Dominion 3 - A Game of Noobs

[Sarigs]

I suppose I should start thinking about my next game now. We're almost down to four, and rapidly reaching the point where Magic makes empires crumble.

Yeah I'm pretty much down and out at this point. Curse you Nullkigan and your betrayal! :-)

[Nullkigan]

Our Non-agression pact had expired several turns ago and I made it quite clear to you in private messages that my long supply lines were not sustainable!

:)

[Sarigs]

Caught between sneaky Viking and some uppity snakes :-(

I hate to say it but I'm pretty much down and out! However my Brave Light brigate will see Ulmian soil before they breath they last!

[Nullkigan]

That is a wonderous number of blade winds, but Ulmish soil ends beneath your very boots. Unless you'd like to kiss Keshi's head, we can lower the pike as an act of good faith for that :)

(Sorry it had to end that way, but the terrain really did not favour a continued non-agression pact. If I had left you alone you'd have been able to hit me across a massive front on short notice, with any chance of fighting back being months away from said front)

Now back to worrying about exactly how many vine ogres and green hounds Man has been summoning to stop a siege factor of 400 from breaking a Motte-and-Bailey. Meanwhile, a brave scout just earned a renaming to Lord Cocksure of Siegeville.

[Sarigs]

That is a wonderous number of blade winds, but Ulmish soil ends beneath your very boots. Unless you'd like to kiss Keshi's head, we can lower the pike as an act of good faith for that :)

(Sorry it had to end that way, but the terrain really did not favour a continued non-agression pact. If I had left you alone you'd have been able to hit me across a massive front on short notice, with any chance of fighting back being months away from said front)

Now back to worrying about exactly how many vine ogres and green hounds Man has been summoning to stop a siege factor of 400 from breaking a Motte-and-Bailey. Meanwhile, a brave scout just earned a renaming to Lord Cocksure of Siegeville.

Aye don't worry about it, kinda crippled myself early game! Suiciding retaking the capital will be a fine swan song. And yeah.....it's going to be ALOT of blade winds just FYI....like 20 smiths capible of it from the 2nd round onwards....
;-)

[Sarigs]

Right just so everyone knows, especially the Host I'm bowing out gracefully and turning AI :-)

Thanks for the game lads, but I is fully licked :-)

[Nullkigan]

Huh. Arrow Fend works on Blade Wind. Who knew!

(Another skull for my collection: the pretenders Keshi, Jarak and Callanish have all fallen before my horde, even though only Jotunheim is dead)

[Sarigs]

Huh. Arrow Fend works on Blade Wind. Who knew!

Not me unfortunately otherwise that would have.....gone differently :-P

[Nullkigan]

Nor did I, which continues my lucky streak with regards to pitched battles. I wish you'd sent those mages after Pythium's hydras instead, blade wind is pretty much perfect for that. Now I've got to come up with a plan that works with my complete lack of massed ranged attacks. Alas, that would make things too easy.

I was worried at the start of our last battle, I'd been planning on picking off your mages with various magical attack spells whilst you were besieging Ulm. Losing a large number of skinshifters to spells would have killed any chance I had of breaching Man's fort before Pythium turned on me. That kind of happened anyway, but it would have been worse.

Still, you did give me half your lands and enough time to deploy some of my own astral mages to fight off the inevitable mind-hunt spam.

... and then Man thought they'd break the siege on their cap by sallying at my scout. That worked out even better than I'd hoped.

(should I start playing the Imperial March whenever I work on my turns now?)

[Jarvis]

I consider myself dead as well - from a long time back when I found myself in a stalemate with r'lyeh yet locked into fending him off thus holding myself static instead of growing on land.

Still I intend to hold out as long as I can and I encourage ulm and r'lyeh to do so as well, It may still affect if pythum or vanheim ultimately reign over all.

[Sarigs]

I consider myself dead as well - from a long time back when I found myself in a stalemate with r'lyeh yet locked into fending him off thus holding myself static instead of growing on land.

Still I intend to hold out as long as I can and I encourage ulm and r'lyeh to do so as well, It may still affect if pythum or vanheim ultimately reign over all.

Tis a fair point but I'm down to 5 smiths, single digit troops, most with afflications, I've rampant unrest in my 2 whole provines and I've had 0 Gold total and income for the last 6 or 7 turns, it's possible that this turn after my horrific loss' last turn my income MAY be more then my upkeep but if it is I'll be damn surprised if it's enough to buy a single trooper!
Actually just counted rather then guessing make that: 3 Master Smiths & 3 Priest Smiths and 29 troops :-)

I don't even have the resources to sneak a undefended province and theirs none of them about, only option open to me is to sit in the castle and hit end turn and honestly the AI can do that better then me ;-)

No amount of my troops can beat back any of the forces currently surrounding my lands and I will not be able to afford any smiths until more of my army DESERTS to bring my upkeep down at which point in 10-20 turn I may be able to buy a single commander ;-)

To give ya idea my current Total income is 64 gold a turn and that before my 78 upkeep, 0 gem income and my only offensive spell is pretty much entirely countered by a single spell that all of Vans forces are scripted for (Air shield). As far as Pythium goes Ulm Smiths are the poster boys for why Mind Hunt is such a dirty bugger of a spell ;-)

I considered my self to have lost a long LONG time back but stayed around while I felt their was any chance of me swinging the balance at all but I can't see it.

Having said that if you rear through the above self-pitying (JK) whine and can think of a plan then I'm all ears :-)

[Jarvis]

I've more gold then I can spend currently since 3 of my 5 castle's are under siege, some golden love coming your way.

[Nullkigan]

I'm working on those other two castles, but there's a stack of hydras I have to kill first. Also R'lyeh might want to eat some of your brains or something, I don't know. I've got boats so I don't care about the underwater provinces!

Ulm does have a couple of spells that can still be useful: you want stuff that isn't a projectile (as Arrow Fend/Air Shield stops that).

I honestly thought Man had me when he poured over the border in aid of Ulm, especially as I was uncertain whether or not Pyth would stay neutral to me. The raiding tactic with Wardens was quite the eye-opener. Thankfully, some quick gem-burning and a few turns of mopping up let me go on the offensive.

I've rather pointedly been using Ulm and Pythium to keep my flanks secure in this latest war and from turn 1 I knew I'd need Astral mages (for Mindhunt spam from R'lyeh and Pythium) and Arrow Fend (for Man and general bowspam). At the start of the Pyth-Ulm war, Ulm's main army was actually probably better than mine because I've only had about 30 Van riding around in total. Skinshifters are pretty damn tough, but they're not really a match for troops they can't do any damage too.

[Jarvis]

The original intent when I built the god was to have wardens waiting in pretty much every province of a target nation and then have the war mostly finished before it began, that target was squiddy when I turned out to be on the coast - once I had the ocean under my control i'd be free to turn the attention back to land.

I would've been on track with the wardens but I couldn't get my research up anywhere near as fast as I wanted and you'll also not find a single air site in my territory which left me relying on ulm to get me underwater, he of course had his own problems and what items I did buy reduced my gold for buying my own troops.

[Sarigs]

Well you've guilted me into sticking around and not going AI yet, on the upside micromanaging my turn takes less then 5 minutes so it's not exactly a big time commitment to see it out till the bitter end (Which I can't imagine being long!)

Just out of interest how's things going in the water? If your that hard pressed on land Jarvis are you still strong in Masterboo's seas? Just wondering due to his note about giving up :-)

[Jarvis]

I never did exactly get strong in the seas, another castle sprang up off my coast, the majority of the force I sent in there died and i've only got a few squads of wardens sieging one of his castles, a slow process.

One of his army's came ashore again but I can't actually see it right now, not sure if he's messing about with nulkigan or not.

[Sarigs]

Ah right just so everyone know looks like I didn't redo my turn after deciding to maybe stick around for a few more turns despite trying to! So Ulm has turned AI, don't mourn for me though it was well and truly over for me at this point.

Thanks very much for the game, I shall be following with interest so let us know how it goes!

GG Van you crafty swine you and good luck to Loyal Man and On-and-off Ally/Enemy Pythium! Alas Poor Squiddy I never met ye!

[Nullkigan]

We can redo it? I processed the turn because we'd had a full five sitting around for more than a day. Should've deleted the old one.

[Sarigs]

We can redo it? I processed the turn because we'd had a full five sitting around for more than a day. Should've deleted the old one.

Yeah I think what happened was I didn't "redo from start" so although I'd given orders it was still flagged as "Turn AI" if no one minds I'll put the correct turn file in dropbox now so it would only be a minimal delay.


Done, I've put the .2h in turn 41 folder but it's my turn 40 is that makes sense

[Nullkigan]

Reprocessed. Damn, AI R'lyeh ate up a bunch of my scripting and cause me to take larger losses in that siege :(