Tourmaline - Mod Nations Game (Finished)

[rdonj]

Yap, they do have astral on them, but than again they are immortal so the magic duel wouldn't have worked either.
Why does me having nature magic worry you? It's not like I need it for tartarians.

The thing that worries me is your magic diversity, and all the cross paths and high magic levels that you have. You only lack death magic, and luckily you didn't take that on your pretender.
Oh, yes, and that level 9 summon of yours looks nice.:)

Well this should make for an interesting war, although I must warn you, I have no intention crossing over any time soon, so you'll have to meet me in my dominion if you wish to fight.

I agree, it should make for an interesting war. Although perhaps more interesting for me than for you. It'll probably take me a while to come up with a really brilliant way to conduct this war. It is alright if you don't want to cross over. I am quite happy to bring the war to you.

I think you might be overestimating just how strong my mages are by just a little, but it is true, I can cast pretty much any spell in the game, with the correct caster and a large enough communion. At the moment I don't have so many of my best mages though, so really high paths are quite rare at the moment.

My death income is somewhat weak at the moment, but I have hopes that will improve as I fight with you.

[Executor]

Damn you...

[rdonj]

Hmm, not much interesting happened this turn. Unless you are talking about my slann's escape from your angel, I have no idea what you're talking about. But you had to know there was no way I was just going to sit there with an 850 gold mage out in the open and not have some plan to keep it safe :). Or are you just upset because I haven't done anything to you yet.

[Executor]

Sigh, It was the first one... damn returning...
But can't say that I like the waiting either.

I'd love to try Stygia in a somewhat larger game, I think they would absolutely dominate such a game, well if indies are to be included anyway.

[rdonj]

Sorry about that executor. I am wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to speed this up that wouldn't just be a waste of gems/units. I'm not having any brilliant ideas. I can raid you maybe, but that's dangerous and really doesn't hurt you that much. Also you can just reclaim any provinces I take in one turn. So for now I will go with my current strategy, which I expect to have mixed success. Perhaps if I were a better player I could devise a more entertaining strategy. Your bad luck to be fighting me in particular, I am a very boring player to fight. Also, as I said before, I know better than to just let you kill an 850 gold cap only mage. Especially that one ;).

However, I have to say in the meantime I am very pleased with the province I took from nehekhara. Even if it had 30+ pd in it.



It could be interesting to have stygia in a larger game, although I am not quite sure how indies would help. I guess if there were more indy mages that would be useful. I can't imagine there are any indies you could recruit that would be better soldiers than nomad infantry though. I still think stygia is weaker than la ermor until late game... but when they get to late game, they are a very tough nut to crack. Recruitable liches are pretty neat though.

[Trumanator]

Lol, I only actually paid for about 10 or so of that PD. Luck 3 FTW?

[rdonj]

That is pretty lucky, considering what was in there. And that it helped you fight off an ogre attack. Personally I would have been highly tempted to add a fort to that province, considering the potential level of help to you. I am certainly grateful you didn't, though.

I am beginning to wish I'd taken growth scale. With that and gift of nature's bounty, I would be quite rich right now.

[Trumanator]

I certainly considered it, but with all my money going to TKs and high priests, I couldn't really afford it.

@ TheVanishag- Skelly spam FTW? You only "killed" one TK with your soulslays, "killed" because he's still around, he just lost some magic paths and is immortal now :) I couldn't believe my skellys got through that banish spam though!

[the Vanishag]

I certainly considered it, but with all my money going to TKs and high priests, I couldn't really afford it.

@ TheVanishag- Skelly spam FTW? You only "killed" one TK with your soulslays, "killed" because he's still around, he just lost some magic paths and is immortal now :) I couldn't believe my skellys got through that banish spam though!

It was a long shot - I was going after your avatars. Those battles might have gone differently if I had Solar Rays scripted instead of Soul Slay.

[rdonj]

So, turn has hosted... I can see I made something of a noob mistake that turn. And Resul Al'zaman are even more annoying than I'd given them credit for. Hmph. However, your incredible stroke of luck in targetting huehue in your first assassination attempt is both uncanny and extremely uncool. I guess I should take solace in killing so many assassins? I don't know, that was a pretty bad turn. The only thing that really went well was taking back my provinces from your raiders. My playing had better improve over the next few turns or I think this is going to start going badly for me :).

[the Vanishag]

I'm not long for this game - I won't say I haven't made mistakes, but the power differential in this game is huge. I think I lost half of my provinces last turn, between Nekehara and Stygia stealthing in... Alugran units? Crime Lords leading Thugs... how'd that happen?

Honestly, it was looking pretty bleak before now, but wow...

[rdonj]

I killed 3 squads of 40 thugs myself this turn. The only thing I can imagine is that nehekhara and stygia have both found brigand lairs (modified by the alugra mod) and have been recruiting crime lords over the duration of the game. They can summon thugs, so even if they weren't actively recruiting them, they could have built up a sizable number that way.

It's amazing you've survived as long as you have with your level of research. It will be sad to see you fall.

[Trumanator]

Well, at least someone dispelled my BoT, I don't think i'd be far wrong in saying that it probably affected you the most. In other news, I mistakenly though I could cast E blood deepwell, and only realized I couldn't AFTER I'd done a bunch of alchemizing! :D

Edit: For the record, Nehekara has no such lairs, and was curious itself as to how stygia obtained them.

[Executor]

This turn wasn't very pleasant for me either.
I had to attack Alchera before I planned. You found one of my sneaking armies last turn and I didn't know how you'd respond to that, so I had to strike before all my troops were in position.

I got Crime Lords from the Criminal Outpost site, they are very nice actually, have summon ally ability and are spies also. It's a blood site right? I made a very stupid mistake in my pretender design when I took blood, I looked forward to having immortal assassin D4 cap. mages, only after did I remember that immortality don't work in assassinations... sigh

I do take comfort in killing Huehue doe. I expected you'd put bodyguards on everyone after you found that one assassin, but somehow I hoped you'd mistake him for a scout.
Learning of your forging intentions was very disturbing rdonj, clams and
bloodstones? not good.

Oh, and thanks for adding those few extra hours on the turn by the way.

[rdonj]

Yeah, it's a blood site, same as the normal brigand lair I think.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one making mistakes this game.... I already had bodyguards on all my slann. And on huehue as well as it so happens. But I went ahead and added bodyguards to more people that turn. I have to say, I wouldn't have thought your assassins would be able to take out two of my sacreds :(. I don't really want to put 4 bodyguards on each commander in that province, it would be just slightly excessive.

As to the disturbing forge implications, I think clams are a pretty obvious direction for itza to go, what with my best mages needing to be summoned for 50 pearls a piece, and some of their best units also requiring pearls. Itza just bleeds them out. As for blood stones, well, let's just say my earth gem income has been pretty lame this entire game despite significant site searching and I didn't get enough time out of huehue to fix that. I would bet nehekhara has more gem gens than me actually. Alugra is probably clamming and stoning as well, and if he's not, he should be....

You are welcome for the time.

[Trumanator]

So does that make me, Itza, and Alugra stoners?:D

[the Vanishag]

It's amazing you've survived as long as you have with your level of research. It will be sad to see you fall.

That was my 1st mistake: I <i>thought</i> I could take the Ogre Kingdoms, and shortchanged myself on research to pursue that war, which left me in a very vulnerable position when that war ground to a stalemate (a stalemate that I think the Ogres would have won eventually, if it was just the two of us).

Live and learn... (die and learn...)

[rdonj]

So does that make me, Itza, and Alugra stoners?:D

Heh, I guess so.

[Trumanator]

That was my 1st mistake: I <i>thought</i> I could take the Ogre Kingdoms, and shortchanged myself on research to pursue that war, which left me in a very vulnerable position when that war ground to a stalemate (a stalemate that I think the Ogres would have won eventually, if it was just the two of us).

Live and learn... (die and learn...)

You probably COULD have taken the ogres. I suspect that I kind of threw a wrench in your plans. However, the ogres, instead of waiting for me to help them finish you off, proceeded to attack me with full force instead of helping me gank you. Needless to say, I think that kind of ruined my chances of being a real major power, since it became a long, drawn out, draining war that didn't really break till Stygia arrived.

[rdonj]

I don't know, I think you still have a chance. You just have to consider very carefully how to proceed from here. There are a couple of options that I could see bringing you to greater power, and possibly eventually contending for the throne of Pantokrator.

[Trumanator]

Oh, I'm not saying that I don't consider myself a possible power, but I think the overly long war with the Ogres put me much farther behind than I could have been, particularly research-wise.

[rdonj]

Predictions for this next turn: None of my major maneuvers will work out, I'll find yet another resul al'zaman in my territory (despite executor's saying he wouldn't send them up here ;)) and I'll lose another 40+ sacreds this turn.

And as for the rest of the world, be glad it is not you who has to face monsters the likes of these: http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=15&u=13547044

[Executor]

Wow! Who's monster is that?
There's a resul al'zaman in your territories!? Lies! Lies!

Your lies are insulting my friend, but they'll hurt less than my steel, I would wager!

Muahaha , if you like that you'll love my next move(very evil laughter)

You screwed us both with that preemptive strike, I too planned to attack you, but not before I got Ogre and Alchera out of the picture.
Where should I expect some RoS this turn? Maybe another sneaking army?
And I'm very curios as to what you plan to do with "Agony"?

[Sombre]

Wow. That thing is nuts. I'm glad I'm not playing against an Amos nation.

[Executor]

Wow. That thing is nuts. I'm glad I'm not playing against an Amos nation.

Ah, it's not like Itza is helpless.

Oh c'mon! I plunder, burn, pillage, crush, kill, destroy, rip apart, annihilate, exterminate my foes with Resul Al'zamans and nothing, and you land a crappy RoS on some worthless chaff and get into HoF!

I have a baaad feeling about this turn...

[rdonj]

I could take a screenshot of it, sitting in between two of my forts in what, dom 10? dominion for you if you want... :P Since I am not lying so much, you must not be very insulted!

I might be more afraid of your steel if your yilan tanri were good for anything other than wasting my time.

I'm quite certain that whatever your next move is, it will be quite evil and frustrating for me. I've never had to fight a war this "late" into the game with an opponent who was really out for my blood. So I expect to make plenty of mistakes. I feel like I'm going to squander my great start against you, heh ;). I have some contingency plans, and a slightly more coherent strategy now, but by and large I have the feeling that if I'm going to win, it is only going to come at a tremendous cost in life.

Once you started attacking the ogres, I knew I couldn't wait much longer to try to deal with you. The chances of me being able to defeat you without a large gem advantage seem pretty slim. Ogres and alchera may not have had huge gem incomes, but I'm sure you'll be able to increase the value of that land a bit under your rulership.

So executor, are you happy for once you're not really being ganged? ;)


Wow. That thing is nuts. I'm glad I'm not playing against an Amos nation.

Next time I play a game like this, there will be no immortal banefire shielded multi-aoe attack popkilling SC summons that can fly, teleport, and have enormous amounts of ap so even if there's a storm up they can cross the field with pointless ease :(. My bad for letting them in, I just didn't realize how crazy they really were. I still think maybe there are some amos mods that are not pointlessly overpowered... but I'm beginning to realize just why they've gotten that reputation.



Edit: Hmm, that turn was actually much less nasty than I'd expected. Also, I did say I wasn't going to use magic duel to kill those, but I was convinced by IRC people that it was the way to go. Worked much better than I expected it to. It's your fault for stacking such huge mr on those things there's hardly any way to kill them.

[rdonj]

Also, where did that massive dompush come from? I know resul al'zaman have a domspread attribute, but seriously, you must have way, way too many of them to have that much dom spread :(

Guys I seriously think this game may be close to being over.

[Foodstamp]

I could take a screenshot of it, sitting in between two of my forts in what, dom 10? dominion for you if you want... :P Since I am not lying so much, you must not be very insulted!

I might be more afraid of your steel if your yilan tanri were good for anything other than wasting my time.

I'm quite certain that whatever your next move is, it will be quite evil and frustrating for me. I've never had to fight a war this "late" into the game with an opponent who was really out for my blood. So I expect to make plenty of mistakes. I feel like I'm going to squander my great start against you, heh ;). I have some contingency plans, and a slightly more coherent strategy now, but by and large I have the feeling that if I'm going to win, it is only going to come at a tremendous cost in life.

Once you started attacking the ogres, I knew I couldn't wait much longer to try to deal with you. The chances of me being able to defeat you without a large gem advantage seem pretty slim. Ogres and alchera may not have had huge gem incomes, but I'm sure you'll be able to increase the value of that land a bit under your rulership.

So executor, are you happy for once you're not really being ganged? ;)


Wow. That thing is nuts. I'm glad I'm not playing against an Amos nation.

Next time I play a game like this, there will be no immortal banefire shielded multi-aoe attack popkilling SC summons that can fly, teleport, and have enormous amounts of ap so even if there's a storm up they can cross the field with pointless ease :(. My bad for letting them in, I just didn't realize how crazy they really were. I still think maybe there are some amos mods that are not pointlessly overpowered... but I'm beginning to realize just why they've gotten that reputation.



Edit: Hmm, that turn was actually much less nasty than I'd expected. Also, I did say I wasn't going to use magic duel to kill those, but I was convinced by IRC people that it was the way to go. Worked much better than I expected it to. It's your fault for stacking such huge mr on those things there's hardly any way to kill them.

Hehe, you were warned ;). It could have evened itself out a little bit with a grand alliance against Stygia, that is one of the equalizing factors of multiplayer play.

[rdonj]

I think we could have managed if anyone else had cast well of misery, even. But it was not to be :( Anyway I haven't given up yet, it may just be possible to win still. That hope is just rapidly fading.

[Burnsaber]

Sorry, but I can't access my computer at the moment, can I get a 12h exension?

[rdonj]

Yeah, no problem.

[Executor]

Never had time to post something regarding the last turn and all this new stuff.


So executor, are you happy for once you're not really being ganged? ;)


Yes, I'm very happy I'm not ganged. It is much more enjoyable when you can afford to have 3 wars at the same on your own rather than have someone else decide that for you.:p

Well I did warn you about Stygia and offered, and several time might I add, to change my nation if it seemed too powerful, and I had problems with it being modded and all.
I feel that Stygia is overpowered but so is Itza IMO.
There are just too many super strong sacred units with cool stuff and those insane mages, not to mention that hero of your with over 20 magic schools and a priest level of 5 and 30 base MR and 39 base protection? wow, and I thought rasuls were nasty... Also the fact that you have pretty much every magic school, cross combination, and built in communions in regular mages? that's too much. The only thing that hamper.

But hey, it's interesting, one super power against another.:)


Now, this last turn was a disaster. I almost lost two Rasuls!
The only Rasul that didn't have pearls for returning by mistake was the same that landed in your lands. A stroke of luck on your side I guess.
And I was just 1 turn away from VOR:(
That's why I set him to attack right away, I hoped you'd send just one magic dualer.

Well, be sure I won't be making any stupid mistakes like that any more.

[Executor]

I think we could have managed if anyone else had cast well of misery, even. But it was not to be :( Anyway I haven't given up yet, it may just be possible to win still. That hope is just rapidly fading.

I'm not THAT powerful! It's not me who's leading in all the freaking score graphs.
Also, that dom push came from my priests who dom pushed my dominion onto ogre forts for my rasuls to storm.

Man, you have no idea how lucky you were when you cast GONB. I planned to cast it the very next turn:p
But since I have no idea how much you put up and since noone wants to trade me nature gems, I guess I won't be overcasting it.:D

And now the current turn.
All in all, I like.
No dome over your capital? You should know better, but I guess that won't make a difference now...

[Burnsaber]

Well as long as we are trash-talking, I might as well say a few things to Haida Gawaii.

I absolutely hate your PD ravens. I had these elaborate plans to just teleport some gifted thugs and take all your non-forted provinces that way, but the damn ravens will attack my guys before they can buff. Curse them! Once all your lands belong to the blue star, we will decimate every single one of them.

Those thunder birds are also pretty nasty, but how are you intending to assault me? My dominion isn't going anywhere soon. Also take note that we are deploying anti-storm-birdie measures as we speak. Your blasted birds will not protect you for long.

You wild savages will become civilized and abondon your heretical totem spirits. Abandon your uncomfortable huts and exposure to the cruel wilderness. For the City of Wonders is the Nexus, the center of all, and the soon-to-be capitol of the known world. Join us and become one of the gifted, the blessed, the superior, the benevolent protectors of the weak.

[Valerius]

I absolutely hate your PD ravens. I had these elaborate plans to just teleport some gifted thugs and take all your non-forted provinces that way, but the damn ravens will attack my guys before they can buff. Curse them! Once all your lands belong to the blue star, we will decimate every single one of them.

Yeah, Ravens are excellent. They were pretty much the only unit I used during my initial expansion. But I don't think they are part of my PD - I dropped off a few in all my provinces to provide a welcoming party for your Captain America wannabes. :)

Those thunder birds are also pretty nasty...

Thunderbirds are interesting. You have a great counter available in the form of your Watchmen but they can do some nice damage to any unit that doesn't have LR 100 (please do send more Smiths ;)).

...but how are you intending to assault me? My dominion isn't going anywhere soon. Also take note that we are deploying anti-storm-birdie measures as we speak. Your blasted birds will not protect you for long.

Uh, I'm still working on that one. I think I counted too much on the thunderbirds. But as you say, they only work defensively and at the moment I'm not taking the battle to you, which means eventually you'll wear me down.

You wild savages will become civilized and abondon your heretical totem spirits. Abandon your uncomfortable huts and exposure to the cruel wilderness. For the City of Wonders is the Nexus, the center of all, and the soon-to-be capitol of the known world. Join us and become one of the gifted, the blessed, the superior, the benevolent protectors of the weak.

This points out the sanctimonious hypocrisy of the Alugrans better than anything we could say. Tell us, did the innocents sacrificed to summon the vampires in Lish feel you were "benevolent protectors of the weak"? The people of Haida Gwaii call on all nations to oppose the imperialism of the Alugrans, though we realize that with the entire world at war aid is unlikely to arrive. But we will fight to the last Thunderbird, the last Raven!

[rdonj]

Never had time to post something regarding the last turn and all this new stuff.


So executor, are you happy for once you're not really being ganged? ;)


Yes, I'm very happy I'm not ganged. It is much more enjoyable when you can afford to have 3 wars at the same on your own rather than have someone else decide that for you.:p

Well I did warn you about Stygia and offered, and several time might I add, to change my nation if it seemed too powerful, and I had problems with it being modded and all.
I feel that Stygia is overpowered but so is Itza IMO.
There are just too many super strong sacred units with cool stuff and those insane mages, not to mention that hero of your with over 20 magic schools and a priest level of 5 and 30 base MR and 39 base protection? wow, and I thought rasuls were nasty... Also the fact that you have pretty much every magic school, cross combination, and built in communions in regular mages? that's too much. The only thing that hamper.

But hey, it's interesting, one super power against another.:)


Now, this last turn was a disaster. I almost lost two Rasuls!
The only Rasul that didn't have pearls for returning by mistake was the same that landed in your lands. A stroke of luck on your side I guess.
And I was just 1 turn away from VOR:(
That's why I set him to attack right away, I hoped you'd send just one magic dualer.

Well, be sure I won't be making any stupid mistakes like that any more.

You did offer, and I really wish I'd taken a better look back when you did. I looked to see who it was and recalled my sp experience with them. The pop-killing, the severe lack of gold, and most of all the masses of yilan tanri who would die horribly each turn trying to kill anything. Or get shot to pieces by my own composite bowmen. I had gotten a few nazar goz before, but didn't really look at resul al'zaman, I maybe summoned one. I remembered their death summons were strong, but I had no recollction of how strong. Those have to be one of the most overpowered units ever released in a mod :P Anyway, it is completely my own fault, I should have taken a better look but I really wanted you in the game ;)

I'm still not convinced that itza is any more overpowered than any of the traditional super nations, but I'll admit they certainly do place a lot of eggs in one basket with the slann. I could see it much more easily if each of my 4th gen slann had 3 in one path plus crosspaths or something, but they don't. Slann who are particularly powerful in one path are exceedingly rare. The 3rd generation slann are where itza starts getting crazy magical power, before then you absolutely have to rely on large skink communions. The 5th generation slann are even exceedingly close to unusable for battle magic, given their cost, even with a communion. The only reason I feel justified using them on you is for the h3 and high astral :P It at least gives me some buffs. All the saurus summons are pretty neat, and it's nice to have a use for fire gems. Not that they're really helping me that much against you, except the saurus of tepok. Those flying saurus are very nice for the counter-raiding that makes up much of my war effort.

As for my hero, you're overstating him a bit. He does have exactly 20 magic paths (mostly water and astral, the astral being more or less irrelevant and the water... letting me summon water queens, I guess? Natural niefel flames caster? Ignore those and he loses 11 paths)... and h5. But 38 prot? He has 38 prot in the same way he has 1 hp ;) His prot is really 14, he just happens to have 38 in his first form, which has 1 hp and some nice resistances to help keep it alive. I do have lots of cross pathing, which unfortunately does not benefit from the benefit of a hammer for forging, and is usually no better than 2/2 or 1/3. So while I do benefit from it, I sacrifice a LOT to get it. Especially since slann can only be fit with miscellaneous boosters.

Heh, I was told to expect to lose 2-3 slann, so I sent 4. And then lost one of them this turn, meh :(

[Trumanator]

Well, Alchera finally managed to kill one of my avatars! Never fear though, more are on their way. And with the bloodstone factory ever increasing, the rate just speeds up!

[Executor]

Ah, Nehekhara and blood is a crazy combination! good old times...

Sigh, I liked Sytigia because of their troops, mostly sacreds, not summons or free chaff, and as it turns out the troops are the only thing I didn't use with Stygia, so sad...:(

Rdonj? No comment on your capitals assault?

[rdonj]

I think we could have managed if anyone else had cast well of misery, even. But it was not to be :( Anyway I haven't given up yet, it may just be possible to win still. That hope is just rapidly fading.

I'm not THAT powerful! It's not me who's leading in all the freaking score graphs.
Also, that dom push came from my priests who dom pushed my dominion onto ogre forts for my rasuls to storm.

Man, you have no idea how lucky you were when you cast GONB. I planned to cast it the very next turn:p
But since I have no idea how much you put up and since noone wants to trade me nature gems, I guess I won't be overcasting it.:D

And now the current turn.
All in all, I like.
No dome over your capital? You should know better, but I guess that won't make a difference now...

And yet, with me leading all the score graphs, I have completely failed to make any sort of relevant headway on you. In fact all the action takes place inside my own territory, since you are fighting me with nothing but summons and SCs. Again I switch gears, we'll see what sort of difference it makes. Well, I guess the dominion coming from your priests does make the world look less ugly. However it seems my dominion is struggling now anyway. Not good for my chances of beating you.

I was a bit surprised no one tried to challenge my gift of nature's bounty. It's a pretty powerful spell. But with my gem income it is a bit risky of a move, so I suppose I can imagine why no one has. Unless there was a dispel attempt I wasn't aware of :).

As for doming my capitol, I figured that strategic mobility was more important than blocking your spells. Of course, now that I have FIVE of your immortal SCs sitting on top of me, I begin to question the wisdom of my choice. And, may I point out to anyone who reads this post, several of them have been given elixirs of life. So now, if I want to magic duel these insane monstrosities, I have to succeed twice. Feh. I have to hand it to you, I'm not sure I can imagine a better use for one of those elixirs. The difficulty I will have to go through to kill these things, who also carry pearls to cast returning, is simply absurd. I'm beginning to dread opening my turns....

[rdonj]

Ah, Nehekhara and blood is a crazy combination! good old times...

Sigh, I liked Sytigia because of their troops, mostly sacreds, not summons or free chaff, and as it turns out the troops are the only thing I didn't use with Stygia, so sad...:(

Rdonj? No comment on your capitals assault?

Sorry, my post was getting so long, I decided to break it into two.

Oh, you meant their HUMAN troops. Well, I guess it would have been hard with your populace dying off so fast. Most of stygia's troops aren't that tough really, though the nomad infantry with those crazy composite bows is pretty impressive.

[Executor]

Actually, they didn't teleport. Well one did, the others fly in. But fortunately for you you placed forces to move and patrol I assume? there for there were two battles, and you saw all of them, which I hoped wouldn't happen, and the rasul from the water was set to cast returning also, unfortunately.

[rdonj]

Crazy, ridiculous mapmove :(

[Sombre]

Should also point out that the 20 path Slann is not a hero, he's an extremely expensive unique summon. I don't think he's a good example if you want to talk Itza being overpowered.

[Executor]

Sombre, I was aiming more for the vast magic powers Itza has, and the various strategies available. Comparing Stygia and Itza, Stygia isn't really all that more powerful.

Ogre just won't give up! What's this, the second or third time I storm the fort? Stupid battle turn limit...

Alchera, thanks for making it much easier for me by storming out of the fort!

Itza, that was a very good battle to watch. I expected you'd merge those two large armies or move them both towards my fort.

[rdonj]

I'm sure it was a good battle to watch, for you ;) My slann didn't have some of the gems they were supposed to have due to an unfortunate lab pooling accident, and some priests ended up sneaking instead of arriving in the battle, so my magic was much weaker than it was supposed to be :( I wish my slann had decided to cast anything other than repeated paralyzes at your resul al'zaman. Seriously they had better options, paralyze isn't that likely to work against someone with 27 mr. Well, that hurt a little but eh, at least I have less upkeep now.

If I'd moved both armies towards your fort I might have gotten somewhere. Between buffs and the expanded army size I am pretty sure I could have taken the SC. Ah well. I'm getting closer to able to deal with your SCs. I still don't know that I have any good way to kill them, but their lives are becoming more endangered.

[Executor]

A stranger walks into a tavern to rest for the night in a land far away. He sits down next to the fireplace to warm up and overhears two friends talking.

-Have you ever heard the sad story of the cursed Lord of Stygia, Valefor?
-Stygia?
-Yes, it was once a very powerful Kingdom very far away, well the story goes like this...

-Once upon a time there was a sorcerer destined for greatness, his name was Valefor. In time he became one of the most powerful mages in the world. Stygia fell under his rule and all worshiped him. But all was not good for him nor did things happen the way he planned them to happen.
Long had the Lord of Stygia set his eyes on the Lands of Vultus, Lord of Tharoon, but he waited for the right moment to strike.
He waited, and waited, and waited, and than he waited some more, waited month after month for those bastards to start site searching their lands, until he grew tired of waiting and was forced to invade Tharoon, of course as an entirely defensive act.
After he managed to defend his way to Tharoon lands, he was forced to site search them himself, oh the poor Lord of Stygia and his pathless mages. It was a long and hard effort, if only the Gods blessed him with the speed of Resul Al'Zaman!
Finally he was at peace! After many months of hiking it finally seemed his lands held no more secrets hidden from him, but oooh was he wrong...
He realized that his people were dying, everywhere he looked there were corpses, cities were decimated with no apparent reason!
He wasn't sure he could live with such a loss, all the gold he'd lose!
Suddenly, he heard the voice of the evil, unrighteous, mendacious Lord of Itza, QuadBlessedFlamingHalberds laughing, hahaha, yes, all your population will gradually die off!!!
Petrified by his words he knew he had to take some action!
How was he to replace his gold, I mean population? He had no choice but to annex the Kingdom of Ogre, so he did.
But he was soon heart broken by the state in which he found his new lands, siteless and goldless...
He wept for long and wondered how he deserved such a cruel fate and than he finally knew what needed to be done!
His lands needed to be blessed! He long prepared to bless his lands with the Gift of Natures Bounty but once again the evil Lord of Itza stepped in and ruined his plans, and used Valefors ideas for his own purpose and blessed his own lands!
Seeing what the mad, power driven Lord of Itza was doing, Valefor had no other option other than to place Alchera under his protection, so he did.
But the mindless brute of Itza didn't like this noble act so he viciously attacked him with no prior warning.

Driven by mindless rage the Lord of Stygia yelled, KABLAM! in the style of Mel Gibson the Braveheart and so the war between Itza and Stygia began...

Forgive me but I'm very bored right now and can't sleep...:(

[Trumanator]

lol

[rdonj]

Hehe. Well, now it is the fault of the false god Valefor that his people suffer. Surely he can see that under the guidance of the great and benevolent QuadBlessedFlamingHalberds, the people of stygia would be saved from this slow damnation, and prosper as they never have before ;).

Sorry for taking so long with my turns lately. I seem to have had a lot less free time as of late. And I keep foolishly committing to new games so it may only get worse :P However, it would appear I am not the only one the world is waiting on....

[Lavaere]

nice

[Trumanator]

I see that Executor finally gave up on conquering the Ogres with his SCs. BRAVO!!!! to statttis for his stellar play. I don't know that they could have been played better in this mod's iteration.

[Executor]

Yeah, there are only so many turn-limit defeats one can take...
But non the less the undead horde has prevailed!!!

Oh, BTW, I hope this game will have a sequel, I'm looking at some of the other mod nations now and Urdheim seems damn interesting. But I'm still in the EA section doe.

[rdonj]

Hmm, I don't know. I am getting into too many games as of late, and if I don't get kicked out of a few I really won't have the time or inclination. This game is already starting to burn me out a bit.

That doesn't mean someone else can't do it though.

[Executor]

I used to have that problem too. Play 6 to 7 games at once.
But now I've learned self-control so I'm in exactly 3 games now, and I plan to keep it that way. Plus, once you have so many games going it's hard to do proper turns and not **** all over yourself.

I don't think this game will be over any time soon, and I'd like to see a trend of always having a mod nation game, and while I would be very happy to admin such a game if you aren't able to I have practically zero modding skill unfortunately.

So please don't get too burned out!:)

Oh, and there's a very easy way to deal with your problem, just send me all your gems and items, and place all your troops in a single province, I'll take care of the rest. :)

EDIT> Ah, yes, my next mod nation of choice would be most definitely Urdheim.

[rdonj]

I don't think this game will be over any time soon, and I'd like to see a trend of always having a mod nation game, and while I would be very happy to admin such a game if you aren't able to I have practically zero modding skill unfortunately.

So please don't get too burned out!:)

Oh, and there's a very easy way to deal with your problem, just send me all your gems and items, and place all your troops in a single province, I'll take care of the rest. :)

Yeah, I think you're right. This game could go on for quite a while with no one landing on top. I'm not sure you really need modding skill to admin a mod nations game. I guess understanding a little about modding does make it easier to deal with mod conflicts though when they pop up. Anyway I probably wouldn't mind helping set up any mod that was needed to play, and it's usually not too hard to find volunteers for that sort of thing if you need them.

Heh, I don't think so executor, not yet ;) Although maybe when I actually get to look at my turn I'll think otherwise. But this is the first game I've played where I think I actually stand a chance of winning, so I'm going to try and make that happen. Well, if I can actually play and stomach looking at my turns that is.

[the Vanishag]

Well, that was the last hurrah for me. I managed to take out another one of Nekehara's blinkin' avatars, but I never did find a good way to handle skele spam from 20+ High Priesrs. I really needed a trampling unit...

Oh, and Executor: my suicidal charge was because you'd breached my gates, had overwhelming force, and I needed to save money to pay upkeep on units where I thought I stood half a chance. Turns out I thought wrong.

Still, I'm looking forward to drafting my after-action report, and I'd be interested in doing this again... in a while.

[Executor]

Rdonj, I think you're missing the point of raiding,
you should be doing it as long as it's gem/gold effective for you, which frankly, in this case, isn't.
You're only hurting yourself with those Slanns.

I guess it's only about one more turn of preaching before you advance with the troops and all those priests you have stacked up in Merovia.

Vanishag, I think you would have done much more damage if you stayed inside the fort, beyond the castle gates you stood no chance.

And upkeep problems aren't that big, you really only lose a very small proportion of your army if you can't pay for troops. It takes dozens of turns to lose any significant proportion of troops.

[Trumanator]

Well, if nothing else Vanishag, you've eliminated me as a major research leader. I'm not sure what you could have done against my level of skelly spam, but NI maps can make it tough to deal with that because of the lack of indy priests.
My early occupation of your capital though made it realy difficult for you, and I think it was essential in allowing me to fight off both you and the Ogres, as it allowed me to fight you in one place of advantage, instead of dealing with TWO different sources of raiding warbands.
In any event, thanks for playing, and that is one interesting nation you have there.

[Sombre]

Urdheim would need a pretty serious rebalancing imo to be used in another mod game. I remember it having some potentially broken stuff.

[Executor]

Urdheim would need a pretty serious rebalancing imo to be used in another mod game. I remember it having some potentially broken stuff.

?What do you mean by potentially broken stuff?

I find them interesting because of the graphics, and those two big capital mages.

[Sombre]

It's been like 2 years since I tried them, but the last time I did they had a really, really good pretender and some summon allies which got out of hand within a few turns.

[Executor]

I'm assuming it's the wywern alike summon, and the dracolich pretender.
Taking that pretender would be stupid in my opinion, and the unit summon can easily be replaced with a much less powerful unit.

Rdonj, could I ask for a 3 hour delay on the current turn?

Hmm, I'm looking at the score graphs and all the nations are more or less the same power there, well the exception of Itzas gold and my army.
I think there's gonna a be an interesting end game, turn 56 and no one cams on top as a possible winner yet.

[rdonj]

Yeah, postponement granted. I'll get around to addressing your post at me eventually :).

[Trumanator]

Yeah, its definitely interesting how even things are at this point. I was feeling like I was going to be kicked out of the running for a while, but now I feel much more confident.

[rdonj]

Rdonj, I think you're missing the point of raiding,
you should be doing it as long as it's gem/gold effective for you, which frankly, in this case, isn't.
You're only hurting yourself with those Slanns.

I don't miss the point of raiding. However, those slann I dropped on you had absolutely nothing to do with raiding. I did it because I was tired of not doing anything to you :P It was also a test to see if it would be worth it to try a new tactic. The test went better than I expected, so it is a possibility that I may try to follow through with the plan. How effective it ultimately is, is yet to be seen.

[Executor]

Peachy...
I knew I wouldn't be able to do my turn in the morning since I had some things to take care of, therefor the delay, however I didn't know there'd be a freaking power cut the moment I got home.
Hope nothing tragic happened.

[rdonj]

Ah, that sucks. I would have delayed the turn again for you, but I was a bit busy at the time unfortunately. Well, I didn't do anything particularly dangerous on your side of the map, so I doubt you suffered too much from the stale other than forging/rituals.

You will all be very happy to see the global I put up to replace the one trumanator took from me last turn, however.

[Trumanator]

heh, its not like we're dealing with anything new, since you already had as many gems as the top two competitors combined just about.

[rdonj]

Um, I doubt that very much. I have gem gens, but not nearly that many.

[Executor]

Well you're the one with clams and stones...

[rdonj]

That's true. And I fully expect that, whether you do or not, alugra has enough clams and stones that my gem income was never double that of the next two nations. I doubt it is even now.

[Trumanator]

well, I might have been hyperbolizing a bit ;)

[Burnsaber]

That's true. And I fully expect that, whether you do or not, alugra has enough clams and stones that my gem income was never double that of the next two nations. I doubt it is even now.

What? I have clams! Why didn't anyone tell me!

Now if I can just find the damn things...

[rdonj]

Don't think I don't know the REAL reason you sent those troops into the lake. I have to admit, you almost had me fooled, hiding your clams of pearls there amidst beds of oysters might have fooled a less paranoid foe. But not I, for you see, my paranoia reaches unparalleled depths of extravagance. :D

[rdonj]

Seeing as how we're delaying all the time anyway, does anyone object to setting the timer to 72 hours?

[Executor]

I think that's a splendid idea, we are entering the late stage of the game.

[Burnsaber]

Good Idea. I'm not a real competetiror for the win, but I'll be damned sure to take Haida Gawaii down and I need to do some real planning to figure out how to take him out.

[rdonj]

Alright, switching over to 72 hour hosting.

[Executor]

I just now looked at the turn, Arcane Nexus?
That's a fast way to get yourself killed Rdonj.

I turned down a gangbang on you, however Arcane Nexus and Gift of Natures Bounty change that, all bets are off.

[rdonj]

Eh, I don't mind if it happens. I would rather go out with a bang than ever so slowly lose due to fighting a war which will take a century while everyone else grows more powerful.

That said, I think I pretty much need arcane nexus to kill you :(. As it was I couldn't really afford some of the things I needed to fight you. Now, finally, I can. And if anyone else interferes, I guess I'll have to try to make them reconsider. Besides, it's trumanator's fault for overwriting my other global ;)

[Executor]

I don't like to gang but you really leave me no other choice here, your have too big of a gem advantage compared to the rest of us.

You had the biggest gem income the whole game, and you're clamming and stoning, and on top of that you've cast AN, that gives you at least 2x gem income compared to the rest of us, not to mention the the 3x-5x money advantage.

I considered you the most perspective nation to win... until now.

[rdonj]

Eh, I don't have that many blood stones. Without looking at my turn file, I can guarantee you I have less than 10 of them. I may have said something about my earth gem income being terrible for most of the game. It may be that I was on the path to winning the game... after killing you in 30 or more turns. Personally I am willing to bet it would take longer, due to the extremely slow-moving nature of our war. So I think whoever wins elsewhere in the world is going to be gaining in power much faster than I would have been, pre-nexus. So, maybe I'll lose faster now (imo), but I promise either way, the war will go faster.

[Executor]

People, I think I'll have to drop this game, in fact, I'll probably have to Dominions all together, I'm the phase of moving and currently I practically have no internet access.
I have no idea if I'll settle in a week or a month, or if I'll have reliable internet access even when I finally move.

A sub for Stygia shouldn't be hard to find as it is a powerful nation with a lot of immortal SC's.

[rdonj]

Sorry to see you go executor. It's been a pleasure to play against you. Hopefully we can find an adequate sub to take over for you, but your shoes (chair?) will be hard to fill.

[Executor]

I'll think of it as a vacation from dominions...
Haven't even looked at this turn, don't know what changed, but I had some nasty plans for you in the following couple of turns...

[rdonj]

I haven't looked at my turn yet either, actually. I've had a few new ideas over the last few turns, but haven't really gotten to fully implement them yet. I guess your sub is going to have to deal with a lot at once.

[Septimius Severus]

It looks like I'm coming in to join you guys and taking over Executor's Stygia. I've heard much about this Sharivar map, it is supposed to be quite nice looking and I generally like mod nations, though I've never played with Stygia. Be gentle with me though, as this is only my 2nd FFA type MP game.:D

[rdonj]

Oh yes, shahrivar is a very pretty map. I think you'll like it. When you see what executor is doing I think it will largely explain itself, but feel free to come to me with any questions about what he's forging, summoning... etc :angel.

[Valerius]

Welcome to the game, Sept.

[Septimius Severus]

Well, I'm looking at Stygia's turn right now and ....

Ye gods! Rdonj, what have you got me into! Late game micromanagement hell.

Seriously though, no that bad, lots of individual units to sort out however.

Hmm, 6 nations still left alive, one of whom may be on their way out.

I will honor any current alliances (Nehekhara).

Hopefully, Executor will come back around and resume before I run his Stygia into the ground. But we shall have some fun though anyway.:D

[rdonj]

Hey, you're the one who volunteered ;). Anyway, given some of executor's advantages, I think you'd have to actually "try" to run it into the ground to do so. I mean, everything he has that's important is immortal. If all you do is maintain the status quo, I think you'll have done fine.

[Executor]

I doubt I'll have time for Dominions any time soon, so I'm fairly certain I won't be coming back to this or my other game.

At the very least you have more than enough potential to ruin rdonjs day :p

[rdonj]

Of that I have no doubt.

[Trumanator]

Oh dear, Alugra seems to be nigh unstoppable. That single trident-wielding champion seems invincible!

[Septimius Severus]

Forgive my stale. I asked rdonj for a 12 hour extension, but underestimated the time I would need (was more like 16 hours really), I've also been trying to catch up on my badly neglected life outside of dominions.:)

It will take me a few turns though, before I am able to learn the different units Stygia has avaiable and just what I am doing and make sense of all the units that are stacked. No further stales are anticipated though.

[rdonj]

Well, it's probably not a big deal. Our little war has never been that active. You probably lost a lot of forging though.

[rdonj]

Someone took down my cheapy nexus... :( Oh well, guess the giant target is off of my head. And I did get some use out of it. I think I'll let it stay down.

[the Vanishag]

Well, that's finally the end of me... took you long enough, Trumanator!

Despite getting my tail kicked so hard that it fell off, I really enjoyed this game. Ill post a personal AAR soon, and a revised (slightly more powerful, mostly re-balanced) ALchera will be posted soon.

Thanks, everyone!

[rdonj]

Thanks for playing the_Vanishag, it was good having you. I must say I am really looking forward to your AAR :). Also if you have any thoughts about the various nations you would like to express, now is a good time to do so.

Also - wow, I never would have thought a wraith lord would kill a Resul Al'zaman.

[Trumanator]

Thanks for playing Vanishag, you definitely had me worried for a while there.

[rdonj]

I'm not going to be able to do the turn today, so I'm extending hosting 24 hours.

[rdonj]

Just so everyone knows, the sickle whose crop is pain is available for forging this turn :)

[rdonj]

Ah, it feels good having an income again.

[rdonj]

Apologies, but I won't be able to get my turn in today. And since next turn is the onset of itza-alugran aggression, I am really not inclined to stale...

[rdonj]

My turn is in. And has convinced me never to survive until late game again :(. I have so many commanders it's just annoying.

I'm sure burnsaber will be willing to give me a hand with that, though.

[rdonj]

Wow. I can't believe you found all those chameleons. I know watchmen have a patrol bonus, but you didn't really have THAT many of them in the province....

Well, it would appear the first battle between Itza and Alugra goes to the courageous lizards of Itzan. Huzzah! Certain things did not work out as well as planned, and I can see I definitely need to bring a few more things to the table next time I fight one of those huge alugran armies. But overall this was a victory I can live with. We both lost mostly a bunch of chaff troops... but there are 170 alugran heroes dead this day, and no more than half that many temple guard. We also killed roughly the same number of commanders, though most of mine died due to being overused by their slann masters. Not quite sure what to do about that. I guess bring more skinks, dumb as that is sounding. I could live without the mass feebleminding of my troops though.

Now let us see if I can manage to capitalize on this grand victory.

[rdonj]

Just curious, anyone get gems from me this turn that they weren't expecting? Should've been 15 pearls. I'm not going to make you give them back, but I'd like to know who it was.

[rdonj]

Okay, I am going to go ahead and send in another turn tonight. Meanwhile, I'm opening a poll for all the players in the game. Are you still interested in continuing?

Now, the only real problem is I'm not really sure who to declare a victor here if we do end it. Alugra looks to be the strongest player currently by the graphs, but I have the feeling he is on his way out. And through various diplomatic machinations I think I am probably the most likely player to win the game eventually should it be played out. But, that is pretty hypothetical and if we don't actually play the game out, I don't quite think it's fair to call me the winner. If you all do, I won't object. But I think in the current state it would be more fair to call a 3-way tie between me, alugra and stygia. If anyone objects to this, now is the time to speak.

[Trumanator]

I would like to continue playing. However, I won't make a fuss if the big 3 decide to end it. I agree that declaring a winner is problematic, and think that a three way tie is probably the best solution.

[Valerius]

Well, I'm fine with ending it since I'm almost dead anyway. Not sure if it should be a three or four way tie though, since Nehekhara doesn't seem out of the running.

[rdonj]

I don't know, somehow nehekara doesn't seem to be quite on the same level as itza+stygia+alugra. But in the end it hardly matters. What's the difference between a third of a win and a fourth of a win anyway?

[rdonj]

Actually it seems I'm going to have to postpone. I got roped into a last minute late night blitz game on irc. I'm not going to be able to do the turn until tomorrow anyway. Sorry.

[rdonj]

Ossa has agreed to sub for me. In the interests of easing his transition into the game I'm going to add another 48 hours to the clock. He may or may not need all this time. But I have a lot of commanders.

[Septimius Severus]

Welcome Ossa. Instead of getting a sub for yourself rdonj, I would have been happy with just a 3 way tie being declared. But, as you wish.

[Burnsaber]

Septimus threw a odd message this turn in the game. I was kind of confused what it meant. I'll assume it was about ending the game.

As for keeping this game going, I've been playing just out of sense of commitment for the last 15 turns (really, I never had the slightest shot at winning, I'll explain in more detail if the game is declared finished). I'd be really happy just to call Itza the winner and save ourselves 20 turns of struggling*. Also, I really can't understand the 3-way gangbang I'm facing, but I guess there just wasn't any way for you to know my lack of clams.

But my turns are getting simpler and simpler, so I will play on if people want to. I always love to play last stands.

*Let's be really honest here. With a map this huge, this is a clam game. Most clams = win.

[Septimius Severus]

I believe Ossa is playing Itza, and I think Ferrosol is playing Alugra (rdonj are you still admining the game/updating the main post?) Which nation are you playing Burnsabr?

If Stygia(myself), Itza, and Alugra agree, and there are no more objections we can end the game and declare a winner or three way tie.

[rdonj]

I didn't even mention your lack of clams to ossa. When he took over, I decided that your telling me about them should be kept secret since our conversation had been likely to lead to the game's ending at that point. I can explain the gangbang though. Stygia and nehekara have basically been allied this entire game. When stygia and I signed peace so that I could try to save haida gwaii from you, stygia decided he wanted in on the action. I think nehekara joined in for a chance to grow his empire.

It sounds like everyone but trumanator is willing to call the game at this point (and I don't blame him as he's not had to fight any of the major world powers yet, with his bloodstones and SCs he should be sitting pretty happily right now). If you still don't really want to play on, I have no problem ending the game.


Septimius - Yes, I am still admining the game, I'm kind of an administration specialist :P. Also, burnsaber is alugra. Sorry, I completely forgot to update that on the main post. He took over for ferrosol fairly early on when he disappeared.

[Burnsaber]

I believe Ossa is playing Itza, and I think Ferrosol is playing Alugra (rdonj are you still admining the game/updating the main post?) Which nation are you playing Burnsabr?


I'm playing Alugra, Ferrosol stopped playing on turn 40ish? and I stepped in.

[Septimius Severus]

Well, if Ossa is in agreement we can quit and declare a three way tie, however since Ossa has just joined, he may wish to keep going a bit. I'll continue for the sake of anyone who wishes to keep playing. So let us hear from Ossa on this matter and anyone else who may wish to do so?

[Trumanator]

I am going to be busy with ROTC essentially all this weekend, with absolutely no internet access. If I could have a delay till Monday that would be great.

[rdonj]

Granted.

[Ossa]

Well... I'm ok with calling the game. THough I believe I would steamroll Agua... (sp) with all the stuff I took over from the previous player;)

[Septimius Severus]

Very well, rdonj, it would appear the game is over then. A stalemate having been called, no winner. The current turn (70) I guess will be the last. It was a pleasure and a privilege playing with all of you.

[Burnsaber]

Well... I'm ok with calling the game. THough I believe I would steamroll Agua... (sp) with all the stuff I took over from the previous player;)

Yeah, I agree. I think this game should be declared a draw between Itza and Stygia.

As for the game, when I took over a over turn 40 something, Alugra was a mess. Ferrosol's PoD gave me a pretty big empire, but the paths on it don't really contribute much. Also, Ferro hadn't really done much site searching either and the gem income was quite small and focused on absolutely wrong paths (only one hammer and +2 earth gem income, yikes!). I could see Ferro's PoD working out, but it seemed that he run into some really bad luck with his Librarians (over 12 GoR'ed and no W1N1) and sites.

So I did my best to get back into the game, but no mater what I did, I couldn't beat the 16% chance for a N1W1 Librarian. And thus gems that would have been better spent in making RoS and RoW's went pretty much to waste. When I finally managed to get decent gem income and forge 1 Blood Stone per turn, it was already turn 55+ and I had no clams, no RoS, no RoW, mages to can only get to pathpower 2 (no-real-late-game magic) = dead nation.

It's pretty depressing to play a nation that has no shots at winning, so I started to play in a more "fun" way. Not microing much and trying out some new crazy strats, which made situation somewhat worse, but allowed me to be motivated to play.

At least my war with Haida went smoothly, but that was mostly due to his suboptimal Thunder Bird-strat (if he had spent his mage-time and air gems elsewhere, I'd likely have lost).

But all in all, I have no one else to blame for my loss expect me (if I hadn't desperately tried to that W1N1 Librarian and instead focused on boosters, it could have gone different) and I learned a lot from this game. Alugra will likely get updated and put up to the llamaserver now that it has gone through it's "Trial of Fire", so to speak. Once he smiths get their nerf, I think it will a fun nation for MP with a unique gameplay.

[rdonj]

Alright, I'm closing the game. I'm sending myself the turn file for itza first though, so I can see what my empire looked like at the end.

It seems that earth gems were scarce pretty much the world over. I had a max of 10 earth gem income at the height of my empire, and I got something like half of it from killing the skavens. So it took me a long time to build up my bloodstones also. It also did not help that executor got extremely lucky very early into my bloodstone forging when I only had 3 or 4 of them, and assassinated my empowered skink who was forging them (and was carrying my only RoS). It took me a few turns to recover from that loss, and at the end of the game I had something like 20 of them. I was never able to forge more than one per turn. And hammers, hah. I had maybe 5 hammers, since I didn't really get into thugging and only had 4 or 5 golems at the end there. Two of which were supplied mostly with items I'd pulled off of bogus and crew. So I mostly tried not to need hammers, and did most of my forging while arcane nexus was up :P.

It seems nehekara got just about all the earth gems on the map, since he apparently had enough to give stygia bunches of them early in the game, and create a grand bloodstone horde.

I did much better on clams, though I still wasn't really pressing those very hard due to other goals. However, after haida gwaii knew they were dead, they gave me all their clams... 45 of them, under the condition that I had to keep giving him the gems until he died, which I did. Itza had probably forged about 70 clams when I left.

I'd also saved up hundreds of gems and 20,000 gold that ossa immediately began putting to good use, summoning saurus and buying shedloads of troops so that the losses he took fighting alugra didn't phase him. Looking at the turn, he's down to 6,000, so you did accomplish something burnsaber. Not sure how he got all those slann feebleminded... mind hunts? It's frustrating that, for a nation so excellent at mind hunting, almost every single nation in the game was immune to them :P. Anyway, that gift of nature's bounty was a ridiculously key global for me... moreso than arcane nexus, which never got me more than 60 extra pearls a turn. Without it I was losing money, so I really had to get it back up or lose (4k in upkeep each turn). So I did... with 300 nature gems. Until then I hadn't cast a single global for price, as I had two enchantment bonus sites. I had to convert a lot of pearls to cast that so high though.


The whole war with stygia was pretty dumb. I should have just rushed him and lived with the losses I took killing his stupid undead things. I could probably have replaced them, and I might have gotten somewhere. That war had me so uninterested in playing my turns, because we hardly did anything. I kept trying to preach dominion in his land, and his stupid h4 priests mostly kept me out. It was only when septimius attacked into my dominion and lost a bunch of them that I was actually able to make any progress on that front... and then the war ended when I finally had positive dominion under one of his armies. Meh. At least that war allowed me to stockpile gems, summons and equipment that would later be put to use against alugra. Oh, and skink priests. Hordes of them. Although you did see most of them burn.

I'm really surprised alugra was so weak gemwise, but I suppose it maeks sense. It can be pretty hard relying on randoms to get the paths you want. Last time I played alugra I didn't have much luck getting a good librarian for clamming either. But I managed to find enchantresses to do it for me.

Why were you using so many gifted as soldiers, and almost none as thugs? When I play alugra I tend to mass watchmen and smith thugs. And hardly use the gifted as soldiers at all. I should actually try using them that way at some point. Anyway, I'm glad that alugra finally got its chance in mp. I don't think you did so bad, considering.

[Burnsaber]

Why were you using so many gifted as soldiers, and almost none as thugs? When I play alugra I tend to mass watchmen and smith thugs. And hardly use the gifted as soldiers at all. I should actually try using them that way at some point. Anyway, I'm glad that alugra finally got its chance in mp. I don't think you did so bad, considering.

I didn't use gifted thugs because Haida had sprinkled his ravens all over his provinces, who'd decimate the Thugs between their buff cycle. I had so many gifted soldiers because I had money to burn and tons of resources in my capital (so, why not?).

[rdonj]

Fair enough.

[Trumanator]

I dunno about getting the majority of the E gems on the map, but I definitely had something like 30-40 BS all told at the end. At first I thought that the B3 avatars were useless, but then I figured out that 2 of them will basically set you up to forge 2 or so stones a turn for the rest of the game. I still find the randoms on them rather annoying though. I also had no clamming, and almost no S income, but I didn't feel like I needed it as much, since I had my own national SC chassis, and I was planning on spamming Poison Golems once I had someone else's territory to put them in. I will say though, TK is perfect for epic skellispam :P

[Trumanator]

lol, at least this means I get to clean out all the PMs related to this game out of my inbox :D

[Valerius]

At least my war with Haida went smoothly, but that was mostly due to his suboptimal Thunder Bird-strat (if he had spent his mage-time and air gems elsewhere, I'd likely have lost).

LOL. Suboptimal is a nice way of putting it. ;) This is the second time I've put all my hopes on immortal troops - time will tell if I make the same mistake a third time.

Interesting to hear people talk about the lack of E gems - I had no E gem income and that was a problem. The other strange thing is that I only had 4A income (2 of which were from my cap).

I figured early on that clams were going to decide things and Haida is a clamming nation so I played that game, even though I hate clamming. My big mistake was declaring war on Aulgra before I was ready. I rushed it in order to help Nehekhara, but when he cast BoT I called it off - too late to avoid war with Alugra, though.

[Trumanator]

My big mistake was declaring war on Aulgra before I was ready. I rushed it in order to help Nehekhara, but when he cast BoT I called it off - too late to avoid war with Alugra, though.

lol, this situation was pretty unintentional, but probably looked like some pretty good statecraft from a distance :D I really figured that you would actually be pretty safe from it with your GoH, and that it would be pretty bad for Alugra. I will admit though, the metagame improved for me drastically when Alugra shifted focus to you.

[Burnsaber]

Yeah, prolonged BoT would have been pretty painful, since my manifests only have maxage 50. If it had been up only two turns more, my manifests would have started dropping like flies and my research (+thug communioning) with it.

My one regret is not using thug communions more. I only put one up against Itza in the last turn, but it kinda backfired when the first turn "Arcane Domination" got some critical masters, losing me many critical buffs (like Soul Vortex, some elemental resistances and the absolutely critical "Use the Leylines"). They might not be the most powerful things to do with manifests, but are the most awesome.

Valerius might recall some of my early attemps when I forgot to double-check the scripts, leaving me with some masters without "retreat" orders, making the thugged manifests just stand there after getting blinked by "Use the Leylines".

[rdonj]

I used a thug communion once against the ai in a singleplayer game. I had 25 or so of them go up against 300 various t'ien ch'i troops, including a decent number of chariots. Only lost 3 :) But I didn't retreat the masters. Do you have to retreat masters in order for them to work properly, or is giving them attack orders good enough? I had a number of them who stood around casting spells for some reason even though they were all scripted to attack at the end of their scripts. If so that might explain it....

Alugran manifest thug communions are certainly fun though, when you're not fighting against the most powerul astral nation to have ever existed :P