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Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    So, Rhan, in the LA game you're Ulm and I think we have an NA-3? Well, I am going to end my NA-3 with you so in 3 turns we will be at waaaar.

    Finally. We should maybe talk. If you want to.

    I suppose,

    also I checked and it was only NAP-2. So 2 turns until war.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    The peaceful sanguinocracy of Ulm is most disappointed.

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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    Hey, so my travel plans back home got delayed by a day, and I won't be able to send in my turns due Thursday. This was very unexpected, but I'd ask if we could maybe postpone the deadline to Friday (any time) as I'll be arriving home before midnight on Thursday.

    Otherwise I wouldn't bother people with this, but we did have some diplomatic hijinx occurring that makes it a bit suboptimal to miss turns.

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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    I'm fine with it!

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    All of the turns have been delayed to Friday (well, one of them was already going to turnover on Friday, but I've delayed the other two) They are due at 7:04 GMT 10:05 GMT and 10:02 GMT respectively. That sound alright?

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    If the server says Friday, it's fine with me regardless of the time! Much obliged!

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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    If @Elvenshae is no longer super busy with the baby would anyone be opposed to reducing the turn timer starting from the next turn?
    @Lord_Asmodeus @Rhan9

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    Sounds good to me.

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Yeah that seems doable.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Isn't it on, like, a three-day turnaround at this point? We've already reduced from back when it was a week for a bit.

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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    @Rhan9 It seems like Asmodeus went AI. Since Basil is perpetually staling and Elvenshae is pretty much done for this leaves the two of us. Would you consider settling for a two-way tie? I feel that my position is currently significantly stronger thanks to the research lead and the gem income but I owe it largely to luck. Basil staling, an early 800 gold random event, an early Staff of Elemental Mastery from a random event, a 1000 gold gift from C'tis intended to make me fight the invading elves (which I just used to field a new army), a 200 gem parting gift from R'lyeh, an Astral mercenary mage finding 2 sites which produce a total of 5 pearls a turn allowing me to break into the one non-blood school I had no access to, the Steel Ovens right by my capital, 20 PD worth of Barbarians beating a much larger Barbarian invasion by some strange miracle...
    Without every single one of these things happening I wouldn't be where I am.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Right, I did go AI, meant to mention it in thread. With the defeat of my astral mages (which I was basically expecting, but not quite so brutally) I basically have nothing left, and to continue on would be an effort in futility for me.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    edited November 2015
    @Rhan9 It seems like Asmodeus went AI. Since Basil is perpetually staling and Elvenshae is pretty much done for this leaves the two of us. Would you consider settling for a two-way tie? I feel that my position is currently significantly stronger thanks to the research lead and the gem income but I owe it largely to luck. Basil staling, an early 800 gold random event, an early Staff of Elemental Mastery from a random event, a 1000 gold gift from C'tis intended to make me fight the invading elves (which I just used to field a new army), a 200 gem parting gift from R'lyeh, an Astral mercenary mage finding 2 sites which produce a total of 5 pearls a turn allowing me to break into the one non-blood school I had no access to, the Steel Ovens right by my capital, 20 PD worth of Barbarians beating a much larger Barbarian invasion by some strange miracle...
    Without every single one of these things happening I wouldn't be where I am.

    Sure, man. I didn't honestly know that all of this had happened. I'm down with this. It was starting to feel like it was gonna be a long and grueling late-game.
    I did learn a lot, and I'm just kinda unhappy that my start was so slow due to crappy provinces. I only got to the swing of things fairly late.

    What else have we learned? Ur giants are hobo giants, Niefel giants are best giants. :P

    Rhan9 on
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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    And since I'm still alive, with territories and dominion points and everything, and because I'm in an alliance with @Rhan9, I will call this a win for me, too. ;)

    AAR to come shortly.

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Ur's troops are substandard honestly. The problem I feel is I didn't have the vision or experience to pull off the strategy I was going for, which relied on using my Pretender as a Super Combatant aggressively and going for late game magic. Which uh... didn't work out.

    But if everyone is down for it I can declare the game completed.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Hurrah! GG peeps. The game lasted 5 months so if you've stuck around until now you're definitely dedicated. Thank you. You're a persistent lot. Especially Elvenshae who resisted until the bitter end.

    And yeah Rhan, the game would've definitely lasted like two more years at this rate.

    Edit:
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    And since I'm still alive, with territories and dominion points and everything, and because I'm in an alliance with @Rhan9, I will call this a win for me, too. ;)

    AAR to come shortly.
    Well, me and Rhan could postpone the deal for like 2 turns.. :rotate:

    Grey Paladin on
    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    I think we should cut it here, and maybe write some AAR (from those who are interested). I'm sure people would like to have an idea how the game went and the players' opinions on their nations.

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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Hurrah! GG peeps. The game lasted 5 months so if you've stuck around until now you're definitely dedicated. Thank you. You're a persistent lot. Especially Elvenshae who resisted until the bitter end.

    And yeah Rhan, the game would've definitely lasted like two more years at this rate.

    Edit:
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    And since I'm still alive, with territories and dominion points and everything, and because I'm in an alliance with @Rhan9, I will call this a win for me, too. ;)

    AAR to come shortly.
    Well, me and Rhan could postpone the deal for like 2 turns.. :rotate:

    I know Fog Warriors now. :D
    ... but I don't have anyone who can cast it.

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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    edited November 2015
    So much happened this game. I don't think I can write a faithful AAR. Every turn after the first year was tense and game-deciding. Next game I intend to write a turn-to-turn diary and post it at the end.

    In general I feel that, aside from the lucky streaks I mentioned previously, I pulled ahead because I prioritized research. From year 2 up until year 5 I recruited 2, and later 3, mages a turn. I used the remaining money to produce troops, trying to maintain parity with my neighbors. I never built forts unless it was to produce mages and I never invested more than 1 gold in PD unless I knew I was going to be attacked in that province that turn. After I researched some anti-rush spells like Earth Meld and Summon Earthpower I focused on Construction to further boost my research. Const 2 gives you Owl Quills and Const 4 Dwarven Hammers. With a hammer a Warrior Smith can forge an Owl Quill for just 2 gems apiece. This catapulted me up to Alt 5 and Evo 5 for key spells like Earthquake, Bladewind, and Maws of the Earth. Feeling relatively safe I immediately climbed up to Const 6 for Lightless Lanterns. This is the exact moment when I started really pulling ahead and the reason is simple: 18 research per 2 fire gems. I forged no less than 4 lanterns a turn for around a year. By the time I started fighting real wars my magic was at a whole other level. My enemies were not prepared for army-wiping spells.

    Research_zps18q9pk7v.jpg

    Grey Paladin on
    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    Well, I was thinking more along the lines of a post from a player, summarizing the experience and their impressions of the nation in question. Doesn't need to be a super comprehensive thing.

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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    Re: my impression of the nation: I picked EA Ulm because I liked its theme. EA is commonly described as the age of giants and elves and big scary things with crazy magic. An age where monsters rule and humans cower. Playing a badass human nation fighting impossible odds appealed to me. At the time the consensus seemed to be that while Steel Maidens are pretty good EA Ulm is bad because the mages are very unfocused. The majority don't have any path above 1. I found out that while this is true you aren't going to use most mages as anything other than lab rats anyway and you get enough mages with level 2 paths (usually in Earth, rarely in something else) to do a great deal of things with the help of some pretender-forged boosters. With an A4E4 pretender you can climb up to 6 in every elemental path, 4 in Death and 3 in Nature. This is a lot of flexibility and consequently a lot of ways to turn gems of all kinds into power. Cheap mages and the forging discount allow Ulm to pull ahead in research.

    Ulm is solid early on because Steel Maidens are very solid dual wielders with a fair Defense and a lowish cost. They are not quite on the level of blessed sacreds, even cost for cost, but with some Earth Melds they can do what you need them to do. Ulm is strong later on thanks to its magic diversity. I'd say that the nation is definitely underrated overall.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    I'm going to wait for Basil to check in before officially ending but yeah, I think this game is pretty much over.

    So uh, if everyone enjoyed that game and is enjoying the other two, would you consider joining another game? I have a few ideas for potential games we could play including a mod game of some sort, possibly an "all warhammer factions" game, one really cool possibility is playing nations generated using the Nationgen that randomly generates a nation and all of its units using assets from the game, so you can get crazy combos of races and sprites. If we did this we could probably do it one of two ways, either as sort of a joke game where you have to go with whatever you roll first, or a more serious game where you can keep rolling till you find a randomly generated nation you like.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    I'd love to play another game. Preferably one with fewer players so that it ends in a reasonable amount of time. I'd prefer another "real" game since I still feel like I'm just starting to grasp how Dominions works.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    EidoloclastEidoloclast Registered User regular
    I could maybe be interested in another game, as I'm only in LA right now--though I feel like LA is heating up, despite the massive lead Ulm has there.

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Would you guys want to start another Early Age game or another Middle Age or Late Age game?

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    EA disciple game could be interesting.

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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    edited November 2015
    I don't care what era we play in. A disciple game could be interesting but note that even one person staling could ruin the game for everyone else. FFA games are more stale-resistant.

    Grey Paladin on
    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Hey guys if you need me to I can extend the Dom 4 games by another 24 hours or so since it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and all that comes with that.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Actually, I think I'm going to drop from the MA game. Last I checked, Xibalba and I were basically the only ones still playing. I'm surrounded by unfriendly AIs resulting in a border siege that just keeps going back and forth. Frankly, a single-player game's a better way to spend that time.

    EDIT:

    So, win to Xibalba, I guess?

    Elvenshae on
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    Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    It's a bummer that both games had a lot of stalers. I hope the lot of you had fun anyhow.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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    Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Actually, I think I'm going to drop from the MA game. Last I checked, Xibalba and I were basically the only ones still playing. I'm surrounded by unfriendly AIs resulting in a border siege that just keeps going back and forth. Frankly, a single-player game's a better way to spend that time.

    EDIT:

    So, win to Xibalba, I guess?

    I'm still playing

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Moridin889 wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Actually, I think I'm going to drop from the MA game. Last I checked, Xibalba and I were basically the only ones still playing. I'm surrounded by unfriendly AIs resulting in a border siege that just keeps going back and forth. Frankly, a single-player game's a better way to spend that time.

    EDIT:

    So, win to Xibalba, I guess?

    I'm still playing

    We can call it a tie, if you want :P

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    Yeah, sorry about the MA game, but I went AI a good while back. I basically repeated the same thing for a good 30 turns, and it was a shitshow from the start.

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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Moridin889 wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Actually, I think I'm going to drop from the MA game. Last I checked, Xibalba and I were basically the only ones still playing. I'm surrounded by unfriendly AIs resulting in a border siege that just keeps going back and forth. Frankly, a single-player game's a better way to spend that time.

    EDIT:

    So, win to Xibalba, I guess?

    I'm still playing

    ... are you? Are you really? ;)

    mhnxsw3z5fqw.png

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    Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Yes. I've got global spells killing the population and I'm taking thrones and making keeps still. My borders are still assailed on most sides so I basically just make sure dude mans don't invade.

    I have things timed out so I show up when I have to move forward.

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    Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    My timetable will take a while though, I don't think the next three thrones will get me a points victory so it'll be quite a few turns.

    Im ok with calling it.

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    Alright, I'll call it in your favor, honestly. I might have been able to go at you but my economy was severely damaged by Burden of Time and having to crush the AI'd Marignon severely slowed me down, so I don't know how well it would have gone for me. Honestly, you're in a better position than I am.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    I'm super shocked no one dispelled it, but I suppose by the time it came out, people had been dropping already.

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    Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Also I think you need a lot of astral to dispel, and my astral wasn't strong enough, and I didn't really have the pearls for it.

    Edit: I declared it finished.

    Lord_Asmodeus on
    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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    Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Yeah I was expecting Marignon to be on that, but AI and such.

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