MP: Waaargs without end (Upload pretenders)

[Tiavals]

You should post a new thread about it, easier to get attention that way.

[HoleyDooley]

With 3 (one was Ermor who was meant to go AI anyway) players staling last turn, I am asking for the game to be placed on hold until a replacement can be found for Ulm and I also will seeking a sub for myself.

[Tiavals]

You taking a permanent or a temp sub HD?

[HoleyDooley]

Permanent.

[Tiavals]

I see. An outside of the game reason, I take it. Your substitute will sure have a strange situation in his hands.

[Tiavals]

Does datom still play TC?

Also, looking for eyes of the void, runesmashers and spell penetration charms and such to buy. Will pay generously in gems.

[Olm]

Datom still sends turns.
But Kailasa seems to be out of the game. He's lost his capital to Atlantis last turn and looses lots of provinces per turn to me. Staled two times, so probably he lost interest. Niefel still sends turns, but he surrendered to me months ago and has not showed any real action since. I thought he would go AI after his surrender, but he didn't.
Its sad that HD wants to quit, had been looking forward to meeting Helheim on the field of battle. Observed Helheims main army last turn, impressive.

Lets go through the roster:
1. Ossa - Llanka --> almost dead
2. P3D - Atlantis check --> strong and thriving
3. ghoul31 - Hinnom check -- > dead
4. shonuf - Kalaisa check --> dying and staling
5. HoleyDooley - Helheim check --> very strong but leaving
6. Olm - Maverni check --> very strong
7. Tivials - Yomi check --> strong
8. EvilHome - Caelum check --> was never alive
9. Folket - Sauromatia --> strong
10.Yellowcactus - Niefelheim check --> dying and inactive
11. Datom - TienChi check --> still strong but minimal activity
12. Googly1- Arco checkv --> dead
13. CUnknown - Ulm check --> strong but staling
14. AreaofEffect - Ermor check --> almost dead

So there are still 7 mentionable powers left: Atlantis, Helheim, Marverni, Yomi, Sauromatia, T'ien Ch'i, Ulm. But three of those are looking for subs.
Could still be an interesting game, if we find subs. Till then we should definitely hold the game. I personally doubt that we find three subs, but one never knows. Its a bit sad this interesting game should end like this.

@Tiavals: When the game continues I can forge you some of the equipment, but I am rather short on Astral Pearls, so I can not spam them.

[P3D]

I'm for concluding this game. With so many players inactive, I doubt we could enough find enough replacement players.

[Olm]

Originally Posted by P3D

I'm for concluding this game. With so many players inactive, I doubt we could enough find enough replacement players.

A night of sleep has brought me to the same conclusion.
Even if we can sub all nations, this wouldn't be the same game.
I'm happy that P3D makes the proposal, as Atlantis is probably the active nation with the best prospect of improvement.

Perhaps everyone can sum up how the game went for his nation? I would be especially interested in the parts of the world I had almost no knowledge about. Ermor has made a good start, but I know almost nothing about the fall of Lanka and the rise of Helheim.

For my part of the game:
I roughly followed Baalz guide. Pretender was a sleeping Phoenix with F4A5 and very good scales.
Expansion worked quite well with mainly Boar Warriors/Carnute Nobles. I met Kailasa and T'ien Ch'i early on and made friends. Hinnom didn't answer to my diplomacy.
Soon Hinnom attacked T'ien Ch'i (the largest nation then). Don't know what his plan was. I entered the war as soon as I had researched Gifts from Heaven. His Melqarts seemed fearsome at first, but not so much after they were hit by meteors. Hinnom had no research, and he couldn't stand a chance against our two strong nations.
Taking Hinnom itself took me very long and a huge bunch of slingers, but when it finally fell it opened up Death for me, as it had Onyx Amazones as poptype.
During the final stages of the Hinnom war in the south I was attacked by Niefel in the west. I was totally unprepared and Niefel penetrated deeply into my territory. But when I finally organised my counter attack, it was quite easy to take everything back and more. Again GfH proved very effective against the large, expansive Giants. Skinshifters would have served Niefel better than Niefel Giants. They take two meteors to finally die, and he can field double numbers. But as it was I beat him till he finally surrendered. Unfortunately I was not quick enough to save Arco in the process. The teo Niefel fortresses of Niefelheim an dCaelum would be the targets of my Siege Golems in the course of the next few turns.
All of a sudden Kailasa broke our NAP and attacked me. Again I was unprepared (I am just to trusting). My greatest problem was the total absence of scouts in that region, so I played that war defensive while building up and moving in scouts. He attacked with kitted Yakshas, I defended with PD and Druids and some other mages. GoH were not so effective, as his Yakshas stayed back for a long time before advancing, so most of my meteors missed. He was really lucky in that. Kailasa took quite a lot of my provinces, but he did pay a price. While I seldom lost one of my Druids, he regularly lost a Yaksha or two per turn. So his low income nation really bled, while I lost provinces, but not much more.
The province graph for that period is rather funny. I stay more or less even, while Kailasa rises and Niefel drops. Looks as the two of them are battleing it out. In fact they never met, I am taking from Niefel in the west and loosing to Kailasa in the east.
In the end I had enough scouts positioned, Kailasa had stretched to far and lost to much and I brought in thugs I had prepared for this. He had not much left to stop my counter attack and rapidly lost provinces. Just about the same time Atlantis attacked him in the north and that sealed his fate. Two more turns and nothing but sieged forts would remain of Kailasa.
And then there is Sauromatia. We had a NAP. He cancelled it just when I was attacked by Niefel. But he kept his word and waited 3 turns. In that time Niefel separated us by taking some of my provinces. Just as a hint: Had you two communicated, I would have had a much harder time against Niefel in the NW and Sauromatia in the SW. As it was I took everything from Niefel, but not those two provinces that separated Sauromatia and me. Worked quite well, it took a long time before Sauromatia finally broke through those provinces. But this time I was prepared and Sauromatia took its first major defeat of the war. Sauromatia has been doing O.K. since then. A long time with no gains on both sides. But now I am heavily raiding with kitted Gargoyles, and Sauromatia is loosing ground. I have been fighting three wars at once for quite some time (Niefel, Kailasa, Sauromatia) but with Niefel and Kailasa both almost done Sauromatia would have a hard time alone against me.

About my other neighbours:
T has been a friend ever since the Hinnom war, although he never entered another of my wars.
Ulm agreed to a NAP when we finally met, but started to stale soon after.
Yomi agreed to a NAP and I supported his efforts against Helheim.
Atlantis never agreed to a NAP but there were never hostilities (other than those about the globals). We loosely agreed on a course of action against Kailasa to not find ourselves battleing each other accidentally.


About Marverni:
Great nation to play. The fact that your best mage is not cap only is just great. I lost count, but I guess I field about 60 Druids. Add over a dozen Crystal mages, Enchantresses and Gnomes each. Additionally handsfull of Gutuaters, Onyx Sorceresses, Wolf Tribe Shamans, Sages, Pyromances and Fire Lords.
Everyone who thinks this nation to be weak should think twice.


I had a lot of fun in this game and also learned a lot. Perhaps we meet in another one, though now I need a break again from DOM MP, just takes to much time. Perhaps I'll play again around Christmas.
Have fun and CU.

P.S: Thanks to the admin. Worked well as you did it. Better let a stale happen, if the player did not say anything, than postponing until everything is in. The game had a nice fast pace, sometimes almost too fast for my large empire, but that's the price to pay if one is as greedy.

[Tiavals]

Too bad about you guys thinking we should stop the game, the game is finally coming to the really interesting part for me. Helheim is jumping around my territory with flying troops, his main army has most of the artifacts in the game and it's big.

But I have several plans which I'm fairly sure will completely smash his army. First of all, I'll start throwing around Leprosy at his army, hoping do disease his dudes. Then, Winds of Death will rot them to death, as I understand it goes through mistform(which he uses on an army scale). If that doesn't work, I have several Dai Onis with Fire 5, ready to cast Firestorm/Flamestorm(whichever is the one that does 6AP per round), which should go through Mistform as well. I also had Earthquake Dai Onis, but then I realized it does physical damage, and worse, can be resisted with Defence, which is very high for his troops.

A recap of how things went:

I took a Master lich, with 9 death and 5 water. Why? I thought high death scale would work well with Dai Onis, which I'd use as battle mages, so they'd cause loads of afflictions. I also wanted to branch to water(which worked out superbly, since my water gem income was the highest, ludicrously. I found that water site that gives 5 gems per turn, and loads of others).

At first my expansion was slow. But when Hinnom was dying, I got a fair amount of new territory, which made me much more powerful, and the same happened with Ermor. Meanwhile, Marverni had grown very strong, so I decided to oppose him sneakily, being the bastard I am. I gave financial and water gem support to Niefelheim, and later blasted some of his druids with Fires From Afar and that 50 gem water spell. Didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped, with only a few kills. We still had a NAP, so he never suspected a thing.
Ermor resisted more than I thought, so capturing his territory was slow, which allowed Helheim to crush most of Lanka. During this time, Lanka became my vassal which I pledged to protect from Helheim, and from there on, the great war started, which is still in full swing.

But I'm still up for continuing the game, despite spilling my plans and whatnot.