MP: Qwerty - MA team game. Finished

[WraithLord]

Meglobob has just PMed me that he conceded the game to me.
Being as MB was my rival for supremacy and that Klagrok was nearly finished and taking into account that I have both AN and the Forge up I think it is safe to conclude that by this point the game is over with my nations, Ctis/Man, victory.

[klagrok]

Well done WL! Somehow I was still kicking

[WraithLord]

Usually I don't get much excited when games are over. I'm just happy I'll get more free time and perhaps start a new game

This game is different though. I am excited that it is over.

My partner had to bow out very early in the game and I had to play most of this year long game alone. Handling two nations alone is *tough*. However this was nothing compared to what was coming: Two fierce wars against superior enemies and with wonderful allies: MB and Klagrok.

This game was epic in its scale. I think the players are superb.
ano and karnoza, Kuritza and Dimaz, Baalz and Meglobob, Klagrok and Ossa. Each has shown great skill and character in this game.

In this game I also came to deeply respect MB. We were allied for most of the game and we both got beat quite bad. It is his resolve that has inspired me to cont. fighting. Then when it came to endgame and we had to duke it out he gave me brutal battles and war on a scale I haven't experienced in the past. And yet, tenacious as he may be, he is noble enough to concede when it was clear the game is lost instead of dragging it for a few more months.

I also came to respect Klagrok. He was also shoulder to shoulder with me in the trenches during all those wars. And no matter what the odds he wouldn't surrender. Even when during the last turns MB went after him and almost finished him he somehow managed to survive. He showed great resilience. I found Klagrok's resolve admirable.

This is why I'm excited that this game is over. Its just that the players were so great and the game so epic.
Thank you all for one awesome game.
See you in future games

And BTW, does MA Man have previous MP wins or is it the first - I tell you it is one lousy nation, its a miracle it got so far

[Meglobob]

Congratulations Wraithlord!

Well done on sticking it out to the end Klagrok.

This was a very fierce and hard fought game, with alot of very good players in it. Ano, Karnoza and Dimaz in particular were very good tough opponents. Wraithlord did an excellent job of organising and co-ordinating the alliance which eventually just wore them down. In the end I just could not compete with Wraith's advantage in gems.

In the end our team only made two big strategic mistakes, me with the Atlantis pretender, putting death instead of nature magic, stopped me from clamming. Baalz for not castling and defending the steel overns site with Mictlan, thats a game winning site if fully exploited.

I was very pleased with the job I did bringing Mictlan back from the Abyss and turning them into a superpower once again. But I still don't like Ma Atlantis much as a nation.

Ma Man has already won 1 newbie game and I got a joint win when playing Ma Man in another newbie game, yes it was my 1st ever MP. You can tell because Ma Man, Manchaka and Ulm jointly won, possibly the 3 weakest nations in Ma.

Oh yea, playing 2 nations was tough, wouldn't like to do it again.

[Dimaz]

The game was fun, thanks to all the participants for a good fight. I was really relieved when we quit, though.

[WraithLord]

MB, indeed you made a remarkable comeback with Mictlan. I think it led the provinces and gem income graphs by an impressive margin towards the end.

Re. MA-Man, I'm amazed it managed to win in MP. I mean, this nation is ok for start to mid game but in end game it is just sorry. Lack of magical diversity is the main killer for Man. Specifically the lack of access to astral is crippling in end game. Add to that lot's of map move 1 troops. Old age crones and the weakness against inanimate lifeless SCs and you get an ugly endgame picture.
The impression I'll most remember from my MA-Man experience is how my mothers died by the droves while performing raiding duty.

MA-Ctis was altogether a different story and turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Careful dominion control can ensure you won't piss anyone off and it turned out the disease dominion was a deterrent, of sorts, until very late in the game. Yes, undead SCs and golems just ignored it but the mage support that could have been very helpful for them couldn't do the same.
This led to an interesting phenomena - Most of the SCs sent to raid MA-Ctis turf were exterminated. The golem SCs were sometime dispatched as easily as by a small shaman communion spamming opposition. The tartarians by skelli spam + dust to dust/charm spam among other counters.
MA-Man OtoH was freely raided and often had only its castles left.

MA-Ctis has a *sweet* lineup, both in troops, priests and mages. The sauromancers are awesome and what weaknesses they have the shamans close very effectively. Just try RoSing a mixed bunch of them, or send an SC to eliminate them
One glaring weakness I did suffer from is shock resistance. I had a hard time coming up with counters and often paid dearly for that.

All in all, this game had an epic feel to it. One of the best I had the privilege to take part in.

[Calahan]

May I offer my congratulations to WraithLord for what sounds like a very fine win, and to all those remaining at the end. As a complete outside observer, it's good to hear the final players give some feedback into what went on during the game.

And the main reason why I'm posting, the win comes dead-on the one year anniversary of the game being created. That's hella spooky!??!

[WraithLord]

Thanks Calahan.

Wow, your observation is really spooky. One year old now isn't it?

If one sentence could extract my perspective of the game it would be something like: "I got beat up, then got beat some more, and more, and more and then - I won". Not a usual MP experience as I was involved in wars, usually on the losing side, from the very start.

[Meglobob]

You mean like, Rocky, the more beat up you got, the meaner you became.

Wow! Really spooky to end exactly 1 year later! Not planned at all.

The game was really epic, it was full of magic rich sites, overflowing in fact, Arcane Nexus was cast by 2 different nations, same with Forge of Ancients. Astral Corruption was up virtually the entire endgame. I alone had cast Tartarian Gate 50+ times. It was also a vicious none stop battle virtually from year 1 till the end, the NE Africa bit of the map turned into a carnage zone where army after army, thug after thug, SC after SC came to fight and die. All in all really good fun...

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by Meglobob

You mean like, Rocky, the more beat up you got, the meaner you became.

More like the more beat up I got the more pathetic I became. Thus good hearted champions took pity on me and saved me from certain defeat

Originally Posted by Meglobob

The game was really epic, it was full of magic rich sites, overflowing in fact, Arcane Nexus was cast by 2 different nations, same with Forge of Ancients. Astral Corruption was up virtually the entire endgame. I alone had cast Tartarian Gate 50+ times. It was also a vicious none stop battle virtually from year 1 till the end, the NE Africa bit of the map turned into a carnage zone where army after army, thug after thug, SC after SC came to fight and die. All in all really good fun...

re. the NE Africa death arena. The amount of blood spilled on these accursed dunes was w/o parallel. It was as you describe, a mad dance in which provinces changed hand routinely and armies, thugs and SCs searched and found their deaths.
It was there for example that I one time lost a huge army (20+ mages, hundreds of troops, ice deamons and undeads escorted by a few tartarian and ID SCs to a well coordinated teleport+wrathfull skies+ rudra's from hell ambush set upon me by Kuritza -- that hurt btw)