The Artifacts Game - [ HOLY S**T MICAH WON!! ]

[WraithLord]

I'm going to officially turn down the lights on this game in the server. Bye bye artifacts, you lasted more then a year, probably made it the the guinness record of MP dom games

[Micah]

Not quite, the anniversary would have been on the 30th I believe.

[djo]

You can have the Dominions 3 record. Yarnspinners 2 in Dominions 2 ran almost 14 months.

Mistletoe is just about at month 10, with its blistering fast 6-day quick host. Graphs are off, so I have no idea if we're approaching the end of that one.

Dominions players must be among the most patient gamers in the known universe. Or stubborn.

[ano]

Qwerty also lasted nearly a year. Not for everyone though

[Wokeye]

Thanks to Wraithlord for being an excellent host! Cheers all, see you in another games sometime.

[Micah]

A short AAR for this game, given that the historic details are a bit lost to time by now:

In the Beginning, there was Bogarus, and Micah saw that it was NOT Good. And he spoke: "WTF am I supposed to do with this without an SC?" The Voice of QM responded: "Make a human SC." And Micah listened, and it was...good? Maybe? It was Good Enough. There, I think that sums it up.

And thus the God Micah strode through the planes and smote C'tis with righteous anger and artifact cheese, and it was Good. Then C'tis hid in their castle and spammed billions of shades and had nigh-invulnerable walls because they are not mindless and don't need to eat, and it sucked. But then they dom-died, and it was Good. Enough. For even with the lands of C'tis the nation of Bogarus was still fairly small, because Antilarium was Not Good.

Bogarus was then at peace, which the Great God Micah despises, for it is boring, and does not bend the world to His will. Thus Bogarus secured Caelum as an ally against the rampaging nation of Atlantis, and promptly got its *** kicked, for Bogarus is crappy and its mages feeble and blind, and cannot hit the broad side of an angakok. Bogarus was also too busy snatching up the remaining artifacts to concentrate on their war fully. Thus, peace was again secured, and Bogarus decided to utilize the dark side and pursue the path of Peace for a while longer. To this end Bogarus began spamming clams and blood stones as fast as it could, with the help of a couple of iron crafters from Caelum, for which we thank them. Bogarus also began researching the Wish spell, with which it could get more W gems to make MORE clams. Things were abuzz with excitement in Bogarus over the incredibly fun and complex strategy that their Great Leader had devised. There was also an equally-exciting Sickle farm operation, paid for by the Bogarus Farm Bill for Werewolves.

Quickly growing bored with his new strategy, despite its intricacies and brilliance, and becoming alarmed at the size of Atlantis, Micah began a massive propaganda campaign and secured allies for a new assault on the infidels. Utilizing their new magics and the forged Gate Stone Bogarus was able to secure the capital of their enemy, spreading their former provinces and wealth among the nations allied against the Enemy. And it was good.

Afterward, Bogarus did the same with the new Enemy of Gath, but was met with fierce resistance by Gath, who threw seemingly everything they had against the One True God, and then treachery on the part of Bogarus' Marignonian allies, who attacked before the war with Gath was concluded. It was truly Bogarus' darkest hour.

Bogarus sought allies, and the Agarthan people pledged their assistance. War was joined with Marignon, and the traitorous dogs of Agartha abandoned fair Bogarus to side with their enemy.

While desperately staving off the False Angels of Marignon, and assaulted constantly by a stream of Horrors, Bogarus was simultaneously attacked by the remnants of Gath. Bogarus, standing alone, was forced to beg for allies against the Marignonian threat, and was answered by the great nation of Utgard. Bogarus then promptly sold them out and signed a peace deal with Marignon so that we could deal with Gath and Agartha while Utgard's NAP ticked down, instead of being forced to fight on two fronts with no help for an additional six months. Bogarus was not proud of this maneuver, but felt that it had no choice. The nation of Utgard will forever be celebrated and honored for their sacrifice, so that the True God might ascend.

Bogarus was also pressed into making another difficult choice. The supply of virgins for Marignon's foul blood rites needed to be disrupted, and their gem supply with it. Bogarus was forced to call down Armageddon upon the world. Much devastation was wrought, but the goal was accomplished, Marignon's blood supply seemed crippled, and an opening was secured against them.

In the year-long Marignonian ceasefire Gath was quickly dispatched once and for all, and the nation of Agartha was quickly split between Ulm, Caelum and Bogarus since their treacherous leader was clearly unfit to lead their nation, and could not properly see to their defense.

Marignon grew desperate as their ceasefire drew to a close, and threw their host of angels at Utgard's capital, which were incinerated by magical duels at the start of the fight. Five seraphim lay dead outside of the walls of Utgard in full battle regalia, and Marignon's iron hold on the world slipped away with them. At the same time Bogarus strengthened their relations with Utgard by providing the gems to take the Forge of the Ancients away from Marignon, while Utgard supplied the services of their mighty earth mage leader, who was reckoned at the ninth level of expertise by the standard magical measures. As many gems as possible for a single spell were pushed into the enchantment, which was cast by a mighty mage, and the alliance felt secure in their mastery of the Forge.

At this point a great Madness descended on the leaders of the world, and the leaders of all nations save those of Bogarus and Caelum were struck down outright and were succeeded by their inexperienced heirs, while the leader of Caelum was driven slightly mad and abandoned his alliance with Micah, which Micah had treasured greatly. Seeing that the Pretenders had been laid low, Micah sought to ascend to his rightful place peacefully, but was prevented from doing so by the mad leaders of Ulm, Marignon, and Caelum, while the brave Utgard and Midgard leaders honored the rightful God and stuck by him, for which they shall be forever honored.

War was declared, years passed, and Bogarus rampaged through the sites of power in the world, conquering one after the other and driving the forces of her enemies before her, before finally the opposing leaders saw the futility of their opposition and yielded to Bogarus. Micah, weary and saddened by the additional bloodshed, was then finally allowed to rest.

[Ironhawk]

Huzzah! Artifacts has ended. My greatest and most terrible accomplishment in game hosting ever inflicted on the world of dom

Congrats, Micah!!

[WraithLord]

The most terrible thing about clamming is that the added income is hidden. If that were to change I'd have no problem with clamming.

Note, I have also eaten from the same honey. I had enough astral income to wish every turn and do more stuff like the occasional summoning of a golem. I have had an even larger earth income. BTW, more than anything else - had the other VPs not been so easy for you to take I'd have cont. fighting. That was what broke my spirit not the 1k earth gems lost on failed forge rewrite, nor fear of your armies.
As of artifacts I think I kinda like RAND games better.

I congratulate you (again?) for your victory. Hope to to meet you in a future game though next time I'll be less gullible (hopefully, perhaps as a thumb rule I'll double the gem income the score graphs show you have )

[Mithras]

Brilliant the only time Agartha gets mentioned is under my leadership, the I get called incompetant! :P
Congradulations. I'd say I hope to fight you again someday, but I'm not nearly good enough to put up a decent showing.

[Micah]

When the subs happened I had 110 clams and 110 blood stones, and added 3 stones and 6 clams/turn after that...I think I lost a few to Utgard stales and a few Earth Attacks, but you can still do the rough math. I was also spamming juggernauts at the end, so I was up to something like 80 temple checks a turn at dom-10, and adding 10-12 more each turn.

Wraith - If you weren't afraid of my armies why didn't you come fight them? I spent hours on my turn when our NAP broke scripting against a possible third party strike from you at one of Mari's VPs, but you didn't come. Seems you were a bit more scared than you let on, no? I was hoping the juggernauts would take you out before too long though, since actually having to fight you in the trenches wasn't very appealing.