Fallen Kingdoms - LA game - finished

[Psycho]

Llamaserver
Age: LA without Ermor and R'lyeh
Players: 8
Map: Parganos deadseas
Settings: everything default, no mods


If a player stales twice his nation will be offered for subbing or turned AI. Don't abuse Bogus orders. Sign up now, I'll take the last pick.




1. Psycho - Man - winner
2. Fakeymcfake (took over from Jazzepi) - Jomon - runner-up
3. Natpy - Ulm - defeated
4. Crust - Mictlan - defeated
5. freykin - C'tis - defeated
6. jimkehn - Gath - defeated
7. Dragar - Utgard - defeated
8. PsiSoldier - Pythium - defeated

[Dragar]

Utgard please

[jimkehn]

I'll take Gath.

[Denisius]

I'll take C'tis.

[Natpy]

Ulm please

[PsiSoldier]

I'll give Pythium a try

[Burnsaber]

I'd like to try out Jomon.

[Crust]

I would like to join as Mictlan.

[Psycho]

All right we are full. I'll take Man.

I've created the game on llamaserver. We start as soon as all pretenders get in. The subject should be FallenKingdoms.

First turn will be 48h, after that 24h, until I get requests to lengthen it.

About the map: There seems to be a version with fixed starts and a version without fixed starts. I chose fixed starts hoping it will be more balanced. If there are any objections to this I can change it.

[Crust]

Where can I download the deadseas version of Parganos?

[Psycho]

I am trying to find that out myself. But you don't need it to be able to play, the .tga file is enough.

Here is the link, but I think it doesn't contain the fixed starts version of the map file:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39857&highlight=parganos

[jimkehn]

I think llamaserver has the maps.

[Psycho]

The links on llamaserver are broken.

[Natpy]

Can you set "renaming allowed" in game settings?

[Psycho]

It's set by default

[Natpy]

No, renaming is not allowed by default

[Psycho]

Not in the game options, but yes on llamaserver game creation options. Renaming is allowed, don't worry.

[Burnsaber]

I'm sorry, but I'll have to resign my partition. My dominions did not seem to have newlords folder at all. I tried to recreate it, but that didn't work.

I'll have to reinstall, but I don't have acceess to the CD at the moment. I can get access to it this weekend, so if you can't get anyone to replace me before that, I should be able to participate.

[Crust]

Just in case, you looked in dominions3\savedgames\newlords ?

[Psycho]

Like Crust said the newlords folder is in the savedgames folder, at least on pre-Vista Windows. If you are using Vista it's somewhere in my documents or local settings or something like that, there is a topic about it in Dom3 general forum. Don't know about Mac or Linux.

Also if you really need to reinstall, you can find your CD-key in dominions3 folder in the file named key. Just open it with notepad or any text viewer.

[Dragar]

Alternately ask someone else (outside of this game) to build your pretender and send you the file. If you tell them what you want shouldn't take someone more than 5 minutes.

Edit: Or will that cause problems with the CD key? I don't think so..

[Psycho]

Burnsaber, we are waiting just on you now. Did you manage to solve your problem with any of these advices?

[Natpy]

Seems like we need new player

[anticipatient]

newlords is actually in dominions3/savedgames/newlords on my computer, which i running windows vista (sadly)

[Dragar]

so are we opening this up to an 8th player? Why is it that new games always get stalled for ages for reasons like this, I wish people would commit once they sign on to a game

[Jazzepi]

If you need an 8th, I can play.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

I wanted to give Burnsaber some time to resolve his problem. Especially so because he has already made his pretender and because I believe that he just didn't look in the right place. But since he hasn't logged onto forums for two days and people are getting impatient, we shall replace him.

Jazzepi thank you for your offer. I would like if you joined. You can take Jomon or any other available nation.

[Jazzepi]

I'll take Jomon. Can I just upload it over the current pretender?

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

There is no pretender for Jomon yet. That's what we're waiting on. Just go on and upload it.

[Psycho]

I just thought I should mention that the game has started. Although the first turn is set to 48h, it is not expected to last that long, especially since it takes you about two minutes to do it. It is just a precaution in case someone has problems with the server. Should this be the case, the person having problems would be wise to post here about it.

[Natpy]

Oh... This game is realy slow boat

[Psycho]

It seems we lost another one before we started. I don't want to see stales from turn 1, so I'll prolong the timer to find a replacement for Ctis, or alternatively restart when a new player is found.

I am very annoyed by all this. Even the slow game for busy people whose thread started after this one is going at a better speed.

[freykin]

I'd be interested in taking C'tis's place, if you still need a replacement.

[Psycho]

We do. Will you just take over as a sub, or do you want to create your own pretender?

[freykin]

I'd like to create my own, if that's okay.

Also, I've never joined a game where I haven't already had the map before. How does it work? Does it just download a copy of it when I connect?

[Psycho]

Sure, I'll restart the game and delete Ctis pretender and you can send it then.

You have the link to the map in one of earlier posts of mine, although I'm not sure whether one of the .map files from there is actually used by the server (the only difference could be preset starting locations). Only the server needs the .map file, because it is used to generate .trn and ftherlnd files. You as a player only need the .tga file, since you'll get .trn file from the server.

Oh, and this is a PBEM game, not sure whether you got that part.

[freykin]

Ah, I had not noticed that. That's still fine :). That llamaserver FAQ is quite helpful on figuring this stuff out.

I just tried sending in my pretender, and it said the game has already started. Guessing it hasn't processed you restarting the game yet?

[Psycho]

I didn't expect you'll be over so soon. Try again in 5 minutes.

[freykin]

I'm busy playing the forum game in another forum, so I've just kept this tab open and been refreshing it ever few minutes :).

[Psycho]

We started again. Sorry about all the inconveniences everyone. Sorry about the starting location if you liked your last one, but they should all be balanced. Hopefully this game will start moving now.

[freykin]

Got my first turn in, good luck to everyone and lets have a fun game :).

[Dragar]

That's more like it, kicking along now :)

[Psycho]

jimkehn I sent you a PM

[Psycho]

Need fire and earth gems, offer air and nature.

[llamabeast]

Hmmm, something funny happened to this game, but I've fixed it now. You're still on turn 12, as you should be, and waiting on four players to send their turns in. Requesting turn resend should also now work again.

[Psycho]

Everything works great now. Thanks!

[Natpy]

Thank you for good fight PsiSoldier. But I think that your basic strategy are wrong. LA Pythium don't need hydras for early game at all. Their infantry is the BEST in LA, and can expand very quickly almost without losses. That save A LOT of money for new castles and mages. Just try it

[Jazzepi]

Jomon needs astral gems! We have all sorts of other types of gems to trade with.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

I've delayed hosting by 24h. I have a homework that I must hand in tomorrow. I hope no one minds.

[Psycho]

I just noticed that Pythium went AI. Thank you for participating PsiSoldier and better luck next time.

[Psycho]

Utgard thanks for a good fight. Hope to see you again in another game.

[Dragar]

well, not so much of a good fight, i think i need to work on my diplomacy skills so as not to fight 4 nations in the early game (albeit 90% of the damage was from Man). Enjoy the rest of the game

[Psycho]

I think you overexpanded and was seen as a threat, well at least I saw you as the biggest threat. But, Ctis was really attacking everyone - you, Pythium and me and expanding all the way to Mictlan capitol certainly didn't help you.

[Dragar]

yep, I probably shouldn't have gone that far. Live and learn!

[Psycho]

Ctis player has staled twice. Somehow I don't think he'll be back. If he stales once more, I'll ask someone to put him to AI.

[Natpy]

Four real forces remained :)

[Psycho]

Dragar has agreed to change Ctis to AI.

[Natpy]

I ask to rehost the last turn because due to unknown reasons server didn't accept my turn

[Jazzepi]

Nooooo rehosts.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

I know there were no major battles, but still I wouldn't like rehosting without a very good reason. Natpy how bad is the situation for you because of this?

[Natpy]

Situation is realy bad. So if we cant rehost I will set my nations to AI.

[Psycho]

Nobody play their turn for now, please.

Crust, I'd like to hear your opinion on rehost as well.

[Crust]

I don't have a problem with rehosting if someone stales due to technical difficulties. If there were lots of players still left it would be a different matter, but there's only 4.

[llamabeast]

Natpy, you're obviously still in a strong position and had no battles this turn. Do you really want to go AI because of a single stale?

In general rehosts tend to be a bad idea. It's hard to say why exactly (well, I have a long essay about it on the appropriate page of the LlamaServer admin options), but generally mass confusion results. People pretty much always stale a couple of turns per game - I think you could just consider a very unfortunate random event.

Finally, if a turn is important it's always worth waiting for the server's receipt e-mail. It's a sad fact that some small percentage (certainly <1% I think) never make it to the server. It's not to do with the server and there's nothing I can do about it, it seems the e-mails just never arrive. To be honest I think the problems are often with the mail service people are sending from, but there's no way to be sure. I'm using a professional mail server with a backup server to catch any e-mails which can't be delivered to the main server for some reason, and I've turned off all the spam filters.

[Natpy]

I do not understand, why my simple request face opposition. I can send my turn to Psycho, and he can rehost without delay and without remake other orders. So new turn will be the same, except random results

[Crust]

To be fair, if there is a rehost everyone needs to get a chance to do their orders again.

[Psycho]

@Natpy: Because those random results can make a huge difference sometimes. What if someone gets a plague event in their capital for instance? I'm still waiting for both you and Jazzepi to respond to my PMs.

[Jazzepi]

This sounds really silly to me. You have to be able to accept a single stale. Ulm is in no trouble of losing the game.

Rehosts should only be used in dire situations, and this definitely isn't one. If you want to see an example of what kind of troubles they cause, go look at Madwar.

Napty, you get a response from the e-mail server when it accepts your turn. If you don't get one, then go to the thread and ask for an extension from the admin.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

Firstly, I want to say that it is a very ungrateful job being being a game admin. I will certainly think twice before starting a game next time.

Secondly, there won't be a rehost. While I sympathize with Natpy, it stands that he never asked for more time and one should certainly never wait till the last moment to send his turn. I just hope that he doesn't really switch to AI because of this. I will switch the server to 48h after this turn and when anyone needs more time than 48h, ask.

Finally, Jazzepi, I must say that you didn't find the best example, since it was you that asked for a rehost in MadWar for a reason that is also of a technical nature. Corrupted turn or a sent turn that didn't arrive, I don't think there is much difference.

[Jazzepi]

Firstly, I want to say that it is a very ungrateful job being being a game admin. I will certainly think twice before starting a game next time.

Secondly, there won't be a rehost. While I sympathize with Natpy, it stands that he never asked for more time and one should certainly never wait till the last moment to send his turn. I just hope that he doesn't really switch to AI because of this. I will switch the server to 48h after this turn and when anyone needs more time than 48h, ask.

Finally, Jazzepi, I must say that you didn't find the best example, since it was you that asked for a rehost in MadWar for a reason that is also of a technical nature. Corrupted turn or a sent turn that didn't arrive, I don't think there is much difference.

*A'hem* I *NEVER* asked for a rehost. Madfrancis did that of his own accord. I was trying to get some help with the fact that my turn file was corrupted (and when that happens, you can't open it, you can't look at your turn, you can issue commands, you can't even play the game), and he rolled back the turn when he saw that I staled because of it. After that happened, I suggested we just go back to the next turn, letting me eat the stale, and that would be fine. Then Zeldor kept changing his troop orders in subtle ways (twice in a row) to make the battle more costly for Jomon, which was a douchebag move.

If you actually go back and read my original post, before MF rolled back the turn, all I asked was this...

"Every time I try to play my turn it just says "file corrupted" Or something to that tune. Can I get an extension to try ot figure this out?

Jazzepi"

... which is all I wanted, an extension to see if I could fix the problem, not a roll back.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

My apologies, I didn't read carefully, I just skimmed through the thread. Actually, it was Zeldor that caused all the problems, not the fact that turn was rehosted. But I guess that you can't really count on people to play fair.

I am glad we are all still playing. I decided to take a stale myself in the end, to compensate for Natpy's stale. Thought it would be the best way to put us back on equal terms.

[Psycho]

30 min to go and Natpy hasn't played yet, I don't like this. I'll put some more time.

[Natpy]

Same problem again...

[Natpy]

Very big delay. About 20 minutes. Letter finally received

[Psycho]

Try to send your turns with more time still remaining on the clock

[Crust]

The false god of Jomon is dead, the samurai army beaten under a rain of blood. What shall happen next?

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/244/image1go2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Jazzepi]

The false god of Jomon is dead, the samurai army beaten under a rain of blood. What shall happen next?

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/244/image1go2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Oooo. And Mictlan's main forces ravaged.

Jazzepi

[Natpy]

Wow... Impressed

[Psycho]

More or less equal losses on both sides

[Natpy]

Can I ask for 6 hours delay?

[Psycho]

Sure

[Psycho]

I went to a book fair today and (amongst others) bought Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Beware of me now.

[ano]

Hello, everybody.
Natpy just phoned me and said that his hard drive seems to have crashed and PC obviously doesn't boot. While I know his game and priorities, I don't really want to play any games now but if I don't manage to find someone else, I will. Anyway, we need a pause now. At least 48h, I think.
Thanks:).

[Natpy]

Ano, thanks for the help. While my hard drive under repair, I take notebook from my girl. So I again in game

[Psycho]

Since Jazzepi went to Germany and I haven't heard a word from him about whether he'll be able to continue playing the game from there I postponed the game to prevent him staling.

[Psycho]

I still haven't received any reply from Jazzepi. He has posted on the main forum about going away for a week, but he neither asked me to postpone the game, nor did he find a sub. So, let's have a vote. Should we:
1) Wait for him until he returns
2) Try to find a sub for him
3) Move to 72 hours and let him stale one turn
4) Something else - give your own suggestion

[Natpy]

1 or 2

[Crust]

Vote for 3.

[Psycho]

Since llamaserver's gone wacko maybe it's best to await llamabeast's return. Hopefully Jazzepi will also return by then.

[Psycho]

Llamaserver has accepted my .2h file from turn 41 as .2h file for turn 42. I tried to turn the quickhost off to prevent it from being able to host with the wrong file, but it doesn't accept my admin password any more!? Could you guys not send in your turns until I resolve this with llamabeast.

[Jazzepi]

I'm back now! Sorry about the Germany thing. I had a really hard time getting online and getting my turns in with the internet available to me.

Jazzepi

[Psycho]

I've turned quickhost off, so that the game doesn't host with Jazzepi's and mine old turns. Jazzepi let me know when you send your new turn so I can force host.

[Psycho]

Is nobody playing this game anymore? People, send your turns in!

[Psycho]

Fakeymcfake has kindly agreed to take over Jomon. I've postponed hosting to give him some time to do a proper turn. Hopefully we can get back to regular 48h hosting after that.

[Fakeymcfake]

Just put my turn in actually. Took a couple hours staring blankly at the screen, but I got it done.

[Natpy]

Looks like Mictlan is gone.

[Psycho]

I saw him online on the forum today. Maybe he staled by accident? I'll send him a PM.

[Natpy]

Can I ask for two hours dalay?

[Psycho]

Of course

[Psycho]

Game is delayed for 24h because Mictlan was about to stale. I'll give him some more time in case he shows up and I'll try to find a sub in the meantime.

[Psycho]

Mictlan apparently set himself to AI, so we are down to three.

[Crust]

Set to AI, yes. Couldn't justify the amount of time for the turns just to keep fighting a lost battle, or guarantee no more stales or delays.

[Fakeymcfake]

Eh, sorry about the stale, I swear I sent in my turn. Anyhow, hopefully it won't happen again.

[Psycho]

:mad:
You should always check on http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=FallenKingdoms whether your turn got in.

[Psycho]

I delayed hosting a little as I am still at work

[Psycho]

Finally an eventful turn! Battles all over the map.

[Psycho]

Well, I lost about 150 longbowmen because one-armed Jack led them forward to fight jaguars with their knifes.

[Natpy]

I lost my castle because of stupid mistake... :(

[Fakeymcfake]

I lost a whole lot of mages due to them being gutless cowards.

[Natpy]

Sorry, I can`t do my turn today. Delay please 12h

[Psycho]

No problem.

[Psycho]

This turn was 50-50 for me. I tried to kill four Ulmish SCs and managed to kill two. Still not bad. The ice devil had incredible luck - he had about 14% chance to stay alive. And I really liked that bane lord, he was like a tank.

Edit: Sorry, I killed three out of four, just not with mind hunts like I intended. Two archdevils and one bane lord down with 4 unique items total.

[Natpy]

I think this game is over. I have no chances. Thanks to all for good playing, it was realy fun

[Psycho]

You are not going to give up that easily, are you?

[Natpy]

Yes, i`m going to give up. I don`t have prospect. Essential lack of magic resources (except nature and death) and no way to find it...

[Psycho]

This is a late age game, gems are scarce, we all lack them. At least you have hordes of blood slaves.

[Natpy]

Yes i have some blood summons, but can`t equip them.
Sorry, I don`t want slow agony. It`s very frustrating.

[Psycho]

OK, obviously I cannot convince you to stay. Can I ask you just to play this one turn more and I will offer the position for subbing, and if nobody wants to take it you can just put the nation AI on the next turn.

[Natpy]

I can play this turn but need more time. Just pause the game

[Psycho]

OK.

[Psycho]

A sub for Ulm couldn't be found and since Jomon doesn't want to continue either, this game is officially finished. I have won and as far as I can see this is the first win for Chelms.

Thanks to everyone who played this game and to llamabeast for his mighty server.

[Psycho]

A brief overview of the game from my perspective:


My pretender design:
Master lich, dormant, F3S5D5N3
Dom 7, Order 3, Prod. 2, Heat 1, Growth 2, Misf. 2, Drain 3

My general plan was to go for flaming arrows first and buy lots and lots of longbowmen which the excellent scales should enable. After that I would rush to constr 8 and even if I didn't get there first it wouldn't be a waste as I would get golems which my national mages can summon. Pretender was designed to be able to go for Tartarians and wish and also to be able to teleport onto my army and cast flaming arrows without boosters. And some nature for those nature gems Chelms gets, but has no mages to use. Growth is also good for the old mages.


The game:
I formed an early alliance with Gath (jimkehn) and expanded with defenders. Utgard (to my south) very quickly became enormous by taking three provinces each turn and I formed an NAP with him. I also formed an NAP with Pythium (to my north) who was soon defeated by Ulm.

I was planning to attack Utgard because he was the strongest and we had a large front area. So, when he attacked Gath, I ended our NAP and started recruiting masses of longbowmen. Gath lost terribly to blessed woodsmen (N9F4E4S4) and his southern fort was soon sieged by about 70 woodsmen. In the meantime I made a deal with Jomon to acquire some air gems, so I had about 30 when the 3 turn NAP period with Utgard expired. Utgard had a pd of 1 in most provinces which I exploited - I teleported 10 magisters arcana and took almost half of his lands in one turn. Having saved some money I immediately bought pds of 30-35 in most of those provinces and when Utgard tried to retake them next turn with werewolves and small armies he lost. I moved my big longbowmen army in, and sieged his other fort, leaving him with just the capital and a few lands around it. Mictlan entered the war also, taking several Utgard provinces close to their capital, but fighting no Utgard armies. The huge army that was sieging Gath castle, left it and went into my lands, but I was expecting that. I guessed which province they will strike, bought 30 pd there, sent a smaller army of longbowmen (about 80) and a communion of magisters to cast flaming arrows. Almost with no losses I defeated the largest Utgard army. That was the end of Utgard and after several more turns I took the capital as well.

But, while I was fighting Utgard, my ally Gath was attacked by Mictlan from the south and Jomon from the north simultaneously and was quickly out of the game. There was nothing I could do.

Mictlan was my next target as he seemed the strongest at that point. He took a castle with elludian moon mages from Gath and was blood hunting heavily in his lands. So, I formed a NAP-5 with Ulm, my new northern neighbor, graciously leaving to him to take over the weak Ctis and formed an alliance with Jomon to attack Mictlan. It was very easy convincing others that Mictlan is a threat. The good thing about taking a weak nation is that you can always say things like: Who would you rather fight in the late game - Man or Mictlan?

My idea was that flaming arrows would work equally well against blessed jaguars (F9B4) as they did against woodsmen. In fact Jomon's strategy was also flaming arrows. But Mictlan had some eagles as well as Ozelots and flying snakes. So I decided to advance slowly and not lose my archers to his blessed fliers, until I forge a staff of storms. Mictlan decided to move his troops to fight Jomon and used a scorched earth tactic in front of my advancing army. My army was also spammed with one fires from afar and four disease demons each and every turn. There was a big battle between Jomon and Mictlan that Mictlan won, but took some very heavy loses. I was advancing steadily on the other side though. Having summoned two golems by that time and researched mind hunt, I was also raiding his provinces and hunting down his blood hunters. After a few turns Mictlan went AI before even fighting any major battles with me. After that me and Jomon divided Mictlan territory and I fought a few battles against the AI. I killed two Mictlan archdevils as well.

When Mictlan went AI, Ulm, as the only remaining nation, ended his NAP with Jomon and prepared to attack him. I ended my NAP with Ulm at once as well. Although my pre-game plan to rush towards constr 8 worked and I got there first and forged the chalice, Ulm was just one turn behind me, and he managed to forge more unique items than I did. I took mostly the astral ones as I didn't have the gems or paths for others. He took the death, the earth and the blood ones. Also Ulm had many vampire counts and almost all ice and arch devils.

The war with Ulm was a short one. He advanced into Jomon territory taking several provinces, while I took several of his provinces on the other side. He had a large army at my side and was using mostly SCs against Jomon. Having spies everywhere I saw all the battles. I reached conj 8 and on the turn I summoned my first air queen, Ulm attacked two Jomon provinces with two archdevils and two my provinces - one with an icedevil and another with a bane lord with monolith armor and the barrier. On the following turn I teleported the AQ and some mages and managed to kill both archdevils and the bane lord while the ice devil luckily survived. I killed the archdevils with orb lightning - a single casting of orb lightning with someone having A5 (after stormpower) is enough to get target's fatigue over 100. Bane lord was killed with dust to dust and earth elementals. Ice devil managed to survive magic duels (it was the one with astral). After that Ulm gave up and that was the end of the game.

On the last turn I had just researched conj 9 and started a Tartarian factory. I was going to summon a Tartarian per turn and I had the chalice. I lacked death and nature gems for the most part of the game, but managed to find some sites towards the end. I also had blood hunting operation started with elludian moon mages when I took the site from Mictlan and had collected some blood slaves by then. I was pondering whether to go alteration for wish or blood for send horror next.

What I think decided this game is that nobody took Chelms as a threat and was willing to join with me against strong nations (Utgard, Mictlan). Also what decided the late game is that I got to constr 8 first and snatched the chalice. If Ulm had managed to do it, with his huge death and nature income (as he said himself), it would probably have been a very different ending.