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**Pine Needle** · 07-12-2025, 03:44 PM

5951: Victory By Rex Is The Lizard Men Kingdom!
Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-29 Grand
1 LI Ozymandius 54,936 72,214
2 CI Pine Needle 43,019 59,031
3 RD Bazthebear 20,600 39,924
4 DU Holding For Player 21,238 30,328
5 AN Suppa 16,240 23,405
6 SA Tacticus 10,322 17,633
7 NE Cinkasnor 4,468 6,862

Congrats Ozymandius! Well played. I have many comments and questions, but will let the winner chime in first!

davekuyk · 07-12-2025, 04:45 PM

(07-12-2025, 03:44 PM)Pine Needle Wrote: 5951: Victory By Rex Is The Lizard Men Kingdom!
Game End Status Points

Place Kingdom Player Results-29 Grand
1 LI Ozymandius 54,936 72,214
2 CI Pine Needle 43,019 59,031
3 RD Bazthebear 20,600 39,924
4 DU Holding For Player 21,238 30,328
5 AN Suppa 16,240 23,405
6 SA Tacticus 10,322 17,633
7 NE Cinkasnor 4,468 6,862

Congrats Ozymandius! Well played. I have many comments and questions, but will let the winner chime in first!

Thanks, Pine, it was a fun game!

It started very quiet. Though I was in Triumvia people left me alone. I spent my time gathering artifacts and watched the world develop around me. The GI attacked the GN in Zanthia and dispatched him by turn 10. I spied a town in Zanthia that the GN had built up, producing a bit over 100k gold, and the GI had taken it (and two regions). I decided I would keep tabs on the GI and move in that direction if the opportunity arose.

Jump ahead to turn 15, and the CI had grabbed two regions and the RD three! In addition, the GI picked up a third - Krynn. I had continued to pick up artifacts...and wizards. In a bit of overkill, I had ELEVEN wizards spread over four groups. It was a unique problem to have, as I was locked into those four groups just about as they were.

I had gotten a Crystal of Seeing along the way and that allowed me to recon much of Zanthia, which the GI controlled. The Crystal is my pick for best overall artifact.

It took a bit of time to recruit/summon troops. I moved on Zanthia on turn 17. The key pop center was that town, now a great castle, and producing 120k gold. The GI had a duke there with a watch tower. To get around this, I used the Conceal Emissary spell to drop two princes in there undetected. Turn 18, I took the town and moved in troops. To my surprise, the AN in Krynn had a lot of fight left in him, taking the region back from the GI.

Jump to turn 20, I had Zanthia and was looking to move into the Sword Coast. Flush with gold, I did numerous wizard raises - seven wizards on this turn.

I changed my basic strategy for this game. In past games, I would attempt to take entire regions - the city, town, and villages, valuing control over speed. In this game, I decided to go with speed over control. Take the city, take towns, and clean up villages only if able. Keep big, expensive groups and valuable princes busy with high-value targets.

I had expected the AN to move onto PCs in Zanthia, as he had taken a few from the GI, but he never did. The Red had three regions (Zamora, Mythgar, and Untamed). I began keeping tabs on his big groups (love being able to do standing order divination with devout kingdoms) as the Sword Coast looked like a likely fourth region for him. I decided I would move south into the Sword Coast and then keep going into Zamora. The geography seemed to be favorable - no substantial water PCs, and the regions were a bit smaller than average.

Jump ahead to turn 25, and I had Zamora and Sword Coast under my control, and I began pushing into Mythgar. The AN was not touching Zanthia, and no one seemed to be in Triumvia. Could I take Mythgar quickly and grab five? However in Mythgar is where I ran into CI and RD troops. The CI had pushed all the way down from the far north. I was very surprised to run into his army group at TP in Mythgar.

Mythgar quickly became crowded, with CI and RD groups along with mine. Looking at Pellinor, it looked like a possibility. I made a pivot, leaving Mythgar and moving into Pellinor. I wasn't sure I could take the region, however, as the city was in the water and I had no means to take it. It was meant to be more of a diversion. I was surprised when, on turn 28, I took Pellinor and had five regions! Hurray! Except...I didn't declare victory. Oops.

Thankfully, I was in a position to keep most everything for turn 29 and pick up a few places to balance what I was losing. I did build a few fortresses, a forum, and cast a Raise Census spell to raise the odds a bit. Turn 29 I declared victory and ended the game with five regions.

Good thing too, as the following occurred on the last turn: denigrated SIX times, five reports of emissaries relocating, and hostile groups at six different PCs!

I ended the game with more wizard power than I've ever had: two p-8s, three p-7s, one p-6, and four p-5s. I rarely used all of them in a turn, but the options they provided were stellar.

All in all, a fun game. Much like the game where I was the Druid, which just completed, I was left untouched for much of the game and was allowed to pick my battles carefully. The CI, I am sure,e was closing in on victory. I was impressed he took the RD capital, which had a super high defense and about 20 prisoners. My military would not have been able to do that.

**Pine Needle** · 07-12-2025, 06:51 PM

I was the CI and started out in Diamond Coast with the Deathknights in Darkover and the Sacred Order in Nyvaria.

I took my region quickly but couldn't get an elite brigade to recruit Mammoths and Hill Giants. There was no sea town or city, so I kind of took a gamble and moved my capital to a sea village. As soon as I could afford it, I switched the fleets to sea patrol to defend the village further, but it never got attacked (defense was 30k or so when the population was exhausted.) I reconned SA fleets and he wasn't building, so I felt safe to go after the DK on turn 11.

He had 8 princes, but no Pit Fiend. I took 4 of the princes when I took his capital then the remaining 4 when I took the next capital and he dropped, and I had my elite brigades. Also 4 priestesses which was very handy. I had quite a few artifacts, including 2 quest artifacts- but they were the ring of power and the staff. I wanted the Gem of Planes.

So I consolidated Darkover. I never built up any pop centers with production or castles- the DK had a mage tower and I built a forge.

Almost as soon as the DK war was over, I noticed the Red Dragon had 3 regions, as did the Giant. All that stood against the Red was the Elf in Pellinor and Stormgate. Not a likely line in the sand there.

But Darkover had no sea PCs so I couldn't build a navy to get over there, and walking the long way would take too long.

So about turn 15 I started one of the most detailed plans I've ever had in the game to attack Untamed Lands (or Mythgar) all the way from Diamond Coast with no Gem of Planes (I did get the Herd which helped a little 5 brigades at a time.)

I needed two power 5s (as the CI!) to teleport an invisible brigade down there, take a village, and 6 emissaries. Teleport turn one, attack pc turn 2 and move capital, send out emis turn 3, rebel etc turn 4. I had the staff so enamor didn't require my King. The brigade could recruit an army basically in two turns (thank goodness for increased companion recruiting). Then the herd with another division could come from the north.

As it happened the plan worked to a T, as 1RD was at Stormgate then turn I rebelled Untamed, but he didn't take it, probably to avoid getting whacked by everyone. Without my plan, I am pretty sure Red would have won on turn 20 or 21 as the Elf had nothing left. But just as that happened, the LI toppled the wobbly Giant, who may have dropped pre- or during the attack. Certainly didn't have much fight in him.

And neither the Red or I could stop the LI. I saw two battles where 1LI defeated 1RD. When I reconned 1RD it was a monster, so 1LI must have been better than you say (I guess great wizards go a long way).

I certainly had a plan for victory before the LI came into Pellinor, Mythgar and Untamed. I was going to make another attempt two turns from when LI won.

As for the CI, lots of fun. Recruiting from PCs at regular experience is a big advantage as Vikings made up a big part of my strength. The Gem of Planes might be the best artifact for them, but I agree the Crystal is great and with mithril you can have 4 of them on standing orders. I kept an eye on the Red and Sacred capitals and Stormgate the entire game. Not sure what Sacred Order was doing all game.

When I finally got teleport Army Group, I was about to land on the LI capital but the Druid was there. Finally, I thought, but then he dropped (?). Taking that tasty capital would have been too little too late, though.

GG

davekuyk · 07-13-2025, 03:38 AM

Sounds like quite the plan, moving many emissaries via an extended capital relocation. Quite the logistical challenge for the CI! Well done on executing all of that.

The 1RD was very strong, but I outmatched it with wizards and artifacts. We fought twice. Both times I had p-8 and two p-5s, and he had three p-5s. Each time I dispelled two of his P-5s and cast Prismatic with the P-8. I took 10% losses vs 16% for him in the first battle, and 5% for me and 15% for him the second time. The losses were not crippling, but enough that he couldn't stop that group. My value vs a PC was 173k. Maybe I could have taken the RD capital. However, I've had poor results lately vs legendarys.

The Druid may not have realized how well-defended my capital was, with a defense of 275k, plus I had two domes ready to cast. His group didn't have an iron golem in it, and thus, I don't believe he could have taken it.