1685

My turn is in when I said. I’ve extended the timer for those w/out a turn yet.

1686

Thank you. I’ll get it in this evening.

1687

This game is really something else!

1688

I am getting my turn in tonight, but do we need a bit more time @wahoo? I’ll add 12 hours to the clock, and check back in tomorrow morning.

I really am keen on getting this turn wrapped up. I’m interesting to see how everything goes down.

1689

finishing turn tonight! Got sidetracked with halloween festivities. thx.

1690

That makes sense. Looking forward to it all.

1691

What a turn. Gonna take a while to process all that.

1692

Indeed, I didn’t realize you got that far on your research.

1693

You knew enough to get all the good stuff out of there.

1694

I knew some stuff.

1695

Can we see any screenshots or explanations, or are you all going to keep all the juicy details to yourselves?

1696

Phaceaia and Pythium are trying to hold back Machaka in a throne game. Machaka has wrestled a throne from Vanarus(knocking them out of the game) which then got poached by Phaceaia and then retaken by Machaka. Machaka spent a lot of time and effort pacifying that portion of the world.

Each nation is pulling in (and may be using) a hundred gems a turn. Raiders can take territory from Machaka a little faster than he can re-take it. He’s tossing around blessed spiders, wraith lords and elemental royalty at the raiding parties and destroys what he catches. He’s got globals up that keep him rich and the gems flowing, but thrones are roughly equal.

Pythia is fortified, but having trouble projecting power. Angels fly out and most of the time they come back, but even w/out gear they are too expensive and even with gear Machaka’s counterraiders kill them easily. Machaka gathers his largest army and his pretender to start fortifying the throne mentioned above. In response Pythia sends out 3 armies. They are slow, you can see them coming several turns away. The astral travel spells are too expensive.

This last turn the largest of Pythia’s armies finally got to that throne. There was another battle involving a smaller army a couple of provinces from the capital of Machaka. Communions led to Fog warriors and the astral luck spells which carried the day there against 40 spiders with mage support. It was a good win.

He scout attacked another sieging force in the middle of his empire near a couple of thrones. but the large armies met on the formerly Vanarus throne. Pythia got off master enslave plus fog warriors, the astral luck spells and most of the decent earth army blesses. Machaka did not commit his elemental royalty and moved his pretender out prior to the battle. While Pythia won the battle (which was epic) I missed all the important targets and frankly I can’t take many more wins like that. It was, well, Phyrric. I lost three arch-theurgs and while it’s been an 80 turn game, they are slow-recruit capitol only so 3 of them is pretty huge. More to the point that whole army’s set of communion slaves got killed in the communion.

While Machaka has the fewest provinces of the big 3 left, he has the most forts. He’s way ahead in research with the gift of health, riches from beneath and the death gem global up. I figure he’s just holding his tarts in reserve. I’m waiting to see how he counterpunches.

Meanwhile Phaceaia has to be asking himself if he want to cross my border or start hitting my raiders in order to help Machaka. As I said above I don’t think I can win w/out Phaceaia being active, but then my winning isn’t his goal!

I must thank @pyrhic for dragging me back into dominions last December. With Covid I’ve had the time to play as most of my hobbies involved being with other people and that’s a no no now. Dominions has probably kept me from going stir-crazy. It’s been fun.

1697

You make me sound a lot further ahead than I am. You have Thaum 9 with Master Enslave. You have the most provinces, and now the most thrones and have lapped me on Gems. You have Angels jumping around everywhere.

Frankly, you are ahead by every yardstick that matters just because you aren’t at war with anyone else and @Kelan has pretty much stopped playing, as far as I can tell. The only thing that is keeping me in this game is that @wahoo has so far withheld his major offensives, probably in order to have sufficient reserves for when you and I come to blows.

I’m losing this game in very slow motion it seems.

By the way, my pretender was in that final fight, he just happened to panic and leave.

I messed up by not bring my kings to the fight because I wanted to take care of something with wahoo, and I thought that my many mages would be able to put enough down to take you down. I did not realize you would throw up so much behind that force, like Mistform and Luck.

Also, it doesn’t help that you are throwing out mind hunting everywhere.

1698

Kelan and I came to the agreement that he would stay behind his walls in exchange for staying in the game and getting to watch turns. I thought that was a pretty good deal and took it.

Having friends and allies IS nice, but having control of all of Na’Ba and Vanarus is pretty nice too. Despite several attempts at reworking victory conditions, at it’s heart dominions is still a dogpile. Heck, over in the open diplomacy disciple game you’re working the crowd pretending you’re on the bottom of the pile when you seem to be holding your own quite nicely against three other nations. It’s just the nature of the game.

Thanks for letting me know your pretender was there. I must have just missed seeing him. It’s pretty busy. Perhaps I’ll see him next turn too. Who knows what the future will bring.

Part of the fun of dominions is not knowing. It’s possible that you’ve got a counter ready to go right now and it’s possible that you’re spent. Despite all my scouting and scrying and diplomacy I just don’t know, but I am going to at least make you show us your hand. Obviously I feel better about the game than I did prior to this last turn hosting. If I had let you get that fort down I doubt I could have won the game. Now I still think there’s a decent chance.

It does look like we are bleeding you to death. “Losing in slow motion” may be an honest assessment and it may be forum woofing. Somebody has the grail and it ain’t me.

1699

And who rules Na’Ba now? I assume they’re still under the yoke of the spider king?

1700

Seriously, Kelan is just going to hang out behind his walls? Well, then this game has just got a bit more pointless. You guys together have so much more gems/golds and territory then me that there isn’t a lot I can do. Even with me killing one of @wahoo’s air queen.

At least @pyrhic played the game all the way to the end.

And yes, I still hold almost your territory Pyrhic, but Wahoo has one of your massive forts.

1701

To be fair, that was my way forward with dfs and wahoo also if by some miracle I stayed alive. The game is far from pointless when minor powers decide there’s no run to victory and choose to opt out and let the leaders do their thing. It just creates less noise and therefore the front runners can focus on the victory.

1702

You’re probably right. It’s been a rough game, with several 2 on 1 wars in a row. I’m hanging in their, but the last fight was brutal. Sorry for blowing up at you @Kelan

I will have to come up with something new.

It just surprises me that @wahoo still has 4 golems hanging out in his capital, and 2 of the Treelords a a Fairy Queen. I guess he is hoping to hide them from everyone, while he slowly builds up his forces more. That, in addition to all his Queens.
Of course, that is only the stuff I know about. Who knows what else he has hidden away.

1703

Sorry. Lost most of yesterday to celebration and today a food delivery to a couple who have both lost their mothers in the last few days has turned into dinner and my evening. I will TRY to get to this tomorrow, but Wednesday is much more likely.

1704

That is more than fair. I had to put my cat down on Friday, and I haven’t slept much during this election, so the extension is welcome.