[Dominions 5] Grogs4way (in progress)

Started by W8taminute, February 27, 2020, 11:04:17 AM

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solops

Guys, real life has slowed me down. I will keep things going! Sorry for the delays. Blame the virus and the government.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

W8taminute

No worries solops.  Hope you can sort things out.  We'll still be here when you're ready.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

W8taminute

Well I think I've been bested in this game.  I don't have too many provinces left and I've got nothing to stop thugs or assassins.  I'm ready to throw in the towel. 
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

Guys, sorry for the recent delays. I still have real world work hanging over me, but I am trying to catch up a bit today. Xibalba's position is unassailable. I will do as you two wish.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

TheMeInTeam

I do agree that my position is insurmountable at this point.  This could have gone very differently with a few different choices by each side.  Especially because until TC put one of Agartha's forts under siege recently, this was a de facto 2v1 against me :p.  Which was the correct choice so long as instant game over from throne rush wasn't a risk to TC.  I didn't realize he could see half of our score graphs all game!

IMO let's do a few more big battles and then you guys can either go AI or blitz the turns, I'm assaulting Agartha's throne province this turn.  I am also attacking onto Tien Chi's throne province this turn, so if you want the game to end quickly you can patrol there to fight alongside PD (unless, of course, I lose that fight).  I don't THINK I will lose, but there's a lot of stuff there and if I get something unexpected I could.  That way if I win I can actually siege the fort.  If those troops hide in the fort I'll eventually get it as defenders dwindle form troop upkeep defection, but it'll stall out the game a few more turns.

If left unimpeded I can claim last two thrones in 3-4 turns, TC's will probably be slower.

solops

I'll go a bit more. It would be real nice if TC would leave my fort alone....
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

W8taminute

I'm up for a few more turns as well.  I've got to keep up the pressure on that fort of yours Agartha!  Meanwhile my empire is crumbling.  lol
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

K.....feel free to change your mind if circumstances change :)
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

W8taminute

I'm almost dead but still hanging in there!
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

After this last turn I really don't see the point in continuing. Kudos to TheMeInTeam-Xibalba.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

TheMeInTeam

Yeah gg all.  If you end this turn + next we can see full scoregraphs and end game stats.  I don't think it's possible to block me claiming both thrones next turn now unless you want to break out some silly remote assassination spells and get comical luck on commander targeted :p.

W8taminute

Good game everyone.  This was a challenging one for sure but demonstrated some key weaknesses and strengths of the nations involved. 

Not sure what you mean by seeing the full scoregraphs and end game stats if we end the turn?
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

TheMeInTeam

#72
Once the game ends, you can see everyone's province count, military strength, income, forts, gem income, research, etc and watch a history of game progression.

Edit:

I just realized I made quite the blunder in math.  I thought the iron throne was the one I'm claiming off Agartha this turn, but it isn't.  So I won't win this turn.  We can still call the game if you guys prefer...TC is functionally out of the game (three provinces left, cap + one other down next turn).  At this point I can just brute force Agartha with economy + bring stuff that took Amul over to Agartha, creating a 4 way attack.  But getting the last throne will take several more turns...I only have two H3 units who can claim.  I'm summoning another, but it can only move at province/turn and must be summoned in water.  I am of course willing to play it out, but this has already run past the point where the outcome is in doubt, so we could also just stop here if you guys prefer.

One the bright side, the failed thug attack on the capital of Tien Chi took advantage of the battle timer rules nicely, "killing" a lot of things via retreat that it had no realistic hope of killing otherwise.

None of us played 100% to nation strength.  Ajidica was probably the closest.  As the game has drawn on, a number of things have occurred to me that could have changed the game substantially:

- Shinuyama summoning bakeneko to use mage turns to research or cast dark knowledge, and using nature random Ubas to cast foul vapor traps against big armies. 
- Early in the fight against Tien Chi I raided a lot.  Phoenix could have killed both raiding parties or the frog thugs by spamming tbolt or tramping water elementals, after cloud trapeze into them (magic phase attack precedes normal movement).
- Speaking of which, Agartha had a magic site allowing for A2 mages, which would have been strong against both Shinuyama and me (air elementals, arrow fend/wind guide, even burning air gems to cast tstrike in critical fights).  That these can magic phase attack is non-trivial.
- Agartha also did have access to astral --> soul slay for vampires via a throne province :(.  E2 S2 also means you can forge matrix items for making non-astral mages parts of a communion, which combined with the above would open up spells like fog warriors, mass flight, will of fates, mass protection (on any nature random), relief (vs rigor mortis), etc.
- I had access to foul vapors and mass protection way earlier than I actually used them (Tien Chi can also cast these natively).  Imagine if rather than empowering to regen and making all that gear if I had just thrown a N2 frog mage into the Shinuyama stack that was in my territory to cast foul vapors!  He'd have been chopped up, but that happened anyway.  The poison would have been pretty rough on the army though...similar to the earthquake trap he later sprung on me.
- Pretty much only Agartha used elementals a lot, and the rest of us could have benefitted from the in-battle summon versions more.
- Speaking of communions, the E1 S1 mages in Tien Chi can be really strong late game.  They can spam gits from heaven, but they can also communion all the way up to master enslave (this is expensive and probably too late game given the bad start this time, but devastating).  Alternatively, they can cast summon earth power + power of spheres for +2 earth, give a communion master earth boots, and then cast living earth repeatedly.  Each level of earth > 4 adds another elemental per cast, still costing only 2 earth gems.  So even with 4 communion slaves you'd be producing 6 size 4 earth elementals per cast.

That's nowhere near an exhaustive list.  Dominions is a deep game.  I'm sure we'll all be at least a step better in the next one!

solops

#73
Let's end it. Re soul slay- never heard of it or its effects. This is an example of the greatest weakness of noobs and what makes the game fun - it has lots of stuff! I had an lot of buffs available that I do not understand re their stacking effects.  I mean I know what they ARE, but what are the practical effects?  Ironskin + Temper Flesh is just one example. Then throw in something like Invulnerability. At what point am I wasting a scripting step? This is just one of many examples. We need a "character testbed" like the pretender constructor to help answer these questions.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

solops

I'm suiciding my army. We can end it now.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin