What Could Go Wrong (Newbie MA CBM1.92) [In Progress!]

[Austen]

I've really been wanting to try an MA game, but haven't been able to find one, so I thought I would set one up and give it a go. I have only played a few turns in a couple MPs and am getting crushed :P I'd like to keep this newbie friendly, please :)

Age......: MA
Settings.: All default, except renaming is allowed and HoF 15.
Mods.....: CBM 1.92;
Players #: 7
Map......: Streamlandsfixed
Diplomacy: Binding NAPs
Turn Freq: 30h quickhost, to be adjusted as necessary when turns get longer. I'll try to be understanding and not let players stall.
Other....: In part due to the low number of players and the notion of this being a newbie game, I would prefer players not go AI and no shenanigans.


If you'd like to join, post a reply stating which nation you'd like to play, and I'll add it to the list below. Only guideline is that we should have no more than two water nations, and that's if we are near capacity for players.

Current nations:
Austen - Vanheim
Megawidget - Abysia or C'Tis
name_thief - Marignon
Matty - Agartha
Parone - Ulm
Robespierre - R'lyeh
Procyon Lotor - Tien Chi

[megawidget]

MA Abysia or MA C'Tis (I'll agonize about which one later, or if someone snags one I'll default to the other).

Also, you might want to use Courier New for the spacings! I've discovered that Fixedsys isn't.

[name thief]

I would be interested as Marignon. It would only be my second multiplayer game. Hopefully better than the first one.

[mattyburn7]

I'll give Agartha a try.

[parone]

Ulm please. ahhh matty, more giants for you...

[Austen]

Updated OP with map and nations and player cap (6). If anyone objects to map or diplomacy, its time to speak up.

[Robespierre]

Count me in as R'lyeh please.

[Procyon Lotor]

Tien Chi, please!

[Austen]

Had a busy day today, sorry for the late update..

Game is up.. I went ahead and made it 7 to accommodate everyone.. changed the map to Streamlands to accommodate the extra player.

Let's get pretenders uploaded and get it going.

[mattyburn7]

Do you have a link to the map?

Parone: I missed your earlier post. Yep. Giants again, but these are a very very different kind of giant. Takes about 50 of them to match 1 Ashdod sacred :)

[name thief]

May I switch to the Shinuyama?

[megawidget]

I settled on being C'tis!

[name thief]

30h quick host means 30 hours between turns, right?

[megawidget]

30h quick host means 30 hours between turns, right?

Up to 30h. If I understand correctly, if all players submit the turns early the game will host and the timer will reset.

[Austen]

Just one more pretender and then we're ready to go!

[mattyburn7]

Do you have a link for the map. There appear to be about 3 different ones and the one I thought would be it had a bad link (or I was doing a bad job of following the link!)

[Austen]

This should be it:

Streamlands (http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/streamlands.zip)

[Austen]

30h quick host means 30 hours between turns, right?

Up to 30h. If I understand correctly, if all players submit the turns early the game will host and the timer will reset.

This is correct.

[name thief]

A NAP is where we agree to peace correct?

[Austen]

Also, I just sent an email to Procyon Lotor asking him if he still intends to play and to upload his pretender if so. I also got a PM from someone else who really wants to join. If they can get a pretender in that's fine also..

So we could have 6,7, or 8. Sorry for the variables, but I really want to accommodate other noobs but not make allow it to take forever to start. If we end up with a different number, I'll change map and post link.

Will hit start tomorrow night. (Sat night in US).

[Austen]

A NAP is where we agree to peace correct?

I'm a neophyte, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but what I've gleaned seems to indicate as follows

- NAP is Non Aggression Pact.

- The gist is that if you offer someone a NAP for 8 turns, you are expected to honor it for that length of time.

- You can also do like a NAP + 3 which is basically agreeing to not attack the other person without 3 turns notice.

- Some games NAPs are considered binding and in others they're considered to be more sort of.. guidelines.. we're considering them binding here.

If I fouled that up or someone has more to add, please do so.

[megawidget]

A NAP is where we agree to peace correct?

I'm a neophyte, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but what I've gleaned seems to indicate as follows

- NAP is Non Aggression Pact.

- The gist is that if you offer someone a NAP for 8 turns, you are expected to honor it for that length of time.

- You can also do like a NAP + 3 which is basically agreeing to not attack the other person without 3 turns notice.

- Some games NAPs are considered binding and in others they're considered to be more sort of.. guidelines.. we're considering them binding here.

If I fouled that up or someone has more to add, please do so.

I am a neophyte too, but I think you're right.

I would also argue that doing an aggressive dominion push, using unrest-causing troops, and casting blatantly obnoxious or overpowered globals like burden of time or forge of the ancients would count as a violation of the NAP. But I'd probably clarify that in the terms if I ever make one.

[mattyburn7]

As for NAP, generally it means you have to give that much notice with NAP3 being standard but I've also seen NAP2 and NAP5 (i.e. 5 turns notice before attacking). You can also do peace treaties Where you say no war until turn 25...Or even No war until Turn 25 then NAP3 from that point forward.

Some games have house rule that you MUST honor the NAP. Most don't have that houserule but I think in those games if you break a NAP you get a black mark that carries over into other future games.

Also if you trade gems are items it is generally understood that you must follow through with the trade.

CHeers.

[mattyburn7]

BTW I just reviewed the initial post and it says binding NAPs so you can't break them.

[Redfive]

In as Ermor, thanks.

[Austen]

Game On!

[name thief]

I'm having trouble loading the turn. I get the message Play a Nation when I try to load the game. As far as I can tell it doesn't think it has a turn file in it. But I copied it and put it in.

[megawidget]

I am assuming I need to download the map first, in order to play. But the map is unavailable. http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/streamlands.zip times out. :(

Will the one here work? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=713433

[Austen]

Try running the game as administrator? I get weird behavior with my saves and stuff when I don't.

I'm having trouble loading the turn. I get the message Play a Nation when I try to load the game. As far as I can tell it doesn't think it has a turn file in it. But I copied it and put it in.

[Austen]

I copied it here: www.lonestarsoft.com/Images/Random/streamlands.zip

I am assuming I need to download the map first, in order to play. But the map is unavailable. http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/streamlands.zip times out. :(

Will the one here work? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=713433

[megawidget]

I copied it here: www.lonestarsoft.com/Images/Random/streamlands.zip

I am assuming I need to download the map first, in order to play. But the map is unavailable. http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/streamlands.zip times out. :(

Will the one here work? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=713433

To confirm, your version *is* different. It should be OK for me, because I don't think the fixed neighbors thing is affecting my first turn, but people should make sure to use the one Austen uploaded if they can't get the one from tnnet.fi!

[parone]

ironically in what could go wrong game...i have downloaded this map from 3 different sources, and every time i click on play turn one, it dumps me onto my desktop and says i do not have streamlands

[mattyburn7]

Did you download from the post immediately above. That one worked good for me.
Cheers

[name thief]

I looked at the files and I seem to be missing a fthrlnd file and a 2h file. Where do I get those.

[Redfive]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35160

This FAQ should tell you everything you need. The 2h file is generated when you take your turn I believe.

Don't know about the ftherland file. I didn't need it for my turn.

[name thief]

I think the fthrlnd thing is for the home computer allowing it to host turns.

Before putting the trn file into the folder do I have to make any changes to it?

Also I think my computer is weird. It has split the dominions 3 directory into two parts and uses them both.

[Austen]

I think that file is for single player games.

I am going to turn off the autohost to make sure everyone has time to get this turn in, then I will turn it back on.

[Austen]

One other thing I mentioned before.. when you run Dom 3, right click it and choose "Run as administrator". That seems to effect how saves are handled.

[Austen]

Heh.. right as I went to change the interval you submitted so I guess you figured it out :)

[megawidget]

Is anyone interested in doing an AAR of this? I'm sure this would be good for the veterans out there to laugh at.

I would be willing to contribute, or even write one with others' input. It could be published with a delay of a certain large number of turns (to make it spoiler-free), or be done after the game ends if people are willing to make writeups/take screenshots during.

Also, Austen, you might want to change the thread title to be '[in progress]'. :)

[name thief]

That could actually be rather fun. I could try to contribute although I am not certain how well I would do.

[Austen]

I save all my turn files and take little notes and sometimes screenshots, so I would be happy to contribute.

[parone]

ill try to jot down some notes. i love reading AARs. guess i could chip in a bit

[megawidget]

looks at Ulm's gem income

:shock:

Also, did Ermor's and Agartha's labs burn down or something? :rolleyes:

[megawidget]

I save all my turn files and take little notes and sometimes screenshots, so I would be happy to contribute.

I think I'll start a thread for this at around turn 20 or so, unless you'd like to do so instead -- it's your game.
Anyone who takes notes will be able to add. This will probably also be useful to everyone post-mortem.

[parone]

LOL. i sight searched one province!!! i must be the only 'earlybird' sight seeker. you guys are all researching, while poor magically challenged Ulm falls behind.

meanwhile, Ulm already has company...

[megawidget]

LOL. i sight searched one province!!! i must be the only 'earlybird' sight seeker. you guys are all researching, while poor magically challenged Ulm falls behind.

meanwhile, Ulm already has company...

+7 gems from one province? Whoa man!

C'tis probably has company too, but it's hard to see past all the miasma...

In other news, all other nations in the game will now be referred to as "lessss squamousss neighborsss". :D

[mattyburn7]

Research...The big Giants of Agartha are just learning their A B C's

[name thief]

If I understand correctly Ermor uses all its first turns recruiting Grand Thaumaturge and having them reanimate longdead horsemen. I don't know about Agartha, did they declare a prophet maybe? Also, Ulm, did you find that one earth site that gives 5 gems? Something like 1000 Useful Things.

[parone]

i didn't say i found one sight...i said i searched one province...i must admit, it was a good one

[Redfive]

If I understand correctly Ermor uses all its first turns recruiting Grand Thaumaturge and having them reanimate longdead horsemen. I don't know about Agartha, did they declare a prophet maybe? Also, Ulm, did you find that one earth site that gives 5 gems? Something like 1000 Useful Things.

You are either correct about Ermor or I just don't know what I'm doing. The answer is actually both :)

[name thief]

I still am not satisfied with my pretender. Isn't that just terrible? I must have changed it half a dozen times. And I want to change him again... I should have used a Wyrm.

[megawidget]

I still am not satisfied with my pretender. Isn't that just terrible? I must have changed it half a dozen times. And I want to change him again... I should have used a Wyrm.

I often feel the same way. It doesn't help that one of my friends is a veteran dom3 player always willing to tell me that my pretender design sucks. The one I am currently using... sucks. :o Also I clearly have no idea about certain MA independents, having never ever played MA -- hence you may have noticed the dip in my army size a couple of turns ago.

MA C'tis is also.... weird. I think the miasma does more harm to me than to anyone else. Not being able to recruit independents is rather painful, even if apparently *all* the independents I could recruit are currently stupid nature mages I can already do better than.

Also, sorry for being an obnoxious stickler, but since we're in turn 7 already can we really change the thread status to 'in progress' rather than 'uploading pretenders'?

[megawidget]

name_thief, you don't have private messaging enabled, so I have no other means to reach you. (you should in the future)

Suffice to say that if you don't want your pretender cursed and horror-marked you should withdraw him from my territory at once. Trust me, C'tis has excellent ways of dealing with SC pretenders.

[mattyburn7]

Robespierre: Can you also turn on PM pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee?

[Robespierre]

Done.

[parone]

man, wrap around maps totally mess with me. anyone else have problems with em, or is it just me?

our little map is getting crowded...and crowded nations are grumpy nations. it will be interesting to see who throws the first punch...and how hard it lands.

[mattyburn7]

Name_Theif: Can you turn on private messaging? I'd like to talk to you about our current situation.

Cheers!

[megawidget]

man, wrap around maps totally mess with me. anyone else have problems with em, or is it just me?

our little map is getting crowded...and crowded nations are grumpy nations. it will be interesting to see who throws the first punch...and how hard it lands.

Well, I just kicked Shinuyama's pretender back across the bridge after he strolled in and took one of my provinces. Does that count? :re:

[parone]

wish i'd had a scout there to gather all that delicious intelligence...

[megawidget]

wish i'd had a scout there to gather all that delicious intelligence...

Shinuyama then decides to reinvade, because the province (which is within two of my capital and which we invaded on the same turn before, with my army getting to it first) is "his".

It didn't turn out so well for him (he didn't survive the battle):
http://orbisterti.us/dom3/celestial-near-death.jpg
And that is why you don't mess with the lizards!
http://orbisterti.us/dom3/celestial-afflictions.jpg

Dibs on his capital, btw. :rolleyes:

[parone]

we will see...

[name thief]

Arguably it was my province because when I invaded it was under my Dominion and it was under my control at the end of the turn. Although I will say I was arrogant in my message. And it is two provinces away from my capital as well. This is kind of a crowded map.

[megawidget]

Arguably it was my province because when I invaded it was under my Dominion and it was under my control at the end of the turn. Although I will say I was arrogant in my message. And it is two provinces away from my capital as well. This is kind of a crowded map.

Well, I have tried to take the province twice, and succeeded on the second try only to have you show up and scatter my army. :re:
At that point I actually assumed you were invading because it was so close to my capital so I actually prepped a horror-marking squad just for you and moved it close, wasting some research time. Also, you didn't communicate at all outside of the in-game messaging so I had no means of knowing you weren't on the offensive. So, I was getting peeved. It didn't occur to me that your own capital would be so close, or that you'd be expanding blindly so close to my own capital. :doh:

Sorry about the afflictions, but it's what C'tis is good at. I'm sure you would've done the same to me. :p

[name thief]

How do I turn on Private Messages? I don't actually know how.

[megawidget]

How do I turn on Private Messages? I don't actually know how.

It's under User CP -> Edit Options -> Private Messaging. It's a bit awkward to find. You can also choose to receive email from other forum members, which I think makes it greatly easier to communicate.

[parone]

them sad giants sure can swim...

[megawidget]

them sad giants sure can swim...

Still can't hit the broad side of the barn though. :p

[parone]

are you talking about their rock throwers? i thought maybe that was just me...

[mattyburn7]

Oh, they can hit the broad side of a barn...the barn 2 fields down from what they were aiming at!

[Austen]

Right now we are just waiting on C'TIs and Shinyama. Shin had a stale turn last turn and hasn't posted here. If we get where we are just waiting on him, I will set him to AI.

[parone]

tried to diplo him a few turns back and never heard from him

[parone]

check those army graphs...ctis and ulm are having a party!!!

[name thief]

I'm sorry that I dropped, I had a bit of a crisis with my computer and couldn't play. A thousand apologies.

[parone]

looks like ctis decided to just stop sending in turns. didn't even have the courtesy to go AI. i have to say, megawidget is the first truly rude dude i have met on here. everyone else is really cool. so let's all agree, the glass is 99% full!

[Redfive]

Sorry for the holdup..didn't see that the turn made. Will get it done shortly.

[parone]

hmmm. i have to redo turn 38 and turn 39 now? that's like an hour. in the future, maybe you should check with the other people you are playing with before you "roll back", especially if it is just for a stale. also, roll backs are notorious for corrupting game files and destroying games.

[mattyburn7]

Yea. I know this is probably your first hosting game, so no worries mate. But word around the street is rollbacks can corrupt games. Generally would post and ask prior too rollback.

But no worries from me on it. I'm in here for fun. Just info for next time.

Parone. I think maybe you can just resubmit your original 38 turn. Though to be honest I'll probably redo mine. Not sure when I'll get it done though. Will be tomorrow sometime.

Cheers!

[Austen]

Didn't know about it corrupting files, so I'm sorry if I just borked everything. I feel like at the stage of the game we are in, one stale makes a big difference.

I thought about posting first, but decided it would be better to roll it back right away before people started working on the current turn. I didn't think it would be a big deal as everyone could just resubmit their turn 38, but I see that I was mistaken.

Is there a usual process for something like this?

[mattyburn7]

No worries. I know this is your first host.

Usually if there is a desire to rollback. The requestor posts on the board and its usually debated. I think I've seen this 3 or 4 times. Everytime its been decided not too because of the chance of corruption. In one of those cases it led to bad feelings and the game was ended unfortunatley.

If its agreed to rollback, then the rollback occurs (like I said I haven't seen this yet, but I know it does happen). Otherwise it moves forward.

My personal feeling is that a stale is kind of like the fog/bad luck of war. But I recognize and accept that is me and am fine with others asking for/getting rollback. I guess its the chessplayer in me :).

All that being said. We rolled back so let's go for it. I'm thinking in future it may be a good idea to post a rollback policy prior to game being started so that everyone is on the same page ahead of time...to try to avoid the awkward situation.

Cheers!

[parone]

i had already sent in 39, which worries me. i think the game corruption may occur when you have one dummy like me who sent in the advance turn, and that gets mixed with previous turns-causing the whole thing to go Boom. lets hope i am wrong.

[parone]

ok, submitting. everyone close your eyes and cross your fingers...

[mattyburn7]

Here's hoping Argath suddenly has 50 provinces!!

Dang...Sad giants are even sadder :(. LOL

[parone]

well, i guess i did not inadvertantly cause the apocolypse.

Ulm puts its question to you again, Vanheim: why are you letting nasty C'tis live?

[Austen]

No.. I may have broken it..

It says it's received everyones file but C'Tis' Can that be right?

[mattyburn7]

LOL...No Way!

[parone]

ahhh well. i was afraid this would happen

[parone]

well, at least this game was named properly...

[Austen]

Well post here after you send in your turn and I'll have it host. Maybe it will get straightened out. When I sent mine in, it seemed happy with it.

[parone]

sent mine in. give her a go whenever you are ready

[Austen]

The other guys haven't posted, so I guess we'll just let it host tonight when the turns are due and see what happens.. sorry if I broke the world.. :(

[parone]

ill take some blame too, austen. wish i would have just extended the NAP. i was just so eager to start the killing!

[mattyburn7]

Ok...So its both of your faults..That makes Argatha and R'lyeh the winner by default!! Just Kidding :)

Sorry Austen, I don't think I did post..I did submit Turn 39...been juggling too many balls.

Cheers

[parone]

We Live!:)

[parone]

round one goes to...Vanheim.

[parone]

round 2, vanheim. but closer

[Austen]

Heh.. I don't think I've been very happy with the results of either round.. esp Round 1.. so I guess we both feel bad about how it's going.. :P

[mattyburn7]

Isn't that how war always is!

[parone]

i can't grab you!!!
:envy::mad::cold::shock::doh::eek:

[parone]

round 3, vanheim. but i think i got a shot at round 4

[Austen]

When I created the thread I said I was going to adjust the hosting as necessary when the turns got longer and I think it's necessary for me at least. I seem to spend a crazy amount of time on my turns getting all my guys set up perfectly so they can get murdered in the most horrendous ways possible. In any case, I'm going to set it to 48 hour turns as I just need more time.

[mattyburn7]

I think that's a good idea. There are a lot of provinces divided between a few people.

[parone]

wow. what a releif!! good game, but trying to crank out a turn per day was killing me. thanks austen

[parone]

darn. round 4 decisively to vanheim. i thought i might win this one.

[Austen]

wow. what a releif!! good game, but trying to crank out a turn per day was killing me. thanks austen

Ya know.. the funny thing is that I really felt bad doing it because no one else had brought it up. Thought I was the only one having trouble..

[Austen]

darn. round 4 decisively to vanheim. i thought i might win this one.

That's the first one I've felt ok about..

[parone]

that last turn may have been my new low point in decision making(in dominion, at least)

congrats austen.

[parone]

oh, and round 5 to vanheim. and with a knockdown

[parone]

what just happened? did i actually win a round?

round 6 to ulm

[Austen]

Indeed, you clearly had to be pleased with those results!

[parone]

well, it's nice to at least put up a bit of a fight...

[Austen]

I actually wrote th following on my iPad a couple days ago, but I'm just now posting it:

I think it's interesting how we have different viewpoints about how things have been going. Â*As we're all ostensibly noobs here, it would seem that there's a lot e don't reall know or understand about how things work.

It can also be difficult to really figure things out as you really only have your own viewpoint. Â*The opportunities to learn are somewhat tempered by the notion that telling the other person what is going on from your perspective can give your opponent an edge in the game. Â*As such, things tend to stay tight-lipped until it no longer matters and by that point your memory is foggy and there's not as much of a burning desire to figure things out.

I'm going to break from that a little as I'm sort of finding that knowledge in defeat might be preferable to ignorance in victory. Â*Not to say I'm going to post screenshots of my maps, but perhaps there is a useful middle ground.

So from my perspective:

- Round 1 - I really hated how this went. Â*I changed which guys I was using for some of my raiders and when I did, I forgot to give the new ones orders so they sat there and durdled while your Ulm's PD calmly walked up to them and smashed them to bits. Â*While I did successfully raid some provinces with guys that had orders, I lost multiple (I think 3) guys just because I was dumb.

Also that same turn, when Ulm's initially attacked Recenna, I had a very detailed battle plan with intricate orders for everyone there. Â*Somehow though, some key mages did not get set to patrol. Â*I know they were initially, but before the turn was submitted, I somehow turned some of them to Defend. Â* The dorks who had all the troops stayed on Patrol though, so when combat happened, all my troops attacked and the mage support didn't so my guys got wrecked.

Ulm posted that I won this round, and in some ways I see it, but I lost 3 raiders and a lot of good troops pointlessly without inflicting reciprocal damage, so it didn't feel great for me either.

- Round 2 - This one seemed I may be forgetting a bit as it was the quietest round so far. Â*I think the main takeaway I had from this one was a very real concern about how poorly my small battlegroups fare against comparable size units from Ulm.

- Random thoughts/observations:
1. I've been really impressed with sailing. Â*It's something I had never paid any attention to at all and literally didn't even think about until this game was well afoot. Â*It actually only got my attention by accident. Â*

In the war with C'Tis, I was moving dome troops through friendly provinces and I saw I could move a stack 2 provinces even though there were troops in it with map movement 1 which I found puzzling. Â*Eventually I figured out that they were sailing and not traveling by land. Â*Since then, I've realized in a map with some water like this it's completely nuts.

2. I've been really disappointed with my Global Enchants. Â*
- Gift of health - I can't complain too much about this one as the main reason I cast it was because I was fighting C'Tis at the time and they had it up. Â*I had extra nature gems sort of laying around, so I cast it mostly to take it down from them, but from my perspective it hasn't seemed that great.

-Mechanical Militia - I guess this could be event in SP, I dunno, but I think I am going to speak to the manager and ask for my gems back.

[Austen]

And I don't know what those weird symbols are...

[parone]

i don't think we have to worry about giving anything away. it appears we are going to bludgeon eachother to death, which is going to allow the giants or fish men to win this one(and yes, i remmember this war was my idea-sorry austen)

actually, i have to deploy more forces to retake provinces due to your mechanical militia. so it has had some effect, especially considering the number of "retakes" with your heavy raiding.

those symbols are battlefield enchantments, i think. you are the one casting them!(and they are irritating!)

your sailing, along with stealth troops, makes it a nightmare to try to keep you out of the interior. you are using these two tactics in tandem very well. as you know, many of my commanders, troops, mages, raiders are in my interior instead of yours.

as far as your orders/scripting getting messed up, i think we've all had it happen. sometimes i catch it, sometime i don't. it is very easy to make the mistakes you are talking about.

you are right, first round might have been a draw. i had big plans for round one, and no respect for your capabilities, so when you pulled off what you did, i was surprised. but i guess it goes both ways.

as far as small armies vs small armies, much of my reasearch has been in battle magic, and of course, ulm's heavies are her best asset. so on even terms, i think you are right, it is a tough match up for vanheim. of course, vanheim's stealth and speed are very tough for me to counter. classic big strong fat guy vs quick little guy scenario here.

so i guess we see it much the same.

[Austen]

Well what do you think about round 7? It was kind of a funny one... the graphs look very much in your favor, but I was actually quite pleased with the results from my side. Curious what you think.

Also, I'll try to do some more pseudo-AAR soon if you thought it was useful. The symbols thing I was talking about earlier are the high ascii characters in my thoughts on rounds 1 and 2.

[parone]

i concur. your adjustments to defense were costly for me. also, i am obviously havin some frustration in larger engagements. your large advantage in magic/research is really telling.

on the other hand, economically, i think things are going poorly for you. perhaps i can choke you out that way.

i would say more, but to be honest, i think the scales are tipping in your favor, and as such, i don't want to give TOO much away.

one thing is for sure, i have learned what it is i don't know...

[parone]

congrats on uttonshire. your encircle and destroy strat probably just won you this game. im just hoping now that i can hang onto you like a black iron anchor so that you go down with me!

seriously, you really schooled me there. your mistform sailing ethereal covert raiders have literally made it so that i dread opening my turns for this game.

[Austen]

While Utonshire has been the biggest actions and was clearly a good victory for me, it certainly has not won me our little war, much less the whole game.

I still took decent losses there. I also suffered crushing defeats in 3 or 4 medium sized engagements. Additionally, you still have an enormous army ready to storm my capitol while I've never seriously threatened you anywhere. You've also greatly limited my raiding despite the dread it causes you while you are raiding very effectively now and I have no real counters.

So it was a good victory for me in one spot, but I certainly don't think it was decisive. My take going into that fight was "I can't win the war here, but I can lose it." If you had beaten my army there I would have been pretty much knocked out.

Also, as you mentioned earlier, the disparity in provinces which leads to a disparity in income and gem income is non-trivial. And I hear Ulm can make good use of gems ;)

[parone]

win or lose, that was a great manuevre. also, you killed my zemy, and that hurt.

i wish i had been able to cast fanatasism in that battle. big, big oversight.

[Austen]

Ulm needs some extra time, and so do I quite frankly, so I am going to push the timer out on the next turn for another day or so.

[Austen]

Ulm is AFK until tomorrow morning, so I extended it another day.

[Austen]

I did an unsolicited 24 hour extension last night because Ulm and R'lyeh both had turn out. Ulm got his in, but no R'lyeh. I'll give until the timer runs out. He staled last turn, so may be done? I don' know.. he's never replied to any PMs, so I dunno..

[parone]

tried PMing him, and no response. certainly looks like he's up to something. has some armies massed...

without him, is there even a game here? he was the wildcard. i'll do whatever you guys decide, don't mind continuing.

[mattyburn7]

I sent him one message in game a couple of turns ago that he responded too. He never returns PM's (or at least hasn't for me) but does in game.

[parone]

i meant an in game message, just typed the wrong thing.

hope he sticks.

[parone]

this is a desperate message from the vice president of Ulm. jason, the pretender who never bothered to capitalize his name, has gone crazy. loco. coo coo. off the rails. his bats are in his belfrey. he is a few cards short of a full deck. his elevator doesn't reach the top floor.

he ain't right.

he is planning an all out offensive against the world. even those guys under the waves who don't move anymore(although we don't have many submarines)

anyway, commander loco is about to attack everyone in striking distance. we are disorganized and poor, but he still has a few guys kicking around.

don't say i didn't warn you. the good news is, he is an equal opportunity crazy, and is planning on attacking everyone.

[Austen]

without him, is there even a game here? he was the wildcard. i'll do whatever you guys decide, don't mind continuing.

I'm not sure I follow. Why is the player who hasn't really interacted with other nations for the last 20 turns the key to there being a game here?

If we pretend that the map was altered so that sea provinces could not be occupied and he was out of the game leaving just the three of us playing, how is there not still a game here? Is it over, and I'm the only one who doesn't realize it?

[mattyburn7]

No. i would say we continue. To be honest I was hoping the utterdark would spur him to cause some trouble among the leaders but that appears to have backfired :)

[parone]

in that case, on with the war!!!(and my insanity)

[Austen]

I'm sort of tempted to just close the game. It seems we have one player staling and another who is bored/disinterested and sort of just wants to smash pieces together at random rather than put a lot of effort into the game. This makes me not very excited about putting much effort into the game, and I'm not all that interested in just randomly slopping my pieces around.

I'm going to delay hosting so we can sort this out, but if Matty and I are the only ones wanting to continue, it might be time to just wrap the game.

[parone]

ill do my best to play well. problem is, i concluded a war with you, but am attacking matty cus of his global, which is crappy of me. so i figured to be fair, i'd just attack everyone. i actually was looking forward to it.

but whatever the decision, i am fine by it.

[Austen]

If someone casts a spell that wrecks you, I'm not sure how it's crappy to attack them...

[mattyburn7]

yea. utterdark is one of those that is designed to get everyone attacking you. No worries mate.

[Austen]

So I guess the delay to hosting didn't actually work despite saying it was not hosting until Friday. Good grief.. Oh well, if you two are committed to trying, I will to.. should be interesting.. Can't wait to see how big of a disaster a stale is at this stage :P

[parone]

is ryleh back? i see their turn in in. ahhh, the quiet, mystical deep...

[parone]

i've asked this a few times, but i have to ask again. why is ctis still human controlled? i find it even more odd since we have turned ryleh AI. very wierd.

[mattyburn7]

I'm pretty much destroyed at this point. If you'd like I can give an alternate Email and you could switch C'tis to me and I could make them AI.

[Austen]

We didn't turn Rlyeh AI, the player actually sent it in.

C'Tis is still human controlled because I've read from a more experienced source than me that letting the human stale is better than setting them AI for various reasons. It's actually in the thread for the game we are having our rematch in, Parone.. it's interesting.

I also think it creates an interesting game dynamic.

Originally, it was mostly just the PITA of getting someone to do it, but as I've learned a little more, I decided to leave it. Honestly, I'd prob just kill the snake rather than get someone else involved.

i've asked this a few times, but i have to ask again. why is ctis still human controlled? i find it even more odd since we have turned ryleh AI. very wierd.

[Austen]

I extended the turn as I haven't had enough time to do it and my day is looking too hectic at this point.

We might also consider an end-game. Matty says he's about done and I don't know that Parone and I are interested in bloodying each other until infinity.

Sooo... we may be about done.

[parone]

yeah, that's cool. can you just play one more, or let it go? i wanted to see something. i'm ok with you declaring victory, austen. someone ought to.

[Austen]

I'll def get my turn in tonight.. today's going nuts, so it may be tonight, but I'll get it in before I go to bed.

We could also set turns to 5 days or something wacky and just use it as a sandbox a bit..

[parone]

yeah, ok. that'd be cool. obviously i have never been in a late game before(does this even qualify?) longer game turns would be good.

[Austen]

OK.. so I set the hosting time to 5 days.. next turn will be due tomorrow night. Will leave it on 5 days TFN.

[mattyburn7]

I went AI guys. Not much my nation can do at this point. Cheers!

[Austen]

Thanks Matty.. I think this thing is winding down.. I'm going ot give it one more delay and then we'll see where we stand..

[parone]

austen, i'm gonna go ahead and concede. while i actually enjoy messing around, i just don't have time to get my turn in. plus, it looks as though we are about to do it all over again, so i guess it would make this game redundant.

congrats, well played

[Austen]

Fair enough.. I'll end the game then.

[parone]

congrats austen. thought i had you at one point. well played

[Austen]

It was a lot of fun.. There was a point in like turn 6 of our war where you were squeezing me out..

I was ready to cast Murdering Winter on your stack at Utonshire, break siege and start turning the thing around... going to do it _next_turn_!

Then I get the turn and I had the event where all my blood slaves get deflowered so I lost like 80 blood slaves.. so i didn't even have any for reinvigoration which was bad enough. Then I realized that I hadn't forged a 5 gem water bracelet for my pretender (I had the robe, but the crone doesn't have a body slot.. which I knew.. I just thought I had the cheaper bracelet)...

So I had to wait another turn to break out there and it was almost too late.. you almost had me choked out at that point..

In the last game, the big thing holding me back was lack of Air gems.. I just didn't have enough to cast all the Storms, Mists, Fog Warriors, etc.. I needed.. it was a constant struggle.

Well played and thanks to everyone who participated...

[parone]

wow. that error sounds like something i would do-all be it at something much less complex. bad luck bad+bad execution=most of my mid games.

onward!!