QT3FeedingFrenzy (Mictlan)
The Coatls are using Astral Travel - 25 astral gems lets you and your army go anywhere in the world.
The Pangaean Charm Offensive is a bit destructive though - not good for SCs. Gaap, as Ice Devil and then Mummy has been with me since turn 15, you bastard. :x And watching 40 Storm Demons launch their lightning repeated lightning attacks on Mechanical Men is a bit depressing too; were they thinking that if they kept doing it, the lightning immunity might wear off?
But it’ll all be over soon.
Faeruntest (Ctis): At this rate, Man will never fall! A crack army of fiends and devils backed up by vampire lords and tartarian cyclopses stormed the Zhentil Keep into the teeth of Man-ish storm power. The day was carried but at great cost, near 75% casualties including 2 rather valuable tartarians. Many mages of Man died, but I feel it is but a small dent in the total force that impedes my conquest.
Ermor seems to have been taken in by the Atlantean hype. Bah! We shall make you bleed! If you had blood, anyway… which I guess you don’t. All the same, the Empire of Ctis will not shrink from a good fight!
My Caelum-ish ally, stales endlessly, surely to be consumed and digested by Atlantis, further boosting the smally fish people. Bah!
My poor, poor aquatic brethren Ryleh finally died a lingering dominion death this turn. Bah! So I am alone! I would rather fight allies than be one!! Death! Death to you aaaaallllll… hissssssssssssssssssss
Small Note: Seems I am ultimately responsible for Ryleh’s death, and for that I am saddened… he was a true ally, and his loyalty only bought him the overpowering waves of my dominion, the aggressive and deadly telepathic mind of Gravechill, and the devilish nightmares of the looming hell. Alas, do not weep for Ryleh, for he is already dead…
Faeruntest (Man)
Nailed to the door of every temple in Man:
"The Empire of Man and Ermor, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.
Even though large tracts of Faerun and many old and famous kingdoms have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Froggy and all the odious apparatus of lizard rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in what remains of Jotunheim, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength with the magics of the air, we shall defend our lands, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this land or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our lands beyond the straights, armed and guarded by the mages of Man, would carry on the struggle, until, in the one true God Ba’al’s good time, the Underwater World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the lands above."
Delusions of grandeur! BAH! :D
jeffr
2925
QT3FeedingFrenzy (Pan)
Well, that does it for me. I’ll be done next turn. Good game guys and congratulations Mark. :)
Faeruntest (Ctis): AAAAHHH!!! Murdering Winter!! AAAAHHH!!! Cold-blooded lizards dont like the cold! hisssssssssss… well at least, despite suffering 4 murdering winters, the troops in Border Kingdoms carried the day against the Atlantean army which tried to force its way out of the beseiged watchtower and over 250 Atlantean scum were left dead on the battlefield.
Fresh reinforcements pour into the central and southern fronts. Hopefully these fresh armies will be able to begin a limited counteroffensive… although operations here have proved incredibly costly.
In the North, Man showed he is still a force to be reckoned with, as his pretender-led army breaks out of the siege of Damara, killing 200 brave Ctisian troops including 50(!) sauromancers at trifling cost to himself. It will take an extraordinary effort to destroy this army… if it is even possible. Some Ermorian armies poke around the northern border of Man with obvious hostile intent, but we are not overly concerned…
We have seized the lands of now defunct Ryleh with some minimal opposition by Atlantean mages, seizing 11 of the 16 provinces… now it will be seen if we can hold them.
JM1
2927
Is FeedingFrenzy over then? I have to take the box down next week (new job), so I wont be able to host any more games after that.
Pretty much. Just waiting for an official surrender from Abysia (Carnifex)
When’re people gonna get off this damn flavor-of-the-moment Dominions 2?
Someone should tell these kids a game with crappy graphics and wretched interface will have no staying power. Illwinter shoulda made Serious First-Person Shooter: The Sequel and given it triple buffered mip mapped antialiasing and let you tear guys in half with your bare hands and pork the hot daughters of greek gods in it.
Faeruntest (Atlantis)
The endless war continues. Armies die again, again, and again. I figure that C’tis may be able to take maybe one province from me perhaps every other turn on average. I have a hard time holding any gains against the relentless hoard. At this rate, the game will go to about 400 turns.
Caelum stales endlessly now, but he will be dead soon anyway to dominion. Ermor and Altantis are slowly annexing the former Caelum territory. I hope to take all the underwater provinces formerly held by R’lyeh, but that will be hard to do in the face of continuous Ghost Riders. Why was that spell not nerfed anyway???
The 200 or so temples that C’tis has by now continues to push dominion relentlessly into my territory. I am preaching on the border in the hopes of holding it back. I suppose there is no stopping the lizards, once he disposes of Man (if he even can, that is). I guess I will therefore have to be content with second place. But, out of 17 original players, that ain’t so bad!
On another note, I will be on vacation from Friday through Tuesday. I might or might not be able to do my turns while gone, so I may have a stale turn or two. I am sure I will lose some territory to the lizards, but I have a lot of territory to lose.
I noticed that there have been some 2-day hosts and some 3-day ones recently. I would greatly prefer a three day schedule if no one objects. At least through next Wednesday (if not permanently).
My surrender in FeedingFrenzy is so total and rapid that you’ll think
I’m French.
Well played, Mark!
Faeruntest (Ctis):
Atlantis destroys armies as fast as I can pour them into the line. This turn, and army of 352 fiends, devils, and vampires was destroyed in its entirety by remote artillery. 6 castings of murdering winter, 4 of flames from the sky, and 9 ghost riders destroyed 1884 blood and 416 gems worth of troops and items for a cost of only 325 gems. Of course… the Nexus returned to me a record 235 astrals this turn, and calculating hammer and site bonus discounts into the cost of my army perhaps I can think of it as a wash.
On the plus side, a small force of 120 army-of-gold vampires gutted an Atlantean army, killing 385 out of 435 troops and 33 out of 41 commanders at the cost of 25 vampires lost. heartening! But of course, one more round of remotes and that army will be gone too… And still I lose ground. Black Jungles, former Matchaka capital fell this turn. Atlantis grip on the sea provinces of former Ryleh holds unabated, my ghost riders unable to dislodge him.
I retreated from an abortive attempt to take Myth Drannor, surely the heart of Man’s resistance. The Holy Fire got lucky, that’s all I’ll say. However I am still optimistic about the campign vs Man. Surely he cannot survive?
Hosting Schedule: Currently the game hosts on a fixed schedule, early Tuesday AM early Thursday AM, and early Saturday AM. Basically two 48 hour and one 72 hour turn a week. (I thought I had posted this fact earlier?). We could go to a twice-weekly hosting if no one minds. Say Sunday morning and Wednesday noon or something… let me know.
Damn, you guys are hardcore. I can’t believe the scale of the battles you’re having.
Faeruntest (Atlantis)
The hosting schedule is fine. I made the current move but I might stale the next one between Saturday and Tuesday.
Even though it takes so much time to make each move, this is still a very interesting game. I think it will eventually wind up in a stalemate, though, unless Man is eliminated sometime soon. In any event, it will take at least another year to fully resolve this game.
I can extend the turn… I’d rather not have you stale.
Watching the turns I almost think to myself: boy I wish I was still playing this and maybe we’ll start another one. Then I help out Soapy and try to find some random artifact path booster which is on one of his casters or I try to find an evocation site in the massive C’tis empire, or I try to find a place to recruit enchantresses or some other task of hide and seek and I realize it’s insane!
I have to say Atlantis has it pretty easy or at least it looks like that from the outside. He has a very good caster that is recruitable everywhere which adds instant offense to any army in the Kinf of the Deep and the low resource Shambler which provides easy bulk. I never would have thought that Atlantis would have a good end game army but it’s really working out for him. Further 1 out of 8 of those Kings of the Deep come with 5W which is turning out to be really useful for the Murdering Winters.
The battles are really crazy to watch. I hope that Soapy is saving them. I’ve played a few games of Dominions 2 and I have never seen anything like this.
Faeruntest (Atlantis):
I am back home a day early and was able to make my move on schedule, though I did it pretty quick this evening.
I guess since we were unable to overwrite the Nexus even with a 30% bonus site and 999 pearls, the game is pretty much decided now in favor of the lizards. It is only a matter of time as to how long it takes.
As for playing Atlantis, it is nice to have the immense income to build lots of King of the Deeps each turn. The big problem with Atlantis is the Kings can be built only in water provinces. C’tis has no such restrictions, so he can build 50 Sauromancers each turn to my 10 Kings.
For the most part, I think that the only races with any chance on a map this big is the nations that can build a cheap but powerful mage in every castle. Namely, races like C’tis, Caelum, Pythium, maybe Arco too. Man has no chance on a map this size since his good mages are capitol only. It is a trubute to his great skill to have lasted this long to become one of the final 4 nations. Ermor is more handicaped by the overdone growth scale than any other factor in this game. I am in second place because Atlantis is a decent race and I played pretty well so far, in my opinion.
As for the micromanagement problem, I have been so busy with RL lately that I have been doing my turns in less than 90 minutes. There is no way I can build/find all my artifacts and indy mages needed in that short amount of time. Mostly, all I do is build kings or coral queens and shamblers and send them towards the front lines. I also use up my gems for remote artillery spells and ghost riders, plus try to fortify the former squid provinces. I know I could do a heck of a lot more if I had lots of time.
Overall, it has been a fun game, but I cannot see myself ever playing a game this big again. Faerun is permanently over for me. The time investment is just too great.
I had delayed hosting but I’ll put it back on.
Micro is hell! But at least we are in the same boat… I am no more willing to take more than an hour or so with my turns than you are!
Battle of the unscripted hordes! Yeah!! ;)
I laughed my a$$ off over this comment. I have {quickness, cast spells} stored as ‘1’ and simply put that on every King that comes out. All my shamblers and vine ogres are then put into big groups and stuck on the front lines.
And that’s about it!
I am still wondering if I lost my prophet yet again, for I could not seem to find him about where I though he should be…
Weirdly is not as much of a bonus as I would have thought. There are not as many uses to the astral gems as I thought. Yes angles are amazingly good, however the get crushed like everything else by ghost riders. Their only real use is wish. And there are few wishes that are really potent ( blood is probably the best of the lot ). Some wishes are very good against unprepared opponents, but at this stage of the game I highly doubt that anyone is going to be unprepared. It does give one a strangle hold on the globals which can be huge.
I think you overestimate the income of C’tis. From your earlier posts I think that your income is greater than that of C’tis. But we’ll only find out from the replay I suppose. You should be able to recruit more than 10 Kings of the Deep per turn. I have not counted but it looks like you have far more than 10 sea provinces. Of course the micro of getting them to the front would be wicked.
Namely, races like C’tis, Caelum, Pythium, maybe Arco too.
I would add Marignon to that list! had he played his hand correctly I’m quite confident that he would have won the game. I did not realize until I was deep into the war with him how easily he could have won. We can talk after the game about the “easy” path to victory that he had before him. Goteic Masters are not to be taken lightly.
It is a trubute to his great skill to have lasted this long to become one of the final 4 nations
It’s also a tribute to the awesome power of Air magic! And to be fair he also used astral magic to stop the 1st wave of C’tisian SC’s. sniff they were so pretty but the really failed their MR rolls easily.
I’ll say it again: this game is really fun to watch. I don’t think it would be any fun to play, but watching it ( again giving useless suggestions here and there ) has been a heaping pile of fun. I’ve never and probably will never see battles like this again.
