baruk
5641
I used flaming arrows as well, but Ermor had more undead cavalry in that battle than the total number of archers I could possibly have mustered. I went with a small force of heavily armoured archers that would survive the earthquakes. I figured I would need a strategy that hit everything on the battlefield against those kinds of numbers.
Hetzer
5642
Take the cheapest archer you can find, mass prod them use flaming arrows and possibly the air spell to increase accuracy and youre ready to go smashing ermorian undead armies…
baruk
5643
That works up to a point, but when you’re facing 1000+ Ermorians on turn 31, no less, how many flaming arrows boosted archers would I need to stand a chance of winning?
My guess would be somewhere between 300 and 500 - I’d go with 500 for a decent chance. Note that Ermor is using AP boosted undead cavalry, so I need an awful lot of killing power to stop them reaching my front lines.
500 cheap archers cost me 4000 gold @ 8 gold each (and 2000 resources).
I have a very modest economy, so this kind of production would have taken a lot of pre-planning, would mean sacrificing research and perhaps construction projects. At the end of the process, I would also be saddled with (4000/15) 267 additional upkeep, further squeezing my limited income. It would have been doable by turn 31, though.
Note that Shinuyama does not get air magic for Wind Guide, which means using an appropriately designed pretender if I want that boost (an additional risk).
The point of all this is that hindsight is always 20/20. Had I used that strategy, there would be no guarantee of Ermor acting in exactly the same way. Perhaps Ermor could quite easily double the size of the army attacking me (the loss of 500 troops has only knocked his army graph by about 1/6th) - it would certainly be easier for him to do this than me.
On the other hand, Ermor could have changed strategies - a large mass of weak archers are a vulnerable target to mass area effect spells.
It just seems to make more sense to me for a smaller power to go for an almost purely magic-based strategy in this kind of war. It gives me more flexibility, and makes my moves less easy to predict.
That’s a lot of troops at turn 31. Personally, I would have scripted “Roll over and play dead”…but that’s just me.
It would appear Abysia stalled this past term. Do we need a sub?
On another note, I’m still taking suggestions for the next, yet unnamed and theoretically unannounced late age dominions game. In particular, if posters could state how many players they want and what type of map (I’m not unnopposed to a wrap-around), that’d be great.
well I’m really enjoying pax ermor, so something similar would be great
I’m enjoying it, too, despite that I was one of the Northern nations all tangled up with the rest of them, and our constant in-fighting is pretty much a guarantee that none of us will win. I love this stage of the game, and I’m getting everything I bargained for.
I like having 10-12 players and the chance to expand only to maybe 7-8 provinces before the fighting starts. Wrap-around maps are awesome, too. (Oh, and can I play in it?)
that’s what i meant too :)
I’d like to play in the new game.
Wraparound maps confuse me, but I can see how they’re fairer. I’d prefer a random map but with more evenly spaced capitals than in Pax Ermor.
I’d also like to be Atlantis if it’s possible to choose a nation in an as yet theoretical and unannounced game.
FOUR. Count me in.
As for Pax Ermor, the map is brutally unfriendly to me (ulm), Abysia, and Shin. I can go only north or south to break out of here, so I had to pick a war with one of these guys. I chose Abysia. Shin already has his hands full with the undead.
Would anyone be interested in this map? Its still a ring, but the land area is typically greater and we wouldn’t have any indigenous sea nations. Also, if you squint at the water portion it sort of looks like the continental united states, which is kind of cool. It’s also pretty big with 300 territories so we could have a lot of territories. Unfortunately, I don’t have a solution for close starting positions, other than to prechoose starting positions and manually select every province on the map and make them unavailable. My typical solution is to play on bigger maps so as to reduce the odds of players being bunched up together. Of course, it could still happend and give one player a huge empty expanse which he could expand into. As for an actual wrap-around, I’ve yet to find one I liked. Among other things I don’t like maps which are very heavy on terrain features or feature large theme areas that players might get started in (imagine a guy surrounded with farmlands vs. the guy surrounded by wastes). As for taking early names, no, but there will probably be enough spots for everyone keeping an eye out will get one.
[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/img371/dom32008100511204197zt8.png/1/][IMG]
I don’t want to play a map where everyone has more than 6-7 starting provinces. That’s just me.
I think I agree with Dave. If there’s 10-12 players, keeping the territories under 100 would help keep the game moving. Having around 30 territories for everyone before we even get into contact might make it a bit of a slog right out of the gate.
me too. but, then again, we ain’t organising it ;)
I was going to go 10 to 15 players, or 20-30 provinces for average start with Wetamerica (my not so clever nickname for the map). This really does reduce the risk of a player being shoved into a corner surrounded by enemy nations. However, if players want smaller maps, I can oblige. How about my older map of Ilzgot? It has only 120, which would be a compromise between tastes. It also isn’t a ring, so somebody or two somebodies are going to be surrounded by hostile powers.
To Download: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35510&highlight=ilzgot
Hetzer
5657
Im ok with ervery map as long as i can get a second try at rlyeh late age… last time i wasnt able to really get out of water…(at least i killed nick walter´s mictlan)…
Oh I haven’t forgotten about that squid face.
My plan for revenge is sheer elegance in its simplicity.
Just you wait.
Hetzer
5659
What? Kraaze is Nick Walter? What the heck… ok i have planned for a second fight too…and remember its blood and water… your blood and my water ;)
Hetzer
5660
btw we could make another Dawn od Dominions game with nations set to random… this map has a more “boardgame-feeling” as everybody knows where and who everybody is…
