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Dominions 4 - Season 3 - The Geriatric Wars

KoolNoodles

Arcane
Joined
Apr 28, 2012
Messages
3,545
Nah, it's good you ended it. As I said it was inevitable mostly due to your economic advantage(gems in late game after the Armageddons). Sure I had some thugs and Tart factories going but those are single units, not armies.

I cast Eyes of God towards the end to try and get a better idea of the throne situation, again, but it was with my mage holding the Dimensional Rod, and well.....the horrors finally got to him on the exact same turn. :) Interestingly, I don't think his Elixir of Life worked(he never came back).

I'd be interested in the AAR, and knowing when Pythium/Pelagia came to be firmly on your side. I helped Pythium a lot! Haha.
 

sqeecoo

Arcane
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
2,615
True, and Sentinels have good MR and HP and are remarkably resistant to the mass destruction suicide spells - as are the Oracles, which were pretty much the only mages I was fielding lately due to budget issues :)

I was very friendly with the two of them the whole game, especially due to playing Decline 5 during the game with Matalarata where we were part of a great team. And we were just far enough to cooperate but have no border tensions whatsoever.

Can we now know who did all the Armageddons? That's one thing that I can't reveal in my AAR :)
 

thesheeep

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
9,939
Location
Tampere, Finland
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On my role in this:

I was basically out of the game after 1/3rd of the game.
My economy & research was in shambles after the fruitless war with Rlyeh (which ended in a stalemate and both sides severly drained). Sticking to my initial plan of attacking Rlyeh ASAP was my worst move in this game. Everything from my pretender design to early research was planned for that single purpose. And it would have worked, I think. If the game did not spawn me in that worthless 10 province pond, bordering 3 caps to bleed dominion into my domain...
After that war with Rlyeh, it took a while to get a hold again, but with no recruitable mages on land, and the need to recruit endless priests not to be domkilled...

By the time I would have been ready to do something, Ermor's BoT kicked in and I had hilariously bad gem income for MA.
The patch actually improved Pelagia significantly (land-recruitable mages and not-totally-shit units on land!!!), but by the time it was applied, I was maybe a dozen or so turns away from negative income (as most of us, I guess), so all the cool new toys I could not try.

As squeecoo said, we've been friendly all the time, and it was very, very obvious I had no chance to win anything here any more, so I decided to go kingmaking instead of going AI.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 4, 2014
Messages
1,563
I was way too passive for the whole of the game. And we collectively were way too passive when sqeecoo's cavemen really started to expand beginning with eating Abysia.
But when you have full turmoil, sloth, death scales, you gotta turtle!

Anyways, good game, and it was nice to survive to the end and getting to play with some end game units and spells.

I had a weird relationship with Matalarata's Pythium, we were neighbours all this time, but I don't think either of us sent a single message, but we still managed to avoid fighting each other. Not even one accidental brawl (I think).

Armageddons were all mine. I also financed Ermor's second BoT.
 

Matalarata

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
2,646
Location
The threshold line
As Thesheep above, I had a very nice relationship with Agartha since turn 1. We shared more than that, lot of artifacts changed hands, freebies were given when possible and noobness was dampened by mutual advices.
KoolNoodles, you were a bro too! Especially near the end (also I was not joking, I sincerely lacked enough casters to equip all dat RP goodnes you sent...), but the amount of forging and gem sharing we had since turn one with sqeecoo was simply too much to ignore!
Sorry, I actually conceded my thrones to him, it was a mutual accord and I couldn't sincerely hope to stop agartha anyway, I had given my last vs Ermor!
As for Pythium per-se, I had horribru expansion, wich I hilariously (I hope) chronicled to my closest allies. Hvy cav provinces as far as the eye could see, one of my biggest army (with mages and merc support) routed vs 8 frickin knights!

Joined on the 4th of July I was sincerely scared of an attack from your direction since mid game, I simply lacked the resources to fight both sides, even if during my brief alliance with Nazca I contemplated the idea of coming down on you, I had an undead-melting army at my disposal then! My dreams came crashing down when my mail client betrayed me, I stalled a turn and Ermor got my biggest army, lots of gear was lost that day and I never fully recovered.
 

KoolNoodles

Arcane
Joined
Apr 28, 2012
Messages
3,545
Oh game....horrible, beautiful game...I wish I could go back to you. But it's OVER.

LfBpDMz.jpg


:negative:
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,465
Location
Shaper Crypt
Oh, well, a worthy place to place my 800 post.

Marignon reporting in!

I was kinda disappointed when KN decided to attack me when I was trying to find a sub for the game (made the situation incredibly difficult to find someone up for a gangbanged nation) but I had no mettle to play more than 2 games at the time, and I'm still trying to mantain that equilibrium. Raw gets points for volunteering, but he made terrible, terrible choices both in diplo and on the battlefield.

I got the early game I planned, and everything went incredibly smooth. Good expansion, excellent resources, good gemcount and Sage province. Helped a little nuking Abysia (a far better choice to help Sqeecoo than to leave a Blood nation alive) and made some very nice battles against raw's Giants that made me reconsider the strength of mass crossbows plus F magic support.

When I left the game I had stock Evo researched and the first Thugs on-line, and I've heard that they gave a bloody nose on TC before general mismanagement sent everything to Oblivion.

I think squeecoo gained a lot out of my escape from the game: extra cap, shitton of resources and a safe position with well-built Fortresses. Plus Russian military advisors gave him a tiny little advantage on planning and strategy (some stuff I've seen in later turns where orders/tricks I did not know about), but N9 statues are a bitch if you don't know what yer doing. Yet, I've seen some later turns and they are very nicely planned, bar some recognizable drunk attacks.

Yet, as Marignon I would probably have prayed for death in a BoT+Armageddon enviroment, if I failed to get S summons en-masse. I do not enjoy lategame tragedies that much, so I don't have many regrets to have left Candida to die.

I do have regrets only for my crossbowmen. They were awesome.

Good job, sqeecoo. Congrats on your victory! Well played.
 

sqeecoo

Arcane
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
2,615
So finally my laziness levels have dropped low enough to do a bit of the AAR I promised.

Obviously, this is my perspective on things so it may be incorrect or incomplete. Players are free to chime in and correct me, and criticism from better players (i.e. everyone) is welcome. For instance if you point out the tricks/orders you mentioned, Dayyalu - I'll happily tell you whether they were Grimwulf's suggestions or not :)


My initial idea is to do this in three chunks of 30 turns, so here goes Episode One: The Early Game.

First, the pretender:

agxiz82.jpg


I'm very happy with this one. E4N9 is a very nice bless for Agartha's sacreds and mages both, and the pretender itself is reasonably useful as a summoner or caster of the big nature spells in combat. Scales are solid as well, although in the early game I regretted not putting an extra point into production for more Defenders of the Halls. But by midgame Production 1 felt just right.
Nothing flashy, but very nice and solid.

A Diplomatic Beginning

So, below is my starting position and early expansion. As you can see, I lucked out and got Golog, the hero. This was a big deal and helped my early research immensely as well as getting me high Death magic for later. I actually don't like it very much that the heroes are so luck based, I think I got a very significant advantage here.

nOU2z49.jpg


The starting army was reinforced on the first turn with some extra infantry and a few Troglodytes (against Grimwulf's recommendation). The Trogs were a mistake, they died immediately. But expansion went very well with a new army of 7-9 Shard Guards blessed by an Earth Reader being pumped out every two turns. With the bless I had, these were enough to handle practically any indy with no or minor losses, other than heavy cav where they needed some lance catchers.

Immediately on the first turn I wrote to everyone and told them my exact starting location. The idea was that as a noob, I wasn't enough of a threat for this to cause a gangbang and it would allow me to start making friends early and avoid accidental early wars. In my view, these are a real killer. Early wars should be fought with allies, or at least be controlled attacks on a mostly unsuspecting player. I wanted to avoid accidents and make friends.
Telling people my location worked well, on the whole. Most people reciprocated with vague info on their own starting location, and I started up friendly communication with players further away from me, especially Pythium, Pelagia, and Tien Chi. I immediately arranged borders with Nazca to the NE, giving me a secure flank. My relationship with Nazca was very friendly for the rest of the game, and included quite a bit of gem trading as well, with Muty being pretty generous about it and helping me get extra Living Mercuries up in exchange for Death gems for his Supayas.

The biggest benefit of this early diplo move was communication with Vanarus. Our capitols turned out to be very close (he is north of the lake, SW from my cap in the picture, with just three provinces between our caps). Without this early diplo, we would have probably bumped into each other and gotten entangled into an early war. As it was, however, we had a nice and honest relationship back from Decline 2, and despite Captain Coxwaggle's reputation as a no-diplo beserker we got along very well and even signed a secret alliance a bit later. I was very happy about this, since the Captain was honorable and unlikely to betray me, and his beserker reputation made it unlikely others would suspect we were allied or that he would ally with someone else. Not too much cooperation came out of the alliance other than some trades, but once again I had a secure flank to the SW and avoided an early war I didn't want.

Giving out my capitol province number to everyone backfired a bit too, however, but that's to be expected. Abysia made use of the information and aggressively expanded towards me (a very legitimate move). I tried to diplomatically set up some reasonable borders, but he pushed forward and took as many as three provinces within two spaces from my capitol (that were at a distance of 4 from his). Such expansion bullying is a completely legitimate move, and I hold no grudge - but I was hoping for an opportunity to push back, of course. Which came when Vanarus decided to attack Abysia. I had been in contact with several players, including Vanheim, Marigon, and Tien about moving on Abysia, but Vanarus just charged in at turn 12 or 13 I believe. A risky move, but he could be reasonably sure other players would back him up.

Turn 14 Fuck Diplomacy, Let's Go to War!

In the next pic, I attack Abysia as well. To the NW my expansion force was naturally in a very nice position to siege his second fort, and another army is moving out near my cap - you can also see the extent of Abysia's expansion towards me here as well, and Vanarus attacking to the south. Only Abysia's cap is unsieged - a hard position.

bJ6v6GL.jpg


My siege was broken immediately by an assassin killing my leader, but still :)

Research was Conjuration 3 first for Batharus Pact for perma-summoned Earth Elementals I read were good in the early game, and then onto Alt 2 for Earth Meld at Grimwulf's recommendation.

To the west, I conquered a throne but it turned out to be very close (two provinces distant) from Ashdod's captiol. Since I'm now at war with Abysia I don't think I can possibly defend that, so I immediately apologize to Ashdod and say I'll fall back - in fact he can take the other side of the river if he likes, as long as he gives me some compensation for killing the indies for him.

Turn 16-17 Berserkers in the Night

Turn 16 has Ashdod taking that throne, my two armies moving out against Abysia, and a battle about to happen in the south between Abysia and Vanarus as Abysia tries to break the siege:

NOiBkWx.jpg


I've also started to recruit Oracles of the Ancients exclusively in my capitol, and sending out some Golem Crafters to sitesearch. They are excellent in that role, and I got some nice early sites. Alteration 2 is done and I start Enchantment research for the amazing Sentinels which will be a mainstay of my army for the rest of the game.

All of Ashdod's neighbors at this point are worried about him, due to his erratic (but fun!) diplomacy and huge early game power. So at (I think) Marigon's initiative a defensive pact is signed by Eriu, Vanheim, and Marigon against Ashdod, and I'm invited in as well. Ashdod is not responding to my requests to resolve the border dispute across the river amiably and just keeps taking that territory, so on literally the next turn after the defensive pact is signed I activated it as Ashdod has, in my mind, declared war. Also it's very convenient for me to have three other players deal with that problem while I fight Abysia :D

Let's look at that battle between Vanarus and Abysia:

They both bring out their main armies, I believe:
103gpvj.jpg


It's dark because I claimed the Throne of Night next to my cap a bit earlier, leading to a lot of complaining from the other players about their archers being blind. Abysia brings in some shamblers on that right flank, probably for that reason. Vanarus' huge line of hirdmen is terrifying however, and cuts through all of Abysia's stuff despite the dark and the evocation spam.

l9J3PNa.jpg
0HAF2wi.jpg

oy5ynGG.jpg



This is a big blow for Abysia, and he will be pushed back to his cap now. Not sure he could have done anything better though other than surrender the fort, those hirdmen are numerous and very dangerous. Not only are they powerful, berserk makes them unlikely to flee so they tend to win prolonged engagements against similar infantry. Note that Vanarus took turmoil+luck scales and a double bless, much to Grimwulf's horror. There would have been even more hirdmen around otherwise. Pretty scary - I'm glad I avoided that early war with Vanarus.

Turn 18 The Gangbangening
Turn 18 finds us with Abysia losing ground, and me learning to use small groups of elementals to raid. To the west you can see Ashdod having conquered all my former territory across the river with no agreement reached, and Vanheim attacking him.
y9QKm4F.jpg
hWed3lL.jpg


Marigon also arrives against Abysia to the east, with a huge army. Poor Malakal :(

Around this time I start peace talks with Abysia. I feel taking Abysia's captiol (which I could manage eventually) would make me a potential gangbang target. I already have a lot of land, and having two capitals this early may be pushing my luck. I'm pretty happy which what I conquered so far (including a blood amazon province just SE of my cap!) and I'm content to let Marigon and Vanarus lose forces taking Abysia's cap. I actually send Abysia some help in the form of money and gems, and later I'll learn Tien Chi was also working hard diplomatically to keep Abysia alive. But can he possibly survive this? Let's look at turn 21.


Turn 21 Of Burning Goats and Men
Abysia is attacked by both Vanarus and Marigon in the same turn! And wins both battles, mostly due to heavy PD bought up in the capitol. A lucky flame shot hits Marigon's only leader, and his crossbows retreat.

Pn8HZfp.jpg
hqyXabr.jpg



But the battle with Vanarus is much closer. Let's check it out:


Vanarus brings out another large line of Hirdmen supported by goats. Abysia has multiple mages and a LOT of PD charging forward, with his real troops guarding the mages.
LrfjteD.jpg



Despite a ton of fire raining down, the Hirdmen just seem to shrug it off and continue their slaughter. Some even break through on the flank and kill some mages.
F5uUbZi.jpg




At last their numbers thin, but the PD flees. It comes down to remaining hirdmen vs infantry guarding the mages. The hirdmen are too tired and wounded and too few to win, but it was pretty close overall. It came down to successful morale checks on the commander guards carrying the day.
RTAnfQs.jpg
gQiazN8.jpg


Look at that courage! Only one hirdmen didn't fight to the death.


In the west, Ashdod is under heavy attack from 3 sides and loosing fast. Not much anyone can do in that situation other than try to struggle out of it through diplomacy.

Abysia is now down to only his cap, but neither Marigon nor Vanarus can't seem to be bothered to conquer it. I am at peace with Abysia sending him the occasional tiny gift, even of blood slaves that I now have a trickle of from the amazons.
Blood is of course amazing for a earth-heavy nation due to Bloodstones - that alone is worth it.

Meanwhile, North of the Wall
Up north, Nazca and Ermor are now at war:

ZuMOohP.jpg


Their back-and-forth will continue for a while with Ermor slowly gaining ground until Pythium enters on Nazca's side.

Here's turn 23 up there:

0hZPKJq.jpg


As you can probably tell, I'm recruiting two scouts per turn from fortless provinces.


Turn 27 A Look at Army Composition and Bleached Bones in the Wastes

I move an army to the Ashdod front and reconquer the three provinces I had there originally, including the throne, while Ashdod struggles against heavy attack. I promise I'll go no further after conquering these three provinces, so he concentrates on his other attackers.

Here's a shot of the situation on turn 27 (you can see a huge Marigon army coming up on Ashdod), as well as the throne and the scripting of my army in Ashdod:

7irLiSb.jpg

K89s8bU.jpg

WomfzZ8.jpg



I loudly proclaim to my allies that I will ask for no gains in the war with Ashdod, just this bit I had originally. On the other hand, these three provinces are very nice (farm+throne) and I didn't really consider I "had" them earlier. So that's pretty much a gain in my mind, but by not being greedier than that and phrasing it that way ("only getting back what I had") I hopefully seem less of a threat in the eyes of my allies in the Ashdod war, and also give them the opportunity to start up some border tensions between themselves :)

That throne is amazing. The thing is, it's hard to get high resistances to elements. The battle spells will only give you +5, and the various versions don't stack. 5 damage less is not amazing when even a lowly fireball does 16+. But the bonus from this throne does stack with fire resistance spells, and almost all of my guys are sacred. With regeneration and 10 fire resistance, fire damage isn't a huge problem.

In research, I'm going for construction after Enchantment 4 for Living Mercuries, much praised by Grimwulf. They are indeed very good and performed well even though I didn't really use them properly (no buffs what so ever).

In recruitment, I recruit max Shard Guards and an Oracle of the Ancients in the capitol, always. As soon as an Oracle of the Ancients pops out, I send it to a distant fort - the goal is to have them everywhere, since they are super slow. I try to have a few Golem Crafters everywhere too, and recruit a few indy N1 priests for site searching and some amazon F1B1 indys for light bloodhunting. The idea is to empower an Oracle of the Ancients and forge Blood Stones. I try to save earth gems as best I can for statue summoning, but I built two Dwarven Hammers and some Earth Boots around this time.
So my armies consist of Shard Guards supported by Earth Elementals, Magma Children (very nice), and Living Mercuries as well as Sentinels being slowly summoned. I get some Defenders of the Halls as resources allow, but these are mostly on Guard Commander duty in my armies.

Since I don't intend to do any more conquest against Ashdod, I'm unsure about what to do next at this point. Attacking Vanarus or Nazca is possible, but Vanarus is a good ally, and Nazca is fighting Ermor - attacking Nazca would see Ermor grow even faster.

That leaves Marigon as the prime target, and Tien Chi is already bringing up the possibility of an alliance against Marigon and warning about Marigon's huge expansion. This is true - Marigon is the largest power currently. On the other hand, I have a nice relationship with Dayyalu. I also consider the option of attacking a member of the coalition forming against Marigon instead (probably Vanheim). The idea here would be to gain territory while keeping Marigon as a grateful ally, while at the same time weakening Marigon since he would likely suffer some losses from the coalition attack.

Turn 27 also gets me this scary event:

aZl1GNQ.jpg


Apparently, this makes a Necromancer and his undead horde appear in the province, and actually spawn more attacks on other provinces until killed. Let's see what happens :)


Turn 29 and the Slaughter of the Anakites

Turn 29 and 30 sees interesting developments elsewhere in the world, as I start moving parts of my troops in Ashdod east, towards Marigon.
On the Ashdod front, Marigon fights a huge battle with Ashdod. Massed crossbows with Wind Guide from the Virtue pretender combined with Flaming Arrows fucking obliterates the incredibly tough giants who would have cut through infantry. A surprising result showcasing the power of crossbows in the late earlygame.

2uukg7g.jpg

HJmRCu4.jpg


Incredibly, some Anakites manage to walk through this withering fire and kill some blocking infantry. But not many and these are expendable, while the loss of all these sacreds and mages is crippling for Ashdod.

tLvfsLT.jpg



In the north, Pythium enters the fray against Ermor. Apparently he had a lot of miscommunication with Nazca, but together they start to push Ermor back:

p0RwvpL.jpg


Pythium is using pretty standard troops supported by banishments. Grimwulf recommends a banishment communion, and I pass the advice on.

We also catch a glimpse of Ermor's god in a battle with Nazca:

1Ia9dST.jpg


That skull mentor he carries around is very Shakespearean.


In the south C'tis decides to attack Vanarus in a surprise twist. A "low intensity war". I advise against it since Hirdmen are hard and peace does not come easy from the Captain, but turns out to be an ok move in the long run I guess.
The first battle goes poorly for C'tis however, and he is pushed back. Hirdmen win the day again with the support of double-bless Oath-Bounds, despite C'tis' awake pretender being in the fray (almost got killed too):

PUtsnkt.jpg

OHEDlYW.jpg

Marigon Attack Plan

On my end, on turn 30 I'm now committed to an alliance against Marigon. I have to admit my decision was influenced by Dayyalu's impending substitute, and agree that this was kind of a dick move on part of the anti-Marigon alliance. On the other hand, the alliance was discussed before any mention of Dayyalu getting a sub, and an attack date was set without any sub considerations. I'd say the best way to handle these situations in the future would be to pause the game when someone announces he'll be getting a sub instead of continuing it with that announcement looming over the players' heads.

Anyway, let me copy-paste my attack plans for Marigon from my report to Grimwulf:

Most importantly for me, I've decided to attack Marigon and entered in a large alliance with Tien (KoolNoodles), Vanheim, and C'tis. It is now turn 30, we intend to attack on turn 32. Tien was the instigator of the alliance, but I've been diploing in that direction for a while as well. In two turns there is a good chance Dayyalu will have subbed to start Decline 4 :) If he was staying, there's a chance I wouldn't attack him like this. I would probably warn him of the plot (he half expects it anyway) and fight one of his attackers, aiming to get some gains that way and a good ally in the process, while achieving the goal of weakening him anyway. But I don't know whether I can work with the sub, so I'll go along with the alliance against Marigon.

Anyway, the general attack plan, as suggested by Tien:
wvgJugm.jpg


Broad outlines of expected territory gains added by me (as can be seen from the shitty drawing skills) and accepted by the other players. I think it's always good to agree beforehand who gets what, at least in broad terms. Prevents shenanigans and infighting, and makes everyone more invested in the attack, at least initially.

The blue arrow is a suggestion C'tis accepted - I'll be moving from that fort through his sea province and coming out next to Mari's capitol. This helps me build up my forces there on the pretense of getting ready to finish off Abysia, and in general just get more recruitment and summons out of the guys in that fort.

My attack plan:

Z2IKxHk.jpg


Army 1 and Army 3 are each 30 or so shard guards, 8 or so mercuries, 10+ sentinel statues, 30 or so Defenders of the Halls, two Oracles, two Pale One Commanders. Not amazing, I know, but most of my guys are stuck west where I was fighting Ashdod (well, I didn't do much fighting :P ). Still, Marigon does not have significant forces where I'm attacking (other than those slightly surprising knights of the chalice and researchers) and I have allies attacking from all directions, so perhaps I won't do badly. Having + 5 FR on my sacreds from a throne helps as well.

Army 2 is mostly the summonable fire guys and a couple of golem crafters, congregating on my side of the bridge under the pretense of a screening force protecting my fortbuilder (I'm not actually building a fort there, but I've kept a lone commander there for a turn or two to maintain the illusion). The Golem crafters will meet up with the amphibious forces crossing the river/sea, and the magma children can go raid.

The buildup of A1 is partially screened by the bunch of militia I have patrolling for bloodhunting at that fort, that shows up as the majority of the army. By the way, 55 patrollers (militia, agarthan light infantry) does not seem to be enough to keep unrest down now that I have Dousing Rods.

My original plan was to move A3 into the sea on turn 31 with the explanation of grabbing some water provinces from C'tis while he is engaged with Vanarus, and be next to his cap on turn 32, the start of the war. Sieging it on 33 before he can scramble a proper defense for a big econ hit even if I don't manage to take it. I'm starting to think that may not be so smart: Dayyalu hasn't subbed yet and may not be fooled by that excuse, and A3 doesn't feel adequately strong for the task. If his cap is sieged he will most likely divert everything he can to defend him - helping my allies but increasing my losses.

For equipment, I'll have a water lens now, and perhaps a water bracelet as well (Con 6 finishes this turn). I traded two robes of missile protection for my Oracles since they can be easily targeted by attack large monsters - each army will have one robe. A 1 also has a turn of Ancient Ones instead of Shard guards to mess up the targeting. I also have one Helmet of Heroes for inspiration, might forge another for the other army. May help my sacreds break through the Virtue's Awe if it comes to that.

Well, might as well give Grimwulf's reply:

Hmmm. I guess going for Constr6 before Alt5 or Evo4 was a mistake, after all. Then again - who would have thought you were going to invade Marignon?

So. The main problem here is having all those awesome E casters with absolutely no shit to cast. Earth Meld gets old pretty fast, and it's also useless against Marignon crossbows (being stuck in one place does not prevent firing). At this point it's too late to change stuff, so you should finish Constr6. Use your E casters to buff your stuff with Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants.

As soon as you finish Constr6, go full Alteration. Bring your hoburgs with N1 and N1W1 with you - they will come in handy as soon as you reach Alt3. Mossbody and Protection are both extremely useful, since your summoned stuff is immune to poison. Foul Vapours is super-effective too, if you can get nature boosters for N1W1 hoburgs.

Earth Readers are useless in battle, but you can bring them for Lesser Elementals spam, if you feel like wasting gems. I would leave them behind to research.

Golem Crafters are half-useless against Marignon. They could Earth Meld, of course, but... eh. Leave most of them behind.

All you need is Oracles and chaff commanders (neutrals, etc.), coz Marignon has those assassins and troubadours. Bring stealthy scouts who would carry gems if needed. Buff your stuff, and let your mages do what they do best - research and summon.

Start empowering that F1E3D1 Oracle in your cap with blood. Give him B2 empower (80 slaves in total) and trade for booster with anybody. Abysia is your best bet. I think he wouldn't mind trading Brazzen Vessel for Dwarven Hammer. Maybe Blood Thorn, if he reached Constr6 by now.

Everything else is gud. Remember no to place your living units near Mercury, and you'll be fine.

As you can see, I got a ton of good advice from Grimwulf, and he really helped me as a total noob to get a feel for how things should be going.
But I don't think his influence was inappropriately large, although this is of course for you to judge. In this instance, for example, I didn't change my plans or scripting for this attack based on Grimwulf's suggestions other than to bring some N1W1 hoburgs along, which were marginally useful. His advice was a bit more detailed than this at the start of the game until I got the basic hang of things, but got less detailed as the game went on.

On the other hand, he really helped me pick good research and select good spells (like Maws of Earth and Earth Meld), and the helpfulness and confidence boost of having a veteran to run your ideas by can't be overstated. Couldn't have won this without him, definitely.


Turn 30 World Overview

Anyway, let's have a situation report for turn 30 and wrap this episode up.

The Square Kingdom of Agartha:

Fjf57dv.jpg


As you can see, I'm leaving some troops to the west to cover the throne towards former Ashdod and am moving the bulk of my forces east according to the plan outlined above. C'tis and Vanarus are having an indecisive war with C'tis doing a great job raiding but not really winning any big battles I saw. This is allowing Abysia to reclaim his capring. I willingly surrender the farm province to the north of Abysia's cap as this was part of our peace deal - that I'll give it back if he survives.

A look at Marigon:

TIUuW9D.jpg


He is pretty huge, but his armies are out of position in relation to me.

In the north, Pythium and Nazca are very slowly pushing Ermor back, but taking heavy losses in the process. R'lyeh and Pelagia are apparently fighting UW, but I don't see any of that. I hear that R'lyeh's mind blasts are giving Pelagia trouble despite initial victories and superior production.

k0vL66C.jpg



And finally, my research and gem income. I was pretty diligent in sitesearching - everything is searched by Golem Crafters, my pretender and indy mages do nature searching, and I'll eventually set up some Oracles with Fire or Water or Death at 2+ or more to do another pass - this was marginally effective. I've wasted a lot of gems on remote Death site searching - this did not pay off, so I eventually stop and send my D4 hero out to search manually instead.


0gy2cn9.jpg
k2c0BFC.jpg

I think my position at this point is good: I am pretty strong, have many good relations with other players and no grudges, a target to attack with allies, and Ermor and Marigon are considered by the world to be the biggest threats so I'm pretty safe. I've also broken into blood magic with the amazons, and with Abysia this weak and no one else with stronger blood magic, I'm in the running to be a top blood power in this game.

There you have it!

In the next episode: The Last Stand of the Anakites!

x6PTw2Q.jpg


Official release date: eventually, if ever.


Ok, if anyone actually reads this, please feel free to tell me if you'd like more/less details, whether my use of spoiler tags is ok, or point out anything else you think sucks and could be improved.

EDIT: Some turn files can be found in my post just below.
 
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Matalarata

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:bro:

Edit: What I actually did was luring Ermor deep into my strong dominion and then unleash a huge communion on him, that's why I only used conventional troops in the beginning. I had this surpise ready for him In my capital, 6 arch theurges + my goddes + 16 communion slaves. That said your advices (and Grimwulf's by proxy...) were always apreciated!
 
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sqeecoo

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As a bonus, here are some turn files:

Turn 6, the beginning.
https://d.maxfile.ro/gnmmvvrcye.trn

Turn 14, start of war with Abysia.
https://d.maxfile.ro/lqeloggyig.trn

Turn 17, First Abysia-Vanarus battle.
https://d.maxfile.ro/mduethhhhe.trn

Turn 21, Second Abysia-Vanarus battle.
https://d.maxfile.ro/wwpperluur.trn

Turn 25, I forgot why I thought it was significant.
https://d.maxfile.ro/rgmlzbbbzo.trn

Turn 29, The Slaughter of the Anakites.
https://d.maxfile.ro/efgivypgyi.trn

Rename to mid_agartha.trn to use.
 

Dayyālu

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Turn 29 and the Slaughter of the Anakites

Turn 29 and 30 sees interesting developments elsewhere in the world, as I start moving parts of my troops in Ashdod east, towards Marigon.
On the Ashdod front, Marigon fights a huge battle with Ashdod. Massed crossbows with Wind Guide from the Virtue pretender combined with Flaming Arrows fucking obliterates the incredibly tough giants who would have cut through infantry. A surprising result showcasing the power of crossbows in the late earlygame.

HJmRCu4.jpg


Incredibly, some Anakites manage to walk through this withering fire and kill some blocking infantry. But not many and these are expendable, while the loss of all these sacreds and mages is crippling for Ashdod.

Ahh, mein finest hour

Very little things can stop in the earlygame massed crossbows, bar Air magic properly deployed or skilled decoys. raw fucked up both bless and battlefield disposition (no offense intended) as I employed suicidal troops and decoys while he got out a huge blob that nonetheless almost managed to cut through the fire of 300+ crossbowmen.

Again, the MA Agartha is an unstoppable beast if you don't know proper counters: I could have nuked somewhat effectively C'tis and TC (and raw did, with the armies I left him) but N9 statues are rather difficult to deal with. I'm curious if anyone in this match got the resources to counter them.

Great reading, though. Maybe this will bring me out of my laziness and I'll do a similar report for the smaller NationGen games. The screenshots are rotting on my desktop, after all!
 

sqeecoo

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Let us continue then! I'll do smaller installments after all - much more happens in these turns, and I'm very slow as it is. Which is appropriate, since from this episode hence we shall be under the Burden of Time!

So then, without further ado:
Episode Two: With Fire and Sword (you can't defeat N9 Sentinels, apparently)



We left off with Marigon about to come under heavy attack from our four-nation alliance as Dayyalu searches for a sub, Nazca and Pythium starting to win against Ermor, Abysia using the war between C'tis and Vanarus to reconquer his cap-ring, and Ashdod crushed by a horrible gangbang, his pretender and tiny retinue of Anakites the sole defenders of the capital against a Vanheimian horde including an impressive 100 Valkyres.

Ashdod is doomed.


Turn 32 The Last stand of the Anakites

The ragged remnants of the Anakites stand beside their Pretender.

IxZ4mSJ.jpg
wlug0BU.jpg


Arrayed against them are hordes of Vanheim! A hundred D9 Valkyres! Probably all of Vanheim's sacred recruitment up to this point in the game. Of course, Vans are a bit better and I'm surprised Vanheim didn't use them instead, but his force is overwhelming.

A terrible Bladestorm hits the poor militia as the Anakites move to defend the gate to the last man.

ZRohz2i.jpg


They might have held out long were not the Valkyres flying, surrounding them on all sides as the militia routs at first contact.

QFpRJrF.jpg


The Anakites hold for a surprisingly long time as the pretender does its best to throw random spells at the attackers, but eventually they are overwhelmed. Earth elementals do little. This is the end.

HY25ZIW.jpg

r2H4JKY.jpg


Or not! Surrounded, the Divine Gif smartly starts casting Immolation, burning all of Vanheim's precious sacreds to a crisp! In horror, the Valkyres die and flee! Allahu Akbar indeed.
Followed closely by badly burnt Hirdmen retreating as well. The Gif is left on just 22 hp, diseased from the deadly weapons of the Van. The Vanjarls are too far back to finish him off properly with lighting however, and keep summoning Phantasmal Warriors who can't damage him, but tank his spells fairly well.

ZDSl3Gc.jpg


This goes on for a LONG time, hilariously so. I'm not sure what's going on at this point, perhaps a veteran can enlighten me. Wasn't Vanheim supposed to hp rout? Is it because the "forces of Ashdod are mostly routed" that the Vanheim commanders stay? I'm not sure.

Finally, the turn timer runs out/a tower arrow gets a lucky hit on a Vanjarl, routing the three brave commanders. Ashdod stands!!! An incredible result, and a huge blow for Vanheim.

Look at those numbers, for Pretender's sake:

VLXjmjX.jpg


Incredible. A truly heroic defense of the brave 23. The Anakites have redeemed themselves in death for their earlier dismal failure against Marigon's crossbows, and Ashdod has dealt a heavy blow to one of his (many) attackers.

Turn 33 Of Mothers and Marigon

The attack on Marion begins on the agreed-upon turn (we postponed it by one). I follow the attack plan outlined in the last post, and C'tis and Tien advance as well. Vanheim, to the dismay his allies, does not attack. Granted, he has some pretty serious armies of Marigon near him and just took a big blow in Ashdod, but he didn't give any warning in the alliance conversation.

SB6V3GF.jpg


Dayyalu is understandably pissed that we attacked him as he was looking for a sub, and I feel pretty bad about that. At the same time, I don't think it's completely reasonable for players to put their plan on hold if a sub is announced. The game timer put on hold sure, that would make sense :)

Still, Marigon has some pretty serious armies and I saw that horrifying slaughter of Ashdod's forces, so I'm not sure I want to really fight him head on. And this close to his capitol, there's no doubt he'd throw all of his forces against me if I simply pushed forward.
I'm also worried I may be next if I expand into Marigon too much - I'd probably be the largest nation after that.
So Dayyalu and I immediately start peace talks (seriously, on the first turn of the war). He is pretty understanding and offers me that fort closest to my forces and a few other provinces in that area in exchange for peace. I feel this a good deal, but also that I'm strong enough to take more - it's just the capital's proximity that's a bit unfortunate in this situation.

Also, my Great Mother Pretender is back from prison! She will spend some time forging Thistle Maces to help my N1 hoburgs sitesearch, and then sitesearch herself, actually finding some great Nature sites. I felt she was too far away from the action to bring in now (especially considering the peace talks).
I'm also now using my two hammers and plentiful Golem Crafters to create as many Lanterns as I can. My research improves markedly.

At the same time, C'tis casts Mother Oak!

VugYUcC.jpg


It's pretty early for it and it causes some fear among other players. C'tis is now engaged in two wars (vs. Marigon and Vanarus) and has a strong early global. Hm, maybe I don't have to worry so much about a gangbang if I conquer much of Marigon.

Turn 34 Not a Sparrow Falls Without God Knowing!

My advance against Marigon continues, but Vanheim still hasn't joined in. We his allies are getting pissed :)

g9n8ILa.jpg


I'm being receptive to peace talks with Marigon, but at the same pretty honestly pointing out that I'd like to finalize them with his sub, if he is gonna get one - and fighting the war properly until then. That's why I grab that valuable Sage province in his cap-ring; that won't be mine if we sign peace, of course.

In the south, Abysia is pushing out further, and fielding many Devils already:

yW0BHrp.jpg


Worrisome. I kinda suspected it before, but it's now certain he is using a Pretender built around Soul Contract forging.

In the north, Nazca and Ermor have a largeish battle:

0T0sMgt.jpg


No mages from Ermor, and not even a bless for his sacred cavalry. Despite Nazca's clearly well thought-out formation many of his guys are archers, and that obviously doesn't work well against skeletons. All of his troops are starving, too.

3XzRN60.jpg


The Supayas charge in alone, strangely. Still, they are S9D9 and incredibly resilient, they will only suffer minor losses and hold the center till the end of the battle.
Other than the few Sun Guards though, Nazca's forces are no match for Ermor's troops. Pretty haphazard advance of his birds doesn't help either:

lMSFwjG.jpg


Nazca loses almost all of his birdies, predictably. A strong if simple showing for Ermor.

And all of this is witnessed by KoolNoodles, who has gained the EYES OF GOD!

HUhiuAq.jpg


An interesting choice, and probably not bad on a large map with this many players. Definitely fun to have - I'm still waiting for some post-game graphs, KoolNoodles :)

Turn 35 Dead Knights and Deader Necromancers


I conquer that fort of Marigon's I sieged last turn - most all of my troops have some sort of siege bonus, which is pretty handy. The Catholics put up a brave resistance, but losses are minimal:

Rc5JLPW.jpg


An unlucky tower arrow hit a Golem Crafter, but Maws of Earth bludgeoned the crossbowmen and my troops cut through the brave knights holding the gate like butter.

ojPljUp.jpg


They shrugged off the horrible fire raining down on the chokepoint pretty well too, although the unprotected Living Mercuries took a lot of damage and most are now wounded and reduced in size. The Throne of Flames adding +5 FR to my bless definitely helped.

Closer to home, the necromancer appears!
I was pretty scared, but his forces are not that strong:

RL2TLUY.jpg


One of the ghosts is a general, the other a F3E1 mage. Nothing special in the hands of the AI, and I had a group of Shard Guards, mercuries, and H3 Oracles waiting for him there so he falls easily. Kinda disappointing. I get a +2 Death gem site in that province, but all the population dies. I can't count the number of fucking times I tried to buy PD in that province over the rest of the game when I noticed it had none in the Kingdom Overview screen.

In a pretty weird coincidence (?) I got a barb attack in a province next to my capitol last turn, and I get another in the same province this turn. Strange. Thankfully the relief force I sent is strong enough to win both fights.

In research, I've reached Alteration 6 and am now going for some Evocation to get Blade Wind at level 4. The reason for Alteration 6 was Petrify, an awesome spell requiring E5 - pretty high requirement but my Oracles can reach it, some with just Summon Earthpower and some with the help of boots. This was Grimwulf's suggestion, I'd have missed it otherwise. It's the ultimate anti-SC spell, killing outright if a MR check is failed and paralyzing if the check succeeds. I expect it to come very much in handy against Marigon's Harbingers and Virtue.

Turn 36 Time Waits for No Man (But Is Patient With Lizzurds and Cave Creatures)

Pythium advances deeper into Ermor with a solid Banishment-based army!

Ce9b6st.jpg


Pressed hard by two players, Ermor casts Burden of Time!

Cdp4yuo.jpg


Well, there you have it. Burden of Time (BoT) will be up pretty much until the end of the game, from now on. Everything, population, troops, mages, everything slowly dies. Or rapidly, if you are Abysia :) A panic starts in this very game thread, with Tien offering to dispel this evil if people send him Astral pearls. Many agree. Tien and Pythium and Pelagia are most heavily affected by BoT, and will suffer gravely. C'tis doesn't care too much, but his death scales make his population die much more rapidly than that of others.
I panic, but Grimwulf reassures me that BoT isn't all that bad if it doesn't stay up for too long ( :D ) and that I actually pretty much benefit from it, since my big Oracles and my troops are pretty much immune. This turns out to be true - BoT is not very painful for me at all. My Golem Crafters die rapidly though, but that's not so bad. I immediately tone down (but not stop) their recruitment. I recruit lots of Earth Readers instead who are youngish and bolster my research.

However, I'm on my way to getting a solid blood economy from my indy amazons - BoT will hamper this significantly in the turns to come, as population will die out pretty fast when bloodhunting. I'll also be making a lot of Boots of Youth, which helped my Golem Crafters a bunch. Would have forgot about this item for a while at least without Grimwulf pointing it out. As a diligent noob that read a lot of guides and browsed a lot of Dom 4 Mod Inspector, it's not exactly that I'm completely unaware of all these great spells and items, it's just I can't keep them all at the forefront of my mind at the same time and remember them when it's time to use them.

The actual Necromancer shows up again, unexpectedly! I guess he smelled the Burden of Time, or was late because of it? In any case, he's not too strong at all and is dispatched easily but the same force as last turn:

z46JaDU.jpg


So as long as you are prepared, this event is not too bad. I also got the nifty Robe of Invulnerability, that one of my most accomplished Oracles will wear instead of a Robe of Missile Protection. He will also be required to record this song wearing it:



Don't like it? Deep Ones don't have human vocal cords, don't be a racist!


As Marigon counterattacks C'tis, the crafty lizzurds pull off a cute trick:

UgH5caq.jpg


A few sacrificial troops in front of some Shamans casting curse a few times and then retreating from the huge army advancing at them. Pretty neat, but I'm too lazy to try to figure out if any commanders were cursed.

p1q2BKX.jpg


I have retreated to the borders set out by my budding peace agreement with Dayyalu, at his (reasonable) insistence. I'm not too content with that since I feel I could grab much more and all my troops armies are MM1 and will take ages to get somewhere else, but I also don't want to scuttle the deal outright - I'm waiting for the sub situation to resolve before I decide if I want to continue the war.


Turn 37 Stir-fried Chinese and Raw Substitution!

So, I think it was on this turn that the substitute situation was finally resolved, after much uncertainty and tension. Dayyalu's primary sub candidate understandably refused the honor since the nation's situation was dire, and said he could perhaps join at some later time when he familiarized himself with the game and was less busy (I'm speaking from memory, so correct me if I'm wrong about something here).
Everyone is a bit tense and Dayyalu is understandably frustrated by now; what, he has to try and find and coach another sub now? Pretty annoying. An idea strikes me that I think is genuinely good, and I suggest it in the thread. Let's have raw, formerly of Ashdod glory, sub for Marigon! He's familiar with the game, and getting a second chance after a frustrating early defeat is pretty much a revenge dream come true, so he won't mind playing a nation in dire straights. My suggestion is happily accepted by all including Raw! Problem solved!

But since this is a tell-all AAR, I have to admit (I didn't even to Grimwulf at the time I think) that there was another, more evil thought at the back of my mind. I really thought taking raw as a sub was a good idea, but I was also pretty sure that raw would not be open to peace with me since I had a significant hand in his defeat as Ashdod earlier.
This would actually be great for me in two ways: first, I'd get to continue conquering without being a warmonger or a deal-breaker in the eyes of other players. Second, since Dayyalu and I had came up with an acceptable peace deal (if not fully signed it yet due to the impending sub), he has been moving his troops away from the capitol over the last turn or two to deal with other threats. Once raw comes back in and refuses to diplo with me at all (while trying to sign peace with his other attackers), his strategic positioning will be very spread out. Let's have a look:

wX9WlHY.jpg
ARujtym.jpg


His armies are mostly north and south. And they are pretty huge, especially that one in the south! I'm confident that KoolNoodles' smaller army will at least be able to damage it heavily though. I honestly don't know that I could have fought all or most of that at once and won.

Also notice that Vanheim finally joins the fray, sailing in with a small army to the east. KoolNoodles is pretty pissed at his late entrance to the war, and I file this grievance for later reference :) Don't get me wrong, I hold no grudge against Vanheim on a personal level - letting your allies take the brunt of the fighting while you take a big chunk of the spoils is a great result. But in the context of the game, both Tien and I would like a little revenge against Vanheim for not holding to our attack date and coming in late and weakly.

Up in the north however, Tien loses pretty badly to one of Marigon's armies:

PzRdTHs.jpg


A standard but powerful lineup at this point in the game. Mages with Fireball/Falling Fires, Flaming Arrows, Wind Guide, Arrow Fend.

Tien uses a similar army style and spells:

azqYEc1.jpg


But his linemen are way too few, and his bowmen are outnumbered can't really outshoot the crossbowmen. His Arrow Fend also comes in late for some reason, like turn 3 or 4. By that time the battle is pretty much lost already, with most of his troops fried by burning bolts.

pzaKZey.jpg


Not a crippling loss, but a pretty heavy one.

Turn 38 or Another Lesson in Chinese Cooking

First things first though! I get this amazing hero!

bMRvDqm.jpg


This guy is a monster. Great hp, good MR, insane protection + resistances to slash, pierce, and poison coupled with Encumberance 0! Very hard to kill, and with great magic paths for a SC - which is what I immediately decide to equip him as. We'll get into that next episode :)

TzgJjna.jpg


I siege Marigon's capitol and do plenty of raids. Raiding parties are the powerful (but brittle) Magma Children, leftover human infantries from earlier in the game, or groups of Defenders of the Halls detached from the main army. All stuff I can afford to lose, but powerful enough to easily beat even strong PD. I slowly tweak the numbers I use throughout the game, usually downwards. You don't want to risk too much in your raiding party in case it runs into an army - as one of mine did in the screenshot above where you see the battle indicator over that larger crossbowmen group north of the capitol.

In the far east, Pythium courageously wins another battle against Ermor, sieging his capitol!
Ermor still didn't bring his mages out. However, Pythium's guys are starting to suffer from starvation and BoT.
I approach Ermor and tell him I don't mind BoT that much and that he has nothing to worry about from me, I'm content to watch his last stand with interest and we can cooperate if he gets out of it.

On the other hand, re-expanding Abysia worries me, as does the extremely quiet Eriu whom I've barely mentioned so far, so passive he's been. Which is surprising, since the early midgame is when their sacreds and Air evocations really shine. We are friendly in diplomacy, but I know nothing about his plans. Apparently he is wary of being attacked from somewhere else as soon as he moves on someone. Always a danger, sure, but you gotta take risks.

Wait, let's go back to the screenshot! What's that humongous Marigon army doing at my south border? Wasn't Tien supposed to reduce it at least?


ItmOkJq.jpg

wWC3nSi.jpg

xNIuOYC.jpg


Ugh.
This time Arrowfend wasn't late or anything, but Marigon's heavy Falling Fires spam carried the day, obliterating the Chinese frontline. Just not enough stuff to handle the rain of bolts and fire, I guess. Now I have to worry about that army on my border, and raw is certainly sending it against me.

At least Tien is fighting honorably and heavily, unlike Vanheim and C'tis. It's fine for C'tis, he immediately said he was busy with Vanarus and would participate only in a minor way, but my irritation at Vanheim's sluggish attack increases a bit :)

Let's look at research:

ozp5AnT.jpg


908 RP per turn is not too bad, and mostly due to lanterns. Especially with older mages slowly starting to die from BoT - but I'm pretty sure I'm middle-of-the-pack at this point, far from being in the lead (that's probably Tien). Evocation was researched for the excellent Blade Wind - I think I went for level 5 for Earthquake, but that was not needed at this point. Still, could have been useful if I'd had to do a fighting retreat against Marigon's massed crossbows.

Dabbling in Thaumaturgy was to reach the invaluable (Grimwulf tells me) Gateway spell, but this turned out I took this route be way, way too early. It'll be ages till I have a Gateway-capable caster. Enchantment is for Marble oracles and later on the incredible Hall of Statues. Even as a noob, I'm salivating over that spell as I slowly realize how strong Sentinels with N9 bless actually are.

Turn 39 The House of Fiery Justice is Burning! Justly.

My siege-bonusful army breached the walls of Marigon in a single turn and now I storm the fort! A quick look at the battle:

HZLj0XC.jpg
6I7rpEh.jpg
kRoYx7m.jpg


The defenders fought bravely, but only my mercuries took any real damage, mostly from fire evocation spam. The majority of them are afflicted and tiny by now, but that's ok. As Grimwulf puts it, they are basically my cavalry - they will get killed, which is ok as long as they flank and kill more enemy stuff. Dying ok as long as killing good. A wise mentor indeed.

The strategic situation:

Sef8LCz.jpg


Marigon sieges my southern fort, but I've evacuated all mages and valuable troops. In the north, I want to join my two armies and provoke an engagement if possible. My guess here is that raw will take the aggressive route and move straight south into me from that throne fort, hoping to catch that smaller army and expecting me to attack north or consolidate (in my opinion his best move would be to merge his two northern armies in the province north of the capitol, utilizing his MM2 move).

So I merge all my armies in the province NW of the captiol. I have gems, a caster of Rain (you can see him on the screenshot, the Golem Crafter with the Water Lens and Bracelet), several Oracles with Boots of Earth and cloaks going Summon Earthpower -> Petrify and Maws of Earth, a scout to ferry extra Earth gems, and a ton of Shard Guards and some Sentinels. A few Golem Crafters cast Destruction -> Blade Wind. Most Shard Guards are congregated under the Oracle with the Helmet of Heroes that provides inspiration, and they are pretty good leaders to begin with. Haven't lost one yet. I have some extra commanders running around with the army and at least 5 bodyguards on each important mage - Marigon tried an assassin once on a previous turn, but he was easily killed.

I harp a lot on N9 Sentinels being powerful, but really at this point they are just a small but rock-solid line in my center - Shard Guards are the majority of my army and doing the most of the work. They are excellent as well, and carried these early battles for me.

Anyway, I guessed the move right, and the decisive battle approaches!

I'm sorry to end on a cliffhanger, but this post is very long already, and it's nice to have something to look forward to in the next episode! I may have gone into a bit too much detail this time, but my scout coverage was excellent and I feel bad not mentioning stuff I see happening around the world.

Coming up next time:

AkcN2zS.jpg


Candida the Virtue herself leads an army to slaughter the slithering freaks from the deep! But the armies of Marigon are spread out and mere hundreds join her, far too few for their bolts to blot out the sun. For the best perhaps, as Deep Ones actually prefer to fight in the shade.


--------------------------

Some turn files:

Turn 32 or The Last Stand of the Anakites

https://d.maxfile.ro/ibytwthhya.trn

Turn 37 Marigon vs. Tien, round 1

https://d.maxfile.ro/qapcxlhwmc.trn

Turn 38 Marigon vs. Tien, round 2

https://d.maxfile.ro/qapcxlhwmc.trn

Rename to mid_agartha.trn to use, as before :) See you next time!
 
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Grimwulf

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sqeecoo said:
This goes on for a LONG time, hilariously so. I'm not sure what's going on at this point, perhaps a veteran can enlighten me. Wasn't Vanheim supposed to hp rout? Is it because the "forces of Ashdod are mostly routed" that the Vanheim commanders stay? I'm not sure.

Ashdod's Pretender failed morale, yes. But he's immobile and was still surrounded by enemies, so morale failure didn't really change anything for him. Since he couldn't be killed with what little was left of Vanheim's forces, the battle ended either by auto-rout (timer), or by morale failure of Vanheim - can't remember by now.

sqeecoo said:
But since this is a tell-all AAR, I have to admit (I didn't even to Grimwulf at the time I think) that there was another, more evil thought at the back of my mind. I really thought taking raw as a sub was a good idea, but I was also pretty sure that raw would not be open to peace with me since I had a significant hand in his defeat as Ashdod earlier.

You treacherous devil.

:excellent:

Don't stahp. Most epic Dominions AAR on the 'Dex.
 

sqeecoo

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Are the strategic map pictures easy enough to follow? I could put some arrows or indicators up next time if not.

Also, what's the difference between morale 30 and 50 anyway? Couldn't figure that out from the manual :)
 

Grimwulf

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Are the strategic map pictures easy enough to follow? I could put some arrows or indicators up next time if not.

It's all good.

Also, what's the difference between morale 30 and 50 anyway? Couldn't figure that out from the manual :)

Morale 30 is just exceptionally high morale - e.g. Prophets and Pretenders have this value. It means that they will only rout when they absolutely have to. And even then they might choose to fight and die.

Morale 50 is basically mindless. It means that the creature will never retreat. Not only because it's fearless, but because it lacks the survival instinct. Zombies, elementals, golems, constructs and shit like that have morale 50.
 

KoolNoodles

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Are the strategic map pictures easy enough to follow? I could put some arrows or indicators up next time if not.

Also, what's the difference between morale 30 and 50 anyway? Couldn't figure that out from the manual :)

Doing a great job, keep it up!
 
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Yeah, good job. I don't mind the thoroughness and verbosity at all. It's interesting to read.

Shout-out to Dayyalu's brilliant diplomatic play of "don't attack me bros! I'm about to leave the game. any turn now" while being the top nation and rapidly expanding even further. I think I had a laugh about it only in some private threads here.
 

Dayyālu

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Yeah, good job. I don't mind the thoroughness and verbosity at all. It's interesting to read.

Shout-out to Dayyalu's brilliant diplomatic play of "don't attack me bros! I'm about to leave the game. any turn now" while being the top nation and rapidly expanding even further. I think I had a laugh about it only in some private threads here.


Point was to leave the game in the best possible situation for my heir. I dislike leaving a mess behind. Plus, expansion had been over for quite some time when I started searching for a sub, and the war with Ashdod ended with Vanheim gaining the cap and most provinces: don't mistake simplicity for duplicitousness. I only wanted to leave a blank slate, diplo-wise for my sub to work on. But I guess people in Dominions are used to backstabbin' a little too much for such simple feelings.



Problem was, I even got a treaty from Sqeecoo and raw could have easily dealt with TC and C'tis with limited losses: you should have seen my reaction when I saw the results a few turns later and the overall raw strategies sent everything to hell. An AI player would have maybe defended better my realm.

EDIT: For further context, my reaction:

fwdcje.jpg


raw is a bro, but sometimes....


:argh:
 
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KoolNoodles

Arcane
Joined
Apr 28, 2012
Messages
3,545
This game mostly showed me that I have no idea how to fight with TC. Build a sprawling empire of gem hoarders, fantastic research, money, and globals? Sure. But win battles? What is this devilry you speak of.... :lol:

It is true that Burden of Time did not help in that regard, and I didn't quite get enough earth and nature gems(I think I had maybe +5 the whole game). Communions are annoying to work with when everyone is getting old. Crystal matrices never really panned out. The Jack of All Trades/Master of None lineup really gave me fits.
 

sqeecoo

Arcane
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
2,615
Thanks for the praise! Encourages me to go on... eventually :D

I'd be even more verbose if I didn't have to do everything in one sitting - I don't really trust the draft saving system of the forum not to lose my stuff.

KoolNoodles, I think (as a total noob) that you had the right ideas in these early game fights and that the real problem was you split your army in two, north and south. With Marigon's economic power he could easily fight two battles where he outnumbered you badly - and your armies are similar in style. Hard to win a matchup like that.
 

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