Dawn of the Grog: Early Age game (in progress)

[undercovergeek]

Condolences to Hinnom for its misadventure in the Glade Woods.  Those Bear Tribe warriors are shockingly ill-mannered.

pffft bear tribe warriors - you should see the 4 Dark Vines at the other end of my territory - they are................

not fun

[byrdman57]

Yes, the indies in this game are quite brutal. Also, I feel like I got the short end of the stick start position wise. I'm quite close to two other player capitals, with little room to expans.  :(

[Philippe]

Because the map is fairly small, I suspect that everyone is quite close to at  two or three other players.  The terms intimate and cozy come to mind.

It's far too late to mention it, but should the Hall of Fame been set to 15 with only ten players?  Maybe 5 would have been a more appropriate number. 

The other thing I'm wondering is about the ease of research.  I would have thought that research should have been made harder since we're all primitive illiterates.  But having said that, my Early Age Abysian mages don't seem to be quite as adept at doing research as my Middle Age mages were.

I really like the fact that you can't just stroll into an independant's territory without some forethought.  Makes the game more interesting.

The other thing I've been wondering is whether it is possible to have a game with all of the playable nations in use, but with some of them controlled by the AI from the get-go.  That would make for a slightly more nuanced kind of independant.  Or are true independants harder to deal with than AI-controlled players?

[Phobos]

I'm not sure AI players are very good.  Even if you designed their pretender for them, they don't really play that smart.  Even doing things like increasing their difficulty only gives them more money to spend and more points on pretender design.  The biggest threat they generally pose is early in the game, when the excessive armies they recruit can pose a serious threat, if you lack area spells or tough units.

Independents can be made a bit tougher, but it takes a bit of work.  Some people have put together 'campaign' maps, where the independent types are not randomly allocated, at least not for all provinces.  You can allocate all manner of units and special sites to provinces, even the magical items held by the commanders in those provinces.

[Philippe]

I can see that AI players aren't very good, but I guess the question comes down to whether or not they are more interesting/effective than regular AI independants.  Think of them as alternative AI independants rather than as alternative players.  My imperfect understanding is that independants don't really attack you unless they've been tampered with (not sure about that last part), so I would think that having AI players on steroids would create a wilder and more unpredictable game, especially in the early phases.

Having said all that, I have no idea whether it would be any fun to play that way or not.

[undercovergeek]

indys will and do attack you - its rare but it will happen

[Philippe]

And I've seen it happen.  But I always suspected that it was the result of some player action that I was unfamiliar with. 

[Phobos]

Independent provinces do not attack, though sometimes they can grow in numbers.  This might be due to magical items owned by commanders, special abilities of commanders or random events (sometimes random events can effect independent provinces).  An attack by independents on a player nation is probably the result of a random event or spell.  In this case, it is not a specific province attacking you, but the result of a bad event.

As for AI nations...It would depend on the map and the game settings.  I can imagine that certain nations might add an interesting dynamic to a multiplayer game.  Certain nations are 'better' as AI than others, I think.  Late Age Ermor, with it's free zombie troops and extensive management requirements, comes to mind.  Other nations simply won't maximise their national strengths in an intelligent way, which for certain nations might be a requirement for competitive play.

Some people have created maps/mods for the express purpose of forcing the AI into 'better' decision making with regards troop recruitment.  Typically this is achieved by making certain independent troops too expensive to purchase.  It won't help the AI with things like research and spellcasting.   

 

[undercovergeek]

Independent provinces do not attack

100% positive?

[Phobos]

I am not completely certain.

I have not seen an attack launched from an independent province before, either on a player or on another independent province.  I have not seen groups of independents migrate to another province.  Sometime the population of a province will grow, but so far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with recruitment or movement.

I have seen plenty of independent attacks.  Sometimes these are the result of bad events, sometimes the result of hostile player actions.  There is usually a notice on your message board for the new turn, such as "the province has been unexpectedly pillaged by a barbarian horde" or "a village has been swallowed up by vine men."  These attacks have noting to do with the actions of an independent province.

So far as I know, independent commanders don't do anything other than defend.

Call it  90% positive, because I could be wrong. 

[undercovergeek]

it may be me - i know ive certainly read the opener - your forces have been defeated by the independant army - but as you say that could be generated from inside my province

[byrdman57]

What's the matter mkivcs, thinking maybe you made a mistake last turn?

[mkivcs]

Making mistakes is a way of life for me.
Although I think there may be something wrong with our Giants today. I'm going back to the middle age and my trusty Ermor, I've seen fluffy bunny rabbits put up a better defence than that bunch did. I swear the three at the back just spent there time strolling back and forth chatting about the weather.

Much as I would love to hide from defeat I'm afraid to say that I've hit technical problems again. I've finally given up on the new machine I've been struggling with for the last week and reinstalled Dominions on my about to be scrapped old machine to do this turn. Now the Shrapnel site has bloody well gone down so I can't get the llamabanner mod required to run the turn. If I don't get it before the deadline just let me stall as I'm buggered anyway. If by some chance I do get it I shall continue to try to beat these Giants into some kind of fighting force and will fight to the bitter end. (Which I suspect will not be long in coming.)
I'll put the kettle on in the castle as it looks like we will have unexpected guests.

[bob48]

^Well, if its Geek, better make sure you have some choccie Hobnobs as well. He likes a biccie with his cuppa tea  :)

[mkivcs]

And also while I'm complaining can I also say that not only did my troops get wiped in battle but my new graphics card which cost the equivalent of a minor European nation does not work (Well only when it feels like it) . Therefore I had to watch the battle using the inbuilt video card on the motherboard, with all options turned off I got 4 frames a sec. It took somethink like 30 minutes during which I saw very little as all the 'effects' were off and it was impossible to scroll. By the end of it i was checking the manual for a suicide your pretender option. I never even got round to watching the other two battles, hence my move back to my old machine and the new ones  been disassembled for replacement.
Anyway I tip my hat to the victorious party.