Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Gandelf, you are being a bit disingenuous (imho) when you imply that the changeover to 36 hours was going on plan for the weekend. My request was for immediate action on this and I thought it was more or less in place when I thanked everybody for their support 2 days ago (6/16).
That was the time for you to say something about timing. You never mentioned any timetable, and you could have just as easily done it yesterday (6/17). You reset the timer today only because I complained. You forgot, and you won't admit that you forgot. Everything else you have been saying is just cya (cover your ***). That's why I'm mad.

Instead you got involved in impossible theoretical discussions. By the way, Dom3 already has the provisional turn possibility in the "save turn" command. If the system worked correctly, a saved turn would not be used as an "end turn", unless time was up and there was no "end turn" in place.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Actually the game was reset within the hour of its hosting which happened at 5am this morning my time. There arent too many people that can get me to dance that quick, that early :) I did see your message later when I logged in here.

As I had understood it, your request involved the weekend. So since everyone was in agreement, I planned to do it for the weekend. I guess I could have actually SAID something like "ok its agreed and we will do it on Friday". And I guess I could have changed it instantly altho that would have screwed up the timing. I could have done alot of things but I didnt.

Did you still want a sub?

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Sorry to hold up the turn guys

I'm trying to get my formations to work correctly in simulated games. It's really a challenge to get dom3 to do simple things like having a commander walk into range, then cast spells.

And what's up with short range spells? Has anyone ever seen a commander cast one of those? I tried scripting some in single player, but the commanders stand in the back and cast long range spells regardless of the script.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Come on Jorus - stick with it!

I missed the first 4 turns and still in the game. Win or loose, its been a hell of a lot of fun!

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

if you mean short range spells like shockwave than check out Baalz's EA Caelum guide on how to bring it home. note, it uses Eagle Kings which are Caelum's best mages, are flying and cap only, so they can easily fly in than spam shockwave. however without flying commanders you shouldn't really rely on short ranged spells, it's just too much trouble and very unreliable to do what you seem to be trying...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

The exception to this being big, beefy commanders that you have nothing better to do with, like an ungeared oni general. But that is a really limited set of usability.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I dunno, five turns of attack is plenty to get them into contact... but they might spend some turns wailing around if you overdid it.

I really need to figure out how many squares of distance are involved in various things.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

For those of you who are wondering about the big drop in my army strength, I FRAPS'd the battle. You can watch it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQj3hfwZqGw

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

ROFL. Nice.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Lol. Nice. Except you had the guns. Rather than making a brave, but ultimately futile charge, I hid in the bushes (as far as a giant can hide)

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

R'lyeh's definitely not getting a Christmas card from me this year.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Yeah what a tosser blackguard is... So much for the newb friendly game.

BG, someone obviously with more experience and knowledge than the rest of us, first hides out in the ocean then drops a big cheesy global on us knowing he cant be attacked...

Hope you feel all large and manly chalking up a win against the first timers... What a bore!

Sure its legit, but for goodness sake mate... you remind me of some dude who loves to kick down others sand castles.

Well, if he wants to win, lets give it to him, i cant frankly be arsed rebuilding again.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I'm not 100% convinced we can't bash down his globals. Clams and ocean-gems will only go so far when you have to convert them over to power a death spell, and you only hold about 15% of the map's provinces.

We'll definitely need to work together on that though, as per the ongoing PMs. I also have a few other ideas, but most of you will just have to wait and see what those are.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

jee, that was nice Amadamus. this is still a newbie friendly game, I haven't changed that fact. I'm also still relatively newbie, that's not changed either. the only thing that's changed is that I'm playing around with globals, but than everyone can do that, and it takes absolutely no experience nor skill to do it, so I really don't see what all the fuss is about...

funny that you didn't complain when Ashdod was dominating everybody and became huge, nor are you complaining now that our friendly hypocrite Greyjoy has taken C'tis, a rather underwhelming MA nation, and is now the largest nation, even surpassing Ashdod! so much for being a "newbie" heh Greyjoy?

seriously, if you wish to throw around accusations at the very least take a look at the facts, and don't get blinded by them! it's all there in the charts, a quick glance is all you need...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Heh. Take a look at blackguard's join date. I think he's only been playing MP games for like 3 months now? Trust me he is no secret vet. He does spend a lot of time in IRC though.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I think you can expect people to be miffed when you cast burden of time. I am amazed you still take the opportunity to whine about how powerful I am.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Burden of Time only affects certain things, and forces you to change strategies. It is quite expensive, at 70 death gems which means that the likelihood that you can Dispel it successfully is good. However, if he has a large enough gem income he will just replace it.

The question then becomes, what do I need to do to counter BoT without actually getting rid of the enchantment?

Can I cast Gift of Health?

Can I switch to demons or undead or another long-lived summonable?

Can I make Elixirs of Life or Boots of Youth?

Can I make some Barrels of Air, use spies to locate his caster (probably his pretender) and then destroy him?

If he's using a Master Lich/Lich you have to preach dominion out of his capitol, which adds a lot of overhead to the mission and makes other solutions look better.

BoT doesn't win the game. Everyone ages. Everyone dies--even R'lyeh (eventually... Looking at the chart their crappiest units have 500 years before old age). Even units under the caster's control. Not all nations are affected by it equally It simply shifts you away from recruited units and into summoned ones for the most part with exceptions for some nations.

Solutions by nation...

Abysia has old units, lots of them. Fortunately, they're a blood nation, so they can use boots. Since most of their old mages (Anathemant dragons excepted) come from the capitol, all that is necessary is to keep one blood mage crafting Boots of Youth each turn and all old mages will be protected as soon as they appear. Of course, since Abysians have short life spans, it will be necessary to change over to primarily blood economy earlier if it was planned to milk their strong troops for a longer time.

Hopefully Agartha has been working their strong magic in Enchantment and will be able to start putting up troops and mages made of stone. Death mages have some protection against the ravages of age.

C'tis is a death/nature nation.

Jotes have long lifespans.

Monkeys can summon long-lived mage commanders and sacred units.

Shinuyama has ample supplies of demonic and necromantic units.

Ashdod is quite long-lived as a race. Might put a hurt on some of the Talmai Elders, but... they could probably use a little kick in the rear.

As for me, I only have two provinces remaining and will not survive much longer regardless of the Burden of Time.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

It wasn't cast by his pretender. His pretender is currently raiding one of my provences.

BTW. If anyone would like to teleport a team in to take his pretender out, please let me know. I can provide location and list his current items.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Come Blackguard, you may say your a newb now, but you certainly come across as a know it all. Can't have your cake and eat it too mate.

The point is, you have sat in your own personal lake amassed such a huge quantity of gems, clammed your *** off and now put up a global which effectly craps out the game. How many gems did you put in it eh?

You deserve to get smashed by all nations - but the map doesnt allow for it. So in essence, you have effectively won. The land nations are two busy fighting it out - no possibility of getting a coalition in the ocean and the minute its dispelled you can put it up again! So whats the point continuing?

By the way Verj, blood boots dont help - lost some key warlocks teh rest have ammased a huge amount of afflictions to be useless even waring boots.

My grumble is the whole development of the game, the subtle strategy, the wit, has effetively been rubbed out by one cheesey spell. As i said what a bore. If that counts for a winning move, then good for you - good for any one that uses it - but the spell should be called 'Waist of Time', becasue thats what it presently feels like.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I'm probably the least affected by this, since I love the lich type pretenders so my god is fairly safe from the effects. That and I can Twiceborn all my oracles to keep them from being a waste of gold. In fact, I probably benefit the most since all my national summons are lifeless, and that's where I'm focusing my efforts on. It is a pain of a spell, though. Just be glad I haven't been able to throw up Utterdark :P.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I'd say that Blackguard and I (and, I'd argue, at least Amandamus and the pile of consonants playing the apes) are legitimately newbie-ish insofar as lacking a grasp of some/lots of proper competitive midgame strategy. Probably. I mean, he's not out of the water in earnest yet... though with that research graph, that could change any day now. Can't say anything about Jotunheim yet, but he sure knows how to run them early game. Verj is another matter entirely, but he got smashed between two fairly formidable nations, so, you know.

MA C'tis isn't as underwhelming as it looks, I'm finding. Don't knock magic diversity, especially not when it's nature/death. But most of my success, I'm comfortable admitting now, was early diplomacy - I persuaded both Ermor and Bandar Log to leave me with undisputed control of a fairly disproportionate number of provinces, some of which took me a LONG time to claim; I think I had 27 in my sphere of influence before I murdered Ermor. That's not skill at Dominions (and, in fact, my early expansion hit a number of snags; Ermor's scouts watched me smash my head against a couple indie provinces and suffer stupidly disproportionate casualties), that's general strategy-game experience, napkin-math, and a bit of fast talking.

The game's far from over yet, though. I'd say Ashdod's the least likely to die horribly before the endgame, but (and I'm torn between chagrin and pleasure here) there aren't too many matchups left that have foregone conclusions.

Edited to add: Great post, Verj.

Also, in the initial paragraph, I kinda tripped over my words. The people I listed are ones who seem fairly competent but probably don't need to be accused of experience. Jury's out on Nauquan, I haven't seen him in action yet and you don't have to be a master to be firstish as Ashdod.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

No mention of me in there? I'm hurt, us cave dwellers are always trod underfoot!

My signup date might show an early time, but that doesn't mean I have a lot of experience. I still have difficulty with normal AIs, and this is my second ever Dominions 3 multiplayer game.

That said, I feel I'm doing alright in it. I haven't been horribly murdered yet and that's always a good sign.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I have virtually no idea what you're doing, Frey. My scouts are otherwise occupied and your score chart doesn't really give anything away one way or the other.

That said, you're MA Agartha and you've survived into the midgame, so at least you can either play or negotiate. And midgame golems are when things get real.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

True, true. Before this game I hadn't ever played MA Agartha, and while I've done several SP games as them since, I totally picked the wrong pretender for what I'm doing.

I think it's that no one really views me as a threat, yet I would at the same time be a pain to conquer.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Actually, i apologise to BG for calling him a know it all - nothing wrong with learning, so putting in the effort reaps rewards.

Thinking more about it, the beef is that the map stops us from teaching the fish a lesson. I would assume that putting up such a global so early would guanrantee a swift retribution from all players. As such, there is a regulation on uses of such powerful spells. I couldn't imagine where on a normal map surrounded by 3 or 4 powerful mid game nations, yourself, comparable, would chance throwing it up in fear of being dealt with harshly.

In this situation, there is little fear of retribution and indeed a capacity for the fish to keep this and other on the way nasty globals up indefinatley.

It just seems such a pity that the shear strategy afforded by Dom3 can be so easily neutered by a spell such as this. I realise that particular nations will be effected in different ways by this, but damn, what a horrendously powerful weapon to wield with no apparent effort to obtain...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I repeat that the biggest threat is Rlyeh, and it's not the first time i say it !

- Do we want to cooperate (hard exercise for newbs) and try to dispel and make game more difficult for Rlyeh ?

- have you seen the scores ?
Rlyeh research = 9382 the 2nd 4558...
Rlyeh gems = 129 + 22 + Clams... let say 160 gems at least

I think that we are newbs and we don't like :

- players with a good sense of communication as Blackguard (he plays right, and he succeeds to influence players and makes an efficient propaganda)

- to face an event that changes our SP way of play... (stopping our personnal goals, pausing wars, define in emergency a global goal and plan coordonated actions, grouping ressources with old foes etc...)

Maybe we think that MP is just playing SP against other non AI players ?

Once again, it's really fun to play this MP game, thanks again Gandalf ;)

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

there's a very big difference between gaining knowledge via reading the forums, wiki, chatting on IRC, etc and actual game experience. it seems to you that I'm a "know it all" simply because I've been doing a lot of the above. however my in game experience is still very very small, which is what makes me a newbie still. I haven't been around for too long, only a couple of months, and considering this game is already 3+ years old and there was also Dom1 and Dom2 which were similar so also give pretty good in game experience, than I definitely qualify as a newbie...

yes, I've been sitting in my own personal lake, but I also can't leave it very easily. look at Ashdod and C'tis, both of them have grown much much larger than myself, and will soon catch up in gem income as well(no idea why they haven't done so already...) and well, this is vanilla so why not use clams...? everyone can do it, you don't need a lake for it, so I really don't see the problem...

now, please, Burden of Time is not 1 of those game winning globals! these include: Arcane Nexus, Astral Corruption(for blood nations), Forge of the Ancients, maybe Utterdark(for the right nations) and that's pretty much it I think. Burden of Time is simply annoying, for some nations more than others. some nations like C'tis shouldn't even feel it, perhaps a few afflictions here and there but certainly nothing serious... others feel it a bit more, but even than, there are ways to defend against it, if you're not adapting to the situation and coming up with the counters than it's your fault and your fault alone...

first of all, why do I "deserve to get smashed"? Burden of Time is not 1 of those game winning globals that I've mentioned above... second of all, if you still want to get me smashed than you guys can still gang bang me. I won't be dumb enough to actually walk you through it step by step, but it can be done with some effort... third of all, it's part of my position UW, it's hard for me to move out and hard for you guys to move in. it's not all white like you're trying to make it seem, heck if C'tis keeps on growing he'll be too large for even me to contain, than you'll stop whining about me and watch C'tis take over the game...

blood boots keeps them from dying, afflictions can be taken care of by other means... seriously, if you don't even try to put an effort to adapt to the situation at hand than stop whining about all the strategic choices in dom3 going down the drain due to Burden of Time!

think I've just commented on this above. a major part of any strategy game is the ability to adapt! I'm still so far from winning the game that it's not even funny... it's simply your lack of understanding Burden of Time and your lack of wits to actually put an effort to adapt to the situation that creates this very black picture for you. try to think outside of your little box for a moment and suddenly you'll see a lot of brightness!

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I admit there is a degree of whining in there BG, but having blood boots didn't stop them dying of old age, and several others where feebleminded.

Listen mate, i have spent close to a month on this game, I log on and see all the work i have done evaporate. My old mages dead... All the good randoms i need gone. All that it took was for you to put up a global. Your damn right it pissed me off. What a waste of time is my point. I will need to recruit another 30 turns worth of warlocks to get back to where i was.

You know i was listening to you until the end of your post - then unfortunatley you come across as a bit of an *** - no a huge *** actually. I can respond to your global its not hard to work out, but for the effort in your casting of it for the consequence to me specifically, it was a game breaker.

Little box sheesh, i'm getting the sneeky suspicion i called you out right the first time.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

In Blackguard's defense, I do have one reason to believe that he still qualifies for kiddy-pool games like ours. The reason is that he hasn't been a terribly effective communicator. Even in the first twenty turns of the game I felt confident that other players would come to collude against him because he had the outsider/enemy position in our group, part of which comes from being the lone water nation and part of which comes from a consistent defensive / arrogant / knowledgeable tone in his communications. I think that a very experienced dom3 player would have handled the diplomatic situation more carefully.

As a specific example, the raionalistic line-by-line response against Amadamus comes off as combative and unnecessary.

PS:
I've basically given up on this game. My offensives never got past Marignon (158) (some learnings there that I might share later on) and they cost much blood and treasure. I will keep handing in turns because I don't want to hold the game up, but I'm not spending any more time thinking or planning. My thanks to everyone who traded with me - the purpose of the trading was to outfit my army to win at least one battle against Ashdod, which they did, just barely, with three times as many commanders and twice as many troops as the opposition.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Newbie - This is my third MP game. I have played one SP. I have never played MA or Jotenheim. I have played other MP games though, and do know that diplomacy is just as important as game experience.

Burden of Time: Many Dom3 games forbid the casting of these types of global spells for many turns, this game should have done the same.

Burden of Time II: I'm certainly with those that say the game is not over yet. The question is whether we work together, or follow our individual paths to infamy.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Ok... More ideas on combating BoT:

1. I just learned that boots/elixirs won't stop your units from getting afflictions from BoT, so you can add one of the following if your units get diseased.

1) Shroud of the Battle Saint if you have an N4 or higher bless effect.
2) Ring of Regeneration
3) Lycantropos' Amulet: I'm not sure what effect the transformation has on afflictions/age, but as long as you're not planning to take the warlock into battle (e.g. blood hunters, researchers, ritual casters, forgers), you can use it. If the transformation has a significant effect on aging/afflictions this would be better than the ring.

You may get stacks and stacks of afflictions on the units provided what was said earlier that you cannot simply die of old age while wearing boots/elixir but that you can die from a disease affliction.

Gift of Health or the Chalice can fix the afflictions provided you can cast it.

I dislike the removal of particular strategies in general. People complain about them after the fact, never before. In the attempt to fix the problem, you will only become a better strategist. Be creative--even if it's an "obvious" ***** strategy. (Interesting that there is a pretender called the "_itch" queen, but I can't use that word in a forum post).

Another thing I do with diseased blood mages requires a bit of micromanagement:

Send them against an enemy PD or indie province, all the way in the back with 1 slave each and cast Blood Heal or Leech depending on your research level then retreat.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Additionally, my last turn approaches quickly. We have dealt a nasty blow to the Jotes and are happy with the performance of our armies against them. Jotunheim has a lot of castles--most of them mine since Man has a prolific castle growth rate.

I have not given up on MA Man. They are one of my favorite themed nations since Dominions 2. I'm sure they can do more than I have done with them. I do think, however, that one tweak would make them more formidable:

Adding 1 book of Air magic to the Mother of Avalon will produce an array of units that can cast Thunderstrikes or possibly a 3rd random (AN) book with maybe 50% chance would be cool. Possibly just widening the array out a bit giving them 50(AN) x 2 and 100(AN).


Adding Death as a possible book choice for Crones random books.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I agree with the comment above about "the jury is still out" on if I'm a noob or not. I don't have any idea of how I rank. My early success was due mostly to being next to AI player. I assumed everyone would see R'leyh propaganda for what it was.

I am losing quite a few commanders, but I want to keep playing just to see what R'leyh does, so I can play better next time.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

well, what I do in this game will be much harder to do in order games, as the map would be very different and most other games won't be in vanilla, so clams would also be out the window. but yeah, I do have some plans for you, and I guess you will be able to learn something from them...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Learn something? Gee your a piece of work! I'll tell you what ive learned bigshot

If i want to play a game that you are not in then i'll play a non newb game. You make it you point to let us in on the secret that you know how to play, so take on some real competition.

I'm in two games at present - enough for now. But he next one i join will be a regular players game... why? because i don't think its good that new players to this great game should be used as experiments for better players.

You on the other hand, a craven individual intent of bashing the newb to inflate your ego - well, what an unfortunate set of circumstances that new talent has to first wade through a tiresome set of sermons from a tiresome braggard such as yourself.

Do what you must to teach Abysia a lesson and help me be a better player - yawn.

I don't know what it is, but i can't shake the impression i get of you - a chronic masterbater with delusions of grandure...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I appreciate there are counters to these things - However i am playing a nation with no nature at all, so there goes those options... The previous owner of Aby created an 'interesting' pretender!

I appreciate its par for the course and Abysia has a huge vulnerability to BoT - but, if you lost all your mages in one go with no means of recourse, i'm sure you would atleast perhaps even a little, be slightly miffed.

But it is what it is.

I'm told by BG he is about to single me out for some special tutoring so i'm interested in seeing what our resident all star champion has up his sleave...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Attention Nations of Stackers...

It is obiously that the potential rightful ruler of this world must be born of its lands and not from the depraved depths of its oceans - another world of fish and lesser forms.

The fish have already declared war upon us - the cowardly spell set over the skys by the lothesome aquatics demonstrates their intentions to devour this world and its people.

I understand that some of the great nations are embroiled in noble wars with their neighbours, i understand that animosities may run deep and rivalries perhaps bitter.

However, The threat posed by the fish people is to us all and therefore must be stopped by us all before we can resume our glorious wars against our noble and worthy neighbours.

I propose the heroes of the land declare a truce with their opponents and join a grand coalition to combat the vile submariners and rid the world of their rotton stench.

Ashdod, you have been constantly wronged by these aliens - You understand their menace - their constant cowardly raiding.

A combined war against the crustacions is limited by the map and made difficult, but the combined genius of the righful pretenders of this realm would undoubtedly formulate a final solution for this undeserving form of life which will never be satisfied until all the lands are poisoned by their malace, their cowerdice and malcontent.

Nations of the World Unite with Abysia and let us join in a glorius and eminently honorable alliance, to rid Stackers of the alien ursupers who lie uncontested in the oceans building formidable instruments of evil, and as already demonstrated will unleash them with no hesitation. Such contempt for us all must be destroyed!

What say you?

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

...I was not aware mages-turned-werewolves retained their magic skills.

If so, that's kinda neat. Mostly academic, but neat.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Epic drama is epic. Ok, its not monkey PD epic, but that kind of epic doesn't come along very often.

Anyway, BG is most certainly not a vet. (Heck, I'm not even sure I qualify as a vet.) But he's been playing for ~3 months. Seriously, that's still new.

What BG does do that I don't think I've seen any of the other players in this game do is he chats with people who are vets or varying degrees of lesser experience on IRC, asks questions, and gets quality advice and information about the game from people who have been playing much longer than him.

There are also many strategy guides on this forum. They are available for anyone to read. I have reason to believe BG has read at least some of them. It doesn't have to be about the nation you're playing, reading a good strategy guide (example: many of Baalz's guides - I might recommend his EA Caelum, MA Oceania, and LA Atlantis guides as examples I recall enjoying) can give you a new perspective on many spells and where and when they work. An intelligent player can extrapolate out of the specific nation context and synthesize this knowledge into other contexts.

Anyway, Blackguard has made good use of the resources at his disposal to acquire knowledge beyond his experience. Disparaging him for that seems unwarranted.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

yes, you learn something new everyday. there's nothing wrong with learning, heck it's part of human nature! I've learned quite a bit myself from this game, and it's not even over yet, unlike the picture you're trying to present, so I'll surely learn a lot more. if you don't learn anything from this game than it is because you choose not to learn anything from it, not because you couldn't.

no, the secret is not "how to play", the secret is the strategy I devised for this game, which you guys allowed me to execute almost perfectly... there's so much you guys could have done to stick some sticks into my wheels but you didn't, so I just used what the game(and players) gave me... also, stop with this "you're a vet" crap, read Squirrelloid's post, read rdonj's post, these are some of the people I chat with regularly on IRC and played a few games with, so they know me much better than any of you. and they say in their own words(with no reason to lie) that I'm only here for around 3 months and that I'm certainly not a vet, so don't take my word for it, take theirs...

you can do whatever you want, we all have the freedom to choose our course of action. however, the picture you see from this game is very flawed. people(not just myself) have been trying to show you the light, but you keep on refusing to see it. you've also opened another thread whining about my BoT, and you've got some very good answers over there as well, I intentionally restrained myself from posting in that thread btw, and will continue to do so...

wrong, if you had actually known me you'd have known that I'm very far from being a noob basher, in all games I play online, not just dominions. heck, in dominions I can't even be a noob basher even if I wanted to, as I still qualify as a noob, light intermediate at most. Squirrelloid still considers himself as intermediate and he's got so much more experience and skills than myself, just to give you the right proportions...

no, but Baalz did write a very good guide for MA Abysia, it's a shame you didn't read it before playing this game as MA Abysia... Baalz's guides are very famous, and for good reason. personally I greatly enjoyed his MA Abysia guide despite never playing them in MP yet...

this impression of yours is very very flawed, but don't listen to me, listen to the other people in here who are trying to show you the light, as you obviously despise me so much for whatever reason...

and here is a classic that shows exactly what I've been talking about:
no nature? so what? you do realize that nature mages are *the* most common indy mages around, right...? all those Tribal Shamans, Druids(the indy type not Marverni's), even Lizard Shamans(S1N1), not to mention more quality indies like the Lore Masters and Enchantresses(random picks from all paths, so perfect diversifying tool if you luck into finding them). so really, complaining that you don't have natural access to nature just shows how lackluster the effort you've put in this game was, and that you're nothing but a whiny brat who doesn't even try to deal with the situation at hand, you prefer to whine about it...

a vulnerability that could have easily been solved, not to mention that doing so in advance would have benefited you in other ways besides just countering BoT...

when did I say I'll single you out for anything? last time I checked my comment was about Ashdod, who seems like he's actually willing to learn something, so I simply said that what I have planned for him would probably open his eyes a bit to some other possibilities...

I'll ask you again, please stop this totally unjustified crusade of yours against me and start to look in the mirror. you're not the victim here but the villain, and many people are trying to help you. it's just that you refuse to acknowledge their help and let yourself be blinded by this unjustified rage of yours instead of acting with even a little common sense.

sorry but I just had to defend myself against your blunt attacks and foul attitude.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Both of you calm down. You're both getting way too personal over a GAME. We're here to have fun! While I admit I am a bit surprised at the amount of diplomacy that has gone on, which can tend to sour things between people when treaties are broken and such, I'm certainly not going to hold anything anyone does in this game against them. Heck, this game is designed around the concept that only one nation can be standing at the end, so we shouldn't be surprised that someone does whatever it takes to win, including seeking out of game help from veterans and guides and such. I know I have been reading up on my nation on the forums/wiki, and playing some SP games as them to see what I'm doing wrong/right.

As for a coalition, I'm sorry guys, but if I sign that R'leyh is just going to kill me right off, me being his weaker neighbor. I'm pretty happy in my forts weathering this Burden of Time business.

Now if you want some REAL competition from me, then you'll have to come play the competitive game I actually am good at, but it's quite a different genre.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

oh, you play league of legends too? :P
started playing that like a month ago, being free and all ;) but unfortunately I have too much lag throughout most of the day so I only play at night or early morning, and on the European server... still not very good at it but I'm getting better.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

My post on the other forum wasnt a whinge, it was posing the question on the inclusion of certain spells - no need to refrain from posting in it.

In case you forget, i didnt build my pretender - indeed Abby had staled the first 4 turns before i took them over. It took a huge amount of fiddle farting around to craft a strategy given the crimping i suffered at teh begining, and you think its as easy as that to just completley change course and implement a whole new strategy based around druids when the one i went with was just coming to fruition?

To cap it off - that said strat just fell over with BoT... seeing as you are quoting from the other thread you will see that Burnsaber suggested that BoT meant lights out for Abby. It was seriously devestating!

That is my point! Nature has its own recourse to aging problems but i went the blood route as thats that card i had to play - boots of youth did nothing to protect my mages.

I apologise for turning this into a moan fest and for thinking you were talking about me when you alluded to handing out the lessons.

The frustration i have is that it feels like the cat has jumped on my month long game of War in the East and the counters have scattered all over the floor...

Anyways, your right Freykin - storm in a tea cup.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I would, of course, be interested in joining anyone in fighting the squishy fishies.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

I'll be cheerleading from the distant sidelines, mostly. There's not a whole lot I can do directly; I'm a bit short on astral CASTERS (got a few I'm carefully nursing in an undisclosed location) and most of my other stuff doesn't work so good under the sea.

You got plenty of moral support, though. And me refraining from eviscerating Abysia when he's down. ;)

Speaking of which, you two (Nau and Ama) should be talking, if you're not already. See if you can come to an amicable agreement for when Shin stops twitching.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Twitching?

That makes me sound like a meth burnout or a half-eviscerated mouse under a cat's paw. Couldn't you come up with something a little more dignified?

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

The mouse is exactly the image I was looking for, but how about "breathes his last"?

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Just tested:

Lycanthropos' Amulet removes Disease affliction and cures "old age" when it activates.

Any mage you use it on becomes ritual-only due to the "Gone Berserk" effect, but since the disease disappears when it activates it actually makes a more robust ritual caster mage. I was using these on Crones with MA Man. The non-disease afflictions remain after transformation, so you might eventually want a healer, but this would make old age less of a concern for nations like Abysia. 2N required to make means that if all you have is Wolf Tribe Shamans you might have to empower nature by 1, but very worth the time. Any mage with a disease gets an amulet.

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

Bandar Log need a sub (holidays => 05/07 - 20/07) if you know someone...

Re: STACKERS, newbie game, (started)
 

cwkjc: with a little bit of luck, no you won't. :angel