ThePantokratorNeedsAWife - Intermediate CBM1.94 - Submit Pretenders

[jimbojones1971]

A couple of other games have just come to a close for me, so it's time for a new game. This game is aimed at "intermediate" players - I will leave it to you to define if you fit in this category.

Details are as follows:

Map: Land Of Legends (unless there are major objections)
Era: MA
Hosting: Llamaserver, 28h initially then increase as required. Extensions given upon request - PM me AND post in the thread
Mods: CBM 1.94
Players: At least six - let's see how many we get
Settings: Default, but with score graphs off
Victory conditions: Hold at least half the capitals in the game (e.g. if there are 7 players hold 4 capitals), for three full turns. This will be verified by a third party from the .trn files.

Avoid exploits, and don't be a douche.

Trades are binding, other diplomacy is not.

Players:
Jimbojones: T'ien C'hi
Ragnarok-X: Man
Tiavals: Ermor
HoleyDooley: Ulm
Admiral Aorta: Agartha
Korwin: R'yleh
Ossa: C'tis
mattyburn7: Shinuyama
Jolly Roger: Vanheim
ghoul31: Atlantis

Game is ready for pretenders to uploaded HERE. (http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=ThePantokratorNeedsAWife)

[Ragnarok-X]

If you will have me, i would play MAN.

[Tiavals]

Ermor for me.

[jimbojones1971]

If you will have me, i would play MAN.

You are most welcome, Ragnarok-X! :-)

[jimbojones1971]

Ermor for me.

I will lock it in, good sir.

[vargr]

I'd like to join as Caelum

[HoleyDooley]

Son of a ***** Jimbo.....I am in too many games already.......anyway, put me down for Ulm....

HD

[HoleyDooley]

Oh map, I could care less as long as its a wrap around!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ossa]

I'd like to give Ctis a try.

[mattyburn7]

I'm in. Not sure what nation though!

[Jolly Roger]

Hi mate,

I would like to play VANHEIM.

Thanks for inviting me.

Cheers, Klaus

[jimbojones1971]

Hi mate,

I would like to play VANHEIM.

Thanks for inviting me.

Cheers, Klaus

Thanks for playing :-)

[vargr]

Should we set a max number of players? I'm a bit wary of joining very large games..

[mattyburn7]

Put me down for Shinuyama...though I might still change my mind. I'm so damn indecisive!

[jimbojones1971]

OK, so we've got ten - I'll stop recruiting here and go find a decent wrap around map.

Vargr - I'm in complete agreement. Ten is workable, but 18 or whatever gets kinda ugly.

[jimbojones1971]

OK, time to pick a map! Key criteria i think are:
* 12-15 provinces per player
* Has enough water mass for R'lyeh, but not too much

At this stage, I am leaning towards Land of Legends, even though it is not a wrap around, because it has the right number of provinces per player (~12-15) and a decent sized pond for R'lyeh to play in. Plus I played my first ever game of Dom3 on this map at the gaming den, as Hinnom (I still remember Korwin rampaging through the middle of my country making my life hell :) - and Frank Trollman rage quitting halfway through - good times), so it has some sentimental value.

I am opend to suggestions, though - up until we actually start I can still back out and tweak the map, so let's talk about it.

To help the discussion, other options I looked at (we are not limited to these) were:

* land of loemendor (142 + 15) - good mix, not wrap around
* realm of rusty nails v4 (143 + 12) - wrap around, but a bit hard on the * water player as they get a very small pond.
* land of legends (135 + 18) - again, good mix but not wrap around
* urraparand (145 + 35) - wraps nicely, perhaps a few too many oceans for r'yleh
* Shadowshore (120 + 13) - while not wrap around, there is no-where to hide on this map, so it was my second choice.

[HoleyDooley]

Okay, I'll agree to Legends map.

[jimbojones1971]

Time to submit Pretenders, my friends!

[mattyburn7]

Legends works for me

[Tiavals]

Any map is good for me.

[vargr]

Even though I had a game end I fear I've been too optimistic about the time I have for Dominions in the near future, too much work planned for this month and probably the next one too.

Therefore I think I'll have to sit this one out after all. Sorry about the trouble but it's better to leave now than get into problems when the game is running. Apologies, and have a good game!

[HoleyDooley]

Okay lets advertise for 1 more Jimbo.

[Ragnarok-X]

I would it would be very smart if we could get at least one more UW nation. Having only 1 makes it easy for them to dominate.

[Jolly Roger]

In case there is nobody else around I could switch to MA Atlantis

Cheers, Klaus

[HoleyDooley]

Noooooooooooo Jolly, don't go over to the dark side!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jimbojones1971]

I would it would be very smart if we could get at least one more UW nation. Having only 1 makes it easy for them to dominate.

i'm down with that.

I will advertise, and if the person we get won't take water then we can take Klaus up on his kind offer.

[ghoul31]

I'll take atlantis

[jimbojones1971]

I'll take atlantis

Done! Welcome to the game ghoul :-)

The game is up on llamaserver, so you can submit your pretender when you are ready.

[mattyburn7]

I'll have mine up tomorrow!

[jimbojones1971]

I'll have mine up tomorrow!

Thanks Matty :-)

Should be a good game, looking forward to it!

[Jolly Roger]

Jimbo,

the link to the map seems to be broken.

Please pass on the map.

Thanks, Klaus

[jimbojones1971]

OK, will bundle it up and share it when I get a chance. Thanks for letting me know.

[jimbojones1971]

Just waiting on Ossa and Ragnarok-X, and we will be good to go :-

EDIT: The file for the map is attached to this post. Let me know if there are any problems.

[jimbojones1971]

I've PM'd Ossa to see when he can get his pretender (C'tis) in. If he is unable to do it soon, I guess we'll need to look for a replacement, but hopefully it won't come to that.

[Ossa]

Just a few minutes;)

[jimbojones1971]

And we are off and running!

[Jolly Roger]

Jimbo,

I can´t run .rar files on my PC. Please pass on a .zip file with map included to my email address. PM sent.


Thanks, Klaus

[Admiral_Aorta]

Just install winRar or 7Zip, those can open RAR files and are free to download.

[mattyburn7]

Can you delay 48 hours please. No power from Hurricane.

[jimbojones1971]

Hey Matty,

I've applied the +48 hour extension. If we need more time, I'll add it on.

Hope all is well with everyone post Sandy - didn't look like a lot of fun, I have to say.

Cheers,

Jimbo

[jimbojones1971]

Just added another +24h - we'll keep waiting til Matty is good to go again.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Are y'all ready to jam?

[jimbojones1971]

Admiral, we've got both types of music here in T'ien Ch'i - country AND western! Let's jam, big guy! :-)

[Tiavals]

I could use a postponement of 24 hours, please.

[jimbojones1971]

Done!

[Admiral_Aorta]

R'lyeh getting owned by powerful dunks and slams. brutal.

[jimbojones1971]

No more Ry'leh. Even more brutal!

Just killed my own grendlekin with Gifts From Heaven while fighting a bunch of troglodytes. Truly, my incompetence knows no bounds. Sometimes I even amaze myself.

[Ragnarok-X]

Its gets more interesting jimbo. Just wait.

[jimbojones1971]

Its gets more interesting jimbo. Just wait.

Don't worry, I've prepared some sea dogs just for you :-)

[Ragnarok-X]

10:34 GMT on Friday November 30th Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
08:16 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 4 hours.
11:57 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
02:46 GMT on Sunday December 2nd Hosting delayed by 12 hours.

jimbo, do you know the delay function is not meant to provide a way for the host alone to delay his turns ?
At the very least, you should post the reason for the delays (it isnt the first time) in here.

[HoleyDooley]

10:34 GMT on Friday November 30th Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
08:16 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 4 hours.
11:57 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
02:46 GMT on Sunday December 2nd Hosting delayed by 12 hours.

jimbo, do you know the delay function is not meant to provide a way for the host alone to delay his turns ?
At the very least, you should post the reason for the delays (it isnt the first time) in here.


Here here! Couldn't agree more. Thats just what we need, more stales to make the game better.

I for one couldn't care less what the reason was/is....when the turn files arrives I do it, if it doesn't I just do one of the other zillion game I have going.

Let me guess Rag, if your wife leaves the lid off the tooth paste you don't speak to her for a week.

Seriously, getting worked up over this!!!!! You need to speak to earcaraxe...he is a psychologist you know, and I am sure he could help you.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Jimbo seems to stale occasionally in games, so I think it's preferable that he pause the timer rather than stale in this one. Also if he wasn't the admin he'd probably just ask whoever was adminning to pause it, so what''s the difference?.

[Ragnarok-X]

Its pretty easy. Im playing in several games and some of them each take an hour or more. By altering the schedule each other day, the games tend to overlap and turns are piling up on me and i dont like it. So yeah, i would appreciate it if people play their turns and stop with like 2h and 4h extensions. Cant be that hard honestly.

[jimbojones1971]

You are right, I should post the reason. My apologies.

We had some family sickness on the weekend, which made it hard to get things finalised.

On a related issue, does anyone object if we move to having a greater timer (say 48 hours), which should make this problem go away?

10:34 GMT on Friday November 30th Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
08:16 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 4 hours.
11:57 GMT on Saturday December 1st Hosting delayed by 12 hours.
02:46 GMT on Sunday December 2nd Hosting delayed by 12 hours.

jimbo, do you know the delay function is not meant to provide a way for the host alone to delay his turns ?
At the very least, you should post the reason for the delays (it isnt the first time) in here.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Longer timer is fine with me.

[jimbojones1971]

Its pretty easy. Im playing in several games and some of them each take an hour or more. By altering the schedule each other day, the games tend to overlap and turns are piling up on me and i dont like it.

Is there any value in moving to a fixed 48 hour timer in this case? This should give more certainty as to when turns are done, and will fit in well with me (avoiding some of these problems).

I do acknowledge I have been making your life harder with this, which was not my intent. I am keen to find a way to avoid this. (Occasionally things do go pear shaped, in which case I need to communicate better - like this weekend, for example - but this should be the exception.)

[HoleyDooley]

Damn i didn't even realis we were still on 24...yeah, lets jump to 48.

[ghoul31]

yeah games always switch to 48 hours after 20 turns

[Tiavals]

48 is preferrable to 24 at this point, me thinks.

[Ragnarok-X]

Sure.

[jimbojones1971]

Cool, will make it happen - 48 hours here we come!

[Ragnarok-X]

Need a one-time 24h extension. Thanks.

[jimbojones1971]

Need a one-time 24h extension. Thanks.

All done.

If possible, please PM me with extension requests also, as my PMs come through to my email so are less likely to be missed :)

[jimbojones1971]

I'm adding 48 hours onto the clock. HoleyDooley is sick, and needs and extension.

[Jolly Roger]

I´ll be on vacation. Vanheim is done, so please continue.
All orders given for the last stand.

Cheers, Klaus

[jimbojones1971]

I have the plague, probably from visiting Shinuyama. So I am adding 24h to the timer - apologies for the delay.

[Ragnarok-X]

Well, i got a fix for that :D

[jimbojones1971]

Well, i got a fix for that :D

I guess a crossbow bolt through the forehead would cure my cold, but not sure I am that desperate just yet! :-)

Thanks for thinking of me though :D

[Ragnarok-X]

Nice stall -_-

[jimbojones1971]

Nice stall -_-

Yeah, the timing wasn't the best. :(

Have to admit, I was curious to see what you were planning for the guys in and around Shinuyama, so I was disappointed to see it was a stale turn for you. You always seem to do something unexpected! :)

[Ragnarok-X]

I find it rather unfortunally that you yourself did give yourself short extensions from 2 to 4 hours several times in the hosting intervall while it obviously wasnt possible to check llamaserver for potential stalls to prolong the turn, especially considering christmas time.
I would assume that is one the main jobs of being game admin.

[jimbojones1971]

1) I was asleep (the turn came out at 1:30am my time)
2) You were most upset about such extensions, and asked that they be stopped
3) It is not uncommon for you to get your turns in at the last moment

In short, this is your fault and you should enough of a man to accept responsibility for your own failings.

Will you be continuing to play, or will you be using this as an excuse to quit? If the latter, please do the decent thing and let me know now so that I can find a sub.

[Ragnarok-X]

I feel like there is a considerable difference between the admin giving himself several short extensions in a row and an admin extending the deadline by 12 hours over christmas.
Of course i will continue playing lol.

[jimbojones1971]

Weird.

Good that you are sticking it out, though.

[Admiral_Aorta]

I'm gonna be away from a computer for 5 days from tomorrow, so can I get a pause on the timer? If the game hosts before tomorrow I'll play my turn then if that helps.

[Ragnarok-X]

How convenient Admiral.
Because beginning in a couple hours, ill be gone until the 12th.

[jimbojones1971]

OK, we've got Ragnarok's / Man's turn in for this turn. If AA / Agartha is able to bust out a turn before he goes, we can get in one more turn before we pause til the 12th.

[ghoul31]

I don't see why people can't enter turns when they go on vacation.

Just about every place in the world has internet access at this point.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Gee I wonder, it's almost as if I don't have a laptop and the friends I'm staying with don't have a copy of dom3 and it's remotely possible that I might not want to play dom3 on my holiday, hmm.

Also i've submitted my turn.

[Ragnarok-X]

I dont plan on playing dom3 while in a warmer location. thats it.

[jimbojones1971]

Also i've submitted my turn.

Thanks :-)

Have a good holiday, guys.

[Admiral_Aorta]

I'm back and my turn is in.

[jimbojones1971]

Thanks Admiral. I'll throw mine in tomorrow, then we just need to wait for Ragnarok-X to get back from his holiday.

[Ragnarok-X]

Im back and will do my turn in the next couple hours.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Agartha is looking for air boosters if anyone has some, we have earth, nature, death and some fire gems to offer in trade as well as all sorts of cool items.

[jimbojones1971]

(Edit: Going to submit turn 60, and THEN do the below.)

I am heading on holidays, may need more time, so adding +24h to this turn (and maybe the next).

[Admiral_Aorta]

Uh it's not that easy to confirm but based on my scout reports it looks like Man is using a stealthy unit equipped with a soul contract to continually keep Ulm's capital under siege. That's generally regarded as an exploit(if that is what's occurring here, which may not be the case but that's what it looks like).

[HoleyDooley]

Thats exactly what is happening.

What else would you expect from Rag X.

[HoleyDooley]

Well, I have found an "exploit" to stop Rags "exploit".

Would be easier if people didn't use exploits to begin with as per the rules outlined for this game.

Avoid exploits, and don't be a douche.

[Tiavals]

The siege-exploit is luckily an easy one to counter, but if you don't know how, it'll drive you extremely sad as it seems there's nothing you can do. If I recall correctly, you can put your units on patrol after they break the siege which counters the exploit, same way you would move and patrol instead of going inside a keep.

[HoleyDooley]

Use the patrol hotkey to set a commander of the besieged fort as such, tell another to break siege. All units set to patrol will join in the break siege attempt, then go about to patrolling right afterward.

[Ragnarok-X]

Exploit ? I dont think so.
Its not my fault that Terminus has a soul contract by default.

[Man with No Name]

Exploit ? I dont think so.
Its not my fault that Terminus has a soul contract by default.
But even if you did not put the Soul Contract on him originally, surely you are still responsible for where you move this unit to. Are you not? As he did not sneak into the province by accident.

(FYI - The Master Assassin Merc does not come with a Soul Contract by default, so either someone put it on him or he picked it up from somewhere. Likely the latter, as he would be an odd choice of Soul Contract carrier)

[Ragnarok-X]

What do you know. I bought him, i moved my army on Ulms Capitol to blockade it. I left the capitol because i had to retreat. I left Terminus there, to assassinate. Big story ?

[Man with No Name]

I left the capitol because i had to retreat. I left Terminus there, to assassinate.
The above is you intentionally using the fort-lockdown exploit. You moved your army away (this was intentional), and you left Terminus behind (this was also intentional), and Terminus is holding a Soul Contract (which you knew about).

When your army moved away it was your responsibility to move Terminus away as well, as failure to do this was only ever going to result in the fort-lockdown exploit. Whether or not you put the Soul Contract on Terminus is irrelevant, as once you noticed he did have one, you had to take this into account when using him.

Big story ?
The big story is that you are trying to say you are not responsible for the fort-lockdown exploit the Ulm player is currently facing, when your actions quite clearly demonstrate that you are directly responsible for it, and that you did it intentionally (by the series of actions you yourself have outlined).

[Ragnarok-X]

holy mow. is the inquisition onto me ? YOU are irrelevant, at least to me.
I think its a matter of context and at any rate the exploit was not used on purpose at all. As mentioned, Terminus was left ON PURPOSE TO ASSASSINATE.
Holey can try to uncloak Terminus or i will remove him this turn, but please spare me anymore of this hypocritical BS.

So a capitol has been under unrightfully siege for a full 2 turns, coming turn 60.
How about i sent Ulm lets say 500 gold to compensate for the lack of 2 cap only mages this late in the game and partly lost tax.

Im sorry for using, albeit not on purpose, this exploit. And now for the irony, im sorry for the disadvantages it brought over Ulm.
And by the way, its funny how Agartha brought up the issue, not even Ulm itself. Speaks volumes on the importance.
Regardless, its solved.

[Soyweiser]

Mercs can get random items on creation. I doubt Rag would make it himself just to do this exploit. (As if he did, he would just use scouts, not mercs who are easily stolen).

[bbz]

Sorry for bumping in on a game thread thats not mine, just i thought it was interesting discussion. Personally I think its quite silly to require of someone to remove an assassin from what he should be doing(a.k.a assassinate) just because somehow he picked up a soul contract) the problem as I see it that it could be seen as a game exploit, and Ragnarok must know that. So to save yourself some more arguing, next time you are about to use a scout unit with a soul contract tell the person you are using it against how to counter the unwanted effects from it - a.k.a the patrtol/break siege thingy.
this way you can be happy killing off his commanders and he can be happy that he is not locked by a supposed exploit.

[Soyweiser]

That is a pretty reasonable way of dealing with it bbz. Sounds good.

[Admiral_Aorta]

And by the way, its funny how Agartha brought up the issue, not even Ulm itself. Speaks volumes on the importance.
Regardless, its solved.

I brought up the issue because i saw it and I don't think letting people use exploits in a game when they've specifically been banned is cool. I left it to Ulm and yourself to say whether it was intentional or not. I also wasn't sure if HoleyDooley was actually aware that it was an exploit.

[Man with No Name]

Personally I think its quite silly to require of someone to remove an assassin from what he should be doing(a.k.a assassinate) just because somehow he picked up a soul contract)
I would say it is unfortunate rather than silly. As in it is unfortunate that you are forced to change your plans because something unwanted and out of your control happened. But that is the reality of a situation like this. It does not matter if the original plan of the player (when buying the merc at the sieged fort) was to leave it behind to assassinate when the army moved away. The realities of the situation, and the changed nature of the Terminus unit (due to the unwanted Soul Contract), meant that the player had to change their plans, or directly cause an exploit if they didn't. (although it would certainly have helped to tell the affected player how to break the fort-lockdown. But I'll come onto that later)

You can say it is silly that a single Scout unit can block an entire army. And it is silly. But silly or not that is what can happen unfortunately, and players need to accept the responsibility for not exploiting the flaws in the game engine. As if the players themselves do not accept the responsibility, then who will? Because someone has to or MP games could become highly disrupted by players using exploits (if it were not the players responsibilty to make sure they don't use them)

So to save yourself some more arguing, next time you are about to use a scout unit with a soul contract tell the person you are using it against how to counter the unwanted effects from it - a.k.a the patrtol/break siege thingy.
this way you can be happy killing off his commanders and he can be happy that he is not locked by a supposed exploit.
I think it would be difficult to get players to agree to that solution. As in many cases it would mean you would be telling your opponent your exact plans.

As in this example the Ulm player would have needed to be told that the sieging army was moving away (very useful info to know), and that there was going to be an assassin with a Soul Contract left behind.(always useful to know if there are hostile assassins in your provinces). I think a lot of players would be reluctant to give away such important strategic info to their opponent. But maybe I am wrong here and players will freely tell their plans to their opponent in advance, and the location of their assassin units. That is unrealistic I would say.


The only real solution is for players to be made aware of this exploit, what causes it, and then have the onus of responsibility placed on the players themselves to make sure they do not intentionally engineer situations where this exploit is almost certain to occur. Which is what happneed here, as the orders issued were unlikely to result in any other outcome, and I don't see how any other outcome could have been expected given the actions undertaken (those actions being moving the sieging army away, and leaving the Soul Contract assassin behind). Not unless the Ulm player did not ever attempt to break a token siege. Which sounds like it wasn't the case as the sieging army moved away, I guess because it feared a significant break siege attempt.

This exploit can be directly compared to move-blocking. As there the onus is on the player not to intentionally move-block other players, and I see no reason why this exploit does not fall into the same catagory, and so dealt with in the same manner. As both are based on a flaw in the game engine that allows a player to interfere with another players actions in a non-meaningful engagement, and at insignificant risk and cost. The only real difference is that with the fort-lockdown there is another exploit that can be used to counter it, which is not the case with move-blocking. (although that only applies if there is more than one commander unit in the sieged fort. As one has to break siege, and the other ordered to patrol. If there is only one commander, then AFAIK the siege can not be broken)

[jimbojones1971]

Good to see that this is now resolved.

Ragnarok-X: I understand that there may have been some ambiguity. For future reference, this is an exploit - even though it does notably reduce the use of the commander. Chalk it down to bad lack on your part.

[Tiavals]

As a curiosity, how do you people feel about the old "leave one soulless behind to hold up an entire fort full of mages and giants while leaving your sieging army elsewhere" trick? Clearly if the people inside the fort had any initiative, they would kill the soulless in seconds and retake the almost empty province. But it's not an exploit in the same way the auto-spawning stealth unit is. Is it unsportsmanlike to leave a single worthless unit to hold a fort down? It is somewhat like move-blocking, since you're using very few resources to hinder a huge part of the enemy army.

[Admiral_Aorta]

There's not really a problem with doing that, since you can just break the siege and kill the unit and you're good to go. I've never heard of anyone taking issue with doing that anyway.

[jimbojones1971]

I'm not aware of this being an issue. I do it reasonably often, and have had it done to me fairly frequently also.

[HoleyDooley]

Agreed, this is not an exploit, but a clever move.

Nothing stopping the army breaking siege at any time.

[Tiavals]

Good, I do it all the time, just wanted to check that it isn't considered a bad thing. :)

[bbz]

Agreed, this is not an exploit, but a clever move.

Nothing stopping the army breaking siege at any time.

Isn't it the same thing with the soul contract? You leave one commander (who will spawn a devil) Then the guy inside the castle attempts to break the siege and then you order break + patrol. The off-side is loosing 1 turn of recruitment(since you might not have known that your opponent has a soul contract in that province. (which i guess in a war is quite big).

[Admiral_Aorta]

No because unless you know about the move and patrol hotkey you can't break it.

[HoleyDooley]

Agreed, this is not an exploit, but a clever move.

Nothing stopping the army breaking siege at any time.

Isn't it the same thing with the soul contract? You leave one commander (who will spawn a devil) Then the guy inside the castle attempts to break the siege and then you order break + patrol. The off-side is loosing 1 turn of recruitment(since you might not have known that your opponent has a soul contract in that province. (which i guess in a war is quite big).

Thx BBZ, but I understand that already...did some research to find a resolution to the issue of Soul Contract.

My response was to leaving some dirt bag to besiege a fort whilst your main army moves off some where else.

[jimbojones1971]

Having some PC problems (just moved to Ubuntu from Vista), will be late with this turn. Hence the extension.

[jimbojones1971]

I'm feeling a bit off, going to add +8h to the clock and try and get the turn done soon.

[Ragnarok-X]

Just for the grand lolz i will post a funny one-turn story of the recent past once its lights out for me (Man).

[jimbojones1971]

Sweet. For my own part, I am contemplating writing a "how to play MA T'ien Ch'i to achieve maximum mediocrity" guide, as apparently I am a master at that.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Is that related to Man's miraculous comeback by any chance?

[Ragnarok-X]

Comeback ? not quite. Im just wrecking as much havoc as possible since the last ? 10 turns. Quite effective id wager. now if just anyone would have earned my 150 gems + items by offering help. bummer.
Since its my last turn now, the story is the following. 5 Mages of mine charmed 4 fully kitted Iron Angels in a single battle. that was fun.
And i almost killed TC pretender had a mage not gone off-script. doh.

enjoy.

[jimbojones1971]

Yes, off script mages are the bane of this game - but also add to the interest value :-)

[jimbojones1971]

Added +12h to the clock for Ulm.

[Ragnarok-X]

So, at least Tiavals now realize what i told him like 20 turns ago was the truth :D

[Tiavals]

So, at least Tiavals now realize what i told him like 20 turns ago was the truth :D

What was that exactly, I forgot?

[Ragnarok-X]

It could have been even more than 20 turns, turns been fast for me. basicly, i told you (among others) that you should think about Ulm and the SCs he has already.
That was before another 750+ gems via globals alone poured in.
If you played your current turn, u probably got the reference.

[Tiavals]

Well, I saw less than 30 SCs and they were just Zmeys and Iron Angels. I guess there's more hiding somewhere, ready to strike?

[Ragnarok-X]

I dont think so and that wasnt the point.

[jimbojones1971]

Man, when we are talking casually about 30 SCs you can see just how different the end game really is.

[Ragnarok-X]

I have no idea why both you and tiavals are talking about 30 SCs though. Who came up with that number ?

[jimbojones1971]

I was just quoting from Tiavals post.

[Tiavals]

I have no idea why both you and tiavals are talking about 30 SCs though. Who came up with that number ?

I came up with the number based on the battles with Ulm. Roughly 30 different SCs roam my provinces per turn. Thus, I assume it's all he has, for why would he wait? Also, suppose 2 new appear per turn, and I kill 2 per turn, it means it won't change

[Ragnarok-X]

See, just a post and it suddenly makes sense. Got it.
I just checked the graphs and it seems my first impression was wrong. I thought Ulm has the game, but apparently you have a big advantage in gems and provinces, despite no globals. Just when i figured to donate my gems to a greater cause. doh.

[Tiavals]

See, just a post and it suddenly makes sense. Got it.
I just checked the graphs and it seems my first impression was wrong. I thought Ulm has the game, but apparently you have a big advantage in gems and provinces, despite no globals. Just when i figured to donate my gems to a greater cause. doh.

But the graphs for the game aren't on?

[Admiral_Aorta]

Apparently the Llamaserver is showing the score tables, even though it's not supposed to when score graphs are turned off in game.

[Tiavals]

Apparently the Llamaserver is showing the score tables, even though it's not supposed to when score graphs are turned off in game.

Oh right, that. It only affects games that were in play during the time llamaserver had some problems several months ago.

[Ragnarok-X]

yep, the hickup caused scores to be shown for all games run at that time.

[Admiral_Aorta]

I'm going away for a couple of days later today, can I get a pause on the timer?

[jimbojones1971]

I'm going away for a couple of days later today, can I get a pause on the timer?

Sure, no worries. I have a man flu so I've extended this turn, will add a pause to the next one after my turn is in.

[Ragnarok-X]

So, how is the game going ? Can you sure information, Tiavals ?

[Tiavals]

So, how is the game going ? Can you sure information, Tiavals ?

You can check the llamaserver for that.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Tip for Ermor: don't cast rain of stones on top of your extremely large army made up mostly of fragile undead and fragile mages.

[Tiavals]

Tip for Ermor: don't cast rain of stones on top of your extremely large army made up mostly of fragile undead and fragile mages.

Yeah, that was, kinda, well, dumb. :D

I had given orders for the titan to enter your fortress with a few other titans and such, the plan was to rain your mages to death, so it came as a bit of a surprise that you had your own little force attacking the army before I could enter. :doh:

Sometimes I really hate the combat AI, given that the rain of stones was useless against your raider and completely destroyed my own army. :)

[jimbojones1971]

It is infuriating at the time, but it is also adds greatly to the amusement value of the game (once the pain wears off, at least!).

[Admiral_Aorta]

Tien Chi has staled the last 2 turns, do we need a sub?

[Tiavals]

Seems to me that we might as well make Ulm the winner. I doubt we could do anything to stop him at this point even if the whole world worked against him.

But if you guys think there's a chance, then of course we should seek a sub for Tien chi. Except he's our host, so there's not much we can do about it. If Jimbo has vanished, I think it means we can't change the email address of a player and thus can't replace him?

[Admiral_Aorta]

I think I agree that Ulm wins. Is there any objection to ending the game?

[HoleyDooley]

yeah,I am just waiting to put up a HUGE Arcane Nexus to put the final stamp on victory. I doubt you guys can stop me from here.

No objection to calling it finished at this point.

[ghoul31]

Yea lets end it.

Grats to HoleyDooley

[Admiral_Aorta]

Hmm, if Jimbo's not here then we can't actually end the game, can we? Unless we get llama to remove it or something.

[Tiavals]

Good point. I don't think we can?

[Admiral_Aorta]

I've sent Llamabeast a message asking for some assistance.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Ok, Game finished.

[jimbojones1971]

Thanks Admiral. Congrats to HD - epic and hard fought win!

Sorry for being an absentee landlord. I'm going to have to wind down my Dom3 participation for a while, as I can't seem to get my s*** together enough (due to other things) to do it justice.

[Tiavals]

I'm curious why you betrayed me Admiral_Aorta, could you enlighten me? I was taken completely by surprise there. :)

[Admiral_Aorta]

I didn't betray you, I merely decided that you were the most likely nation that I would next be able to get a capital from(which was correct as it turned out), owing to Ulm's attack and then I neglected to tell you that I was going to attack(why on earth would I do that).

Was it generally known that I had most of the artifacts? i mean I assume everyone saw the wolf hordes from the soulstone, but I had a tartarian factory with the chalice and everything.

[jimbojones1971]

I had no idea you had the most artefacts!

[Admiral_Aorta]

I suppose it wasn't really expected, given my low gem income. But I had a forge lord as a pretender, and once I made the hammer of the forge lord I was making artifacts(also things like rings of wizardry for 16 pearls) at 75% discount, so I didn't really need many gems even for the very expensive items. Middle age Agartha can really be a research juggernaut with the cbm boosts, so it was easy to get to construction 6 before anyone else.

[Tiavals]

What I meant by betrayal was that we did so much together yet none of it counted for a second when you saw a fat pig left unattended in the yard. So, quite machiavellian. :)

Did you have 2 capitals, and mine was the third? (And Atlantis would have been the fourth?)

I had forgotten we had the sort of victory conditions we did. I would've been much better suited to just ignore Ulm and attack you and Atlantis. Though I guess Ulm would have intervened anyway.

[Admiral_Aorta]

I had my capital, R'lyeh and Vanheim.

[Tiavals]

I meant when you attacked me in the first place, not at the end of the game.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Oh, yeah yours was the obvious target, though I could see from early on that Vanheim was poorly defended.

[jimbojones1971]

I had three caps too - mine, Shinuyamas, and Avalon or whatever the dude's Rag-X was playing are called.