Game 168 STEEL REX DIPLOMACY

[Jumpingfist]

Congratulations to Cloud for Victory by Lions Share and to all that finished this contest to its 40 turn conclusion.   Looking forward to the write-ups and please do assign the Citizenship awards.  Note: this is likely one of the last games that was started on the old clipper game engine.

Victory By Lion's Share Is The Elven Kingdom!

Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-40 Grand Total

1 EL Cloud 18,235 30,174
2 UN Jumpingfist 16,250 26,976
3 WI Rogal 14,905 25,530
4 AN Lord Alz 11,055 20,978
5 SO Mad Mardigan 7,600 13,200
6 DA Whitewolf 4,600 11,550
7 DW Airborne Ranger 4,500 11,254
8 GN Arch Mage of Entropy 4,600 9,975
9 BL Eregnon the Black 2,200 8,266
10 WA Jumbie 3,975 7,786

[bananas]

[gn]
Woah! 40 turns was way too long. I remember... I remember.... things were going good...I was rich....then....something bad happened .... and I wasn't. Don't remember much after that... lots of crying.... my beautiful city.... so many dead princes.... a small flicker of hope... then total darkness...


Hope to post a summary soon.

[Lord Diamond]

End of game details attached.

[Lord Thanatos]

Will there be any post mortem?

[bananas]

I want a prize for having negative food. I checked and no one else has negative food or gold. I saw a few 2, 1, and 0 food. But no negatives.

Food on hand at end of game (High) -1,599

[Rogal]

Where is an easy place to find the definition of the citizenship awards?

[bananas]

I don't know.... seeing the Peer Nominated section in Valhalla makes me wonder if I should remove the 'player nominated' section of my signature.

[Ry Vor]

Where is an easy place to find the definition of the citizenship awards?

There's not a hard definition for the three titles we currently have.

Chancellor we value because that's how we build a community.  Chancellors are advisors / mentors to newer players, and can also teach "old dogs" new tricks.

Iron Willed is a player who overcomes adversity, surpassing the expectations for hanging in when things haven't gone right.  We have several players who cherish this reputation more than being considered a great strategist.

Infamous is harder to define as we have had so many Anonymous games, where you only sense personality through game actions.  In full diplomacy games, its the persona that makes the game memorable for any reason.  Used to be a role-playing attitude in correspondence, or nefarious actions backed up by smack-talk, someone that did some audacious things in a game, etc.

[Cloud]

Being an account of Game 168 from the View of the Elves of the Golden Wood

When I began this game, I had a simple plan - it was a Rex game, so no need to rush.  Build, stay out of nonsense, accumulate points.  If circumstances forced my hand, be prepared to strike.  It was a 12 player game with no TR, GI, or RD.  I started with forming a partnership with the WI (spoiler alert - it never amounted to much more than a NAP plus sporadic information sharing, but I get ahead of myself)  I also formed a quick 10 turn NAP with AN and left it at that.  I gained my region on turn 3 and turned my attention to scouting out potential enemies.  First the AN since he was my neighbor and had gotten his region on turn 3 as well (and I could get almost all of it with one divination) The WI was concerned about the DW, who got his region on turn 4 so I divined him, too.  Build build build plus divine WA in R5 and DE in R8 before losing my Priestess.  It is just after turn 6 and AN reaches out and says lets extend the terms of our NAP to forever with a two-turn warning out clause.  Fine.  Sounds like AN is going to go one on one against the DE - great.  Let me know if I can help.  Also at this point, WI makes nice with DW and forms an information sharing group with the three of us.  I shared all my divinations but I don't think I ever got much, if anything, from the arrangement.  But I did feel constrained from attacking DW and relatively safe from attack by him throughout the game, despite us never discussing non-aggression. 

There is some wackiness going on in the east at this time, and I'll leave it to the players involved to tell the tale.  From what I understand, though, RA had attacked Eastern Steppes and so had BL.  Not sure if that was coordinated.  SO was not involved.  DW was going to jump to DA's assistance and soon after RA dropped for reasons outside this game.  BL figured he'd rather make peace than fight a foreign war alone against two foes so they all came to some sort of agreement that got DA back in control of R6 and splitting the RA holdings among DW and BL, with SO seemingly left out of it all.  This was my perception of it at the time from across the board.  Ultimately all four Eastern powers would become one bloc, but I'm not sure when that happened.  So I am friendly with my two main neighbors, leaving just the third so I start gathering intel on WA.  Just as GN and UN attack him.  hmmm.  This pairing is getting pretty dangerous.  I started to get concerned about them - If they steamroll the WA, who knows what will happen?  I want this game to last a long time and they are just raging.  I divined their PC's and bided my time.  This brings us to about turn 15.  Between turn 17 and 18, I am contacted by GN who says he and UN are being attacked by DW and DA and am I interested in attacking them.  I talk it over with WI and we agree - y'all can just fight amongst yourselves.  Does not have to involve me.  Shortly after, UN contacts me and says much the same but with the added piece of info that BL is attacking them hard in Runnimede.  Okay, I'll need to deal with that.

BL has his home region and enough of Synisvania to gain control effortlessly if need be.  That puts him in the driver's seat of this game.  He could Rex real quick if he successfully steamrolls R7.  I have the portals between Oakendell and Southern Sands mapped and, conveniently, they allow me to move my big group from Lorethane to Vanasheen in one turn.  I discuss it with WI - if needed he will back me up, but this is my play for now.  On turn 18, I am outside Vanasheen.  On turn 19, I take the city and move my capitol there.  On turn 20, I litter the region with my emissaries and move my capitol back home.  What followed was a fairly grueling fight to subdue R10.  Elsewhere, DE has quit after having been full on spanked by AN, who now controls Arcania as well as his home region, and BL has taken control of R7.  During this time, I am giving reports on my actions in R10 to the GN/UN and occasional updates to the WI, but not coordinating with anyone.  BL put up a really really good defense of the region.  I knocked him out of Control on turn 22.  On turn 24, he had regained the region largely by sneaking back into Vanasheen and flipping it back.  I was assassinating emissaries and got my first P7, so I could Dome now.  On turn 25, I knocked him out of control again.  Finally, on turn 29, I gained control of The Southern Sands.  Eleven turns after I sprang my attack.  This is far too long.  There are many ways I could have done better, but I did like I did and now I only have 10 turns if I'm gonna Rex and two regions to gain.  Plus, the BL is not done resisting so I can't even turn away from R10.  As a precaution, I hired 11 agents on turn 29 and put them on standing orders to train on turn 30.  On turn 40, they would be worth 400 SPs each.

I moved my emissaries in Synisvania to take the BL holdings there and met no resistance.  Elsewhere, the DW had begun fighting AN over R8.  DA and BL were still tussling with GN/UN and WA was in the mix as well, still kicking.  The world was seriously at war with the four Eastern powers almost fully allied now.  SO and DW both courted my ire by supplying the BL armies that were vexing me.  Around this time, SO attacked WI and I was prepared to go all in against him, pick up Control of R9 and move on to R6.  SO, however, thought better of it and sued for peace, seemingly to direct his attentions to AN.  WI and I discussed all the options in front of us and decided to hold tight.  It seemed the only thing that would prevent one of us from winning was AN pushing for Rex.  It was decided that we would not push for me to Rex unless AN seemed to be close.  BL's final stand in R10 involved coming to attack the city on turn 33.  He had demonstrated his ability to dispel Domes, but I had invisibly caught up to his wizard patrol and was ready to cast Kill spells.  I also got my 2nd P7 on turn 33.  He must have noticed the invis group with his P5, because on turn 34, he Instant Teleported out of that group and into another, moving the same turn back into the region.  With his group, he Sieged.  This was a very nice plan, but I sniffed it out.  I had divined his patrols and figured out what had happened.  On turn 35, I double-Domed on Vanasheen, thwarting his attack as 1BL moved towards leaving the region.  With the AN under fire, I had every expectation that I would win by Lion's Share if I did nothing and it seemed foolish to put the SO/DA target on me by attacking.  So I just rode it out.

I hatched a plan to take an 11th hour swipe at the SO, partially to gain points from Controlling R9, partially to boost my PC count for Valhalla, abut mostly as punishment for feeding the BL when everyone knew we were at war.  I offered my DA info to WI, in case he wanted to do the same to DA.  On turn 39, I moved into every SO controlled PC except his cap, teleported my army to Jukanta, and Summoned Demon on the only emissary I had found in my way.  Having a similar idea, the SO incited at two of my R9 pc's on turn 39.  On turn 40, I took every precaution - I Warded my King, Moved my cap, and struck with my politicals and military, gaining the region and winning the game by Lion's Share.  This was a really fun game for me - for at least 25 turns, it was the one I would reflect on when my mind wandered to Alamaze.  My favorite moment?  Oh.  Well.  During my war with BL, I miskeyed the target area for a 350 order and stumbled into SO's R10 town.  I didn't even know he had one!   

Chancellor - Airborne Ranger [DW] for building that game-defining alliance out of the mess left after RA's departure.
Iron Willed - Eregnon [BL] other kingdoms were all but beaten and bounced back (DA, WA, GN - lots of good options for this one) but to have such a strong hand in the mid game only to lose it all can be demoralizing and I was so impressed by Eregnon's spirited play - straight to the top of my noobs-to-watch list.
Infamous - I'm giving it to MadMardigan [SO] - he quietly developed and sprung out of nowhere in the end game.  Destroying AN pc's, Sneak-attacking the WI.  Trying to 11th hour me when I was trying to 11th hour him.  Super sneaky, just like SO is supposed to be.

[Lord Diamond]

Great write-up, Cloud. I love that Valhalla rankings played a part in your game play, just as we intended.