Game 5712 full diplomacy game thread

[Maximus Dominus]

Max, FYI, You have a powerful military, take advantage of the winter attack bonuses, and the recruited troops that support them in the winter.

Wildings get excellent winter attack bonuses: 5% per Wildling brigade to attack and defense in Winter months in regions effected by Winter.

Regional reaction (friendly) and influence (13ish) should be enough to grab a minor city. Which one of your emmies rebelled and which usurped?

I’ll post help notes here when you posts, when you start fighting you will gain more love with the CI

I had the Duke to rebel the minor city, and the Count to usurp it. The Duke succeeded, and the Count failed. The Governor tried to usurp from Human control of a village, but also failed.

From my perspective, there should be no absolute guarantees. An element of doubt is always a good thing in wargames, I believe. It adds to the whole fog of war thing. Uncertainty gives pause, even though players may typically ignore uncertainty in favor of a risk for gain approach. The potential lesser of two evils, so to speak.

Thank you for your willingness to post notes in the aftermath of my own postings in this thread. My influence was 11.0 at the time that I issued the rebel and usurp commands on Turn #2. The Cimmerians king's influence was 10.0 on Turn #1.

[Strongwill]

Are you friendly in region? A little higher influence would have made it a success. If you were incarcerated you will be liberated when you take it.Using Duke to rebel and count to usurp is how I do it also..

Saw you post you had Gold issues. Winter groups until politicals can gain pop centers. Advancing wizards isn’t a priority at first with CI.

[Maximus Dominus]

Are you friendly in region? A little higher influence would have made it a success. If you were incarcerated you will be liberated when you take it.Using Duke to rebel and count to usurp is how I do it also..

Saw you post you had Gold issues. Winter groups until politicals can gain pop centers. Advancing wizards isn’t a priority at first with CI.

I was at Friendly regional reaction on Turn #1, because I had my king to enamor the region of The Crown Islands.

I'll have to see what wintering groups is. I've encountered the term before, but off the top of my head, I don't really know what it is.

Gold issues is a common theme - with me it seems to be, anyway. I as counting on taking those two population centers, and taking one of them at the very least. No cigar!

I did have the Cimmerians' starting Power 1 wizard do magical research to advance to Level 2. So, tell me, how does a newcomer to Alamaze know, as in instinctively know, which kingdoms they should do magical research with their adepts and wizards in the first or early turns of the game, and which kingdoms they shouldn't? Or is there a way to know that ahead of time?

[Strongwill]

No, it’s mostly knowing the strength and weakness of each kingdom. The CI is a military kingdom with weak magic. I always wait on wizard development until after I grab region and work my politicals, and military assets to advance groups and leaders. If I were a magic heavy kingdom I would work on my wizard development much earlier as a priority.

Wintering a group does 1/2 pay/food for the turn counts as a movement order. Bigger the group more gold saved that turn for other things.

[Croaker]

Milo007 - just wanted to send my contact info

Jernest@prodigy.net

[Maximus Dominus]

Cimmerians - Turn #4

Game 5712

Full Diplomacy Game

Things are starting to come together more nicely, now, for the Cimmerians in Game 5712. The minor city is now under my control, as is the region. I see that new Alamaze owner, John "Firestarter" Mulholland, aka Brekk, aka Brek, aka Shoney's Big Boy, has managed to obtain a Warlord down there in his werewolf kingdom of the Lycans. My kingdom is nowhere near obtaining a Warlord, yet. In fact, I've never had a Warlord at my disposal. Just when you think that your kingdom is starting to do better, leave it to Mister Alamaze, himself, to demonstrate how much of a noob that you still are.

Even still, I managed to gain control of three villages and a minor city, this turn. One of the villages I took control of by attacking it. I did this in a bid to try and gain some promotions for my kingdom's military leaders - which succeeded! Somewhere in the back of my mind, I still roll my eyes at the thought of taxing my own population centers, in order to make them rebel from my control, so that I might then play the cheap card of attacking my own (prior) population centers, in order to get my military leaders promoted that way. That whole scheme reeks to the high heavens! I just shake my head at that underhanded mechanism. Instinctively, new players of Alamaze would likely never conceive of turning against themselves, in order to do better at the game. Is this ploy done to gain early game advantage? Or is it a game-long thing?

Back to my own kingdom, I've begun to undertake an active search for unusual sightings, by way of resort to the #978 – Search For Encounters command. I suppose that I really should have begun to use this order a long time ago, in my Learning Games of Alamaze, but since I chose to try and learn how to play Alamaze via learning the mechanics of the game in segments, I deliberately made the conscious decision to put off learning about the artifacts portion of the game until now. It's really no different than having an agent to search for population centers using the #976 – Search For Popcenters command. Easy as pie to do (ever for a new player), and I managed to luck out and discover two unusual encounters this way on Turn #4. Basically, you just don't want to search areas where population centers are at. That's it, in a nutshell.

Like a true dumbass, I failed to do my kingdom customization on Turns #1 or #2, so I only finally got that done on Turn #3. I'm using an agent, in the coming turn (Turn #5) to transfer control of an artifact to a particular character. By searching some of the old postings here on the Alamaze forum, I learned that you can hire a new agent, and use that same character on the same turn to do the transfer of an artifact. This frees up a higher level agent that I was going to use to do the artifact transfer for other duties in the coming turn. Piece by piece by piece, this Alamaze puzzle is starting to come together, for me. Even still, there remains dozes of commands in the game which I have not yet even tried my hand at using. See here.

I'm really liking the fact that the Cimmerians movement scheme is better than other kingdoms that I have played. It costs less movement points to move into various different terrain types, when you play the Cimmerians. But for flavor of the kingdom considerations, is this kingdom supposed to remind me of Cimmeria in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age setting? If so, then I'm just not getting that vibe. That doesn't make it a terrible kingdom, but what is it supposed to feel like? What were the guiding considerations for the crafting of this kingdom in the first place? It's too early, yet, for me to tell whether this is a kingdom of great heroes and such. I can tell you this, though - it sure ain't the worst designed kingdom in the game. It has its strengths. But flavor-wise, it's definitely not like playing the Demon Princes. Not that that kingdom couldn't be improved, but in an as-is comparison, the Demon Princes has the Cimmerians beat, hands down.

[Strongwill]

You don’t have to tax pops. If you do then you have to raise your regional reaction again. Any pop city or town not a capital, can be recruited out of three times turning it neutral. Which you can then attack again, rinse repeat until pop level of pop center won’t allow again. And I agree, power gamer move, I too dislike it.

[Strongwill]

SO-FO if your intentions were to slow my progress then you accomplished it. However it has cost you a lot since turn 1. Do really want to continue this? I really don’t like hitting new or returning players, but you’re leaving me no choice. I am also willing to return your Duke and Count if you want to return to Mythgar, the region you chose to develop in the bid? Let me know?

[Kellenved]

Free Traders only wish for peace, and the Sacred Order certainly wouldn't start a war against us over a little city now would you? Let's discuss.

Sorry, Acererak. Only now figured out how to sign onto forum. Think it's a fine kettle of fish at Stormgate with your brigade, the Lycan army and my Sacred Order.

Hmm...I suggest we all try to figure out a compromise. Side bar: The Sacred Order did NOT sleep the Free Trader Emissary....

[Brekk]

**Bararod Jhaan, the Werewolf King, Issues a Dire Challenge:**

Hear me, Free Traders and Sacred Order, and heed my words well.

Stormgate, once shrouded in darkness, now belongs to the pack, and we lay claim to it with the strength of our unity and the might of our fangs and claws. This city, with its access to the life-giving waters, is a vital territory for our survival.

As the moon waxes full, my pack shall be reinforced, bolstering our numbers and resolve. We issue a challenge to all who dare to remain within Stormgate uninvited. The city's streets shall be stained with the blood of trespassers unless you heed this warning.

Leave this place, Free Traders and Sacred Order, while you still possess the freedom to do so. For those who choose to remain, you shall face the dire consequences of your defiance. The moonlit night shall be your last if you remain within our territory.

The choice is yours, and time is fleeting. The pack of Bararod Jhaan stands vigilant, ready to protect what is rightfully ours. Make your decision swiftly, for the night of reckoning approaches.

With a growl of authority,
Bararod Jhaan, the Werewolf King