Valhalla Online

[Ry Vor]

Thanks to Mike for the improvements to the online Valhalla.  I really like the average status points per game.

Note how the kingdoms changed places.  Underworld #1, Red Dragon #4, Pirates #5, Halflings #9.  All these play so differently and now are known not to be the red haired stepchildren of Alamaze. 

So, Lords of Alamaze, hesitate not on taking these kingdoms, or even more so, see if you think the Lizardmen and Black Dragons should really be #23 and #24.  Black Dragon mobility in Amberland seems to stress so many new possible strategies and interesting diplomacy. 

I think we are still just getting familiar with 3rd Cycle: The Choosing.

[Ry Vor]

Now for Maelstrom we have six completed games.  The winning kingdoms have been

Demon Princes    2
Necromancer       1
Ancient Ones     1
Lizard King        1
Dwarves           1

Should be noted the Necromancer and Dwarves won the only game they were chosen in, in these first six.

The Ancient Ones were considered a bottom kingdom in The Choosing. The Lizard King and Dwarves also were not frequent winners.

While the Dark Elves and Gnomes were top 5 positions in The Choosing, they have not been popular choices so far in Maelstrom.

I know starting in Zamora won at least one of the first six contests.

[Wookie Panz]

Now for Maelstrom we have six completed games.  The winning kingdoms have been

Demon Princes    2
Necromancer       1
Ancient Ones     1
Lizard King        1
Dwarves           1

Should be noted the Necromancer and Dwarves won the only game they were chosen in, in these first six.

The Ancient Ones were considered a bottom kingdom in The Choosing.  The Lizard King and Dwarves also were not frequent winners.

While the Dark Elves and Gnomes were top 5 positions in The Choosing, they have not been popular choices so far in Maelstrom.

I know starting in Zamora won at least one of the first six contests.

Two of the wins, a DE and the DW, were from a Primeval and it was way too easy in my opinion.  Getting 4 regions with only 5 players and  13 regions in play this would have been over in 10 turns if the players had not agreed to extend it.  RD would have had a win in this one too if not for a single flipped village in the final turn.  Primeval needs an update, either more players or new victory conditions.
I agree AN is playing very well in Maelstrom.  Devout kingdoms have a renewed popularity.

[VballMichael]

We actually only have 5 completed games (the DE and DW win was a shared win in the Primeval game). 

Still, we have some trends in the first 4 completed Steel games. First, Uncle Mike and Draugr are killing it (UM 1st or 2nd in all 3 games he played, and Draugr won 2 of his 4 plus earning a 3rd place). The fastest game was 18 turns and the slowest was 33.

5242 was 33 turns, 1st was UM with NE from Zamora, 2nd was VBM with AT from Nyvaria, 3rd was Strongwill with AN from Untamed.
5246 was 24 turns, 1st was Draugr with LI from Pellinor, 2nd was UM with SO from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with PI from Crown.
5247 was 18 turns, 1st was UM with DE from Triumvia, 2nd was Eregnon with RA from Darkover, 3rd was Draugr with AN from Sword.
5249 was 25 turns, 1st was Draugr with AN from Nyvaria, 2nd was DuPont with AT from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with DU from Untamed.

Zamora hit the podium in 3 out of 4. With 2 out of 4 were Nyvaria, Untamed Lands.
Since UM and Draugr have won them all, it may be fair to say that as usual, the player is still more important than the region or the kingdom.
The only kingdoms with multiple podiums are the AN with 3 and the AT with 2. 
Wizard kingdoms are making a decent showing, with a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd, but are by no means dominating any more.
Since it feels like more of a military game, I was surprised that there are only 2 appearances by true military kingdoms (they seem to start strong and then sputter).

Anyway, draw what conclusions you may from all of this and pick your kingdoms and your regions to your liking.
Which game will finish next and what will that do to our stats?

[Wookie Panz]

We actually only have 5 completed games (the DE and DW win was a shared win in the Primeval game). 

Still, we have some trends in the first 4 completed Steel games. First, Uncle Mike and Draugr are killing it (UM 1st or 2nd in all 3 games he played, and Draugr won 2 of his 4 plus earning a 3rd place). The fastest game was 18 turns and the slowest was 33.

5242 was 33 turns, 1st was UM with NE from Zamora, 2nd was VBM with AT from Nyvaria, 3rd was Strongwill with AN from Untamed.
5246 was 24 turns, 1st was Draugr with LI from Pellinor, 2nd was UM with SO from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with PI from Crown.
5247 was 18 turns, 1st was UM with DE from Triumvia, 2nd was Eregnon with RA from Darkover, 3rd was Draugr with AN from Sword.
5249 was 25 turns, 1st was Draugr with AN from Nyvaria, 2nd was DuPont with AT from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with DU from Untamed.

Zamora hit the podium in 3 out of 4. With 2 out of 4 were Nyvaria, Untamed Lands.
Since UM and Draugr have won them all, it may be fair to say that as usual, the player is still more important than the region or the kingdom.
The only kingdoms with multiple podiums are the AN with 3 and the AT with 2. 
Wizard kingdoms are making a decent showing, with a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd, but are by no means dominating any more.
Since it feels like more of a military game, I was surprised that there are only 2 appearances by true military kingdoms (they seem to start strong and then sputter).

Anyway, draw what conclusions you may from all of this and pick your kingdoms and your regions to your liking.
Which game will finish next and what will that do to our stats?

Great recap Vball.  Well done.

[Ry Vor]

We actually only have 5 completed games (the DE and DW win was a shared win in the Primeval game). 

Still, we have some trends in the first 4 completed Steel games. First, Uncle Mike and Draugr are killing it (UM 1st or 2nd in all 3 games he played, and Draugr won 2 of his 4 plus earning a 3rd place). The fastest game was 18 turns and the slowest was 33.

5242 was 33 turns, 1st was UM with NE from Zamora, 2nd was VBM with AT from Nyvaria, 3rd was Strongwill with AN from Untamed.
5246 was 24 turns, 1st was Draugr with LI from Pellinor, 2nd was UM with SO from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with PI from Crown.
5247 was 18 turns, 1st was UM with DE from Triumvia, 2nd was Eregnon with RA from Darkover, 3rd was Draugr with AN from Sword.
5249 was 25 turns, 1st was Draugr with AN from Nyvaria, 2nd was DuPont with AT from Zamora, 3rd was Ace with DU from Untamed.

Zamora hit the podium in 3 out of 4. With 2 out of 4 were Nyvaria, Untamed Lands.
Since UM and Draugr have won them all, it may be fair to say that as usual, the player is still more important than the region or the kingdom.
The only kingdoms with multiple podiums are the AN with 3 and the AT with 2. 
Wizard kingdoms are making a decent showing, with a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd, but are by no means dominating any more.
Since it feels like more of a military game, I was surprised that there are only 2 appearances by true military kingdoms (they seem to start strong and then sputter).

Anyway, draw what conclusions you may from all of this and pick your kingdoms and your regions to your liking.
Which game will finish next and what will that do to our stats?

Thank you VBM. 

Ah hem.  Those who were speculating in the early going can check those threads.  I predicted Zamora would more than hold its own when it kept going last of the regions in drafts, asking why no love?  Lookie, its in first.  

The top four regions include one from each category:  A Capital Region, a Trading Region, a Savage Region, and a Free State.  Ta Da! 

I also bet a Mage kingdom would win one of the first five games, basically in line with their 5 in 24 representation.  3 podiums in 4 games (so 3 in 12), one win (1 in 4).  

Anyway, sounds like braggin' I suppose, but it is a source of pride that in a game with kingdoms far more distinct with so many possibilities than any other multiplayer strategy game, that 9 of a possible 12 kingdoms have podiumed in the first four games, as have 8 of 12 regions.  This folks, is victory in the mind of the designer.  (Yea for ME!)

Yes, congratulations to the early lead of some of the best players from The Choosing leading here in Maelstrom. 

And again, it has been great to have our cadre of new players so active here early and getting better all the time.

Again, a couple recent tweaks should make PC's with any fortification tougher, so hopefully make some kingdom strategies a bit more complicated, both as attacker and as developing kingdom. 

Just as a note to generally what it best for the community.  Now with a Warlords and two Confederations started quickly, let's go back to Steel and Alliance.  We don't want too many players absent from 12 player games because they are tied up in limited player formats.

Hooray for Alamaze!

[Calidor]

Seems kind of like judging a baseball team’s strength in spring training. Good teams look bad and bad teams look great.

[VballMichael]

We now have 5 completed games (not counting the Primeval game). 

The scary Red Dragons have now made the scoreboard with a nice win by Son of Conan, Draugr continues to place on the podium, and Canticar enters the field.
See below for results of Game 5256 added. 3 military kingdoms took all 3 spots. I look forward to seeing some write-ups in a separate thread.

5242 was 33 turns, 1st was UM with NE from Zamora, 2nd was VBM with AT from Nyvaria, 3rd was Strongwill with AN from Untamed Lands.
5246 was 24 turns, 1st was Draugr with LI from Pellinor, 2nd was UM with SO from Zamora, 3rd was Acererak with PI from Crown Islands.
5247 was 18 turns, 1st was UM with DE from Triumvia, 2nd was Eregnon with RA from Darkover, 3rd was Draugr with AN from Sword Coast.
5249 was 25 turns, 1st was Draugr with AN from Nyvaria, 2nd was DuPont with AT from Zamora, 3rd was Acererak with DU from Untamed Lands.
5256 was 21 turns, 1st was Son of Conan with RD from Zanthia, 2nd was Draugr with AM from Pellinor, 3rd was Canticar with LI from Sword Coast.

Which game will finish next and what will that do to our stats?
As Rick would say, come get you some.

[Ry Vor]

Just an update here July 14, 2019, for the 7 completed Steel games average points per game by kingdom, the top 10 kingdoms presently are:

• 2 Wizard kingdoms
  
• 2 Military kingdoms
  
• 2 Balanced kingdoms
  
• 4 Specialty kingdoms (AN, DE, PI, UN)
  

If Devout was a category instead of split into the above, 4 kingdoms are in that top 10.

Only the Ancient Ones and Lizard King have won 2 games at this point.  The other three wins were by Demon Princes, Necromancer, and Red Dragon.  Interestingly, the Red Dragons are not in the top 10.

Its still a small sample (7 games) but the dispersion is good.  I don't think we can conclude much about kingdoms that have only been played a couple times.

I don't have an update to VBM's post on the region standings, but from those five games it looks like out of 15 place positions, 9 different regions have placed out of 12.  Interestingly, it doesn't seem to correlate with popularity.  For example, Krynn and The Diamond Coast have been going early (like top 5 picks) in several drafts and are among the three regions that hadn't placed.

[Calidor]

I'd be interested to know how many winning Kingdoms pursue Stormgate.