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Thanks to all beta testers. We're going to call it on #502 and #503 and just would like to get your wrap up on how it went and especially about your kingdom if you would post here. We think we've made excellent progress since the beginning of the betas.
We haven't approached beta testers for the final beta as of yet. You can still indicate your interest at support@alamaze.co. Main requirement is commitment to 12 turns of trying new things and giving lots of feedback on the forum. In turn, you get to explore a new kingdom and the new interface, as well as the changes put in from these betas going forward.
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Since this game is ending, I just need to know who wants to be conceded as the winner for Friday to be the last turn.
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Cimmerians - Closing impressions. With the help of the elf we were able to put a hurting on the WA. His domes and destroying cities hurt and without agents to keep him off balance and lower on resources this would have been an extremely difficult task. The elf was huge in assisting here and without his help I am not sure the CI can effectively fight a well put together mage kingdom. The Sorcerer showed up and pretty much convinced Jeff to drop by wrecking his group. I wasn't able to pick back some of the toys from him but i did take a p6. Ended up taking the WA capital, King and 2 fools. Not sure if he has more than a few wizards and his duke regent left as I didnt get a chance to scout all of the PCs in Region 1, but he couldnt have more than 3 villages. I will say the red mage destroyed 2 cities, and at least 3 other PCs.
Overall the agents are a really good asset and you need to build them up, the military is unbelievable but you need to have elite brigades as 2 of the 3 comp options require them to recruit. The movement of the groups is slower except the sea and I am not liking the fact you have one choice in the sea. Merchant or Movement/Sea Patrol. Wizards are still expensive and limited for the CI, as such dont expect much here.
Hats off to the WA for being an excellent mad bomber!
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Status points for winner. strength wise I would say DE wins but regions rarely equal much for status points. Anyway was a fun preseason game. Especially fun for me once the HA started attacking me so I had something to do. I never did catch prince Bilbo. Saw him a few times in my PCs or as a message when he took them.
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SA
Although I still feel the SA lacks some of the end game umph I believe players will have a good time playing them. As the combat casualties gets fixed I think that was the majority of my head aches this game. So seeing that getting closer to being fixed is great news. The item I did not predict the most about the SA was just how useful devout would be. Having 4 undying HP from early on I was able to raise 1k food gold defense on any of my PCs for 7k gold. Great deal and with the size of military the SA will demand to fight foes it is very important to get that food bonus especially to the cities so you do not have the double food hit. with the extra bonus they get tired only 25% of the time meant I generally had 3 active at almost all times. Because the priestess can also ward their was little need to raise my wizards. When I took Evanon with a combination of 315s and 330 I had warded 8 emissaries. Pretty nice for a military kingdom.
Catapults are a welcome addition to the heavy cavalry of based SA forces. They are almost required if you want to take out take on PCs with minimal losses.
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02-13-2016, 10:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2016, 10:47 PM by IMPERIAL_TARK.)
PI (Final Impressions)
The Pirates are a blast to play especially if you like artifact hunting combined with the agent assets of the UN (and getting to say things like Arggghhh, Shiver me Timbers, and Walk the Plank). Having a secret capitol is a huge asset (at least as long as this gets fixed to a TRUE hidden capitol) and Pirates Cove really fits well with the PI flavor. Having said that, I'm not sure the PI are a viable kingdom in a non-diplomacy game (e.g., Anonymous). In the Beta, I was able to negotiate with other kingdoms for Towns and Villages in water squares (although even that won't be so easy in a non-practice game). But in a non-diplomacy game, the dispersed nature of the PI and the limited ability to utilize your water advantages (my fleets really only ended up helping the #711 trade orders) will make things very, very difficult especially with shortened agent/emmy movement.
A couple of things come to mind:
1) As long as the PI has a fleet of 7+ ships in two different seas, let a PI group have the ability to teleport a group from a non-PC water square in Sea A to a non-PC water square in Sea B. This would be an order that only they could use (similar to the #727 Last Herd of Winged Stallions artifact order but only for water squares and no range limit).
2) When a PI group uses a #150, 170/171, 180, or 190 order on a PC in water, let the quantity and quality of their fleet in that sea be added to the combat/diplomacy value of the group. For example, if they had 12 fleets of 16 quality (12x16=192) multiply that by 1000 and then let 20% (their mastery bonus) of that be added to the group value against a PC (up to 38,400 max). You could give them 10% for coastal PCs.
This would truly make them a menace of the seas!!! With their ability to threaten every water/coastal PC including water capitols, now they have real leverage! The Atlantians (sea-faring trait kingdoms) could have similar abilities.
If necessary, you could scale back their agent abilities and/or weaken their land-based military a tad to compensate. You could also require that for the two abilities above, they have an Elite Ship in the necessary Sea.
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02-13-2016, 10:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2016, 10:45 PM by IMPERIAL_TARK.)
AM (Final Impressions)
I also found the Amazons very fun to play. Another secret capitol mixed with lots of traits make them very formidable. They seem well-balanced. They have access to the familiar spells early and Rider traits make them great for quickly reconning everything around them. They can move fast and find artifacts fast and acquire them fast.
You do not want to run into the Amazons in the Plains or Desert for combat! While Torvale has lots of plains, the forest cluster in the middle can be a pain for in-region maneuvering (if only the Southern Sands were closer!). Arcania and Amberland make tempting targets with their adjacent plains/desert. Thankfully, Meridon is a Plains city.
This kingdom seems ready to go for 3rd Cycle as is.
SO
Some late impressions from me as the Sorceror.
I've played Alamaze since 1989 when I was in 11th grade and used to check the mailbox every day. But in all that time I hadn't played a "true" wizard kingdom. I've allied with plenty and gotten their turns but this was my first real go. I found the Sorceror a very powerful kingdom to play. Not only do they have the magic masterty trait and an insane low cost to research magic at 7,000/level. In third cycle they have a hidden capital in the sea, and a very powerful suite of agent capabilities. With the spell list of the Sorceror having every single spell by Level 7 except summon high demon at level 9, you can have an army of P7 Liches. I had 4 of them by turn 17 or so and after a few tit for tat agent fights with the Pirate, I decided to start bouncing around the board wiping stuff out. The Sorceror also gets Meteor Strike at P4 so at the end it was child's play to teleport in a group of 10+ brigades and multiple P7 liches and take any pop center I wanted in one turn. I wiped out the Halfling capital and wizards over a couple of turns then teleported up the Hammerhold and destroyed the Elf's biggest group in one turn (capturing the Ring of Spells as a bonus). I also had 5 or 6 agents at lvl 11+ at all times after turn 12 or so.
I just feel like they are too powerful. Not only are the wizards, research cost and spell list sick, the agent power is pretty high too. Combine that with the hidden capital! Might want to ease them back a little bit somewhere.
I do think powering down the agents is a good idea in 3rd cycle, but also thought the 3 range counter espionage was too onerous.
I strongly believe that the single biggest thing missing in Alamaze is the ability to station troops/leaders/wizards at your population centers. This could be customized with the traits already present. Restricting garrisons to capital for everyone, and then making others available either by buildings or combinations of buildings and traits.
Apologies for the late feedback. I think it's close to ready and is a hell of a lot of fun.
Enjoyed working loosely with JF and fighting with and then making peace with Imperial_Tark .
Looking forward to playing the final version.
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