(FINISHED) Grogspocalypse Prequel: Early Ages Boogaloo [Dominions 5]

Started by al_infierno, July 24, 2020, 03:10:16 PM

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al_infierno

Sounds good to me.  If nobody has any objections I'll go ahead and close the server on llamaserver tomorrow.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

W8taminute

I'm ok with closing this game out however it was really a great game.  I don't mind times when a game stretches out over a long period of time. 

In the end we had two clear superpowers, one medium power, and then tiny me left. 

Good game boys!!
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Myrmidon

Good game all! 

My point of view post-mortem:

Going in, and seeing I was going to be sandwiched between Aijidica and TMiT, I knew I was in for a wild ride.  I went in knowing that Arco does just fine as a turtling nation, so I would be very picky about if/when I got involved in any major wars.  Unfortunately, I believe I missed some opportunities and exercised poor judgement on occasion.

It's a balancing effect in Dominions diplomacy, as one needs to expand and project power, but should one come across as too far ahead, you get attacked by a coalition, and on the other hand, one could be in a very even war, but a neighbor will take advantage of it and pose a threat to an exposed flank.  So it was with trepidation (too much trepidation) that I decided to engage. 

I had a decent enough expansion, was able to win a few provinces via diplomacy, but missed a huge opportunity when I didn't invade Abysia.  I had the troops and the mages to overcome Abysia's strengths.  Instead, I decided to try and start a way overly optimistic war vs Rus, hoping to take advantage of the his distraction with Ctis.  He warned me that it would be a poor decision and only help Atlantis, but I didn't listen.  Within a couple of turns of fighting, and watching Atlantis start to completely swallow Abysia and Agartha, I realized the foolishness of my way.  The war vs Rus would be a horrible grind, and Atlantis would continue to grow. 

So I held off for a coalition of me and Rus to take on Atlantis.  I could have attacked Atlantis earlier, but was concerned that if the fight went too well, or too poorly, Rus would move into an alliance with Atlantis instead, and I would be screwed.  So I played the diplomatic waiting game again.  The only way this was a tenable strategy was due to my pretty massive research advantage.  I was also able to secure all the elemental royalty, but neglected the globals, which gave Atlantis yet another advantage.

The war with Atlantis was the grind I expected, but progress was being made.  Unfortunately, we won't know who would have won.  There was some pretty epic battles coming up for the 2 thrones, which would have been pretty decisive.  Nuclear style spells such as Black Death and Fires from Afar were about to be launched at each other, along with other crazy mayhem.     

It was a pleasure playing with everyone, and there were many possibilities still left open.  Vanheim jumping into the fray vs Rus opened up a lot of different tactical and strategic possibilities as to how the game may have ended up.  My 2 take ways are trying to be a little more decisive when it comes to aggression, and not forget about the globals....

TheMeInTeam

The war against Agartha was mismanaged, and since he did his part well after initial bad expansion very costly to me.  If I knew what I know now I would definitely have had size 6 water elementals, antimagic (ESPECIALLY antimagic!) and quickness going when I attacked rather than later rather than going for acid plays.  I might have just attacked Abysia first instead too once I realized he wasn't doing big fire elementals/only had 1 fort.

My RP was only at like 400-500 near turn 40, I only got back in the game by blowing something like 180 fire gems (many with hammers, I made a LOT!) on lanterns and giving them to every mage that wasn't fighting, vaulting me to > 3k RP over the 10 or so turns after Agartha war ended.  Hitting me before I got to make up so much research time would have made it harder for me to react.  The one thing I managed not to do against Agartha was lose a significant number of mages, so given that time I could at least hit passable tech in the time I was given.

Abysia was much less costly, it took him too long to counter the basalt king raiding + park on cap (cutting off all other income, Abysia needed more forts).  By the time he could kick that away I just sent in a water elemental army to finish the job.

Rus probably switches sides if I lost two thrones, and if I held them launching a counter offensive would be no less costly for me than it was for Arco to push me.  Depending on what happened on Rus throne fight (still unresolved!), I might have been able to push Rus alongside Vanheim while trying to lose less ground/inflict more attrition with Arco.  This definitely influenced my vote to call it though...Rus would be more or less forced to side with whoever was winning between us until such a point as Rus itself had the tech to force a change to that.  Which would be greatly delayed by Vanheim's hit. 

I think if it came down to just resource grinding/pop killing spells, I had something of an advantage due to globals giving gem econ and having all paths searched 2+ (including some vampire lord blood econ firing up).  I had remote searched death/astral to 9 everywhere, had voice of tiamat in all water provinces, and had at least 1 nature everywhere too.  But doing pop kill spells and grinding out gem armies would take so long even cataclysm might be decisive before it (those can destroy thrones).

GG all, it was a hard-fought game.

W8taminute

Yes this was a hard fought game but as such there was a lot to learn here.  This particular multiplayer game we played demonstrated that Dominions can be a real slog fest if all the players involved are equally matched as far as knowledge of the game goes. 

We all used every scrap of knowledge to try to either hang in there or at least engage in a see-saw war.  Although the game dragged on it was really fun in the matching wits against wits respect.  No regrets and again GG everyone.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

TheMeInTeam


al_infierno

Oops, my bad... I didn't think ajidica was planning on putting in his turn  :-\
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

Ajidica

TMIT was interested in seeing how well his army would do against mine in a throne battle.
It would not have gone well for me as I didn't really have an answer to darkness.

Sorry again everyone for how I kept dragging on turn submissions. Late game Dominions always paralyzes me with choices, so "sit and think on it" becomes "wait and hope a light of insight will strike me".

After talking with TMIT last night a bit, it seems like I had some unfortunate luck with magic sites. Despite searching everything with minimum air2/mostly air3, I was only taking in 14 air gems/turn.

Myrmidon

Quote from: Ajidica on January 23, 2021, 12:34:06 PM
TMIT was interested in seeing how well his army would do against mine in a throne battle.
It would not have gone well for me as I didn't really have an answer to darkness.

Sorry again everyone for how I kept dragging on turn submissions. Late game Dominions always paralyzes me with choices, so "sit and think on it" becomes "wait and hope a light of insight will strike me".

After talking with TMIT last night a bit, it seems like I had some unfortunate luck with magic sites. Despite searching everything with minimum air2/mostly air3, I was only taking in 14 air gems/turn.

Most of my gem incomes were in the low to mid teens as well. It was a bit of a bottleneck...  It was one of the reasons I was I spent most of my gems on the summons and forging,  I didn't want to potentially waste them on a dispelled global... but then again, if the global is left alone, it pays for itself really quick.