So since Dom 3 is being discussed

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:10 pm

We got our turn in. The final battle with Arcocephale was both explosive and yet fairly anticlimactic. The Forge Lord had sent most of his army out of the castle the previous turn and he fought the final battle by casting Fire Storm and camping in the castle with a minimal interference force. Many casualties were had on our side. Even more would have been had if Soulforger had set himself up in the back corner so that our troops had longer to slog to get to him.

Interesting note: Arco's god was actually slain in hand to hand combat with our initial Centaur Commander. That's like destiny or something.

And finally: we were totally serious about just wanting to expand our country by a couple provinces since we were in last place and had nowhere to expand into as we came from a tiny island and Arcocephale was blocking us off to the North and South. Once it was declared to be an endless battle to the death by Arco, we fought it as such. But really we just wanted a few more provinces, not the whole thing.

Ah well, Greece is united.

-Hoogla Khan

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:50 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:We got our turn in. The final battle with Arcocephale was both explosive and yet fairly anticlimactic. The Forge Lord had sent most of his army out of the castle the previous turn and he fought the final battle by casting Fire Storm and camping in the castle with a minimal interference force. Many casualties were had on our side. Even more would have been had if Soulforger had set himself up in the back corner so that our troops had longer to slog to get to him.

Interesting note: Arco's god was actually slain in hand to hand combat with our initial Centaur Commander. That's like destiny or something.

Awesome finish. Next time I try and turtle in my capital with a damaging battlefield-wide spell going, I'll try and take your advice. And I'm totally giving my starting commander a Longbow of Accuracy to try and sort-of replicate the pretender kill next game I'm in.

FrankTrollman wrote:And finally: we were totally serious about just wanting to expand our country by a couple provinces since we were in last place and had nowhere to expand into as we came from a tiny island and Arcocephale was blocking us off to the North and South. Once it was declared to be an endless battle to the death by Arco, we fought it as such. But really we just wanted a few more provinces, not the whole thing.

Ah well, Greece is united.

There was an option for things to have gone differently.

Avoraciopoctules wrote:By the way, Frank, I was looking over some of my recent posts and I realized the way I've been playing might be annoying. I'd like to apologize if you've found my way of playing Arco abrasive. If you'd prefer that I approach things differently, I would be willing to make some shifts in my thinking. I'm having fun, but that's no reason to sabotage other people's enjoyment if I can avoid it.

Avoraciopoctules wrote:
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.

And if you'd prefer for me to approach the game the same way, you might find more diplomatic success next game if you propose a border shift before you invade.

K · Post by K » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:26 pm

Nvm. I figured it out.

Turn in.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:27 am

Turn in.

angelfromanotherpin · Fri Feb 04, 2011 12:51 pm

cthulhu, we're waiting on you.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:21 am

Turn in

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:17 am

Turn 50 is out. Let me know if I have done anything wrong.

Now to go check if my gamble paid off or wiped me out.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:21 am

I'm not going to win this game. I may not win this war. Still...

I will always have this.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:24 am

holy fucking shit.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:29 am

OH MG FUCKING GOD I AM AN IDIOT

HAHAHAHAHA

I got one of my communion casters to cast phoenix pyre not phoenix power

Oh fuck my life.

K · Post by K » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:08 am

Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

How did that happen? And did Ermor lose 61 mages or 61 BS troop shuttlers?

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:25 am

I got one of my communion casters to cast phoenix pyre not phoenix power

Whoops.

K · Post by K » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:52 am

cthulhu wrote:I got one of my communion casters to cast phoenix pyre not phoenix power

Whoops.

So you got one of the legendary Communion/Phoenix Pyre chain explosions that destroyed your whole army?

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:56 am

Yup. Learning experince right fucking there.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:57 am

K wrote:Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

How did that happen? And did Ermor lose 61 mages or 61 BS troop shuttlers?

Huge numbers of longdead and casters vs my pretender's Earthquake spam, I think. There may have been more going on that I didn't catch. I didn't get an exact count on how many of the commanders were mages vs mound kings, but there were quite a few mages. Also, his Oracle pretender had teleported in for the fight, and we got it as well. /gloat

It's a palpable hit, but I have no idea how long it's actually going to take Ermor to recover.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:59 am

doubled

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:59 am

Nah, check out the fireballs in the replay - that's phoenix pyre ftw.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:01 am

Huh, I wondered what that was. I thought it might be the graphic for Earthquake, which I had not seen cast before. Oh well, I'll take it.

K · Post by K » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:19 am

Any screenshots for the peanut gallery? It probably looked epic.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:39 am

The answer sounds like it was a combination of the Phoenix Pyre, the Communion, and the Earthquake.

Here's how it works:

Communions distribute spell fatigue from the masters to the slaves. Also, the slaves use their own casting fatigue whenever fatigue is distributed to them. So the slaves get a lot of fatigue is what I'm saying.
Communions also duplicate any buff cast by any master onto all the slaves.
Phoenix Pyre is a buff that makes the beneficiary explode in a giant fireball when killed and then suffer a bunch of fatigue and com back to life if their fatigue isn't too bad.
Earthquake does a modest armor piercing attack against everyone on the field.

So the way this works is that when you communion slave a Phoenix Pyre, all those high-fatigue slaves become bombs. And since they are running high fatigues, they probably won't come back to life if they are killed. When the Earthquake goes off, a bunch of units randomly die throughout the battlefield, with preferences to nail the slow and weak (like old men communion slaves). And when a bunch of communion slaves die, they explode, taking out other communion slaves, causing them to explode as well.

Hence: the fiery chain reaction that blew up the entire army.

-Username17

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:00 pm

Will do later. I might make a video. Seriously though almost my entire army vapourises in about 5 seconds.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:39 pm

That's potentially a not-inconsiderable hit for Ermor, because he was using his cap-only dudes for communion masters last time, meaning he's out a bunch of dudes he can only replace at a rate of one per turn.

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:17 pm

name_here wrote:That's potentially a not-inconsiderable hit for Ermor, because he was using his cap-only dudes for communion masters last time, meaning he's out a bunch of dudes he can only replace at a rate of one per turn.

On the other hand, he can easily come back with that many troops and mages in 3 turns tops. They just might not be the same quality of mages.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:15 pm

Judging from the graphs, that was 7 turns of troop production or near abouts. Obviously more than that in mages. But also judging from the graphs, he could do that twice more right now before he ran out of troops.

Remember: Dominions is basically a zero sum game. You don't need to have a shiny army at the end of the game, you just need to reduce your opponents to zero. Ermor is still the most powerful position, though I'm sure that battle hurt more than he expected it to.

-Username17

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:43 am

Right now Ermor is down a pretender as well. They're harder to replace.

The bard present on the sidelines will of course immortalise this in song.