Hey, you know me - I’m always prepared to keep playing to the bitter end, whether winning or losing. I just enjoy the battles (and smashing temples for some strange reason) :)
The ‘secrets’ aren’t of any relevance now, just a curiosity, since they happened some turns ago and the situation is different now.
My point is - I keep reading about how Pelagia winning is some kind of foregone conclusion. It isn’t. Pelagia only has strong land troops near the Oceania throne, that is also guarded by Oceanias God, Agarthas God + huge numbers of undead, and 100s of Sauro troops too. Theres no way Pelagia has enough land power to overcome all that.
Pelagias troops near all other thrones are aquatic only, and no game mechanic exists to get them on land. So Pelagia now owns the sea, and can hold the sea pretty easily, but that can’t win the game.
So if one of you surviving land powers can overcome your land rivals, its still game on!
Kelan
3062
Yep, I am good either way.
Kelan’s attack really did catch us at a bad time. I think we were both pretty certain that we’d lose some considerable territory, but he didn’t end up pushing further for whatever reason.
Thanks Akaoni! Our war has been the most fun I’ve had with dominions in a while. I think we’ve each won about an even number of battles. It helps me that Sauro is so incredibly versatile while I think Nief is a little more restricted in its options. I’m looking forward to writing up my thoughts on the nation once this is all done, as much to put it all together logically as anything else. Speaking of which, I assume we are going forward? (I hope so!)
I definitely want to see a few more turns at least. I’d hate my stale while in Vegas to be my last turn of any consequence, and I do want to see more of how this plays out.
Pyper - speaking for TNN
Strato
3065
Seeing as I’m out of the game, I guess I’ll add a few brief comments about Berytos, and my game in general.
-
I uploaded the wrong Pretender. I had a pretender designed for blood and a goal of playing defensively until I could get to the blood summons. Instead, my Pretender was an offline game focused on Brides casting spells and blocker spearmen.
-
Playing defensively was still a part of my game, and that meant rejoicing everytime I found a province that allowed recruitment of archers. The defensive play included the fire arrows/wind guide combo. And that, alongside cheap slingers that I found in one province made me think I’d have a lot of success. Of course, there was one problem
-
Oceania. No point fighting defensive if Oceania casts foul vapours. Further to that, playing defensive doesn’t work when the Aprois can close distance and murder everything. It was a couple of bloody battles, and I’m doing well on the losing big battles chart at the moment!
-
Needless to say, the conflict between myself and Oceania pretty much opened both of us up to vultures - yes, I’m looking at you Pelagia and Sauro. You win some, you lose some, and in the end, I couldn’t recover from both the fight against Oceania, and the combined might against Sauro/Pelagia. If I didn’t go AI, in the interests of the game, I would have chosen only to fight Pelagia because a stronger Sauro meant a stronger chance of them holding the throne I had, and keeping it out of Pelagia’s hands.
-
My early game was great. I had a lot of money rolling in, and I suspect I was one of, if not the largest nation present when we all ran out of indy provinces. Getting the early mercs pretty much became a second expansion army early and I could push both north and south of my capital very quickly. Courtesy of those mercs, and the expansion they afforded, I was able to bring in even more gold, and thus set up a nice string of forts across my lands. Brides in Waiting, Stormcallers, Sages, the research was great. My slave economy was finding its feet, and then the invasion started. Alas!
Akaoni
3066
So I take it you liked your experience with Berytos? I have never tried them.
As for the blood summons, I have to say I was surprised I got most of them, only to find that Sauro was ignoring blood altogether. Did you ever get your blood economy up and running?
And I guess with the different pretender, that flummoxed your blood strategy?
It’s funny you bring your pretender up. She just made a surprise reappearance in Berytos and massacred some poor PD.
Strato
3068
I do like Berytos, I recommend them for any game. Brides can be good for going battlemage, they have some good paths for it, with the right bless. Well, don’t know what the right bless would be, though earth would naturally factor into it. Their paths have some decent buffs. National troops are strong enough, good enough to not need an SC in the beginning, and the gold bonus that Berytos gets allows them to field a significant army.
The blood economy started to happen, and I was in the process of having a few smaller armies to patrol if I took a couple of provinces too hard, and there were a few fortress recruited scouts on hand to transport the slaves back. All of my priests were on dowsing rods, and I had a small handful of Berytos blood summons coming out - the reason for the wasteland fortresses was to get the Se’ir, which I recall DireAussie putting to good effect in the QTAnon game. On paper, they look like an effective unit for killing. I also managed to get two Melqarts out (99 slaves each) and one of the Arch Devils (Ethanim?). By the time I got to blood 7 though, my lands were gone. Buttercup obviously did some work. I was naming them after the Powerpuff girls for no other reason than immaturity. Blossom (if I recall) didn’t stand up to the onslaught of Aphrois, just couldn’t regen the health enough. Also, in the big fight I had with DireAussie, Buttercup did rout early which really screwed me there. He basically killed a couple of the Ichytaur then ran. I pretty much had some limited slave collection through my war, but markedly reduced.
One of the changes in the last patch was to adjust when certain heroes would appear. In a test game, I had the Telkhine (Queen of the City) come on turn 2 before the patch. If that happened in this game, I honestly would have to had suggest we start over. The hero, just like the summon, is incredible. With the hero, pretty much research boost (39 RP turn), then get her to join an expansion army and stomp indy’s everywhere.
Berytos sailing, sea income tracing and coastal income bonuses must have been nice on a map like this one
Strato
3070
Yep which is why I wanted to go heavy into blood. I knew I could sustain the pop loss and unrest with all the gold coming in.
Kelan
3071
Like I said before, Poison golems and Alt 9 don’t mean much against those types of Vine Ogres and backed by elemental royalty backed by a much bigger gem income. Well played guys. I knew what would happen before it even happened.
I thought the gem usage in that Poison Golem battle was pretty equal. Both sides in the mid-teens. Pelagia had spare but scripted not to use them.
and tbh, those elemental royalty didn’t really do anything that Pelagias hero+god couldn’t have done easily enough between them. PPPPP and Mr Thaumas the Wondrous were busy elsewhere though.
but managing the victory without even a single casualty… that i did not expect :)
I still prefer underwater battles though :)
Can I get a12 hour extension on old school? Took Mrs. Kub to Napa for her birthday last night and we’re dawdling.
Akaoni
3075
Sure thing, Hosting postponed for QToldschool by 12 hours. The game will now host at 16:10 GMT on Sunday March 27th.
I actually was able to get my turn in, but almost no one else had theirs in
Kelan
3077
Ugh, totally lost track of time this morning and staled. I didn’t even get to look at turn 78 yet, so no idea if it even mattered :). Sorry guys. I totally forgot this morning while on my first day of a mini vacation and my wife and I lost track of time a bit while at the casino.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I’ll be without a computer from Monday-Friday next week. I’ll be able to get the current turn (80) in before I go, but could we push hosting for 81 back to Saturday? There’s a chance I could get it in before the deadline on Friday, but the extra time would be nice.
Akaoni
3079
Ok, I will postpone it till Sat april 9 after this turn.
I’m back! Just in time to see Kelan’s Agarthans annihilate one of my better armies. Nicely done! I think that’s the worst defeat I’ve suffered so far this game.
