Game 166

[Lord Diamond]

Game details. Congrats Headhoncho!

[HeadHoncho]

Thanks! Here's my writeup.

After seeing Thalion/Cipher take a Rex victory with EL in the 2014 Championship game, and knowing that EL had received a number of upgrades in the previous year, I decided I wanted to give them a try. This game was anonymous, and in the new Pagan (no High Priestesses) format, which I figured would be an even better situation for EL, as they receive the Unveil Population Center spell at P6, which puts EL on par with -- or better than -- the Wizard Kingdoms in that regard.

When I got my setup, I wasn't disappointed. EL was now Friendly in Oakendell, which allows for an immediate 480 or 470 of a neighboring region (I opted for the immediate 480 to start hammering my natural enemy DA's influence, along with sending a Duke to KU in order to delay DA from taking the city and likely the region). Also on the political front, EL influence went up from 11 to 13, which is HUGE. Influence is the lifeblood of this game, and I think many players underestimate the importance of starting influence, both on an orders-issuing level, and on a political impact level.

For groups, EL also starts with a P2 now, which is an upgrade from the past, allowing for stronger 171 spells, Speed, Ship of Mists, Guarded Attack for encounters, Fertile Fields spell to help get rid of that city food penalty, and others. The reinforcement schedule has been improved, which is great, and the movement rate in forest was reduced from 5 to 4, which is very, very important for that extra square of movement, again, magnified for this Pagan game where group movement would be so key for finding pop centers. Perhaps most importantly, the combat abilities in the forest are now quite sick, and even more so against TR who will get COMPLETELY TRASHED if they try to invade R1! I'm serious, the EL battles were the best part of this game for me, I will post a few in the General Discussion forum so you can see for yourself.

The first three turns went by the book, explored my region, encountered no resistance at CD, and found enough pop centers to take R1 on T3. To my mild surprise, I was the only Kingdom to do so, which gave me a leg up by receiving a turn at full production with all of my R1 pop centers on T4, before winter set in.

For a Rex game, and especially in this Pagan format, I determined that steady expansion would be important, and so I began scouting R5 for pop centers, using the higher movement rates, my recently trained Agent 4's, and city recons to start moving in. GN beat me to NK by one turn, and even moved his capital there, so that city wasn't an option, as I didn't want to try to take it militarily, especially with TR starting to adopt an aggressive posture against me as early as T4 (he had just taken Torvale, and was moving on southern pop centers in R1). But IN was open, and my influence was strong enough that I sent my Prince there on T5 and one-stepped the city in a single turn, taking it on T6.

Given the size and strength of the EL political corps, and my increasing influence, I was able to move on other pop centers in R5 which my groups and agents were uncovering, even as my military gathered to fight off the TR incursion. In this stage of the game, I was actually on pretty good terms with WI, and although we hadn't declared each other Allies, each of us had moved off or out of the other's pop centers when we discovered they were already taken, and so it seemed as if we had the equivalent of an informal NAP, which is really about the best you can do in an anonymous game.

So TR and I started a cat-and-mouse game where he would attack some pop centers in R1, and I would pursue him with groups and political emissaries to take them back, until finally I was able to intercept (oh, I think that's another area where EL was improved, intercept radius is now 4 instead of 3) him in a few battles. The first battle was on T6, I had two EL brigades plus five EL brigades in two groups, against his against his five brigades of mixed TR/OR. My two brigades weakened him with a probing attack, while my five brigades did a late attack and nearly wiped him out. My losses were a bit over half-a-brigade. We continued along this vein for a while, with the battles growing more lopsided as turns went on and my Wizards leveled-up to allow for Presence and battle magic spells to help out in the fights.

Meanwhile, in Amberland, I continued taking neutral pop centers, avoiding WI pop centers, and also avoiding RD pop centers, as I didn't want to fight both TR and RD. RD nevertheless showed up on T9 with an army at one of my towns in R5, but although I braced for the attack, it didn't come. Instead, the RD group just sat there. I surmised he had missed a turn, and so I gambled on the possibility of RD dropping, and began moving on some other RD pop centers in R5. This gamble paid off, and as RD dropped on T12, I had taken enough pop centers in R5 by T14 to take my second region, even without NK. Because my work in R5 had been gradual, I still had a good chunk of my diplomatic corps available, which would be very important to my next move.

By now, I had thrashed TR so badly that I noticed he had missed a turn on T13. I had already started my pushback against TR in R4, which by now I had scouted a good chunk of with patrols and agents. So again gambling that TR would drop soon, I flooded his region with emissaries on T14 and T15, and TR did indeed drop on T15, which allowed me to take a ton of pop centers from him on T16, although I deliberately held back on a few, as I didn't want to take the region yet, since I knew that a third region would paint a gigantic target on my forehead with everyone else.

My move into R4 put me back into contention with GN, who was also making a move on southern pop centers in R4 as well as the city (now neutral after the TR drop). So GN and I began our own cat-and-mouse game with pop centers in R4, even as I scoped out R2 as my fourth region for the win. Up to this point, WI and I had kept our informal NAP with each other, but I noticed a WI army group hanging out in R1, which raised my suspicions and defenses like no other. So I took a pair of P6's and unveiled all towns and villages in R2, even as I prepared for a move against him. During this time, I lost my Agent 12 which I had been training all game, to a simple steal gold mission which I had ordered to promote him, which was a frustrating piece of bad luck.

T17 was a critical turn, in that I declared WI enemy and invaded him with emissaries and an invisible army of Veterans onto his capital at DK, at the exact same time that WI declared me an enemy and moved an army group onto one of my towns in R1. Meanwhile, I had miscalculated the census estimate in R4, and the taking of "one more village" ended up flipping control of the region over to me, which happily resulted in a flood of neutral pop centers going over to my control (including QC, which I had been keeping neutral against GN via Warded 310), but it was also my third region and therefore the target was on my forehead.

One error I realized that I had made on T17 was that I had forgotten earlier to set up a standing order defenses increase on my water town capital, and when I realized it mid-game, I figured I could just use protect spells in the event of any threats to it via the Destroy Town spell. Unfortunately, WI weakened my defenses with one of those spells on T17, and my best wizards were all in R2 on the attack, so I was vulnerable to the follow-up spell taking out my capital on T18. So I braced for the worst.

Well, the worst absolutely did happen. Every single emissary at my capital died in the flames, and one of my two Princes was captured by the GN when he assaulted QC with his military. This yanked my last remaining Prince back to my new capital at CD to serve as Regent, before he could execute his usurp order at a high census WI town in R2, which prevented me from knocking him out of control of the region.

Post-T18 was pretty much a low point for me. Even though I still had three regions, I was on the verge of losing control of two of them, and my influence had been knocked down to below 15. I saw my influence on a downward ramp, fighting without enough orders against WI and GN plus who knew who else would be coming to call on me with three regions listed under my control. I saw an outside shot of taking R2 (which was still under WI control) the next turn if everything fell exactly right, plus an outside shot of holding onto R4 and R5. So I made one last set of orders and made a victory check, pessimistic but still trying.

T19 saw WI lose control of R2, but I didn't take it, so the victory check failed. I had pretty much failed a morale check, and was thinking about dropping, but some encouraging words from a very kind outside third party caused me to continue. I regrouped a bit, and remembered that EL receives Dome of Invulnerability at P7, and I had just obtained and transferred the Ring of Spells to my group in R2, giving me a P7. So I Domed DK against the WI group that had just showed up there, and began to plan a counterattack on his big group which had been dancing around the outer edges of R1, and was now starting to intrude into the central forest area, which was exactly where I wanted him.

T20 was another victory check, this time I took control of R2, but GN knocked me out of control of R5. The cat-and-mouse game I was playing with GN was probably one of the most intense and enjoyable parts of this game for me, and although I knew I was gaining the upper hand against WI, I hadn't really been able to do much against GN. I moved some emissaries out of R2, taking a chance that WI wouldn't easily be able to fight me politically there, after I had knocked him out of control (bringing him to Tolerant automatically under the new reaction level changes that came with the new platform), and then taken control to knock him down again since I had declared him Enemy. So he was Suspicious, and would have to overcome -30% from me being Friendly and in Control.

T21 was a setup turn, I didn't try for the victory check, but I did make a stab at the GN King with a sleep and Summon Demon assassination. The sleep succeeded, but the Demon failed. Even so, it was a fun attempt! I moved my emissaries into the highest census towns in R4 and R5 that were still being contested, even as I saw GN emissaries moving into other pop centers of mine in R4 and R5. Meanwhile, in R1, I intercepted the main WI army group.

T22 was the final turn, I utterly destroyed the WI army group with only 2% losses, flipped JUST enough pop centers in R4 to retain control, and exactly one pop center in R5 to gain control back, and I made the victory check.

This has probably been my most satisfying win, my other three were in full diplomacy games, where I tend to do better than I have historically in anonymous games. So taking a win in an anonymous game (and via Rex-only, to boot) is a new thing for me, and I really enjoyed it. Fighting off three different Kingdoms in succession was challenging but fun, and even though I nearly failed a morale check after the disaster that was T18, I guess perseverance really can pay off, sometimes.

It's my opinion that EL is the best Kingdom in the game, now. Again, I will post a few choice battle results in the General Discussion forum. Anyway, many thanks to all for a very fun game, and I look forward to crossing swords and spells with you again soon.

CHANCELLOR: N/A (anonymous game)
INFAMOUS: Diamond Cutter, as WI, for our mutual peace and then mutual enemy declaration as we each predicted the other's actions
IRON-WILLED: The Gray Mouser, as GN, who kept up the fight and matched me in an incredibly interesting cat-and-mouse game

[Ry Vor]

Very nice write-up, Head Honcho.  A lot of insight there to be gleaned - recommended reading!  That includes the tactical advice and decision making, but also persevering when adversity is encountered.  Sometimes newer players who are used to solo PC strategy games and can "restart" with a bad event quit too early in Alamaze.  Try to keep in mind no player has yet claimed to have played anything close to a mistake-free game of Alamaze, and it probably won't happen.

[The Gray Mouser]

I was the Gnome in this game, and had played the Gnomes more than I have any other kingdom.  The Gnomes are not well loved by most, their military, along with that of the Underworld almost invites invasion against them, and generally they will be sharing Runnimede with the Red Dragons, the Underworld, possibly the Trolls.  All three of those were active in this game.  You're also always looking over your right shoulder at the Demon Princes.  What makes them 2nd in Valhalla now with 9 silver finishes?  I believe they are the 4th best magic using kingdom, slightly ahead of the Elves and Dark Elves, who I would put at 5th and 6th in that category.  And though their special abilities aren't numerous, they are useful and their spell lists have some alchemy twists to be exploited.  And while they take 5 movement points through plains, they also only take 5 in mountains, where they are masked.

The inactive kingdoms were the Ancient Ones, the Warlock and the Giant.  So Amberland, instead of intimidating, was open for the brave.  Players should note that only the active kingdoms are now listed in the Enemy/Ally chart. 

This game format was Anonymous Steel Rex Pagan.  None of that really favors the Gnomes.  On top of that, the Underworld raised the cost of training agents to 10,000.  This was  sort of like playing the game in the dark, in my opinion:  No High Priestess, no communication, no secret victory potential, and too expensive to raise an agent corp.

I thought the format would lead to a long game, possibly going to the limit.  So I mainly thought I would take Runnimede and hold it and work as hard as possibly to raise wizards and come out of my shell later in the game.  Although I spent a few L4 agent orders looking for a sighting, I don't think I got an artifact in this game.  I did find the portal to the Talking Mountains and mused over that possibility.

The most adventurous thing I did early in the game was recon Avalon, just because I have a soft spot for it, and to my surprise, no one had moved an emissary there.  So I did.  I took it, and made it my capital throughout the game.  I also raised a near-max fleet in Foreboding that was on standing order to Sea Patrol.

Things mostly were pretty quiet in the middle game, raising wizards, raising gold production and defenses of my cities.  I did some recruiting such that I felt with my armies anchored at Avalon and Cradia, with improving wizards and solid city defenses, I could hold them.  The Demon Prince feinted at invasion, but it was just exchanging a village in Runnimede.

Turns flew by and suddenly it appeared the Troll (who had not bothered me) had dropped, and the Elves had three regions.  I tried a blind Usurp of Meridon with my Prince, which was maybe my biggest mistake, as the Elf had a Princess there maintaining status quo on the now Human (instead of Troll) city.  So my prince was now a prisoner of the Humans in Meridon, and the Elven Princess had no rival to Usurp it.  So I gambled and teleported my army and wizards from Cradia there for the dual purpose of gaining more of Torvale and freeing my Prince.  I cast Sleep on the Elven Princess but she was wisely Warded.  The Prince also tried, unsuccessfully, to escape with a 12k bribe.   As I knew the Elven Princess was there, I used the newly enhanced battle spells against Meridon - two Earthquakes and a Tornado I believe, and that was that, along with capturing (and summarily executing) the Elven Princess.  However, my own Prince had been whisked to the Elven capital prior to that and he was also put to death.

With the Elves now on the verge of victory, showing three regions for all to see, I had to commit to Torvale and ensure he didn't take it and so win by the Rex.  In the final turns, I just took one village in Amberland and that was enough to take control away from the Elves.  I actually now had Substantial influence in Amberland without making much on an effort there.  So now I needed to take Torvale both to stop the Elves from gaining their fourth region, and to position myself for an opportunity of a win later by taking Amberland. 

Unfortunately, the Demon Prince had an army group and an army roaming around Runnimede now, and in this anonymous game, I couldn't mention the Elven threat.  Perhaps he was trying to position himself for a podium position, and again, I likely didn't present a high profile, having as far as most knew, just controlled Runnimede as expected and done not much else of note.  So I guess that's what he was thinking and I gambled and sent both of my 10 brigade armies invisible to Cradia with my five P6's and one P5.  I just felt I had to vaporize his force so I could resume against the Elves.  He (DE) did in fact move finally to Cradia but then the game ended with an Elvish victory.  I can't quite explain how I miscalculated the EL ability to gain Torvale (I was Substantial until the final turn) with my possessions there including Meridon, but he tipped the balance ever so slightly in Amberland and Torvale to win a game he played skillfully.

I feel a bit badly for Dupont as the DW who I edged by all of 5 (five!) points for silver, and only about 50 ahead of Jumpingfist (SO).  In this Anonymous format, I really have no idea what was happening in the east.

Congratulations to Head Honcho (EL) who I nominate for Infamous in winning this format in 22 turns and balancing his attentions among various regions to squeeze through with the Rex.

[Jhereg]

As the BL I was expecting a quiet few turns as I tried to gain control of region 10. But that all changed on turn 1 when by just random luck I cast a recon spell on the RD capital sitting in the mountains in region 10. Then I saw the 1RD and 2RD groups show up on my turn 2 report, on top of my town in region 8 just as I landed on his village again I region 10.

I figured if I had any chance I had to oust the RD from region 10 as soon as possible. I was lucky in that the RD didn't send anyone to Vanasheen so I was able to take the city by turn 2 and the region by turn 4.

After which I recruited and combined to get an army group together and headed off to the RD capital on turn 5 and took it in turn 6. Over the next few turns the 1RD kept taking pc's while my 1BL and 2BL both army groups took them back while trying to avoid a head to head with the RD. But I realized I was getting farther behind everyone else so this back and forth needed to end. So on turn 10 I combined what I had into 1 group and intercepted the 1RD for a battle on turn 11.

While I did win the battle it was extremely costly. I went in with 21 brigades and lost over 40% of my troops. I was able to take out a good number of RD which I had hoped along with continuing to take his pc's in the region would be enough to either make him drop or atleast leave the region. Which thankfully occurred on turn 12.

After that I went into build up mode for the next 6 turns. During which I was able to recruit 3 army groups each with a Phoenix brigade, 2 level 10 agents and a bunch of emissaries plus i was able to recon most of region 9 pc's for an invasion on turn 18.

I made a bunch of mistakes and the SO was able to recover quickly And while I was able to knock him out of control on the last turn the tied was turn back in favor of the SO when the game ended.

[HeadHoncho]

Wow!!! Are you absolutely sure about the RD? I have never heard of the RD starting with even a pop center in R10, much less his capital!

[Jhereg]

Yeah I was surprised as well. Both that I got so lucky that a lone 888 recon would be lucky enought to find the RD capital on turn 1, which was at UT, and that the RD started out in region 10. But there is no doubt that the RD started in region 10. I would be interested to hear what the RD thought about that situation.

[unclemike]

166 started Feb 9th which was before the code used official values so the RD started the game in the wrong region...

[HeadHoncho]

Thanks for clarifying, UM!