new NoooB Game, (Running)

[Morla]

IT HAS BEGUN

Hi all, i am new to the mp world of dominions 3, never played one myself.
Game is up, name "MorlaEAnoob", we just need the pretenders. now it´s the time if you want to change your nation, or discuss some of the settings.

-Noobs
-EA 8
-map is stremalands, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44093
-mods: cbm 1.92
-diplo:RESPECT the trades, and respect the non agression pacts(but we are humans after all).


-win condition: holding 4 capitals for 3 turns
-game settings:
hall of fame 15
independents 5?
rest by deffault
-rename enableled

i never set up a game but now i have free time

-hosting schedule, llamaserver
36h+quickhost

players 8

morla- niefelheim
shatner- T'ien Ch'i
Jiggymike- Acroscephale
Six- Mictlan
Excist- Agartha
Mightypeon- Fomoria
kyrieeleison- Abysia
ditoloco- Marverni

[shatner]

I'm game. I'll take T'ien Ch'i since they're about the only EA nation I'm really familiar with at this point. The Sharivar map seems fine, as well as all the game settings you propose. I am still in the process of playing through my first MP game so I can't speak from experience but based on what I've read in the forums, the victory condition should either be "Hold X capitals for Y turns" or "Hold X victory point provinces for Y turns". Doing that causes the game to be decided before too many people are eliminated or go AI, which is certainly desirable.

The other game I'm playing has 8 players and victory is from holding 4 capitals for 3 turns. That seems to be working out there so I'm suggesting that here as well.

[Jiggymike]

Hey Morla, I dropped out of that other game (it hadn't started) but I'd rather play in yours. I'd like EA Acroscephale. I'm cool with either type of victory condition.

[Morla]

nice¡¡¡, i´ll go with NIEFELHEIM. Ok holding 4 capitals for 3 turns seems good.

[Six]

Sign me up as Mictlan then.

I'd also vote for the x caps for 3 turns.

The map looks cool, but isn't it slightly on the big side at 180 provinces? I guess it depends on how many people join. Either way though, I'd give it a shot. :)

Also, what about hosting schedule?

[Morla]

hmmm, maybe ulm

[Excist]

I'll play as Agartha

[Morla]

nice, we are 5 players, few to go.

hosting schedule?quickhost? i'd like to play the first turns in a quick way in dom3minions, and then change to 24 hours, if we can manage to be together for a few hours. if not, 24 hours quick host.

"How often will it host? Quickturn (as soon as all player files are turned in)? 24 hours whether the turns are in or not? Both? (all files or 24 hours whichever happens first)? Host set for specific days and times? automatic pause day (hosting time paused on Sunday)? The default on my server is for Quick, or 24-hours timed-out. But that can be changed." Gandalf Parker, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=42093

i am really new to this so if u can help i would be a grateful learner.

I was tinking to pm gandalf and set a medium game in gandalf´s server. you agree?
also we can play in llamaserver by PbEM

Six- i accept map suggestions, good balanced maps for 8 players?

[shatner]

Again, I don't have much MP experience to draw on but LlamaServer seems pretty solid and simple (http://www.llamaserver.net/). The instructional page is here (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35160).

I'm fine with a 24 hour hosting time (with auto-host if all turns are submitted early) for the early game, though that might need to be expanded to 36 hours later on when turns take more than 10 minutes to complete.

[Excist]

How many provinces on average for 8 countries were you thinking?

I think a medium sized map is 50-60 provinces total (including water provinces) which doesn't allow for much expansion before we are stepping on each other's toes.

[Morla]

shatner--> ok i think u are right, llamserver looks easy and solid.
24 hours at first then to 36 seems fine.

excist--> 10-15 provinces per player

waht do you think if we close the players list by monday or tuesday, and play the 5 of us, changing the map of course.

[Six]

I'd vote for just starting it with 36h+quickhost. The turn timer resets when it quickhosts, so a 24h timer would be constantly moving up earlier in the day. A 36h timer should still force people to play a turn every day as it shouldn't be running the entire 36h. It will just offer little conveniences such as allowing people to choose what time of day they'd like to play that turn, that the 24h won't.

That said, I'm be all for trying to take advantage of the quickhost and get more then one turn in a day for the first few turns when there isn't much to do if other people are up for it.

[Morla]

OK, hosting schedule 36h+quickhost in llamaserver

[Mightypeon]

Can I still join in? I would like to play Sauromatia.

[Morla]

Mightypeon, of course. Welcome

[Excist]

hey MP :D good to see you in another game. I'm trying to win with the severely gimpy Agartha army as a challenge hehe

[kyrieeleison]

Hello!

If I can join, i will take Abysia.

[Morla]

kyrieeleison, welcome, just one more to go, if you want we can wait and get 10 players, it´s your call... :D

[shatner]

I say 8 is probably good.

[Morla]

one more to go, are you happy with the map or you thik it´s too big.

[shatner]

Shivran could work but it really is quite large. At 8 players, that would give us 21 provinces apiece when we're really looking for is 10-15 provinces per player. As such, something in the 80 to 120 province range. There are a heck of a lot of maps out there (most of which I'm not familiar with) but just looking at what I have available, both Desert Eye (108 land + 17 sea) and Aran (96 land + 11 sea) would fit the bill. Parganos could work but when I opened it up I found the divisions between the provinces too indistinct, which would get pretty annoying pretty fast.

That's my two cents...

[Morla]

i think so. good old aran, i found this map "Shadowshore" it´s on llamaserver seems nice 120 +13 sea provinces. maybe streamlands 93 land 10 sea

[shatner]

Since you're going through the hassle of setting up this game, I say you get final say of what the map is. Provided it's not too big (and none of the ones you mentioned would be), then take your pick.

I'm ready to submit my pretender as soon as I hear the game is up on LlamaServer.

[Morla]

ok, tomorrow i close the recruitment phase, choose a map and create the game on llamaserver.

[Morla]

hi all, the game is up in llamaserver "MorlaEAnoob" so send your pretenders. map stremalands link http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44093, we are 7 players.

diplo:RESPECT the trades, and respect the non agression pacts(but we are humans after all).

[Morla]

oh, i forget -rename enabeled

[ditoLoco]

I know i am a one day late, but if you want to make an exception i am willing to play ..
In case it is still possible i can play Maverni

[Morla]

ditoloco ok

submit your pretendres, the sooner the better

[ditoLoco]

ok, in 3-4 hours i will post pretender

thanks

[kyrieeleison]

Hey guys,

I will upload the pretender in 24 hours ( or less), i don't have access to the game now.

[Morla]

feedback, nice :)

[ditoLoco]

I would opt for a map with 15 provinces per person, since this is noob game it will be nice not to be rushed immediately

[Jiggymike]

Pretender sent! All my games are stalled, sigh.

I should note by 'all my games' I mean this and one other one. Ready to play though!!

[Excist]

I finished designing mine last night, but then had a computer error. I will be uploading mine in 2 hours.

[kyrieeleison]

Ok, it's done.

[Mightypeon]

Is it ok if I change to Formoria?

[Excist]

Ok. Looks like all 8 are uploaded.

[Excist]

Oops. Or not I guess.

[Mightypeon]

I am changing to Formoria.

[Excist]

How does one remove the first nation's pretender from llamaserver? Or does it automatically delete sauromatia when it receives the new pretender?

[Morla]

yea you can change nations

So, are we ready?

i´m looking forward to start my first MP game

[Mightypeon]

The admin has to remove the pretender ;)

[Morla]

ok i removed it, done, just w8 for llamaserver to update the info.

The admin has to remove the pretender, my bad :)

[Morla]

tatarataraaaa, XD. c´mon Barsa you can win.

[kyrieeleison]

xD, are you spanish Morla?

[Morla]

si, yes i am spanish

[Morla]

YaY, All pretenders are in and with correct nations, so on Thursday, 22 September at 0:00 of Earth's GMT+1 time...XDD **** it already has begun.

[Excist]

Ok. This is on quickhost so we can fire off a couple of turns a day the first few game-months. If you are the last one to send yours in just wait 2 min and you can do turn 2 back to back.

[Mightypeon]

Pretender is in

[Mightypeon]

Ditoloco, diplomacy is much easier if you turn "receive private messages" on. This gives a way to store agreements, and allows for much more detailed deals.

[ditoLoco]

done

[Excist]

In fact, it is recommended for everybody to use private messaging on this board for diplomatic messages, since the in-game messaging doesn't have any way of tracking what communication has occurred and what agreements are in place and has the unfortunate consequence of arriving in the next turn.

[Mightypeon]

Is Llamaserver operational? I send in my turn, received confirmation yet nothing seems to happen.

[ditoLoco]

Yup, everything is fine, though i had to ask server to resend my turn

Is someone going after Agartha?

[ditoLoco]

Although there is something wrong: score tables are not refreshed ...(the score graphs in-game are refreshed)

[Jiggymike]

I had to request a turn resend of turn 12...hasn't arrived in about 30 minutes so I'll update you guys later.

[Excist]

Llamaserver uses 2 servers that communicate with each other via triggers. One of them (the one that sends out turn files and updates the website) is down, and the other one (the one that processes turns) is up.

"Is someone going after Agartha?"

Yes, Abysia is trying a suicidal rush on me, that will end up benefiting neither of us in the long run.

[shatner]

Just a heads up, llamaserver was having troubles which seem to have passed. Just recently I received an e-mail reminder that the next turn of this game is due in 11 hours, which struck me as weird because I had never received the next turn (turn 12). I had to manually request it resent to me. If you didn't receive turn 12 either, you should probably do the same.

[shatner]

Just wondering, is the turn really waiting on Agartha (Excist) or is Llamaserver hanging up again? I'm not casting judgement or anything, I'm just wondering if I should report an issue.

[Morla]

Agartha (Excist) sent his turn, but received an email from llamaserver that something was wrong with the turn file, i postpone hosting for 6 hours so he got enough time to figure whats wrong and/or send a new file.

[Jiggymike]

Wow well I guess all Agartha needs is Darkness and a bunch of guys casting slime and they are pretty much untouchable. Defeated my (admittedly chaffish) army at a ratio of 20-1 killed. Honestly after that I'm not sure I'm interested in continuing this game since there's absolutely no way for me to harm him. Well played Agartha, that will be the last time I attack you since it's utterly pointless.

[shatner]

For what it's worth, 100 precision spells (many of which are astral in nature) hit just fine even in darkness. Also, Solar Brilliance (also astral) cancels out darkness, though you'll probably want to cast antimagic first to prevent your troops from being blinded. Quest for the Firebird (or something like that) summons a unique creature which casts Solar Brilliance automatically at the start of battle.

Beyond that, undead and demons can all fight perfectly in darkness. But yeah, darkness is a major barrier for everyone else.

[Jiggymike]

Yeah it's cool, I was just frustrated with the battle. You don't need to find a sub for me or anything. I wasn't lying about not attacking Agartha anytime soon though, that darkness is rough to contend with and rightfully so, as they are weak to the point of unbalanced without it.

[Mightypeon]

Also, given the quantity of stuff involved, a well target rich battlefield can render Darkness precision effect quite meaningless.
I think it also ends if you punk the guy who autocasts it, In general, a fly boot bane with an anti giant weapons is a great anti Agarthan asset.

[Jiggymike]

Also, given the quantity of stuff involved, a well target rich battlefield can render Darkness precision effect quite meaningless.
I think it also ends if you punk the guy who autocasts it, In general, a fly boot bane with an anti giant weapons is a great anti Agarthan asset.

Haha I appreciate everyone giving me tips to defeat Agartha...now how about giving him some tips to defeat me and my soon to be massive army of mystics? Don't really seem fair to just help me ;)

My strategies for the battle simply didn't pan out. I did use a ton of missile weapons but they were unable to hit anything besides my own units...I figured having 100 some odd projectiles in the air would be bound to hit something but no dice (I mean, they can't just miss the ground can they? His soldiers have decent prot though, despite no shields). Also I screwed up my communion so none of the the "important" spells got cast, just buffs.

Anyway, Agartha did a great job defending his territory and deserves credit for it, as my numerical advantage should be almost impossible to overcome without skillful planning. For now I plan on leaving him be but who knows when he will start bringing the darkness into my own territory? I'll certainly deserve it if he does.

[shatner]

Haha I appreciate everyone giving me tips to defeat Agartha...now how about giving him some tips to defeat me and my soon to be massive army of mystics?

Earthquake. Twice. Mystics are squishy, Agarthans are not.

[Jiggymike]

Whatever, I'll play the game out but I'm just going to half *** my turns until Agartha completely overruns me since I have no answer for him. Oh well, gg, it was a fun first try at MP, I think I learned how to not be completely awful next time. If you know someone who likes to take over hopeless games, feel free to have them take over for me.

[Mightypeon]

You are far from dead yet...
The Dorkness effect should only happen when he is defending, and his soldiers wont be particularly great in doing anything else.

On a sidenote, The Nation of Formoria wishes to aquire Nature and Earth Gems, and is willing to part with Death and Water gems in return.
Forging can also be considered.

[Jiggymike]

His army just ran me over like I was a 20 troops strong indy province. Sorry for ranting, I just get frustrated at times. Lemme check out my gem catalog and get back to you, Fomoria, I might take some death gems off your hands.

And it's just that Agartha is playing well and I am not, I still have a lot to learn about balancing my nations.

[Excist]

As it happens I can trade both earth and nature gems in decent volume and could definitely use both death and water gems. I am still woefully behind after the attempted early ganking by both Mictlan and Arco so am thankful for any small favors that help me catch up to everybody else.

I would also like to thank Arco for volunteering to be my first avenue of expansion after I lost out on the chance to grab my share of indies. :D

We Agarthans are generally peaceful and reclusive so feel free to offer to negotiate a truce and try your barbaric expansionism elsewhere.

There are other options than instant victory or quitting in a game with lots of diplomacy.

[Jiggymike]

As it happens I can trade both earth and nature gems in decent volume and could definitely use both death and water gems. I am still woefully behind after the attempted early ganking by both Mictlan and Arco so am thankful for any small favors that help me catch up to everybody else.

I would also like to thank Arco for volunteering to be my first avenue of expansion after I lost out on the chance to grab my share of indies. :D

We Agarthans are generally peaceful and reclusive so feel free to offer to negotiate a truce and try your barbaric expansionism elsewhere.

There are other options than instant victory or quitting in a game with lots of diplomacy.

Yes, I am aware. I just have a bad habit of getting frustrated and reacting immediately when things don't go my way but I tend to get over it and then regret it if I said anything stupid. I will not ask for a truce; if you feel the need to attack me and try to eliminate me then do so. Either I will figure out how to mount a proper defense or I will perish trying to do so.

[shatner]

The world is a busy and violent place but things have been calm within T'ien Ch'i since our god slew the dream horror in personal combat. Our masters research and forge and things are as they should be.

However, the fruits of our peace need not be constrained to our borders. We will bend our mystical forges to the service of others for the cost of the item in question plus one gem extra for every five it requires. These extra gems can be of any variety provided they are gems and not blood slaves. We can forge items and boosters of almost every description. Rings of Wizardry, the oh-so-difficult to reach air, fire and earth boosters and so much more (note, no artifacts). All such wonders can pour from our forges should they be requested.

Furthermore, if an item costs nothing but water gems then we will forge it at-cost provided you pay us in fire or death gems. That's right, rings of water, boots of quickness, frostbrands and so much more for no extra cost.

Note that all items which require a 4 or better in any one path (except water) will cost an extra 5 gems as an added service charge because their forging will require the time of our god or one of our immortal heroes in it's creation.

[Mightypeon]

That was a highly entertaining battle between Mictlan and Maverni.
It appears that Mavernis national cuisine now features Jaguar Sashimi, which supposedly goes excellent with roasted Boar and red Virgin Wine.
The always culinarily inclined Nation of Formoria anxiously awaits new developments of the sophisticated mauvergnaise cuisine.

[Jiggymike]

Excist, diplomacy is much easier if you respond to private messages. I'd better check the last turn to see the latest developments...

[Jiggymike]

OK NOW I'm going AI or you can get a sub if people like finishing up lame duck games. Threw everything I had at him and still lost my cap despite relieving him of half his commanders before the battle. It was a good first game, thanks for the opportunity and well played by Agartha.

[Excist]

Good switch in tactics JMike. That was a painful turn, but still well worth it to gain a capital fort.

One tip you might want to keep in mind for your next game if you do go AI now is that you are better off putting some space around your capital before putting another fort, since Arcos has a good admin level (50) and they cannot use it to collect resources from provinces that have other forts. This is especially useful since their stronger elite units require a lot of resources to build.

[Jiggymike]

Good switch in tactics JMike. That was a painful turn, but still well worth it to gain a capital fort.

One tip you might want to keep in mind for your next game if you do go AI now is that you are better off putting some space around your capital before putting another fort, since Arcos has a good admin level (50) and they cannot use it to collect resources from provinces that have other forts. This is especially useful since their stronger elite units require a lot of resources to build.

Yeah I did a poor job with a lot of my strategy: all my forts ended up in the wrong spots, my pretender was pretty useless, and my research was sloppy. Still I was big enough that I should have been able to put up a better fight.

[Jiggymike]

Turns out my Pretender is still alive as are a lot of my mages, guess I'll just keep messing around and seeing if I can inflict some damage on my conqueror before leaving. Sorry if I've been a total ***** about all this but I just find Dom3 to be pretty frustrating, given the amount of resources it requires (time, thinking) to just get wiped out like this. I think I prefer games where people aren't permanently eliminated...

[Mightypeon]

Just a question, but are you interested in a critique of your battle setup fo the Cap Jiggymike? That Battle was quite winnable with the tools apperantly available.

[Jiggymike]

Just a question, but are you interested in a critique of your battle setup fo the Cap Jiggymike? That Battle was quite winnable with the tools apperantly available.

Please...just PM it to me or post it here, either way! Thank you.

[Mightypeon]

I think you had your reverse communion wrong, basically, spells get casted in the way your mages appear in the tactic-setup screen, with the mage on top being the first one to cast etc.
One thing to note is that, after a communion master cast a spell, all slaves can no longer cast in this turn, if you want to use a reverse communion, the master always needs to be at the very bottom of that list.
So, if you wanted to setup a situation in which one (non communioned guy) casts the general +1Astral battlefield buff (Light of the northern Star), a communion master casts Power of the Spheres, and the rest of the communion fires away with +2 Astral boosted Soulslays, you were doing it wrong because your communion master was like, the 4 mystic if counting from the top. All of the communion members below him never cast a single spell in that battle. You could even see some trying to get into mellee.

If you have 4 mystics, and those mystics appear like this in the tactics screen:
Mystic A
Mystic B
Mystic C
Mystic D
remember to let the communion master be Mystic D, so that the other 3 Mystics still can cast spells, note that "target caster" buffs your master casts effect all communion slaves, and that he still gets the communion path bonus even if his slaves already cast soemthing. So, if you have a Mystic with earth somewhere down on the tactics screen, use him to cast "Communion Master, Power of the spheres, Summon Earthpower" the reinvigoration is very worth it.

I also wondered what your Oreiads were doing, their seduce is basically an assassination attempt that once in a green moon gets you a free commander, and an Oreiad can be scripted/equipped to be capable of dealing with Agarthan Orcales scripted to cast Blade Wind.

Other stuff you could have done:
-Layered castings of "Swarm". Agarthan boulders are quite capable of hurting other Agarthans, and Swarms are awesome for provoking friendly fires.
-Thunderstrike/Storm. Any A2 caster under power of the spheres, or even A1 casters under Storm/power of the Spheres can cast it. It does not care about MR, deals additional fatigue damage and is propably better than Soulslay for comparably High MR Agarthans.
-Penetration boosters: From memory, Acro can forge a number of penetration booster naturally. Those help a lot with Soul Slay/Paralyze etc.

[Jiggymike]

But doesn't the master need to cast Communion Master and then have all the others cast Communion Slave afterwards and therefore needs to be at the top of the list? I had them casting first, then casting buffs while the slaves held a turn, then had the masters hold while the slaves cast spells? I need to check out the guide again.

I thought the seduction was pretty slick, actually. I knew he was scripted to go crazy with blade winds and earth melds, so I sent my oreiads to wipe out his casters before the battle even started. I set them to mistform/aim/lightning bolt so that he couldn't hurt me with his blade winds and then blasted him away. I succeeded in killing 2 of his generals and seducing 2 other weak ones away while one of my oreiads fled after she went of script and started casting useless spells. Also they don't have astral so I was not able to communion them to cast thunder strike, so I figured they would be more effective in taking out his area of effect casters than casting single lightning bolts in battle.

My biggest problems in this game were forging and researching. I don't really know what to forge ever and I tend to be more reactive than active; spell focuses probably would have helped a ton against Agartha. Also I took way too long to get to Thau 5 and then had some useless const 4 and conj 3 that I barely used. Oh well, I am still learning the game. Unfortunately I can't say that I'm enjoying it too much, as I got wiped pretty badly in this game and am getting killed in the other game I am in too.

[Jiggymike]

Well after all my complaining and actually putting up a competent battle (still lost), I'm going on AI. Sorry guys and good luck to all, even Excist who was gracious in victory and taught me a lot! Play with me again in the future, I promise I'll play better and TRY to whine less (this game just frustrates me so bad because it takes a lot of thinking and planning and it just sucks when you don't get any payoff).

[Mightypeon]

Nope, there is one communion, and you can very much start with casting the slave spells.
If you want a communion that only buffs the master, you usually put the master first,if you want a communion that buffs the slaves, put the master last.
If you have the master as last, the slaves will not be boosted in the second turn, but imho the trade off is much worth it.
I think you have been confusing 2 types of common comminions.
There is the normal communion in which the slaves simply act as fatigue absorbers for the masters. Like, Pyhtium likes to do. There is also the reverse communion where the master simply casts buffs, and the slaves thus cast improved spells. In you case, mystics are way to cool to be used as communion slaves for another mystics, so reverse communion is a nice idea.


Something else one can do with Blood nations is having a mixed communion of Astral on Blood. Reinvigoration from the Blood school can in some cases reset fatigue on the entire communion to near 0.

[Excist]

Wow, I'm learning some good stuff too. I might want to give an astral nation a swing next game. Mightypeon, you are indeed a mighty font of information for us noobs. :)

[shatner]

Communions are powerful and confusing, to be sure. Baalz wrote an excellent guide for them (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37499) which I would recommend for everyone to read at some point or another.

[Mightypeon]

Hehe, I learned that stuff by failing very very badly in another game ;)
I wont share those other lesson from that game though, as they funnily enough were about how to deal with cloud trapezing Formorian Kings without any magic school higher than 4 ;)
But basically, Sauromatia is propably among the best for reverse communions with reinvigoration for fun an profit.

[shatner]

T'ien Ch'i is running our new King Maker Special. We will forge, for anyone, artifacts. To our knowledge, we are the only people who have reached construction-8. However, we are certain that we are the only people capable of forging any non-blood artifact in the game.

We reserve the right not to forge certain artifacts that are "too hot" (gate stone, scepter of dark regency, the chalice, Soulstone of the wolves, etc.) but beyond that, we will forge on demand. Want the Aegis? The Unquenched Sword? The Armor of Virtue or the Crown of Overmight? There are many artifacts and we will forge them for you.

We charge our usual price (cost of item plus 1 extra gem per five it cost, extra gems can be of any variety) plus an extra 1 gem per five for artifacts. However, if you are willing to pay in fire or nature gems, we are willing to negotiate a little on that price.

To place your orders, PM T'ien Ch'i. Get these literally one-of-a-kind artifacts quick; if you don't, someone else will.

[Mightypeon]

I would love to set the schedule to 36 hours, as we imho reached the mid game.

[Morla]

The hososting interval it´s set to 36 hours. Do you mean 48?

[ditoLoco]

i am for 48h as well
as you can see i has been somewhat stalling (turning turns at the last moment), b/c i can't handle 1 turn/day pace and you guys so far are great with doing your turns ...
the game is not only turns, but also diplomacy and that takes time ...

[Morla]

If all agree i´ll extend the hosting interval to 48h.

Edit: for now i set the time to 48h.

[Six]

Hehe, I learned that stuff by failing very very badly in another game ;)
I wont share those other lesson from that game though, as they funnily enough were about how to deal with cloud trapezing Formorian Kings without any magic school higher than 4 ;)

That's how we learn, lol.

You do seem to be sharing that lesson, just not in a direct way. :D

[Jiggymike]

Seems like Acroscephale is still alive...makes me regret leaving this game, sorry all!

[ditoLoco]

Next week since Monday afternoon i will be away till Thursday afternoon, i can make a turn right before leaving and same hour i will be back. I do not think though it will be enough, hence i will have to ask for extension.

[Morla]

Ok, let me know when you leave and i´ll extend the hosting.

[ditoLoco]

Ok, i am sending a new turn now and i am gone till Thursday ..
I do not know how long this turn will take - it supposed to end on Wend, but almost all files are in already ...
Hence, if next turn deadline is on Thursday please extend it, i am back thu afternoon and i will make turn immediately.

Request:
I am having some problem with underwater provinces rebelling against our humble rule, we will punish them. Our forces already are approaching. Please, respect that it is our territory.

By the way, i have mind hunted the leading cracken and my mage got
fableminded, how come? there, for sure, was no mage with astral magic ...

[shatner]

Ok, i am sending a new turn now and i am gone till Thursday ..
I do not know how long this turn will take - it supposed to end on Wend, but almost all files are in already ...
Hence, if next turn deadline is on Thursday please extend it, i am back thu afternoon and i will make turn immediately.

Request:
I am having some problem with underwater provinces rebelling against our humble rule, we will punish them. Our forces already are approaching. Please, respect that it is our territory.

By the way, i have mind hunted the leading cracken and my mage got
fableminded, how come? there, for sure, was no mage with astral magic ...

The feebleminding is our fault (T'ien Ch'i) though entirely accidental. We waited a good long time but your underwater provinces (which we have asked to purchase from you, btw) remained indie-controlled so we sent our god to go cut up some calamari. Unfortunately, we did a quit-without-saving, losing all that scripting and when we went back and rescripted our god we forgot to re-equip him. If it's any consolation, he was torn apart and killed painfully by a multitude of kraken (though he has since gotten better).

Anyway, the flow of events went like this: Guatama teleported into the province; by chance this happened before your mind hunt. Your mage cast Mind Hunt into a province which suddenly contained a high astral pretender, so your guy got feebleminded. It was by chance that our teleport spell went off before your mind hunt spell; frankly we would have preferred it if you had remotely slain the kraken king before our pretender got there.

As far as those being "your" territory... I don't have the old turn files in front of me to confirm but it's been at least 5 if not more turns since that province traded your rule for that of a squid's. At that point it's free game both in the letter and, I would argue, the spirit of our NAP.

[Morla]

The game will now host at 21:12 GMT on Friday November 11th.

[ditoLoco]

Well, i have old files fortunately.
I thought that if you mind hunt the main Kraken the rest will escape if attacked. My first attempt failed, in the second one got my mage feebleminded. Hence, you waited one turn before attacking the province. ONE TURN.
In total - you took the province on a turn four since it was taken and right before my army attacked and right when i said that i am planning to attack it soon (once my plan did not work due to your teleporting mage i have to had an army and i took 2 turns to put it together).

This is a serious offence and we Druids will inquire whether it breached our NAP or not.
Besides, this turn i am attacking the other underwater province, please, dont be there.

[shatner]

When I get home tonight I'll go through my old turn files and confirm how long it took for me to get restless about the kraken province. It is possible that I am mis-remembering how long it had remained neutral because there have been a few lengthy delays between turns.

That said, I didn't hustle into the province knowing you were trying to reclaim it. I was completely unaware of your mind hunt attempts, or any other attempts of yours to retake the province. My teleport was completely independent of your mind hunt and the fact that they collided was utterly accidental.

Me taking a now-neutral province that used to be yours might be considered rude, depending on factors such as how long it had remained neutral. As such, I confess I might, MIGHT, have done something rude (I will confirm the timing later tonight). However, the letter of our NAP is that neither party would invade nor cast spells (anonymous or otherwise) at provinces owned by the other party. You didn't own that province when I cast a remote spell (teleport) nor when I invaded it. Our pact remains unbroken.

Whether or not you feel like one water province of dubious claim is worth ending our NAP over is up to you. Personally I'm not scared and I assume you have bigger fish to fry than little ol' T'ien Ch'i. But if you want to give us nothing better to do than screw with you than so be it. We aren't going to win this game anyway so bring it on, Druid Boy... a war with us would cost WAAAAY more than we're worth, especially to someone who is already big and powerful.

Concerning your other water province, don't worry we won't interfere with your reclaiming it.

[ditoLoco]

Ok, we still have NAP, though your actions was on a border of breaching our pact

[Mightypeon]

The nations of Fomoria thanks the host for the timely extension!

[Morla]

NP, i am going to change the hosting interval to 52h.

[Six]

Well, that'll do it for Mictlan.

I've fought it down to the point that there really isn't enough left to even try to be creative with, so I'm going to turn it over to AI for the last couple turns until Formoria gets around to siegeing that last fort.

Good game y'all and see ya around.

[Mightypeon]

Thanks to Six for sticking it out! You certainly were creative with what you had, and at one point fought of an assault on Mictlan.

Cheers,

Mightypeon

[ditoLoco]

Good game and good fight six, certainly you made it as hard as possible :)

With respect

Druids

[Excist]

Any plans to make the turns a little more lax through the holiday weekend? Finding it difficult to prepare for thanksgiving and get my turn in

[Morla]

Done

[Excist]

Okay I am confused. Are there ant mods on the server other than Cbm 1.92?

I cannot view one of my battles from this turn since the game keeps crashing with a foreign language error message referencing a file it cannot load named firebird.

Consequently, I can scout a unit named Firebird that probably partook in the battle.

Can anybody figure out why this is?

Did the Cbm makers change the firebird file without changing the version number? Perhaps I have an older or newer version of 1.92??

[Morla]

I had the same problem, your version of CBM lacks some creatures and heroes sprites, download the latest version, and if the problem persist download the latest version of EDM and Worthy Heroes(that shold be included in CBM 1.92). That fixed my problem.

[Excist]

Okay, that did the trick Morla - was able to view the battle now, and what a battle it was!

Awesome fight Ditoloco! That was an exciting battle to watch all the way through! Massive clash of forces which makes this game fun :D

[Mightypeon]

Looks like I missed something while staling -.- _:)

[Excist]

Yes. You missed another healthy dose of roasted boar, although this one would have been less tasty as it was decaying and had rigor mortis setting in. There were also plenty of Inedible undead squashed by heavenly gifts.

We had about 50 mages and 200 troops on both sides of the battle.

It was epic.

[Mightypeon]

I will need a 12 hour extension (heavy work + me getting ill).

[Morla]

OK, extension granted.

[ditoLoco]

Well, i was not so excited about a battle since i lost :)))
i still have to watch it carefully, i have feeling that my communion did not entirely worked as i wanted, but communions generally never do :)

Truly epic indeed

[Mightypeon]

I seem to be unable of sending my turns.
Perhaps a delay until llamaserver ceases its borkiness?

[ditoLoco]

I am having right now a very hard time and i am forced also to ask for extension. It would be great if we move deadline to Monday b/c also this weekend is very crazy for me.

[Mightypeon]

It appears that a single Maverni going offscript and casting Communion master while beeing offscript reduced mavernis artillery output by about 50%.

[Excist]

How did you come to that conclusion?

[Mightypeon]

A mage with a fairly early turn order casted communion master in turn 4 I believe, if I remember correctly before many of the communion slaves, who then ceased to cast themselfs. This noticably reduced the number of rocks falling down.
He then proceeded to cast other random staff that prevented the comminion slaves from blowing up things as intended.
I am not entirely sure wether this would have made a difference though. I am also quite certain that the Firebird and its solar brilliance hurt Maverni more than Agartha, especially since Agartha put up AntiMagic, and thus had superior MR.
Imho, the AI should never cast communions by itself.

[Excist]

I had the impression that he wasn't trying to do a reverse communion as he probably would have blown all their fatigue before I was within the range that the gifts start being more accurate.

But, I think you know more about communions than me so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt Mighty.

[Mightypeon]

Well, he had Druids as Communion slaves, which would be a bit innefficient of them. Also, in the initial communion, the communion master spells all came last. Two things that greatly indicate a reverse communion attempt.

[Morla]

Hi all, i will postpone the game 12h more, for marvernis sake. At this stage of the game i will try to avoid, if i am not asleep, stale turns from any nation. Hope this helps.

[Morla]

Last extension 6h, just for the Madrid-Barcelona. I think we waited long enough.

[shatner]

While I hope to not need it, I'd like to request an extra 24 hour extension now. This weekend was entirely eaten up by family obligations and I was utterly unable to deal with the volume of turns I need to look at as well as diplomatic dealings I need to be cognizant of. I'm going to try and spend tomorrow evening getting all caught up but that may not be possible (yet more stuff going on) so 24 hours of breathing room would ensure no stall or half-baked turn gets submitted.

Thanks.

[Morla]

Done.

[Morla]

What do you think think about a pause for christmas?

[Excist]

Might be a good idea. Perhaps turn off the turn timer and leave the quickhost on?

[shatner]

@Excist
Brilliant!

[Morla]

Brilliant, i will try to do that.

But how?

Well, hosting changed to 240h

[Excist]

@Morla:
Brilliant!

on another note, has ditoloco completely quit without notice? I was having fun stomping his forces and then he has seemed to completely disappear for several months (stales 5 months running despite delaying almost a week for him)

[shatner]

So, a new year... looking over it I can tell I no longer have the time needed to maintain my current glut of Dom3 games. Both work and home concerns are making it increasingly hard for me to keep pace with these games, resulting in delays, poor plays or (in a few rare cases) stalls. So, I'm going to try and find subs for me in almost all of my current games (I'm only staying in two that are either very close to a conclusion or are very low maintenance).

Sorry for the withdraw but I don't have the time to spare and my half-assing several games won't do anyone any good.

[Morla]

OH, we will work this out.

I will come back januray 4th.

Let´s hope we find a sub.

[Morla]

Ok, shatner found a sub "Rejakor".

When he takes over Tien chi, i will resume this game.

[Rejakor]

Hey guys, i'm shatner's sub for this game, looking forward to gaming with you all. :)

I'm definitely planning on continuing in the current theme, so you can expect a largely unchanged T'ien Ch'i, practicing The Way, and generally chilling out being a cool dude.

I'm sure i'll get to know you all through the game, but i'll just state here that I haven't played in a big MP game yet - this, and the other Morla that i'm subbing for Shatner in, are my first. So, let's make it awesome, eh?

[Mightypeon]

Beate Uhse wishes you luck, and merrily informs you of Fomorias excellent beaches.

[Morla]

HI, i will continue extending the game till T'ien Ch'i sends his turn, i will send mine after all had submited their turns, except marverni, what happened to ditoloco he was in a strong position?

[Excist]

He lost 1 major battle annd then seemed to have disappeared. Perhaps turn him ai?

[Mightypeon]

Hi, I would like an extension for 12 hours if possible.

[Morla]

it´s possible, i extended the game 24h just in case.

[Excist]

I'm away from my pc tonight and don't think I can get my turn in today.

[Morla]

K, i extended the game 24h, just in case.

[Mightypeon]

Can we have a check as to who is how interested in this game? I am currently seeking to reduce my dominions 3 load a bit, and I think I am in wait... 5 games in total, and in the mid-late game in 4 of those.

[Morla]

I am having the same issue. And my interest in this game is decaying a little bit, what the rest of you thinks?

[Excist]

Well, I have mixed feelings because I was having tons of fun in this game as I had the biggest come-back play in any game I've been in. But, that was spoiled somewhat when the Marverni player just disappeared without a sub or going AI and being at peace with everybody else...

[Mightypeon]

If any of my neighbours is willing, I would like to do a "Full scale battle" (like, all of my stuff vs all stuff of somebody else) somewhere.

[Rejakor]

Aw.

This position was really interesting. Not that I was doing the diplomaticking that I should have been to keep it alive.

Too busy moving little men and spending gems.

Honestly I was looking forward to the massive endgame free for all that looked to be about to commence. And now I don't get to unveil any of the nasty little surprises I had planned. sigh.

[Mightypeon]

Rejakor, we can totally throw all of our stuff at each other.

[Rejakor]

but.. free for all.

[Morla]

XD, it will be a nice showdown.

[Excist]

So am I to understand this correctly that the Pantokreator has appeared out of nowhere to nullify all diplomacy and declare military chaos worldwide?

[Rejakor]

Well, i'm not a fan of calling it here but everyone else seems to be in favour. So yeah, go hog wild.

The mans of t'ien ch'i will be forming up into their emergency positions regardless.

[Rejakor]

The MANS of T'IEN CH'I are mustering to their EMERGENCY POSITIONS.

All civilian militias are being called up FOR DUTY.

And mages are REPORTING TO THEIR POSTS.


WAR!

[Rejakor]

I've sent in my turn, but the llamaserver isn't showing it as in and it didn't send me a confirmation email. This makes me sad as I just spent 3 hours scripting all my guys.

[Excist]

Well, this is turning into fun with us all throwing everything at each other mindlessly.

I just fought a battle against 6 SCs, 2 mages and 50 undead elites and recovered 18 magic items from the battle :D

I've never seen anything like it.

BTW, thanks Fomoria!

I'll try to put it to good use.

[Rejakor]

but do you have a counter to WOLFSPAM?!

In other news, pile on agartha!

[Excist]

Yes, I do actually.

And yes, I've been seeing that you are looking for some attention.

I also have counters to your squids and tarts as you saw ;)

But you havent engaged any of my real armies yet.

They're on their way to Tien Chi now.

[Rejakor]

:D

Tarts? Oh, the monstrum. Do you have a counter for my abominationspam, though? Do you? BUDDY?!

If I was less of a derp i'd have geared those squids properly and used them individually, but omg, REVERSE BLOOD BUFF COMMUNION.

Also if by counters you mean seal guards, pretty sure all my guys died to horrors, fatigue, and lack of buffs on the communion masters. The two fully buffed slaves lived. None of your petrifies et al actually stuck.

So I heff learnt a valewable lewsson, unt now I shall commence the somevhat more serious-er business of RECLAIMING MY SICKLE, YOU THIEVING SUBTERRANEAN BASTARD.

[Excist]

Nope. The counter to all your expensive summons is my maxed out death bless. Given enough time everything will be overwhelmed with afflictions from my hundreds of sacred mages and thousands of sacred ancient ones.

Petrifying is good for stunning expensive summons and giving my low attack guys definite hits against 0 def. If they actually fail an MR roll and die that is just an added benefit.

[Excist]

I won't have an opportunity to do my turn until Sunday EST.

Btw, I'm not the only nation attacking and fighting everyone, right?

That was the idea, no?

[Morla]

hi all, sorry. I had internet problems, well no inet at all.

I am back and i will extend the game for excist. I hope i didn´t create a lot of problems.

[Rejakor]

Well, currently i'm mostly just fighting you. Don't worry, though, I still have giant armies and SCs on pretty much every border. You're just fighting the disposable/useless stuff yet!

You haven't even seen a master of the five elements, celestial master, or tartarian yet!

[Excist]

Please tell me you're saving them for the guy with the 110 gem income. ;)

[Mightypeon]

The guy with the gemincome is displeased with the ugly Golem fornicators and will do something about it :=)

[Mightypeon]

My apologies to Killing 200 Tien Chi Wolfes. You only have around 3 million of them right?

[Excist]

lol, still looking awfully like a 2v1

[Mightypeon]

I am sorry, but my Computer is non functional, getting repaired and will be back in 2-3 days. I still have internet, but no dominions access.

[Mightypeon]

I would heavily apprecciate a 48 hour delay.
Heavy real life workloads.

[Mightypeon]

What about moving to a scedule people may occassionally manage?

[Excist]

2nded. I just now realized there is a turn due and won't be home until late tonight.

I think this has become the least interesting game I'm in. :/

Perhaps a weekly hosting on Saturday with quickhost off while we finish it up?

[Mightypeon]

ATM, only 3 players are still playing.
On of those is a sub. The Endgame is rapidly become a slog, as far as I am concerned.

[Rejakor]

I'm still having fun.

Doing complicated things with buff chains and armies is good fun, so many ways to fail.

Maybe i'll get bored after a while, but right now i'm still waiting to see how the things i've set up go against a real opposition.

I managed to lure agartha's main army over to a useless island, though, so I guess i'll have to invade fomoria more aggressively. I'd invade nief too, but he's just so cute and friendly with all those wittle unfrozens. Awwww.

[Rejakor]

Oh god geared fomorian zmey dying to tiny priestmages spamming frozen heart and orb lightning oh the humanity

[Mightypeon]

SPLAT!!!
That turn was a major morale booster for Mightypeon.
Also, at Pretender Creation, I did not expect that my W9N4 bless chassis gets into hall of fame by Flame from the Skying other peoples armies.

[Mightypeon]

Am I the only one still playing?

[Excist]

Well, I didn't bother with the last couple of turns after I had requested an extension and the host iwas apparently AWOL.

My interest has been going down through mismanagement:

Players disappeared without comment, finding a sub or going ai.

The pace dragged to the point that I wouldn't remember what my plans were for some units and finally when I thought we were going to have a 3 way mashup to try to inject some more fun it turned into more of a 2 on 1 mashup.

Between that and the stale from a lack of host I haven't been that motivated to check the turns. :re:

[Rejakor]

I think Morla has disappearing. I'm still fighting peon, though, so i'm gonna keep playing.

[Mightypeon]

Can Beate Uhse convince you to accepts her ascendency by promising livelong access to lots and lots of porn? She heard this is popular on the internets these days. (and she is named after the female owner of Germanys largest Sexshop).

[Rejakor]

If she agrees to a t'ien ch'i marriage and living arrangements, sure.

[Excist]

I accept, but you better deliver on that lifelong porn, mightypeon!

I expect logins and passwords, or if you can't afford the good stuff you better break out your pocket cam and start making some amateur stuffs

[Rejakor]

Can't take turns for 5 days.

[Excist]

Didn't we concede this to Fomoria?

[Rejakor]

I was still doin' stuff.

[Mightypeon]

I would be fairly confident about winning though, I can throw 1 CTing Rain of Stone Caster, 1 Big Fire Evo and 1 Big Frost evo at any major mage concentration per turn, which should kinda minimizes Tiens Communions on the offense. The number of rain of Stone CTers will increase every 2 turns, While instant attack Tarts could off some protection for your communions (provided I dont also move in with the other CTing Stuff of which I have absulutly no shortage) and they dont need a lot of equipment for their stunts either.
The other ways against that is protection communion key mages by synthetic communion spells, which leaves them open to the army killing remote attack spells, or protecting key communion guys by items for fire/cold resistance, which would propably cut into SC production gem wise.
I would also be midly confident in my SC production exceeding Tiens too, the ample presence of un gored Tarts implies that Tiens Tart production bottlenecks is N gems, which is partly why I took over the Mother oak.
That and flambeu access for dealing with Tarts (or Dusk Daggers for other things).
I dont dispute Tiens ability to drag this game out for a lovingly long time though, if he stays on the defense, however, I am progressivly getting stronger (I was worried when you temporarily got the Conjuration site though), there is also the thing that the admin is absent, and Tien would likely eat a stale soon.

[Rejakor]

Actually un GORed tarts is mostly due to stockpiling nature gems specifically to keep mother oak and nature's bounty. The problem is agartha and jotun are afk and I have no way to capitalize on that while you do. Thus the already huge gem advantage you have is going to steamroll into a insurmountable number and make any further resistance pointless.

If it wasn't for eating stales I could have a bigger chance to grab more of agartha's and jotuns lands and have a fighting chance but as is doesn't look like it's going to happen. Maybe message llama and get him to put the game on hold or something. Otherwise we'll just call it a fomorian victory thanks to rain.

[Mightypeon]

Heheh, console yourself by propably winning heroes :)