Game 141 AESR (Anonymous Exploratory Steel Rex)

[The Usurper]

I want to be the first to congratulate Vball on his Anonymous win. Well done sir!

[Hamlet]

I want to be the first to congratulate Vball on his Anonymous win. Well done sir!

(GN) Ok, I will be the second to do so, even though he took my region to claim the victory .

I would love to see some posts, since I know pretty nothing about what happened in this game except the publicly-disclosed region control shifts and my battles with the Underworld. For my part, I will just say I kicked the Underworld out of Runnimede, then continued to harass him a little just for fun (and yes, he did a good job harassing me back though it seems his main focus was elsewhere). Tough to be the Underworld in an anon game, being so spread out. Nice job taking 3rd despite that, Lord Diamond.

I mostly just developed and prepared to attack, but could not decide which way to go, so I kept developing and preparing for a while . I had just moved all of my emissaries to invade Torvale when the Ranger moved into all (and I mean all) of my towns and villages, plus a large group at my city. Ouch. Oh well, 4th ain't bad.

[VballMichael]

(RA) Thanks all.
The Ranger position is a very strong kingdom. I liked my setup and determined right away that I would head south since I knew the RA troops stack up nicely against the BL troops (as long as he does not recruit too much). Also, going south would give me a corner and would be partially shielded by Synisvania. But first, I had to decide about Synisvania. I decided I would take the region, let the SO take the city, in the sort of traditional manner, and hoped he would go along with that and we would have a peaceful co-existence. My plan was to march south, then west, then either north or west for my four regions. My last couple of posts were more strategic, so I will make this one more tactical.
Turn 1: the usual 710 and 720 and 888 and 970, added a couple of 500 to get to level 4 agents, a couple of 560's to build an army, and sold all of my extra food.
Turn 2: saw that the SO had not moved to the City, so I sent an em there and moved to the couple of towns/villages I had located.
Turn 3: 171 and 171, a couple of 350's, continued 720 to find towns (left the water for the SO), and 976 orders.
Turn 4: 171, 330 x 3, 350 x 2, 976 x 2, 978 (need 2 weapons for ESO and this would be challenging). On turn 4, the eastern side of the board claimed their regions (DW, DA, RA, BL). Ended up with City and most of region, never really saw much of the Sorcerer so I guess we were at peace.
Turn 5: 200, 560 x 2, 978 x 3, 888 orders for region 10. Some enemy declarations showed DW and RD fighting, TR and EL fighting. Red Dragons took the vacant Northern Mists over. Ancients took Torvale and Trolls took Oakendell.
Turn 6: 140, 200, put 480 on standing, 550's, 888 and 970, 978 x 3. Slow start for me, sharing a region. Placed 10 out of 12 on status points, no artifacts though I needed 2 weapons, just started finding sightings.
Turn 7: 560's and 550's, 970's for Region 10, 799 for top wiz, 978 x 3. More enemy declarations GN/UN, TR/AN, DA/SO, DW/DA. Elves left for the Grey Havens.
Turn 8: time to start my slow invasion of Southern Sands. 350 x 3, 470, 510 + 750 of all BL holdings in 10, 978 x 3 (getting desperate for artifacts at this point - still have none and no chance of having 2 by turn 10). BL has 1 city, 6 towns, 8 villages in 10. My 1RA is at Vanasheen with a P5 and worth 50K.
Turn 9: 171 City, 140, 350's, 320, 330, 550's, 790 (for weapon), 970's. Took City, 1 town, 1 village (not a strong invasion). DE enemied BL, and BL enemied RA (yes, enemied is now a verb).
Turn 10: 140 x 2, 150 town, 330's, 475 BL in 10, 790 (weapon), 978 x 2. Black is fighting back nicely, I am not making much headway, went in too tentatively, failed both 140's, no ESO.
Turn 11: 140 x 3, 320's and 330's, 795 weapon, 978. 1RA has 6 RA and 5 Veterans, with P5 throwing Chaos and attack on a 3 against 2BL with 2 BL and 2 WY and a P3, defending on a 1 - 2BL eliminated. Finally got an artifact, then another. BL took City back.
Turn 12: 140 x 3 (had finally had some success with locating unusual sightings last couple of turns), 330's, 350's, 110 + 731 on 1BL, 795. 1RA vs 1BL (4 BL, 1 WY, 1 Monster, P5) - 1BL destroyed, 1 RA lost a Veteran or 2. Still only own 3 towns and 2 villages in 10. Status points better now, moved up to 5/12 in current and overall points with 4 artifacts.
Turn 13: 140 x 2, 320's, 350's , 110 + Chaos, 795, 978. 1RA vs 2BL (3 wyverns) - wiped group. Starting to get momentum, all BL troops gone and most of his emissaries dead.
Turn 14: 140 x 2, 320's, 330, 750 for DE owned in Region 8, 978, 500 on 3 agents. Now have 7 artifacts (4 weapons), plus region and some other stuff so ESO is good for next turn, still only 4 towns and 4 villages in 10, but 1RA is at City and I will hold what I have and the region is neutral finally.
Turn 15: 330's, 560's, 750 for Gnome holdings in Runnimede, 970's and 888's for Arcania. I take region 10 and make plans for region 8. Got reinforcements plus ESO so 1RA pretty strong.
Turn 16: time for a faster invasion of region 8 than we did with region 10. 350 x 9, 888's and 970 and 972's. Own pretty much all of 10 now, and moving in force on 8. But still sitting with groups in 10 to reorg and get artifacts to groups.
Turn 17: 560's, 550's, 330's, 320's (am friendly in Arcania but not sure if anyone is maintaining and not sure if Demon 273 orders are coming - none did), 799 x 4, 500 x 3. Took 4 towns and 1 village in 8.
Turn 18: 729 (1RA uses gem to land at UM the DE cap), 330's, 350's, 799 x 3, 888's, 475 DE in 10 (he is nibbling at some towns and villages with emissaries and groups). At this point, 1RA is at UM capitol with P6, Gem of Planes, 3 nice weapons, 3 warlords, 9 RA, 8 VE, about 116K value. Also have 3 agents at 9, 11 artifacts and am the new status point leader for Turn 18 and overall. 3 kingdoms now have 2 regions (RA, DA, TR).
Turn 19: seeing the end in sight. 150 at UM, 330 x 6, 475 DE in 10, 799 x 3 (building a second small group for teleporting), 972 x 3, 729 to OP (new Demon cap). Making about 170k food and 240k gold. 3 different Demon groups hit my town and 2 villages, but spread among regions, so no risk to control. 1DE and 2DE at UM with army group (mostly skeletons) but will fail their 171 order this coming turn. Red Dragons take Talking Mountains. Now RA has 3 regions, DA has 2, TR has 2, RD has 2, GN has 1. I have Arcania with city, 6 towns, 4 villages, and am at OP with army group, so pretty solid hold on 8 and ready for region 7.
Turn 20: 150 at OP, 350 x 7 (flood Runnimede), 355 to ZM with a few emissaries, 845 + 850 (invisible 2RA to UM to aid the 1RA battle) and 729 1RA to UM, 320 and 330 to keep ahead in 10 and 8. Darkelf declares victory - but only owns 2 regions and 2 go neutral (NM and Oak) so presumably he had hoped to take those. Red Dragons declare DA and RA enemies, signalling his intention to interfere with those nearing victory. Took OP and flew with Gem back to UM to reach Runnimede next.
Turn 21: 92 x 3 for 2RA against 1DE very large army group at UM, 110 + 106 for 1RA, 330, 350 x 5 (at pretty much all towns and villages in Runnimede now), 960 x 3, 970's and 972's in Runnimede. Regions 8, 9 and 10 are solidly owned and no threats to ownership, sitting at nearly all towns and villages in 7, 1RA at Cradia with 80k vs pc, DE armies still taking occasional villages. Totally messed up my 110 order so no battle with the huge DE army group at UM, but did 729 to Cradia so no harm, but would have been a fun battle.
Turn 22: 330 x 7, 171, 799 x 5, 350 x 3, 475 DE in 8, 960, 996. Ended with 14 artifacts, about 1.1M census.

Congrats to all on a fun game, especially DA in 2nd, UN in 3rd (sorry, Hamlet, GN in 4th).
This post was probably too long and boring, but hey, you could skip reading it.
For Chancellor, nobody, anon game.
For iron-willed, don't know.
For Notorious, definitely UN.

[Lord Diamond]

(UN) I think I was in direct conflict with almost everyone this game. Let's list my varies opponents by their misdeeds:

Red Dragon: He took my town and prevented me from claiming anything other than a poor water village in the Northern Mists. I would have been happy to just take Viperhead or a couple towns, but he insisted on belligerence! I stole his Ring of Protection in revenge, yay me, but I had dark plans for him later on!

Gnome: I went out of my way to avoid conflict with him, but he was not content. No, he attacked my town and village, and eventually Avalon. He assassinated my agents and nobles, although I can only prove that he killed my poor envoy. In return, I killed a couple of high level agents, a prince, and a P-7 wizard. I stole his Crystal of Seeing on the last turn as well. I lost my best agent killing that prince and two mid-level agents in a misguided and failed attempt on two of his agents.

Ancient Ones: He took one of my towns. I was planning to kill one of his consuls, but then he drop.

Black Dragon: He made a try for Avalon and one of my towns. His prince was incarcerated and I kidnapped his baroness. He kept issuing orders to trade for them back, but I needed them for my ESO. After I got my ESO, I tried trading them several times but was never answered. He dropped.

Ranger: He took my village so I took it back. Then he attacked it. I never got my revenge!

Darkelf: I hoped we might work together, but he decided to make an attempt at my PC. Ultimately, I took a few pcs and stole an artifact from him.

Demon Prince: This guy kept assassinating my agents! I set a trap and caught one of the vile assassins. I thought we were buddies...

Elf, Dwarf, Troll, and Sorcerer: No issues!

I didn't do much this game and many of my attempts were failures. I was just getting going when the game ended (x2 artifact thefts). I did keep track of all the agent hiring and training.

AN - Trained x 1, and Hired x 0.
BL - Trained x 6, and Hired x 0.
DA - Trained x 16, and Hired x 1.
DE - Trained x 21, and Hired x 1.
DW - Trained x 22, and Hired x 3.
EL - Trained x 3, and Hired x 0.
GN - Trained x 21, and Hired x 6.
RA - Trained x 20, and Hired x 1.
RD - Trained x 14, and Hired x 0.
SO - Trained x 7, and Hired x 0.
TR - Trained x 7, and Hired x 1.
UN - Trained x 67, and Hired x 15. Plus x6 501 Orders

That was 28 agents hired and 205 trainings. Not counting my own savings, this means I earned 226,500 from other players.

For Notorious, the Gnome!

[gkmetty]

Darkelf

Congratulations Vball on a nice win.

I had a blast in the game. There was a little uncertainty early in the game with the Sorcerer making a few attempts at some pop centers in the Easter Steppes but he soon moved on and I was able to control almost every pop center in the region.

I was able to develop unmolested for most of the game. The Troll helped me out by going against the Elf early and keeping the Elf from his region. That allowed me to achieve my ESO which was a great help.

I was surprised to find that Amberland was mostly uncontrolled. I was able to take 49% of the region early and I was never contested in the region. Once I was ready to take the region around turn 15, if I remember properly, I took the extra town and gained another 3 villages which had been neutral the whole time.

I continued to develop until I had 17 emissaries of Baron or higher. My plan was to move into Oakendale and the Northern Mists as I felt the TR and RD would have a hard time competing diplomatically.
On turn 18 I moved to every town and the Cites in Oak and NM. Then everything fell apart. My turn 19 apparently never made it to Alamaze. It was not run and all my plans went down the drain. I will never know if I would have succeeded but I have to believe that giving the TR and RD a turn to defend their regions kept me from winning the game.

I declared on turn 20 just for fun but it was too late. The TR and RD had fortified their positions.

The only other position I had any contact with was the UN. I apparently took a pop center from that position. To be honest I did not realize it was his, an oversight in reading my turn. He was then a nuisance but really never interfered with any of my plans. He started to take a few pop centers from me after I had declared but by then it was irrelevant.

I really enjoyed this game. I hope the other players did as well. Thanks to everyone who participated.

[Lord Thanatos]

RD here...... Rrrrrrraaaargh!

Very enjoyable game! Anonymous is a brilliant format!

Congratulations to Vball winning with the RA.

Decided not to fight the DW in TM and went for NM instead. UN was active in the region and I was determined that was not going to be. I had to move armies and emissaries from the farthest reaches of the board, but eventually did so and evicted the UN. I set my five highest emissaries on standing order 310 (still on such standing orders when the DA arrived) and divined the UN towns and villages. [No reason to simply wound an enemy; I wanted him out...]

But then.... the belligerent DW attacked my capital, killing my king, a couple emissaries, and two agents. Had he just waited a turn or two I would have moved my capital to the NM and we would not have battled. Instead...

I moved in force into TM and destroyed every pc existing in a mountain hex except CU and the DW capital at AW (both had 40k defenses, so I captured them instead - thank you kindly). I was determined that when I decided to wipe out the DW groups I would not allow them to retreat into those mountain hidey holes.

Eventually I controlled regions 2 and 3. Then the DA cost me control of region 2. I moved to the city at KU and destroyed it. Moved to IN and then NK; I took control of both. Also took back Viperhead, which was the DA capital. One more turn and I believe I would have controlled three regions and could turn to fight the RA. But it was not to be. He won on the turn I destroyed a GN group and controlled NK.

Finished with three large groups. Two groups about 90k and one group about 25k. When the game ended none of my groups had more than 5 wyvern brigades in them. Of course, early on my main group had more than 5. A turn before I attacked Avalon I think I had 15 wyvern brigades spread across the three groups (6, 5, and 4 in the three groups).

The DW and/or UN kept assassinating my wizards, emissaries, and agents while stealing all my precious artifacts. My agents guarding my various emissaries stopped four or five separate assassination attacks. The DW must have been running out of foolhardy slaves/agents?

The three players at the top of the status points were all well ahead of the rest of us. But the next four players were all within 300 points of each other. Had the UN left any artifacts the four of us could have finished in any order. I think the status point value of artifacts needs to be greatly reduced. But every other aspect of this contest was thoroughly enjoyable. I had a great time! Alamaze rocks!

Chancellor - N/A. Anonymous is great!
Infamous - LD playing the UN. Give me back my toys...
Iron-willed - DW. For guys with short legs and smelly feet you had some skilled agents.

[mafmiller]

(SO) Congrats to the Ranger!!!
I didn't want to play a magic kingdom in an anonymous game and didn't know how, so I just decided to hide in my island capital, develop my wizards and improve gold production and defense.

[Jumpingfist]

(SO) Congrats to the Ranger!!!
I didn't want to play a magic kingdom in an anonymous game and didn't know how, so I just decided to hide in my island capital, develop my wizards and improve gold production and defense.

How big did you get your production and Defenses up to?

A lot of nice write ups and quick after the game. Hmm makes me think I should be doing a write up myself.

[Lord Diamond]

I was an island king myself. With so many kingdoms willing to take a bite from the UN,I had a hard time focussing my efforts in one direction. I finally had my agents where I wanted them when the RA won.

I would play this kingdom much differently if I were to do it again. I had some artifacts, the UN was surprisingly good at investigating, but I believe I owe my 3rd place primarily to the points awarded for high level agents.

[Ry Vor]

Yes, one of the best Valhalla post mortems. Well done. Having to wait until the game is over to vent or brag in Anonymous seems to breed good end game stories, and lots of players made it to the end in this one.