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End of Game Details attached for this 40 turn game. Congrats to Canticar, Jumpingfist, and Rytek!
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.
I spent the first 10 turns trying to secure Amberland and working towards my ESO. I tried kicking the Pirate out of my region and even picked a small fight with the Cimmerians in order to get a village on the water so I could build my fleets. The Cimmerians started to retaliate, but I guess they felt sorry for me when the Red Dragon knocked my region neutral and took it all to himself on T10 (causing me to fail getting my ESO). But the Pirates did not feel sorry for me and proceeded to let me know how displeased they were about my early aggression. :-) The next 10 turns were spent trying to regain control of Amberland all while my noble court and what few agents I had were suffering at the hands of the Pirates. I finally regained control of my region, only to have a 2nd wave of Red Dragon hellspawn come back in and take it all away from me. :-)
The Sacred Order severely lacks Agent and Wizard support, but their military is nice, though they did not fare well in a direct assault from the Red Dragon (even in the plains). And I did enjoy their movement capabilities. I had a patrol running all over the map searching for Unusual Sightings (8 areas at a stretch as long as they stayed in the plains). And due to their Military Tradition trait, I had 6 Warlords at one point (though the Pirate decided to reduce that number by 2 a few turns ago).
All-in-all, though they are fun to play, I do not think that players fear the Sacred Order like they did the Giants in 2nd Cycle...
Oh yea....a word of advice.... Don't pick on the Pirates early on in the game unless you have a NAP with every other kingdom, because you cannot easily eliminate them and they keep coming back for revenge....you will regret it.... :-)
I played the Dark Elf in this game and found it very enjoyable. The DA has excellent agents and magic to go with a good military and very good emmies. The most difficult part of playing this kingdom is determining where to spend your gold.
I took my region on turn 4, a turn later then I would have liked but being in the south it did not matter. I started developing my agents and spent a little on my mages. I now realize how powerful magic is in the third cycle and if I could make the decision over I would spend more on magic.
I achieved my ESO on 10 and since I did not have a target I decided to spend a few more turns developing my kingdom.
On turn 13 the Nomad invaded Synisvania. He came in with three groups but few emmies. If I had spent more on magic his invasion would have been put down much more quickly but my magic was still developing. It took 4 or 5 turns to get the situation under control. While I never lost control of Synisvania the conflict was mostly in my region. Over the course of these 5 turns I was able to kill most of his emmies and mages, and develop my mages to the point where they could throw Dome. At that point I invaded the Southern Sands. By turn 22 the Nomad position was no longer tenable and Tomag decided to drop. I was determined to eliminate the position so I continued to take his pop centers and on turn 24, just before the position would terminate, I was able to eliminate the NO.
I took a few turns to position my resources and on turn 27 I invaded Arcania. The GN and RD had been fighting over the region and it seemed that the GN had the upper hand when I invaded. On turn 30 the mighty DA army group with three P5s went up against the 1st GN army group. While the GN was declared the winner he actually sustained more troop loss so I made a major error and followed the group. Rytek made a great move with his GN groups and I followed the 1st GN into a meeting with both the 1st GN army group and the 3rd GN Army with three P7s. I made the decision that the troops were expendable put the mages had to be saved and that is how the battle turned out. The GN wiped the DA troops using summon death but the DA mages all survived. By saving the mages I was able to raise them to P6s and use them to dome the Pop Centers in Arcanina. This would ultimately allow me to take the region from the GN. On turn 32 I took Arcania for my 3rd region and I started to move in on Runnemede.
Runnimede turned out to be very crowded. I believe the Amazons and the Atlantians moved in to Runnimede. This kept the GN from moving back into Arcania.
The AT also made a major move into Synisvania but fortunately for me I was looking at one or two pop centers that the AT had moved into. I was able to sleep and kill those emmies which allowed me to keep the region. I also threw infuriate populace against the AT three times and all three spells worked. That pretty much shut down the AT invasion. I had to quickly re-position my resources to ensure control of Synisvania and invade the Eastern Steppes. I was able to retake all the pop centers the AT had taken and then I moved into the Eastern Steppes. At the end Lord Diamond was able to hold just enough of the Steppes to keep me from gaining my fourth region.
I found the game to be very enjoyable and I commend those who made the Podium and all those I had conflict with. Everyone played very well.
I played the NO in this game. I took my region on turn 3 and developed my priestess count, my military, and my mages (somewhat). I was planning on moving into Runnimede for my first military expedition, but the RD allied the GN, so that changed my plans and I instead was forced to move into Synisvania, since the RD had also taken Arcania. I'm pretty certain that I took the DA by complete surprise, but I was crushed on the first turn back to find out that he invested a lot of orders into sleeping and assassinating my political court, a response that I was not immediately expecting.
I commend gkmetty for his strategy in defending my attack. He played his orders efficiently and effectively.
I have now played the NO in a classic game and a duel, and I feel as though their military is rather underwhelming. Perhaps I will focus on wizards and agents if I choose to play them again later on down the road.
09-09-2016, 01:26 PM (This post was last modified: 09-09-2016, 01:26 PM by Lord Diamond.)
(AT) I was very excited about playing the Atlantians.
I started the game just wanting to build up, as the kingdom has no particular strengths that would point to a specific path to world domination. I spent some time searching for unusual sightings and hoping to avoid early conflict. I did have one conundrum that needed to be resolved; my ESO required 7 Fleets in each of two seas and I didn't have a pc on a 2nd sea. I had my eye on the Northern Mists village at FQ, it being the only likely candidate in range. It was human controlled on turn 3, but the Pirate had it on turn 4 when I showed up to take it. I really didn't want to fight the Pirate, for obvious reasons, so looked for alternate pcs.
Then the Cimmerian unexpectedly arrived in force at my village in Amberland and took it. Why is he picking a fight with me? Well, here we go! Two turns later I swarmed Northern Mists with my nobles. I really just wanted one water pc long enough to build my fleets, but I figured to take as much territory as I could get. I made some early gains and even took FQ for a while. Then the Cimmerian caught me with his Elite army in the plains and slapped me down pretty hard in two consecutive battles. I did get my ESO and won some sea battles, but I was eventually pushed out of Northern Mists.
Side Note: The Nomad took my town in Synisvania so I kidnapped his Baron. That was the extent of the Atlantian-Nomad War.
I went back to searching for unusual sightings and then the Red Dragon arrived in Eastern Steppes and landed on me with both feet. The bastard even killed a couple of my wizards. He took the region, but then ran north in a rush to conquer fresh territories while I took my pcs back. I had a small expeditionary force off adventuring in Arcania that turned to Red Dragon village raiding just to be annoying. This force was the key to a whole new war when they were ambushed and slaughtered by an invisible Gnome army for no reason at all. All of Atlantis was outraged at this murder of their finest leaders and the theft of several magical items.
The remainder of the Atlantian army immediately marched to the Talking Mountains Portal to Runnimede and began their own raiding with the aim of distracting the Gnome from their northern conquests. And to show the Gnomes that an unprovoked attack on Atlantis would not go unanswered.
Now, it was pretty obvious to me that I was going to have to do something drastic if I hoped to make the podium and that it wouldn't happen if I didn't have the full forty turn game. The Darkelf looked very close to winning the game and I had to delay them. Any prisoners, artifacts, and pcs I could snag while delaying them would only help. I did feel guilty since we had been careful to avoid conflict this entire game, but I convinced myself that I would be his final victim so that made it easier. To be fair, he had enamored Eastern Steppes several times, so my fears were not unfounded. I rather hoped that his focus would be in the west and that he would be slow to respond to my attack. It was not to be. My initial gains were substantial, but I was quickly repulsed out of Eastern Steppes and was chased back home.
I ended the game with the Darkelf King, Count, and Baron in my dungeon and the Orb of Anti Magic in my treasury. I did lose the points from a P-5 wizard and a high ranking agent, but the balance was favorable. It was not enough, however. I still ended in 4th place.
We hold the following emissaries captive:
Rank Name Kingdom Area Points
King Elric Modra Dark Elven KW 225 Countess Lady Maj Akor Dark Elven KW 140 Baroness Chelsea Gnome KW 120 Baron Sir Xanix of Bay Sacred Order KW 120 Baron Windslicer of Myr Nomad KW 120 Baroness Yinia Redstorm Red Dragon KW 120 Baron Zale Kalon Dark Elven KW 120 Governess mmomma j Gnome KW 80 Agent 12 Paid Four Gnome KW 180 Agent 1 Hammer Dwarven KW 15 Agent 1 Rok Cimmerians KW 15
[b] In Memorium
Emissaries No Longer at Court
[/b] Title Name Turn Lost
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.
This was my first full game. I knew that I would be at a disadvantage in a silent game as the Pirates. My general strategy was to sit back, watch, and learn. I thought that if I had a pop Center in each sea that I would be able to avoid conflict and use my fleets to generate income. I could then concentrate on collecting artifacts.
In the first few turns the Druid took my Village in his region. There goes one sea. Since I couldn't trade in that sea anymore I decided to do a Sea Patrol as pirates are known to do. Unfortunately the Druid had invested heavily in barges and sunk my Navy there as well. I put him on my list for future Payback but was unable to do much more at the time. Later I was able to vote against him to denounce him in his own region and he dropped shortly afterward.
Then the sacred order took my town in his area. Meaning that I again lost not only a town but the ability to generate Trading income in that sea . I knew that I didn't have the military or economic base to take Amberland. However I now lacked the resources to put my 4 High priestess's to work to look for artifacts or develop my wizards. I was in a better position to retaliate against the sacred order, so I put my emissaries and agents to use. I never really threatened his control, however I distracted him long enough for the Red Dragon to decide to visit Amberland. Unfortunately the dragon attack also took out a large number of my emissaries and top agents.
The rest of the game for me was spent sniping at the sacred order
Since this was the first game I was in that went 40 turns (and I was still in at the end), I thought I should make a comment.
I wasn't really harassed early (unusual) and got the Talking Mountains and early started building up the defenses of Hammerhold. By about turn 10 I guess, the attack I somewhat expected from the Red Dragons of Jumpingfist started. He's a much better player, I have no idea how he can have close to 30 brigades while the Dwarves were pleased with about 16. So for the rest of the game, I am attacked by five Red Dragon groups, seemingly all with at least one Warlord and an elite brigade. Even my starting capital with temple and about 22k defense would be taken with the RD taking about 3% casualties. Then the RD would make a foray into Amberland, or perhaps the Eastern Steppes for a couple turns, or come back to the Mountains or the Mists.
I did knock out the Cimmerian, not to brag, but I had hesitated on that for a few turns as given my unique position I generally just respond to attacks instead of initiating them. The Dwarves, once you get barrage, should not be trifled with. I had about one, maybe two battles with the RD where the sides were somewhat equal, used barrage, and I don't think he wanted any part of that going forward. So he would send five groups to take five PC's in the Mountains, and as I had taken the Mists, then send the five groups to the Mists and retake that. The Mists and Mountains traded hands many times, and to me it was two critical PC's, at least for the short legged Dwarves: a village at CR to stage from, and a town at AO (from which Viperhead could be reached and it was a comfortable mountain for the DW.
Anyway, it was pretty much a 30 turn pummeling where I got in a couple shots and clinged to hope of a bronze, as I was also able to recover a number of artifacts, some of which I failed to use from turn to turn, like Crystal of Seeing. Anyway, I was outplayed, but feel a more focused Dwarf could do well against about anybody. Congrats to JF for having about everybody warring with him and still being the major threat.
I had discovered all Pirate PC's at one point as I wanted to take the Mists and knew he had a presence there. But he had never bothered me so I left him alone and generally could take the Mists by just displacing the Red. So hoped he might take out some RD personas as I let him be.
I had built some fleets to transfer an army to Oakendell when the Druid dropped but just ultimately decided that was a bridge too far, so was limited to Mists and Mountains. And the RD had already pounced on it. I guess my best move was taking Viperhead around turn 26, when if I didn't, I think the RD would have won.
Bottom line: it was good to be in the first Choosing game to go the distance with a kingdom not so much in favor.
I think you dropped a digit there mr Mouse. If I remember correctly CU was around a 122k defense capital. My group was at 230k not counting +20% for flying and those all powerful RD wizards taking about 30k defense off with some well placed fear spells.
Buddy/Ignore List
