Completed Let's Play Dark Forest in MP, where players fight one another until thrash mobs kill them all.

[ValeVelKal]

Turn 18 & Turn 19 : Dash to the South-East
Dayyalu and Morpheus are warring, and Porkbelly is in the middle, so, well, he is on their way and gets eaten. Instead of trying to defend against superior number, he decides to dash directly for the former Argyra castle to collect one of his treasure - and create a second recruitment castle should he lose the first one :

The following turn, Porkbelly collects his treasure (it is his forever, even if he loses Castle #4 while also comes for castle #4. Morpheus surprises everyone by using ships given by the magician to teleport his megastack on Dayyalu's megastack, wiping it out. If province H falls, then Dayylu is cut in two and his reinforcements halved ...

I don't think Porkbelly can win, but the battle between Morpheus and Dayyalu is still very undecided. All the players need Rastignak's castle, and Rastignak is still there, slowly accumulating his army - so it will be quite the investment to take that castle.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Turns 20, 21 & 22 : Supply lines in shamble, supply lines restored

Let's continue with a war between Dayyālu and Morpheus Kitami, with Porkbelly caught in the middle and Rastignak sidelined.

Turn 20 favors Morpheus. Morpheus pushes his advantage to the North and splits Dayyalu in two, cutting his reinforcements in half. On the other hand, Porkbelly regains the pivotal territory M. The only bad news is Rastignak's exit, who takes an uninteresting territory to the North. In the South, Dayyalu captures Porkbelly's home castle, but he can still recruit from the Argyra castle. However, for Porkbelly, it's only two reinforcements...

... a situation he corrects in the next turn by reconnecting his territory:

Meanwhile, Dayyalu also reconnects his territory by eliminating Porkbelly's pocket in F. He also receives reinforcements from the witch in G. Morpheus wastes his time (in my opinion) by taking the castle of an irritating but harmless Rastignak. No one knows it, but at this point in the game, Morpheus and Dayyalu have agreed to eliminate Porkbelly and Rastignak before duelling on the top of a roof.

Finally, on turn 22, Morpheus eventually removes Rastignak from the game while Dayyalu splits Porkbelly's territory in half:

From my perspective, Morpheus made a mistake by teaming up with Dayyalu - who is in the lead - and spending time eliminating a harmless player. Dayyalu has expanded his lead, despite a mediocre turn 20.

Also, meme :

 

[ValeVelKal]

Turn 23 & Turn 24 : The End of Porkbelly?
I'm combining two turns to accelerate the end.

Dayyalu and Morpheus are still allied against Porkbelly. Dayyalu rushes towards the old Argyra castle, which he occupies. Morpheus loots Rastignak's castle and takes control of M. Meanwhile, Porkbelly retreats, concentrating all his forces - secret size - in the Northern forest. The abandoned territories are occupied by the Gruds. Is this the end for Porkbelly?

 

[Modron]

It looks like Dayallu is already thinking ahead for when he and his "ally" eliminate porkbelly. Morpheus better catch up.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Turns 25 to 27: The End

Morpheus quickly moves away from Dayyalu's mega-stack, getting closer to his capital. Meanwhile, Dayyalu collects treasure from the late Argyra, and Porkbelly begins a grand migration.

The following turn, Morpheus can't continue in direction D due to the Wizard, and would lose his mega-stack against Dayyalu's stronger one if he goes to C, so he makes a somewhat pointless move south. At the end of his turn, the Wizard offers help which he accepts to defend his castle #6, prompting Dayyalu to also make a futile action north. Porkbelly continues his migration.

Turn 26, the Wizard goes on vacation. Morpheus takes the opportunity to advance, while Dayyalu finally captures castle #6. Porkbelly ends his migration by taking Morpheus' capital.

Dayyalu only needs to endure one more round to collect his final treasure, securing a victory. The game then automatically removes Dayyalu from the map, replacing him with an army of gruds for other players to compete for second place.

The gruds come back in force! The "second" place is likely to be Porkbelly's: Morpheus never collected the treasure in his castle ("I'll have time later" syndrom), while Porkbelly did collect HIS treasure in Morpheus' castle. Now, he just needs to rush to Rastignac's castle to win.


That's the end - hopefully, it was fun enough. Dark Forest is, like many strategy games from the early 80s, a rip-off of an existing board game: The Wizard's Quest by Avalon Hill. It's pretty fun for a 50-year-old game in multiplayer, especially because players can't just "turtle" in their corner: it would waste the only attack they have each turn, it would slow down their growth, and it would allow the gruds to multiply. Fights with a numerical advantage are 100% predictable, but the wizard and the spectar add a good amount of randomness to the game. The biggest critique: playing first is a colossal advantage: one more reinforcement round defensively at the beginning, and the means to exploit the actions of the neutrals. Still, if one wants a fun archeo-experience, there are worse options.


So, if you want more:

• My review and history of the game (and especially the studio that created it) is here: https://zeitgame.net/archives/10800. It's hard to believe, but it's connected (loosely) to Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy ^^.
• The full game session with players trolling each other: https://zeitgame.net/forum/topic/the...by-thrash-mobs.