2841

Nah, the W9 is for the double attack (or +50% attack i suppose). With Eagles, you’re getting 2 attacks +50%, +6AP x 3, on average. +4 defence helps the Eagles stay alive abit longer in melee, especially since they have a Length-4 spear to help repel.

To me Jaguar Warriors are an inelegent sacred unit. They die in droves, but are cheap and have fairly decent hitpoints with the Jaguar transformation. Eagle Warriors are the heart and soul of my Mictlan.

2842

Hoplite

Mictlan, I feel your pain. I’m stuck between Van and Heim. I’m at war with Heim as we speak. And it’s not going well. :) Those damn glamour troops are whooping my ass as Ulm. I’ve had to pull back, regroup, and see what else I can do.

In the future (i.e. - in the next game), what should I be looking do against Heim? Their calvary destroys my archers, one of biggest strengths as far as I can see.

2843

What kind of setup are you taking that you can get F9/W9 at the start? Serious disadvantages and long term sleeping pretender?

This game is hard! :)

2844

Hoplite

As long as we’re being politicky: C’tis has pretty much free reign to squish the T’ien Ch’i nation, which was set to AI a while back. I’d be getting a piece of that as well if Ulm didn’t decide to try a spearhead towards my capitol. Tsk tsk tsk. My question is, it seems someone is raiding the reptiles; who is it? Can the AI be retaliating? Good scouts are so hard to find these days…

2845

Well, note i’ve never taken F9/W9 in a multiplayer game. And every multiplayer game i’ve played, i’ve lost in miserable fashion. :). But then, i’ve never taken a Bless strat in multiplayer either, oddly enough. Well, no i think i took an Astral-9 bless in a Tien Chi game once, but that game died or dissapeared, i don’t remember which. It didn’t help any, since Tien Chi’s sacred cavalry was, back in the days of Dom2, subpar. I just wanted the Astral-9 Pretender for late game fun. Of course you have to survive to late game heh.

But in Single, i take Heat-3, Sloth-3, Drain-2, with a imprisoned Pretender, to get enough points for the F9/W9. I throw any spare points into growth. I really like Drain-2 for bless strats, as it doesn’t really hurt your economy or Pretender.

2846

Yeah, if only that had worked out better. :)

Really, you just looked less scary than those big ass giants to my north and I had to expand somewhere. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m not thinking I’m going to be around much longer at this point. Blaze of glory, here I come!

2847

Just a little brainstorming… but wouldn’t it be great to have a nice GUI utility for keeping track of alliances, province ownership, and abstract army strength? Right now, all I can come up with is a borders-only map that I could fill in with colors based on scouting reports, since it’s really annoying trying to keep track of who owns what after I lose a scout or relocate him somewhere else. It’s just too expensive to keep Astral Windows and scouts everywhere. Would anyone else use a map like that? I’d probably make one for Cradle and Urraparand, since those are pretty popular.

2848

That’d be awesome, thanks, Mork. :)

Linking this with my earlier questions about Golden Age Arco, has anyone ever tried F9 bless with Wind Riders? They have high defence (though no glamour) and flight for excellent raiding mobility; the F9 might be just what they need for fighting those lumbering Agarthans.

2849

Yeah, I’ve used them in my other Dom3 game that was finished recently. They work ok, but their main weakness is a crappy protection. Few indep archers set on “shoot flying” would slaughter them. But against melee units they work quite well.

Personally I would not use them in large armies, since they have very low survival rating, and their morale is only so-so. But they make a strong raider/counterraider force, if you give a group of them to the priest with flying shoes.

2850

To the Lictor’s players:

So what are we going to do guys? No sub for Giants has came forward so far. We could keep waiting or we could set Giants to AI.

What do you think?

2851

It’s a dead game for all intents and purposes. The longer a game like this stays dormant, the less interest anyone has in resuscitating it later even if another player can be found.

I’ll sit on the files for a few week in case someone steps forward and takes the Giant position but I doubt it will happen.

2852

Hmm. Well, as I said we can always set Giants to AI. Personally I am fine with it, considering the alternative. Sure, human sub is better, but I think it’s much better to continue the game with the 4 of us, than to abandon it.

As I said earlier, the outcome of the game is far from determined at this point. IMHO it would be sad to abandon the game after everyone have inversted so much time into it.

So Rollory, Ch. Hasslbauer, Nick - are you ok with AI taking over Giants?

2853

I don’t care a bit since I’m just playing to see the end of the game, I have no hope of contending for a win with my tiny holdings and lack of research. Whatever everyone else wants to do is fine with me.

2854

No. Not the same situation at all. Not the same game. Kinda like kicking the board and sending all the pieces scattering everywhere. The whole point of the current situation is the three-way power dynamic. There’s possibilities there. If you turn it directly into a Rlyeh-vs-Ulm game it becomes a race to see who can take the best advantage of the AI situation, or conversely hit the other guy harder while he’s trying to take advantage of the AI, or - no, this would suck.

I’d be fine with marking it “done but unfinished”.

2855

I’m really bummed about the wave of dropping players, so much so that I’d like to help shore up the holes if possible. I’ll take over the giants if you send me the necessary info.

I suck, though, so don’t expect a challenge!

2856

I agree that switching Giants to the AI would change the game a lot.

But I don’t see how it would give any particular nation drastic advantage. Both Marington, Ulm and R’leh have more or less equal chances of benefiting from it. In fact, Ulm is in better position to benefit from it than R’leh due to your flying armies of vampires and longer border with Giants (not to mention that 80%+ of Giants army is concentrated on my border). Marington also has a lot of flying demons than can take over Giants territory quickly. In fact I am the only one who doesn’t have flying armies, but it’s ok with me.

The only nation who would be in real disadvantage if Giants would go AI would be Ermor, but as Nick said he doesn’t care anyway, since he knows he has no hope of winning the game no mater what.

Besides you have said that the game is pretty much won by you anyway even if every other nations would unite against you. If this is indeed the case, than one nation going AI would not make any difference. In fact it should make the victory in the game even easier for you, since you would have one human opponent left.

Aren’t you curious how your mighty force of vampires, mages and SCs, not to mention all these unique artifacts that you have mentioned, fare in a real war? Yes, Giants have left, but R’leyh is still around. ;)

We could agree on few turns of truce to adjust to the new situation, then start R’leyeh/Ulm war in which you will have a chance to fully demonstrate the unstoppable might of Ulm Empire that you have spoken about. Marington and Ermor will choose whatever course of action they want.

Basically we currently have the end-game situation which, in my opinion, one of the most interesting stages of the game - everybody has dozens of possible strategies and counterstrategies to choose, strong armies, powerful spells, etc. Plus your nation does have a decent chance of winning the game, I give you that. But it is going to be significantly difficult than you might think, and you can still lose. (which should make it more interesting for you, right?)

I understand that you would prefer to win the game with every player being the same that have started the game. I would feel the same in your place. And of course human sub for Giants would be better than AI. But just because Clark abandoned all his games, doesn’t mean we can’t still have some fun with Lictor. Don’t you agree?

I am open to any suggestions that you might have on how we should handle AI and R’leh/Ulm relations.

2857

That would be awesome Jason!

And I agree, dropping players can really ruin the game for everybody.

2858

It isn’t a question of advantage, it’s a question of fun. I don’t like major AI powers in MP.

2859

I understand Rollory. I don’t like them as well, and you are right, it would not be the same game with giants controlled by AI. But I would hate to see this game going belly up just when the nations were about to clash.

Fortunately Jason has came to rescue, so hopefuly we won’t have to deal with AI.

2860

Hmmm well fuck… the idea of going a turn stale wasnt so bright for me… I had surprise on my turn and now my concert action got broken down, ive gotten leprosed because my armies stood still and i lost my advance guard because i couldnt send reinforcements…

I even somehow got an horrormark from an inkpot because my armies stood there unmoving… that sucks hard, but may be as well i still think that i landed a very solid punch to helheim and that his dreams of being the victor in this game are perhaps a little too early…