532 Ends by Rex

[VballMichael]

On turn 27, this game was ended by Rex. Congrats to all of the players. This might have been one of my favorite games to date. Looked forward to every turn that was arriving. Below are the five who survived to the end. Not surprising that top 3 are wizards (hopefully that will diminish with some of the recent changes) but awesome that the UN and TY held their own for so long.

Victory By Rex Is The Necromancer Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-27  Grand Total

          1     NE     Vball Michael             22,720      31,450
          2     DU     Canticar                  11,940      17,830
          3     IL     Imperial Tark             10,715      16,539
          4     UN     DuPont                     7,460      12,966
          5     TY     Son of Conan               1,600       4,212

[VballMichael]

NE
Cannot believe how much fun this game was. Despite a slow start finding pop centers, I did find some nice unusual sightings and took my region on turn 4. On turn 6, I had a slight status point lead and was looking to invade somewhere. I started by thinking Druid or Warlock, but then the Black Dragon begged me to invade Amberland instead. How did he beg, you ask, in an anon game? Well, his capital was sitting right at the top of Amberland, right next to my large group, and he had a ton of emissaries and agents there with no group defending. Plus no emissaries at Evanon or Avalon. Did not end up invading until turn 11 as we still had the bad season and my wizards were not as high as I needed them to be. Took the region by turn 12 or 13, wiped the capital, wiped a couple of groups, made him hostile, and threw enough domes to frustrate even the most patient of dragons. He did continue to fight back, but could not mount too much of a counter. He even tried sneaking into Northern Mists, but I had a group of doming wizards sitting up there too. Fortunately, I was leading in status points at each status reporting, and it was mostly wizards near the top. The Warlock seemed like the biggest threat, so I went after him a bit. Also, played around in Synisvania and had a fun run-in with a giant Nomad army. My 22 brigades against his 21 brigades. With Summon Death, Chaos and Earthquake, I was able to eliminate his group and gained 9 zombie brigades in the process. By turn 21 I had 10 high emmies (mostly princes), 5 agents at 13-14, 2 priestesses, 7 power 7 (all liches), a couple of lower wizards, 8 prisoners, 40 brigades, 14 artifacts, 2 warlords, and was looking at regions 3, 6 or 9 to finish. I saw that someone had eliminated half of the pop centers in 9, so I decided to hit 3 and 9 simultaneously on turn 26. Moved all emmies to 3 and all 4 groups to 9. I was planning to leave the UN alone, but he stole an Axe from me. Thus, I ported around wiping out his groups and pop centers (he did not have a lot - it seems that the UN, DA and TY fought over region 9 the whole game). Killed his level 20 agent and a couple of mid-teen agents. Never found his cap or got my Axe back. Also took out the TY cap a couple of times, and hit the DA a bit. Realized I could claim the Rex on turn 27 and was fortunate to end the game then. Thanks to all for a great contest. Looking forward to the next one.

[Ry Vor]

Wow.   That's one for the memory banks.

We still tend to hear wizard kingdoms were reduced too much in January Changes, and also that wizard kingdoms are too strong. 

In general, I still think wizard kingdoms are a bit strong if allowed to go uncontested for a year.  But we have lots of forum posters who may not agree.  I just want going into a game, with maybe a caveat or two, that all kingdoms have an equal, though completely different, path and chance.

I'm hoping for some interesting DUELS to form.  Although I acknowledge the aspect of similar kingdoms, like High Elves vs. Dark Elves, I would like to hear tales of very different kingdoms battling.  Sorcerer vs. Nomad.  Underworld vs. Ancient Ones.  Demon Princes vs. Red Dragons.

[Son of Conan]

I was confused in this game. I (the Tyrant) challenged the Darkelf for Synisvania because that is where my capital was and where most of my things started, but the Underworld was there in full also. Was wondering if the computer started 3 of us in one region. The three of us fought in the one region for most of the game while the wizards all got stronger. I controlled the region for most of the game right up to the last turn. Could not figure out why the Underworld chose to focus there and then stay there. But I held on and finished in the top 5.

As usual, nice playing by VBM to win yet again, and by Canticar and Imperial Tark (and DuPont though still not sure why he liked region 9 only).

[gkmetty]

(DU)
Congrats to all who finished. I think Son of Conan deserves special recognition for finishing with the TY kingdom. It is a tough kingdom to play and with three magic kingdoms still around at the end it is even more impressive.

I like the DU kingdom a great deal. It has a couple good features. Automatic recons of every pop center is very nice.

I spent the first 10 turns developing my wizards and thinking about where to move next. The SO was an early contender for invasion when he took my pop center in his region early on. While this is not a horrible atrocity I always keep it in mind. When the SO started denigrating me in random regions around the map, not just Torvale, he made my decision for me. Since I was safe in Oakendale and no-one had outpaced the field I felt content to wait until the second poor season in the north for my invasion.

I moved into Torvale on turn 17 and on Turn 18 I had my second region. It took a few turns to clean up the remaining pop centers in the region but by turn 20 I had secured all of Torvale except the SO hidden capital and a UN town which I deliberately avoided. The SO hung around for a few more turns but on turn 22 I wiped out two of his groups and killed three power 5s, a power 3, and a power 2. That is enough to discourage almost anyone from continuing, so he dropped.

I took a few more turns to finish developing my wizards and re position my emmies. I had planned on moving into Runnimeade as the IL seemed preoccupied by activities on the right side of the map but then VBM picked up two regions in a single turn surprising me with a quick win.

Congratulations VBM, two regions in a single turn is a difficult feat to accomplish.