Game 548 (total privacy) ends

[Diws]

Druid wins by the Rex:        

Oakendell (1)                     Druid
Northern Mists (2)                Druid
Talking Mountains (3)             Druid
Eastern Steppes (6)               Druid    

1     DU     Imperial Tark             21,605      27,836   
2     SA     Rellgar                   10,365      14,657
3     GN     Tomag Ironfist             7,480      11,405
4     WA     Diws                       2,580       6,770

Congrats to Imperial Tark the Druid. Frustrating game for me, as the Warlock I sparred with the Dark Elves and Cimmerians before running into the Druid over the recently vacated Northern Mists.  Tark then schooled me for a second time, with 2 full army groups coming after me and at least 9 L6 wizards and 4 or so Princes.  I just didn't have an answer. So ends my 1st full Alamaze game..

[RELLGAR]

Congradulations Imperial Tark. I had just moved into the steppes. To late!

[Tomag Ironfist]

Congrats to Imperial_Tark!

The next turn I would've had 4 regions and issued a victory check myself. I'm pretty happy with how the game played out! Though, I am disappointed with as many drops as there were.

[Tomag Ironfist]

Rellgar - what were your intentions in Torvale early in the game? Were you also going after the SO and R4 off of turn 1 much like me?

[RELLGAR]

Yes I was going after R4 and found took his capital. Decided to work with you to take him out. He was tough. Then I moved all over Arcania as they where fighting a 3 way. RA and UN surrendered, which sucked.
I defeated the DA army group on top of the RA former capital over 3 turns as I sieged it. Then moved into R8 and then DA dropps, so I immidiatly headed to R6 and just had emmies in the PCs when Tark won.
I saw you move throughout R4, I was hoping GN would hit DU in oakendell and take the sands. It seems no one but the WA opposed the DU.

[Diws]

I think that the Druid was opposed by the Cimmerian at some point, at least defensively.   I fought the Red Dragons a bit early, and then moved into Eastern Steppes in force once the demon Princes started messing with me. As soon as I saw that the DA and the CI were going to have a major fight there, and the Demons dropped, I pulled back and went after the Cimmerian homeland, but the Druid had the same idea apparently and after getting schooled on the use of the Dome, I conceded the region, only to get overwhelmed by the huge Druid armies and particularly wizards - I lost 6 troops to a Summon Death spell as I recall  in a battle where I was outnumbered anyway.

I'll say this - the game is every bit as cutthroat as Hyborian War.  I am learning..

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

As per any good wizard kingdom, I sat in my region and spent my time first securing my region and then cranking my wizards up. After awhile I began to look about for my first target. The GN and SA had both invaded Torvale so going South wasn't an option and tackling the SA (even while engaged in a war) didn't seem appealing. That left the N. Mists.

While the CI are certainly scary, I found their capital (not in the water) and kept tabs on it. They had some high level WA emmys as prisoners so I assume that the two had already been fighting. But the CI didn't seem to be doing much. So I sent a wave of emmys over supported by my groups and seemed to catch the CI unawares.

However, as I moved to sweep across the region, I encountered a WA group at the CI capital. It would have been a roughly even fight, but thankfully, he backed down and moved away so I took the region and the CI. But he didn't give up and stayed around trying to pick off PCs here and there.
This of course turned in to a full blown war over the N. Mists. I just came better prepared and eventually forced him out.

After a short respite, and raising my wizards higher (all P6 with the Twins to boot) I decided that following the WA back to the Talking Mountains was still a better option than either Torvale or Amberland. Plus the DE had dropped and NOBODY moved in to the E. Steppes to take it. So I figured I'd whack the WA and then pop in to R6 for the win.

I think I caught the WA a bit off guard and he didn't seem to respond to my initial wave of emmys and groups. I actually thought he might be dropping. But then he showed up with a big group. Unfortunately for him, I had my 3 groups (one was back in the N. Mists guarding my temporary new capital) all do Intercepts and they all three converged on his one big group. Three Summon Deaths later, his force was crushed.

I finished off the Talking Mountains using the DU recon ability to note his emmys issue 310 orders to capture them. I then jumped to the E. Steppes and on T28 it was still sitting there empty. On T29 I flipped the region and issued the Victory order. The WA was the only kingdom that actually engaged me the whole time and did manage to assassinate two of my Princes at the end (I came with 7 plus 2 Governors).

I'd never seen a game where a) so many kingdoms dropped (there were only 4 of us left on T28), b) no one ever challenged me once I achieved my 2nd and 3rd regions, and c) where about 4 regions were left uncontrolled at any given time for much of the game. So either the fighting was vicious or nobody was going after them.

Diws sells himself short, he gave me some formidable moments at times; I just came with more everything. Finishing with 9 P7s and 1P6 and 13 artifacts.

I thank Diws, RELLGAR, and Tomag for sticking it out till the end!!!!