Casual PBEM (Full & playing)

[RicoRico]

there was some trouble with one of the files, but all's well now: turn hosted.

wow did I see one amazing battle!

[Morkilus]

The Great Elephant Heist of '06 shall go down in Arco history as its most embarrassing moment.

[RicoRico]

Yes I witnessed that moment.. But you did sit through the end, did you not? It's not that those elephants were totally useless to your army.
A sight to behold!

[RicoRico]

2/6 turns in already.. hmm, could this be a fast turn? :-)

[RicoRico]

and the turn is hosted!

[Ewierl]

A heads-up to you all:

It's time for another chance to make use of the "casual" descriptor on this PBEM. I'm going away this friday 8/10, and coming back wednesday night, 8/15, with no access to the internet in between. Does anyone mind a brief pause?

[RicoRico]

I'm fine with that.. would be nice of course if we can get a host in before Friday then ;-)

[Sorlakind]

RicoRico said:
I'm fine with that.. would be nice of course if we can get a host in before Friday then ;-)



No problems here either. I should be able to submit my turn by wednesday night GMT.

[Morkilus]

So can anyone tell me what happened: I see two harbingers in my capitol, I port a million astrologers in to take them out, and I find no harbingers but my lab is destroyed. How is that possible? Are they stealthy, too? Can they destroy labs and go into hiding in the same turn?

[Sir_Dr_D]

I moved the harbingers away. I am not about to keep them still. If you teleported in your mages probably ended up inside the castle and did not partake in any battle. In my message list I got a message that said a fire destroyed the arcane library, so that was just an unlucky event.

[Sir_Dr_D]

But that was some good attempts the last turn Morkilus. I am surprised that the golem that you telported in did not do better. The golem that was in the 'great elephant heist' as you put it fared way better. It ended up single handidly holding off for quite a long time a whole army of hydra and stolen elephants.

[Morkilus]

I definitely don't know wtf I'm doing; I've never played a multiplayer game in this late stage with such complicated mages. I had no idea that a teleport squad wouldn't fight the siegers of a castle you own. What a waste. I'm learning plenty, though.

[RicoRico]

I only just found out that particular point in a SP test game this week... quite important information indeed!

[Sorlakind]

Morkilus said:
I definitely don't know wtf I'm doing; I've never played a multiplayer game in this late stage with such complicated mages. I had no idea that a teleport squad wouldn't fight the siegers of a castle you own. What a waste. I'm learning plenty, though.



OK, now I am lost here. What do you mean by this? If you mean:

"Your teleported (gatewayed, whatever) squad will join the defenders already there when the enemy storms (not break siege) the castle."

then hell, yes, it does work. Or, maybe I should say, I've never noticed anything strange -- and I have done it a few times this game with Rlyeh so if did not work I prolly should have noticed by now. Have I been mistaken all along? If you mean something else entirely than disregard my post.

[RicoRico]

I think he means that when you use a spell to get an army to a province in which a friendly fortress is besieged, there will not be a 'magical' battle occurring before any other. Actually, no batte at all, unless the fortress would be stormed that turn.
But if you would move there normally, you would attack the besieging army.
In a way it makes sense if you use Gate Way: it teleports you to a friendly laboratory, which is inside the fortress (enemy can't destroy it when besieging). I wonder, though, what happens if you use Astral Travel, Teleport or Cloud Trapeze, since it does not need a laboratory.

I'd like it if you could choose:
- teleport and defend, or
- teleport and patrol
or something

Actually I did not quite understand how on earth R'Lyeh suddenly could have so many armies in a fortress I was storming. I thought I could totally isolate a fortress by besieging it, and I found out the hard way that I could not.. A number of times.. Lots of pain.. losses.. agony.. Actually, I only figured it out this week in a SP test game..

[Micah]

The default order after a spell is cast is "defend." (Or siege if it's at an enemy fort). So going to a friendly castle will land you inside, and you can't teleport in and be stealthed either.

Also, getting max-cast rituals overwritten sucks. Guess I rolled a lower random number...

[Sorlakind]

RicoRico said:
I think he means that when you use a spell to get an army to a province in which a friendly fortress is besieged, there will not be a 'magical' battle occurring before any other. Actually, no batte at all, unless the fortress would be stormed that turn.
But if you would move there normally, you would attack the besieging army.




Ah, OK, if it is that, then we're understood.

Let me add that this must be stated somewhere in the manual, since I personally can't remember ever having any confusions or doubts about this issue. Or maybe I have read it somewehere in the forums a loooong ago.

[Sorlakind]

Micah said:Also, getting max-cast rituals overwritten sucks. Guess I rolled a lower random number...



Max number of gems on a ritual sucks, period. One among another number of things that suck in an otherwise wonderful game. This is off-topic so I will refrain from posting my personal pet peeves.

[RicoRico]

Well, that max number of gems thing.. I guess the world was a bit lucky then! Apart from Abysia..
if that overwrite would have failed, that would have spelled doom in capitals.. I guess we would have had to kill the caster.

[Sir_Dr_D]

Sorlakind said:

Micah said:Also, getting max-cast rituals overwritten sucks. Guess I rolled a lower random number...



Max number of gems on a ritual sucks, period. One among another number of things that suck in an otherwise wonderful game. This is off-topic so I will refrain from posting my personal pet peeves.



Personally I don't like the way the globals work at all. You can spend all game collecting gems, and then lose them in an instant. I would prefer it if you coudln't put extra gems into rituals at all.

And how did Abysia a non-astral nation succeed in getting 999 pearls, considering that Pythium was doing nothing except collect pearls all game, and was very lucky in finiding astral sites, and was only barely able to make the 999.

Next time I will know to be on the safe side and dispel instead.

[Sir_Dr_D]

Morkilus said:
I definitely don't know wtf I'm doing; I've never played a multiplayer game in this late stage with such complicated mages. I had no idea that a teleport squad wouldn't fight the siegers of a castle you own. What a waste. I'm learning plenty, though.



I didn't know this either until you made your comment.

[RicoRico]

Sir_Dr_D said:

And how did Abysia a non-astral nation succeed in getting 999 pearls, considering that Pythium was doing nothing except collect pearls all game, and was very lucky in finiding astral sites, and was only barely able to make the 999.

Next time I will know to be on the safe side and dispel instead.



He traded part with me, 100 or so(?), but mainly, I think he has humongous gem income from all his lands, and he has been alchemizing fire gems or something..

[Sir_Dr_D]

He doesn't have that many more provinces then either me or you. He was likely using fever fetish, a technique which I have never tried yet. Abysia with its high hit point commanders would be good at using that technique.

[RicoRico]

Sir_Dr_D said:
He doesn't have that many more provinces then either me or you. He was likely using fever fetish, a technique which I have never tried yet. Abysia with its high hit point commanders would be good at using that technique.



Well, I just did a little counting (counting, not guessing), and Abysia has more provinces than Pythium and Machaka together. And I mean that literally... He has good reason to say he thought he'd already won the game ;-)

[RicoRico]

I'm just thinking... Would Arcane Nexus for 999 pearls really be better than 40 abominations or 33 golems? If you keep the global, you'll have those gems back in no time, yes, but the armies would have been available much earlier in the game, making you expand much faster... Of course you do need the research & casting paths first..

[Micah]

You're right Rico, the summons would have been a better use of funds for me, but I didn't think that you'd be able to drop 1000 pearls into an overwrite and then get a lucky roll on top of it to get rid of the nexus (I think I would have won a tied roll as the defender, so I had better than a 50% chance of keeping the spell up even if you did match the cost). As I said, I was trying to get the game concluded by casting it...I've no doubt that I would have easily won if I'd used the gems for summons instead, but I didn't want to deal with the micro to do so. So I'm in a bit of a predicament at the moment with a 200 gem/turn swing hitting me in the face. It'll be fun to lose the game to a blind die roll that I had odds on, but I guess it'll teach me to take risks in the future.

You're also all crazy for letting Pythium keep the nexus up instead of dispelling it, it'll give him the game easily, especially with the success he's been having against Arco from what I've seen and his good national angel summons.

[RicoRico]

3/6 turns in, waiting for Abysia, Man and Pythium

[RicoRico]

almost there, waiting for Abysia's turn

[Micah]

If you all hadn't made me actually MANAGE my turn by overwriting my global I'd have it in by now...

I'll try to get to it ASAP but I was out of town this weekend so I'm trying to get caught up with RL work.

[Sir_Dr_D]

At this stage there is so much micromanagement that needs to be done. It is hard for me to get in two turns a week.

[RicoRico]

indeed.. so I don't think Man being delayed a bit will cause much of an extra delay.
especially since a certain NAP is ending soon, so I'll have to do loads of order micro management on the next turn..

we'll see how much time we'll need.. would be great though if we could at least do one turn a week...

[Morkilus]

Is Abysia really that big? No-graphs games are so weird. I don't see a single province of his.

[RicoRico]

Abysia has almost 90 provinces :-S

[RicoRico]

Turn hosted!

Time for war! For me at least..

[RicoRico]

3/6 turns in, waiting for Abysia, Man and R'Lyeh

[RicoRico]

almost there, waiting for Man

[Ewierl]

Back from my vacation today- I'll try and send in a turn tonight!

[RicoRico]

turn hosted!

ouch...

[Ewierl]

Our bards would like to exchange some brief messages with whichever nation owns the Boots of the Planes.

-Man

[RicoRico]

Report from the eastern parts of the world:

While having taken 8 of Abysia's provinces, they have taken 14 of mine. He seems to be using every devil that can possily be summoned, sweeping through my province defenses like a knife through butter.

It's bloody.

Machaka

[RicoRico]

2/6 turns in.
waiting for Abysia, Man, Pythium and myself ;-)

[RicoRico]

5/6 turns in, waiting for Abysia

[Micah]

Hmm, wonder where Rico went, I got my turn in a couple of hours after his last post, and he's usually extremely prompt with the turn processing.

[RicoRico]

Sorry guys, I'm somewhat delayed and busy and won't be able to host the turn today or tomorrow.. Probably Sunday evening then!
That might give you some time to rethink your turns of course.. Like, do that group attack on Abysia after all, or something ;-)

[Micah]

I was hoping for something more like a group concession to Abysia, but that's just me. =)

[RicoRico]

turn hosted!

Sorry again for the delay..

[RicoRico]

Only Arcoscephale has sent his turn at the moment. I have not finished my turn either, this war complicates things!

[RicoRico]

4/6 turns in. Waiting for Pythium and myself!

[Sir_Dr_D]

I have a lot happeneing right now. I will try to do my turn tommorrow.

[RicoRico]

early notice:
I'll be out of the country from Tuesday 11 Sept to Wednesday 19th and won't be able to play then..
We are slowing down a bit lately, I hope everyone's ok with that. Staling in this phase would seem a bit of a waste of investment in the game now...

Waiting for Pythium

[Sir_Dr_D]

Sorry for the stall right now. It was immposible to do my turn this past weekend. I will do it tonight for sure.

[RicoRico]

turn hosted!!
you guys can take your time this time, as I won't be able to do my turn before I'm going abroad..

hosting will commence on September 19th the earliest...

good luck!

[RicoRico]

hi guys

I'm back from my travels, so let the game continue!

So far, only Arco has sent his turn.

[RicoRico]

currently waiting for Pythium

[RicoRico]

hmm 3,5 weeks since last hosting.. that's a bit long right?

currently waiting for Pythium

If I stale him or put him to AI, the game is kind of over, would be my estimate...
I'm awaiting Pythium's answer to my latest email for a bit more..

[RicoRico]

I've had word from Pythium that he would play his turn, but that was last week... still waiting for his turn.

I'm thinking:
How about we all get a bit more sloppy, and play some nice big, perhaps even suicidal battles? just for fun?
I am almost ready to cede to Abysia, as I don't think he can be stopped anymore, but not without a few bloody battles to wipe out my armies lose the items I've been saving up for ;-)
Is any of the other players still thinking they can win? (if so, please join the Abysia front to get a taste of what you're up against ;-) )

[Ewierl]

RicoRico said:
I've had word from Pythium that he would play his turn, but that was last week... still waiting for his turn.

I'm thinking:
How about we all get a bit more sloppy, and play some nice big, perhaps even suicidal battles? just for fun?
I am almost ready to cede to Abysia, as I don't think he can be stopped anymore, but not without a few bloody battles to wipe out my armies lose the items I've been saving up for ;-)
Is any of the other players still thinking they can win? (if so, please join the Abysia front to get a taste of what you're up against ;-) )



Even if we're going to call this game done, I'd love to at least see the last turn hosted, so I can see the results of my ventures this turn!

[RicoRico]

me too!
no word from Pyhtium though..

If he will not reply, I will still host the turn so we can see the outcome..

also, like I think I mentioned before, when we're done I have the latest 10 turns or so, and quite some older ones, backed up for those who would like to play around. See the outcome of the battle if you had planned it differently, or just create an interesting mid/end game vs. AI, or spy on each other's tactics..
let me know if you're interested...

[Micah]

So are we done? If it's official I'll post up some of the more sensitive info for what I was pulling in as far as gold and gem income if anyone's curious.

[RicoRico]

I'm interested, but Pythium just gave news that he'll play the turn today.
But I suspect the game won't take very long anymore.

Hmm, I'm thinking.. when this game is over, should we perhaps just teleport everything we've got to one and the same empty province, and see some nice fireworks to end it all? ;-)

[Micah]

A group of blitzers tried that (on a much smaller map no less) and all it accomplished was crashing the game, a series of fights would probably work out a lot better if that's what you're going for.

[RicoRico]

Well, it finally happened... The turn is hosted!

There's a couple of battles I'd like to see played out, but actually I'm ready to declare a winner.. We've utterly lost momentum, and I guess the turns a just too much of a fuss for most of us now... I did have fun though!

What's your thought?

Any votes? Mine would be Abysia, of course..

[Micah]

I didn't see anything in the last turn that would change my earlier thoughts on the game state, so I'd be happy to see the game end.

[Morkilus]

Go ahead and fight it out if you like, but I don't see anyone stopping Abysia at this point.

[Ewierl]

I'm willing to concede victory to Abysia.

It was a fun game; I know I had a fine time down in the south in my extended 1-on-1 war with Caelum. It was the first real pitched war I'd been through in MP, it taught me a hell of a lot.

[RicoRico]

Yes I learned a lot too... Like: Early NAPs are very powerful.. But one should take care not to have them for too long if you're not growing fastest..;-)
And that R'Lyeh is not a nation to be trifled with.. very strong defenses..

Micah, are you willing to give us some pointers on how strong you really are? Gem income & other stuff? How many clams you had & so on? ;-)

Spell wise: I researched everything except Evocation 9 (1 turn more) and all Blood spells.. But I'm guessing Abysia also overtook me there? Or maybe everyone?

I'm also curious about what R'Lyeh's actual plan to win was? Care to share it with us?

[Micah]

So does that mean that Pythium and Rlyeh are ok with ending here? If so, sure. Just let me know.

[Sorlakind]

My immediate plan was to join the Anti-Abysia alliance soon. No justifications needed, that is the only viable option.

Having said that, I have (great) doubts if it is enough to swerve the course of the game. And even if it is, the truth of the matter is that it has been so long that I have looked into the game that my mind is just not in it. And the prospect of micromanaging and synchronizing a war against Abysia is not a particularly happy one. So, as far as I am concerned, I concede.

I Take this opportunity to thank RicoRico for hosting the game. I tried to roleplay (that is how I like to play mp games) and had great fun!

G. Rodrigues, the Avatar of R'lyeh.

[RicoRico]

No word from Pyhtium yet, but I think it's safe to say that we have a winner:
Micah playing Abysia!

Congratulations! Nicely played..!



I had good fun, and Sorlakind I liked your roleplaying, you gave me a hard time with that...
I learned a lot this game.. Like that at one time having almost all nice unique items, summoned Royalty, great research and loads of gem income does not guarantee success.. Saw some painful SC counters from R'Lyeh, Arcoscephale and Abysia. Next time I'll keep a closer eye on blood nations growing for too long.. Horrible demons & devils..
And also learned that a 16 player game takes LONG if you make it 'till the end game..

All of you thanks for playing!

I could send you all the latest turns + the master password if you want to have a peek at the situation... Just ask.

[Ewierl]

I have one question about the last turn.

Abysia, how did you move your SCs out of 42 and 44? I was pretty sure that transport spells like Cloud Trapeze move you in before normal movement brings you out, and your SCs there had no labs and nothing more fancy than their own wings to exit with, IIRC.

[RicoRico]

maybe one of them had the boots of the plane? or could being stealthy explain it?

[Micah]

Umm, Igarak in 44 killed all your teleported guys, and my golem in 42 cast returning. They were both right where they should have been at the beginning of the magic battle phase, so I'm not sure what you're unsure on.

Assets:

Income: 9106

Gem income:

38F 40A 30W 45E 54S 54D 23N 150+ blood slaves

approx 50 clams, 100 blood stones on top of that.

2 demon lords, all the arch/ice devils, Pedoseion, one AQ and a working tart factory. And golems.


Good times.

[Sir_Dr_D]

How did you get 54s? Just got lucky? Your number of clams though was lower then I thought.

Me:
Income: 4828
Gems:
13F 16A 19W 20E 29S 18D 13N

A working harbringer factory.

[Micah]

Well, Abysia isn't exactly swimming in N/W mages, hence the blood stones instead of the clams...I was making about 3 stones and 2 clams/turn by the end. How much was the nexus pulling in? I was getting about 80 for the 2 turns I had it.

[Sir_Dr_D]

I was getting between 120 to 180 a turn.

[Ewierl]

Micah said:
Umm, Igarak in 44 killed all your teleported guys, and my golem in 42 cast returning. They were both right where they should have been at the beginning of the magic battle phase, so I'm not sure what you're unsure on.



On me being blind, apparently http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif