Game 5736 - Full Communication - 12 Player Game - 48 Hour Turn Interval

[Maximus Dominus]

Spoils of War - Prisoners taken from the conquest of the Fairy Folk capital at area IV:
Executions            We executed the Fairy Folk prisoner Agent 6 Alectrona as ordered, sire.
Executions            We executed the Cimmerians prisoner Agent 2 Jharo the Hunter as ordered, sire.

       
We hold the following emissaries captive: 
              Rank              Name                  Kingdom
              Baroness      Black Mare          Cimmerians
              Baron            Solarspike            Fairy Folk

[Maximus Dominus]

   

Turn #18 - Distribution of Population Centers - Nyvaria
Cimmerians
1 Major City
1 Town
3 Villages

Demon Princes
3 Towns

Fairy Folk
3 Villages

Neutral
1 Village


On Turn #18 of Game 5736, the Fairy Folk have decided to invade Hell, itself - the Demon Princes' home region of The Untamed Lands. This is a curious turn of events, though far from a surprising one. Revenge, you see, is frequently a motivator in wargames. Will it ultimately prove to be a decisive decision, though?

Had Pine Needle taken me up on my initial offer of becoming a vassal state of the Demon Princes, what I had in mind was for the Demon princes to reclaim and retain the village of Neptune located at area NS, and for the Fairy Folk to relinquish and cede control of two other villages in the region of Nyvaria - Longleaf Market in area PU and Lankhmar in area QW. At the time, I didn't even know that there was a village located in area PV (Yellowbird Spiral). I would have helped the Fairy Folk to purge Nyvaria of its Cimmerian infestations.

Instead, a long train of events have yielded the map, as it now stands. If there is any predictable factor in wargames, it's that players tend to cling to their pride, even when they cling to nothing else.

Next turn, Turn #19, will mark the onset of two new strategies being implemented by myself - one directed against the Cimmerians, and the other directed against the Fairy Folk. Will either or both of them prove to be successful? We'll just all have to wait and see.

How successful will the Fairy Folk's attempt(s) to carry out a military campaign in Hell prove to be? Do they have the economic base to support such? Doubtful. And the population center(s) that they conquer in Hell, will they be able to hold onto them? Again, doubtful. Perhaps Pine Needle will prove me wrong on both counts. If he couldn't adequately defend his population centers in Nyvaria, then what hopes does he have to hold any that he manages to take in Hell?

The Cimmerian Prince, Ulyton the Axe, has relocated to the Demon Princes' town of Stony Hill in area KW. DuPont will likely try to use him to usurp that town away from me in the coming turn, acting in conjunction with 1st CI Group that will conquer the former hidden capital town of Cold Orchid in area IV, on the same turn. Two additional towns in Nyvaria could tilt control of that region to the Cimmerians. They will, however, likely lose control of their town at area KV, where Grand Prarie resides, due to the pending attack upon it by the 1st DE Group.

The Cimmerian Baron Ruzcha Sly should awaken from his coma in area PU, this turn, where he slumbered in the village of Longleaf Market. Last turn's kidnappings of the Cimmerian Baroness Black Mare and the Fairy Folk Baron Solarspike reinforces the dangers that await enemy emissaries in these hostile kingdoms' continuing wars against my kingdom. If only these kingdoms had seen fit to leave my population centers alone. Instead, they have both apparently decided to double down. Tsk. . .tsk. . .tsk. . .

[Maximus Dominus]

Turn #19

   

[Maximus Dominus]

Known Population Centers in the Region of Nyvaria

Turn #19

-------------------------------------------------
KV - Town - Grand Prarie - ELIMINATED
---------------------------------------------
HW - Village -Jagged Quartz - Neutral
---------------------------------------------
IV - Town - Cold Orchard - Demon Princes
JV - Town - Mammoth - Demon Princes
KW - Town - Stony Hill - Demon Princes
---------------------------------------------
NU - Major City - Bronze Canyon - Cimmerians
LU - Village - Chronos - Cimmerians
NS - Village - Neptune - Cimmerians
QW - Village - Lankhmar - Cimmerians
---------------------------------------------
MT - Village - Tors Ridge - Fairy Folk
PU - Village - Longleaf Market - Fairy Folk
PV - Village - Yellowbird Spiral - Fairy Folk
---------------------------------------------

[Maximus Dominus]

Turn #20

I think that the number of troop slots in military groups is earmarked to undergo a change (feel free to correct me, if I am wrong), but why it was ever in the first place considered to be preferable for military groups engaged in combat to keep weaker troops over better troops is beyond me.

1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Trolls Elite so unable to advance Trolls Veteran from combat.

1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Orcs Elite so unable to advance Orcs Veteran from combat.

1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Mythians Elite so unable to advance Mythians Veteran from combat.


So, under the current approach, players should actually utilize less than half of the available ten troop brigade slots for different types of troops, resulting in very watered down fantasy armies. After all, there are Green, Regular, Veteran, and Elite categories of troop experience. 10 divided by 4 = 2.5 - a mixed number. What a very sloppy approach to game design!

Sure, it's the player's responsibility and duty to be aware of the limit on the number of different troop types that one can have in their military groups. Likewise, it's the player's responsibility and duty to also remember that they have to track the number of different troop types allowed in their military groups by experience type, as well. That's all fine and dandy, but how would brand new Alamaze players be likely to feel about missing out on their troops improving, simply because of these two different arbitrary limitations basically cheating them out of their troops? Or was that even ever considered in the design of these particular elements of Alamaze's design? Or was it simply due to Alamaze continuing to be shackled to design considerations from the past, without adequate thought being given to Alamaze's future? Or was it due to it merely being an oversight, or perhaps its significance went under-appreciated? Maybe it just got lost in the mix of numerous other design changes and considerations.

Thus, according to page numbers 283 and 285 of the Alamaze rulebook, with this one battle, my kingdom basically ends up missing out on potentially 300 interim status points/victory points, and 1,200 game end points - in addition to a 50% increase in combat value for each of these three troop brigades. Sweet, huh?

This type of approach certainly does not encourage players to field armies that are diverse in composition. But then again, maybe that was the goal all along. I, myself, have previously wondered aloud if the various different types of troops that Alamaze kingdoms field would just automatically just get along with one another. It really isn't very impressive to saddle players with this kind of a design shortcoming. Alamaze - the 2.5 troop system! It's yet another example of how Alamaze isn't designed for new players.

But the design shortcomings of this particular design element aside, I was glad to see that the 1st DE Group was able to hold its own against DuPont's 1st CI Group in this particular battle. It underscores to me that DuPont can be beaten, militarily. Not that he won't necessarily still end up vanquishing my kingdom, militarily, but it's a good feeling to come out on top of the military conflict involving fairly sizable army groups, even if I don't get to reap the full measure of the spoils of victory, so to speak.


Executions            We executed the Cimmerians prisoner Baroness Black Mare as ordered, sire.

Executions            We executed the Fairy Folk prisoner Baron Solarspike as ordered, sire.

It's always a good feeling to execute enemy hostages/prisoners (whatever they're supposed to be called, since the game can't seem to make its mind up about the matter). Granted, executions can easily screw your kingdom out of status points/victory points, compared to just keeping them locked up, but that's really only a consideration if "playing to win" is an actual consideration of importance to the player.

This turn, I lost one town and gained one village. My attempt to sleep and kidnap a Cimmerian Prince from the town at area KW failed, costing me an agent and that town.

Known Population Centers in the Region of Nyvaria

Turn #20

-------------------------------------------------
KV - Town - Grand Prarie - ELIMINATED
---------------------------------------------

NU - Major City - Bronze Canyon - Cimmerians
KW - Town - Stony Hill - Cimmerians
LU - Village - Chronos - Cimmerians
MT - Village - Tors Ridge - Cimmerians
NS - Village - Neptune - Cimmerians
---------------------------------------------
HW - Village -Jagged Quartz - Fairy Folk
PU - Village - Longleaf Market - Fairy Folk
PV - Village - Yellowbird Spiral - Fairy Folk
QW - Village - Lankhmar - Fairy Folk
---------------------------------------------
IV - Town - Cold Orchard - Demon Princes
JV - Town - Mammoth - Demon Princes
---------------------------------------------


Cimmerians Baroness Ruzcha Sly was the victim of a kidnapping, this turn. How very . . . unfortunate. Barring a successful escape, an execution of this particular Cimmerian Baroness has already been scheduled for next turn. Maybe a guard or two can help ensure her appearance at her planned execution.

DuPont, I suspect, is already planning on gaining control of the region of Nyvaria fairly soon. With the remnants of 1st CI Group now encamped outside the gates of the town of Mammoth in area JV, there's not really anything there to stop him. Cimmerian control of Nyvaria, however, is already earmarked for extermination. In a nutshell, DuPont lacks sufficient force and assets to maintain control of Nyvaria for very long, once he does succeed in gaining control of that region. It's all factored into the overall scheme of things.


                                  *** Emissaries: ***
    Kng Rank            Name                Area  Pop-Name              Other
    CI  Duke            Zan Dag Mo Kar    NS    Neptune              Using considerable influence to maintain status quo.
    FF  Governor     Frownbeak            NS    Neptune              Successfully relocated base to the village of Neptune.
    FF  Agent 4        Mimiteh                 NU    Bronze Canyon  Successfully relocated base to the major city of Bronze Canyon.

Back on Turn #16, Frownbeak was a Governor, and Level 4 Agent Mimiteh was a Level 4 agent. Advancing these two characters does not appear to have been a priority for the King of Fairies. The village of Neptune, it should be noted, is where the Fairy Folk initiated hostilities against the Demon Princes kingdom a number of turns back. And here we are, all these many turns later, and a Fairy Folk interloper continues to trespass there. Tsk. . .tsk. . .tsk. . .

[Pine Needle]

Yeah, you can't have a dog's breakfast of brigade types if you want promotions. This is the FF Queen breaking her silence just to use the term "dog's breakfast" which was a problem I had in my very first game back from 30 years off as the Warlock (who has lots of brigade types), which I won, btw.

Also, there was an error on the last turn in that game and my army was destroyed, and I asked Rick, and he said I was an idiot and there are never errors, then Rellgar and Uncle Mike said there actually was an error, so I won the game. But I screwed up my army brigade types, dog's breakfast and all that.

Lady Pole

[Maximus Dominus]

Yeah, you can't have a dog's breakfast of brigade types if you want promotions. This is the FF Queen breaking her silence just to use the term "dog's breakfast" which was a problem I had in my very first game back from 30 years off as the Warlock (who has lots of brigade types), which I won, btw.

Also, there was an error on the last turn in that game and my army was destroyed, and I asked Rick, and he said I was an idiot and there are never errors, then Rellgar and Uncle Mike said there actually was an error, so I won the game. But I screwed up my army brigade types, dog's breakfast and all that.

Lady Pole

By this point in time, I've long since grown used to Alamaze as a game design doing things or handling things in ways that make me just shake my head. As a general rule, new players will always be at disadvantage with certain game mechanics, this whole 2.5 troop design that effectively screws the player out of experience and combat value gains being but a single one of them.

Ironically, though, if you compare it to how troops are handled with the Summon Death spell, you'll find that brigades of the lowest training level (green, regular, veteran, elite) will be taken before higher level ones will be taken. So, why that same approach wasn't incorporated with regard to battles, if the limit of ten different types of both brigades and brigade experience levels was to be a hard rule, is a real mystery. To me, it fully embodies sloppiness in game design, in a glaringly obvious way that a number of other game design choices that I disagree with do not.

Spell # 99 – Summon Death

A terrible black magic which calls forth the essence of death and rolls this evil presence
as if in a great green wave toward the enemy, eliminating from 2 - 4 brigades of troops
of the enemy (depending on the kingdom) in the same area as the caster, and lowers
morale by 15%, regardless of whether combat is actually fought with that group. Only
living ground-based troops are affected (not undead or flying brigades not from artifacts)
as figures (leaders and wizards) recognize the danger and swiftly depart the area affected.
Group casting this spell must contain at least one brigade of troops. This is a singular spell
so only one may be cast from a group to the same target. Brigades of lowest level training
(green, regular, veteran, elite) will be taken before higher levels. If this spell is cast against
an army group sized force, an additional brigade will be killed if possible.


Why are the higher level brigades so important to retain in the one instance, but in the other instance, lower level brigades are given priority over higher level brigades? And on top of it all, the game notifies the player and rubs their nose in the loss of what would have been higher level brigades.

Examples of rubbing the player's nose in how the game is screwing them over:

1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Trolls Elite so unable to advance Trolls Veteran from combat.
1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Orcs Elite so unable to advance Orcs Veteran from combat.
1st Demon Princes      Does not have an available slot for Mythians Elite so unable to advance Mythians Veteran from combat.


Just no slots available. But that's only because of the way that the game contemplates what a slot for brigade purposes is. 10 is an arbitrary number in the first place, albeit a nice round number, yet this design choice didn't even take into account the need for one's 10 different troop brigades to be able to learn from combat experience. If the game is going to have 4 different levels of experience, then the game needs to take that fully into account in a way that make sense. As it stands now, a player could potentially only have two different troop types with the same troop type being at each of the four stages of experience in the same army at the same time. From the player end of things, what player is going to prefer a slot limit of 10 troop brigades, when they can end up being so easily shafted in how this particular game mechanism plays out?

At a bare minimum, the game's programming should have been modified to treat experience levels of the same troop types as a non-limitation. If looked at from the standpoint of player retention, how does the current way that troop brigades slot facilitate player retention? It doesn't. This is a rather obvious game mechanic that screws players over in an exceedingly obvious way. The chosen approach effectively ends up sending players into the Twilight Zone, as it acts as a magical barrier that automatically negates brigade experience advancement. In essence, because a player has chosen to avail themselves of 10 different types of troop brigades, the game ends up sucker punching them by manipulating battle outcomes against them. How was this ever thought to be a good approach in the first place?

Was there ever a single player of Alamaze that liked this chosen path for this particular game mechanic? I've read numerous instances of players complaining about it, if memory serves me correctly, but as I sit here pondering this particular game mechanic, tonight, I don't recall offhand it actually having a group of supporters. And what about the number 10, as utilized in this particular game mechanic, was golden? In other words, why did it have to be 10, and not any other number? Was 10 the only number that could conceivably work, and if so, why? This is why it strikes me that the number 10, used as it was with this game mechanic, was actually nothing more than an arbitrary number pulled out of thin air.

And if it was left intact, merely to accommodate old game programming code, what was so vital about this particular game mechanic in the first place? The game and its designer knew that troop brigades could gain experience, and that the gaining of experience by troop brigades was handled in an incremental fashion, as the troop brigades progressed from green to regular to veteran to elite. Yet, another aspect of the game's design effectively interfered with the natural progression of brigade experience. It was a choice that effectively confuses experience with troop types. To gain experience by some troops of the same type ends up converting them into an entirely different troop type, for the purpose of counting how many troop types are in a given group at a given moment. And by rubbing the player's nose in it, by letting them know that some of their troop brigades stood to increase in experience level (thereby gaining in-game bonuses) yet deliberately withholding from them the fruits of their labors, this particular game mechanic as-designed is a good example of the "worst of all possible choices" approach to implementing a given concept within the game's overall design.

Yet leaders can receive any experience level gains, without running into the same problem. Talk about a "fuck the troops" mentality. The "officers" reap the full rewards of their combat experience, but in many instances, the "enlisted" get shafted.

If anyone knows, what section or page of the rulebook best explains the actual reality of how this 10 troop brigade limit actually works? I've done numerous different electronic searches of the rulebook, tonight, but thus far at least, it seems to be eluding me.

[Maximus Dominus]

Known Population Centers in the Region of Nyvaria

Turn #21

-----------------------------------------------------------------
KV - Town - Grand Prarie - ELIMINATED
LU - Village - Chronos - ELIMINATED
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NU - Major City - Bronze Canyon - Cimmerians
KW - Town - Stony Hill - Cimmerians
MT - Village - Tors Ridge - Cimmerians
NS - Village - Neptune - Cimmerians
-----------------------------------------------------------------
IV - Town - Cold Orchard - Demon Princes
JV - Town - Mammoth - Demon Princes
QW - Village - Lankhmar - Demon Princes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HW - Village -Jagged Quartz - Fairy Folk
PU - Village - Longleaf Market - Fairy Folk
PV - Village - Yellowbird Spiral - Fairy Folk
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Pine Needle]

Marshal Whitebreath raised a finger to still the tongues of her officers. She heard no sound, nor saw no movement, but knew from the movement of dust motes in the filtered forest sunlight that her scouts had returned.

One thing every one of her winged warriors knew for sure, something dank and rotten was in the forest- they marched noisily and emitted noxious fumes even more noisily. Demons were in the woods.

The scouts reported more subtle movement- still brutish, but skilled for big folk. The Cimmerian invaders from the north were now in the southern forests. In some strength it seemed.

But a final force invaded this wood in Nyvaria as well, almost invisible in the green and brown background. The scouts reported something, but could not interpret it, nor could Marshal Whitebreath. She mentally summoned the eye of her immortal Queen Lady Pole to review the report.

“Sad,” the Queen communicated, “but we’ve known this for months. Our ancient friends the Elves are in the forest, too.” Whitebreath did not shed a tear- the die had been cast, but for the noble and graceful elves to cooperate with the vile demons caused her to contemplate… ah… contemplation. No time for that, she knew.

The armies of the enemies of the Free Folk had all converged…

To arms.

[Maximus Dominus]

Turn #20
Fairy Folk invade the region of Pellinor.

Turn #21
Fairy Folk brutally attack the Elven village of Viper Nest, conquering it.

Fairy Folk invade the region of Stormgate.

Turn #22
Fairy Folk plunder and raze the Elven village of Cornucopia.

Elves invade Nyvaria.

Cimmerians launch naval attack upon Elven vessels.

Giants invade the region of Stormgate.

Demon Princes conquer the major city of Bronze Canyon from the Cimmerians.

Cimmerians conquer the town of Mammoth from the Demon Princes.

A Demon Princes group grants mercy to the Fairy Folk village of Yellowbird Spiral, sparing it from a grisly fate.

Military groups of four different kingdoms gather and encamp at the gates of the village Longleaf Market.