Login

**IMPERIAL_TARK** · (This post was last modified: 08-30-2015, 04:40 PM by IMPERIAL_TARK.)

The Gnome King can be reached at: bschrade@emporia.edu

If we all play nice we could each have 2 regions before the bloodshed starts.

However, if some of you don't want to play nice out of the box and you need lots of extra gold to help channel your aggressive tendencies, the Gnome banks are prepared (operators are standing by) to fund your war machine for the right price.

**Ruingurth** · 08-30-2015, 09:42 PM

The Elves of the Golden wood can be reached at: mtorp1@hotmail.com

**Greyhawk** · 08-31-2015, 06:08 AM

The Dark Elves can be reached at waffle166gmail.com

**Netstrider** · 09-01-2015, 05:30 AM

The hordes of the Black Dragons screech from david.mowers@gmail.com. I will send greetings to my fellow rulers before next turn, but I just checked a parent in to the hospital so it may be a while. On the other hand, visiting hours may give me plenty of time to read email and practice my pathetic diplomatic skills.

I am in favor of the two region split and will discuss detail in mail. If the gnome wishes, feel free to express your territorial desires.

Screech!

**Greyhawk** · 09-01-2015, 06:20 PM

BL, dealing with my Dad in AZ who recently had a stroke, I feel you man. Prayers....

**IMPERIAL_TARK** · 11-16-2015, 05:17 PM

Runigruth,
Congrats on a nice win!
IMP_TARK

**Netstrider** · 11-16-2015, 06:37 PM

Congrats to Ruingurth for a good win!

My short summary of the game:

This was only my second game since returning to Alamaze after a 25ish year absence. I definitely got off to a slow start not realizing how much space was out there to be grabbed. Spent some energy and orders worrying about things I didn't need to such as hiring High Priestesses to heal my troops. Just get more Wyverns - turned out they were cheap in this game. Also went off on a wild goose chase for Phoenix when I didn't have a marshal yet. Had a bit of bad luck in the beginning - could not get a promotion for my general to save my life. Didn't have a Marshal until turn 11.

Had a bit of an issue with the Gnome who (I didn't think) lived up to his part of the bargain that he proposed when starting the game. He took Esteria Vale very early in the game even though it was agreed that Arcania was my expansion region. He then made it his capital and improved the defenses quite considerably.

The Gnome started his attack on me around turn 12 quite successfully. I had not improved my defenses of my capital at all. He snuck 1GN in there and obliterated my capital with very minor losses to his own group. So sad! Totally a newb mistake - protect your capital!

I thought turn-around would be fair play and moved my quite impressive 1BL to siege Esteria Vale. 1BL was about 90k in strength by then and was feeling a bit bad ass. But after conferring with a mentor, it seemed like a bad choice to try an assault as the defenses of Esteria Vale were 43k. The rule of thumb is 3:1 for attacking a capital and I didn't have that. So decided on a siege. I figured if the 1GN showed up I'd be able to tear it to shreds.

But that was when I learned the next important lesson - mages rule! 1GN showed up with 1 power 5 and two power 4s and they did terrific damage to 1BL. The battle broke the siege, of course, and since I didn't move 1GN got to beat up on me again the next turn. 1BL was almost completely destroyed by the two battles over two turns.

My main errors during this game were somewhat specific to Primeval and the amount of resources available. Once you have two regions it's hard to spend your cash unless you raise wizards - which was the one thing I didn't do.

A good learning experience, but I think Primeval format is a bit too different from a regular game to get a real flavor for resource management. I would like to see an 8 or 10 player game I think.

Thanks to all for a good game and great learning experience!

Dave

**IMPERIAL_TARK** · 11-18-2015, 07:43 PM

GNOME

This was only my second Alamaze game (by about a day) but the first to end. As a new player primeval (EL-GN-DA-BL-RA) it was definitely a great learning experience and really helped me understand the basics and feel of the game. All new players should start with one of these friendlier formats. I knew that the Elf was the kingdom to beat as he was the only one without an opponent on his initial regional border; I also felt bad for the RA being sandwiched between the BL and DA and the game bore this out.

I started out rushing to make sure I took R7 and quickly learned that just making a few miscalculations on how many PCs you needed can be the difference between taking your region on Turn 3 vs. Turn 6 (ouch!); thankfully I was also working on Torvale simultaneously and learning quickly and by Turn 7, I had taken take R4 as well. However, the EL had taken 2 regions also by Turn 7 and the race was on. The RA mistakenly sent some emmys into one of my cities (apparently without recon) and ended up having both taken prisoner when they tried to rebel/usurp against my maintain status quo. I would later learn that the RA ended up losing quite a bit of his emmy court early in the game. Still I was feeling good at this point with plenty of gold, food, and building my wizards up while doing some artifact hunting.

The RA ended up being a non-factor never even taking R9 (nobody took it for the entire game; 17 turns). My first ventures into diplomacy were quite frustrating. Early on I offered to split Arcania with the BL. I would take Esteria Vale and everything west of that line, and he could have Zarathon and everything east of Esteria Vale. I would take R4/R7 and he would take R9/R10. But he was going to claim R8 as his own as well. So I agreed I would not try to "take control" of R8 until after I had take both R4 and R7. I ended up taking both in the time that it took the BL to take R10. So I went after R8 with a vengeance, making Esteria Vale my capital and cranking its defenses through the roof. Imagine my surprise when I found that on Turn 10, no one had taken Zarathon (still human). I got my emmys there on Turn 11 and took it by Turn 12, I was within an eyelash of taking control of R8 when the BL finally showed up to contend for it. This ended up turning into a consuming battle of diplomats and armies with the BL eventually claiming R8 but not before I devastated his Army Group in the battles of Esteria Vale. His 22 BL brigades ran into an 18 brigade GN Army Group supported by two other wizards groups (for a total of 6 Wizards; 1 P6, 2 P5, 2 P4, and 1 P2. After two turns of battles, the charred carnage of BL dragon carcasses were so high that when the City Commander went for his morning walk, he could step off the top of the massive city walls and use dragon carcasses as steps down to the ground.

Meanwhile, the DA ended up taking two regions and kept promising to engage the Elf and flip one of his regions but never delivered. That was equally frustrating since the Elf had reached 3 regions and the DA kept saying he had it under control and that he was (always) a turn away from taking one of his regions but never did. The BL who had access to the R10 portal and could engage the Elf but would not let go of his desire to take all of R8 and of course once I destroyed the BL Army, he had nothing left to throw at the Elf. The Elf managed to jump into R4 and flip it in 2 turns while I was attempting to extricate myself from R8 and pivot to meet him.

In the end, the RA was a complete non-factor and the DA, BL, and myself essentially got consumed with other things and let the Elf walk with the victory. The Elf deserved this win, he stayed focused and on-target, and was masterful in keeping the DA at bay while seizing on the GN-BL war to sneak in for his 4th region. Happy with 2nd place for my first complete game.