So since Dom 3 is being discussed

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:10 pm

New offer: I murder all your commanders and come back.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:40 am

Turn in.

Huh. Plan A for dealing with giants (lances!) just worked unexpectedly. I still probably need Plans D & E though, even if they won't help against thousand-women waves from Pangaea, when/if that ever happens.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:43 am

Any of you have decent ranks in Evoc? I may have a suggestion.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:16 am

name_here wrote:New offer: I murder all your commanders and come back.

I still don't know what you intend to accomplish with any of this. But in our last major confrontation you took out one Gargoyle, two normal human commanders, and two Pans who accidentally went berserk. And you lost... 8 squid head commanders. I really think we can take those kinds of exchanges more than you can as well.

Some of your battle plans have been pretty ingenious, but none of them seem to be set up to grant you any lasting advantage. Indeed, the reason your initial ambush worked is that I had predicted that you would instead attempt to gain... anything at all by attacking me. Thus, my rather small revenge force would waltz in unopposed to burn down a temple. But since you instead decided to faff about, accomplishing nothing - we lost that particular feint unreservedly. Hell, I had left the gems for Shark Attack on the commander rather than the Naiad because I figured the "real" fight would be the next turn and I didn't want to lose gems on a PD fight.

So yeah... Rlyeh's plans appear to be to run weird tactical simulations by fighting Pangaea at great cost rather than to expand their empire in any meaningful sense of the word. That's frustrating. It's almost as bad as the horseshit with Arcocephale deciding to give away half their empire and magical artifacts rather than negotiate or fight when we came over the wall demanding territorial concessions.

-Username17

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:37 am

When you're getting crushed, people tend to not talk with the person who is crushing them

.

I'm almost tempted to offer my services as a military advisor for this game, because while "Send in the next wave!" Pangea is a tough cookie, it's actually one of the strats I know some counters against.

K · Post by K » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:54 am

Well, the endgame of Dominions is a wild and woolly place. I mean, I don't even know if your nation really matters after a certain point once you are tossing down battlefield enchantments and SCs.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:02 am

The nation still matters a little. Especially if it's LA Ermor and he decides "Fuck you world!" on top of turning every battle into a scene right out of Titanicus.

K · Post by K » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:50 am

Zinegata wrote:The nation still matters a little. Especially if it's LA Ermor and he decides "Fuck you world!" on top of turning every battle into a scene right out of Titanicus.

I find that in the endgame simple "troops" don't last very long. Battlefield spells and SCs eat up massive armies so everyone ends up with small squads of elite troops, raiders, and SCs for all military actions and that stuff is almost all gem based.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:34 am

That's actually what I meant when I said "turning every battle into a scene right out of Titanicus" - Titanicus being the 40K game/novel featuring giant robots the size of mountains fighting it out while huge masses of regular troops pointlessly die at their feet.

But it's an obscure reference and I probably should have elaborated more.

I wasn't aware of many players going with the "super soldier" route though. I was under the impression everyone still used massed troops as chaff - like how Frank is using massed Maenads - while a handful of standouts (i.e. Tartarians) do the real damage.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:50 pm

Turn sent.

K · Post by K » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:21 pm

Zinegata wrote:That's actually what I meant when I said "turning every battle into a scene right out of Titanicus" - Titanicus being the 40K game/novel featuring giant robots the size of mountains fighting it out while huge masses of regular troops pointlessly die at their feet.

But it's an obscure reference and I probably should have elaborated more.

I wasn't aware of many players going with the "super soldier" route though. I was under the impression everyone still used massed troops as chaff - like how Frank is using massed Maenads - while a handful of standouts (i.e. Tartarians) do the real damage.

Massed troops don't really last. I find that you can run a player out of troops pretty fast, and then their empire falls unless they have SCs and super soldiers.

Basically, the difference between the mid-game and the endgame is troops use. In the midgame massed troops are good because people are still saving mages for research, but by the end-game you have hit 6's in most most paths and the severe diminishing returns in most paths mean you can send more mages to the front.

With decent spells researched, chaff doesn't last. LA Ermor goes from a powerhouse to the guy that loses 1000 troops to a single casting of Solar Brilliance.

The elite squads are things like Wights backed up by Weapons of Sharpness (as Frank mentioned earlier) and other spells. Those cut through SCs like butter, but they won't fall to single lucky casting of spells like Soul Slay like an SC.

There is still room for chaff though to catch Evocations and other spells, but at this point it can be longdead or summoned units instead of expensive gold-based units.

The endgame is more of a logistics game than a battle game. This is why Astral and the ability to ferry troops is so powerful in late game.

This is also why Tartarians are the cutting edge of 2006 tactics. Now that they are insane, they inability to consistently move on the map is a fatal weakness in the logistics game. If people are bragging about their Tartarians, then you should attack them because it's a sign of weakness.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:34 pm

I suppose that I did end up getting off worse in the exchange, and will take Frank up on his offer. I'll try to console myself with this massive pile of gently used thug gear.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:57 am

Blarg. Recovering from a rather sudden illness. Thankfully, no tests today or tomorrow, and a regimen of vaguely decent amounts of sleep, lots of fruit juice, and daily multivitamins seems to be helping quite a bit.

FrankTrollman wrote: almost as bad as the horseshit with Arcocephale deciding to give away half their empire and magical artifacts rather than negotiate or fight when we came over the wall demanding territorial concessions.

I ascribe to a relatively simple philosophy. Dominions is a nice game in moderation, but it makes people act like jerks. If I suspect that a course of action risks making me succumb to this trap, I will generally try and avoid it. And I think I put up a token resistance in those regions I did not cede to my more diplomatic neighbors. Admittedly, I could have been much better about bothering to script stuff, but my mages killed numbers of tiny men a decent portion of the time.

There was even a degree of negotiation attempted when I made a post specifically enquiring as to whether my playstyle was offensive, and expressing a willingness to approach the game differently if that were the case.

===========================

Checked email an hour or so ago. Received turns from:
- Mictlan
- Man
- Pangaea
- Vanheim
- R'lyeh

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:58 am

Turn in.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:22 am

trn files for turn 49 have been sent out.

My pretender has been eliminated from the game, and I will send the game folder over to Ashdod a little after posting this. Nice game, everyone.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:20 am

Good game mate.

Also, I started seiging ashdod's capital this turn after issuing a NAP break notice 5 turns ago.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:16 pm

Oh goodie.

So, I guess people should start sending their turns to me now. I'll keep hosting even if I get eliminated. Addy spoilered below

julesvanoosterom [at] gmail.com

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:22 pm

Yeah sorry mate, it's been a tough gig for you. Seriously though, thanks for hosting.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:36 pm

I have a plan for dealing with the undead legions and the Nether Dart-flinging horde of casters that guide them. As has been said before, this will either be glorious, or my end.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:16 pm

Rlyeh: it is considered bad taste to say that you are accepting someone's offer of peace and cast assassination spells anyway. It is however, considered extremely bad form to cast a bunch of mind hunts onto a province where you just saw my Ice Devil fight. Movement is before casting, and you know I summoned the one and only Ice Devil who has Astral and that h was in my capital province.

I don't know who "S5" and "S4D1" were, but I'm guessing you didn't want them to get feebleminded. Seriously, think these things through. Pangaea doesn't make astral mages and hasn't even recruited a Lizard Shaman - but we did get an Ice Devil. If you're going to Mind Hunt, cast it at a province you haven't seen the Ice Devil in.

So this time for real: Peace?

-Hoogla Khan

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:01 pm

angelfromanotherpin wrote:I have a plan for dealing with the undead legions and the Nether Dart-flinging horde of casters that guide them. As has been said before, this will either be glorious, or my end.

It seems to me every other turn in this game leads to either something glorious or game-ending.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:06 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Rlyeh: it is considered bad taste to say that you are accepting someone's offer of peace and cast assassination spells anyway. It is however, considered extremely bad form to cast a bunch of mind hunts onto a province where you just saw my Ice Devil fight. Movement is before casting, and you know I summoned the one and only Ice Devil who has Astral and that h was in my capital province.

I don't know who "S5" and "S4D1" were, but I'm guessing you didn't want them to get feebleminded. Seriously, think these things through. Pangaea doesn't make astral mages and hasn't even recruited a Lizard Shaman - but we did get an Ice Devil. If you're going to Mind Hunt, cast it at a province you haven't seen the Ice Devil in.

So this time for real: Peace?

-Hoogla Khan

I actually reconsidered and sent in a revised turn, but I didn't post about it in here, and it seems Avor went with the original turn. Alternately, I forgot to cancel some orders.

EDIT: the revised turn was sent in between my two posts. Once I get home I can say for sure which of those happened.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:43 pm

Turn sent to new host.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:54 pm

Got it!

Just as a refresher, who's still in? I count...

Ashdod [angelfromanotherpin] - turn 49 received.
Ermor [cthulhu] - turn not received.
Man [Orca] - turn 49 received.
Mictlan [K] - turn 49 received.
Pangaea [FrankTrollman] - turn 49 received.
R'lyeh [name_here] - turn 49 received.
Vanheim [Korwin] - turn 49 received.

Am I missing anyone?

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:53 pm

Got my turn in.