Jotunheim:Utgard AAR

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Arryn:
EDIT: and if you're alluding to the turn #40 cost, I'm not a believer of Christian superstition. It's just a number.

Easy, easy, easy... Norfleet was just making a little joke.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Kelan:
Another weapon you can give a commander that normally just stays in the back is the Rod of the Phoenix.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'd already planned to make them. At the time I was equipping some of my priests with Sceptres I lacked the gem income to build Rods in significant quantities. Sceptres = 5 gems, Rods = 20 (now 15 w/Hammers). The Rod is considerably more effective than the Sceptre. I've used them before and they are pretty much auto-kills for most normal units. And a priest with one is almost like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps killing and killing. The 5 fatigue per is standard for magical items, but in the case of the Rod, it means a lot of kills before the wielder has to rest. Only castle sieges might Last long enough for that to happen.

[LintMan]

Arryn: I just finished reading through your AAR from the beginnning, and I want to say: Thanks! The level of detail in which you cover all aspects of the campaign has been very educational and interesting for me.

Some questions I'm curious about:
- A few turns back, all the shield colors on your game maps changed colors - You can change them mid-game with that mod?
- Didn't you create a Bane Lord or some other undead nasty a while back? I don't recall seeing him mentioned for a while now (unless I'm forgetting things). What is he doing now?
- You don't have a lot of death gem production, but have you considered either using what you have to do a few death site searches to boost you income, or using them to produce a horde of spirits you could use as part of a war on Atlantis?
- IIRC, a few times, you mentioned a province having a VP, making it likely to have magic sites. What is a VP?
- Have you considered using mercenaries at all? Do you not like them? It seems like they could be a pretty good value in some cases. I don't recall you mentioning them at all here.

Norfleet: Have you at all considered writing an AAR for an undead campaign, maybe from an MP game? I gather from what you've written here that the strategy for the undead is very different, so I think it'd make for a very educational read.

[Edit - added mercenary question I had forgotten in include originally]

[ March 19, 2004, 17:56: Message edited by: LintMan ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by LintMan:
Arryn: I just finished reading through your AAR from the beginnning, and I want to say: Thanks! The level of detail in which you cover all aspects of the campaign has been very educational and interesting for me.

Thanks! Just remember that I've made various mistakes along the way, and that I'm exploiting several weaknesses of the AI, which may or may not be applicable in other games.

- A few turns back, all the shield colors on your game maps changed colors - You can change them mid-game with that mod?

Yes, provided that you had already begun the game with the mod loaded, and that you overwrite the original mod icons with the new ones. If you manually edit the .dm file to point it to another icon directory with the newer icons, that should also work. The key thing is that the name of the .dm file must not change. The original Unwise mod and V'ger's updated one do NOT have the same mod and .dm names. I'm using the V'ger icons with a manually-editted Version of the original Unwise .dm file.

- Didn't you create a Bane Lord or some other undead nasty a while back? I don't recall seeing him mentioned for a while now (unless I'm forgetting things). What is he doing now?

Heh. That's pretty sharp of you to notice. His name is "Ashsoul the Bane Lord", and he's parked on his butt at Jotunheim. I prematurely summoned him way back, presuming I would grow my death gem income which I've been unable to do thus far. I have more commanders than I have troops, so he's patiently sitting idle until I find a use worthy of him.

EDIT: one such use which I've neglected until now is to make Fever Fetishes and give him one ...

- You don't have a lot of death gem production, but have you considered either using what you have to do a few death site searches to boost you income, or using them to produce a horde of spirits you could use as part of a war on Atlantis?

Gah. The Last thing I need right now is a war with Atlantis. I could scout the provinces on my list for Acashics for death first (which would be faster). I hadn't considered that. It wouldn't have made a difference until this past turn (#40) as it wasn't until I began my war against Ulm that I captured any provinces that will have death sites in them. Thanks for the suggestion, and I'll implement it as part of my turn #41 orders. It's too bad that the death site search spell costs 3 gems and not 2 like most of the other paths.

- IIRC, a few times, you mentioned a province having a VP, making it likely to have magic sites. What is a VP?

Victory Point

- Have you considered using mercenaries at all? Do you not like them? It seems like they could be a pretty good value in some cases. I don't recall you mentioning them at all here.

Yes, I have considered it. And they can be useful at times. I'm kicking myself for getting so wrapped up in defending my border with Ulm (spending all my gold on PD) that I overlooked Orion and his knights were available Last turn (#40). Vanheim hired them. That's a mistake that will soon come back to bite me, HARD.

[ March 19, 2004, 19:11: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Gateway103]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelan:
Another weapon you can give a commander that normally just stays in the back is the Rod of the Phoenix.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'd already planned to make them. At the time I was equipping some of my priests with Sceptres I lacked the gem income to build Rods in significant quantities. Sceptres = 5 gems, Rods = 20 (now 15 w/Hammers). The Rod is considerably more effective than the Sceptre. I've used them before and they are pretty much auto-kills for most normal units. And a priest with one is almost like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps killing and killing. The 5 fatigue per is standard for magical items, but in the case of the Rod, it means a lot of kills before the wielder has to rest. Only castle sieges might Last long enough for that to happen.

---

Here is a thought for making more use out of your fire gems based on your gem income at turn 40, may or may not be foolish

To get more use out of the preciou few Rod of Phoenix you may forge out of your limited fire gems, you may consider giving the lucky pyromanic Energizer Bunnies a Boot of Quickness and possibly an Amulet of Resilience (for reinvigoration 5).

While neither of these equiptment are cheap gem-wise given your current gem income (W22,N11), they really make those bunnies go the distance. With just BoQ, you'll kill 2 each turn, with enough fuel to go for 10 turns. With the Amulet also, you'll extend the effectiveness to 2 kill/turn for 20 turns, and then 1 kill/turn for the rest of the battle (effectively giving you 2+ rods, but spreading the cost among 3 gem types. Too bad you can't use these 2+ virtual rods at different places simultaneously...) And if you are lucky, some of them may even pick up Heroic Quickness with all the firework

This way you can reap the benefit of the Rods without mass producing them (your fire gem income is 18, which means it'll take 2 turns to make just a Rod, without alchemy of course. So you can't really mass producing them yet)

Just a thought

-Gateway103

[ March 20, 2004, 07:25: Message edited by: Gateway103 ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by LintMan:
Norfleet: Have you at all considered writing an AAR for an undead campaign, maybe from an MP game? I gather from what you've written here that the strategy for the undead is very different, so I think it'd make for a very educational read.

I've considered it, but there's a few obstacles to doing this:

#1: I'm old, and I have a long beard. If I don't write it while I still remember it, I'm not going to remember it in any detail.

#2: I tend to play games that run at a fair clip: It's a little difficult to gather enough to do an accurate reporting, although I did PM the final turns of "The Revenge" to Arryn. If Arryn wishes to help compile them, perhaps editting some of my snarkier comments out, that'd be fine by me, as the game is now more or less over.

#3: I rarely play undead Ermor in SP in anything other than test games. It's too much like napalming fish in a barrel.

[Gandalf Parker]

Keep in mind people that there are alot of ways to do an AAR. Some prefer a more RPG Version with comments from the god and reports from scouts, planning sessions with generals and maybe even some chewing outs. Others prefer a more strategy-game format. Blow-by-blow with discussions about unit stats and less use of names in referring to commanders or provinces. And of course some are somewhere in-between. We arent all going to agree on the style we like but since some will like and find it useful then its a desired AAR.

Personally Ive been debating trying one myself. Online. Lots of links to captured images of the map, battle replays, scoreBoards. I dont think Im disciplined enough to do either strategy or RPG by itself. I will probably bounce back and forth but if I use italics to refer to out-of-roleplay comments then that seems to be kindof standard. Actually I think the standard seems to be to use regular text for whatever style you would use the most, and italics to mark whichever style is lesser. In my case I think RPG would be dominant.