Dominions 5 - Born to be Van Wilder

I would think you know me by now. When i’m quiet after a turn i’ve done well. The quieter i am, the better i probably did. Unless i havent seen the turn yet, in which case, i’m quiet because i haven’t seen the turn yet. When i say a turn’s a disaster, it’s probably some real good news for you :)

oh, you’ll have to be more specific on that. I think i know what you mean, but there was a few things i did, and none of them really worked out. One of which i’m…really disappointed with. I think that’s the one you’re referring to. Ya…opportunity lost there.

I feel, the communication was actually fine…I simply made a mistake. More on that in the #nobullshit section.

Well, the cat’s been out of the bag for a bit now, so no real harm in chatting about it. He is on the fucking hero list, after all. Just a rando event. Happened early and was probably the best event i had in the game until about turn 30 or so. He’s good, but i dont think i use vampires optimally. Maybe @legowarrior can give me some pointers.

[nobullshit]

i read this recently and it kinda resonated with me…

the same is true with armies in dominions. For the newer players out there, never send out an army/commander you’re not prepared to lose. Obviously, you dont intend to lose it, nor want to lose it, but you should always be prepared that anything that leaves your doors is susceptible to loss. In some cases, of course, things inside your doors are susceptible to loss…such is dominions, and is probably why us vets love it so.

The fault of this turn, in its entirety, is mine. Some of you might of heard this from me before, and its still true now, but frequently I’ll do a ‘rough cast’ of a turn as soon as i receive it. Then over the playing time, i’ll nudge it based on ideas i have, or things i remembered or stuff that gets talked about. In this case, in my trial move, I never advanced my armies to the capital. In fact, an hour before submission, they weren’t going there. But then i had a realization that it would be a great time to hit the capital. I was removed so it wasn’t expected, his major thugs were far afield, and in one swoop, i’d be able to lock out his gold and gem production. It was pretty brilliant.

I never, ever, ever…considered the thought that fomoria would attack there. I actually spent way more time thinking about whether he would range up to the two provinces I did take. I didn’t think he would…but i was thinking about that. And part of that is a lesson is how you (in this case, I) think. If I were in Fomoria’s place, i would never have rushed the capital. Now, that i think back on it, I probably would have done that 5 years ago. But now, me, nope, i’d pull off that and secure some space around me. That’s why I’m not on the capital already - because there is value in waiting sometimes.

And there’s value in just doing sometimes.

And the second part i find amusing in the knife-twisting way. In our discussions so far, i’ve never talked about the capital. I talked a lot about lanes, and perhaps zones, but i always left the capital absent in those discussions. My reasoning for that was pretty plain in my mind - i didn’t know the circumstances. I wouldn’t want to say the capital was mine, or pans or fomorias, because I simply didn’t know who would be in position to seize it. And i should have planned for that.

Sometimes, i’m too clever for myself. And that’s not just a dom thing, that’s a reality thing. I have some terrific imagination at times and i see shit that other people just dont see. It’s incredible! And it’s easy. And I’m baffled both at how easy it is for me, and how difficult it is for other people. Of course, the flip side of that is there are other times where it is really just dead simple, and I couldn’t see if it was the only thing in front of my face - i’d be looking for 3, 4 or 5 dimensions, when there were but two, and the play in consideration was the pawn taking my king.

This was one of those. I really should have seen it coming.

But that said, there’s some good out of it. For the most part, my losses are easily replaced. There’s some painful sacreds that will take a few turns to replace, but for the rest, they’re either ready to go or soon would be. The yazzads are a bit uncomfortable, but thats just a gem cost. The most difficult pills were the commanders, and the most important one got out(somehow). Caelum took a body blow, but we’ll be fine. And if the choice is between me getting obliterated or my ally, I’m glad it happened this way. For one, it’s my fault. For two, I’ve the more easily replaceable troops. For three, it was my fucking fault.

[/nobullshit]

Just a random Vampire? Not a Lord? Yeah, I don’t know. On the one hand, it’s stealthy and immortal. On the other hand, it doesn’t have magic.

It’s nice because it will always come back to life (barring Soul Slay), but you do lose all the equipment.

I guess it’s tough enough to put basic equipment on though, and be an anti Thug. Moonblade might be enough to counter golems and the like.

For my part I was thinking, why not? There it is, troop strengths seem comparable, I don’t know if I can take it but then…it’s a game and why not find out? What did I build this army for? I never imagined that Caelum would hit it, too. And now poor Bres is blind.

One of the curious aspects of the wild settings is that sometimes you are actually better off getting mundane troops killed so that you simply aren’t paying upkeep on chaff. Kolbex lost more in that fight than Pyrhic.

Although it was fun to watch.

Having a blind prophet is kind of thematically badass, though.

I now feel safe in revealing what left me weakened!

“A Handful” of Ogre Archers and birbs, I think I was too defensive with my pretender and should use them more for attacking[or at least had my thug there].

Exciting!

I mean this genuinely, but I still find it hard with a Pretender when to have him fight vs sitting back and doing nothing. And it always ends up that in test games my Pretender ends up unscathed and a living nightmare against the AI. But in a game, there’s always a lucky hit that smashes my Pretender to the ground, leaves him/her mute, feebleminded and with a large gaping chest wound.

As you saw in our fight, your Pretender had a protection of 29! That’s huge, and requires something like a giant strength to penetrate. Or weapons with armour piercing/destruction eg:dusk dagger, smasher. So long as he is in cold dominion, he could definitely swing some battles. In our fight, he just stood there where with a defence skill of 0 killing everything around him with his cold aura. The difference here is he is ethereal, so magic will be a legit problem. Those Ur troops though could still do some damage I think, they’re a bit more potent. And who knows what the Spring Hawks will do. They just give everyone a hard time.

If you still have your Draconian commander, he can summon more Draconians. Otherwise, when I defeat you, I’ll have a crack at that throne myself :p

@pyrhic just pinging ya that you have two hours to submit a turn or extend.

As far as I could see, that turn was a bit quiet. Except for @Evil_Steve , who is probably hating anything called “SPRING” or “HAWKS” or “ELECTRICITY” right now…

You would think that Frozen Heart would DO SOMETHING…

So, Uber, your words are interesting to me and perhaps Pan has indeed played us.

I have no authority over Fomoria, but for the sake of curiosity, assuming that there was a cessation of hostilities between Caelum, Ubar and Fomoria - where would you draw the borders?

Next game I will have to muse more on my pretenders and keeping them toooo safe- thnakee for the advice @Strato . But first you must defeat my second phase of defenses!

heh, it did do something, but i didn’t keep a record of the last one, so was unaware the pretender thingy had coldprot and regen, and also forgot that sacrificing chaff would destroy my morale

anyhow, after the last turn i was too scared to move anywhere, so figured it was the ‘safer option’

that’s an interesting assessment, presumably from Ubar

Suggesting that you are handing Pan the game is not quite the same as saying that Pan has played us. I’m not sure who the us is in your statement but nevermind. What I suggested is that Pan is laughing AT you and I hold to that assesment.

You do not have authority over Fomoria. We agree abut that. You have demonstrated your quality as an ally to Fomoria. It was a painful lesson. You were so clever you didn’t see what your ally was telegraphing he would do. Sure.

I have not offered you a cease fire. I told you that you would not be able to hold any provinces in my dominion and, again, I hold to that assessment. If you wish to sue for peace, take it up in private channels.

well that is a strange statement to make. I mean, I know you want to get yourself out of a pickle, but it’s not something Pan would do.

I just noticed that Rus’ Pretender is horror marked. Well that’s good news.

Rus respect pretender more who takes big risk!

In Rus, pretender play you!

@pyrhic we might need an extension a I’m unsure whether we’re attacking Ubar or not attacking Ubar, whether Fomoria is retreating or plugging away, whether Caelum is restocking or suing for peace?

Happy to have a public debate about the next move