6521

I submitted the Bandar Log monkey pretender last night, but I’ll probably go back and edit some stuff this afternoon. It’s difficult to work out a build for these damn dirty apes.

Ook ook!

6522

All better. Error at this end of the keyboard. The e-mail client on this machine adds a letter to the end of similarly named attachments. If you don’t strip that extra character off the filename, Dominions doesn’t recognize the file.

Either that or Dave Perkins sent small weasels down the inter-tubes and into my cpu.

I’m not sure which, but we should still kill Man. It’s the only way to be sure.

6523

We have a special dong-tipped arrow with your name on it, sir. It will dong u.

6524

Ive submitted my pretender and its all good on my end.

ah, a fresh new turn- time to see how my insane prophet is doing.

6525

I submitted my Machaka pretender.

6526

Once Kid has submitted his pretender and I notice it’s been submitted, I’ll turn it on and the first turn will be hosted. Please post here, Kid, after you’ve submitted your pretender.

6527

Guess who just lost his prophet this turn fighting those god damn independents who already routed me once on the second turn. This guy!

Can I make a second one or am I SOL?

6528

I’m in for NewbieRumble!

6529

Samurai, your prophet’s old aura or whatever will eventually dissipate, and you’ll get an in-game message telling you it’s okay to make a new one. The rapidity with which this happens probably depends on an open-ended die roll based on the number of temples you have in swamp lands, or something.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll miss the in-game message anyhow, and 20 turns later you’ll finally notice “Make Prophet” in the order list for a holy unit.

6530

Thanks.

Gah, how much of an aura could this guy have? He bought it after only 2 turns.

In other news, the next turn or two will likely determine my survival in Pacific Dreams. Ermor has a large army marching down on my capital and I expect him to continue pressing the attack. Much sacrificial blood is on hand for the upcoming battle.

6531

According to the manual, after the current one dies, you have to wait 6 turns before being allowed to create a new one.

Regarding Pacific Dreams and a question for experts:

I have Army A defending my castle in a province that’s currently being attacked by Ermor. I then order Army B into the province via the Move command. According to the manual, Army B should enter the castle, not engage Ermor’s forces. If I wanted Army B to engage his forces, I would have given them the “Move and Patrol” order, but I didn’t. Unfortunately (and the reason I’m turning my nation over to the AI), Army B attacked Ermor’s forces instead of entering the castle to defend it with Army A. Why is this?

In Army B, I had the following:

21 Knights of Avalon
5 Amphipteres
4 Cu Sidhe
2 Wardens of Avalon
few other units

In Army A, already in the castle, I had the following:

My pretender
9 Wardens of Avalon
8 Monks
9 Amphipteres
34 Great Lions
1 Cave Drake
1 Adept of the Iron Order
1 Crone of Avalon
1 Lord Warden
27 Longbowmen
various other troops

Although Ermor’s troops heavily outnumbered mine, mine were of better quality and I had a battle plan that was going to be effective. My 21 Knights of Avalon were critical to this plan. They were going to decimate his Shadow “we’re impossible to kill” Vestals, while my Mist spell negated Ermor’s 60+ Longbowmen and my 14 Amphipteres attacked those same Longbowmen. Without the support of Army A and the defensive advantage of being in the castle (attackers units have to funnel into the castle, creating a nice bottleneck), Army B was easily destroyed by his troops. Game over.

Why the *uck did Army B engage his forces instead of entering the castle!? It took me a long time to draw up this plan and I’m confident it would have repelled his attack. But, like so many other things in this game, the game didn’t executed as I expected it to, based on what I’ve read in the manual. It’s frustrating as hell, and makes me want to burn my Dom3 disc. I am extremely bummed out.

6532

For those who may not know, once you lose control of a province (the enemy defeats the province’s PD), you can no longer reinforce units in a castle from provinces outside the castle unless the units are stealthed or they teleport into the lab, if one’s present. That’s why my Army B engaged Ermor’s forces. Had the manual made this clear, I would have mobilized Army B a turn sooner or had Army A break siege to join Army B against Ermor. Instead, both of my armies are annihilated. I really don’t have any desire to continue.

6533

I’m likely going to be all but knocked out this upcoming turn, so I reckon this game won’t go on too much longer. I don’t think the Ermor train can be stopped.

6534

I would have liked to see the battle Mysterio had designed. The amphithingies wreaking havoc amongst my longbowmen and mages was a nasty surprise, but I think the Knights would have eventually fatigued and cracked. One thing I have learned from this game is how handy forward defensive cities can be. They’re great for fixing and smashing besieging armies, but if you get an army trapped inside with no relief available, its doomed.

6535

I am amazed at the quality of your undead horsemen ddtibbs- they have 5 hp and are very easy to kill. curse my inability to field power units!

And my inability to use assassins at all. Is there a priority function that I can use to stop my elite death assassins from focusing on the weakest units? I blame that for my loss- I think I wasted somewhere between 20 and 30 of them with no kills to their name.

6536

While I was designing my battle plan, I struggled with whether or not to cast Mist in the first round. I ultimately decided that your 60+ Longbowmen were too much of a risk not to cast it, since I wasn’t sure if my Amphipteres would reach your archers (the flying mechanic in this game is hit or miss with no understanding of how the game determines whether or not they reach their target). I placed my Longbowmen in the middle (since I knew you had yours at the very back) with the Fire Archers command, and set my Amphipteres to Hold and Attack Archers. So, the Mist helped negate the 2 rounds of fire your Longbowmen got off while my Amphipteres waited for your infantry to separate from your Longbowmen. From the replay, it looks like one of your two Longbowmen squads routed after the initial Amphiptere attack. My goal was to have all of them route by round 4.

Unfortunately, Mist also greatly reduced the effectiveness of my Banishment, and your arrows managed to luckily kill one of my mages that was positioned in the midst of my Longbowmen. I also think I positioned my earth mage too far back, and I should have had my pretender attack. I really needed those 21 Knights of Avalon to join Army A, since my pretender would have been able to keep them healed throughout the battle. Oh, and it didn’t help that a turn or two earlier, my prophet and a couple other stealthed units moved in to your castle province with the Move order instead of the Stealth order. I don’t remember holding down the Ctrl key while giving them their orders (they were supposed to have sneaked through your province to my castle province). So, I lost a Divine 3 unit that was crucial to the castle’s defense.

Looking back, it’s been mostly the game’s mechanics that have screwed me in this game, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re learning the game. It’s too bad, because I was really looking forward to seeing how that battle played out as designed. Such a disappointment…

I’ve noticed that my Knights of Avalon wreck havoc on Longdead Horsemen, which is another reason I’m bummed my 21 KoA weren’t able to reinforce Army A.

6537

The manual says that forces ordered into friendly provinces with fortresses automatically enter the fortress. The example in the manual is of friendly forces entering a province with an un-besieged fortress. It doesn’t say whether the game considers besieged fortresses to be owned by the defender or the attacker, or what exactly happens when a relieving force enters a besieged province.

The section on the Storm Castle command says that besiegers first have to fight relieving armies that arrive on the turn when the fortress is to be stormed, and that the castle is not stormed if the besiegers lose. This sort of implies that the battle doesn’t happen in the fortress and that the defenders don’t join in.

Not allowing relieving armies to bypass besiegers kind of makes sense from a design standpoint, if you think about it.

6538

Ah, Man. Smashing newbie players’ hopes since Dominions 1.

Has Man ever won a multiplayer game?

6539

It’s about to.

6540

…projectile hurl…

Sorry. Must be something I ate…