New game - The Art of War, Fight!

[Executor]

Game delayed 24 hours.

[Psycho]

I played Machaka for the last three turns (if you can call that playing), but I'm going on my vacation today, so you need to find someone else to lead them. Machaka has 2-3 turns left tops. Capital castle walls are going down next turn and dom death is only a few candles away. Don't let Abysia go away without taking any damage.

[Executor]

Game delayed 24 hours.
We've hit turn 50, so far we have one player in favor of raising the hosting interval to 72 hours, anyone else? Speak up.

[Sambo]

I would also appreciate 72 hrs. There's a lot going on in the game!

[AlgaeNymph]

I'm neutral.

[Executor]

Hosting interval changed to 72 hours.

[WingedDog]

Alright, I'm ready to take back my admin duties. Thanks to Executor for replacing me as admin while I was away. From this point I'm the one to be contacted for delay/sub requests.

[Calahan]

Think we lost Machaka recently didn't we. So can I ask who was the original player that bailed early? and who was the sub that led them through their very creditable 'Friendly Ones' casting last stand?

[WingedDog]

I'll announce the whole streak of Machaka rulership this evening, Cal, I still didn't make it home for my records on this game.
Tonight I will, have patience.:)

[WingedDog]

I decided not to keep you waiting and found all the info in my PM box.
Machaka was originaly played by shard, then vfb took his place and unleashed the Kindly Ones on this world, the last three turns were played by Psycho.

My ethernal gratitude to vfb and Psycho for their contribute to this game, especialy to vfb, as much as I heard your rulership had a huge influence on the world and will not soon be forgotten. ;)

I hope we still will be able to find selfless people like you to keep AI infestation at bay!

[vfb]

Thanks! I was happy to have a chance to play in a RAND game, even as a sub.

[Sambo]

Wow, this game is officially bananas. Looks like anointment of Eriu was premature, and we have four solid contenders, and a few dark horses.

Can't wait for the after-action reports. I wish I knew what you devious knuckleheads were up to!

[WingedDog]

I beleive the "Eriu total domination idea" was purely a standpoint of a single person, and the other remaining players were unwilling to share it, exept perhabs the one controling Eriu. :)
Good luck to all fighting for their victories and gratitude to all who had abandoned hope, but holds their line and keeps AI infestation at bay.

[Agema]

It was inevitable someone would eventually tackle Eriu hard, and no surprise others wouldn't leap at the opportunity to cut them down as well. Took a while, and poor old Ermor has a bit of an uphill struggle to keep things afloat.

Still, I suspect Abysia is about to become everyone's least favourite nation soon.

[Calahan]

Yes, there appears to be loads of weird and wonderful stuff going on in this game in all corners of the land, and there are probably several more rounds of 'tag, your the leader' left to go before the end.


Although I still personally find it disgraceful that all the other nations haven't bowed down to the will of Eriu yet. And everyone apart from the Eriu player should be ashamed of themselves for this. Don't you all realise what's happening here? What could happen? What WILL happen?

As if Eriu doesn't win, and win like right now, this instance, then that means Zeldor was wrong. And Zeldor's never wrong about a game of Dominions. Ever. The world is in the balance here people. We are on the verge of a paradox of epic proportions. So for the sake of life as we know it, and for the future of existence itself, the game should end right now with a joint victory for the Eriu player and Zeldor. One for winning the game, the other for being right all along.

[Baalz]

Indeed, I think people tend to put too much weight in the score graphs. Important though they are, they do leave out an awful lot that you need to consider. My money is on Aby for the eventual win and has been for a while.

[Zeldor]

Well, I was never blaming Eriu for anything. Just other stuff, which game admin knows. My rant was of course unappropriate and stupid, but it was general, about attitude of some players. But good to see that there is something going on here.

[Sambo]

From my vantage point, I would put Miclan, Abyssia, Eriu and Atlantis as serious contenders. I also have a feeling there will be a few rounds of King of the Hill.

Nice comeback by C'Tis. Can't keep a good lizard down.

[WingedDog]

Alright gentleman, we have a double dropout situation here and all my efforts to find subs didn't bring any result so far. I have provided extra 48 delay this turn, but not sure what to do if noone takes the nations. As much as scoregraphs and some players tell me it is far too early to determine the winner of the game and Atlantis is one of the contenders, so loss of its player shatters the balance tremendously.
If you have any suggestions on improving sub hunt, or can provide colourful describtion of the situation in the sub thread, or have other ideas - please speak up.

[WingedDog]

I just found sub for Ermor. A small step forward. :)

[WingedDog]

The sub for Atlantis is found as well. Most likely there would be a delay to allow the new player to dive into the game. Anyway, you will be informed.

[Calahan]

Thanks again for all the work you put into keeping this game in the AI-free zone WingedDog. Very much appreciated.

[Agema]

As a general query, do new players get info from the old ones, and can they see the last few turns? I ask because it might not be immediately clear to them who they're at war with.

[WingedDog]

Agema
I thought 'you are at war with everybody' is the game theme.:) If serious, I do ask leaving players to write a small essay and transfer it to the new owner of their nation, but I can't make them do it.
For the current situation:
1) I can't contact Atlantis player at all.
2) For Ermor (as much as I know) everything is quiet obvious.

So neighbours of Atlantis and Ermor ccould consider their goverment had changed, the new president had been elected, and who he is: a longhaired oddball talking about freelove and flowerpower, or a hysterical maniac with a tense for red button - only time would tell. You have to adapt to whatever political course he takes.

Perhabs (and more probably) it is not an answer you wanted to hear, but I can't see what I can do about it without abusing my power. If you have a constructive proposal - PM me.

[Sambo]

And with that, the holy fires of Marignon are extinguished.

Thanks to all for the great game. The highlight for me: killing Shimu. The lowlight: taking my strong mid-game against a nation with end-game power. I tried this: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43899 and got a bunch of :doh: instead.

Lessons learned:

Don't waste gems. They are vital later on. Those fires from afar would look much better as elemental royalty.
Sweet gear on thugs can be a waste; go with the essentials (especially true when they die). Relates to point above.
Beware the rout. This happened on several occasions, when a nice thug retreated from a minor threat due to PD or army routing. Frustrating experience, but point taken.


Best of luck to all who remain... except the foul nation that vanquished me. I hope you get plague events in your capital every turn!

In defeat,

Sambo

[WingedDog]

Sambo

Thank you for the game, and especialy for staying till the end. It is always apretiated.

[Calahan]

Thanks for playing Sambo. Good to hear that you enjoyed the game, and glad that you learnt a lot from it. Best of luck in your future adventures :)

[WingedDog]

Llamaserver is being capricious lately, probably long road from Birmingham to Cambridge was too exhausting. Still, llamabeast told he had added extra 48 hours to all games and I personally added extra 24 hours to this game. As you can see llamaserver at least doesn't display changes we made, so the best thing you could do to avoid dissapointments in the future is to submit the turn before current deadline. Server seems to accept emails, at least it did accept mine in the other game, even if my box had a bombardment of 30-35 confirmations afterwards.:) I just don't see what else can I do here.

[WingedDog]

I managed to add 48 hours to current turn. Hopefully problem with server resolves faster.

[Calahan]

The mighty winged Dog did tame and subdue the stubborn and insubordinate Llama.

And there was much rejoicing.

[WingedDog]

Llamaserver is fixed now, so you could already start submitting your turns.

[WingedDog]

Just a little announcement in case you didn't check your emails:
Turn was finaly hosted, just hope you didn't forget your course in this game while having a break.
Have a good time killing each other! :)

[WingedDog]

I've been informed Eriu was set to AI this turn, it was played by Baalz.

[AlgaeNymph]

C'tis has fallen.

[WingedDog]

Yes, C'tis was originaly played by Zeldor, then, on turn 48 was taken by AlgaeNymph.
AlgaeNymph
Thank you very much for playing, and staying till the end in uneasy situation. Best of luck in future battles! :)

[WingedDog]

Next turn I'm increasing hosting interval for 24 hours.

[WingedDog]

Oceania was defeated this turn, it was played by Alpine Joe.
Alpine Joe
Thank you for playing and staying till the bitter end, hopefully there would be more luck in future games.

There's no way I can contact Executor to update the first page, so I bring the list of nations here:

Mictlan
Vanheim
Abysia
Agartha
Atlantis
Eriu..........Baalz, Defeated
C'tis..........originaly played by Zeldor, subed by AlgaeNymph on turn 48, Defeated
Oceania..........Alpine Joe, Defeated
Ermor..........originaly played by Trumanator, subed by me on turn 8 (couldn't find a sub), then was taken by P3D on turn 42, then by Pelthin on turn 64, now AI
Mari..........Sambo, Defeated
Jotun..........Shuma, Defeated
Caelum..........Statttis, Defeated
Shinuyama..........originaly played by Cerlin, subed by Stretch on turn 37, Defeated
Man..........Dragar, Defeated
Machaka..........originaly played by shard, subed by vfb on turn 22, then was taken by Psycho on turn 46, Defeated
Pangaea..........Executor, Defeated

Unfortunately I didn't take notes on what turn the nation was defeated. My bad, sorry for that.

[Trumanator]

Rofl MA Agartha is still there?

[WingedDog]

Why it shouldn't?

[WingedDog]

Breaking news.
Mictlan player has 8 capitals in his posession and thus he had fulfiled the victory condition for the game. In his list are capitals of: Ermor, Pangaea, Man, Jotunheim, Eiriu, Caelum, C'tis and one of his own.
If there are no objections or appeals in the next 24 hours - I'm closing the game and name all remaining players.

[WingedDog]

Ladies and gentlemen, by the power given to me by llamaserver I declare this game finished. Allow me to introduce you the person behind Mictlan, the one who was in this game from the beginning and succeeded in achieving his goal:
The winner iiiiiiiiiiiis... Isocron! :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Congratulations, Isocron! A well deserved victory!

The game had ended on turn 82, and here goes the full list of the nations and players:

Mictlan..........Isocron, winner
Vanheim..........Agema, survived till the end
Abysia..........originaly played by Calahan, subed by Grijalva on turn 73, survived till the end
Agartha..........originaly played by hEad, subed by Anaconda on turn 71, survived till the end
Atlantis..........originaly played by TheDemon, subed by Deathjester on turn 64, survived till the end
Eriu..........Baalz, Defeated
C'tis..........originaly played by Zeldor, subed by AlgaeNymph on turn 48, Defeated
Oceania..........Alpine Joe, Defeated
Ermor..........originaly played by Trumanator, subed by me on turn 8 (couldn't find a sub), then was taken by P3D on turn 42, then by Pelthin on turn 64, Defeated
Mari..........Sambo, Defeated
Jotun..........Shuma, Defeated
Caelum..........Statttis, Defeated
Shinuyama..........originaly played by Cerlin, subed by Stretch on turn 37, Defeated
Man..........Dragar, Defeated
Machaka..........originaly played by shard, subed by vfb on turn 22, then was taken by Psycho on turn 46, Defeated
Pangaea..........Executor, Defeated
Thanks to all playing the game, I really hope you enjoyed it!

And my special thanks go to:

Calahan: as the most helful player
Agema: as the most disciplined player
and vfb: as the best dead man stand

Also my personal thanks and respect to all people who answered my call for a sub!
See you in the future games. :)

[Isokron]

It was a fun game, thanks everyone that played and especially thanks to WingedDog that have been a superb admin.

(extra plus points if he had spelled my name right in the last post :) )

[Strider]

Better yet, create a new forum account with a new name and do it in the thread + PM so you cover your bases.[/QUOTE]


I'm just now seeing this post.
Do not create multi-accounts. It is against forum rules, and can result in an immediate ban.
Just an FYI...

[WingedDog]

(extra plus points if he had spelled my name right in the last post :) )

Whops! My bad. :)

[Agema]

Thanks for everyone for the game.

I had a very quiet time - my start was terrible. Only three provinces next to the capital, two of which had indies way too powerful (70+ units, light & hvy infantry & crossbowmen!) for my start army, and my start army got shattered taking its second province. I was hopelessly weak, so Machaka attacked me very quickly, and although I destroyed their invasion army I couldn't exploit as I had to pour resources into stopping Atlantis Domkilling me, and Abysia claimed most of their empire.

After all that, I kept waiting for one my massively stronger neighbours to get into a war they couldn't handle so I could grab a load of territory, and it never really happened...

[Anaconda]

I have a question, thou:

How in hell I would have been able to deal with Mictlan's Seraph crying havoc in my territory?

'Cause the game was anonymous I could not ask before but with my limited knowledge I have no idea how to kill that MF who makes everybody blind.

My first contact was when I unleashed four SCs on it and it only said to them to go away.... after that it was mostly trying to send my field armies to where ever it is NOT going.

[vfb]

Magic Duel. Tough when you are Agartha! :) But maybe you could hire Sages or Lizard Shamen?

[WingedDog]

Seraphs are difficult to fight but not impossible.

Awe is countered by high morale.
Fire shield is countered by fire resistance.
Blindness is countered by magic resistance.
So let's take some statues or/and undeads buffed by army of lead/gold as a start.
Seraphs are living beings, and suffer from fatigue, while undeads/statues don't. So ghost grip, rigor mortis and such would make them weaker.
Next, we could lower their stats, so
1) Darkness is your best friend, and again undeads/staturs are unaffected.
2) Spam Earth meld.
Mix all the ingridients together and voila: seraph fricassee, monsieur.

Besides:
Seraphs are astral mages and can simply be magic dueled.
Seraphs could be killed by unresisting spells like life drain.

[Trumanator]

Stellar cascades

[Alpine Joe]

Despite MA Oceania being terminally unfun, this was still a good game. Congrats to Atlantis for eliminating me and Isokron for a hard-fought win.

I would definitely play in Art of War 2 if anyone is interested.

[Trumanator]

Man, I was so pissed that I screwed up and couldn't continue to play this game. I really want to try out MA Ermor again sometime.