2015 Championship game

[VballMichael]

Congrats to all on a great contest. Will do a write-up a little later on this Silent 2015 Championship game that ended today.

Victory By SVC Is The Black Dragon Kingdom!

Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-21 Grand Total

1 BL Vball Michael       10,200 14,100
2 UN Lord Thanatos      7,420 11,257
3 EL Cloud                   7,325 10,182
4 WI HeadHoncho        7,500 9,900
5 DW Imperial Tark      6,695 9,520
6 DE Canticar              4,200 6,375
7 GI Jumpingfist          4,000 5,600
8 WA Jhereg               3,800 5,250
9 SO DuPont               4,130 5,166
10 RD Lord Alz            2,900 4,175
11 DA Thudargh          2,275 3,475

[HeadHoncho]

Congratulations, VBM! Great job! And also to LT and Cloud!

[Jumpingfist]

Congrats Vball on a well earned win. Nice to see Cloud back on the podium in hopefully a return to Alamaze

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

Congrats VBM!!! First time playing the DW and really enjoyed them. Of course, I couldn't have asked for a nicer RD ally who just ceded me the whole region, leaving on T1 for parts unknown.

[VballMichael]

What a fun game. I was excited to do the 2015 Championship game as the Black Dragons, definitely my favorite kingdom. I planned, like I always do as the Black, to take region 10 quickly and invade region 9 as quickly as possible before the RA and the SO could get set. Then I would figure out my 3rd region later. I actually forgot this was SVC until about turn 17, oops, then I had to scramble to get more troops.
T1: DW gets HC, nobody at my city (yay)
T2: EL gets HC, I got my city, RA failed to get his (yes, I am already scouting region 9)
T3: UN gets HC, DA takes 6, DE takes 8, Elf is hogging the HC issues, I found an unusual
T4: DE gets HC, 6 regions fall (all but 3 and 9), I have my region plus am at a couple of things in 9, I have 2 groups covering region 9 squares
T5: I get the last HC seat, DW and RA get their regions, Priestess finds towns in 9 and I have covered half of 9 with my groups
T6: Get HC issue, killed RA amb, am at several villages in 9, the unusual was a dumb ring of protection, priestess found villages in 9, am tied with UN for status points for 1st place, will ignore SO and UN in 9
T7: RA declares me enemy, am in full invasion now (5 emissaries, 3 groups, but am suspicious), have 14 brigades
T8: Killed RA countess, I have 1 town and 3 villages in 9, region 6 goes uncontrolled (yay others are fighting, that is good)
T9: RA is fighting back hard, got my HC issue for second time, 3 level 10 agents, 19 influence, 19 brigades, have 2 towns and 5 villages in 9
T10: Killed RA envoy and L6 and L7, turned region 9 neutral, so now am friendly and own 3 towns and 6 villages in 9 and at city with 20 brigades, hit ESO (2 brigades, 2 barons, influence)
T11: GN drops, RA still rebelling pop centers, I am sieging city, RA army at my cap in 10, I own 4 towns and 6 villages in 9
T12: I took out RA cap and killed his king, I now own region 9, 21 influence, 7 good emissaries, RA took out my cap in 10 but all escaped. I have 19 brigades and am 2nd in status (23 points behind UN)
T13: Am cleaning up in regions 9 and 10, killed an RA duke, RA resisting but I own 26 of the 27 points in 9 (not sure what happened to SO cap), GI declares me ally but not sure why
T14: Priestess finds GI pop centers in 5 (he has 1 city, 7 towns, 4 villages) so I can have options for what can be my third region (had previously learned pop centers in 8 and 6)
T15: Am building, am at NN for phoenixes, cannot spend all of my food and gold because there is so much, find GI cap at JP
T16: Invading 5 but GI declares me enemy and I drop to suspicious (ouch - that will slow down an invasion), RA drops (not too surprising), am at 8 GI pop centers, am at GI cap with 1BL.
T17: Hit GI cap (killed a baron) and moved to his city, regions 4 and 8 go neutral, I have 25 brigades in Amberland, own 1 town and 5 villages, WA throwing demonic visions, ouch. So I plan to hit this turn, turn it neutral and move troops out of 5
T18: Turned 5 neutral, GI takes region 8, TR takes region 7, GI has moved emissaries and 3 groups to my region 10. I suddenly realize this is an SVC game and I will have met all except group size (125,000) next turn, gold is like a million and food is aplenty, so I need to recruit like mad and get back to region 10. I am barely ahead of the UN for 1st in status points.
T19: Took region 5, and I have met SVC but I can't remember if you can claim on T19 so I don't . Lost a little in region 10, and GI is in enough spots that I will not own 10 next turn. Region 8 goes open, AN drops.
T20: I do lose control of 10 to the GI emissaries and groups, but I am back with enough emissaries and groups to take it back, WA is blasting villages and towns in 5 but will not destroy enough to hurt, TR drops but not sure why, I have 47 brigades and am reluctant to end game as I will be intercepting main GI group next turn.
T21: Took back region 10 and claimed the SVC. Am sitting opposite the 1GI army group, oh well would have been a fun battle. Finished with 51 brigades worth about 200,000 and WA did blast more towns and villages in 5. I would not have been able to hold 3 regions for long.

I really enjoy playing the Black Dragon and appreciated the strong competition in this match. Thanks to all, and congrats to LT and Cloud on their podium finishes.

[Acererak]

TR


This game was pretty fun for me until I made a very critical error and hadn't hired a silly envoy on turn 19 and LT kidnapped my last regent on turn 20. I had a very viable position (with zero emissaries of course) but honestly didn't realize I would be pushed out if I lost my last emissary. Funny thing is, I hired two envoys realizing this but the Underworld can eliminate you before they are hired. I assume otherwise you could hire someone on the same turn as a kidnap/assasinate because hiring happens at 500 and those at 900. 

As the Troll I have always enjoyed the anonymous games because you basically smash at will. This one was tough because by the time the AN and I came to a cease fire, we both were weakened. Him taking my capital and all of my hard earned Gnome prisoners was another turning point. I had lucked out early in the game landing on the Gnome capital twice and capturing most of his political corps- causing him to quit the game. Sorry Gnome.

LT and I battled for much of turns 10-20 with him constantly kidnapping or killing my political corps and me stomping around runnimede and eventually gaining control. He wisely moved on to Torvale but not sure he knew until very late and just as I was about to be kicked out of the game that I had been watching his capital at WA and my agent 13 and agent 9 were causing a bit of mischief. I was able to take out one of his P4's, steal his ruler eliminator and then use it on what turned out to be my final turn to kill one of his level 16 agents. I took great pleasure in secretly hitting the UN since he kidnapped my new regent every turn with impunity. My biggest error was not guarding the new regent with my level 13 agent on the turn he would accede to the throne and then having him live the next turn. It just never occurred to me until it was too late. 

When I was knocked out I had 3 armies of about 50, 30, 30 - not as powerful as should have been because I had horrible luck all game with leaders dying. Probably lost 15 total leaders including many marshals and generals attacking. But most importantly- in the early game I couldn't get my morale up. The AN had me hostile in Torvale and the UN had me hostile in runnimede. So though I could feed and pay myself, I could never enamor because my freaking king would disappear every turn!

Congrats to Vballmichael,LT to getting 2nd despite me attacking you most of the game and Cloud!

[Lord Thanatos]

UN

This was a very enjoyable game for me.  I battled constantly from the very beginning with first GN, then GN/TR simultaneously, and finally TR.

It is a shame this was a SVC game as it ended much too quickly for my tastes. [3rd cycle has fixed this.]

I love the UN position - even in an anonymous contest.

I was able to kill TR wizards with ambushing groups and assassinated a few TR leaders as well.  I captured the remaining GN emissaries who avoided the TR dungeons.  All was well when the TR returned to Torvale after the GN dropped; I was in control of Runnimede and seriously focused upon agent training.

Then the TR returned to Runnimede and I was slow in reacting because I truly believed the TR was only attacking pcs on his way to the Southern Sands to hinder the BL rise to power.  By this time the BL owned two regions and the RA had been eliminated.  Instead, the TR stuck around with the intent of controlling the region.  I moved into Torvale and started collecting TR emissaries in the watery caves at WA.  Though I assassinated the TR King, all remaining emissaries were put on display in the official UN zoo.  I clearly had a diplomatic advantage over the TR and was taking pcs in Torvale (and retaking pcs in Runnimede) when he moved his capital to QC.  A huge mistake!

I continue to believe a player should not be eliminated so long as he is willing to continue (whatever the state of his kingdom.)  The TR was viable and in control of 1 and 1/2 regions when he was eliminated.  Sorry Acererak!  On a side note, I had been unable to locate the high level TR agent until he stole my artifact.  Then . . . it was easy to locate him!  That agent was marked for death/capture and display.    Also, I finally raised a P7 capable of casting Dome so would have been able to seriously slow the TR military had he not been eliminated.

I very much enjoy these Championship games because all the players are skilled and tenacious.  I am very pleased to have placed second.  Had the game continued I would have been able to add two demonprinces to the UN zoo displays because he sent two of them to QC when the TR was eliminated.  I had five agents between 17 and 19 and a total of 12 (would have been 13 except for the TR agent) agents above level 14 or 15. This was a very fun game for me.

Congratulations to VBM and Cloud! ! !

[Lord Diamond]

I will post the Valhalla update tomorrow.

[DuPont]

SO. This game was a complete 'failure to launch' for me. I had a simple plan - split 9 with the RA letting him have control and focus on pop centers in the Sea of Drowning and build up there. Two things went wrong very early. First of all, in Synisvania, there were only two villages in the Sea of Drowning, one of which belonged to the UN and I had no desire to cross his path. What was really catastrophic was that I missed turn 3 - I'm in a lot of games (especially at that point) and many were due the same day and due to a malfunction, the SO position didn't get sent a 'missing turn' notice. I did bring this up to UM but he basically said 'tough luck - you should always have orders in.' The end result is that I had the default ESO and SVC, both of which would be damn near impossible to achieve with the SO. Also meant that the RA got nearly every pop center in Synisvania - to get 'my share' I would have had to take them from him and likely start a war. I scouted the rest of the Sea of Drowning and found that the Eastern Steppes portion had many pop centers. I focused on them - I poured money into my navy building a 12 fleet armada that could carry my mediocre army around and claim them. As soon as I had a town secured, I moved my capital there. I did not have a lot of money and had not been able to build wizards but I started working on that - one by one raising them to level 3 and then casting hidden ore on my capital. The DA did fight back some and I had to put down a few rebellions - his capital was also in the sea and I sieged it into my hands. I saw that outside of the sea, things were very active. The RD was fighting the DA and then the EL showed up to play as well. I debated trying to control the region but I really didn't need it and despite snagging a couple of landside villages, mostly left it alone. I did become concerned about the BL's rise, but I did not have sufficient diplomatic forces to knock him out of 9. Eventually, I had 7 power 3s and only a couple of turns of them all casting 603, I had built my capital up to where I wanted it and started raising them higher. On the last turn, it was producing 125k gold a turn. I had to hope that others would put down the BL threat and was happy when he lost control of 10. I never thought I could win the game with no SVC but I hoped to do better. The early end to the game left me with a position only half developed.
It was fun and I do enjoy playing the SO - sorry I missed that damn turn 3 because that really crippled things.

[gkmetty]

Congrats Vball, Champion of Champions!