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In Progress Let's See the World Die. Dominions 4.

Grimwulf

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Forget about Turn 10 for a while. Next two (edited: three) posts are gonna be dedicated to Arena Tournament.

I can hardly wait.

ARENA RULES AND PREPARATIONS

For some reason, Dominions players don’t treat arena event like something special or important. During pbem matches, at least. But I think it’s one of the most epic things you can ever see in this game.

Heh, there was one time when I played Arcoscephale and got this early arena event, when you don’t even have artifacts yet. Like in current game session.

But that time I was lucky enough to get national hero Pathos, and decided to risk it. So, he made it to final round without a scratch, and had to fight with this:

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No chance in hell Pathos could beat him. Fucking giant severed Pathos’ arm, and left him with 1 hp. And then, THIS happens:

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Open-ended dice system is fucking awesome. Sometimes you get UNBELIVABLE shit happening. Pathos rolled absolutely crazy critical strike and killed the giant instantly.

But that wasn’t all. The winner of arena tournament receives random arena artifact. Pathos was SUPPOSED to get Champions Trident. Two-handed weapon. Don’t have two hands? TOO BAD, YOU GET NOTHING.

Maybe I’m a demented autist, but the moment they told Pathos to go fuck himself, I had a mental orgasm.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many screenshots left, due to drowned laptop. Only those uploaded on fileholders. But I assure you: every arena tournament is FUCKING EPIC!

Arena is a randomly occurring event. You receive a message, and have to make a decision immediately. Either you send forth a champion of your nation on the same turn, or you take a sit on Pussy Bench, and watch the show from there.

Every nation can send only one champion. AI doesn’t miss arena event, so this one will (most probably) have 12 matches, filled with epicness.

Early arena events have their specifics. Nobody has serious artifacts or spells yet, so there are usually a lot of prophets and national heroes participating. And 99% of prophets just spam Smite. Having high magic resist is essential when fighting early arena tournaments with AI.

Fighting order is totally random. Sometimes you have to face almost every nation’s champion, and sometimes you only get a couple of matches to win.

You DO NOT have a chance to recover between matches. I can’t remember clearly if this applies to fatigue, but you definitely can’t recover hp.

You CANNOT escape the arena. If you lose a fight – you die.

The winner gets a randomly chosen arena artifact. There is no other way to obtain these. While not being overpowered, all arena prizes are pretty damn good for certain commanders. The only downside is you can’t unequip them. The winner of the arena has to wield his prize proudly and HAS NO CHOICE, but to participate in next arena tournament. Which may or may not occur randomly.

All right, enough rules. Let’s do this shit. If anyone still thinks I take this session too seriously, next statement is for you:

THE READERS CHOOSE THE CHAMPION OF HELHEIM.

I’m not gonna make this decision for you. This LP will not continue, unless you make up your mind. So here is what we’ll do: I will make a list of all available commanders for you, then take a couple days break. Meanwhile, you vote. Whoever receives most votes, fights in the arena.

Since every nation can watch all arena matches, even those that they don’t participate in, the next post will be all about the Tournament.

Time to make dat choice.

Some commanders are affected by our dominion and/or scales. Arena has neutral dominion and scales, so I’ll mark their “arena stats” on pics


GOD TIER

1. King Grimwulf
God of the Gallows
King of the Clouds
He who Confuses the Way



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Nobody sends Pretenders on the arena. Not even AI is that stupid. It’s not worth the risk; it could lead to Pretender’s death (and months, or even years of resurrecting the Deity); Pretender doesn’t benefit from arena artifacts (on the contrary, they prevent him from equipping necessary pieces); and it’s a total waste of Pretender's turn.

But if you are cruel enough to send that cool guy to fight some casuls, let me tell you about his chances. They are, well, not too great. Magic resistance is decent enough, and spell arsenal is largest among all our candidates (no spells are particulary useful in arena, though).

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On the downside: no hp, no armor, no defense. A regular summoned skeleton is able to kill this Pretender in melee combat.

The strategy is this: "Twist Fate; Mind Burn x4; cast spells". And it MAY work only if fatigue will be restored after every fight, of which I’m not sure. If it won’t – then this script is a death sentence.

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Without casting Twist Fate, King Grimwulf can be one-shot-killed with lucky Smite. And Mind Burn is pretty much his only bet: long-range, never misses, doesn’t work on mindless (so he won’t aim at summoned undead, and be distracted from main target). Low damage tho, and it has to pass MR check.

All in all, God-King is awesome and everybody loves him, but, err, his left ball is kinda itchy. Maybe next time? Please?

TOP TIER
High chances, but incredibly painful to lose.

2. Codex Troll
Prophet of King Grimwulf
Messenger of Decline


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Glorious Prophet of Helheim. Proved himself as a capable warrior and leader of men.

Magic Resistance is good enough to participate, perma-blessing saves one turn, and high attack and defense skills allow to engage in melee combat. I don’t think Codex Troll should participate in “Smiting duels”, for his MR is not big enough. I’m somewhat concerned about low dmg output too, as well as and non-magic weapons. But still, two attacks per turn (lance+hoof); incredible attack+defense+glamour combo; combined with good MR – all that provides Codex Troll with fair chances of winning.

Strategy is simple: "Holy Avenger; attack". HA will help against smiting prophets – when they hit an illusion, they will receive some damage as well. Maybe even fatal.

3. Penda Pybbing Iceling
Penda the Bloody-Handed
Last Pagan Warrior-King


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Legendary and forgotten at the same time, Penda is a fucking badass. Equally good at leading people and killing them. His lineage extends to Woden himself.

I’d say he’s got the same chances as Codex Troll, if not even better. He’ll get higher MR, defense and damage output after casting Blessing. The downside is lower attack skill, and wasting a turn on that Blessing spell.

The script for Penda will be:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".

MED TIER
Fair chances, more or less replaceable if lost.

4. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater
Keeps Things under Control

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"I will not sit idly by, while […]”
, - says that line, sitting idly by.

Balgruuf is really not that much different from Penda, when it comes to arena. Slightly worse at everything, but much more easy to replace. If it was a serious pbem match, I would either send Balgruuf, or nobody at all.

Script is pretty much the same:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".

5. Selvaria Bles
Weeaboo Valkyrur

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Receives a healthy blue glow when angered.

Flying ability allows to cross the whole battlefield in a single turn, when needed. It could win her a spare turn for buffing. Thing is, our research schools don’t provide her with any buffs. And she doesn’t even have H2 for Holy Avenger.

Thus: "Blessing; attack" ftw.

6. Crispy
Sinister

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My first investment. First commander I hired in this War. What a waste.

No way he’s gonna win this. And I kinda need him too. Still, can’t say I’ll miss the little piece of evil.

Strategy: "Flying Shards x5; spells". Just to make sure he won’t spam Frighten, which is even more useless in arena than Flying Shards.

7. Lee Everett
Viking Wannabe

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Can pwn zombies and protect little girls, among other things.

Doesn’t see much action. Perhaps, now is the time?

"Blessing; attack". Obvious.

LOW TIER
Next-to-none chances to win; totally expendable.
No description needed – this guys can only win against severely injured opponents. If they are lucky enough.

8. Jon Snow

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9. IFS Zephyr

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10. Gordon Cageman

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Pick your poison, you bloodthirsty warmongering bastards.

Glory in Death!

 
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Emily

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It is a cowards way to send others to fight to the death while one watches so
King Grimwulf
 

Johannes

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Most important thing to mention though is that the dude has a sword that does 3x damage to larger monsters. It's still a well above average hit of course.



For some reason, Dominions players don’t treat arena event like something special or important. During pbem matches, at least. But I think it’s one of the most epic things you can ever see in this game.
It's a negative sum game, so understandably most people won't invest much to it. Epic things do happen but usually that means people losing expensive shit over nothing.


Send Balgruuf.


But if you end up sending ze King, it's much better to use Farstrike than Mind Burn.
 

Grimwulf

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That's a lot of votes. I still need a day or two of break, so take yer time.

If anybody wonders what happened to pbem match, it's now here.

But if you end up sending ze King, it's much better to use Farstrike than Mind Burn.



You think so? Couse I had some doubts, too. Mind Burn has 100 range and 100 precision, which allows to place the King as far away from enemy as possible. Kinda helps vs Smiting Prophets with 25 range.

Farstrike has superior damage, and doesn't have to pass MR check, but only 50 range and 5 precision and it's damage isn't armor-negating. Besides, it affects any units. Which means, King will aim the closest, including summoned undead chaff.

But maybe I'm missing something.
 

Inf0mercial

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Mind burn and soul slay are p good in the tournament ignores chaff summons and unless they have super high magic resistance doesn't take too many casts to kill.
 

Hoodoo

It gets passed around.
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see through your entertaining post for the non-daily update excuse that it is

enjoy your fucking weekend
 

Grimwulf

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Time to host dat turn.

2 votes for King Grimwulf (I'll remember you two);

3 guys want to see Crispy murdered (which I can totally understand);

7 gentlemen expect Jarl Balgruuf to show some quality ballin'.

So be it. Wake up, Balgruuf! No weekend for you!



see through your entertaining post for the non-daily update excuse that it is

enjoy your fucking weekend

Lol'd. Actually, I wanted to participate in closed beta-test of new URW build, being a lifetime supporter and all that. At least devote my weekend to this. But after few hours of playing, I found myself doing stuff on autopilot, while thinking about Dominions.

So here I am. This shit is worse than drugs.
:negative:
 
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Grimwulf

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Put away your monocles, everyone. We all know what we came for. Blood, death and gore!


THE FIRST ARENA TOURNAMENT OF THE ASCENSION WARS

Round 1

Caelum vs Ermor

I’ve mentioned Ermor countless times already, but never actually introduced them properly. Time to fix this.

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Roman-inspired nation like this must have sent a real gladiator, right? WRONG.

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Don’t judge them. At least they keep their cards to themselves. They didn’t risk important commanders, nobody sees what blessing they have, and this one could even get lucky. Sometimes you only have to fight in one last round, and face some loser with 33 afflictions and 1 hp. But not this time. Frateborn was “lucky” enough to fight in opening match. So, whom did the canaries send?

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Non-sacred fighter with slightly-above-average stats and somewhat decent default equipment, including Ice Blade (magic + slashing damage). Frateborn doesn’t have a chance.

Being a flying sunovabitch, Atervanush makes it behind Frateborn’s back in a single turn, attempting to backstab the unlucky fella, but misses.

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No matter. He could miss all day long - Frateborn is just a pathetic human. He didn’t manage to land a single hit on birdman. One slice of Ice Blade leaves him with only 1 hp:

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Another one finishes off.

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Nothing much to say. Clean. Cold. Victory. Frateborn pissed his pants before he died (failed morale check).

I hope somebody makes the bird suffer.

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Round 2

Oceania vs Helheim

Idle waiting is for pussies. Balgruuf has enough balls to fight in round 2.

Oceania is the last nation I haven’t introduced yet. Here you go:

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So, what’s their bet? Who is dumb enough to challenge Jarl Balgruuf the Greater face-to-face?

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All right, big boy, bring it on!

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Blessings round. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Pretender’s magic schools while looking at blessing effect. Oceania’s Pretender T’yogh has D6W6-7 (and probably other schools of level 1-3). Which gives their champion Yad Yith +3 defense, and +7 undying.

”Undying” gives temporary hp above natural ones. It means that when he loses all 23 hp, he’ll get 7 more til the end of the fight, but after such a fight he dies anyway. Helheim’s blessings gives 6 temporary hp, btw.

Balgruuf casts Holy Avenger, Yad Yith casts Protection from Cold. I guess the sheer aura of LOOOORD of the Rings gives him the chills.

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The Jarl makes his move. Concentrate, Balgruuf! Your enemy is beefy, has high defense too. This may take a while, so wat…

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Well, I’ll be domkilled. That was unexpectedly fast.

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Round 3

Arcoscephale vs Agartha

Round 3, and still not a single Prophet participating? That’s not what I remember from my previous AI sessions. Look at that thing:

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Love those Agathian names. He brought 2 water gems, which makes me wonder on his strategy. Besides, that Pebblemined is experienced. This could be interesting.

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Interesting choice. An INCREDIBLY powerful magician, with a lot of useful traits, like Awe 6, Stealth 60, Mt. Survival, Recuperation, Seduction, and of course Sacred.

They are both sacred, but lacking Holy path they can’t bless themselves. And both of them are crappy in melee combat. A pure magician duel, no Smite-spammin’ bullshit. Where is my fucking popcorn?!

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Flying Shards, coming from E1 caster? Aiming for a single target over that kind of distance?

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You gotta be shittin’ me. Why do you even need those water gems?

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Smart girl. There wasn’t much chance of getting hit by Flying Shards before, but now it’s absolutely impossible.

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Where is your god now, Pebblemined?

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Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! A Cold Bolt spell is a good early-arena pick for W2 mage.

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Great range, great damage. Not too good precision, but meh. Olm Sage has natural 13. Kinda strange he didn’t use a water gem to decrease fatigue hit, coz it’s 58 already.

Dat Air Shield tho. IIRC, Cold Bolt has to pass Air Shield check after precision check. Which makes it almost… WTF, the Cold Bolt connects!

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Styra survived this?? She is supposed to be dead. But no, 5 hp + Limp affliction (-4 AP, -1 Attack, -1 Defense). If you remember, earlier we already had similar situation with barbarian chief Irnifried, when dmg shown was different from dmg inflicted. Here is the explanation, all credits to my Lizzurd buddy sworn enemy:

Apparently, when you hit particular body parts, like arms or legs, your hit won’t be fatal, no matter how much dmg you did. The target may lose a limb, but will still survive. I’m not sure how exactly it works (I guess the rule applies only to fully healed target?), and you won’t find any info on this in the manual. But hey. At least you know the basic principle now.

Despite only 10 morale, Styra passed the check and didn’t run away. The girl has balls, I’ll give her that. What’s her counter, then?

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The blue 8 is fatigue damage from Cold Bolt.

Eagle Eyes? Still buffing, huh.

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Can’t say I see the point. Finish the job, old worm. And make it gory.

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No, no! You bloody idiot, Flying Shards are used against big stacks of enemies, not a single damn target.

All shards missed. Not even close. Besides, damn spell eats away 30 fatigue, and thus Pebblemined has 92 now. One last turn, and then he will faint.

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Holy shit, that was a close one.

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Ok. That explains the Eagle Eyes buff. Pebblemined was lucky as fuck, because the spell barely missed him. Last chance to win this:

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Cold Bolt misses. Crawling sucker even used one of his gems – good fucking morning! Didn’t help much. Still 106 fatigue.

Styra decided to cast Charge Body – an ABSOLUTELY useless spell in this fight.

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What, you want to engage him in melee? Or just playing on public? Mocking your enemy?

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:what:

FFFUCK, that’s a lot of damage. I hope we won’t have to fight her.

Goddamit, Pebblemined. All you had to do is spam Cold Bolts, putting those gems to good use. Now look what you’ve done.

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Round 4

Helheim vs Caelum

COME AT ME BIRD, I double dare you!!

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Your backstabbin’ trick didn’t work. AGAIN!

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OOOOH, that must hurt! (Both spear and hoof attacks connected, inflicting 4 and 3 dmg).

Here, have one more:

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What r u? CASUL?

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That’s right! Run, pussy, run! Chickens have wings too! Oh, didn’t they tell you that one CANNOT run from Arena, and will die anyway? No? Too fucking bad.

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Round 5

C’tis vs Ulm

In right corner we have a Warrior Smith from Ulm.

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And in left corner we FINALLY have a Prophet! Ningikuga the Lizard Lord, Hall of Fame Hero, and Prophet of Peirithoos.

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Benefits from Unequaled Obesity (heroic ability that grants additional hp and str at cost of some encumbrance), and S4W6 blessing (+1 MR, +3 defense).

C’tis has some balls to send their cold-blooded prophet with UO heroic ability during winter season. Previously I stated that Arena has neutral scales, and that is true. But it’s still affected by the weather. And we are in the middle of winter season. Which results into this:

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Both of them have shitty MR, btw. Which is another good reason not to participate in the Tournament. Oh, well.

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Air Shield is plain stupid. You are fighting against H3, what do you expect him to do? Throw a fucking scimitar in your face? Or maybe spam Smite, which doesn’t have to pass Air Shield check?

Holy Avenger coming from Nik was an obvious choice. But I’ll be damned, it took away 22 fatigue to cast this. For comparison, Balgruuf did HA for only 8. Encumbrance 18 is a bitch.

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That’s right, Gauthbert, throw some stones at him. You see this? Crispy could be there too, casting the same useless spell, looking pathetic. And then BAM:

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Smite in your face! 6 hp left, Pissed Pants affliction and everybody around you laughing.

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If I was Kantena, Pretender of Ulm, I would give up on this War the same moment. Because that was just embarrassing.

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Round 6

Marverni vs Sauromatia

So far, so good. What you’ve got, Marverni?

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Let me guess: Flying Fucking Shards? Whatever. Maybe Sauromatia sent some weakling too.

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Fuck. My. Godliness.

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Viridovix buffs, while Horror of the Androphags summons undead. Animate Skeleton is the most primitive and ineffective necromancy spell. It summons just one skeleton at the cost of 30 fatigue. Although, it only takes 16 for D4 caster.

What can N1E1H1 Viridovix do against such a menace? Spam Banishment and pray for the best. If Man Eater runs out of fatigue, then, err, I don’t know. Flying Shards?

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Viridovix must be senile or something. Maybe that’s the reason Marverni sent him to die? In any case, he tries to fight dat skeleton in melee. And fails miserably. Is that the end?

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Ho ho! Still got some powder in your ass, huh? I wonder how long can you hold on.

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Not too long, I guess. Retreat?

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Thought so.

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This post turned out to be longer than I expected, with over 50 images attached. Guess I’ll have to split the Tournament in two parts. Make yer bets, and stay tuned!
 
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Grimwulf

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Round 7

Helheim vs Arcoscephale

I would rather see Balgruuf fighting Man Eater of Sauromatia. This Styra gives me the creeps.

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Ok, you can do this. I guess she will cast Air Shield or Charge Body next. Right?

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Noooo! I can’t believe she did no more self-buffing. And that bolt, it went straight for Balgruuf, bypassing all illusions. His fucking arm was burned to cinders!

He is virtually DEAD already. He is still standing only because of Shock Resistance and Undying traits. The man has will of steel.

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… Damn.

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Resisted Holy Avenger. Fuck, fuck, FUCK!

:negative:

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Round 8

Sauromatia vs C’tis

Skögu the Man Eater vs Ningikuga the Prophet of Peirithoos. That is going to be one hell of a fight.

Ningikuga casts Holy Avenger, while Skögu summons first skeleton.

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Because, why waste time? But he shouldn’t forget that his opponent is a Prophet – H3 caster.

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H3 Banishment is a fucking nuclear strike, which Ningikuga proves again:

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And again:

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Nevermind, the last one actually missed. No matter! Ningikuga can do that all day long.

Except, he can’t. Cold-blooded lizard has 88 fatigue level already, while methodical Man Eater has only 48.

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One last Banishment, and Ningikuga faints. This. Is. Bad.

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Fucking C'tis. 18 encumbrance, and they still send their Prophet to participate. What were they thinking? He is proper fucked.

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Skeletons start to butcher that fat lizzurd. One of them pokes his eye out. Another one gets hit by Holy Avenger.

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I hate to admit that, but lizard sure has big balls eggs. Because when he regained his consciousness, he didn’t flee.

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Which was spectacular! And futile. I guess this is the end.

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6 hp hit, and 6 hp left. Watch out for…

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… Holy Avenger. Oh, well. Another skeleton shouldn’t have any problem finishing off fainted lizard.

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And he misses. Then misses again. And again. Can you imagine Ningakuga crawling and dodging that sword? Blood pouring out of his eye, no strength left to even stand up, desperately trying to catch his breath.

Scared as fuck (see the triple “mostly routed” message?), he manages to put together those last bits of energy, and

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Damn. The Lizard Lord simply refuses to give up. When next skeleton approached breathless Ningakuga, he couldn’t land a hit for another three rounds. I never saw fucking anyone dodging hits like that, while laying on the ground. That slippery bastard.

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Unfortunately, all things come to an end.

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Sigh. That was the most gutsy lizzurd I ever saw. I kinda feel sorry for him now.

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FINAL ROUND

Sauromatia vs Arcoscephale

SHOWDOWN TIME!

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We saw them both in action more than once. Styra’s Eagle Eyes + Lightning Bolt proved to be deadly tactic, but will it be effective against Skögu’s skellispam? Let’s find out.

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First bolt landed right between Skögu and his skeleton. Styra has to try harder.

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Second bolt connected, but the skeleton survived. Things don’t look pretty for her.

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Fortunately, skeleton misses. But what can be done now? Styra is all out of options.

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And she ends the fight in most glorious way possible – by casting Shock Wave! Lightning burns everything in the area, including skeleton and Styra herself. If you remember, Meliath casted the same spell during battle of Dead Snows, when our helhirdings surrounded her.

At least, she didn’t walk away unpunished. You have been avenged, Balgruuf.

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And thus ends the First Arena Tournament. You may wonder where is Vanheim’s and Kailasa’s champions? Well, Vanheim didn’t participate at all, which is strange for AI, but smart move in general. And Kailasa… Well, Kailasa was lucky enough to participate in one last round, which happened after Skögu defeated Styra.

U sure you want to see this? Suit yourself.

Bonus Round

Kailasa vs Sauromatia

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I will spare you the details.

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Arena Aftermath

Skögu the Man Eater won the Tournament with a single primitive spell.

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Early Arena is a lot like Rock-Paper-Scissors game. In most cases, you have three options:

- Send summoner, like Skögu. Good vs mages and prophets; bad vs melee fighters.

- Send direct-dmg mage or Smite-spammin’ prophet, like Styra or Ningikuga. Good vs melee fighters, bad vs summoners. The exception is Mind Burn strategy, for this spell doesn’t target mindless undead and always goes for primary target. Depending on summoners MR, mage may have a chance.

- Send a melee fighter, like Balgruuf. He could take on Skögu easily, beating those skeletons in melee, waiting for Skögu to run out of stamina. Then finish him off. However, random decided otherwise.

So. We lost Balgruuf over nothing. Kinda sad, but at least he didn’t embarrass us, like those losers from Caelum, Ulm, Marverni, etc. He showed some major skills, won some spectacular matches, and died in most glorious way.

It takes more than just one billion volts to take down Jarl Balgruuf the Greater.

(two is enough, though…)

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Grimwulf

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I wonder if Balgruuf’s ok out there?

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TURN 10

WINTER IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE ASCENSION WARS

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Three provinces searched by Crispy, not a single damn found. If it goes like that, things will turn ugly soon.

I plan to cast Burden of Time on turn 20 at most, and maybe even on turn 18. If I don’t lose any death gems via random events, which is totally possible, I’ll have BARELY enough for the ritual. But to prevent AI from dispelling it easily, I should empower it (add additional death gems to required amount of 70). It is usually a good idea to throw everything you got into global spells you really want. And I’ve got nothing. Yet.

Vanheim claimed dat Dwarvesbarrow Throne.

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Which means their Prophet is still there, near the capital. Along with the main forces, I guess. Ok, let’s leave them alone for the moment and address more urgent matters.

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Frozen Hills battle report:

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And not a single wounded too. Nice! All thanks to Selvaria and her Valkyries.

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Flying units tend to be more effective at attacking rearmost, than cavalry. It took them a couple of turns to kill or force retreat all three enemy commanders. And that's the whole point of Valkyries.

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Still, they are pretty vulnerable when fighting on their own, deep in enemy ranks. That’s why it’s better not to order attack during first turns, thus letting enemy front lines move away from commanders.

When hostile light infantry closed in on our shieldwall, all their commanders were already dead, so they had no choice, but turn around and flee. Clean victory, I say.

One thing still buggers me.

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Unrest rising in Resting Shore. Forget what I previously said about hostile Pretender – “Chaos Power” trait doesn’t increase unrest by itself, there is a separate one existing, “Increase Unrest” (I know, I have serious memory issues). After careful analysis of all possible units, commanders, heroes and Pretenders, I came to conclusion that no one of my neighbors could send anyone capable of raising unrest.

It also isn’t a spy, for his “Raise Unrest” ability is usually much more effective. Therefore, only one option remains: “hidden” negative event. It sometimes happens in provinces without commanders/units/PD. I’ll get a message eventually, smth like “A monster boar is eating little children in Resting Shore, pls halp”. Not sure if I can hunt down this shit until I get the message, so I’m gonna let it go for now.

Besides, I ain’t got no money for hiring patrols. 400gp immediately go for temple building in Helgate.

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Zephyr is ordered to craft an Owl Quill every month. We have some spare air gems, and he will receive a Dwarven Hammer after a couple turns to lower crafting cost. Research is imptnt.

168 gp left. It’s enough to hire a Helkarl for 165. In my situation, it’s best to hire Helkarls instead of Vanherses for research purposes. The latter may be a bit cheaper, but they are not pure-blooded vanir, and thus have shorter lifespan:

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The two numbers in “Age” section are starting age (average age of hired commanders, +/- several years) and old age threshold (the moment they receive “Old Age” trait). 300 years lifespan seems like an awful much at the moment, but things will be different after Burden of Time. That’s why I will hire Helkarls whenever possible. Aye, fascism is a very popular paradigm in Helheim.

Moving Jon Snow closer to future Vanheim/Helheim borders.

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Since Dag the Prophet is still at Dwarvesbarrow, I’ll take that opportunity to grab Weeping Falls province first. It is very defense-effective, and if all goes well, maybe I will even build a fortification there.

To do that, I need Codex Troll at Misty Hollow. From there we can storm Weeping Falls, with Selvaria's support.

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Crispy returns to Helheim, accompanied by two wounded soldiers (the guys that were supposed to come with Balgruuf, if you remember).

Meanwhile, Penda and Selvaria are ordered to conquer Thunder Falls. I can search Frozen Hills sometime later.

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And that covers turn 10. I have absolutely no idea, why does AI act so passive. But I can assure you: not every nation has an easy life right now. This will be the topic of our next War Council: “Nations-outsiders: who will be the first to go extinct?”

Everybody’s welcome to join, as usual, and those who don’t want to – see ya next turn!

Score graphs. We don’t discuss them every single turn, but it doesn’t mean we don’t analyze them constantly. And yes, you can see some major events there occasionally, like:

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Someone kicked Kailasa’s arse at least three times already. During first 10 turns, dammit. Now look at this:

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Those apes must be experiencing major butthurt right now.

The graphs above are plain simple to explain: somebody sieged Kailasa’s capital early on, annihilating most of their army in the process. In response, apes quickly gathered reinforcements in order to fend off the sieging force, but their counter-attack failed miserably.

The capital is any nation's main source of income during first turns. But sieged capital doesn’t bring ANY income, except for magic gems. And thus, Kailasa doesn’t have any means of maintaining remaining forces, which slowly but surely desert (as we see on both score graphs – slowly decreasing tendencies).

Kailasa’s research and gem income didn’t drop down tho, which means they still hold on to the castle. But who could besiege the damn monkeys so early? Either negative event (barbarian horde attack, or whatnot), or C’tis. Which is more likely, judging by graphics correlation.

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As soon as you besiege enemy fortress, you get all the province's gold income. Because the province is technically yours already. Knowing this, we can easily recognize another correlation:

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Kailasa has one of the worst types of Province Defense among EA nations. Their archers do a lot of friendly fire, and units morale is beyond awful. Sometimes you don’t even have to fight them: stupid apes charge forward, catch some friendly arrows/sling bulltes with their asses, then turn around and flee. Truly a sight to see.

Chances are, Kailasa will be the first one to embrace Oblivion.

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But there is one particular nation that has equal chances to be wiped out first. You will never guess.

Caelum.

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Yep.

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Yes, them.

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Uh-huh.

Ok, the last one might need additional explanation. Caelum starts with 3 provinces on this map since Dominions 3. During those ancient times Caelum sucked so bad, that map designer attempted to compensate it with something. Having three provinces from turn 1, while all other nations have just their capitals – that’s a major advantage. Still didn’t help Caelum in most cases.

But after 4.07 build of Dominions 4 Caelum transformed into something menacing, to say the least. While the map remained unchanged. By the way, isn’t it hilarious that the Throne of Ascension was on their territory from the start, but they claimed it only on turn 9?

We know what you all thinking.

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But let us look at province graphs again. 5. FIVE provinces. The only two nations that have less are Marverni and Kailasa.

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Don’t judge Marverni. They are doing what they can, and nobody gave them three starting provinces. At least they never stopped expanding.

And we all saw what happened to Kailasa. Being anal raped is respectable excuse for having 3 provinces at turn 10.

But Caelum – they just don’t do shit since turn 5. Just sitting on their mountain top, circlejerking, and giving stupid names to each other. “What’s the big dea?” - you may ask. We agree, sometimes AI goes full retard defense, and hoards doomstacks/researches/crafts stuff and whatever.

But in case of Caelum there is one, err, ISSUE:

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Their Pretender Amrav has dominion 2. Fucking TWO! How STUPID is that fucking AI to set dominion at TWO POINTS?!

But even then, shouldn’t Caelum attack provinces in all four directions, building temples everywhere like a damn madman? Yes. Why is he standing still with such an army, while there are shittons of undefended provinces around (we see two of them to the south of Helgate, and besides there is weakened and bloodless Kailasa to the east)?

Rush-attacking in Dominions is unpopular. It is possible to wipe out your enemy early in the game, but it’s rarely worth the effort. Take Helheim and Caelum, for example. We can’t even hope to defeat them on battlefield, but if we hire enough Vanherses and send them to spread dominion sneaky-style, while performing blood sacrifices at Helgate, we could domkill winged bastards after a dozen of turns, at most. But that would hamper our research speed greatly, because the same priests could stay at home and do research. Simply not worth it.

Anyway, Caelum will cease to exist naturally, along with it’s bigass army. It’s only a matter of time.

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All their neighbors (Kailasa may be soon replaced by C'tis) have strong dominions. But what even more significant, look at upper score graph again – Caelum’s dominion doesn’t increase. Not only because their current maximum is 2 per province, but because there are no more provinces left to accept their faith. This is called “Faithwall”.

The basic principle of Faithwall goes like this: the stronger is hostile Dominion, the harder it is to spread your own. We have a strong Faithwall in Helgate:

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Preventing weaker hostile dominions from spreading on our territories. Someone’s Faithwall prevents weaker Caelum dominion from spreading further. Actually, that may be the sole reason they don’t expand – all their commanders are currently praying/building temples, to prevent inevitable domkill.

Don’t be like Caelum.

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Last edited:

Grimwulf

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TURN 11

LATE WINTER IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE ASCENSION WARS

Crispy is back at Helheim. Yay? Nay.

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I hate unexpected events.

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You must be shittin’ me. Let me get it straight: you’ve dig up a bull statue, put it on MY SHRINE, then cured some random leper at MY SHRINE, and that led you to form a fucking cult?! CULT OF BULLSHIT!!

Any other nasty surprises?

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Looks good from here. Wasn’t an easy one, though.

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Enemy archers were lucky this time. Even on that kind of distance, they managed to hit some of our serfs badly. One got a chest wound (Enc +5, Str -1), another one is limping now (AP -4, Att-1, Def-1). Moments like this make you appreciate tower shields, like Ermor armies use.

Valkyries didn’t act as efficient as last time, failing morale check and attacking front lines instead of enemy commanders.

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Which led to unnecessarily prolonged battle.

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The end was still predictable.

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Selvaria made it into Hall of Fame and received “Iron Will” heroic ability (MR boost). Which is always good.

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We have finally reached another nation’s borders. Aaand, it doesn’t look good.

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Can’t rely on numbers too much – these kind of reports are not very accurate. “60” can mean anything from 40 to 100. But they usually get proportions right (Steel Warriors squad has the most quantity, then Mt. Warriors, then regular Warriors).

So, we can see some top-notch Ulm forces in Lower Ulmwood. Curiously enough, not every AI nation is aggressive by default. Sometimes AI won’t attack other nations if not provoked, or before he sends a warning message, smth like “I’ll pwn ur ass next turn scrub”. Provoking such an AI into early war is not in my interest, so attacking Ulm is not an option right now. Even if Lower Ulmwood didn’t have any defense at all.

And sometimes AI doesn’t give a damn about courtesy, and attacks at first given opportunity. It might be a good idea to hire some PD and hold yer ground. Mini-explanation of PD principles:

Every point of PD costs 1gp more than previous one. PD 1 costs 1gp, upgrading it to PD 2 costs 2gp, and so on. Therefore, hiring PD 10 from scratch costs 55gp; PD 20 costs 210gp, etc.

Type of PD depends on the province. The good thing about it is the self-restoring ability. If an enemy attacks your province with 100 milita, kills 90 of them and retreats, your militia will restore their numbers back to 100 immediately. The bad thing is they will never do it if defeated.

Therefore, spending too much on PD can be a massive waste of gold. But it’s always worth to buy PD 1 everywhere.

Even if Penda and Selvaria will stay in Thunder Falls with PD 20:

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I’m not sure if they can fend off Ulm attack. Conclusion: total waste of gold, time, and effort. No point in searching the province for gems, since we might lose it pretty soon, thus:

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Selvaria and Codex Troll are going to conquer Weeping Falls, following good old trusty tactics:

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While Penda attacks Midvale. Even if we stumble upon Ulm over there, Penda’s army is relatively expendable, and he should be able to escape. I hope.

Helgate is all built-up. We have palisades, temple, lab, and there is really no need to build anything else.

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I order Gordon Cageman to attack the Dying Jungle with immediate retreat order. Coz I need him at Helgate for the time being, and can’t think of any better task right now.

Everett could stay here and research, but I really don’t like to be blind. I send him to scout south-eastern surroundings, and probably do some preaching.

Helheim does heavy researching.

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Not too sure how to spend 600gp more effectively.

Option 1: Buy another research horse in Helgate, while hiring more Valkyries in Helheim.

Option 2: Buy another research horse in Helheim, while establishing new offensive force in Helgate.

On one hand, I’m going to need fresh blood against Ulm and Vanheim. On the other hand, Caelum and Kailasa will both cease to exist in just a few turns. The whole area to southeast of Helgate is going to be unprotected. I can’t just miss that opportunity, can I?

Screw it. We need to grow some fat. Therefore, Vanherse in Helheim and

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Still accepting your naming suggestions. This Vanjarl might be a hero soon enough.

In Helgate.

One final check

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I wish there was a population bar as well. Sigh.

And we’re good to go.
 

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