Honestly, this end (not the victory itself) took me by surprise too. But if Earcaraxe felt Bandar Log could not fight back at me, then I think he is right, we should rather move on to another game than spend hours on this one with no surprise concerning the conclusion.
Now let me rewind the scenario of this game from Agartha's perspective:
1. Origins: a long-sought revenge
I love MA Agartha thematically and I have played with them twice, two epic failures. Then they were my main opponent in my last game (the one with the AAR), allowing me to learn a lot on the nation's strengths and weaknesses as of CBM 1.8x. And then CBM bought in new changes, which I believed could make the nation very competitive at all phases of the game.
I had designed and tested at least 10 different pretenders for this nation during the last months, and I believed I had found the optimum according to my play-style. So I thought, let's be stubborn and make one more attempt! Let's finally show to the world what this nation is capable of!
2. Early game: luck and martial prowess shape a world power
I had asked for a hand-made distribution of starting positions to avoid unbalances, such as having a nation with more expansion room. Ironically, I may have been the main beneficiary of this unbalance... This should not hide the fact that the new Agartha can now be very competitive at early expansion, and I quickly secured key choke points, effectively turning luck into actual competitive advantage.
My position was probably marginally better than most nations', and not really better than Bandar Log's. At this point, R'lyeh made the mistake to NOT expand in some territories I had kept within my choke points, but accessible by sea. Instead, they attacked Ulm with the consequences we know. Dear, beloved Ulm! While they were loosing their Wyrm, I could quietly finish my expansion undisturbed.
2. Early-mid game: the God of Primordial Waters goes wet
I quickly assessed that water and R'lyeh were to be my main area of early expansion:
- the nation was too weak
- I am good underwater
- R'lyeh's overall aggressive behavior meant that they were unlikely to find allies;
- conquering the seas would position me in a very interesting strategic position, as unilaterally threatening everyone while no other amphibious nation could really hope to attack me there.
- Plus it was thematic for my Pretender!
R'lyeh helped me a lot by lunching ill-planned attacks which allowed me destroying his assets before I started the real attack, and having a legitimate casus belli. When I lunched the real attack, R'lyeh was already desperate and turned AI almost at the time I ordered Pale Ones to dive: war was won before the first decisive battle.
3. Mid game: cold war with Bandar Log
By then, Bandar Log was the clear contender. OK I dominated, but it appeared as a hard nut to crack nonetheless. He had won the race to most artifacts (for a turn or so, I even forged 3 of them which came in his possession because he forged them the same turn!), he had 2 of the 4 gem gen globals, and I was afraid at his astral power. Now every turn I would ask myself: how to defeat him? Shall I attack now, or not? Attacking a lesser contender, at this point, was out of question as Bandar Log would have immediately allied with him against me, and i wanted, if possible, to fight against BL alone.
Then the miracle happened: BL's pretender devoured by a horror, while he was the global caster! With this small micro-management mistake, I think the game balance drifted very strongly and very suddenly. I assessed the cost to be huge: lost of a useful artifact I could steal, of a rainbow pretender for whom scales had been butchered, and of 2 major globals! Considering the cost of all artifacts forged and of the globals, I estimated that at this point, BL could not have developed many more war assets. Artifacts are good but none is like an atomic bomb, they need to be deployed in a full integrated force. OK the globals were immediately cast again, as in fear of the plots being taken (I was ready to cast the minor astral one next turn to take a slot). That was impressive, but I estimated the cost to be huge, certainly paid by alchemizing gems carefully saved for other purposes. While I was summoning/forging at full speed... So the time for attack had come.
4. "Late game": a decisive war without decisive battle
Again, a war won without any battle. I designed an attack plan from 5 directions, fully using my access to the seas and teleporting abilities of Agartha and water magic. At the same time, I kept my most special weapons such as my Golem-Prophet and another customized one to counter a counter-offensive, especially for fort defense. But these weapons will never been used. I think BL, at this point, from what I see now, was already overwhelmed by the more "conventional" armies I could throw at him offensively. Bad luck with a stale and he lost all hope.
5. Conclusion: "A victory without glory?"
This game is a strange one for me! The first clear, indisputable victory (the one with MA Ermor is more like "we are all tired and he somehow dominates", this one being "nobody can defeat him")... won without any major engagement, without any major victory in the battle field! Never was a large Agarthan army fully deployed against a large opponent. It seems like all resistance melted away the minute Pale One legions started marching to war. Satisfactory as in any victory being satisfactory, but a bit frustrating also... I wish at least one epic battle had been fought with Bandar Log, somehow legitimizing my victory in the battle field... Also I could not test the more special weapons I prepared for dire situations. It never happened in this game that a mage followed my script to use a gem, due to the lack of opposition!
Victory with 0 gem used in battle... :-0
It seems like I played on the strategic level only, as in a Risk/Diplomacy game, as if battles did not matter to determine victory in D3. I guess I will play MA Agartha once more soon to challenge this approach again, hoping to fight many bloody disputed battles!
Finally, thanks to all fellow players for the nice game, good spirit and enjoyable role-playing :-) At least I enjoyed looking at others' epic battles!
Re: Fame and Riches - game started, AR-s coming in.
Linear Mode
