Shouldn’t it be “The Game that Died a Slow, Lingering Death”?
It was my first stab at Broken-Empire Ermor. They have a lot more going for them than most people seem to think, but I did feel constrained by their lack of magic path flexibility.
I took a Cyclops (I know they are prone to going blind, but for some reason I’ve picked one in a couple of other MP games, too). Originally E6 S6 D3 N2. Died once to a not very big group of triton knights, despite his base protection of 26.
My main strategy was to abuse the ability to mass-produce cheap s1d1, nether dart-slinging thaumaturgs. At one point I was buying 6 or 7 of them every turn, and I had fielded several separate armies with a backbone of 20+ nether dart hurlers each. And, really critically, before they took to the field they allowed me to race far, far ahead of everyone else in research.
Lots of tactics could have really hurt, especially in the unmodded base game we were playing. But (I think) a combination of some of the players being not so experienced and a sort of uncommunicated agreement among the rest to not use the standard dom2 cheeze allowed then to be truly devastating. As an aside, the one thing all game that really did a number on my thaumaturg armies was the Vanheim AI, after O’Malley had dropped out. The AI had summoned a couple dozen Spring Hawks, and they annihilated the thaumaturgs in one battle.
As examples of trying to play cheeze-free, I avoided casting ghost riders or summoning tartarians, and I never equipped my bane lords with all of the standard hellsword/jade armor/flying boots loadout. That made a couple of wraithlords (equipped with flying boots and scripted soul vortex/attack rear) the strongest thugs in the game. Instead of ghost riders/tartarians, I had used my conjuration 9 ability on several castings of legions of wights, but the game seems to have ended without their seeing any real combat. I think they would have been quite potent, and certainly more in keeping with the spirit of the game.
The game had a huge fun-factor. It took me a long time to get used to the map (Chandrea, a really small wrap-around map with all sorts of unexpected connections). But now I really, really like it. I think the map itself had a lot to do with the really dynamic back-and-forth of the diplomacy and fighting.
After several shifts in alliances and much back-and-forth, the late game evolved into Man+Arco vs Ermor, with Abysia vs what was left of Marignon on the side. Marignon’s Wrath of God global was incredibly effective at keeping him in the game and giving him a chance to rebuild, especially as Abysia had no way to muster a dispell. My own late game grand strategy was to knock Man down but not bother knocking him out, and then switch focus to do the same to Arco. It was all going according to plan until Arco bribed Abysia into a surprise attack on me. I think I had Abysia re-bribed to back off, but I guess we’ll never know for sure :)
Tons of fun. Too bad GuildBoss’s situation prevented him from keeping up with it, but we all understood that taking care of his family came first, and we all would have done the same had we been thrown into his boat.
