Can I Steel This Dance 5624

[Wookie Panz]

Victory By Lion's Share Is The Demon Princes Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-40  Grand Total

          1     DE     Lord Garth                77,700     107,334
          2     RA     Drogo                     21,385      49,577
          3     LI     Rellgar                   23,132      43,332
          4     DA     Windstar                  21,413      40,139
          5     IL     DuPont                    20,163      33,915
          6     AT     Harry O                   17,415      32,955
          7     UN     Wookie Panz               18,248      25,821
          8     BL     Eregnon the Black          3,500      22,570

This was game 5624, Can I Steel This Dance?

This is the second steel game to end since the summer updates.  Is it coincidence that DE is the winner of both?  That could be the subject of some interesting discussion.  This was won by lion's share with DE holding 3 regions but still having twice the points of the closest competitor.  DE with the evil trait does not get the bounty spell so it's a bit harder to do builds that take a lot of food. 

I had lots of fun even finishing close to the bottom.  My UN in Sword was attacked by Lt. Gisgo and his CI on turn 5.  I played cat and mouse - no way UN can stand up to the military of CI and of course in the early going the agents are not advanced enough to cause a lot of havoc.  By turn 12 CI was on my hidden capital. 
It was a good thing I have been listening to Uncle Mike all these years and his advice to build a sanctuary when things start going south.  I was down to just that for a bunch of turns.  I kept rebelling lots of CI villages but not taking control as I did not want my capital to move to a village.  With CI having 3 regions it was just a matter of time before someone came along and scrapped him off my back.
Sure enough, on about turn 20 Harry O with his AT came out of Zamora and tore things up.  Drogo with his RA went into Crown against CI too and I started sniping, even managing to get control of Krinn.  Gisgo dropped.  No hard feelings Gisgo as I have attacked folks early when I play a military kingdom too.  There is not much choice, really.  I do love it when the under dog, in this case me, can hang on and be a pain for the whole game.  This was as much fun as a win.
Oh yeah, RA came down to visit and went after Krinn and Zanthia, chasing me around as I picked off his guys.  In fairness, he also was fighting just about 1/2 of the players and he still pulled off 2nd place so nice going.
Hopefully I have not insulted anyone with this write up. 
No trees were harmed in writing this message.
Lets here from more of you guys.

[Lord Garth]

This was a fun game.

Conflict broke out early, it seemed, and all over the board. Let's see, we had:

The CI in Zanthia Vs the UN of Sword
The DA of Darkover vs the IL in Diamond
The TY of Krynn vs the AM of Crown
and the SA of Mythagar vs the BL of Untamed.

Did I get em all? But it was the RA in Triumvia who looked like he may run the table. Smartly taking advantage of the board (as well as some convenient drops) the RA got to 4 regions at one point. The plans I made in this game had to change and I prepared to launch an attack on the RA. But then two things happened. The RA got attacked by the LI of Pellinor, the AT of Zamora and the remnants of the UN while at the same time the BL bested the SA to the south. With the BL unoccupied with war I knew I couldn't go west and leave my flank exposed. I had to go south.

I went into his 2 regions with 2 groups, 4 demon princes and some agents and a few other emmies. The poor guy just finished a major war with a tough opponent and now he had me on his back. I didn't envy Eregnon. In time I managed to flip both regions, denigrate him in each and take most of his pops. And although there was some pc battles there wasn't a lot of group v group battles till the very end. He caught my small 10 brig group and smacked it hard. I managed to limp away with 1 brig left. And then I caught his big group with mine and routed it on the last turn. Congrats to Eregnon for fighting hard even though he was down to just a couple of villages at some points.

And yes, Wookie is right. Two games after "The Changes" and we have two DE wins. Coincidence? The position was always solid if run well but now with Evil and Immortality I think its a contender. Plus its fun to play.

Great game, guys.

Lord Garth
2022 1st Runner up Alamaze Champion

[Wookie Panz]

This was a fun game.

Conflict broke out early, it seemed, and all over the board.   Let's see, we had:

The CI in Zanthia Vs the UN of Sword
The  DA of Darkover vs the IL in Diamond
The TY of Krynn vs the AM of Crown
and the SA of Mythagar vs the BL of Untamed.

Did I get em all?   But it was the RA in Triumvia who looked like he may run the table.  Smartly taking advantage of the board (as well as some convenient drops) the RA got to 4 regions at one point.  The plans I made in this game had to change and I prepared to launch an attack on the RA.  But then two things happened.  The RA got attacked by the LI of Pellinor, the AT of Zamora and the remnants of the UN while at the same time the BL bested the SA to the south.  With the BL unoccupied with war I knew I couldn't go west and leave my flank exposed.  I had to go south.

I went into his 2 regions with 2 groups, 4 demon princes and some agents and a few other emmies.  The poor guy just finished a major war with a tough opponent and now he had me on his back.  I didn't envy Eregnon.  In time I managed to flip both regions, denigrate him in each and take most of his pops.  And although there was some pc battles there wasn't a lot of group v group battles till the very end.  He caught my small 10 brig group and smacked it hard.  I managed to limp away with 1 brig left.  And then I caught his big group with mine and routed it on the last turn.  Congrats to Eregnon for fighting hard even though he was down to just a couple of villages at some points.

And yes, Wookie is right.   Two games after "The Changes" and we have two DE wins.   Coincidence?  The position was always solid if run well but now with Evil and Immortality I think its a contender.  Plus its fun to play.

Great game, guys.

Lord Garth
2022 1st Runner up Alamaze Champion

Nice write up L.G.

[Eregnon]

This was a fun game.

Conflict broke out early, it seemed, and all over the board.   Let's see, we had:

The CI in Zanthia Vs the UN of Sword
The  DA of Darkover vs the IL in Diamond
The TY of Krynn vs the AM of Crown
and the SA of Mythagar vs the BL of Untamed.

Did I get em all?   But it was the RA in Triumvia who looked like he may run the table.  Smartly taking advantage of the board (as well as some convenient drops) the RA got to 4 regions at one point.  The plans I made in this game had to change and I prepared to launch an attack on the RA.  But then two things happened.  The RA got attacked by the LI of Pellinor, the AT of Zamora and the remnants of the UN while at the same time the BL bested the SA to the south.  With the BL unoccupied with war I knew I couldn't go west and leave my flank exposed.  I had to go south.

I went into his 2 regions with 2 groups, 4 demon princes and some agents and a few other emmies.  The poor guy just finished a major war with a tough opponent and now he had me on his back.  I didn't envy Eregnon.  In time I managed to flip both regions, denigrate him in each and take most of his pops.  And although there was some pc battles there wasn't a lot of group v group battles till the very end.  He caught my small 10 brig group and smacked it hard.  I managed to limp away with 1 brig left.  And then I caught his big group with mine and routed it on the last turn.  Congrats to Eregnon for fighting hard even though he was down to just a couple of villages at some points.

And yes, Wookie is right.   Two games after "The Changes" and we have two DE wins.   Coincidence?  The position was always solid if run well but now with Evil and Immortality I think its a contender.  Plus its fun to play.

Great game, guys.

Lord Garth
2022 1st Runner up Alamaze Champion

Part of it was my own fault. On the first turn, my 2BL in Pellinor passed the LI capital on its way home, and I decided to attack the next turn. I took it, but it cost me 2 brigades. I spent a couple turns fighting the LI, when I got attacked by the SA. I pulled back, and the LI was fortunately content to merely retake his pop centers and not come after me.

The other problem was my misreading of the new rules for Evil. I thought my controlling a region made all other kingdoms hostile. Not so - only NON-EVIL kingdoms are hostile, and the DE is of course evil, and he started as tolerant since he had a starting town there, so he got to friendly easily. Had I realized that, I would have denigrated him sooner.

Ah well, live and learn.