Anonymous 136 final status points

[Lord Thanatos]

1 WA Jumpingfist 29530 32230
2 GN Lord Thanatos 5700 8150
3 WI Lord Diamond 5410 7688
4 TR Cloud 3135 4738
5 RA The Deliverer 3220 4709
6 SO Thalion II 2400 3375
7 GI Nikodemus 900 2514
8 RD DuPont 1000 2111

Valhalla is the only place to discuss/dissect/divulge anonymous contests. Share with us your tale of victory Jumpingfist!

[Lord Diamond]

(WI) First, I want to congratulate Jumpingfist for his amazing win. Four regions! I was caught completely by surprise. I suppose I figured that someone in the south was dealing with him.

I took Northern Mists fairly quickly and then jumped over to Oakendale when yet another Elf dropped out. I got Lorethane, but most of the other pcs were claimed by the Troll. We were both very careful not to start anything with one another and came to an unspoken peace. Oddly enough, I had the same relationship with the Giant. I landed on his village on turn two and left it alone hoping he would take it as a peace gesture. Apparently, it worked as he never made a hostile move against me and I returned the favor. This was fortuitous, because the evil Red Dragon invaded a turn or so before I was going to attack the Warlock. I had nothing against the Warlock at that time except for the fact that every artifact I divined seemed to be owned by him!

The Red Dragon invasion of the Northern Mists did not go as he planned. Between my wizards and my agent, I killed three wizards and a LOT of leaders. He beat my army up pretty bad and caused me some angst, but he didn't have anything to show for it in the end. My worst moment was when I tried to break his siege of Viperhead and ended up increasing his defenses by 7,500! I'm sure he laughed about that one, but he wasn't laughing when I was able to Diplomacy it back the next turn.

Eventually, the Ranger showed up in Talking Mountains and the Red had to rush home. I had also starting annoying him there, but the Ranger invasion is likely the more devastating for him. The war did slow down my development quite a bit. I ended the game with several P-6 wizards and was just putting my Wight factory together when it ended. I had several nice agents and a bunch of artifacts that probably account for my 3rd place finish.

[Cloud]

As the Troll, I had a really good start. I got to the HC early and was able to take my region quicker than most - a region that was free of Ancient Ones. I found several artifacts quickly (including Trollslayer exactly 1 area south of the GI capitol - lol) and began moving into Oakendell. As noted already, I was very respectful of WI holdings in the region and never challenged him there. That peace was crucial because right after Winter, the Giant came streaming in. The force of his initial political assault left me reeling but at least I had my R1 holdings and never really suffered shortages of resources.

I tried to signal to other players that the GI had emptied Amberland by using the Council to denigrate him in Torvale. I kept losing the bid to the BL, and by the time I successfully got the issue up, The GI had knocked me out of control and claimed it then or soon after. By this time, the GN had shown up in R4 as well. I had previously put a group on the GN town in R4 and then moved off, simultaneously boosting gold production in one of my towns, hoping that we could be peaceful but it didn't work out. Another reason I was so thankful WI wasn't bothering me in R1.

I assume now that it was my failure to declare every neighbor enemy that drew so much heat, but I didn't know that going in. With two kingdoms squabbling over my region, I resolved to stick it out and be the graveyard of empires. I used every resource I had, HC, maxed out Wiz corps, emmys, agents, and of course groups to mess with my attackers. They also had to contend with each other, of course, so that made it easier. Both the GI and I had some good victories as our main armies clashed several times including a really ill-advised rumble in the fields outside Meridon and a few outside my capitol in the woods. I kept a sizable force there at all times and tried to increase confusion by moving large groups of troops around with Speed and Bats.

Ultimately, I took the GI town and remaining EL capitol in R1, claiming Control. That really only served to attract attention to R1, though, and I lost it quick. I also took a fair amount of R5 PCs from GI before the end. This was a pretty frustrating game, all in all, but I still had great fun acting as tarbaby for the GI. My only regret is that I couldn't do more against the GN . . . I'm actually really pleased to have placed 4th (again?!) given all my troubles.

Cloud

[Jumpingfist]

(WA). This game was a 12 player random selection Anonymous Steel REX game. It was pre-determined that the DE, AN and UN would not be playing. Also one of the last non explorer format games, meaning players could use high priestess on the first turn.
I drew the Warlock. I was thinking great my 5th time playing the WA in my short time back to Alamaze, at least I know the kingdom. Looking it over I had a bad location for my capital at HP the tip of a mountain in Amberland. From my past experience a popular spot for the Red dragon to stumble on while trying to make wyverns. My secondary town on the other hand was located in the Sea of Drowning in Synisvania. Little did I know at the time this would be a game where everything would just go my way.
Going into the first turn my mind set was with the DE not playing and Arcania open I would try and take some PCs to make some extra gold to build wizards, relocate my capital to the secondary water town and build the town into unbreakable fortress. I had planned to not fight if someone was to challenge me for control. I did not want to waste my gold on a fight I was not likely to win in the early game. I also did not want to challenge the GI. Basically just be passive. Be out of sight out of mind to the others, not my normal approach but thought best way to survive the early rounds as the WA. I also wanted to raise a big agent since there was no UN I could have some of the biggest agents.
Turn 1 I divined towns in Arcania, raised regional reaction, reorganized my 1WA to have only 2 kingdom brigades and teleported to the city Esteria Vale in Arcania. I kept my 2WA at home in the secondary city and started raising defense with its p2 via 601 spell.
Turn 2 took Esteria Vale 21384 defense via 171 spell with a 6336 vs PC value (ratio 0.296). Not the least bit over powered. Sent in my Emmys to the towns and divine a Wizard artifact.
T3 priestess came back big Stone of All Minds. Wooo hoo my favorite artifact. Would lower my already lowest Mage research cost by 2k gold per level. WI TR GN all gained there regions. I had 1city 5 towns and a village in R7 but did not get control. Better I guess in the long run means more resources once I do get control.
T4-5 Elf dropped I got control of Arcania, unearthed SoAM, divined Staff of Distain, moved capital to Water town. Most regions under control except R1
T6-9 lead in status points. Made friends with BL by trading his Baron I caught when we both went to control same town. A long 4 turn process we were finally both allies by t9. Raising gold and defense on capital. Raising wizards. Divined SO towns on T8 to find he only had 1. I had p7 nukes ready but figured no need. GI took my starting Amberland village. This was a critical exchange because I declared GI enemy but it was not reciprocated. I figured he was to busy fighting the TR to use the order at that time then forgot as I basically stayed quite. Got 5th council seat for 2323 gold on T8. RD took R3 from DW
T10 Got ESO, TR lost R4. Odd thing with ESO my new priestess arrived in a TR village at EA. No need to trouble support over a minor thing.
At this point I was off to my best start as a WA. I had the following
Wisards P7, 7, 6, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1
Agents L12, 4, 4, 4, 4
Influence 19. Water capital at 41k D, 22k G
SoAM saved me 124k gold up to this point
T11-15 summoning wights and removing all but two of my kingdom brigades. collected a couple weapon artifacts. DW dropped BL and DA quit. Still top on overall status points. GI first to have two regions. Combing Arcania for artifacts. Original capital at HP fell to RD on T14. Started using Staff of distain to keep people away from R10 after BL quit.
That would be the last of the players to drop.
T16-19 took R10 over and prepared to take R9 over. GI and TR fighting in the west. RD WI SO RA all fighting in the North East. Got two more artifacts both crystals of seeing. Very helpful. Could now scout 6 spots only using two orders. During this period I made a potentially bad mistake. I typed in the wrong position to teleport to and ended up in R7 on a GN PC. I quickly moved off but that was all it took for the GN to send some feeler emmies my way in R10. I spend a few turns using spells, artifacts and king orders to denigrate the GN in R8 and R10 to keep him from heading my way.
T20-23 I would spend these turns taking two regions quickly. I planned to launch a set of emmies into R9 but as I was about to launch the RA spidy senses went off and he denigrated me in R9. I switched my attack to a conquer and burn type tactic were I would take the largest places and burn the smaller and water PC. I stopped my wight production after T19 with a total of 22 wights spread between my groups. Main group had 13 wights and a combat value of 90k. My main group was strong enough to take the RA capital using a setting of 2 to protect the wizards. First round with invis group took SO town and destroyed two villages and launched full military attack vs RA capital and PC. After first round I found a brigade facing a SO army. I had a few lvl 7s and was worried he would over run the group and kill all my wizards. All the wizards used an 88 spell and escaped out of there before any attacks would come. Turned out the two brigades would be left alone by the SO. In the second round (T22) I took the RA capital, a town villages. I destroyed a town and two villages. Gained control of R9 and teleported to R5 at the same time launching as many emmies as I could into R5 for the win. T23 I won taking all the PC I was able to land on including the GI capital.

I finished with
Wizards 1 P8, 5p7, and 3 p6
A surplus of 740k gold
My water capital 74k D 54k gold
SoAM saving me a total of 316k gold.
2 high priestess is all I had as they did not died this game. Together most likely survived 20+ divinations.

Sorry Not great at these write ups.

I will nominate Cloud (TR)for iron willed for his continuing to fight with the GI the whole game and generally giving him hell.

[Lord Thanatos]

Game 136 was both fun and interesting. The biggest improvement due to the anonymous format is the absence of coordinated actions by three or more kingdoms against a single enemy.

I was given the GN kingdom and immediately started raising wizards and training agents as I fully expected to see the TR and/or BL early on in Runnimede. I was able to control Runnimede fairly early and began taking RD holdings after his group moved away from the pcs he attacked. Once I was able to cast Dome the RD moved out of the region. Runnimede was now completely mine! I kept training wizards and agents and did a bit of artifact hunting within my region only, as I did not want to attract unnecessary attention until I was ready to expand.

My ESO required a pc in Torvale and so I went after Meridon because I had a standing order to recon there with the palantir I found. I controlled the city and gained my ESO. My plan was to have two P7 wizards to protect Runnimede before I assaulted either Torvale or the Southern Sands. Over the course of the contest I failed 6 times (over 360,000 gold) to raise a second P7. Quite frustrating.

I selected Torvale over the Southern Sands because I liked having water pcs available to provide some protection from the military kingdoms. In fact, I moved only upon the four water pcs in Torvale because both GI and TR were active there and I really didn't want to have them rampaging in Runnimede yet. For the next five or six turns the water pcs and Meridon were alternately controlled by GN, TR and GI. Eventually I used wizards and agents to kill 4 GI wizards, 3 TR wizards, 6 GI leaders and 2 TR leaders. I felt confident my 67,000 strength group with a P8 (found Ring of Spells late in the contest) and two P6s would match well against GI and TR groups without wizards or effective leaders. Also had a couple patrols with four total P4s to accompany my main group.

Then the WA showed up in my region. I issued denigrate orders and had my three A15 (one with Demon Slayer) ordered to assassinate his wizards – but he left my region. Over the next three to four turns I hired 12 governors and sent them into every pc in the Southern Sands that didn't have a group posted there and raised my influence to 25. This delayed my assault into Torvale. I must mention here that the BL dropped the contest while in control of his region and greatly affected how this contest turned out. Maybe he assaults me and I don't finish second? Maybe the WA doesn't gain a second empty region and the game continues longer? Maybe... ? Dropping a viable position should be antithetical to every serious gamer!

Anyhow, when the contest ended I was Substantial in Torvale and my group was unopposed at Meridon. I should have controlled Torvale the next turn. Alas, my timing was off and such is life in the world of Alamaze! On the final turn I lost two A15 and was a bit dismayed. I finished with A15, two A13, A12, and two A11 (if my memory is correct) a P8, two P6, and four P4.

The GN is an excellent position if it is not overwhelmed by military kingdoms in the early game. The GI and TR were fighting each other in Torvale and the anonymous format prevented them reaching an agreement to join forces against the meddlesome GN to eradicate them. After all, why fight each other over one region when you can join forces to eliminate a single opponent and end up in control of two regions? In my opinion, the anonymous format plays out much more like my vision of a fantasy world where the various races essentially detest/fear/hate/kill every other race until one rises to dominate all the others. In my vision of a fantasy world, none of these kingdoms would ever reach agreements with any of the others! In this game it was the WA who gained supremacy over all the other “lesser” races and can now rule his world knowing constant strife and everlasting warfare is his well-earned reward! It could have been the GN, but second place is only first among the WA's subjects!!

Infamous – BL, who dropped a viable position early in the contest!
Iron-willed – TR, who defeated the Elves and the Giant while never allowing the GN a stronghold in Torvale.

[Cloud]

My assumption has been that BL was helmed by a certain prolific player who left Alamaze suddenly. I am playing in another game (non-anonymous) that was significantly altered by his dropping a kingdom that was doing well and gaining momentum. This is not the last Valhalla thread in which his decision will prove significant. I may be wrong about who it was, but my perception was that the BL was doing VERY well. I was losing HC issue bids to him for many turns even with rather high bids.

Cloud

[Lord Diamond]

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