One Nation Under Pods: An Armageddon Empires AAR

[schurem]

I can’t wait to see those filthy human scum become dinner for our revered Queen. Have you heard what they are doing to M’sislik? They found out water boarding is not quite torture to him, so they turned to more severe methods:

They put three kittens in his cell! He’s bound and gagged, and unable to keep them from making infernal purring sounds and inflicting infinite depths of suffering with their raspy tongues and terribly itchy furs!

We must act post haste before he loses his mind faced with such unspeakable horror!

[tylertoo]

Day 26

The Xenopod ruler, the Cyaeg Queen, bid the People’s Liberation Army farewell, promising them riches, fame and a veritable buffet of human corpses if they succeeded in overrunning the Empire of Man enclave.

The six-member elite squad – delirious with excitment over the Queen’s promises – made its way quickly from the Xenopod’s northwestern outpost to the human headquarters. The humans has strangely dispersed rather than consolidated their armored companies, and the Xeno team wanted to pick off each, one-by-one, before the two-legs came to their senses.

First up: acompany comprised soley of a single unit – albeit an extremely powerful unit – the Mobile BV-VI Tiger Mechanized Infantry. The People’s Liberation Army tracked it down not far from the Imperial War College. The tank, estimated to have at least ten humans inside, lined up against the Xenopod heroes:

The fight was intense, but successful, and the Xenopods emerged without a single casualty.

And in short order the People’s Liberation Army took down each of the other human companies, feasting on so many of the casualties along the way that they’d have little room for the buffet promised by the Queen.

And so it was that by the close of Day 26, the Xenopods had successfully conquered the Empire of Man. Whatever humans survived had fled into the radiated desert, where perhaps worse fate awaited them.

But of course, the Xenopods knew that one more organized band of humans was all that kept them from their goal of complete domination of the planet once called Earth:

The disfigured, terrifying Free Mutants.

[tylertoo]

@schurem

I can’t wait to see those filthy human scum become dinner for our revered Queen. Have you heard what they are doing to M’sislik? They found out water boarding is not quite torture to him, so they turned to more severe methods:

They put three kittens in his cell! He’s bound and gagged, and unable to keep them from making infernal purring sounds and inflicting infinite depths of suffering with their raspy tongues and terribly itchy furs!

We must act post haste before he loses his mind faced with such unspeakable horror!

Indeed, I’d bet cute kittens would be the perfect way to torture a Xeno :-).

[Lantz]

Is the AI normally a challenge? It seems like their capital defense they was horrible unless I’m missing some subtleties…

[tylertoo]

@Lantz

Is the AI normally a challenge? It seems like their capital defense they was horrible unless I’m missing some subtleties…

No, you’re not missing anything. I frankly don’t understand why they were so poorly defended. My experience is that the AI normally does a much better job. In the fiction of this AAR I attribute it to the assassination of their leader. It makes for a better story than simply that they just suck.

But – I began to wonder: could the Empire AI actually have been affected by the lack of a leader? Vic?

[Vic_Davis]

@tylertoo

But – I began to wonder: could the Empire AI actually have been affected by the lack of a leader? Vic?

Good lord I barely remember making this game :)

Killing Erik Mai was probably a big blow because he had the command rating that would allow the AI to create an army that was bigger than the 3 unit limit army that a hero-less army has. There was most likely a build defense army goal on the stack that got toasted when you killed him. That’s why the Tiger was by itself and the other hero-less army had 3 units in it. So if the AI couldn’t draw another hero it would be trying to build whatever defenses it could based on the cards in its hand. Also, don’t discount what it was doing against the Mutants…might have had an army patrolling/defending or a hero scouting there and couldn’t get it back to the capital to form a new army.

I look back on this AI and really laugh at how naive I was to try and have it play by the same exact rules as the human player. Any future turn based strategy games that I do will have asymmetrical rule systems for the human and the AI’s. I don’t want to go the puzzle route but the goal should have been to provide the best entertainment instead of a silicon opponent that pulled the same levers as you do and made choices from the same decision set. I spent countless hours working on routines for rating cards to keep or discard and trying to balance the AI’s resource base…scout, send a hero out, cap the resource etc. Looking back I’m amazed that any of the moving pieces work at all :)

Quick strike against an early recon on a capital is also a high prob way to knock an AI out. I probably should have coded a cheating overwatch module into it. It would have recognized that you captured a base within striking distance and had an army there even though it hadn’t legitimately observed it and then drawn a hero and some defense cards from the deck with bonus AP’s and deployed them just before you got there. Now that would have been fun :)

[Vic_Davis]

Also, A big thanks for creating this AAR. It really brings back the memories. If I wasn’t so busy with my current project, I would fire a game up for old times sake :)

[jellyfish]

@Vic Davis

I look back on this AI and really laugh at how naive I was to try and have it play by the same exact rules as the human player. Any future turn based strategy games that I do will have asymmetrical rule systems for the human and the AI’s. I don’t want to go the puzzle route but the goal should have been to provide the best entertainment instead of a silicon opponent that pulled the same levers as you do and made choices from the same decision set. I spent countless hours working on routines for rating cards to keep or discard and trying to balance the AI’s resource base…scout, send a hero out, cap the resource etc. Looking back I’m amazed that any of the moving pieces work at all :)

Knowing this is how you did it makes the game about ten times more awesome. I am not necessarily disagreeing with what you are saying, and clearly almost all AI developed in the gaming industry goes the asymmetrical route on some level. But playing a game where the AI is following the same exact rules as you are does feel more satisfying if you are aware of it. And it is an awesome accomplishment for you to have programmed it this way.

[tylertoo]

@jellyfish

Knowing this is how you did it makes the game about ten times more awesome. … playing a game where the AI is following the same exact rules as you are does feel more satisfying if you are aware of it…

Vic, I agree with Jellyfish 100% The battle for the human capital was a cakewalk, but knowing that my earlier decisions made it easy is much more satisfying than winning a close battle because the AI had advantages. On the spectrum of a play-by-the-rules AI which yields occasional romps … to a cheating AI which yields tougher battles, I’d rather have the former. Because I feel that all my decisions matter.

@Vic Davis

Also, A big thanks for creating this AAR. It really brings back the memories. If I wasn’t so busy with my current project, I would fire a game up for old times sake :)

Well a big thanks to you for creating AE, which is on my personal Top Five Games of All Time list :). Dice. Hexes. Cards with deck building. Apocalypse. Turn-based. Mutants. Spies and assassins. Tough decisions over scarce resources at every moment. Gluttons armed with death rays. AE has it all.

By the way, if anyone is interested, here is a great post-mortem on AE, posted just last summer, that in my view really nails the three keys of the game: scarcity, exploration and the narratives that arise from them:

AE is so much more than the sum of its parts. I walk away from every match feeling like I enacted a heroic story, and that’s one of the best things I can say about a game.
…and that is precisely why AE lends itself to AARs.

Just waiting for that Armageddon Empires 2 kickstarter to send you my money… (provided you use a better engine ;) )

[Lantz]

Got to love QT3, ask a question, get the designer to explain it. I definitely was missing something. The assassination limited the AI’s army size, that was the key detail I was missing. Turns a ‘what is the AI doing?’ moment into a ‘this game is awesome!’ moment.

[tylertoo]

DAY 27

With the scum known as the Empire of Man easily eradicated, the Cyaeg Queen ordered her Xenopod military advisers to develop the next phase of the annhilation of humankind: decimation of the loose confederation of genetic anomalies known as the Free Mutants.

The Queen admitted privately to long-held admiration of the Free Mutants. They were fearless and did not even rely on weaponry to savage their enemies. Take, for example, their giants, often seen happily crushing human skulls with their bare hands:

And she wondered if conquering the mutants was even necessary. After all, the quick obliteration of the Empire of Man meant that the Queen controlled the southern and western reaches of the desert. And resources, including the much-needed human bodies, were flowing freely each day into Xenopod bases:

Still, while it was tempting to let the Mutants remain undisturbed, she knew they must go. Earth must belong fully to the Xenopods. And the plan her minions presented was brilliant in its simplicity. As the two-legs would often say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

1. Recon, recon, recon: fully map the northeast portion of the desert and locate the Free Mutants HQ.
2. Deploy two new outposts to extend the Xeno supply range closer to the Mutant enclave.
3. Deploy Illith the Master Assassin into the Mutant capital to terminate their leader.
4. Send in both Xeno fighting forces: “America’s Army” and “The People’s Liberation Army of France.”
5. Repeat as necessary.

The Queen’s antennae vibrated excitedly. She hoped to have the operation complete by Day 35.

While the various recon units – both critters and their flying brethren, the consorts – headed east, the two armies were deployed to deal once and for all with some pesky independent units near the Xeno bases. “America’s Army” attacked the independent base due west of the Xenopod capital, which turned out to be guarded only by automated turrets, apparently a remnant of the long-departed Machine Empire.

The battle was fairly brief, with the Xenopod company suffering their first and only casualty, a drudge:

This solidified the Xenopod hold on the entire southern tier:

Meanwhile the People’s Liberation Army took on a roving band of independents in the northwestern territory. At the very least, it would be target practice for the Free Mutant campaign to come. They encountered some tentacled beasts:

This battle also proved to be a simple one, and the two victorious armies then began their trek north and east to what would undoubtedly be a showdown with masses of mutants.

By the dawn of the 28th day, wondrous news made its way back to the Xenopod Queen. She had been sleeping, but her Intelligence Chief thought the update worthy of waking her. She held off on killing him after receiving the information.

A fast-moving critter had quickly located the headquarters of the Free Mutants.

“Poor little mutants,” said the Queen. “They have no idea what’s coming.” She thanked the Intelligence officer, and then, her stomach grumbling, ate him anyway.

[tylertoo]

DAY 28

The brave critter recon unit had found the Free Mutant’s HQ north and east of the Xenopod’s primary base. The Cyaeg Queen knew the key now to exterminating the grotesque sub-humans was to extend the Xenopod supply radius so the armies could readily launch a final attack from within easy striking distance.

And extending supply meant deploying outposts. At the ready were two very different bases:

The Sub Hive offered more resources and defenses, and was deployed first, just within the current supply perimeter, due north of the Xenopod HQ and due west of the Free Mutant HQ:

Next came deployment of the final outpost, the Hidden Hive – with stealth capability. Xenopod Intelligence surmised that Free Mutant technology would be incapable of detecting a base that could end up virtually on the doorstep of the disfigured two-legs:

The Queen surveyed the map provided by her advisers. The green area represented the current supply perimeter. The Hidden Hive was perfectly placed – on some sand dunes north and west of the Free Mutant HQ, close enough to extend supply to cover the HQ.

Thus the two primary Xeno armies would be able to move in far more quickly than if the Mutant HQ were out of supply. And with the outpost’s stealth capabilities, it was possible the armies could pounce before the Mutants knew they were in the vicinity. The Queen was pleased. The Hivemind was performing as a collective should: greater than the sum of its tentacles.

Recon also had detected a Mutant scrap collector to the far north. The Xenocepter was dispatched for a series of aerial assaults to take out the unit with extreme prejudice.

But the Free Mutants clearly had recon of their own, and launched a simultaneous aerial attack on a critter poking around in the area of their HQ:

The consort died a valiant death, one of the few casualties thus far in the Xenopod campaign. Further north, a Mutant Ravager tangled with a smaller Xenopod company, though in the end both sides opted to flee.

Amid the scuffling, the Queen dispatched a stealth-capable recon unit to infiltrate the Mutant capital with one goal: determine who is leading the Free Mutants. By the end of Day 28, she had her answer: the notorious genetic-experiment-gone-wrong, the Hero General Tyrosina:

“That genetic abomination is not long for the earth!” the Queen drooled. Then she commanded, “Get me my master assassin.”

[Lantz]

Awesome!

[Periastron]

I somehow managed to totally overlook this game back in the day–an oversight which I have now corrected through the application of money. :). Thanks to tylertoo for posting this entertaining AAR! Now to figure out the game…

[Seppey]

Thanks for posting this AAR. Because of it, I played a couple games this weekend and taught my 13yr old son to play. He liked it quite a bit, though i am not sure how much he will play it since he prefers shooters. I created my first mutant deck. I have avoided them in the past, but they are pretty neat.

[tylertoo]

Days 29-30

By nightfall on the 29th Day of the Xenopod campaign, the Master Assassin Illith had used his powers of stealth to successfully infiltrate the Free Mutant Headquarters.

He would have preferred staying home, watching those strange human DVDs and basking in the glow of his successful termination of the Empire of Man leader, Erik Mai. But he had been summoned by the Cyaeg Queen for an equally important task: the assassination of the Free Mutant leader, the Hero General Tyrosina.

As dawn rose on the morning of the 30th Day, Illith positioned himself near the Mutant’s military base, waiting for Tyrosina to arrive with his entourage:

But Tyrosina arrived early, and the attack was rushed:

Tyrosina survived, unscathed. Illith scurried into the sewers to avoid detection. Now Free Mutant Intelligence agents were aware of the threat level, and a second attempt might be the last opportunity that Illith would have.

Meantime recon units surveying the area outside the Free Mutant HQ came upon a horrifying sight just west of the capital. A Gargantua.

The Xenopods had heard of Gargantuas from captured human prisoners, but until now had not ever actually encountered one. The beasts were as fearsome as the timid two-legs had indicated. And the Xenopod Queen knew that this single Gargantua could potentially decimate one of her two valued armies.

More forces were needed, but help from the Xeno capital was days away. Instead, the Cyaeg Queen summoned her geneticist, Y’golona:

Y’golona’s task: creation of a Brood Hive, which once hatched would produce umlimited numbers of new units. “We might not have our own giant mutants,” mused the Queen, “but at least we can breed like no other race in the galaxy.”

Back inside the Mutant base, the master assassin Illith had, by nightfall, recovered his composure after missing in the morning assassination attempt. He returned to the surface from his hiding spot in the sewers. Shortly came his second opportunity. He doubted he’d get another, and he made this one count.

The Mutant leader was dead. And as with the Empire of Man, the ensuing disarray would be the Xenopod’s best opportunity to crush the vile creatures once and for all.

It was time for the Queen’s armies to move in.

[buzznaut]

I also have been enjoying the AAR so much I went out and bought me an AE for myself. After my first couple of play throughs (which did not go well) I am even more impressed. Vic Davis you are a truly gifted gamesman. The elegance of design and mechanics in AE and SI are truly a lesson for game designers everywhere. If you can see past the design platform and the at times rough implementation Cryptic Comet games are such a pleasure and great fun. I’d argue that AE and SI may be amongst the top ten strategy games on PC ever.

[tylertoo]

DAYS 31-33

The following few days brought massive preparations for the final assault on the Free Mutant home base. The Xenopod Queen oversaw the work and was pleased, as morale was high and the larva were fertilized with a bevvy of human bodies. Meanwhile, the array of recon units scouring near the Mutants all reported the same thing: despite the successful assassination of their leader Tyrosina, the Mutants seemed unaware of the scope of the threat against them.

Case in point was that the Mutants’ single most powerful unit, the Gargantua, had not been recalled to shore up the base’s defenses. Instead it remained positioned just outside the home base. This made the Xenopod’s campaign that much simpler: the two armies would move in against Gargantua as a first assault.

To soften up the enemy a bit, the Xenocepter was dispatched for a quick aerial assault:

Then the Xenopod forces – “America’s Army” and “The People’s Liberation Army of France” – gathered just in the vicinity of the Gargantua:

But the Xeno plan suddenly went awry, as this movement prompted the Gargantua itself to attack the People’s Liberation Army.

Thus the PLA was forced to go it alone against the beast, rather than alongside America’s Army. Still, the battle actually proved quite simple:

Only a Reaver suffered a casualty:

And so with relative ease, the Gargantua was defeated. By nightfall of Day 33, the two Xeno armies moved quietly to the border of the Free Mutant capital:

That night the armies joined in a camp outside the repugnant Mutant enclave, roasting cadavers that had been saved from earlier battles. Then they raised their tentacles in a toast to the Cyaeg Queen, and vowed that come dawn, they would bring her glory by decimating the Free Mutant Headquarters.

[tylertoo]

Day 34 The Battle of Mutant Wastes

As the sun rose over the desert, word quickly filtered through the decrepit enclave known as Mutant Wastes that the Xenopods were at their doorsteps. War was imminent. The genetic abominations had feared this day, and their leaders gathered to assess their prospects:

“Let’s run for our lives,” said the Hero General Allelic. “The Xenopods will show us no mercy.”

“No, we’ll stand and fight,” said the Hero General Kinase. “We’re the last hope for humanity.”

The final vote was case by the Unit Giant, Mungos. “We’re staying. If we’re gonna die, I wanna die blasting their friggin’ tentacles off. Bring on the dragon.”

So began the Battle for Mutant Wastes, the final Xenopod assault on the headquarters of the Free Mutants, the last organized band of of creatures once known as the human race.

The two Xenopod armies, after camping outside the perimeter of Mutant Wastes, wasted no time moving in and launching the assault:

To the front galloped the best remaining fighting unit of the Free Mutants, the dragon Termogant:

The Xenopod assault on the fire-breathing creature was relentless and ultimately successful:

“Shit!” cried Mungos, watching as the dragon perished. “Get out of here!” He and Kinase began to flee, leaving their mutated minions to be devoured by the rampaging Xenopods.

To be continued…

[tylertoo]

Day 34 A Farewell to Tentacles

By mid-day of the great Xenopod assault on the Free Mutant headquarters, the two-legged miscreants found their defensives crumbling rapidly. Two Mutant leaders, Mungos and Kinase, attempted to leave, but America’s Army gave chase:

Mungos went down as he fled, and the remainder of the Mutant company was lost:

The battle for Mutant Wastes was won. The Free Mutants were no more. The continent was now truly one nation under pods. And the Xenopod fighting units, exhausted and relieved, chanted in unison: “Death to the Two-Legs! Long Live the Queen!”

The celebration continued into the evening. At one point Xenopod units laughed uproariously as they spotted the Mutant General Kinase. He’d apparently slipped away from the the final battle and was running for the hills:

Kinase was caught but not killed. The Xenopod field commanders knew that the Cyaeg Queen would want him for her very own.

As a victory feast.