AAR Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16) [Archive]

Roland Jones

March 29th, 2012, 03:02 AM

Hello. I am Roland and I am the godking of two nations-

Okay, yeah, not really. I'm Roland Jones, one of the Something Awful players in this game. Unrelated to Bluemage's god. Probably.

Anyway, I figure that I should introduce myself, and also my nation. I am a moderately-experienced player; I don't claim to be an expert, but I am not terrible, apart from my habit of taking inefficient pretenders because it fits the nation better/I think it's funny. A good example of this is my pretender for this game, who is so inefficient it's funny; I knew full-well how to get the same effect for far fewer points, I just thought that it was boring and instead... Well, you'll see.

Meanwhile, the nation I am playing is Helheim. Normally I play nations that can sit around and research a lot and don't necessarily have to get into an early war, like non-LA Caelum and MA R'lyeh when it has the ocean to itself (although it'll likely win an ocean war anyway). Helheim, on the other hand, is a highly-aggressive nation that wants to expand, expand, and expand some more, crushing everyone in its path. It's one of the three Norse-themed nations in the game; while Vanheim/Midgard is generic Norse myth and Niefelheim/Jotunheim/Utgard is Norse giants, Helheim, as you may have guessed from the name, is based on the Norse afterlife.

(The following this is a long summary of the nation and its units, so if you're not interested in that stuff, you can stop reading now.)

http://i.imgur.com/xi6iD.jpg

Helheim, like Vanheim and Tir na n'Org (nation based upon the Tuatha and Sidhe), is a "ponyman" nation, to use the Dom3 slang. What this means is that it is a nation that fields a lot of sacred, glamour-shrouded units, who happen to be mounted on horses, and blesses them so that they are absurdly strong and capable of taking on a lot of enemies on their own or with little backup, and are generally very dangerous early and mid-game but lose steam in the late game when people start to catch up to their might. They can also blood sacrifice, which creates a lot more dominion for them and can suffocate enemies as you stamp out all belief in their gods. In other words, if I do well, this is going to be a short Let's Play.

http://i.imgur.com/8Rzg2.jpg

Above is a picture of a typical Helheim recruitment screen. See those guys on the top? We don't care about any of them except the last two. While all of them (except the first, being a pathetic, ordinary human) possess both stealth and glamour, two very useful traits, the Valkyrie and the Helhirding are where it's at.

http://i.imgur.com/hXEXK.jpg

This is a valkyrie. As you can see, she is a warrior who flies. Her stats are all above-average (10 is average for a human, except encumbrance, which is how much fatigue you take from actions, and move, the first number of which is how many provinces the unit can move in a turn), which is nice, but the really important bits are those icons below all the numbers. From left to right:

The candelabra means that she is a sacred unit. Sacred units can be blessed, gaining various combat bonuses depending on the magic paths of your pretender god, and also cost less upkeep, which is a nice bonus.

The wings indicate that the unit can fly. Out of combat, this basically means that it isn't affected by terrain and thus can always move up to its maximum move amount, and that they can attack non-adjacent provinces, something grounded units cannot do. In battle, flying units can move right to what they are attacking, instead of having to run across the battlefield, which can really mess up enemy plans, but since Dom3 AI is kind of screwy sometimes backfires horribly.

The cloak and dagger means that the unit is stealthy; stealthy units can move through enemy territory undetected, and can't be found unless the enemy happens to be patrolling the province they're in, which, depending on how stealthy the unit in question is, may require a lot of manpower. Stealthy commanders usually take a penalty if they're leading troops while sneaking, unless the units are also stealthy, like this valkyrie.

Lastly, the weird illusion-man indicates that this unit possesses glamour. Out of battle, this means that the units cannot be detected in their own territory (so, an enemy looking into my land could think that a province is empty, but I could have an army of units with glamour there), and are almost impossible to patrol out in enemy territory. In-battle, this gives them the effects of the spell Mirror Image, making duplicates of them that cut the chance of them being hit to a fraction of what it normally would be. For units without Air magic, it's just one extra image, but those with Air magic get two images per level, which can result in some ridiculously hard to hit units. Glamour fades after the first successful hit, though, so a lucky shot can ruin things for you.

http://i.imgur.com/SbRzK.jpg

This, meanwhile, is a Helhirding. He is about equal to or stronger than the valkyrie in everything, and, as he is on a horse, has a lot more AP (action points, the second number in move, determines how much you can move and attack and such in a round) than her. However, he cannot fly. Despite this, I will be using these guys more than the valkyries as their increased combat ability makes them generally better for my particular expansion strategy. These guys are pretty awesome.

The rest of the units in the top row, who I didn't cover, aren't particularly interesting. While all of them (except the first one, who is again an ordinary human) possess stealth and glamour, making them far better than the average unit, they are not sacred, and since my strategy here is based on blessed troops, they don't help me much. There are, however, some situations where they may see use; if they come up, I'll include their stats and such in the post. As the Valkyrie and Helhirding can only be recruited at Helheim's capital, I may have to settle for lesser units when recruiting them elsewhere.

Now, that second row of people. Those are commanders. The top row, which we've covered, is of units. Units make up most of your army, but have to be lead by a commander. They also have more limited scripting options. Commanders, meanwhile, lead units, and also do other things like cast spells and stuff. They're more interesting generally, but most need troop support or they'll be overrun by the enemy army in battle. There are, of course, some exceptions. They can also use equipment; in the following images you'll see a row of hand, head, chest, and so on images below the unit stats. This is where equipment is shown when, well, equipped. Equipment can do a lot of things, so I'm just telling you the basics there.

http://i.imgur.com/AYOvR.jpg

This is a scout. Pretty much every nation gets a scout (except a few, like Jomon, who get ninjas, basically scouts that can assassinate people), although most don't get scouts with glamour. Useful for reconnaissance, although since all of my commanders, except one, are stealthy and glamour'd, I don't have much reason to recruit these guys over them. He is, however, objectively better than the scouts of pretty much every other nation in this game, so I'm showing him off anyway. Eat it *****es.

http://i.imgur.com/l4nHG.jpg

Here is the Vanherse. See the above about stealth, glamour, horses, and so on. However, you may notice the little row of symbols below his equipment row. The little cloud with a lightning bolt represents Air magic, which this guy has one level of. As you may expect, it allows him to cast Air magic; it also, as stated above, improves his glamour, so he's even harder to hit. The tiny candelabra, meanwhile, is Holy magic. Most nations only get Holy magic on their priests, although this doesn't affect them too much. Holy magic is mainly for banishing demons and undead, and for improving unit morale. However, it is also for blessing sacred units. So, basically, these guys have better glamour, good combat stats, can cast Air Shield (a spell that makes most arrows miss, which is useful as projectiles aren't affected by glamour), and can bless themselves and their underlings before charging in to murder people. They're awesome. These guys will be my main early-game commanders.

(The little stack of books, meanwhile, is their research ability. Research is # of spell levels + experience +- bonus/penalty +2. Research is needed for discovering new spells and such. These guys won't be spending much time in a lab, though.)

http://i.imgur.com/GggJt.jpg

This is a Vanjarl. He's basically a better Vanherse, and the only thing that keeps me from using them over the latter in every case is that they cost more. He has two levels of Air magic instead of one, giving him even more mirror images from glamour, and allowing him to cast Mistform (a spell that dramatically lowers the amount of damage he takes) in addition to Air Shield, plus extra Holy, which won't do much really, although it allows him to sacrifice twice as many blood slaves a turn as an H1 commander, should I decide to do that stuff. He also has a level of Blood magic, indicated by that red pool after the Air. There are some useful Blood spells, but these guys probably won't be making much use of them, at least for their early battles. The question mark, meanwhile, indicates that this guy has a random chance of getting more magic; in this case, a 50% of another level of Blood. As these guys are basically better Vanherses, who are awesome, Vanjarls are even more awesome.

http://i.imgur.com/REBii.jpg

This is a Helkarl. Basically a Vanherse, except with Death magic instead of Air, and better stats. While Death is an awesome path, at level 1 it can't do much, so I won't be using these guys as much as the Vans. They're still awesome, though. Just less so.

http://i.imgur.com/T9Bb8.jpg

Here is the first of Helheim's capital-only commanders, the Dis. She and the following commanders can only be recruited at Helheim's capital, due to the unique magic sites there; the other commanders can be recruited at any Helheim fort, meanwhile. The Dis possesses Air, Death, and Holy magic, and can also fly. This makes her ideal for leading Valkyries, as her description suggests. A Dis and Valkyrie attack squad makes for an awesome raiding party. Like every other Helheim commander, she is awesome.

http://i.imgur.com/ql5VJ.jpg

This is a Hangadrott, a Hanged King. One of the rulers of Helheim, this guy is a badass. Great stats, awesome magic (in addition to what you see there, he also has a 100% chance of getting another level of either Air, Earth, Death, or Blood magic, and a separate 10% chance of another level, same paths). It is really unfortunate that these guys are so expensive and capital-only, because they are possibly the most awesome of all of Helheim's awesome commanders. Which, as you've seen, is saying something.

http://i.imgur.com/QVL6l.jpg

The last commander of Helheim, these guys are a bit different. The Svartalf are dwarves, and therefore lack the glamour of their Van allies. However, they are far from useless; in addition to good Earth and Death magic (they also have a 100% chance of getting another path, either in Fire, Air, Earth, or Death, making them Helheim's only native access to Fire magic), they have a rather useful ability in CBM, the mod we're using. The mountain goat is Mountain Survival (lets them move through mountains without a penalty and they sufferr less from low supplies there) and the eye is Darkvision (they can see somewhat in situations where other units would be blind), but neither of these are what we care about. The hammer there is a forging bonus of 25, meaning that, when these guys forge magic items, they use 25% fewer gems, rounded favorably. So, forging a 10 gem item would only use 7, as an example. As CBM makes Dwarven Hammers (a piece of equipment that provides such a bonus) into artifacts, meaning that only one person can get it and not until late into the game, this bonus is a godsend for some of the things I'll have these guys doing. They'll never see combat unless things go horribly wrong for me, but they are excellent guys nonetheless. Also, as you might have gathered, they're awesome.

So, there's Helheim and all the units that will matter for the early game. If you read all that, well, good job. Anyway, that's it from me for now, at least until we get twenty turns or so into this game. See you then.

jotwebe

March 29th, 2012, 09:12 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

It was in one of the most open and least frequented parts of the great encircling ocean that miles beneath the wind-whipped waves a fateful change took place.

Mermen and atlanteans traditionally shunned the region, fearful of what lurked in the lightless depths. For in the ancient aboleth city of R'lyeh vast and ageless fish-creatures move sluggishly on the shores of the benthic brine lakes, served by slaves that their loathsome and mercyless minds have bound in unbreakable fetters.

Beneath the dark and cyclopean towers monstrous polypal growths squat, spewing forth a disgusting stream of writhing, tentacled spawn, eel-like scaled things that burrow into the rotting flesh and decaying bones of whales that the detestable aboleths lured into the abyss, that perished singing mindless ditties, alone in the cold and crushing deep.

http://i.imgur.com/ykYH1.jpg

Since long before man has stared in slack-jawed wonder at his first flaming torch or raised his dull gaze to the uncaring stars the aboleths have lived in their unbreathing city, disdaining the lesser godlings of the sea and land and even the Pantokrator Himself.

Yet now a terrible emptyness yawns in the heavens, and even as the aurora proclaims the Pantokrators disappearance in sickly colours, dancing mockingly over the northern sky, a chill wind blows from the gaps between the constellations. And in the deepest recesses of the hadopelagic zone, something vast and monstrous stirs.

The reign of the aboleths is at an end, yet perhaps their time has just begun...

Warhammer

March 29th, 2012, 09:55 AM

My bonds have loosened... My pain has subsided... Something has happened. I must contact my priests. The fact I am still here means they have not lost faith.

I sense great death. Is it the future? No, the Pantokrator must have died! Great times are afoot. I must not loose a minute, I must break these bonds!

I am Warhammer. I have played Dominions 3 for years, actually won a newbie game (well a 3 way draw actually) way back when. But, my MP experience since then has been poor. While I am not a great player, I don't think I am a schlub either. This is my first game with CBM 1.6+ so most of the new spells are new to me as well.

My full write up on Caelum will be discussed in my first turn AAR in about 20 turns, but suffice to say that they have been one of my favorite nations from the start. I wrote/started an early strategy thread regarding them. I love these guys because they have several viable ways to play, although most wind up at the same end point.

jotwebe

March 29th, 2012, 11:32 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

CHAPTER 0: Time of the Abowhatsits

So this is my 3rd real MP game, and I'll be playing... R'lyeh?
I'm pretty sure I picked Oceania -- how weird. I don't
remember... Oh, whatever, too late to back out now. Still, this
is going to take some thought.

We're playing CBM 1.92, which means there's a lot of changes from
vanilla, not only the general ones, but also specific to EA
R'lyeh. Mainly in vanilla the freespawn and better mages are
aquatic, while in CBM they're all amphibious, but slightly nerfed
path-wise in the case of the mages. Still a positive change all
in all. Let's look at what we've got more closely... and if you're already familiar with EA R'lyeh you will probably want to skip this. Except perhaps to gloat at my missing the totally obvious strengths of this or that super unit...

http://i.imgur.com/yYxBU.png

COMMANDERS

* an amphibious Scout: Well, it would suck if they weren't. Amphibious, that is. This gives them a lot of mobility (apart from making them usable under water in the first place).

http://i.imgur.com/mKn44.png

* Slave Priest: It's an enslaved merman that prays to the god so his masters don't have to. Genius! I'll get one to search the seafloor for holy sites and build temples.

http://i.imgur.com/5HUZs.png

* Slave Prince: In case I need someone with regular leadership that can also go under the sea.

http://i.imgur.com/3fvY9.png

* Polypal Mother: Immobile. This would suck on a priest, but the map will be really hard on my dominion, since every one of the water provinces borders a ton of land provinces, so I'll get a bunch for preaching anyway. Also they freespawn polypal spawn and gibodai. Once the mothers have preached dominion as high as they can, they're available to Call God. This may come in handy. So 50 gold for a H2 priest is a steal. The most important thing is of course that they're female, so they can't be seduced.

http://i.imgur.com/0at8C.png

* Slave Mage: I have tons of magical units that need magic leadership. These guys are my cheapest option. They have a WESN random: the earth picks can wear Boots of the Earth on land, the nature picks will be sitesearching and later summon naiads, a W3N3 mage. I need at least one of the nature guys.

http://i.imgur.com/IQyWc.png

* Aboleth: CBM makes them amphibious, they have 2W2S + 1*WESD. More durable than slave mages, but only 2 misc slots. So they have the problem that they can't wear a lot of the path booster items.

http://i.imgur.com/SU9vS.png

* Mind Lord: an aboleth that's all growed up: 2W3S + 2*WESD and 3 misc slots. A lot tougher and gets 2 enslave mind attacks per round which is even better with quicken self, so Alt 2 could be an early research target. Stunningly expensive and not holy, so the upkeep will be painful. Won't recruit a lot. Not all that many. Not-- THE MIND LORDS DEMAND TO BE RECRUITED. They are cap-only.

http://i.imgur.com/8AaSE.png

TROOPS

* several types of enslaved sea people: fast aquatic tritons, fast amphibious mermen and slow amphibious atlanteans. They all have really bad morale and generally suck. The amphibious ones I'll maybe recruit -- one flavor of merman has nets.

* Lobo Guard: they are the definition of chaff. There is a little picture of them right there, that's the definition. They're mindless, so they don't rout. They're magical, so they require magical instead of the regular kind of leadership. At 1 resources they are easy to mass.

http://i.imgur.com/cSUvP.png

* Shambler Thrall: the lobo guards' big brothers. They are size 3 however, and can trample human-sized infantry. If they don't rout the target squad in the first round of they're attack, they're large low-def low-prot units surrounded by the enemy, so will tend to take a lot of losses. On the other hand, they'll inflict them, too. Situational.

http://i.imgur.com/E80DJ.png

* Slave Troll: recruitable Sea Trolls! Thank you, CBM. While regenerating poison-immune bags of hitpoints are awesome, they do have some weaknesses. They get hit a lot, and if they get swarmed, that regen won't help them much. Then I'm out of 70 gold per pop. And while they have good morale, I still want at least 5 of them in a squad so they don't have to roll morale every round. Preferably a few more. That's expensive.

http://i.imgur.com/8lBHt.png

* Giboleth/Gibodai: the mindblasters. Gibodai are holy and cap only, Giboleth are recruit anywhere and not. However, the former also freespawn from polypal mothers sometimes. What is a mindblast, you ask? (probably not, but in case you do:) It's a can't-miss long-range paralyzation attack (may also do some real damage) that's resistable by MR. It helps those clumsy slave trolls hit things.

http://i.imgur.com/Qmv0t.png
http://i.imgur.com/trslt.png

* Polypal Spawn: this one you can't recruit. Baby aboleths. Yes, I will be using child soldiers. They're aged one out of an old age limit of three milliennia. I wonder if they'll turn into an aboleth if they're hit with a couple of decays? Size one, low HP, low strength, but reasonable protection and MR. The picture doesn't show it, but their base morale is actually 8. Now if only R'lyeh had a highly thematic “lobotomize” buff to turn stuff mindless. Oh well. Their tentacle attack has a damage of -5 but is armor piercing. Magical, so my mages can, and will have to, lead ****tons of them.

http://i.imgur.com/wy8I1.png

So boys and girls, that's it for now. Next time there'll be either more derivative lovecraftian tentacle-fiction or a discussion of my pretender design. It may also have tentacles.

Bluemage142

March 29th, 2012, 09:48 PM

<a href="http://lpix.org/images/legoman727/7f33078841437d2840f672720b1b7be9/marverni.png"><img src="http://lpix.org/images/legoman727/7f33078841437d2840f672720b1b7be9/marverni.png"/></a>

If any of you bothered to read my fluff post, you probably have a good idea what Marverni is like. If you didn't read it, you probably don't. Most people really don't know much about the Gauls, except that Julius Caesar beat them, and wrote a book about it. Hopefully, I can clear that up with a look at how the nation plays.

First, though, me. I am a new player. I've owned Dominions 3 for a year or two, and played maybe fifteen games against the AI. As I type this, I'm in my first four multiplayer games, all of them using different mods. Like Roland_Jones, I'm from SA, and no, my god isn't related to him. Unless he looks Druish.

Speaking of Druidia, that brings me right back to Marverni. Marverni is all about druids- well, druids, screaming barbarians, and guys in chainmail. Here's a look at their unit list.

<a href="http://imgur.com/ffeO2"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ffeO2l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

12 different units, and 10 different commanders. Sort of big, isn't it? Thankfully, most of them are basically the same thing, so we can really cut that down to a few. Figure that those 12 units come from four different tribes, each of which has its own spin on the same few units.

The Tribes:

Marverni: Have access to all five types of infantry, no special abilities.
Ambibates: Cost more gold and less resources, have +1 morale/attack/defense over Marv, limited units
Carnutes: More morale and HP than Marv, axes, berserk (+2), forest survival, but less defense, cost less res and more gold than Ambis
Eponi: Have cavalry, and nothing else.

Horn Blowers:

<a href="http://imgur.com/8COwn"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8COwnl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/dd7pT"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dd7pTl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

These guys are weaker than normal infantry, but have Standards. Basically, each horn blower raises the morale of the units around it, making them far less likely to run away when, say, they see a giant caveman splatter three of their friends across the countryside. My soldiers are a lot of things, but they're only human- having these guys along can make them a good bit more effective, especially the way I intend to use them. The Carnute version is slightly better in battle, has a small amount of armor, and is slightly tougher, for a bit more gold (and less resources, oddly enough.)

Barechests:

<a href="http://imgur.com/LSxkm"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LSxkml.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/SMePo"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SMePol.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/ywXOd"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ywXOdl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

These guys are your basic barbarian fighters. If you look at their stats, you'll see that they are actually barechested- their only defenses are their helmets and their shields. On the upside, this makes them dirt cheap. The downside is that a good sneeze will kill a barechest. These guys are more expendable than TIE fighters, and anybody who plans to use them would do well to toss hundreds of them into the fight at a time.

Some differences between the three types. Marv BCs get two javelins and a sword, which they'll throw before moving into melee. Ambis lose the javelins, but gain some morale and combat skill. Carnutes are stronger, tougher, and have higher morale, but use axes instead of swords.

Nobles:

<a href="http://imgur.com/ph9DI"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ph9DIl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/RfxNS"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/RfxNSl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/hrAjA"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hrAjAl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Elite fighters. These guys are tougher, stronger, more skillful, and more motivated than the BCs are. More than that, they wear armor- a Noble has Protection 12, FOUR TIMES what a BC has. The downside of the Noble is that you can get 2-3 BCs, depending on the situation, for the cost of one Noble.

Marv and Ambi Nobles are basically the same thing- the Ambi costs 2 gold more, and has the usual skill and morale bump, but is otherwise identical. The Carnute trades 3 defense for 3 morale and 1 HP.

Ranged Units:

<a href="http://imgur.com/K8FwI"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/K8FwIl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/oXFpU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oXFpUl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Marverni has precisely two options here. The Javelineer is basically a cheaper, weaker BC- less armor and defense, a spear instead of a sword, and slightly more likely to run in battle. The Slinger, on the other hand, is a proper ranged unit- even more likely to run and less armored, but able to hit from longer distances and do more damage for less cost.

NEITHER of these guys has the accuracy to match a real archer in ranged combat. They won't be hitting small groups all that hard, but get enough of them, and armies can be whittled down well enough.

Eponi Knight:

<a href="http://imgur.com/cabkU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cabkUl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is my only cavalry unit, and I don't really know if it's all that good. It's basically a supersized Noble on a sugar rush- same weapons, same basic stats, but bigger, faster, and a good bit harder to hit.

Boar Warrior:

<a href="http://imgur.com/QvEHy"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QvEHyl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

WTF. Really? The Boar Warrior is Marverni's sacred unit- basically, it costs much less to maintain, and can be given a bless (which somebody else will probably explain soon enough) to make itself stronger. Unfortunately for me, it's a gigantic waste of time. For one, it's a Carnute Noble with the serial number filed off. One more HP, one more point of morale, one more point of strength, one more point of attack, and a slightly better special ability. For another, it costs 7 more gold than the Noble- I could have another Marv BC for that. Third, since it's sacred, I can only recruit a number equal to my Holy (starting dominion score + number of temples you have/5) each turn from each fort I have. Oh, wait, I can't even do that much, since the Boar Warrior can only be recruited in my capital province. Too limited, too expensive, and not good enough to be worth getting.

Commanders:

Like my units, my list of commanders is bigger than it looks. Here's how it breaks down.

Scout:

<a href="http://imgur.com/6ahIK"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/6ahIKl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This guy is horrible in combat. He MIGHT be able to beat a chimpanzee... if he's lucky. He's also a horrible leader, since he can't lead any troops. What he is is relatively good at not being seen, which makes him perfect for seeing where (and how many) troops my enemies have. The Marverni scout has Stealth +20, making him better than the normal Scout (which has +10) at not being seen. Still not going to build any, since I have better things for my forts to be doing.

Chieftains:

<a href="http://imgur.com/5md0b"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/5md0bl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/cAvVX"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cAvVXl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/C5jvW"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/C5jvWl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

These are the tribal leaders. They're basically Nobles with a bit more training, some extra morale, a relatively small Standard, and the ability to drag 40 men around. I don't plan to build any of them, for two very good reasons.

Eponi Chieftain:
<a href="http://imgur.com/y90um"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/y90uml.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is the first reason why I'm not going to build the last three guys. He's about half again the cost of the other leaders, but is based on my (higher-stat) cavalry, gains more stats from being a commander, and can lead twice as many men. DEFINITELY worth the extra cost. Still not planning to build many, but I'll make some.

Vergobret:

<a href="http://imgur.com/Gw4an"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Gw4anl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Yeah, no. This guy is a bottom-level priest, and nothing else. He's cheaper than buying a priest from some random province, but a turn spent buying one of these guys is a turn that could've been spent buying a mage (who is also a priest) AND a normal priest. Thank you, no.

Sequani Stargazer:

<a href="http://imgur.com/tt3yg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/tt3ygl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Just looking at this guy, you wouldn't see much. He's barely a mage- only one level of Astral- not sacred, and a terrible researcher, not to mention useless in melee combat. Still, I'll be buying dozens of these guys over the game (assuming I survive). Why? Because they're dirt cheap, can search for Astral sites, can cast a few useful battle spells, and are one of the most effective force multipliers I get. More on that later.

Gutuater:

<a href="http://imgur.com/IBu5C"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/IBu5Cl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is more like it. Half again the cost of the Stargazer, tougher in battle, better at research, a priest (making those Vegemite-guys obsolete), and access to another type of magic. Nature magic will give me a few more tricks to use- oh, and these guys also get one random level of magic. Gutuaters can give me a bit of Water, Astral, or Earth, and have a chance of reaching level 2 in Nature. I like all of this.

Druid:

<a href="http://imgur.com/qVpZI"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/qVpZIl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is where it's at. Let me say that again. THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT.

The Druid is my best priest. The Druid gives me two levels of both Earth and Astral magic- enough to search for Earth sites, forge a lot of good items, and cast some good spells. Druids research like two Gutuaters duct-taped to each other, and get the same W/S/E/N guaranteed random pick the Gut-eaters do. Then, for good measure, they get ANOTHER one. As if that wasn't enough, they have a 10% chance of getting a THIRD one. I could potentially get Water 3, Astral FIVE, Earth FIVE, or Nature 3 out of one of these wonderful, wonderful chaps. With enough items, I can get to half the top-end summons in the game, or turn them into absolute MONSTERS with the help of a couple dozen Stargazers.

Sure, they cost almost as much as three Gutuaters, but the value of all that magic CANNOT be underestimated. Once I have a proper economy, I would be a FOOL not to get at least one Druid a turn. Yes, I know I'm a fool, but I'm not the sort of foolish fool who foolishly fools around instead of recruiting Druids. There's a reason Marverni's tagline is "Time of Druids".

Boar Lord:

<a href="http://imgur.com/RkJ9h"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/RkJ9hl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is the commander version of the Boar Warrior, and it lost a LOT of suck along the way. It gains more strength and attack than the other commanders did, with a light sprinkling of extra HP and morale on top. If that's all it got, it'd be decent, but this guy is actually good.

Remember how the Boar Warrior was basically a Carnute Noble? Low defense, better attack? The Boar Lord has the attack of a Boar Warrior commander... and the defense skill of an Ambi commander. Four defense skill goes a long way. It also gets bigger berserk bonuses (more on that later) than anything else I have, leads as many men as the Eponi Chieftain, and is a basic priest ON TOP OF THAT.

The Boar Lord has one more advantage over the entire rest of my troop list. Reinvigoration. Figure that a Boar Warrior racks up 5 points of fatigue for every turn it's fighting. You go unconscious at 100 fatigue, so it can only fight 20 turns straight before it collapses. The Boar Lord does the exact same thing, and then loses 4 of that fatigue every turn. Theoretically, it could fight for 100 turns straight before tiring out, if such a thing were possible. With the proper equipment, this guy could become a thug- a single unit capable of taking lightly-defended provinces on its own.

Strategy:

If you look at my unit list, you'll notice a few things. I can either get a horde of cheap, weak units, or a smaller number of tougher ones. Marverni can be played either way, or even switch between the two as needed.

The Carnute versions of my units can go berserk, though, which adds another option to my list. Berserk units gain strength, protection, morale, and attack, at the expense of defenses- they hit harder, more of the time, take a hit better, and NEVER break, but get hit more often. I can go cheap horde, tough mob, or tough mob o' berserkers, and even tailor my mobs to the enemy- Carnute axes against giants, Marv swords and javelins against the undead- that sort of thing.

The addition of mages has a truly marvelous effect on this, which this post is too short to contain.

LDiCesare

March 30th, 2012, 11:12 AM

A few words about me.

I'm playing Pangaea, which I never used in MP.
I've been playing since dom2, and have lost several dom3 games since.
Interestingly, I won one with Helheim and totally disagree with the statement of the Helheim player in this game: "nations that can sit around and research a lot and don't necessarily have to get into an early war( ...) Helheim, on the other hand, is a highly-aggressive nation that wants to expand, expand, and expand some more, crushing everyone in its path". Just like, no. That's the reason why they get 25% forge bonus on their svartalfar in CBM 1.92 by the way. I complained in order to allow them to forge skull mentors, because that's the way Helheim got the best research in game before CBM -provided you boostrapped construction-.

I'd also like to add something to the description of Marverni units, the berserker ones.
Several Pangaea units, namely minotaurs, minotaur soldiers and maenads, also have berserking ability, so this is important for my nation too.
These units "gain strength, protection, morale, and attack, at the expense of defenses- they hit harder, more of the time, take a hit better, and NEVER break, but get hit more often.". But they also get an encumbrance penalty, so they tire faster. Which is why the carnute gets reinvig, by the way.

A few words about Pangaea now.

As I said, it's got berserking units.
Maenads.
All its other units are stealthy.
Not the naked madwomen though.
Its Pans have the special ability of being stealthy and generating unstealthy berserking naked women wherever they go provided the province has some turmoil.
Naked women = maenads.
The other special points of Pangaea include:
Maenads.
Carrion Woods. This is a high level N/D enchantment that kills everyone in my dominion to turn them into plant undead. It's really an either/or choice. Either I kill my own people to turn them into plant zombies, or I use more conventional ways to win. Heavy Death and Nature are required for this.
Maenads.
Cheap temples. 200 gold apiece only.
Micromanagement of hundreds of hundry naked women.
Blood sacrifice.
Maenad freespawn.

Also, either cheap ineffective researchers or expensive non sacred average researchers.
Finally, I may not have mentioned that Pans attract tons of naked berserking mad women that eat all the food in the land without requiring any upkeep.
Maenads.

Shardphoenix

March 30th, 2012, 02:18 PM

Couple points about Marverni:
In CBM, Eponi cavalry is actually good - they got light lances, so now they can perform a proper lance charge.
IIRC, Marverni sacreds are NOT cap-only in CBM.
Also, as Caelum is in play, berserk+higher HP may make them actually worth it as a counter to Eagle Kings... And don`t forget, that Boar Lord`s axe now entangles enemy on hit, so these guys are great anti-thugs.

Roland Jones

March 30th, 2012, 03:16 PM

Interestingly, I won one with Helheim and totally disagree with the statement of the Helheim player in this game: "nations that can sit around and research a lot and don't necessarily have to get into an early war( ...) Helheim, on the other hand, is a highly-aggressive nation that wants to expand, expand, and expand some more, crushing everyone in its path". Just like, no. That's the reason why they get 25% forge bonus on their svartalfar in CBM 1.92 by the way. I complained in order to allow them to forge skull mentors, because that's the way Helheim got the best research in game before CBM -provided you boostrapped construction-.

Getting the best research in the game and ruthlessly expanding early on are not mutually exclusive. See Baalz's guide for one way of doing both simultaneously.

Shangrila00

March 30th, 2012, 06:53 PM

In CBM, Eponi cavalry is actually good - they got light lances, so now they can perform a proper lance charge.

Just checked, they don't. Still, map move 3, fast on the battlefield, and decent stats for their price. I can see them being used as heavy infantry, like LA Mari's Royal Guards, stats not quite so high, but cheaper, and 2 javelin volleys are pretty powerful in the EA.

Shardphoenix

March 30th, 2012, 07:16 PM

Just checked, they don't. My bad.
and 2 javelin volleys are pretty powerful in the EA Especially when you have national 0-research h3 strength-boosting spell - javelins get both damage and range from strength.

Warhammer

March 30th, 2012, 09:01 PM

Actually, the same bless that helps the druids helps Marverni's Boar Lords. I'm playing them in another game, and if not for some metagame reasons, I would have won the game early in large part due to the Boar Lords.

Bluemage142

March 30th, 2012, 10:23 PM

But they also get an encumbrance penalty, so they tire faster. Which is why the carnute gets reinvig, by the way.

Maenads?

I very carefully didn't discuss EVERYTHING about Marverni- just what I thought would help the reader understand what I'm doing. I was going to bring that up in one of my turn posts, when it became relevant. Same with Shardphoenix's point about the Boar Lord axe.

Didn't know about them being non-cap, though- that'll be useful.

Roland Jones

March 30th, 2012, 10:41 PM

Likewise, I'm not discussing everything Helheim can do. There should be some surprises for the viewers, after all.

jotwebe

April 1st, 2012, 11:16 AM

R'yleh

Here's another instalment from everybody's favourite hadopelagic menace. Since my pretender design should be fairly obvious for my ene- fellow players from the graphs, I think I won't loose much discussing it here for the peanut gallery's edification and amusement.

The problem with expanding underwater is that everything has only map move one, so reinforcing is tricky on most maps and impossible on this one. Our starting fortress only has an admin of 30, so starting income isn't great. Expanding on turn two is tricky, and even a party with two extra turns of recruitments will probably run out of steam in a while. Since the water provinces a basically form a huge 1-province ring around a huge landmass, I can only use two parties in parallel, and it's impossible for them to meet up or swing by the capitol to pick up new troops on their way.

As I'm the only water nation (although the goat-faced giants have good amphibian capabilities), I could maybe get away with a very slow expansion. But I don't think I really need a lot of diversity. I could have gotten a bless for my mindblasters -- water would be ok, I guess, and air would be relatively useful with all the air nations around, beside being nice to have for forging and maybe casting perpetual storm. Death or Astral are the other easily cheaply obtainable majors, but they'd be useless. Or I could pay through the nose for some other bless.

However, my ene- fellow players are going to be more experienced, and the world is watching. So I'll take the early power boost rather than be squished after a sluggish and unspectacular expansion. An awake SC it will be. I'm taking the Kraken over the worm because recuperation is great. Together with the fact that it's magicless I won't care when it dies.

But jotwebe, won't you need a lot of priest-power to get it back? Why yes, so it will be useful that I'll be farming polypal mothers to preach my dominion up, which I'll need with everybody else's dominions crowding in on mine. I'll need a high dominion value in addition to that, I think. That gives my kraken awe, and it already comes with fear. Bingo.

That leaves a couple of points for scales. Magic-1 is a no-brainer. In vanilla, so would Order-3, but with CBM order's not all that good anymore. Having taken magic, I like luck to go with it, for the delicious gem events. I could and maybe should take a bit of turmoil with that, but I for some reason I don't. I could also take sloth for points, but production is now plusminus 4% per tick, so not all that negligible. Also, while my national underwater troops mostly don't need resources, I won't be able to recruit those on land. Being able to quickly mass indies at the place they're needed could be useful. I leave the scale at neutral. Same for growth really. Being a water nation makes heat/cold attractive, since it doesn't affect marine provinces. Aesthetically I'd have preferred heat, but all of my mages will be able to cast cold resistance to keep their enc down while only some of them will have access to heat resistance. Additionally, the kraken has some natural cold resistance, so it's better it, too.

I got stuck with some 20-ish "wasted" points, but since dom 9 or 10 and a kraken are non-negotiable, the only changes I could make is swithcing around the scales. That doesn't help with the points. And really, the "waste" is just psychological, I'll just imagine the kraken chassis cost 50 instead 25 points, and it doesn't bother me at all.

Bluemage142

April 1st, 2012, 08:44 PM

R'yleh

Here's another instalment from everybody's favourite hadopelagic menace. Since my pretender design should be fairly obvious for my ene- fellow players from the graphs

You actually taught me why graph <strike>abuse</strike> analysis was important with that guy. I saw you take a province first-turn, and thought 'Okay, he's got an awake SC, and he's confident enough to use it on Turn 1... must be a kraken.'

Sounds like I was right.

jotwebe

April 2nd, 2012, 04:37 AM

Interesting fact: during playtesting, the first time I tried expanding on turn 1, the kraken died. Only time that happened though.

Zywack

April 2nd, 2012, 08:59 AM

First of, I want to say a huge "Thank you!" for creating this game! I absolutely adore reading AARs, and shared is even better. I'll definitively be reading your thread with great interest. If I wasn't in two games already I would have been happy to be a player in this game, but being just a reader isn't all that bad either!

I respect every Pangaea players. In strategy games in general, I tend to prefer quantity over quality so one of the first race I ever played was EA Pangaea (vs AI). With Maenads and carrion beasts (although MA and LA have easier access to the carrion), the amount of free troops is just absolutely mind-blowing... Castle-walls just disapear against those hordes. Problem is, those hordes disapear just as fast as soon as they fight anything that has decent protection. And since they usually go berzerk, you are sure to lose all of them every losing battle. Still, I quickly reached the point where I couldn't actually lose them fast enough: I had to recruit tons of commanders and even summon sleepers (super high leadership and good bow users) for the purpose of bringing hundreds of them to the front each turn, else they'd just eat all the supplies wherever my pans were. It was fun at first, but it quickly turned into a huge headache to manage... Plus, the Carrions creatures comes in a ton of different variety. You got archers, you have tramplers, you have high-speed flankers and you got super-slow infantries. To get the best use out of those, you need to separate them according to their function, but that's a huge pain since you have no ways to decide what type your carrion centaurs/ladies are making in the first place. I know that Pangaea have other fun tricks up their sleeves, but I simply couldn't stomach all the micromanaging of those armies every single turn. So my heart goes to any Pangaea player that has Maenads and Carrions as part of their strategy :)

Everytime I look at Marverni, I scratch my head and wonder exactly how I would play them... While I'm quite a new player, I can still look at the recruitment screen/research list and have an idea at the basic strategy I'd employ. Marverni is one of the few nations I can't do that. They are surrounded by giants everywhere, endless forest hordes, blessed killing machines with two lives and glamour/sneaking/flying quality armies. Marverni has easy communion potential, mages that simply scream for Rain of Stone spam and plentiful standards but they just don't look up to par to me overall... Not amazing unique spells, map move 1 old age mages for main caster (Although recruit-everywhere is extremely handy), no real standout amazing fighting unit, acceptable but not amazing thugs. I'm really looking foward to see what the Marverni player has in store so I can see what I missed!

Shardphoenix

April 2nd, 2012, 11:29 AM

Everytime I look at Marverni, I scratch my head and wonder exactly how I would play them...Strength-boost + javelins can kill giants and those awesome druids for magic. Reverse-communion of druids spamming Gifts from Heaven kills just about anything (well, except for maenad hordes - against them you need Master Enslave... Good thing your druids can do it almost as easy as Rlyeh).
Also, their national Great Boar summons have like 30 fortune-teller (while also being essentially elephants with berserk and high leadership), so you can try playing Marverni with really high Misfortune.

LDiCesare

April 2nd, 2012, 01:39 PM

(well, except for maenad hordes - against them you need Master Enslave... Good thing your druids can do it almost as easy as Rlyeh).
That's the beauty of my plan. I will swarm you in maenads that will eat all the food in your territory and bring diseases to your druids, eventually killing them all.

Warhammer

April 3rd, 2012, 01:26 AM

Would it be possible to get a 6 hour turn delay?

I wound up out of town for the whole day today (have web access from my laptop, but no game access). I'll get back in town tomorrow for a lunchtime root canal, but should be able to get the turn in after that.

Mightypeon

April 3rd, 2012, 07:02 AM

As an interested observer: Against masses of Maenads, Maverni can greatly improve its gross national product with by significantly increasing Blade Wind Based Maenadic Sashimi production.

Immaculate

April 3rd, 2012, 07:49 AM

Would it be possible to get a 6 hour turn delay?

done.

Warhammer

April 3rd, 2012, 03:53 PM

Thanks!

I got my turn in, but it looks like llamaserver is having some issues. I haven't received anything regarding the turn being received, etc.

Shardphoenix

April 3rd, 2012, 05:36 PM

llamabeast

April 3rd, 2012, 06:10 PM

Sorry. ISP went down this afternoon. Should be back up imminently.

Zywack

April 3rd, 2012, 09:44 PM

As an interested observer: Against masses of Maenads, Maverni can greatly improve its gross national product with by significantly increasing Blade Wind Based Maenadic Sashimi production.
SOOOOO TRUE!

Yeah, it's probably a better option than Master Enslave... If you Master Enslave, not only you have to spend a non-negligeable amount of astral pearls, but you are also stuck with hundreds of Maenads on your hands.

I did know about the gift from heaven spam (first thing that came to mind looking at their rooster), but I keep confusing that spell name for Rain of Stone for some reason.

I never tried the Strength Boosts + Javelin concept, but that definitively sound promising... I'll definitively have to experiment with that against the AI. Thanks for the hint! And maybe we'll see it in action in this Let's Play too... Although I'm still rooting for Pangaea first and foremost. :)

Immaculate

April 7th, 2012, 11:52 AM

How's everyone doing? I for one am very eager for us to hit turn twenty so we can start posting our turns.

Does anyone have their first few posts ready? I have one.

jotwebe

April 7th, 2012, 01:02 PM

I've been doing a bit of research and coming up with some pseudo-scholarly guff on the aboleths. Obviously, they cannot have been invented in the eighties for some D&D supplement - that's what THEY want us to believe.

For the actual AAR, I've been keeping notes with my screenshots and will be keeping it matter-of-fact at first, I think.

Immaculate

April 7th, 2012, 01:46 PM

Because of you i had to go learn about deep ocean chasms and 'deep ocean snow'. Actually thanks - it was interesting.

Shardphoenix

April 7th, 2012, 02:29 PM

Roland Jones

April 7th, 2012, 03:12 PM

How's everyone doing? I for one am very eager for us to hit turn twenty so we can start posting our turns.

Does anyone have their first few posts ready? I have one.

Been keeping my turns and order files, plus some notes and a progressively updated map; been meaning to write my first posts, but stuff has been keeping me busy. Will the turn timer increase when we start updating, to give us time to both write and play? By that point the game will be in a phase where turns generally take longer anyway.

Immaculate

April 7th, 2012, 03:32 PM

Excist

April 8th, 2012, 12:59 AM

Yeah, it's probably a better option than Master Enslave... If you Master Enslave, not only you have to spend a non-negligeable amount of astral pearls, but you are also stuck with hundreds of Maenads on your hands.
As in "free zero-upkeep chaff who can siege castles well"? Sounds great.

Maenads count for .1 of their normal strength in a seige.

Their dancing naked and clawing at the walls isn't as effective as you'd think.....

Calahan

April 8th, 2012, 03:30 AM

Maenads count for .1 of their normal strength in a seige.
Where/Who on Earth did you get that info from?

Maenads can repair walls, or tear them down, just as well as any other unit in the game with 10 strength can. That is why forts full of Pans are well known to be a nightmare to siege.

Mightypeon

April 8th, 2012, 09:43 AM

Yep, Maenads are not mindless nor animals, on the contrary, their minds are quite focused :)

jotwebe

April 8th, 2012, 10:20 AM

They do, however, count only 10% when patrolling. Maybe you mixed that up? They're still pretty gold-efficient if you have enough, but you do need hordes of 'em. And yeah, great for seiging on either side.

Excist

April 8th, 2012, 12:18 PM

Ah, yes, I double checked my source and it is indeed 10% patrol and not siege.

jotwebe

April 8th, 2012, 08:18 PM

From the notes of George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Fragmet II.a:

The Aboleth: Etymology and Legends

The name aboleth derives from the Sumerian abzu-lesh. Abzu (or Apsu in the closely related Akkadian) literally meant “ocean” (ab), and “to know” or “deep” (zu). It was also the word for “swamp” as well pools devoted to certain religious ceremonies. The word has survived into the English language, albeit in changed form. We speak of Abzu when we say “Abyss”. The meaning of lesh simply is “master”, or more literally: “he-who-enslaves”, in opposition to “the lord” nin.

There is some controversy on the provenance of the name giboleth - Dr. H. Barrington (Barrington, 1885) claims it derives from gaba-leth, meaning “the rival master”, indicating the giboleth's potential to enter the aboleths' exclusive society. This is strongly contested by Dr. L. Shrewsbury (Shrewsbury, 1913), among others. Dr. Shrewsbury instead champions the origin gi-bu-lesh, where gi-bu is literally “answer” + “to tear out”, or more freely “one who is made to answer/obey”.

Similarly, Dr. Shrewsbury favors to trace the last syllable “dai” of the gibodai to da-ri, meaning “eternal” or “enduring”, which is more convincing than Barrington's explanation of gaba-da -- “the rival who is protected/may not be harmed”. For while it is true that the gibodai occupies a priviledged place in aboleth society, its position is also fixed, which renders the applicability of the term “rival” questionable.

However, the derivation of dai from da, in the meaning of “one who is protected” is promising. Recently there has been some support (G. G. Angell, 1926) for the gish-ùl-lesh/gish-ùl-da theory, where gish is translated as “submitting” and ùl is the leash. The giboleth would be “the master who has submitted (and is leashed)” while the giboleth would be “the protected one who has submitted”.

While the term is Sumerian, we have very few direct references in Sumerian myth, although there are certain passages in the pre-Noachian flood myths that hint of things that the knowledgable might identify with aboleths.

There is the monstrous fish K'un in the Daoist classic Zhuangzi (“In the northern darkness there is a fish and his name is K'un.”). In the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan the Black Tortoise of the North Xuán Wu is described decidedly fishlike, and the serpents that traditionally encoil it could very well be a misunderstanding of an aboleth's tentacles.

There is the figure of the talking fish appearing in several fairy tales of the Atlantic and Baltic coasts that fulfils increasingly grandiose wishes, only to finally take them all back. In the anonymous work “Unaussprechlichen Kulten” there is mention of certain blasphemous rituals practised in isolated coastal communities in which some fish-like creature is placated and beseeched for supernatural assistance.

Fragment ends here

Immaculate

April 8th, 2012, 09:43 PM

very interesting stuff

Roland Jones

April 9th, 2012, 02:57 PM

I've decided that, win or lose, my goal for this game is to take over the entire hall of fame. Before the game is over I will at one point have it covered with fifteen Helheim flags, or die (or maybe ascend) trying. There will be nothing but silly names up there. I've already got one-fifth of it (technically more but one of my thugs up there is on the way out, having died ingloriously).

Also, did Caelum get his last turn in? When I last checked it was pretty late and he wasn't in yet, but there were a few hours left still and I fell asleep before I saw if he submitted or missed it.

Shardphoenix

April 9th, 2012, 03:02 PM

I've decided that, win or lose, my goal for this game is to take over the entire hall of fameCaelum is in game, ergo, you will fail. There is just no way to compete with shockwave-spamming lightning-immune thugs in XP generation.

Immaculate

April 10th, 2012, 12:08 PM

for those of you curious as to where we are vis-a-vis starting the write-ups, we are now at turn 16. In four turns you can expect some exciting AAR goodies.

Shangrila00

April 10th, 2012, 12:48 PM

From the notes of George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

So, just wondering, how much of that was bull****? It certainly sounds sufficiently pseudo-scholarly, so kudos for that.:)

jotwebe

April 10th, 2012, 01:08 PM

Well, if you google the name George Gammell Angell, it'll direct you to Lovecraft sites right quick. Similarly to most of the sources he's using.

The Sumerian was mostly me looking through online dictionaries for words that might sort of make sense. "Lesh" is made up from whole cloth, although it could be a Sumerian word. "Leth" couldn't, since there was no t-aitch in Sumerian. According to the wikipedia article anyway, which is the depth of my knowledge there.

Also note that "Unaussprechlichen Kulten" is book in the Lovecraft mythos and supposed to mean "nameless cults", but it doesn't. To be correct german, it would have to be either "Von unaussprechlichen Kulten" or "Unaussprechliche Kulte", and that would mean "unpronouncable" (literally) or "unspeakable" kults. Nameless cults would be "namelose Kulte".

I decided to keep the Lovecraftian version since Prof. G.G. Angell might be a hotshot Sumerologist, but not necessarily so great with German. Plus those are only his notes. He would have checked it before publishing, I'm sure.

Excist

April 10th, 2012, 10:45 PM

I have a business meeting tomorrow night, and I just realized that I'm not sure when I'll get back tomorrow night. Can we have a 24 hour delay please?

Immaculate

April 10th, 2012, 11:04 PM

Done. Good luck with your "business" meeting.

jotwebe

April 11th, 2012, 04:03 AM

From the notes of George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Fragment IV.a

The Aboleth - Physiology

Though sometimes described as eel-like, the aboleth as commonly pictured has a closer resemblance to the rattail fishes of the family Macrouridae, the most common benthic fish of the deep sea. However, despite some superficial similarities, the aboleth follows a fundamentally different bauplan.

One obvious deviation is the vertical instead of horizontal arrangement of the aboleth's eyes, which in turn are able to perceive light both above and beyond the human-visible spectrum. It is a persevering misconception that aboleths enslave Merman mages for the purpose of observing the heavens from above the waves -- they are perfectly capable of seeing the stars even from the bottom of the sea. They simply prefer to employ slaves for routine tasks.

The aboleth possesses severel more sensory organs: a sophisticated hearing system distributed over their body that is relatively ill-suited for usage on land -- its strengths are the low frequencies of chtonic disturbances and far-traveling sea noises.

Along its side the aboleth is equipped with a strange ichtyid organ that perceives electrical charges and which also only functions when submerged.

The characteristic barbel-tentacles on the aboleth's head, apart from their function in immobilizing larger prey and draining its life force, are in addition sensory organs able to detect vital energy and mental activity.

end of fragment

Fragment V.c

Ontogeny and Society

The aboleth species is characterized by an extreme sexual diorphism: The females are immobile coral-like growths that spew forth a flood of young aboleth spawn with unbelievable fecundity. These are the elder aboleths' preferred source of nourishment, and are in turn provided with the bodies of mentally lobotomized sea creatures to feed upon.

Male aboleths' lifespans are measured in millenia, the female polypal colonies grow older by several orders of magnitude. They are however afflicted with long periods of dormancy, during which they do not create any new young. What causes these strange jubilees is unknown, save there seems to be an influence of certain constellations and a role played by the unspeakable rites performed in the vile so-called temples of this ancient race.

The young aboleth's scales are quite hard at the time of leaving the maternal polyp, and it yet lacks any power over the minds of others or, indeed, any powers of higher reasoning. A cowardly creature, it prefers to feed on carrion or prey rendered helpless by its elders' mental powers.

After about a millenium, the spawn has grown enough to be about one and a half man's length from snout to tail and has developed a rudimentary sentience, although yet incapable of communicating meaningfully with other intelligences. The telepathic ability is rudimentary in complexity yet powerful in projection: the monstrous fish-thing is capable of what is among cognoscenti known as a “mindblast”, a stunning and even immobilizing psychic attack. In this phase of its life, it is called a giboleth.

Some giboleth develop an exceptionally close mental tie with the polypal mothers -- these are known as gibodai and develop the ability to drain and store life force, which they then provide to the coral growth. Their mental and physical growth is forever stunted, yet they are treated with uncharacteristic deference by the larger and more powerful aboleths.

In the Black Tablets of Hathat, the giboleth/gibodai stage is compared human puberty, or “a young man newly taken to the spear”. There may be some sense to that, for it is in a mere one or two centuries that it achieves the ability to express itself fluently, comprehend and apply the occult principles of stellar and aquatic power, as well as develop a life-draining ability akin to that of the gibodai. At this stage in its life it may correctly be called an aboleth. It has grown even larger, but has shed most of its hard scales, leaving its skin covered with a slimy mucus.

fragment ends

Immaculate

April 12th, 2012, 07:05 PM

I have a business meeting tomorrow night, and I just realized that I'm not sure when I'll get back tomorrow night. Can we have a 24 hour delay please?

Havn't seen your turn up so i added another little extension. Hope everything is alright.

jotwebe

April 13th, 2012, 09:07 AM

R'lyeh

In the farthest reaches of the encircling ocean, where the briny surface currents meet the great wall of ice and plummet into the deep, there is an abyss under the black sea. Past the roots of icebergs the currents plunge, leaving behind the world of light, shedding colors one by one.

http://i.imgur.com/0NnTL.jpg

The pressure increases relentlessly, and the ice-chilled currents pass a lifeless zone where even the merfolk cannot breathe and only certain strange squid drift in sluggish dreams.

Finally, in this gloomy realm, there is a colorless plain of slimy ooze. The carcasses of sea-creatures slowly decompose, playing host to disgusting coiling throngs of boneless hagfish and spiny, long-legged crabs.

http://i.imgur.com/WMa2d.jpg

Yet the current is pulled even deeper: over jagged, rocky cliff into a crack of even deeper darkness, so cold that the water would freeze but for the merciless pressure that squeezes the very mind into strange and warped shapes. Down into the chasm, past the ghostly lures of vast and monstrous great-jawed fish of stunning ugliness.

http://i.imgur.com/P0FW5.jpg

Deeper into the abyss, the current is met by pillars of strange gases rising from the cracked rock, half obscuring the brooding Cyclopean basalt blocks that lean at subtle and surreal angles. In the center of the city, spanned by arching bridges, there is a cleft where even the aboleths do not venture.

This is the ancient city of R'lyeh. There has been some disturbance and unrest lately, as a strange Atlantean has come among the slaves, pale, pudgy, and uncanny, always appearing where he was not expected and speaking of the death of the Pantokrator and the advent of a new era. Nyarlathotep this Atlantean called himself, but whence this outlandish name hailed from, none knew to say.

Among the aboleths, the powers were split in their opinion. Most disdained this arrogant Atlantean, yet some were swayed by the impelling fascination and allurement of his revelations. In the year 63,123,288 Nyarlathotep's enemies, worried about his ever-increasing fame and popularity, decided to take action.

Nyarlathotep was again speaking to a crowd of slaves and lesser aboleths, capering on top of a bridge that spanned R'lyeh's central chasm. As was his fashion he proclaimed a vast change; a time, drawing near, in which the hidden stars themselves would be shaken.

Of a sudden a group of five aboleths, among them the notorious L'grss, closed in on the crowd, followed by a large mass of those degenerated slaves known as lobo guards. The aboleths began to bend their vile minds upon Nyarlathotep, adding to vast pressure of the deep a mental component.

The Atlantean prophet let loose an unholy shriek, and an even greater sense of foreboding settled on the scene. The towers of R'lyeh swayed in the grip of an earthquake, and the chasm suddenly gaped wider, ripping apart the bridges in tumbles of Cyclopean blocks.

Nyarlathotep also fell, and the aboleths moved to the chasms edge, driven by cruel curiosity.

Suddenly, with uncanny speed, five pallid rubbery arms shot upwards up out of the darkness and wrapped themselves around the stunned aboleths. Even their vast size did not avail the hapless creatures as they disappeared into the deep, wailing and gibbering.

In their place a monstrous octopoid head rose out of the widened chasm, while the prophet Nyarlathotep stood on its pale dome and shouted out his damnable prophecies in vile ecstasy: "Iä! Iä! Yöt-Webbogoth hath come!"

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

(next: gameplay updates)

Immaculate

April 13th, 2012, 09:28 AM

F*cking A!

Sweet intro!

Yeah, i guess we are at turn 18; if peeps want to start posting their turn 1-3 stuff they are welcome to do so- especially if their non-gaming time-constraints get tighter in the week are are looser on the weekend.

Excist

April 13th, 2012, 03:33 PM

Can we add 6 hours to the clock and move to a 30h quickhost to combat the deadline creep?

Turns are getting too long to do them back to back, especially with treaty and trade negotiations.

Immaculate

April 13th, 2012, 04:03 PM

right- no problem.

EDIT: wait- you are signing treaties? Shouldn't i be involved in this? Surely you want to take my offer.

Immaculate

April 13th, 2012, 04:08 PM

Also: For jotwebe:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6078/141.full

Excist

April 13th, 2012, 05:22 PM

You made sure I wouldn't be able to afford your ransom so I just have to finish Pan as fast as I can and then focus on you.

Immaculate

April 14th, 2012, 12:02 AM

Arcosephalae
Turn One: Sweet Dreams ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rJE_Sc1Wags)

Click the turn name. Even the Eurythmics love Arcosephalae. And it shouldn’t matter if Annie Lennox looks like that- “I travel the World and the Seven Seas. Everybody’s looking for something.”

http://womenatforty.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Billy-Idol-thought-it-was-a-nice-day-for-a-white-wedding-1982.jpg

Anyway, it’s a little early to post my first turn- we are only on turn 18 in the game but I don’t feel I am giving too much away and I have time to post tonight and less over the next few days so I thought I would get right to it.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=3hl4i" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/3hl4i.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Here’s the nation description. I think generally they are not usually thought of as an early game power. Their mystics allow for excellent communion evocations however and so, in my opinion, they begin to come into their own once you can field communions and you get some command over evocation magic. Their militaries are not generally considered very good or anything. The myrmidons are really slow and require a ton of resources. I won’t be using many- mostly because they are slow. Another unit they mention are the Pegasus riders and these aren’t bad at all- with both 16+ defense and 16+ protection. I was in a game recently where the arcospehalae player took an earth 9, astral 9 bless and his Pegasus riders were totally bad-a$$. I won’t be doing that however.

The philosophers are interesting (see screenshot below). They cost 50 gold and generate 5 base research plus 1 point per point of sloth. That translates to very efficient research. They are, however, old. The oreids are awesome and I will get to them when I start fielding them.

The last and perhaps most important thing to mention is that we are led by an awesome song from the 80s, “White Wedding” by Billy Idol. If you haven’t applied yourself to rediscovering the beauty that is Billy Idol, than you are missing out. You can’t listen to it seriously- you have to adopt a sort of facetious good-naturednes but if you do that, you will surely enjoy them.

Click the link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgFh4RHgn0A).

“White Wedding” has a number of titles, each more grandiose than the last. Beyond that, I will share no more at this juncture. So for now, lets move on.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=kf1ppf" target="_blank"><img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/kf1ppf.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

For those of you who are familiar with the map “Shadowshore”, I am starting in the bottom left hand corner. Which means no real resource-heavy provinces around me None of the neighboring provinces are mountains or forest. At this point I am really praying for iron mines or something near to my capital.

You can see that I had my starting commander do some patrolling while I jack up taxes a bit. Additionally I set my scout to be a Prophet of “White Wedding”. His will be the job of sharing the ‘good news’ of 80s rock with everyone.

What else can you see in this screenshot? Right. The scales. As you can see I took lots of order (money, less events), sloth (less money, much less resources), misfortune (offset hopefully by the order scales) and magic (faster research).

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=9ztwr8" target="_blank"><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/9ztwr8.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I recruit a bunch of slingers to augment my starting army. Slingers suck but they are cheap and don’t cost much resources so its pretty much the only thing I can hire.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=xdcfb4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/xdcfb4.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

More interestingly, here is the commander I hired this turn. With sloth scales and magic 1, he produces 9 research point per turn for only 50 gold. Many will get diseased and die in the first winter but it will give me a strong early research. I have to be sure to capitalize on it though because other researchers (mystics) would last longer and be able to forge and cast spells.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=256aixt" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/256aixt.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Lastly, I had some money left over (because philosophers are so cheap) so I put a bid down for some mercenaries.

At this point i don't have any strong strategic plans. Its a pretty standard opening i think.

Anyway, that’s the first turn. Cheer for Arco!

jotwebe

April 14th, 2012, 12:38 AM

<a href="http://imgur.com/D5COB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="R'lyeh" /></a>

Welcome, friends of the squamous and tentacular, to R'lyeh turn 1.

http://i.imgur.com/b9VS2.png

I'm starting with an awake kraken, it should be able to solo a province on turn one. It has a massive amount of hitpoints, but low dominion could be a problem. For that reason the prophet will follow it and hopefully catch up when the kraken goes on a small detour. It goes east.

I prophetize the starting scout while I set taxes to 140% and patrol with the starting army. And the prophet-to-be gets renamed to Nyarlathotep, sine he obviously is one of his avatars.

This is the map zoomed fully out:

http://i.imgur.com/pjDv6.png

As you see, except in a few places, the sea is a narrow one province wide ring. Since reinforcing it will be tricky, I will take my time assembling my expansion army. This turn I'm recruiting slave trolls and a polypal mother. I want one in R'lyeh anyway, and this way I'll get a turn of preaching out of it before my dominion is too high for it to make a difference. Mages will come later.

The army, once completed, will set off southwards, in the the opposite direction of Yöt-Webbogoth.

When the stars are right, they will meet again.

Roland Jones

April 14th, 2012, 04:55 AM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Prologue

Helheim. Land of the dead. Gate to the underworld. For ages, the Vanir of this land have watched over and guided the dead, under the rule of an old god, whose blessing granted power to his followers. Now, that god is dead, and though its blessing remained, its rule held no power in Helhalla. For a time, Helheim was governed by the Hangadrotts, ancient Helkarlar who hung themselves from an ash tree, learning the secrets of death. The wisdom of the Hanged Kings kept Helheim stable, but they gained little. The old magics and rituals fell to the wayside, and the Valkyries no longer served as messengers of death.

Then, one day, Marceline arrived. With powerful magic and great, wild ideas, she impressed and captivated the Vanir, effectively becoming their leader. She told them of a new future, one where Helheim reigned over not only the dead, but the living as well; one where they could act as they pleased; one where the world had been reshaped to their desires. To this end, she cast open the gates of Hel, and with them open to their fullest, its influence began to spread out into the world. In addition to this audacious act, she bestowed her own blessing upon the Vanir of Helheim, making them stronger, more powerful; combined with the blessing of the dead god, this magic made them demigods among men. The Vanir knelt before her, the Hangadrotts deferred to her judgment, the Valkyries flew once again. Helheim had a god once more.

However, Marceline was a restless, capricious goddess. Even as she told them tales of ruling the world, she was looking to other places as well, with other plans, or simply for her own amusement. She frequently disappeared from the halls of Helhalla, sometimes for months at a time. While her blessing remained when when she was gone, and the Hanged Kings could keep order, it was concerning that their deity was away so often, and seemed so unconcerned with the fate of their nation at times.

During her longest absence yet, something dreadful happened. The false gods of other nations put forth their own attempts to claim true divinity and rule over all. Deciding that they could no longer wait for her return, the Hangadrotts give an order heard by all of Helheim. They would prepare for war. Despite the fickle machinations of an absent goddess and the continuing spread of Hel's draining influence, the nation would not falter. Helheim would conquer all.

LDiCesare

April 15th, 2012, 05:46 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

What's in italics is actually After Action. What's not is notes written on the spot. Therefore, italics may disagree with plain text as I've made a lot of mistakes, some of which were immediately clear, some which showed only later.

Thorion is my pretender. He is a Lich, ruler of Pangaea.
My idea is to have a strong dominion with bad scales, which is obviously a bad idea.
So... Why?
Well, Pangaea has Pan wizards, who bring forth tons of Maenads around them provided there's enough turmoil. So I want Turmoil 3 to get lots of maenads, and a big enough dominion to actually have turmoil 3 everywhere my Pans will go.
Having Turmoil 3, Luck 3 is a no-brainer. Anything else would be suicide in my opinion.
Now, I want a high dominion in order for it to spread, but what good is a high dominion score?
Well, it accomplishes two things:
1/ Immortal units don't die in friendly dominion. I do mean friendly
2/ Some global enchantments work better (or only) inside your dominion.
So, I so much want Gift of Health to turn skinny maenads into fat-hit-point maenads. And I've found out that immortal pretenders can be fun. Therefore, let's have a look at Thorion.
He's a Lich. Liches are death wizards with immortality inside. They don't have much else to go for them, but an actual test shows that a lich is actually a fairly good SC. He can single-handedly take out indie provinces, with no equipment, and even archer provinces provided he gets a raw-hide shield. With some more death, he's got both Fear and Awe. With some expensive magic diversity, he can even be useful later on, and let me out of E/N/B.
In order to get an awake, Dom 9 pretender, I pick utterly poor scales: sloth 3 and Heat 3. I take Growth because I will have to patrol, and Magic 1 because I so need it. I mean, seriously, look at Pangaean mages. Pans cost more gold than you can have, and dryads are so bad at research that it's pitiful.
the heat scale was an either/or. Heat was bad if I fell against Abysia, cold against Caelum. I actually fear Caelum far more. Their thunderstrike teleporters leading tons of Frankenstein monster armies are scary. Turns out my two neighbours woul be Abysia and Caelum and I picked the wrong scale seeing which of these was most aggressive.

It's important to point out that I have never played Pangaea in MP, and very rarely in SP either. I also never played a Lich, and picked him just because it looked actually cool and was surprisingly efficient at early expansion in my tests. I fancied using it for Carrion Woods, but I think it's not a good idea trying to go that route with EA Pangaea.
I'll also point out that I picked Pangaea precisely for the reason I rarelly play them. They require patience, which is something I clearly lack, as will be shown in later turns.

--- --- ---

My starting position is in the south east. I should have easy access to Tir na n'Og, which has a nice chokepoint to reach it, so this is huge. Unless there's someone close to the bog in the south, I can't think of a better starting position.
First thing, however, is that renaming id Off :( So long for good names, I won't be able to rename my prophet, so she'll be Graia the harpy. The good news is we won't see the infamous wizards named S2NA2 and such. Actually it seems to be on, but I must have mistyped R when trying to give a cool name to my prophet. Don't expect much of me if I can't even rename a commander!
Peiroos the minotaur immediately starts patrolling while I raise taxes to 200% on first turn. I buy a batch of harpies for patrol duty, along with a minotaur to lead them. I would have gone for a dryad, but since they'll be patrolling all game long, the 40 gold upkeep is cheaper than the 120 holy upkeep, and I'll need the money to buy Pans next turn. And then dryads, depending on income.
Research starts on construction. Depending on where my dominion spreads, Thorion and the satyrs will attack next turn. Hopefully Citala/Rath Chimbalth and Renthale (north) will not be too heavily protected. Citala would be great for a fort but Tir na n'Og's farmland would be good too, although I prefer forests.

Let's check the other pretenders:
Arcoscephale has 6 titles which look like a high astral goddess.
Marverni has 5 titles, looks like astral/air/death.
Abysia : 2 titles? What dominion score does that mean? I know he can blood sac, but still. It's certainly a good move of him to have attacked me by the way because in a dominion war, I could dom-kill him if I had enough temples, or at least force him to blood sac too with more expensive temples and priests than mine. Lots of wishful thinking here.
Caelum also has only 2 titles, and no blood sac. Dominion dead. Looks like nature, maybe earth. A great mother?
Fomoria has 3 titles, nature and earth. Well, surprising giant bless isn't it?
Helheim has 3 titles, probably astral and death, maybe earth?
R'lyeh has 4 titles, looking like astral.

I forgot there was a stinking fish in this game. I HATE water nations. So long for the good chokepoints of Tir na'n Og. Hopefully his home province is the norhtwestern sea on the other side of the map. Yes, I didn't think of checking the starting provinces before the game by running a test game or jsut looking at the map file.

Roland Jones

April 15th, 2012, 06:31 AM

I'll post my first turn report when turn 21 comes in. We're on turn 20 now, so it won't be too long. Probably tomorrow, really.

On that topic, if anyone wants me to make a banner with their nation name and flag on it, just PM me or something. They'll probably be prettier than mine, too; I know some fancy effects for things like fire, ice, water, vines, and so on, but all the parchment tutorials I found were a bit lacking.

jotwebe

April 15th, 2012, 06:51 AM

I'm playing two different Pangaeas in MarchMadness and aLearningExperience right now. Generally I think in CBM turmoil/luck is the way to go. Death/Nature is also nice. Even if you don't go for Carrion Woods you can summon the various vine priests and have them reanimate stuff.

Shardphoenix

April 15th, 2012, 09:04 AM

D+N is the way to go for Pan, IMHO. Not because of Carrion Woods, but because of Lamia Queens - they bring much needed diversity to the table. Mannikin factories help too.
Oh, and don`t underestimate dryads - they are cost-effective resesearchers in magic-1, being cheap and sacred. Also, Pan doesn`t need awake pretender - they have revellers and centaur archers for expansion, after all.
If you want maenad hordes - go for Mass Protection. You will pick Mother Oak on the way (which is huge for Pan) and it gives your pans some early spells to cast (earthmeld and destruction come to mind). And even if someone gets Gift up - you can steal it later with your superior N income (from capital, Mother Oak and N4 sitesearchers).

Immaculate

April 15th, 2012, 10:14 AM

EDIT: ignore this.

Bluemage142

April 17th, 2012, 08:23 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

(Everything here was written as I took my turns, except this. And, well, everything else inside parentheses. I'll do this to correct things that past-me said, and provide a bit more input from Turn 21-me.)

Turn 1:

Here's my starting location.

<a href="http://imgur.com/1dMku"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1dMkul.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

I like this. Quite a bit. I've got a couple directions I can expand, good resources near my capital, and really only three directions of land to worry about.

(True, but I really needed to look at the stuff around me more closely. I'll realize this later.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/kEEob"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/kEEobl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/hACQ7"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hACQ7l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

My starting army is 15 Marv BCs and 15 Javelineers. I plan to get these guys killed off ASAP. First, though, I'm going to turn my starting commander into a prophet, and dispatch my scout to, well, scout.

<a href="http://imgur.com/C7xmP"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/C7xmPl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is my recruit screen, which you might recognize from my second post. Right now, I have plenty of gold, and not nearly enough resources. I grab an Eponi Chieftain for a leader (since 40 guys just isn't enough), and load up on Carnute BCs and Slingers. Cheap, effective, and enough of them to make up for my second-turn losses.

<a href="http://imgur.com/PaxHa"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/PaxHal.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/mHBps"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/mHBpsl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/nYCHT"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nYCHTl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/zRMu6"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/zRMu6l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

I've spent my resources and used my commander slot for the turn, and I still have 180 gold. Now, I want to expand FAST, so I take this chance to check the Mercenaries screen. The Archers in White, 20 Amazons and a Pegasus Rider, are up for bid, so I put 172 gold down on them. I only needed to spend 100, but the extra gold gives me a really good chance of getting the mercs. If I do, it'll speed my expansion nicely, so I change my recruitment to a mess of BCs (meat shields for the Amazons), and end my turn.

(Both parts of this ended up being good decisions, BTW. Archers + Barechests = effective expansion.)

Roland Jones

April 18th, 2012, 01:13 AM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn I: The Beginning

http://i.imgur.com/7aDWq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dIXTD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8XNuH.jpg

Standard starting message stuff. Everyone who's played the game sees this, but since no one else put this in I figure I may as well. For those not familiar with it, the first screen is the message screen you see before every turn (unless nothing happens, which is rare); apart from the first turn, when you get this narration, it's mainly random events and battle summaries, plus some other things we'll eventually see.

http://i.imgur.com/Xyga2.jpg

Here is my capital. I'm in the north-east, on a peninsula. Rather penned-in. While I can cordon it off easily, I can't make the explosive expansion and claim everything like Helheim normally can. Not great, but at least I am relatively safe from being attacked when I inevitably piss off everyone and make them all want to murder me.

So, let's take a look. I start with a Helkarl, who is decent but not as good as Vanherses for the purpose of raiding, despite slightly higher stats. He gets to patrol with my starting army, because he's an *******, and I need money (note that these pictures are from after all my orders have been given; I started with the same 400 everyone else did). Also have a Van Scout, who is currently becoming Marceline's prophet. You can also see my dominion, which is horrible. I took a hilariously inefficient pretender; I could have easily gotten one that could have done the same, mostly, for a lot less, but I wanted to do this instead. Because it's funny. Helheim doesn't need the help, anyway.

Topic of that starting army, let's take a look.

http://i.imgur.com/DJwXe.jpg

Twenty-five units, which is less than some nations, but the troops are slightly above-average, so that makes up for it slightly.

http://i.imgur.com/oeAlN.jpg

These are Huskarls. They're Vanir, so they have above-average stats, and more importantly, glamour. There's only a fifty percent chance of melee attacks hitting them, which, while not as good as what my Vanir commanders get, is pretty awesome. I could also stealthily lead them into enemy territory, but, well, an army of these guys isn't as good as a blessed Vanjarl thug, so I won't.

http://i.imgur.com/fvj8H.jpg

And these are the other troop I start with. Serf Warriors, utterly ordinary and boring humans. They are completely uninteresting, so I will waste no more words on them.

http://i.imgur.com/TpiaE.jpg

Here is what I'm recruiting this turn, a Vanjarl and two Helhirdings. A Vanherse would cost half as much and do just as well for the beginning, but I want my first hero (I mean that literally; the early commanders easily make the Hall of Fame, and thus get special abilities, really easily) to be awesome. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be short on money or anything on turn two. Nothing can go wrong that early, right?

Next turn: Something goes wrong.

-------

Bonus: Pretender guesses.

As LDiCesare went over in his post, pretender titles hint at what paths they have and what their dominion is; certain titles only come with certain circumstances, like nation, chassis, and paths, and generally more titles means greater dominion strength. So, for the entertainment of everyone here, let's take a look at what everyone has:

Arcoscephale worships "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, Mother of Gods, She Who Holds the Fate of All, Patron of Arbitrators, the Afterthought, Princess of the Hierarchs.

That's five titles, so somewhere between eight and ten dominion, I'd bet. Sadly I can't guess the paths from this; I've seen "the Afterthought" before but I was never able to connect it with anything. The one about "Fate" implies Astral maybe, though? Also, the titles are all female, something that only happens with chassis that are such; by default titles are male. So he has one of the few female chassis, like a female titan, or maybe a Virtue (angel thing).

Marverni worships King Roland, King of Many Names, Prince of Clouds, Symbol of Unchallenged Victory, the Stealer of Corpses, the Unforgiving King.

Again, five titles, so high dominion. Also probably has Air and Death magic. Maybe other paths too, but those aren't showing up here.

Abysia worships Dwayne Johnson, the Everburning One, the Fortifier.

Two titles, so really, really low dominion. Ouch. Also, first title implies Fire magic, and the second implies Earth. Not much else to say here, as there really isn't much here.

Caelum worships Metatron, Goddess of Strength, the Creator of Wine.

Another god with two titles, jeez. Another female chassis, probably a Virtue, with... Hm. I dunno. The first title is generic, and the latter... Nature? I really don't know here. Also if it is a Virtue he didn't increase her dominion at all, which seems insane to me, considering how easy it is to get hers up to awesome levels. I dunno, guess we'll see.

Pangaea worships Thorion, the Terror of the Tomb, the Beast, Guide of Souls, Gatherer of the Dead.

Four titles, which can be middling to near-max dominion. Also, Death. Death death deathy death death. Seriously.

Fomoria worships Snakey, Prince of Animals, Prince of Metals, Prince of the Wildlife.

Okay, so it's a prince. Also has Nature magic and okay-ish dominion, I bet.

Helheim worships Marceline, the Terror of the Tomb, the Hidden One, the Fortifier.

And here's my god, obviously the best. Three titles, so my dominion is presumably middling (spoilers: It's five, actually rather low), and she seems to have Death and Earth, possibly something else. See if you can figure it out; there is no way you will ever guess what it is based on its name and all the names I'm gonna be using for my units. Nope. Not a one.

R'lyeh worships Yot-Webbogoth, the Beginning and the End, Symbol of Unchallenged Victory, God of Near and Close, Patron of Soldiers.

So, four titles, meaning high dominion, and his titles imply no paths. Considering that a pathless kraken is awesome for expansion, this makes sense. And, as his earlier post shows, this was right.

So, wasn't that fun? I predicted the paths and dominion levels of everyone's gods based on public information, and guessed or at least narrowed down what chassis they were using in a few cases too. If I wanted to, I could open up the pretender creation screen for their nations and look at the options to narrow it down further, especially in the case of the female pretenders. Metagamey? Yes. Fun and useful? Totally. And if you think this is bad, just wait until you see what I do with the score graphs. But that'll be in a later post. Look forward to it.

LDiCesare

April 18th, 2012, 04:34 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 2:

Looks like renaming is on after all...
Only 6 prophets. All scouts except a Marverni chieftain.
I get a 200 gold lucky event.
Score graphs are on. Damn. That sucks. I don't like graphs on because it makes it easy to gang up on the fool who expanded like crazy early-game. On the other hand, it makes it easier to get people to strike those who attack you, as the graphs show clearly what's happening. Knowing that graphs are on, rushes are a bad idea unless you're really sure of killing your opponent by turn 15 or 20 at most.
So what do the graphs say?
R'lyeh started expanding. Helheim has a money problem. I have a money problem too, but that's just my scales.
Caelum and I are the only ones to do research. I guess everyone else is asleep or imprisoned, except likely R'lyeh.
The dominion scores are somewhat like expected: R'lyeh strong( awake, likely 10 since it's underwater and needs it to survive). I come second, then Arco and Caelum, then Fomoria and Abysia. Helheim is at the bottom and didn't increase. Wtf happened to them?
I got the biggest army! Yes, like it's going to be that way all game if I can get maenads. Not that it matters much.
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3262/turn1maenad.png
So here's a maenad. She's beautiful. A naked madwoman who wants to kill you with her nails. She appears wherever Pans go. After the battle, most of the time. This makes the Pans' natural stealth rather awkward. They try to remain unseen but naked women pop out of the woods wherever they go, so Pans suck at scouting others provinces as they are easily spotted.
Looks like Abysia tried an attack with someone and failed (HoF). Marverni also has a lots of experience.
I use my gold to recruit a Pan, and get some longbow-cenraurs to get along with since I have some archer neighbours.
I send my starting army north. There are some deer tribe there, who are usually weak, but they have some archers so I can lose the battle. But my dominion is positive there. Unfortunately, it's not in the southern province.
My pretender goes in the marsh northwest, instructed to cast some frighten and then close to melee. He doesn't face archers, and should be able to find some D site in the marsh with a bit of luck. Plus he's immortal.
The map is rather uninteresting at this point so I don't think it's worth posting it with just indies all around. I'll post nicer maps later with intelligence about everybody's provinces and a complete map (which is off by 1 province at worst) by turn 22.

LDiCesare

April 18th, 2012, 04:36 AM

Hey guys, bring in the AARs!
I guess my turns are faster to play than anyone else (except Abysia?) but still.

Roland Jones

April 18th, 2012, 05:12 AM

Now that the updates have started, and the turns have been extended to 48 hours, I'll be doing my update the first day and my turn for the game the next. Which means, for all you viewers out there, I have another turn coming later today, after I get some sleep, and there should be an update from me every other day. For the other players, I'm sorry if this slows things down somewhat, but between the game, the updates, multiple things on other sites, and job stuff, I'm a bit busy and this is the best way to keep myself from being overwhelmed. Also, at least it gives more time for diplomacy and whatnot.

Immaculate

April 18th, 2012, 10:28 AM

No need to apologize- the intention had always been to slow things down a little bit to allow players to post their updates and still play the game(s).

Not all of us spend part of every night awake with a child who just needs to be rocked while we write the update.

jotwebe

April 18th, 2012, 11:42 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh - Turn 3

Turn 3 starts off with a nice event:

http://i.imgur.com/3kpBJ.png

Where is turn 2? I seem to have mislaid it -- or have been made to mislay it... What happened that the aboleths do not want us to know? Are we, perhaps, better off not knowing, lest the terrible truth crush our puny intellects in its inhuman vastness?

Let's go with that.

Anyway, 400 extra gold, sweet.

Yöt-Webbogoth successfully conquered his first province, it had Amber Clan tritons. Here we see him taking on his second. This one is defended by unexceptional triton militia:

http://i.imgur.com/tVmxV.png

The tritons rush up to him gamely enough, but then only a few can bring themselves to actually move into the reach of the kraken's arms. At the last moment, the triton warriors freeze time and time again. Meanwhile, the kraken spews clouds of poisonous ink at them.

http://i.imgur.com/eAQQP.png

The Ancient Kraken comes with a fear aura out of the box -- this reduces the morale of units close by. I took a dominion strength of 10, which is where the awe comes from. Awe makes it necessary to pass a morale check before attacking every round. Nice synergy there.

The kraken isn't immune to its own poison clouds, by the way, although it does have a 50% resistance. Together with its massive HP, its not much of a problem.

Unlike the wyrm, it doesn't regenerate, but recuperation does a good job of removing any afflictions it does pick up.

Meanwhile in R'lyeh, I get lucky recruiting a mage: A nature pick, just the one I wanted.

http://i.imgur.com/yMsdk.png

This little guy will get to site searching in Yöt-Webbogoth's wake (behind a slave priest I think I recruited the turn before). I'm hoping for a kelp fortress site. In vanilla, there tend to be a lot of those. CBM I think made them a lot less common.

Interjection from an older, wiser jotwebe: "Yes, they had their rarity set to 1, whatever that means exactly. CBM adds another nature site, the Kelp Grove, that needs N2 to find. This little dude will walk (or swim) right past them."

Still a good outcome. The other possibilities (EWS) I can also get on aboleths.

For now, I recruit another one that will go in the other direction, and finalize the expansion army. I think I recruited all slave trolls last turn.

http://i.imgur.com/anyvz.png

The lobo guards are there to stiffen the starting troops, which have been diligently patrolling the whole time.

Why have I recruited 60 gold gibodais over the cheaper 40 gold giboleths? They only cost upkeep like a 30 gold unit, since they're holy. And it's very unlikely they'll die during expansion, so they'll stick around quite a while.

Why didn't I recruit all gibodais, then? 'Cause I'm indecisive, I wanted critical mass for my mindblast battery and also wanted to get the show on the road.

That's it from R'lyeh -- ahead of the pack!

Warhammer

April 18th, 2012, 04:10 PM

Been a bit busy, I have had this done, but forgot to post.

Turn 1

What remains of our once proud empire? How were the believers enslaved? My punishment and their debasement shall be avenged!

Caelum is a nation of flying men. They have unsurpassed strategic movement capabilities. Their archers are among the best of the Early Age. Add to this with unsurpassed Air magic capabilities in the Early Age and you have a force to be reckoned with.

Let’s break their standard units down. The Caelians come in three different varieties. The first are the Spire Horn Caelians. They are differentiated from their brethren by their 50% shock and cold resistance. High Caelians have 100% cold resistance. Finally, the Raptor Clan has slightly above average strength, but no resistances to the elements.

Each one of the clans has an “elite” unit. When referring to Caelian units, “elite” is a term that should be used loosely, as their units are not strong in hand to hand. The first of these three “elite” units are the Tempest Warriors.

The Tempest Warrior is a decent unit. They are completely resistant to lightning which will come in handy later in the game. Their attack skill and defense skill are higher than many basic units, but their size 3 hampers their performance. One nice thing about them is their Ice Lance. This is a magic weapon, which means they can hit ethereal units out of the box. One of the limiting factors of these guys is their map move of 2. This limits their usefulness to us.

The second of the “elite” Caelian units is the Iceclad. This unit is a little stronger defensively than the Tempest Warriors. They retain the map move of 2. But their resource cost is substantially higher. The two advantages they have is their cold resistance of 100%, and their Icicle Mail gains protection with each additional cold scale. However, unlike Tempest Warriors, their resistances do not mesh well with what we will be doing later. However, I may use these as a change up vs. my normal forces.

The last of the “elite” Caelian forces is the Iron Crow. They are the Raptor Clan elite. They have arguably the best stats of the Caelian “ground” troops, but they are not worth investing heavily in. They have no resistances so they will not be very useful in our mage heavy armies.

One other ground unit I should mention is the Mammoth. These beasts are tramplers and can lead an army of archers into battle. One of the best traits of the Mammoth is their average morale. The Achilles heel of Elephants is their morale of 5. The Mammoth with their superior morale will not rout as easily.

So if most of our units are junk, what will we be using?

The Eagle King is the backbone of Caelum’s Power in the Early Age. These guys are a A4W1E1H2 mage-priest with a FAWE 10% random. These guys are expensive, but they are a force to be reckoned with. They can fly into a province, self bless, fight, and fly out again. They have a map move of 3, along with guaranteed access to cloud trapeze when that becomes available. They are 100% shock resistant, and have 50% cold resistance. Plus, the have Awe +2, so anyone trying to whack them with a pointed or blunt object need to make a morale check first.

The other mages are nice, but we will not see any of them for a while, so I will not discuss them yet.

Based upon our units, our early strategy will be to build up a force of Eagle Kings. We will use our massed mage power to expand, but not quite yet. I will send my scout north to determine who my neighbor is in that direction. Ideally, there will be one or two weak provinces I can nab with my starting army, but we need to wait until next turn to see what that brings.

Warhammer

April 18th, 2012, 04:15 PM

Looks like I need to re-up on one of the online picture sites...

Bluemage142

April 18th, 2012, 07:22 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

Turn 2:

<a href="http://imgur.com/FBmJQ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FBmJQl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here's what happened at the beginning of the turn. All the 'proclamations' are nations making prophets. Looks like six of the eight players chose to prophetize either of their starting commanders, which is interesting. I also got the band of mercenaries I wanted, which is good.

<a href="http://imgur.com/KPHCB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KPHCBl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Speaking of mercs, there's a new band up for grabs. 60 Militia. You know what? No. Just no.

<a href="http://imgur.com/QPLYP"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QPLYPl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/jUFSA"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jUFSAl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/1t3xw"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1t3xwl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/K8ZG1"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/K8ZG1l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/QQwfL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QQwfLl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here are my neighbors. The unit types that these pics give are (mostly) accurate; the numbers attached to them can be wrong by quite a bit. Still, I like fighting Militia as much as I dislike the thought of ever using them. Heavy Inf is doable, the undead I'll discuss in a sec, and the bakemono should die easily enough. The Amazons will be a pain- best leave them for last.

(You don't know how right I ended up being. On BOTH levels.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/Ayjzs"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ayjzsl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

So here are my new troops. I have a prophet, 30ish melee guys, and 35ish ranged guys. This is what I want them to do.

<a href="http://imgur.com/fF9an"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/fF9anl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Now I have the melee troops screening my archers and javelineers, everybody ready to charge, and my commanders safe enough. My prophet is set to toss out Strength of Boars, a buff unique to Marverni- it'll boost strength for all my guys, which helps the BCs on the front line and the javelineers behind them. He'll follow it up with some morale boosting, and Banishment, which should cut down ghouls and soulless en masse.

<a href="http://imgur.com/1NPIK"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1NPIKl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Let's look at the score graphs. Here, we see that R'lyeh struck out first-turn. This suggests that they took an awake combat pretender- I bet it's a Kraken. Now income, and what do we have here...?

<a href="http://imgur.com/kMo0a"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/kMo0al.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Looks like Helheim got hit with a painful event. Just looking at it suggests some population loss, but which one? The player was kind enough to tell me...

Roland_Jones Look at the income graph.
Bluemage142 What.
Roland_Jones That is the effect of a famine event, -1/5 population, on turn two.
Roland_Jones 103 unrest on my capital.
Roland_Jones Less than 100 gold in my coffers because the event cost 100 in addition to the unrest and pop cost.

...but I really need to learn to tell on my own.

<a href="http://imgur.com/H1HIV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/H1HIVl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The only way to get research is to have an awake pretender with magic paths, so I know Caelum and Pangaea have done this. Don't know if they're rainbow pretenders or combatants yet, since most people don't move until Turn 2, but I'll know next turn.

<a href="http://imgur.com/AqTak"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AqTakl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Army size is basically what I expected. I'm near the top, beaten only by Pangaea (who gets free infantry), so this is all going according to plan.

(Maenads.)

Recruiting a mage, some slingers, and some BCs. The infantry is dual-purpose: replacements for casualties, and some of my next expansion party.

<a href="http://imgur.com/l5Tke"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/l5Tkel.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Plans for the next turn. Attacking the undead, and scouting the next turn's target.

Immaculate

April 18th, 2012, 07:58 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Two: Men At Work (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeG-hNXXy6I)

Click the turn name! Its time to get to work! Down south! Awesome fluting in the trees at 1:01.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=346oy95" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/346oy95.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

With my starting expansion party, I order an assault on the province I feel is probably the weakest. I need resources and this provinces has some of those at least and I feel its also least likely to cause my initial expansion party to be completely murderfied.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2zirpd4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/2zirpd4.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I script as shown. The forward heavy infantry units are under orders to withdraw to their commanders location. Hopefully this will cause the barbs to follow them. Meanwhile the slingers and peltasts will fire slings/javelins at the barb flanks. Then, if everything goes well, the central heavy infantry will meet the barb line just as the peltasts engage the flanks. We’ll see next turn if it works or not.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=w9z0go" target="_blank"><img src="http://i44.tinypic.com/w9z0go.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

This turn I order the training of a few chariot archers and a philosopher.

Here is what the philosopher who is set to research looks like.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=iv8yti" target="_blank"><img src="http://i43.tinypic.com/iv8yti.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

As mentioned, he gets a +3 to research for the three points of sloth, then another point for the magic scale. So yeah, he’s researching pretty fast for someone who only costs 50g. There are bad-sides to this equation of course; old-age, sloth scales, no magics… but it’s a good way to get a head-start on research and also save some money. I didn’t rename him because he’s not terribly important. Oreids will get renamed for sure though- so many good 80s songs to use…

All in all I think this is a pretty standard low sloth arco opening except maybe most sloth scale arcos would probably have an awake pretender to help their expansion. I do not unfortunately.

Roland Jones

April 19th, 2012, 04:00 AM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn II: Things Go Wrong

http://i.imgur.com/6fXBF.jpg

Okay, six prophet proclamations, including my own, and an event. Since I have Order 3, this isn't particularly likely. Let's see what it is-

http://i.imgur.com/OC0VU.jpg

Oh, wow. Wow. That is bad. In fact, since most events of that magnitude have, in a "recent" patch, been changed to not happen until about a year into the game at the earliest, that might be the worst possible turn two event. Let's, let's just take a look at how bad it is...

http://i.imgur.com/K3B6D.jpg

Good grief. Look at my unrest. It's over one hundred. That is terrible. My capital is now really unprofitable, and due to the population loss, will be worth a good bit less even when I get rid of all that unrest. And I can't recruit anything this turn, not that I can afford anything with less than 100 gold.

http://i.imgur.com/eRVtu.jpg

This is what your recruitment screen looks like when you have over 100 unrest or the area is being besieged (the other situation where you can't recruit). Hopefully we won't be seeing this anymore.

Anyway, as seen in the picture above, while Marceline's prophet is heading out to scout, Sir Slicer and his army are patrolling another turn to help stamp down on the unrest, which is aided by me setting my taxes to zero. Meanwhile, Finn, the Vanjarl I recruited last turn, is preparing to attack one of the three adjacent provinces; while the one to the west has fewer units, it also has two elephants, which trample things, and trampling ignores glamour, making them really bad news for my small attack force. Meanwhile, the one to the right has cavalry, who are tougher than unmounted units generally. Finn here is scripted to cast Blessing twice, which will activate Marceline's blessing on him and the Helhirdings with him; while Blessing has enough of an AoE to hit them all at once, sometimes it misses, somehow, so I script it twice to be safe. After that, he casts Air Shield on himself, which makes projectile attacks miss him, before moving in to attack, with the Helhirdings guarding him so they stay near him and help him murder things. Only three units may seem risky, but these guys are ridiculously strong; a single Vanjarl can take on most provinces alone. He's going to take that province, and things are going to get better.

Next turn: Things don't get better.

Immaculate

April 19th, 2012, 07:58 AM

tough break...

Memento

April 19th, 2012, 09:12 AM

continue the good work - really love this nice AAR!

Corinthian

April 19th, 2012, 09:21 PM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Fomoria: Better used budget giants!

When I joined this game I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some practice writing stuff. So why dont I start? Inertia!

Oh well. Here is something at least.

Welcome to New Formoria! A land of huge, one eyed giants and their goat-headed offspring.

http://i.imgur.com/9tLLa.jpg

Currently this land is in disarray and chaos, the property bubble have burst and the national economy is in depression.

This was not always the case though. Before, during the early reign of the previous Pantokrator, they were living on a beautiful island called the Isle of Balor and they were prosperous and happy. But then disaster struck! The island was invaded by foreigners known as the Nemedians. At first, the Nemedians caught the Fomorians by surprise and was winning, but old King Balor conjured up a plague to strike the Nemedians and this changed the course of the war. Both friends and enemies were devastated by the plague, but eventually it resulted in Fomorias victory.

The Pantokrator was not pleased however. He had earlier put a ban on the use of biological weapons and his wrath was boundless! He cursed the Fomorians with hideous deformities and because of that, they now only have one large eye in the middle of the face. The full effect however, was not felt until the Fomorians were driven of the island by a group of international loan sharks that preyed up on the fact that in the chaos of the war, the Fomorians could not pay their mortages. The Pantokratorian courts then took their island as collateral. Both Fomorians and Nemedians, -who had discovered that they had been played for fools,- were forced to settle in what had once been the Formorians summer homes on the main continent.

The bankers renamed the island: Tory island, in honor of their Tartan master. (No! Really!:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Island#Ancient_history )

But the tragedy did not end there. Only once they settled in their new lands and had offspring did the full effect of the curse become apparent. Their children were born stunted and afflicted, and almost all of them were cursed with goat heads. The pantokrator was one vengeful bastard.

Today, the giants of Fomoria are a sorry lot. They can mainly be found hanging inside the giant pub, moping. Or outside the pub were they practice their dangerous games of drunken javelin punting were they shoot javelins with their feet.. Made even more dangerous by the fact that they have no dept perception anymore. In the Pub they vent their frustrations and make ineffectual promises to one day recapture their home island, now that the Pantokrator is gone. Aaany day now Balor will lead us back in victory they say. But no one knows were the old man has disappeared to or when he will return.

Immaculate

April 19th, 2012, 10:02 PM

Awesome. I like the goats and the loan sharks.

Roland Jones

April 20th, 2012, 04:26 AM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn III: A Startling Lack of Progress

http://i.imgur.com/xXp8m.jpg

Okay, let's see here. Abysia made a Demonbred (winged assassin demon thing, pretty awesome) their prophet, there was that attack I made, and there's my ongoing attempt to get rid of the unrest from that one event. Let's take a look at the battle results, I want to see how badly I beat those-

http://i.imgur.com/D07Lt.jpg

Wait, what. What. I lost? And a Hilhirding died in the process? What the ever-loving f... Okay, okay. Let's just watch the battle and see what happened.

http://i.imgur.com/Iz6kU.jpg

Started off well enough. Finn followed his orders exactly with self-buffs (since the blessing got him and his Helhirdings in the first cast, he cast something else afterward; Holy Avenger is a spell that, if the person who cast it dies, will smite several enemies, which is useful but not something I hope comes into effect). Let's take a look at the result of this.

(Weird extra images of my units are the effects of glamour; they have mirror images, as explained in my first post, which reduce the chances of them being hit as enemies strike at the wrong images.)

http://i.imgur.com/0tDSW.jpg

We see several new icons here; astute viewers familiar with Dom3 will notice that one that should be here isn't, though, since I watched the battle again when I took this and thus the Air Shield icon isn't here. Anyway, the lit candelabra means the unit is Blessed; sacred units can be blessed in battle, and your prophet and anyone who is wearing a certain item receives the effect of your blessing whether or not they're sacred. The little hydra signified regeneration, meaning he regains health every turn, and the earth elemental guy is for reinvigoration, which reduces fatigue every turn.

http://i.imgur.com/kkT37.jpg

And here's the bless itself. Wow, that's quite a bit. While the increased morale is a part of every bless, the other parts come from my god's magic. The reinvigoration and protection both come from Earth magic, the former being the minor bless (activates at level 4 and increases from there) and the latter being its major bless effect (activates at level 9 and doesn't increase, what with 10 being the max possible that you can put on your pretender). Meanwhile, the magic resistance comes from Astral magic, the regeneration from Nature, and the strength from Blood. So, what this means is, my god has nine in Earth, and four (or five) in Astral, Nature, and Blood. I'll admit now that only the Earth and Blood parts of this are important; the other two are nice, but I mainly have those magic levels for other reasons. My god may have other magic, but none of it higher than three. Based on the information presented in this and earlier updates, can you figure out my god's paths before she is revealed?

Anyway, now that I've explained that, let's get back to the battle. Finn's buffed himself and his minions up, and is charging into battle.

http://i.imgur.com/P7TqF.jpg

The three of them wade right into the midst of the enemies and begin kicking butt and taking names. At first things are going pretty well.

http://i.imgur.com/kjsj5.jpg

Soon, though, a lucky soldier manages to hit one of the Helhirdings, breaking his glamour and allowing his allies to also hit him, soon felling him. Not only that, but soon after the other Helhirding takes some damage too, causing him to flee.

http://i.imgur.com/nAUHR.jpg

He runs like a coward, leaving Finn alone to fight the horde. Finn, meanwhile, doesn't even notice at first, and continues slaying the foes of Helheim.

http://i.imgur.com/OxBlb.jpg

After the Helhirding leaves the battlefield, though, Finn finally realizes that he's alone and runs after him. (Or, mechanically, the total health of my army, after the Helhirding left, fell below a certain percentage of what it was originally, causing a rout.) He makes it off pretty fast; the enemy soldiers stand no chance of catching him, and in fact I missed him myself trying to screenshot it.

http://i.imgur.com/JhHCB.jpg

Okay, this is ridiculous. That horrible turn two event? That was sort of funny, in a "wow that's just unbelievable" way. This, though? This has me pissed off. I'm almost out of money, I have gained no provinces, and my nation's capital is still basically useless. I have missed out on two turns of mage/thug recruitment now, and will lose at least a third after this turn too. All because of a lucky shot by a dang independent troop. Bah. Let's take a look at the score graphs.

http://i.imgur.com/tM0Zj.jpg

Here we see provinces, where every nation but me has managed to take land this turn. Heck, some nations got two. This is ridiculous.

http://i.imgur.com/2zHMP.jpg

And here's the income graph for this turn, where we see that my income has hit rock bottom. While almost every other nation has also lost income overall, this is just the effect of them no longer overtaxing their capitols, although I'm curious as to whether or not something happened to Arcoscephale there. Either way, though, it's turn three and one of my graph lines has hit the bottom. This is absolutely horrible.

However, not everything that has happened this turn is bad. Those who were paying attention would have noticed a new icon in the map screen on one of my units. Let's take a closer look at the person in question...

http://i.imgur.com/nquac.jpg

Okay, there are two icons here that normally aren't on a Vanjarl. There's the reinvigoration icon again, even though he isn't blessed, and the star. The star signifies a "Heroic Ability", what units gain for entering the "Hall of Fame", which basically is a record of the units with the most kills and experience; non-gods get an ability that increases in effectiveness the longer they stay there.

http://i.imgur.com/Guzlp.jpg

And here's the ability in question. You know, that sounds a lot like reinvigoration...

http://i.imgur.com/TCdTq.jpg

Yep. Finn has innate reinvigoration now. While this may not seem like much, it's actually one of the best abilities he could have gotten. It stacks with his bless, and it will only increase the longer he stays in the Hall of Fame (which, since he got in early and is a pretty powerful unit, may very well be the whole game); eventually he'll be losing fatigue each turn instead of gaining it, excluding when he casts his spells at the start of a battle. This is pretty great, really.

http://i.imgur.com/M7vd9.jpg

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, here it is. Only units above Finn at the moment are two gods and the mercenaries Marverni bought; since mercs start out with exp, Finn here is doing pretty well for himself. Expect to see a lot of Helheim flags here in the future, too; powerful thugs soloing provinces rack up exp and kills like it's nothing. As I stated earlier in the thread, I have made it my goal to completely take over the Hall of Fame eventually. It might be difficult, but it's far from impossible.

Anyway, looking back up at the map, as you can see I'm attacking two provinces this turn. Finn is going back to finish off the soldiers that drove him back, and Sir Slicer is leading his army to take on that cavalry there. Screw patrolling down the unrest on my capital; I need to get some land now. It's do or die.

Next turn: Finally getting something accomplished.

LDiCesare

April 20th, 2012, 04:38 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 3:
World information:
Abysia has appointed a Demonbred for its prophet. Nasty demonbreds. I just hope we aren't neighbors. Like, yeah, I wrote that. In retrospect, I would write it again, demonbred or not.
My pretender routs a weak enemy thanks to Frighten/Fear/Awe.
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/474/turn3awe.png
Unfortunately, he gets a never-healing wound along the way. It will heal, but it'll take some time.

Other news include satyrs being wimps. They run from weakling deer tribe warriors but we take the province no matter what.
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6291/turn3satyrs.png
This turn's result is ok. I got 2 provinces, my dominion expanded to the south and noone is in sight yet. Typhia, northeast of my pretender, sports an army of statues, led by Antatus the Golem and some gargoyles. This province will be a pain to conquer, so it will be left for later. I might send a harpy to check if there's some magic item to loot from Antatus at some point. Note that 20 turns later, noone dared attack this province yet.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/6352/turn3o.png

The swamp lets me recruit scouts, so I'll likely get some soon, but right now I pick an indie commander there while Thorion searches for magic sites. I might get air magic from a lucky deer tribe shaman in the northern province, but at 10% chance for Air 1, I'm not going to dwell too much on it.
My new Pan came with 20 maenads all for himself. That's great. He builds a raw hide shield for Thorion in order to celebrate the maenads'lust. That's why I need an indie commander. I'll be ferrying archers and maenad fodder to the nearby provinces, and I need commanders for that. Pans could lead the army, but I'll want some to do some research soon.

Now let's look at the graphs. R'lyeh took another province. I took two. Everyone else but Helheim took one. I think Helheim is dead already. Their income is simply zero! Well, they got back in the game better but I still think these initial turns will cost them a lot in the long run. Arco's income, along with Caelum, also suck. Even at 200% tax in my capital and with 2 more provinces, I'm still 5th out of 8 in income. Gold will be rare with my scales, but I knew that. Caelum is skyrocketting in research, while Arco starts strong too. Noone else researches yet, which is a bit surprising. Well, I won't be researching this turn either.
Dominion-wise, Helheim is still dead in the tracks. If he's unlucky enough for me to find him with my harpy prophet, I'll preach him dead. Caelum could have done the same, by the way, but his dominion is not that strong. But then seraphines are stealthy, and had I been Caelum or where Caelum is located, I think Helheim could be dominion dead at this point.
I don't understand how Finn of Helheim appears in the HoF with 4 kills and not dead despite the nation's province count. My Minotaur lord got a Heroic agility, which is nice.
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/992/turn3peiroos.png
Minotaur lords aren't really good fighters, but they have some hit points. They don't perform very well in fights so I don't think I'll ever buy more of these since even a black harpy is usually better. Indie commanders are also arguably better since they don't waste fort-time (thus mage) to build.

Abysia bought Burelk's city guards. Man, do these mercenaries suck. I'm not sure why he's wasting gold on that, but maybe they can beat some Markata province by his capital?
I'm just regrouping and searching this turn. Next turn, my prophet will keep scouting while I'll invade the southern province to reach Tir na'n Og island. Thorion will either attack indies or go fetch his shield. It would be better to attack and then have a Pan come give him the shield and site search afterwards. After all, if my attack fails, I just come back to the capital uninjured so it won't matter much.

jotwebe

April 20th, 2012, 07:21 AM

<a href="http://imgur.com/D5COB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="R'lyeh Banner" /></a>

To make up for the missing turn, and foreshadowing the next:

The Doom of the Amber Tritons

Once there was in the oceans of the Shadowshore a great and noble kingdom of tritons. This kingdom had risen in one of the millennia in which R'lyeh lay dreaming, when the polypal mothers stood barren and the aboleths, all save one, had buried themselves in the pelagic ooze to sleep.

The tritons were wise enough to avoid the deep places, and flourished. They learned the secrets of amber forging, and fashioned mighty arms and armor from it.

Then Auluudh crept up the continental shelf, out of the lightless deep into the blue and green shallows. Auluudh the Eldest, the Unsleeping Mind Lord.

http://i.imgur.com/re9zI.jpg

And the Margrave of the Abyssal Edge in his castle of Kelp put on his finest hauberk of amber and swum up with his retainers to challenge the monster. But as the Margrave came upon Auluudh, a drowsiness came upon him, and his retainers, and they went back to his castle to sleep.

In the old triton kingdom, the tritons ruled, and the atlanteans were their servants, whom they sent up the shore to gather things and to trade with men.

They were kind masters for the most part, but the lightest servitude will chafe, while the most crushing slavery deadens all feeling. This the aboleths know, and this Auluudh knew.

So Auluudh conspired with certain atlanteans, and with the power of his ancient mind enslaved certain others, atlanteans and triton both.

And so it came to pass that when the king grew old, of his two heirs the elder grew haughty and the younger grew envious, for their tutors were enmeshed in the aboleths fetters. It is not known if the elder grew impatient as well or if the king did die a natural death, but for a surety his younger son claimed otherwise.

Each had their followers, loyal and passionate most, and some of them also old Auluudh's slaves. Words had been said that could not be unsaid, and now deeds were carried out that could not be undone. War came to the great and noble kingdom of amber, tridents flashed green and gold and blood billowed brown and the sharks glutted themselves on the dead.

Yet the brothers did not fight each other in the end.

The civil war's carnage had created in both a revulsion for bloodshed, yet the bitterness of fallen friends and the acrimony of their quarrel precluded a true peace. So it came to pass that the kingdom split into two halves, of which the elder and his followers retreated south into the Moon Sea, while the younger and his people struck out east, to make a new home in the Sea Untamed.

Of Auluudh nothing had been heard since before the outbreak of war, save perhaps that on the kingdoms north western edge the shark attacks were particularly bad, and the Margrave of the Abyssal Edge and all of his blood disappeared without a trace, while his castle of kelp fell to ruin and neglect.

More than a hundred years would pass until the stars would align, and in deep R'lyeh the Mothers would bloom and spew forth spawn in the dark, and the aboleths would stir and twist out of the sludge, and the Mind Lords would swarm out to capture fresh slaves.

And an ancient power would boil out of its lair, and the younger's kingdom would fall to its arms, while a mad prophet-slave would dance through the ruins.

And an army would assemble in the wakening city, and Auluudh would creep forth and crawl at its head, and the army would crawl out of the deep, and past the old ruin and towards the Moon Sea.

Mightypeon

April 20th, 2012, 12:50 PM

Some rumblings concerning the city guard:

If you went for a heavy scale build, with growth and good order scales, the city guard can quickly recoup its investment by patrolling at 200%.
This will cost some income on the long run, but income early game is much more important than income in the lategame.
I am totally not sure on what scales Abyssia has, but I recruited the city guard several times as O3P3G1 Ulm and usually got about 800-900 gold in profit from it.

Excist

April 20th, 2012, 03:26 PM

I didn't have nearly as rationale a reason as it turns out. The idea was to take a 10-20 lizard man province without my expensive sacreds getting cursed.

More details on how that worked out when I get a chance to post my AARs this weekend.

sansanjuan

April 21st, 2012, 03:18 PM

Nice work all of you. Enjoying the read while sitting in a tent in the rain....
ssj

Immaculate

April 21st, 2012, 07:35 PM

we barely missed the rain. we went canoeing and came to shore just as it started.

LDiCesare

April 22nd, 2012, 09:31 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 4:

I find several interesting things this turn. A 1D income site in the marsh. Not very good but better than nothing. I also locate Abysia. Too near for my comfort, but not too near either. I'd just rather not have a neighbor that likes my hot dominion.
Abysia, Fomoria and Helheim all took 2 provinces thus turn. Caelum and I stagnate.
I do some more scouting, and attack to the south. I also recruit a Pan and a scout. The Pan will research and spawn maenads. The scout will just scout. Another Pan should bring the shield to the mountain province Thorion should conquer next turn, and then site search that. I'll need more commanders at this point, maybe a centaur priest or a dryad to fetch troops.
Nothing special worth saying this turn, since I didn't take any province, just scouted some more.

Shardphoenix

April 22nd, 2012, 10:45 AM

[I]Minotaur lords aren't really good fighters, but they have some hit points. You seriously underestimate their berserk potential. Give him a flesheater axe (for +3 berserk and magic weapon), a lycanthropos amulet - and you`ve got some serious anti-thug force: high attack, VERY high damage, high HP, regen, some natural armor (from berserk) and gives enemy a chest wound. Oh, also immune to awe/fear/seduction. Caelian Eagle Kings aren`t going to like this.
I mean, look at this (additional HPs are from Gift of Health):

LDiCesare

April 22nd, 2012, 02:20 PM

Sure : For 10 gems or so, you have a MR 11 thug who dies to 1 thunderstrike. Against 1 mage + chaff, he's going to kill some of the chaff and then get paralysed/soul slain/mind controlled or otherwise magically fried.
The +3 berserk and magic weapon also matters little when you end up trampling most of your opponents, so the strength and attack boost become irrelevant unless you are facing opponents of the same size or bigger.
A fort-turn is better spent buying a dryad most of the time, or a Pan, unless there is no lab or temple in the fort.
Also, a sleeper will be less effective against thugs, but more so against human-sized troops, and comes with a magic weapon for 8 gems, along with having 4 more MR and better leadership, which make him actually suited to fight mages and lead magical troops and shoot arrows from whichever bow you prefer.
Also, lycanthropos amulets eventually turn your units into werewolves, so this build is efficient for a really short period of time and only against a limited set of opponents.
So, yes, what you describe is a very strong thug against size 3 thugs that don't have chaff shields and can't cast MR-negating or AN-damage spells. It is very situational, and I still doubt I would ever want one instead of a mage.

Immaculate

April 22nd, 2012, 03:44 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Three: Every Breath You Take (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs)

As alluded to by Roland in the Helheim AAR, I did indeed get hit with a bad event on my capital, though not nearly as bad as his.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=9qdw11" target="_blank"><img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/9qdw11.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Ultimately it leads to a substantial decrease in my income for the turn and I am forced to reduce taxes to 50% to compensate. Oh well… at least I didn’t lose nearly as much as he did. And… I do have slight misfortune scales so this sort of stuff is bound to happen sometimes.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=mu7tz6" target="_blank"><img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/mu7tz6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

The battle against the barbarians goes much better. My ‘decoy’ scripting works nicely and I don’t lose a single unit. It doesn’t hurt that they fail their morale checks very early.

As a result, our capital has access to much more resources and I am able to expand the recruitment queue.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2hf2kxz" target="_blank"><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/2hf2kxz.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I also recruit a single barbarian commander from our new province. I’ll use him to help ferry chariots around very soon.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=4u6j39" target="_blank"><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/4u6j39.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I also order an assault by our initial expansion party upon the province south of the one we just took.

There are many more barbarians here so I don’t believe we will do as well as we did with this turn’s battles. As it turns out, I will not be disappointed.

Shardphoenix

April 22nd, 2012, 05:08 PM

Sure : For 10 gems or so, you have a MR 11 thug who dies to 1 thunderstrike.Show me 10n-gem thug who doesn`t die to 1 thunderstrike. :)
And Pan should roll in N gems.
Against 1 mage + chaffJust like a bane. Only bane gets dust2dust instead of soulslain.
The +3 berserk and magic weapon also matters little when you end up trampling most of your opponents, Most thugs are at least size 3. All ponymen nations, Caelum, giants, banelords...

A fort-turn is better spent buying a dryad most of the time, or a Pan, unless there is no lab or temple in the fort.Yes, but not if Eagle Kings come knocking.

Also, a sleeper will be less effective against thugs, but more so against human-sized troopsAgainst common humans you have common minotaurs - just trample them into dust. Also centaur archers. And revelers.
Also, lycanthropos amulets eventually turn your units into werewolves So what? Werewolf is weaker - but he also has his uses (assuming, your minotaur lives long enough to be turned into one - thug life expectancy is rather short)
So, yes, what you describe is a very strong thug against size 3 thugs that don't have chaff shields Yes.
and can't cast MR-negating or AN-damage spells.No. 29 HP is enough to live through couple AN spells, unless it`s soulslay-grade.

Roland Jones

April 22nd, 2012, 05:19 PM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn IV: Catching up

http://i.imgur.com/6z5DN.jpg

Okay, nothing happened (for me) this turn besides these two battles. This is it, let's see if I'm doomed already.

http://i.imgur.com/CXfeR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MPDiL.jpg

Heck yes, won both of them. Few casualties in the second one, but it was probably just some cheap human troops. Let's see how it went down.

http://i.imgur.com/fROmc.jpg

Finn's rematch first. Starts the same way as the last battle, except this time I had accidentally scripted the Helhirding to "Hold and attack" rather than "Guard Commander", so he rushed ahead before Finn was done casting. Wound up not getting him killed or anything though, so it's fine.

http://i.imgur.com/oYXIH.jpg

He did take a few hits for his stupidity, but he deserved that. Anyway, Finn and his minion clean up the rest of the jerks who drove them away last time with no real trouble.

Let's check out the other battle now.

http://i.imgur.com/xMjx8.jpg

Okay, this one's set up a bit more dynamically. Sir Slicer, the *******, is set up in the back, to bless himself and... Well, he has Death magic rather than Air, so he doesn't have much to do, for himself or his soldiers. Meanwhile, the serf warriors are set up in the front, where they will hold for a few turns before moving in, while the huskarlar are set to the side and a ways back, but will move in to attack immediately.

There's actually several reasons for this setup. The serfs are generally weaker, but they have shields at least, so they can block some arrows, and since they're in the front, the enemies will target them first; since the enemy AI doesn't change targets for its shooting unless engaged in melee or the target routs/dies, they will keep shooting at these guys even as the more valuable and huskarlar get closer and ready to murder them. The huskarlar, being set to the side and further back, meanwhile, will hit the enemy in the side, theoretically, and will actually reach the enemy at about the same time as the serfs, who start further ahead but don't move at first, resulting in my entire army hitting them at once without the more valuable units having taken damage yet. Sr Slicer, meanwhile, is on a horse, and therefore moves a lot faster than the little men walking around, so he'll get there at about the same time too.

http://i.imgur.com/elZYC.jpg

Here's the enemy, meanwhile. Mounted archers. They can attack in melee, but they won't unless engaged directly, since they're primarily archers. I was expecting a melee portion to this battle, since I wasn't that familiar with the Horse Tribe and didn't know I'd meet an entirely ranged regiment here, but fortunately my plan holds up regardless.

http://i.imgur.com/9op85.jpg

And here we see my plan working. The archers are firing at the serfs even as the huskarlar come in for them. Meanwhile, Sir Slicer cast a low-level Death spell after blessing himself; Frighten lowers the morale of a few enemy troops. Nothing big, but it could help a little, and it's one more turn he's busy instead of rushing forward on his horse; if he were the first person to meet the enemy, he might be in trouble, and the commander dying means the army automatically routs.

http://i.imgur.com/79zZr.jpg

Anyway, my positioning and scripting worked out mostly well here; huskarlar and serfs hit the Horse Tribe at almost the same time, and while Sir Slicer wound up behind some other units and unable to attack at first, he also reached the battle at the same time at least. In melee, the Horse Tribe has trouble striking my glamoured troops, while the huskarlar stab at them and their horses with impunity.

http://i.imgur.com/KRWGe.jpg

Unfortunately for the serfs, they are not protected by glamour, and barely protected by their crappy armor, so they take some casualties and damage from the tribe's weapons.

http://i.imgur.com/0XP7F.jpg

After several of them take various wounds, they break, leaving Sir Slicer and the huskarlar to fight. By this point, their running makes little difference in this battle, but unfortunately if they retreat they'll move to other provinces, meaning they won't be with this army for the same strategy this turn. My arrow fodder is running away.

http://i.imgur.com/9hPvD.jpg

As said, their absence makes no difference; the huskarlar and their Helkarl finish off most of the remaining Horse Tribe with ease, and the rest flee. Rather quickly, at that; they get off the battlefield before the serfs do, meaning that, while they ran away, the serfs end up staying with the army anyway. Score.

http://i.imgur.com/TmCfH.jpg

Aw yeah, look at that. Not one, but two provinces in a turn. I'm now making enough money to... Pay upkeep for my army. Yeah, with my capitol still at zero percent tax to get rid of the unrest, I really am not making much money. Had enough to get two more Helhirdings, at least, which are what Finn is moving back to the capitol for; he only has one minion at the moment, and it got a chest wound from the failed battle. Meanwhile, Sir Slicer and his army are still moving forward; as the serfs didn't flee, I can use the same strategy for the next battle, and the province they're moving to is full of Ichtyids, fishmen who are rather weak; I could have probably taken this province with only the Huskarlar and Sir Slicer, really. Serfs being there to take the focus off of the real units basically dooms the poor fishmen.

Sir Slicer has also made the Hall of Fame, but the ability he got isn't nearly as nice; he merely got Heroic Precision, which makes him more likely to hit things. Not detrimental, but compared to Finn becoming the Energizer Bunny it's kind of a letdown. Oh well.

Something really nice, in addition to getting land, is that both of them had magic sites on them. While most sites that you can see without searching aren't very good, they can be useful.

http://i.imgur.com/hFH5N.jpg

The Ichtysatyr Village is a site that, despite seeming to do a lot, is rather simple, really. I get a Nature gem from it every turn, which is nice, and it lets me recruit some units I normally couldn't; Merman Captains are amphibious commanders, meaning that they can lead troops under water or above it, while Ichtysatyrs are weird shapeshifting fishmen (as as in, they have mermaid-like lower bodies underwater, not that they're fishlike humanoids like the Ichytids up there) who take the form of satyrs on land, are stealthy underwater, and recuperate from injuries. Kind of neat, but ultimately not that useful for me; as much as I'd like to get into the ocean, R'lyeh can kill these guys without any trouble, although if I claimed an ocean province before his pretender or army arrived, I could possibly demand that he leave it to me or effectively declare war on me, giving me an excuse to punt his scaly butt back into the ocean wherever I find it on land. I'll consider it.

This site also produces a small amount of resources a turn, which isn't too great here since there isn't much I want from this place; however, since it's adjacent to my capitol, and forts draw income and resources from the surrounding provinces, it helps make my capitol more productive. Not bad.

http://i.imgur.com/wKLJI.jpg

The Shambler Reef is a recruitment province like the village, but it's far less interesting. No gems or resources, just allows me to recruit Shamblers from this province. Shamblers are large Atlantians who wear no armor, and aren't really that great. Could be useful for taking an ocean province, but in the long run I'm not getting much from having them.

Anyway, I know what you all really want to see: Graphs. Let's look at graphs.

http://i.imgur.com/an3V9.jpg

Province graph, heck yes. I am back in the game. Fomoria and Abysia also gained two provinces this turn, tying them with R'lyeh who's gained one since the start, but this puts me equal with Arcoscephale, Marverni, and Pangaea, and ahead of Caelum.

http://i.imgur.com/z87yV.jpg

Income is... Less exciting. I'm making money again, but hardly any. I'm still behind even Arcoscephale after whatever the heck crashed their economy there. I really need to get my capitol up and running again.

http://i.imgur.com/zZ5wf.jpg

Army size, meanwhile. I'm at the bottom, but that doesn't matter at all since I rely on a few elite units rather than massed militia. Abysia seems to have suffered a huge loss here, but this is actually them gaining and then losing that mercenary band of sixty militia, i.e. some of the worst units in the game; checking the mercenary screen confirms this, as those guys aren't listed there anymore. For those players who didn't know, mercenaries also show up in your army graph; this is also why Marverni is just behind Pangaea in units despite all the freespawn Pan gets.

Other than that, there isn't much of interest here. R'lyeh got a huge boost but they have access to Lobo Guards, some of the cheapest units in the game, so he probably bought a lot of them. More interesting is Caelum; they've had a steady boost there, one that's increasing by the exact same amount each turn. Since my first turn, I only got three units, and the slope there is greater than that of Caelum's line... He's only recruiting one unit a turn? Maybe; since he also expanded, but kept his research going, either he expanded with his starting army and didn't lose any units (unlikely, Caelian military is some of the worst in the game, which is unfortunate for people like me, who like Caelum), or he switched from researching with his god to researching with whatever he hired first turn while the god took a province and the starting army continued patrolling his capitol so he could afford the singular unit he's recruiting: Eagle Kings. These guys are 400 gold each, which is quite a bit of money. They're definitely worth it, but recruiting them from the start is a painfully expensive strategy, and as we can see, one that limits your ability to expand quite a bit.

Anyway, that's turn four. Catching up to everyone else and horribly abusing the graphs even more; while I love using them, I think anyone who argues against them can, instead of formulating an argument for why they're bad, simply point to my posts here and say, "Because they let you do that". And I'm just starting here.

Next turn: Stomping on fishmen.

-------

Bonus: Scales analysis.

So, you may have heard some of us talking about "scales". You may be wondering what the heck the big deal is. Well, scales are the effects your pretender's dominion has on the surrounding environment; they're called scales because, well, that's how they're represented in pretender creation, a set of scales that can be weighed one way or the other.

http://i.imgur.com/noD9p.jpg

Here's a sample set of scales, what's on my capitol this turn. You can also see what scales an individual province has by looking in the upper-left corner of the screen while on the map; the more of an individual icon there is, the stronger the effect of that scale there. The side that is weighted down is the dominant scale in this case, with the left side being the good one in all but one case (where both sides are bad and balance is good), and the right one being pretty bad for you. So, as you have probably gathered, my scales are downright toxic. Let's look at them in more detail, top to bottom.

Order versus Turmoil: The first scale, represented on the map screen as a dove and crossed swords, respectively. Order increases the amount of income in a province and decreases the number of random events there, while Turmoil makes the province less profitable and causes more things, good and bad, to occur. Order also unlocks a number of positive events, while Turmoil has a mix of good and bad ones it enables. (The scales of a province determine what events can happen there; you won't have an event where snowfall impedes trade in a province with Heat scales, for example.)

Production versus Sloth: Represented on the map screen by a hammer and a sawing log (ooh, a visual joke). Production increases the income of a province slightly and really increases the resources there (resources are a non-monetary aspect to unit creation, generally used in units that need heavy armor and weapons; resources aren't saved from turn to turn and are specific to their province, instead of shared across your kingdom like gold, so a low-resource province will never be able to make a ton of heavily-armored knights), while Sloth decreases both. Interestingly, this is the only scale that doesn't affect events at all; it only changes income and resources.

Tangent, CBM (the mod we're using) adjusts the Order and Production scales a bit, decreasing the income from the former and increasing it on the latter, making them more equal since, in the vanilla game, Sloth 3 was taken by almost every nation that didn't have really heavy units. This is, in my opinion, a really terrible change, as it ends up making Order barely more profitable than Production when it's supposed to be the scale about money, and enables a formerly-risky strategy of combining Turmoil and Luck scales, hoping to get a lot of good events to make up for the income loss, because now you're not losing that much income, especially if you take Production as well. Some people have said "well Order also brings good events", which is true, but it also makes events less likely, and it doesn't affect whether the events that happen are positive or negative, just that there are more positive ones if you're lucky in the 50:50 chance the event will be good. Personally, I like how a mod from SA handles it: The income from both scales is the same as vanilla Dom3, but Production and Sloth affect how many resources you get a lot more; Sloth 2 in it decreases your available resources by more than vanilla Sloth 3. If you take full Sloth scales in this mod, then unless all your units have a resource cost of 1 you will have trouble massing anything for an army. Instead of devaluing Order, it increases the value of Production and makes Sloth 3, the strategy CBM is trying to battle and that I took anyway, a lot harsher to do.

Anyway, tangent over. Back to scales analysis.

Heat versus Cold: Represented by a sun and a snowflake, this scale is actually negative both ways; a balanced temperature is best for most nations, although some prefer more extreme climates. The further you are from your preferred temperature, in either direction, the less income and supplies you get; a nation that prefers Heat 2 and is in a Cold 1 province would get the same penalty as a nation that prefers neutral temperatures in Heat or Cold 3. This scale can also fluctuate based on the season, so many people take it at one past their preferred scale for extra points without a huge impact on their income. Helheim prefers Cold 1, by the way. Another interesting thing about this scale is that, when a province has three levels of it either way, all units in it take more fatigue in battle unless they're resistant to the appropriate element (so fire for Heat and frost for Cold).

Growth versus Death: Represented by a shaft of wheat and a skull. The former slightly increases income, greatly increases supplies (basically what keeps units in that province fed; if they don't have enough they will starve, then get diseased, which is bad), and slowly increases the population of that province over time, which makes it more profitable. Death, meanwhile, it a very dangerous scale that decreases all those things, slowly killing your population and unlocking a lot of bad events (and one good one, strangely enough; Growth meanwhile is mostly good but has a few bad events, including one that is almost game-endingly nasty depending on where it happens). So, of course, I took Death 3.

Luck versus Misfortune: Represented by a four-leaf clover and a wilted clover. Both of these scales make events more likely, in the same way Turmoil does. However, Luck increases the base chance of the event that happens being good, while Misfortune makes bad events more likely; normally it's an even chance either way when an event happens. They also, predictably, open up a lot of new events, with all the Luck ones being good, and the Misfortune ones being some of the worst events in the game, especially when combined with Death or Drain. After taking Misfortune 2 in my first multiplayer game, I vowed to never touch it again; my Luck scales are neutral here.

Magic versus Drain: Represented by a purple sphere and a gray one. Magic increases the effectiveness of researching, while Drain decreases it; notably, since it affects it by .5 per scale, which is then rounded up, people who want the research bonus can just take Magic 1, while those in need of points may as well take Drain 2 since it doesn't affect your research more than 1 does. They also affect the difficulty of casting battlemagic in their province; in Magic scales, casting uses less fatigue and affects targets more easily, while in Drain it's harder to cast and people are more resistant to its effects.

The scales I took, by the way, are Order 3, Sloth 3, Cold 3, Death 3, and Drain 2. These are very bad scales. My dominion is a place where the life and energy is drained out of everything and almost nothing happens. Sounds like a land of the dead, alright. Why would I take such bad scales? Well, as I said, when creating your god, you have a certain number of points, which can be spent on increasing the strength of its dominion, its magical ability, and your scales, with good scales costing points (except in the case of temperature, where, again, moving either way counts as "bad", even if it takes you to your preferred temperature; this is pretty cool for nations like Abysia and Caelum, who like extreme temperatures) and bad scales getting you points. As you may have guessed, I got a lot of points from taking these scales. This allowed me to make a pretty powerful god, although at a big cost. Of course, Helheim's a pretty powerful nation, so I can overcome these (mostly self-imposed) difficulties. Hopefully.

Bluemage142

April 22nd, 2012, 05:50 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

This Sunday, a Marverni double feature. Turns 3 and 4, in one post!

Try and hold the applause. Yes, all two of you.

Turn 3:

<a href="http://imgur.com/sT5wz"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/sT5wzl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here's what I see when I start my turn. Another Prophet (probably a recruited commander- maybe a priest, to try for Holy 4), a random event, a battle, and a message that makes me grin. See, if I got a magic item, that probably means I won the battle, which means things aren't yet failing on my usual scale.

<a href="http://imgur.com/cFniY"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cFniYl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The event was actually good, too! 200 gold isn't much- there are 1500 and 3000-gold events, if memory serves me right- but for somebody with Misfortune 1? Nice.

<a href="http://imgur.com/aWqiJ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/aWqiJl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Look at that ratio. 53 troops and 3 commanders down, for eight of my (expendable) troops? I'll take that any/every day of the week. More on the battle in a bit.

<a href="http://imgur.com/NXHPL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NXHPLl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/w1PM1"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/w1PM1l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is the magic item I found, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. It's cursed, so my prophet is really easy to permanently cripple- and I can't take it off. On the other hand, it's a weapon that boosts my defense, curses guys it hits, ignores armor, and counts as magic (so it can hit ethereal enemies, which normal attacks miss 75% of the time). To top it off, it's on a guy I'm not trying to get into melee. On the whole, I'll call it a slight gain.

<a href="http://imgur.com/paFpo"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/paFpol.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here's the battle. On the left, my guys. That's my group of BCs up front, javelins behind and above them, and amazons behind and below. Behind that are two commanders. My prophet is the guy in the middle of the javelineers- look for the red shield.
On the other side, some bog-standard undead. The brownish ones are ghouls, and the green ones are soulless- basically zombies. The soulless can't have their morale broken, and the ghouls are really darn motivated (morale 18, to my 10-13), so the only way I'd win this is to kill them before they rout me.

<a href="http://imgur.com/cwGMu"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cwGMul.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Strength buff goes off as planned, and the amazons kill a handful of ghouls in one volley. They have 11 HP, for reference. You can see that each arrow is either crippling or outright killing a ghoul, which I like.

<a href="http://imgur.com/w5Pop"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/w5Popl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Volley of javelins at close range. More damage, but less accurate.

<a href="http://imgur.com/fz0VT"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/fz0VTl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

We've closed to melee now, and things are inconclusive- a few hits here and there. One of my Carnutes went berserk, which you can't see right now, because I was too focused on the effects of Banishment. Those are a lot of damage numbers!
Figure that that hit at least nine zombies, all of them taking 25-75% of their life in damage. VERY effective.

<a href="http://imgur.com/8uR76"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8uR76l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Another round, and you can see what a javelin barrage and melee attack did to the ghouls. Also, note the Carnute BC with the 12 over him, a row back from the front line. That's a one-hit kill from friendly fire, there. If it had hit anybody IMPORTANT, I'd be sad, but this is Marverni. None of my melee combatants are important.

The rest of the undead die in a few boring rounds of melee.

<a href="http://imgur.com/exo2F"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/exo2Fl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

See that? That is R'lyeh's pretender god. Unescorted. Last turn, I guessed that he'd taken a Kraken, and here it is. An easy call to make, since most underwater units are total suck, but it's always nice to be right. Now, to my plans!

<a href="http://imgur.com/WvJ7O"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WvJ7Ol.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

No new mercs, and Abysia recruited the militia I saw last turn. Were they hungry? Low on charcoal? Who knows?

<a href="http://imgur.com/kJPEJ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/kJPEJl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Another Gutuater, a pile of BCs, and some slingers to round out my purchases. This is more than I got last turn- my new province at work- but a FRACTION of what I'll be recruiting ten turns from now.

<a href="http://imgur.com/5gMFY"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/5gMFYl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

My first Gut goes into the lab, and I set him researching Thaumaturgy. Usually I go for Alteration or evocation right off, but this is Marverni. Thaum gives me two things I want- most of the site-searching spells, and the ability to force my Carnutes to go berserk. Thaum1 will give me a limited amount of it, and Thaum2 gives me an area berserk and the search spells, so I can get to what I need quickly, before moving over to Alt or Evo. Four turns to Thaum1, and two more to Thaum2.

(Useful, but berserking requires one more component- Nature gems. Not something that'll be an 'I win' button for every battle.)

Scout moving to the next province over, army moving over to where the scout was (20 militia/heavy infantry? Slaughter), mage researching. Fairly obvious.

I also sent a message to R'lyeh, basically saying that I wasn't going to attack him, and asking him to stick to the seas for now. R'lyeh needs time to consolidate before it pushes up onto land, so I suspect jotwebe will agree for the time being. Sadly, I forgot to screenshot the message, so he'll have to show you all.

<a href="http://imgur.com/9s7XS"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/9s7XSl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is interesting. Notice the bright green line, and how it went flat? That's Pangaea's research. This, combined with grabbing two provinces this turn, tells me he has an awake combat pretender with magic. Turn 1, he had it researching, and then he sent it out to fight on Turn 2, once he knew what the neightbor provinces looked like.

<a href="http://imgur.com/LAKO2"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LAKO2l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Income tells us a lot, too. Helheim isn't doing well, at all- no new provinces and no more income (no income at all- 103 unrest shuts you down cold). I'm steady, R'lyeh gained a bit from his new province, and everybody else made a classic move. That spike-and-drop their incomes did tells me that they all increased their tax rates on Turn 1, so they could get a bit more gold on Turn 2. The cost of that is unrest, which either forces lower taxes, or forces you to use your units to patrol the province and restore order.

You can see that Abysia and Fomoria dropped back down to my level this turn- I suspect that they used patrollers. Arcoscephale... didn't. That, or they got hit with an event, too.

(Also, notice how my graph barely moved. A cookie if you can see the problem with that.)

The other reason why I won't be buying many commanders from my forts, by the way, is that I can just get them from my provinces! They aren't as good, but think of it this way: I'm trading a bit of inconvenience for another mage every time I buy independent commanders instead of Marverni ones. Mages win the mid- and late-game. It's an investment.

On to Turn 4!

Turn 4:

<a href="http://imgur.com/AM8AI"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AM8AIl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Three messages, all possibly good or bad. Let's look at them.

<a href="http://imgur.com/cidDm"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cidDml.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

So R'lyeh wants me to know he has a kraken near me. He's also a bit dramatic. That's fine with me. Next!

<a href="http://imgur.com/TxkOS"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/TxkOSl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

More free money! I'll take that!

<a href="http://imgur.com/NcTs6"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NcTs6l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Kill ratios are still nice. Let's take a look at that.

<a href="http://imgur.com/r0D2c"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/r0D2cl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

You know what? No. Let's not take a look at that. We're fighting Militia and Heavy Infantry.

<a href="http://imgur.com/nGmIL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nGmILl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/hPs3F"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hPs3Fl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

These guys. This is basically five decent soldiers, three commanders, and a bunch of javelin decoys. Nothing more to see here, though I am running low on BCs. Let's fix that.

<a href="http://imgur.com/TsE2A"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/TsE2Al.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

See what I mean about volume? That's 40 barechests, and I'm not NEARLY at full production yet! I'll be able to turn out over 100 a turn, just from this fort alone- think of what you could do with that many attacks!

<a href="http://imgur.com/XSsfH"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XSsfHl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Rehiring my archers, because they've been awesome. Mercenaries only stay with you for three turns; you have to renew your contract, if you want to keep them. Thing is, each pound of gold you offer is worth twice as much when rehiring mercs, so 50 gold from me is equal to the 100 gold other people would have to put in. I, of course, will be paying a good bit more than that.

<a href="http://imgur.com/8B2YG"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8B2YGl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Province graph. Helheim is recovering- two provinces a turn is good work. Caelum has been lacking in success, R'lyeh is leading because of its first-turn attack, and Pan hit a wall. Maybe he's stocking up on Maenads.

I haven't gained much income, but Arco and Helheim are rebounding. Caelum seems to be in a bit of a slump. Wonder why?

<a href="http://imgur.com/8PXX8"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8PXX8l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

That funny-colored line there is Pan, Abysia, and Helheim all finding magic sites that give gems. They're probably coming across the low-level sites- level 0 sites can be found by any commander. Nothing to worry about yet.

Caelum is still research-happy, Arco, Fomoria, and I are all building up, and Pan has totally stopped research. Pans are expensive, so this suggests he's putting gold into other things- a fort, maybe, or temples. Maybe just building combat commanders.

Pan is getting ridiculous dominion, as is R'lyeh. I'd say that the temple idea is fairly possible, given that. R'lyeh is just expanding into the water and the beach provinces- well, that and his pretender probably has maxed-out dominion. A classic move.

Pan's cheap troops and freespawn are SLIGHTLY more numerous than my cheap troops. R'lyeh is probably getting some freespawn, but most of that is cheap underwater guys.

<a href="http://imgur.com/6rXFL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/6rXFLl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Sending my guys back for BC reinforcements. You can't see that I just bought two independent commanders in my non-capital provinces; these guys will be my second expansion party. The kraken left, and my scout is heading west, where my first party is headed.

Corinthian

April 22nd, 2012, 06:43 PM

Excellent updates from both Marverni and Helheim. Just a few small notes about graphs and other things.

The graphs work slightly different than what people looking at them might think. Mainly the dominion graph and the army graph. You actually get 5 points on the graph for every province with your dominion in it + 1 point per candle. This means that nations with awake expansion pretenders that touch close to many provinces looks like they have bigger dominion than they really do. This is especially true if you are a octopus circling the world.

The second strange graph is the army graph witch gives you size-1*unit(?) points. This means that a giant (size4) count as 3 size 2 humans on the graphs. A big fomorian giant (size6) count as 5 humans. Size 1 units gives 1/2 points I think.

Also, I hate undead provinces. Because they never have much population in them. I think they have base type *0.4 pop. So you never get much of any gold from them. They are reasonably easy to beat if you bring a prophet, but you are usually better of attacking another more useful province.

LDiCesare

April 22nd, 2012, 06:54 PM

Sure : For 10 gems or so, you have a MR 11 thug who dies to 1 thunderstrike.Show me 10n-gem thug who doesn`t die to 1 thunderstrike. :)
And Pan should roll in N gems.
5 N + 5 blood slaves in your example. So with 2 magic paths, any A thug is lightning immune.

Against 1 mage + chaffJust like a bane. Only bane gets dust2dust instead of soulslain.
NO. Bane: MR = 15. Minotaur: MR = 11. That's four point difference, and this is huge. Banes are much more survivable than this. Andd what size are they, btw?

Most thugs are at least size 3. All ponymen nations, Caelum, giants, banelords...

Not banes, though. And jaguar warriors, warriors of the 5 elements, mechanical men... are all size 2 and slaughter the aforementioned minotaur easily.
Yes, but not if Eagle Kings come knocking.
Eagle Kings = Thunder strike, so your minotaur is fried in this case.

and can't cast MR-negating or AN-damage spells.No. 29 HP is enough to live through couple AN spells, unless it`s soulslay-grade.
Thunder strike? 26+, AN, usually cast by caelian high kings who are Air 4. Check. And it's Evo 4, so same level as the Cons 4 items required for this build.

The build you describe may have its uses, namely sending it solo against a solo thug who is not a Caelian High King (who would fry it in 1 or 2 of the thunderstrikes he is scripted to cast anyway).

By the way, since you gave the example of a Bane, a (4 gems + 1 turn of summoning) bane beats this (5 gems + 5 slaves + 40 gold + upkeep + 2 turns of forging + 1 turn of recruiting + 1 turn blood hunting) minotaur.
So, it certainly is very situational and probably not worth mentioning unless you face someone sending in solo thugs (it could be a good counter to Helheim for instance, but there are others).

jotwebe

April 22nd, 2012, 08:20 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh - Turn 4

Turn 4 starts with good news (some earth gems in R'lyeh) and bad news (brigands in the Sea of Carassos increase unrest). The Sea of Carassos is the province Yöt-Webbogoth conquered last turn.

http://i.imgur.com/CAQeV.png

Yöt-Webbogoth continues on its rampage and subdues the northern sea of Baptizer. Barely pausing, it continues east, now accompanied by the pudgy prophet Nyarlathothep.

They're going up against a province with shark knights next. I don't want one of those bypassing the big guy and skewering the prophet. So I'm having him sneak -- the kraken does not need the smite support. The extra temple check is more important.

In addition the good and the bad news, there's also great news:

http://i.imgur.com/6A9O9.png

Auluudh crawls out of whatever repulsive lair he had kept himself secluded. He has slightly more magic picks than my regular mind lords and twice as many "enslave mind" attacks. Oh, and he gets fear, which the regular version doesn't have.

Note from the future/present: it's a bit strange, but more recently I've looked at him, and he had only one enslave mind attack instead of the normal two or the four he used to have. He's also properly amphibious instead of both amphibious and aquatic at once. Here's a picture of him from the future/present:

http://i.imgur.com/H0hoC.png

So the best way to use him is on the front. He immediately is drafted and marches (well, slithers) off to the south-east of R'lyeh at the front of the several lumbering slave trolls, a score of downtrodden atlanteans and tritons, the same number of imbecile lobo guard and almost a dozen mindblasting giboleths and gibodais. Their target: Moon Sea, a province held by one of the powerful Amber Clans.

In other news:

http://i.imgur.com/bmFNC.png

Maverni sends greetings. They're located on the north coast, off the Sea of Carassos. I send a reply which the aboleths have censored for some reason. Maybe Bluemage142 will leak it...

Note from the future/present: looks like he did. Excellent. Although I can't see it -- is imgur not working for you guys, too?

So far the gameplay. Instead of graph analysis, for those who like, another little story. Feel free to skip.

***

The city was in ruins, motionless under glittering schools of cod. The kelp had not yet claimed the broken buildings and tumbled towers. Nithü the Slave Mage drifted with the current, dispassionate as his eyes roamed over the destruction.

Scavenging crabs scuttled away as he passed them. A small shark circled him at a distance, just out of sight in the murky green waters of the northern seas. But Nithü had senses other than sight to guide him. There... one tower still stood.

With a measured kick of his tail, the merman propelled himself closer. It was strange, coming home like this.

Like all triton towers, the court mage's tower had its entrance at the top. Nithü let himself sink down to the flagstones. The door had been warded with certain sigils of the aquatic school. Their power had bled away with time, Nithü knew. A week ago the tower would have been hidden by the strange currents the sigils conjured.

He knew who would wait within.

The merman thumped the iron-shod tip of his staff against the door. Shod with the iron of R'lyeh, not with the mage-crafted amber he would once have carried.

"Lagash!" he called. "The kraken is long gone. It is safe to come out."

For time, Nithü waited and followed the shark's distant circles with his mind.

"Lagash!" he called again. "What are you waiting for?"

His new powers told him of a presence just behind the door. Just as he pulled back his staff for another strike, it opened a crack.

"Nithü?" a querulous voice asked. "Nithü! It is you! It is a miracle."

The slave mage studied his former teacher critically. Lagash, the court mage of the Northern Kingdom, now little resembled the well-groomed figure he had once been. His hair and beard were still green, but hung lank and bedraggled, and the wrinkled robe was in a state the triton mage would once have never accepted. He blinked in the comparative brightness.

"Nithü. When you were lost, we thought you were gone forever. Did you escape? Did the kraken attack the aboleths, too? If so, we must travel to the Southern Kingdom at once! Old grievances must drift away, we have the opportunity--"

"We have nothing," Nithü cut him off. "The Northern Kingdom lies in ruins around you, old man. The Southern Kingdom is about to fall as we speak: R'lyeh was not destroyed, but awoken. And I, I did not escape. No, Lagash, I now serve the God of Near and Close. The things I know now... you triton mages are like children. I have more power as a slave in R'lyeh than I would ever have had here in the Northern Kingdom."

"But you would have been free!" the triton quavered.

"I would have been a merman, and never the equal of you noble tritons with your precious royal lineage. Now I know the true shape of things... now... why am I even talking to you? You are an irrelevance. Leave the tower, swear fealty to the Kraken God, and you may have a future. You can run, but the sea is a circle, and R'lyeh lies at the beginning and the end."

"Run? Swear fealty? I have had enough of hiding!" Suddenly the ancient mage's eyes blaze fierce and wild. He throws wide his arms, robe swirling in the water, and shouts a word of power. A shockwave of water strikes the younger mage and whirls him against the tower's breastwork.

Nithü brandishes his own staff to answer in kind, but before he can complete the gesture, another strike flattens him against the flagstones. Blood billows from his smashed nose. As he tries to rise, the water strikes a third time.

The old triton glides up to his former student. "Now you will die like the traitor you are, merman scum! And then we will see about your masters." He pulls back his staff of hardened amber for the coup de grace. Behind him a shape appears out of the green murk, and is gone just as quickly, leaving behind a cloud of blood.

Lagash stares at the stump of his arm. The shark strikes again, taking a leg this time. Two more passes, and the triton is no more.

Nithü gets up slowly, using his iron-tipped staff to keep his balance. He knows the shark will come again, and turns to face the beast. Now it is Nithü's turn to shout a word in the language of shark-kind, which is to say it is not truly a sound. But the shark slows, passes the merman by. Its empty black eye seems to glare.

The shark turns in a lazy circle and makes for the merman again. Now the mage calls the abyss between the stars into his eyes and locks his gaze with the predator. Shark-kind has lived a long time, unchanged, not least because it knows which is prey and which is not. It knows the mark of R'lyeh, and knows better than to tresspass.

After a moment Nithü swam over to where his teacher's amber staff had come to rest. He picked it up: it would have some value to his new masters. Then he decided differently, and with a silent spell broke the staff in two. He tossed the pieces over the breastwork, where they would rest among the tumbled stones at the tower's base.

Then he sent a thought along the astral ley lines, informing the aboleth council of a new source of water gems in the Sea Untamed.

Immaculate

April 22nd, 2012, 08:35 PM

I like "the sea is a circle with r'leyh at the beginning and the end" very poetic.

Shardphoenix

April 22nd, 2012, 09:02 PM

5 N + 5 blood slaves in your example.Come on, blood slaves are dirt-cheap. I don`t even count 5 blood slaves as real investment. I meant the variant i screenshoted - with Lycan amulet and hunter`s knife.
Bane: MR = 15. Minotaur: MR = 11. Dust to Dust doesn`t care about MR. It just deals 22+ AN damage with AoE 1 and precision +0 to any undead. Can be cast by any D1 mage out there. It still somehow doesn`t prevent Banes from being used effectively.
Andd what size are they, btw? Small enough to be successfully trampled. And not defensive enough to dodge a trampling enraged minotaur lord. :)
And jaguar warriorsOnly in human form. In jaguar form they are size 3, AFAIK. Also, those are extreme example of elite sacred unit - of course, they need special threatment.
warriors of the 5 elements Same as jaguars. Also, they are cap-only, so hard to mass.
mechanical men...
High-level summon!=common human. And Pan has answers to them outside of minotaur lords.
The build you describe may have its uses, namely sending it solo against a solo thug who is not a Caelian High King (who would fry it in 1 or 2 of the thunderstrikes he is scripted to cast anyway).
Do you really think that scripting a solo-raiding caelian to thunderstrike is a good idea? Also, Caelum really needs some research done before evo - you know, stuff like alt3 (mistform), for example. And why send those minotaurs solo? Send 3-4 of them and watch enemy SC god cry.
a (4 gems + 1 turn of summoning) bane beats this (5 gems + 5 slaves + 40 gold + upkeep + 2 turns of forging + 1 turn of recruiting + 1 turn blood hunting) minotaur. Because, as we all know, a bane needs no equipment. :)

LDiCesare

April 24th, 2012, 03:22 AM

3-4 minotaurs? Instead of 4 mages?
When I've researched everything useful, definitely. Before that, it's a waste of fort time unless I have no money for a lab.
Because, as we all know, a bane needs no equipment.
An unequipped bane beats your sample minotaur. Once again, these have some use, but they are so heavily specialised that they are definitely not worth recruiting unless you have a specific need for them.
And mechanical men require as much construction as the items you put on your thugs. Same for alt3/evo3 vs. cons4 for Caelum with its better research. Plus if you build minotaurs when you still haven't gotten anything better than Cons4, you're not going anywhere in research.

Roland Jones

April 24th, 2012, 09:39 PM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn V: Requiem for a Fish-Man

http://i.imgur.com/EuaV2.jpg

Nothing happened this turn except one battle. Those Order scales really cut down on the random events; too bad they didn't do their job on turn two.

http://i.imgur.com/1I5nA.jpg

Wow, I knew I'd win this battle (ichytids are notoriously weak), but not even losing a serf? That's impressively bad on their part.

http://i.imgur.com/RrIMH.jpg

Here are the weak fishmen in question. Some armored, some not; the unarmored ones carry nets, which are useful because they entangle opponents until they can break out, but on these guys they're hardly worth it.

http://i.imgur.com/MlgTD.jpg

And here they are meeting my forces; between the heavily armored ones being in the back and that heavy gear slows units down, only half their army meets mine at first. Meanwhile, the pincer strategy I used before worked again, both of my forces slamming into the unarmored fishies at the same time. Many fishmen fall immediately.

http://i.imgur.com/sxIW2.jpg

The fishmen employ their nets, entangling many of my troops, but they lack the strength to take advantage of this, and their armored troops still haven't reached the battle yet; apart from a few glancing blows, no damage is inflicted.

http://i.imgur.com/Lmys1.jpg

The armored troops arrive just as their allies break ranks and flee. They hardly fare better, and most of my troops have broken out of the nets already, so they're facing my full forces.

http://i.imgur.com/2SrBs.jpg

Most of their army, including their commander, falls, causing them to run after their faster brethren. While many are chased down, a few escape. However, their land is now Helheim's property.

http://i.imgur.com/u8YMO.jpg

So, I gained another province. More importantly, however, the unrest on my capital is finally gone. Now I can tax it again, and start making real money; while I can't recruit anyone this turn, starting next turn I'll be hiring Svartalf and Vanjarls to make up for lost time.

Not all news is good news this turn, though. As you have probably noticed, R'lyeh's kraken has shown its slimy face to the north of my peninsula. This has me a bit worried; while there's no way that thing can leave the sea yet, the strength of its dominion is a threat to my own, which has been rather anemic without my god. While he'll probably just keep moving, if he decides to sit off my shore I'll be in real trouble. To prevent this I send a message to R'lyeh, the contents of which I forgot to screenshot, and also have my prophet start preaching where he is to build up a reserve of dominion where he is.

Topic of my prophet, you can see some Marverni flags down where he is. Turns out I have a neighbor just below where my little offshoot of land ends and the mainland begins. I've been talking with Marverni since the beginning of this game, mainly because he was the only person who was on IRC with regularity at that point, and we basically allied from the start, so I won't be warring with him, but this limits my expansion room quite a bit. Still, I assumed there'd be a lot more space between me and my neighbors. Maybe there will be some open space to the south...

http://i.imgur.com/9WYbk.jpg

Here's a closer look at the province I took this turn. The Misfortune scale there is something of a concern, and the unrest is far too high for a single battle. I drop my taxes on the province to zero; while normally I only drop them one or two notches from what the game tries to set them to when I take them, which ensures that all the unrest is gone the next turn and I can start full taxation, I think that there's a magic site hidden here causing the unrest. And there's only one site in the game that causes both unrest and Misfortune scales: The Vale of Infinite Horror. It, as you may have guessed from that name, is a very bad thing. It's in the running for the worst site in the game, in fact. Now, it may be a different site; there is a random event that causes Misfortune scales to appear, and events can happen to independents at times (sometimes you'll even see independent forts and temples because of this), and there are also unrest-causing events, so there may be a different site here. Still, I'm concerned.

Either way, I order Sir Slicer and his army back to the capital; the province at the tip of the peninsula has fifty-ish units in it, mainly archers, and arrows ignore glamour so they'd tear into my army, while the one to the west has sixty units, mainly heavy infantry, troops that can be hard to kill with meager forces like this, and longdeads, weird zombies that, while not a huge threat on their own, imply mage presence there. Instead he'll meet up with Finn at the capital, and together they'll take the last province adjacent to my capital, which Finn didn't attack this turn due to the elephants there I mentioned in an early post; an army with them should, in theory, keep the more valuable units safe from the glamour-ignoring trample.

http://i.imgur.com/cAmhz.jpg

So, we see that Marverni hit some trouble this turn, apparently, Caelum still hasn't expanded beyond that first province, and that while R'lyeh managed to capture two provinces this turn, Fomoria and Abysia kicked things into high gear and got three, putting them in the lead.

I have no idea where the other nations are, but between information from Marverni and looking at the map, I've been able to figure out where R'lyeh's capital is. (Yes, I had to figure it out; I didn't look at the map file. Didn't seem fair, even though I knew a few other people probably would.)

http://i.imgur.com/M1ThK.jpg

Here's where I've determined it to be. Despite what it may look like, the province to the south-east of it does not connect to the one directly east of it, making this corner province the only way east. Not only that, but that one area below Avalon is connected to the one north of it, and Marverni confirmed that R'lyeh took that province as well. So, we know that R'lyeh's pretender took a province each turn, which would be four at this point. Moving out from the corner, there's exactly four provinces that it could have taken from starting there; counting back from where the pretender is this turn and going through the land we know it took, we likewise can only arrive at that corner province. So I now know where R'lyeh's capital is. This... Will eventually be useful, I guess, but for now it doesn't mean much, since I can't make gear that will let me enter the sea, and even if I could I can't deal with that kraken. Aside from that, R'lyeh is one of the few nations that can effectively counter Helheim at this point; I field small groups of elite troops that can tear through armies, but his mindblasters can paralyze these small teams much more easily than they could an entire army, leaving them helpless. Still, this information will come in handy in the future.

Nest turn: Not a whole lot happens.

-------

Bonus: Dominion explanation

So, last update I explained scales, but scales only spread with your dominion, the representation of how strong your worship is in a province. The more dominion you have in a province, the more easily your scales spread there and the more resistant they are to change from outside sources like the seasons or magic sites. If your dominion runs out, you lose, as no one believes in your god anymore and you lose all your power. Also, troops get a bonus point of morale in friendly dominion and lose a point in enemy dominion. Some spells are also more effective or only affect provinces in your dominion.

So, to begin. When you make your god, in addition to choosing the chassis, magic paths, and scales of its dominion, you assign dominion strength. Dominion is rated from 1 to 10, and each chassis has a base starting point; the more human pretenders have low dominion of one or two, while things like titans and whatnot can have it up to four. The amount it costs to raise dominion is the same no matter where you start, so a chassis that starts at one being raised to three would cost the same number of points as one that starts at four being raised to six. This makes getting good dominion strength on some god types a bit difficult.

Anyway, as stated, it goes from 1 to 10. This number represents two things: How likely dominion is to spread, and what your maximum dominion in a province can be. It's basically a ten percent chance of spreading from each dominion source you have, and the maximum strength you can have in a province is just the number your strength is; dominion strength of six, up to six candles (the representation of dominion, you can see them in the screenshots) per province. Pretty simple.

Dominion spreads from several sources, in what are called "temple checks"; strength of each check is, as mentioned about 10 times your dominion score. So someone with dominion 10 will always spread their dominion from every source, while someone with 5 or below is really going to have trouble.

Temples: As the name implies, temples are the most common way to spread dominion. Each temple makes a temple check a turn. Not only that, but every five temples you make, your dominion strength goes up by one, increasing how likely your dominion is to spread and your maximum dominion per province. It's still capped at 10, of course; you can't get dominion strength 11 for 110% success rates.

Your capital: Your nation's home province functions like a temple, making its own check each turn. Doesn't count as a temple for the purposes of raising your dominion strength, though, although how effective it is goes up with your effective strength. Lose your capital, you don't get these checks anymore, but by that point you have bigger problems, most likely.

Prophet: Prophets automatically make one temple check a turn, which is why people tend to make a prophet their first turn if they don't have some specific unit in mind for it. You can only have one prophet at a time; in addition to the temple check, prophets automatically get Holy 3 (the magic type), unless they already possess Holy magic of 3 or above, in which case they have it increased by one.

Your god: As one would expect, your god is the biggest source of dominion in the game. It automatically spreads one candle of dominion a turn, and then makes two checks at whatever strength you possess. This is why Caelum's dominion has been higher than mine, even though a lot of signs pointed to his dominion strength being lower than mine; his awake god really boosted his dominion.

Victory point provinces: These are a bit odd. Some provinces in the game are marked by a crown; in a certain game mode, controlling some/all of these is a victory condition. Even in games where they aren't, though, they spread dominion with a strength of 5 (a 50% chance a turn), regardless of your dominion strength. They never make a real difference, since they're relatively isolated and spread out, and if you control most of them then you probably control most of the map and are winning anyway.

Preaching: Units with levels of Holy magic can preach in a province to raise your dominion there, as seen in my update earlier. Preaching can be useful, but it has several limitations. For one, the maximum preaching can raise the dominion of a province to, regardless of your normal cap, is twice their Holy level; H1 can raise it up to two candles before they stop having an effect, for example. Also, against enemy dominion your preaching is less effective; really strong enemy dominion is hard to affect through this manner, so you'd better rely on other ways of countering a tide of enemy dominion sweeping over your land.

Blood sacrifice: Now here's an odd one. Some nations can spread dominion by sacrificing captured blood slaves; the ones that can in this game are Abysia and myself. The way it works is pretty simple; at a temple, a priest can sacrifice a number of slaves a turn, equal to their Holy magic level. Only one priest can sacrifice per temple. Each sacrificed slave generates two temple checks; it's supposed to be one, but apparently the game is bugged there and can't be fixed. When done in massive amounts, blood sacrifice is really dangerous; you can snuff out enemy dominion in a few turns, and possibly destroy all your enemies this way. However, it's not easy to do this; first, you need a lot of temples, and to have a good enough blood economy going to provide enough slaves for a continuous effort here. You also need enough priests to actually sacrifice all the slaves you have. So, you need money, troops, and blood slaves to do this to any extent that threatens people, making it a thing that doesn't really happen outside of the endgame in most cases. However, even if you can't kill people with it, it is useful for bolstering your own dominion, a purpose for which I may have to use it considering my rather weak dominion.

So, that's dominion explained. It's a rather important aspect of the game, and one a lot of people don't understand fully, or even know about; many new players miss the dominion level indicator when making their gods for the first time, and even after learning about it not everyone knows just how important it can be. If you're taking a god build that has high scales, for making a lot of money, for example, you also need a high dominion to spread those scales around your land. Another thing is how easily low dominion can get you killed, like, say, if a kraken that spreads three candles a turn shows up on your shore and you only have a dominion strength of five. Whoops.

LDiCesare

April 25th, 2012, 08:24 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 5:
Very bad news.
Abysia is expanding like crazy, beelining trying to find someone to kill I suppose.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1351/turn5.png

My small army has been slaughtered: those damn satyrs have realy low morale.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1701/turn5defeat.png

I site search and bring a shield to my god. He's going to have to move south and teach a lesson to Abysia if they want to rush me. Not like it will work, I kind of forgot he is weak to fire to begin with. I send a Pan to him who will site search the mountains next. I send another Pan, my commander and a hundred soldiers, mostly maenads, to take out those nasty horsemen in the south. With the Pan casting Panic like crazy, I should get rid of them.
Anyway, I send some diplo to Abysia. He will get out of my place and not go farther east or it's war. Not that I'm likely to win an early war against him outside my dominion, but I simply can't afford to have him 1 or 2 provinces from my capital.
I recruit a dryad and some minotaur warriors because these are about the only troops I have which could hope to get past abysian armor. Berserk centaurs might work, but they are more expensive for less hit points. Against normal sized troops, I hope trample will be enough. If there are burning ones nearby, then I'll need centaurs but I'm really not going to go anywhere if that's the case.After some tests, minotaurs can cut through burning ones, but they die like flies doing so. Centaurs aren't any good against them. Basically, I have no trroop that can stand against burning ones.
I decided to look at the map and starting positions. Abysia is trying to block me in the south, which doesn't matter if I can get the island, and going towards the map center, which will prevent me from going north. We will never be able to be friends. I think he has to rush me, otherwise he forces me to attack him and he'll just have problems. It looks like I'll have to build some revelers to teach him what sneaky bastards mean.
Abysia answers my diplo:
"I have revised the Abysian troop orders accordingly. I see no need for trading for nature gems at this time and will let you know if that changes in the future."
This can mean he attacks me or he retreats. Whatever, it sounds more like a cease-fire. I had proposed a trade of N for F gems. I don't need them now, but it's a friendly offer that can't hurt and may come in handy in the long run. The phrasing of the answer is very interesting by the way. As I said, it's a cease-fire, meaning he's repositioning troops but he's not saying he won't attack.

Soyweiser

April 25th, 2012, 10:12 AM

You actually get 5 points on the graph for every province with your dominion in it + 1 point per candle.

iirc it is 10 for every province.

jotwebe

April 26th, 2012, 06:34 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh -- Turn 5

Turn 5 begins with a message -- say, a threat -- from Fomoria:

http://i.imgur.com/l0NFC.png

I don't want to get into a war this early, not while there is all this water to be secured first. A fort for every province! Well, maybe every second. With a lab, so I can gate in mind lords and troops. With a temple, so I can build a bunch of polypal mothers to provide freespawn and to preach my dominion up.

http://i.imgur.com/F6yEY.png

Also I can take the "Isle of Balor" as the Fomorians call it (we aboleths know it by its ancient, dreaded name: Koromoo) anytime I want. Corinthian does offer me an easily guarded 3-province peninsula (Numecria, Bolfagon and Saeborea) instead. I suspect he wants me to guard his northern flank for him and perhaps hopes that I'll get in trouble with Maverni, although I doubt he already knows that his north eastern neighbour is Maverni.

I check that Maverni has a route to Fomoria further inland, so I'm not going to block him. That's good. And I suppose I can cede Numecria if it gains me an ally against Fomoria.

I send back this message:

Some days after having sent his message, a singular man was brought before Buarainecht. Though well above middle stature, and of somewhat brawny frame, he was given an absurd appearance of harmless stupidity by the pale, sleepy blueness of his small watery eyes, the scantiness of his neglected and never-shaven growth of yellow beard, and the listless drooping of his heavy nether lip.

He had been given to strange fits, thrashing his limbs and railing at the "terrible fish with their slithering voices". Though he seldomly spoke with any lucidity, he often mentioned the name of Buarainecht in a desperate tone, and so the people in the Dead Marshes -- for he was a native of that dismal, unwholesome place -- resolved to bring him before that worthy.

After much pleading, they did finally gain an audience, in which a pronounced change came over the afflicted man. "If you take the isle that once was called the Isle of Balor, and now men call Koromoo, a doom shall fall on Saeborea, and Bolfagon, and even proud Ermor-that-will-never-be, which men know as Numecria."

With that strange pronouncement, his eyes rolled back in his head, and a most violent fit overcame him, from which he fell into unconciousness.

It incorporates a passage from one of H.P. Lovecrafts stories. Use your google-fu to find out which one!

If you've looked at the map closely, you'll have seen how the battle in Moon Sea ended. So without further ado, here are the opposing armies:

http://i.imgur.com/d8Mqn.png

The grand army of R'lyeh you already know. This is what they're up against:

http://i.imgur.com/viK4i.png

The tritons of the amber clan are quite heavily armored, perhaps the finest fighters the ocean has to offer. They crash into R'lyehs line of enslaved sea trolls, weathering the paralyzing mind blasts.

http://i.imgur.com/5UyzG.png

Atlantean slave troopers are driven into the gaps between the huge trolls and are sent to bolster the right flank. They are badly equiped, trained and motivated; it does not take long for them to break.

Meanwhile the Amber Clan's attack falters under the relentless barrage of mindblasts. Even worse, here and there one of the brave soldiers turns against his comrades, face frozen in a rictus of despair as he stabs a spear into a friends back...

http://i.imgur.com/c7DEE.png

The turning point arrives when a flanking force of slave tritons and lobo guards falls on the Amber Clan's overextended left flank. Beset from within and without, one group of warriors turns to flee, thereby dooming their brothers in arms.

http://i.imgur.com/RGW19.png

Yöt-Webbogoth has succeeded in defeating the shark-knights of Baptizer, but a lance remains lodged in the rubbery flesh of its mantle. It pays the wound no heed, and continues eastwards, accompanied by a capering atlantean that whistles a mindless, mad tune on a strange and malformed shell...

Behind it, Nithü the Slave Mage dutifully searches the corpse-strewn ocean floor for sites of power. With some success:

http://i.imgur.com/Mk2R1.png

The tale behind that you've already read...

Roland Jones

April 26th, 2012, 09:14 PM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn VI: Not Much Happens

So this turn opens up without me seeing that message screen. No random events, no battles, no messages from other nations. Straight to the map screen.

http://i.imgur.com/05Ejd.jpg

And here we see, not much has changed. Still have four provinces total, still only have two commanders. Both are moving into the last province adjacent to my capital; for those who don't remember, this one has about sixty units total, mostly slingers (weak projectile throwers who nevertheless will be annoying to my men because projectiles ignore glamour and any damage, no matter how weak, breaks glamour), heavy infantry (heavily armored enemy units, can be a bit tough to kill but aren't a huge problem), and two elephants (the real issue; elephants can trample smaller units, and trampling seems to ignore glamour, meaning these guys can trample my armies and be really, really annoying to my bigger guys).

http://i.imgur.com/1Ikws.jpg

Here's my plan of attack. Modified form of the pincer strategy, with the serfs furthest forward to draw slinger attacks and make the elephants go for them first, while the Huskarlar and, after buffing, Finn and his Helhirdings run in to get them form the side. Sir Slicer, rather than joining the charge, will be spamming Frighten, a spell that lowers enemy morale; elephants have low morale normally, so hopefully he can get them to rout before they hit my army. If this works, they'll run right through their own army, trampling them instead (this is also the main risk in using elephants of your own, since if they are routed they may trample your commanders on the way out). We'll see how it works in a turn. I also am recruiting another Vanjarl and three more Helhirdings, for more expansion.

Since there isn't much else happening this turn, I'm going to spend extra time on graphs. May as well have some content here.

http://i.imgur.com/8aYHZ.jpg

Provinces, Pangaea and Arcoscephale (their line is behind Pan's) are still gaining a single province a turn, while R'lyeh, Abysia, and Fomoria are just rocketing ahead. Abysia "only" gained two provinces this turn, while Fomoria's keeping up the pace with three. There's a real divide forming now.

http://i.imgur.com/2mTMz.jpg

Income is about what you'd expect, apart from something bad happening to Marverni. Caelum's still feeling the overtaxing their cap and not gaining much new stuff, I'm actually making money, and everyone else is still going up.

http://i.imgur.com/5rsSQ.jpg

Research, Caelum's just leagues ahead of everyone else. I'm almost entirely sure that he's just recruiting Eagle Kings now, since he's not expanding, his army line is almost static, and he's getting tons of research. Everyone else, going up at a slower rate; Arco's philosophers are going well for him, putting him ahead of everyone who isn't spamming Eagle Kings. Meanwhile I haven't researched at all yet because I haven't been able to recruit my researchers. Bah.

http://i.imgur.com/ew35H.jpg

Army size, not much of interest here, apart from Pangaea flatlining (did they lose a lot of people to counteract their freespawn?) and Fomoria rocketing up. Caelum actually seems to have recruited some people, and then lost most of them, probably in the attempt to grab their new province. Abysia and I have the lowest numbers total, although this is to be expected; Abysia has expensive but effective units, and I, even in a normal game (like my test game, where I was able to claim four provinces a turn in the first year; I got such a bad start here) rely more on commanders with small groups of troops rather than large armies. Don't expect to see either of us at the top of the army charts, at least until we get our blood economies going and start summoning massive amounts of demons. (I don't know if either of us will actually do this. Demons are pretty awesome though.)

Alright, that's enough padding for now. At least for the actual turn. Didn't do much this turn, but hopefully I'll resume my rise to glory when we come back.

Next turn: I hate elephants.

-------

Bonus: Magic site and gem explanation

This one's pretty simple, but there's a lot to it. Nothing hard to understand, but this section's going to still be a bit long.

Magic gems are a vital part of the game. There is a type of gem for every path except Holy, although Blood is a bit different. You use gems in magic, as you might expect, although the ways you do it vary.

First is for ritual spells, or spells a mage casts outside of combat, at a lab. Pretty much every ritual spell requires gems, which are always of the primary path; a spell with two paths, like a Water-Nature spell (like the one for summoning naiads) would use Water gems, for example.

Second is for forging items; unlike ritual spells, an item that requires two paths uses both gems types. Otherwise, it's exactly the same as casting ritual spells.

Third is for battlemagic. Some spells require gems to cast in battle, meaning that, if the mage does not have the proper gems on their person, they cannot cast the spell. Mages can also use a single gem per spell, whether or not the spell requires gems otherwise, to reduce the fatigue the spell costs them; depending on what you have them doing, this can make a huge difference in battle, as mages who are too exhausted to cast spells are useless.

You get gems from three sources: Random events, magic sites, and certain spells. There were items that made gems, too, but they proved to be unbalancing (you had to make them or you'd be at a huge disadvantage) and unfun micromanagement, so CBM and most other balance mods make them into artifacts, so you can only get one of each, not worth it. (Other people can also trade you gems, but since they get their gems from one of these sources, anyone who was going to try to argue that I should have listed it with the above needs to put their hand down and think long and hard about their life.) A lot of gem events require the proper scales; Fire and water gems can be gained in Heat and Cold scales, respectively, for example. Magic sites are covered in more detail below, so I'll skip to the spells.

Several spells are what are known as "gemgen spells", meaning they generate gems. They're a variant of global spells, spells which there are only five slots for (casting one after they're filled will try to overwrite one of the existing ones) and that persist after they're cast. They have a high cost, and can be boosted beyond that to resist being dispelled or overwritten, and after they're cast, they give you a certain amount of gems a turn. They're pretty great, really, and frequently hotly contested; other people will try to overwrite your casting with their own, or just outright dispel it if they're at war with you.

There are a few other spells that make gems, but they're a bit odd and either not worth casting most of the time or part of a much bigger spell that only actually makes a gem profit in a fringe situation. Therefore, we're moving on to magic sites.

Magic sites are, well, just that; special sites of magic (most of the time) in a province that affect it in some ways or provide you with things. Every nation has at least one magic site in their capital, providing them with their starting gem income and their cap-only troops. Here are Helheim's two capital sites.

http://i.imgur.com/1Zph1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/B2XI5.jpg

Something to note, while most magic sites that enable the recruitment of certain units work for whoever owns them, national sites only work for their nation; someone capturing my capital wouldn't be able to recruit Hangadrotts or other units. They still get the gem income, though.

Where magic sites are is determined at the beginning of the game, but most of them are not visible to begin with; you have to reveal them. All sites have two qualities that determine how you can find them. The first is their path type; this aligns with the various magic paths, including Holy magic. The second is their level, which is ranked from zero to four. This is the path level required to find the site; if it's higher than zero, you need to search with at least that level of the right path to find it. A Death 0 site will be revealed the moment you take the province, but a Death 4 one requires a skilled mage searching there. There are two ways to find sites:

Manual searching: This is moving a mage around and having him search the province, which reveals all sites up to the path levels they have. While this is useful in the early phases of the game, most mages have rather low path levels and will thus miss some sites. Also, they have to move to a province, then search, meaning it takes two turns for them per province. Depending on the mages you have (some with a large variety of paths, high paths, or both), you may manually search a lot, or almost not at all; if your pretender is mobile, awake, and has good magic, searching with them may be worth it as well.

Site-searching spells: The other way to find magic sites. This one is faster than manually searching, as it involves a mage just casting a spell, but they have certain limitations as well. For one, you need to research the spells, which aren't all in the same school. Secondly, almost all of them require two levels in the path to be cast, so mages with only one level can't cast them; since I only get F1, I'm going to have to manually search for Fire sites until I can get a booster for a mage, for example. Thirdly, they cost gems, although not many; most are just two gems. Fourthly, they're limited in which sites they can find; Augury, the fire-searching spell, will find all Fire sites in a province, but it will only find fire sites, unlike how a mage with Fire may also have other paths. There are some spells that search for more paths, though; Voice of Tiamat, a Water spell, reveals all elemental sites (Fire, Air, Water, and Earth) in a province, but it only works on underwater ones. Acashic Record, meanwhile, reveals all sites in a province, even Holy ones that are otherwise annoying to find (especially the rare ones that require three or four levels to find), but it's also rather expensive and requires a moderately-skilled mage to cast it. (You can also find magic sites through a certain global, but it's a fringe case not worth covering here.)

So, what do these magic sites do? Well, they can do quite a bit. The most common thing they do is give a small income of magic gems per turn; this is also the main reason people seek them out. Some of them allow you to recruit units, like the two sites I found a couple turns back; the usefulness of these units can vary immensely, from some awesome things to outright detrimental to your cause. Some sites affect the scales in a province, drive the unrest up or reduce it, cause disease to units in the province, or do other weird things, but generally these things just clue you in to a site being there (such as finding a province with three Heat scales in the middle of your land when you have Cold dominion). If a site will disease your units or something, though, you don't want to be there, generally.

There is, however, one other major thing sites can do: Lower the gem cost of spells cast there. These sites, which sometimes have other effects, sometimes not, are game-changers. While a site that offers a discount on Thaumaturgy spells won't make a huge difference, and a Blood discount site is nice but not a big thing, a Conjuration or Construction site is enormous, and if you're fortunate enough to find a site that gives an Alteration bonus then you may as well have found an "I Win" button if you can properly use it. You want to find these sites. They are just the best.

Anyway, that's both magic gems and magic sites covered there. Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot of both these things, at least in my updates. Screw those other guys.

Some people may remember me saying that Blood is a bit different from the other paths, gem-wise. Curious as to what I meant? Well, you'll have to wait for my explanation of that. Blood magic is a whole other thing, and deserves its own one of these updates. Something to look forward to, I guess.

Immaculate

April 26th, 2012, 11:37 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Four: Enjoy the Silence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diT3FvDHMyo)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Depeche Mode (click the turn name- I hope you are all doing this- its VERY important)

The arcoesephalan expansion party fights a tougher opponent this turn and losses are incurred. The light, javelin-throwing infantry on the flanks met the enemy a few squares ahead of the heavy central infantry and got decimated pretty quickly. I’m not very good at scripting yet but hopefully I will get better. As a result of the bad scripting the barbs overrun my left flank and get to the squishy slingers and kill a few before they finally rout.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2bwbco" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/2bwbco.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

To make up for the losses incurred, I am sending reinforcement from the capital to help with the next battle. These reinforcements are led by a philosopher since that’s all I had available.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=17zog0" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/17zog0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

On the overhead map you can see that the barbarian leader I hired is heading out to the capital so the next set of reinforcements don’t have to be led by a philosopher. That’s 18rp lost just by sending him out to fix up our numbers. Oh well…

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=abtvnb" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/abtvnb.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

otherwise a quiet turn. I’ll maybe try and post turn 5 right away too. Maybe.

Immaculate

April 26th, 2012, 11:38 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Five: Girls on Film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gudEttJlw3s)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Duran Duran (damnit I cannot overstate how important it is that you hit that turn title link)

This attack goes better. I fixed the scripting a little bit and the chariots do a great job to trample the light infantry and chase the fleeing heavy cavalry.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2ez1pig" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/2ez1pig.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Normally I would continue expanding around the capital to secure some resources but the heavy cavalry to the north seem too tough so I am sending my expansion party (plus chariots) eastwards to fight some wolf-tribe warriors and claim a low-income wasteland province. Meanwhile my philosopher is heading back to the capital to hit the books.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=11rxdag" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/11rxdag.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Not shown here I am also recruiting another barbarian commander to help shuttle forces around.

Things are pretty quiet for arco for now so there is not too much to write about. At this point I can see from the graphs that I am not doing too well relative to nations like formoria, r’leyh and others… that doesn’t bother me too much yet though (that will happen later).

Immaculate

April 27th, 2012, 12:02 AM

Seriously, if you are lurking this thread- have at 'err... who do you think is looking strong/weak, doing well/bad, making good/bad decisions?

Warhammer

April 27th, 2012, 01:04 AM

Been really busy here with stuff going on, realize I am late. Will fill in pictures when I get a chance.

Turn 2
What lies beyond our lands? Who will be the first to be converted? A province devoid of independent troops, this is an excellent development!

Our first target is the province of Halbathria. This is an undefended province which is ideal for us at this stage of the game. The income is not great, but the resources are good, which will be a benefit if we get enough cash to make some additional troops over and above our Eagle Kings.

Now would probably be a good time to discuss my pretender.

This is my pretender. In addition to the above, I have taken scales of O-S3C3G1L3D2. I have taken sloth since we’re not building a ton of troops. I have taken Cold 3 for obvious reasons, we prefer it. Growth and Luck are for additional income, and drain was to gain additional points. Plus, any combat in my dominion I would like additional MR for my Eagle Kings since they are Magic Beings and subject to some nasty spells.

Regarding magic paths, I have decided to take an E9S4N4 bless. Why? First, we are relying on the Eagle Kings which are sacred units, the E9N4 is great for them. The E9 for additional protection and regeneration and the N4 for regeneration and to keep afflictions from piling up on them. The S4 helps their magic resistance, plus I knew I needed some S on the pretender.

Why do I need S, and why did I focus on Conjuration first? Well, there is this nice unit called a Yazad.

These guys are better than any of our standard units. They are summoned at a 1:1 astral pearl to unit rate. They are 100% lightning resistant and they have a cold resistance of 50%. They are sacred and have awe. All the blessings that are bestowed upon my Eagle Kings are also bestowed here. These guys are the ideal escorts for my Eagle Kings. My expansion strategy will be to save up enough pearls generated by my pretender, and then on turn 5 or 6, summon the Yazatas. I can send out 3 Eagle Kings with 2 Yazatas as escorts. By then, shock wave should be researched and I can rain down lightning on independent troops. There are two unit types I fear, barbarians due to their higher than average morale, and archers. Anything else, I should be able to handle with little to fear.

Added Bonus, turns 3 and 4!

Turn 3
One item I noticed in the Hall of Fame. Abysia has received their hero Malphas. That is not a good sign. He is a very strong commander. Also, it appears that my neighbor to the north is Helheim. This is not great, but not terrible. His glamour troops will not do well against my archers, and my troops will not do well against his ground pounders. We’re best finding other avenues of advance.

Turn 4
Not much has happened this turn.

Essentially we are continuing our build towards a quick strike force of Eagle Kings backed by Yazatas. We move our research to alteration in these turns to get Mirror Image and Stoneskin.

Mightypeon

April 27th, 2012, 09:07 AM

Personally, I only go to Dominion scores of 5 if I am either the only blood sac nation in the game, or if there is no blood sac nation and I have an awake pretender with perhaps inquisitors.
I am not a fan of death scales either, and would not really go with rainbows unless I happen to be MA Ulm. But then, I am largely playing goonmods now, who have excellent divesrity available from Nature, Death and Water, which clearly is not the case in CBM.

Mightypeon

April 27th, 2012, 09:08 AM

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 10:47 AM

Seriously, if you are lurking this thread- have at 'err... who do you think is looking strong/weak, doing well/bad, making good/bad decisions?

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/d8Mqn.png

WHAT IS THAT HERO DOING AT THE FRONT LINES? DO YOU WANT HIM TO DIE A HORRIBLE PAINFUL AND EMBARRASSING DEATH?

Sure it has a ****load of HP, some good attacks etc. But only one hit could mean feeblemind or mute. Which robs you of a great mage. (Who sitesearches for 2 paths at once, can do research, lead troops etc. It is a great thing to get in the first few turns, do not waste it).

jotwebe

April 27th, 2012, 01:23 PM

He's not much better than one of my mind lords path-wise, though. One in four has S4, one in sixteen W4, and although they can't have both at once, there's nothing where I need both at once for. So he's nice, but I won't loose anything irreplaceable if he dies.

What he does do better is enslaving minds; he has double the attacks of a normal mind lord. That won't do me any good if he sits in a lab though.

I will make some stupid mistakes in the AAR, but sending Auluudh out to work for his living isn't one of them ;)

Adam J

April 27th, 2012, 01:50 PM

I think Soyweiser's point is that Mr. Auuludh shouldn't be in the front of the battleline, not that he should be back at the lab. He can enslave minds just as well from a little further back... no?

bbz

April 27th, 2012, 02:02 PM

It doesnt really matter if the orders of the other armies are to attack. Opponents creatures won't reach his front in one turn and the armies will move forward essentially protecting the aboleth for normal non-magic battles.

Oh and some creative criticism: I really like the way Marverni forms his posts. I prefer having all the pictures in one post rather then having to click on some link to see what happened:) it makes it easier to read.(otherwise it has been nice AAR and really good for new players(Helheim's descriptions of the basics)). So keep up the good work.

P.s As I support Fomoria GoGo Giants GoGo! :P I'd love to see some more posts from Corinthian:)

Roland Jones

April 27th, 2012, 02:18 PM

Oh, something to note, you may need to adjust your forum settings in order to see my images in the posts instead of as links. If my images show up as links for you, go check out your settings and look for something like "Display images", and check it. I don't know why displaying images are off by default, but they are apparently.

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 02:18 PM

Auluudh is also free, as in no upkeep. My main problem was indeed, putting the dude in the front.

And still, this is rather close:
http://i.imgur.com/c7DEE.png

Also, There are always the possible suprise attack chances. Having a a random event attack your expansion party might just do enough damage to the trolls to let them or a the normal indies to hit and mute your free mage. And as mages win games this is a way to risky move. (And all for what? 2 additional attacks and a little bit of fear? Your troops where probably enough to kill them).

Sure you might not loose something irreplacable if he dies. But you should put him in more trouble than needed. Having his paths halved might cause you do do less research later, or not find that one s3/w3 site. It is simply a stupid risk to take.

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 02:21 PM

(And yeah, mages are there to be used, not sending out mages to support armies, site search etc is a waste, but not scripting your mages to retreat if you have misf dominion, or putting them in the front of battles is just to dangerous. Esp in the early game. (Where losing one mage is actually 30+ mage turns lost, which translates to at least 90 rp lost).

jotwebe

April 27th, 2012, 02:30 PM

I think Soyweiser's point is that Mr. Auuludh shouldn't be in the front of the battleline, not that he should be back at the lab. He can enslave minds just as well from a little further back... no?
Reply With Quote

Sadly, not really: the enslave mind attack only has a range of 25, very much different from ye olde mindblaste. I think after the first battle I did put him a little bit further back, but at this point I'm not sure about that.

Usually when playing R'lyeh I actually do what you propose, but for an AAR I thought I'd do something more interesting with him. I do need a mage leader anyway, although a slave mage would have sufficed. Still and all, the whole point of the southern army is not needing reinforcements, and an enslaving mage helps with that.

Anyway, let's see how he will fare, shall we? And I will say something horrible and stupid related to just this issue of exposed mages will happen, and it will be such an utterly pointless stupid thing that I struggle to express the stupid pointlessness of it.

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 02:30 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Four: Enjoy the Silence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diT3FvDHMyo)
<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=17zog0" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/17zog0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Small point of critique, setting one of your guys to guard commander to draw fire might actually lure the enemy archers towards your commander. (The archers lock on, and run after him).

With some bad luck this will get your commander killed. Or your prophet. As the guard commander dude runs past him.

Personally I would have just used one of the javelin dudes set to run away. And put your commander in the top or bottom row.

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 02:36 PM

Sadly, not really: the enslave mind attack only has a range of 25, very much different from ye olde mindblaste. I think after the first battle I did put him a little bit further back, but at this point I'm not sure about that.

Do you really need the turn 1 enslave mind attack? The battlefield is normally 60 wide (30 for each side). The enemy will reach range 25 in 1 or 2 turns. Putting him behind some troops is more than enough. (Bonus, cast twist fate, so random spells/ranged attacks cannot hurt him, at least not as soon).

Just put a few dudes in front of him, he really doesn't need to be the closest to the enemy. His huge size already draws a lot of attention.

(Ps, hoping you win, love me some lovecraft ;) ).

LDiCesare

April 27th, 2012, 03:13 PM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

TURN 6:
Abysia was indeed friendly enough not to attack this turn.
I conquered the southern province, losing 30 chaff on the way. http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9153/turn6citala.png
I found a S1F1 site with my pretender and got a lucky 300 gold event with increased faith.
Helheim's income comes back to a decent level (about mine, which means it still sucks) while Marverni plummets.
There are f*** elephants in Tir na n'Og. They can be panicked easily but if they don't rout they'll just slaughter anything I can put in their path. I'll have to send my pretender, with awe and fear it should be a piece of cake, but meanwhile my army will be rather useless.
I stop recruiting Pans for now, they cost too much. Dryads suck at research but they're still my best option for now upkeep-wise (110 sacred for 4 pts vs 320 for 10 pts).
I recruit some minotaurs and centaur archers to expand north later. The commander moves to my capital to fetch them, then northwards. There's one mountain province which is bothering, with longdead and archers, maybe a mage inside that I'll have to check, maybe send a dryad to banish?

TURN 7:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/791/turn7.png
I take the province which remains with little losses (14 maenads). The kraken comes say hello. Nasty being. I also get the visit of a short-lived Caelum scout, Caelum being to my north far away. That's good for me, they have the worst expansion so far.
Abysia is being obnoxious. I mean, I tell him 30 is a war declaration and he sends his troops 1 province to the south, where it has nowhere to go, while he still has room around his capital. The guy is a pain. I'll be ranting againt Abysia a lot from now on, sorry about it, but from this point on it's quite clear he's been planning a rush and I'm his target. It's also a very bad strategy for Abysia, as he hasn't even taken the provinces by his capital, has pitiful strategic move, no research, and leaves himself open for his other neighbour to slaughter him. And noone can take down Pangaean forts early in the game, except maybe R'lyeh with their chaff, so rushing EA Pangaea is always a very bad move.
I just hope R'lyeh won't try to get out of the pond just near me. I hate the fact they have amphibious units everywhere. Never understood why people thought fish had to get out of the water. I should stop ranting against water nations one day. Now, I'll try to single handedly tame elephants with my pretender. That's probably a recipe for failure, but it should make a nice story.

Immaculate

April 27th, 2012, 03:40 PM

thanks soyweiser - that is indeed good advice. I am horrible at scripting...

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 04:12 PM

thanks soyweiser - that is indeed good advice. I am horrible at scripting...

One minor thing, while doing some tests, I lost a little bit to many units by making them constantly run away. (Or using the jav dude with 6 protection). So you need to plan ahead a little bit (ferry in new troops). You cannot always lose units in your expansion armies by having them run away.

The scripting is reasonably good actually. A lot better than my default expansion scripting (which works vs indies, but gets slaughtered by bumping into other players armies, like yours :D).

To all the other players, I'm very impressed by all the work you are all putting in. Keep it up!

We should have a sticked post listing these kinds of AAR's if we don't have already.

Soyweiser

April 27th, 2012, 04:16 PM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

There's one mountain province which is bothering, with longdead and archers, maybe a mage inside that I'll have to check, maybe send a dryad to banish?

Longdead and archers? That can mean only one thing, invasion! No wait... wrong movie.

Usually that contains some sort of death/blood caster. And 25% of the time (in my experience at least) those *******s have the devil a turn summoning item. A lone banishment priest isn't going to cut it.

I could be wrong of course, but I expect devils and imps, with some skelly spam for good measure in there.

jotwebe

April 27th, 2012, 05:17 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 6

Half a year has passed, and R'lyeh's grasp is ever expanding. Our battles are victorious, and our knowledge of the mysteries of what the uninitiated call "fate" provides richt bounty.

http://i.imgur.com/JZCDP.png

The pictures in this update are a little messed up, either because I set my formating script to first transform them to indexed colors and then scale them or because some unknown force messed with them. Take your pick.

The two events in Baptizer?

http://i.imgur.com/gpWgG.png

One. Thousand. Pounds of. Gold. That's R'lyeh pounds, notoriously difficult to translate into other systems of measurement. But it's a lot, more than regular our monthly income.

So what's the item then? Some boots of long strides?

http://i.imgur.com/OKpOk.png

Not quite. This is awesome, never mind that none of my mages can use it, and that the aboleths don't even have heads.

It is immediately spirited away to R'yeh, where it now lies on a pedestal of dark stone, its unquenchable flames fitfully flickering in the darkness of the deep guarded by lumbering shambler thralls incapable of even conceiving the concept of treason.

Meanwhile, Helheim has noticed Yöt-Webbogoth's progress and sends the following message below the waves:

http://i.imgur.com/YyLa1.png

To such bluster, a memorable reply is needed.

~~~
A fisher boat returns days late. Of the crew, only a young man is left, but his once red-blonde hair has turned white. He refuses to look upon the sea, and continually mumbles to himself. After some time, it was determined that the phrase he repeated incessantly was this: "That is not dead which can eternal lie. Yet with strange aeons even death may die."

Only when brought before the local herse does the fisherman snap out of his daze. "Under the waves, R'lyeh will go where it will. Over the waves, the death-gulls may fly."
~~~

Same reasoning as with Fomoria, except while Fomoria as a nation with underwater capabilities is right on top of my hit list, Helheim is not. I doubt they'd actually commit to an underwater war this early, and it would be one if they attacked. Conversely, I have little to gain by feuding with a land power before it is clear who the big dangers will be.

Also, Fomoria is a scales build while Helheim tanked his scales. That means Fomoria will get more dangerous over time, while Helheim's bless (presumably) is most powerful in the early game.

Meanwhile, in the Hungry Sea, off the fog-shrouded Fomorian coast, the Grand Army of R'lyeh, having crushed the second of the Amber Clan Kingdoms, now expands into and area dominated by barbarian triton tribes. The champions of these tribes ride huge sharks, and the tribes have suspended their usual internecine warfare to confront the invaders from the north.

http://i.imgur.com/kdKfr.png

There have been strange voices in the astral currents, incorporeal spirits seperated from the Shadow Shore by incomprehensible gulf of space and time. Lately their mad gibberings has grown more urgent, perhaps stirred up by the Pantokrator's disappearance.

One especially, So-Y'wsyrr, has even achieved a semblance of coherence, warning Auluudh of some dire fate should he continue to lead the army from the front. But the strange power that has come with Yöt-Webbogoth is stronger, compels him to risk himself in the clash of battle, even in the face of the terrible shark knights of the Hungry Sea.

http://i.imgur.com/PqAxa.png

Auluudh bends his mind-force on the sharks' streamlined predator souls, even as the gibodai gathered behind him follow his example.

In the midst of their charge, the sharks are stunned and drift aimlessly, one even turning against the triton infantry following in its wake. It is to weak to fight effectively. The tritons stab it to death, but they have been distracted.

http://i.imgur.com/Y57Rs.png

From their left flank, a fast-moving force of tritons, some of them freshly enslaved Amber Clan warriors, falls upon them, even as the line of troll warriors meets their van.

http://i.imgur.com/IWWD3.png

It is too much.

In R'lyeh, meanwhile, the first of the mind lords apart from dread Auluudh swears unconditional obedience to the Kraken Cult:

http://i.imgur.com/o7jYa.png

He's kind of sucky. His picks are earth and astral, I'm hoping for double earth, double death, or double astral, as those will give me path diversity. He cost 420 gold, and as a non-holy unit, that's 28 gold per month as upkeep.

Strategically, the next moves are simple. Yöt-Webbogoth continues south along the east coast

http://i.imgur.com/bQQEd.png

while in the west, Auluudh and his army advance into Underhome.

http://i.imgur.com/Ss0E6.png

Mightypeon

April 27th, 2012, 05:25 PM

Immaculate

April 27th, 2012, 05:46 PM

haha - good writing again jotwebe- i liked your reference to soyweiser's advice... and again, generally, the writing is just plain good.

dojango

April 27th, 2012, 07:15 PM

And noone can take down Pangaean forts early in the game, except maybe R'lyeh with their chaff, so rushing EA Pangaea is always a very bad move.[/I]
I just hope R'lyeh won't try to get out of the pond just near me. I hate the fact they have amphibious units everywhere. Never understood why people thought fish had to get out of the water. I should stop ranting against water nations one day. Now, I'll try to single handedly tame elephants with my pretender. That's probably a recipe for failure, but it should make a nice story.

Actually, Rushing EA Pan can work for some nations, but the most likely unusual rusher would be MA Ulm, which would need an all ages game. Bottomline, Sappers (siege Bonus 5 yadda yadda) can actually siege down Maenad Spam on occassion, and Black Plates laugh at unbuffed Maenads, and Ulm has quite a motive for kicking out earth powers early on, which may perhaps be what Abyssia is trying to achieve.
Although I would propably rush someone else with MA Ulm if I had the choice.

I rushed EA Pan as EA Mictlan in New Years New Game. Basically, I hit him about turn 10, popped his forts under construction, then sat on his capitol with 40 jags or so. My plan was to domkill him with blood sac rather than siege him down, but he got impatient and tried to see if 300 maeneds can kill 40 jags backed up by imps (they can't) so the s iege was able to conclude before the domkill.

But basically, if aby can park on your cap he can blood sac you to death rather than tear down your walls. Obviously it's a pain to have so many resources tied up in a siege, but it's oft times the only way. Keep in mind, Pan's in a really desirable corner position, so taking him down should be Aby's first goal. hopefully (for Aby) R'yleh won't poach the island while he does.

jotwebe

April 28th, 2012, 03:18 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 7

SOUNDTRACK (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762722/pulsar-deep-space-theme)

Andrey Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 01. Pulsar (Deep Space Theme)

~~~

An uneventful month. Auluudh survives yet another battle at the head of his army, again crushing a province of brave shark riders under his slimy abdomen. The battle goes more or less exactly like the last one.

http://i.imgur.com/6cp0k.jpg

On the other side of the world, Yöt-Webbogoth falls upon yet another triton province, by the name of Blue Water. Here he fights neither the noble amber clan tritons nor the barbarian shark knight tritons: This is a triton republic of coral-towered city states. The forces they muster as they put aside traditional enmities are large, but not large enough.

http://i.imgur.com/BF3ay.png

They die to clouds of poisonous ink and crushing tentacles.

Above the waves, Yöt-Webbogoth's eldritch senses detect a great place of supernatural power: a forest in which time and place are... strange, and where great numbers of strange beings live, somehow without crowding it.

Pangaea.

http://i.imgur.com/bU1RU.jpg

In the west, Auluudh notes from scouts sent above the waves (imaginary scouts, there are no independent scouts underwater, and fort turns are dear. My scouting is abysmally bad) that the coast is held by a centralized empire. A few mind-probed fishermen identify it as the greater dominion of Arcoscephale.

Messages are dispatched to the beastmen and the philosophers, yet no proof remains... Time and the Dominions 3 messaging interface conquer all.

In the tumbled ruins of Moon Sea, diligent slave mages find the strongest current of them all.

http://i.imgur.com/KlVJq.png

A temple is built, for it is expected to have a beneficial effect on the aboleths' procreative efforts. No more shall be said.

http://i.imgur.com/1Zt22.jpg

In the uttermost north, a different sort of construction begins:

http://i.imgur.com/WPSnX.jpg

Deep under the eternal ice, enslaved tritons labour to erect a fortress. The foundation is formed by cyclopean stone blocks, but soon it will be overgrown by the twisted polypal forms of the aboleth mothers.

http://i.imgur.com/yvMKj.png

In R'lyeh, under the two mind lords Eshu Saath and Vkt'Ebph, another army has assembled. Yet the sea is almost completely subjugated. Originally earmarked to attack Koromoo (which the barbarian goatfaced Fomorians insist on calling "the Isle of Balor"), they have a new target that avoids political... complications.

Of course, a different rationale is given...

("We have always been at war with Eastasia")

Corinthian

April 28th, 2012, 06:09 AM

Ok. By popular demand. Here we go.

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Not everyone was feeling down in Fomoria however. In the hearts of goat-headed children hope was blooming. They had never known anything else and in their childish hearts they knew that tomorrow would be a new and better day. They did not understand their parents problems and like children oft to do, they rebelled by being happy and positive.

http://i.imgur.com/GwB1j.png
No one knows were the symbol came from. Only that children kept scribbling it up on every flat surface. A stylized S made from sharp lines. The children called it Snakey. It was their secret friend and their source of strength and unity. Snakey, they said, would protect them from afflictions and sad faces. Snakey himself had a goat head, and in his world that was as natural as could be.

For his sake, the children would show the world that goat heads were the best heads. And who knows? If the children pray hard, fight gallantly and simply believe enough who is to say that this is not so?
http://i.imgur.com/v6f3e.gif
Some children kept drawing another S instead. Most people considered those children to be a little touched in the head however. Such a silly mark.

Turn 1:Surveying the situation.

Unlike most other people in this game I *DID* look at the map in advance and noticed several of the starting positions. There were only 3 possible starts for Fomoria however, because Fomoria must always start next to water.
http://i.imgur.com/XHY0z.jpg
Of those three positions this one was probably the worst because it means starting one province away from R'lyeh. But thats probably less bad than it could be, as among the nations in this game, Fomoria would probably be the best nation to fight R'lyeh if he should show his ugly tentacles above water. All my troops have between 12-15 MR. 12-13 for the PD. And Fomoria can actually venture under water without gear. Witch saves on gems and research.

As you can see above I spent the first turn patrolling my capitol with my starting army in order to squeeze a few extra gold out of it in the first critical turn of the game. I raise the taxes all the way up to 160%. I know from tests that this is a viable tax level because my 30 starting soldiers are better patrolers than the average guy.

I also prophetize my starting scout but forgot to give him a fancy name. He is the littlest giant and everyone is always adored by his cuteness every time he steps on the battlefield.

As for recruitment I get this:
http://i.imgur.com/OwpJk.jpg
A smattering of recruits including a Fomorian druid. (The fomorian prefix is necessary, otherwise the Marverni Druids would sue them for trademark infringement.), two unmarked, and ten Fir Bolgs with various weapons.

So what are those then? Well the Fomorian druid is the Fomorian standard mage. It is the only mage I got that can be recruited outside of the capitol so I better learn to love it. In this case I recruit it in the capitol because it cost little resources as I need those for my troops.

The Unmarked is one of the two cap only sacreds that Fomoria can recruit. The other being the fomorian giant.
http://i.imgur.com/P3N0V.jpg
He is smaller than his parents but much more useful. You know how I call Fomoria the budget giants in the banner? Its because the Fomorian giant troops are much cheaper than equivalent type of giants that other nations get. For example the fomorian warrior cost only 30g. And if I wanted to prevent someone from entering one of my castles I would just recruit some 15g 18 str Fomorian militia to hold the walls forever.

This guy is an Unmarked. He is like a warrior that got slightly higher stats in attack, defense, MR and HP and he lacks the warriors 20% risk of starting with a random affliction. Thus the name. He cost twice as much but its worth it. Because he is also sacred he will cost the same upkeep.

There is nothing about him that jumps out at you and scream “Awesome!”. But he got good stats all around and only cost 60 gold, witch is a bargain for a sacred giant. I could get 5 of these for the same cost as 2 niefel giants. And if the repel mechanic was not broken he could repel people with his length 5 spear. Uhh yea.

I built two of them this turn to use in a future expansion party.
http://i.imgur.com/FZrJy.jpg
This is the Unmarkeds father, the Fomorian Giant. They have worse prot, atk and def. But more HP, strength and magic resistance. They also comes with big *** javelins witch they can fire like they were a ballista, but cant actually aim with due to having only one eye. Making them kind of dangerous. What is worse, beyond costing an extra 50% gold, is the fact that they have no helmet. I mean what were they thinking! They only ever got one eye! Expensive giant light infantry. Only recruitable size 6 giant troop in the game for what its worth. Might be good for blocking elephants. Or mammoths if I wind up next to Caelum. They can also, in a pinch, get down in the drink. Though they are not strictly speaking good at that either.

Anyway, you people wont see a lot of these guys in my updates. The bicycle association of Fomoria hate them because of the bad examples they set.
http://i.imgur.com/wAOsx.jpg
This is the (not) Druid. He is actually a teenaged larper that runs around in the forest and pretends to be a druid. But lets not get technical. Atleast he is sacred and dont cost a ton. I will be forced to recruit them so I'm sure I will find a way to squeeze some kind of use out of them. The question mark represent the fact that they can randomly get either Air, Water, Death or Nature as their final magic pick.

What else is relevant for this turn? Oh yea the Fir Bolgs!
http://i.imgur.com/OGlmp.jpg
These guys are like Uber-Mexicans! They have here to take all the ****ty jobs and not only will they work for pennies. They will also do a better job than you could!

They are economic immigrants that came to Fomoria in the hope that the Fomorian economic wonder was still roaring. Instead they found themselves outside the Fomorians summer homes together with the other unwashed masses. They are a bargain for the stats, if not very good all by themselves. I build 10 of them this turn. 4 with javelins and spears and 6 with slings in order to fill out my starting army. I could have built one more, but my starting commander can only command 40 troops and its not like most indies need more power to overcome. They should work fine.

I will not buy more for a while. Not because they are not good but because they have kind of low protection and I prefer expanders that do not take attrition. That way they can keep expanding without needing reinforcements.

And thats all for turn 1. Well, there was also some amazon mercs that I did not need. Though I doubt they would have been happy with just 20 gold anyhow. So whatever.

Till next time.

Corinthian

April 28th, 2012, 06:11 AM

Corinthian

April 28th, 2012, 06:13 AM

In order to make up for the lack of updates I will post my update twice!:cool:

LDiCesare

April 28th, 2012, 07:13 AM

I rushed EA Pan as EA Mictlan in New Years New Game. Basically, I hit him about turn 10, popped his forts under construction, then sat on his capitol with 40 jags or so. My plan was to domkill him with blood sac rather than siege him down, but he got impatient and tried to see if 300 maeneds can kill 40 jags backed up by imps (they can't) so the s iege was able to conclude before the domkill.

But basically, if aby can park on your cap he can blood sac you to death rather than tear down your walls. Obviously it's a pain to have so many resources tied up in a siege, but it's oft times the only way. Keep in mind, Pan's in a really desirable corner position, so taking him down should be Aby's first goal. hopefully (for Aby) R'yleh won't poach the island while he does.
EA Mictlan can rush anybody. They even have freespawn troops (slaves) so they could counter whatever maenads one could get.
Blood sac is a viable strategy provided there's no other blood nation in the game. I mean, if Aby tried to blood-sac, I would ask for blood slaves to counter-blood sac. This would result in a stalemate during which their expensive wizard priests wouldn't be researching, and thus it would be a distinct advantage for whoever lent/gave me blood slaves, unless they were allies with Mictlan.
Also, Abysia has a very low dominion score, while I have a very high one. At this stage, it should be clear that his dominion is so low he would require a lot of energy in order to domkill me (plus building a temple, preferably protecting it with a fort). Mictlan usually has a very high dominion in order to produce ****loads of its cheap sacred units, and they also have to blood sac, so it better be effective. The situation is very different here. Abysia has a low dominion score, so is unlikely to domkill me without a lot of investment and time. Such a blood sac would inevitably piss off its other neighbours. One-on-one, the strategy would definitely work. In a game with several opponents, I predict that it may be far too expensive, as it would mark Abysia as a target for all its other neighbours.

LDiCesare

April 29th, 2012, 05:31 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 8:
R'lyeh sends me a silly greetings. That's ok as long as he doesn't attack me.Sorry, I didn't copy the fluff and don't care at all about messages which are not clear, and since this just ment "Hello".
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9900/turn8.png
My pretender proves that a lich is superior to 4 elephants: http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4631/turn8elephants.png
Tir na n'Og province 12 allows the recruitment of toad shamans (amphibious, W magic, sacred). That's nice.
Looking at the dark candle in 13, I bet that Abysia's demonbred prophet is there. I move to take 30. Not that it's useful, but just to make sure Abysia doesn't try to get there for some reason. I also try to take the archers/infantry/undead province in the north. I hope longbows + minotaurs + maenad decoys + one dryad will be enough, but I'm likely short on numbers.
I recruit only 1 Pan this turn, and a scout. I hope to start building a fort next turn. I'll never be able to by the way. So far noone has a second fort but that will not last long and I'd like to lock the entry of the island.
In other news, Abysia, Helheim and Caelum didn't expand this turn. Which kind of proves Abysia is moving all its troops towards me but I wanted that not to happen so I remained blind.

Roland Jones

April 29th, 2012, 06:42 AM

http://i.imgur.com/aS0Z8.png

Turn VII: Man, **** Elephants

http://i.imgur.com/3WqHN.jpg

Let's see, a response from R'lyeh and me taking on the elephants. We'll read what the sea-dwellers had to say first.

http://i.imgur.com/c78SG.jpg

Hm. Purple prose. Translated into basic English, he's saying he'll stay under the water and I can stay above it. Besides that, as we'll see on the map screen, his kraken has moved on, which was my real concern.

Time to go off on a tangent here, at this point I've only made diplomatic contact with three nations.

Marverni: I wanted to make early negotiations with another player right off the bat, and since at the time he was the only person who used our IRC channel regularly (Immac got on now and then but for some reason wasn't on for the first few days of the game), he was my only option. Between that we were starting near each other and that he was the only guy I had to talk to, we agreed to not murder each other just yet, even though we were also open to that we would eventually try to plant knives in each other's backs. However, I thought his starting position was in the northwest part of the map; instead, it turned out that he was more or less right outside of my peninsula, cutting off one of two ways to expand.

R'lyeh: No real talk with them beyond "you stay below the sea, I'll stay above it". Works for me; the less I have to deal with his mindblasters for now, the better.

Caelum: We talked a bit into the game, he revealed that he was south of me and also knew where I was. We decided not to fight each other; while he said in his update that his archers would mess up my glamour troops, I honestly cared more about his mammoths, since I can cast Air Shield on my Vanir to stop arrows, but trampling would break the glamour. Either way, we agreed to not kill each other as well, although we didn't talk much after that.

So, I have someone to my west I'm not fighting, and someone to my south I'm not fighting, and the only ways to go are to the south and the west. I decided that I would expand southwest, between them, and go from there. Can you guess the problem with this plan? It took me a couple of turns to realize it.

Answer: Southwest leads right into an impassable mountain range. After claiming my territory I have nowhere to expand to, since I don't want to kill either of my neighbors just yet. Whoops.

Anyway, let's take a look at that battle. There's no way it could have gone bad, right? I mean, we got past the horrible failure phase of this game for me-

http://i.imgur.com/ylaCJ.jpg

...Dammit. Okay, let's see exactly how this utter failure occurred.

http://i.imgur.com/Kp16F.jpg

Here's what I'm fighting. Two elephants and a lot of jerks with slingshots. The battle starts normally, with Finn buffing himself and the huskarlar moving in. Something of note is that, despite his Hall of Fame ability being Heroic Precision, absolutely none of Sir Slicer's castings of Frighten hit either elephant.

http://i.imgur.com/pNeXO.jpg

In addition to that, despite their shields the serfs wind up getting really messed up by the slingers, eventually breaking ranks. This leaves the elephant free to go right for my huskarlar, and, as I've stated numerous times, trample breaks glamour even if it misses. They get stomped into the dirt.

http://i.imgur.com/VRvio.jpg

The death of multiple huskarlar and most of the serfs causes a HP rout, and my army flees before Finn and the Helhirdings have even entered the fray. All in all, this is an utterly terrible battle for me.

http://i.imgur.com/ZeOLD.jpg

Okay, you know what? Screw the elephants. I don't care. I'm not going to deal with them. Sir Slicer, Finn (who is in the southern province with two of the Helhirdings), and the new Vanjarl I hired are all going to ignore them entirely.

See how the movement arrows are gray rather than orange, like my prophet's movement has been? That's because they're sneaking past; I hadn't had to make use of it before this, but as I showed in my first post, the Vanjarls and Helkarls and, well, basically everything I have besides the serfs and dwarfs, are stealthy, meaning they can just move right past this province and conquer whatever is past it instead (that's why my prophet is moving back, so I can see exactly what is in that province again; I forgot and didn't feel like bringing out my old turn file already). I will deal with the elephants later.

Graphs don't show anything particularly interesting this turn. Fomoria's keeping up its three provinces a turn, Abysia and R'lyeh both get too again, and everyone else but Caelum and I got one. Wonderful. I've fallen behind again.

Next turn: Nothing happens, again.

-------

Bonus: Research, magic schools, and Blood magic explained

So, you may have noticed that a lot of the updates so far have mentioned research. You may be wondering what that is; while I commented on how research levels are determined for mages in my unit explanation post (for those who don't remember, it's total magic path levels (not counting priest levels), plus two, plus or minus any inherent bonuses and exp), but you may not know what it's for. Well, wonder no longer, for I shall tell you: Research is what lets you use more and better magic.

http://i.imgur.com/Exdoi.jpg

This is the magic research screen. It shows all seven magic schools here, how you're currently allocating your research points (I have none yet, since I have no mages researching, but that green bar and the numbers beside it show what you're putting your research in and how much in each school), your progress to the next level for each school, and your total progress. There are ten levels or magic in each path, starting at zero and ending at nine. The amount of research points it takes to get to the next level is the amount of the previous two levels combined; under normal research settings (at the start of the game the host can change it to less or more), this is forty, then sixty, then one hundred, one hundred sixty, and so on.

http://i.imgur.com/b31BI.jpg

This is a look at one of the schools. When you reach a new research level, you unlock all the spells in it. Of course, you still need the appropriate paths to actually cast them. For example, I won't be summoning many sea dogs, since I have no water access. Also sea dogs are kind of useless. Whatever.

What each school does is as follows; while there are a few oddities in each one, this is more or less how they generally are:

Conjuration: Summons things. Almost every spell that creates units is in this school. From mundane animals to weird monsters to units that are stronger than most pretender gods, if you're summoning something, you're getting it here.

Alteration: Changes things. Most of the buff and debuff spells are here. Making your units ethereal, immune to various elements, all that. It's also where the super-powerful Wish spell is, something we may see later in the game.

Evocation: Uh, evokes things? Basically, this is the "blow stuff up" school; almost all of the really damaging battlemagic is in this one. This is the school for hurting things.

Construction: Builds things. Unlike most schools, every even level of Construction doesn't unlock any new spells. Instead, it unlocks a new group of items for you to make, with the level eight ones all being the unique artifacts; only one of each artifact can exist at any given time. Odd-numbered levels here are for the most part summons, but with the theme of things that can be made, like clockwork soldiers and Frankenstein-like monsters.

Enchantment: Enchants things, obviously. The buffs that aren't in Alteration are mostly here, with things like flight and whatnot. A few summons are in here as well, mostly necromantic ones, with the idea being that, instead of calling things, you're enchanting them. EDM (a mod that was combined with CBM, mostly modifies endgame spells and summons) put the Great Kraken spell here, for some reason, though. I dunno, its description even describes it as calling the thing, not enchanting an octopus and making it into a supercaster version of the pretender R'lyeh has.

Thaumaturgy: ...Yeah, I dunno. This is sort of a weird school, seemingly a catch-all for anything that didn't fit into the other ones. Lot of useful stuff in here, though.

Blood Magic: This one is a bit different from all the others. Best way to show it off would be to let you see the list of spells in this school.

http://i.imgur.com/wGoKc.jpg

Yep, that's right. Every single spell that requires Blood magic is in here. Blood summons, blood battlemagic, blood anything. If you don't have Blood access, you can ignore this school entirely. But having its own school isn't the only thing that sets Blood magic apart from the rest.

Remember our talk about magic gems, and how I mentioned Blood magic being different? Blood magic doesn't use gems, it uses slaves. Blood slaves. Virgins that you sacrifice for power, basically. While a few sites generate blood slaves, you will never find enough of these to satisfy your casting needs. The real way to get them is through blood hunting. To blood hunt, you have a commander (usually one with levels in Blood magic; those without it can find slaves, but are really, really bad at it) hunt in a province, taking from the local population. This raises unrest in the region and kills off some of the population; normally people focusing on Blood magic counteract this with Growth scales to balance out the population they lose, while setting the province's tax rate to zero to control unrest and prevent it from making it harder to hunt. If a province doesn't have enough population, there is a penalty to hunting there, too. However, once you get your "blood economy" going, you will have far more slaves than you have gems. Good blood economies regularly bring in over a hundred blood slaves a turn. This allows for some really nasty things, as you may or may not see later in the game.

(Blood slaves also show up in battle, unlike gems, as units around the commander whose inventory they're in. While they won't do anything themselves, they can be hit and killed by enemy attacks. Can be kind of inconvenient.)

In case you haven't caught on to Blood magic being kind of evil, it's also the school used for summoning demons and stuff, and all but two spells in it require you to kill at least one slave to cast it (and the ones that don't basically need you to use one to cut down the fatigue cost anyway). It's not exactly a nice school of magic.

So, that's that. Look forward to me using at least a little of all these schools, and marvel at me trying to deal with making a blood economy while my dominion hastens everyone getting killed instead of balancing it. It'll be hilarious. For people who aren't me, at least.

Bluemage142

April 29th, 2012, 10:33 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

Turn 5:

<a href="http://imgur.com/5Ev0x"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/5Ev0xl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

No messages this turn, since I went back to get reinforcements. The fact that I still have my Amazons is slightly surprising, and very welcome.

<a href="http://imgur.com/UxM8g"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UxM8gl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here's what my army looks like now. Four times the melee units, and another pile of ranged units.

<a href="http://imgur.com/JlGNt"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JlGNtl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

My new commanders are ready, so I start making them men to command. That's 42 BCs in one turn, if you're curious.

<a href="http://imgur.com/eiCzG"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/eiCzGl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/MEOBP"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MEOBPl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Finally, another useful merc band. Dante's Stingers are a group of 30 heavy infantry; not as good as my Amazons, but good enough to take me some provinces. I overbid massively on them, of course- more expansion is more important than more gold right now.

(Sliiiiiiiiiiight problem with this.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/1JSIQ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1JSIQl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Orders are to move the scout onward, send the main army to fight bakemono, and bring in the new commanders. If I get the Stingers, they'll be assaulting that province I skipped next turn, otherwise, I'll send one of the new guys over there.

I'm not showing graphs this turn- the only interesting bits were that Abysia and Fomoria are pulling ahead in provinces, my army is now the biggest out there, and Pan's dominion and Caelum's research are insane. Not too worried about the dominion part of things, but I need more mages (and better mages) soon.

Research is still going apace. Two turns to Thaum1, four to Thaum2. Let's see how next turn goes.

Turn 6:

<a href="http://imgur.com/v3tmD"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/v3tmDl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

As expected- a random event (no turn feels right without one of those), and a battle. Let's see what I've got.

<a href="http://imgur.com/Nxm2y"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Nxm2yl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/m6IZ2"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/m6IZ2l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The event is something I couldn't care less about. Brigands increase unrest, which I can just let the game cure by automatically lowering taxes. I'm in the mountains, so none of my provinces are really worth anything. 80% of almost nothing is still almost nothing, so this is worthless.

Now, the battle is MUCH nicer. 144 Marv infantry is hard to beat, and seeing a fight with no casualties just warms my shriveled black heart.

(Two things here. First, this event is a LOT worse for me than you might think I'll realize this later. Second, 100+ Marverni troops is a fairly decent critical mass. Not enough to handle a real army (of a similar size), but enough to wipe the floor with indeps without huge casualties.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/oKa9g"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oKa9gl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Isn't it pretty?

<a href="http://imgur.com/7VjBS"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/7VjBSl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Uh-oh. That purple banner is Fomoria, one of the races of giants in this game. Big, strong guys with good armor. I'm not enjoying the thought of fighting him, and he's partially in what I've decided should be my territory. Let's hope I can isolate him quickly enough to get my share of the map.

( *snort*)

<a href="http://imgur.com/sXbcC"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/sXbcCl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

No new mercs yet, and Fomoria stole Dante's Stingers. Drat.

Recruiting another mage and the last men for my next expansion group. 60 BCs and 20 Slingers. I'm also getting an independent commander, who will be sent over to where my primary army is. His purpose is to reach Faran, sit there, and build a fort. It should pay for itself right quick, both in recruitment and in the funds you get out of it.

(For those who didn't know, forts increase the taxes you get from surrounding provinces by their Administration value. I'm strapped for cash, so that's REALLY important.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/KnUXz"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KnUXzl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

It looks like Helheim is recovering, and what's this? Why's my income dropped so far?

<a href="http://imgur.com/Zsttw"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Zsttwl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

OH. Those bandits are in my capital- the source of ~90% of my gold. The AI automatically dropped my taxes to 50% to deal with that.

<a href="http://imgur.com/3t20p"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3t20pl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

That takes care of that. The taxes are back where they belong, and my patrolling troops will deal with the unrest. Glad I caught that before I lost ~100 gold.

(See? I'd set the game aside in the middle of this, so I was rather surprised to come back and find the treasury so bare.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/DHmdg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DHmdgl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Pan's army size has leveled off. He must be losing fights, or not have any Pans. Otherwise, he'd be gaining Maenads.

Let's all say it again. Maenads.

Turn 7:
(AKA "Why was I worried again?")

<a href="http://imgur.com/KLK62"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KLK62l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Well, now THIS is interesting! I've got Thaum1 as predicted, but let's see about the rest.

<a href="http://imgur.com/OPTkV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/OPTkVl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Magic item. Huh. It could be useful, or it could be utterly pointless. Gold would've been better.

(It ended up being Black Steel Armor, which is basically useless for me. Might be used on a Boar Lord, if that.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/ytHjd"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ytHjdl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is what was so interesting. I only had one scheduled battle, so a second one meant either that a bad random event fired, or Fomoria hit me. No bad random event, and I got the province as planned. Let's see how badly I lost.

<a href="http://imgur.com/XZVPe"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XZVPel.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

O_o

I... won? Against 30 giants!? Wow. Even managed to inflict more losses than I took! Let's see who got mauled in my army.

<a href="http://imgur.com/HGAtm"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/HGAtml.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Okay, so it was BCs. Good to see nobody important was lost. Now, let's watch that battle.

<a href="http://imgur.com/UgQra"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UgQral.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

So this is what I'm fighting. 21 Fir Bolg Slingers, a FB Champion, what looks like his starting commander prophetized, and 15 FB Warriors.

<a href="http://imgur.com/jvHc0"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jvHc0l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/eLCzS"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/eLCzSl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Lessons learned:

FB Warriors are hard for normal BCs to hurt.
Berserk is my friend- it was really hurting the FB.
Slingers die FAST.
He didn't throw any real giants at me.

<a href="http://imgur.com/gkQLC"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/gkQLCl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/1PDdL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1PDdLl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/maqpJ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/maqpJl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Looking at the area, he's spread rather thin. I think I got his major expansion army. He doesn't get glamour, so I should see any units he's still got, and I see nothing. I've split my armies into three parts, and am going to try and push him back quickly. Also sending my new army down to conquer the next province.

(Anybody who knows Fomoria should see the problem with this. Anybody who plays Dom3 should be able to see the other huge flaw here.)

I figure that Corinthian has a few different options here. Either he tries for that indep province with his four Unmarked in the forest, in which case I'll have 80 men (and, after a bit of thought, a mage) there to block him; he heads up and take my province (in which case, I'll dogpile him from three directions); he retreats (running straight into my assault), or he stays right there (and get attacked next turn anyway). I like those odds!

(Again, not factoring a few things into my analysis.)

No new mercs, recruiting some more BCs and vectoring in a commander for them, set my tax down to let unrest drop (since patrolling did little last turn), got another Gut ordered for Thaum2, and am otherwise finished. Let's see how things go.

Immaculate

April 29th, 2012, 10:35 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Six: Time After Time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVS5rS_da9E)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Cindi Lauper

Our expansion party, now that it has been reinforced with some chariots, is doing rather well.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2vlktb9" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/2vlktb9.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Here you can see some wolf tribesmen moments before my flanking chariots overrun their archers. The battle is over quickly.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=14j9l7b" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/14j9l7b.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

In terms of troop movements, we send more chariots to the south-east to reinforce our expansion party- our second barbarian commander is useful for that.

Meanwhile the army that just slaughtered wolf barbarians is set to attack some undead; with our prophet amongst our numbers and his H3 banishment, we should have little difficulty with these.

Here you can see the scripting we’ll use. Again with the guy out front taunting and running away – except this time our chariots are set to strike at the enemy’s rear while most of their forces are chasing that one guy… we’ll see if it works.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=34y9uuw" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/34y9uuw.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

You may have noticed that most of our research is being done by philosophers. So lets see how that’s working out for us…

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2ly0oib" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.tinypic.com/2ly0oib.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Looks like we are second place behind caelum who has an awake god doing their research.

Anyway, relatively quiet turn. I’m expanding pretty slowly and not really doing anything impressive.

EDIT: I am actually really excited to see the next maverni turn.... what will happen?

Immaculate

April 29th, 2012, 11:05 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Seven: An Honest Mistake (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji4m9__Ukb8)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by “The Bravery” - click the turn names for awesome 80s music. CLICK IT NOW. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji4m9__Ukb8) Open multiple windows and play it two or three times at once out of sync. You’ll be so happy.

Ooops…

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=zk2109" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/zk2109.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Not what I was expecting at all.

So what happens?

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=egbwcy" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/egbwcy.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Their undead cavalry hit my infantry line, and manage to kill many of them as well as our slingers while our chariot archers swing around and destroy their zombies (soulless) and finally their mound kings. We force a rout.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=16blvya" target="_blank"><img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/16blvya.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

But we lose much of our infantry and slingers.

Here you can see our barbarian commander and his chariots converging with the forces that just lost so many men to try and take another province. All the forces that routed in that last battle have run to the province ‘Stark’ is attacking from but unfortunately barb commander leadership sucks so he can’t pick them up to reform our forces.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=rua7w7" target="_blank"><img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/rua7w7.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

What do we have ready for those lizardmen?

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2zrj7gz" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/2zrj7gz.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I’m hoping this is a functional pincer movement. We’ll see what happens. You can see that attrition has basically wittled down my initial expansion party and forced me to keep feeding forces to this command instead of starting a second expansion party. Its sort of pathetic but its turn 7 and I am still only taking one province per turn. This is a horrible initial expansion rate.

jotwebe

May 1st, 2012, 02:01 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

Soundtrack: A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 02. Something Random
(http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762723/something-random?sid=album-a89286)

The turn before last turn I recruited a triton priest in Moon Sea.
Last turn I ordered him to search for sites, and he immediately
demonstrates why you should always search underwater provinces with
holy magic (H1 is enough).

http://i.imgur.com/5qN8F.png

The land temples don't give water, but are still nice.

The army led by Eshu Saath and Vkt'Ebph has also arrived from R'lyeh.

http://i.imgur.com/YLK8J.png

They prepare themselves for landfall, and their target is the
unsuspecting province of Numecria. The map has Ermor there,
yet Ermor is not a power in the game. And never will be ~~ the
story at the end will explain.

Meanwhile the sages of Arcoscephale have noticed the strange
going-ons beneath the sea.

http://i.imgur.com/RB0a5.png

For once someone sends us a friendly message! Why do the little
mans hate us so?

As you may have noticed on the screen above, Auluudh's guys are
just chillin'. How come? If you look at the south-eastern corner,
you'll see a certain octopoid monstrosity attacking the province
next from them ~~ from the other side. He doesn't need any help
with that, so Auluudh might as well make himself useful in his
capacity as a mage.

http://i.imgur.com/A8Piu.png

Yöt-Webbogoth also spots Pangaea's pretender, a vile undead husk
of a man that clings to its miserable existance at any price. Seems
a strange fit for a nation that's centered on growth and nature
magic, but nature/death is a very potent combination for Pangaea.
It gives access to carrion centaurs/lords/ladies that can reanimate
manikins (corpses reanimated by plants, undead with a nifty fatigue-
causing attack) for free, and a lich needs a strong dominion to make
the most of his immortality. Pangaea with it's cheap temples and
blood-sacrifice capability an provide, and those are even better
with a high dominion from the pretender.

Looks like he took really high dom. This means that I'll have a
nice old time preaching his filthy dominion out of my underwater
provinces. I also wave a tentacled goodbye to any plans I had to
snatch Tir na n'Og for Greater R'lyeh. Well, any *immediate* plans.
It'd be nice to have, since the only non-water access is via the
province his lich dude is standing in. But it also is on the
opposite end of the world from my, and I want to avoid the
impression of being excessively greedy. For now. Who knows, maybe
something will come up?

Anyway, with Yöt-Webbogoth attacking the last independant underwater
province this turn, Phase I of my cunning plan for world conquest
will be complete next turn. Have an inspirational picture:

http://i.imgur.com/2t6rt.jpg

Phase II will be:

A lab, a temple and a kelp fortress in. Every. Province.

Well, every second province maybe. And I'm talking underwater
provinces; on land I don't get any national units at all, so I won't
be building all that many forts there.

The labs will allow me to port mages troops with water-based spells
in addition to the standard astral ones (teleport & gateway). As
spread out as my empire is, that'll be very important.

The temples, together with a fort, will allow me to recruit my
wimmen. The R'lyeh ladies are very... traditional, and never leave
the house. They do provide a constant stream of free polypal spawn
(basically the hoburg militia of the seas) and a less constant
trickle of upkeep-costing but holy gibodai (the classier type of
mindblaster fish).

They also can kickstart my dominion with H2 preaching. Hopefully
that will be enough to let the temples spread it to the fortless
provinces in between: If I get provinces under my dominion, good
things will happen. If not, there will be problems ~~ my PD ain't
that great. But at least I'll have the option to recruit a ton of
R'lyeh tradmark chaff in a neighbouring fort and retake a province
if necessary.

The sea shall be an impregnable fortress, an iron clamp around the
land, a necklace of horrible spawn-factories constantly pumping out
their vile, wriggling offspring in an ever-rising tide of ickyness.
Mage fish shall gambol from the labs, spontaneously twirling their
tentacles together in invincible communions of doom.

I will be pursue this plan with stunning efficiency and without giving
in to any distractions whatsoever.

Nothing can go wrong.

~~~

For fellow aficionados of Lovecraftianesquish, here as a little something inspired by The Doom That Came To Sarnath.

TXT (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Doom_That_Came_to_Sarnath http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox) |

MP3 (http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox) | OGG (http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox/doom_that_came_to_sarnath_lovecraft_mb.ogg)

http://i.imgur.com/wxuXW.jpg

The Doom That Came To Ermor ~~ Part I

There is in the land of Numecria an silent bay where no wind blows
and no wave dares to enter. Not long ago there stood by the shore the
mighty city of Ermor, but Ermor stands no more.

It is told that when the city of Ermor was just about to rise to
prominence, another city stood by that shore. This was the city of
Nume, and it was not a city of men.

http://i.imgur.com/xB5Os.jpg

The beings that walked the streets of Nume were fish-like in shape,
and it was said they had come from beneath the waves, long ago on a
night when the moon leered gibbous and the North Star winked evily
upon the mist-shrouded sea.

The things of Nume were no friends to the proud tritons or the mermen
or even others of their kind, for it was said they had sworn fealty
to the City of the Deep Seas, the name of which the wise do not speak.

The things of Nume also were no friend to man, for men did not think
that beings of such aspect should walk the world above. Moreover, they
did not like the brooding sculptures of Nume, and the squat and heavy
palaces of dark gray stone the things of Nume built. Strange and
repellent were the rites and customs of the city, and the men of
Numecria, and fair Saeborea, and distant Ograthon spat on the ground
when they spoke the name of Nume.

Yet despite the hatred of man, and the people of the sea, Nume
prospered, for her traders sailed farther then all others, to Komoroo
and even mist-shrouded, accursed Fomoria, and they brought furs from
the forests of Maverni, whose priests disdained writing, and strange
mechanisms from golden Arcoscephale on the slopes of Mount Cephalos.

http://i.imgur.com/pLQOT.jpg

Thus it was that the men of Ermor, who had raised their city to the
foremost of the many towns in the hills of Numecria looked upon Nume
and felt envy, and even hate. Still, they feared Nume's strange powers
and allies, and did not dare to strike.

Instead they sent their broad-shielded armies marching into the hills,
and made all other towns of Numecria send them tribute, and swear
fealty to mighty Ermor.

It was not enough.

So the augurs of Ermor sent to the Oracle at Cephalos, above golden
Arcoscephale, and the oracle told them this:

"If Ermor defeats Nume, Ermor shall never be defeated by man nor
woman."

And the augurs of Ermor rejoiced to hear this, but prophecy was
notoriously fickle, and apt to turn on those who trusted it to
quickly.

So the augurs of Ermor sent to the tribes of Maverni, and sent again
when the first delegation came to a bad end. And the second delegation
brought gifts before the druids, and returned with the following
counsel:

"If Ermor conquers Nume, the conquest of the world shall begin at
Ermor."

Finally the augurs of Ermor sent to the Sauromancers of C'tis, for
they were neither man nor women and the augurs were a cautious lot.
On the way there the delegation was stopped by the Fiery Ones of
Abysia, and taken before the Smouldercone for judgement, for they had
trespassed on the Abysians' land. But the delegation's leader spoke
passionately of friendship and alliance, and the Anointed of Rhuax
let them go, in return for the promise of a share in Ermor's great
destiny.

So the men of Ermor came to swamp-girded C'tis, most ancient of all
cities above the sea. There they saw lizard serpent-dancers whirling
and twisting in their holy trance, and splendid lizard princes ride
in gilded chariots, and the sauromancers conjure the spirits of the
dead with the smoke of certain herbs.

It was difficult for warm-blooded men to gain an audience with the
lizard sorcerors, but the delegation's leader persisted, and spoke
with great eloquence of Ermors splendour and riches, and the wisdom
of its augurs.

And the lizard-kings were swayed, and granted the men of Ermor leave
to speak with the Sauromancers, who than performed many strange and
unsettling rites. At last the Sauromancers spoke with a fell spirit,
imprisoned under the Root of the Earth, and asked about the fate of
mighty Ermor.

"If Ermor destroys Nume, Ermor shall learn the secrets of life and
death."

This the spirit spoke, and laughed so mightily that the earth shook
and a great temple to one of the many snake-godlets of C'tis fell
down.

The men of Ermor were divided what to make of this, but they were
agreed that the time had come for them to return. But the swamps of
C'tis are full of unhealthy airs for those not of lizard-kind, and
all of them fell ill not long after they had embarked on their
journey.

One by one they died, and only a single man returned at last to mighty
Ermor, ranting and raving. Still, it was enough for the augurs with
their magic to sift sense from feverish frenzy. And the augurs of
Ermor greatly wished to divine the secrets of life and death, which
they reckoned to be the greatest among the secrets that still eluded
them. For the augurs of Ermor were arrogant, and reckoned themselves
wise beyond all other men, and believed that there was little they did
not know, and that of even smaller consequence, save for the secrets
of life and death.

~~~ to be continued ~~~

LDiCesare

May 1st, 2012, 04:36 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

TURN 9:

First, a view of the map this turn:
http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/1584/turn9.png

I conquer a province full of Circle Masters with my minotaurs. Maenads are good at catching arrows, as expected. As expected, they are bad at surviving the arrows.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2958/turn9minotaurs.png

I lose even more in the north, where the maenads were only supported by centaur archers, but still win the battle.
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5466/turn9archers.png

Thorion, after defeating elephants, now defeats much more dangerous enemies... Markatas!
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9776/turn9markata.png
Yes, seriously, Markatas deserve some love. They are probably one of the worst units in the game, but they are so fun.

Meanwhile, Fomoria is very high on the province graphs, with R'lyeh not so far. Abysia has been stagnating for a while, I'm just behind them BUT. What is he doing with his army of Burning Ones just south of me, with nowhere to go but in my lands? Seriously? So I bring back my god as I foresee an attack. Why otherwise would he be bringing his troops? I also buy some minotaurs. They should be able to deal some damage to abysians once berserked. And some revelers. These will have to go spread unrest in the fiery one's lands if he's the *** I think he is. Wtf is he thinking? That I'll fold and he can take out my lands easily? He's got lots of indies to expand into north and west. Bringing his armies here is simply asking for war, and it'll cost him as his pitiful dominion won't let him kill my pretender. Unless I am silly enough to attack outside my dominion, that is. I even blood hunt a little in my capital this turn in order to get some slaves and push my dominion if needs be.Blood-hunting is quite random unfortunately I send him an in-game message. It doesn't matter that he'll get it after attacking me, it seems so obvious, I'm just calling him names. He has to hope he can rush me, but if he fails, well, a failed rush means death for both parties. Why does he think my pretender is second in the HoF? He's either just ruining the game for both of us or being totally silly wasting troops near me on a peaceful visit.
Well, as expected, he is indeed attacking and my predicitons were right. He never managed to take me out, opened himself wide to be slaughtered by his other neighbours and is very likely to die before me. Although Marverni, who was bold enough to actually ATTACK (!!!) Fomoria without having any decent troops or research, may die first.
I also get sightings of both Helheim and Fomoria.
The good news is the Markata province can produce, well, Markatas, but also Atavai chieftains. Stealthy, 40 leadership. Awesome for revelers and centaurs.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7472/turn9atavi.png
Do NOT underestimate this guy. He's very precious, being a stealthy commander for very cheap.

And I buy my atavi chieftain a few warriors and ONE Markata. My enemies will shiver in fear at this awesome sight for sure.Yes, I know, Markatas suck. So what?
I'll also get Construction 2 by the end of the turn, so I can also start forging stuff if needed, although keeping research up to cons 4 would be my preferred option.
Overall, this is unhappy. I could expand greatly now if only Abysia left me alone. He won't gain anything by attacking me, so what does he believe he can do? I'll spam his backyard with revelers and his economy will tank if he doesn't waste money on lots of PD...Because obviously, every province he forgets to put 20PD in will eventually fall and he'll have to take it back and spend 210 gold to fortify it and never will he be able to use the commanders and money wasted this way to buy himself a second fort.

Corinthian

May 1st, 2012, 12:32 PM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 2 – Lets take a look at the world.

There were no important events this turn other than that various nations declared their pretenders. Everyone prophetized their starting scout except for Marverni, who prophetized his starting commander instead. I did not think much of this at this time but later this knowledge gave me vital clues as to Bluemage's personality and playing style.

One event that was easily overlooked was that there was the proclamation that my patrolers reduced unrest by 2. To bad my overtaxing caused 12 points of unrest. Despite my praise of them last turn! How could they! Anyway these things happen. Overtaxing will always give 2 points of unrest for every 10% above 100%. Patrolers on the other hand are quite random in how effective they are and can fail even with great numbers given some bad luck. 2 points of unrest seem to have disappear by itself due to friendly dominion though.
http://i.imgur.com/eZVxt.jpg
Having a look at the world at the start of turn tells me one important thing. Crystal Amazons to my north east! Jackpot! I was wondering what I would have to do to get astral. With R'lyeh ever close by, astral magic is a must. I worried that I would have to wait until conj 6 and specters until I would get astral. Instead I find astral indies right outside of my door. Lucky!

Actually I was expecting to find astral from indies so it was part of my plan. Crystal amazons and lizard tribes are common in the Early Age. But its nice to find one so soon so I no longer have to feel any any pressure about it.
http://i.imgur.com/hwwPq.jpg
I was planning to recruit another Druid and four Unmarked, but as I lost some resources due to unrest I had to settle for three and a Nemedian Champion.

The first druid spend the turn building an Owl Quill. Some people consider these things to be a waste of Air gems. And they have a point. 5 Air gems for 3 points of research is not a good exchange. But it is also true that the power of a research booster depends on when you build it. At turn 2 that quill will produce research for a long time. Also in CBM Owl Quills have the additional effect of giving its wearer – 2 to enc. Witch to a spellcaster, or a quickened thug, is slightly better than having reinvigoration 4, due to the enc bonus counting double for spells and count once for each action. I will use them like this later, so really, they are actually just thug items that produce research while they sit in storage.

Nevertheless, the keen eyed among you might have noticed a red arrow going north. That arrow represent an ambassadorial group of Fir Bolgs that will visit the province of Vath to the north and my prophet to reveal to them the joyous words of Snakey. The army is my starting army plus the ten additional Fir Bolgs that I produced last turn. The opposition consist of 20 troops. Mainly of shieldless militia and light cavalry. There might possibly be a few heavy cavalry also that is not shown, but I am confident that my prophet could just smite them if they exist. Light and heavy cavalry often comes together.
http://i.imgur.com/IbXcT.jpg
I could also have attacked the barbarians to the south as barbarians are dangerous to giants. But I wanted my prophet to move north to strengthen my dominion up there. Already I can see the dominion of R'lyeh in the waters to the north west of my capitol and I would like it if the lands stayed under my my faith at the very least. Although I took dom strength 7 on my pretender, he is imprisoned and cant help inspire people on his own just yet. R'lyeh's pretender on the other hand is awake according to the graphs and could pose a significant threat to my dominion if he would chose to expand to the south. He is either a Wyrm or an Ancient Kraken. Both are viable though I suspect that he is a Ancient Kraken due to thematic reasons.

Oh right, lets take a look at this picture again.
http://i.imgur.com/eZVxt.jpg
No, I dont know why some of the pictures have a white border beneath them.

Anyway, lets talk about my build. Other players that look at my pretender would be excused if they though that I took the standard earth+nature bless. Because I did!
http://i.imgur.com/twMJi.jpg
This is a E4N8 bless that, as the picture shows, allows my sacreds to regenerate and makes them last longer in battle without tiring. What the casual observer would have missed however is the fact that this bless only compromises a small part of my overall build. Most of my points were spent on my scales. As you can see above I took Order 3 for money, production 3 for versatility and because fomoria is one of the few heavy armor nations in EA. And for money of course. This is CBM after all. I also took Growth 2. Not because Fomoria in anyway need growth, but because growth is really powerful in CBM. Magic 1 is something that everyone takes so nothing strange there.

Only negative scale I took was heat 1 because I wanted to experiment a little. I have tested it a bit and it have given me the theory that temperature scales might not be as bad as it say on the tin. Yes, even with multipliers multiplying multipliers or whatever. The thing I have noticed is this: even with a base heat of 1 the heat will never get above 1 in the summer despite the fact that temperatures will go up then. This means that heat is free points in the summer. It will also often go down to heat 0 in winter making it the same in winter. Had I known Abysia would be in this game I would have chosen cold, but I designed my pretender before Excist even announced his choice of nation and I could not be arsed to change it.

There were mercs available but none of them were very appealing to me. I did not have the funds to bid on the Amazons when they were available and they are neither able to expand on their own, nor did they compliment the rest of my forces. Not worth it.

There were also city guards up for bid, but they are something of a joke that mainly new players recruit by mistake. They consist 60 militia and in a fight, militia can actually be worse than nothing due to them routing easily and taking the rest of the army with them in the rout. It is true like Mightypeon say, that they makes for adequate patrollers for overtaxing your capitol. But even there they'll just barely do. Remember that buying 60 militia for permanent patrolling would cost just 300g. Or 9 months for the mercs at minimum bid. Well, +40 for a commander. Whatever.

Turn 3: The <del>300</del> five warriors go forth to take the mountain pass.
http://i.imgur.com/Z0mI7.jpg
I rarely get random events because of Order 3 and the lack of both luck and misfortune scales. Thus, only two events happened this turn. A battle and the fact that Abysia declared a demonbreed assassin to be his prophet. Such an odd choice. But I did not pay any more attention to this. I should have.

The other event was a battle.
http://i.imgur.com/bliHD.jpg
An excellent and highly improbable outcome what with Fir Bolgs having only prot 7. Turns out that there really *were* four heavy cavalry in the province. But despite that, my Fir Bolgs did not take any casualties. One of them received a never healing wound, but he was immediately put on the famous fomorian health regime of “suck it up you prancy princess!”

Other interesting thing happening is that my second expansion force is ready.
http://i.imgur.com/P51Zs.jpg

Normally I like to have at least 6 giants in an expansion force, but you use what you get, and today I stand here with only five giants. They will have to do.

So whats up with these guys? Well with my blessing and the power of bad math they becomes an unbreakable wall of spears that will also stab people pretty well with its atk12, dam24 weapons. The bless will let them regenerate 6 HP every round. How exactly 15% of 35 turns in to 6 HP is a mystery but it has probably something to do with how awesome Snakey is. Or maybe dominions always round regeneration numbers upwards. Whatever.

I almost skipped over the earth bless part of the bless in favor of more scales, but it turns out I need it in order to make my quickened kings fatigue neutral. For the Unmarked it has the power to make them last 67% longer in battle without fatiguing out. Witch is good enough I guess.

Anyway, the bless also has another purpose and that is to prevent afflictions. No one knows to what extent regeneration protects against afflictions, but two things are known: One: The tool tip that it prevents 7/8 or all afflictions is wrong, and Two: more is probably better. 5% gives rather little protection, 15% gives rather a lot. This is also thematic as fomorians put great importance in avoiding afflictions as social status is depending on being healthy.

Soon these fearsome soldiers will be adorned with experience stars from expanding and unlike other elite troops they wont gain the complimentary afflictions.

Moving out!
http://i.imgur.com/Hk8ka.jpg
Although I only brings 5 giants with me this time I have no doubt that their heavy armor and shields will be able to overcome almost any amount of archers and mindburns and take neither afflictions or casualties.

Next turn spoilers:
http://i.imgur.com/FFkFq.jpg
Got drat it!

Immaculate

May 4th, 2012, 09:53 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Eight: When in Rome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HI_xFQWiYU)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by ‘The Promise’. A reminder that the song titles in the above heading is a link to the music you want to be listening to while you read this.

If you can remember the last installment, we were attempting to take an indie lizardman province with an expansion party newly reinforced from the capital with some chariot archers. What happened there?

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2uei97s" target="_blank"><img src="http://i45.tinypic.com/2uei97s.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

So this is all that is left in that province.

Oh poop!

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=if9a9f" target="_blank"><img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/if9a9f.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

The lizards are simply numerous and armed with their tridents and a bit of strength, simply hit hard. Our morale isn’t great and when we lose a few troops, we run…

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=1g40m9" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.tinypic.com/1g40m9.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Pictured here is our commanders spreading out to gather up all the forces that ran away.

Luckily, in other parts of the map we are finally ready to launch a second expansion party.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=1pz30z" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/1pz30z.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

This one is made up entirely of chariot archers. We’ll see how they do against horse archers.

Turns are still a little boring as we go through pretty standard expansion- don’t worry things will get more exciting.

Immaculate

May 4th, 2012, 10:16 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Nine: Don’t You (forget about me) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhaHLoK3CF4)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by ‘Simple Minds’.

So diplomacy is finally starting to take place as we meet our neighbors. I had sent a message to R’leyh basically confirming that he got the waters and I got local lands. Its not like I could go into the waters to dispute this even if I wanted to so it doesn’t really change anything. His answer was,
“Sure, I'll stay off the land, at least in your corner. I do have a Fomoria on overdrive sitting in my face...”

I also get this from Pangea,
Greetings from Pangaea to Arcoscephale.
I may be mistaken, but I believe you might be in the southwestern part of the map, in which case your western neighbor would be Abysia.
If that is the case, you may find it interesting to learn Abysia is busy invading Pangaea to its east, and hasn't expanded to the west very much. Any action you could take to piss him off would reward you with my gratitude. I might also send in some Nature gems by the way.

Hope things are going better for you, I don't like early wars when the other nation is suited for it and not mine.

So things are starting to take form on the world stage. Told you things would get more exciting soon…

Well, this turn we finally managed to bid successfully on some mercs; I had been trying for awhile but most low-balling (Stupid me!).

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2enajwx" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/2enajwx.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Just as we hear of the dangers of big, bad formoria, we find out that he’s our northern neighbor. Oh Gently Caress!

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=9gc0f9" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/9gc0f9.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
Our battle with the horse archers went splendidly however. (I won’t bother showing you a screenshot- its pretty much just another indie battle- I’ll take a picture of more interesting battles as they take place).

What perhaps is of slightly more interest is a coordinate attack from three different provinces on a province with crystal amazons. I think these can be tough so I decided to throw everything I had at them.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=6sdm5g" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/6sdm5g.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

You can see from the forces lined up that I hired a few wolf tribe archers. We have no archers (slingers DO NOT count) so they will have to do.

Next turn we’ll probably take those crystal amazons… probably…

Roland Jones

May 5th, 2012, 07:36 AM

Sorry for the lack of updates on my end; I haven't been feeling well this past week. I'll try to catch up soon, though.

Immaculate

May 5th, 2012, 11:33 AM

hope you feel better soon roland.

jotwebe

May 6th, 2012, 02:27 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 9

SOUNDTRACK: Avkhimovich, The Sound Theory, 03: Noiser Offset (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762724/noiser-offset?sid=album-a89286)

Story first, gameplay below:

http://i.imgur.com/wxuXW.jpg

The Doom That Came to Ermor ~~ Part II

Three delegations the augurs of Ermor sent out to learn the destiny of their city,
and three prophecies they received:

The Oracle of Mount Cephalos, above golden Arcoscephale, told them this:

"If Ermor defeats Nume, Ermor shall never be defeated by man nor woman."

The druids of Maverni, wise in the ways of the stars, prophecied:

"If Ermor conquers Nume, the conquest of the world shall begin at Ermor."

And the last foretelling came from a spirit, chained under the Root of the Earth and
questioned by the Sauromancers of ancient C'tis.

"If Ermor destroys Nume, Ermor shall learn the secrets of life and death."

This pleased the augurs greatly, and so they counseled the senate of Ermor to make war
on Nume. The senate needed little encouragement, for they were greedy and envious of
the fish-men's great wealth.

Out then marched the armies of mighty Ermor, with their tall shields and sharp swords
and cunning javelins. The dust raised from their sandaled feet blew in billowing clouds,
and their brazen horns brayed like hammers smashing the sun's disk.

The fish-men of Nume pulled shut their great gates of gray iron on which were certain
detestable bas-reliefs that sapped the will and courage of those who looked upon them, and
readied their spiked nets and barbed harpoons and three-tined tridents. And the horns of
Nume moaned and gurgled like dying whales.

But Ermor called upon the other cities of Numeria, and fair Saeborica, and even distant
Ograthon, and they enclosed Nume in a half-ring of soldiers, and made gifts to the sea-people
so that they would close the harbour. Even to wild Maverni they sent, for their fearless
warriors, and to golden Arcoscephale, for their cunning builders and number-men. They even
sent to the cursed giants of Fomoria, but of the fog-people none would come.

And the sages of Arcoscephale built great towers of wood to reach the walls, and the warriors
of Maverni leaped first unto the walls, where they made a great slaughter. And it is said
the jarls of Helheim rejoiced that day, but they were not present, for in those years the
Gates of Death were still firmly closed.

For many years Ermor would replay this battle on the blood-soaked sand of it's arenas, where
one of the gladiators would fight with trident and net, and wear a repellent fish-like helmet.

So the armies of men took the walls of Nume, and descended into the city, where they pillaged
and burned. And at last they came to the temples, and broke open the doors in search of riches,
but of what they found there no one would speak. But a grim hatred came then over them, and
they spurned loot and turned to killing, and some spoke at length with the tritons below the
waves, who would let none of the fish-folk escape.

Finally Nume was put to the torch, and the men of Ermor brought salt at great expense and
poisoned the earth, and the tritons warded the harbour so that no water would enter and no
water would leave.

http://i.imgur.com/3BWXS.jpg

With Nume broken and shattered, Ermor rose up, now first of all cities in the north-west. Yet
dreams plagued all that had marched against Nume, and their descendants, and none could find
sleep on the night that Nume fell, no matter how many years had passed.

This was why the celebration of Nume's death and Ermor's victory, at first a solemn affair,
began to become more and more debauched, as the people of Ermor sought to flee their dreams.

Every year the festivities grew more raucous, the excesses louder and more insistent, as every
year more people had come under the curse of Nume, and where desperate not to sleep.

So it was that one hundred years after Nume's fall, there were few guards on duty at the
harbour, even though news from under the sea had been worrying of late.

And so, when under the gibbous, green, leering moon and the madly twinkling north star the huge,
slimy sea-trolls lurched out of the mist-shrouded sea, and the misshapen, hunchbacked, mindless
toad-men followed, hopping and shuffling, few stood to snatch up their spears and shields,
fewer still stood and received the monstrous charge.

The people of Ermor were used to strange noises on this night; no-one heeded their screams.

Those that escaped the first battle would accost random party-goers, but to no avail: all
believed them to be in the throes of some strange delirium brought on by one of the many exotic
drugs that the people of Ermor had come to favour on this night.

Behind the vanguard, the vast bulks of the Abzu-lesh hurled themselves out of the water,
accompanied by more of their stunted atlantean slaves. They would begin to turn the people of
Ermor on one another, and cloud their minds further to keep them from realizing their doom,
save for their last moments when the veil would be ripped from them, and the terrible
realization of their death would be prolonged into eternities by the cruel magic of their
killers.

http://i.imgur.com/9UvCD.jpg

Thus Nume was avenged.

Thus Ermor was defeated, by neither man nor woman.

Thus, at Ermor, began the conquest of the world.

Thus Ermor learned the secrets of life and death.

~~~

inspired by *The Doom That Came to Sarnath*

mp3 (http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox/doom_that_came_to_sarnath_lovecraft_mb_64kb.mp3) low quality (9M)

mp3 (http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox/doom_that_came_to_sarnath_lovecraft_mb.mp3) high quality (18M)

ogg (http://www.archive.org/download/collected_lovecraft_0810_librivox/doom_that_came_to_sarnath_lovecraft_mb.ogg) vorbis (9M)

txt (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Doom_That_Came_to_Sarnath)

~~~

GAMEPLAY GAMEPLAY GAMEPLAY

This is a memorable turn. This month the last independent underwater province has fallen to Yöt-Webbogoth's
might.

http://i.imgur.com/bLV0K.png

Resistance is feeble. Futile, too. There was a moving sandbank in the province, a nice earth site that will
automatically be found. Yöt-Webbogoth heads north: he can't yet leave the water, and the nation most likely
to come visit underwater is Fomoria. It follows that the kraken an do the most good discouraging this by
lounging about off Fomoria's coast.

http://i.imgur.com/dXN5b.png

At the same time, Eshu Saath and Vkt'Ebph make landfall in Numecria.

http://i.imgur.com/bLV0K.png

Resistance is... beyond feeble. Did the goatfaces try to invade before? About two thirds of the enemy units
end up on R'lyeh's side. And this is where Ermor is supposed to be? Clearly everybody was distracted by
debauched celebrations of some sort.

http://i.imgur.com/EsDlx.png

Not everything goes well: Madness descends on Lake Fortune in the utter north-east.

http://i.imgur.com/obLbY.png

I didn't know this could happen with cold scales? Or was this sabotage? Deliberate, malevolent, evil, evil
sabotage? Did someone cast Raging Hearts on my provinec? Will someone own up? No? Then I will just have to
presume all of you guilty. ALL OF YOU.

On a happier note, let us welcome our newest overpaid mind lord recruit, Dxu'daku. As you may have deduced
from his name, he is actually less overpriced than his fellows.

http://i.imgur.com/XwRBI.png

Double death picks! Can't hold a skull staff or skull face, but with rings of sorcery and wizardry D4 is
doable. Or better, he could make a skull staff and skull face for a revenant to hold/wear (enchantment 3,
death 2, summons a D1 mage with HANDS and a HEAD). That'd give us D5. Which in turn is enough for lichcraft,
and with that Bob's your uncle. Or B'obph.

Since we have water and death we could also go the conjuration route via Streams from Hades (W4D1) to get
a Kokythiad, which is a W3D3 mage. With hands. And a head. Also there are wendigos. Wendigoes? Hopefully
we'll see some of those at one point.

Anyway, Dxu'daku. Fine young mind lord. All right, maybe young is not quite the right word for a 1500 year
old fish monster. Still, I foresee a GREAT future for him.

For now he's going out sitesearching (placed at the back, set to retreat) and hopefully in a few turns
we'll have the death gems pouring in.

Nithü ~~ remember Nithü? ~~ has been looking for nature sites all this time, no success so far. He's building
a lab in Baptizer this turn (that's the north pole fortress).

Immaculate

May 6th, 2012, 10:39 PM

turn was extended so caelum, r'leyh and helheim didn't stale.

jotwebe

May 7th, 2012, 03:17 AM

Thanks.

Wish I could say I was busy, but in fact I got distracted by sunshine. Will revert to troglodyte lifestyle ASAP.

LDiCesare

May 8th, 2012, 05:15 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

TURN 11:

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/5333/turn11.png

Abysia decided to wait and group their armies. Fine. They'll besiege an impregnable wall with all their troops while I send my stealthy bastards and my minotaurs to wreck havok in their land. Cool. A rush requires you to attack immediately, not to delay, buddy! I'm sending some more revelers in the south and from there they'll march in to abysian territory and preach with dryads.
I build more gear. I thought the fire plate gave 100% fire res but, no, it's 50%. Sucks. I wouldn't have built that, but a better shield instead. I go with a pendant of luck, along with some boots and bracers of protection. That will give me a better defense, one more attack, fairly decent prot so I can withstand a few blows.
I also should get Arcoscephale to help me for hopefully 15 nature + 3 water gems. I send him 12 nature gems. He'll equip oreiads with vineshields. Immac, honestly, I'm not sure oreiads are the good weapon against abysian fire mages, but I need help, so I will just hope they work, at least as a deterrant. Anyway, Abysia can't field enough armies to fight two wars, so that should help us enough.

I really wonder if Excist's wrong assertion that maenads count as 1/10th of a defender made him think he could take my forts. This is wrong, as Calahaan pointed out. It's still the only reason I can see for him trying to attack me. His wrong post is dated april 8th, which is around turn 14. So I think that Abysia's whole attack has been made on the premise my maenads wouldn't help me hold my walls, which is false. And partly explains why he can never tear down my walls.
Anyway, it's quite sad, because if that's the case, he's basically committed suicide because of a wrong belief, and dragged me down the drain along the way.
Because of course, I didn't plan on being attacked so early as doing this would mean lost game for the attacker.
It would be nice to hear from Excist...

Corinthian

May 8th, 2012, 08:21 AM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 4: Exponential expansion happens.
http://i.imgur.com/9uMa5.jpg
Only two events happened this turn. Two expected battles battles.
http://i.imgur.com/uIHp9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Wqpmg.jpg
Victory was a forgone conclusion given the expected opposition of shieldless militia and Crystal Amazons, but the fact that neither expansion party took any casualties was unexpected news. This makes the second battle that my prot 7 Fir Bolgs make it through without losses. Combined with the experience stars they are getting they are becoming a stronger force without me having to do anything.

As my spoilers showed last turn, one of my unmarked still managed to receive two afflictions from the enemy mindburn assault despite his 6 HP/turn regen. Making 3 afflictions from the battle as a whole. Their mothers wont be happy once they return. I can tell you that.
http://i.imgur.com/qYEBZ.jpg
Back in the capitol another expansion force already stands conscripted. Due to the continuing resource shortages I only managed to get four giants and a short guy last turn. Well down from the six that I wanted. Probably enough to take out the group of militia that guards the desert to the south east of my capitol though.
http://i.imgur.com/QVakD.jpg
Every expansion force continues to challenge themselves. I'm mainly moving north east to block off whoever starts up there from getting a foothold in my direction. I have already decided that the three provinces to the east belongs to me due to their proximity to my capitol. If I can also grab the desert and the forest beyond them then I am happy.

Although the picture here dont show it too well, the province located directly to the south of my cap contains barbarians. And although giants normally dont fare well against barbarians I have a plan for how to fix it. Next turn I will finally get my allotted 6 giants per turn.
http://i.imgur.com/donRF.jpg
These gents will provide cover for these gal's:
http://i.imgur.com/GvrgU.jpg
Once I get them that is.

A useful thing to do is to look at the provinces adjacent to the ones with your dominion in it each turn. Although you do not have any candles in them you can still tell their scales and this can allow you to deduct weather there are any interesting magic sites in them. Looking at provinces early, before they have had the chance of having any dominion in them will also prevent the results from being tainted by yours our others scales.
http://i.imgur.com/AWVy9.jpg
I look at ???(64), witch have luck scales. Jackpot! As far as I know there is only one thing in the game that can cause luck scales in an indy province without dominion in it: The site “Totem Collection”. It gives the owner 1s and 1n per turn and increases the luckscales in the province. Not a super site by any means, but it gives me an S income that can be used to remote search for further sites and it only requires S1 to find. And I have just found S mages!
http://i.imgur.com/qMeQ1.jpg
The other interesting province have growth scales in it. Not in itself quite as interesting as the luck due to the fact that there exist random events that cause growth, but it could potentially be something much more spectacular. One of the best non-mage, non-discount sites in the game increases growth scales. Namely “The Shrouded Lands” that gives, on top of growth: 2s 2a and 2n gems. I could not actually find it even if I got that province though because it requires N3 to find and Fomoria only ever get N1 on its mages. It might be one of two other sites but neither of them are very interesting so I wont contemplate those possibilities.
http://i.imgur.com/xMYZ3.jpg
Meanwhile, the Druid Eingeach have been busy figuring out how to read in the last couple of turns. Once he accomplished that feat he was immediately told to explore the possibilities of the construction of magical equipment. With his quill he is researching almost as fast as a respectable mage!

The focus on construction this early will leave me without any early battle magic. But seeing the state of my mages, that probably does not mater. Almost all the things I want out of construction is located at construction 4 so we wont be seeing any use out of it for a while.

Corinthian

May 8th, 2012, 01:10 PM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 5: First contact
http://i.imgur.com/Yd561.jpg
I actually had an unexpected event this turn!
http://i.imgur.com/NUHY8.jpg

Six beautiful nature gems! Keep them coming RNG! I need at least 30 nature gems to empower a druid. Otherwise I cant sitesearch remotely or forge boosters to get higher in the nature game.

Three battles happen.
http://i.imgur.com/WsWp8.jpg
My Paint Fu is weak but all the battles were victorious.

Our Fir Bolg finally start taking casualties though. The dying people were mainly dumbasses though as half of them were people who ran in to melee rather that threw their javelins like I told them to.
http://i.imgur.com/J2HSx.jpg

Javelin throwers often have these problems. Those in the squad closest to the enemy think they are too close to use their ranged weapons so they run in and die due to breaking squad coherency. My Fir Bolgs have defence 15 base with their shields. It does not help much because defence gets reduced by 2 for every previous attack a unit have gotten against itself. And with all the barbarians closing up for a hit they did not stand a chance. Had they stayed in formation the enemies attacks would have been spread around and their defence not been diluted as much.
http://i.imgur.com/zGYZz.jpg

In the northern theatre we finally encounters R'lyeh. I send him a message about drawing up boarders. The Isle of Balor is MINE! No mater what those huffy bankers might think! I tell R'lyeh that he can have the peninsula to the north in exchange. It is actually more in the zone-of-control of the guy starting to the north-east of me so R'lyeh landing there would be more of a threat to him and giving R'lyeh 3 provinces makes me look like a friendly and reasonable neighbor. It looks like R'lyeh have already made a failed attempt to land there based on the fact that he lost troops this turn and my scouting reports show that only 5 heavy infantry stands guard over Ermor.

Troops are marching north, but to not lose any speed by bringing a new expansion party to the eastern front. I instead recruit a mercenary party capable of beating weak indies on their own. Dante's Stingers.
http://i.imgur.com/OFZKo.jpg

I did not get the Archers in White despite my decent bid. Dang it. This means I have to combine two expansion parties to take care of the barbarians to the south of my capitol.
http://i.imgur.com/Dn68J.jpg

Oh well. The tiny expansion party killed militia just fine, but they might have had trouble with the barbarians in the province to the south of them if they were to attack alone. Ten Giants might be killy enough that they'll get through this without casualties.
http://i.imgur.com/mbf5V.jpg

Recruitment is cut back on in the capitol to account for the merc bid. I buy only what is absolutely necessary. I mean I'm not made of money. Not yet anyway...... Lets fix that.

You remember this picture from a bit above?
http://i.imgur.com/zGYZz.jpg

Like mushrooms, from the grounds sprouts militia!
http://i.imgur.com/SZLcx.jpg

This is all part of my clever plan to convince R'lyeh that I am an AI player. I often do things that must seem strange and witch only he can see due to his ocean provinces bordering just about everything.

What else hey are good for.... Well I think you can guess, good reader.

Oh yea! Some interesting things have also happened in the graphs since the game began.
http://i.imgur.com/1Msdg.jpg
I actually have a presence on the research graph now. The graphs reveal that Caelum seem to be using the famous Eagle King thug expansion strategy. Were in the player stay in his capitol for several turns while the research pretender with an earth bless (probably a great Enchantress from the female name) research the mistform and shockwave that the eagle kings need to expand on their own. Or maybe just air shield and mirror image if you feel like gamble. A solid strategy. If rather bold and risky.

Pangaea had his pretender research the first turn and then used it to expand. This combined with its nature/death titles indicates that it is obviously a Carron Dragon. A very powerful Pangaea only pretender with death and nature that got built in vine shield in CBM. A predictable build for Pangaea. But a solid choice none the less.

Arco seem to have built two philosophers. Or two Oreads. Though the later is unlikely this early due to cost. This means he is probably doing the sloth build thing. Good to know.
http://i.imgur.com/xMoPz.jpg
Several other players were complaining in their updates that Fomoria was looking scary and even though its early, this graph might explain it. My expansion curve almost look exponential! R'lyeh had a head start, but I am finally ahead of him as I should. Only Giants may be biggest! Caelum has only taken one province and then dedicated all its money towards research. Marvernis expansion stall and remain unimpressive. Pangaeas expansion stalled last turn. His pretender is not dead though so maybe it was just driven of by unexpectedly tough indies? Helheim has finally started to expand and Abysias line is hidden by mine. He uses stealth expansion to prevent people from realising how big he is!

http://i.imgur.com/nvALD.jpg
From the income graph I can tell that everyone except Marverni probably overtaxed their capitol on turn 1. R'lyeh never stopped overtaxing it! Witch is why his income is almost on par with mine despite my scales.

Most graphs are pointing upwards due to new territories but Helheim's took a dive in the other direction and seem to have plummeted all the way down to 0 on turn 3! How this is possible is a mystery so I got in touch with him during turn 5 on IRC.

I dont have the chat logs because of mibbit, but this is what I remember.

<Roland_Jones>: Yea I was hit by the plague on turn 2 and my patrollers failed so now my capitol have more than 100 points of unrest to patrol down.
<Roland_Jones>: Also I have a Kraken of my cost killing my dominion :(
<Roland_Jones>: But I fight on!
<Cori>: Did you by any chance start on the “Peninsula of Bad Starts”?
<Roland_Jones>: Wait? Its cursed?
<Roland_Jones>: Why dont people tell me these things!
(I knew he started on the peninsula due to knowing were the Kraken went, but its best to not reveal these things in order to not harm my prophesy)
: <Cori>Oh yea, everyone who starts on that peninsula, weather in SP or MP, fill be doomed to failure!
: <Cori> Misfortune after misfortune!

More banter followed and he learned my starting position. But so terrified was Helheims player that he must have used mindbleach to remove the memory of this prophesy and our conversation from his mind. But the foretold misfortune came true anyway.

Anyway, I'm not sure if its good or bad that he did not start near me because although a weakened player like that just begs to be rushed, Fomoria have a hard time dealing with glamour cavalry in the early game. Maybe he will become someone else's target. Though starting on the peninsula he will only have two neighbors plus R'lyeh. That means he is hard to gang up on but his neighbors also knows that he have to attack one of them in order to expand. That makes for wary diplomacy.

One of these days I must make a post about the metagame. This post is as good as any. It is interesting to see that none of the players in this game picked any of the true EA powernations like Lanka, Hinnom, Mictlan or Niefelheim. Or Sauromatica. Instead we have many of the weakest EA nations like Caelum, Pan and Marverni. (Arco is a special case) Granted marverni gets stronger over time and with research, but...

In Vanilla, both Fomoria and R'lyeh would probably count among the weak nations as well. After all, Fomoria could not clam, make bloodstones or fetishes or hammers. Nor could it really afford to put these abilities on its pretender as fomoria could not afford to not have an imprisoned pretender if you want a bless, due to lacking the temperature preferences of the other giant nations. And you know what? Now, no one can forge those things, making the playingfield much fairer. Fomoria is still highly cap centric, but good scales can mitigate that to an extent due to decent non-cap troops.

The rest of the changes to Fomoria are relatively minor. Cheaper Morrigans, Fir Bolgs and fomorian giants, and weaker kings, are the main ones. Further changes were not made to the nation itself, but every heavy armor nation got reduced defence and encumbrance penalties on their armor. Making heavy infantry more viable. Several items have also been made better so that they are actually worth using, witch change Fomorias game a good deal.

The changes to R'lyeh are much larger. The fact that all the aboleths now are amphibious were a necessary no-brainer of a change. But thats only half of their increased power! The other half relies on the fact that R'lyeh is currently the only nation capable of making gemgens! (Llamabeast! I, what is this I dont even!!!) Ehh, I mean troop gens. R'lyehs 50g H2 Priests domsummons(2?) aboleth spawns and domsummon20s his sacred cap only 60g mindblasters. This means that every 50g priest he recruits from any fort will produce 10 (5?) spawn chaff and ½ giboleths each turn in dom 10 for the rest of the game. Or half of that in dom 5 witch is the highest they can reach by preaching. If you imagine him recruiting 3-4 of those each turn you can see the long term problem. He'll eventually run out of money due to upkeep but sacred troops and commanders never desert so I dont know how much that maters.

Jotwebe, the player of R'lyeh does not seem completely unaware of these things.

Anyway, lets talk about the rest of the opposition. I did not know most of the people in this game at all when I signed up. Some I has seen on the forum and some I knew by reputation, but I have never played a game with any of them in the past.

Immaculate is probably the one I have had the most contact with. I have been coaching him a bit in another game and from those conversations I would probably say that he is an intermediate player that learns quickly. He will be real dangerous one day, but for my sake, that day is hopefully not sometime during this game.

Warhammer and Excist: They exist. I have seen them around the forum on occasion but I have not had any diplomatic contact with them whatsoever. Or at least I have not gotten any answer on my diplomatic feelers to Warhammer. (Oh wait I did! Eventually.) Both seem very busy with real life stuff.

Bluemage and Roland Jones are Goons. I know next to nothing about them but I will assume from their goon reputation that they are axecrazy madmen that will attack their neighbors on sight and who do not believe in things like peace or NAPs. So far Bluemage have lived up to his borrowed reputation but Roland Jones have been disappointingly calm. Possibly due to his bad start. I have talked fairly much with both of them over the course of the game. Mainly because you can always find them on IRC.

LDiCesare is the most veteran member of this game. Probably the one I'm the most worried about before starting the game. Granted he plays Pangaea and thats a terrible nation. But they can get really annoying when played by a good player due to them having stealth troops out of every castle. And being unable to actually lose those castles due to them stacking the walls full of madwomen till they reach the sky.

Bluemage142

May 8th, 2012, 09:05 PM

[
Bluemage and Roland Jones are Goons. I know next to nothing about them but I will assume from their goon reputation that they are axecrazy madmen that will attack their neighbors on sight and who do not believe in things like peace or NAPs. So far Bluemage have lived up to his borrowed reputation but Roland Jones have been disappointingly calm. Possibly due to his bad start. I have talked fairly much with both of them over the course of the game. Mainly because you can always find them on IRC.

Your assessment of goons in general- and the two of us in particular- is... shall we say, *unique*. Goons are typically not ax-crazy, mad, or indiscriminate. If anything, good goon Dom3 players (of which I am NOT one) should have a reputation for being deliberate, conniving, and opportunistic. You can count on them to do exactly as they say they will, for exactly as long as it benefits them- and no longer.

Except for trades. No goon would dishonor a trade. No matter how sneaky.

The big difference between Shrapnel players and SA players is the mindset. Shrapnel seems to favor late 18th century to early 19th century rules of war- gentleman generals, upholding their honor on the field of battle. For one thing, you favor binding agreements, and some degree of professional courtesy.

Goons are more like the Great Houses of Dune. If you haven't heard from somebody, they're probably planning to invade you. If they have talked to you, they're either busy killing somewhere else (and want a nice, quiet border while they do it), or are trying to get you to drop your guard before they invade. The only agreement that is binding is one that is in the best interests of the goon, and even then, only until it stops being so. The only question in an alliance is who will break it first.

After all, this is a game of war. There can only be one winner. All alliances are, by definition, temporary, since no team can ever win the game. You can't have a pair be Pantokrator. In the end, you WILL have to fight everybody else, so maintaining an alliance is effectively pointless, unless it benefits you in the short term, or keeps another player from dominating the game.

Oddly enough, both Roland Jones and myself are generally less treacherous than most goons. Generally, if we say something, you can assume it to be the truth- more than you'll get from most goons. I won't say much more about RJ, except that we've always been able to keep things cordial, amicable, and honorable.

(Mind you, I might be lying about being honest/getting along with my fellow goon. You never know.

Paranoid yet? Good. You're ready for an SA game.)

Apparently, though, Corinthian is either relying on first impressions as he writes his opinions, or not reading my turns. When faced with a rapidly expanding enemy, the last thing you want to do is let them consolidate- and his own graphs show you just how well his expansion is going. A desire to stop him from taking all of the land flows rationally from that fact.

I had just wiped out a conventional army of his, with relatively trivial losses. As far as I could tell, I was facing a small group of giants, the remnants of the army I'd killed, and little else. The plan was to make a play for territory, quickly drive down to the edge of where I'd wanted to be anyway, and sue for terms based on a much more defensible border, cutting off one avenue of expansion in the process, and making it conceivably possible for me to keep the juggernaut off my back. There was both time and thought put into that plan, and I would've gone for immediate peace were it not for two things.

1. Fomoria was in territories I'd claimed as mine. (I mean, really? Did he not SEE the invisible signs I'd posted?)
2. I assumed that what I'd seen was representative of his armies as a whole, and figured I could intimidate him into a better border.

Suffice it to say that Cori would've been FAR better off to assume less insanity, more sense, and a LOT less knowledge on my part.

Mightypeon

May 8th, 2012, 10:42 PM

Having played in both communities:
-Goons typically prefer "I will not attack you in the next 10 turns" agreements over NAP 3s. I have come to share this view, cancelling a NAP 3 gives your opponent clear evidence you are going for him, quitly letting the 10 turn no war pact slide does not. There are also "We will not attack each other unless the other is looking really weak" pacts, which I recently had with thedemon. It stuck untill effing midgard ran away with the game because effing Mictlan put up Astral Corrpution and a Doom Horror at my mega gate stone troop leader (heroic leadership, he actually was not very strong otherwise....)
-Shrapnell players tend to view a non aggression based agreement as neccessary for trading/cooperating/sharing information. Goons do on occassion trade with people they are at war with.
-I would say that role playing is a bit more difficult in goon games, because the single mega thread + IRC is not very suited for it.

Immaculate

May 8th, 2012, 11:18 PM

Well, regardless of any differences, its certainly nice to see some cross-fertilization. I just wish SA didn't require you to give them your credit card information or i think we'd see a lot more of it. Also the SA forum mega-thread is a really horrible way to do things. (having said bad things about SA- i must say i really like the goon players i talk to on theDemon's ICQ (http://widget04.mibbit.com/?server=irc.synirc.net&channel=%23dom3goons&nick=dom3goon_%3F%3F%3F))

Soyweiser

May 9th, 2012, 07:57 AM

my 2 cents. I'm happy that there is more contact between the two communities. We might not all agree on everything. But difference in play styles and ideas is interesting.

Immaculate

May 9th, 2012, 06:36 PM

I've extended the turn lengths since they are taking a bit longer and it looked like maybe a few of us would stall- including myself.

Corinthian

May 10th, 2012, 10:39 AM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 6: Confusion reign.

This is one of the turns were my recollection of what happened is different from what I saved in the H2 file. Possibly because I sent in a modified turn to the server and forgot to update the archives. I will be correcting the mistakes as well as I am able.
http://i.imgur.com/YGYHh.jpg
Three battles happen and once again no one dies. If only we could go on like this forever...

Oooh and I also won the bid for Dante's Stingers. A completely generic heavy infantry company of 30 men. They are useful because they can often expand on their own against weak indies with modest attrition.

http://i.imgur.com/Z0yMq.jpg
Only two giants this turn to compliment the three already in garrison. But why? Were did all my money go?
http://i.imgur.com/z8qbL.jpg
Oh that explains it. R'lyeh is expanding southwards and I was antsy that they might try a sneak attack upon my capitol. This early they might knock me out of the game if they succeeds with that. I raises the PD in my capitol by ten points to 35 just to be safe.
http://i.imgur.com/MKDlG.jpg
Otherwise nothing much happens. Expansion continues according to schedule. Though I am not entirely sure why I did not split the southern force that so valiantly defeated the barbarians in to two groups, and attacked two provinces? Possibly because I was not entirely sure who was beneath me and weather he was powerful? I could have used a big expansion force in case I would run in to an enemy expansion force? I know there is someone starting two provinces down but I have no idea who it is.

Turn 7: Second contact of the bad kind.

http://i.imgur.com/DU75l.jpg
Expansion continues to go splendid. Only casualties are four mercs who dies to lion tribe arrows and..... Wait? What is this? Two battles in the same province?
http://i.imgur.com/LgQMa.jpg
Oh... Well I guess I know who my eastern neighbor is.

http://i.imgur.com/bLVqv.jpg
My veteran warriors fought bravely. They battled to the last man without ever retreating. The only ones who left the field were my force commander and my cute prophet. But they were too important to die needlessly so they will just have to bear the shame.

Overall, I think my troops held up well against the enemy onslaught. The main problem was that the enemies were so numerous that they overwhelmed the Fir Bolg warriors 16 points of defense. And the enemy used one of Marvernis new national priest spells: “Strength of Boars” witch increases the strength of every friendly unit on the battlefield by 4. Meaning that almost every hit was a kill. The warriors held for a while as the slingers pelted the naked enemies with great results. But the warriors were soon overrun and the slingers who lacks the warriors high defense were cut down before they could flee.

That is one heck of an expansion force to conquer a province that my scouts told me contained only eight troops though. Almost looks like an invasion force to me. This worries me. Granted, Marverni got less than half my number of provinces and barely a third of my income. But I cant think of any other reason for such an army. Maybe he got an ally in R'lyeh?

To settle my worries I got in contact with Bluemage142 on IRC. I might have talked to him before this turn but I dont remember. I still have no chat logs, but I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Cori>: Hello there new neighbor. Thats a mighty army you got there.
Cori>: I hope you are not planning to invade me.
Workmage>: Haha.
Workmage>: Well, I was planning to.
Workmage>: But dont worry.
Workmage>: I will change my orders as soon as I get home.
Cori>: That's a relief.

See!? This is the power of diplomacy! Not that I think it prevented an attack, but rather that I was made aware of the attack. Armed with this knowledge I contemplate my options.
http://i.imgur.com/9LJ3T.jpg
I imagine various places Marv could attack and how to counter. But eventually I just decides to play it safe and focus all my efforts on this mysterious province I just noticed, Nardago. The strange thing about this province is that it has much higher income that what should be possible. Normally a province generates 1 gold for every 100 population a province contains. This province generates 43.6 gold too much. Or if you account for the fact that the province loses 5% of its income due to the heat then it might even be 50g too much. It took a long time for me to figure out why this was so. There are no visible mines in the province. And positive sites tend not to do anything unless you find them or unless they modify scales. Eventually, after a long while, I remembered that there is a random event that increases the income of a province by 50g permanently. This province must have gotten that event while it was still owned by the indies.

Anyway, I send my other expansion force of 5 giants to it and reinforces it with 28 points of PD.
http://i.imgur.com/xy7zo.jpg

You have probably noticed that I'm building a lot of PD. This might seem strange as most people consider Fomoria to have terrible PD. And in a way they are right. For the first 19 points of PD Fomoria only gets one giant militia and one Fir Bolg slinger per point of PD. The secret is that the PD gets much better at 20+. There, it will also get 2 Fir Bolg Warriors per point and those things are awesome. Furthermore, slingers are good versus the naked troops of Marverni and they all have between 12-13 MR, witch is great against R'lyeh.
http://i.imgur.com/8AFln.jpg
I send some fresh giants up towards the future front. Meanwhile the mercs and those giants too far away to get to the possible war in time, get to continue to expand. I finally remember to split the southern expansion army in to two, but I do not attack downward as that would put me inside the cap circle of whoever lives there. It is a bit strange that they have not yet captured a province located next to their capitol. But never the less I cant afford a two (three?) way war at this moment so I ignore them.

R'lyeh continues to expand southwards. I can only see 30 troops in the water and none elsewhere so I doubt he is in on any particular attack of Marvernis.

Ever so slowly, militia is being herded towards the capitol for some mysterious purpose....

Oh yea. I should probably state some irrational goals for this Let's Play. I'm told that's a tradition.

Here are my irrational goals that I had for this game:

1.Fomoria must be the biggest! No other nation can have more provinces on the province chart. If they do then I have to rectify that quickly. I will expand like crazy and then remain biggest for the rest of the game.

2.I must have the Isle of Balor. Or possibly Balor must have the Isle of Balor. Whatever.

3.I must never sign a NAP. This is mainly for the sake of the LP. If the wars get predictable then the LP gets boring. This will make for more excitement and random chaos. Although it will make thing hard on me as people tend to gang on the biggest player. Again, whatever.

LDiCesare

May 10th, 2012, 03:18 PM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

TURN 12:

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9317/turn12.png
I expect to have my capital besieged this turn, to face some burning ones with my minotaurs in the north.
He doesn't attack my capital but instead moves 4 Annointed of rhuax to face my northern minotaurs. Wow. 28 rp lost. I destroy a lab earned in a lucky event in the swamp north of Pangaea. No point gifting it to Abysia. And a good idea to geet rid of it as I won't keep that province and may not see it back before long.[I]
A battle showed me that minotaurs against burning ones will lose in equal numbers, but my 12 minotaurs killed 2 of the 5 burning ones backed by 4 flare-casters. So, minotaurs can stand agaisnt burning ones and deal some damage. That's good to know.
I'm researching to get tangle vines and fire resistance next turn. Some sneak attacks behind Abysia's back to see what we can do. Recruit a dryad, some sneaky monkeys and minotaurs. I bring my prophet back near where her smite and dom spread can be useful. I try to blood hunt a bit more. Blood burst would actually be useful against a few burning ones [I]but it's not like I'll ever research it. I'll face a lot, unfortunately, so I'll more likely stick with long term plans of alteration magic next. And that's really long-term. Abysia spent some PD on provinces at our borders, but not inside his realm, so I'm attacking 2 inner provinces this turn.

Overall, I am slowly losing my territories while Abysia is committing everything to fight me, leaving himself open for Arcoscephale to strike soon. The next updates will reveal how poor a tactician I am but will likely be of little interest to those who don't enjoy the sight of turtles.

Immaculate

May 13th, 2012, 09:46 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Ten: Sledgehammer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tTN-b5KHg)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Peter Gabriel. About time I say!

So last time I posted, I was outlining an assault on some crystal amazons after herding all my forces together. I was expecting them to be tough so I threw lots of pixelmen at them.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=25f3y49" target="_blank"><img src="http://i45.tinypic.com/25f3y49.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
We do suffer some losses- a lot of mind burns and a few arrows.

Getting back to some diplo.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2qslz7m" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/2qslz7m.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I actually got pretty nervous about this and wasn’t sure if it was a declaration of war or not. I asked some other players to see if they got similar messages and they didn’t so I expected war. I then wrote to Corinthian to ask him straight up if it was a declaration of war and he said no. But then I asked him for a NAP(3) and he said “he didn’t believe in them for a LP”- which actually makes perfect sense but drove my paranoia considerably.

So yeah…

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=mvqk9k" target="_blank"><img src="http://i45.tinypic.com/mvqk9k.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Remember those philosophers? They are sort of doing what they are supposed to do… hitting the books hard that is… and it seems to be working. Caelum is out-nerding me… but not by a lot.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=dqkc5f" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/dqkc5f.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

And here is what the map looks like for a minor corner power.

Immaculate

May 13th, 2012, 10:15 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Eleven: Separate Ways (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatorN4P9aA)

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Journey.

On turn eleven we are still taking only one province per turn. I do manage to take the province without too great of causalities however.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2jfepef" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/2jfepef.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I also begin construction of a fortress on the province that had crystal amazons.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=noj7tl" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/noj7tl.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

So we are also planning an assault on a province with a truly large number of barbarians protecting it. I had made a deal with Corinthian to let me have that province- probably he didn’t want to spend the manpower to that many barbs.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=e61y6p" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/e61y6p.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Winter strikes. There are two philosophers that gain the ‘diseased’ trait. This will hurt my research rate when they invariably die.

So, by this point I had tested some other arco builds, being very dissastified with the rate of expansion. I conclude that the sloth build for arco may have been viable in earlier version of the game but that the rate of income modification from the production scale is too great and impoverishes the player. Also, it greatly limits he rate of initial growth by limiting the number of troops one can hire. The strength is supposed to be that you save money by researching with philosophers instead of oreids or mystics but I would counter that with a production build you will make a lot more money because you will control way more provinces. The other end of this is that philosophers are old and you lose the research edge with nothing to show for it but dead philosophers; they cannot cast spells. If you choose to do your early research with mystics or oreids, then you can use them in battle… and you don’t lose them to old age.

All in all, I am very dissatisfied with my build but then again, I knew that it would be difficult to expand without an awake pretender and decided to proceed with it anyway. That was a mistake. If I were to do a sloth build again I would have taken an awake pretender. But more importantly, I would have taken a production build. I would be glad to hear someone argue the opposite point but that’s how I felt at this point in the game… and still do.

dojango

May 13th, 2012, 10:30 PM

yeah, I think the big point behind the arco sloth build is that you reseaarch some quick buffs & gear for your awake SC god, turning it into a destroyer of armies as quick as possible (just watch out for turkeys).

jotwebe

May 14th, 2012, 05:20 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 10

Soundtrack: A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 07. Brainfuzz (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762729/brainfuzz)

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The triton cannot hear the tritoner;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

~~Wllii'am Bt-Ler Yts, the Poet Mind Lord

Penned to commemorate the worrying happenings in Lake Fortune last
month, this poem should turn out to be strangely prophetic. Worse
things are coming.

In the Great Blue, a Skallhög, king of the sea trolls, has sent one
of his captains to take the province.

http://i.imgur.com/W9UHF.png

http://i.imgur.com/xf8wF.png

Our troops are nowhere near. Our province defence consists of a traitor
prince and his henchmen, all two of them. The attacking army consists
of a lot of sea trolls.

http://i.imgur.com/f3tne.png

The outcome is unexpected.

http://i.imgur.com/TeL59.png

Did I write unexpected? I lied.

http://i.imgur.com/1k0Eo.png

Not all is gloom and doom, however. On land, R'yeh's finest continue
their foray on land, after having reduced mighty Ermor to picturesque
ruins. They turn north to storm-swept Bolfagon.

http://i.imgur.com/BVXHX.png

The outcome is... unsurprising.

http://i.imgur.com/bYdDl.png

The next target is fair Saeborea. It is defended by cavalry, maybe they
will be more of a challenge.

http://i.imgur.com/zDDYU.png

There is also some diplomacy. It appears that Corinthian (Fomoria)
directed both Bluemage142 (Maverni) and me (R- wait, you should know
that) to the same provinces in his north. Not sure if I mentioned it
already or forgot, but when Corinthian claimed Komoroo/the Isle of
Balor, he suggested me to expand into Numecria/Ermor.

The interesting bit about the geography is that there is no land
connection east from Bolfagon; the peninsula is only reachable via
Numecria. Or amphibious units. Or sailing.

Numecria also is the easiest path for Maverni to reach Fomoria ~~ there
is another connection further inland, but it is via a mountain
province. So Corinthian gains some protection and ideally causes me and
Maverni to get mad at each other.

However, we agree to be flexible about those provinces and work
together if and when we go to war against Fomoria.

This becomes a lot more likely a little later, causing me to revise my
turn. Originally Yöt-Webbogoth had orders to return east and liberate
The Great Blue once he got there (three turns later), but news from
Immaculate changes that.

He reports to have received a threatening message from Fomoria, and
suspects he will be attacked soon. I change orders to send
Yöt-Webbogoth north, where he will build a fortress off Fomoria's coast
and defend against possible aquatic incursions.

Offensive operations will have to be done my regular troops, since I
can't make amulets of the fish yet.

decourcy

May 15th, 2012, 01:18 PM

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

jotwebe

May 15th, 2012, 08:51 PM

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

Just so we're perfectly clear: it's Yeats' poem
The Second Coming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_%28poem%29) with a very slight alteration. It is
awesome, but I cannot take credit ~~ unless you mean the choice
was inspired, in which case picture me nodding smugly.

And with, we continue our rapid catching up with:

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 11

SOUNDTRACK
A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 09. Uranium-238 (http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/368142/andrey-avkhimovich)

Well, not quite as much happening this turn. In R'lyeh the cult of
Yöt-Webbogoth feels secure enough to extract additional contributions
from recalcitrant mind lords.

http://i.imgur.com/odBNO.png

I bet there's more where that came from.

http://i.imgur.com/31FeM.png

Immaculate wants water gems. No idea what kind of deal we make.

The battle for Saeborea is indeed more interesting than the conquest of
Bolfagon. Well, slightly.

http://i.imgur.com/tPjmY.png

The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard
commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a
couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the
small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the
fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch
the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

It doesn't matter much, though. The attacking heavy cav is enslaved as
they approached and/or dies to the infighting that follows. The
survivors turn back and slaughter the light infantry that was following
them, assisted by atlanteans, lobo guards and mind blasts.

http://i.imgur.com/tPjmY.png

Then they all continue on to the horse archers. REAL horse archers
would proceed to give them a hard time, but these stand around like
chumps and take it. Until they rout.

decourcy

May 16th, 2012, 12:36 AM

I know Yeats, poetry is one of my passions, I liked what you did with it.

In the MP i am in at the moment I am playing Tien Chi and am attempting to do the poet Li Bo justice.

Mike

Soyweiser

May 16th, 2012, 05:20 AM

The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

If you want to catch fire is is usually best to just use one (archery is good in hitting large amounts of groups. (And lucky shots killing commanders, lone troops are usually safe ;) ) and to put it in front, set to guard commander.

The troll walks back to the commander, drawing the archers forward in pursuit.

You do want your arrow catchers to walk trough other troops. Sure it is one turn of missile fire, but otherwise you draw the attack closest enemy troops right toward your commander.

Minor note, the second aboleth is still at risk from stray arrows in this setup above.

Immaculate

May 16th, 2012, 11:05 AM

Roland, Excist,

Whats up with the stales?

jotwebe

May 16th, 2012, 01:33 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 12

And another short update.

Soundtrack:

A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 12. In Memory of C64 (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762734/in-memory-of-c64)

http://i.imgur.com/aokZE.png

Somebody found a site? Neat.

http://i.imgur.com/tsCYW.png

Yay, death gems!

There are two events in Smallsea, both of them bad.

http://i.imgur.com/fzFbj.png

People leaving? I didn't take turmoil... and turmoil is required for
this event. Hmm, it appears Pangaea did, which is not surprising. Damn
them to the Outer Void!

On the other hand, at least it's not two dozen angry sea trolls.

http://i.imgur.com/3Jqem.png

And now that we've had a polypal mother in R'lyeh for almost a year,
let's have a look at how much freespawn we collected.

http://i.imgur.com/P0vnV.png

Hmm, that's... not bad actually, considering that the dominion in
R'lyeh isn't even maxed out yet. I think there's at least one store-
bought gibodai but even so that's a lot. In fact it's a lot more
gibodai than show up normally. The lone atlantean is a coward/survivor
from Auluudh's army's first battle.

Bluemage142

May 16th, 2012, 07:15 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

(Yes, I have been lazy as of late. This should do for now.)

Turn 8:

<a href="http://imgur.com/lnjM7"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lnjM7l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Hmm. Four battles. Since I ordered four battles, this is a good sign. Let's see how they went.

<a href="http://imgur.com/OjHNZ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/OjHNZl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/qgY8R"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/qgY8Rl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/swO3L"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/swO3Ll.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Not too shabby, overall. First one ran into what looks like one point of province defense. Lost a mercenary, but took the province. The second was my new formation against some militia, which was an easy win. The mage didn't even bother casting spells. Fourth battle was one of my groups against 2 PD. Economy-wise, I lost that fight, but it is a province won, and that's worth it.

That third battle, though...

<a href="http://imgur.com/Ysm1Y"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ysm1Yl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

That is a LOT of PD. At least 20 of it. To add to the fun, he's got a few of Fomoria's real units in there- the Unmarked (those guys with the purple shields), a Nemedian Champion (the mirage behind them, and a Fomorian Champion (the big guy in that mob, there). The last one was probably given to him at 20 PD, but the other six units are bad news.

<a href="http://imgur.com/HScHr"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/HScHrl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/f7F7k"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/f7F7kl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The Champion is...difficult... to hit. 19 defense is quite impressive. Also, see that icon with the two men on it, below his stats? That's glamour, a really irritating ability. He makes mirror images of himself, which you have to hit before actually hitting him.

(Glamour has another, more insidious use, which I wish I'd thought about at the time.)

The Unmarked are bad news. 16 protection makes it hard for mere humans to actually deal damage to them, and 35 HP means they can take whatever gets past that armor. I COULD, mind you, but there's one other problem.

(The problem with Unmarked is that they're (relatively) expensive, sacred, and cap-only. This battle has one turn's worth of the things- in that time, MY cap can pop out 6-7 BCs for each of his giants. It doesn't take much to realize that, economically speaking, fighting Marverni with Fomorians is a losing proposition.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/FRXny"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FRXnyl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

I didn't bring enough men.

Luckily, diplomacy was achieved. I give those two provinces back, and no war. I withdraw my men, and redirect my attentions to the north and south.

No new mercs, no new magic (I miscounted RP), and I don't have enough gold to do much recruiting. I hold on to it, planning to save up for a fort.

This turn sucks. I don't have the heart to look at graphs right now, so have a picture of what happens when your screaming barbarians don't have good accountants.

<a href="http://imgur.com/Zq5HB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Zq5HBl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Turn 9:

<a href="http://imgur.com/QcHQm"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QcHQml.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

As expected. The first two messages were Fomoria taking back its provinces, as per the peace we brokered. Third was me grabbing a province between him and me, and the fourth was the new party headed into the southern forest. Between them, I lost about 13 units, and gained two provinces. Acceptable losses. The Archers in White are still mine, too, which is entirely a good thing.

<a href="http://imgur.com/I99JL"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/I99JLl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

I don't have the funds to do much recruiting, since I want my first fort up soon. I grab another Gut, pick up an indep commander in the west, and give orders.

<a href="http://imgur.com/Thtg8"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Thtg8l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The group to the south is taking the forest area well enough, and the western army is being recalled for reinforcements. They'll be headed north, next.

<a href="http://imgur.com/erQJB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/erQJBl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Thaum2 finishes next turn, so I'll have to change research. Alteration will give me the keys to the castle, as it were- ways to keep my oh, so very expensive Druids alive, and make my oh, so very cheap BCs far more effective in battle.

This really isn't a big turn, because a fort is EXPENSIVE. I make 661 gold a turn now. The cheapest forts cost 800, and I've seen some cost 1200. That's two turns of NOTHING else- no recruitment, no upkeep- NOTHING. Luckily, most all of Marv's forts (each nation has a few different types of fort, each built in different terrain types) are 800-gold cheapos. Figure that my 661 income is actually 544, after unit upkeep. 544, plus the 331 I have now, is 875. I can start fort construction next turn, and that makes this one worth it.

Turn 10:

Nothing much happened this turn. Here's the details.

<a href="http://imgur.com/F8PuX"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/F8PuXl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/xbAFU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xbAFUl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/NNUJz"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NNUJzl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

So Caelum prophetized a mage. Interesting. Must've wanted some more dominion- I'll have to check the graphs. That second event is quite nice- 50 more pounds of income is a good chunk of my total income right now. The unrest bothers me not, since it's on a province worth 16 gold.

<a href="http://imgur.com/e5p8z"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/e5p8zl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

News, it seems. There's Helheim to the east. Fomoria is to the south as well- how big ARE these guys?! Nothing too surprising.

(This is the point where I should've been panicking. That much land is NOT a good sign.)

Thaum2 is finished, so I set all my RP into Alteration. Alt1 will finish next turn. Now, for my biggest mistake this turn.

<a href="http://imgur.com/xom1s"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xom1sl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

See this? This is a fort not being built. I forgot that my commander would take a turn to get to the build site. Painfully dumb of me.

Recruited reinforcement infantry, another mage, and PD enough to keep scouts from stealing my southern provinces. There will be construction next turn, I SWEAR!

Turn 11:

<a href="http://imgur.com/Ciq3Q"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ciq3Ql.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Nothing really special here. Somebody outbid me for my archers, but I'm to the point where I don't really need them any longer. The battle went smoothly, and I got hit with a dominion loss in Kratas, here.

<a href="http://imgur.com/AVZJk"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AVZJkl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/0be3Q"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/0be3Ql.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Like I said, nothing to worry about.

<a href="http://imgur.com/iRDE0"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/iRDE0l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This, on the other hand, sucks. Caelum has grabbed two provinces I sort of need. Worse yet, I know from diplo that he's blocking Helheim's only other way out of the NE peninsula. There will be a war there, and I don't know who with. Oh, and Pangaea is down there, too. I'd make war, but my connection to the homeland is rather weak.

<a href="http://imgur.com/ozxuM"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ozxuMl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

CASTLE. BEING BUILT. This should've happened three turns ago.

<a href="http://imgur.com/9cZs5"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/9cZs5l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

NW expansion force is on its way, though I know that there's going to be diplo involved. R'lyeh has the tip of that peninsula. My current goal is to take some of it peacably, and aim him at Fomoria as part of a combined strike. Then take the rest in return for some of Giantland. We'll see how well that pans out.

None of the other barbarians are worth anything, I don't have the money for troops, and research is right where I want it. Another Gutuater, and that's the turn.

Turn 12:

<a href="http://imgur.com/MWrzh"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MWrzhl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Everything here is as expected. That first notice means that, over the next few turns, any nation that decided to create a dormant pretender god will have it appear in their capital. This would be a cause for joy and celebration... if I were one of them. More on that later. The battle was won rather cheaply, and the event was water gems.

<a href="http://imgur.com/nRBov"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nRBovl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

No armies on the horizon, which is good. Right now, I'm consolidating my position- fancy-talk for 'I'm scared to get into a war, so I want to get EVERYTHING figured out first'. My western army is good enough to keep going, so I send it on, while sending my scout deeper into Fomoria. Helheim is has some DEEEEEVIOUS PLANS involving teleportation, so I'm scouting out arrival sites for him. I'll have the gold for my third fort next turn, so that's what my southern army is waiting for.

<a href="http://imgur.com/h6HHc"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/h6HHcl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

FINALLY. The time of the Druids approaches. I intend to crank one of these buggers out every turn from here on out.

Soyweiser

May 16th, 2012, 09:04 PM

This really isn't a big turn, because a fort is EXPENSIVE. I make 661 gold a turn now. The cheapest forts cost 800, and I've seen some cost 1200. That's two turns of NOTHING else- no recruitment, no upkeep- NOTHING. Luckily, most all of Marv's forts (each nation has a few different types of fort, each built in different terrain types) are 800-gold cheapos. Figure that my 661 income is actually 544, after unit upkeep. 544, plus the 331 I have now, is 875. I can start fort construction next turn, and that makes this one worth it.

With some spare troops, and a indie commander you can easily overtax. Gets the first castle so much sooner. Works great with growth. (Which you have ;) ).

Corinthian

May 18th, 2012, 10:12 AM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 8: We have seen the enemy. They are naked!?!

http://i.imgur.com/UkUVo.jpg
An unusually eventful turn! Our first level of magic research has been completed by the lonely nerd that we left back in the capitol with the quills. To alleviate his loneliness he has invented a method of raising corpses by blasting them with lightning. This discovery does not help anyone.

http://i.imgur.com/UDS3F.jpg
A magic mound is also found outside the Crystal Amazon settlement. Death is one of the two magic types that we have good access to, so it is highly useful.

And our expansion is going better than ever! Six battles!

But wait! Aren't some of those provinces mine already? Oh yea! Marverni said he was gonna attack me this turn. It very sportsmanlike of him to announce this to me ahead of time, but I still feels like that it is a bad idea to fight this early in the game while so many indie provinces still stands. Especially as neither of us have a real rush build.

I wonder how it went?
http://i.imgur.com/HH9Pv.jpg
He seem to have split his forces in order to take as much of my land as possible. Two losses and one victory for me. Though I seem to have killed about 2/5's of his forces in my defense. Furthermore, the only province that was actually valuable, Nardago, with its strange gold income, remains in my custody.

Two battles were pretty much walkovers due to me putting up only token PD. But what about the third battle?
http://i.imgur.com/ZmFvl.jpg
Overkill! Due to the bad scripting of my Unmarked, they winded up in the back behind the PD and barely got a stab in. The PD however behaved in an excellent fashion. The militia cant hit well but they are strong enough to punch straight through the Bare clad's shields and cause damage that way. They are also tough enough to withstand a few hits. The Fir Bolg warriors filtered through the militia. Because the militia is size 4 and the warriors size 2 they can both fit in the same square. And the Warriors can both hit and oneshot BC's . Finally although slingers are normally not very good and fomorias 11g slingers are outright bad, any ranged weapon works great vs BCs due to them not having any armor.

The outcome of the battle was never in doubt. I might even have beaten all of his armies that attacked me if they had all attacked here. And although the 28 points of PD was expensive the enemies losses cost roughly as much and atleast I get to keep the PD. You never know when some random powerful PD surprise an enemy! (This investment in PD will turn out to be very useful indeed, in time.)

http://i.imgur.com/mPLio.jpg
Eventually I talk with Bluemage and we both agrees that it is stupid to fight when there are so many indy provinces left in close view. He agrees to give back the provinces he took and I promises to not go for any of the indies to the north east. This is fine to me as I was planing to stop there anyhow. Invisible borders and whatnot.

I am fine with peace because, clearly, I expand much faster than him. In peace my power will grow faster than his power and although I am already both more powerful and richer than him, I gain more from attacking easier prey than another player.
http://i.imgur.com/vxq1R.jpg
To the south I send a third party of Unmarked to join forces with the two already there in order to beat the province with the huge number of barbarians. My scouting reports put them at between 90 and 140. I dont think that number of barbarians can exist naturally so I assume that a barbarian province got invaded by barbarians. As ridiculous as it might sound. My troops fair badly vs barbarians, true. But that is the province with the growth scales in it and maybe I feel like gambling?

Furthermore I can tell that the province to the south of me have sloth scales witch makes me think that it might be Arco that I got down there.
http://i.imgur.com/sHhTP.jpg
In the capitol I feel like trying something new. I'm at peace now and I dont need further expansion forces. Instead I'm recruiting something that could be useful in upcoming wars.
http://i.imgur.com/Hu8fo.jpg
Nemedians are the Fir Bolgs older, and much more competent cousins. They have better stats in pretty much everything and they have magical golden weapons. More importantly, they have stealth and glamor, meaning that the enemy will not see them before its too late. How they can stealth while clad in shining gold is a mystery, but they can!

Unlike Fir Bolgs, Nemedians are not cheap and they requires surprisingly many resources to construct. But thats why you have a scale build. And even if I do not have any direct use for them now, the glamor means that the enemy will not see them and will not plan for them when contemplating war against me. Even on the statistics screen they dont count as more than a militia.

Originally I bought Nemedian Champions because they were cheap and reliable commanders to use with my Unmarked. But some later assessment shows that they are in fact awesome. More on that later.

There is also a Nemedian sorceress to complete the series. But you will never see her because she is mopey and terrible. Just about anything she can do, a fomorian king can do better.

They will join my garrison, and... What is this?
http://i.imgur.com/KTNng.jpg
Suddenly, poorly dressed humans crowds the streets of Fomoria!

How to explain this? Well Immaculate had a good idea earlier. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAyogqIdyzY#t=2m10s" target="_blank">Let me explain my feelings through song!</a>

http://i.imgur.com/KWjkn.jpg
Gold in the early game is more important than gold in the late game so I have no reason to not squeeze my capitol for all its worth. This gold will be more than what several of my enemies get combines and will fuel an new Fomorian construction boom to compensate for the old bubble that collapsed. Once winter comes I might even get rid of that pesky heat scale point I took. (No it wont! Almost everywhere but the capitol will lose the heat point!)

I also put in a new minimum bit for Dantes stingers. I dont think anyone might challenge me for them as they have taken casualties and might lose half their remaining numbers from the upcoming battle.

Turn 9: We get better neighbors.

http://i.imgur.com/nyEGK.jpg
Five battles. And for once they are five conquests. Only casualties are 2 mercs. Though two of the battles are just me retaking undefended provinces that Marv took from me during the One-Turn-War.

In Chilad, a couple of children finds two earth gems. Their fathers are not very impressed, but the children seem endlessly proud.

And in Fomoria, the militias hunt for filthy people have begun for real.
http://i.imgur.com/p9brj.jpg
We finally meat our southern neighbor. And as I had guessed, its Arco. It is being played by my friend Immaculate. I immediately send my newly recruited Nemedian warriors down to Arco to scout out his weaknesses and prepare for a potential attack. Despite the size of my empire I have not found a single scout province.

I said earlier that Arco can be considered one of the weakest nations in the Early Age. This statement needs an explanation. Arco can be really strong or really weak depending on whom it winds up next to. If it starts next to a heavy infantry nation like Abysia, then it is a monster because its were-chariots can trample and their armor piercing attacks can easily bypass heavy armor.

The Were-Chariot is all that Sloth build arco have going for them though, and size 4 chariots are completely worthless against size 4 giants. And due to the sloth, they will not be able to build a lot of other units. And guess what? All my sacred giants are size 4-6! He would normally also be able to counter me with magic and he does have good research. But I'm betting that all that research was made possible through non-magical philosophers. And those guys could not cast Flying Shards to save their lives. It should be a walkover.

I dont attack him right now however, as I have better things to do. I do send him a friendly, and vaguely threatening message that was though to have been lost in the sands of time, but can be read in one of Immaculats posts above.
http://i.imgur.com/xq3rL.jpg
I though I said that I would be building castles this turn but it turns out I burned all my money on other things. Namely a Fomorian King with retinue! The king alone almost cost half a castle all by his wholesomeness.

http://i.imgur.com/Nfr3c.jpg
These babies are the main reason anyone ever play Fomoria. Few nations have anything comparable in power and almost no other nation have recruitable SC that can also teleport without boosters. (Well, Hinnom and Ashdod on occasion.) I mainly designed my bless to benefit these guys. And with it they regenerates 11 hp/turn and have only enc 3. More about how I get around the rest of the enc problem later.

They come in 3 flavors depending on what randoms they get.

The First flavor is the A4D2 one. These guys are just like eagle kings that cost 100g extra and dont fly and... well I bet they can take an eagle king in a fist fight and thats all that maters. A4 is useful for all manner of things, but in the short term they will probably get pigeon holed in to the roll of thunder-strikers.

The Second flavor is the A3D3 one. It it mainly useful due to being my only D3 access and thats always cool. It is too expensive to do any real skelly spamming, but after a lot of alteration research it can eventually become a SC with the help of the Soul Vortex spell.

The Third flavor is the real SC of the group. The A3W1D2 guy that can cast quicken self. He need very little gear and research, so you will probably see him thugging far sooner than the others.

http://i.imgur.com/rAmtX.jpg
Out in the hills to the northeast of my capitol, a Crystal Sorceress is finally being recruited. This means that I have broken in to astral magic at last. Yay! This is important when you are living next to R'lyeh.

http://i.imgur.com/Wounw.jpg
Many of my expansion parties stops their conquest here, and start site searching instead, as they have ran out of viable enemies to attack. The amazons have been promised to Marverni.

The commanders only got A1D1H1(D) but I suspect that 1 in a path is enough to find 50-60% of all sites in a path. And air and death are the kind of magic that I need the most.

Turn 10: Motherland! Here we come!

http://i.imgur.com/8McI3.jpg
The various site searching pays out unexpectedly well for this light level of looking around.

http://i.imgur.com/8S2ac.jpg
A total of 4 extra gems are pretty nice. I have also previously gotten an extra 3 gems from sites that are automatically reveled when you capture a province. This means that I am now number one in gem income with a total of 14 gems/turn!

Two provinces are also captured. The brave mercenaries fight almost to the last man but eventually prove victorious. These guys have definitely been worth their money. Having singlehandedly captured four provinces for only 337 gold.

http://i.imgur.com/YcMEa.jpg
Oh wait. Having looked at the battle it turns out that the only reason I won was because 3 crippled mercs did not have time to leave the battlefield before the enemy. Praise redacted!

But there is something wrong with the event list here. Something is not there that really should be.
http://i.imgur.com/2M9AR.jpg
The combined power of all my 80 hustlers did not manage to find a single victim to sponge money from! Unrest is spiking from this and I am forced to lower my taxes for a while.

And finally, as see above, an expedition to recapture the Isle of Balor is being levied.
http://i.imgur.com/sbhBz.jpg
I have no idea what kind of barbarians the new tenants might be so I send a comparably large force. One of the many qualities of Fomorian Kings is that they can sail over water provinces. Bringing every troop under their command with them without touching the ocean in between.

The force consist of a line of giant, sacred spearmen that will hold the line. Meanwhile the smaller Fir Bolgs will filter through the legs of the spear-man formation and launch surprise attack against whoever is attacking the giants. Brilliant!

In the speshul province of Nardago, a fort is finally being built. My prophet has been preaching there for a while in order to bring them my excellent scales.
http://i.imgur.com/Ki0MR.jpg
Another army is being recruited in the capitol in order to prepare for the upcoming war against Arco.
http://i.imgur.com/Mtq5L.jpg

On the diplomacy front, Immaculate and I send several messages back and forth in witch I reject the concept of having NAP3s in AARs. I also subtly hints that he should attack Abysia as they would probably be busy fighting Pan right now. We also agrees that he can take the barbarian province to the north as I dont feel like wasting troops on it. After all, I can always take it from him later.

To Be Continued.....

LDiCesare

May 19th, 2012, 12:23 PM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

TURN 13:

http://i.imgur.com/qqaP0.jpg
Abysia assassinated a commander of mine. My only indy commander in fact. Not a big deal, but it does mean I need to put some bodyguards on those non stealthy commanders of mine. Luckily, I only have one, who is a mercenary, and I don't care much about her.
I conquer Midria with my army of 10 harpies. Quite effective cost-wise :D
As expected, Abysia besieges Pangaea and wins but can't harm my walls. Also as expected, I take another abysian province that I'll lose next turn. But now he'll have to wonder where I go.
The situation is bad of course, but the problem is I am facing a very **** opponent.
I edited away the insult. I really feel that the whole move was utterly stupid. I believe Excist thought maenads were worthless in terms of defending sieges when they are in fact awesome. So his whole war was doomed to fail from the start but ruined the game for both of us because he made a bad assessment of my fort defense.
He cannot take Pangaea. I have so many maenads inside he'll never be able to breach the walls. Of course, the maenads will eat food, but what do I care? He takes some of my provinces, but I'll cause trouble in his backyard. What benefit does he expect? He'll get attacked in the back when all his forces are near/on my capital. Like I said, it's a lose/lose. To be fair, Excist is much brighter than what I portrayed here. He would try to preach me out. That's a good idea with H3 priests. Not so bright with a low dominion vs. a dominion of 9 and someone who can blood sacrifice. Also, committing all one's wizards to a rush means you lose about 40 turns of mage-research time plus the time spent besieging. That is suicidal, particularly considering your neighbors will inevitably attack you after a rush, either because you're losing and are an easy target, or because you won and look threatening. So putting all your forces in a short term benefit and neglecting research is really a bad idea.

Meanwhile, Fomoria built a second fort and R'lyeh a third fort!
Which is really what nations should be doing early on. Getting forts for mages to do some research.
I somehow don't see Abysia building a fort anytime soon. He'll have conquered indie provinces that I took, and left other indie provinces to Arcoscephale and Fomoria. He won't have my capital, ever. Never, I tell you.

I've made a lot of tests to see if my forces in the fort can defeat Abysia besiegers. Surprisingly, they can, but with a low probability. At best 2/3. One chance in three of losing the game now is still too much. It would still have been better than 1 in 2 a few turns later, though. So I bring back revelers and one more dryad. I need chaff. The tactics is to draw abysian troops to a side, considering he'll likely use the same placement as right now, which is a solid troop placement. Drawing to one side, casting tangle vines, I turn his burning ones into useless junk that minotaurs can turn to shreds. The problems are:
- tangle vines has a small AoE.
- tunes of growth would replace it fine, but it is very hard to place wizards well to use it.
- F** spellcasting ai wants to cast tune of fear on berserk abysians.
- I have too few minotaurs.
- Flares are what really kills my troops, since tangle vines protects them enough (I mean, the minotaurs and my god and casters, I don't care about maenad losses).

TURN 14:
http://i.imgur.com/YXDTb.jpg
This may be a bad idea, but turtling is boring. Arco should be attacking Abysia next turn. R'lyeh doesn't have any troop nearby. My tests indicate a 2/3 chance of winning for me. I brought some more maenads, some revelers and some dryads. I have better magic, but that's mostly irrelevant. The mercenaries I bought should cause some more trouble inside Pangaea lands.
If I fail, my surviving Pans can sneak back inside and hopefully hold the walls while my pretender will hopefully do suicide come-backs.
I also discover that maenads are generated AFTER an attack, not at the same time. So my mercenary archers attack a 20 PD province, get killed, and only afterwards do a dozen maenads pop up and flee. Please color me silly for not checking that before playing. I can say all I want about Excist's maenad assessment, but mine is also quite faulty. With a bit of luck, seeing the maenads will make Abysia think my Pan(s) is (are) moving south and will divert some of his troops, but that's unlikely to have any effect. I wonder why none of the maenads fled to a neighboring province. Might be a bug.

TURN 15:
http://i.imgur.com/FDpU5.jpg
Big battle expected. Abysia played well in preaching there, so my god is no longer immortal. This means game over:

http://i.imgur.com/OAlll.jpg
Abysian deployment. Exactly the same as before, but more misbreds and 1 more annointed, as expected.
http://i.imgur.com/AieSV.png
Pangaea deployment. Minotaurs down, slightly back so as not to draw the first fire. God in front in order to cast resist fire first. The rest up to draw enemies this way. Archers to shoot at fliers.
http://i.imgur.com/AWIoe.png
OOOPS!!! Huge mistake. I didn't order these dudes to hold and attack. Hopefully they'll just get killed so my songs will kick in in range. That's a small misplacement, but every single soldier mattered and, combined with the +1/-1 morale from unfriendly dominion, it counts a lot.
The result is a rout. My minotaurs didn't attack straight the regular infantry on the right contrary to all my tests, but ran into the burning ones immediately. This ment that I didn't kill those 5 or 6 abysian infantry which would have provided crucial hp loss for the opponent morale check.
I'm bringing my Pans back and the maenads to defend the fort. It's not too damaged, so hopefully maneads can hold it, but that's not certain. Still, it should take Abysia a few turns to dent it as they have a very low troops count there.
I don't usually play Pangaea, and I'm not a patient person. I will have to learn to turtle in this game. I should have done that already, but waiting it out till I get Mother Oak inside my capital sounds so boring... Not that I'll ever be able to cast Mother Oak, mind you.

TURN 16:
http://i.imgur.com/9teeN.jpg
My dominion is sinking in my capital. I got some maenads who spawned, but only a dozen. I have no idea why I sent a Pan in the north. My priests are preaching in their temple, ans are researching and one summons vine men, just to check how many I get. They are mindless, so they don't help much at repairing walls, but 10 of them would be worth 1 burning one in defense. Monkeys are also coming back to help and will be there in 3 turns. My defense is 229 out of 250, so it's rather good as it should hold long enough.
I also try to build a fort in the north, hoping the abysian reinforcements go to my capital rather than try to take the mountains. this is called wishful or desperate thinking.
Arco took one province, but failed to take another one.
R'lyeh is out there in the south, probably to attack my island, maybe the troll province, but more likely myself or the two indie land provinces.
I grabbed this screenshot, so I guess R'lyeh attacked on turn 16 in fact:
http://i.imgur.com/kVu6X.png

Torin

May 19th, 2012, 02:47 PM

cool aar

jotwebe

May 19th, 2012, 04:11 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 13

Our research has been pretty abysmal so far. Nevertheless, we have
reached something of a way point. The first school we researched was
Conjuration, and this turn the busy monster fish have succeeded in
unlocking the secrets of the second level.

http://i.imgur.com/CO7g1.png

As you can see, the spell we're most interested in is Dark knowledge, a
remote site searching spell. Finds all death sites in a province, costs
three death gems, one more than most other site searching spells. There
are also some actual summons we could use, but we're not interested in
them. We're waiting for more powerful stuff.

For now, the new research target is thaumaturgy 2:

http://i.imgur.com/gq29Z.png

We're aiming for a bunch of different site search spells and more
importantly this one:

http://i.imgur.com/Td9Gl.png

Could come in very handy to move out mages quickly. Could be we're not
going to use it, but if there's a problem in the southwest, the big
stuff can arrive quickly.

There is an interesting development in the distant south east:

http://i.imgur.com/IEFeM.png

Looks like war. Let's play vulture.

http://i.imgur.com/W8nER.png

Like Leprechauns, the Abominable Mind Eaters of the Deep bring good luck!

http://i.imgur.com/XPAzb.png

A great victory for the heroic diplomatic corps of R'lyeh. Note that
I'm not all that surprised; I doubt that Excist wants me to jog his
elbow, and this way he doesn't have to divert resources to keep those
provinces pacified. "Nice war you're having here, be a shame if
something happened to it..." LdiCesare, on the other hand, is hardly in
a position to object.

Obviously I'd have preferred the whole island, but let's not get greedy
now. More greedy, I mean. Not right now, that is.

Meanwhile, in the sea of Underhome, off the Fomorian coast, the traitor
pronce Ra'ntegoth has completed our third fortress. He and Auluudh
march south to conquer the land we claimed.

http://i.imgur.com/v9egp.png

In R'lyeh, a momentous event has occured:

http://i.imgur.com/7Ggrk.png

So sue me, I lied again. Here's the host of mermen:

http://i.imgur.com/JyehC.png

And here's a close-up of one of these miserable creatures:

http://i.imgur.com/pv9aI.png

Hmmm, morale 10 isn't horrible, compared to some other stuff we have. Nets can be very useful at times, too. It's a once-per-battle attack that if it hits reduces the target's defense massively and stops it from attacking until it breaks free. How long that takes is probably based on strength in some way.

jotwebe

May 21st, 2012, 01:37 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 14

Our army of aboleths scouring the ocean floor has some success. They find a curious field of ethereal clams that sift starlight instead of water and cursed island that is impossible to find unless one knows the secrets of certain constellations and just as impossible to leave for the poor souls stranded there.

http://i.imgur.com/tHo2y.png

It seems fate favours R'lyeh again. Taxes flow like the great currents, and even better, on the abyssal plain near R'lyeh a sunken Fomorian ship from the time of their exodus is found. Maybe it sunk because one thousand pounds of gold were a bit to heavy?

http://i.imgur.com/s7Pxc.png

The lost treasure is immediately put to use: across the world, in Lake Vastness, Nyarlathotep commands the construction of another fortress. The actual work is overseen by a local triton who has seen the light (the mad, leering light of the green star Phna'ghshug). Nithü the shark-taming Slave Mage is in charge of building the lab. You may have noted that it was him who found the clam field: go Nithü!

Maverni (Bluemage142) wants Numecria after all. I want Maverni to have good access to Fomoria, and it's just a land province. If we go to war at a later time, I'll be able to get it back easily enough.

http://i.imgur.com/EGYeM.png

The mermen in R'lyeh didn't come with a leader, so I buy them one. Since they need normal leadership, it'll be a traitor prince.

Corinthian

May 21st, 2012, 09:52 AM

http://i.imgur.com/iK5UR.png

Turn 11: Interlude

http://i.imgur.com/9v0LW.jpg

A short and eventless turn.

150 extra gold in taxes are had due to a mild winter in the mountains of Cimri. Snakeys heat dominion keeps the snow at bay and the roads usable.

The other main event of importance is that The Isle of Balor, sometimes known as Koromoo, has been returned to its rightful owners!

http://i.imgur.com/DzySA.jpg
I was right in bringing a large force, as the enemy turned out to, in fact, *be* barbarians. Two Unmarked and two Fir Bolgs dies to their madness. This marks the first time in the game thus far that an unmarked have died. Those thing are surprisingly sturdy.

http://i.imgur.com/uH5GO.jpg
Desmond and his men spend some time on the island admiring the scenery and partake in the ancient Fomorian arena culture. But its just not quite what he remembered. Eventually he decides that his nostalgia has gotten the better of him and returns to New Fomoria and his work.

On the east front, expansion is happening at a comfortable pace. Actually I have slowed down my expansion a bit in order to not over extend myself. I though from previous diplomacy that Marverni was going to have the provinces in the forest so I only slowly made my way there. Many of my commanders are instead occupied with site searching.

Dante, for the crime of cowardice, is sent on a mission to negotiate with the horse tribe people.

Turn 12 End-of-Year-Wrap-Up.

http://i.imgur.com/I3Uni.jpg
Lots of people searched for magic sites this turn. But only one was successful.

http://i.imgur.com/nbvHU.jpg
A ****ty death mage finds yet another ****ty death site. Well, many streams small and all that.

http://i.imgur.com/NVn1P.jpg
Armies conveys in the province of Isurian for a mysterious meeting. There they talk of war and conquest, but not everyone is happy with the current course of action. They say that the omens are against us and that we should wait.

http://i.imgur.com/yrqDY.jpg
The Kings of fomoria will not listen to that ear however. They gather a mighty host and continues their preparations.

http://i.imgur.com/Xc0Sa.jpg

As this is turn 12 ,witch many considers to be an important turn in a game, I will have a graph wrapup to show people how the game have proceeded thus far.

http://i.imgur.com/2WWE6.jpg
Oh wow. This Graph really is rather impressive from my perspective. I count 24 provinces at turn 12, witch is almost twice the average of the other players. There is no wonder that my neighbors fear me. Exiting!

Despite that I have actually slowed down my expansion a bit in order to get more manageable borders. You really dont want more neighbors than necessary. So Marverni holding the forest in the center of the map prevents me from sharing a border with Caelum and Pangaea. It is my opinion, that from a psychological perspective, it is hard to attack someone who does not share a border with you. Not to mention the logistical problems and the problems of holding ground in a part of the world not connected to the rest of your empire.

This is why I prefer normal maps to wraparound maps. In the later the biggest player will always have so many boarders and fronts that he can not focus much on anything and risks being overwhelmed. On this map however, I only have three neighbors. So even if they were all to attack me all of a sudden, at most I would only have to fight 3 people at once. Thats the theory anyway.

It is too bad that its no longer going so well for Abysia, as I was counting on him to soak up some of the threat factor for me. But no such luck. I can tell from all the graphs combined that he is fighting Pan though. And I'm trying to convince Arco to attack his unprotected back.

http://i.imgur.com/uhZMB.jpg
Another interesting graph. You can clearly see were I started to overtax my capitol. Before that I was not leading as much, compared to the province graph, because most nations get the lion share of their income from their capitols were they have good castles and scales. Still, my income is even more huge when counted after my upkeep. This should leave much gold for infrastructure projects witch I am building around my lands.

http://i.imgur.com/d5uiS.jpg
Despite finding only minor sites that can be uncovered with a mage with only one point in a path, I am still in the lead, even here. The fact that Aby has stolen gem income from Pan is one of the reasons I know they are at war.

The rest of the graphs are either not interesting or not flattering to me so I will leave them be for now.

Turn 13: A view to a kill.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wijkse6fuiY#t=1m6s" target="_blank">Oh, and taking inspiration from Immaculate again, you really should listen to this song while reading this turn in order to get the proper feel for things.</a>

This is it gents! This is war!

http://i.imgur.com/wZcWK.jpg
My armies will launch a three pronged assault on Arco. The expansion force to the center will go for the growth province, the stealthing Nemedians will attack the entry province next to his capitol and the major army will simply sail over the seas and land on the other side of his capitol. Next turn the two groups will siege it and with the help of my strong giants they should be able to break down the walls to the helpless philosophers in just 2 turns. After that it is over for arco, and the rest will be just mop-up work. The Chariots he have been relying on until now are completely unsuitable for fighting my giants. So while he might be able to raid my provinces still, he will not be able to break the siege.

Even if my other neighbors take offense to this it will take a few turns for them to get their asses in gear. And by the time they have done that Arco will be a nonentity, thus allowing me to divert my forces to fight my other neighbors.

It is a perfect plan and I'm a genius! :D

To be concluded....

Immaculate

May 21st, 2012, 11:37 AM

Oh Noes!!!!

Zywack

May 23rd, 2012, 07:00 PM

Man... I was rooting for Pangaea and was curious about Marverni and Helheim, but... It seems that even though I had three picks, none of them turns out too positive for the moment, except for Marverni who is doing okay-ish.

Tarrax

May 24th, 2012, 12:36 AM

I wanna say that this is great guys. I love AARs and I read this from start to finish. Keep up the good work and I hope you will finish it. I wish there were more AARs like this.

llamabeast

May 24th, 2012, 10:06 AM

I'm also enjoying this thread very much and have been reading it avidly. Keep it up! :)

Anaconda

May 31st, 2012, 01:54 AM

Where are the updates?

Immaculate

May 31st, 2012, 09:51 AM

I'll probably get a few this weekend- i was on vacation so i've fallen behind.

Thanks for cracking the whip because that is a VERY good question indeed!

Corinthian

May 31st, 2012, 03:38 PM

I will probably post an update tomorrow. The entire game is on pause due to Immaculate's vacation so no one is thinking of the game much. Even though we probably should use the time to get ahead on our writing.

LDiCesare

June 1st, 2012, 03:38 PM

I'll post a bunch of updates together in a few weeks. I don't have much to say anyway and I think it's better to have several turns grouped together.

jotwebe

June 1st, 2012, 07:42 PM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

This one's a weird story/gameplay hybrid. It menaces with tentacles of oneiroplasmic goo.

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 15

Soundtrack: Brad Sucks - I Don't Know What I'm Doing: I Think I Started a Trend. (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/30064/i-think-i-started-a-trend)

Messages pass back and forth along the aether: The mystics of
Arcoscephale turn and toss in their sleep, haunted by horrible dreams
of vast fish-creatures wallowing in slime and darkness and unnumbered
coiling pale and puckered tentacles. Yet they sense significance, a
meaning, even intent, trained as they are in the interpretation of
oneiric visions.

Something that lives in the deep wishes to ascend to the world of air
and light.

Perhaps they should have ignored these dreams, deadened their senses
with subtle drugs, but they sensed power, ancient and occult, behind
their visions. And so they decide to send a message back. And in their
lust for power, they make an offer. For in Arcoscephale the crafting of
magical gadgets and instruments is an art far advanced beyond the
skills of other realms. And in the conquered undersea territories where
the tears of mermaids are collected, the overseer-slaves jab their
coral prods with vigour, for there is a shipment to be made.

http://i.imgur.com/ZKbGz.png

Meanwhile, in the desert of Ard, a white-winged being of unearthly
splendour stands alone in the barren waste. Does it know of its
servants' dealings? Is it deceived? Does it accept dark deeds in the
pursuit of the greater good? Even though it is named with a song, it
remains silent, while the desert sands blow out over the sea.

http://i.imgur.com/Kabuj.png

In the utmost north, where far below the floating mountains of ice a
fortress of dark stone crouches. There a slave-priest toils with a
ceremonial bucket to prepare the inner chambers for the polypal
mothers. So vile and unspeakable are the necessary rituals and
abasements that only slaves will perform them. Slaves, and the one
known as Nyarlathotep. But then the one known as Nyarlathotep is also
known to be a creep.

http://i.imgur.com/3sJwL.png

A chieftain of the Maverni, Catamantaledes by name, has heard of the
prophecy the druids gave concerning Ermor in Numecria: "If Ermor
conquers Nume, the conquest of the world shall begin at Ermor." To be
more exact: he had heard the second half. Some would recall that the
bard who told him came from the mist-shrouded west, and some would
remember that his gray eyes were empty of smiles and full of stratagems.

With barbarian cunning, this Catamantaledes planned to take advantage
of the prophecy. By planting his throne on the ruins of once proud
Ermor, he hoped to become invincible in battle. Or at the least, he
hoped to gain fame and attract many warriors to his cause.

http://i.imgur.com/cyf7A.png

Thundering warcries and waving their axes, Catamantaledes and his
warriors burst over the tumbled walls of Ermor.

http://i.imgur.com/y5rtv.png

However, the druids have sent warning ahead of him, for they would not
risk war with the masters of the ocean deep for one chieftain's foolish
ambition. Yet luck or fate smiled on Catamantaledes: the inscrutable
creatures of the deep also eshewed confrontation. They had left only a
herald behind; a hulking atlantean in clad in spiked gray metal. What
he was to say, the Maverni never learned, for they were so disgusted by
the herald's toad-like appearance that they immediately hurled a volley
of javelins at him and cut down his attendants as they fled. Thus was
Ermor conquered the second time.

http://i.imgur.com/sKdCu.png

And not far to the north in a dingy Bolfagonian tavern two men sit
across a low table. One is a fisherman, but with a curious and
unwholesome slackness of expression uncommon for men of his stripe. The
other is a sharp-eyed old man, magnificently bearded. His clothes look
drab and nondescript, but in a manner difficult to remember and
impossible to describe.

The fisherman places a pouch on the table, the rough hemp at home
between the ale stains.

"This is it?" asks the bearded one.

"Open it," answers the fisherman.

The bearded man reaches out and pulls the bag across the table. It is
larger than it seemed at first. He undoes the frayed string and the
pouch gapes open. With a gasp, he speaks a word of power, shrouding it
from the sight of the uninitiated. Nobody hears it: it is one of the
word's powers that it is forgotten save by those trained in the magic
of air and seeming.

For a while, the bearded man merely gazes at the perfection before him.
Flawless pearls, the size of eyeballs, the colour of the full moon at
midwinter. Perhaps a hundred. "Yes," he hears himself say, "you will
have my services." A moment later, he adds: "For the next three moons."

http://i.imgur.com/6C6Gg.png

And in the distant south-east, in the war-torn land of Ultima Delca, a
message scroll bursts into flames.

The misbred commander shakes the flakes of burning paper off his hand.
"So R'lyeh will not attack them, despite our generous offer?"

The human standing before him pales even further. "They... they said
they had already left the sea, on another shore."

"Can't be helped, then. It was worth a try. Now: how far have the
Arcoscephalans advanced?"

~~~

How far have the Arcoscephalans advanced, indeed? My scouting is pretty
spotty to nonexistant (the latter really), since there's no independant
underwater scouts. And isn't that an Abysian talking? Well, consider
that scene a teaser. Updates by Excist and Immaculate will maybe make
things clearer...

Immaculate

June 2nd, 2012, 10:24 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Twelve: WHITE WEDDING! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6WrFJ6kjYI&feature=related)

WHITE WEDDING awakens!

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=b4au60" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/b4au60.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Good morning sleepy-head!

Also, this turn, I get some nature gems from Pangeaa.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=ic5map" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/ic5map.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

I wonder why. Maybe I am being bribed to attack someone (and leave my back open to attack by Formoria- maybe the trick is on me?)

We also manage to take a province with LOTs of indie barbs. Formoria generously offered to let me take it without making any claims to it despite how close it is to their lands and their extensive armies.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2vm8101" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/2vm8101.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

We do lose many troops but they are largely our mercenary barbarian forces under Rexor.

Here’s a look at the map after the end of the turn.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=96aic0" target="_blank"><img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/96aic0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Next turn I intend to take an indie province with the best 80s song in the world all by herself.

Immaculate

June 2nd, 2012, 10:47 PM

Arcosephalae
Turn Thirteen: Call Me! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QBaZHltJw)

Brought to you by Blondie!

Our god attacks some heavy cavalry.

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=9bgm8g" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/9bgm8g.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

And wins without losses. As you can see, we’ve obtained alteration 3 and are putting it to good use I feel.

The rest of our forces reposition, not taking any more provinces this turn. We are preparing to take three more indie provinces next turn however. Remember, up until now, we have never taken more than one province in any one turn (I do believe).

<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=15d1bit" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/15d1bit.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

Just a reminder of what I learned about from Corinthian for this turn…

Turn 13: A view to a kill.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wijkse6fuiY#t=1m6s" target="_blank">Oh, and taking inspiration from Immaculate again, you really should listen to this song while reading this turn in order to get the proper feel for things.</a>

This is it gents! This is war!

http://i.imgur.com/wZcWK.jpg
My armies will launch a three pronged assault on Arco. The expansion force to the center will go for the growth province, the stealthing Nemedians will attack the entry province next to his capitol and the major army will simply sail over the seas and land on the other side of his capitol. Next turn the two groups will siege it and with the help of my strong giants they should be able to break down the walls to the helpless philosophers in just 2 turns. After that it is over for arco, and the rest will be just mop-up work. The Chariots he have been relying on until now are completely unsuitable for fighting my giants. So while he might be able to raid my provinces still, he will not be able to break the siege.

Even if my other neighbors take offense to this it will take a few turns for them to get their asses in gear. And by the time they have done that Arco will be a nonentity, thus allowing me to divert my forces to fight my other neighbors.

It is a perfect plan and I'm a genius! :D

To be concluded....

Hateful little creature! Damn you and your dominant play!

Am I soon going to die? Did he not consider the strength of my Virtue? Can I turn this attack? What will happen?

jotwebe

June 7th, 2012, 08:43 PM

I think I might need a bit of an extension, say 12 hours? Could be I can manage my turn on the original time, but in case I don't, it would be nice to have the buffer.

Immaculate

June 7th, 2012, 10:09 PM

Hosting postponed for SharedAAR by 14 hours. The game will now host at 18:11 GMT on Saturday June 9th.
Please note that this information will not be updated on the game status page for a few minutes.

Immaculate

June 13th, 2012, 01:41 PM

Cori,

Do you still want me to wait for your next update before i post mine?

Immaculate

June 19th, 2012, 09:28 AM

The remaining dominant players seems ready to call it quits.

If anyone thinks the end is still in doubt, please say so otherwise i'm going to call this game over.

Please no one ruin the ending of how things went. Since this is a fairly short-lived game, i think we can probably all finish doing AAR write-ups, at least until the point where we got eliminated, even if its a glossy 3 or 5-turns at a time report.

Looking forward to seeing all your write-ups.

I.

Tarrax

June 19th, 2012, 08:52 PM

Don't mess it up guys! We are looking forward to the AARs. It would be a great shame if the AAR wouldn't be completed after so much effort was put into it. I'm only saying because I love AARs! :)

LDiCesare

June 20th, 2012, 01:38 PM

Hey, I need at least one more turn! Maybe two at most. I don't care what the dominant players think.

Immaculate

June 20th, 2012, 02:52 PM

alright - on we go!

Corinthian

June 25th, 2012, 03:16 PM

Turn 13: Revised.

Welcome back after our long hiatus. It seems we all have taken a break from this thread for various reasons. But now that the game is mostly over I see no reasons why we can not start it up again. We do have more time now after all.

Music for the turn. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex2E4vyGem0)

Oh yea. First. Lets make it clear that the things I posted last turn did not actually happen. This is because I changed my mind at the last moment. My plans were too precious to not write down in this thread so I had to fool you a bit.

What follows is the correct retelling of turn 13.
http://i.imgur.com/M920J.jpg
A strange sight greets me as I contemplates my invasion. A solitary angelic figure towers over the central fields of Arco. Last turn I sent my sneaking army in to the one remaining indy province outside Arcos capitol in order to get a look at the eventual opposition if he were to attack it.

They saw the following.
http://i.imgur.com/PIA04.jpg
This horrific being is Arcos pretender, the Virtue “White Wedding” by Billy Idol. It is the first Super Combatant we have seen in the game thus far and its represents a completely different kind of challenge than the rest of Arcos forces.

Its just one guy, but never the less it dominates the heavy cavalry indies that opposes it. How? It can do this because it has great stats and a huge number of special properties. Both innate and from spells it buffed itself with in the beginning of the battle.

If someone was to attack it, they would first have to overcome a long list of hurdles. Like its Awe +7, witch means you have to make a morale save vs 17 or 19. (I'm uncertain). Indies have an average morale of 10. After that you'd need to get past the Virtues Luck and Etherealness attributes that it gave itself through self-buffing spells. Both effects combined will allow it to ignore 7/8 of all non magic attacks and ½ of all the magical ones. Indies, naturally dont have magic weapons. Nor do they have mages in this case. But if they would nevertheless succeed with these hard feats and also overcome 15 points of defense, they would still only do 1 point of damage per hit. This because it also self-buffed with mistform, witch makes it so that every hit that strike it will only do 1 point of damage unless it is an instant kill attack like soulslay. If it is a magic attack, or if it would have caused more than 25 points of damage after protection, the spell will dissipate. But the attack that caused it to dissipate will still only cause 1 point of damage.

Each of these abilities on their own are beatable, but together they mean that the indies never had a chance. I don think the Virtue even took any damage.

Another thing of note it that it have Astral 9. Something tells me that my opponent was really paranoid about getting magic dueled during pretender creation. S9 does also provide a decent bless of course and access to some neat globals and rituals like Arcane Nexus and Wish. But his sacred units requires a lot of resources and are cap only, so I dont think the bless will see much use.

Some people likes to simulate wars and battles in single player before they do something. I am not that patient that I can run an entire SP game just for that kind of thing, so I just do some quick and dirty calculations in my head or with pen and paper.

Killing this thing is not impossible. But it will require that I rethink my strategies. I dont think the giants would be able to do much against it due to the etherealness and mistform, but my Nemedian Warriors might stand a chance. They have magical golden spears that are totally bling. The Awe would still be a problem, but they have morale 14 base witch could become 16 with Sermon of Courage. That means that they will manage to launch an attack somewhere between 1 time in 3, or 2 in 5. If I attack it with the 10 guys I have standing in the province, that means maybe 0.75 hits per turn after accounting for enemy defense with fatigue and after luck. The warriors do 17 hp damage vs its 5 points of protection. So more like 12 damage *0.75 = 9 points of damage per turn on average. First hit does not count due to mistform. This means I would need 10-11 turns to bring it down. Although it would flee before that.

http://i.imgur.com/5tdu6.jpg
However this calculation is only true if it does not strike back. Its unlikely to be that pacifist. The flamberge that it wields is both armor piercing and adds 4 extra points of attack skill. Although my nemedian warriors have 16 points of defense, 5 of those points are because of the golden shields they wield. For practical purposes, those shields wont do much difference vs a damage 18 (+18) armor piercing flamberge. I will assume that an attack would be deadly to the warriors 75-80% of the time after accounting for defense, shields, protection and hitpoints. However, the warriors also have glamor, witch means that all melee attacks have a flat 50% chance of missing. So the Virtue will have a 37.5-40% chance of killing one of my dudes each turn.

This is dour statistics because I cant even be certain to face it alone and I only have 10 Warriors ready for attack right now. My chances with it would be rather mediocre right now even should I catch it. I rather hold my troops in reserve and monitor the situation.

Well, you know how LiDCesare is always whining about how Abysia is ruining the game for both of them? Well he is largely correct. Unless you have no other choice, attacking someone without a realistic plan for how to kill your opponent quickly is suicide. Because although you (I) might have enough power to win the war, you (I) will probably not have enough power to do that and also fight off all your opportunistic neighbors. This means that you must either leave a sizable force in reserve and fight a slow, grindy war. Or you attack with all you got and hope that you other neighbors are nice enough to ignore you or that you can finish the war before they can strike at you. Or rely on diplomacy I guess. Though diplomacy have never been my strong point.

For me that is doubly troublesome because not only am I the biggest player by a good margin, I also have three close neighbors compared to the two that just about everyone else get. So thats three fronts I have to guard compared to, say, Abysia.

http://i.imgur.com/VOhx9.jpg
You know that Desmond guy? Yea it turns out he listened to the bad omens of the previous turns and decided that he rather wanted to sitesearch while he exercised his troops a little. Many other mages continue to sitesearch across the lands, while the ones in the capitol continues to transform air gems in to owl quills.

An expedition of unmarked is sent to the horse tribe lands to the east to determine were the mercenaries I sent there earlier disappeared to.

http://i.imgur.com/DcFpa.jpg
Meanwhile, more Nemedian warriors are recruited for a “mysterious” purpose. I now also have enough money to recruit a king almost every turn. Or at least when I'm not building a fort.

http://i.imgur.com/vf2Mt.jpg
A strange and awkward singing stone has also been found. It is immediately moved to a nearby pub were it is put to use. Drunk people find it to be hilarious apparently.

Turn 14

http://i.imgur.com/wrN95.jpg
A bunch of new sites are uncovered.

http://i.imgur.com/hzLY2.jpg
The totem collection I already knew was there but the others were a pleasant surprise. We now have enough astral that we can remote site search once every turn. I dont have the research for it yet, but arcane probing will prove to be a continuous and massive waste of pearls for a long while in the future.

The owl quills also allow us to reach construction 2 this turn. The new trinkets are cool and all but we have not quite gained the level of proficiency were we can start mass-producing things other than quills.

The horse tribals were forever mournful of their sins, and we sent them to the land of the dead so they could apologize to the late mercs in person. No casualties.

http://i.imgur.com/gFYi9.jpg

Meanwhile, a fort has been completed in Nardago and several more forts are being planned or constructed around the lands with the help of my prodigious gold income.

Nothing much else happens because living in a land with Order 3, luck 0 scales is really peaceful. (Future me: With the exception of the, like, four-five times that I have been invaded by barbarians due to other peoples scales.) A couple of kings join the group of mages responsible for manually searching for magic sites.

Turn 15

http://i.imgur.com/wXUVP.jpg
On the surface of things nothing much happens this turn either.

http://i.imgur.com/t6HPT.jpg
A magical air site is found in the land of the obstinate horse tribe . And to celebrate that I get an events that give me air gems.

http://i.imgur.com/DkHQ5.jpg
Nothing else much of note is happening in my lands, so I must spy upon other lands to get some excitement. Looking around a bit I can see that Marverni have taken the city of Ermor from Rlyeh.

http://i.imgur.com/BRTW1.jpg
I doubt they are actually at war as I can't see how Marv would get down under water and I doubt he would invade someone without the means to finish them of. Still, that Marv would have the guts to boss around not just one, but two nations that are bigger than himself and get away with it... Is impressive. Thats one brave bastard.

http://i.imgur.com/bmYmj.jpg
The construction of a fortified city was started in the plains of Hesperia last turn. Normally I build cheaper forts, but there is something to be said for an admin 50 fort with lots of neighboring provinces sometimes.

An expedition force is also sent to greet the barbarians living in the Dragon ridge Pass. Their weird gods and traditions should be no match for giants. I will show them once and for all that magical larping is no basis for a proper religion.

Despite having the biggest empire out of all the players I have not found a single scout province! This means that my only source of information from outside my lands are the score graphs.

So here are some of the current ones.
http://i.imgur.com/p7pfG.jpg
On the Province graph we can see two important thing. 1) Damn I'm big! And 2) Abysia and Pan is losing lands while Arco is growing rapidly. This can only mean that Arco have attacked Abysia in the back as he in turn was busy attacking Pan.

http://i.imgur.com/QGiuk.jpg
On the fort graph we can see that the first forts are coming online for several of the players. R'lyeh lacks underwater capable enemies and seem to be determine to fort up the entire ocean before he get any.

http://i.imgur.com/AzWis.jpg
On the income graph I am equally monstrous as I was on the province graph. But I did not get this way until I started overtaxing my capitol. As far as I can tell I am the only one who is utilizing this short term strategy.

http://i.imgur.com/QMZF2.jpg
The army graph is also interesting, as not only does it show that I have bypassed freespawn Pan in army size, it also shows that Aby just destroyed most of Pans armies with relatively light losses of his own. And might therefore be able to dedicate a large part of his forces towards fighting Arco, as Pan just got a lot less dangerous.

But the big thing to take away from these graphs is of course that Arco followed my suggestion of attacking Abysia.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!!

LDiCesare

June 26th, 2012, 03:00 PM

Since I already wrote up to and including turn 16, I'll wait a bit more that other people with more interesting things to say post stories before continuing. It's not like much will be happening in Pangaea for a while.

jotwebe

June 28th, 2012, 07:09 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 16

Chill Carrier: "Surfing Clouds" (http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/342174/chill-carrier)

The annoying thing with doing diplomacy over this here forum is that you don't keep your sent messages. So if you didn't remember to screenshot your diplo, it'll be lost in the void. Or at the mercy of your fellow players, anyway. Still better than the in-game system, where you can't even check whether you did or didn't send that declaration of war yet.

Or you could save the screenshots of your diplo in the wrong folder. That's why you can now read last turn's Abysia/R'lyeh diplomatic correspondence now.

Since this turn is otherwise really uneventful, that's not bad actually.

Figure 1: really uneventful turn

http://i.imgur.com/5HcBe.png

Figures 2 and 3: amazing thalassopolitical shenanigans

http://i.imgur.com/v5EEU.png

I'm just grabbing some cheap land here. The dangerous guy is on the other side of the world, right there on the beach.

http://i.imgur.com/AQUeq.png

Since one of the three events was some new research, let's look at that for a second. Conjuration 3, apart from some water summons I'm not planning on using a lot we have:

http://i.imgur.com/7CzR8.png

It's a nice booster spell. Doesn't look like that nice a deal on first glance, but since its area of effect is caster, when a communion master casts it, it'll also benefit all of his slaves. In addition the rather steep cost gets spread around some.

But nice as it is, it's not why I'm researching conjuration at this point. There's a certain spell at the next level which is very interesting for water nations.

http://i.imgur.com/XEo89.png

Obscuro's job is site searching. And he immediately succeeds: the narrow straits seperating Bolfagon and Maverni Ograthon are home to wild wind spirits that make it impossible to cross by ship. Obscuro devises an illusion-based trap that occasionally lures one of their number into a magical pouch.

http://i.imgur.com/hBRK2.png

And lastly, Auluudh has reached Smallsea, the inappropiately named water province surrounding Tir na n'Og's shores. On the new moon, he and his army will rush ashore and wrest the fertile plains of Pirenna from the evil Lich's grasp.

Adam J

June 28th, 2012, 11:25 AM

Jotwebe- there's also an option to save the sent message in additional options which is located below the icons.

Bluemage142

June 29th, 2012, 07:49 PM

http://i.imgur.com/Zo8Ws.png

HahahaHAHAha! My DIABOLICAL plan to have the last word on turns has FINALLY succeeded!

...wait, no. I've just been busy, distracted, and had sore typing hands. Also, I'm lazy. Here's five turns.

Turn 13:

<a href="http://imgur.com/wbtGP"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/wbtGPl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

200 gold, some magic gems, another winning battle, and a mercenary group hired. Oh, and Alt2. That's what we have here. I'm 495RP to Alt5, my next goal, so that'll take a while. Seven turns, if I keep getting Druids.

<a href="http://imgur.com/JG92L"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JG92Ll.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is the state of the empire. Notice the red flag down south? We've finally found Abysia. I'm sure I'll hear from him soon enough. Fomoria has a fort now (curse them and all they stand for), and mine is a turn away from completion. WE NEED TO CLOSE THE FORT GAP.

<a href="http://imgur.com/4v3wM"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/4v3wMl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

That'll help.

Now, R'lyeh and I had an agreement that could give me that land province up north, so that army will just wait there. Sending mercs up to grab that next eastern province, too. Once I confirm the state of things, I'll move it, one way or the other. For now, have some better news.

<a href="http://imgur.com/xB1tw"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xB1twl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Our first Druid. Isn't that nice? Look at those paths! I'd've preferred to have two water or two nature, but eh. You get what you get. Druid #2 is under recruitment, and I have some mercs after the fishmen to the east.

<a href="http://imgur.com/9No5a"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/9No5al.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Final orders.

Turn 14:

<a href="http://imgur.com/Ps8vs"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ps8vsl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Curses. See that? Two battles in the same province? Helheim and I invaded at the same time. Well, not technically- he went in first- but close enough. I'm actually rather shocked that I killed one of his thugs (you don't send out six men if they aren't thugs- well, thugs or an insult) with those mercs.

(The names should be a tipoff. Jake and Finn are quite definitely part of RJ's naming scheme, so yeah.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/O7guC"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/O7guCl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/DzaFE"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DzaFEl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/dxcaI"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dxcaIl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

By now, you've read all about glamour. Combine it with the bless in that final pic (E9S4B4, if you don't have dom3wiki open and/or the effects memorized), and six men can do a ridiculous amount of damage. Oh, well.

I've got a fort up near Fomoria, and I have no intention of sending a Gut out of my capital to set up its lab and temple. Why? Because of the effect on my research. It'd take two turns to get there, and two more turns to build the thing. That's 20 RP lost, and at seven turns from Alt5, there won't be enough time to really make the effort worth it yet. When I get closer to the goal, I'll reassess my priorities, but I REALLY do not want Alt5 delayed!

<a href="http://imgur.com/BbpY9"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/BbpY9l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/ctjAk"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ctjAkl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

The message from Abysia is rather a good thing. Perhaps a future ally? I send him a response, hinting lightly at my goals, and offering a rather stronger peace than he suggested.
I also move into R'lyeh in the NE- jotwebe offered me the southmost of his land provinces, and I took it. It gives me another link to the southern border with Fomoria.

<a href="http://imgur.com/jVb2G"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jVb2Gl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Final orders.

Turn 15:

<a href="http://imgur.com/oLFXU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oLFXUl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

No clue what's going on here. Let's look.

<a href="http://imgur.com/SvBhE"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SvBhEl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Nature gems. Yay... actually, that's sort of useful. I haven't had time to worry about gems yet, and I need them for berserking. Next!

<a href="http://imgur.com/j01Od"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/j01Odl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Good. jotwebe was honest when he told me what to expect there.

<a href="http://imgur.com/YYye6"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/YYye6l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here's the state of the empire. Building a lab down south, to go with the castle. Up north, I've settled into a rhythm of cranking out 40 Marv BCs, a Druid, and an indep commander to lead them. Also starting to stockpile Carnute BCs to the west- when war with Fomoria breaks out, I'll need them.

<a href="http://imgur.com/ezp3F"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ezp3Fl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Alt3 down. Two turns to Alt4, and another three at my growth rate to Alt5. Speaking of growth, it occurs to me that I've been totally remiss in one of my must important duties this game.

<a href="http://imgur.com/WODhu"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WODhul.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/ILrbu"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ILrbul.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://imgur.com/Yp1bt"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Yp1btl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Much better.

Turn 16:

<a href="http://imgur.com/BGECH"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/BGECHl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Ooh. Not fun. I did take a province, but it was rather expensive. 30ish BCs isn't the sort of loss figure I'm used to seeing. I'm also slightly annoyed at the loss of my Scout. It probably won't damage Fomorian relations, since scouts are generally treated like eccentric foreign tourists, but I sort of wanted to know more about where he was.

<a href="http://imgur.com/F71Bj"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/F71Bjl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

I do have my third fort up, and that's worth accepting this turn as headcanon. On to spending gold!

I end up buying a bunch of BCs to replenish my southern and western forces. Oh, and a Druid. And a temple. That pretty much wipes me out.

<a href="http://imgur.com/zaY0O"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/zaY0Ol.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Still 240 RP to Alt5, once this turn is done. I don't have the cash to get my mage production up (more on that in my Mistakes post, later), so I'm stuck at a paltry 78+9RP a turn.

My two main forces are too mauled to do much, and my mage corps is sort of busy becoming effective, so that's all I can do.

Turn 17:

<a href="http://imgur.com/LlwSn"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LlwSnl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Huh. The random event was immigration- apparently, somebody else had 1/5 of a province's population up and leave, and they settled in one of my southern provs. Good for taxes, I guess. As for the death match, it's well worth TOTALLY IGNORING, as I don't have a single commander worth throwing in there, and the reward isn't all that great.

<a href="http://imgur.com/WQ4g6"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WQ4g6l.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Now, if you squint hard enough at this, you'll see that the third fort finished! PROGRESS! Also, because of having a mage/priest along with that army, I've already got it fully equipped for production. I queued up a pile of BCs and a Gut for research there. More BCs at my capital, and a few in the west. I've almost got my armies restored to full... which'll mean I'll need to recruit a few more commanders. It never ends.

(If you're filling out armies/commander, you've got too many men, and you're not fighting enough wars. Also, I did just repeat myself about that third fort. More proof that the me of the past wasn't doing enough thinky.)

<a href="http://imgur.com/50q8k"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/50q8kl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Three more turns to Alt5. After that, I think I'll turn my attention to Evocation, for reasons you'll see at the end of this post.

<a href="http://imgur.com/DNQMg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DNQMgl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Now THIS province is interesting. You always want to examine which units you get out of independent provinces, just in case something like this comes up. It's an Amazon province.
New players might ask what I mean by that. Simple. Look at this.

<a href="http://imgur.com/DQ0LU"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/DQ0LUl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Here are the units it produces. The Amazon is a decent archer- useless for me right now, since its bows do 10 damage flat, but better than most of my troops at range. The first of those commanders, the Crystal Priestess, is also fairly useless- a basic priest with a 50% chance of Air 1 and a 10% chance of Astral 1? Sign me up- wait, no. Don't.

<a href="http://imgur.com/baelZ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/baelZl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

This is the Pegasus Rider. Fairly weak, except for a couple of saving graces. First, its defense. 19 is quite impressive- it'd take some thugs or a real mob to hit one of them. Second, see the wings in their list of attributes? Yep. They fly. Set some of these ladies on an Attack Rear order, and they can (with the right placing) end up right where people tend to leave their commanders. Finally, they have lances. The Light Lance is Damage 3, equivalent to a javelin, but it has a special property. The first attack made with a lance does double damage. Yes, you read that right. Strength 9, plus Damage 3, plus a semi-random number (usually 2 to 12), TIMES TWO. Twenty-six MINIMUM damage. That could ruin a well-armored human commander's day... or do some hurt to a giant.

<a href="http://imgur.com/FfHvD"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FfHvDl.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

Last, but CERTAINLY not least, is the Crystal Sorceress. It's a mage with a bow- one level of Air, one of Astral, and 10% chance of Astral 2. Not that strong, and 4 RP for 180 gold is sort of bad. I will love these ladies to DEATH.

Why, you ask? Well, it's quite simple. They have Air magic, which I don't get naturally. They ALL get enough Astral to join a communion, which allows me to boost that measly A1 to between A3 and A7, and do a fairly good job casting Orb Lightning. Orb Lightning is a fairly nice Air battle spell, which only requires Air 1 to cast, and deals 10 damage, ignoring any armor (Protection) the enemy has. Thing is, for every level of Air you add beyond the A1 needed to cast Orb Lightning, your mage throws another ball of lightning. At the same square. For ANOTHER 10 armor-negating damage. Oh, and the fatigue cost of Orb Lightning is RIDICULOUSLY low, to the point where a base Sorceress can throw nine of them in a row. Add in communions, and I can have them throwing Orb Lightning until the end of the battle.

"Now, 30 guaranteed damage is nice, but how do you make sure they actually hit somebody with it?", you ask. Simple. These ladies have 14 precision, out of the box. I can boost that to 19 with either Aim or Eagle Eyes, two spells I have right now, by adding a Druid to the mix. The average unit has 10 precision, and most mages have 11 or 12. Same for archers. SEE why I'm happy I found this?

(Also, Precision over 10 counts double. Effective 28, anybody?)

Imagine twenty Crystal Sorceresses, each of which can throw an Orb Lightning a turn for 30 damage a shot. They can ignore all that protection that Fomorian giants carry around, kill the weaker ones in one shot each, and nearly kill his Unmarked in a hit. Figure I can dependably get off eighty of those in a battle... while my barechests are doing what they do best. That's my vision for the future... a boot stamping on a dead giant's face, forever.

(As lovely as that is, I overlooked the gold costs of this are impractical for me right then, and would be better off spent on Druids. Oh, and the time commitment makes it rather impractical. Still, it is a LOVELY theory.)

LDiCesare

July 10th, 2012, 10:05 AM

I'm afraid I'm going to stale this turn. Not that it will change much considering my current activities, but I'm unable to play my turn from this cybercafe and will only be back home on saturday :( I'll post more AAR when I'm back home to make up for the lost time, sorry.

jotwebe

July 10th, 2012, 10:06 AM

http://i.imgur.com/D5COB.jpg

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 17

Soundtrack: SONGO 21: "Amor y Felicidad" (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/639735/amor-y-felicidad)

Last turn we left off with Auluudh poised to fall upon Pangaea's defenseless island provinces. Landfall is made in Pirenna:

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-pirenna-b1.png

There is little opposition.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-pirenna-b2.png

Time to take it easy, let the tentacles hang loose, and relaaaaaax.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-pirenna-outcome.png

This is the kind of fighting I like. Let's take a sip of our ice-cold drink and check what's going on in the rest of the empire.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-messages.png

Hmm, a message from Pangaea?

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-msgf-pangaea.png

I'm afraid I can't hear you over the sound of dying maenads. Anyway, new province, farmland, some nice beaches, some secluded magrove-shrouded bays where overgrown idols are worshipped by strange atlantean toad-people.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-map-pirenna.png

They shall take their rightful place as slaves of mighty R'lyeh.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-toad-tribe-warrior.png

Not that we really need more amphibian slaves.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-toad-tribe-shaman.png

Or water mages. But they go to Abysia anyway, as per our understanding. This does give them underwater capabilities, but I'm not too worried. They Burning Ones will go after other land targets first, before they will dare to come under the waves. Time enough to take care of this little problem if need be.

Now, what else? In the south west, Dxu'daku the mind lord found the rotting carcass of an ancient kraken.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-map-triton_sea.png

It is a vast expanse of decaying flesh, circled by a zone of airless, dead water. Alive, this monster might have rivaled Yöt-Webbogoth in size. Yet for some reason, it is difficult to find, requiring advanced knowledge of death magic to identify.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-map-lake_vastness.png

The fort in Lake Vastness is complete. Now Nithü has a safe place to work, and in little time we'll have cleaned up the nasty death scales from Helheim's yucky dominion.

So the time is right for another fort, this one off Fomoria's coast.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-map-moon_sea.png

Yöt-Webbogoth itself builds the gargantuan walls from pieces of destroyed triton palaces.

What else? You may have noted that there aren't a lot of water gems anymore in R'lyeh's eldritch gem storage thingy. That is because I spent them all. On this.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb367/jotwebe/Dom3%20Rlyeh%20AAR/rlyeh17/r17-voice-of-tiamat.png

For the water provinces. ALL OF THEM.

We have researched Conjuration 4. Let's do some dream interpretation.

And finally the aboleths perform some unspeakable ceremonies in the lightless depths of R'lyeh, celebrating certain constellations that have re-aligned to mark the birth of that horrible ape-creature only known as "Em", which the unwary and foolish summon through the twisted ring of a Möbius band.

LDiCesare

July 14th, 2012, 11:30 AM

First of all; sorry for the stale turns. I thought I could manage to play from a cybercafe but the one I found was, well... enough said I couldn't. Sorry. Now I'm back home so I'll be able to play normally.

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 17:
R'lyeh is taking my province of Pirenna.
I should have raised the taxes, I knew it.
My provinces are all being taken one after the other. I won't be able to finish my fort in the mountains. Even spending some gold on PD would be useless. I alchemize some gems to get gold as I'll soon need to pay troop upkeep.
http://i.imgur.com/C66ab.jpg

TURN 18 :
Abysia took the province R'lyeh took from me. They are surely allied or have some deal. I send my stealthy monkeys back to check what's happening there.
R'lyeh lost another water province to indies.
I have no province left but my walls stand firm. Abysia capital is besieged by Arco. This was a great idea to attack me with map move 1 troops and all his mages.
Also, I got a "lucky" event which created a lab in the province R'lyeh took on same turn. Way of giving him 500 gold without my being able to do anything to prevent it. :(
http://i.imgur.com/Bgsiw.png
At this point, eveerything can only go better. Looking at the situation, we have: Arco attacking Abysia. Abysia having committed absolutely everything to attack me and having both crap research and no chance to break my walls, Abysia is effectively dead at this point. R'lyeh is profitting from my weakness to grab some land, which is bad but I really can't do anything about it. The good news is they will take out the indies for me and I'll get them back later.
The situation in the rest of the world is largely irrelevant to me now, as my only plan is to hold the abysian forces in place until Abysia dies. When the abysian capital is taken, I can try to dom-kill them. However, until this time, I'll be lagging way behind everybody else in terms of research.

LDiCesare

July 23rd, 2012, 04:46 AM

Does anyone want to keep playing? The winner seems clear, annd the second largest player seems to acknowledge it. Of the remaining three, one is likely to be dead by next turn, the second one is in really poor shape, and as for myself I don't think there's any point continuing either since I could probably turtle out forever but that's quite boring.

Shardphoenix

July 23rd, 2012, 06:26 AM

LDiCesare, here`s a plan for you: turtle, bloodhunt around 1000 slaves and then SUDDENLY BLOODSACRIFICE FROM EVERY PROVINCE YOUR DOMAIN EVERYWHERE EVERYONE DIES YOU WIN.

Immaculate

July 23rd, 2012, 04:47 PM

Yup- i've been done for awhile.

jotwebe

July 24th, 2012, 04:10 AM

R'lyeh does indeed recognize the overlordship of Fomoria and has done so for several turns. It is our pleasure and privilege to assist in enlightening other nations to the futility of further resistance.

Iä! Iä! Snakeygurrath!

LDiCesare

July 24th, 2012, 11:28 AM

LDiCesare, here`s a plan for you: turtle, bloodhunt around 1000 slaves and then SUDDENLY BLOODSACRIFICE FROM EVERY PROVINCE YOUR DOMAIN EVERYWHERE EVERYONE DIES YOU WIN.
Yes I can try that. But with 3 forts + temples, that just won't work. Fomoria might never be able to take down my forts (but even that is doubtful), but I wouldn't have enough temples to counter those he has/could build in every other province. In fact, I think people can tell when I blood sacrificed from the dominions graph, and it's not that impressive.

LDiCesare

August 11th, 2012, 04:44 AM

I hope the others will post their AARs too, they are likely going to be more interesting than mine.

Summary: Pangaea is very good at turtling.

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 19 :
I alchemise some more gems to pay the troops. I still don't understand what Abysia did in Tir na'n Og. He's got no defenses there, no troops, so I'll try to take back the province. Whatever deal they think they have with R'lyeh matters little. Arco's god was assassinated by the abysian prophet. Too bad. Fomoria is building forts like crazy. I'm still turtling. I'll have alt 2 researched by the end of the turn and still don't fear for my fort yet.
I also send an in-game message asking Helheim for blood slaves in exchange for gems for blood saccing.
He hasn't got any to give me or isn't willing. Anyway, my best allies against Abysia are ultimately Arco, Caelum, and Abysia's all-eggs-in-one-basket strategy.
http://i.imgur.com/yMvAe.png

TURN 20 :
I stumble upon Fomoria's PD. Looks like he's patrolling with chaff lucky event militia.
http://i.imgur.com/AZ1ZC.png
That's overkill for my poor scout!
Abysia bought the wolfkin reavers to try to tear down my walls. Good move if it actually works. A test with god's enforcers shows they don't seem to actually besiege anything. The reavers are definitely useless on the first turn since they are still not making any progress at harming the walls so far, but it may change. I have 122 units + commanders inside the fort, he's supposed to have 160 units outside it. I have 250 defense. I will summon vinemen this turn. They suck at defending walls, but I can have 48 of them, which will count as about 5 defenders and that's more chaff for the actual battle.
Abysia is also bringing in some wolf tribe warriors. He'll eventually get numbers, but at a cost. Since I'd burn my lab if he storms, this will be 500 more gold. What with the loss of most of his provinces, this early war will not have benefited him at all. He might be building a fort in 4. I took back the island province R'lyeh left to Abysia for some unknown reason.
http://i.imgur.com/NBIfZ.png
This is very interesting in fact. For some reason, in all the tests I ran, mercenaries seem to be worth nothing at sieges. Maybe Helmut Sappers manage to do something, but the others never haad any effect at all. So I would advise to never buy mercs to try to breach walls, it seems not to work.

TURN 21 :
Despite all his troops, Abysia still doesn't start breaching my walls. He's never going to do it at this rate. I only got 5 maenads this turn however, what with that nasty order dominion he brought. In case my fort walls started crumbling, I can cast Iron Walls if I have an E3 wizard, which would require earth boots. So I research constrcution. I'll reach cons 4 in 8 turns, build boots in 9 and cast iron walls in 10 if needs be. This is obviously the most exhilarating plan ever designed, but that's the only one I have. I mean, Abysia will be dead if they keep using 6 top tier mages to just besiege a fort for 10 turns or more.
I'm a bit concerned that Arco didn't attack province 4 however. I suspect a fort may be being built by Abysia there. I realise province 13 is defended by a single misbred and no PD. What? I'll strike there. I go back to preaching and researching.
Caelum didn't answer my offers to attack Abysia.
Actually, Abysia never grasped the concept of building forts in this game.
http://i.imgur.com/xfm41.png

TURN 22 :
Well, not many people posted their AAR. Only Helheim, Marverni and I. :(
Yes, that's the turn we started posting AARs. Today, we're far from the turn 30+ we should have reached if people stuck to the initial rules about posting AAR 20 turns after they were played :(
Things went better than expected.
Which doesn't mean much, actually.
Not only did I take the province Abysia had left defenseless, but I also kept the one I took back on the island. With my PD of 1, I bet his army of 1 commander + 3 light cavalry, killing one, which caused the rest to rout. That's a very useful 1 gold investment. I decide to up the PD's to 3 in my provinces. This could get rid of a fourth 20-some-gold horseman after all. What do you mean I'm working with scraps? A PD of 3 is massively impressive. I'm obviously going to win the game with such grand investments and decisions. Or not.
My dominion is up to 3 black candles only in Pangaea, with 5 maenads and still unbreachable walls.
In addition to my new province, Caelum has attacked Abysia, taking 2 provinces. I am quite sure he'll turn against me afterwards, but that doesn't matter much, as he won't hurt my walls any more than Abysia and I might actually pay him to get some land back.
Actually Caelum will have been turtling at least as much as I have been, probably more if that's possible, for the whole game.
Now, I go into conjuration rather than construction, in order to be able to summon animals. If I can get wolves, I can sneak them out of the capital and take some actually defended provinces before the walls fall.
I have no idea what to do with my monkey troops. They have no province to take back and cost money now... I'll go back to Tir na n'Og, to take out whatever province R'lyeh forgot to defend. He lost another one to indies this turn. I don't know if he picked turmoil/misfortune... Oh, no, it's true, that's my dominion. If my luck was actually his misfortune as it's supposed to be but apparently not, it would be even better (try to ask Calahan to get accurate infos on that topic). Bad, isn't it? I wish people knew a deterrant when they see one, but R'lyeh and Abysia apparently didn't. Although I can't blame R'lyeh for profitting from the spoils. He is the dangerous one by the way, since he can bring enough chaff to take my fort down whereas Abysia never will. Anyway, I want to point out that my stinky dominion has managed to steal 2 provinces from R'lyeh to the indies so far. I mean turmoil here. Of course, he's bringing his dom back there so the effects won't last forever, but still.
I keep a scout on the Abysian capital. It's not very useful, but I'd love to see it stormed by Arco. Ichtyids, archers, chariot archers, pegasi, amazons. Amazons? It means Immac has found some juicy indies. I wish I knew what kind of amazons they are.
Anyway, I'm still turtling, nothing else to do, but I'm pretty confident by now I'll survive Abysia.
The next picture shows ownership of the various provinces. It's actually generous to R'lyeh, which seems to have one less than shown. Those inside thick borders are certain. Those outside are guesses, but I think they are fairly sure.
http://i.imgur.com/DHpKt.jpg
I'll also bring an animated jpg of what I thought the borders were for all the game when I post the last turns.

TURN 23 :
Abysia keeps trying to take the same province he didn't manage to take before, but with less troops. Since I tripled the defense, he unsurprisingly loses. Maybe he's paying too much upkeep and tries to get rid of his expensive and useless light cavalry? Likely not, since he recruited the boar mage and his mercs this turn. But he left the wolfkin reavers go.
http://i.imgur.com/lkL31.jpg
Also, Arco 'scouted' province 33, checking the PD there. Abysia lost 2 more provinces this turn.
I only got 3 maenads this turn, but there are only 2 black candles left. I will create some vine men and next turn I can summon bunch of animals if needed. Vine menare quite useless at repairing walls but, for some reasons, lions are great. I mean, errr... don't try to make sense, lions are strong, so they are good masons.

TURN 24 :
Fomoria has announced they would annex Marverni. Good. They won't strike Arco, so they can still fight Aby.
Conj 2 researched. I'll summon some animals in order to actually do something.
Berserk boars take Pirenna. My 3 PD kills 10 of them. The other 3 PD is beaten by Abysian light cavalry for a change.
I see a battle in Runia (can't remember where that is. I expected Fomoria/Marverni AAR to show it if it was relevant). I don't know if Fomoria stealthy army was caught by patrollers, but they were easily slaughtered by a large Marverni chaff. Fomoria still took 8 Marverni provinces.
Oh, and my walls still hold fast. the good news being my dominion is back up at home.
Apparently, Abysia moved his army north to take back the province lost to Caelum.
Arco has been doing something stupid. Attacking a 20 PD abysian province with a lone oreiad. WTF? Of course she was slaughtered.
I see that province 121 is defenseless. It's Marverni, so Fomoria should take it next turn. Also, Marverni proper is under siege by Fomoria. Abysia's dominion is falling. If he doesn't preach, he could be dead in 4 turns, but let's not hope too much. In fact it looks like he'll be preaching to survive for the rest of the game and it's way more than 4 turns.
I'm short on gold, so I'll try to break the siege with my centaur archers, a dryad and the revelers plus some maenads and vine men. I should logically fail as abysians will bring back their troops from the north, but this should kill the centaurs and thus I won't have to worry about upkeep costs. The only problem is I'll lose a dryad along with them, but that's affordable. I might even win if Abysia tries to take back other provinces rather than persisting on my capital.
I leave one monkey in Pirenna, in case Abysia moves without putting any PD there. I'll move in the island and see if I can take back land from R'lyeh.

TURN 25:
I killed my troops as expected, but still have to pay more upkeep than I earn. I'll attack R'lyeh this turn with the monkeys. I'll then have to bring back the monkeys home to repair the fort if it's getting damaged.
I somehow killed 1 out of 10 enemy commanders, but the battle replay doesn't show which one. I doubt I could have been lucky enough to kill an annointed, so it's more likely one of the 2 indy commanders who burnt himself near abysians.
My dominion is back up in my capital but I lost 10 out of 250 fort defense this turn, thus I'll summon chaff. I got 5 stealthy wolves out of my summon animals, so repeating this I could hope for 20 wolves per turn to try to sneak out, but that's a huge cost for a smallish army. I'll also get 10 lions or so per casting, with str 15, so they are worth 2 attackers each, so I should repair 80 more points this turn when I get 40 lions. Plus the birds, wolves, spiders and however many maenads I can get.
In other news, R'lyeh is attacking Fomoria and Marverni is defending itself.
http://i.imgur.com/5d4ga.jpg

TURN 26:
I got a bit carried away with my animals. They need food and I don't have enough. I'll have to sacrifice another commander or get out with some wolves. I'll build some cauldrons of broth. One cauldron feeds 100 troops, so I need three of them and can keep my armies well-fed.
I took R'lyeh's province back. There's a lab there (thanks to that random event), so I'm tearing it down, pushing taxes to 200%, and retrieving a Piercer that I put on my monkey. I don't remember building this item, maybe I got it from an event. Whatever, the commander will be using it instead of just staying behind his soldiers.
Abysia is back to preaching, but my dominion is still positive and my prophet is back so she and the 4 dryads will preach again. that's a bit less than what he's got outside the walls I believe, but with the temple, temple bonus and start province, I think I can get more candles. Of course, neither of us does any research during this time.
Arco has breached Abysia's walls, but Abysia's prophet is utterly scary. He probably can't beat a whole army by himself, but... probably.
I'd also like to take back one province from Caelum. I mean, he doesn't do much to attack Abysia, so I might as well take what I can back and people who don't put any PD on their provinces deserve to lose them. I'm asking him since I don't want to cross him. He seems to be turtling, but I'd rather stay on his good side. I propose 5 water gems for that: He answers "That's fine, I think... Let me check the map." I suppose it's ok so I do that.
I also send a message to Abysia to try to convince him that besieging Pangaea is stupid. I don't have very high hopes of convicing him.
Here is the conversation:

Hello again.
Are you still trying to take down my walls?
I suppose you realise by now that you willl never breach them, that my troops inside don't need food, don't need upkeep and that I can summon more should I need them. Even if I had no money, the commanders never desert, so you will simply never take Pangaea.
You can try to out-preach me, but that's not working that well and during this time your expensive wizards research nothing. Obviously my research also sucks because of this.
You can hope to take over the world with your whole prophet (who is a scary bad-*** I must admit), but I doubt it will get you anywhere.

Why don't you just get out of my place, use your wizards to build a lab and let us both try to build something from there instead of wasting our resources trying to preach each other's dominion out and playing with the stones of my castle? Or go out ans try to prevent Arco from taking your capital and then your remaining provinces?
Well, since Abysia has no hope of surviving now that there are 3 forces allied against us, we have no option but to at least make life hellish for our neighbors.

If we had some hope of survival, maybe there would be a point to negotiating a truce out of this stalemate, however, between Caelum and Arcosphale's opportunism, we may as well take somebody down with us and make things as painful to our enemies as possible.

Okay, I'm going to lose animals to disease because I forgot the cauldrons, so I'm not saying the exact truth. I'm just one turn off, however. I would also like it better if he concentrated on someone else. As for the other two opportunism, I think the word is badly chosen. Leaving oneself open for invasion by Arcoscephale wasn't calling for opportunism. It was suicide. Rushing someone whose forts are notoriously the hardest to storm out of the whole game is also slightly silly. You can shut down Pangaea, but you can't kill them. Not unless you have hordes of chaff to take down the walls, and I think only R'lyeh might manage that in the early game. So attacking me was always going to cost Abysia the game because it was a strategic suicide, which ends up saying he played like "I'l committing suicide, but I'll take out my unlucky neighbor down with me". Thanks a lot.
Damn. I'm whining again. Oh, well...

TURN 27 :
Abysia lost his fort. Marverni lost a second fort. Fomoria's income has lowered a lot this turn, though.
Marverni armies were slaughtered. So were Abysia's. Caelum (what did he do?) and Arco lost a lot of troops too. I'm actually third in troop numbers, but I have a third of my troops diseased, despite what I told Abysia and because I misplanned.
R'lyeh is first in troops, but that's probably mostly freespawn. Then Fomoria comes a close second. These are mostly unmarked and some Fir Bolg from what I saw. So they are Not chaff, and back with thunder strikers and lightning bows, he's quite scary. R'lyeh, Helheim and Caelum should band together fast to get rid of him because I don't think Marverni will survive for more than a few turns.
I get a province thanks to Caelum, so I have some income. R'lyeh will take out my province on the island next turn. Then, I'll be doing some scouting and calling back my god. My prophet should go preach in Abysia's lands and, with Arco building a temple, dom kill should be possible.
I'm still turtling. Told you so. I get out south to check which province too attack next: the island or the province straight to my south.
http://i.imgur.com/GxrZd.png

Ragnarok-X

August 12th, 2012, 01:48 PM

Hooray for LDiCesare. At least he posts his turns !

YellowCactus

August 13th, 2012, 09:14 PM

I love the way you guys are posting images into your forum replies. Can someone explain to me how you are capturing the images, and how you add them to a post?

I can capture images by using the paint program, but when I try to add a picture to a forum post, the forum requests an url....but it's just a file saved on my computer. Thanks for any assistance!

Immaculate

August 13th, 2012, 10:36 PM

use an image hosting site like 'tiny pic'.

If you quote someone's post, you can see what the image code going into it are; thats probably the easiest way to learn.

LDiCesare

September 2nd, 2012, 06:04 AM

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg

I don't think anyone else will keep posting their turns by now. It's a pity since all I have to show is a map where Pangaea fortresses stand alone under a tide of red...

TURN 28 :
R'lyeh's god has been killed by a 20-strong(?) Fomorian PD with 3 druids inside. I think he must be somewhat gutted. Helheim is joining the fray against Fomoria. However, the equation is: R'lyeh + Helheim + Marverni < Fomoria so far.
Arco lost 2 provinces, but I do'nt know to whom. He brought in 2 armies - one of chariots in the north, one of archers and ichtyids in the south. Hopefully, Abysia may be killed soon. Marverni only has 2 provinces left. Definitions of soon may vary here.
I'm striking at my fort and the province to the south.

TURN 29 :
Abysia asked Arco to let him live so he could dom-kill me. I'm laughing at the thought. Why would Arco do this? At least I can provide him with gems, while Abysia would always want to take their capital back, so he can't seriously let them live.
I freed my capital. That lets me blood hunt there.
http://i.imgur.com/1MmUg.png
Abysia has something like 3 candles left. If he doesn't preach in 33 - which he certainly can do efficiently - he runs the risk of dominion death next turn.
I didn't dent the southern PD with my wolves. This was quite pitiful in fact.
In other news, Marverni is reduced to a single besieged fort. They may well die before Abysia or I.
I keep a scout eating popcorn in Marverni, waiting to look at the storming to come.
Oh, and my research is skyrocketting. I have reached Conjuration THREE by turn TWENTY-NINE! Fear, you heathens. No, seriously, this is pitiful.
The map is now clearly divided.
http://i.imgur.com/44i0O.jpg
R'lyeh holds the waters and most of MY island. Abysia and I are tiny coloured patches in the south-east. Arco holds the south. Helheim the northeast, Fomoria the west and center. Caelum holds the east, but they are still mostly uninvolved and building their typical armies of Frankenstein monsters.
Arco warns me that he can soon cast Mother Oak and offers a shared investment so we share the benefits. I'm in no position to refuse. I have few gems, it will take me forever to reach Alt 5, and by the time I could try to overcast it, Immac would have stored lots of N gems and could overcast it back, so I accept the principle.

TURN 30 :
I get 19 blood slaves in Pangaea. Enough for 6 turns of dom spread with a prophet. But... 1/5th of the population is unhappy and decides to leave :( Ouch. I already don't get much gold, that's a permanent 20% reduction in my capital.
Lions prove to be much better than wolves at beating abysian infantry: http://i.imgur.com/4qzxw.jpg
Caelum comes say hello to Abysia where they are strongest. I leave it up to either of the contestants to make a screenshot. Basically, 8 anointeds of Rhuax plus an uber-prophet > a few eagle kings with some mammoths and corpse constructs. This was suicide from Caelum from the start. He achieved nothing there, except maybe kill a few infantries, but most of the infantry is PD anyway. Caelum also attacks the province of Renthale with 2 squads of archers. Against Abysian PD? Seriously? Did you even scout them? If a markata could take the province, I'd have taken it back long ago. Of course he loses too.
My scout dies in Marverni seeing Marverni commit suicide. He goes out with all (?) his druids, makes a mass communion and then, since his troops were not told to hold and attack, sees them rush straight ahead out of range of all the buffs he scripted. His druids cast a blade wind once. I mean. Communion Master + Power of the Spheres on the master; Communion Slave + Summon earthpower on the slaves. Everyone casts a buff while the troops are on hold and attack. Next, blade wind * 2. Sure there would have been losses to thunder strikes but at least the druids would have done something useful beyond the occasional vine arrow. Marverni is dead by now, the storming will be trivial for Fomoria.
Here's my diplo to Arco, who offers me to take back 2 provinces he just took:

There are only black candles left in his province of Deadlands. 5 of them. I have 2 dryads preaching there, one in Renthale (36) who preaches one more turn and then will go to Deadlands too. I also start blood sacrificing in my capital. Not with my prophet yet, I prefer to have her smite the last abysian province in the island, but she can do that soon if the dryad doesn't prove efficient enough.
I'll also send a dryad there every turn to counter-preach. Still, there are 8 H3 priests in that province, along with a prophet and maybe a H2 (I think he is just PD).
You may not have seen the battle, but Caelum tried to take Deadlands with maybe 20 corpse constructs, 5 mammoths, 3 or 4 eagle kings and a few yazatas. He lost all and caused no casualty beyond some PD. He also attacked 36, a 20-strong abysian PD, with 2 groups of 20-so spire horn archers. Of course he got his *** kicked.
I'm taking these provinces, thank you.
Oooh, and I lost 1/5th of Pangaea population this turn to a bad event :(. Thanks luck scale for not working.

TURN 31 :
2 Unexpected events in Citala:
1. A local lord has built a fortress to defend his lands from revolting peasants.
Woohoo! Free fort!
2. Local defence improved by 10.
Woohoo! + 50 gold worth of PD.
I retrieve 2 provinces from Arcoscephale and take one from Abysia. I decide to leave Tir na n'Og alone for the moment and not worry about R'lyeh immediately but rather about Abysia remaining provinces. This is partly due to the Astral window in the province where I fought Abysia. I would bet R'lyeh put it up to see what was coming so it could counter me if I attack him, so I'd rather not waste troops on someone who can counter attack when there's a lone demonbred and some PD waiting for the kill in the south.
I plan to build a temple next turn in Citala.
Abysia's prophet wasn't in the battle that happened in Deadlands (a lone Arco scout got killed), so I suspect he moved it somewhere else to preach. Maybe to my capital, which would suck as he could happily assassinate everyone there. This is why I bring an indie commander and a black harpy, to act as assassination decoys. I also give bodyguards to my mages, with little hope that it will help them survive. Anyway, with a second temple next turn, protected by walls, I will be able to blood sac twice as much and maybe build more dryads.
http://i.imgur.com/p0Im6.png

TURN 32 :
Fomoria has killed Marverni.
Abysia's god has broken free.
I lose 1/5th population in Carnag (argh, I'll have noone left) but gain 200 gold there. Abysia also moves to take Rim Mountain. Great. He doesn't preach during this time so I get rid of one of his candles. I build my second temple, and blood hunt some more on my capital so I'll have enough slaves to blood sac. Next turn: dryads + preach + blood sac. Whoever suggeested winning by blood saccing. Abysia's dominion is utterly crap. Like 3 or somesuch. But he's got H3 priests. It's a helluva pain to get rid of that. Of course, if I had 10 temples, it might work, but it's still painfully slow and inefficient. I dare say it's not even seriously possible without jade knives.

TURN 33 :
5 blood slaves and a lucky event for 200 gold this turn.
I lose quite a lot of vinemen, maenads and a few lions to Abysian PD but take out their southernmost province at last:
http://i.imgur.com/d18zB.jpg
However, Arco tells me he's signed a NAP with Abysia, as he is rightly concerned with Fomoria's growth.
I'm slightly concerned about Caelum's next move personnally. If I were him, I'd certainly try to get rid of Abysia and then of Pangaea, and that's not good. But actually, he's just a turtle so I fear little.
Since Abysia refused my truce last time we talked, I see no point in asking again.
Silly me forgot I needed to give some blood slaves to my dryad so she could actually do some blood sacrifices. Duh! Wasted one turn.
As a result, I build 1 lab and 1 dryad this turn.
There are 2 black candles left in Deadlands (33), but I only have 1 in Rim Mountains (21). I bring a preacher there. I still preach in 33. Next turn, with my lab, I should be ablee to get both a second blood sacrificer and one more dryad. Although I may lack gold for the latter. As a result, I will overtax my capital. That is, I will patrol and tax normally while blood hunting.
According to Helheim, Caelum should be joining the war against Fomoria. Things will be difficult for giants. I think they're a bit overestimated, since a 2 to 1 war isn't easy to win, and with Arco joining the gang, it'll be hard for them.

TURN 34 :
I found some fire and death gems to lucky events. I've lowered Abysia's dominion to 1 candle in 33 but he grew to 5 in 21. I can start blood sac'ing in my second temple, though. It will take forever... I will be buying 2 dryads per turn every turn until the end comes... I also try to take out the one province with a lone anointed one to my north.
Helheim is near dead. They have as many provinces as Abysia, but more income. Less gold than I earn, which means really not much. They have their forts, however. That, and Arco has started attacking Fomoria. It doesn't show much, as Fomoria is still rocketting in provinces count.

TURN 35 :
My army sent north is slaughtered by abysian PD.
http://i.imgur.com/d18zB.jpg
Even with some Armor of Achilles cast at abysians, swarms of maenads are worthless and I didn't have enough lions. Vine men also suck.
I got a lucky event for a hero:
http://i.imgur.com/FODpW.png
Not that I'll ever be able to kit him and use him, mind you.
I may think buying minotaur lords for their berserk bonus is usually a bad idea, but I must say that berserk +7 is kind of impressive. Plus he's a good mage, even though he provides zero magic diversity. He'll help me research Destruction and then some summoning in order to maybe summon lions and use them to fight Abysia with decent numbers without having to waste tons of gems to give supplies to mostly useless black hawks, spiders and wolves (useless against Abysia that is).
I'm also going to send the rest of my army against R'lyeh. He just didn't have to take my lands. I'll probably lose all those maenads, but that doesn't really matter if I have even a slight chance of seizing one province.
In other news, Helheim controls zero province but retains 3 forts. Arco lost a bunch of province this turn and Fomoria is generally thumping everyone around while Caelum jsut sits there idly.
Abysia still has 5 black candles, but his dominion shrank this turn (?) while mine grew. More preachers every turn. Yawn.

TURN 36 :
Fomoria has cast Mother Oak. Well, not like I could compete.
I've got a lucky siren event, along with a nice one : 3000 pounds of gold, a huge amount of fire gems and a magic item. Nice. It's but a marble armor, but I won't spit on anything.
I take out R'lyeh's PD with surprising ease. I mean, unsupported maenads beat them!
http://i.imgur.com/eQW5P.png
Caelum attacks Abysia once again, in the province I failed to take last turn. That's intersting. This time he brought a lot of wizards.
http://i.imgur.com/QonIS.png
9 thunder strike casters slaughter abysian PD without problem.
I also witness Fomoria's mercenaries storm a Helheim fortress.
Graphs show Fomoria lost all that he took last turn. Arco got some provinces back, and so did R'lyeh. Caelum is still not participating in the big war. I suppose he wants to kill Abysia, then me, and then tackle Fomoria.
I bet for Marmor the white wizard. I mean, he could site search or research, whereas Fomoria is only going to get him killed, so he should really come and help me instead.
I start building another fort. The idea is to have as many as I can, much as R'lyeh. I don't care about resources. I want fort + temple + Pans inside + blood sacrifices.

TURN 37 :
Unrest in Pangaea, air and water gems through luck event.
I take over one R'lyeh province with heavy maenad casualties. This gives me a lab and 2E,1S income.
Abysia is reduced to 3 candles only in its only province left.
Arco lost half his armies this turn, but I didn't see what happened. Too bad RL doesn't let me ask about it.
http://i.imgur.com/a44i2.jpg

TURN 38 :
Just some gems and 200 gold from lucky events. Helheim lost its next-to-last fort to Fomoria. Still 3 black candles for Abysia. I preach with 2 more dryads there this turn, and build a temple in the province south of it, where a fort will be completed this turn. I also bring in 4 blood slaves to start saccing next turn.
In addition, I summon some animals on the island in order to attack R'lyeh next turn and take back the whole isle.
For the first time, there's a clear dent in Fomoria's army graph. They still seem to be trampling everyone else, though, and they send some remot ghoul attacks against Arco.

TURN 39 :
Conjuration 4 researched.
Some air gems found.
Still 4 black candles left for Abysia... I have a new blood sacrificer. I blood hunt some more, recruit one more dryad and watch R'lyeh and Arco fight Fomoria while Caelum still sits idly. I'll also attack that last R'lyeh land province on my island.

jotwebe

September 2nd, 2012, 07:27 AM

I don't think anyone else will keep posting their turns by now. It's a pity since all I have to show is a map where Pangaea fortresses stand alone under a tide of red...

Well, that is not dead which can eternal lie: R'lyeh is just ... sleeping. I've been a bit overwhelmed with me reaching end game in all my other games against expectations, but one at least is winding down now. (with hated atlantis winning, to add insult to injury. What is the world coming to?)

That'll leave me with only two late-game micro-nightmares, and hopefully the stars will be right again soon so I can continue R'lyehs tale.

LDiCesare

September 11th, 2012, 02:51 PM

Since this thread fell off the first page, I think it's a good time to post my last turns.

http://lpix.org/images/Lilli/e119a69f7bf3ba93a328d4e77b609f1e/panbanner.jpg
TURN 40 :
Construction 3 researched. I got people who immigrated to Pangaea, a nasty blizzard in Silver Fangs, and good harvests in Pirenna.
I also conquered the last R'lyeh province on the island. There was but 1 PD there. The net result of the random events is that I have not much money.
Arco and R'lyeh both lost quite a few provinces to Fomoria this turn. Caelum built another fort and still doesn't seem to be doing anything. What is he doing????
I still don't do anything special. Preaching and blood sacrificing. I bring more preachers, and will use my prophet to blood sac next turn.

TURN 41 :
Still 4 abysian candles. I'm not achieving anything and yet I preach as much as I can and sacrifice all I can. This is frustrating. But then I have a lot of candles in my forts, and my prophet will start sacrificing instead of just a H2 dryad...
Nothing interesting otherwise, war rages everywhere except for Caelum. I'll get construction 4 next turn and go back to Alteration.
http://i.imgur.com/tINdB.png

TURN 42 :
Fomoria cast Gift of Health. I got 3 events: some water gems (twice), and a free H2 priest with some usless and expensive militia from an event.
R'lyeh is sending Zmeys at Fomoria for the moment. I can't even begin to contemplate such spells myself.
The good news is Abysia is fown to TWO candles. With a bit of luck, he's dead next turn as I have 2 more preachers in his province this turn.
Arco is falling quickly now. Helheim is still alive but hiding in his lone fortress. R'lyeh is stable and Caelum is still waiting for Fomoria to win.
http://i.imgur.com/Zp4QO.png

TURN 43 :
Some astral gems found.
Fomoria is using some Morrigans against Arco. I bet he will explain them in detail at some point, so I won't spoil. Maybe I should have taken more notes and some screenshots actually. I doubt anyone else will write their aar now, but please prove me wrong? Basically, strong, tough, flying, sacred glamorous undead with life drain and deacy... And Abysia is back to 5 candles :(
Still, my dominion is growing on the graphs and I now have the second army in numbers. Seriously, maenads vs. morrigans is laughable, but still.
I decide to send my militia to attack Abysia. I suppose he's got no unit left but his commanders and a few henchmen, I shall see. Anyway, they should make short work of the militia which are just 37 units worth nothing so they just eat a dozen gold or more each turn in upkeep, I'd rather have them die.
http://i.imgur.com/uWMD7.png

TURN 44 :
400 gold worth of events. I use these to build a lab in my lab-less fort.
Helheim is now dead.
I managed to kill 33 of my 37 militia. This lets me see that Abysia has 11 wizards and 13 infantry to defend its province. They also have but ONE candle left. I have 2 more preachers on their province this turn, so I hope it will suffice.
http://i.imgur.com/tqa15.png

TURN 45 :
Alt 5 reeached.
The Arco capital has fallen. Other players want to stop the game. That's bad because I'm jsut starting to get back into it. I can cast Mother Oak next turn. My dominion is growing. there's jsut 1 candle left in the last abysian province. I have tons of maenads to defend my forts. All is going well. I will attack Abysia this turn, hoping to take the province or kill some priests in case I don't dom-kill him next turn.

TURN 46 :
FINALLY!
Two noteworthy things happen this turn:
1/ Caelum attacks a Fomorian province. This was long awaited.
2/ I get rid of Abysia.
I manage to kill Burning Ones only by polymorphing them into swines, but eventually I do kill them all and rout the few remaining priests. My maenads die in droves. I lose 350 troops + 20 vinemen + 2 commanders and kill 7 out of 10 commanders and 13 units. Not a brilliant result. Maenads do kill Burning Ones when their armor has been Destroy'ed, but the ai would rather cast Wooden Warriors than Destruction when there are a few remaining heavy soldiers backed with fire mages in front of me. Oh well, it's not like I didn't know it. I had planned to kill a few priests and that it would be enough to dom-kill abysia. I still wish I had managed to dom-kill him. I have 3 candles, but I don't know how many I would have had if Abysians had kept preaching.
http://i.imgur.com/IvMof.jpg
Where a Burning One is turned into a swine, and other one, with broken armor, gets cut to pieces by maenads.

I cast a 110-gem Mother Oak. Not sure if it's enough to beat Fomoria's but I can try.
I task 20 dryads with "Call God". This should bring me back immediately.
http://i.imgur.com/9PIdh.jpg

TURN 47 :
Mother Oak cast successfully. Of course, Fomoria might overcast it back, but it doesn't matter much. I have events for water gems, gold, more gold and some faith boost.
I lose my scout in Arcoscephale lands, but I can see Caelum's attacks against Fomoria. He just ran into PD so far but Fomoria's province count has lowered a lot after Caelum and R'lyeh grew a little.
My god is back but mute, limping and with a never-healing wound. Luckily, being immortal will heal all that over time. Still, it sucks.
I will finish Evo 2 and start on Alteration 6 in order to try and get alt 7 for transformation to get rid of my Pans' ridiculous upkeep costs.
All of this will take forever of course.

TURN 48 :
Played from a hotel at work (busy week this one). Lost the comments in the process. too bad.

TURN 49 :
Someone scryed my capital and got fried. Fomoria cast Well of Misery. Nothing really interesting here.

TURN 50 :
I staled the next turns because I thought I could play my turns from a cybercafe while on holidays, but I couldn't. Apologies to my fellow players. It didn't change much to my turtling, though.
Staled. Too bad. R'lyeh attacked this turn. Random event brought 1000 gold.

TURN 51 :
Staled. Again, R'lyeh keeps attacking. Got some magic item through random event.

TURN 52 :
R'lyeh keeps trying to take out my provinces. He also attacks with astral spells my commanders. I don't know what R'lyeh is trying to achieve by fighting me instad of Fomoria. I'll just try to get rid of him. Some Calls of the wild, an army of crap to test the ground, and I bring back my god just in case. I'll have Alt 7 (transformation, mass protection, marble warriors) researched this turn so I'm starting blood.
Anyway, despite taking 3 provinces from me in 3 turns, R'lyeh is still losing in the number of provinces to Fomoria. I saw his god come by but he moved on somewhere.
I had some militia randomly raised in the last Tir na n'Og province, but it's crap. I add some PD though, it might hurt R'lyeh a bit. I will also add some mermen there jsut to show him I can get underwater troops if I so want. It really doesn't serve much, but his invasion is just a way for him to hide far from the giants anyway and it's not going to gain either of us much.

TURN 53 :
I get attacked by a R'lyeh poison golem
http://i.imgur.com/Z8wBR.png
It has a copper plate and a standard of the damned, boots of quickness and eye of the void. That's interesting but really what on earth is R'lyeh doing against me with that thing? Sure, I can't get past 23 protection with maenads. But targetting me won't do him any good, he's just postponing death at this point I suppose to get the game finished faster, crowning Fomoria in the process. Not that Fomoria needs much help. He's also taking some territory from Caelum, or what remains of Caelum. I note there's unrest in the two provinces I took back, so I bet he raised taxes there as he put only token PD, so he planned only to raid, except maybe in the NE province where he might want a fort? He's bringing hundreds ofchaff too, but they are likely not enough to take down Pangaea's walls, since he only has 300 or so while I have 600 troops in my castle.
I have 9 Pans cast transformation. That should save me something like 9 * 320 / 15 = 184 gold worth of upkeep. Probably more depending on rounding.
Anyhow, I ask R'lyeh what he's doing. Looks like he's juste fleeing, at which point we might as well end the game anyway without fighting silly one-sided battles.
http://i.imgur.com/CK3bz.jpg

TURN 54 :
I'll get Blood 4 next turn (demon knights). I start Ench for ench 5 / GoH...
2 transformations killed my Pan, 1 made him feebleminded.
My probe into water provinces shows a PD of 1 in Smallsea.
I got 1 great lion, 1 giant spider, 1 fire drake, 1 cave drake and 1 great eagle. My upkeep is back below my income. The loss of so many Pans makes the move questionable. Sure, I get a nice upkeep cut, but really, is it worth it? In games where the Pangaean player doesn't suck as much as I do, I strongly doubt it. Still, Pans are the best targets for transformation out of the whole game, except maybe some capricorns?
And Caelum is indeed attacked by R'lyeh. Dogpiling the weakest in order to crown Fomoria? I don't get it. Why not simply ask the game to be finished then? Or doess he think he needs one of Caelum's forts to have a land fort that he can use somehow?

TURN 55 :
R'lyeh answers my in-game message by saying Snakey has won, so he's basically Crowning. I think we should end the game instead if a majority believes the game to be won by Fomoria, as these were the victory conditions expressed. I had asked for a delay in order to get rid of Abysia but there's no point keeping playing if other players play to lose.
Anyway, R'lyeh has a nice army in Tirr na n'Og:
http://i.imgur.com/avwIq.png
'Tis not his god there, just another great kraken. My poor maenads and a few minotaurs don't stand a chance against that. R'lyeh also uses a zmey to take one of my provinces, I take one with my pretender, so I decide to take out some of his land provinces with Calls of the Wild this turn.

TURN 56 :
R'lyeh and Arco agree that Fomoria is winner. I think the game should end.
I got Ench 3 researched. My Calls of the Wild took both targeted R'lyeh provinces.
I also sent my god underwater, and that gave me one province too : http://i.imgur.com/Y5dNf.png
I send the militia I got to suicide against R'lyeh in Tir na n'Og. My god moves out of the water.
It turns out Arco didn't even bother to put up province defense in one of his last two provinces.
I cast a Rain of Toads on the province where R'lyeh is massively besieging Arco. I don't really know who gets diseased, I hope the besieger or maybe both. I also send a dryad and some minotaurs to strike R'lyeh's fort in my dominion, just to teach him a lesson that I can raid too.

TURN 57 :
Ench 4 researched. Ench 5 gives ettins and GoH.
I empower my siren in more Water (she's A2W1 on land, A1W2 underwater).
I took some undefended R'lyeh province, pillage its water province and make a mess of his fort. I also got rid of all my militia as expected.
So I now have as many provinces as R'lyeh, which doesn't mean much. He's got a lot more gem income than I, though. Not that it matters. I mean, I'm not ever going to be able to bring zmeys to the battlefield, and the game should be over.

TURN 58 (LAST TURN) :
We agree to have Fomoria declared winner.
i got to Ench 5 this turn.
http://i.imgur.com/dBiUL.png
Yeah, pitiful, isn't it?
No battle or anything worth saying this turn.

Finally, an animated picture of my knowledge of the map, as promised:
http://i.imgur.com/LDwAm.gif