Debate and Duel (D&D)

[Argitoth]

Graeme Won... damn... The battle took around 8 hours to finish. I gave up by turn 66 after my pretender died from an unknown cause casting Stygian Paths. (He didn't die from the spell)

I was making 31 death gems a turn after casting Well of Misery.

Graeme... he had some really evil plans. He started causing lots of unrest. I was able to contain it for a little while Until I got massive spam "UNREST YOU IDIOT DO SOMETHIUNG ABOUT IT"... I couldn't do anything.

He started casting Hordes from Hell. I finally got Well of Misery and began casting Ghost Riders and Arouse Hunger like crazy. It didn't seem to do anything but Graeme said, "Ahhh. I was finding them to be very annoying."

I casted Plague on his home province just to try it out. I could have casted it a lot more times. Only after the end of the game did Graeme tell me his home province went to 9000 population after my only casting of the spell. I gotta cast that more often!

Really exciting game, but I got tired that his Vampire Queen pretender ran away from my pretender instead of fighting to HER death. Yes, she would have permanently died if she didn't run.


This shot was taken in the heroes list. My pretender died right after casting Stygian Path.


This is the news confirming my pretender and all his units safely went through.


This is the battle. My pretender is nowhere to be seen. Note: He is resistant to cold. Another note: I made the wights start in the front while my pretender stayed a bit more in back. Another another note: I checked the message from the battle and there were no commanders included.


Daaaamn.... look at all the unrest


My knowledge is absolute! Supreme! I know all.


End-game look of Urgaia.

[ February 09, 2004, 04:45: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[Argitoth]

Originally posted by Zen:
It's not a bug. It's a game parameter. You can't retreat from an assassination attempt. I believe it's intentional.

I retreated from my assassination attempt. I scripted "Disintegrate, Retreat" so if they were found, they would retreat in the province closest province (which I owned). It DID work that way until I actually tried assassinating. My assassins used the disintegrate and retreat script and died even though you are not supposed to be able to retreat AND even if you did retreat, you could have gotten to a home province.

[ February 09, 2004, 03:44: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

Well obviously it's your fault. You can't retreat from an assassination attempt. Next time don't script your mages to Retreat when you plan on assassinations.

[Graeme Dice]

This was definetly a good game. I was sure that Argitoth was going to attack me early on, while I had the territorial advantage, but he had the magic advantage. I had spent my first ten turns building wolfherders to use as patrollers, and it took a very long time to catch up in the research race. My capitol also got hit with the plague event around turn 50, but since I wasn't relying on it for troops I didn't worry too much about it. It finished off with 9000 population.

I was also very worried when he made it to level 9 conjuration, cast well of misery, then proceded to drop a lot of ghost riders and arouse hunger all over my territory. Thankfully, my blood slave income was good enough to cast hordes from hell on every turn to retake the provinces. I also reached level 9 conjuration just shortly thereafter, and was able to also cast ghost riders. I chose to cast in on the same provinces every turn however, to drive unrest up as quickly as possible. Once I had enchantment 9 also researched, I took my entire group of 20 illuminated ones and sent them into Argitoth's home provinces to cause unrest. The plan was originally to have them wait there until my nether bolters arrived and then to use them as communion slaves, but they worked well just by themselves.

I eventually had to cast dispel twice on his Well of Misery, and burnt up over 100 nature gems and 40 death gems to make sure it went away.

Manifestation is a decent assasination spell for BF Ulm, as the vampire counts are often tough enough to deal with the ashen angel.

Anyways, the links below are to some pictures describing various parts of the end game.
My Pretender: Desmerelda the Vampire Queen
The Army Graph
Most of those troops were Wolves

The Home Guard
Vampire Counts: Decent Mages, Great Harassers
This province will be down to 5K population in few turns from now.
Dominion Graph
Forts Graph: How I managed to eventually catch up in research.

Gem Income Graph
My leftover gems
Ghouls: The Ultimate Castle Defense
The Hall of Fame
Bifrons: The ultimate rapid attack unit.
Gaap: Rapid Attack unit Two

Nycator also arrived, but didn't survive a run -in with several skeleton raising Sauromancers as I hadn't yet made him a regen ring.
The Income Graph: Well of Misery's effect is clearly visible here.
Magical Resources Left after Two Dispels
The Overall Research Graph

My Overall Research at the end.

And finally, the strategy that won me the game.
Spies
More Spies
Even More Spies

And an overview of the final strategic situation:
Overview

As a final word, give Argitoth a break people. he plays very well, and runs several hosted games without any major problems.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Any noteworthy disintegrations?

A few. He got some of my vampire counts before I gave them amulets of antimagic.

[mjlaufgr]

great AAR, both of you! I love stuff like this. You'll get him next time, Argitoth

Mark

[Argitoth]

Originally posted by mjlaufgr:
great AAR, both of you! I love stuff like this.

What is AAR?

Originally posted by mjlaufgr:
You'll get him next time, Argitoth

I'm really not up for another 8 hour game

Edit: OMG!!! I THINK I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PRETENDER!!! What if he died because the dominion was too high in the province he was attacking? THAT MIGHT BE IT!

Edit: Thanks, mjlaufgr!

[ February 09, 2004, 04:50: Message edited by: Argitoth ]