Immaculate-002: Late Age for Noobs (GAME OVER: ATLANTIS/SHATNER WINS)

[shatner]

With LA Atlantis, it isn't a question of whether you are going to expand quickly but in what direction; your national troops are too cheap and kick too much butt not to, especially if you have a halfway decent bless for your cap-only sacreds. Do you rush a neighbor? Do you focus on capturing water territories or land? Do you capture around your capital for the extra resources (the basic non-chaff of LA Atlantis costs 22 resources and the troops you want cost 35) or do you spread outward with the intent to back-fill later?

Anyway, I had a focus on spreading out and going for land provinces over water. I didn't figure I'd have too much competition for water provinces but boy was I wrong! I had to contend myself with a paltry 3 water provinces what with T'ien Ch'i and Jomon snapping up the rest.

I expanded into indies rather than rush a neighbor (last game I played as LA Atlantis, the first neighbor I met immediately declared war on me; I decided to play it diplomatic this game if I could) and made friends with everyone I encountered. Since my troops are cheap but resource intensive, I had money left over that I spent on forts and mercenary mages to help out my otherwise mediocre research (my national researchers only bring in 4rp/turn in neutral scales and aren't super cheap).

Once I was beating up indies on the island, I encountered Patala. They had claimed a good third of the island with a force of elephants buffed with body ethereal (this sort of info is the godsend that is aggressive scouting). My troops carry magical "screw you ethereal" ice weapons and our mages can spam slime so we weren't afraid of ghostly elephants. We declared turf war on Patala and kicked them off the island after a few limited skirmishes. We offered Patala peace in exchange for them leaving us alone on the island (remember, Patala is on the exact opposite side of the map so reinforcements take a LONG time getting over there). They would hear nothing of peace and so we had some truly intense battles at Olypha (97). Patala made very good use of their naga casters (who are early age-caliber mages despite being in the late age) in addition to throwing an unholy number of monkeys at us. We were also fighting in Patala's heat dominion (which lowers the protection of my ice-clad infantry) so the battles were very close but the sheer survivability of our infantry allowed us to last juuuust long enough for the monkeys to route each time.

We invited Patala's neighbors to the brawl because we sure as heck couldn't beat Patala so far from home this early in the game. When the neighbors agreed, we fought defensively and played a game of hit-and-run while we tried to get enough troops and mages across the entire freakin' map to cement our tenuous hold. Fortunately, between Patala losing a few decisive battles against my entrenched forces at Olypha, my surprise attack on their capital (which ended rather poorly but it served it's purpose all the same) and T'ien Ch'i showing up in force, we were able to exhaust Patala enough for them to lose the war.

We didn't make much in the way of territorial gains from that conflict (Marignon got the capital and T'ien Ch'i got most everything else) but it was a proud war for Atlantis all the same. Even if we're cut off, way away from home and fighting in the thrice-cursed heat, we can still kick several metric tonnes of butt. As is, we're mainly concerned with consolidating our holdings and prodding our mages to keep up with the research race.

[Morla]

Nice reports.

As Jomon, low cost, high resources and no shield elite troops early expansion is easy with the help of my, never forgotten, dear arrow catchers. It is very important to go underwater as soon as possible, thanks to a trusted mercenary group i was able to go underwater in the 2 or 3 month and compete with Atlantis.

My first reasearch objetives are the site searching rituals, Jomon needs gems!!!.

I was afraid of my neigbourghs, Ulm and Marignon, cheap crossbows is my nemesis during year one. But a few NAPs solved that problem.

I face the majority of ULM´s AI forces, damm rangers and ghouls, but my dear spirts arrive just in time and solve a few situations 60 ghouls 50 rangers.

[Immaculate]

@atlantis

I contend that you did indeed get a sizable territorial gain- all of patala's island holdings...

[triqui]

AAR stands for "After Action Report"

[Immaculate]

murphies law and all that.

[Immaculate]

yeah, i did end up using that in some situations actually.

[Moanerette]

This is not only my first MP game, but my first game of any sort (excepting the demo). Coupled with the fact that in games I like to discover things as they occur, rather than obsessively reading wikis and whatnot, my modest ambition was to last a reasonable amount of time.

That said, in order to be at least vaguely competitive I did peruse a Chelms strategy guide, and started out by following its advice to build as many forts as possible. However, I was severely delayed by the hero infestation; dealing with that cost me valuable time and momentum and meant that my territory post-initial phase was far below optimal.

By the way, I've sent my turn 30 in but have not received any acknowledgement from the server.

[triqui]

The server is having some problems. We have to wait until Llama comes and reboot it...

[Moanerette]

Really sorry about the stale turn; I was away and had to stay longer than planned. I'm back in now anyway.

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

Hi all,

Im going to be doing a lot of traveling this month, so I am going to need to find a sub. Does anyone know someone?

I will be gone from the 4th to the 6th (if it's ok with everyone, maybe we could just postpone?) and then from the 9th to the 20th (so I definitely need a sub!)

Sorry for the inconvenience!