5360 Seasonal Steel (War of the Mages)

[Strongwill]

Victory By Usurper Is The Sorcerer Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-39  Grand Total

          1     SO     Wookie Panz               68,602      99,388
          2     AN     Vball Michael             42,291      65,529
          3     WA     uncledarkseid             40,835      61,769
          4     AT     Strongwill                31,320      49,948
          5     UN     Brek                      24,364      43,564
          6     IL     Canticar                  23,267      43,379
          7     PI     DuPont                    24,863      42,737
          8     AM     Ashgar                    10,694      25,414

Nice win Wookie 2nd to VBall third to Uncledark   Fun game

[VballMichael]

It was a nice win for Wookie. Game went to 39 turns and I thought it would go all 40 (forgot about the 3 regions and 2 substantial victory condition).
Nice job securing your holdings with awesome castles and smart move to take Stormgate pretty early on.
My only goal near the end was to stay just ahead of the Warlock on points.

[Strongwill]

It was a nice win for Wookie. Game went to 39 turns and I thought it would go all 40 (forgot about the 3 regions and 2 substantial victory condition).
Nice job securing your holdings with awesome castles and smart move to take Stormgate pretty early on.
My only goal near the end was to stay just ahead of the Warlock on points.

You did well VBall, I had recon on some of untamed    Felt it was suicide to move that way.  

[Brekk]

Nice job everyone , and congrats on the win Wookie!

[Wookie Panz]

Thanks to everyone who played in this one.   I'll do a little recap from memory without actually looking back at all the turns.

I had an early pick on the setup and went with Triumvia.  When the pick came back to me there were a lot of magic positions chosen already including IL and DU with hidden capitals.  I decided to give SO a try.  Since SO lost it's hidden capital and spy net in Malestrom they are not too popular anymore.  They still have the best spell list in my opinion and with Pelinor I figured I would have the option of moving the capital to sea if I needed to.  As it worked out it was already in the sea, right next to the major city.

Early on I had no plans on victory at all.  I just developed the position.  PI played by DuPont became a nuisance early on, showing up at several sightings and grabbing them out from under my patrols.  I let him slide and continued to develop but then he started moving on my PC's and I had no choice but to deal with him.  This was probably around turn 10-12 and about the same time I reached out to UN through the forum offering a sea village and friendship.  UN was getting hammered by the DU player and I figured he could use a place to hide.  Maybe having him in my area would be an incentive for others to leave me alone too.

Around turn 20 I recalled that the orginal rules for this game allowed for 1 ally so I think it was about turn 21or so that Brek with UN and I allied.  This was to be the only alliance in the game but we never made full use of it.  I don't recall that we ever traded in spite of him having the trick of the trade trait.

By now I had paid PI back a bit and I took control of his region, the Crown Islands.  The minor city was at sea and I never took that and in spite of searching all but 7 squares of the region I never found his capital .  Where was it Victor?   PI was brutal with his agents and on one turn picked off two wizards , a 5 and a 6.  This fight was hurting us both as he couldn't touch my fortified towns or battle my groups and I couldn't stop his agents.  I offered peace at the cost of letting him have control of region 1 again except for a town with a legendary castle.  I stopped looking for his capital and let him take the pc's back but he seems to have broken our agreement in the final turns and gone after my wizards again.  Am I correct that it was you in Darkover hitting my wizards again Mr. PI?

Now we are at about turn 30.  I have finally got the PI off my back.  The DU player has given up as he lost most of his folks to a well played UN.  That leaves Mythgar and Untamed largely vacant.  Pelinor, the home of a NE player who also made the mistake of going after UN is also human as NE has dropped.  I smell a possible path to victory!  I moved on Pelinor but as my emissaries were way out west it took several turns to get the pieces in place.  By now my army group is getting over 30 brigades and all four of my groups can take pc's.  Most of my towns in Triumvia and the city have legendary castles so the home front is secure.
I land on a town in Pelinor and WA is there with his army group of 22 units too, having the same idea.  We were in a non communication turn so I had to figure he would attack so I attacked him and his group was surprised and destroyed and I got the town.  He had left me alone so far but now that I fought him so have to expect I've made an enemy.

I had control of Pelinor in short order and was thinking that with several other players having 2 regions I would not be seen as a major threat,  but if I took a 3rd I would be a bullseye for everyone.  I had to find a way to get 2 regions in one turn.  Stormgate was owned by WA and I had just fought him and destroyed his best group so that was 1 region.  It had a legendary castle but my big group was worth nearly 200k straight up, closer to 500k with all the modifiers.

I had reconed Untamed earlier and got ready to move on it but the turn I was going to move AN took control of the city and towns and immediately fortified.  I had to switch to plan B and go for Mythgar which was still mostly human and home to my ally UN who would let me slide on taking over his former but now human holdings.  I had reconed all but 1 town and made my move with groups and at the same time sent my big army group to Stormgate.  Next turn all is in order and I declare Rex victory.
One small problem - the town that I did not have orders to recon had a great castle even though it was human.  When DU had it he had fortified so my prince could not touch it and the region only went substantial.  I think we are at about turn 32 or so.

Plan C - army group back to Mythgar to take another town and try to hold on to everything knowing the whole world will be trying to stop me.  I declared rex again but Vball and his AN had already moved against Pelinor and flipped a town I needed so I failed 2 turns in a row.  Now here comes IL into Mythgar and AN into Pelinor.  AM, who I had left alone in Darkover the whole game decides to try to break my hold on Triumvia.

Plan D - I doubt I can win now and I'm back to 2 regions, Pelinor and Stormgate.  I have most towns with legendary castles so those regions are fairly safe.  Since I left AM alone and he invaded my homeland I'll pay him a visit in Darkover.  He spent the early game fighting AT so maybe he has not had a chance to fortify.  On turn 36 I had a big lead so lion share is looking like a sure thing.  I am rolling up Darkover but here is AT, having the same idea and taking pc from me as soon as I get them.  I do have substantial though in 3 regions and only need a little more in Mythgar to get control.  I have emissaries in place to take several villages and move the army group back there.  It looks like I can do usurper on turn 39 by taking Mythgar
so I go for it and grab the win after having crossed swords with PI, AM, AN, AT, IL, and WA.  I still had plan F, lion's share, as a fall back on turn 40.

In closing, SO is still a mighty strong position if you have time to develop it.  I was busting the legendary castles with no trouble but I could only do 1 per turn.  Building them was a whole lot easier and I finished with 17.  I suspect that is a new Maelstrom record but it is not one that we track.
With the exception of WA I only attacked players who went after me first so 5 out of 6.  
Thanks again to all of the players but especially to Brek with his UN who was still hanging in there in spite of being jumped by DU in the early turns.  Brek rocks!

[Strylian]

Thanks to everyone who played in this one.   I'll do a little recap from memory without actually looking back at all the turns.

I had an early pick on the setup and went with Triumvia.  When the pick came back to me there were a lot of magic positions chosen already including IL and DU with hidden capitals.  I decided to give SO a try.  Since SO lost it's hidden capital and spy net in Malestrom they are not too popular anymore.  They still have the best spell list in my opinion and with Pelinor I figured I would have the option of moving the capital to sea if I needed to.  As it worked out it was already in the sea, right next to the major city.

Early on I had no plans on victory at all.  I just developed the position.  PI played by DuPont became a nuisance early on, showing up at several sightings and grabbing them out from under my patrols.  I let him slide and continued to develop but then he started moving on my PC's and I had no choice but to deal with him.  This was probably around turn 10-12 and about the same time I reached out to UN through the forum offering a sea village and friendship.  UN was getting hammered by the DU player and I figured he could use a place to hide.  Maybe having him in my area would be an incentive for others to leave me alone too.

Around turn 20 I recalled that the orginal rules for this game allowed for 1 ally so I think it was about turn 21or so that Brek with UN and I allied.  This was to be the only alliance in the game but we never made full use of it.  I don't recall that we ever traded in spite of him having the trick of the trade trait.

By now I had paid PI back a bit and I took control of his region, the Crown Islands.  The minor city was at sea and I never took that and in spite of searching all but 7 squares of the region I never found his capital .  Where was it Victor?   PI was brutal with his agents and on one turn picked off two wizards , a 5 and a 6.  This fight was hurting us both as he couldn't touch my fortified towns or battle my groups and I couldn't stop his agents.  I offered peace at the cost of letting him have control of region 1 again except for a town with a legendary castle.  I stopped looking for his capital and let him take the pc's back but he seems to have broken our agreement in the final turns and gone after my wizards again.  Am I correct that it was you in Darkover hitting my wizards again Mr. PI?

Now we are at about turn 30.  I have finally got the PI off my back.  The DU player has given up as he lost most of his folks to a well played UN.  That leaves Mythgar and Untamed largely vacant.  Pelinor, the home of a NE player who also made the mistake of going after UN is also human as NE has dropped.  I smell a possible path to victory!  I moved on Pelinor but as my emissaries were way out west it took several turns to get the pieces in place.  By now my army group is getting over 30 brigades and all four of my groups can take pc's.  Most of my towns in Triumvia and the city have legendary castles so the home front is secure.
I land on a town in Pelinor and WA is there with his army group of 22 units too, having the same idea.  We were in a non communication turn so I had to figure he would attack so I attacked him and his group was surprised and destroyed and I got the town.  He had left me alone so far but now that I fought him so have to expect I've made an enemy.

I had control of Pelinor in short order and was thinking that with several other players having 2 regions I would not be seen as a major threat,  but if I took a 3rd I would be a bullseye for everyone.  I had to find a way to get 2 regions in one turn.  Stormgate was owned by WA and I had just fought him and destroyed his best group so that was 1 region.  It had a legendary castle but my big group was worth nearly 200k straight up, closer to 500k with all the modifiers.

I had reconed Untamed earlier and got ready to move on it but the turn I was going to move AN took control of the city and towns and immediately fortified.  I had to switch to plan B and go for Mythgar which was still mostly human and home to my ally UN who would let me slide on taking over his former but now human holdings.  I had reconed all but 1 town and made my move with groups and at the same time sent my big army group to Stormgate.  Next turn all is in order and I declare Rex victory.
One small problem - the town that I did not have orders to recon had a great castle even though it was human.  When DU had it he had fortified so my prince could not touch it and the region only went substantial.  I think we are at about turn 32 or so.

Plan C - army group back to Mythgar to take another town and try to hold on to everything knowing the whole world will be trying to stop me.  I declared rex again but Vball and his AN had already moved against Pelinor and flipped a town I needed so I failed 2 turns in a row.  Now here comes IL into Mythgar and AN into Pelinor.  AM, who I had left alone in Darkover the whole game decides to try to break my hold on Triumvia.

Plan D - I doubt I can win now and I'm back to 2 regions, Pelinor and Stormgate.  I have most towns with legendary castles so those regions are fairly safe.  Since I left AM alone and he invaded my homeland I'll pay him a visit in Darkover.  He spent the early game fighting AT so maybe he has not had a chance to fortify.  On turn 36 I had a big lead so lion share is looking like a sure thing.  I am rolling up Darkover but here is AT, having the same idea and taking pc from me as soon as I get them.  I do have substantial though in 3 regions and only need a little more in Mythgar to get control.  I have emissaries in place to take several villages and move the army group back there.  It looks like I can do usurper on turn 39 by taking Mythgar
so I go for it and grab the win after having crossed swords with PI, AM, AN, AT, IL, and WA.  I still had plan F, lion's share, as a fall back on turn 40.

In closing, SO is still a mighty strong position if you have time to develop it.  I was busting the legendary castles with no trouble but I could only do 1 per turn.  Building them was a whole lot easier and I finished with 17.  I suspect that is a new Maelstrom record but it is not one that we track.
With the exception of WA I only attacked players who went after me first so 5 out of 6.  
Thanks again to all of the players but especially to Brek with his UN who was still hanging in there in spite of being jumped by DU in the early turns.  Brek rocks!

Great game Wookie. Well Played my friend.