I also wouldn't mind knowing who the C'tis player was.... oh wait, it was me
Here's a general AAR for my campaign. Not as exciting as the scoregraphs might suggest.
Turns 1-20.
I won't say where I started, but will say it wasn't the best of spots. Expansion probably went too well, or maybe more accurately, I was surprised by how slow everyone else expanded (since I didn't think my expansion was that fast). This was also the first game I had played from the start for around a year, and as such I got caught a little ring-rusty with some do's and don'ts of the early game. With one of the don'ts being...
"Don't tempt Hinnom by putting fort shaped carrots on your border, as their forts are so expensive that they are mostly always going to look to capture their second fort rather than building their own."
So Hinnom caught me a little by surprise when they attacked. I knew they were a threat, but thought my large empire would dissuade them from attacking. But it was probably my large empire that actually attracted them. That, and my amusingly shaped carrots
Somewhat unsurprising was the other 3-4 jackals who ganged me immediately after Hinnom struck to grab various chunks of my empire.
The war with Hinnom started just about as badly as possible for me, as a drunken scripting error saw my forces correctly abandon my distant carrot in order to re-group, but somehow my Pretender failed to get the memo, as he stayed behind on his own to get slaughtered. And this bad start soon got much worse when I discovered that I had no viable defence against their trampling chariots. Since some of the usual trampling counters like tangle vines or sleep or smite etc, all failed in tests because they always tended to target the Dawn Guards who have more HP, and were able to fit two in a square due to being size 3. I only had one fight with Hinnom in open field, in which I threw half my mages and just about every troop I had (150 ish) at their small-ish army of Tramplers and Dawn Guards, and I was simply trampled to death having inflicted only minimum loses. Since the Dawn Guards were more than happy to be tangled or put to sleep if it meant the Chariots had free reign to do their thing. After this encounter I knew my campaign in this game was going to be a short one
I have also reserved a special message for the Pangaea player(s) in this game. I'm not sure who was playing Pangaea at the various times, but I have split them up in-game wise based on the two attacks against me (of course it could easily be the same player both times). The player who decided to attack me first of all takes the award for being the stupidest player I have ever played with. As that player joined the ganging against me, and also decided the best thing to do was to simply sit on my 2nd fort with their army for 15+ turns, which achieved absolutely nothing apart from giving Hinnom an easy ride by preventing me from counter-attacking them, and ruining Pan's own chances by deluding themselves into thinking they were actually doing something. Oh, and a general strategic hint (for all players), when arguably the most powerful nation of the age rushes one of the weakest, you don't make the powerful nation's life easy by gangbanging the weak guy. As all that happens then is the powerful guy wins their war quicker, meaning they turn on the next weak guy quicker. Which is usually on of those who joined the ganging (so in effect, joining a strong nation in a ganging as a weak nation simply tends to hasten your own end). And the only reason that didn't happen in this game is that the weak guy unexpectedly managed to hold for a long time. (which is certainly not the norm)
Turns 20-50
Can't remember how many cap storms I survived against Hinnom during this time, think it was 3 or 4. But then Hinnom's world got rocked by a fish I can't name right now, but their intervention allowed me to eventually break the siege of my cap and start reclaiming provinces. Also during this time, "Stupid Pan Player the 1st" had finally decided to storm my second fort, failed, and at a cost of them losing their God, global, and a load of troops. I lost a lot of troops as well, but my game was already over, whereas Pan still had some chances if "stupid Pan Player the 1st" hadn't been such a strategic moron.
I guess my own personal highlight came somewhere around this time, as I actually managed to re-take enough provinces to overtake my Hinnom nemesis on most of the scoregraphs
And for a few turns I thought I would be able to rebuild at least enough to ensure I put up a decent fight for when the big un-named Hinnom eating fish inevitability came knocking on my door. But that wasn't to be, as at this moment "Stupid Pangaea Player the 2nd" decided to enter stage left.
So picture the scene. Circling overhead you have a big nasty fish that eats Hinnom's for breakfast, while below trying to hide and build barricades on the sea floor are two battered and bruised little fish, one who has been crippled fighting giants, the other crippled by their own stupidity. So what does "Stupid Pangaea Player the 2nd" (who by the way is now the second stupidest player I have ever played with) decide to do? I know, lets have a little fish fight shall we. That must surely be a good idea!!! So back came Pan again with full force, and unsurprisingly (since I had no troops left) they managed to take the lands I had reclaimed from Hinnom, and take the fort they were so obsessed with. With the end result being that I was soon back to being locked in my capital.
Again not sure how many cap storms I survived against Pangaea (you'd be surprised how hard it is to keep count of these thing once they approach double figures) but IIRC one was a complete disaster for them as I lost literally nothing, with them losing fair chunks of personal. So this continued for a few turns until the greatest non-surprise in Dominions history happened, which is that the Hinnom eating fish decided to expand it's palate range by devouring Pangaea. Something which took next to no time to achieve, since the stupid Pangaea rulers had spent all game wasting the time and resource of their empire on profitless endeavours.
Turns 50 - The End
I probably can't say too much now, since anything I do say might impact nations still in the game. Although in truth there isn't actually that much to say. I somehow managed to survive another load of capital storms with a rag tag force lead by my resurrected but crippled God (probably pushing the total number of cap storms into double figures. Which is easily a record for me). Until, finally, one of my besiegers managed to take advantage of one of several gaping, and un-pluggable holes in my defence, to at last put me put of my misery
So ends the campaign of the lizards
Best of luck with the rest of the game everyone. Probably one of my worst performances ever, compounded by my own early scripting error (apologies to danbo for spoiling what could/should have been a more competitive war had my God been alive). But sometimes there's not that much you can do when gangbanged early, especially when one of the nations banging is arguably the strongest of the age, with your own nation being one of the weakest (especially so under hard research)
Also, a final note on fighting to the end. This is the first game where I have ever had to do it myself over a long period (the only other time I was fighting a master in proficiency, who made sure I didn't resist for long), and I really can't see why so many people complain and/or bail instead of fighting it out until the last. Time wise, all that was required was one half hour chunk to arrange fort defences, and then afterwards turns usually took less than 5 minutes, as all there was to do was summon a few troops and forge an item or two. If you only consider something fun if you are winning, then it certainly wasn't fun, but it was satisfying to repel my attackers so often. I've always hated players who turn AI and/or bail, but that feeling has only been increased after this game, since I now know for sure that once you are locked in your forts, turns take less than five minutes. But I guess those who like bailing consider spending five minutes every few days, to help other players enjoy the game more, is something that is beneath them. Who gives a crap about other players enjoyment after all.
Re: YARG2 , 24 players EA RAND game [13/24 players left]
Hybrid Mode
