#164 Magic Semi-Anonymous

[Ry Vor]

This Magic (team victory) game was truly Epic, being won by the team of Wynand (Witchlord), Jumpingfist (Underworld) and Mauler (Black Dragon) at the end of Turn 33. The game started in January (in Clipper) and ended in July.

Lots of ebb and flow and it will be interesting to hear the accounts of the players, though it may take some time for them to compose their thoughts as so much happened.

As with most Magic games, this was semi-anonymous, meaning communication was only allowed within a team.

The teams were, in order of finish:
WI, UN, BL
DE, RA, EL
GN, WA, DA
SO, DW, AN

[kik1661]

Grats to team Wynand , Jumping Fist and Mauler !!! 

I was the Warlock in this one. I am going to get something written up soon but wanted to congratulate the winners first. 

[Mauler]

Wow... what a contest!

Hats off to all of the players and especially my team mates.

Our team definitely felt that we were going to be stuck playing the role of spoiler in the end game

Even once we turned the corner, we thought that we were going to be too far behind to build the momentum for the rush to the finish.

A big thank you to the GN/WA/DA team. Had they not extended us the olive branch via the peace declarations, the game would have been over 10 turns ago. BTW: Apologies to the GN for attacking that village after the peace declaration. I had a bugged standing order to attack that UM fixed that turn... Doh!

It allowed us to concentrate on the front runners (apologies to the EL RA DE) and keep them from winning while building up for the final act.

A terrific game and with so many great players, one that we were surprised to win.

As for how things played out...

The BL was attacked early on by the RA/DE in a well coordinated attack. I got a little payback with an attack on the RA cap, the death of a DE prince, a DE division, and p4, but it was a losing battle. I then made a move on region 7, but I believe at that point the DA had been eliminated (I admit to being very surprised at that) and they declared us allies. We then moved on region 4 in an effort to group closer together and due to the AN having moved on 5. After taking 4, I believe that was when there was a dispute and the AN/DW/SO dropped so we went after 5 and 3 respectively. Upon seeing that the WA and GN were in 5, I pivoted into region 1 with the UN while the WI took 6. We then wrested 1 from EL control leaving the WI to take 9 for the win.

A tough contest for certain. A hearty congratulations to all for a game well played!

Mauler (BL)

[Hawk_]

In 164 I was the Gnome player of the Darkeleven, Warlock, Gnome team.  My teammates were Nikodemus and Stillgard.

The interesting thing about game 164 is that it was an anonymous game where teams shifted who they were fighting with even though there was no communication.  The only other anon team game that I have witnessed this was in game 116 which also played to turn 33.

Our team faced a perfect storm of opposition from the start.  All the cities in our regions were occupied.  This prepackaged team scenario kind of sets up the Dwarf and Sorcerer to hammer the Darkleven and that sure happened in 164.  He got unexpectedly knocked out of the game on turn 10 before Stillgard even realized eliminations were in the rules. At the same time the Ancient Ones captured Amberland and we were pretty much out of game 164.  We discussed dropping but Nikodemus talked me into staying in for a few turns.

While the AN, DW, SO destroyed our team in the North the Gnomes fought a winning battle against the isolated Underworld in Runnimede.  On turn 11 my Gnome army group was in position to capture the Underwold village Capitol along with a bunch of Underworld agents and emmies.   On this same turn the Underworld declared me an ally.

At that point the game board on turn 11 looked like this:

                         Regional        Reaction        Controlling
Oakendell (1)               Unestablished   Hostile         Elven
Northern Mists (2)          Unestablished   Suspicious      Witchlord
Talking Mountains (3)       Unestablished   Hostile         Dwarven
Torvale (4)                 Minor           Hostile         Ancient Ones
Amberland (5)               Unestablished   Hostile         Ancient Ones
Eastern Steppes (6)         Unestablished   Suspicious      Sorcerer
Runnimede (7)               Control         Tolerant        Gnome
Arcania (8)                 Minor           Tolerant        Demon Princes
Synisvania (9)              Unestablished   Suspicious      Ranger
Southern Sands (10)         Unestablished   Hostile         NA
 
Team AN, DW, SO had 4 regions and EL, RA, DE had 3.  The other two losing teams had 1 each.

Nikodemus and I decided to stop fighting the Underworld and try to inflict some payback on the Ancient Ones for knocking out our team mate.
Instead of sacking the Underworld capitol I declared the Underworld an ally and moved resources into Torvale.  I even transferred the Underworld gold for a few turns to try and rehabilitate the kingdom I had been fighting all game.  I figured if I was going to be working with them I should help them be successful.  We really had no chance to win while missing our third player so I sent aid to the UN figuring he would be fighting the same team as us.
 
Other kingdoms also started to direct their attention against the leaders.  I am sure this was a frustrating experience for them because although they had played a perfect game they had also made themselves into targets.  They ended up dropping out of the game on turn 24.

After the AN,DW,SO dropped I suggested we remain neutral and just hunt for artifacts.  This would let the other two teams duke it out.   Nikodemus wanted to expand into Oakendell.  The Elf and Demon Princes had been peaceful neighbors to me throughout the game so I tried to stay out of the conflict but eventually got drawn into it to support my Warlock team mate.

When I moved my assets into Amberland to defend the Warlock I neglected to declare the Ranger an enemy and left myself open to a surprise invasion by him.  The Ranger blitzkrieg unexpectedly knocked me out of regional control in Runnimede.  I was in the process of fighting for my region when the game ended by the victory of the previous third place team of the Underworld, Witchlord, Black Dragon.

I thought 164 was entertaining.  I only wish we had set up a sanctuary to keep the Darkelf in the game.

I vote Iron Willed go to Jumpingfist for his come back from near destruction to ending the game in 2nd place.

Infamous goes to the Witchlord Wynand who ended the contest with 4 regions.
 
 

[Kronin]

Hard for me to recap such a long game plus my memory kinda sucks. I was DE. Also only my second game of Alamaze so made many mistakes.

I grabbed Arcania early and surprisingly never was invaded there the entire game. That gave me a strong income for most of the game. Early efforts, in conjunction with RA, was to take BL in the Southern Sands. BL proved a tough adversary and we got a bit bogged down I thought. Then disaster struck as BL caught my main army and I completely messed up my turn order and put in the wrong BL group as my adversary. Needless to say they wiped out my army. Also lost one of my Demon Princes around that time. So I then pulled back into Arcania for several turns and rebuilt my position. Numerous turns later I had a large skeleton army, six princes, and 2 demon princes. I went after Eastern Steppes hard, but then ran against a way stronger WI. He triple denigrated me in one turn and shut down my emmisaries, and then ran off my armies with his 3 lich army group. So, I then had to retarget my forces towards Amberland. Was making excellent progress then the game ended. Did manage to assassinate the BL king on the last turn (that at least felt satisfying).

Overall I thought I played rather poorly personally...a lot of rookie mistakes, but our team overall did well. Unfortunately at the end we just didn't have enough firepower to hold off everyone working against us.

[Jumpingfist]

UN.

For me this turned out to be one of the more surprising finishes and a game played the way I would love to see more Anon type games played.

to start the game we (UN BL WI) were worried that the WI being so isolated would get targeted early. and we would not be able to defend him. after analyzing the set-up we were pretty sure the DE/RA would hit the BL hard. our hope was that they would build to take there regions prior to launching attack to give time for the BL to assist the UN in removing the GN before he could get a strong foot hold and allowing the UN agents to build up until they could neutralize the GN position.

oh course plans do not work out as you would hope. I blocked the GN from the city with my prince and move on some PCs. I did not scout YD a turn and ended up trying to move my prince during a siege. he got caught. This of course was a huge blow considering just how few emmies I had in region let alone high ranking ones. The GN did not kill my prince and I quickly knew where his capital was. I was not able to escape so I killed a few of his agent and around turn 6 or 7 was able to get my prince out. the damage had been done though the GN took the city and region on turn 5 and held it the rest of the time slowly hunting me down as we would sometimes exchange PCs. Turn 6 I was removed from the council by release of a skeleton. Things were going down hill fast for myself and the BL who was fighting 2 enemies himself. we asked very little of the WI knowing our only real shot at this was to weather the storm and have the WI come out with some high level wizards. By turn 11 I was down to 2 villages my capital in R7 and one in R9. We saw the AN team was on a clear path to victory if we did not try to do something. at this point we were only looking to throw a wrench in there plans and hit R4. of the three of us I had the highest influence at 13. BL was at 8 from multi capital falls. I declared the GN ally basically to toss up the white flag in our war and hope he would see the big picture that another team, the same team that removed his teammate was about to win. The GN landed on my capital the same turn I had declared him ally. I had no idea if I was going to be bumped down to 8 influence or not. Our plays for a nice invasion of R4 did not happen since I had to worry now about the GN. WI and BL went ahead with the attack. Then it happened the next turn arrived and I saw the GN had declared reciprocated my ally and moved off my capital. I also finally made my sanctuary. the next turn the RA took my village in R9.
The GN passed me some much needed resources so I could actually raise a couple wizards to level 2 and 3 and use my agents for things other than stealing gold to survive. I was so gold starved i would finish the game on T33 with my highest wizard I had the whole game a p3 and a p2. At this point T13 I became a GN loyalist. I was taking places in R4 and scouting. if i saw the GN in a PC with someone else I would early kidnap the emmy kind of to return the kindness the GN had offered earlier. I am sure this is where the AN team started feeling corruption and coordination. we did move on some of the same PCs just I would scout and if I saw the GN there as well I defaulted it to him. Once the AN was removed from R4 I took over my allies assests in R4 to allow me to barely gain control of the region. after the AN team officially dropped we had looked at the field and realized we actually had a shot at winning this thing. BL and I would move into R1 and take out the EL. because we were so weak we had to have the WI come over for 1.5 turns to nuke the EL capital a couple times before he moved on to try and take his 4th region while I secure R1.
I believe I kidnapped the EL regent 4 or 5 times. any emmy or agent that showed up in R1 was marked and targeted. I failed only once to kidnap the EL king/regent.

I really liked how other team without speaking to each other switched and fought the clear threat to winning. I almost always see players ignor the winning player in anon game like it is not there job to stop them from winning. I never understood this approach to just letting someone else win the game.

For a rare chancellor nomination in an anon game I will give this to Hawk for having the vision and understanding of the big picture in the game and making nice even when he had me on my death bed.

iron willed to Hawk/Nicodemus for loosing 1/3 of there team and continuing to fight and actually effect the outcome of the game. not allowing there enemy the win.

Infamous Wynand - achieving a Rex in a team game to allow for the team to win.

[HeadHoncho]

Wait... you can take a Rex win in a team game?? I thought team games were Team victory only?

[Jumpingfist]

Yes that is correct. He took 4 regions and we declared a team victory because BL and I managed to get the other 2. Just saying REX because he met the conditions and did it basically on his own

[HeadHoncho]

Ahh, got it. Thanks!

[The Gray Mouser]

Ranger (Team was DE, EL, RA)

We had a colossal challenge as when this game began the nine players on the other three teams were all ranked in the top 12, in Valhalla, and I was the highest on our team at #23. 

As designated captain, I wanted us to focus on just one team, so the RA and DE were to eliminate the BL (Mauler, as it turned out), and the Elves keep the Witchlord busy.  We Weren't too worried about the third member, the UN, in the early going.  

As the Ranger, I didn't go for control of a region, my ESO called for Substantial and Significant, so that's why I tried (and did) acheive in Synisvania and Southern Sands.  However, my influence it seems was constantly under attack, as in the late game, where I think I had five straight High Council denigrations as well as wizardry and straight up denigtations.  Getting denigrated three times a turn became commonplace.  I'm not quite sure why I drew so much attention as, as I said, I didn't even control one region.  I never got my major ESO, never could get the influence that high, which was strange, in that we made a concerted effort as a team to control the High Council.  But while in control, several turns we did not even raise an issue, so we made our share of mistakes.  My major problem was actually any L4 or higher agent seemed to die prematurely.  For most of the game, I didn't have a single L4 agent.

After a time it became clear the AN, DW, SO were on a clear path to victory.  We huddled on this, here is one of the emails I sent to try to change the trajectory to address the winning team at that time in an anonymous game:

Turn 6 Team Message:
Lords,
Nice turn, Kronin.  Great to have Vanasheen and to get those P3’s.
Nice developments on the HC.  We can think about a bid for the Ranger to gain the seat which gives us a lock on HC decisions, but not issues.  However, I am the target of the UN affections it seems.  He killed my L7 agent (the UN is the only one that could have an agent good enough to do that).  It’s a good first step to then target my emissaries who won’t have a decent guard.  The other angle is that he can likely get a skeleton on me.  So if we do bid, and considering I think absolutely no one but the DE (and I mean of all kingdoms) has a good supply of gold, a bid of no more than maybe 40k.  If we choose to do that and win, great, if not, the way the HC is going, we can probably win most votes anyway.  And this might not sound exciting, but I think we should actually give a decent bid (maybe 11k or 12k) to raise the GN influence, that would demonstrate we are not blind to what has happened on the HC and might kind of sway their whole team to our side on other matters as well, especially at least not attacking us.  That’s a lot to gain for one issue and subsequent Yes votes.  Also, I think the GN must be under pressure from the AN as we know he has done nothing against the DE or EL, and is probably the target of some UN emissaries and agents.

I am in a war of attrition with the BL.  I did take his capital, but did not capture his king.  His being admonished by the HC and losing his capital meant a 2 point influence loss.  If I got his king, he would likely have been down to about 8 influence.  Meanwhile with the number of Wyvern that keep showing up in his main group, he has had the resources to add about 3 a turn, whereas I am limited to a brigade or two (this last turn) of Recruits, not nearly a match for his 3 Wyvern.  He has been active with his nobles too, taking my possessions in the Sands.  It is really good that Kronin has been able to offset those gains and now has Vanasheen.
Can we divine UN towns and start reconning them to locate his capital and other major sources?
The Gray Mouser
Envoy for The Rangers

At the end of turn 12 status update, Synisvania and Southern Sands were still uncontrolled, but I had my majority until the DW / SO unholy alliance starting messing with me.  Quite a team, and with Dwarven emissaries and armies, and Sorcerer denigrations and wards and sleeps, Synisvania fell very quickly. 

I will have to try to continue this after-action report later, but I wanted to get something in on an unusual game.

The Gray Mouser