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(WA). I don't like to make lots of early alliances, but with the WA, you at least have to do something with the GI, so we made a deal what I was quite happy with. I was surprised he agreed to let me have control of Amberland, but I wasn't going to say no. The GN also asked for a deal and I made a 12 turn NAP with the understanding that this in no way would prevent me from going after the UN if it suited me. I wasn't planning on that, but I wasn't going to make a deal on that score.
I gained control of Amberland quite easily on turn 3 and wanted to settle down and artifact hunt. Never happened - the DA/WI plowed into me right away. I did not know that the GI had a NAP with the WI - that does explain why his Amberland Pop centers never got taken, but it's no bother - he took care of the DA quite well. I started to get hit by a lot of agents - I don't know if they were coming from the WI, the DA or the AN (more on that later) but my wizards and emissaries were devastated. I eventually had a number of agents with standing orders to protect my most valuable assets. I don't like having to make so many defensive moves, but I had little choice.
I had just managed to catch a breath from the WI/DA assault when the AN plowed into me. Again, it was nothing but grim survival at that point. He then got gang-raped which took the pressure off me again and I was able to regain my region yet again.
I was going to move in the Eastern Steppes against the RD when the GI asked if he could claim Amberland to get the crown. I was happy enough to let him do that - I did attack the RD anyway, though he was moving against me at the same time. I had hoped I might grab 6 in time, but a blown order transferring the Staff from a group to my king meant I couldn't enamor it in time.
It was a fun game -I like when there are so few drops. What kept me alive was Avalon, which I had turned into a gold producing fortress. I was short sometimes, but JumpingFist sent me extra as needed.
I will say while I've had trouble with the UN in the past, all of my encounters with him in this game were unFerengi like.
(AN) Let's just start by saying that I hate the Underworld. Not the player personally, but this Underworld was crafty and sneaky and jackal-like in jumping on wherever someone was beating on someone else, and stealing stuff at crucial times, and killing emissaries at the worst possible times, and generally just playing that position correctly.
I was in solid 2nd or 3rd in status points throughout the entire game, including the penultimate turn. Then, on the final turn, the UN stole an artifact which subtracted just enough from me and added just enough to him, that he took 3rd and I took 4th. Grrrr. Well played.
I worked a simple deal with the Troll, I get the region and he gets a bunch of villages and a town or two, and then he would head north (he partnered with the Giant a fair amount early on but then wandered off east and never came back).
Once I had my region, I was a little bored, so I killed a couple of Warlock wizards and invaded his portion of Amberland (sorry, DuPont, just you were right there at Avalon so close...). I went back and forth with the WA on some pop centers, never really making much progress, but since we were fighting in his region, it was no loss to me.
I had finally decided to finish off the DE (he had been hurt pretty badly by RA and SO and the attacking-at-the-edges-UN), when the Gnome attacked me. Nice solid attack, then supported again by the UN, and uncoordinated assistance from 3 others who all happened to take my pop centers in other regions right about then. I fought back a little, and had just set up a nice capitol in Southern Sands and was going to just hold artifacts and build for final status points, when the game ended and I missed the podium by about 620 points (and 2nd finished just 5 points higher than 3rd). All in all a good game and lots of really good players.
Did I mention that the UN took my podium spot right at the end?
08-12-2014, 11:43 PM (This post was last modified: 08-13-2014, 04:57 AM by Wynand.)
(BL) Great game. I agree with Dupont - I really like when there are so many active players in the later stages of the contest.
My one regret was the SO dropping....if Chris had stayed in the game, I think the finale would have been quite a bit different.
I made an early deal with the UN and GN to jump into 2 while the WI was invading 5. We experienced limited success before being routed by the DW....that's when I decided to pivot and move into 3. Unfortunately, the GI decided to do the same...but we were able to work out a deal to split the region and avoid conflict.
I returned to 2 with a vegeance after the DW was forced home to defend 3. I was able to take the DW, WI and remaining GN holdings to secure the region....and then I paused. I was preparing for some sort of counter-strike by the WI that never happened. I trained several of my wizards to P-6 and waiting for an opening to move...luckily, I didn't have too wait long. Dupont decided to take my starting village on turn 26 with an emmisary after remaining non-hostile the entire game. Unfortunately for him, I had a duke there, who was positioned to go back into the Mists and so was able to get the WA emmisary incarcerated with a 310. I tickled him the following turn for secrets, forcing him to spill the beans and share some juicy gossip. I released this rumour unto all of Alamaze, but a turn after the illustrious Dupont (WA) had purchased a High Council seat for 100k. At the same time, I was my moving forces to invade 5 when I realized the SO dropped, and so pivoted once again to move my emmisaries into 8 to secure Arcania before anyone else realized what was going on. I had a group positioned to move on NK the turn when the game ended...c'est la vie.
My other frustration remains the points that are allocated for artifacts....although I only had two, I was clearly in a strong position geographically and my kingdom was extremely well-developed. I am looking forward to the revised weighting system in 3rd cycle.
Iron-willed: I nominate LT. He stuck it out to the end despite a vicious beatdown.
Chancellor: I'll toss Jumping Fist my vote....he was great to work with.
Infamous: Dupont.....why would he pick a fight with me on turn 26 just before invading region 6....over a village. Gotta love it.
08-13-2014, 04:56 AM (This post was last modified: 08-13-2014, 04:58 AM by Ry Vor.)
Thanks to all who have posted. This is what makes this part of the forum great! You can reveal how and why you did what you did, and everyone else can benefit from it. Notice nothing in these posts had to do with miscast orders, rather, on perception and tactical precision. Well done, and would still like to see the perspective of Lord Thanatos and a couple others.
(08-13-2014, 04:56 AM)Ry Vor Wrote: Thanks to all who have posted. This is what makes this part of the forum great! You can reveal how and why you did what you did, and everyone else can benefit from it. Notice nothing in these posts had to do with miscast orders, rather, on perception and tactical precision. Well done, and would still like to see the perspective of Lord Thanatos and a couple others.
WI perspective:
Three coordinated kingdoms attacking a single opponent is a horrible way to game and is my number one reason for believing it is difficult to expand the player base. This conversation has been held elsewhere and I am not going to try to change the minds of those who, for whatever reason, think this gaming style presents any sort of challenge or entertainment to them.
I understand the UN frustration in attempting to deduce where the intended target will be when the 945 order is executed. This is the main reason I do not think five groups is a good idea. The extra group does not assist military kingdoms nearly as much as it assists wizard kingdoms by increasing the available locations for their wizards. How often do we have to guess/deduce the ID of an invisible group in order to dispel magic or protect heroes/wizards? Having said the above, I do not think changing the game mechanic to make wizards easier to assassinate is a good idea.
I agree with Wynand that the status points awarded for artifact possession is way out of balance. Hopefully this will be addressed in 3rd Cycle. I think the status points for captives is too high as well. I can see how reasonable minds could disagree with me here. But there should be no disagreement regarding the too high status point value of artifacts.
Dropping viable positions is the second most annoying aspect in our gaming community; but it is a far distant second to the aforementioned three or more players coordinating.
Early negotiation in 130 was both interesting and frustrating for me. I quickly achieved game long peace with the EL and RD. Thereafter, the GI and I reached terms for peace. Since my instinct/insight led me to believe the GN + UN + likely a third unknown kingdom would be attacking me (and mentioned this exact belief to DA, DW and GI long before it actually transpired) I attempted to attain allies for that anticipated fight. The DA was willing to team up with me, but not willing to move into region 7 first as he believed the GI had left far too much to the WA in Amberland and didn't want to allow the WA to build his strength. I tried to convince the DA that the WA would prove to be a stumbling block in the middle of the board to any number of other kingdoms that would seek to attack there and this would allow us the time we needed to make plans to move into Runnimede. He insisted we attack the WA first and I acquiesced. Once we did, the three versus one attack was made upon the Northern Mists. I also attempted to convince the DW to join me against the GN (who he ended up fighting anyways), but he doesn't like to make treaties more than about two and a half turns at a time [I am exaggerating a bit, but only a bit ] The GI then attacked the DA and I was left to fight in Amberland against the WA, while my own region was being taken from me. Shortly thereafter the AN entered Amberland and took popcenters from me as often as the WA did. Such is life in Alamaze. These two clearly were not coordinating and it left plenty of room for me to maneuver. I fed the DW as much information as I could gather in the Northern Mists to assist him against the GN and BL. I determined he wasn't fighting with the UN and so I made the UN my sole target (of the three kingdoms that had attacked me). The EL dropping his position was a real annoyance, but there was nothing to be done about that.
As early as possible I had promoted RyVor to P7 and I attempted to use the Summon Demon spell to assassinate UN agents wherever I could. I had some small successes early on, but eventually those agents were guarded by other agents and the demon was powerless. I did manage to fully destroy 7 popcenters from the middle of the contest to the end, but this wasn't very efficient as it often takes two spells to destroy a single popcenter. At first I used my agents to sabotage defenses and then cast the spell afterward. But my agents had many difficulties in avoiding being captured themselves. The UN was quite efficient against me! I also destroyed a few villages by utilizing my military. I had located the UN capital and intended to move against it just as he finally killed RyVor. The destroy town spell kills all captives (I believe) so a fair number of starving, tortured souls would have been granted their final release (which would also have affected the final status point calculation). Alas, it was not meant to be.
A game mechanic I would like to see changed: if a kingdom has only a single popcenter it should automatically be made the capital. This prevents kingdoms “hiding in the wild.” My king (and sole remaining emissary) was slain/captured when my last popcenter was taken. Had my king survived he would have been king “hiding in the wild” and even when I subsequently gained more popcenters he would have remained safe simply by not being located at a popcenter. I can imagine how frustrating this would have been to my UN opponent!
All in all a very intriguing contest. I enjoyed my game and interacted with most of the other players, so I never felt like abandoning the contest. Had either the DA or DW been able to succeed against their opponents I would have had an ally to help me rebuild my ravaged kingdom. Had my ally the GI not been fighting with my ally the DA I might have been able to coordinate more closely with the GI and that would have assisted me as well. But this was, unfortunately, not to be my fate this contest.
I heartily congratulate JumpingFist for his well-earned victory! Excellently played! Even though his initial plan was to convince the EL to join him in assaulting me I harbor no ill-will. That is how this wonderful game of Alamaze is played! Now, if he had convinced a third kingdom to join him in his assault I would probably feel differently. Every player I made an agreement with kept their agreements and that is, of course, how this game is played at its highest level. Well done to all of my fellow gamers/competitors! Great victory JumpingFist!!!
Chancellor: GI – JumpingFist is always a great communicator and someone to be trusted.
Infamous: SO – dropping a viable position is always unfair to every other player in the game.
Iron-willed: WA – DuPont is impossible to eliminate from a game and exhibited that fortitude throughout this contest.
08-14-2014, 02:10 AM (This post was last modified: 08-14-2014, 02:18 AM by Jumbie.)
All UN prisoners are fed a diet of all-you-can-eat caviar, truffles, filet mignon, and red wine. With the eggs of endangered sea turtles as desert. As for torture, well, what can I say? Plump people have more space to cut...
I should let LT know that for the last half of the game, any time a WI group was in Arcania, I had a P-4 or P-5 cast 'Ward PC' over my capital, so he probably wouldn't have been able to destroy my capital.
In any case, on the last turn, my capital moved to the Sea of Mystery since I knew my court had been sitting still for too long and a P-5 wizard was already waiting in the new region to defend the king in case I was followed.
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
(08-22-2014, 02:33 AM)Jumpingfist Wrote: I am curious how is the experience game status points handled? it seems no extra points were added to any kingdoms.
I couldn't say. I don't have any visibility on how the data is gathered before the end-game report is produced.
I hope that some future version of Alamaze will break down all the status points like Fall of Rome did.
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.