Buddy/Ignore List
11-26-2015, 06:52 AM
This was, oddly enough, a game that I did not begin with any plans or expectations of winning. As the SO, I decided I'd like to play a game where I did nothing but sat back, collected artifacts and raised my wizards. Then when somebody else won – it was Rex after all – I'd hopefully make the podium on status points. To that end, I offered peace to the RA in the form of declaring him an ally – hoping he'd understand I was offering him control of the region in exchange for me getting the city. He apparently understood and accepted the deal – I claimed Jukunta and enough of Synisvania to get substantial (which I needed for my ESO) and I was happy. I'd confined my early pop center searches to the Sea of Drowning and had found a couple towns and villages there so I proceeded to move my capital and start to raise the gold production to fund my small kingdom's magic ambitions. I kept my head down, looking for artifacts as I wanted, though I mostly found low level ones. I did find the location of the Staff of the Orator, but the GN already had the key and my efforts to steal it were in vain. I made my ESO and got three more wizards, giving me 11 overall. Most of them I raised to 3 so I could keep improving the gold production – eventually that town would be churning out 137,000+ per turn.
Now – what happened next we will call The War of the Village. I had seen the RA and DW fighting – and that the DW had two regions. I thought he might come south, but as long as he left me alone, I resolved to stay out of it. But in his efforts to take the Eastern Steppes, he took my lone village up there. I understood – when you are trying to take a region, you need to snag everything you can get your hands on to get over the top. So I let it be but I needed one village in the north to feed my army in the summer. So a few turns later, I quietly flipped the village back to me and he got control of the region without it. That could have been the end of the story but then on T17, the DW shows up with an army group outside the village. It seems he just HAD to have my one measly little village – he captured and killed my Count, too. Well, this just pissed me off – it says in the original rulebook writeup that 'None but the foolish will take lightly the Sorcerer.' Well the DW had just taken me lightly and I was about to show him how foolish that way. If he couldn't leave my one village alone...well, I was going to make him see a 'Million Stars' all right.
I found his capital on T20 and on T21, I send a trio of assassins to it, killing his king, prince and a mid-level agent. Meanwhile, I used my naval mastery of the Sea of Drowning to start taking Eastern Steppes pop centers within that body of water. On T25, I knocked him out of control and took control myself the next turn. I finally had my first region! I decided to move on the Talking Mountains next, but I didn't want to get into a big war where I took pop centers and then he took them back. So I decided to nuke the place – I opened up by dropping three bombs on his capital, incinerating his regent. Then I just went boom, boom, boom – using a P8 to knock down the walls of his new capital, Hammerhead. But the time the population had been reduced by half, I then switched tactics – magically enamouring the region, taking towns with groups and emmies. Hammerhead was down to 3000 defense and a group walked right in, sending his capital out of the region and giving me control.
Looking at my next target, I wanted the Northern Mists, but I didn't want others to turn on me. I declared the BL an enemy to make people think we were fighting (and to make it harder for him if he did attack me for real) and started scouting pop centers in the Mists. I saw that they were empty – I figured the WI had send his people out elsewhere to attack but the turn before I moved in, I spotted the GN in a couple of the towns. Poacher! Claim-jumper! I killed those two and then spied on all the other pop centers as I moved in. The next turn, I killed the rest of the GN emmies, leaving me alone in the region. I also moved into the towns in Synisvania – I'd hoped to find them mostly owned by the DW, but all but his capital were owned by my ally, the RA. I felt bad about that, but I wasn't going to pass up the win. I took the Mists on T35 after flipping it neutral the turn before. I knew I'd now be a target. The WI had come back to try and fight for his home. Rather than risk loosing control, I slapped 3 domes on Viperhead and nuked the one town the WI had retaken. That way, even if I somehow lost Viperhead, I'd still have it. I took similar precautions in Synisvania as well - I killed another DW regent and a few RA emmies as well - and that fell into my hands, giving me the needed 4th and the win.
A very fun game, but I would have probably been content to sit back and collect artifacts if the DW hadn't taken my village that second time.
Now – what happened next we will call The War of the Village. I had seen the RA and DW fighting – and that the DW had two regions. I thought he might come south, but as long as he left me alone, I resolved to stay out of it. But in his efforts to take the Eastern Steppes, he took my lone village up there. I understood – when you are trying to take a region, you need to snag everything you can get your hands on to get over the top. So I let it be but I needed one village in the north to feed my army in the summer. So a few turns later, I quietly flipped the village back to me and he got control of the region without it. That could have been the end of the story but then on T17, the DW shows up with an army group outside the village. It seems he just HAD to have my one measly little village – he captured and killed my Count, too. Well, this just pissed me off – it says in the original rulebook writeup that 'None but the foolish will take lightly the Sorcerer.' Well the DW had just taken me lightly and I was about to show him how foolish that way. If he couldn't leave my one village alone...well, I was going to make him see a 'Million Stars' all right.
I found his capital on T20 and on T21, I send a trio of assassins to it, killing his king, prince and a mid-level agent. Meanwhile, I used my naval mastery of the Sea of Drowning to start taking Eastern Steppes pop centers within that body of water. On T25, I knocked him out of control and took control myself the next turn. I finally had my first region! I decided to move on the Talking Mountains next, but I didn't want to get into a big war where I took pop centers and then he took them back. So I decided to nuke the place – I opened up by dropping three bombs on his capital, incinerating his regent. Then I just went boom, boom, boom – using a P8 to knock down the walls of his new capital, Hammerhead. But the time the population had been reduced by half, I then switched tactics – magically enamouring the region, taking towns with groups and emmies. Hammerhead was down to 3000 defense and a group walked right in, sending his capital out of the region and giving me control.
Looking at my next target, I wanted the Northern Mists, but I didn't want others to turn on me. I declared the BL an enemy to make people think we were fighting (and to make it harder for him if he did attack me for real) and started scouting pop centers in the Mists. I saw that they were empty – I figured the WI had send his people out elsewhere to attack but the turn before I moved in, I spotted the GN in a couple of the towns. Poacher! Claim-jumper! I killed those two and then spied on all the other pop centers as I moved in. The next turn, I killed the rest of the GN emmies, leaving me alone in the region. I also moved into the towns in Synisvania – I'd hoped to find them mostly owned by the DW, but all but his capital were owned by my ally, the RA. I felt bad about that, but I wasn't going to pass up the win. I took the Mists on T35 after flipping it neutral the turn before. I knew I'd now be a target. The WI had come back to try and fight for his home. Rather than risk loosing control, I slapped 3 domes on Viperhead and nuked the one town the WI had retaken. That way, even if I somehow lost Viperhead, I'd still have it. I took similar precautions in Synisvania as well - I killed another DW regent and a few RA emmies as well - and that fell into my hands, giving me the needed 4th and the win.
A very fun game, but I would have probably been content to sit back and collect artifacts if the DW hadn't taken my village that second time.