Primeval Game 5144 ends

[Ohman the heartless]

Congrtaz to Vball.  It was a close game all throughout except for the BL.  Too much gold/food and no true recruiting power.  If this is redone, I suggest the SA replace the BL.

We all finished, and in very good time

Thanks to ALL

[VballMichael]

Thanks. This was one of my favorite games of Alamaze. We all took two regions pretty quickly and the race was on. 5 kingdoms, plenty of resources, and a nice start with little conflict. But then the battles were on. My Amazons had regions 4 and 7, and everybody else went to war. The BL and CI fought and the NO and AT fought. Everybody let me grow. By turn 18, I had a P7 wizard (yes, the Amazons had a P7 - exceeded limit and had a ring). I had focused my whole game on finding artifacts and developing wizards and emissaries. I never recruited troops even a single time, even though this was a battle of army kingdoms. I led in status points each status turn since I had about 16 artifacts, tons of influence (23) and some nice wizards (P7,5,5,5,4) and decent agents and two regions.

Anyway, I was not sure what to do as everybody else was engaged in warfare and it was pretty even (except eventually the BL was losing to the CI). Then, on turn 19, I learned that this game was only going 24 turns. Oops. I missed that. My bad. So, I decided to invade 1 and 5 at the same time since I had those scouted out. I think I had 11 princes and 2 governors, along with 1 group big enough for towns and 3 groups big enough for villages, all with good movement. I had to divide my forces, focusing a little extra on Amberland. So, I took that region pretty quickly and positioned to take even more of it, which I continued to do to maintain control. Nobody was bothering my two regions, so I knew my assault had little risk. Even if I failed, I would almost definitely win on status points on turn 24. Anyway, I was set to take just enough in Oakendell on Turn 23 that I figured I would be about 1 village short of winning, but made the claim anyway just in case. It worked and I picked up my fourth region and claimed the Rex. The BL and the CI fought back, but separately and they had damaged or limited resources from a lot of turns of conflict. My fresh emmies and groups and wizards rocked. I had 6 battles on my final turn, including my division against the 1CI army group where I feared I would lose 6 artifacts. But fortunately, I had the right wizards there. My P7 threw Summon Phantoms, my P5 threw Shield, I retreated on a 1, and I force marched as far as I could to avoid him chasing me. Only took 21% damage with very little damage to my kingdom troops.

As I have said a lot, luck does play a part, and my being left alone was a nice little piece of luck.

So glad this game moved quickly and everyone stayed until the end. Wish all of our games could do that.

And thanks to Rick for the themed game. It was very different.

1 AM Vball Michael 17,635 22,372
2 CI DuPont 11,315 15,414
3 AT Mad Hatter 9,100 13,725
4 NO Windstar 8,820 12,945
5 BL Ohman the Heartless 2,755 6,067

[Ry Vor]

This was the Primeval contest called The Battle of the Red Haired Stepchildren, with five kingdoms near the bottom of Valhalla in large part because they aren't often selected.

Pleased to hear it was an entertaining match and perhaps everyone learned a little something on those kingdoms they often don't see in open games.  Part of that is due to the high favoritism of the magic kingdoms that are the alternate selections for several.  In Maelstrom, you can take any kingdom in any region.

Though I love all my children equally, I have a little soft spot for the Amazons.  Congratulations on guiding them to victory, VBM.

For those readers among us, I recommend Steven Pressfield's "Last of the Amazons" who paints a pretty vivid picture of their culture and is a good read like all his books, most of which are historical fiction set in Ancient Greece he has some others as well such as The Legend of Bagger Vance, the golf instructor legend made into a film directed by Robert Redford, and stars Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron.  Kind of a zen themed look on life.  I enjoyed a brief correspondence with Pressfield who is a really nice guy and is a sometimes commentator on The History Channel.

Who would be interested in a new Primeval (after the current Steel game queuing fills) with five of the balanced kingdoms?  However The Gray Mouser's current foray turns out, he argues the balanced kingdoms best bring out all aspects of Alamaze and so while not a blunt instrument, they require skill while providing lots of options at every turn.

[Mad Hatter]

Well, Congrats to V-Ball!!! I always keep a diary of my games and would like to share a bit here:

Turn 0/1: Decided to focus on R3 and R9. (Starting towns: Southern borders of R3/R9, furthest village is on western R5). Standard moves made. Found EX US in R5, can't get, moving on. Found 4 villages.

Turn 2/3: Took the villages and Gundibar, Jukanta is neutral. Not happy that Nomad took R10 already. I never seem to have any luck on getting my region by turn 3.

Turn 4: Good game pace. Hopefully I’ll flip 2 regions at once. Going to be rough getting this military going. CI got their region. I will have to move on R3 quickly too, In case he heads that way.

Turn 5: Finally got the region, crossing my fingers on a second region next turn.

Turn 6/7: Got second region, CI in R3 with a large group (I believe he is hitting things there to improve his leaders, smart idea…perhaps will follow suit). NO moved a group into R9 and then out.

Turn 8: Improving gold/food production and recruiting. Moving on more pc’s in R3, raising wizards. Everyone has 2 regions. Surprised that CI didn’t move on Hammerhold. Usually I spend too much time going after artifacts but only got 2 to get my ESO, which I totally spaced off; will be a turn late getting mine.

Turn 9/10: Took a town in R6 and took a CI village in R3, he must have flipped it the same time I did, but I got it. He has his Army on a town of mine in R3. I guess it’s time to get busy.

Turn 11: Able to claim my ESO. Taking 2 Marshalls and point of influence. I’m afraid I’m getting into R3 a little late with a military. Dang CI took R3. Looks like a fight, moving 3AT in and 2AT right behind. Hope NO stays out of R9.

Turn 12/13: Doing tit-for-tat with CI. The NO keeps moving in an out of R9. Now he has 3 full armies in the region. This is the part of the game that sucks, getting hit at both ends. I can only hope the BL and AM start doing something on their side to put pressure on CI and NO.

Turn 14: Again with the NO in R9. Do I stop with R3 and let the CI have it and turn my full attention to the NO? Can’t fight on 2 fronts. 3 agents did defense sabotages against Jukanta.

Turn 15: Loosing interest in this game. Made too many mistakes. Looked right pass that the CI had a group on Gundibar. He took it this turn and in the meantime the NO is casting regional effect spells in R9 that I can’t stop. Don’t know why the NO is setting with 3 groups in R9, I guess trying to bait me out. I will go out just to get this over with.

Turn 18: Just have to hold on. Was able to take R3, but with the NO in R9 with a massive group who knows. Wish the AM would put some pressure on him.

Turn 19: Lost R9 to the NO. There is no way I can keep up with his onslaught, especially now that the BL has entered R3, the CI having vanished.

Turn 20: Probably going to lose Hammerhold and Jukanta next turn, but I’m setting on the RA cap. Hopefully I capture someone good. I have to get R9 back just to place in the top 2 I think.

Turn 21: Going to get my butt handed to me. No good ending for this game for me.

Turn 22: NO is smacking the heck out of one of my groups. Only 2 more turns for this to be over.

Everyone knows how it finished on Turn 23 (final US investigate had a 20k diamond). Throughout the game I did have good success with agents, but I never had the chance to develop my wizards as I was constantly recruiting on 2 fronts. The NO had some serious firepower though.