers (who are pretty tough), made short work of enemy forces. I mean, we defeated Arco's Myrmidons the same way we stopped Helheim's first attack into our lands: tie them up with expendible units and drop Sulphur Haze on the whole battle - everyone dies both elites and lion clan warriors. Then we pat ourselves on the back because Lion Clan Warriors are really cheap and Myrmidons/Helhirdings are really expensive. Obviously that wouldn't have been a viable strategy against a pile of Mounted Longdead.

Today we have a bunch of level 8 magics and we don't use those old "one-for-me-one-for-you" tactics. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

-Frank

[FrankTrollman]

I can't connect to the server. That's bad.

-Frank

[FAJ]

Re arrange my troops to minimize losses?! How am I suppossed to arrange 400 bakameno archers?

P.S. I cant connect to the server either. i tried logging in to see if there was even a way to re arrange http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

[Shovah32]

FrankTrollman said:
But it also means that they can no longer be trusted to keep their borders with Tien Chi. It is regretable, but it seems inevitable that we will drift into war with Pangaea, and through them with Abysia. It's unfortunate, but at this moment we don't see any other eventuality.



To be honest we are quite offended by this. We, the proud nation of abysia simply planned to expand on past you, our neighbour but im guessing(from what you said) that that isnt possible.

[FrankTrollman]

FAJ said:
Re arrange my troops to minimize losses?! How am I suppossed to arrange 400 bakameno archers?

P.S. I cant connect to the server either. i tried logging in to see if there was even a way to re arrange http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.



Well... I''m glad it's not just me. But I'm not glad that this is happening. I'm honestly not sure if I managed to get a turn in or not. It said "turn uploaded" but then it said I hadn't done my turn, and then it closedthe connection. Ironhawk!

-Frank

[FAJ]

I think he implied that you two would go through the computers lands together, sharing spoils of war.

Hes going to finish me off before he kills you, don't worry.

[Shovah32]

Sorry about that frank, i seem to have mis-read it.

[Ironhawk]

FrankTrollman said:
I''m glad it's not just me. But I'm not glad that this is happening. I'm honestly not sure if I managed to get a turn in or not. It said "turn uploaded" but then it said I hadn't done my turn, and then it closedthe connection. Ironhawk!



Unforutnately, sheap has not moved this game over to his linux machine yet so I am unable to check on it without his assistance. I can, however, tell you that sheap's network does appear to be up. So, it is more likely that either the server machine itself, or the dom3 server instance has crashed. This would mean that the turn-timer clock is not running, nor are turns processing. That is only a best guess tho.

Do make sure to flog Sheap about this when he gets in to work and starts posting, which should be soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sheap]

Server is nagot gick fel. Apparently Illwinter has added a "feature" that allows them to find and crash existing servers when a new patch comes out. The good news is that this means we can upgrade to the latest patch. The bad news is that we must upgrade to the latest patch. I will take care of this today. The turn timer, naturally, will be reset.