Game 507 Open Diplomancy Ends By Usurper

[Atuan]

Victory By Usurper Is The Necromancer Kingdom!

Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-29 Grand Total

1 NE Atuan 17,665 24,422
2 DU Netstrider 9,660 15,800
3 SO Lord Alz 8,100 13,875
4 IL DuPont 8,045 12,990
5 PI Damelon 7,105 11,580
6 DE Tomag Ironfist 6,475 11,294
7 GN Holding For Player 5,100 10,125
8 AN Imperial Tark 5,900 9,500
9 DA Jumpingfist 4,200 9,250


I will do a write up later, 2nd 3rd cycle gold for the NE. But congrats to all participants

[Lord Diamond]

Congrats, Atuan. The Necromancer is representing in Valhalla!

Again, the tope three positions (4 really) are take up by Wizard kingdoms. Personally, I think a lot of the credit can go to free Summoned troops.

[HeadHoncho]

Congratulations, Atuan!!! Thrilled to see my ally (I was DE before handing off to Tomag in connection with my hiatus) take the Gold in this game.

As for the Wizard Kingdoms, I agree with you again, LD. Their relative power compared to the other non-Wizard Kingdoms was another thing that was noted during the first playtest. It's one reason the recent non-Wizard Kingdom game variants have been so popular, in my opinion.

[Atuan]

Honestly I dont think its as much the summoned brigades. While I had a decent amount, few were in my army group as they mostly fleshed out my kill divisions. My Army group had 14 zombies in it .... I believe the power of the wizards lies more in their ability to move EVERYWHERE. Oh my army group is in region 3. No worries I can port to region 8 and attack it. Pop next turn I am in region 4 to cover that. The distance you can travel is huge and allows you to leave your region less protected and pop back.

Sure you get troops, but you also gain agents, sleeps, gold, long term gold, then you have meteor strike and summon death. So much power, so little risk to them as a wizard kingdom.

And thank you for the congrats ...

HH was a fantastic ally and teacher.

[Jumpingfist]

Congrats Atuan. This was a game I was happy to see end. i had early hopes for a victory by turn 17 before rule changes and Alamaze gremlins attacked my account forcing me to miss two turns and loose 3/4 of the gains I had in Runnimede. None of this effected your victory in any way as you were in a different part of the map but did have huge impacts for me and my Ally.

I do think wizard kingdoms are beginning to get more balanced as some of the military kingdoms have some gains. Others will need to learn to not let wizards sit and build up. To attack early before they have there great mages. Of course this is not easy since they already start so high.

[mafmiller]

Congrats to Atuan and the podiumists! I had a lot of fun playing the Pirate! Maybe I'll write more on this later.

[Atuan]

NE- Master of the Undead

T1- AN wins the council with a bid of 47,467 (someone wanted it bad). I trade villages with the WA and Towns with the DU, no one is at my city and find 2 other villages. I make friends with DU, DE and PI. Also speak with DA and the AN and basically agree not to encounter each other. RD declares on the GN.
T2- DE wants on the council for a bid of 2,982(Value). He also decides he has been without a region for over and age and takes the Steppes. I pick up the DU town and WA village along with the city.
T3- IL wins council for 33,099. DU, NE, BL, DA, AN all gain regions.
T4- More wheeling and dealing.. AN sells his seat to the DA. I make an early investment in the PI and send him money for later favors. WA, SO, GN, IL all gain regions so everything is controlled.
T5- DU wins council seat for 26k. I pick up the Key to the staff.
T6 - AN bids 43k to win a seat back on the HC. I add the Ring of Spells and a Princess. I sit in 5th with the GN in first. And have found everything in my region... seems like someone snagged an Artifact or 2, I guess the PI but who knows. There is still one location to pick up in my region.

T7- WA drops(no clue why has he hasnt been touched from what I can tell).
T8- The DE and I start moving into region 8, we agreed to a split where I would get the hidden capital city and a couple of other PCs but he gains control. I move on PCs already known and start searching for US there. Pick up the staff.
T9- Move onto the rest of my PCs in the mountains, add the Standard of Valor.
T10- Claim my ESO, add 2 Adepts, P1, Baron. Find the hidden Town and take a RD village(why not right? he is fighting the Gnome).
T11-DE gains the region, had to give him one of my Towns due to the RD Capital being a town in the region. I pick up the Horn of Intrepid, the DE at the RD capital with an Army Group, mostly Skeletons. I show up with my Army 20k strong with a 7,5,4.
T12 - Take the RD capital after blowing up part of his defenses, an Agent 2 and his fool!. Add Champion Stallions. I sit in 5, with the DU holding 1st by a small margin. 11 brigade group 22k strong, wizards 7,5,5,4,4,4,3,3,2,2. Agents 11,10,3,2,1

T13 - Start trading substantial with the DE in our prospective regions. RD has an Army Group on a village of mine in region 3... hmm okay maybe he isnt dead. Find out the the Ring of Power location and short name to the key. Finish finding all of the Artifact locations in region 3.
T14-Lose a Gov to the RD, Add a DE prince due to my traits(unfortunately this wont be the last one visiting my dungeons). The BL has decided the Mists are a nice place to invade and moves emissaries and groups there. I pick up Elan, failed to kill the RD p3. But I start tossing regional spells in the Steppes due to him moving there and taking the city.
T15- I lose the Mists, start tracking BL emissaries but keep my groups focused on the Red. Buy the Key of the Maker from the AN. Toss Vissions in regions 2 and 6.
T16 - Pick up the Ring of Power, lose more PCs to the BL, but due to my traits he has to turn them Neutral... I sleep 2 Princes and make them disappear. Im on the RD capital at KU. Domes start happening to the RD.
T17- DU and DE invade the BL... Amberland goes nuetral as does the Mountains. - More BL Princes die. I am needing to kepp p6s in 3 regions and I am short on the amount needed. But the RD and BL are starting to starve.
T18- BL gains the Mists, the DA gains the Sands(seems like the GN is blowing up PCs). The BL destroys KU. I drop more visions on the Red, screw up orders to kill more BL princes. I sit in 3rd with the DU continuing to be in 1st.

T19 - I lose a Prince and Gov to BL groups. Pick up a RD Fanatic 3. Mists go uncontrolled as I am fighting back and so does runnimede. Another BL prince bites the dust. He is running out of them fast. RD has found my hidden capital(sucks but I have domes and he doesnt have wizards.
T20- I gain the Mountains and I can feel the turn around. Just need to keep pressure on the RD and let the DU deal with the BL groups while agents and emissaries of myself and the DE eliminate other options the BL has. I kidnap a BL prince. Give the RD more nightmares and dome anything the RD is showing up at.
T21- I am closer to having removed the BL from the Mists... seems like he is dropping. Add a baron of his to my collection. The 3rd aptly named Zombie Constituant is now 21 brigades strong with 8 of those brigades as zombies. Trade back for a prince and Gov the DU has recovered from the BL.
T22- We have the RD king, he is down to just a handful of PCs. Sadly one is in region 8 , another in 4. I gain the Mists.
T23- I kidnap the SO fool(rumor has it you can never have to many) and a BL agent 11. RD starts the Siege of my capital, but I am on a village in region 8 of his. He is down to 1 other PC.
T24- I start moving emissaries into Amberland to position closer to the IL. The BL is almost out and I have moved to the final RD village and ported back to my capital to put the nail in the RD coffin. Somehow I have broken the seige... maybe the RD has quit. I divine SO PCs as well to prepare for region 4 as it feels like this game is running out of turns. I am in first on status by 1k. The 2 rings have turns a bunch of my wizards to 7s and then liched. I have 6 p7, 2 P5s, 2P4s. My Army group continues to eat and is now 9 zombies strong.

T25 - I take the RD capital in region 4, add 3 governors to the region 8 village I took. Take back DK with the DU permissions and hammer the RD army group. His group is 11 brigades strong by the time my Summon Deaths are finished with 6 other brigades. I kill half of his group before it retreats and my back up brigade group finishes the job. The BL drops.
T26 trading with the DE on PCs starts again, but I happen to catch a demon prince and 2 dukes. Use my staff to enamor Arcania. Failed to steal the Staff from the SO.
T27 - IL Capture my agent 14 in a DE pop center in Amberland. I win the open seat due to the Illusionist releasing a DU skeleton with a bid of 111,222 gold. I take Zarathon, turn PCs neutral including the SO town there, while hitting the GN village and another IL village. Gain substantial in the Steppes. Arcania goes uncontrolled while the AN picks up the Sands. Failled to kill an Agent 12 of the SO.
T28 - I gain Arcania, move emissaries into 2 PCs and 3 groups onto the city and land based towns. Failed to kill a SO prince. Everything goes according to plan as there is no SO groups on any PCs I own, the IL is in Amberland I am set.
T29 - I 171 the 3 PCs my groups are at. I use the 3 emissaries in 1 village to take it, while I sleep his ambassador in the other village. I figured I would gain control but only substantial.

I want to give special thanks to HH/Tomag, my ally. They helped give me support and were key in my early fights with the BL/RD.
Netstrider the DU his support and work paved the way for me to recover from the BL and gave me an open option on the IL.
Damelon the PI - The early investment in him paid off in spades. His agents at the end gave me untold intel. He was able to keep track of both the SO and IL and he ensured that should I need an extra agent it was there.

Thanks to Rick and LD for the entertaining fights. To the SO and IL... sorry but I was pacted out of anywhere else to go.

Atuan

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

AN Summary

This was a tale of 2 halves of the game for me. Over the first few turns, it became clear that the DA and I had similar goals and were willing to work together (my first time with the Master, JF). So we allied early and prepared to defend the SE corner from all comers. I secured NAPs with all my adjacent neighbors and a few distant trade and artifact deals. I took my region quick as well as the HC (getting that free $10K bonus is nice especially when you use it twice after selling my first seat to the DA). I also acquired the Plow of the Prophet so I got good food production for the game and invested into jacking up food production there. Essentially spent the first 12 turns building up and securing my corner of the world. The DA and I also got substantial in one another's region for the extra status points. Then we looked around for our first target and figured on the GN in Runnimede who obviously had gotten at least a little banged up from the early RD skirmishes.
We both moved up our forces and emmys and conducted a MASSIVE joint operation that involved numerous concealed emissaries and invisible groups across the whole region. My NAP expired on T12 and we invaded on T13. All was good in the world at this point.

Then..... DISASTER!

First, the GN pulled off the Luck of the Irish on steroids. He managed to move ALL 4 of his groups to locations where we had emmys or groups landing. Even if he knew we were coming (which everything was invisible or concealed), the odds of him being able to position all 4 of his groups for perfect defense against our invisible invasion is like winning the Powerball kind of odds). Nonetheless, we knew we'd still wreck havoc and with a 2 on 1, we should still crush him... it just might take a bit longer than expected.

Then MORE DISASTER!

My ally, the DA, ran into some kind of technical glitch that prevented him from entering his orders for 2 turns. This left me high and dry with a now very pissed off GN and no DA support. I also made a fatal mistake of pausing for a turn (trying to figure out what the hell was going on with the DA) rather than pushing deeper in to R7. That extra turn gave the GN even more time to mount a counter-attack. And counter he did. He started dropping invisible groups at my PCs that proceeded to Meteor Strike them out of existence. The turn before I was going to re-locate my capital, he found it and obliterated it, getting yet another barrage of great luck killing far more than the expected 50% of personnel inside. While most of my military remained intact, my court was devastated, and my PC count was dropping with every turn. The GN was also punishing the DA with these invisible hit and runs tactics as well and emmys he couldn't even defend himself for those 2 turns.
So I figured I'd try to bring in some help calling upon both the SO and the DU who responded (thanks guys, you rock!). They managed to help soften the GN threat and buy me some time to recover. Of course, then the GN went around punishing them as well. There is no telling how many PCs were destroyed in this game by the GN but it was a LOT! I'm not sure if R9 even had any PCs left and R10 was down to 3.
I limped along trying to rebuild and trying to catch the GN which was fruitless until the very end of the game when I managed to catch him with my groups and assassins. Somehow I managed to hold 2 regions (with really nothing) and a fair number of artifacts and one big mother an army group but the loss of PCs prevented me from having enough gold to get my AN wizards beyond P6 so that I could teleport it.
Was very glad for this game to end!!! The best laid plan.......... it was frustrating to think what might have been had our joint operation not been crippled at such a critical juncture in the game.

Congrats to Atuan! And I'm glad to see my two rescue mates, SO and DU join the podium. You can find the DA and me there in the back with our multiple casts, back/neck braces, bandages, and assorted scars, cuts, bruises, and bleeding wounds from the shellacking we both took from the GN.

[The Gray Mouser]

Red Dragon

Not my favorite contest.  507 was one of the first 3rd Cycle games that began in the first week of its release.  I took the Red Dragons because there was debate about whether they were viable going forward.  When the game started, the Red had four groups, transfers cost orders, the starting brigades were two less than currently.  I don't fear for the Red Dragons now, starting with 514 or so, but it was a different situation in 507. 

The Gnome wanted to prove a point, that being that he could defeat the Red Dragon mano e mano.  Game on.  And he kind of made his point by going guns out to recruit troops and found my capital early.  Recons showed he had over 20 brigades by about turn 8, and had been on my ass from the beginning.  I concluded he couldn't support his massive military while still battling for Runnimede, and went north before summer hit assuming he would now have a huge military with nowhere to go in the coming summer season. 

But as I went north to the Talking Mountains, I ran into the meat grinder of the Demon Princes and Necromancer, lock step coordinated.  These guys were demonic and necro, so to speak.  They would have Power 7's do domes on villages, thwarting me every turn.  Throw in Demonic Visions and this duo was too much.  And then I could not get a single kingdom to trade with me.  I think the Druid, who I assumed would be against the duo was instead in league with them and refused any trade telling me to curl up and die and take my Black Dragon cousins with me.  No one would trade, everyone seemed aligned with the NE and DE.  My groups were mainly elite, but down to like 15% morale from starvation.  I was happy to exit into the Great Certainty.

That said, congrats to the coordinated and very effective combo of the NE and DE.  I'm not sure I deserved all that attention but in the end the NE won and deservedly so.

[Ry Vor]

Congratulations, Atuan!!!  Thrilled to see my ally (I was DE before handing off to Tomag in connection with my hiatus) take the Gold in this game.

As for the Wizard Kingdoms, I agree with you again, LD.  Their relative power compared to the other non-Wizard Kingdoms was another thing that was noted during the first playtest.  It's one reason the recent non-Wizard Kingdom game variants have been so popular, in my opinion.

This seems the never ending discussion: are wizard kingdoms too strong, or too weak?  We've recently had a long time Imperator take a hiatus because his impression was the wizard kingdoms had become too weak.  And we have lots of people saying the wizard kingdoms are too strong.  I guess overall, this is a good thing.