MP: Standards - MA Game (running)

[Calahan]

Hello everyone.

First up, I'd like to apologise to all the players in this game for my sudden disappearance last October. The short version of a very long story is that I went to Greece due to work, and while there I unfortunately ended up in a rather nasty RTA (Road Traffic Accident) on day one. Beat that for a poor start!!! This was then the cue for me to spend one month in a Greek hospital for myself , and a further two months at the hospital looking after a close relative who was involved in the same accident. Credit where credit's due. This episode did a bang up job of turning my life on it's head Thankfully everything turned out more or less ok in the end, but it certainly took ages for things to return to anything resembling normal.

Anyway, enough of all that (since I've certainly had enough of it the past six months) and back to the business at hand, which is for me to say sorry once again. This time I'm sorry for depriving you all of what was shaping up to be a really great game. I haven't had chance to go through all the game thread yet, so not sure how the game panned out, but I'm guessing that the 'Big Bad' dropping out must have brought about a fairly disappointing change to the games growing flavour. No idea how this game would've developed had I not encountered a real life "Doom Truck" (tramping+fear effects) but the fun as always would have been in finding out Although it's difficult to imagine how 'Lord Of The Rings' would have been as good if Sauron had simply disappeared when things were getting interesting at the start of the 'Two Towers' book , with the rest of the story revolving around how the Elves and Man shook handbags at each other, while the Hobbits talked about what makes a good breakfast You just can't beat a good old classic 'everyone unite against the big evil bad guy' story And who knows, one day the bad guy might actually win

Finally, I'd just like to thank everyone who played in this game, with an extra thanks to AreaOfEffect for organising the whole thing and coming up with the map. Also thanks to Llamabeast of course for his excellent server. I hope to, and am looking forward to, playing in games with you all again soon now that I'm back. I should be around for a good long while as well, so no need to fear me dropping out of future games. Since I certainly had no intention of leaving in the first place. I can safely say that MP Dominions is the first time I've enjoyed computer gaming since the heydays of the late 80's/early 90's. Though I do of course reserve the right to disappear again in the future should I have another encounter with a truck-driving colour-blind Albanian. But that's just common sense isn't it

[AreaOfEffect]

Welcome back! Nice to see you alive, if not completely well. We sure did miss you.

I must say the ending of the game came to a screeching halt. We subbed in a player after a series of stales and it just wasn't the same. I rolled over a rather large army of yours using a series of battlefield buffs and stellar cascade spam. That, for me, was the last interesting thing that I remember. I guess I could dig up the replay if you want to see.

We unfortunately declared the game over and nobody won. Sad part is that the match up between me and Jim would have made for quite the show in my opinion.

[Calahan]

Thanks for the friendly message AoE Only had chance to lightly browse the forums so far, but I must say it feels so so good to be back

Yeah, from reading the last few posts on this thread it certainly seems like this game just died and lost most of its meaning after I disappeared. Makes me feel even worse about it now despite it being out of my control. And what I'm sorriest most about is the huge lost potential that went with it I was predicting many epic battles ahead, and was so looking forward to the challenge of being labelled the 'Enemy of All' and squaring up against all the other nations from my lofty position With my loyal (I hoped) flying sidekick on hand of course

And thanks for the offer of seeing some of the battles. But don't think I could emotionally handle seeing all my lovely Adons put to the sword The pain. The pain.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Calahan

You just can't beat a good old classic 'everyone unite against the big evil bad guy' story And who knows, one day the bad guy might actually win

With Sarumon leading Caelum to help crush the armies of men, I think evil had a good shot, since I was insulating almost your entire border, and had managed to keep anyone from attacking me for "protecting" you.

Originally Posted by AreaOfEffect

We unfortunately declared the game over and nobody won. Sad part is that the match up between me and Jim would have made for quite the show in my opinion.

It was looking to be exciting. I really got screwed early on (placed in the center, post expansion gem income of 5A and 4W, or the other way around), but I converted my 3Magic scale into a strong mid-game push. I think you would have won a 1v1 (though it was more of an FFA by that point!), but I was starting to develop some very interesting tactics with Caelum, so it likely would have been a very bloody clash either way.


Anyway, glad you're back and okay, Cal! Was really worried for you, man. Let that Albanian's insurance company know that your MP PBEM ally wants to sue for mental anguish and loss of victory compensation.