MP Game - Yet another MP newbie game!

[Huzurdaddi]

So I'd like to start another newbie game.

House Rules

1) Only Human pretenders (ie: 10 points for a new magic path --- hmm I wonder if there is a non-human with 10 points for a new path )
2) No clams. At all. Zip.

Game settings:

Map: Karan by Targa ( http://www.illwinter.com/dom2/maps.html )
Independents Strength:9
Special Sites: 55
Score graphs: disabled.

I'd like to use the dominions2 server at ( https://www.mosehansen.dk/cgi-bin/dom2.pl ).

Game name : Newbues_Unite. Port: 2246.

The game is set for quick hosting with a 24 hour period. Hopefully so long as everyone is on the ball we will get much faster turn around time than 24 hours ( but **** happens some times I understand ).

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So far we have

Pythium -- me
Abysia -- SoapyFrog
Vaneheim -- CheezeNinja
Ermor -- JJ_Colorado
Caelum -- Skolem
Ulm -- Yvelina
C'tis -- Balmoth
Marignon -- vigabrand
Man -- Minrhael
Arcoscephale -- Cohen
T'ien Chi -- MrAres
Mictain -- odd_enough
Jotunheim -- Splooger
Ulm -- SlyFrog ** This is a little problem **
Machaka -- Wyxard
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[ June 01, 2004, 16:49: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Huzurdaddi]

I'll try Pythium.

[Soapyfrog]

Put me down for Abysia!

[Norfleet]

I take it that this game is also for newbies, and not for me?

[Huzurdaddi]

LOL

it is exacly not for you!

LOL

Maybe in a few games ...

[Huzurdaddi]

Although I am attempting to weasle as many of your tricks as I can out of you.

So far it I've gotten:

1) spam a lot of castles. The cheaper the better.
2) Death summons rock the house. Make a lot of those ( weirdly I see you playing a lot of caelum ... I don't really get it but it may be due to #3 )
3) Raid your balls off. Province defence ain't worth jack. If you see a temple somewhere burn it down and take the province defence with it and then move.
4) But this is from other players, blood summons rock as well in particular devils.
5) take some misfortune once you take order ( this one makes a lot of sense ).

What I do not know is how you expand versus strong indeps without a SC pretender at the start of the game ... ahem if you want to devulge that information I would really appreciate it.

[ May 22, 2004, 22:28: Message edited by: Huzurdaddi ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Huzurdaddi:
1) spam a lot of castles. The cheaper the better.

Castle-spamming is synergistic with my strategies, because I tend to defend against attack with teleporting or flying SCs, and need to protect my temples against point 3.

2) Death summons rock the house. Make a lot of those ( weirdly I see you playing a lot of caelum ... I don't really get it but it may be due to #3 )

Death Summons are indeed very nice. Bane Lords are excellent pocket-SCs, and Behemoths are an excellent unit for stomping most normal troops, albeit Caelum does not really need this option.

I play a lot of Caelum in part because of #3, and because Caelum has excellent point-defense capability in the form of their flying Seraphs...and wrathful sky. If I can't be bothered to dispatch an SC to the scene of another disturbance, a Seraph Wrathing/Horror Spamming squad can clean out most normal armies just fine, for they are flammable and conduct electricity: The only thing that gives you problems is stuff that moves really fast, and you alleviate this by throwing something beefy in front to absorb the brunt of the charge....such as lightning immune SCs and thugs.

3) Raid your balls off. Province defence ain't worth jack. If you see a temple somewhere burn it down and take the province defence with it and then move.

A sound plan. A temple that isn't protected by a castle is a temple that is asking to be torched.

4) But this is from other players, blood summons rock as well in particular devils.

Blood summons own hard. It's for this reason I am very fond of Mictlan as well, and often incorporate blood into my game plan for Caelum.

What I do not know is how you expand versus strong indeps without a SC pretender at the start of the game ... ahem if you want to devulge that information I would really appreciate it.

Nations with hard-hitting, low-attrition troop options are best here: Caelumian mammoths do a good job against anything-that-isn't-knights, able to smash most independents with minimal losses...although it does always hurt if you lose a mammoth: Those things are expensive. Their excellent archers can help whittle down opponents as well.

Mictlan, while its national troops are abysmally awful, has the excellent and quite hard-hitting Fiends of Darkness starting spell, which can easily take out most provinces with a mere handful, say, 5-8. With a few more, even clearing out knights is a possibility: The fiends do a very good job at eviscerating the offending leaders, causing the enemies to rout instantly.

Vanheim has excellent national units as well, in the Vans, and a party of Vans can easily clear out anything that doesn't contain an undue number of knights or crossbowmans without any losses whatsoever. With a strong blessing, even taking on knights is within easy reach.

What I tend to avoid are high-attrition rate troops: Having to constantly replace slackers that regularly die on you is annoying and expensive....and it just underscores the annoying uselessness of those troops, that they keep DYING on you. Miserable weaklings. Pah.

[Cheezeninja]

I'd like to play as Vanheim. If possible id choose a mosehansen host with a 24 hour turnaround. I work 12 hour shifts on the days that i work and that can make a 12 hour turnaround tricky to handle.

[Huzurdaddi]

Seraphs...and wrathful sky.

Ah yes I should have remembered THE PERFECT STORM. Yes it does seem quite abusive! Saly I haev never done it ( sniff ).

Horror Spamming squad

I take it your mean spamming False Horror ( Alteration 6 ) ... if not what do you mean!

and often incorporate blood into my game plan for Caelum.

Where do you get the blood from? Sages? They are how I get access to it with Pythium usually, but it's not a great path since you can not control it.

Their excellent archers can help whittle down opponents as well.

10 gold, 4 resources. Nice cost!

Mictlan, while its national troops are abysmally awful

You aint kidding. Bleech.

hard-hitting Fiends of Darkness

How do you get the 30-40 blood to get this going? From your home province? How long does this take to setup?

Vanheim has excellent national units as well, in the Vans

Heck I think that they are borked. With a water blessing they are terrors. With a fire+anything ( let's say fire ) they are insane.

Miserable weaklings. Pah.

And here I use pythium. *sigh* I liked them since their troops are soild and their mages are solid, perhaps even powerful. But they realyl don't save any insanity on their side. *sigh*

I mean in the multiplayer game I am in I am sandwitched between Jotunheim and Vanheim and it is turn 11. Vanheim has expanded so fast ( indep strength 10 and he has at least 6 provinces ) I'm quite sure he is using blessed vans. And Jotunheim has expanded almost equally as fast ( although I really don't know how yet, they do have a great mother which leads me to think that he is using a bless strategy and the army next to me has woodmen which furthers my beleif -- I guess it is mother trample + bless ). I see no way for me to take on either of them at this point it's scarry!

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Huzurdaddi:
I take it your mean spamming False Horror ( Alteration 6 ) ... if not what do you mean!

That's what I meant, yes. They spam horrors to clog the way while everyone gets electrocuted.

Where do you get the blood from? Sages? They are how I get access to it with Pythium usually, but it's not a great path since you can not control it.

I can hunt them on scouts, it just takes a lot of scouts to get rolling. Also a High Seraph with a blood random can do some hunts or forge SDRs, also.

How do you get the 30-40 blood to get this going? From your home province? How long does this take to setup?

I slap my starting troops on patrol and hunt the blood with my starting priest and the others I produce. Takes about 5-6 turns to get rolling with a FoD horde, about the same time it would take to get rolling with, say, the SC VQ.

And here I use pythium. *sigh* I liked them since their troops are soild and their mages are solid, perhaps even powerful. But they realyl don't save any insanity on their side. *sigh*

Pythium's troops are solid, but slightly costly in resources, which prevents you from building them in very large numbers at once. They're not awe-inspiring enough to work well in small Groups like Vans do, so all in all, I consider them to be slightly subpar. And they die too easily, not like Jots, particularly blessed or equipped Jots.

I mean in the multiplayer game I am in I am sandwitched between Jotunheim and Vanheim and it is turn 11. Vanheim has expanded so fast ( indep strength 10 and he has at least 6 provinces ) I'm quite sure he is using blessed vans. And Jotunheim has expanded almost equally as fast ( although I really don't know how yet, they do have a great mother which leads me to think that he is using a bless strategy and the army next to me has woodmen which furthers my beleif -- I guess it is mother trample + bless ). I see no way for me to take on either of them at this point it's scarry!

Jotunheimian troops are solid without blessings, and Woodsmen can be quite potent with a good bless, particularly an N, and maybe E, bless, which gives them decent regeneration, berserking, and/or prot and reinvigoration. They're no slouches.

Pythium, however, as a mage nation, is relatively weak early on: Their troops are not really that impressive, being solid, but straightforward - They lack the flexibility of Caelumian troops and don't have anything they're tailored to work amazingly well against.

However, as I have a strong preference for races that are "different", I have little advice to offer on this matter, as Pythium's troops are very vanilla and standard.