Aquarium - Started - FIGHT!

[JimMorrison]

Considering that these provinces R'lyeh has annexed have thus far been coastal - the point does seem to escape us.

If you do insist on attacking that province, please bring some magic items for our mages to pick up - preferably something with low Encumbrance. <3

[sum1lost]

I'm going to need to request extra time for the next few turns. I'm simply exhausted.

[meister_miagi]

We would like to publicly thank the great nation of Eriu for their generosity in supplying the warriors of Ulm with magical armaments.
You have paved the way for peace if you wish to negotiate.

[Bananadine]

Yes, that Armor of Virtue was a great help in Ulm's important delivery of Barrier to Shinuyama. Without it, Joe Shambles might never have had the confidence to make the trip. Thank you, Eriu!

[meister_miagi]

I don't understand how Armor of Virtue works, the description says the wearer returns to home province if wounded. Joe Shambles got wounded multple time and died in the end. Am I missing something or is this a bug?
I have included a picture of Joe fighting last battle http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
http://www.pic-upload.de/28.07.08/4kxkqk.JPG

[jimkehn]

Usually returning to home province works only in friendly dominion. Was he in enemy dominion?? Not sure about AoV, though.

[Bananadine]

Huh, I was thinking it was that he was underwater... the dominion argument sounds better though. The plan was actually just to hurt him once and send him away, not to kill him. But killing him worked out fine.

[Aezeal]

Well Rhylly decided to move all more troops to where I needed to pass.. needless to say my army and pretender are gone.

Ulm on the other hand send me 100 gc (yay) and offered a NAP if I didn't attack tienchi anymore. While this is a bit weird (I offered the pink bastards a NAP not 2-3 turns ago and they attacked me, forcing me to destroy an army of theirs.

ANYWAY, I see rhyleh as on the same side as the ugly troll pplz.. so rhylleh sort of refused to help me and the troll where already invading my lands

a lot of talk, and most parties PROBABLY don't care and or disagree with my view on things.. BUT the relevant bit of it is this: I'm dead (since I came back 10 turns ago I've had 100 + unrest so not been able to build in capitol and loosing cash each turn, pretender dead and only 3 commanders left) and I have decided I like Ulm best

donation to ULM: 518 gc, 200 + pearls and about 100-150 ish gems, some magic items, among those: hammer of the cyclops (50% forge bonus)

I hope Ulm has some high skills in construction so they can use it wisely.

I'll go AI after this turn (need to be sure these messages get throough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

[sum1lost]

Aezeal, may I request that you do not make that kind of donation? That many gems is game breaking at this point in the game. You may send it if you want, but 300 gems, half of them pearls, destroys the game balance.

[Bananadine]

It would, on the other hand, be downright game-healing to give those gems to Shinuyama, which would pledge in that case to use no less than seventy of them to build some kind of giant snake shrine or whatever it is you people put in your temples (we'll find out soon, and make many fine etchings before the razing begins).

[sum1lost]

Bananadine said:
It would, on the other hand, be downright game-healing to give those gems to Shinuyama, which would pledge in that case to use no less than seventy of them to build some kind of giant snake shrine or whatever it is you people put in your temples (we'll find out soon, and make many fine etchings before the razing begins).


I was actually suggesting that simply reduce the size of the bequest. 30 gems makes sense. 200+ is worth a couple of powerful globals or a wish, at least.

[Bananadine]

Well, it would be just as good to reduce the size of the nation receiving the bequest! In Shinuyama's case, Ulm has already done that. It would be the fitting culmination of what Ulm has been working for, and thus this gift would satisfy everybody involved!

[Aezeal]

you all had your chance to get on my nice side, I even announced the hammer before.. it's no more than usual to give your ally stuff if you go out. I just gave what I had to give to my faithfull ally Ulm.

Ulm is about the only nation that was nice to me the last couple of turns.. he gave me cash without even knowing I had this kind of amount of gems around (hell I didn't even know I just couldn't really do much with them)

Not to mention some of my neighbours had already taken advantage of the turns I was away and Ulm wasn't among those.

If you all want to turn on Ulm now I'm not stopping you though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[jimkehn]

Alms for the poor.....Alms for the poor?

Azael....since coming into this game late as a sub as C'tis, a little parting gift to someone who has had nothing but worship and adoration for the masters of Astral knowledge would be most welcome!!!!

8^)

[JimMorrison]

Aezeal, you are rapidly becoming one of my least favorite people to play with. Your utter lack of empathy for the rest of the people here kind of disgusts me.

You didn't even ask for that province back, you demanded it, and I continued to do what I had been planning to do all along.

Now you say you're not done helping Ulm win, you're going to give him 300 gems and one of the most useful artifacts in the game.

All you have done since you got back is derive your joy from upsetting others. It's ridiculous. Go then, and send all your crap to Ulm - but do not ever ask me for a NAP, or gem/item trade in another game. I should have just annexed Pythium the day that you left, would have saved a lot of grief.

And just to set the record straight, I am not mad you're not sending your crap to me - I don't think it should go to ANYONE - and your reasoning for sending to Ulm is less than thin, it is blatantly disrespectful and insulting to everyone else BUT Ulm.

[Bananadine]

It is a learning experience: If you are going to attack someone while he is in Mexico, then KILL HIM. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Anyway what of Ermor in all this? They are relatives! Have you no care for your relatives?

Be careful jimkehn as you ask for alms--you might get Ulms instead! (this pun is worth 50 gems)

[jimkehn]

HAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!!

That was good and if I had 50 spare gems I would send them!!!

Wish I'da thought of that!!

[JimMorrison]

Bananadine said:
It is a learning experience: If you are going to attack someone while he is in Mexico, then KILL HIM. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Also, if your "ally" leaves for some huge amount of time without going AI or finding a sub, kill him as well. It's the neighborly thing to do, and if you don't, it'll come back to haunt you.

[Bananadine]

It's weird that nobody ever volunteered to play for him, given all these people we have wanting to play turns more frequently. But maybe all those people were already in Aquarium at the time.

[sum1lost]

JimMorrison said:
Aezeal, you are rapidly becoming one of my least favorite people to play with. Your utter lack of empathy for the rest of the people here kind of disgusts me.

You didn't even ask for that province back, you demanded it, and I continued to do what I had been planning to do all along.

Now you say you're not done helping Ulm win, you're going to give him 300 gems and one of the most useful artifacts in the game.

All you have done since you got back is derive your joy from upsetting others. It's ridiculous. Go then, and send all your crap to Ulm - but do not ever ask me for a NAP, or gem/item trade in another game. I should have just annexed Pythium the day that you left, would have saved a lot of grief.

And just to set the record straight, I am not mad you're not sending your crap to me - I don't think it should go to ANYONE - and your reasoning for sending to Ulm is less than thin, it is blatantly disrespectful and insulting to everyone else BUT Ulm.



Seconded. Not only was this not the only incident in this game alone, but the behavior has been consistent through most of the games I have been in with him.

[Bananadine]

Hm, well, the hall of fame has changed a bit.

[Aezeal]

Ulm you got it all?

[Bananadine]

You went through with it huh? Any giant snake shrines will have to be built from broken, rusted pieces of blacksteel armor, then. Plenty are available!

[sum1lost]

BTW, Zenphos will be subbing for me in this game as I attempt to keep a game he is in from crashing, since the guy subbing for me- John arryn- had to leave abruptly.

[sum1lost]

The Congregation of Mictlan would like to present their condolonces to the individuals who engineered Thomm and Riego the golems. Their large, clay forms will be missed. As will the hundreds of lives already lost in this foolish war. And the hundreds upon hundreds that will no doubt continue to be lost if this war continues.

In other news: Mictlan has seized two artifacts (Dimensional rod and Asterik's Armor) from one of Ulm's golems, as well as a few lesser items. We have also slain over a hundred ulmish troops, though we lost a significant number of sacred warriors in doing so, including most of the the 2nd Jade Cavalry, and several greener armies.

There are, however, an overwhelming number of spies in our lands, far more than our Coatl's can deal with and the next goal of our men is to root out those spies, which is indeed a daunting task.

[JimMorrison]

I have noticed that Ulm is quite fond of their spies. Unwittingly, the obviousness of their operatives spreading hate-filled propaganda among the land-dwelling citizens of R'lyeh, led us to begin our campaign in earnest.

Although it bears stating - as large of a threat as Ulm already was, I can only assume that they find themselves beset on all sides by outraged neighbors who would prefer that their unwarranted gem boon does not buy them victory.

I just wonder what justification will be made for the dismantling of Mictlan, after Ulm is liquidated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Bananadine]

That golem sure did get around. Aseftik's Armor and that fearful rod almost came into the possession of Shinuyama, not too long ago... but then the golem apparently built a lab just to give itself an escape route (apparently so that it could deliver the items to Mictlan instead). You can do such things when you're making 10,000 gold per month!

[JimMorrison]

Damn! And I was going to destabilize that Golem with an EMP and then reprogram it and send it back against its former masters.

[Executor]

Why didn't the Golem just cast returning then, it's only 2 astral gems?

[sum1lost]

Executor said:
Why didn't the Golem just cast returning then, it's only 2 astral gems?



I don't think he was expecting to get swarmed by mind dueling turkeys, is why.

[Bananadine]

Hm, well, a certain addled scout has won himself a province, shortly before dying of disease. Has not the world learned from the example of Pythium!

Shinuyama has no interest in such foul marshes, and will be glad to see the lizardmen take this one back. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[jimkehn]

I would like to welcome ALL humanoids of Shinuyama to the land of C'tis!!!!!

However, Demons and undead neeed not apply!!

[Bananadine]

What about demon-like undead?

Bet you don't see these (the attached) very often.

[jimkehn]

Not in C'tis. We banished them. They were causing too many nightmares for the children.

[jimkehn]

My apologies to most noble Mictlan. My touchpad on my laptop is too sensitive, and I must have tapped it, unknowingly ordering a priest into your lands. C'tis will leave immediately and send you 25 gold to replace your PD. Think about it. I had over 200 troops adjacent to you. If I wanted to attack you, would I send one lousey priest to attack the PD in front of the castle????? It was an honest but clumsy mistake, and I hope you will accept my apology.

[Executor]

Been fun playing with you people.
Well not really, I started in the WORST possible place on the map, if I hadn't things would have been much different. The only bright side was killing Jotunheim.
I have one question, if I play my turn and set to AI in the same, do my orders for the last turn stand and then set to AL or not cause I sent gold, gems, itmes, and pretty much put the Empire to self-destruct

[Bananadine]

Is anybody going to help out Mictlan?

[jimkehn]

I apologize that I staled. I thought I sent the thing in.

[jimkehn]

Nice work, Eriu!!! 6 Tuathas holding off a whole army of lizards. Good work!!

[JimMorrison]

New turn file: Aquarium, R'lyeh turn 66‏
From: turns@llamaserver.net (turns@llamaserver.net)
Sent: Sat 8/30/08 6:28 PM

Reminder: Aquarium hosting in 6 hours‏
From: turns@llamaserver.net (turns@llamaserver.net)
Sent: Mon 9/01/08 12:29 PM


Errr, I'm on my way to bed, wayyyyy later than I should be - but we're going to need a rollback if that turn hosts. Not sure how it got set to a 12 hour turn.

[jimkehn]

My sincere apologies to Mictlan and R'lyeh for the Lord of the Hunt's behavior. Unfortunately, I am not sure why he insists on attacking my friend, and not my enemies. I thought he would attack priests of the nations I am at war with. Evidently not.

[JimMorrison]

So Aquarium hosted - I haven't even opened the turn, as I am still anticipating a rollback.

The current turn is set at a 24h interval. I can foresee multiple stales. We need to fix this.

I won't be submitting a turn until the situation is under control.

[llamabeast]

New turn file: Aquarium, R'lyeh turn 66‏
From: turns@llamaserver.net (turns@llamaserver.net)
Sent: Sat 8/30/08 6:28 PM

Reminder: Aquarium hosting in 6 hours‏
From: turns@llamaserver.net (turns@llamaserver.net)
Sent: Mon 9/01/08 12:29 PM

These two turns are 48 hours apart, not 12. What do you mean?

Also it's set at a 48 hour interval, not 24 hours.

[JimMorrison]

Dear lord. This one is even worse than the Stasis problem..... All I can say is, I've been really ill the last few days, and not entirely myself. Blah.

:doh::doh::doh:

<3

[llamabeast]

:) Not a problem. I hope you're feeling better.

[sum1lost]

I would like to rollback, please. Eriu has gone AI and was able to jump a turn in a fashion that was highly unexpected.

[JimMorrison]

I'm having a hard time seeing where Eriu actually was capable of doing anything dastardly enough to warrant a rollback more than any of the mundane difficulties caused by the stale. Yes, they took a VP from you. I'm pretty sure it should be easy enough to recapture. Seems like someone asking for the rollback because they had barbarians or troglodytes spawn somewhere inconvenient.

Granted, I am sure you want to sew this game up ASAP - it does look like we'll be unable to stop you. But rolling back to avert the loss of that VP will actually only make things take longer, than moving ahead from where we are now.

[sum1lost]

I'm having a hard time seeing where Eriu actually was capable of doing anything dastardly enough to warrant a rollback more than any of the mundane difficulties caused by the stale. Yes, they took a VP from you. I'm pretty sure it should be easy enough to recapture. Seems like someone asking for the rollback because they had barbarians or troglodytes spawn somewhere inconvenient.

Granted, I am sure you want to sew this game up ASAP - it does look like we'll be unable to stop you. But rolling back to avert the loss of that VP will actually only make things take longer, than moving ahead from where we are now.

There are some other things that did not work like they were meant to because of that, but I'd rather not share them. A rollback would actually save time, because this turn is identical to the last one- we have to redo all of the orders.

[JimMorrison]

Right, and if you read the Llamaserver email, you can't just upload the old one. You have to redo the moves either way. So it takes extra time, because we have to get the old turn back.

I had an army sit in a swamp and get riddled with disease, and I'm still against a rollback.

[sum1lost]

Ah. I did not know it couldn't simply be rehosted. Thank you for clarifying.

[JimMorrison]

Anytime. Sorry if I sounded snippy. :o

[jimkehn]

Anyone else playing this besides C'tis and Mictlan?? I am about ready to declare Mictlan the winner. He has done a very good job of both expansion and research. If everyone else wants to continue for awhile and see if we can combine to take Mictlan down, then I am game for that, also.

[JimMorrison]

C'tis just violated their NAP and attacked R'lyeh.

I think it's too late for unification though, Mictlan only needs 2 more VPs to win, and he has an immense war machine.

Not to mention his immense magic machine. ;)

It's only a matter of a couple of turns and it'll be over either way - in Mictlan's favor. :p

[jimkehn]

OOPS!...I didn't think we had a NAP. I guess I need to start writing this stuff down, having a touch of halfzeimer's and all.

Mictlan attacked me last turn, without warning. I thought Mictlan and I were going to be allied to the end, so I attacked R'lyeh instead.

Yeah....just a matter of a few turns and it's lights out for C'tis.

8^)

[Bananadine]

So much for those Pythian pearls! The ghost of Henshu asks that you observe the fate of those who attack Shinuyama!

[JimMorrison]

Finally, it's over! Congrats Sum1lost, very well played climax to that game.

And Aethyr, please don't try blaming me, or anyone else - certainly no one on the western side of the map. :p Ulm was about poised to win, but through an amazing feat, Mictlan consumed them wholly. I didn't even see Mictlan's borders until just a few turns ago. What did you you do to stop them? We were too late, and too slow. Those are the facts.

Again, GG Sum1!

[jimkehn]

Nice work Sum1lost!!!!! You played one helluva game.

Let's start another one!!!!

[sum1lost]

thank you everyone, that was a fun game. I have to say that I was worried by Ulm for a while, but I was able to leverage the Flying Ship, combined with alteration (crumble), which allowed me to move much more rapidly than he was able to respond.

[Zeldor]

Huh, when I was subbing for Mictlan I did see absolutely no cooperation against Ulm and later same thing happened against Mictlan. I hope some people learned a lesson :)

[JimMorrison]

Huh, when I was subbing for Mictlan I did see absolutely no cooperation against Ulm and later same thing happened against Mictlan. I hope some people learned a lesson :)

As soon as R'lyeh's affairs were straightened out, I consolidated, and started making a move against Ulm. In our case, I was really new when I took the nation over, and through a couple of terrible errors, managed to make it take FAR longer than it needed to, to vanquish Atlantis. :p

Once my Void Lord had a couple of afflictions, I felt sandbagged - having 3 Sloth (I don't like relying only on Lobos) and no Growth, gold income was slimmer than I am used to for R'lyeh.

I suppose if I had squished Atlantis as fast as was actually possible, and had immediately moved on Eriu and taken them out fast, R'lyeh might have had a chance to make an impact. Unfortunately, we were friends with Shinuyama, and didn't even have access to Ulm for some time because of that.

Ahhh, Glory of the Gods. The winner shall usually come from the east, it seems. ;)

[Bananadine]

From my perspective it seemed that while Ulm was pushing me back into Pythium one tiny, bloody step at a time, sometimes losing large armies of expensive infantry for no good reason, Mictlan was rampaging over Bandar Log and the former Vanheim with relatively little trouble. I don't know why in the world Ulm chose to attack me instead of the monkeys--I would have been glad to make peace with them and go after Pythium or R'lyeh! But I didn't have a totally clear view of what was happening in the east so maybe I missed something.

[Bananadine]

More history, for those interested: T'ien Ch'i and I, early on, decided to split up Marignon, may they rest in peace. Marignon, partway through, fought back against my main army by teleporting in its pretender, a Sacred Statue with strong air magic. I was totally surprised by this, and my great goblins and slowly dehydrating kappas were mostly torn to bits pretty quickly by the statue's Shock Wave or whatever that close-range electricity spell is called. But then... some of the routing kappas lost consciousness due to dryness. And the statue frantically tried to mind blast them away, but the 50-round limit arrived, and it routed! But it still couldn't move, being a statue. So then 25 more turns passed, and pop! No more Sacred Statue. My surviving kappas just slept through it all.

Unfortunately, Ulm very cleverly took this opportunity to march in and sweep the capital of Marignon away from us. This was the beginning of Ulm's domination, and a lesson well learned for me!

[sum1lost]

My take on the history: I hadn't expanded a huge amount before I ran into Jotunheim, Arco, and bandarlog. I signed an NAP with bandar log, and didn't do much with jotunheim. After a bit more expansion, and a bout of fort-building, I ran into Eriu as well. And Arco was composing large armies on my border, though they were going heaven knows where. Ulm, of course, was becoming enormous. A war started with arco which was rather drawn out, due to his SC pretender and some solid troop compositions featuring elephants and communions. After some time, Arco started to buckle, at which point Bandar attacked.

Thankfully, at this point I had enough momentum to pin down arco easily, while containing bandar. A few turns later, I had bandar routing much more quickly than I expected, due to his phyrric assault on Vanheim's capital, and collapsed invasion of two of my provinces. It culminated with my blitz taking his capital and slaughtering his mages, while seizing Vanheim's former capital with an army originally mopping up Arco. After that, it was a mop up on both of those fronts, as I reconsolidated.

A little bit of negotiation with Ermor and Jotunheim had nailed me sweet deals with both, mostly involving taking certain provinces to hit jotunheim on another front (ermor) and cut off ermor's assault (jotunheim). This netted me a number of gems and a capital, while I had enough troops stationed there to prevent a serious assault by C'tis.

Then, I noticed that I was getting a number of messages about spies causing unrest. I tried mindhunting, but it was taking far too long. So, I cast eyes of the god using an enchantment site for only 35 ish gems. That, with patrolling sky preists, allowed me to discover that Ulm was behind it all. And so war began. Ulm began dropping golems on me, which was allowing him to slowly win. However, by leveraging minddueling nahualli, his golems began to disintegrate. Once I hit alteration 9, my ultrabuffed armies simply rolled over him and his thugs at a much lower cost to me, and crumble allowed me to take the forts quickly, so my buffers and armies weren't tied down. My first tartarian (Pallol) tore the army and mass of amges defending his capital to bits, as his mages spammed spells like iron blizzard and magma eruption on the swarms of guardians surrounding Pallol.

From there, I split my armies via a number of preists and sucked up his lands very, very quickly.

I then engineered a blitz takeover of Eriu, using a number of buffs, summons,flying/sailing armies, and lightening immune, MR 27+ SCs to take half of his lands and crack his forts in one turn, and the rest in the next few. I believe Eriu went AI the first turn.

From there, it was simply more rollover.

It is my opinion that Eagle warriors are by far the best per gold unit in MA. I would have bought them at twice the cost, no lie. Size two, flying, and blessed makes them absurdly dangerous

[JimMorrison]

It is my opinion that Eagle warriors are by far the best per gold unit in MA. I would have bought them at twice the cost, no lie. Size two, flying, and blessed makes them absurdly dangerous


And 2 attacks. Well played!

[LDiCesare]

A war started with arco which was rather drawn out, due to his SC pretender and some solid troop compositions featuring elephants and communions. After some time, Arco started to buckle, at which point Bandar attacked.
I don't think the beginning of the war was drawn out. I had the impression I got run over quickly. Arco's armies were worth nothing against Mictlan's blessed infantry, be it jaguar or eagle. Eagles are particularly vicious with (hold+)attack rearmost. My elephants couldn't do much and only my SC was able to do anything but she managed to get paralyzed too long and get killed. Once she was banished, there was little I could do and didn't have enough research to get a communion do something useful. I should have kept lots of units on guard commander to try to protect the mages from eagle warriors but even then, the many forts Mictlan had set up early on made it spew more cheap strong sacreds than I could set up troops of any kind. Well done.

[Bananadine]

Haha some of those teleporting, flying golems came after Shinuyama too. But by then I had some earth spell from Alteration that destroys constructed units (Shatter?) so I just told my mages to cast that a bunch of times, and the next golem that tried to attack them was torn to pieces.

It seemed that Ulm did very well until he became rather big, and then he flailed a bit while others stayed strong.

[AreaOfEffect]

Just studied the wrap-up. Nicely played there sum1lost. I think that's the first official win for MA Mictlan. I'm very pleased to see that.