Age of Adventurers - EA [victory for the humans]

[vladikus]

Era 1 Chaoticized Game

Chaos_bounties on port 7741 with difficult AIs Rlyeh, Lanka, Ulm allied against you. (http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/Chaos_chk.cgi)

The pretenders of three nations set out together in hopes of establishing themselves in their new realm. But with the alliance of Rlyeh, Lanka, and Ulm it has been determined that a new band of nations must break this alliance before it becomes too powerful. Yet, it seems that the all the realm has turned against the newly banding nations.

Explanation of Chaos games:

"This is a game best played by people who feel they have the game all figured out, and they would like some surprises. It is for 1 to 4 human players, 3 allied computer played nations, and 3 more active nations (2 Special Monster and 1 the Independents). It is played on a randomly generated 80 province (medium sized) map with surprises everywhere. Play carefully."

Era: Early

Nations:
Vladikus - Tir n'an Og
LDiCesare - T'ien Ch'i
Lavaere - Helheim

[LDiCesare]

If I get it right, this is this an allied game against allied ai's, not a free-for-all against allied ai's?
If so, I'd like to apply as T'ien Ch'i. I can probably play at least once per day.

[vladikus]

If I get it right, this is this an allied game against allied ai's, not a free-for-all against allied ai's?
If so, I'd like to apply as T'ien Ch'i. I can probably play at least once per day.

Correct, this a human allied game vs. 3 allied AIs. I'll add you on (unless you change your mind).

[Lavaere]

I play Helheim for your third

[vladikus]

Good deal.

So to clarify, the settings will be:
PbEM one turn a day

The game will officially end once all human players are defeated or all AI players are destroyed.

The rest of the settings I am going to leave default, unless either you would like something changed. I'm easy going so don't hesitate to ask.

[Lavaere]

are we using CBM otherwise default is fine by me

[LDiCesare]

Default's fine. I like renaming allowed even though I don't use it much.

Do you want pbem or use Gandalf's site as hinted in first post? I'm fine with either.

[vladikus]

Alright, I will go with default settings for now and allow renaming, I'll post as soon as I have set up something with Gandalf. Trying to get an account made for Pbem doing one turn a day, the turns being due at midnight.

If one of you would like to propose a map, we can play on it. If not, we'll probably go with random.

If you'd like go ahead and send your pretenders in.

[Gandalf Parker]

Since the game will run continually it will allow people to directly connect and do turns. But I can setup a pbem in/out for anyone that wants to

[vladikus]

Yes, the game will be direct connect. Sorry about this.

[LDiCesare]

Great! Pretender Guanying has been uploaded.

[Gandalf Parker]

1.) Start Dom3

2.) use Game Tools to create a god to upload
(if you dont already have one) .

3.) go back to main menu

4.) select NETWORK

5.) select Connect to a Dominions Server

6.) enter game.dom3minions.com or the IP number, and hit Ok.
(this would be whatever address for the machine hosting the game)

7.) enter the port number for the game you want to join, (in this case type in 7741) and hit Ok

It plays just like solo play. As soon as you connect, it sends your turn and as soon as you hit end it sends your moves. No need to mess with email unless you really want to

[Lavaere]

In that case Kronus sent. Should be interesting as I've only played PBEM and Hotseat.
Will the turns like autohost, or wait the full 24 hours

[vladikus]

It looks like they will wait full 24 hours.

Good luck allies.

[LDiCesare]

It autohosts.
Looks interesting.
I play T'ien Ch'i and started with abysian soldiers and a flying stealthy demon commander.
And got unrest 66 on turn 2 :(

[Lavaere]

interesting indeed
a Huskarl w/ Archdevil and Ice Elementals

[vladikus]

Lizard Chariot with turkeys...

How disappointing.

Wow, just judging from the surrounding provinces and the units that are supposedly in them, this is going to be difficult.

[LDiCesare]

I'm having trouble connecting to the server. I hope it's temporary.

[vladikus]

I am too. It might be my fault. I played my turn and it hosted then I tried to go ahead and do my next turn and it froze up. :-\

[Gandalf Parker]

Sometimes (rarely) that happens on the first turn. I restarted it. Try now

[LDiCesare]

I managed to play my turn but it seems to be stuck again :(
I almsot retrieved a dwarven hammer. Unfortunately, I only got other goodies, and am besieging a fort.
Don't go to 37 (Muspel). There are no less than 5 ophanim there.

[vladikus]

Yeah, it froze for me too.

[LDiCesare]

If it's a persistent network problem, I think we should try to switch to PBEM. It's slower and a bit cumbersome, but reliable. Or ask Illwinter for help maybe?
I could host the pbem version if Gandalf can't fix the problem and sends me the files.

[Gandalf Parker]

Wow hundreds of games and this has happened maybe once before.
A particular unit seems to put the game into a loop.

I zipped the game and sent it to Johan but the best I can suggest if you dont mind is to send your gods to one of the other chaos games and start that.
http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/Chaos_chk.cgi

Or I can generate one just for you with any settings.

Here is the stuck loop that is filling up the game log:

Ensure order for 3773 Ophan, ord 13
Rearmost enemy (for unr 3773)
putgrouporder 3773 13 3864 1004088
com Pomona cast spell (favspell Nothing) (mayusegems 1)
est. choices 2
com Pomona cast spell (favspell Nothing) (mayusegems 1)
est. choices 2
Ensure order for 3773 Ophan, ord 13
Rearmost enemy (for unr 3773)
putgrouporder 3773 13 3864 1004088

[vladikus]

Want to try era 1 chaoticized game chaos_cheery on port 7344 against Abysia, Pangaea, Rlyeh?

http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/Chaos_chk.cgi

[Lavaere]

so we send our pretenders to that one now instead???

[vladikus]

Yeah.

[LDiCesare]

I'll send to the new port.
I was sure those Ophanim were evil.
I didn't even know you could retrieve log infos about what the game was doing. I bet it's some command line option I never read about.

[Lavaere]

too tired and pressed the wrong button, is there a way to reset it

[Gandalf Parker]

Its really hard to reset the game once it has created all the starting info. I can if you really want but its easier just to pick another.

I will make a couple extra so you have more to choose from. :)
It only takes about 2 minutes to generate the map and chaoticize it for each one.

[vladikus]

era 1 chaoticized game chaos_monarchy on port 7433 with mighty AIs Niefelheim, Hinnom, Oceania allied against you.

;)

[vladikus]

You still in Lavaere?

[Lavaere]

yup, I'll send now. just been a tad budy

[Lavaere]

Got a Catoblepas as my other commander. So should be able to make some good use out of him. Along with the Blood Stone it had.
As for troops some of Caelums Tempest Guard and Eagle Kings. Now if only I remember what sort of bless I grabbed if any.

On a different note, I though I'd shoot for Construction 2 first. Though without any good researchers at the moment it might take awhile.

[vladikus]

My other commander is a scout commanding a lot of other scouts, he is equipped with a Black Tower Shield, Bracers of Protection, and Bag of Winds.

I'm on the far left edge of the map, and my Pretender is dormant.


Alright, played my turn, fingers crossed that we don't crash :D

[LDiCesare]

Can't wait to be back home to play. Still about 7 or 8 hours left...

[Lavaere]

I'm right in the top left corner myself. I think I may have gone with a dormant one. Maybe I'll load up a test game later on since I've only got the one saved for Helheim at the moment

[LDiCesare]

I started in 46, in the middle-east of the map. A black candle spotted north in 63.
I have a Caelian Seraph with a fever fetish (therefore diseased :() to start with. And he leads undead who will die as soon as he leads them on a battlefield for lack of undead leadership. Well, I recruited a death mage.

[LDiCesare]

Damn restart. I uploaded the pretender from another computer, and only now do I realise that it must have been a somewhat experimental design. I mean my bless's ok but Misfortune 2 with apparently low Order... It will be hard. What with the event that caused my capital to have 90 unrest. I'm probably not going to try to conquer my first indy province before turn four or five.

[vladikus]

I don't even know when I'll have enough troops to start, my income is terrible (31 a month), and I am surrounded by wastelands.

I also have high unrest, so I can't recruit.

[Lavaere]

Thankfully my bonus troops have allowed me to take two new regions. Though seeing them each with around 90 unrest ain't very nice.
I'm don't play none CBM games so, any idea when skull mentors turn up. Hopefully when they do. I'll have enough death gems to spot each of us a few of them for use.

[LDiCesare]

All my troops patrol and at 30% tax and 87% unrest (yet another bad event) I can't buy new troops either. Well, conjuration will let me summon beasts before I can buy troops.
I could take one province which is not very strongly defended, but if it's got high unrest it's probably a bad idea.
We're going to have a slow start it seems.

[vladikus]

Hm, the patrolling worked well, I can recruit again, and I think I can probably take a province next turn.

[Lavaere]

Not bad if I say +6 Earth +6 Death per turn, and next turn I'll reach Construction 2. Though gold income is sorely lacking
So I'll start getting to work on forging next turn. Will anyone be needing some armour or something.

[vladikus]

Alright, got a province, though the losses were pretty steep. My Fir Bolg commander got the crap beat out of him... he's got 3 afflictions and is diseased now. Let's hope the independents aren't aggressive ;)

[LDiCesare]

I got one province quite easily and the next one was empty. I saw a third one with little defense and went there. The battle was costly but I won. And then Hinnom came in :(
So Hinnom now controls province 29 (named Special Monsters btw).
I'm going to get conjuration 2 soon, and summoning demons of heavenly rivers (conj3) is my first goal. I also have a lot of fire gems thanks to my fever fetish, so if you need fire gems to forge something, I've got plenty, but I'm using some of them to alchemise to make for the lack of gold.

[vladikus]

LDiCesare, I don't know what all is around you, but could you take the farms to your northeast... I'm not sure you've probably already thought of that (or it is once of the provinces you took). Unless of course it's especially well defended.

Fortune smiled on me too. Tax collection went well!

[LDiCesare]

I could try... but not before three turns (move, reach capital, attack). They're not too strong there, but I have almost no army left.
By the way, if you want to look at my position, password is Horh (not that I intend to reuse that pretender).

[Lavaere]

Vlad I have a scout next to you, and am sending my army towards you to help clear out the regions.
Also I've built the first of 3 Dwarven Hammers. Once ready I'll send one to each of you. After that I was thinking of building Horror Masks

[vladikus]

Sounds good, I see you up there. I had two bad events (lost 400 in taxes after having had good fortune bah!), so I am slowly rebuilding my army. My pretender should be waking up soon though, and if either of you need air gems I should have a good supply.

[Gandalf Parker]

Beware of "Special Monsters"
(heck beware of everything in a chaos game)
The Special Monsters masquerade as independents but they act like an AI nation. They even have a god and a home castle. The Hinnoms you saw were probably "gift" units like the ones you got. The Special Monster armies can be made up of anything. The hard part is to see them coming since they use the same white-flag as the non-moving independents. Watch the red candles closely. Not all red candles mean a flagged nation on the other side of that white-flag province. It might also be telling you that the white-flag army there is mobile.

Gandalf Parker

[vladikus]

Alright, my Pretender is awake ;)

[Lavaere]

I'm attacking 55 to clear it out for you.
I am also sending each of you a Dwarven Hammer each

[LDiCesare]

Beware of "Special Monsters"
(heck beware of everything in a chaos game)
The Special Monsters masquerade as independents but they act like an AI nation. They even have a god and a home castle. The Hinnoms you saw were probably "gift" units like the ones you got. The Special Monster armies can be made up of anything. The hard part is to see them coming since they use the same white-flag as the non-moving independents. Watch the red candles closely. Not all red candles mean a flagged nation on the other side of that white-flag province. It might also be telling you that the white-flag army there is mobile.

Gandalf Parker
No, I attacked Special Monsters, and then Hinnom attacked that same province too, so there were two battles in the turn. Right now, Hinnom's besieging a Special Monsters' fortress so both of these seem busy enough that I can hopefully recover and simmon things soon.
I've finally started buying one mage per turn, so hopefully I'll soon be able to get some demons of heavenly water and then evocations and thaumaturgy for battle support.

[LDiCesare]

So now it's Jotunheim fighting the Special Monsters in that same province to my south. I hope they stay there fighting each other, I've got yet another unrest++ event on my capital (why on earth did I pick misfortune?)

[Lavaere]

Looks like your both lacking in the research department. So next turn I'll send you 2 skull mentors each. So yeah I've finally reached Construction 4. Anything else and I need to wait for some more gems.
In the mean time do either of you have some with water magic, because I kind of want one of those defence swords.

[LDiCesare]

Look at our income graphs and you'll understand why research is low... It's hard to researhc when you can't recruit even a cheap mage. Although I shouldn't complain. My lab hasn't burnt yet.

[LDiCesare]

Thanks for the gold and skulls.
I've even been lucky, I got an immortal hero this turn (which doesn't really compensate for the loss of the temple on previous turn).
I'm going to try to send a second army northeastwards.

[vladikus]

Thanks for the gold, I'll be recruiting again if I ever get the unrest back down.

[Lavaere]

Well until I can clear out my corner of the map. Those will have to do. Of course if you need more Skull Mentors just ask and I get them made. As I've got 3 dedicated forgers at the moment. Though gems will help some if you need items. Death/Air/Earth items just ask

[LDiCesare]

If anyone has a scout to spare, province 26 should be fun to look at. Unfortunately my only scout is busy trying to produce feverish gems and I can't build any except in my capital (and black servants are to hard for my pitiful necromancers to summon). If one of you has a skull staff to lend or want death gems to forge one, I could use it to get some death magic to good use.

[vladikus]

Actually, I have a scout right next to 26, so your in luck, I'll brief you next turn.

Also, I received a stone sphere, so I can look at any province you all want, just give me the number.

[Lavaere]

Well I have a skull staff sitting doing nothing. I'll send it to you. The only other booster I can do are Earth Boots

[vladikus]

Scout at 26:

The province contains about 330 hostile units. The army consists mainly of wolf tribe warriors, wolf tribe archers, amazons and militias. The local defence of this province appears to be exceptionally strong and well organized.

Uh oh, I got some Jotun giants coming from my south (18) and they don't look happy!

[Gandalf Parker]

The problem with the Chaos games is that they are so chaotic. Basically there are 3 levels of games on the server for AI games.
vaAI which just has AIs added.
srand which has AIs and is semi-randomized the Ballbarians program.
Chaos which is totally randomized.

Sometimes on the chaos game you can get nothing, and land in the middle of really hard provinces. Other times you can get alot and land in easy territories.

[LDiCesare]

Thanks for the staff, just tell me when you want it back.

Given what seemed to happen in 26 recently, I think first Hinnom and later Jotunheim tried to take it from the Special Monsters but there's a bunch too many of these there.
Hinnom is happily swimming in the eastern sea, but its main forces are cut from it...

And woot! 71, 69 and 59 are white forts besieged by white forces!
I'm building a lab in 63, for there lies the mighty fortress of the Pyriphlegeton, or whatever its name, which means I can buy F1 mages for 60 gold and F3 for 180, who will help my research a bit without needing a castle - F3 mages will be nice for flaming arrows too.

[LDiCesare]

So we have Atlantis in the northern waters, with one province and besieging a land castle. Puny but they declared war on me.
In the south I have borders with Hinnom in the west, with Jotunheim eastward (and some isolated Jotun provinces more to the east).
This turn I'm summong 60 gems worth of demons of heavenly fire, so I should be able to take out most anything on land. I'm slowly getting demons of heavenly water to get underwater but I'll need an amphibian leader or two. I don't think I should try to go northwest into independant lands as I'd just hinder you all. I'm going to prepare an attack on Hinnom first.

[LDiCesare]

So I won't attack Hinnom, as Niefelheim declared war on me first. They can only reach me trhough 29 though, so it should be easy to defend and desroy their armies from there.
I would like to understand why there's a Shinu flag in the water in the east. I wonder whose flag that is? Or maybe I mistake the flag with some other nation's.

[Gandalf Parker]

The chaos program will also assign random provinces to random nations which might not be in the game. Basically they are a small outpost of that nation.

Sometimes, a far province on the map can even randomly be assigned to you.

[Lavaere]

Ah so thats why I destroyed Arco when they weren't playing

[LDiCesare]

Hinnom declared war on me. I'm going to have to send all my troops, including the "lucky" 99 militia I jsut received, southwards to fend off Jotnar and Hinnom giants. I'll try to concentrate on the east part so you both can more easily come in from the northwest.

[LDiCesare]

Good news: Hinnom's false god is dead!

[LDiCesare]

Since we're coming into contact, we'd better coordinate a bit now. Belegor(38) was mine, Hinnom took it on previous turn, I was going to take it back and intend to keep it.
I'm moving my troops from there to (26) in order to try and get that castle. I'm not going more to the west.
I'm also going to try and dive in the eastern seas as soon as I can spare enough demons of heavenly rivers to fight Hinnom's sea trolls there.

[Lavaere]

In a couple turns I should reach Construction 8 so is there anything you guys want made.

[LDiCesare]

I don't need anything, but if someone could take a shot northwards at Oceania that would be nice. Jotun is being attacked, and I should take care of Hinnom soon.

[Lavaere]

well you probably noticed I've got some water regions. just trying to take that one fortress first before trying to move something against Ocenia.
Jotun has most of my time as I'm trying to get into its corner also

[vladikus]

Hey check out my lucky assassination attempt. My password is Pylon. It would be helpful to me also if you could comment on my position--you all performed way better than I have so far. Did I just get an incredibly bad start, or should I have done something different?

[LDiCesare]

Given your position and troops, you should take out those giants'castle south of you.
I can't really comment about your start. You had a lot of bad luck early on, but then so did I. Afterwards, I don't know Tir na n'Og. I know Eriu relies on thugs a lot, but Tir na n'Og may have some troops worth recruiting?
I did rather well once started, but I think EA T'ien Ch'i is very strong and a W9F9N4 bless makes my warriors of the 5 elements very hard to kill and very good at killing. The demons of heavenly rivers are just awesome with such a bless, too. My starting fever fetish also provided me with lots of fire gems, which let me field an insane amount of demons of heavenly fires, who are really good against Niefel giants. So my strategy was Conjuration for the awesome national summons, followed by evocation for acid bolts and rain. I could use flaming arrows too but haven't really had the opportunity.

I'm trying to take out Hinnom's underwater fort and Atlantis's funny southern province with a big thing I've never seen in the middle of the province. I don't know what it is, but it looks big.

[Lavaere]

Well I never play either of your guys nations, so unsure about them. But because you've had a bad start I have been trying to send you gold and items whenever I can.

[LDiCesare]

Province 10 is going to be a pain.
There's KURGI there. The damn thing has more than 400hp and Blood Vengeance 7. Which means almost all my army suicided itself attacking it. Oceania armies routed, but since Kurgi doesn't move, it didn't win me the fight.
I'm going to mass archers. And I mean MASS archers, so they can turn the horror into a pincushion. They'll all die, but wiht flaming arrows, I might be able to kill it. It's got protection 7, 404 hits, so I'd need something like 80 arrow hits from a composite bow to deal with it. I suppose to be sure to deal actual damage, I should bring twice as many archers, at least. Plus some wizards for Aim, Flaming arrows and maybe soul burns, although even at +5 penetration it's still likely to fail. Maybe a communion? Suggestions are welcome.

[Lavaere]

Hmm never used Cloud Trapeze before. I spent all those turns recruiting a good sized army. And my pretender flies off by himself.
LOL so much for taking the fort

[vladikus]

Wow, I should have sent a scout in... my pretender and all my thugs are dead. There were a bunch of Ophans guarding the living castle... not wonder Jotun was having such a hard time :P. I'll not be making that blunder again.

[LDiCesare]

Yes, Ophanim are nasty. I hope the indy castle in the north isn't filled with too strong an army... I don't relly need to take it, just want to kill oceanian troops that go there, but I can't help trying to take it.

[Lavaere]

Since my pretender can go underwater, I'll take out Oceania's capital hopefully. You take its land regions

[LDiCesare]

Ok.
Btw I'm besieging Neifelheim's capital in the far south but if he's got anything strong inside, I'll have some trouble taking the fortress. Particularly considering Im sending all I can to try and take out that f*** Kurgi.

[Lavaere]

That wasn't a very good turn. Kronus has been banished and needs to be resummoned. Then I got to go through all the trouble of re-empowerment.
So what would be a good way to weaken Oceanias capital before a new attack.

[LDiCesare]

I KILLED KURGI!
Yay for a lucky soul slay (+5 penetration items help, what with spare gems). The luck was it was the second soul slay fired which got rid of the horror, I only lost one mage in the fight.

Regarding Oceania, I have a bunch of water-able mages up there and I could also bring my pretender. With a water robe he'd be water 10, so he can probably cast quite efficient magic underwater. I'd have to leave the army to someone else to command, but he is not needed in order to crack Jotunheim's fort.
I can also recruit sea trolls in the southeasternmost province, so I'm going to bring a few dozens of these north, but it'll take something like 5 turns. In the meantime, I've got a few water mages and demons of heavenly rivers near Oceania capital so I can try to get them cleared once I have enough water-breathing items.

[LDiCesare]

My naval troops (a bunch of sea trolls) should be able to attack Oceania in 3 turns. In the meantime, I'm equipping mages with pills of water breathing and a water cup.
If anyone has water gems, or air gems, to spare, I could use all you have to bring in more celestial masters and soldiers into the waters. Right now I think I could have about equal numbers of troops in 3 turns, with better quality (sea trolls and demons of heavenly rivers) backed by human infnatry to take out the walls.
I don't know if I'll need items to shake the walls.
Niefelheim capital is taken, so I believe they're only left with the Ophanim-infested country. I think they besiege the Ophanim? If that's the case, they could be taken out without the Ophanim having to be killed?

[vladikus]

Air gems your way Cesare. I'm forging a Wall Shaker and will have it sent to you next turn.

[Lavaere]

Yeah I've just a couple Neifels left in the bottom corner to deal with. Next turn I'll send a bunch of air gems. Kinda just used my waters to empower. Now earth gems those I can always give away since I have a nice 20 income for them.

[vladikus]

Well, we seem to have won and defeated all the other nations... shall we try for control of every province on the map?

[LDiCesare]

I'm not really interested in grinding every province. I don't think it would be that hard, although I admit the chayot and his army of flaming wheels is a pain.

[Lavaere]

yeah, no more AI so we won. unless we start fighting each other. which ain't very even

[LDiCesare]

Let's stop it then, thanks to both of you and Gandalf.

[vladikus]

Thanks for playing guys.

[Gandalf Parker]

So was Chaos interesting?
With it setup the way it is, its easy enough to just switch to another if you feel the starting positions are impossible. But would you play in a larger game and a larger map with many people if you knew that you would be stuck with whatever you started with?

Or is the SemiRand games a better idea?

[Lavaere]

I really liked it, kinda sad the Special Monsters died off before I got to fight them though. And the Oceania was basicly unable to do anything.
So maybe no water nations unless your sure the map will have enough water for them

[Gandalf Parker]

Thats also part of the chaos. With "totally random" you can get some deadly or wasteful settings on an AI just as you can get some extremely beneficial ones.

The Semi-Rand options can help that. Or if a planned larger game were done then someone could design the AI to be abit more stable. Choose the god, magic, dominion, scales (such as non-moving gods to avoid arena god-kills). And add equip and units (such as priests to help avoid an early dominion-kill)

To me one of the joys of chaos is the surprises. As long as they are quick and easy to get into then I can put up with getting a bad one since I just quit and choose another. Im not much for forcing myself to play thru one that seems too stacked against me.