5041

The first thing I noticed is that your research was flat for … well, for a long long time. You didn’t have any researchers doing anything. That’s just …

Also, my scouts saw at least one indie province on your borders that stayed indie for turn after turn after turn, until Agartha finally put it out of its misery. Considering how small you were you needed all the space you could get, and yet …

Basically it looks like you weren’t actually doing anything for most of the game. That’s not going to get you anywhere.

5042

It’s strange that you saw my Research flat…I was researching at turn one. The first handful of commanders I comissioned were all mage-types, and I had them all researching. I think I stopped researching when C’tis built that keep on my borderlands. (Ha! Dork-joke.)

I did feel like I botched that opportunity with the keep. I gambled that you’d be content there and I could deal with you later, and I started moving a bunch of armies south…as that seemed a more volatile area. I turned them around to head back North (I think you got the keep up while I was still moving North), and I think I waited too long in attempting an attack. But then, your army pretty much raped mine, so I’m not sure it would have mattered.

I didn’t have the game for very long at all before starting Inquisitor, so my basic plan was the first thing I came up with/noticed. I took a Master Druid pretender, and gave him an Ivy Crown(?)…some basic magic item that increases the number of Vine Ogres summoned…since this (I assumed) would stack with the Master Druid’s ability to summon more of these units…I envisioned hordes of Vine Ogres running around. I had no idea if they were a good troop or not, but it seemed like a fair plan at the time…and that’s what I ran with. I think my dude was summoning four per turn once he got going. Not sure if that’s any good or not.

It also seemed like my basic satyr troops weren’t the best. Perhaps I should have tried the Undead route.

5043

Generally, expanding aggressively (at least through the independent provinces) is a very, very good thing.

As to the way the battles turned out: You might have faired better had you attacked earlier. It took me some time to change out my independent-rolling machine out for the chaff screens and heavy guards the particular strategy you saw needed, as well as the death gems and research for it to work.

I understand not going for the keep earlier, and the slower pace of expansion. You might want to test out the nation you play next in a multiplayer game a bit in singleplayer, to find a decent independent squashing strategy. It’ll allow you to gain ground a lot quicker on an ultimately smaller budget, which means more options for later game.

From what I understand about Vine ogres: They’re great for soaking up damage and still going, but they’re not too great for killing enemy elites because they have trouble hitting them. Something nasty and offensive would have gone well alongside them.

5044

I wasn’t in this game so perhaps I’m not following, but that statement raises a tactical red flag to me.

Armies are slow and ponderous things in Dom3 and upkeep is very expensive. By the time an army has been assembled and moved to the front for first engagement the upkeep costs have probably exceeded the recruitment costs. So turning a big army around and moving it back to the other side of your empire to fight someone else is almost never worse it. It’s cheaper and faster to get the army killed somehow and just recruit a new one closer to where you want to fight. There are sometimes exceptions with very fast army, or armies composed of precious capitol-only units, but as a general rule don’t turn armies around.

5045

Basically the next month of my life is going to be incredibly busy, and I’d rather not have the distraction of playing an hour of Dominions every night on average. Last night, I came to this conclusion. So, I’m hoping somebody or somebodies will take up my games for me. I’ll fill you in on my pertinent tactical thinking and current diplomatic situation, but feel free to take it from there. If the sub is having fun after the month, he can keep the game. If not, I’ll be available to pick it back up.

In Morning Star: Sauromatia, I am currently at peace with NAPs with both neighbors and am probably in a solid third place. Have a very powerful pretender.

In Inquisitor: Midgard, Ok, so technically I’m at war with two stronger powers, however, I have maintained tactical superiority in both cases. Regardless, this one is still a bit of a charity case. I’ll explain my battlefield strategies, though, and it can be fun.

P.S. I’ll try to keep playing my turns in the meantime, but I’m worried about stalling once or twice.

5046

Crom - Crap, looks like I staled. not a good time for that… was a busy week for me and I lost track of time. Grrr

5047

MistSpell

I’m going to be out of town for 9 days starting Wed, 4/16. So I’d like a pause, if possible. Maybe take the game off the timer on Tuesday or something. I’ll play my turn Tuesday night and as soon as I return.

And what happened to Marignon’s big army that was about to attack that Tien castle?

I think it just disappeared.

5048

Inquisitor’s waiting on you too.

5049

Hi,

I hope you guys don’t mind my interruption to pimp Shrapnel Games’ recently launched Facebook page. If anyone here is into FB, please drop by and check it out. We’d greatly appreciate it if you click “become a fan” - it’ll put a cute little Shrapnel Games logo on your profile page. Your recommendation to your friends is still better for reaching new players than any banner ad we can come up with. But if you like banner ads, you can also see one of the new ones we’re running for Dom3 at the FB page.

Here’s the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shrapnel-Games-Inc/10437046793?ref=nf

Thanks for reading and for playing Dominions!
Annette

5050

What makes you think we like Dominions?

5051

Well, except for those moments you despise it, of course…

5052

168 pages of hate.

5053

Pure hate. If we really liked this game, we’d be over 200 by now.

5054

Crom and Morningstar players:

Maintenance is going to require the server to be offline for awhile today. All games will have turn timers reset to full when restarted.

5055

See? He hates the game so much he turned the server off.

5056

Yes. Please take Mistspell off the timer…i’m also gonna be out of town starting Thursday but just for a few days! Having it off timer will be great.

5057

Maintenance complete, games should be back online shortly. Further interruptions possible later in the week. The server itself is fine but I’m fiddling with the wiring in the room the server is located which necessitates shutdown.

5058

Someone talk about Mistspell. I have no real idea what’s happening. Other than pink and I going at it…

5059

I’ll try to remember to do this tonight, please yell at me in PM if it’s still timered tomorrow.

5060

Ulm and Pan are fighting hard. I’ve wiped out every Pan temple not protected by a fort. He’s wiped out several Ulmish armies and has invisible cavalry deep in the Ulmish backfield.

It’s a bit of a stalemate b/c he has massively high dominion and attacking to his dominion controlled lands means he drops an immortal phoenix + wrath of skies and kills my entire army.

Things are tough since Pan now has an awesome army about 300 strong sieging Ermor’s old capitol.

OTOH, I have an air queen and Anthrax running aroudn his backfield taking a prvoicne (then quickly losing them). I’m slowly taking control of his seas. There’s a big fight loomign if our 2 big armies hit each other. Whoever wins that, will probably win the war.