Ah, the double crossing double blind play!
Ubar, attacking Niefel, realizes that he needs more time to summon more creatures from beneath the sands. And the Bat Invasion might be so huge that he fears the steamroll that might descend upon him.
So he bankrolls his opponent…the first conflict of the game…no one would ever suspect that the player starting the war would pay to keep his opponent alive.
Interesting…
they do say it’s always the person you least suspect…
Nah, you know where I was at with the Nief war.
Sorry @Kelan you almost had a third invader were it not for the initial incursion by Rus that happened right as I was swinging my cav north. By the time everything settled on that front, there wasn’t much territory to take, though I was happy to take the underwater provinces. In saying that, I was pretty tardy with taking the remaining underwater provinces by your capital, but Ubar wasn’t, and I have no gripes there anyway. Like dfs said, but maybe in a different context, knocking out players is hard in this game for me. Factoring in the time it takes to get to turn 40+ now, and to sit on the sidelines unknowing of what is happening here on out is what I hate most about Dominions.
Good thing we have the power of forum diplomacy! For instance, I am definitely guilty of sending gold to my arch enemy Rus. Enjoy the vodka mate! Plenty more warm days your way too… Unseasonally warm Winter, huh?
Is the leader of Ermor a little bit cray cray? Perhaps. Is the leader of Ermor dipping into the bag of dirty tricks? Definitely! The war itself has slowed as we both continue to lick our wounds and rebuild, noting that Ermor can rebuild faster than Rus. The site that was the source of seeking arrows has been reclaimed by Rus but at loss of the swamps and a temple. Also, I should have burned that seeking arrow lab to the ground when I knew I wasn’t going to hold that province. Should have, but didn’t.
Which is exactly how Ubar feels about sending gold to Neifel. I wish I had thought of that.
Actually if it’s who you would suspect last then it’s obvious that the bats have been funding their own opposition.
Sneaky.
now that i’m getting some scouts out and about, you see some weird shit…
tell me about it…
(could that be an affirmation or a request or both?)
Well you got your garden-variety blind giants, your horror-marked pretenders waving around dwarven hammers like they think its a weapon or something, you got your fully kitted out spectral mages, and your totally unkitted banes, and of course, your fully-kitted banes too. Then, you’ve got the flying fiends of the dessert, mostly fully kitted out, oh, and a venus-flytrap pretender…hmm, i gotta take a better look at her now that i think of it. She seems a bit of a recluse, and i dont think i’ve seen her around before. Then there’s the really curious, leaderless, neutral provinces that make you go…hmm, i wonder what happened to their leadership? I’m probably forgetting a few things…OH! Then there’s the…hmm, wait, i probably shouldnt talk about him in open channels…
i think i’ve met the venus-flytrap, or dreamt it. it was 'orrible either way.
Well if it weren’t for that pesky Rus refusing to lie down and die already, you and I could be neighbours! Still, given the sight of a hammer brandishing Father of Winters ploughing into PD much faster than any giant divine being has right to, I like to think maybe my small donation of gold to the Vodka fund was put to good use.
Also, nice to see the permafrost on Rus has been broken. The map does look a little better when things are greening up. Grow some potatoes already @ThornFalconeye Remember potatoes = vodka.
I assume someone is casting a bunch of heat events on my capital hehe, for the first turn I thought it was poor luck, then I got suspicious.
Torn on my pretender- I wish I had two more labs in very specific provinces, one of which you may or may not know about not sure how…damp your spies can get!
I need to get captain Rainbow out of that desolate field he apparently decided to teleport into- and took from very confused farmers.
I wish I could chart the decline in your gold income :) Well, I could by setting up a scrying spell over your capital but that costs precious astral pearls which, well, they’re being used for other things ;-)
And yeah, there is one province I see I’d like to have a lab on. This is what I like best about Wild Ride. There’s those amazing magic sites that just pop up, and an abundance of to, and that difficult decision of do I spend what could be a full turn’s worth of income to place a lab knowing it will be to recruit a multi-pathed mage that again costs about 1/5 of my income to recruit.
Wild Ride settings sure change things. I have been focusing on gold production - burning tons of fire gems just so I can afford to buy sacred mages, for one. A distaste for any troop that costs upkeep in gold, for another.
And the sites! Geez, every other province either has a Well of Pestilence, or is overrun by unrest due to brigands, turmoil causing sites, or militia popping up demanding self rule. And my dominion is +1 luck, and I have fortune tellers scattered around as well.
Oh, and the Venus Flytrap - she prefers to be known as a Hot House Flower - needs new gear. Thanks for reminding me.
Uf, wish there was a good setting for charts! I really want to see it because I felt pretty good about my research up until now[paart of the pretender curse woes]. I had good luck with sites and events in general, but I also summoned luck phoenixes.
I am definitely in a state looking for small victories- and still slinging some summons around! Interested to see how my thugs do.
You weren’t meant to take THAT province.
To the person asking if the war on Ubar was over, I can assure you that it is not.
Caelum, Pan and Fomoria are all trying to slice off provinces with raiders. I am hit with Hurricanes and Diseases and pretty much every remote spell available. I hadn’t given any of it much thought, but this last turn they revealed an assassin geared up in some very familiar looking kit. With 25 leaders to choose from, many of which would present problems, he got my prophet whom he quickly dispatched.
Fire mage with a jar of fire who goes off script because it’s an assassination and doesn’t summon a fire elemental…Actually…How does a fire/earth/holy mage cast body Ethereal? I have no idea how he did that, but he did.
Anyway, that was a bit of poor luck that does make me somewhat concerned. We will see what the future brings.
I’m not sure what’s familiar about the kit, i just kind of put it together. It did make me realize that I have very little experience kitting out assassins. I had no idea if he was going to be successful or not, especially considering some of the things he might run into. I gave him about 33% chance. Frankly, even though it was a kill, i deem it a bit of a failure - ya, he got a target, but it was hardly decisive considering the combatants. I didn’t even realize it was your prophet till you mentioned it, so maybe it’s a little less of a failure. Assassins, surprisingly enough, are not really in my bag of tricks. I dont like the randomness and the risk, and they seem more prone to failure than success.
And ya, i sympathize with the scripting. I really think they should allow something of an assassination script(optional). ya, it’d be more micro, but for your top-tier characters, i’d definitely take some time.
As far as the body ethereal, you and i both have units that have spiritual guides. I dunno why or when they show up, but they sometimes do and they tend to be like 1A1S, ethereal, unseen things. If you watch the replay, you can see it’s just there.
That makes sense. It’s a thematic thing and I didn’t even think of it since it’s out of my control. That was about the easiest target he would have had and It was probably also the single most high value target he could have hit. Ubar does a lot of things well and I didn’t take a low dominion pretender, but frankly the combined dominion push of all my foes in my territory is getting to be a problem and having my prophet assassinated just makes that more of a headache.
I just figured some of that kit was from the gifts my seducers have been providing you with. Lots of gold and gems went down that sinkhole with very little benefit.
By the way…if you have not played the cataclysm part of the game…y’all are in for a treat. This IS going to be a wild ride.
I hope my Dominion isn’t a problem!
Also, I have been thinking about the basic assassins myself, that Ermor get. More viable when there’s gems to burn.I have an idea, but even spending 10 gems feels like 10 too many to send an assassin against a target.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out no one has mentioned that the player who just claimed the first 3 point throne is also the player who just tried to attack Ubar with a bunch of manticores and a kitted out Lamia Queen - probably named Lady Snowblood or something like that.
I suppose he has seduced/charmed you all…theres a lot of that going around…
I have warned more than a few people.