5079 REX Victory to Black Dragon

[JonDoe]

Congrats DuPont nice to see an old timer grab a win once in a while.

             Victory By Rex Is The Black Dragon Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-23  Grand Total

          1     BL     DuPont                    15,945      19,556
          2     DA     Drogo                      9,280      13,200
          3     DU     Jon Doe                    8,320      11,200
          4     UN     Ohman the Heartless        6,955       9,740
          5     DE     Rellgar                    6,615       9,119
          6     NO     Diws                       2,640       4,040

[JonDoe]

This was a pegan Steel game.

I figured for all the hoopla someone else was playing the BL. And what happened was the DE that Rellgar took over ran into northern mists and force me to look his way instead of stopping the BL win. I was really hoping who ever was fighting the BL could hold out just a bit longer as I had a crazy 89k food production in this ice age game.

Anyway congrats again on the Win DuPont.

[DuPont]

I played the BL in this game. I almost never take a kingdom based in Amberland because I don't like the location, but with the ice age format, I felt the BL might have some real advantages as it was a Pagan game and it would not be easy for somebody to quickly scout the region when they wanted to attack. I moved quickly to claim the region, getting it on turn 4 (along with the DU in 1 and DA in 9) and didn't make nice with anybody else I found there - I figured people were too far away to take revenge for me snagging pop centers. With that done, there was no SO or AM, so I decided to head west into Torvale. I was aware how the lack of food would limit military and when the RD proposed an issue on the HC to raise production in villages at the expense of gold, I was tempted, but then I realized that the RD was probably really starving and I didn't want them around, so I voted the issue down.
I got lucky in Torvale in that I found the city quite quickly and also came across the RA who's capital was right on the border between 4 and 8. I had put all my troops into one supergroup and I took the RA capital on turn 12 and then again on 14, eliminating them. I had also gained control of Torvale on turn 13, but fortunately, the DA also took a second region that turn - I did not want to stand out as being the clear leader.
I knew that grabbing a third region would likely cause everybody to come at me, so I instead split my groups into two pairs and scouted both 7 (controlled by the UN) and 8 (uncontrolled) simultaneously. I soon started mixing it up with the UN in 7, but the situation in 8 was more fortunate - the RD had dropped, the TY didn't seem to be doing much and the DA was barely there. And somehow, nobody was controlling the city, which I quickly jumped on. At this stage, I had four groups of army size, each with a phoenix brigade to keep it healthy, and it was just a matter of trying to time it right so I would get the two regions around the same time. The UN really started to thin out my emissaries but on turn 20, I knocked him out of control of the region while I gained #8. He fought back, though, turning pop centers neutral in my wake. And meanwhile, the DA was moving into #8 in force - I knew the clock was running out on me. On turn 22, I moved all 4 of my groups into #7, gambling that I had enough margin in #8. It worked, though it was a close thing - I would probably have lost #8 to the DA the following turn. Not only that, the DA was also on my capital city.
This was a fun format to play. For sure, it's the first time I have ever bought food on the marketplace. Funny that taking a city can be a net loss - you gain less gold than you lose food. I made sure to bring the cities up to zero food as soon as I could afford to so they stopped sucking meals I needed for my dragons.
Great game, all!

[VballMichael]

Nice job, DuPont.

[Diws]

I played the Nomads here. I guess it is a victory of sorts to avoid elimination. Early in the game the Tyrant tried to usurp my town in region 8. I retaliated by stealing an US from him, and performed the old trick of appearing at his capital (which was on my border) with an army to wipe out his reinforcements. I didn't hear much from him after that, but then the Ranger player moved in and grabbed a town of mine. If I remember right, I stole one of his sightings on the border and took the town back. An ominous sign was a Dark Elf division in the area, and that he had taken my city, which was in the far east near his border.. and the next turn after my US grab I caught an emissary blitz from him. That caused me to drop my plans for region 8 and try and meet the onslaught. Clearly I still have to learn some game mechanics still; more often than not when I tried to kidnap an emmy I got the 'the emissary is no at that location'. I did manage to meet some of his divisions in battle, but lost (the Nomad troops seem to suck), though not catastrophically. I was putting up a fight still when the Underworld player landed on me with an army group and more emissaries (I had hoped that my sparing a village of his that I landed on early in the game would have bought me some peace, but if it did it was only temporary). So I was kinda like Poland being split between the Soviets and Nazis. With my surviving troops and emmisaries I was reduced to a raiding villages role the last couple of turns, though I managed on the last turn to put together an army sized group which was going to move on the former Tyrant capital and into R9. Oh well, good game, all. Still learning, apparently. Pretty impressive how well the DA mapped out my pop centers in a Pagan, Ice age game; that full blitz was very hard to counter.

[RELLGAR]

I took over the DE, I wish it would have gone on a bit longer.
In a pagan ice age game, I would never play anything other than a Wizard or dragon kingdom. The DE being a reluctant, exception, 3rd choice. I pulled out of the Mists after the first turn of takingover. It seems my kingdom didnt get its ESO even though it could have(it was being played when it just needed to give titles to 2 emmies to achieve ESO) I cant understand that one.
Nice job Dupont.

[JonDoe]

I played the Nomads here.  I guess it is a victory of sorts to avoid elimination.  Early in the game the Tyrant tried to usurp my town in region 8.  I retaliated by stealing an US from him, and performed the old trick of appearing at his capital (which was on my border) with an army to wipe out his reinforcements.  I didn't hear much from him after that, but then the Ranger player moved in and grabbed a town of mine.  If I remember right, I stole one of his sightings on the border and took the town back.  An ominous sign was a Dark Elf division in the area, and that he had taken my city, which was in the far east near  his border.. and the next turn after my US grab I caught an emissary blitz from him.  That caused me to drop my plans for region 8 and try and meet the onslaught.  Clearly I still have to learn some game mechanics still; more often than not when I tried to kidnap an emmy I got the 'the emissary is no at that location'.  I  did manage to meet some of his divisions in battle, but lost (the Nomad troops seem to suck), though not catastrophically. I was putting up a fight still when the Underworld player landed on me with an army group and more emissaries (I had hoped that my sparing a village of his that I landed on early in the game would have bought me some peace, but if it did it was only temporary).  So I was kinda like Poland being split between the Soviets and Nazis.  With my surviving troops and emmisaries I was reduced to a raiding villages role the last couple of turns, though I managed on the last turn to put together an army sized group  which was going to move  on the former Tyrant capital and into R9.   Oh well, good game, all.  Still learning, apparently.  Pretty impressive how well the DA mapped out my pop centers in a Pagan, Ice age game; that full blitz was very hard to counter.

DA has unveil PC spell at level 5 I believe.  No priestess but wizards can still cast there spells

[Ohman the heartless]

Congratz Dupont