Buddy/Ignore List
12-10-2013, 07:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2013, 08:27 AM by HeadHoncho.)
Ry Vor gave me the go-ahead to post this thread, so I thought I'd start it out with my end-of-game report. I was looking forward to playing the Red Dragons, because I'd seen them in other games with an absolutely brutal military. I figure that any time your individual troops are referred to as "dreadnoughts," you've probably got a decent thing going. 
I believe 112 was the last game prior to addition of a RD brigade and an Agent to this Kingdom, so although I missed out on those extras, I was still excited to see how this would play out.
My goal from the start was to maximize diplomacy in order to hopefully minimize the actual use of my troops. Knowing that my early-game decision would depend on relations with DW and possibly GN, I decided to make a couple of gambits. First, I worked out a deal with GN not to contest him in Runnimede in exchange for some early support, including a priestess divination of towns in Region 3. At the same time, I attempted to (nicely) intimidate the DW player by using some forum battle reports and other gentle-but-firm coercion.
This actually worked far better than I could have hoped for, and of his own volition, the DW player actually abandoned Region 3, and I found out later that he decided to go after Region 6, instead. This was a major bonus, and one that would get me off to an excellent start when I took the region on T3.
While this was happening, I'd resolved early on that I would play a perhaps more reactive role than I'm used to, simply because I'd viewed my SVC as out-of-reach (more on this later). So when WI took a village of mine in Region 2, I decided to send my dreadnoughts across the river to begin a village-stomping campaign. After cutting a deal with GI and WA, I was able to work myself up to Substantial in Region 2 after a few turns of GI population reduction via 150 (and perhaps WA recruitment, not sure about that), plus some 600 gold increases at a few of my pop centers.
Meanwhile, as this was wrapping up, my GN ally was being invaded by RA, and I had just found the portal from Region 3 to Region 7. Given that I had nothing else to do, and I was able to secure some more agreements with GN, and had NAPs with most of my neighbors (WA, DA, SO, EL, and plus WI had been mostly eliminated by this point), I flooded my military into 7 to help against RA.
This turned into helping against RA and also AN/TR, who were beginning an invasion of their own into 7. I was able to work with AN/TR (both of whom I liked very much) to negotiate a peace between them and GN through and including T20. Shortly thereafter, my GN ally desired to make peace with RA in order to smooth things over with some other Kingdoms. After I pointed out that I'd just spent a good amount of effort and resources and political capital on his behalf with AN/TR, GN agreed to make some territorial concessions to me, and then I also entered into a limited peace with RA in exchange for some more territorial concessions, which got me to Substantial in 7.
So by then I had Control of 3, and Substantial in 2 and 7, and the city of Zabzanka. So I needed one more Substantial and two more cities for a shot at the win. The problem was, there was one area in my SVC completely beyond my control on some levels, and that was having a higher-level agent than BL. At the start of the game, I viewed this as a nigh-impossibility, given that BL has a higher training max than me, and BL usually has decent economics.
But when BL started getting hammered by DE/UN/RA, I began to have some hope that I could actually pull this thing off. So I decided to invade Region 8, since I had no agreements with DE (and I had in fact reminded him of this fact a couple of turns before my invasion, to see if he wanted to cut a deal, but I never heard back from him).
All that said, in all honesty, I never really planned to pull the trigger with a follow-through on Region 8, because going against DE is really hard, as their special rules make it tough on any invader (second only to AN, in my opinion). Instead, I used my 350 flood of eight emissaries and the arrival of three groups at pop centers in Region 8 as a bargaining chip with DE in order to gain some concessions and secure a NAP, because no one really wants to fight with RD.
So he negotiated Vanasheen over to me, and his rights to a couple of pop centers belonging to BL in Region 10, and I figured that was probably close enough to get me to Substantial in 10, with some additional opportunistic pop center grabs. Given what I could have taken by force, it was a relative bargain for DE, in my opinion, but I decided I'd rather have the additional NAP and the amicable resolution, over conflict with a determined enemy. I didn't need a ton at this point, after all, I just needed another pair of cities and one more Substantial, and the deal got me most of the way there.
By this time, I had NAPs with WA, DA, SO, DE, UN, GN, RA (limited to groups, Region 7, and some additional pop centers), and GI (limited to Region 2). DW, BL, WI had dropped. That left AN, TR, EL. I had no formal agreements with AN/TR -- although to be a gentleman, I was telling everyone truthfully that I wasn't comfortable going after AN/TR until after T20, as a matter of honor, since that was how long AN/TR had given a NAP to GN at my request -- and no formal agreements with EL either, although we were friendly, and he didn't have much territory to take, in any event. So that left my options kind of limited.
But the pivotal turn came when five armies converged on a DE town in region 8 at PP, two of my groups (a blown combine order on my part), one big GI group, one big DE group, and a smallish RA group with some good wizards. I had a NAP with DE and RA, but no NAP in this area at this time with GI.
This was the key negotiation that would lead to the victory. I was basically ready to throw in with DE/RA, but they were a bit slow to respond, and even a little bit evasive from what I perceived. In contrast, WA was very responsive on behalf of his GI ally, and he agreed to throw me Zarathon if I broadened my NAP to a general one with GI. In that light, rather than a big, climactic battle with the big GI group that would have been fun (and probably would have been won by me), I gauged the offer by WA was superior, especially since I wasn't sure where DE/RA really were.
Anyway, at the end I told DE/RA that they were too slow, and so they were on their own, and then I flew off to more pop centers owned by BL in Region 10, while I sent my reinforcements plus three WY brigades and a teleported-in P3 to Zarathon.
I knew the BL pop centers would put me over the top to Substantial in Region 10, and I knew my 171 on Zarathon with a P3, five brigades, and only a Governor 310'ing the turn before would succeed, so I went for the victory check. I was a bit nervous even still, since BL could easily have had an Agent 12 on the board somewhere, but as it turns out, he didn't, and I won the game.
I ended the game with eleven prisoners of nearly every rank, including the DW King, worth 695 status points, as well as two palantirs, two rings of protection, the Rod of Fire, and the Altar of Old Gods (mostly captured or purchased). I had an Envoy, Governor, five Barons, Count, Duke, Prince, an Agent 12, Agent 9, and Agent 1, and 35 brigades plus four Warlords and a Captain collectively worth about 183K vs. pop center, and 2 P4s and 3 P3s.
I enjoyed this game immensely, and appreciated very much every player on the board, especially GI/WA who were honorable and up front about everything and helped me via negotiations which would lead to my victory, DA/SO who provided key early help in 3 and were my allies to the end even though we weren't able to work closely together due to interlocking NAPs, WI who didn't hold a grudge (probably because he took my pop center first) and was awesome to interact with, AN/TR who were fun to talk to and men of integrity, DE/RA/UN who were honorable even when we couldn't work things out, EL who definitely gets my vote for Iron-Willed, and last-but-not least the GN, who was an early ally and was reasonable and worked things out with me even when we had the occasional disagreement.
My votes are as follows:
Chancellor: Hawk, as the Trolls, who is always helpful with information
Infamous: Iriani, as the Rangers, for some pointed negotiations and having a real survivor mentality
Iron-Willed: Lord Thanatos, as the Elves, for hanging on long past anyone could expect him to
I believe 112 was the last game prior to addition of a RD brigade and an Agent to this Kingdom, so although I missed out on those extras, I was still excited to see how this would play out.My goal from the start was to maximize diplomacy in order to hopefully minimize the actual use of my troops. Knowing that my early-game decision would depend on relations with DW and possibly GN, I decided to make a couple of gambits. First, I worked out a deal with GN not to contest him in Runnimede in exchange for some early support, including a priestess divination of towns in Region 3. At the same time, I attempted to (nicely) intimidate the DW player by using some forum battle reports and other gentle-but-firm coercion.
This actually worked far better than I could have hoped for, and of his own volition, the DW player actually abandoned Region 3, and I found out later that he decided to go after Region 6, instead. This was a major bonus, and one that would get me off to an excellent start when I took the region on T3.
While this was happening, I'd resolved early on that I would play a perhaps more reactive role than I'm used to, simply because I'd viewed my SVC as out-of-reach (more on this later). So when WI took a village of mine in Region 2, I decided to send my dreadnoughts across the river to begin a village-stomping campaign. After cutting a deal with GI and WA, I was able to work myself up to Substantial in Region 2 after a few turns of GI population reduction via 150 (and perhaps WA recruitment, not sure about that), plus some 600 gold increases at a few of my pop centers.
Meanwhile, as this was wrapping up, my GN ally was being invaded by RA, and I had just found the portal from Region 3 to Region 7. Given that I had nothing else to do, and I was able to secure some more agreements with GN, and had NAPs with most of my neighbors (WA, DA, SO, EL, and plus WI had been mostly eliminated by this point), I flooded my military into 7 to help against RA.
This turned into helping against RA and also AN/TR, who were beginning an invasion of their own into 7. I was able to work with AN/TR (both of whom I liked very much) to negotiate a peace between them and GN through and including T20. Shortly thereafter, my GN ally desired to make peace with RA in order to smooth things over with some other Kingdoms. After I pointed out that I'd just spent a good amount of effort and resources and political capital on his behalf with AN/TR, GN agreed to make some territorial concessions to me, and then I also entered into a limited peace with RA in exchange for some more territorial concessions, which got me to Substantial in 7.
So by then I had Control of 3, and Substantial in 2 and 7, and the city of Zabzanka. So I needed one more Substantial and two more cities for a shot at the win. The problem was, there was one area in my SVC completely beyond my control on some levels, and that was having a higher-level agent than BL. At the start of the game, I viewed this as a nigh-impossibility, given that BL has a higher training max than me, and BL usually has decent economics.
But when BL started getting hammered by DE/UN/RA, I began to have some hope that I could actually pull this thing off. So I decided to invade Region 8, since I had no agreements with DE (and I had in fact reminded him of this fact a couple of turns before my invasion, to see if he wanted to cut a deal, but I never heard back from him).
All that said, in all honesty, I never really planned to pull the trigger with a follow-through on Region 8, because going against DE is really hard, as their special rules make it tough on any invader (second only to AN, in my opinion). Instead, I used my 350 flood of eight emissaries and the arrival of three groups at pop centers in Region 8 as a bargaining chip with DE in order to gain some concessions and secure a NAP, because no one really wants to fight with RD.
So he negotiated Vanasheen over to me, and his rights to a couple of pop centers belonging to BL in Region 10, and I figured that was probably close enough to get me to Substantial in 10, with some additional opportunistic pop center grabs. Given what I could have taken by force, it was a relative bargain for DE, in my opinion, but I decided I'd rather have the additional NAP and the amicable resolution, over conflict with a determined enemy. I didn't need a ton at this point, after all, I just needed another pair of cities and one more Substantial, and the deal got me most of the way there.
By this time, I had NAPs with WA, DA, SO, DE, UN, GN, RA (limited to groups, Region 7, and some additional pop centers), and GI (limited to Region 2). DW, BL, WI had dropped. That left AN, TR, EL. I had no formal agreements with AN/TR -- although to be a gentleman, I was telling everyone truthfully that I wasn't comfortable going after AN/TR until after T20, as a matter of honor, since that was how long AN/TR had given a NAP to GN at my request -- and no formal agreements with EL either, although we were friendly, and he didn't have much territory to take, in any event. So that left my options kind of limited.
But the pivotal turn came when five armies converged on a DE town in region 8 at PP, two of my groups (a blown combine order on my part), one big GI group, one big DE group, and a smallish RA group with some good wizards. I had a NAP with DE and RA, but no NAP in this area at this time with GI.
This was the key negotiation that would lead to the victory. I was basically ready to throw in with DE/RA, but they were a bit slow to respond, and even a little bit evasive from what I perceived. In contrast, WA was very responsive on behalf of his GI ally, and he agreed to throw me Zarathon if I broadened my NAP to a general one with GI. In that light, rather than a big, climactic battle with the big GI group that would have been fun (and probably would have been won by me), I gauged the offer by WA was superior, especially since I wasn't sure where DE/RA really were.
Anyway, at the end I told DE/RA that they were too slow, and so they were on their own, and then I flew off to more pop centers owned by BL in Region 10, while I sent my reinforcements plus three WY brigades and a teleported-in P3 to Zarathon.
I knew the BL pop centers would put me over the top to Substantial in Region 10, and I knew my 171 on Zarathon with a P3, five brigades, and only a Governor 310'ing the turn before would succeed, so I went for the victory check. I was a bit nervous even still, since BL could easily have had an Agent 12 on the board somewhere, but as it turns out, he didn't, and I won the game.
I ended the game with eleven prisoners of nearly every rank, including the DW King, worth 695 status points, as well as two palantirs, two rings of protection, the Rod of Fire, and the Altar of Old Gods (mostly captured or purchased). I had an Envoy, Governor, five Barons, Count, Duke, Prince, an Agent 12, Agent 9, and Agent 1, and 35 brigades plus four Warlords and a Captain collectively worth about 183K vs. pop center, and 2 P4s and 3 P3s.
I enjoyed this game immensely, and appreciated very much every player on the board, especially GI/WA who were honorable and up front about everything and helped me via negotiations which would lead to my victory, DA/SO who provided key early help in 3 and were my allies to the end even though we weren't able to work closely together due to interlocking NAPs, WI who didn't hold a grudge (probably because he took my pop center first)
and was awesome to interact with, AN/TR who were fun to talk to and men of integrity, DE/RA/UN who were honorable even when we couldn't work things out, EL who definitely gets my vote for Iron-Willed, and last-but-not least the GN, who was an early ally and was reasonable and worked things out with me even when we had the occasional disagreement.My votes are as follows:
Chancellor: Hawk, as the Trolls, who is always helpful with information
Infamous: Iriani, as the Rangers, for some pointed negotiations and having a real survivor mentality
Iron-Willed: Lord Thanatos, as the Elves, for hanging on long past anyone could expect him to
