Ulm SP AAR- Swords Vs. Sorcery

[boltcutter]

OK, turn 42-43:

A series of "suspicious events" occurs: Two arrows from the sky- one killing a smith, the other injuring a Commander- an earthquake in T'ien Chi [destroying my temple there] and 1/5 of the population moving out of one of my minor provinces.

Caelum captures the Desert Eye, cutting me off from taking the last T'ien Chi province. Hopefully they will clean that up soon- it's still giving me -7 and -8 dominions in places.

Also, Caelum creates a SECOND global enchantment- the one that gives them millions of Air gems. They must be destroyed, and fast.
I reorganize my armies into one Army, plus a "floating reserve". There is some chaos and starvation but it is brought under control.
I shift my "economic warriors" over to adjacent provinces- the unrest numbers are nice, but the number of patrolling troops is getting a little high.

Shopping- I recruit three Smiths, increase my research- I am two turns from Conjuration 5, and [many] from Conjuration 6. I recruit one or two spies and a Commander or two on general principles, then buy Battleaxemen. I have concluded that the Black Plate of Ulm is basically so good that shields really don't add much except encumbrance, and My troops need to deliver faster kills.

Tactics- I am reorganizing my anti-Caelumite troops. There is no "front" as such, dealing with winged troops, so I huddle my Smiths together, surrounded by a large group of bodyguards, and put the other half of my melee troops up front to [hopefully] reach the archers before they do too much damage. My regular archers are going to have to fend for themselves, I fear; I do have two cavalry in the rear set to "attack flyers".

Strategy- I am pleased to find out that, although there is a huge Pythian army, they have essentially no magical research. I anticipate some ugly times taking the capital of Caelum- hopefully I will be able to storm the castle before my leadership is decimated by arrows. I have about 50 "soldiers" worth of siege warfare. If I could reach Pythium directly, I would attack them next. As it is, the enormous lizard threat is probably My next worry.

[boltcutter]

Ivarr considered the last four years of long, slogging battle as he sat by the fire in the main hall. The grim battles against the lich of T'ien Chi. The months of despair when it seemed that his Lord Ulmon was dead, and the news was all bloody and bad. Then the return of his Lord, the crushing of T'ien Chi, and the storming of the castle at Caelum. Hardly a castle, he thought, looking out at the wooden parapets with no ladders, scorched and broken . Giant mechanicals worked, tireless, repairing those walls. "Better them than us," was all he said to the new men around him. It was not exactly clear what he meant.

Turns 44-49:

Caelum is besieged, then stormed. There are 140-ish troops inside a Mausoleum, and it takes me some time to get the siege train into place. The battle is brutal- they have Air Shields and Confusion, we have three Crushers, dozens of superheavy troops, and enough Smiths to cast Blade Wind over 20 times, delivering over 1000 individual sharp things to the enemy. As always, their spearmen take a few jabs, get nowhere, and rout. From here it is merely a matter of cleanup.

My spies are starting to trickle into Pythium- I have only two there, but three more are on the way. I have learned that if I build unrest, the AI will move a fairly large army into that province- would it be an exploit to use spies to move armies away from my route of attack, or would humans respond likewise?

Shopping: I am now making around 500 Gold a turn over my expenses. I can finally start buying what I feel I deserve, instead of robbing Dominion to buy Province Defense. I have nearly enough Smiths, and have started the luxury of an actual cavalry unit. [I built three horsemen, long ago, and the second just died storming the gate at Caelum. ]

Planning: I need to finish off Caelum, and then start [hopefully] on both C'Tissan fronts with a large supply of angry Trolls.

Scores, etc:

There are basically five Pretenders left worthy of the name. Pangaea's pretender, a blind Cyclops [note to self: be careful with your one and only eye] is dead, and they hold only a couple of underwater provinces and their capital. Caelum is crushed, with a few dozen troops and a handful of provinces left.

In general, the top three are Pythium, Vanheim, and C'Tis. Vanheim and Pythium seem to be carving up Jotunheim[ good neighbors, for evil deathcult heretic unbelievers.]

Pythium is particularly low on research, but high on Dominion [they're at 3, I'm at 1, and the others are at 2.] Other than that it's pretty much a 3-way tie for first.

[RedRover]

Arralen is right. Listen to Arralen.

Priest morale effects start at H3 (that should teach me to check instead of relying on memory!).

On the Swords of Sharpness, I could have sworn I read that they weren't magic (in a thread long ago), but several days of searching hasn't turned up a reference, so go with Arralen.

Another cool thing about research-boost items is that different types stack (a feather and a lantern give +9).

On dominion, you do know that five Temples gives you a +1 (to a maximum of dominion 10).

Good going against Caelum--give the lizards heck!

[Blofeld]

RedRover said:
Arralen is right. Listen to Arralen.

On the Swords of Sharpness, I could have sworn I read that they weren't magic (in a thread long ago), but several days of searching hasn't turned up a reference, so go with Arralen.

Sword of sharpness - an item made from 5 earth gems in one of 2 variants (one- and two-handed) is a magic weapon.

Weapons of sharpness - a combat spell gives affected
units armor-piercing, but not magical weapons.

Good AAR, keep it up!

[boltcutter]

I'm not worried about Dominion as long as I have a major advantage on research- I don't think faith and legions can compete with dozens of uparmored Trolls and hundreds of flying knives. I have enough Smiths that I probably can do without spending the extra 30 Earth gems on a King- or maybe I only need one, for the starter set.

I find that my real enemy in the later game is distraction. . . once the game gets really big, it requires more work for each turn, and more "where was I?" time for the first turn of the night. I renamed all my Smiths to composers, and that helps me find them. Any tips to help coordinating my spies would be appreciated.

[Endoperez]

RedRover said:
On dominion, you do know that five Temples gives you a +1 (to a maximum of dominion 10).

However, it doesn't increase EVERYTHING:

Kristoffer O
Colonel
Re: Dominion Spreading effects [Re: Huzurdaddi]
#329648 - Sun Feb 06 2005 11:45 AM

Checked the dominion spread: The chance of a temple generating a possible increase is dependent on the initial dominion of the god. The chances of an increase from the god himself or his prophet is dependent on number of temples though.

Thus the effectivity of temples are determined by the godly power of the pretender and the effectivity of the pretender is dependent on his number of adherents.

This applies to blood sacrifices as well. Make sure you have high dominion if you are Mictlan. Later temples will not have much effect apart from a higher max lvl.

The max dominion and the ability to lower enemy dominion is dependent on temple numbers.

So, temples won't affect dominions spreading, except for your pretender, prophet, and possibly Juggernauts. The maximum increases, as well as resistance to enemy dominion, but the speed of spreading doesn't.

EDITED another reply in here. It took a while to find that post!
Boltcutter

I find that my real enemy in the later game is distraction. . . once the game gets really big, it requires more work for each turn, and more "where was I?" time for the first turn of the night. I renamed all my Smiths to composers, and that helps me find them. Any tips to help coordinating my spies would be appreciated.

Check the new turn after you have generated it. You don't actually have to do anything, indeed, it's better if you can stay from doing it. And if you find that you already made everything for that turn, at least don't host it. Then, when you return, you recall your plans (that you never completed as you left), or see what you were doing (if your Magic Resistance was low).

Also, doing fewer turns might help to remember your plans. During the thrice-a-week game of Dom:PPP (that lasted over turn 100!), checking the turn always set the wheels rolling, and I let the ideas to mature for a while. Never really tested it in a Single-player game, though. AI never gives such surprises as humans... and the best of all, you aren't afraid the AI will quess your plans even when its impossible. But, you know, a human just might quess that your rainbow pretender has to move through one uncastled province with only few bodyguards...

[Morkilus]

I've been enjoying the AAR; I really like Ulm, too! I'm curious if you'll ever bring Ulmon back out of retirement; sufficiently equipped with the latest in high-tech gear. Have you been investing in any other magic paths?

[boltcutter]

We have been occupying Ourselves, since Our return, with various army-feeding miracles- magical wineskins, summer swords, and the like. We have been equipped with a flaming sword and matching flaming shield by the Smiths, and have built a ring of regeneration, but We are respectful of Our worshippers and try to avoid gaudy displays of magic.

Also, as the lands around Us are filled with unbelievers, heretics and pagans, We feel that it might be . . . less than safe to travel without a strong escort, such as twenty or thirty Hammermen and perhaps a few Trolls.

(My dominion doesn't really extend into enemy lands, and fighting in enemy dominion can be surprising hazardous. Regeneration doesn't help much when you have only 30 HP.)

[boltcutter]

Turns 50-53: Relative Calm.

We clean up some of the remaining provinces of Caelum. We discover the secrets of contacting Trolls, and acquire 12 for the First Army and 16, plus a Troll King, for what will become Second Army. The Trolls, as predicted earlier in this thread by thejeff, are expensive in upkeep. We have a gift for spending gold as fast as it comes in. . .We have also built a small unit of cavalry- I have been impressed with the previous unit and hope these are even better.

It seems Caelum, like Pangaea, will be driven into the oceans and remain there, safe. . . until We develop techniques for invading even there.

Our spies are creeping through the lands of Pythium, spreading dissent with small visible success

Magically, We have pushed heavily to increase our knowledge of Construction- next turn, We will have several lightless lanterns. We now have a lab and a library, and a single Sage [unfortunately, one with fire magic] to research- soon, we will be able to free all our Smiths for the armies.

Our enemies are still large and ominous.

Jotunheim is near the end of their strength- they have taken some lands back from Pythium, but are down to a handful of provinces and their army is weak, primarily undead .

Pythium is growing ever stronger, and slowly developing some magical might. We are tempted to turn aside from the relatively constant C'tissan enemy to strike them first.

C'tis has some unexpected dangers- aside from the hundreds or thousands of their troops, they have one or more provinces that are sinks of disease; two of my spies have fallen victim already.

Vanheim is the most disturbing to Us- I know little of their armies, I have not seen them in battle, and they are powerful in both magic and materiel. Their armies can grow tremendously strong without starving, and who knows what evil sorcery they can muster?

Our current plans are unchanged: strike hard and fast, from two directions, at the C'tissian threat. Once they are reduced, continue on into Pythium. Last, Vanheim. Possibly a third force will be mustered, to clean out the oceans. We are developing large stocks of various gems; We may enhance Our power in water, and build Tomes of Water Breathing. Possibly my Sages will produce another answer. Come the time, Caelum and Pangaea's false gods will be cleansed from this desert earth.