Byleswar (GAME IN PROGRESS)

[Jybalbyle]

Greetings one and all...

I'm a new player of Dominions 3. I was first introduced to the game by Mr RadioGibbon whom some of you may know. Anyway, I got the game last week and have been tinkering about with a few single-player games and now I feel ready to take the plunge.
I am starting a small game for newish players.

Details:
Game Name: Byleswar
Server: LlamaServer (automated play-by-email)
Hosting interval: 24 hours
Age: Early
Graphs: On
Settings: Default
Mods: None
Map: Aran
Victory: Last Man Standing
Diplomacy: Pacts are only worth the paper they're written on

Players: 9

Player List:

1: Jybalbyle (Ulm)
2: RadioGibbon (Marverni)
3: rdonj (Yomi)
4: natit (Mictlan)
5: licker (Niefel)
6: Iron Duke (Arcoscephale)
7: PAR (Sauromatia)
8: Carpetbagger (Caelum)
9: Psykmoe (Abysia)

28 OCT: Wow, what a response! Thank you all for signing up to this.
Okay, so no more vacancies now. Squeezed Psykmoe on the end coz I just can't say no. ;)

29 OCT: Okay, the game is on! May the best god win!

See you in the game,

Jybalbyle

[rdonj]

Radiogibbon was in my first (ongoing) game.

I'll take yomi if no one else is interested :)

[RadioGibbon]

Oh wow, a reserved spot, I feel like a VIP.

I'll take Marverni please.

[natit]

Hello,

I am a new dominions 3 player as well and after playing a few single player games I'd like to try a multiplayer one :).

So if you have room for another new player I'd like to play with Mitclan.

Thanks!

[licker]

I'd like to play as Neifel if you'll have me.

[Iron Duke]

arco for me

[PAR]

i will play sauromatia if i can join

cheers

[Carpetbagger]

Caelum please will upload soon.

[Carpetbagger]

oh i guess I cant upload yet since game hasnt been created yet.

[Psykmoe]

Would like to get in on this as Abysia. I'm a newbie myself, only in one other game so far (still in progress)

[Psykmoe]

Hehe, thanks for squeezing me in. Here's a post from the llamaserver FAQ that explains how to send in pretenders:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=529316&postcount=2
Crucially, you must have the game name in the subject line of your e-mail

[licker]

Just want to point out that Aran is a pretty smallish map isn't it? For 9 players and no water nations we're going to be VERY close to each other.

Which doesn't bother Niefel much, but something to consider.

[rdonj]

Aran has 96 land provinces, so that's a little over 10 provinces per player. A bit smaller than I would normally like, but still within the realm of what people play in. Not that I would necessarily mind a change, I've had something against Aran ever since a certain horrible defeat I suffered.

[licker]

10 land per player means that caps will likely be within 3 of each other.

Again, nothing against this in particular, but for a n00bie game it may not allow everyone to fully get into it.

Especially considering some of the rush nations signed up.

[rdonj]

This is pretty much true.

[Jybalbyle]

Hi Players,

Point taken. I'd like to allow people to explore some of the researchy/crafty stuff before getting overrun. How about Cradle of Dominion? Objections?

Jb

[licker]

I do not object to cradle, though if you want a map with more options for contact look at 'the 8 gates' or something like that. Play either the version with empty nodes, or with boni at the nodes, they both offer something different.

[Psykmoe]

No objections to Cradle of Dominion here.

[Jybalbyle]

I've changed the map to Cradles of Dominion which should give people a bit of breathing room to start with (plus it looks nicer).

[natit]

good idea, no objection here!

[rdonj]

Cradle of dominion is nice. When are we going to start?

[licker]

Now!

Sorry for holding it up, but I had to get the kids fed and homeworked and in bed...

[Jybalbyle]

Hi everyone,

Looks like we have some sort of problem at the moment... Keep getting confirmation that I've sent an updated turn - over and over again...

Guess we'll just have to sit it out, neh.

... Unless there is something obvious that I should have done as the administrator of the game (help?)...

[rdonj]

No, the llamaserver is just acting out since llamabeast went away. Misses him terribly, I'm afraid. You could try hosting the next turn, but I wouldn't if I were you, we'd probably get our turns sent to use over and over instead :) So I guess the game is pretty much on hold until llamabeast is back.

[licker]

I would turn off the quick host until llama is working properly again.

Assuming it will let you, otherwise we may wind up with people missing their turns, since it seems to be updating veeeeerrrrrryyyyyy slowly :p

[rdonj]

I don't know that it is on now, everyone's turns are in and have been for several hours now.

[licker]

Hmm, well it shouldn't matter then, maybe stretch the turn limit to 100 hours or something just to be safe...

[RadioGibbon]

I believe the game not hosting is due to the Llamaserver not hosting until it's fixed rather than quickhost not being on.

[Jybalbyle]

Hi people,

Has everyone got their second turn sorted out? I've only just sent mine.

[rdonj]

I sent mine in a day or two ago, never received a confirmation email though.

[licker]

WEll the good thing about this game is if somehow the turn is completely messed up no one would probably complain about a pure restart since we were only one turn in anyway ;)

[natit]

I've sent mine yesterday but I doesn't seem to be registering so I've resent it today. It seems the server is still having a few issues.

[Psykmoe]

Well, I experimentally sent in my turn and there's no feedback in my mailbox and the page still says waiting for 2h file so I think we'll just have to be patient a little longer until everything's ironed out again.

[vfb]

You can check on the status of the llamaserver here:

http://www.llamaserver.net/index.cgi

[licker]

Ehh?

So what now, apparently my turn crashed the game...

Let me know what if anything I can do about this.

[rdonj]

Was it yours? I got an email about someone's turn crashing dominions... guess it's time to decide whether we just play or we roll back the turn.

[llamabeast]

Panic not, I think it's a server bug. I'll rehost it myself - shouldn't take too long hopefully.

[licker]

Well I got a stale out of it...

Not really happy about that since a stale this early is a pretty bad thing.

Not sure what can be done about it though.

[llamabeast]

Nope nope, you shouldn't have staled now, not with the most recent rehost.

[Iron Duke]

I got a stale too, also received a message my 2h file was too old :( If it's ok with the people can we have a restart? Shouldn't be much of a problem since it's turn 3.

[licker]

Well should have or shouldn't have, I did ;)

the turn 3 I just got a few minutes ago shows me staled for turn 2, though I did send in the turn before the server issues came up, and again today when the sever showed that my turn was missing.

Otherwise I agree with Iron Duke, just completely restart the game, I doubt anyone has anything yet which would be a really compelling reason not to.

[llamabeast]

Oh dear, sorry about that then.

Why don't you just rollback to turn 2? That'd be much quicker than restarting.

I'm not aware of any more issues with the server, so everything should run smoothly now.

[Iron Duke]

Works for me, good idea.

[licker]

Whatever the problem was was fixed, I got a normal turn 3 and sent my new turn in, hopefully this means all is good and well!

[licker]

By the way, there are 3 nations with stales, if they stale again we need to either sub them, or AI them or something.

Else we are giving gifts to whomever their neighbor(s) are.

[Iron Duke]

Please restart, or atleast roll back to turn 2. Early stales are fatal for nations.

[natit]

So what should we do about it ? I don't mind either way.

[rdonj]

Well, looks like we're forging ahead at any rate. Doesn't seem to be much chance of it at this rate.

Also, I know all the pros love sloth, but so far this game has proved to me that I am NEVER going sloth 3 again. It just does not work for me.

[Carpetbagger]

there was something messed up with the mercs after turn 3. air 2 mage vanished

lets just keep playing...i think we have everyone, right?

[Jybalbyle]

Hmmm..

Unless anyone has a strong objection, I am going to roll back to the start of turn two.

I'll give 24 hours for people to respond and then I'll do the deed!

[Carpetbagger]

I do not want a rollback if we have everyone. im weak in the game and think we should just keep going!:up:

i will not take those turns over again

[Iron Duke]

I'm on the side of rollback, I was so sure we'd have one and thus skipped 3 as well, but if people would like playing, it's best I turn over ai because there's no point fighting a lost war. I just don't understand why people are so against a rollback.

[licker]

Rollback is probably better, even though I managed to not have any stales.

But yeah, we need to be sure we have everyone after the long delay, otherwise the rollback won't really accomplish much.

[Psykmoe]

I don't care much either way, this early in the game.

[RadioGibbon]

I say Rollback to turn 2.

[licker]

Whomever Arco is definitely needs a reminder since they have staled the last 3 turns...

nm... looks like the duke was just expecting a roll back anyway...

[Psykmoe]

Well, got the email about the probable rollback. Will the game get patched too?

[rdonj]

The llamaserver was already patched, so yes, the game will require the new patch to play from now on.

[Jybalbyle]

Hi,

That's it then. Roll back to turn 2 has been done, so it's game on.

Please tell me if everyone is still playing.

[Carpetbagger]

still playing...:re: Beaktooth shall have Dominion!

[rdonj]

Still playing. Hopefully by turn 6 this time around I'll have at least 2 provinces!

[Iron Duke]

I'm playing, and thanks a bunch for the rollback.

[natit]

Mitclan is still playing too.

[PAR]

hi still playing

[licker]

just sent my turn 2 for the 4th time in this game ;)

[Carpetbagger]

thanks, fixed

[licker]

You can request the resend yourself on llamaserver.

[Jybalbyle]

Hi People,

Some of you may have seen the message on Llamaserver about me and RadioGibbon sharing a copy of Dominions (Ulm and Marverni) or something like that. I was over at 'Gibbons house this weekend and thought that I could just load up my turn and play as normal. All seemed to be going okay, but then this message popped up on the server. I've (Ulm) carried out my next turn but RadioGibbon's turn hasn't appeared in his inbox. I was wondering if anyone had encountered a situation like this before and could clarify if we have inadvertently screwed up the game...?

(PS: Although we are friends in real life, please note that this is no indication that I will be going easy on the Marverni...!)

[Iron Duke]

Mitclan is still playing too.

That right? Mictlan staled twice so there must have been some unexpected hindrance.

[licker]

If Mictlan stales again we need to put him on AI.

unfortunately.

[Carpetbagger]

set him to AI so we can get moving on with this game.

[licker]

Please get Mictlan set to AI...

He's already an easy snack for whomever gets to him first, but at least as AI he will fight a little bit...

[rdonj]

Yeah, unfortunately I agree, he needs to be set to ai he's staled too many times.

[Carpetbagger]

Ulm and Arco still with us?

[Iron Duke]

Yeah arco's here, that stale turn sucked though. the darned power went out.

[rdonj]

Ulm being the game admin, I certainly hope so.

[Carpetbagger]

I think this game is FUBAR. Ulm has been stalling in a row. RadioGibbon knows Jybalbyle in real life so maybe he can tell us whats up?

[RadioGibbon]

He's just gone away for the weekend. I'm surprised he didn't just delay hosting, but its only two stalls, nothing too horrendous.

[Carpetbagger]

i just hope he comes back

[Jybalbyle]

Yes I'm back.
Should get some uninterrupted turns for two weeks or so (if the Gibbon will let me use his computer this weekend!).

[licker]

As some (if not all) of you are aware, this coming thursday is Thanksgiving in the US, and I will be gone from Wednesday through Saturday. If no one strongly objects I'd prefer a delay since it doesn't seem anyone is having any luck finding subs these days (at least I've not had any luck for any other games I'm in).

[Carpetbagger]

I 2nd licker. I will be gone Thursday-Sat. Ill be able to do my turn saturday night.

[Jybalbyle]

Unless anyone has any strong objections, I'll delay the next turn hosting until Saturday.

[licker]

I'd prefer if you delayed to Sunday actually, I will be traveling Saturday and do not know if I can get to it by then.

I can get in one last turn tonight, and then will not really be able to get anything in until Sunday.

Thanks

[rdonj]

No strong objection here. Unless you want to set quickhost to every six hours or so and let me play all by myself while everyone's away :)

[Jybalbyle]

Nice try, Rdonj...

I'm working on GMT here so bear with me. The game is set to autohost at 20:30 this evening (about eight hours from the time of this message). Therefore, if I haven't had all turns in by -say- 20:15, I'll extend the hosting time until 20:30 (GMT) on Sunday. Have a nice Thanksgiving guys. Hope you are thinking about us twiddling our thumbs infront of our computers...

Jybalbyle

[licker]

I'm back and got in my turn just fine, so feel free to go back to a more normal host schedule if that works for everyone.

I will be gone for 2 weeks around xmas, and may or may not be able to get in turns, I'll try for a sub, but haven't had much luck with that path anyway.

[Carpetbagger]

Ill be away from dec 28th to jan 2.

[licker]

Pity the poor giants of Niefel...

First they sought some warmer lands to work on their tans, but the despicable fire and blood mages of Abysia apparently didn't get the reservations so they are seeking to end the holiday of the vacationing Jarls and their entourage.

Then dire news from the swamps of Ulm (really Ulm lives in the swamps on this map apparently) shows that the Ulmish barbarians seek to stake a claim in the heart of the giants lands.


What's a poor giant to do?

Probably just have to start squishing even more little people I guess...

;)

[Jybalbyle]

All Ulmish warriors have been recently issued with spiky helmets for just such an occasion...

I've got two weeks over Christmas galivanting all over to see family and friends (yes, I do have some) from Monday 22nd December to 5th January.
Please give me an indication of whether you will be able to play over Christmas. If lots of people are away, then we might as well postpone the game.

[rdonj]

I'll be able to play.

Hmm, is niefel on the ropes? It will be interesting to see if the combined efforts of abysia and ulm can bring down the giant. Yes, most interesting.

[licker]

I will be away from Dec 19th through Jan 4th (that is I should be back on the 5th).

The inlaws do have internet access, but the computer is old and slow as hell, and the last time I tried to get dom2 working (6 years ago??) it didn't work, so I'm at best doubtful for getting in turns during that time.

Also spikey helmets?

Those make great back scratchers!

Now if the abysians would oblige we'd have heated back scratchers!

[Iron Duke]

I don't particularly need it, but I'm ok for delaying or even postponing the game, just thought I'd let you know.

[Carpetbagger]

Dec 19th through Jan 4th seems good for delaying the game. Hopefully we will have everyone back afterwards.

[rdonj]

What is this? Some false god has patrolled their provinces in most blasphemous fashion. Such egregious transgressions as these cannot be allowed to continue! To think, so many bakemono cut down in the primes of their lives simply for wishing to go hiking through some swamps. Surely the world must come together and, in recognition of this most terrible crime, ban the use of armies for the purposes of patrolling provinces so that something like this never happens again. Furthermore, we demand justice against the perpetrators of this most heinous act!

[licker]

It's even worse than Yomi reports!

The foul swamp dwellers have sent a sortie into giant lands, well it is still a swamp, so maybe they were just lost, but it was a giant swamp where we were getting frozen mud baths.

First Abysia denies the giants their tanning vacation, and now the ulmish barbarians steal our mud baths...

Enough is enough, time to take off the cucumber peel and get to work.

[rdonj]

Truly woe after woe is piled upon the nation of Niefelheim. Is there no rest to be found for the weary giants? Do you have any idea how difficult it is being the harbinger of an apocalyptic demise? Well it's not easy, I assure you! There are so many peasants to slaughter, cows to consume, crops to burn. Why, all of your free time is taken up by mindless butchery. When you're a herald of the apocalypse, is a little free time too much to ask? Apparently so, say Ulm and Abysia!

So I ask you, all of you who live and fight in this world: When your montrous entities of doom and chaos have slaughtered their fill for some years, where will you send them to vacation? Do you send them to Abysia, whose bureaucracy is so vast it oversees even their tanning salons? Should you send them to Ulm, who attacks peaceful tourists as they visit the mud pools of neighboring regions? Hah! No, I say. Instead, let these nations forever onward be remembered as enemies of our overworked and underappreciated men/monstrosities/heralds of the end, and let us from now on seek to provide a better working environment for said individuals in the future.

[Jybalbyle]

The mighty men of Ulm have struck a double-blow! Not only have they routed the giants of Niefelheim, but have also foiled an underhand plot by the Yomi tribe to sneak their bandit armies into our lands! Prepare for war, people of Yomi, unless you wish to appologise for this 'heinous act'!

[rdonj]

As ulm has not stepped aside to allow us to retrieve the bodies of our slain bakemono as requested, there can be only one recourse - war! The great army of Yomi shall sweep through the lands of Ulm and destroy all in its path. Though it will no doubt be most trying to administer such a land of boisterous miscreants, it is a task that Yomi is willing to accept for the good of all monsterkind. Let none doubt Izanami's great compassion and mercy, and let none forget the great cruelty that drew forth Her wrath!

[Jybalbyle]

There will be no surrender from Ulm! All will pay with blood for every inch of Ulmish soil taken!

[rdonj]

Especially, so it would seem, the ulmish! Leap on your swords while you can, I won't be as gentle....

[Iron Duke]

Thanks to the heartless deans of my university, I'm gonna have 7 finals in 8 days, so I'm retiring from all my games, setting myself to AI. I'm really sorry people :(

[rdonj]

Ouch :(

[Carpetbagger]

2 turns in one day :)

[rdonj]

Yay! Let's get another!

[licker]

Yeah, nicely done everyone :)

It looks like this game is going to get really interesting soon, too bad about Arco though, but now I can claim the seas in peace I suppose ;)

The Giants are building some submarines for pleasure viewing of the creatures of the deep, some claim there are creatures bigger than us giants, though from what we've seen there's only little fishy men, and manly fish.

[rdonj]

Wow. I'm sitting here and I'm looking at an eagle king with 100 gems worth of gear on it. Even assuming everything had a 25% discount that was still more than an entire turn's worth of gem income... for Caelum! Simply a staggering figure to a small nation like yomi with but half of caelum's gem production capacity.

If I was in character right now I'd probably be going on about caelum's shockingly wasteful decadence, and how this proves that they are the lowest of creatures, not fit to live in a world with the hard working monsters and warriors of the day... :P

[Carpetbagger]

Chirp chirp.

[rdonj]

Chirp all you wish bird-things, that will not save your armies or resurrect your mages! Their souls belong to our lady now. And once ulm's armies have been destroyed finally forever, our full forces will be arrayed against you, and your armies shall be driven back across the sea, only to be destroyed as the false god Beaktooth cowers pitifully in his dominion. The glory of Izanami shall be brought to the lands of Caelum, and in the end, the name of Beaktooth will be sung not in praise, but cursed in spite for the great destruction that shall be reaped upon the bird men for his blasphemy!

[Carpetbagger]

The birds enjoy pooping on Yomi temples. :angel

[rdonj]

That'll be the only temple you get that way :) And once I have reclaimed the province I guess I'll have me some prime eagle king fertilizer.

Oh, and if anyone has a care package they'd like to send to those three eagle kings, they're currently residing in province 148.

[licker]

The unholy nation of Abysia has been quenched by the giants, and we have claimed their capitol as a new health spa to soak our tired feet in their hot pools.

The lands are still a bit warm for out tastes, but I sure that an influx of tourism from the northern mountains will gradually lower the temperature to a more pleasant -50F.

[rdonj]

Anyone else feeling like 24 hours may not be quite enough time for turns yet?

[rdonj]

Also, I am looking to trade water gems for air, earth, or astral gems, preferably an a 1:1 basis.

[licker]

I wouldn't mind a longer time between turns, though I enjoy this pace, we're at a point where things get complicated enough that some extra time for diplomacy and double checking orders would be a good idea.

[rdonj]

That is pretty much where I am at. I can do my turns and guarantee they get done but it's starting to feel a bit rushed.

[RadioGibbon]

Hi everyone.

With Ulm being defeated I've taken over admin duties for this game.

The hosting interval has been increased to 48 hours.

Cheers.

[licker]

Ok, so I'm going to be gone from Dec 18th to Jan 5th with unlikely access to dominions.

Not sure how you guys want to handle that, I'd prefer a looooong pause, since I cannot find a sub, and my position is kinda in flux right now anyway, such that I don't know that I want a sub to have to make those decisions.

I'm also quite sure that neither Yomi nor Marvani want's me to go AI ;)

Well maybe they secretly do...

[RadioGibbon]

I think we'd already agreed to pause over this period hadn't we?

Edit: Yes, we have, see page 10. I'll wait till this turn has been processed and then delay the game forever.

[licker]

Did we?

Man, I'm fried getting everything done before I leave.

Anyway, thanks and I'll see everyone next year!

[rdonj]

Well, I don't know about marverni but having an AI niefelheim right next to me would make my already somewhat tenuous position look something more along the lines of horrific. I would rather not have to fight two of the most powerful nations in the game at the same time, thank you very much....

I guess it'll be a long wait before the yomi-caelum war begins again in ernest.

[Carpetbagger]

yeah we def want to wait for everyone

[licker]

Ok, I am back now, will send in my turn soon and hopefully we can get this one rolling again.

give me a few hours though, I'm still pretty jet lagged.

[rdonj]

Welcome back :)

[Carpetbagger]

yippie!

[rdonj]

The generals of Yomi are greatly amused with the events of this last month. Caelum's greatest warrior, the mage Kanuka, cowers at the bottom of the ocean, safe... for now. Demon Lord Raiko and 2 lesser generals annihilated the defenses of another province, guarded by 3 eagle kings no less. Though the eagle kings managed to flee in time to survive, their shame is great.

Lady Izanami still counsels caution however. The vile lord beaktooth remains absent, whether from cowardice or due to the ongoing war with sauromatia remains to be seen. Further, caelum commands many mages and warriors, and while her warriors are pathetic and useless, they do serve as some slight distraction.

The oni have only begun to sate their thirst for battle. Hopefully Caelum can deliver this to them to their satisfaction. Oni can be so impetuous.

[rdonj]

The world may rejoice! The vile (and cowardly) Eagle King Kannuka has been slain. The greatest butcher of our time has been laid to rest, and even now his spirit resides deep within Yomi, where Izanami shall keep him until she has grown bored of him. The ko-oni are ever so delighted with this new toy.

Now all that remains is to destroy Caelum's queen of elemental air, dozens more eagle kings, who knows how many caelian seraphs, oh yes, and conquer more than two of Caelum's many provinces. Then, finally, to strike down beaktooth, the lich who pretends at godhood. Given his love for hiding we suspect this will take quite some time.

[Carpetbagger]

It has been foretold that Eagle King Kannuka shall be reborn. All rejoice and pay no heed to the lies of Yomi!

[Carpetbagger]

Kannuka has been reborn! However he is shunned by the other great Kings due to his stench. He shall now forever been forced to "walk" the wastelands of the world.

[licker]

Well it appears the best forces of Sauromatia are no match for the Giants of Niefel, at least 3 waves of attacks have been thrown back, each with massive casualties to the lizard riders.

The Eagle Kings of Caelum grew tired of their slaughter at the hands of the giants, and have likewise holed up under their cozy domes, too frightened to be seen where they may be killed.

And yet the slumbering people of Marvani finally seem to be stirring, though reports on what their objectives and capabilities are are sketchy at best.

Meanwhile the Giants have been allowed to keep the forge of the ancients and hammer out all kind of magical trinket, and even artifact (as the cowardly Eagle Kings can atest). The end of times is likely upon the world as all the remaining great nations will let forth their best troops and most devious plans in attempts to obtain the upper hand.

Of course, it is all for naught, the giants already have the biggest hands, and can raise them higher than even the flying bird people (well, since all the Jarls can fly too...). Lay down your weapons and accept your fates.

We promise not to squish anyone as we had to do with Ulm and Abysia. At least not on purpose...

[Carpetbagger]

The giants are Doomed!

The birds still reach the highest in the sky. The fat@ss giants cant even fly in storms... How pathetic is that? :smirk:

[rdonj]

Muahahahaha! That must have been pretty painful.

[Carpetbagger]

waste fire gems all you want. Beaktooth has been blind for over a year now.

[rdonj]

Yes but now we can scout you again :P

[Carpetbagger]

that reminds me, where did you hide your bandits Yomi?

[rdonj]

The bureau for hiding things in obvious places decided to hide them in caelum's pants. Since beaktooth is blind, this worked even better than expected.

[licker]

I just got notified that I need to be on travel from feb 10th to the 13th and will be unable to put in turns during that time.

As this game is at the stage it is, and I expect my position to be fairly complicated for a sub to just do a turn or two, I am hoping that no one will object to a longer pause during that time.

Thanks

[Carpetbagger]

sounds good licker.


The Yomi horde is on the move! :cold:

[rdonj]

Yeah, a few day hiatus is fine. We actually waited about that long for this last turn ;)

Yomi got bored of staring Caelum down from across the sea and is ready to show Caelum what we think of her opulence :D Of course, given the state of Caelum's defenses at Bandar-Kadek we are not terribly optimistic about being able to deal a significant blow to Caelum any time soon.

We will, however, do our best to drive her defenders crazy.

[licker]

Do the chicken dance, I hear that really irritates those Storm Warriors.

I know it's absolutely hilarious to see a score of Niefel giants doing the Macarena before going into battle.

Maori warriors got nothing on us...

[Carpetbagger]

looks like im not the only one rushing this last turn.

[rdonj]

Grr, somehow I managed to stale this turn despite being certain I sent my turn in. Luckily I didn't get whacked because of it... thanks caelum.

[rdonj]

Okay, THIS turn is what the last turn should have looked like.

Lady Izanami's power over the land of the living is waxing. Soon it shall reach its apex, and Caelum's warriors will fall stricken from the skies, her people slaughtered, her lands made destitute. All will be brought to the halls of Yomi where Izanami rules supreme. Yomi's great warriors will reach out to every corner of Caelum's great empire and at long last, her folly for attacking Yomi so many years ago will be realized.

[licker]

Yeah, things are getting funky!

The Lizard riders decided to go on a permanent vacation leaving only scattered remnants of their once proud empire.

Giants have herded up some few remaining Hydra as it turns out their feces makes a wonderful aphrodisiac.

In other news, I am going to put the game on extended hiatus soon, so take the time to reflect on strategies or something :)

[Carpetbagger]

ive been a little slow this week. ill get that turn after work in 9 hours or so.

[rdonj]

Eh, it's alright. Licker isn't going to be back until tomorrowish anyway.

[Carpetbagger]

Caelum shall cleanse Izanami's filth from it's lands, and impale that ***** upon the giants stone Monolith!

[rdonj]

Well, I'll admit that turn didn't quite go as well as I had hoped. I always figured you had death squads out there somewhere waiting for me to make a move, and now I finally found one :) I wasn't QUITE expecting an air queen and 3 eagle king SCs with artifacts, and I was a bit disappointed my dai oni went down so fast, but what can you do.

Don't worry though, I have some ideas yet on how to take them :)

[Carpetbagger]

oh im sure you do rdonj. haha. Depending on the conflict between the druids and the giants, i can see this game going on for many more years...

[rdonj]

Unfortunately I'm pretty much forced to agree. It's obvious that my gaining any ground on you is a long time in coming, and it's frankly ridiculous how long we've been at war over just one tiny province preventing me from spilling out into your vast, vast empire to cause havoc and mayhem. It's just not fair I tell you.

[licker]

Well, I'll admit that turn didn't quite go as well as I had hoped. I always figured you had death squads out there somewhere waiting for me to make a move, and now I finally found one :) I wasn't QUITE expecting an air queen and 3 eagle king SCs with artifacts, and I was a bit disappointed my dai oni went down so fast, but what can you do.

Don't worry though, I have some ideas yet on how to take them :)

Heh...

Tell me where they are...

I have ways of making important commanders die :)

[rdonj]

Okay :D

[rdonj]

Please excuse me for a moment whilst I express myself gleefully.

Ding dong, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!

:D Nephele the air queen was struck down by a mind hunt this turn, and while I lost a thug its unfortunate demise does nothing to contain my glee! Woohoo, dead elemental royalty. And it looks like a queen of the deeps may have also gone down this turn. Any confirmation on that, licker?

[licker]

Haven't seen the turn yet, but now that Caelum is showing me his Eagle Kings again, they are getting some attention :)

It's nice when your research is mostly done so you can spare the extra mage power to do 'other' things ;)

I think Caelum already knows this though :p

[Carpetbagger]

You are having better luck with your mind hunts than me rdonji. You only have all the rest of the royalty and all the Amaesha Spenta's to go!

[Carpetbagger]

Also are the druids even playing in this game? They have been very quite.

[rdonj]

You are having better luck with your mind hunts than me rdonji. You only have all the rest of the royalty and all the Amaesha Spenta's to go!

That's partly because my mind hunts are generally not targeting units with multiple forms :P If you noticed, you successfully mind hunted one of me oni generals last turn and got it killed by making it start the battle ethereal with only a little health left. But my mind hunts haven't felt terribly successful either. I am so looking forward to having to kill all of the above-named entities....

[licker]

The druids of marvani have been in a sort of mexican stand off with the Giants, where they spent their time staring across the fields at each other trying to decide what to do.

Of course this has only helped the little bird men since the massive might of the giant armies have not yet been unleashed.

Instead we send death angels, earth elementals, and hoards of ghouls to pick and poke at various birdy targets.

The success has been admittedly limited, but the cost is essentially zero. Once we are ready to unleash the rest of our forces surely the world will tremble under our mighty feet.

[rdonj]

Okay, I'd like to order a few more turns like that last one :D! Two elemental royalties and eagle kings down, at a cost of 20 gems. You can believe I am celebrating that victory. Only low point of the turn is the dome being put back up over bandar-kadek. Oh well, I can accept that.

[licker]

Nicely done (or luckily done) my mage hunting hasn't been as effective lately, but that just means Caelum is hiding his mages again :)

Other than in the sea, which appears to be a bit of a lost cause for the giants at this point :p

[rdonj]

A little bit of both. One of my dai oni got lucky and, although it was routed and died 3 or 4 times, survived due to phoenix pyre and was able to bring down an air queen in single combat :D Also, in the same battle, a group of undead horsemen I summoned with pale riders killed two unequipped eagle kings. That was the luck part. The nicely done part was 3 castings of ghost riders running down the amphibious water queen and destroying her just before she could escape the battlefield. So grand total of my gem expenditure to kill them was 20d gems :). The dai oni is pretty badly afflicted now, including being muted though so I'm not going to pull that off with him again. But for the moment he is still equipped. His deeds will be whispered of in awe for years to come in Yomi's darkest depths.

The sea is looking rather bleak lately. Only a matter of time until caelum's ownership of the oceans is complete, unless something drastic happens.

[Carpetbagger]

I regret I must go. I missed last turn and have been getting more 2 busy with spring. Sorry for the AI bomb but it shouldnt matter much. peaceout :angel

[rdonj]

Not going to look for a sub? I'm not sure if you lost anything really important last turn... I killed a lot of sages and a few eagle kings, but that's about it. Anyway, if Caelum becomes AI I'm not sure there's much point in continuing. Marverni is doing a pretty decent dom push and is vaguely threatening niefelheim with it, but I don't think there's any realistic way for marverni to defeat both me and licker at this point. I guess that could change somewhat after the battle with caelum's AI, but even after the many years of war with caelum, niefelheim and yomi have plenty of resources at their disposal and are in prime position to acquire many of Caelum's territories.

[licker]

Yeah, that is a shame, but I can see it. This games turns take me a couple days to really do properly, and even there I feel I'm not really optimizing anything.

Though at this point the amount of cloud trapeezing Niefel Jarls I have supported by packs of skratti werewolves, and everyone can have most anything they want thanks to my forge makes it difficult for me to see where I would have any trouble with a Caelum on AI.

I haven't seen the last turn, but if it went as it probably did for me Caelum is starting to feel the pinch of some real armies in his lands in stead of just raiders.

Marverni and I worked out a bit of a deal again anyway, and though we have no NaP anymore also don't have any real build up on our border anymore either.

So unless he's got something up his sleeve (and he could, communions and lots of research...) I kind of agree with rdonj at this point.

I'm willing to play it out a bit longer though if others are interested, at least through the end of March when I again have to go on a trip for 3+ days.

[rdonj]

IMO, Marverni has a dompush strategy up his sleeve and is not really looking forward to fighting mighty niefelheim in a straightup battle. Which I could completely understand, given just how powerful Niefelheim has become.

That said, I can see how bringing Marverni down could be quite difficult at this stage of the game, with the right spells researched and careful scripting.



If Caelum goes AI I'll be spending the foreseeable future killing off that AI, which is more or less uninteresting in an mp game. But if you and RadioGibbon want to fight on for a while more I will continue playing. I may eventually just start sending in turns of nothing, though.

[licker]

Well it's up to him then, I've no intention of breaking my end of the 'deal' I have with him, but by the same token, if this becomes a 3 way race to see who can chew up the most of an AI caelum I'm going to win that race.

Not braggadocio, just my observations. I can basically put a LARGE army anywhere on the map I want to. ANYWHERE! ;)

Not that I've been doing that, since Caelum could thwart it, but AI Caelum probably cannot.

From looking at the llama stats from last turn it looks like my full scale invasion of Caelum took alot of ground, and there are more forces already en route, not counting my shuffling of my CTing Niefel Jarls.

We all know the AI will suicide itself against any sieging forces, and I'm ready to put two big sieging armies on 2 calean forts, which will probably clear out any reasonable forces he has in the area after a couple of turns.

Yomi can probably do the same, but I think there are more caelean forces in his theater than mine.

Marverni is still slowly creeping south, but hasn't finsihed off the remnants of Sauromatia I left for him.

Anyway, let us know what you think RadioGibbon, if you want to play on for a bit I'll do it, if you want to try your hand in a war with me, I'll do that too :)

I don't think Yomi has any interest in a hypothetical war with me, but if you do we can try that one too :)

[rdonj]

Yeah, you would. You've got far more mobility than me, especially on thugs/scs, so it would be very easy for you to quickly take over caelum's territories. I've got ghost riders to clear, plus several flying scs/thugs, a good number of grounded scs and thugs, and a pretty large army with strong buffs and the ability to cast stygian paths, but I'm stuck behind the bottleneck of doom and would need to capture bandar-kadek to make any real progress. Unfortunately bandar-kadek has a seriously potent army hiding behind its walls and it's going to take a real effort for me to take the province. Further, if I did cast stygian paths to move an army it would lose most of the support mages, so it really wouldn't be that useful.

I don't know exactly where all of caelum's armies are, but there is definitely a strong military presence in my area. I would probably not be able to capture more than a dozen provinces if I tried to blitz over them in a race to capture as much territory as I can. So I would not expect to benefit too much from the land grab, especially over my giant allies.

And yeah, I'm not overly interested in fighting a war with Niefelheim. As far as I'm concerned the game was supposed to be over approximately when Caelum capitulated, with me then providing the artillery I've been saturating caelum with to convince marverni that victory was not feasible. I think that if I tried I could put up a reasonable fight against you licker, but I am not really interested in trying to kill my allies. If you'd like to try to kill Yomi off though I could be persuaded to look for a sub :)

[licker]

Heh, no no, I've tried that in another game where my allie agreed to have a massive battle royale, but after a turn of figureing out the logisitics of getting our mega armies inplace for it we both decided it wasn't actually worth the effort.

I'm sure you could cause me some problems, but honestly, I don't think I've lost more than 5 or 6 jarls all game, and I've been building them nonstop since probably turn 4, so I have over 50 of them, and some are earth empowered, many are boosted to A2 for CT and my packs of Niefels can warp around with either the flying ship or the gate stone.

Any dangerous looking thugs I have 4 or 5 different hunting spells to target them with, an dangerous looking armies which are not Caelean... can be torn to pieces unless they are cold immune, and I've even built up my fire mages to the point where I can spam fires from the sky remotely.

I'd love to hear from Radiogibbon though, he may have a wish factory going on, or any other number of silly Astral end game strats (though his gem income has been pretty poor all game, unless he's been claming like crazy) he wants to try out. I do have a Tartian factory going though, and will expand it to 2 per turn if I really feel like I need to :)

I've got anything I want researched researched, so I don't really even know what to do with my researchers anymore. I don't have a huge blood economy, but with the amount of blood mages I have I could turn one on at any moment if I really wanted/needed to, though it would take a couple turns to get the logistics of it worked out, and frankly, after playing LA Ulm I don't really want to bother with more blood economy micro nonsense.

My gem income is huge, and getting bigger as Caelum loses land to me, the forge is massively overcast at this point, but I have such a huge earth income (including blood stones...) that even if it went down I could put it up again easilly.

My only weakness is dominion, but what do I really need it for? I can freeze any province I need to attack, and its not as though either of you are running big heat scales anyway.

Obviously, since I seem to be winning, I'm happy to call this game, but I hope Marverni has something to try on me, though even if he can put a good sized and maged army or two out there, I can raid him (really anyone) to death while that army takes whatever overland spells I can throw at it.

I'm thinking I can be raided as well, but Caelum really didn't have too much overall success with it, and I have so many SCs and Thugs (haven't even mentioned my conjuration bonus site cranking out death summons like crazy...) that I can take stuff back easilly, and even garrison things if I really wanted to.

[rdonj]

Yeah, I don't really think it would be feasible for anyone to defeat you at this point. Even both me and marverni together, unless he has some really nasty surprises in store for you. Me, I've been gearing up most of the game to kill bird people, not giants. Some of that overlaps, but I would definitely want to change things around for anti-giant duty and I don't think I'd have enough time at this point to do it before I was crushed. I certainly don't have anywhere near your number of SCs, so I would have to rely on mage-backed armies and anti-sc groups... I think I could kill a few more jarls than caelum did, but overall I would expect to lose horribly :) I only bothered to deploy counters to what caelum actually used at least once, so there are areas I haven't really developed terribly much that would be enormously more useful against you. For one thing, I hardly have any of my main battle mages because every remotely large battle included a storm... rendering my hannyas incapable of hitting a damn thing. There's also a school or two I haven't finished off because I more or less haven't been fighting big army battles against caelum since turn 30 or so, when one of his massive armies with storm/wrathful skies/air elementals/thunderstrike spam was defeated by one of my massive armies of demons and lightning immune thugs. I actually outlasted him, his wrathful skies killed enough of his own 75% resistant troops to make him rout :D Of course my losses in non-immune units were pretty horrific, so it was pretty much a mutual decision not to waste our resources on one another.

Anyway, I'm just not prepared for it, it would take me over a year to even think about invading you and I'm going to have my hands full with caelum for a while in any case. I'm surprised you've lost so few jarls, I must have seen the deaths of nearly every jarl who died. It was giving me the impression that you were actually having some vague level of difficulty :P

[licker]

Well I'd have to look again, it could be closer to 10, but I have 50+ anyway, I have Tartians, I have some elemental royalty, I have golums...

From fighting Abyssia, then Sauromatia, and now Caelum I have plenty of items forged for various immunities, I cranked out a pile of ammulets of antimagic and have a dozen skull caps (though not on SCs) for MR issues.

I got the E9N8S4 (or 6, can't remember) bless...

Yeah I played Neifel pretty standard, but I just wanted to see how abusable the big bless strat for jarls is.

What made all the difference of course was getting the forge up, and no one taking it down. Well it went down once, but by then I'd already gotten a ton of artifacts and other stuff out of it.

I'll give out a couple 'secrets' anyway, I found conj and thaum bonus sites early, and plopped down forts and preped them for their eventual uses. Yomi and I agreed to an early Nap and it progressed from there as I needed a safe border, and he needed me to forge stuff for him. I also Napped Marverni early and while his dominion crept into my lands it didn't really bother me.

[rdonj]

I only have about 26 Dai Oni, and 9 of those are working as support mages... I have dozens of oni generals left over from attacking ulm and later holding off caelum, but unfortunately they wouldn't be that useful against you as they are now. I could make tartarians if I wanted to, but since I don't have gift of health or the chalice and a TERRIBLE nature income, I haven't bothered. I was working my way to poison golems though, the ubiquitous demon bane swords were getting a bit old with how quickly they could take my SCs down.

Lucky, I only found an evocation reduction site, and even then I found it pretty late and haven't really gotten much use out of it. "Yomi needed me to forge items for him" is putting it a bit lightly :P At the beginning of the Yomi-Caelum war the only astral I had was on my god, and I needed to forge luck pendants and anti-magic amulets quickly to make viable anti-caelum thugs. Then with my complete lack of water mages I also needed water items forged... two things that niefelheim can handle quite capably. I think it was a really good deal for both of us, because while I'm certain I could have killed you back when abysia and ulm were both alive and kicking, I would have been slaughtered by caelum when he decided to come after me and he would have won the game, hands down. Or if he'd left me alone, I would have had to deal with abysia eventually and I think that wouldn't have gone so well.

[licker]

I added 48h to the turn since we haven't heard from RadioGibbon and I'm busy enough that if I don't have to do any more of these turns I don't want to do any more :)

[rdonj]

Fine by me. I'll send him a pm, hope that gets his attention.

[RadioGibbon]

Sorry I missed this conversation guys (and thanks for the heads up rdonj).

I'm kind of torn. I always like to fight to the end, but I am pushed for time and don't really have a chance against Niefelheim. I sort of stalled mid-game, and couldn't decide which way to expand, and as usual my gem-searching strategy is really poor, I was crippled by a lack of astral pearls all game. I think I'll concede and we can spend our time on game's whose outcome isn't so certain.

What I did have:
Those Big fat green dragons at one a turn
A Demon Lord next turn (No idea what he does but thought I'd summon one and see)
A combat communion I was building up (Loads of L1 astral mages with cheap magic items who could be buffed to the max by a backline of Com Masters)
2 astraled out druids for Teleport/Master Enslave/Vortex of Returning army snatches


So very well played Licker - hope to play you all again some time in the future.

[licker]

Well if you want to play it out we can, I don't want this to seem like I'm forcing anyone's hand.

I think though that even with some of your strengths your poor gem income (you didn't clam did you?) would eventually wear you down.

My MR on my SCs is high, and I have some drop in and battle field evocation spam guys ready to throw at anything dangerous.

That and Master enslave isn't very effective against me since I don't really have any 'armies' to speak of.

Its just unfortunate that Caelum had to go AI, as otherwise there would have been some opportunity for you to position yourself against me, though even so, my ability to cloud trapeze just keeps on growing :)

Anyway, I will set the game to end, and if we agree that I would win eventually I'll accept it ;)

Though I couldn't have managed it without the solid relations both rdonj and RadioGibbon provided me with, and at least in rdonjs case our relationship was mutually beneficial through all our trading.

[rdonj]

So carpetbagger, does that last turn imply you're staying? ;) You don't seem to have switched over to AI yet, and you just won what I am fairly certain was the most important battle of the entire war. When I think to myself how that would have gone if my SCs hadn't wasted all that time in the back... how many lovely explosions could have rocked your lines... it's such a shame.

And licker, shame on you, running into my only non-cold immune dai oni with a giant army of niefels. That was the one that killed an air queen :(

[licker]

wut?

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you I was crossing that river :(

I'll make it up to you somehow.

Uhh... so what is going on in this game now? Cuz I really butchered that last turn just trying to get something in before it went.

Maybe Caelum has a new and improved strategy at work here :D

[rdonj]

Yeah, me too. With 30 minutes left on the clock I just tossed in basic forging orders and threw a few randomly targeted ghost riders, then rushed in my turn without really thinking about it. If this is a new bird-man strategy it certainly didn't hurt on that turn :P

Also, while I may have lost that battle (pretty thoroughly, I lost 2 SCs outright, had one horribly afflicted, and lost almost all my support mages), I think I win the award for Most Hilarious Defeat :D

Licker I'm going to send you my turn file so you can see just what I have to contend with to cross over into the land of the birds.

[rdonj]

Actually, I took another look at the game status page, and while it doesn't say he's an AI, he is no longer one of the nations waiting for a turn file. So carpetbagger and caelum as a whole are out.

[rdonj]

So, from what I can see I think radiogibbon did decide to throw in the hat, licker.

[rdonj]

And it seems everyone staled that last turn.

[licker]

lol...

Everyone except Caelum ;)

Ok, I will end the game it doesn't seem rg has any complaints with that.

[licker]

Ok, i killed it, and am posting in the victorious thread a win for Niefel.

If anyone objects to this (as apparently there is some flap in that thread about 'wins') post and I'll rescind the win.

It's less for me and more for stat keeping on which nations perform the best.

Clearly taking a bless heavy nief isn't exactly breaking any barriers, but it still shows what it shows.

[rdonj]

No, no objection here. You were clearly dominating the game, and the chances of anyone upsetting your victory at that point were minimal at best.