Best way to lose a battle...

Rookierookie · #1 April 28th, 2009, 03:44 PM

F6D6N6 Lord of the Summer Plague vs Oceania chaff army sieging friendly fortress of 200+ chaff. Pretender equipped with Unquenched Sword, Vine Shielf, Bone Armor, Boots of Caius the Druid, Wraith Crown, Ring of Regeneration and Elixir of Life, 540HP with GoH, Awe +2.

Pretender attacks and annihilates Oceania army. Oceania routs, but 50+ units stay on battlefield due to fatigue. Pretender runs around bashing heads of unconscious chaff.

Battle reaches turn 50. I lose battle.

And that was not the best part of it. Because the pretender had gone berserk, he didn't rout, and at the end of the battle died. Elixir of Life never kicks in, of course.

I think I'll reach for the "Create New Game" button.

MaxWilson · #2 April 28th, 2009, 04:18 PM

Ouch. Berserk + Unquenched sword + hordes of chaffy enemies is a nasty combination. My condolences.

-Max

sansanjuan · #3 April 28th, 2009, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rookierookie

F6D6N6 Lord of the Summer Plague vs Oceania chaff army sieging friendly fortress of 200+ chaff. Pretender equipped with Unquenched Sword, Vine Shielf, Bone Armor, Boots of Caius the Druid, Wraith Crown, Ring of Regeneration and Elixir of Life, 540HP with GoH, Awe +2.

Pretender attacks and annihilates Oceania army. Oceania routs, but 50+ units stay on battlefield due to fatigue. Pretender runs around bashing heads of unconscious chaff.

Battle reaches turn 50. I lose battle.

And that was not the best part of it. Because the pretender had gone berserk, he didn't rout, and at the end of the battle died. Elixir of Life never kicks in, of course.

I think I'll reach for the "Create New Game" button.

That's a sad story indeed. There are a number of threads on increasing the 50 turn limit for similar reasons.
-ssj

Rookierookie · #4 April 28th, 2009, 07:12 PM

For the extra poignant feel, I would add that he also had *four* globals up.

Redeyes · #5 April 28th, 2009, 07:14 PM

Seems taking your pretender to the frontlines was a risk you shouldn't have taken

Rookierookie · #6 April 28th, 2009, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeyes

Seems taking your pretender to the frontlines was a risk you shouldn't have taken

The thing is, I never considered him at risk for this battle, and in fact he wasn't - at the end of the battle he had zero fatigue and some 60HP higher than the 540 he started with, having wiped out almost the entire Oceania army, and any remaining stragglers already dying from fatigue. Frankly, I could not think of a way to win that battle more completely.

If he got hit by an ethereal crossbow or something, there's really nothing I can say about it, but this? (And plus, if he DID got hit by an ethereal crossbow, he had the Elixir on him...)

Redeyes · #7 April 28th, 2009, 07:36 PM

I wouldn't say there is no risk beforehand when your pretender ends up dead...

You knew (or should have known) that your pretender was a berserker.
Berserkers die when the time-limit goes out, like Golems (iirc), someone paralyzed, or others who don't rout.

Perhaps not as apparent as what happens when you rout and have no territory to retreat to, yet a risk all the same.

MaxWilson · #8 April 28th, 2009, 08:08 PM

I wouldn't put it quite as harshly as Redeyes did, but in a game as complex as Dom3, statistical risk usually takes a backseat to real uncertainty. A pretender is less likely to be killed by something you anticipated but dismissed as unlikely (the fluke attack that blinds and cripples your pretender so the chaff can swarm him) as by something you didn't realize existed ("I didn't realize fatigue allows critical hits which halve Protection!" or "I had no idea the enemy was going to spam me with Living Water from a W9 caster").

Creating a new game is a completely fair thing to do--call the prior one a "test game" which ended up teaching you some new rules. And don't use the Unquenched Sword or Rigor Mortis in any battle where you have units you can't afford to lose, unless you have some way (e.g. Fire Storm) of guaranteeing that you won't lose. And even then, be prepared to be wrong.

-Max

Dragar · #9 April 28th, 2009, 08:15 PM

Just be glad it happened in a single player game!

Maraxus · #10 April 29th, 2009, 09:02 AM

I would really say, that's a bad design choise. Sure you can say: "You should have known the risk, it's your fault." But once you accept, that anything can happen any time, you can just stop playing the game, roll a die and be happy it it shows a 6.

It's the compromise that "something has to happen to prevent infinite battles" - but it's a bad choice. Something a little more complex could have felt a lot better in the context of "little people that fight for you".