MP: Giants and Dwarves [MA; CBM ; Noob friendly] [Full 12/12]

[Zywack]

Well, to be entirely honest, that wasn't much of a surprise. I've been expecting that since the first days of the war so the main surprise is that it took this long for it to happen

I unfortunately can't say that I'll be able to pass the next turn as a draw... But as I mentionned in my very first post, the main reason to have joined this game is to gain some multiplayer experience and it certainly did that, so mission accomplished! *pats self on back* What I wanted most to experience was the end-game part: I did read a bit about it in AARs, but the vast majority stop before reaching there, and the few that does reach it kind of skip over it (Like making entire turns a few lines). It's also not something you can actually experience against the AI, since it's tactical acumen stops at "Buy stuff, send stuff".

It kind of sucks that I'm not at end-game level and that my opponent is, but hey! I get to experience at least half of it Before I took over on turn 12, there's been some research done, but from turn 12 to 19, I gained a grand total of ZERO research point: I needed to throw 100% of what I had in a frantic attempt to expand in all directions before it was too late. Then the Machaka war started, and all my mages were required in battle until the 2nd victory. It's also where I learned to gain a new appreciation of the Slime spell: It may be my favorite spell since it's saved me against Machaka, but it's not terribly effective at this point in the game! The total amount of research points gained from turn 12 to 30: Around 60 points. I knew it was going to shoot me in the foot hard eventually, but hey! Goal was to survive so it's all good. Beside, from what I can see even on my best days from a new game I'd be badly lagging behind on research (On my SP games I'm never at the research state you guys are at by turn 60), so that's definitively something I will need to improve in my next game. I also now know that my warfare style can definitively be effective in the right situations, but that it's not enough by itself to win a war when the end-game nasty stuff rolls along.

Thinking back on it... The objective in the Bandar Log campaign was to burn temples so that I could die from fun military battles instead of dying lamely from being dominion killed. It's certainly looking good for that objective too! New objective is to make as many death monkeys dead as possible. It's really starting to look like Germany vs Russia in WW2: Unexpecdly favorable beginnings, reach the gates of Moscow/Bandar Log capital, get stopped and lose the war. But in between the last two states, there's been a lot of hard-fought battles, so I'll do my best to give you that!

Thanks for swell war Groundworm, it's certainly fun!

[legowarrior]

We this is the most exciting game I have been so far. Several conflicts going on. We have a few globals up and running, and some tarts in the game. A lot is going on. I cant wait to see the turn brought me.

[Groundworm]

Zywack: don't underestimate yourself, you've been playing quite well. I'm quite sure that you'd be doing significantly better if you'd had a chance to design your own pretender and play the early game for yourself.

You can reach certain elements of the end-game if you focus on it. I wasn't initially planning to go death-heavy, but modified my strategy when I realized that it would be advantageous for me to do so. And since Bandar benefits greatly from conjuration research anyway, I recruited large numbers of mages and focused the vast majority of my research efforts on it. It's not difficult to generate a huge number of research points if you recruit mages out of most/all forts each turn, I'm discovering. You were, regrettably, handicapped in this effort by needing your mages to fight. Shinuyama, though, is a potentially excellent research nation with their Bakemono Sorcerers being recruitable anywhere and sacred, with a large number of research points each.

And your research is getting better. I haven't missed the number of zmeys you have flying around, and I'm not looking forward to dealing with them!

And legowarrior, I agree- this is a good game, with good players.

[Zywack]

You don't seem to be terribly Zmey-deprived yourself!

I scratched my head for 10 minutes wondering how the **** your tartarian escaped. I rechecked his equipment a few times, went through the entire spell list in the game and couldn't figure out how that was possible... Until I finally noticed that my province actually had a lab: An abandonned lab site that I probably missed when looking through site-search spell result list. That sucked, but at least the mystery is solved!

Regarding the "main event"... I wasn't sure if it was mechanically possible for that plan to work so I figured I'd at least give it a try to know for future games how viable it is. I kind of overdid it a little, but I have to admit it did work even better than my best expectations... It's good to know! Upon seeing what Ulm and T'ien Ch'i are bringing to their war and just how badly we are clobbering each other, my current prediction is that neither of us have a snowball chance in hell of winning this game. Doesn't make it any less fun, though!

Regarding Bakemono Sorcerers and research... It's definitively a mistake on my part, but I have a huge dislike of Old Age mages in general. I did hire some Bakemono Sorcerers for research early on, but all of them beside one got Diseased in the first winter after my takeover, and they quickly catch feeblemind and mute and other things making them useless. I know that they are blessed, but I figured that Ubas were much more reliable and didn't need replacing each year at 300 gold a pop... It's most likely been a big mistake, but what's done is done. That's also the reason why I highly prefer to play nations that don't have Old Age for main mage.

Regarding having my own god instead... I'm no expert, but it would at least be better than this one. You've seen my borrowed god in "action" this turn. 3 Fire (on a nation whose mages go to 3 fire already) and 7 death (on a 3 death nation) isn't exactly the best usage of design point I could imagine!

[parone]

well oceania and tien chi, i guess i can understand the two on one and sneak attacks, but did you really need to lie to me when i asked you a direct question so that i'd move all my forces out of postion and not take time to script commanders/mages so that you would meet no resistance?

i would have gladly given it my best effort to fight the two of you(you would have beaten me, but i'd have been glad to give it a try. but if you need to win so badly you'll lie about your intentions, then i guess i'm done with giants vs dwarves.

congratulations on a win achieved through lying. you must be very proud of yourself.

au revoir.

[legowarrior]

Hey, you never asked, nor gave me a NAP. Hell, we've were neighbors for several turns and never extended the olive branch. For me, you were the logically choice. A quiet neighbor is a deadly neighbor in my book. That is why I have had strong diplomatic efforts with my neighbors when possible.

[parone]

sorry lego, should not have included you in that blast. you have been totally cool. me lumping you in there was UNcool. my bad.

the other dude though...well, the less said the better, i suppose. good luck all. for the most part, this was an enjoyable game.

[Zywack]

Uh? I think my spies missed something... I saw one intact massive T'ien Ch'i army and one intact massive Ulm army one province away from each other, but I didn't see anything more than that... What happened, if it's not secret?

[parone]

tien chi not the problem. he and oceania in alliance vs ulm. oceania assured me of peace so i could move north to engage, then backstabbed and attacked as soon as i had moved forces out of his sphere.

no biggy. apparently he is afraid to fight someone, so will only engage while part of a 2 vs 1 or 3 vs 1 alliance, then lie to the person he is attacking so as to have an overwhelming advantage to open the already uneven conflict.

[earcaraxe]

I would like to add, that i didnt break NAP.
(And even when I offered it, ulm refused it.)

So the accusation is: im not being straight and telling u about my plans of attacking u five turns later. I guess this kind of behavior from me is well within the boundaries of the norms of a gaming-community like this.

Also: I find being straight much more easy from the (ur) position of power: as u stated about urself in one of our negotiations: "nobody can stop me, so do what i say" (paraphrased).

U ask if i am proud of myself for gaining advantage through deceiving my opponent in a strategy game? I am, yes.