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**unclemike** · 05-07-2015, 03:08 PM

Stats for dropped players before the game ends are approximate at best. For example, the program attempts to locate your last file on record to extract your last known statistical information but much of that info may be out of date and inaccurate (e.g., a dropped kingdom may have a pc under control when they dropped but that same pc may have been subsequently conquered by another kingdom later in the game -- so some pc's/prisoners/artifacts/...etc. may be counted twice). There's also a known issue for dropped kingdom stats that I have to fix (regarding clearing the tally counter properly) but game 161 ended before I could correct the problem so some pc's/emissaries/...etc. may be counted more than once. Again, these problems are only related to dropped/inactive kingdoms.

Kronin · (This post was last modified: 05-07-2015, 03:36 PM by Kronin.)

Okay thanks. I dropped one turn before it ended. I had 14 brigades, 10 emmies, and 10 PCs under control. Final results show double that.

Only reason I'm looking at it is that draft order for new Magic game is based on status points....want to make sure my status points are not overinflated so I get a nice low pick!! But the difference is probably so small not a big deal....

**unclemike** · 05-07-2015, 03:47 PM

Your status points are ok. The problem was with the counter for tallying the number of emissaries, groups, ...etc.

Kronin · 05-07-2015, 04:38 PM

Got it...thanks for clarifying!

**Jumpingfist** · 05-07-2015, 11:12 PM

I do think Kronin may be the first player to complain about maybe getting to many points. I find it kind of funny myself.

**Thudargh** · 05-08-2015, 06:01 PM

I was TR in Game 161, which is my first game to qualify for Valhalla. I ended the game pretty low in the standings, but that doesn’t bother me. I learned a lot and that’s something status points won’t capture until later. So instead of providing a timeline of what I did in the game, I thought I would share my lessons learned.

Lesson #1 – Plan for your plans to be disrupted
After Turn 1, I was in a great position to get control of Torvale. AN and I had an agreement on how to split the region, and between the two of us we had uncovered almost every PC in Torvale. I thought Turn 3 control was in the bag. But I only went for the minimum number of PCs for control, so when an unexpected WI usurp order processed before mine, I was left short of control. Then on Turn 4, 2RD showed up at one of my villages. Since I had once again gone for the minimum, that meant my plan for Turn 5 control was also thwarted. Consequently I didn’t gain control of Torvale until Turn 6. Note to self: In a multi-player game, assume someone is going to show up unexpectedly to disrupt what you are trying to do.

Lesson #2 – Good intelligence makes a huge difference
There was a point where I nearly had control of both Torvale and Oakendell. On Turn 9, I started what turned into a fairly devastating attack on EL. This was due to two pieces of extremely useful intelligence provided by AN. The first was discovering EL’s capital at AF. The second was discovering EL moving three emissaries into EH. 1TR was in force march range of EH, which was in force march range of AF. In two turns, I sacked EL’s capital and captured/executed seven emissaries/agents. That's because I knew when and where to hit him the hardest.

Lesson #3 – Know your kryptonite
Control of Oakendell and maintaining control of Torvale didn’t happen due to SO & RA invading Torvale and RD showing up in Oakendell. I don’t know if I made the right strategic choice in who to fight, but I made peace with RD and went after SO & RA. This had the advantage of showing me a viable strategy against TR. TR’s main advantage is a large and decently powerful military that can regenerate damage. I used this to good effect against EL by having three groups taking PCs every turn. EL seemed powerless to stop me(probably because I wiped out virtually all of his political corps). But that strategy didn’t work so well against SO & RA, because SO got some P6s early on in the fight. SO P6s can cast Dome of Invulnerability and Summon Death. Neither AN nor I had the Dispel Dome spell, so at least half my attempted attacks failed. I tried to get around that by sieging RA’s capital(which had been moved to Torvale), and the predictable happened – 3 Summon Death spells and a determined attack by two Warlords and most if not all of RA’s military on the last turn of siege. Literally half my military – 19 brigades – was vaporized in a single turn. In hindsight, I should have had a plan to have access to Dispel Dome or decided to fight RD even though RD has a better military.

Lesson #4 – You can learn a lot from players like Jumpingfist, whether he’s your mentor or kicking your ass.
In the course of kicking my butt, SO & RA exposed me to tactics I hadn’t thought of before. Like relocating your capital to a freshly conquered PC to move your entire political corps beyond the 10 square limit using only a single order(if you don’t count moving everyone to your capital first). Or sieging for the sole purpose of keeping a capital pinned down, so that sacking it can be timed to disrupt receiving reinforcements. Now I can use these tactics against others. Heh, heh.

All in all, it was a good experience. I’m looking forward to more games.

**Jumpingfist** · 05-08-2015, 06:58 PM

Great post and Awesome take away from a loosing game Thudargh.

**bananas** · 05-09-2015, 09:36 AM

(AN) Wow! Thanks for all the praise, but it was actually my second game. My first was 157 as the TR, where the AN dropped out around turn 3. And actually, that was a major influence in my play style this game. I took the AN position in this game because it was the very last one unchosen. But in taking that position, it gave me the opportunity to see how a strong TR/AN alliance would go. So I immediately reached out to the TR for an alliance. He accepted and and we were off. But then..... I get this message from the DE. Form an alliance with my racial enemy? How rude! :) I was intrigued, and after a little coaxing, LT won me over to the dark side. I wanted to be part of a repeat of that astounding turn 2 control of Arcania and willingly parted with my R8 town. OK... i made him promise to give me three R8 villages in return, after he got control. Why three villages? Because I'm nuts.

You might say I cheated. I am still relatively new, so I expected and accepted that I would not win this game. And when you are not trying to win, your entire play style changes and your opponents get surprised by your 'foolish' choices. As I mentioned earlier, I planned to work with the troll. When I was the troll, I found out how important food was, especially during the winter!. So as the troll's ally, one of my initial goals was to feed him. Hence the three southern villages. Great idea, right? Well it would have been, but I made so many mistakes on that front that I did not get control of all three villages until AFTER the winter was over! In fact, I had a hard time feeding my own troops. So much for feeding the troll. :(

Luckily, Thudargh was doing fine as the troll. On turn one, he covered an inhuman number of squares and found numerous towns and villages. The only reason it took him so long to get control was because he had to do it without the city (which I had taken). We had a NAP with the GN and he agreed to one with the GI/WA. I had to squirm quite a bit to avoid getting into that nap because I was afraid the DE would head in that direction. It grated too, because I like Cloud and had been hoping to work with him again. But that is OK. I was not playing to win. I had committed myself to a support role, helping the TR and DE. They were not direct allies, and in fact, I didn't immediately reveal to the TR my ties to the dark side.

So the first several turns were interesting. I floundered around, making a horrible showing at taking pop centers while attempting to alter regional reactions for my allies. One thing I learned, though, is that if you want to support your allies, your own position cannot be a wreck. It took me a while to recover. In the meantime, I also did some recon and found a few interesting things. Very early on, I stumbled upon the GN capital. I also saw the WI and RD mixing it up. And then I found the EL capital and saw him enamoring R2. He also had a few emmies and group very close to the R2 border. Hmm..... that could be trouble for the WI, so I tossed him a note. Come to find out that while the RD was keeping the WI armies and wizards tied up, someone was wacking all of his emmies. The addition of the EL could make a real mess. Lucky for him, though, that the TR was in striking distance.

We had divined the R1 EL pop centers and were scouting them. That is how I came to see all the northern goodies. By this time, the TR had control of R4, built up a sizeable army, and was poised on the border to R1. As luck would have it, he had a large group that could force march and reach the town I noticed the EL staging emmies and a small group. Best I can tell, we blindsided the EL right there. After that, the TR and EL mixed it up pretty good. I even managed to take a couple of pop centers myself.

Meanwhile, back home, the TR notices an RA group show up in R4. Uh oh. But then it disappears. Hmmm.... so I have a wizzy locate that group. Low and behold, it is back in R4. We decided (correctly) that its location must be a portal. And it was not in a good spot, it could reach both of our capitals and the city. Which way would it go? We expected him to go for the TR cap, so he moved it out of the way. I didn't move mine because it was mostly empty (my Consuls were elsewhere). Bad move on my part. Instead of going for the troll, the ra group shows up at my cap. No biggie, right? Well, on that same turn, an invisible SO group pops up and takes the village where one of my consuls was. Luckily he escapes, but where does he go? To my capital... just before the RA group arrives. Geeze! If I remember correctly, he escapes again, but this time to Meridon. Who else shows up? Yep, and this time he manages to capture that consul. Very slick :)

Around this time, the EL is on the run and we are finally mopping up R1. But then the RD marches in and tries to claim our hard-earned booty for himself. Grrr!!!! We'd have given him 'what-for' if it were not for our little problem down south. So we are forced to negotiate a treaty and yield pop centers to the RD, splitting the region three ways. Awesome negotiation on Thudargh's part! So the SORA is wreaking havoc in R4 and I'm not really in a good place to fight their armies. So I start messing with their regional reaction and sleeping their emmies (and kings). Pretty soon, though, they've taken most of R4 for themselves. And then the TR armies fall upon the region like a blizzard from the north. It would have been a beautiful bloodbath, but every pop center the troll shows up at, gets domed. That is just evil, and my wizzies were not high enough to do anything about it. Fast, on the heals of the troll armies is the real winter and things are going to get tight. Well, I had learned my lesson there and had a splendid idea. I put all my troops in one group and marched them up to the SO cap. Of course, it was domed. But it got me in a fight with a big ranger group in short order. I ported my two wizzies out before they could get hit with any death spells and attacked with a 3. Sure enough, my troops were wiped out. This freed up a ton of gold and food that I was now able to funnel to the troll who had vast, powerful armies.

Both the SO and RA had moved their caps into R4 (is that normal?), so we figured R9 was vulnerable. I spammed just about everyone left in the game, asking for info on RA/SO pop center info. That yielded zilch. However, it did let everyone know that R9 was unprotected while SORA was playing in R4. I managed to get a few emmies over there (to no effect, though). I lost one of my better emmies trying to usurp the SO capital. When I first read the turn results, I was thinking that JF was some kind of genius and managed to move his cap there just to hoze me. Later, I looked at the previous turn results, and there it was, clear as day. That cute little message saying your emmy is sitting in someone else's capital. Oh well.. that is what happens when you start to trust your own tools so much you don't read the turn results carefully! :) Anyway, I did nothing except maybe worry the SO. On the other hand, the TR managed to get one of his groups over there (via the portal that the RA was so kind to show us) and was terrorizing the countryside. I guess the SO was having too much trouble doming stuff in two different zones. Awesome move on his part.

Somewhere during all that (I think back when the TR and EL were mixing things up). LT decides it is time to invade R7. I helped with a few enamors (btw, if I cannot trade with a natural enemy, why can I enamor a region for them?) and decided to take a GN town in R4. But just before that happened, a GN group showed up at a pop center in R8 and the DE asked me to send a nearby group to take the PC back. Well, the timing was such that the GN must not have detected any DE hostilities yet, so I arrived to find the town completely unmolested. Aside from that, it was all LT. Prior to that, I had been staring greedily at the two RD towns in R7. I wanted very much to take them, but could find no excuse. I looked at them again when RD was muscling in on R1, but alas, I left them alone.

Anyway, things seem to be going OK. I was (hopefully) making a nuisance of myself with sleeps and such. And then the DE confides that he can claim svc on 17 and wants to take my town in R7. I agree, but then we notice on the forums that you cannot do it until 20. We stick with the plan anyway and I wait to open my T20 results. When I saw the check fail, I was like, "WHAT? Nooooo! :( ". The next two turns, I try to denigrate the WA in R5 and/or R8. That is 4 denigrates, total. All failed. But it apparently didn't matter and LT managed to pull out a win anyway. Gratz, dude!

**Jumpingfist** · 05-09-2015, 03:05 PM

That is very interesting. I actually even recall mentioning to the RA when it happened that by moving a division over he would maybe alert them. Did not think to make sure he moved off the portal incase you guys located group. Nice move. For moving capitals if done correctly it can be a very good move. But it can also go very wrong if not careful. The best way is to use an invis group take a PC and move the capital the same turn. then the next turn move all emmies out and relocate back again.