2701

Ragha AAR part 1 - pregame thoughts

Playing Ragha was lots of fun. First a word about the nation: it’s an interesting mix of Abysia and Caelum, but you can make the nation lean toward one side or the other. You see, the only national mages are recruitable in a neutral climate are low level Karapans (F1H1 A/D/B1) and Athravans (F1H1 A/W/S1). In hot climates you get Dasturs (F1D1B1H2 F/A/D/B1) and Turan Sorcerers (F3D1B1 A/D/B1), along with the awesome Zhayedan flying cavalry. In cold climates you get Zaotars (F1A1W1H2 F/A/W/S1) and Seraphs (A3W1S1 F/W/S1), with mediocre Iceclad Zhayedans (Caelum infantry).

So…do you take neutral scales, able to recruit each half of the nation for less than half of each year? Or go heat 1/2 or cold 1/2, denying yourself one half of the unit inventory for all but 1 or 2 turns a year? In my case I decided the flying griffons were too great to ignore, so went with Heat 2. Fire isn’t as useful as Air/Water, but luckily by mid-game I had built a castle right on my border with Ulm’s cold dominion, so I was able to recruit the very useful Zaotars and Seraphs year-round. I made sure not to put a temple near by. Otherwise I’d have to cast Wolven Winter (which is why I put W4 on my pretender).

I decided to go with an F4W4D4B6 asleep Angra Mainyu as my pretender, as I felt the Zhayedans needed a boost to their attack, defense, and strength, and I wanted to try some blood magic/economy shenanigans. I also wanted to forge boosters for my mages, specifically Flame Helmets to boost my F3 Turan Sorcerers to F4. On a side note my name was a bit of a joke, as according to Caelum theology (aka Zoroastrianism) the Angra Mainyu represents the destructive/evil forces in the world, while the Spenta Mainyu represented all that is good and bountiful. So while “I Spenta All My Gold” would hopefully mislead my opponents as to what my bless was going to be for a while, it was also what I thought an Angra Mainyu would do to deceive the world at large - make everyone think he’s the good guy!

My pre-game plan was to expand with Turan War Elephants (as Kelan’s awesome blog analysis points out, great protection and morale for elephant troops!) for a while, before getting into the Zhayedans. I’d do some intensive blood hunting to get several soul contracts early on, which give you a free Devil a turn. I quickly got three up and running, giving me some free decent (if fragile) flying demon troops throughout the rest of the game.

The magic diversity available gave me lots of possible research goals. Flaming Arrows+Wind Guide+Precision 12 archers with composite bows? Thug Zhayedans? Flying Elephants? Fire Evoc spam? I didn’t plan on using much Blood early on other than to cast Blood Feast and Rejeuvenate (Ragha’s mages are mostly old), and for items, but I ended up spending most of my late-game research there. It’s so versatile!

Actual game report to follow…

2702

Ragha AAR part 2 - gameplay

Turns 1-10 went pretty well, expanding mostly with parties of War Elephants, which are great against indies. I clashed a bit with Man, but we settled on an unspoken border between our lands. I wound up with a roughly diamond-shaped territory, with Ulm to the north, Man to NE, TC to east/SE, and C’tis to the SW. The Throne of Fortune sat in the middle of the area between myself, Man, and TC and was the closest throne. I had the good fortune to have a random hero join my forces up almost immediately: a vampire! Not a vampire count, but I’m not going to complain about a flying immortal commander this early on in the game. I immediately resolve not to send him into any hostile dominion territories, but will keep him as a rapid response reserve/thug.

Turns 10-20: I managed to take the Throne (also a nice crystal amazon recruitment site), only to have TC take it, followed by Man. Both TC and Man erected castles right next to the throne province. TC is quite large, but expanding only with ancestor vessels and horsemen. Man is smaller, and primarily using longbowmen. Meanwhile C’tis is racking up the thrones to the SW, taking 2. My planning document has these comments: “Setting up for raid into….? Decided on TC as plausible excuse exists for force buildup next to untaken throne of (misfortune?). Hoping Man joins in, before I whack him too.”

Turns 20-25: Raiding TC has gone well, sieging his castle next to the throne of fortune, and taking the southwestern arm of his land using flying raiders. Bogarus is clearly eyeing the action and is looking to move in with a BIG army on the besieged castle, so I’m scooting out of the way, content with the territory I took. Man has moved in a bit to my NE.

Turn 25-26: C’tis moves in slowly on my territory to the SW, with his scary pretender lurking about. I’m letting him move closer while I build up strength, and I prepare a couple of potential anti-SC characters (Bow of Botulf, and curses). Man currently holds the Throne of Fortune so I’m preparing a strike force to take it back, along with more of his territory. Ulm has a big army sitting up north….uh oh.

Turn 27-28: I attack the Throne of Fortune, encountering Man’s pretender (who’d just claimed the throne). Due to dominion his pretender only has 38 out of 90+ HP! My Zhayedans attack, and take down the pretender immediately. The rest of Man’s forces flee. I end up taking the Throne, and both TC’s and Man’s castles next door. I’ve also started to raid C’tis down south, fortuitously along with Atlantis so we split his attention. Ulm’s still building strength up north - I’m not sure if he’s going for Man or for me. I send my vampire up north to prepare the defenses.

Turns 29-31: My raiding of C’tis’ richest provinces has gone pretty well. He seemed content to turtle in his castles. One of my two raiding forces got caught and killed, but the other made it back to friendly lines. (I think they were composed of a mix of Zhayedans and flying infantry…)
On the northern front I’d foolishly divided my forces to take two of Man’s provinces - and one of them got crushed by a big Ulmish force. Lots of magic and paralyzing from Ulmish mages! I rushed some forces and my Pretender over to defend, but Ulm seems content to sit on his gains. I’ll have to deal with him soon…. TC takes the opportunity to lay siege to Man’s capitol.

Turn 33-35: Atlantis moves in on C’tis in a major way, besieging a throne. C’tis moves its pretender Devourer of Souls in a counterattack….and dies horribly to massed bone glaives. I see an opening, and prepare forces to head through the cave system to take C’tis’ southern throne province. To the north, I manage to defeat a smaller Ulmish army, but am limited to some raiding success, hopefully enough to keep Ulm on the defensive. Ulm moves in and I fall back toward the Throne of Fortune.

Turns 36-60: Lots of thrusting and ripostes between Ulm, Bogarus, and myself. Ulm and fought back and forth in a swath of land about 3 territories wide - piled high with corpses by the end I’m sure. Bogarus and I hadn’t really come to blows until I pushed south and took a big swath of C’tis, adjacent to Bogarus. It was inevitable we’d end up fighting. T’ien Ch’i and I ended up in an unspoken detente, respecting each other’s borders, while C’tis turtled as well and was very occupied facing off against Atlantis. I managed to take C’tis’ southern throne and built a castle on it, with a good amount of territory to support it. Atlantis and Gath to my west did not show an interest in moving eastwards, so I wasn’t going to do anything to disturb that border. My territory was now being continuously raided by undead thugs from both Ulm and Bogarus, and I’m finding it harder and harder to reclaim them quickly.

By turn 56/57 I’d taken the water throne near Bogarus, which put me 2 thrones away from victory. I started to set up for a two-throne grab, with an entirely airborne assault force (led by prophet and vampire) to strike at T’ien Ch’is throne 4 provinces away (requiring one rest stop), and another force heading into the water to take the UW throne near Gath (only 3 provinces away from my other water throne, I think). Ulm was coming down on my original Throne of Fortune with a big massive army 2 provinces away, but had dithered on taking some of my frontier outposts so I figured it was going to be too late. The Throne didn’t have a castle on it but I had enough blood slaves to cast Three Red Seconds and instantly raise a castle the turn before they arrived, and enough troops present to garrison it for a couple turns.

My underwater strike force consisted of my Pretender and a few Zhayedans, operating with the Sea King’s goblet I’d forged and a few supporting mages with rings. Not the strongest force (my Pretender was definitely not an SC), but I was hoping it would be enough to take the throne for one turn and hold it. As they say, you go to war with the army you have….
Now as I’d mentioned earlier, my Pretender & friends started on their three turn journey one turn too late, as I’d submitted a turn where I’d clearly mis-clicked and returned them to “defend” instead of moving. This was to lose me the game…

On Turn 60 my flying strike force successfully took TC’s throne. TC had attacked the stopover province, but my forces had already launched and they hit only my minimal PD I’d left. My accompanying prophet had been through the wringer - he was wounded and diseased, with ONE HP left. I scoured the manual and to my relief, found that during the turn claiming the throne takes place before disease effects. WHEW! I claimed the throne, but found myself with starving troops in a wasteland while TC’s troops amassed to retake the throne. I wondered about trying to engage part of his forces in a counterattack, but deemed it too risky. My solution was to build a lab, while nature mages in the rest the realm made some endless bags of wine and as many items as they could make. Literally everyone who could made something - robes of air protection, hydra armor, shields, flambeaus, horror helmets. All to be delivered by lab-mail in the hopes of resisting TC’s approaching force. Again if I’d taken the last throne a turn earlier TC wouldn’t have been in striking distance by the time I got all 6 thrones. Alas…

Turn 61 I managed to take the UW throne by Gath, and now all I have to do is claim it, and I win! But uh oh, seems like Gath knows what I’m up to….big army next door. I’m hoping he can’t come underwater. TC’s big army approaches to try and retake their throne.

Turn 62: Everything falls apart. Gath comes in and Kicks My Pretender’s Butt. TC comes in and Kicks My Prophet’s Butt. Plan falls apart in tatters. :(

Rest of the game: I’d pretty much expended all my strength to reach for that victory. Now my forces were in shreds and out of position, massive armies recognized the threat and were moving in for the kill, and my Pretender was dead. I managed to recall him after a few turns by halting my research, but he was never the same afterwards. Bogarus and Ulm came in hard, and even C’tis, but I managed to fend them off with what forces I had remaining…at least for a little while. C’tis took back all the southern territory I’d taken. I think I’d managed to assemble a somewhat secure, if largely diminished, territory around my home castle but my income never again reached the heights it had previously. Meanwhile Gath envelops the world…

2703

Ragha AAR part 3 -

Assessment: I had a lot of fun, and I think I was able to do so well because the graphs were off and there was no communication. My neighbors all seemed to have someone else to deal with, and I was lucky that none of them got the same idea at the same time (that is, to kick my butt) before I’d managed to secure a large territory with the accompanying large amount of castles and troops.

Zhayedans are the BEST. Simply awesome. Expensive, but awesome. Flying, lance attack, multiple claw attacks, sacred, high protection, high attack and defense, and effectively 60+ HP. Iceclads can’t compare.

I still struggle with the mid/late game, as my experience with late game spells and what exactly they can and cannot do is sketchy. I thought I did pretty well in laying out a magic research plan, and ensuring that I had the correct mages to cast what I’d researched (not always true in my past games), but I think I dithered around in Blood Magic too long, when a spell like Mass Flight or Fog Warriors would have been better. My Blood Battlefield spells didn’t seem to do much, and I clearly need more practice overall.

I learned a TON from watching everyone, but especially from watching Ulm and Bogarus raid my territories, learning how scary undead thugs can be. I certainly never found an effective counter, other than to try and retake the territories they’d raided as soon as possible. I’m sad I never got to really see Gath in action. Oh, and Thanks to Jomon for the late game gem donations - I assume that was to try to get me to engage Gath? Or a simple act of generosity?

Thanks all for the fun game and learning experience!

2704

Wow, thats a lot of Gem income for Gath at the end

Thanks for posting those Kelan

2705

Pregame:

Went with an imprisoned Old man of the sea with A4W4E4S5 with High dominion (8 iirc). In terms of scales, i went with order 1, productivity 1 and cold 2.
I figured that LA atlantis was strong enough to not need an early SC, so i was ok with going with an imprisoned pretender. A lot of atlantis casters need help to get to the booster, so the main focus on my pretender was to provide booster support, and then as a late-game spell-casting chassis. This build gave access to the major air/earth/astral boosters, and additionally provided access to three of the four elemental summons, the crystal items, and if needed, the staff of elemental mastery.

In terms of a bless, the earth/air/astral helped the 2 sacred casters, and the water was a bonus to the melee arssartuts. Since my sacreds (excepting one mage) were cap only, i figured i would be expanding mainly with my ice guards with additional protection from my cold scales/dominion. I knew the founding fathers would give me some versatility, but i was still worried that my path combinations were not ideal. I also realized I was void in Nature - and would require some luck to get any nature items/gems/spells.

Basic strategy was focused around starting a base of operations on land, and then expanding as quickly as possible in the sea. After that I would ensure dominance in the sea to prevent any of the powers from gaining a foothold in the water, and spread opportunistically on land under cover of wolven winter if my cold dominion wasn’t established and/or the temperature in the province was hot. By later game, i could expect full booster support that would allow me to easily cast up to 4 or 5 path spells without temporary (gem) boosting in combat, good elemental royalty support, undead summons and a pretender chassis that could be an sc if i needed it.

Turns 0-12
Good initial position, allowed me to expand towards the NE and then back in a rough clockwise pattern. Turn 6 had me entering the water beside my capital, and everything was going smoothly. The first 3 land provinces I took all had scouts, and just about every round I was pumping out scouts and sending them throughout the world. This meant on turn 7, I already could see the capital of CTis, and the first of Utgards armies - however, i could not send scouts yet across the water, and so when I expanded southward in the water I was as surprised to find Jomon as he was to see me(per Kelan’s notes). Turn 9 had me secure the next water province, and running (surprisingly) into Patala and so my foray to the secure the water provinces was cut short before I could gain access to the throne. Rather than take time to send that force slowly back up through the water, i decided to bring it ashore to the west of Ctis and i established what I always considered ‘the southern Atlantis colonies’. Without capturing the province housing the throne between CTis and I, these provinces would be cut off from land support due to the small mountain range to their north. I was conscious of hemming Ctis too much in, so i kept this colony small - only taking 3 provinces. I figured if Ctis objected to this, i was ok with losing them.

By turn 12, I was pretty happy with the Atlantian empire: 14 provinces under our banner, and still some potential to take more. My first fort(in the sea beside my capital), was only 3 months from completion, and a plethora of scouts was ensuring that atlantis was finding out more and more about its neighbors every day. Speaking of neighbors, I had Utgard to the NW, Patala to the N, Ragha to the NE, Ctis to the SE and Jomon to the SW. The water would be formidable barrier for Jomon to cross, so i figured I had only 4 neighbors i need worry about. Looking at those four; I figured CTis wasn’t a threat - I was a horrible neighbor for it to have, where its heat-based troops would suffer badly in my cold dominion, and even though my cold didn’t effect its undead, they’d have a hard time penetrating my troops superb armor/defense to land hits. Though Patala wouldn’t likely use undead, their troops were more heat-based, and so I figured he also would not willingly engage hostilities. That left Ragha, which i had been watching with some concern as their elephants were approaching my NE border - and Utgard, which now locked up my NW border completely, and alarmingly had a large force of giants on my border: Did he intend war?

Finally, thinking of Jomon, i realized he’d want to get in the water to unlock his water dragon casters, but I figured that if i took care not to provoke him by either stationing troops outside his capital or building a fort there, then he’d probably realize I could quickly neutralize any attempt he made to take the water and so i was hoping he’d focus his efforts elsewhere.

Turn 12: Atlantis

2706

I was Ulm.

I over expanded my last MP game trying to grab a nearby Throne and was eliminated really early, and since I was pretty far away, I decided to play conservatively.

So, I ended up surviving but never really getting even one Throne or competing.

I kept butting heads with Ragha and the hit point disparity between our troops and his combined arms, and my lack of experience with high level spells or large group tactics to equalize things, made for a bunch of lost battles.

I also had a lot of work and other commitments at the end which kept me from devoting as much time as I would have liked. Sorry, if my extensions slowed the game down.

Thanks for playing, all.

2707

I was Marignon and I got off to a horrible, horrendous, no good start, and really never got in the game. Marignon’s starting troops are city guards, and not much better than militia. In my test play through, I had decided that I would go blood on Marignon, but I hadn’t realized how long it took to really get going with the Marigon starting troops.

So, I built up troops for a few turns, and attacked the nearest weak province. And lost, which set me back even further. I don’t think I took a province until turn 6 or so. Eventually I put together some cash and hired some mercenaries to get me some territory and that worked really well - I was able to pretty much grab all of my island-ish area and push out a bit to the South and East in an attempt to secure those bridges in. I started pushing for a landhold in the south to build a fort in addition to the one I had started on the defending bridge to my east when I got close to Gath with my Mercenary army. I decided to reach for one more indy province inbetween Gath and myself, and I took it, only to get hit by Gath’s swarm of regenerating zealots on the same turn. Gath wiped out that army and saw weakness.

Gath pushed into my island-ish realm, but I had a bunch of blood priests out site-searching/harvesting slaves, etc, and while my minimal troops couldn’t do much against the regenerating swarms, I was able to fend them off for awhile by spamming agony and crushing their morale. I tried a number of times to cut off Gath’s escapes so that when they fled, they’d die with no place to retreat, but Gath was able to hold off, and eventually my blood casters started dying - so I got my Pretender into the action, with much the same strategy, but apparently Gath was able to horror mark my pretender and I hadn’t noticed. After agonizing Gath into retreat again, my pretender was swamped by 5 horrors and never made it back.

Gath moved over and started seiging my castles, and almost dom-killed me at one point, but I got a prophet back just in time to avoid that ignominious fate. I also thugged up an assassin who did very well at holding gath off, and even allowed me to reclaim a bit of territory and relieve some seiges, but I couldn’t recruit any more priests to even attempt to bring back my Pretender and Gath eventually rolled over me with a mass of Sacreds.

A number of turns later, I was able to sub in for Gath, which was fun to see, and dance around with TC to his north - constantly raiding with Flying/Stealthy/Sacred thugs, as well as grabbing a throne, just to sucker TC into taking it back just as I pulled back to a ton of reinforcements. I did make a couple of mistakes with Gath, in that I forgot to script one of the Flying/Stealth/sacred thugs to bless itself first (I had been in another game at the time, where all of my thugs had the auto-bless shroud on, and I didn’t need to script the bless), but mostly I think I did alright with Gath, though my last turn I misclicked and left the Pretender a bit more exposed than I would have liked.

Later, I got to play a bit as C’Tis, who I had never played before, and that was pretty cool. I got to take a throne from Ragha, as well as build up a bit of a defensible perimeter there. I had a number of opportunities to scout-bomb Bogarus on our borders, but I decided to try to keep that border conflict-free in anticipation of a move by Ragha and possibly Atlantis. I also tried to reinforce the Cave defenses in the area to prevent incursion that way, but that was about all I was able to do. It was fun flinging masses of Tomb Chariots around though.

2708

I’m appreciating all the AAR’s! Keep 'em coming!

2709

Turns 13-15

Quite possibly the most important turns in the game, and which would cast a long shadow over the way i would approach the next 30 turns or so, and undoubtedly impact players that were absolutely ignorant of the situation…

Turn 13:
Ragha’s elephants take a neutral province bordering Atlantis NE border. All my scouts miss the combat, so I’m uncertain how strong a force it is, or even what its full composition is. However, even though it’s elephants, it looks too small to intend any serious harm, even though my forces on the border are non-existent - I keep a watchful eye on it.

CTis boldly moves towards me from the SE, and takes a neutral province bordering my one hex perimeter around my capital. This force, and battle are scouted, and reveal 22 city guards and 52 desert rangers. That’s a substantial force to be nearing my capital, but with no mage support, i figure he’s not planning on staying. Additionally, though the desert rangers are pretty good troops, they’re very susceptible to my cold dominion so if it comes to war, i figure my troops have a considerable edge. Still, i dislike that CTis is bold enough to move into an area I consider my sphere…(1 hex removed from Atlantis, but 3 from Ctis).

My own troops have moved westward across the sea, and now Jomon is completely denied sea access. I’m ok with that, since from what I can see - it looks like Jomon is off to a poor start, and I can already make out three of his neighbors…

Most alarmingly though, the Utgard giants have attacked my lone province. The force is substantial - comprised mostly of 30 Garmhirdings blessed with…D9, W9, N9?! Ugh…that’s not good. Blessed, they have death weapons, are undying, have +8hp and 10% regend. Oh, and quickness. And they’re resistant to cold and…oh, ya, they go berserk. Additionally, they’re supported by 30 archers/crossbow, and less huskarls and jotun javeleinists…and backed up with a great hag and a witch. None of this is good news - and while i hope they’re just taking the lone province before moving on, something tells they arent…

With the potential for 3 hostile parties, i pull all forces back to the capital and wait to see what happens.

Turn 14:
Ragha and Ctis both decline combat with my empty provinces and take 2 neutral provinces that puts them adjacent to each other. While I’m still bothered that Ctis is venturing this deep into my area, i’ve bigger concerns…

The sea province to the west that I just took got a random event and was lost to a sea king and 28 sea trolls. That’s some lost time, as i’ll need to wait a few turns before i can field a force to retake it. Thankfully, 28 sea trolls are pretty substantial by themselves, and I doubt Jomon has the strength to capitalize on this opportunity before I can correct it.

Most alarmingly, the Utgard giant force has turned my way and now borders my capital. My PD hurt them a bit (6 losses, bringing their number to 78) but they still have 30 Garmhirdings. I was able to rally almost every troop under my command and figure I’ll have over 250 troops in defense - and I decide that I’m going to meet him in the field and set all my troops to patrol/move patrol. In general, many would opt to hole up in the keep and wait it out - relying on the walls to keep them safe and ensure a chokepoint. I’m not happy with that strategy - for one, he’ll shrug off most of my offensive spells, so I’m not going to be able to whittle him down very effectively; for two, his troops won’t likely flee, and will certainly berserk which will force my concential forces to more morale checks. Finally, a small opening actually favors his giants - he could block the gatehouse of the castle with just two giants - and limit attacks to them to a small handfull of my troops - whereas if i face him in the open, i can force his giants to multiple hits from mulitple sources, hopefully wearing them down before they slaughter me. Finally(really), i just can’t afford to go passive - i’ll loose production turns, recruiting turns and money - and my other two neighbors will undoubtedly see my weakness and capitalize on it. I figure i’ve a good shot though - While I outnumber him 4/1, my own troops are excellent - well armored, a good bless, and many have magic weapons innate to them, and i figure if i can surround his giants, 2 or 3 of my troops can bring one of his down. Additionally, i’ll have a lot of (simple) mage support…that will hopefully tip the scale for me.

Looking at Kelan’s entry for Turn 14, i’m amused to read what he sees and reads of Utgards armies and how peaceful my worldspace appears in his view:

QTAnon_Turn14_Map1.png1026×769

compared to mine:

2710

Turn 15:

I guessed correctly, and Utgard does attempt to capture the Atlantian Capital.

The battle lines are set:

My thoughts were to keep my best protected and able warriors at the front - they wouldnt stand up long toe-to-toe with the giants, but they’re the only ones I have that have a chance: 24 protection, 15 defence, and an ice aegis, and magic ice blade would make them exceptional against most forces, but against triple-blessed giants they barely rate adequate. On the flanks, I’ve the arssartuts - the glaives are magic, and have the added property of weakening - which might be helpful in this battle of regening, undying, giants. Maybe their best attribute is their morale - many of these are experienced, blessed and will take a lot of abuse before routing. But all forces are infront of the capital PD and missile troops - i wouldn’t normal position so aggressively, but these weakly armored and defended targets can’t be allowed to take hits - they’ll cause the entire army to rout if they do.

The battle starts slowly, and it looks like i miscalculated, and in particular, the first and second rounds of contact between the giant line and my forces are horrendous, with swaths of Atlantians cut down. But here and there a giant falls - and within a few more rounds, it’s clear they don’t have the numbers to withstand my forces

The rest of the turn was anticlimactic - Ragha and CTis, both seem to melt away, leaving me time and space to plot the next moves. In all the joy of the victory, something goes almost unnoticed - the first Atlantian water castle is complete!

Of course, reading Kelan’s notes on turn 15 just make me smile, in particular: The other Utgard army I can see contains a portion of the army we saw a few turns ago with Angerboda and some Javelinists, but now includes some Light Cavalry and Crossbowmen. I would imagine Utgard is low on total income with all those scales and would save money for cranking out those Gamhirdings, but more troops is normally better so they must know what they are doing.

Yes…indeed :)

2711

Yeah, I had no idea that Utgard was taking it to you. It didn’t make sense to me that they would go with that strong of a bless and not rush someone early. Now things make a lot more sense :). I only wish I had better scouting or I would have attacked you in the Sea or went after Bogarus if I knew Utgard was busy and had suffered a big loss. I don’t think my Pretender was quite ready to enter the Sea on his own, though, but close.

I was concerned the game went on so long that my blog wouldn’t be of much use, but glad to hear some of you are enjoying it. I actually had quite a good time writing it and when I was keeping up with my turns, it actually helped me to catch some things I almost missed.

There is one thing I have been meaning to ask. How may of you knew about Orion and his Eternal Knights? How many of you just learned about them this game and looked them up? I did bid pretty high on them, but I had a feeling people underestimated them in this game. I believe it was the first time I saw them in a game since Dom 2, heh.

2712

I had hired Orion once in a Dom 3 game for use against LA Pangea, though he instead got put to use against LA Midgard. The guy didn’t even survive one fight and I had to deal with the shame of a high experience hall of fame hero with that little gravemarker and a C’Tis flag accompanying it.

2713

Despite being right next door, I too had no idea Utgard and Atlantis had an early showdown! I suppose most of my scouts were directed eastwards, but clearly I should have been more aware of happenings to my west. With no throne in the area I was content to let a seemingly peaceful area lie fallow. Little did I know!

I first found out about Orion when I snagged them in the late game, and saw how potentially great they were. They’d been pretty used up by then, but I had no clue about their existence until then!

2714

Me too. I also had no idea I was encroaching on Atlantis’s “capital space”: I thought his capital was the one in the sea given his spread pattern.

2715

Turns 15-31

Following the conflict with Utgard, there’s a couple of turns where there’s some tension - A force mounts on our reformed border, but after a turn it drifts to the south where it will remain for the rest of the game. The respite is much appreciated, and I use the time to claim some neutral territory, set up a fort on the border with Ragha and do some much needed site searching.

Around turn 25 or so, i claim the two provinces CTis took during my conflict with Utgard. This is a belligerent action, and I have no idea if this will escalate, but I’m willing to take the chance - concluding that my forces and dominion are more than a match for his. My scouts report on Ragha successes, and I figure I need to start taking some real territory if I’m to stay in the game.

Turn 30 sees Atlantis maturing as an empire. To the south, my forces engage gath in the water, and Patala and I tangle a bit for the territory. I’ve seen Gath succeed against Marignon and I’m determined that he’s one of the threats in the game, so I’m seeking to deny him access to water if i can. I’ve also decided that I’m going to need a throne, and i’m trying to determine if the one in the water is worth fighting for.

I’m seeking combat, but there’s very poor options. Ragha is tempting, but there’s no goal in his territory worth pursuing - and I’m convinced his griffin-things will be misery to try to combat. Patala is a possibility - but there’s still no real goal there - and besides, the terrain (swamp) between us in the north will mean for long supply lines and a difficult campaign. I’d love to go at Utgard, but he’s been quiet since we fought and I don’t really want to provoke him alone. Jomon would be a great choice, except that i’d like to keep him strong so he can act as a more effective bulwark against Gath. Which leaves CTis…

We haven’t had a bad relationship - and, apart from the two provinces I took close to my capital, we haven’t had any contact. He does have a nice throne near me though that produces a great mage - an S2F2, with a ?FSAE (iirc). I’ve a fire/astral mage possibility in my sea mage, but i don’t have any chance at a FA or FE combo, so that’s a pretty compelling inducement. I’ve a force next to my capital in Brimmern that i’ve kept there for a bit - originally it was site searching, then raising indy troops, then preaching dominion…but it’s mostly just sat there waiting for orders. Turn 31 sees the troops in Brimmern hit with a remote flame attack - I figure this is CTis attempting to persuade me to move my troops elsewhere. It does do that…just not in the direction likely intended: Thus starts the war with CTis.

2716

BRING IT ON ATLANTIS! YOU DON’T SCARE ME WITH YOUR COLD DOMINION THINGY!

Ah, right. What day is it again? Ah yes, that was a few months ago, now. Yes, must move on…Yes, sleeping well, carry on.

2717

Yes, this thread has rekindled flashbacks of hordes of Gath troops, stomping towards a few snakes spraying out evocations as quickly as they can. If they manage to defeat one army, there was always three more slowly encircling. It wasn’t even the thugs so much as the billions and billions of sacred swordsmen ( I might be exaggerating a bit here).

The horror…the horror…

2718

Arise!!

QToldschool

This game will be an old fashioned 1 pretender/nation per player, score graphs off, common random events, standard research, standard sites, standard resources, expanded Hall of Fame, Thrones TBD, Map (orania?) TBD, Early Age.

Players:
1. Strato-------BERYTOS
2. Evil Steve------RYLEH CTHULU FTAGN MGORHDOTAGHN
3. Sharaleo-------AGARTHA
4. OttheGreat-----SAUROMANTIA
5. akaoni---------NIFELHIEM
6. DireAussie-----OCEANANIA
7. psyanojim ----PELAGIA
8. BotBaddict----ARCOCEPHALE
9. Pypercub -----TIERNANOGH
10.Wolfman ----???

(More players!!!)

Does anyone have a preference for Era, or map?
As for Thrones, a set of them all the same level, perhaps level 2.

2719

Add me please. My preference is for all thrones to be of the same level to keep the map distribution balanced.

2720

I am thinking we already have a Middle age game going, so either LA or EA?

And we need more players!