The Chosen Ones - Intermediate EA Game

[tratorix]

Hello. This game is intended for players who aren't necessarily old vets, but no longer fit the definition of a noob. Generally I'd put this at around 10 games. Newer players are welcome, but don't cry to me if you get stomped. ;)

The game will be hosted on llamaserver with myself as the admin under the name The Chosen Ones. I'll be looking for somewhere between 8-10 players and the map will be selected once sign-ups are proceeding.

Game Settings:

Age: Early
Independents: 5
Special Site Frequency: 50
Renaming: On
Mods: CBM 1.84 (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=47252), and make sure you also get the hotfix to make it compatible with the latest patch.
Diplomacy: Anything goes. If someone stabs you in the back, well, maybe you shouldn't have been looking the other way. :angel
Victory Conditions: Last man standing, or by the majority of living players voting to concede.
Map: Cradle of Dominion.
Turn Frequency: 36 hours to start, will most likely increase as the game goes on.

Please post what nation you wish to play as when you join.


Players:
Tratorix - Mictlan
Stretch - Sauromatia
Bullock - Abysia
Ossa - C'tis
Vargr - Caelum
Saros - Lanka
Ecanus - Tir Na Nog
Slobby - Vanheim
Hylobius - Tien Chi
Nightfall - Ry'leh

[Stretch]

Sounds fun. I'd like to join. Please put me down as Sauromantia.

[Bullock]

i was planning to start an EA game too.
So i guess i ll join yours ;)

Sign me in as Abysia !

[Ossa]

I'd like to try Ctis.

[vargr]

Sign me in as Caelum, please

[Saros]

Ill sign up as Lanka

[Bullock]

From Ecanus found on invision forum:
Hey,

I'd love to join, even though I probably fall into that category of person who will get stomped. However, my account still hasn't been approved on the Shrapnel forums. They are rather slow.

Can I throw my hat in the ring for Tir na nog? And hopefully the moderators will grant me access on monday.

[tratorix]

From Ecanus found on invision forum:
Hey,

I'd love to join, even though I probably fall into that category of person who will get stomped. However, my account still hasn't been approved on the Shrapnel forums. They are rather slow.

Can I throw my hat in the ring for Tir na nog? And hopefully the moderators will grant me access on monday.

Right, I'll add him to the list. His account should be approved by the time I put the game up.

[Slobby]

vanheim pls

[Hylobius]

I'll take T'ien Ch'i please.

[Nightfall]

I'd like to try EA R'lyeh if that's okay...

[tratorix]

I'd like to try EA R'lyeh if that's okay...

I don't have a problem with it, if anyone else does now would be the time to speak up. I know some people don't like the idea of only one water nation in a game.

So, that makes 10. I'll get to work on finding a map.

[tratorix]

Alright, after screwing around with the random map generator for about half an hour, I've decided we're just going to use the Cradle of Dominion map. I'll probably wait and put the game up sometime tomorrow so get your pretender designs ready.

[tratorix]

Game is up (http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=TheChosenOnes). Get those pretenders in!

[Hylobius]

Had a look at Llamaserver and it appears that someone has already submitted a pretender for the nation that I chose. Can I just submit my pretender and overwrite what was submitted?

[tratorix]

nvm

[tratorix]

I deleted Tien Chis pretender, you can send yours in now.

[Hylobius]

Thanks, it looks like all pretenders are in now.

[tratorix]

Alright the game has started. Hosting interval is at 48 hours for the first turn and 36 after that. Good luck!

[Stretch]

Hmm, I sent in my turn file twice and it is still not registering. Is anyone else getting this? Surprising that only 2 nations have turns in by now...

[tratorix]

llamaservers stuck, it hasn't updated in like 6 hours. This has been happening on and off for the last week or so, don't worry, your turn will go through once the server gets reset.

[Stretch]

Ahh, thanks. :) Also, kinda cool to be playing in an EA game where no one took Niefelheim or Hinnom.

[tratorix]

Yeah, I was actually thinking of banning Hinnom, but I forgot to put it in the rules and then it never came up.

[Saros]

What on earth happened to Tien's income? Tanked pretty hard for turn 2.

[tratorix]

Probably hiked taxes and didn't manage to patrol away the unrest it generated. That always sucks.

[Saros]

Don't think so. That would have given higher taxes this turn before a crash next turn. Probably some random event although turn2 bad event is HARSH.

[Nightfall]

Could have also been a bad event, sucks when that happens to your capital first turn.

[Hylobius]

Hurricane :mad:

[Nightfall]

Hurricane :mad:

Hope you at least have misfortune scales, getting that with lucky or neutral scales makes it even worse. Looks like a few people double taxing turn 2 as well, very interesting...

[Saros]

You know whats great? Half a dozen elephants on turn 4 is great =P

[vargr]

Even better: 80 hp damage from a single volley of indie archers, right through personal luck and 22 prot.. :doh:

[Saros]

I saw the god turn up on the slain list. Bad luck there but good for the rest of us!

[llamabeast]

Even better: 80 hp damage from a single volley of indie archers, right through personal luck and 22 prot.

That's extraordinary. Was he badly fatigued?

[vargr]

2nd or 3rd round of combat after personal luck + 2 x breath attack. Fatigue couldn't have been extremely high, at 20-30 max. Nevertheless it ate all the arrows and must have critted several times, the dmg floaters were all blurry.. And to ad to the insult, this province, scouted as safe w/ militias and light infantries had several A3 mages waiting, finishing my poor wyrm with lighting bolts.

I know the dragons are not the most efficient combat pretenders, but this build was fun and reliable in SP-testings.
I guess even the DRN is crueler in MP :)

[tratorix]

How are some of you expanding so fast? Jeez, my poor jaguars are wearing their legs out trying to keep up.

[Saros]

Sauro has those hydras who basically walk right over indies as if they're not there.
Tir has ridiculously good ponyman thugs right out of the box. I think CBM gave them some magic items for free as well so a single commander can take nearly any indie prov.

[Nightfall]

Sauro has those hydras who basically walk right over indies as if they're not there.

Yeah Sauro has had crazy fast expansion, but I know that if I had decent early game troops I'd probably be attacking him next turn, so there has to be others considering it.

As it is though, early game aggression just isn't an option for me. :(

Tir has ridiculously good ponyman thugs right out of the box. I think CBM gave them some magic items for free as well so a single commander can take nearly any indie prov.

Giving Awe to Ri's was not a good call, out of the box Awe + Glamour + 23 Def + sacred self buff + Air magic for 330 gold is a trainwreck, if you think Eagle Kings are good, CBM Ri's are now tons stronger and cheaper.

[Stretch]

Make sure you get the CBM 1.84 from this thread: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=47550

Otherwise, your game will be out of sync and you'll see battles play out one way, then look at your armies and see different results.

[tratorix]

Ouch. Looks like C'tis is in pretty bad shape. Ossa, I don't think anyone would blame you if you want to go AI. Or you can stick it out and try to make whoever killed you bleed. Your choice.

[Bullock]

First stall at turn 20 :(
Doesn t sound good.

[Ossa]

I'll just try to hurt my attackers. Evil Tir!

[Stretch]

We might need an extension... I don't know where everyone is located but east coast of the usa is currently dealing with a hurricane, mandatory evacuations and likely power outages! Delay for next couple turns until people get power back?

[tratorix]

Postponed for 24 hours, will check back in on the situation tommorrow.

[Hylobius]

Our family has a house in the Bahamas that took a direct hit from Irene and we are preparing to fly down. I'd love to keep playing but I will be without power and internet for a week starting Wednesday. If you want to delay for a week that would be great. If you would rather look for a sub that is fine.

[Stretch]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. I'd be fine with delaying for a week.

[Bullock]

If you are not in war or in a particular situation i suggest we try to found a sub.

Otherwise i m fine to wait.

Btw i m sorry to hear that i hope you will find your house in a good shape.

[tratorix]

I've postponed for a week, hopefully Hylobius can continue then.

[Hylobius]

Thanks for waiting, I managed to get an early flight back. My turn is in but it does not look like the server is updating.

[Stretch]

Woohoo, let the bloodbaths resume! How was your house?

[Stretch]

Hmm, current turn on llamaserver shows turn27, but I just got turn 28. In the llamaserver trooubles thread someone said the same thing was happening to them. Anyone have info on this?

[tratorix]

I've got 28. Request a turn resend on the game page, see if that helps.

[Stretch]

Yep I ha got turn 28 just fine, but when I looked at llamserver for our game it was showing turn 27, mictlan was the only turn not submitted, due date of around 1347 gmt! I looked again and it is fixed now so no problem, let's continue :)

[Bullock]

Hey Tratorix, what s going on ?

[tratorix]

Apologies, wasn't feeling well yesterday so I extended the turn. Should have given prior notice. I'll have my turn in within the hour.

[Hylobius]

Looking to trade death gems for air gems.

TC

[Stretch]

I do not think that I will be able to get together my turn before it hosts and would like to get an extension until 0100 GMT Monday, at the earliest. My girlfriend is leaving on an 8-day trip for work on Sunday at noon and we're trying to get everything ready (although once she's gone then I'll have plenty of time to get a turn in). This turn is taking a little longer to finish than they usually do since someone dropped 10 GoR'd Zmeys on me and I have to start building amazon lizard-sized coffins.

[tratorix]

I'll postpone hosting for 72 hours, that enough time?

edit: probably too much time, but now you've got until wednesday because i can't do math.

[Bullock]

...since someone dropped 10 GoR'd Zmeys on me and I have to start building amazon lizard-sized coffins.

I wonder who it can be :)
Btw Zmey don't need GoR they are simply overpowered =p

[Bullock]

Ecanus, do you have a shrapnel account now ? (i don't see any Ecanus in the user list)

[Stretch]

Please give me an extension until at least 0100 GMT Wednesday! Something just came up... sorry but I can't get my turn in tonight!

[tratorix]

Hosting postponed 24 hours.

[Saros]

Hey guys sorry but i'm away for the weekend so I will need a postponement. Ill get the turn that just came out out now though so that should tide it through most of the time.

[Bullock]

Anyone willing to trade fire gems for any of my gems but astral ?

[Stretch]

Is the turn being extemnded for saros?

[tratorix]

Yup. Hosting extended 48 hours.

[Saros]

Thanks. I'm back so ill get right to it.

[Bullock]

Anyone willing to trade fire gems for any of my gems but astral ?

i m trading 1.5 gem for 1 fire gem.

[Stretch]

Sorry to ask for another extension but I had to work on my birthday and now I can't get a turn in before the deadline. Can you extend until 0400 GMT Wednesday please? Thanks!

[tratorix]

Didn't feel like taking my turn tonight anyway. Turn extended.

[Saros]

Looks like Ecanus (TNN) has gone AI. That's a pity as I was looking forward to a climatic battle of sorts digging his army out of his cap.

[Stretch]

I was hoping to be able to submit the next turn before my flight for Chicago leaves but it looks like we have one person left to submit. In about 30 minutes I will be leaving for Chicago and won't be able to guarantee that I get turn 44 in until Thursday 0000 GMT. Some friends are running a marathon Sunday and I can try when they are passed out afterwards (I assume they will pass out, it sounds pretty exhausting) but I can't guarantee it. So please extend the next turn until 0000 GMT Thursday but if I can submit I will post here (and you'll see my 2h file in).

Sorry to delay but we've had this planned for 5 months and I was hoping to make it a lot shorter delay by submitting another one this afternoon.

[Stretch]

It was delayed until Wednesday... can you delay it to Thursday at 0000 gmt? I can probably get it in before then! But no guarantees!

[tratorix]

It is already delayed until Thursday.

[Stretch]

Ahhh, my mistake. I was in a rush and updating from my cell phone. My turn is sent in, sorry for the delay!

[tratorix]

Left my turn till the last minute and can't get it in tonight, so I'm abusing my admin powers and postponing 12 hours.

[vargr]

The noble birdies resent Mictlan's oak stealing practises!

I guess you absolutely had to have it, or was it so that you just didn't want us to keep it? :)

[tratorix]

The noble birdies resent Mictlan's oak stealing practises!

I guess you absolutely had to have it, or was it so that you just didn't want us to keep it? :)

Oh, I'm sorry, did you cast Mother Oak last turn? I must not have noticed. ;)

[Stretch]

Just a quick update... turn 47 with 2 stales total for all players the entire game is fantastic. Nice work everyone!!!

[Saros]

Hmm other than me. I can't upload turns as my internet at home is down and I can't access email from work. It might be a day or two before I can get the next turn in.

[Slobby]

Oi can I get a 12 hour extension on the current turn? Also can we bump the turn interval to 48 hrs

[tratorix]

Done. I might extend it further if Saros doesn't get his turn in tommorrow.

[tratorix]

Sent Saros a message here and through email. If I don't hear from him in the next couple of days, I'll start looking for a sub.

[Saros]

Sorry guys the combination of the rugby world cup final (rugby being the national obsession) + monday being a public holiday means I don't get net back at home for another 12 hours or so.
Its probably best to look for a sub anyway as I just found out I have to go traveling for work for ~12 days next week and i'd hate to delay the game any more than I already have.
Its been a great game and good luck to you all! I'll do a quick writeup for whoever takes over.

[e] Just make sure whoever takes over is familiar with the "more demons than is safe or legal" approach to winning the game =P

[Stretch]

Sorry to see you go Saros. Will you get a turn in before you leave for work, to give us something to chew on for the next few days?

[Saros]

I'll be available to play through until sunday from whenever my internet decides to come back. Hopefully that will be shortly.

[Stretch]

I'm leaving from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon so let's get these last 2 turns in!!!!! :)

[mockingbird]

Hello everyone,

I'm subbing in for Saros as Lanka. Please send me PMs regarding our current diplomatic status and any pertinent information about the game of which my predecessor would be aware.

I have never played Lanka before, so please bear with me as I get my bearings.

Best regards,
Mockingbird

[Bullock]

Great news ! Welcome in this awesome game ;)

I will send you a PM soon.

[Saros]

Okay so I sent Mockingbird a summary. Good luck to everyone!

[tratorix]

Thanks Saros. Hope to play with you again sometime in the future. :)

[mockingbird]

Okay, I think I have enough of a handle of things to start playing, though I'm sure some mistakes will be inevitable.

At any rate, the turn is in. :)

[Stretch]

Welcome mockingbird, and thanks for helping us continue our game!

tratorix, can I please have an extension until 2359 GMT Monday? I am just getting home from my weekend trip and can't get a turn in tonight before work tomorrow. Thanks!

[tratorix]

Postponed 24 hours.

[Stretch]

I actually was able to push and get my turn in tonight and wind up needing no delay... and only really needed 12 hours of delay. I don't mean to unnecessarily delay the game its just that I thought i'd need an extra 12 hours.

[mockingbird]

My apologies, but I need another 24 hours to get my turn in. A delay would be much appreciated.

[Stretch]

Could I have a 3 hour delay? I only need 3... I get off work at 2230 gmt and need to get home, do the turn and submit. So, 0130 gmt would be great! Thanks!

[tratorix]

I won't be able to get my turn in for a bit it seems, so I postponed 24 hours. Thanks for your patience, I'll get in in as soon as I can.

[Bullock]

I m looking for E N S gems i can trade F D W B gems.

[Stretch]

Can I have a delay for 24h? I am out of town again.

[tratorix]

Hosting postponed 24 hours as requested.

[Stretch]

Another weekend, please give me a 24h delay. Couldn't get turn done Friday. Thanks!

[Stretch]

Could I have a 24h delay? Weekends + holidays still bad for me.

[Stretch]

It's just too busy to get these damn long endgame turns in. Could I have a 24h delay on this one and possibly a move to a 72h hosting schedule? What do the other players think?

[Bullock]

Personally I don't need the extra time, but since you are a major power and i don't want to see you stalling i won't vote against.

[vargr]

72h is ok

[mockingbird]

72 hour turns are good for the late game; I am in favor.

[tratorix]

Looks like the majority wants 72, so hosting interval changed.

[vargr]

Please postpone the current turn by 24 h. Won't have the time to do it before Wednesday evening.

[Stretch]

Could I have a 26H extension? It will be very difficult to get a turn in by tomorrow night. I might be able to get it in around 0800 GMT but it's iffy. I can definitely do it by Thursday 0300 GMT or so.

[Stretch]

Please delay turn to Tuesday at 5gmt instead of 0gmt. Thanks!

[Stretch]

Nevermind, turn is in!

[Bullock]

i have a problem to submit my turn, i have posted this to the llamaserver problem thread :

I think i have a bug in this game :
http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=TheChosenOnes

I m supposed to submit turn 68 and he his asking me for turn 69.
I had already sent my turn 68 while the server wasn't responding but after an hour or two i had a confirmation by mail that my turn was received.
The server was updating again but was still waiting for my turn. So i resubmited the turn and now i receive a mail telling me that the serv is waiting for a turn 69 and not 68.

Can we postpone for at least 24h to give some time to llama to look at this bug ?

[Stretch]

It is turn 69 now... but the last 2 turns I did not receive it automatically by mail. I had to go to llamaserver.net, find game thechosenones and select turn resend from admin options! Att that point you will get turn 69 and can complete it. I'm not sure if tratorix is checking this thread lately so be careful of staling and maybe PM him

[Bullock]

Indeed i requested and received turn 69.
However the llamapage s still showing a deadline in few hours and like i was the last one to submit my turn ... 69.

[vargr]

That was a scary fight Stretch. It was fun to see even your grendelkins get nailed with confusion but rather frustrating to watch them run circles on the field long after your army was routed.. And of course I managed to leave myself out of range for petrify so I think they got away in the end?

[Stretch]

I should have hit you with my big spell in turn 1 and saved Darkness for later. I didn't realize that fog warriors was proof against that one! Also, I needed to have my troops charge immediately. I was thinking that you'd send the tempest warriors over the wall immediately, and have some different scripting. Nice victory for you.

[vargr]

I should have hit you with my big spell in turn 1 and saved Darkness for later. I didn't realize that fog warriors was proof against that one! Also, I needed to have my troops charge immediately. I was thinking that you'd send the tempest warriors over the wall immediately, and have some different scripting. Nice victory for you.

I didn't either. But I was expecting all kinds of nastiness and mistform seems great general purpose protection. As for the tempest warriors, I just wanted to leave most of them as HP-buffers in the back rank, I feared they would get killed too soon if in range for your troops/mages/SCs. Anyway, a great battle, could easily have turned the other way out.

[Bullock]

i might need a 36h postpone, just in case. (a stall now would be a nightmare ^^)

[Bullock]

The old comp on which im playing the game freeze when i load this game...
So i won't be able to play the turn before i get back to home the 30th. Can i get a last extension of 24h plz ? 12 at least.

[Stretch]

I would also like an extension. I just got back from the holidays and it's won't be able to work on it very much until tomorrow after work!

[tratorix]

Hosting postponed till 17:51 GMT January 2nd for people to get back on track after the holidays. If you can get it in before that, please do so, but otherwise don't worry about it.

[Stretch]

Could you postpone for 48h again? Still getting back from vacation. Hope to get t in tomorrow though.

[Stretch]

I'm heading to Florida for a weekend with my girlfriend's elderly relatives. Lucky me... I won't be back until Monday night. I'd like an extension until Wednesday at 0500 GMT so that I can finish my turn. Thanks!

[Bullock]

Well i'm just being overwhelmed by Sauromatia, no matter how many prov or ressources he got, his army his prolly 5 times stronger than mine.

He has prolly 20 grendelkins despite the few i manage to kill and most major blood summons. he his also nicely stuffed in sea (so many kraken ... Dude where did you get this amount of W lol ?)

Actually he has something like 3 big armies (4-5 SC each + >100 high quality troops (nice demons and so) and shaff + full magic diversity) who will get all my forts one by one. There is also a bunch of other grendelkins & other nice things raiding. The worse things is i can still see some nasty stuff in his homelands... Aaaah no, the worse thing is that he is a far better player than me ;)
Also i'm maybe not using my F mages properly at this stage of the game but if i do they are kinda useless =( any advice on that Stretch ?

Just to say that Stretch is going to be totally unstoppable soon if he manages to grab most of my resources. I know Caelum can't do much atm but i hope Lanka will resume the fight soon !

[Stretch]

Could I have a 24H delay? I might not be able to get this turn in tomorrow night, although I will try.

Also, Abysia's massive gem and income advantage through most of the game (and the fact that I haven't killed that many of its SCs/mages) are a force to be reckoned with. It's a decent match up but I'm certainly not running away with things and it's taking awhile to make any headway at all. I wish I had 100 demons in each army!

[Stretch]

Could we please extend the turn until 2200 GMT Friday?

[Stretch]

Never got the extension but really need it!

[Stretch]

Please put an extension in to 0500 GMT Tuesday! Unfortunately these turns take longer than the hour they used to and I can't keep up with the pace the game's been going at. If an admin is not around to grant extensions then I'm going to start staling and I don't want that. I want to keep playing but if we can't get more time to do the turns (especially those around weekends) then I'd have to sub (although I haven't heard from the admin lately).

[mockingbird]

It seems like our admin is awol but our game needs to be on longer turns among other things.

This has the real possibility of ruining the game.

Does anyone have a means of contacting the admin?

[Stretch]

Could we move the game to a turn every 4 days, with everyone just submitting earlier if they can? And tratorix has done a great job with adminning these first 80 (wow!) turns, but if real life is taking over then perhaps we could make Bullock admin? From some other threads in this forum it looks like Bullock is admin in at least one other game and if he agrees to it then hopefully it would not have much increase on his workload...

[Bullock]

Yeah sure i don't mind admining it.

[Stretch]

I scramble to get a turn together after we get back late from the weekend and barely manage to submit one in time (it wasn't the best turn but took some damn work) and the game says that I submitted a turn and yet none of my units move and no units are recruited. It says that I submitted a turn for turn 80 but no turn was processed; it forced me to stale.

What gives?!

[mockingbird]

I was happy to sub into this game while it was running effectively but I'm not really interested in doing late game turns for a game that is running off the rails for lack of an admin.

I've noticed no response from other players (especially the admin) to Stretch's post and I can't locate Tratorix -- the IRC folks have no idea either.

The impression I get is this feeling is shared by other players.

I'm ready to throw in the towel on this one.

[Bullock]

Yeah i'm fine with that too...I was thinking to make a similar offer.

[Stretch]

Also fine with it. The game is nowhere close to finishing and turns are taking awhile. It was fun and a little crazy. I definitely learned a lot and it made me think. My pretender killed 3 doom horrors before being brought low by abysias pretender (damn lucky paralyze) and a grendel SC.

No one has mage bane right now. I will send an SC to the arena to take on all comers this turn, and otherwise not submit much of a turn. Good game! You were all fun to play against and conscientous with getting turns in.

[Stretch]

I also sent a pm to llamabeast 2 dayys ago to try to get him to switch admin but no luck!

[Bullock]

Yeah i have been lucky to kill your pretender.
I was expecting to meet a grendelkin so i had scipted some enslave mind. But with your pretender showing my script was useless and the random paralyze did the work (thanks also to the raise dead who finished him)

[Stretch]

Sorry all, I meant to submit a SC to the death match but got caught up with other things. I believe we're all (that are checking this thread at least) in agreement that the game is over. Let me know if that's wrong.

Oh right, I forgot about the raise dead. They were immune to the giant cold aura surrounding him. Frost father is a very nice pretender although great enchantress/master druid have been reliable chassises for me as well. I regret not working out a better use for bone grinding.

[vargr]

Haven't checked my turn yet but I would vote for playing on. If I understood correctly the main problem was Mictlan/admin staling, but as a minor power at this point, why not just leave them alone and let them stale?

I am, however, ok with quitting if others have lost interest. It's just a game, and has been fun and long enough already.

[Bullock]

I regret not working out a better use for bone grinding.

Well CBM downgrade a lot this spell prolly too much i think.

[Bullock]

Haven't checked my turn yet but I would vote for playing on. If I understood correctly the main problem was Mictlan/admin staling, but as a minor power at this point, why not just leave them alone and let them stale?

I am, however, ok with quitting if others have lost interest. It's just a game, and has been fun and long enough already.

i have personally lost interest in playing EA Abysia, they are damn boring in the late stage of the game. However i can continue the game is few players want to.

[Stretch]

I am in favor of quitting and don't plan on submitting more turns. the process of either winning or losing is bound to take another 3 months and with no possibility of extension I can't keep up with the turns.

[vargr]

Let's call it a game then. Thanks everyone!

[tratorix]

Sorry for the disappearing act folks, been a real rough weak. Since the overwhelming opinion seems to be to call this a draw, I'll take it down whenever the llamaserver starts working again. Thanks to everyone for playing.

[Stretch]

No problem tratorix, it's probably better this way since we managed to wind up with an end game which was going to drag out for awhile.

I was wondering how Burden of Time affected everyone. Did it really hurt you guys or did it just kind of tickle? Obviously I wanted it to go on a little longer (and had 170 death gems in it) but it got replaced by another global.

Some things I learned:
- Cheap/PD fire mages can blindness spam, so fire-immune grendel thugs that only have 21 MR can still get compromised by raiding.
- Blood is still very strong, even with the CBM nerf, if you can be one of the top 2 blood nations in the game.
- If you're fighting a large battle against a nation that can't banish to inferno, just send your thugs barreling out the front door to wreak havoc. Give them MR because confusion spam is annoying!
- Bone grinding is mundane damage and doesn't crack mistform. I didn't test this but I recall it happening when I fought Caelum. If this is valid, then strong death nations (anyone that can get a natural 4D caster) that could scrape together an air caster that can cast fog warriors could potentially have an amazing first round attack on large armies.
- "Endgame Diversity" means that water and fire gems are incredibly useful. Giant Krakens with an Earth pick + luck amulet + girdle of might + antimagic amulet (or ring of regen) rule the water. Grendelkin (and maybe wendigo)rule the land. Zmeys make fire nations able to raid incredibly well, and Ember Lords are fantastic. Treants with 200 HP mean that you can cast Mass Regeneration every battle and rarely lose your caster. Unfortunately it seems like maximizing the number of these late-game, godlike summons you can field is almost the entire endgame now. It seemed that if you maximize expenditure in these high HP, high re-use units you'll do a lot better than if you waste resources on units with less than 150 total HP.

[Bullock]

Yeah Burden of Time replaced by my pyre ! And i was hoping it because i ve been hurt very badly:

ALL my blood mages were diseased in 2 turns (15-20maybe) and they are cap only ! (Unique spawn that i have to share with an excellent other F mage while the blood mage is kinda low for a cap only (2B 1S)). At this stage of the game, it just meant no more blood for me.
And i think i ve lost prolly 10% of my small fire mage, but BoT didn't remain long... So yeah BoT has been quite deadly on me as Abysia.

I won't describe every things i ve learned in this game cause it would take me hours.But i can say that infernal prison can solve many problem ;) (never had the use of infernal prison when i was playing solo so i discovered it in this MP game) and thanks to you stretch the way to avoid it ;)

Also learned a lot about SCs and gears, the way to counter and especially unique stuff and their use (thx again stretch).

But in the end game i felt quite stuck with only F mages.
You take some fire resist shaff (~50) plus 2 3 fireproof grendelkins and they are almost useless (only blind remains and it's quite weak against some descent magic res).
I had the blood amazones (1B1F) as indy who were nice since my blood are cap only. But some nasty flying undeads slaughtered them before i could see her true power (damn first turn of communion!).

But globally was a very good game i had much fun and learned many tricks :)

[vargr]

I was wondering how Burden of Time affected everyone. Did it really hurt you guys or did it just kind of tickle? Obviously I wanted it to go on a little longer (and had 170 death gems in it) but it got replaced by another global.



The Eagle Kings, while long lived, start out only couple years from old age, so I had them diseased far too quickly. I had no growth scales either.

So I would say I was more than just tickled - rather pissed actually, and getting rid of the BoT was certainly a priority.

I liked playing Caelum (my first try at them) with their awesome fire(or thunder)power. Lot's of great battles, thanks to my opponents! I would have still liked to play on, but I agree that the situation was a long way from decided and end games on large maps are unreasonably laborous.