MP Game - Newbie Game (by Aku)

[Boron]

Originally posted by alexi:
plus he was flying too.. just doesn't make any sense, he should have made it back to a friendly provence even if the troops wheren't able too.

i guess the lesson here is just simply NOT to lose any battles, cos retreating is obviously not always predictable. What was the line from the Art of War: 'only fight when the battle is already won'?.. yeah..

anyways, Panther's my closest neighbour.. you won't hit a cripple would you? that's like hitting someone in a wheelchair! its just meeean!

afaik i know you can only retreat into direct neighbors . flying doesn't help either .

for game balance issues this is great otherwise caelum dropping in your "hinterlands" and savely routing would be too strong .

my sincere condolences to your pretender
i have played vanheim only once in sp so far but they have good units so losing the pretender does hurt them but not as bad as e.g. ermor .

[PashaDawg]

Originally posted by alexi:
"very funny.. but my Pretender's to busy being dead to laugh."

You know I'm just tryin to yank your chain.

[PashaDawg]

Originally posted by The Panther:
So, what does everyone think? Should I try to eliminate him or not? I still have plenty of neutrals to take so I have lots to do if even I do not attack his capital. Since he lost his god, I probably have about an 80% chance to kill him. The chance of losing is a big risk for me, though.

Show mercy... why take a big risk? This could give you an opportunity to expand in the other direction safely.

[Pickles]

"The chance of losing is a big risk for me, though."

I would say it is about no risk of you losing but you may be able to expand slightly faster against neutrals and it may take longer than you expect.

"Show mercy... "

It is supposed to be a newb game & you will both learn more by not fighting (each other now).

Pickles

[Aku]

Also part of mp is about diplomacy. It is up to alexi and panther to negotiate war or peace.

In the other mp we are doing I got into a war early like around 10 or so and it took me over 25 turns to finally win. Even if you have a superior army a lot of ping ponging of provinces can happen if both armies never meet. Also spies are important because that is the only way to know what your enemy has and their troop movements. Alexi lost his god and may be weak but also may not be. It can result in two things, alexi dies fast, or doesnt die fast like you expect and you guys get locked in a long war. But that is part of mp and up to you panther to make that decision.

[Lex]

"You know I'm just tryin to yank your chain."

i know.. and i'm just playin along

"Alexi lost his god and may be weak but also may not be."

well, i'll be honest, i didn't have much experience with Vans before starting this game. But I've since discovered a bunch of successful strategies in SP for Vans, and with those the painful realization that my current scales+pretender made an extremely poor combination. I don't expect to survive long without my pretender's magic since i was relying on Blade Winds and Thunder Strike early on, and then after turn 10 it was Destruction+Blade Winds. This allowed me to take out most independents with very few troops + my pretender, which was required since all my gold went towards buying mages for research to get those spells. (which also means I don't have priests to call my god back..)

The reason why my scales where wrong for this early game strategy is because I took Sloth3, which makes it really tough to recruit armies. Vanheim has terrific troops, and ignoring them was stupid of me when I built my pretender. Their mages are good, but useless in battle until mid game or later. Plus I took the Midgard theme, which limits my troop selection to Skin Shifters and Einhere (which are both excellent in combat) but without high resources, I can't recruit them fast enough to build armies. Plus, with that theme you lose access to the best Van commanders outside your capital. So I would have been crippled by mid game anyways without the capacity to make armies and I would have had to use mostly Galdermans, which require equipment or alot of luck to get the right magics. I'd be interested in hearing about any other strategies for Midguard. My intuition is that Midguard is all about killer Skin Shifters+Einhere armies supported by a few Galdermans.

With this in mind, Panther is welcome try to take me, but my grieving nation is not gonna go down without a fight.

[The Panther]

Alexi, I decided to not attack you for the following reasons:

1. Even if you have practically no troops right now, you can recruit some in this turn and next.
2. You could likely bump up the PD maybe to 30 since your upkeep is low right now.
3. Even though I could easily be seiging your capital in two turns, I have no idea how long it will take to bust down the walls, especially with no seige specialists in my army.
4. I will be fighting in your domain, thus reducing my pretender's HP and my troops morale.
5. The arrows from the towers have a nasty habit of moving down slow, armored infantry, which I have in my army right now.
6. I could take several neutral provinces in the time it would take to siege and take the fortress.
7. R'lyeh could sneak onto shore near me if I am too far away from my own capital.
8. Your Vanheim capital will be a buffer from attacks, and I will not have to worry about being attacked from your direction for quite a while.

So, adding it all up means I will be playing it safe for now.

Cheers, and here's hoping you recover quickly, alexi.

The Panther