Uakari - MA game (upload pretenders)

[llamabeast]

Okay, this'll be an MA game aimed at people with any skill level, but preferably at least a couple of games under their belt.

We'll use Worthy Heroes, all standard settings, and graphs on. We'll choose a map once we see how many players we get. It'll be about 15 provinces per player, and I'll place no limit on the number of players (so it could be a nice big game).

In addition to the vanilla nations, players are free to choose any of Skaven, Arga Dis or Tomb Kings, which are mod nations which I consider to be well-balanced and complete, as well as interesting. In the case of Tomb Kings I am biased of course. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The players are:

Pangaea - DryaUnda
R'lyeh - Foodstamp
Arga Dis? - Amhazair
Pythium - Velusion
Ermor - johnarryn
T'ien Ch'i - JZ
Caelum - JanIm
Shinuyama - Cerlin
Skaven - Digress
Mictlan - AreaOfEffect
Tomb Kings - Bananadine
Vanheim - Real_friend

[Zeldor]

Argh, rather no free time. Will you play, llamabeast? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[AlgaeNymph]

I'd like to give Pangaea a try.

[Foodstamp]

I would like to play as R'lyeh

[Amhazair]

Are you allowing those mod nations you classified as 'finished and balanced' in a previous game threat too? If so I might be tempted to go with Arga Dis.

But first I need to know: What kind of animal is an Uakari?

[llamabeast]

Oh yes! I had meant to write that about the mod nations in the first post, but I forgot. I'll correct it now.

An uakari seems to be some kind of freaky red-faced monkey.

[llamabeast]

Oh, and to answer Zeldor - alas not. I am going to Thailand for a fortnight in about 7 weeks, so I won't start any new games before I get back from there.

[Foodstamp]

Bumping this to the top so people can see it better and sign up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Velusion]

Eh I'm about to get knocked out of one. I'll sign up as Pythium.

[johnarryn]

Ill sign up as Ermor.

[JZ]

Tien-chi, as I am getting killed in another game as Tien-chi.
Have to take revenge.

[Janlm]

i'm in as caelum

[Velusion]

P.S. I can make a map for this game up if everyone would like whenever we know how many we will have.

[Cerlin]

Since this isnt a newbie game, can I be shinuyama?

[Digress]

Ahhh ... hell sign me up as Skaven.

[Janlm]

this thread needs to be updated...

[Foodstamp]

Give it a little while, I think llama has a lot of stuff going on right now, so this may not get updated until as late as next week.

[llamabeast]

Hello! Apologies for my slackness in updating the thread!

Right, I am going away in the morning until Sunday evening (GMT). So I suggest leaving the game open until then, then I will close it and get people to upload pretenders. So, sign up now - last chance!

Also, would people like to take Velusion up on his kind offer of sorting us out a random map?

[Foodstamp]

Velusion generating the random map sounds fine to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Velusion]

So right now we have 9 players (assuming Amhazair joins). 8 land 1 water nation.

I'll starting making the map tomorrow. Last call for people who want in!

[Amhazair]

Yeah, you can count on me Velusion. Generally I prefer bigger games, but an occasional smaller one in between won't hurt me. And besides, I've been wanting to try out Arga Dis for quite some time now.

[AreaOfEffect]

I would personally like to join the game as well if it isn't too late. I'm new to the forum but I have a few multi-player games under my belt.

Please sign me up for Mictlan.

[Velusion]

You're in AoE. I'll look thought the generated maps tonight.

[Bananadine]

Hey, I just got killed in some other game. Can I join this one? If so I will try those delicious-sounding Tomb Kings (and shame them with my mistakes)!

If not then maybe I will just start my own game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[llamabeast]

Bananadine, you are in (as are you AOE), and also the game is now open to pretenders! Apologies for the delay there. Please start sending them in (see my FAQ if you are unsure how). Ideally I think it would be good to get them in by tomorrow night (UK time), or Wednesday at the latest.

Thanks for sorting the maps Velusion, that's really helpful.

[Real_friend]

Helheim !

[llamabeast]

Er, Vel, will all these last minute players scupper your map? Up to you on whether you think Real_friend should be included.

Also, I wonder whether anyone might volunteer to be the game admin? Normally I don't ask until after the game starts, but it might be good to have someone poke me when all the pretenders are in and so on.

[Real_friend]

Or missed this one already?
Llamabeaset, let me now please.

[Real_friend]

Vanheim I mean, of course

[Bananadine]

Real_friend said:
Or missed this one already?
Llamabeaset, let me now please.



Llamabeaset, that would be a good name for a Tomb King!

[Velusion]

I don't mind... I can generate more maps. I haven't yet invested any time in them.

So now we have 12, 11 land nations and 1 water?

[Real_friend]

I'm still would be glad to join.

[llamabeast]

Cool Real_friend, sounds like you're in.

[Amhazair]

For some reason, when I send in my pretender, I receive the message that I sent in a pretender for Late age Ulm Reborn instead of one for Arga Dis. Wich is bizarre, since I never even made a pretender for Ulm Reborn. I don't suppose they have the same nation number or something like that?

I'm heading towards bed now, so I won't be able to put any suggestions to solve this problem in action before tomorrow after work.

[llamabeast]

Yeah, same nation number. It's an underlying flaw in how the LlamaServer deals with mod nations that I guess I'd better sort out! I'm surprised it hasn't come up before actually.

[Velusion]

Ok... map is ready you can get it here:

http://arsnotoria.net/dominions3/Uakari.zip

[Velusion]

So at this point we are waiting on:

Amhazair
johnarryn
Janlm
Cerlin
Real_Friend

[Amhazair]

llamabeast said:
Yeah, same nation number. It's an underlying flaw in how the LlamaServer deals with mod nations that I guess I'd better sort out! I'm surprised it hasn't come up before actually.

So, do I have to do something special to solve this now, or will you just dig out my god manually or something along those lines?

[llamabeast]

I will fix it!

[Velusion]

Sp we are just waiting on Cerlin and for Agra Dis to be fixed.

[llamabeast]

I'll fix Arga Dis when I start the game, so just Cerlin really. I'll PM him.

[llamabeast]

Right, well I'm not sure what to do about Cerlin. I guess I will give him till tomorrow afternoon, and if he doesn't turn up start without him. Will that cause map troubles Velusion?

[llamabeast]

By the way, apologies everyone for the exceptionally slow start on this game.

[Cerlin]

Part is my fault sorry, i will send mine in soon.

[Foodstamp]

Cerlin said:
Part is my fault sorry, i will send mine in soon.



Did this guy turn his pretender in?

[Velusion]

Yep... looks like we are ready to get started assuming llama takes care of arga dis...

[llamabeast]

Game started! Hooray!

Apologies again for the very slow start on this one - thanks very much to everyone for your patience.

Amhazair - it turns out the fix for the Arga Dis/Ulm Reborn issue is considerably more complicated than I'd have expected - in fact it's probably a couple of hours of work. So for the moment I think you'll have to cope with the server calling you "Ulm Reborn". I don't think there'll be any other side effects.

[llamabeast]

Would anyone like to volunteer to be admin for this game?

[Amhazair]

llamabeast said:
I think you'll have to cope with the server calling you "Ulm Reborn".

Oh, gods! That's ghastly! Don't do this to me please! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Or, in other words: don't fret over it, and thanks for another (hopefully) great game.

[Bananadine]

Pretender gods may wish to avoid competing in the arena, lest they become cursed!

[AreaOfEffect]

Yet another message from the host telling me that my Neighbor, Skaven, might be cheating. Is anybody else sick of seeing that?

This is honestly the first time I've seen such a message and I would seriously like to know if it could be anything other then cheating. If it could only be cheating then is some sort of action against Skaven going to occur or has it somehow already happened?

[Velusion]

AreaOfEffect said:
Yet another message from the host telling me that my Neighbor, Skaven, might be cheating. Is anybody else sick of seeing that?

This is honestly the first time I've seen such a message and I would seriously like to know if it could be anything other then cheating. If it could only be cheating then is some sort of action against Skaven going to occur or has it somehow already happened?



Typically this is a false alarm. Does llama keep the master pass to all his games for stuff like this? Ideally he would check it it out as a neutral third party...

[Digress]

I have kept all my .trn files and am more than willing to have someone look at them. I am also more than happy for the copies on the llamaserver to be likewise examined.

The fact that it has happened repeatedly is, admittedly, weird. I have a luck scale but haven't recieved any big handouts of gold - had a couple of smaller gold events but they don't correlate with the cheating messages.

[llamabeast]

Although I would trust Digress without hesitation, I checked a couple of his turns (go new LlamaServer backup system!), and there's no sign whatever of anything fishy. Maybe it's something mod-related somehow. Anyway I would recommend just ignoring it.

[Digress]

Thanks llamabeast ... the message has popped up three or four times now, so I can understand if some of the neighbours started getting a little toey.

[Foodstamp]

As soon as I saw the first message and checked his gold/gem income in the graphs I figured it was just a mod nation bug.

[AreaOfEffect]

Thanks llamabeast. Now we can shut that out of our minds and enjoy a nice friendly game... of war.

[Bananadine]

Except for Shinuyama, who seems to have been cursed by some kind of staling mage.

[Cerlin]

I would like to request a 24 hour postponement on turn 17, which is the next turn. I shall be flying back to america and will not be able to get the turn in quickly because ill be on a plane. Thanks.

[JZ]

*sigh* killed again, now by Arga Dis. What really killed me were two indep attacks - one on home province with 30 knights and near by money province by Bogus...

[Amhazair]

You were unlucky with your starting position. I know generally speaking the corners of the map are considered nice spots, but here I completely blocked all your directions of expansion, giving you no other choise than attacking me straight away.

Better luck next time JZ.

[Amhazair]

Cerlin said:
I would like to request a 24 hour postponement on turn 17, which is the next turn. I shall be flying back to america and will not be able to get the turn in quickly because ill be on a plane. Thanks.

Has anyone actually taken over as host from Llamabeast? If not, he said he's away till sunday, so I guess the game will host on schedule...

[llamabeast]

I think someone has, but I can't remember who (and no time to look back through the thread right now) Anyway I've postponed the hosting, but it was just luck that I stumbled across this post.

Actually I was away last weekend, but had left the "I'm going away" message up by accident. Fixed.

[Amhazair]

I should learn to remember what date I'm living in at any point in time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

With things being so confusing already (in my own easily distracted mind at least) I'm really happy that I haven't yet managed to crack time travel. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Bananadine]

Blimey, you guys are taking your turns fast. I'm not gonna stale or anything, but I'm struggling a little to keep up!

[Janlm]

yeah i must say its been really nice with these fast turns at the begginning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Foodstamp]

I think the email notification contributes to it. In IP games, you will check on a turn and it will say 11 hours with one player left to do their turn. If that player does their turn 5 minutes after you checked, then you just missed half a day you could have done your turn.

[Bananadine]

Yes, I always watch my turns' battles and such as soon as I get them. But I still have a full-time job and well I guess I spend more time thinking about my moves than some people do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Janlm]

its fine, no reason to stress out, you can spend all the time you like within the time limit http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Janlm]

hmm thats odd,i never received turn 24, I wasn't aware that i was almost missing my turn untill i suddently received a 6 hour warning..

[Amhazair]

Grmmbl. It's official now:

I hate War Minotaurs!

[Janlm]

I am looking to aquire myself a shield of gleaming gold, would anyone be willing to trade with me for this?

I should easily be able to offer some equally powerfull items in return, or gems or whatever.

Let me hear if you are interested.

Caelum

[Digress]

The Skaven are preparing to sneak off into their holes permanently. Triple-blessed Eagle Warriors/Pegasus Riders and morale-challenged rats just don't play well together (that and our misfiring luck scale - got a couple of incredibly badly timed barbarian "visits"). Our pathetic remnants are awaiting their almost inevitable domkill.

We can only imagine that we have bought some of our neighbours the research headstart they require to meet the the threat posed by Mictlan.

I still have love for the rats (oh yes, so much love) - one day the fates will conspire to propel me and the mangy hordes of Skavenblight into the glory that is mid-game. It sure as hell isn't going to be a result of player skill http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Foodstamp]

I disagree with the last part of your statement. It looked like you did all you could with what you had once your capital went undersiege. I don't think anyone could have played it different. I think the worst calamity you suffered was that 19 damage lucky markata shot on your druid. If he wouldn't have taken that hit, I think he would have routed that weak PD and you would have your pretender right now.

[AreaOfEffect]

Well play Digress. I personally hadn't anticipated several things during our little war. There were a couple of times you made me question my bless selection. I hope to play against you in another game and give you the end-game fight you so desire.

I'll always be curious about what was going through your head when you decided to take that second province from me. I suppose you thought that our mishap meeting the round before meant war. Maybe your initial success got to you. It doesn't matter now. What matters now is that out of the two players I've been fighting this game, you're the one I respect more.

Good luck to you in your further endeavorers.

[Real_friend]

Velusion/Pythium had 3-turn-in-advance- NAP with Vanheim.

WHAT A SHAME - He attacked our provices without any word ignoring all agreements!

We should have him in black list, as a dangerous player, and choose him as a first to destroy in all games in communities. Players like he , if they are not stopped jut destroy all spirit of RPG and politics in the game! Everybody should know names of dangerous players, whose word costs nothing.

[Digress]

It appears my parting gift to Mictlan is a fortified city - talk about reaping the benefits of my luck scale http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rant.gif

It would have been nice to have got that event ten turns ago when I could have done something with it.

Thanks for the game all ... this is me slinking off, sorry signing off.

[Velusion]

Real_friend said:

Velusion/Pythium had 3-turn-in-advance- NAP with Vanheim.

WHAT A SHAME - He attacked our provices without any word ignoring all agreements!

We should have him in black list, as a dangerous player, and choose him as a first to destroy in all games in communities. Players like he , if they are not stopped jut destroy all spirit of RPG and politics in the game! Everybody should know names of dangerous players, whose word costs nothing.



I offered a NAP many turns ago and you never responded to my request. There was no NAP to break.

[Real_friend]

Oh. Sorry, My mistake. Was replyed, but didn't check if forum sent it and considered it signed. Withdrawn.

[Velusion]

NP. Good luck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

To Arga's greater glory, we have managed to uncover mysteries of advanced magic item forging (=lvl6) This means (among other things) that we are able to forge boots of youth for all the precious old and decrepit wizards of your weakling nations. Arga Dis is just as willing to sacrifice the lives of its young girls to strengthen the nation through trade, as it is willing to give the blood of its soldiers in battle.

Those intrested in trade can feel free to contact us. Apart from boots of youth many other items can be forged for your convenience, and we also have a rather large surplus of water gems. Unfortunately we have been extraordinarily unlucky with the randoms of our mages, and did not manage to find a single 2E one, preventing us from forging Dwarven Hammers, so items might be a little more costly for the time being. We have just decided to empower one mage to 2E, and will thus start production of the hammers now, but due to that large expenditure we're drastically short of earth gems, so we are looking for anyone who can help replenish our stocks.

[Amhazair]

By the way, I just thought to mention for those whe have come/will come into contact with them:

The creators of the mod nations in this game (Sombre for Arga Dis and Skaven, Llamabeast for Tomb Kings) allways apreciate any feedback you can give them about their mods. So wether you just want to tell them the sprites look amazing (or are teh suck) or think Asp Archers are way too good (or bad) for their cost, I'm sure they'd be happy if you told them.

[Digress]

Sombre already knows my love for his Skaven mod.

He is also well aware how poorly I play them.

[Amhazair]

I'd like to ask for a 24h extension for the turn after this one. I'm getting visitors on saturday, and won't have time to play my turn otherwise.

[llamabeast]

Postponed.

(Sorry for treading on the toes of the game admin here, Amhazair PMed me so I thought I might as well do it.)

[Velusion]

Can we lengthen the game to 48 hours? I can't keep up with 24 anymore at this point.

[johnarryn]

Fine with me.

[Amhazair]

Sure, no problem.

[Amhazair]

Looking back over the thread, noone seems to have responded to Llama's request to take over game admin duties. Unless someone did so in a PM and it wasn't announced or something.

I'll PM Llama and ask him to make me admin, so I can change hosting interval now and anything else that might come up. This will probably be too late for this turn though, since hosting is in 5 minutes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Amhazair]

Llama gave me the password, and I changed hosting to 48h (quickhost) Unfortunately it was a bit after the host, and Pythium and Pangaea staled. (maybe thinking the change was already made? )

[Amhazair]

I noticed Pythium was about to stale for the second time in a row, so I postponed hosting by six hours, to hopefully give him time to submit his turn.

Velusion, if you're having trouble of any sort, feel free to let me know and ask for extensions.

[Velusion]

Sorry about the stales guys. My life just got really busy over the last week or so and my game here suffered http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif. I'm having to limit myself to just focusing on one game so I'm going to have to leave Uakari.

If anyone else is reading this thread and wants to take over Pythium (which is doing pretty good) please message me ASAP.

[johnarryn]

I'm sorry to see you go, Velusion. Pythium has been doing very well indeed (your research graph makes me cringe) =)

Perhaps you can post on the MP Forum and ask for a replacement?

[Amhazair]

Fair enough Velusion. Good luck un-busying your life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I'll Post a thread seeing if we can find a sub, and put the game on hold for a little while. (48h for now) Have you passworded your pretender Velusion?

[Janlm]

Did you ever post a thread to look for a sub?

[Amhazair]

Yep.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=597409&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#Post597763

[Janlm]

ah there it is, cool, i just couldn't find it. It looks like we will probaly need a few days to find the sub, if its at a ll possible. However right now we are only waiting for Arga Dis?

[Amhazair]

Yes, that's correct. I have my turn ready, but I thought I'd wait with submitting it, to give any prospective sub the opportunity to play out the turn as they liked.

If people are getting anxious I suppose I can submit it anytime.

[Amhazair]

Zenphos will be subbing for Velusion. Unfortunately I can't edit the first post to reflect that information, so you'll all have to remember to look on page 7 if you want to find his name. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[zenphos]

I just submitted my first turn. Thanks for holding off and letting me resubmit.
I am reasonably new and have no experience in the later stages of the game, well no MP experience anyway.
Should be interesting to see what happens. Although I don't think I will be quite the opponent the Velusion was.

[Janlm]

welcome to the game zenphos

[Bananadine]

Hey here's a question. A while ago I sent my pretender with a group of mercenaries to attack a province. The mercenaries mostly died while my pretender was building up his magic. Then he started fighting and winning... but the mercenaries were hurt so badly that my whole side routed. My pretender kept fighting though, possibly because he was caught... but then after he'd become free, he kept running back and forth, chasing down enemies and killing them, even though his side had routed, until the enemies were all gone. After the battle he was alone in the newly captured province.

Is this normal? Why would my pretender keep fighting like that? He wasn't berserking or anything.

[johnarryn]

Immortal pretenders (not sure about immortal units) will never leave the field in their own dominion, so that was probably what happened.

[Bananadine]

Huh, cool. That's good to know.

[Bananadine]

Hmm, apparently the stun effect on Thunder Strike is... important.

[Amhazair]

Bananadine said:
Hmm, apparently the stun effect on Thunder Strike is... important.

Found that out the hard way, did you? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Bananadine]

No it wasn't hard at all you just have to stand there

[Amhazair]

AAARGH! How stupid can you be? I had my turn ready, and just forgot to send it. Or, more correctly, I was convinced I had sent it, but apparently not. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

I need a wall to smash my head against. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[AreaOfEffect]

WALL

[Amhazair]

Thank you.

[Amhazair]

Cool. Arch Devils can "loose their tail" in combat. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I love this game.

[Dedas]

Ask that devil the same... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

Oh, that's okey. He won't miss his tail anymore, since he got killed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Janlm]

'd like to trade for air gems, I can offer an abbuncance of water and death gems in return, and a smaller number of earth gems.

Let me know if you are interested in doing a trade."

[Amhazair]

Vanheim staled twice in a row now, and I can imagine the postion isn't really very intresting to play anymore. I've sent real friend a PM asking wether he intends to continue playing. If he doesn't reply and stales again I'll see about getting him switched to AI.

[Amhazair]

Arga Dis has large quantities of surplus water gems (or items forged with water gems) available for trade. I'm willing to trade them for any other kind of gem at a 1:1 ratio. Better rates might be available for specific kinds of gems I am in need of. Contact me for details, I'm sure we can work something out.

[Amhazair]

Amhazair said:
Oh, that's okey. He won't miss his tail anymore, since he got killed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

He's back, and with his tail attached again! All praise the powers of hell! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

Vanheim stalled again, so I will see about getting him put on AI. Let the land-grab begin. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif

[Amhazair]

Man, we really are churning out the turns like madmen aren't we? The game has been running just over 60 days, and we're currently playing turn 58, even with the delay we made to find a replacement for Velusion. And most players have already submitted again.

My turn is ready too, but I will wait with submitting it till tomorrow evening, as I have a couple of busy days comming up. Saves me the need of having to fiddle with the timer.

[johnarryn]

Yes, everyone has been quite good with the speed.

[Amhazair]

Edit: nevermind, I found a workaround. (Forgot the map though. Off I go to get that one too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )



Anyone here is any good with computers?

I got myself a new one yesterday, so I've been busy installing all kind of stuff. In the context of this game I re-downloaded the 3 mod nations, and extracted them without problems using whatever tool windows comes with already. (this is windows vista, which I'm not familiar with by the way) But then I downloaded the worthy heroes mod, and windows did not give me the option to extract it. So I downloaded winRar, which I used on my last computer, to unpack it. Unfortunately, when I try to use winRar to extract the files into the mod folders I get a series of error messages telling me 'can not find destination path' and 'access denied' (And when I use winrar to try and extract the mod nations that worked fine with Windows, I get the same messages btw)

Anyone of you has any idea of 1) what I can do to make winRar work for me, or 2) what other unpacking program I might be able to use to unpack the worthy heroes mod?

If anyone has an idea that would be great, since obviously I can't play my turn without having the correct mods installed.

[Amhazair]

Blimey, that's one scary defence you've got ready at the Karene fort. Not sure I can crack that one with the forces I currently have in the area, never mind about trying to minimize losses. Some thinking needs to be done.

[zenphos]

Well considering it is my last province it should be scarey. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.
I mean it is my pretender and all my high level research mages.
Still I figure the PoD 3 devils 2 arch devils and who knows how many other devils you have floating around shouldn't have too much trouble taking it out.
Or I guess you could always wait for the diseases to kick in and finish me off the slow way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Amhazair]

Foodstamp, I see you aren't having any luck finding a replacement for you, and you staled the last two turns, so I suppose real life is being a real ***** and you can't keep R'lyeh afloat till you find a replacemnt.

I don't really have a good view of your situation from my position. Do you think switching R'lyeh to AI now would be premature? Obviously finding a sub would be preferable, but if your position isn't really attractive for a sub and you can't keep playing, switching it to AI is preferable to letting it stale.

Let me know what you think, and if a sub doesn't turn up in the next few days, could you switch yourself to AI? Or if you think it would really be a shame to go AI already I'll see if I can pull some strings and find a sub anyway.


I hope your RL circumstances aren't too painful, and wish you all the best.

[johnarryn]

For some reason I haven't received my new turn, and the "turn resend" option isn't working on the llamaserver. Never had this problem before, and i've PM'd llamabeast, but please delay a bit if it looks like I might stale.

[Amhazair]

I tried to resend your turn to you too, just in case it works. I've had a similar problem myself once before, and got around it by having my turn sent to another e-mail adress. If you have an alternative adress turns can be sent to, let me know, and I can change it.

I'll be keeping an eye on the status so you don't stale.

[Foodstamp]

I will give Xanatos a chance to respond to the thread, then I will move R'lyeh to AI.

[Amhazair]

I've postponed hosting by 24h to give Xanatos the chance to look at his turn if he decides to take over.

I'm happy to see we found a solution for you, Johnarryn.

[Amhazair]

Xanatos will be joining us, and take over R'lyeh from Foodstamp.

Thanks for helping us out Xanatos, and welcome. I postponed hosting so you have time to familiarize yourself with your situation. The turn is now scheduled to host friday 14.55h GMT. If you need a bit more time for some reason, feel free to ask.

[Xanatos]

ok so im looking things over on his turn now, wow! lots to do...where to begin:( any thoughts or suggestions?

[AreaOfEffect]

1) Use your remaining assassin's (if you have any) conservatively. You've recently lost 7 in 2 recent consecutive turns do to preparation on my side.

2) You should probably do something about Thetis' Blessing, or not.

3) You have lot's of castles. If you also have a lot of laboratories then I would suggest putting up some protective domes, or else I'm going to keep pounding you with death spells.

4) Your pretender design is simple, a Kraken with very little magic power to lose. Place cheap but effective items on him and send him to battle. Use your other mages to boost his combat effectiveness. If he dies, use all those starspawns to bring him back quickly.

5) Your troops are positioned to jump my army in the place I'll most likely descend, The Sea Untamed (33). Unfortunately for you I already know this, so act accordingly.

6) You prophet is the Queen of the Lake (50 water gems well spent) with 100% regeneration that I haven't fought against yet, I've acted accordingly.

7) I have a triple bless (fire, water, and astral). This is something you would already know.

8) Diplomacy?

[Amhazair]

AreaOfEffect said:
2) You should probably do something about Thetis' Blessing, or not.

Very risky spell this is. I assume it was cast with quite some gems, but if you manage to dispell it while Mictlan has hundreds of guys swimming around in the sea... sounds like fun to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Otherwise I have very little idea of what's going on in the far east, but in general your big strength should be commuions/astral magic. If you can arrange for master enslave you're golden. The dreams of R'lyeh assessination spell is really good (since Mictlan is likely to have enough astral to stop mind-hunts)

If you need some more general advice, Evilhomer wrote an excellent guide about R'lyeh ( http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=525893 ) and Baalz one about how to use communions ( http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=577320 )
Both are excellent guides, well worth the read. (If you haven't already of course)

[Xanatos]

i suppose this is a bad time to mention i've never actually used a communion before?

oh..this is one heck of a position to get thrown into:P but ok, that information was helpful, thanks!

[Amhazair]

Eh, well... sometime has to be your first time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Experiment, have fun, curse a lot when you manage to fatigue all your communion slaves to death, and in the end blame Foodstamp for your inability to win the game.

[zenphos]

Thanks for the game guys. Learnt a lot about how to play on the defensive. Hopefully I caused a little bit more pain than the AI would have.

[Amhazair]

You definitely did. I've seen you win at least 2 rather big battles, and loose one more while inflicting serious casualties. No way the AI would have come anywhere near that.

[Xanatos]

i can still do quite a bit of damage before im taken out - it will make it alot easier for someone else to kill my slayer:P

[AreaOfEffect]

Maybe, but I'm clearly not the big fish people are concerned with in my opinion. The territory I eat is near to useless to me once gotten.

My general feeling is that people will let this play out as I'm sure nobody else wants to be the one to take out a water nation. Its much more costly then a land war.

[zenphos]

By the way, sorry for the hold up. I didn't realise I had to send in another turn after I got killed. First time knocked out of a game, but am sure it won't be my last. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Janlm]

i'm going away for a few days tomorrow morning, i'll be back again sometimes monday next week. I have been trying to find a sub, but I haven't been successfull. Can i ask to have the game paused for a few days? If not, then you will just have to live with a couple of stalls from me.

[Amhazair]

I noticed that thread of yours asking for subs, but with all that talk about the team game in the first few replies it didn't register that it had anything to do with this game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I for one see little problem with granting you a few days extension, and would rather not see someone stale through no fault of their own. Anyone else has monumental objections to a delay of a few days?

[johnarryn]

A delay sounds fine.

[Janlm]

cool thanks, i'm heading off today, and i managed to do the current turn and send it in already. So it shouldn't be so bad http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

You certainly picked an intresting time for your trip though. Things are just getting really intresting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[anticipatient]

I'd like to join playing Eriu, please. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

Eerm... Have you read this thread? (or did you reply to the wrong one?) The game has been underway for quite some time, and we're currently deep into endgame.

I think it's a bit late to join. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[anticipatient]

Haha, yeah I noticed. sorry http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I got sort of excited and jumped on it. Heh heh. I'll lurk and wait for next game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Or maybe start a thread of my own. Ooh!

[Amhazair]

No problem. There's worse things to get excited about than dominions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Of course, my imaginary girlfriend tells me there's better things to get excited about too. But then, if she starts nagging me too much I just un-imagine her, so she knows not too push too hard. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Amhazair]

Janlm got in one more turn than I thought. (or I postponed a turn too soon, depending on your point of view. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) In either case, his turn is in, so we're now only waiting for Ermor's turn. Not that there's any particular rush or anything. If you're using the delay to catch a much needed breather, be my guest. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[johnarryn]

I am indeed. After a rather nasty demonstration of the late-game power of blood magic, the delay is quite good for me to think about what I want to do.

[Amhazair]

Demonstration? What demonstration? *whistles innocently* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

I was afraid of the late-game power of astral magic (communions, master enslave) myself, so I decided the best way to deal with you was to avoid large army vs army battles, except those on my terms. Massive raiding of your territory seemed to be a good way to accomplish this. Your PD raising campaign from the last few turns required me to use more resources/province than I hoped to have to use, but on the other hand it obviously did cost you a lot of gold, so I'm not sure if it was in your advantage or not. I have to say I'm curious to see what your responce will be.

Not that providing my enemy an insight into my strategic thinking necessarily is the smartest thing to do or anything... but making a bit of conversation spices up the thread, right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[johnarryn]

Heh, my "response" is fairly lukewarm. Although i've managed to get good enough at Dom3 that I generally can survive to the late game, I find that i'm not terribly great at this aspect of the game... Tarts are all well and good, but there's only so much one can do with them. And i do not have the meticulous preparation that you do (how many MR 29 demons can one person have????).

I would also say that Arga Dis is a bit gross - although you have also played them very well. Earth and blood is a nasty combo - blood stones, easy hammers, the late power of blood... and you seem to have found a loremaster site, which I imagine is rather helpful. Im rather amused by the fact that you can spam ghost riders more than I can.

Anyhow, my hat goes off to you... I shall continue to fight, but it looks rather bad for me.

Could we move to 72 hours, by any chance? Im in several games, and it takes me a bit on my turns in Uakari. Dying gracefully is difficult =)

[Amhazair]

Aye, I did have some time to prepare, and I tried to make most of it. I started building high-MR SC's from the moment I witnessed Pythium master enslaving Van's army early in the game. At that point I knew putting conventional armies in the field was most likely to just gift my opponent with free troops. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Of course, after the defeat of Pythium you were strongest nation left, with quite a bit of astral magic of your own, so I just continued down the same road.

I agree that Arga Dis is a strong nation, for the reasons you mentioned and a few others (if we're talking in the context of late game they also have the ability to develop a really good magical diversity from their national mages and summons, without pretender help for example) Do you have the impression that they are too strong, as a nation? I myself don't, they have a number of weaknesses to balance their strengths, but I'm happy to hear other opinions. I'm sure Sombre would also like any feedback you might have on the nation. (though to quote from the guide I wrote on the Arga Dis nation: "In my game I managed to recruit about 40 mages without getting a single 2E one, meaning no site searching, and, maybe worse, no earth boots -> dwarven hammers. I ended up having to empower one mage to 2E. " so getting to hammers wasn't exactly easy for me this time around. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

I have to say I also have had outrageous luck with my magic sites. Loremasters help, but to be honest they're the least of it. I won't give away everything while we're still playing, (I can tell you the specifics when we're done) but let's just say (the) god(s) is/are entitled to at least a votive candle or two.

Oh, and I love ghost raiders. Must be my favorite spell in the game. I got reamed by Calmon using them in my first ever MP game, and never forgot. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I've set the timer to 72h. I just started working again today after being in-between jobs for the last couple of weeks, so I'm not entirely opposed to the idea myself either. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Janlm]

i'm back, thanks for delaying the turn. I should be able to get my turn in, in a few hours.

[johnarryn]

I'll certainly try to give some commentary on Arga Dis when I can do so from a more objective viewpoint - i.e., when i'm not getting stomped by them.

[Amhazair]

Johnarryn requested a short delay due to general being business. Sorry to disapoint those who were anxiously awaiting the new turn to see if their plans of achieving world domination were close to comming to fruitition.

Oh, wait... that was me.

[AreaOfEffect]

Two hours until the next turn and I'm concerned that johnarryn might stale. If there is time, can the turn be extended a few hours. I wouldn't want Ermor to be denied any opportunities at this delicate moment.

[Amhazair]

I just got home and found a PM from him. Hosting is delayed by 12 hours. (He requested ~6, but no need to be skimpy, right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

[johnarryn]

Many thanks to you both. I have found everyone in this game to both exceptionally talented and exceptionally courteous, and I look forward to playing another game with you folks.

[Amhazair]

I postponed hosting 24h, because I'm lazy and don't have character, and apparently took Johnarryn's request to delay hosting on the turn after the current one as an excuse to laze about and not play my turn.

Oh, and also because I have power and thus feel the urge to misuse it.

[Amhazair]

It seems that Sombre has released an updated version of the Arga Dis mod. Since we're so close to the end of the game though, I think it's not really worth the trouble to have you all patch up to it?

Edit: Come to think of it, it's probably the host computer that matters, so if Llamabeast were to update his own Arga Dis mod to check out the changes for himself, all of us would have to follow suit anyway. Or am I wrong about the technicalities? I'll check with Llama.

[Amhazair]

Llama got back to me, and it's basically up to us:
It's actually completely up to you. The computer I play on isn't the same one as hosts the LlamaServer games you see (that one is a box in my cupboard), so I won't upgrade automatically. But it's only a two-minute job for me to do it, and I will have to do it sooner or later, for any future games with Arga Dis. So really it is completely up to you whether you would like to have the new version now, or it would be easier not to bother for this game.

Cheers,

llama

So anyone who has an opinion either way feel free to say so.

[Amhazair]

Grrmbl. A couple of miscalculations cost me two nice tartarians this turn. I could have won both battles had I judged some appropiate measures necessary. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

On the bright side: teleporting a pretender on top of a big high-MR army of mine with the intention of master enslaving them turned out to be quite risky. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

How come your army graph didn't show a steep downward turn with your water breathing global gone, AoE? (That abreviation does look really silly when applying to a person, btw. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)

[AreaOfEffect]

First, my defeat had more to do with a lone air elemental then it did with your MR. My penetration bonus was +6. I didn't plan on it being risky as my pretender was scripted to cast returning... when he recovered from fatigue that is. I on;y wonder why the AI didn't choose to use just one more gem in the initial casting.

As for my armies in the sea, I didn't lose many (some, but not many) because I fortified the armies with water breathing items. I'm a big believer in back-up plans.

[Amhazair]

I postponed hosting by a couple of hours (again) since I just managed to play most of my turn, only to then 'quit without saving' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

I will have to redo it tomorrow after work.

[Amhazair]

By the way, is everyone still having fun? I'm more than happy to play on as long as you guys like, but I think we all know how it's going to end.

[johnarryn]

If you mean that we all know Ermor will rise from the ashes to dominate the land, then yes, we know how it's going to end

In all seriousness, I don't mind playing as long as everyone else does. But given Amhazair's meticulous end-game, unless AoE has some nasty tricks up his sleave it's probably over.

[AreaOfEffect]

I have nasty tricks.

[Amhazair]

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

[AreaOfEffect]

Here's the deal. I'll concede the game the instant you manage to take my capitol from me.

[Amhazair]

With my current strategy, I'm more likely to take every one of your provinces except your capitol than the other way around. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

No worries though. I'm not bored or anything. As long as you have fun I'm happy to play on.

[Janlm]

well i'm defeated.. thanks for a good game everyone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Amhazair]

You too Janlm. That thunderstrike spammage of yours was looking very impressive in midgame. (when luckily I wasn't your enemy yet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ) It was good having you around.

[johnarryn]

Ok Amhazair. I've been impressed by your attacks. What do you say we call it a draw?

=)

[Amhazair]

Nice try. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Amhazair]

I've been quite busy these last few days, and didn't quite have the energy left to sit down and play my turn. (For those that hadn't noticed yet, I have a rather large sized ampire to run. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Playing a turn takes quite a bit of time and concentration, even if I'm in a position that forgives a couple of mistakes. )

All of that to say I extended the turn timer. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I liberally granted myself 48h, though I hope to submit the turn tomorrow.


P.S. I also postponed hosting by 12h on the previous turn, when Mictlan hadn't submited his turn yet 5 mins before time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I couldn't post here at the time since it was when the forum was down, but I guess you all noticed, and survived even without me posting about it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[AreaOfEffect]

I thank you much for the considerations and extent ions you have provided. Though I have to admit that you have the upper hand and projections say you will still win, I hold out hope still.

This next turn will decide if we continue or not. Currently I've managed to stagnate your troop growth for a turn while raising mine. I've also eliminated a few of your super combatants, though surely their are plenty left to go around. If this trend does not continue, then I will concede.

As for land, I've made that as unimportant as possible for me and do not measure my victory or failure by such things.

Thank you for allowing me this valuable end game experience. It is indeed rare that someone gets to learn from this position.

[AreaOfEffect]

I would also like to thank johnarryn for his contribution to the Mictlan effort and JanIm for the infinitely useful air booster he forged for me so very long ago.

As this is my first multi-player game through the interweb, I thank everyone who has played in this game for the experience. (Though I'm sure most of them now ignore this thread.)

[Amhazair]

I hate to disappoint you, but the increase in army graph strength from the moment I went to war with Ermor until now is almost entirely due to remote summoned imps. Last turn I simply had enough imps on the map within range of all provinces I wanted to attack not to have to summon too many new ones. It is true I also lost a fair number of imp to heavy PD and your global, but it's just imps. They're meant to die. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Loosing the SC's is worse of course. When I first saw that battle where my tartarian was soundly trounced by eagle warriors I just didn't get what was different. In previous teleporting attacks my tarts remained at max hp's throughout the fight, and now this time you managed to kill him in just a couple of turns. The mind boggled... until I realised that the previous tartarians came from deep inside my own dominion, and thus had twice the hp's as the one that died, and that they did actually loose quite a lot of hitpoints, but that it didn't show because they remained (just) above their normal maximum. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Talk about Doh!

As I said before, I'm happy to play on as long as you want. I know I've allways had great fun when trying to use all the resources at my disposal in an attempt to harm a superior foe as much as possible, and as you say, end game experience will help you a lot in future games. I've also started some experimenting of my own. I just wished up my first ever Mandaha. And of course forgot to have a nature mage present for the gift of reason, so it's now just sitting prettily in my garrison... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[AreaOfEffect]

Man, I came to congratulate you on the win and now I'm tempted to keep the game going. We could play on or you and I can call it and duke it out again in a fresh game.

Your choice. I'm not out of ideas if you aren't.

[Amhazair]

Well, let's put it this way: I don't mind playing on. I can test out some things of my own, discover some new ways to abuse the power of blood (the storming of Ermor castle was quite nasty, even if I say so myself), think of optimal ways to counter your annoying moves, and generally still have some fun.

On the other hand, it takes quite a bit of time now to play my turns. I'm sitting on several k gold bacause I can't be arsed to find ways to spend it, I really should crank out a few dozen more blood hunters to improve the blood flow (even more) but don't because of the MM nightmare that would be (hmm, actually... I could build labs in my hunting provinces, that would solve both problems at once. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif), I have a few dozen commanders stuffed with equipment because I need to clean out my lab every turn to make room for the new forgings, so in the end when I'm equipping a new SC there's allways some item that I know I have lying around somewhere, but takes me quite a while to find,...

So, bottom line: I know you said it was up to me, but I'll return the favor. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I don't especially want to play on, but I definitely don't mind playing on either if you'd like me to. It won't feel like you're forcing me or anything. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Up to you.

As we're talking anyway, I'd also like to commend Johnarryn, for holding out to litteralilly the last man standing. (I do believe your last castle is empty, right?)

[Amhazair]

Amhazair said:I have to say I also have had outrageous luck with my magic sites. Loremasters help, but to be honest they're the least of it. I won't give away everything while we're still playing, (I can tell you the specifics when we're done) but let's just say (the) god(s) is/are entitled to at least a votive candle or two.

Right, I suppose it won't hurt anymore to reveal the big secret.

My outrageous luck with sites:

* I found loremasters and enchantresses quite early on. A W/B loremaster gave me the ability to summon the Ice devils without having to empower for it. (which I probably wouldn't haven't bothered to do)

* I found a 20% enchantment site. Not that impressive - a simple 2-gem site would probably have given me more gems over the course of the game (except that this site also gave me 3 gems of his own, so it was still quite nice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ) but it still saved me a couple of gems for summonning my liches (that I needed to spam ghostriders and tartarians) and my casting of earth blood deep well.

* The ultimate gateway (50%! off conjuration spells. Massive, massive site. Second time I find it, and it's absolutely ridiculous. Not quite so good early on since I went for blood first, but from mid game on... Troll king court for 28 gems, fearie court for 20. I had massively more W gems than I could use, so I started to spam Streams from Hades, giving me 3D/3W mages for a measely 20 gems... Earth attacks were cheaper too. And then of course the clinchers. Tartarians for 5 gems, and ghost riders for 3. Johnarryn was impressed by my ghost rider spam ability: this explains one half of it.

Around the same time I found the ultimate gateway I also found a 40% blood site. Cheap, cheap augurs for my magical diversity, all those greater devils were a big chunk cheaper, and the little demons were dirt cheap. (One casting of infernal forces gave me 7 devils and 20 imps for 30 slaves. Infernal crusade with boosters was 13 demon knights for 30. ) And finally the remote summoned imps only costed me 27 slaves for 25 imps + the commander devil. Without this site my ability to spam this spell would have been halved. To sweeten things up even more it was adjacent to the gateway, and both were within 2 provinces of my capital, and within 2 provinces of my enchantress site, so I had no trouble moving my mages around.

And then finally, I conquered a 20% construction site from Pythium, shaving quite a bit off my forging costs. Additionally I managed to grab the hammer of the forge lord, which gives a 50% reduction. Together that made for one ridiculously cheap item/turn, like rings of sorcery for 14 pearls. The cheap rings is the second half of why I could spam ghost riders so easily (I didn't even need 4D liches for it, my Kokyathids could get in on the business too. ) Then towards the end when I got the forge up...

All of that together...

I think I'll go luck scales again in my next game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[johnarryn]

Good lord that's a great haul of sites. Granted, you have plenty of territory, but nevertheless some nice luck there. I wondered how you could possibly spam ghost riders three times a turn!

This game was extremely enjoyable, though I got a bit slaughtered at the end due to Amhazair's good planning and some mistakes of my own. Very good job on your part, Amhazair. You certainly used the late-game power of Blood to your advantage. I expected imp-spam, but not to the extent that you were able to employ it - that really was hard to fight against. Plus the MR 29 guys you had were well-prepared to fight against me - hard to spam disintegrate or soul slay with that, I didn't even bother.

I also have quite a bit to learn about SC's... when I hit Construction 8 early on, I thought I was sitting pretty, but even having access to many of the artifacts didn't help much. Ah well.

I would love to start a game with you guys again sometime, although i'll be traveling for about 2 weeks starting August 7th, so won't be able to participate if a new game starts before I get back.

[Amhazair]

AreaOfEffect, since I gave you the choise on whether to continue for a couple of extra turns, but you didn't reply, and didn't submit a new turn either, I'm guessing you're ready to call it a day?

Johnarryn, I'd certainly be happy to play a new game with you guys, but it probably won't be very soon. I'm currently in two new games at around turn 20-25 (one of them being the megagame), so while they don't take that much time yet, if I do well in both things might start to become very busy soon. I probably won't start a new game unless it's clear I'm fast heading for the exit in one of the others.

[AreaOfEffect]

I've been busy this week. Sorry, but a couple of friends of mine got married and I forgot to say something about it. Personally, I say we call the game and move on to new maps to conquer.

It has of course been a ball.

[Amhazair]

All righty, I'll declare the game finished on Llamaserver then.

Weddings are fun, I've apparently also reached the correct age to be invited to loads of 'em.these past 2-3 years.

Unfortunately there's not many friends left unmarried now, so I suppose it'll soon be time to start to feel old. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif