Trinity - Newbie game - Finished - Avari/Ulm wins!

[Hylobius]

Thanks for the game guys and thanks to Valerius for hosting.

[Hylobius]

So, how is the grand final battle progressing?

[Ragnoff]

Several elemental royalty, a few tartarians, a few other lesser SCs and a bunch or troops have died. So far with the exceptions of a few quickly reclaimed remote attacks the war has been exclusively on Shinu soil. Ulm has also knocked down a few of my Globals and has about a 75 gem/turn lead as well as over 1K lead in gold. I do not think the issue is in doubt, I believe I will lose.

However in the 2 biggest battles we have had I have killed a great many troops and this last time 35 mages with few losses, so a few more battles like that and things could change..

However, I believe the gem lead is insurmountable, especially as the only time I had gem parity was when I had all 5 globals.

[Avari]

Yeah, I've learned a lot from the last few turns, for example that normal troops in general, and Ulm's heavy infantry in particular, are indeed quite worthless at this stage of the game :D Apparently when faced with a few dozen water elementals (thanks Caelum ;) ) and Grip of Winter for good measure, the only thing they can do is keel over and die. Losing that number of mages would make me very queasy if not for the fact that Ulm's basic smiths are not only cheap and numberless but also not very effective. Of course it could also very well be that I just have no idea how to use them effectively.

I have also learned that sometimes the random number generator is your friend after all, with my sideshow of a few Mind Hunts sniping two Water Queens (if I'm not mistaken) on the first turn of the war :) Naturally all subsequent Mind Hunts have been completely useless.

My gem lead is substantial and I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but so far I've been pretty much stumbling ahead so we shall see. In any case I hope this will be an excellent learning experience and as fun as possible for both of us :)

[iRFNA]

I figured I should leave some sort of legacy, and vengeance by proxy seemed appropriate.

[Ragnoff]

Congrats to Avari!

This turn he killed over half of my Sc, including my god, none of whom are now replaceable. With a better than 2 to 1 gem lead, huge gold lead, 3 or 4 to one SC lead and the only one of us now able to summon and equip SC's, and 4 or 5 to one active forts he has achieved a solid victory.

I was just never able to come back from Jotunheims attack, and could not convince Jotunheim that Ulm was the bigger threat! Although I eventually defeated Jotunheim, he crippled my development in the midgame

I had a great time a learned a good deal. I do hope that there is some answer to Tarts I will learn, it seems that once Ulm had the Chalice and GoH in addition to the gem/province lead there was nothing I could do, it was just a matter of time. Avari did a great job with the initial attacks, and despite several early victories on defense, Avari pressed me in enough different places that those victories could not be exploited and became meaningless.

Great Campaign Avari! Very well executed, and a well deserved victory!

[Avari]

Thank you very much for your praise :) Although I'm not sure that I would credit my campaign strategy as much as my admittedly huge lead in resources. I do agree that after the events of the last couple of turns, the outcome seems pretty clear.

As we have agreed here and in private correspondence that the game is over, I suppose Valerius can end the game on the server unless Ragnoff has second thoughts in the near future. Thank you very much to everyone for playing and to Valerius for hosting. This was an excellent intro for Dominions MP, and of course the outcome is a huge positive surprise for me :)

I think I'll write a bit about my game in case someone is interested. I struggled with my start, with poor neighbouring provinces and one of them held by independents that I couldn't figure out how to beat at that stage (blood vine druids). When Bandar Log rushed me early on, I was almost sure that I would be the first to fall. Indeed his elephants advanced all the way to my capital before I managed to research Blade Wind and destroy his army. He also killed the blood druids for me, which was nice of him.

At that time I also entered into the Ulm-Shinuyama alliance that was to last for almost the entire game. With Shinu assistance I conquered the Bandar lands relatively easily. After that it was smooth sailing for me. When C'tis attacked Shinuyama, I harassed C'tis for a bit but otherwise I had a long stretch of peace in which to build up.

I had decided to attack Pangaea, as he was big but seemed to rely on maenad hordes which I anticipated would be a soft target. Just as I was about to attack, Pangaea switched hands in the infamous AI-going scandal. I delayed my attack a bit but went ahead with it anyway. To my surprise Pangaea could not put up any resistance at all and I conquered all of the Pan lands in a very short time. Only in the very end did the new Pangaea ruler inflict a serious loss on me. His last marauding stealthy army of Pans managed to paralyze and soul slay my Earth King with Ember, Barrier and other assorted expensive gear.

After that Caelum attacked me, no doubt realizing that I would attack him anyway. His icy mountain lands fell quite rapidly as well, as he had been fighting Pan for the whole game as far as I can tell, and I was much stronger.

By this time I knew that the game would end up with me and Shinuyama duking it out, just as we had planned in the beginning ;) The only other nation left was Jotunheim, who to my relief decided to attack Shinuyama instead of me. I agree with Ragnoff that Jotun's choice quite possibly decided the game, giving me time to build up while causing great attrition to Shinuyama.

When I finally decided to break the NAP with Shinu and attack, I had a considerable lead in gem income and was summoning and equipping tartarians consistently. I had much difficulty at first with my conventional armies, but then I realized that SCs are the definite way to go. As the game now stands - and as it will end, it seems - I have snatched Gift of Health with a huge number of gems, killed the Shinuyama god and have 10+ tartarians who are making their way into Shinu territory when they are not freaking out in various ways.

In summary, I would guess that I managed to come out top in this game because of diplomacy first and a good pretender second. I had read many people say that MA Ulm has to take an awake SC pretender to survive early rushes. Despite that I chose a rainbow pretender with moderately high astral. My rainbow pretender helped in early research, and later on it made possible for me via boosters to forge and cast almost anything in the game. I reached Const8 first and got all the good artifacts. In the midgame I also conquered a site from Pan that allowed me to recruit A2S2?1 mages, which was a godsend as I was most lacking in just those paths. In the end they weren't game-changing but did help against Shinuyama with mind hunts, arrow fend and assorted other A/S goodness.

I also think I made relatively good use of Ulm's only real strength (forging). In the end I had about 15 hammers and the Hammer of the Forge Lord in constant use, although it didn't seem to me to be nearly enough at times. I also had two pairs of Rings of Wizardry and Sorcery, the +3D artifact sceptre, the Chalice, Magebane and Aegis (which were never used), a ton of assorted boosters; and of course a crapton of Lightless Lanterns, which coupled with dozens and dozens of smiths gave me a big research lead in the crucial midgame. I didn't get to cast Forge of the Ancients at any time though, as I always had more pressing needs for earth gems. I suppose putting that up would have been much more cost-effective, but such is the way of the newbie.

Well that's my perspective of this great game. It was really fun and I didn't get too worn out at any point, but I never thought it would take this long for me, and I am happy that it is over. Thanks to everyone again for a great intro into Dominions MP!

[Hylobius]

Congratulations to Avari on the win. I think Avari is correct that it was diplomacy that won the game for him. When C'tis was defeated I had to decide whether I should attack Shinu or Ulm. I knew that I had no chance to win the game, and that whoever I attacked then the other would probably win the game. I had a NAP with Ulm and Ulm had been in constant communication with me, particularly when Pan had attacked me with a NAP in place. Shinu I had little contact with, no NAP, and when I contacted him after Pan jumped me through the NAP I received no response. Also Ulm's forging was keeping my Skratti thugs geared and it did not seem right to turn on him with weapons that he had produced for me.

Thanks to Valerius for hosting, I learned a lot in this game.

[Valerius]

Thanks everyone for playing (and for the AARs - interesting to find out how things played out) and congratulations to Avari on the win! Based on your comments it looks like this game illustrated just how important diplomacy is in the game - probably even more important for a weaker nation like Ulm.

Also, just as with the recently concluded FirstBlood, I have to say you're a good group. Actually, I feel I've been very lucky with the quality of the players that participated in my trio of newbie games.

I'm glad it was a fun intro to Dominions MP and a good learning experience and I look forward to seeing you all in future games.

[Marmaduke]

Congratulations Avari, it was fun playing Bandar Log against you even if you got the upper hand!