Game 91 Confederation

[Senior Tactician]

Confederation 91 ends at turn 40.

Victory By Lion's Share Is The Illusionist Kingdom!

Game End Status Points
Place Kingdom    Player                Results-40  Grand Total

1       IL      Jon Deaux                59,352      77,361

2       NE      Windstar                 50,475      71,952
3       DA      Windstar                 38,879      59,591
4       DU      Jon Deaux                12,272      28,453


Despite valiant efforts by Pine Needle and Windstar, The Senior Tactician seems unbeatable in the Confederation format, 5-0.  Instructional narrative to follow.

[Strongwill]

Congrats

[Pine Needle]

Yes, I tried to crack the sea capital super economy and failed, then the WA/RD dropped so I shifted that way. I think I even cast reveal on the IL (after already finding invisible capital) instead of the Druid by mistake.

I was going to sabotage your elite ships and hit the fleets with multiple Leviathans, then in with the GI elite navy to clean up, but the plan never got off the ground as the sabotage had mixed results, and easier targets presented themselves immediately after that failed step.

Nice job both of you.

[Senior Tactician]

Confederation 91.

There is a lot to be said for resting on your laurels, and I again plan to do so for some time to come. But with a record of 4-0 in confederation games I was nonetheless goaded into playing one against a player who I knew from the very first turn was going to be out to get me. The Mighty Pine Needle, an effective veteran of the game was a little bit miffed that I was testing some theories out on his impressive Lycan army in another game. But, I was feeling confidant. So as usual, the strategy formation began early with Region and Kingdom selection.

Jon Deaux Illusionist/Druid
Pine Needle Giant/Sorcerer
Brek Lycan/Gnome
Windstar Darkelf/Necromancer
Rellgar Lizard/Free Traders
Strongwill Red Dragon/Warlock

I write this not for the other veterans of the game, but for those new players who might want a real strategic challenge. The Confederation format calls for six players to each play two kingdoms, thereby reducing the amount of randomness in the game, mostly by eliminating the possibility of any unforeseen alliances arrayed against you. Any alliances in Confederation games had previously been forbidden, but maybe in the future, very much like the true full diplomacy games running currently, anything will go?

In any case, these games are generally quite fast, although not in this case. In a surprise to no one I selected the turtle strategy to survive what was sure to be an immediate onslaught by the Giant kingdom. The Illusionist and Druid, both wizard kingdoms with long term potential, and both with hidden capitols, would ensure that I got several turns to prepare my defense and build for a late game strategy. Sure enough, long before turn 10, the Giants and Sorcerers entered my regions. In my first miscalculation of many in this game, I was denied my ESO with both kingdoms, therefore I only had a total of 12 wizards to work with.

During region selection I chose the Crown Islands for its high likelihood of water-based towns. With the new revelation spell that I am glad to hear is being nerfed (not nearly enough in my humble opinion) my hidden capitols would not long remain hidden as the Sorcerer kingdom gets revelation fairly early. I selected the two water based towns in the Crown islands and began building them up, moving both capitols away from the sure to be found hidden locations for the relative safety of the water. As usual, I abused the hidden ore/bazaar/port combination to build a ridiculous gold income to ensure I could still raise my wizards when I was reduced to two PCs.

Legendary castles surrounded by water did not deter the Needle, however. He began building his own fleets to span the water and assault my capitols. I'll pause here to compare our strategies...

Playing for the long game, I completely eliminated nearly all my brigades counting on my wizards to quickly be able to summon armies when needed. This allowed me the food and gold to build me my legendary castles and raise my wizards despite quickly losing all of my PCs. Meanwhile Pine Needle, who had bought several large armies, and was paying food and gold in upkeep costs to be able to make quick assaults in the early game. Despite the extra early income of my two regions, he would likely have his long-term potential reduced by forgoing either wizard or fortification development. Indeed, when it came to be my time, Pine didn't have a single PC that I could not assault with high level wizards and a small army of summons. I don't think Pines strategy was a bad one, but when you attack someone in the early game it is a good idea to have a plan to eliminate them, and stick to it. Another issue with attacking someone down to one PC, then moving on is that other people in the game will see the player with more regions, and likely decide to attack them, so you now have another enemy plus the one at your back you didn't eliminate.

OK back to the water around the Crown Islands. The Giants were coming, and they were a Seafaring nation in all likelihood able to assault a legendary castle even this early in the game. I predicted he would not let me escape his wrath so easily, so before he arrived, I had already begun to build top quality fleets with BOTH kingdoms to guard the sea, including every enhancement, quality 13 ships, and when I got my ports built, I increased the Naval quality every turn I could until finally, Pine's attention was diverted from the Crown Islands...

Strongwill announced he would be dropping his games due to being busy in real life, Zamora and Mythgar were left unattended. There was also a bit of conflict I could see between the sorcerers and the lizards in Triumvia. I was not paying my usual hawk-like attention to the game as I was playing four others at the same time, forgive the lack of narrative on the other kingdoms. I would be interested to hear other goings-on in the game from Rellgar and Windstar.

In any case, the minute I judged my capitols safe, and Pine's back was turned, I summoned my armies... four armies of flying, invisible, teleporting, Gargoyles and Manticores, hired a couple dozen governors and proceeded to dismantle him. Pine dropped the game in the mid-30's turn-wise and I quickly mopped up his regions, including those he took in the south, so around turn 35 or so I sat on six regions out of the eight required for a Rex victory.

Rellgar had dropped the game a bit earlier, Windstar sat on one of his regions and it looked like the neutral Triumvia was a detente with Pine Needle.  A few turns before Pine dropped, Winstar attacked Brek and realized Brek wasn't really playing the game and ended up with his regions as well.

So, it was just the two of us left. I know Guy is a great veteran of the game and with his Darkelf and Necromancer kingdoms constantly advancing wizards over level 7 he had to be much better prepared than I was to finish off this game. Even though I was ahead in regions about 6 to 5 or so, I knew a rex victory wasn't going to happen. So, I took a chance that I knew better what had to be done to convert this game and pretended a Rex victory still WAS going to happen.

Windstar was already ahead in status points going into the end-game, turn 36. He had destroyed all my groups at Stormgate as I was striking the walls down. So, I spent as few orders in each of the remaining turns as I could to give the impression I was still going for the Rex victory by attacking him in his regions Triumvia and Pellinor. This lead him to attack obvious targets aimed at taking regional controls away from me, cities and towns in Krynn and Zanthia, meanwhile I was doing what was actually needed to be done in order to win this game, and that my friends is a secret I think I will keep for now. Don't out me Guy

Senior Tactician...  AKA Jon Deaux

[Strongwill]

Sorry I had to drop this one, Brek tried to get it stand-by filled to no avail.

[Wookie Panz]

Confederation 91.

There is a lot to be said for resting on your laurels, and I again plan to do so for some time to come. But with a record of 4-0 in confederation games I was nonetheless goaded into playing one against a player who I knew from the very first turn was going to be out to get me. The Mighty Pine Needle, an effective veteran of the game was a little bit miffed that I was testing some theories out on his impressive Lycan army in another game. But, I was feeling confidant. So as usual, the strategy formation began early with Region and Kingdom selection.

Jon Deaux Illusionist/Druid
Pine Needle Giant/Sorcerer
Brek Lycan/Gnome
Windstar Darkelf/Necromancer
Rellgar Lizard/Free Traders
Strongwill Red Dragon/Warlock

I write this not for the other veterans of the game, but for those new players who might want a real strategic challenge. The Confederation format calls for six players to each play two kingdoms, thereby reducing the amount of randomness in the game, mostly by eliminating the possibility of any unforeseen alliances arrayed against you. Any alliances in Confederation games had previously been forbidden, but maybe in the future, very much like the true full diplomacy games running currently, anything will go?

In any case, these games are generally quite fast, although not in this case. In a surprise to no one I selected the turtle strategy to survive what was sure to be an immediate onslaught by the Giant kingdom. The Illusionist and Druid, both wizard kingdoms with long term potential, and both with hidden capitols, would ensure that I got several turns to prepare my defense and build for a late game strategy. Sure enough, long before turn 10, the Giants and Sorcerers entered my regions. In my first miscalculation of many in this game, I was denied my ESO with both kingdoms, therefore I only had a total of 12 wizards to work with.

During region selection I chose the Crown Islands for its high likelihood of water-based towns. With the new revelation spell that I am glad to hear is being nerfed (not nearly enough in my humble opinion) my hidden capitols would not long remain hidden as the Sorcerer kingdom gets revelation fairly early. I selected the two water based towns in the Crown islands and began building them up, moving both capitols away from the sure to be found hidden locations for the relative safety of the water. As usual, I abused the hidden ore/bazaar/port combination to build a ridiculous gold income to ensure I could still raise my wizards when I was reduced to two PCs.

Legendary castles surrounded by water did not deter the Needle, however. He began building his own fleets to span the water and assault my capitols. I'll pause here to compare our strategies...

Playing for the long game, I completely eliminated nearly all my brigades counting on my wizards to quickly be able to summon armies when needed. This allowed me the food and gold to build me my legendary castles and raise my wizards despite quickly losing all of my PCs. Meanwhile Pine Needle, who had bought several large armies, and was paying food and gold in upkeep costs to be able to make quick assaults in the early game. Despite the extra early income of my two regions, he would likely have his long-term potential reduced by forgoing either wizard or fortification development. Indeed, when it came to be my time, Pine didn't have a single PC that I could not assault with high level wizards and a small army of summons. I don't think Pines strategy was a bad one, but when you attack someone in the early game it is a good idea to have a plan to eliminate them, and stick to it. Another issue with attacking someone down to one PC, then moving on is that other people in the game will see the player with more regions, and likely decide to attack them, so you now have another enemy plus the one at your back you didn't eliminate.

OK back to the water around the Crown Islands. The Giants were coming, and they were a Seafaring nation in all likelihood able to assault a legendary castle even this early in the game. I predicted he would not let me escape his wrath so easily, so before he arrived, I had already begun to build top quality fleets with BOTH kingdoms to guard the sea, including every enhancement, quality 13 ships, and when I got my ports built, I increased the Naval quality every turn I could until finally, Pine's attention was diverted from the Crown Islands...

Strongwill announced he would be dropping his games due to being busy in real life, Zamora and Mythgar were left unattended. There was also a bit of conflict I could see between the sorcerers and the lizards in Triumvia. I was not paying my usual hawk-like attention to the game as I was playing four others at the same time, forgive the lack of narrative on the other kingdoms. I would be interested to hear other goings-on in the game from Rellgar and Windstar.

In any case, the minute I judged my capitols safe, and Pine's back was turned, I summoned my armies... four armies of flying, invisible, teleporting, Gargoyles and Manticores, hired a couple dozen governors and proceeded to dismantle him. Pine dropped the game in the mid-30's turn-wise and I quickly mopped up his regions, including those he took in the south, so around turn 35 or so I sat on six regions out of the eight required for a Rex victory.

Rellgar had dropped the game a bit earlier, Windstar sat on one of his regions and it looked like the neutral Triumvia was a detente with Pine Needle.  A few turns before Pine dropped, Winstar attacked Brek and realized Brek wasn't really playing the game and ended up with his regions as well.

So, it was just the two of us left. I know Guy is a great veteran of the game and with his Darkelf and Necromancer kingdoms constantly advancing wizards over level 7 he had to be much better prepared than I was to finish off this game. Even though I was ahead in regions about 6 to 5 or so, I knew a rex victory wasn't going to happen. So, I took a chance that I knew better what had to be done to convert this game and pretended a Rex victory still WAS going to happen.

Windstar was already ahead in status points going into the end-game, turn 36. He had destroyed all my groups at Stormgate as I was striking the walls down. So, I spent as few orders in each of the remaining turns as I could to give the impression I was still going for the Rex victory by attacking him in his regions Triumvia and Pellinor. This lead him to attack obvious targets aimed at taking regional controls away from me, cities and towns in Krynn and Zanthia, meanwhile I was doing what was actually needed to be done in order to win this game, and that my friends is a secret I think I will keep for now. Don't out me Guy

Senior Tactician...  AKA Jon Deaux

What an outstanding write up.  Senior Tactician / Jon Deux you are a fine writer in addition to being one of the best to ever play Alamaze. 
I still recall fondly the team games we enjoyed together where I learned under the patient tutelage of one of the best and asked you so many questions, many of which were not the brightest.

[Senior Tactician]

You may remember being the student during our first team game, but that was a mentor game where YOU were mentoring ME, and I learned a TON of stuff about the new game.  All my knowledge came long before the third cycle and you helped fill me in on all those 3rd and 4th cycle changes, not to mention production building strategies I use to this day.  My re-entry into the game was so much quicker due to YOUR tutelage.  But hey thanks for the compliments and right back at you, a fine teacher, writer, not to mention Alamaze Champion and now a moderator as well!

[Wookie Panz]

You may remember being the student during our first team game, but that was a mentor game where YOU were mentoring ME, and I learned a TON of stuff about the new game.  All my knowledge came long before the third cycle and you helped fill me in on all those 3rd and 4th cycle changes, not to mention production building strategies I use to this day.  My re-entry into the game was so much quicker due to YOUR tutelage.  But hey thanks for the compliments and right back at you, a fine teacher, writer, not to mention Alamaze Champion and now a moderator as well!

I'm confusing you with Leslie Mael, who played under several names but was Draugr in a team game, 5474 where you had CI, Les had DU, and I played TY.  We won in 14 turns.  
I give Les the crown for best mentor but you and Les and Kevin, a.k.a. Painted Man seem to have the best analytical minds in my opinion.  
There are and have been lots more fine players in the game which keeps us all coming back.  I know I am still learning stuff.  
I just researched something to answer a question for a newer player and learned something new yesterday.

Age can play a role too.  You can forget crap and just pretend you are learning something new.

[Senior Tactician]

Sorry I had to drop this one, Brek tried to get it stand-by filled to no avail.

Hey, bud no worries.  You dropping the game may have given me my best chance, in fact.  I may have been being overly careful in Crown as I didn't want to make any moves while a large Giant group was within a single move of my capitols.  Once he turned his back to collect your regions, I collected him

---

You may remember being the student during our first team game, but that was a mentor game where YOU were mentoring ME, and I learned a TON of stuff about the new game.  All my knowledge came long before the third cycle and you helped fill me in on all those 3rd and 4th cycle changes, not to mention production building strategies I use to this day.  My re-entry into the game was so much quicker due to YOUR tutelage.  But hey thanks for the compliments and right back at you, a fine teacher, writer, not to mention Alamaze Champion and now a moderator as well!

I'm confusing you with Leslie Mael, who played under several names but was Draugr in a team game, 5474 where you had CI, Les had DU, and I played TY.  We won in 14 turns.  
I give Les the crown for best mentor but you and Les and Kevin, a.k.a. Painted Man seem to have the best analytical minds in my opinion.  
There are and have been lots more fine players in the game which keeps us all coming back.  I know I am still learning stuff.  
I just researched something to answer a question for a newer player and learned something new yesterday.

Age can play a role too.  You can forget crap and just pretend you are learning something new.

Ohhh right!  That was a great game and Brutal!  Man we just steam rolled that one.  Not really fair though me, you and Draugr all on the same team.  I still consider my best win a Confederation game which had both Draugr and the Painted Man in it, not to mention Dupont, another master.  I think we called it the Confed Masters game.

[Windstar]

I almost had the game in the bag. I could have gotten all 8 regions, but I didn't get it done right. Instead of hoping on gaining control by taking a city and 2-3 towns in two regions and going on to the next, I should have secured control of those two. That would have given me the win. Hat's off to ST though. He fought hard and pulled off in the end. If only I had a turn or two more---but that is not the case. This is my best finish though in a confederation game, so I will happily accept 2nd place. Next game....