523 Ends by Usurper Victory

[Atuan]

Victory By Usurper Is The Amazons Kingdom!

Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-29 Grand Total

1 AM Atuan 14,460 21,994
2 UN Jumpingfist 22,005 30,264
3 WA Imperial Tark 14,635 21,670
4 IL Cloud 11,905 17,549
5 SA Rogal 6,500 10,725
6 NE Devildog 5,600 9,450
7 DU Jhereg 2,700 5,775


Well played by all involved. I will put a write up in later, but wow JF your status points are sick all things considered and congrats to Tark for the podium finish.

Atuan

[Ry Vor]

And congratulations to Atuan for leading the Amazons to victory.  Yeah!  Who says the Wizards rule?  Looking forward to the write-up on Amazon strategy.

[Rogal]

Congrats Atuan.

[Tomag Ironfist]

Did the AM really win if the UN had more status points?

[Tomag Ironfist]

I wasn't aware that the victor was based off controlling the four regions - I thought one kingdom controlling four regions ended the game, but the status points determined the victor.

[Rogal]

VPs are only if the game goes to 40 with no other victory declared as far as I know.

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

Yep... victory checks take precedent.... for winning game. Status points only matter in Lion's Share (or ties). In theory, a player could be in last place with status points but win because they achieved a Rex victory.

[Jumpingfist]

It works the other way too. We had an UN player get a lion share victory even though they owned no PCs on turn 40

[Atuan]

My time as an Amazonian Queen.

At first look of the set up you see a powerful mobile army, flanking will just wreck people. Lots of chances to push early objectives and with the devout trait you have a bunch of advantages towards building a defensible capital and loads of options with bless and angels. However as a devout your agents suck. Lvl 9 is the max you can train and I cannot begin to describe the amount of times I failed trying to steal food to raise the agents up to level 12. Needless to say your agents suck and that's being nice about it. As an Amazon you will need to have support in this regard. I reached out to the UN in this game, offered to keep his village safe and give him another one for the option to purchase his services down the road. Early game I could handle any wizard kingdoms, but mid to late game my military was just 3 summon deaths away from having no moral and then no troops. Someone was going to need to kill those wizards and my agents wouldn't be able to get the job done. My spell casters had no real ability either, level 5 to stop a dome which is your max level. Okay so I won't be porting around and creating mass armies of destruction. I will have a hard time militarily in the late game, best plan to win using emissaries and making sure I have friends to help.

I reach out to the AT and agree to work with him from the start, we together agree to ally with the SA so decide we should attack the NE before he has a chance to build up. I pact with the DU and end up keeping him pacted through turn 18. I pact with the IL and attempt to reach the GN. I am completely safe on all borders except region 7 divine all the locations of the NE but sadly he obtains the region which means we need to readjust our thought process. In the mean time the GN is wandering around in region 4 and takes a village of the ATs in region 5. After 2 failed attempts to reach the GN I feel its best to remove him rather than start on the NE.. My emissaries are growing and I take his town in Torvale, while he takes one of mind. By turn 11 Runnimede is uncontrolled and my flanking army has destroyed his main force. Over the next few turns I work to gain Runnimede while also securing better relations with the IL. We agree to ally I give him half of region 7 for 35% of 8. But at the same time the NE has started to win his war with the AT. I reach out to the UN and pay to have some NE wizards killed. This is at the same time that the AT has the WA start to move into region 2 in force. The AT drops around turn 18 the NO has taken out the LI, the GN and TY are also dead. The NE quickly moves into region 6. I reach out to the NE and agree to work with him against the WA. The NE is already weakened so I pay for the UN to work some magic on the WA while at the same time the IL and I invade region 1. We agree to split is but I ensure I don't take control of the region. This goes quickly and around turn 23-24 I believe I am close to winning. I set myself up to move the same turn the WA declares me an enemy. This delay causes the game to be drawn out for about 4 more turns while I am domed at every turn and the WA military is actively retaking what my emissaries take. I lose my capital along the way due to carelessness.

All in all without a bunch of allies and NAPs the Amazon really does not have the power to win a game by themselves. They peak around turn 12 and then its a slow downward spiral as other specialist take over the game. This is not a kingdom I can see winning a non diplomacy game.

Thank you to the IL, AT, SA, NE and UN for your support and help. Without you I wouldn't have won.

[Devildog]

So you have experienced players like Cloud and Imperial Tark playing wizard kingdoms but the 3 man alliance sees me as the Necromancer as the one that needs to be taken out early?

I knew the Atlantians were going to attack me early on since they did not respond to my emails while responding to others. And when I saw him sending an emissary to a human town in the mists the turn I took the region I went ahead and declared him an enemy and denigrated. This did not deter him and he continued to send emissaries and his army after me. I hold my own, beating his army in the field (he didn't expect me to flank him) and using demons on his emissaries including killing his king. At this point I own about 30% of Eastern Steppes. I reach out to Tark to continue our NAP since I am fighting AT who attacked me early on but he replies that he wants to "keep his options open" which seems to be Alamaze lingo for "I am attacking you this turn". And he does a masterful job. By the second turn He has control and I am hostile. Attempts were made to kill my wizards and one P-5 wraith died. I assumed it was the WA or the UN working for the WA. So I now have a large army and a few emissaries, most of which are in Eastern Steppes. I think the Atlantians thought that they could limp back into power while I was busy with the Warlock, but I teleported my army to his and wiped it out. He dropped afterward. I take the Steppes and Atuan moves some emissaries in. I reach out to him similarly and he is on board with focusing on the Warlock. Then the nomad shows up in Eastern Steppes. Another wave of assassinations. This time I am protected and several agents are not heard from again. Again, I reach out to him, no response. He has a very large army 32 brigades. Altogether I can muster 29. I have a wizard and leader advantage and I stay out of the plains. Summer is coming and he probably needs to fight. My troops are weak from hunger and several turns of cold darkness. I hit him with 2 summon deaths. He hit me with 2 earthquakes and and avenging angel. In the end he loses 71% (of 26 brigades) and I lose 61%. I gain zombies and now have a small army group while he has a division. He dropped soon afterward. I consider moving into the southern sands as I am the first to realize that he has dropped. But now the warlock attacks me in Eastern Steppes. I manage to crush one of his army groups but somehow it survives with a brigade in spite of my report saying it was destroyed. I was hoping his wizards would die. Around this time the Nomads invade in Northern mists. The WA takes most of his forces back north but continues the fight in the steppes. Apparently others moved against him as well but I had no knowledge. And Atuan won a few turns later.

Lots of action in this game for me. I enjoyed the Necromancer both in a role playing sense and as a viable kingdom. I would have preferred to develop my wizards a bit more but they can't do that when they are dodging spears from the beginning