Game 198

[Netstrider]

A marathon game won on T40 by Rex!

Place Kingdom Player Results-40 Grand Total

1 GN DuPont 12,515 22,285
2 RD Vball Michael 13,440 21,077
3 DA Netstrider 8,980 19,272
4 WI Canticar 9,120 17,270
5 EL Son of Conan 4,275 12,385
6 GI Jhereg 4,300 9,275

My first podium finish, which is kind of exciting.

This was a really fun game that I completely enjoyed. Everyone left me alone in the Eastern Steppes for most of the game and I was content to build my forces and wizards and accumulate toys. By T17 I was just thinking that it was time to expand and saw that the DE had dropped. Joy! I had enamored R8 already and staged forces in that direction, so on T18 I moved on R8 with my armies and emmys. In my T19 reports I was able to get a very good view of the world and see that the RA was also moving on R8. My secret weapon, however, were the two crystals of seeing that I possessed. With these two I was able to gather great intel on the RA agents trying to move on R8. I also had a good stable of agents at this point, led by my best agent with the ring of invisibility. He was able to kill many emmys before the end of the game.

On T20 the RA tried to usurp a bunch of towns he couldn't take and I captured a prince and two dukes. That hurts. I made progress in R8 against the Ranger, playing defense against assassinations and thefts of my goodies. Never really figured out who stole some of my best gadgets. On T23 I was able to get in a strong blow, assassinating a RA prince and countess and L10 agent. On the same turn I did lose a P5 which was annoying.

On T25 I took R8. Things were looking good, 3rd in the standings and with the highest points currently. I'm thinking I'm going to win this game and now it's really time to go on the offensive! R9 seemed like the next best target as the RA was already severely weakened by my brutal assassination campaign. R10 looked like it would be worth exploring as well. The RD hadn't done much to this point and was sharing the region with the SO who had apparently retreated there. Moving on R10 turned out to be a horrible idea. So, on T25 I start to move on R9 but land emmys into towns belonging to both the SO and RD. Whatever, I'm feeling cocky. I can take on everyone! And for a while it actually went ok.

T29 - Uh oh. WI conducts a dastardly sneak attack on the Eastern Steppes, knocking me out of control. The SO also strikes a telling blow, taking out 2 (I think) of my best agents. But I kill his king in return and I think that was probably the last of him.

But now I have problems. I'm fighting to regain R6 against a powerful WI kingdom while the RD begins to sack PCs in R8. The RA and SO may still have been around for a while as well, but it's all just a big blur of trying to regain R6 and losing PCs to dragon armies. My 2 good remaining agents continue to take a toll on the WI emmys and I think he probably just about ran out by the end of the game. I've got just enough emmys to try and take back PCs in R6 and that goes well until he decides to start destroying towns and villages. I do manage to reclaim R6, but lose R8 and all other holdings in R9 and R10. It's obvious I'm not going to win this one. After several turns of not being able to capture towns in R6 because they keep getting domed (3 domes at least once), I decided fighting in R2 will be easier and teleport my army there. It's fun, but I can't win by this point. I did hold on to my 3rd place position, though, and that is still pretty good considering the competition!

Thanks a lot for a great game everyone!

[VballMichael]

RD 

Actually, game was won by DuPont (GN) on status points. Nobody controlled 4 regions as of turn 40 and there was no SVC allowed.

I agree with Netstrider. This was a fun game, though I did not think so when the Dwarf sacked my capital and killed my king on turn 3. Or took my village on turn 4.
With emissaries and armies split, I had to abandon Talking and make plans to come back later for revenge. I did not think I had a chance in this game, but my goal would be to develop an army and come back to punish the Dwarf. So, I moved to the Sands and took that region (shared it with the Sorcerer). That worked for a while.

Then I was ready to head back north with 2 good armies. Just as I headed that way, the Talking Mountains went neutral. With a couple of agents, I was able to determine that the Witchlord and Dwarf were fighting, so I headed back south. Then the Ranger invaded Southern Sands and I defended. I ended up capturing his king and several emissaries and played a large role in eliminating him. That only opened the door for the Dark Elf to take Synisvania and I had to run away, again vowing revenge for later.

I regrouped and decided to take Runnimede since the Elf had taken it from the Gnome. Oops, wrong call. The region was full, with the Elves, Gnomes and Giants all there at that time. So, I figured now was a good time to pay the Dark Elf back for daring to cross Red Dragons. So, maybe around turn 30 I invaded Arcania. I was in last place, had 2 emissaries and no agents left, but I did have a decent army. So, I hit cities, then broke it into 2 groups and took towns. I figured I had no shot at winning, but then things changed. I got the region, giving me two, I picked up a bunch of prisoners, and I somehow accumulated 15 artifacts (including gaining the Plow on turn 40 when I randomly landed on an unusual sighting on turn 39). On turn 36, I was still close to last, but my points for the turn were pretty strong, so I knew I could make the podium if I continued to hurt the Dark Elf and slowed down the Gnome. 

But, here's the thing. When I was hurting early on, the Gnome declared me an ally and left my capital in Runnimede alone. He also sent me a little gold and food. I know he did this so i could survive and plague his enemy, but still, it was a nice gesture. Thus, I decided not to repay that with an attack. I think the Gnome and I traded a couple of pop centers in Amberland (or maybe Arcania), but I was not willing to go attack him. It also looked like the Witchlord might win (he declared 2 or 3 times), but I had no resources except my two armies (with a power 5 wizard) and i was busy mopping up the Dark Elf holdings in 8 and 10, and then taking all of the human pop centers when the Sorcerer dropped near the end. 

At some point, I also sacked the Giant capital. That was fun. On turn 39, my group of 175,000 took his capital with 75,000 defense. I think my group was around 195,000 at the end of the game.

My points did earn me second place, and that was pretty cool since I thought myself out by turn 5 and was just hanging around for revenge. And then new people hit me at various points in the game to give me new revenge goals .

Awesome game and congrats to all of the players and to DuPont for the Gnome win and to Netstrider for his first podium finish.

[Jumpingfist]

Great to see DuPont take the Gold.


Found the RD capital early and figured better just take it now rather than split the region. Move a patrol to pick up Axe in R2 but landed on a WI PC. Turned out very bad because he likely over reacted to just a patrol declaring enemy and denigrating the next turn. Worked very good for him though because I had just launched an political attack. Then we would trade back and forth had a bit of peace then he invaded me. I counter attacked but knew with his wizards now developed I did not have much chance so I had a plan to take his water capital. But he was able to do enough moral hits to lower my groups moral and combat strength below hit capitals defenses on the third turn of the siege. I could have split my group up and marched on villages and been a pest but since I started the war with the WI I decided to just drop and let him try and recover from our war.

[Ry Vor]

I was interested to hear the accounts of what may have been the Last Second Cycle Game.

Twenty years it ran.

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

Not the last

[DuPont]

So, I played the GN in this one. Things started well enough - There was no UN and I got the HC on the first turn. Unfortunately, on the next turn the DW also got on and immediately voted no on my issue to raise my influence. He also got his region on turn 3, which did not make me happy. I had already decided to leave the RD alone in the region, but I decided I would fund him during the winter, so I also declared him an ally. I got a bit of a nasty shock when I did so because it indicated that it was his 'regent' that I was declaring an ally, so I knew his king was already dead. For sure, I didn't want him dropping so I send him some gold and food a couple of times to get him through the winter. The DW kept voting down my issues, so I tried to enlist other allies on the HC to join me in voting. Eventually, it worked and the DW stopped voting against me, but I considered going after him, anyway, via the portal.
I got my ESO and then started looking around for where to go next. Round about turns 10-14, found both the staff of disdain and the staff of the great orator. This would really help me going forward. The GI captured one of my agents when the TR pop center he was in fell, so I considered that I might go after the GI. I invested some effort into divining his pop centers and enamoring Amberland. However, I decided not to jump - I wanted to build some more. There were no towns in the Sea of Mystery in Runnemede, so I moved to a village and spent time building up the defenses and gold so I'd have a fallback. I kept and eye on the RD capital to make sure he wasn't up to anything and he wasn't. The DE suddenly dropped, which opened up Arcania. I considered going there, but I didn't have any info and figured that others would move in and I could continue to be left alone. I kept myself busy getting artifacts and I pinched the Ring of Spells from the DA, as I felt he was far enough away that he couldn't really bother me. I started denigrating the EL and GI in Torvale in hopes of propping up the TR, but it was in vain as he was done and the EL got control on turn 20. I decided he needed to be my main foe and started to get info on him. Annoyingly, I had two HPs die two turns apart despite owning the Alter of the Ancients, but it was only an inconvenience at that stage.
The EL invaded me on turn 21, just as I had moved all my emmies north. I turned Torvale neutral and also took Lorethane as he took Cradia. We knocked each other out of control of our home regions and now the GI was fighting me as well. The EL capital was in the water, but I sent an army out and sieged it. There were some sea battles, but I had the edge and gained dominance in the Sea of Mystery. Getting his capital got me a nice haul of prisoners, including the TR king and a level 13 agent I had lost a few turns before. I took control of Oakendell and got Runnemede back, but then got knocked out again with both the GI and EL going full out against me. Only my dome spells and the two staffs saved me. I decided I'd better take the fight right to the GI, so I sent people into Amberland at last. The last ten turns were a mix of regions 1,4,5 and 7 in play between the three of us with agents and armies moving all about. I decided to gamble on the penultimate turn and slept the EL king and sent my best agent after him. I got lucky and hauled his ass off to my dungeon. At the end, I had control of 4 and 5 with substantial in 1 and enough status points to edge the resurgent RD.
I don't really play with winning as my main goal, but it was nice to win this one as it was my last 2nd cycle game. I also tied for a win in my 1st game of the Alamaze relaunch, so it was cool to bookend it that way. Hats off to the GI and EL for making the second half of the game such a wild ride! And congrats to VballMichael for his comeback and to Netstrider for his first podium appearance.

[Lord Diamond]

I forgot about this one. End of Game details attached.