Game 37

[Lord Diamond]

Game Details attached!

[HeadHoncho]

Tried an experiment this game, in that I opted not to draft a 565 Kingdom (RD, GI, TR, BL). That was a mistake, and I don't plan to repeat it.

I actually started off decently, but then our baby arrived and I got totally distracted. The other players were gracious to let me off the hook, and so I dropped after entering orders for T10 (along with some standing orders, including one or two that may have taken Thudargh by surprise).

Congratulations to Thudargh! You outplayed me, and despite some early victories, I just couldn't keep up with your TR hordes.

[VballMichael]

Tried an experiment this game, in that I opted not to draft a 565 Kingdom (RD, GI, TR, BL).  That was a mistake, and I don't plan to repeat it.

I actually started off decently, but then our baby arrived and I got totally distracted.  The other players were gracious to let me off the hook, and so I dropped after entering orders for T10 (along with some standing orders, including one or two that may have taken Thudargh by surprise).

Congratulations to Thudargh!  You outplayed me, and despite some early victories, I just couldn't keep up with your TR hordes.

Pfffttt, prioritizing babies over Alamaze....
Much easier to ignore mine now that they are both off at college.

Grats to Thudargh on the win. Those trolls are tough when they get the right support.

[Thudargh]

This was my first experience with Warlords, and what an experience it was! I hadn’t realized how much difference there would be between this and a team game – the level of coordination you attain between kingdoms ends up being far greater, which makes for much different strategy. It was a lot of fun!

The first step in a Warlords game is the draft. This is a really important part – I’ve seen in team games where the synergies between different sets of kingdoms makes a huge difference. I went into the draft with one main goal. I wanted kingdoms that were either geographically grouped or mobile enough to move to so that all my resources would be consolidated.

My first round of picks were RD, TR, BL and EL. I got TR. My second round of picks were EL, GN, DE, BL and AN. I basically focused on TR’s main neighbors – BL was there because they are quite mobile, and AN was last because I was hoping to avoid starting off sharing a region with myself. I got GN. My final round of picks were DE, BL, AN, SO and DA. My hope was for DE because then I’d be nicely consolidated in the southwest corner. And DE I got!

I still remember Lord Diamond’s comment upon informing me that I had TR-GN-DE: “I do not recall ever seeing that particular combination before.” I figured this either boded very well…or very poorly!

I knew from our Turn 0 results that DW, SO, and UN were the unplayed kingdoms. That made AN my clear first target. AN shared Torvale with TR and was the natural enemy of DE. I was also hoping that a dogpile on AN would force the other kingdoms on that team to reveal themselves by coming AN’s defense. That would tell me where to expand to after Torvale.

So how to take on AN? On Turn 1, I used GN & TR groups plus every Recon and Raven I could muster to scout every single land square in Torvale. I knew that any AN town I found would be the capital. I moved three TR groups into the central forest of Torvale at the same time, positioned to recruit orcs and move on the AN capital on Turn 2. Assuming, of course, that AN’s capital happened to be on land and thus vulnerable to TR hordes.(That’s why I didn’t bother checking any water squares.) Fortunately it wasn’t – 6 troll brigades and 8 orc brigades descended on PG on Turn 2, and smashed it on Turn 3.

Of course, it’s not like AN sat on his hands. His emissaries showed up at Meridon and Cradia on Turn 1. Combined with AN’s ability to denigrate, both cities were out of reach for me. EL also sent an emissary to Meridon, and WA started taking Torvale villages as well. Based on this, I guessed I was facing off against AN/EL/WA. I ended up keeping both GN & TR focused on Torvale, leaving DE to sweep through Arcania and then Runnimede. Gotta say I like DE’s abilities of Regional Submission and Denigrate – because they happen before emissary actions, poor regional reactions aren’t nearly as much of a problem. You just need to get a PC in a region first.

The war in Torvale took its toll on GN & TR. By being so focused on the same contested region, each only took a limited number of PCs. In addition, agents started assassinating low level GN wizards – which sucked cause you can’t replace those. I eventually pulled GN out of Torvale entirely. But the lack of resources on their part was more than made up for by DE. No one moved on Arcania, so DE took it unmolested. Then DE swept into Runnimede and was able to capture it as well. Tons of gold flowed from DE to GN for developing wizards and agents and to TR for orcs. I actually had DE moving north on to Oakendell at the time Head Honcho(AN/EL/WA) had to drop. (Ah, the joys of being a first time parent! Where you think you can keep up your hobbies no problem – until that fantastic new addition to your life teaches you otherwise. Been there!)

I took the opportunity to rearrange my holdings so that all my kingdoms could get their ESOs. I also wanted to rebuild a bit from my war with AN/EL/WA – TR’s morale had taken hits due to being Hostile in Torvale. And I wasn’t sure who to go after next: WI/RD/BL or GI/DA/RA. Both had three regions under their control, so there wasn’t a clear leader to target. Then DE and WI started tripping over each other in Oakendell. Decision made! I moved my military, agents, emissaries and wizards north, and even moved on Northern Mists to encourage WI to abandon Oakendell.

Then RA booted BL out of the Southern Sands. Oops. I’d pivoted all my forces north, leaving Arcania and Runnimede vulnerable. In addition, it was now clear that GI/DA/RA had the upper hand – the last thing I wanted to do was help GI/DA/RA finish off WI/RD/BL. I did a massive re-planning of my strategy for a full on invasion of Amberland. And it was a good plan. Might very well have caught GI/DA/RA with their pants down. Except I wanted until Saturday morning to plan out my orders…and then felt like sleeping in. I got the plan figured out – but didn’t have time to get all my orders in. Got just enough in to signal GI/DA/RA that I was coming. Double oops.

What followed was a massive invasion of Arcania by RA. At the same time, I properly launched my invasion of Amberland. Both went uncontrolled on Turn 20. But I got lucky – 1DE parlayed a village on Turn 21 and that was enough to get control of Arcania back. And three neutral PCs rejoined the kingdom. I also had three TR groups in Arcania, placed to start capturing PCs and executing emissaries. I wasn’t sure exactly how it would all play out, but I felt pretty confident I’d give a good accounting of myself at the very least.

And then Morgan Kane(GI/DA/RA) needed to drop as well. In the email discussion, it was decided to concede the game to me! Not quite the same as crushing folks beneath my feet, but very cool nonetheless. HeadHoncho, Morgan Kane and Mad Mardigan are all players I consider to be very good at this game, and for them to say I came out on top means a lot.

Thanks for a great game and a great experience!