5833 to Tyrant with 5 regions

[VballMichael]

Victory By Rex Is The Tyrant Kingdom!

                            Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-37  Grand Total

          1    TY    Vball Michael            50,382      82,642
          2    DA    Pine Needle              36,329      72,824
          3    DE    Canticar                  33,984      62,524

Thirty seven turns of agony and pain, and a hearty handshake to the Illusionist who fought me tooth and nail for about 20 turns. The DA of Pine Needle was ridiculously strong, bouncing around the world with army groups conquering Legendaries like they were mud huts. I was fortunate to grab two quick regions at the end just before the repercussions started. 

Congrats to all who played and especially the 6 who made it to the end.

I would love to hear who played the Illusionist and put up such a strong defense.

By the way, I found the journals of the Tyrant king and will be editing and publishing his memoirs in the next day or so.

[Pine Needle]

Great job, Vball Michael. Your victory saved my silver as Canticar had destroyed me and DA was in free fall. I'll share my notes after you do.

Pine Needle.

[VballMichael]

I, Vballmichael, was fortunate to uncover the diaries of Zmrfn, the King, the Great Goblin, the conqueror of Alamaze in the era known only as 5833. I have tried to keep the translation as close as possible to his original, but I did have to edit out a lot of swearing, and grammar so bad as to be almost unintelligible. Here, then, find the translated writings of a mad king.

Zmfrn I was until I killed Phugt. Then I became the King of kings, the Great Goblin and the leader of the dispersed Tyrant tribes. As I studied my kingdom, I realized it was paltry but had potential: a mere 5 snake-tongued counselors, 7 wannabe assassins of very low level, a nice home base in the Untamed Lands, 1 very scary Wraith with 5 novice apprentices, and 11 brigades of varying races. With this uninspiring crew, I determined to conquer all of Alamaze. Someone needs to do so.

My counselors advised that we would need to crush at least 4 other kingdoms and take their home regions, and my victims could be the barbaric Cimmerians, the evil Dark Elves, the boring Demons, the so-called Deathknights, the nature-hugging Druids, the ugly Gnomes, the tricky Illusionists, the slimy Lizards, the dead Necromancer, the holier-than-thou Sacred Order and the invisible Underworld. I was not worried. I was starting with good troops compared to most, with much potential for recruits and reinforcements and rewards, and lots of recruitable types of troops, especially starting in the Untamed Lands. With a Power 4 Wraith to start, my mage potential was pretty good. But those puny magic kingdoms would have that bubble dome thing and I could not get those until my wizards went two levels beyond our kingdom’s ability.

To start my campaign of conquest, I targeted Pellinor and moved my 1st group into the region searching for towns and villages. Imagine my surprise when my troops, in the first month of expansion, stopped at a town that was the Lizard capital. While we were not ready to hit such an encampment, we made immediate plans to come back and visit. In the meantime, that Level 3 mage of the Lizards made for a tasty first kill.

The next two months I directed 6 different groups to explore and conquer in both Untamed Lands and Pellinor. I now considered both of these to be my territory. This slowed me down a bit and I read reports of other kingdoms conquering their home regions ahead of me. By the 4th month, I had conquered Untamed Lands and the Lizard capital and was busy exploring Pellinor in earnest. Months 5 and 6 brought reports of battles across the globe. Disheartened, as should all opponents be, the Lizards slunk back into the swamps and disappeared from the land, leaving me to mop up the rest of Pellinor by the 7th month.

My generals insisted on a short break to rebuild troops and train mages and agents and emissaries and enhance our capital, but I forced them to start toward their next victims while others carried out the training duties. But who next? The Underworld to my west or the Illusionist to my north?

The next few months saw much fighting around Alamaze, with the Dark Elves scaring off the Gnomes, and the Deathknights and Cimmerians at war. Ignoring all of that, I had my troops and priestess focus on Nyvaria, home of the sneaky sleight-of-hand tricksters, Illusionist. I had fully secured my hold on Untamed and Pellinor and moved full out into Nyvaria. The tenth month of the campaign was crucial, and my troops were rewarded with many prizes from wandering groups, including 2 new Tyrant brigades, 2 new Troll brigades, 2 new points of popularity or influence with the people, and even a Level 2 wizard joined our cause. My main group had damage potential just under 100,000 (calculated by my nerdy accountants), we had 6 Princes ready to tell the necessary lies to take over villages and towns, and I had 3 mages capable of dispelling those nasty dome things the wizards throw. As a fun aside, a small Druid group wandered to my capital all the way from the west regions, and was quickly demolished including its wizard. We never saw the Druids again.

In the 11th month of the campaign, my troops and emissaries made full invasion into Pellinor. I would love to tell you they prevailed easily and destroyed the weak Illusionists, but sadly that did not happen. That tricky little mage made my life hell for many, many months. He continually beat my troops (nice mages with death spells) and sneaky Chameleons making his group larger than expected. He also killed many of my Princes. At one point, after many months of campaigning, he had whittled me down to 1 prince, 8 brigades, and a few measly mages. I almost called off the attack to lick my wounds, but then I remembered that I am Zmfrn, King of kings, the Great Goblin.

Battles continued around the world, but the Illusionist and I had our own little war with no interference at all. The thing that was most in my favor was that I controlled Untamed Lands, Pellinor and Nyvaria, providing me with 200,000 food supplies and 260,000 gold units each month, while he was limited to one town, with occasional production from an extra village or town. By the end of the 12th month, my Tyrants were the favorite child of Alamaze, followed closely by the Dark Elves and then the Underworld. By the 18th month, the Dark Elves, through conquest and brilliance, had clouded the minds of all, and was now clearly leading in popularity. While my Tyrants were the only kingdom with 3 regions, many others had 2 regions. Finally, in the 15th month, my advisors built a magnificent, legendary castle at my home town in honor of my deeds. Somewhere in this timeframe, the Druids faded into the mists, the Illusionist wins every battle we have due to awesome mages and sneaky chameleons, and my idiot agents cannot find his capital.

Then, the Illusionist starts spreading lies about my kingdom, dropping scandal after curse after scandal, removing me from the High Council not once, but twice. All of Alamaze is laughing at me, I can feel it, and my troops are broken and scattered and my emissaries are dead. Even his regional spells are hurting my poor, damaged soldiers. To make matters worse, he now goes on the offensive, seeking out my groups, moving to my towns and villages, even as far as Untamed Lands. Time to regroup and finish this.

By the 24th month, my councillors and generals are begging me to withdraw. We have no answer for his troops, his agents and his mages. But I scream and yell and execute a few and the rest suddenly seem to fall into line. We start recruiting, training and hiring new emissaries. The Dark Elves in this month of voting, are pulling away with popular opinion and are far in the lead. We will not win that way, so we need to finish this war and go find the Dark Elves.

Now, my mages are throwing the spells, now my troops are winning the battles, now my agents are defending and kidnapping. In the 27th month, my councillors come racing to tell me they have found the elusive capital in the water way up in a northern river in Nyvaria. Great, now we have to build ships and finish this up. One councillor then lets slip that we actually found the capital in the 21st month but failed to notice. Oops, that councillor became lunch for a Troll brigade. Given all of this, the Illusionist, finally, in the 30th month, faded into nothingness. Even after all we had accomplished, the people of Alamaze still favored the Dark elves in the 30th month. Arrgghhh. Time to go after those miscreants. And, as luck would have it, the Dark Elf took Stormgate on turn 30, conquering the Legendary Castle as if it were a mud hut. But I realized this Stormgate place was only 4 squares from where my troops were sitting (but across a sea) and they were almost strong enough for it.

Ok, so now the plan is to cross the Azure sea in 19 ships with 36 brigades and a Power 9, Power 7, Power 7, carrying a handful of useful relics and artifacts to hit Stormgate. And then, from there, to walk over to Zanthia and remove the very quiet Necromancer from possession. 3 intrepid groups crossed the great sea in the 33rd month of the campaign and combined into an amazing mass of troops, with Trolls and Ogres and Hill Giants and Orcs and Tyrants and Uak Hai. Sadly, the troops were entirely untrained with no Veterans or Elites to speak of. But hey, they are just fodder, so hit, hit, hit. Their value was around 107,000 while Stormgate sat at 209,000. But I knew my mages and specialty groups would take care of all of that. 

Month 34 sees the great legendary castle fall, doing 23% damage to my heroic troops. I immediately moved that group south to a forest area, while I enamored Zanthia, my Priest gathered info, and all 5 of my newly minted princes moved within range of Zanthia. My 6th group took Cornucopia just for fun with only summoned spirits that disappear at end of day.

Zanthia only had 1 city, 3 towns and 4 villages, so conquering should be quick and easy. Just land groups at the city and 1 town, move an emissary to the other town and all villages. Avoid the capital at all costs, as it is well defended and has a Necromancer army group. All went well in the 35th month, recruiting war machines and replacing dead ogres, and landing at the city. But, my poor 6th group, with bad orientation skills, landed at the capital versus a very large Necromancer mass. Yes, that group got wiped, but it did keep the Necromancer from doming the city. By the end of the 36th month, I owned the City and was positioned with Princes at the other people places, and my 1st group was opposite the one remaining non-capital town.

The Necromancer had been busy. His capital now held 3 army groups with a total of 80 troops and 6 mages at least level 6, with another two level 6 mages at a village. He was clearly ready for me to land at his capital, which I did not. And he was ready for domes, but those could not stop my charming, snake-tongued Level 9 wizard from charming the gullible townspeople nor stop my glib princes from taking villages. So, in the 37th month of this glorious campaign, my troops and emissaries took control of the poorly managed region and all of Alamaze acknowledged our supremacy. All hail Zmrfn, King of Kings, the Great Goblin.

Thus ends the tale of the self-important Goblin as his notes just fade into ramblings and cursing. Final food production was 264,000 food and 390,000 gold, not in any way record-setting and finished with just 22 troops, though this was enough for Highest Census and Highest Gold. In reading these notes, I was truly impressed with the Illusionist defense and with the Dark Elf conquering of numerous legendary castles and his continuing great lead in status points even through turn 36, despite taking on numerous opponents. The Underworld and the Demons both stayed in the game and held 2-3 regions at different times. The Necromancer was pretty quiet, never really making the newspapers. And the Sacred Order was often in the news and himself had quite a few epic battles. Congrats to all who finished this epic contest.

[davekuyk]

Excellent write-up! Very entertaining!

[Pine Needle]

Excellent write-up! Very entertaining!

Agree-

The Dark Elf came to Alamaze ready for war- itching for an excuse...

I started in Diamond Coast, but with a group in Darkover and a town. I started scouting Darkover immediately as the Gnome would not have a hidden capital and starts with bad troops. The Lizard had a sea town in Diamond, and I started with a sea capital. Very nice for defense. I took the Lizard town, but he dropped, and the Gnome took my town giving just the excuse.

He didn't have much fight in him, either.

So then I reached a holding pattern around turn 10. I had lots of gold (thanks to the GN hidden oreing his capital and Ramhorn.) The problem was both PCs were very visible to prying eyes like the UN and DE. My leaders were really weak, so I looked for encounters, but they kept getting stolen by the DE, IL and SA. I did get Nemrond, and stole Narsil from the DK and Torag from the IL (I located his capital with that theft, but saw no reason to harm the noble IL, what with him holding off the TY and all.)

The CI, SA and DK were all fighting in Triumvia, and I made a move there too causing war with the SA. I had a big battle with the 2d SA and crushed it (don't fight the DA in the marsh) but that conflict turned cold pretty quick as the UN moved into Triumvia and started killing my  people in FQ (lost an agent 20 ouch).

So at this point I tried to raise a wizard to level 9 eight unsuccessful times for a cost of a million gold or so. My plan was to reveal the UN or the DE and go for the win. This delay may have cost me the game. I finally got the 9 and revealed the UN. The DE was being pesky with demonic visions and random rebellions, but I could not devote many actions to fighting him because of the full war with the UN.

Some highlights of that were nuking a NE village and one of my own towns to kill his Agent 29 Sidewinder. I think the UN finally destroyed the ring of invisibility to stop me divining where his agents were holed up. I also assassinated a Demon Prince (with the Bow of Heracles and Demon Bane- I wonder if my agent had three arms to use both at the same time). All these assassination took lots of actions, though, so who knows if they were worth it. By the time I got the Demon Prince, he had six normal princes in Diamond Coast so too little too late. Still nice to kill an immortal.

DE finally sprung a very devious trap on me right when the TY retook Stormgate. DA was pretty much on fumes, but TY won securing the silver for team DA. Nice job Vball. Nice job Canticar.

[Brekk]

Nice writeup guys, mind if I start using these on the Alamaze Facebook page?

[VballMichael]

Nice writeup guys, mind if I start using these on the Alamaze Facebook page?

Ok by me. Was a fun game.

[Ruingurth]

Victory By Rex Is The Tyrant Kingdom!

                            Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-37  Grand Total

          1    TY    Vball Michael            50,382      82,642
          2    DA    Pine Needle              36,329      72,824
          3    DE    Canticar                  33,984      62,524

Thirty seven turns of agony and pain, and a hearty handshake to the Illusionist who fought me tooth and nail for about 20 turns. The DA of Pine Needle was ridiculously strong, bouncing around the world with army groups conquering Legendaries like they were mud huts. I was fortunate to grab two quick regions at the end just before the repercussions started. 

Congrats to all who played and especially the 6 who made it to the end.

I would love to hear who played the Illusionist and put up such a strong defense.

By the way, I found the journals of the Tyrant king and will be editing and publishing his memoirs in the next day or so.

Vball,

Twas I who played the Illusionist! None other than the CHAMPION of Alamaze. The Ayatollah of rock and rolla himself, Ruingruth. Well played old friend! My fleets kept me in gold even when I was down to one pop, I was also surprised that my groups won so many battles!


R

[Brekk]

Your Stories have been posted here on the Alamaze FaceBook Site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100021421106638

[VballMichael]

Victory By Rex Is The Tyrant Kingdom!

                            Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-37  Grand Total

          1    TY    Vball Michael            50,382      82,642
          2    DA    Pine Needle              36,329      72,824
          3    DE    Canticar                  33,984      62,524

Thirty seven turns of agony and pain, and a hearty handshake to the Illusionist who fought me tooth and nail for about 20 turns. The DA of Pine Needle was ridiculously strong, bouncing around the world with army groups conquering Legendaries like they were mud huts. I was fortunate to grab two quick regions at the end just before the repercussions started. 

Congrats to all who played and especially the 6 who made it to the end.

I would love to hear who played the Illusionist and put up such a strong defense.

By the way, I found the journals of the Tyrant king and will be editing and publishing his memoirs in the next day or so.

Vball,

Twas I who played the Illusionist! None other than the CHAMPION of Alamaze. The Ayatollah of rock and rolla himself, Ruingruth. Well played old friend! My fleets kept me in gold even when I was down to one pop, I was also surprised that my groups won so many battles!


R

Well, nice job and it should not surprise me that it was the Ayatollah himself. But next time, just fold immediately please. I am old and cannot handle that much stress.
And yes, I am irritated that I found your cap on turn 21 but didn't realize it until I found it again several turns later lol.