Game 302 ended today on turn 33 with the DE and Son of Conan as the victor. I believe this was the first individual game for SOC and he earned the win.
I am interested to see the write ups as this was a very contested game.
1 DE Son of Conan 15,100 21,166
2 GN Vball Michael 8,100 16,725
3 BL Canticar 8,200 14,100
4 AN Frost Lord 8,395 13,294
5 DA DuPont 6,280 12,400
6 WI Imperial Tark 6,500 11,925
7 RA Lord Diamond 5,190 11,098
8 TR Jhereg 1,400 2,550
Wow, I took a beating this game. I managed to hang in the top three until the very end. I spent the game fighting both the Darkelves and Black Dragon who were both also fighting one another. I was that guy in the middle who got pounded as they fought over my region. It was ugly!
The biggest turning point for me was when I lost my best brigades in a sea battle with the Darklelf. I was never able to fully recover from that. I spent the last third of the game picking at the Black and trying to distract him from being able to gain a 4th region. I tried to leave the Darkelf alone, but he wouldn't return the favor. I suppose that by then there was bad blood between us; I can't imagine why...
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
As the BL I moved into Synisvania early, around turn 6 or 7, only to find the DA already engaged in the region. My primary goal was to secure additional pop centers so I could feed my dragons during the summer season starting on turn 11. With the DA and RA both very much involved in region 9 I had to move my expansion plan to region 6 to find the pop centers I needed.
With the DA engaged in Synisvania I found it easy to pick up pop centers in Eastern Steppes and I was able to wrestle control of the region away from him. By this time the DA had to refocus his attention on region 6 and it opened up region 9 for further expansion. I fought with the RA for control of the region but I was now fighting on two fronts and this taxed my resources.
There was give and take with the RA and DA for the majority of the game. Then for a very short time I controlled the Sands, Synisvania, and the Steppes, around turn 25 or 26. I looked into expansion into Arcania at this time knowing that the DE had expanded north to Amberland but the RA and DA both came back at me with a vengeance. I lost both regions 6 and 9. I spent the last several turns trying to retake both of those regions. I regained control at the very last minute taking 6 on turn 31 and 9 on turn 33 just before the game ended.
Dupont as the DA and Lord Diamond as the RA both played a good game. It would have been easy for either or both of them to have dropped but they persisted and kept me tied up for the majority of the game. I enjoyed this game immensely and the chess match with these two opponents was the reason for my enjoyment.
Congratulations to everyone who finished the game. I look forward to the write ups.
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
DA - So I had a nice start in this game. I got my region on turn 3 - only the GN and WI joined me that turn so I figured the RA was an obvious target. There was no SO in the game and in my experience, the RA will usually attack the DA fast when that's the case. My original plan was to look in the Sea of Drowning and just take those pop centers and see if the RA would let me have that share of the region but after checking, there were only two piddling villages in the Synisvania side of the Sea - one belonging to the DE. I figured I should go full out against the RA and see how it played out. The BL showing up a couple of turns later was a distraction I didn't need - in hindsight, I probably should have broken it off and let the two of them fight it out, but I was invested and nobody else was fighting me. I was worried that the BL would quickly take out a weakened RA and then be in a very strong position to jump me.
Of course, then the BL leapfrogged 9 and came at me in 6. One thing - my capital was safe in the sea and I built up a strong fleet. But the rest of the game was one long war of attrition with the BL and RA. I never had a chance to build up too strong of an army as the BL and RA kept intercepting my groups at bad times and costing me troops. I did end up with a group of 3 warlords, though. I only partly developed my wizards and they were often busy either warding my emmies (who were under constant attack) or creating gold.
I did make an attempt to get the BL to back off by invading 10. It did partially work - I never had any thought that I'd be able to hold it, but it did bring some of the BL armies home for a while. I kept hoping the DE would jump in against the BL but that didn't happen, either.
If I could have coordinated with the RA, I would have, but for a while there, the BL had knocked my reaction in 6 down and 9 was the only place I could take pop centers without force and I never knew if the BL or RA would be there before I landed on it. I did finally get some BL skeletons and knock him off the council - I had a major one to drop next turn - darn!
A fun game - really enjoyed it.
I did take the Darkelf's water capital once and I think I knocked him off the HC as well. I missed his king, but caught a prince, baron, envou, L8, and L2.
The Black Dragon took both of my city capitals and helped clean up my crowded court, but missed my king as well.
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
This was my first game, so was not really sure what to expect. Right after I took my region, in come the armies of the Red Dragons and the Trolls, sometimes 5 armies at my villages or towns. Oh boy. I was just barely holding them off and using my demon princes to take things back and using my wizards to denigrate and eventually to dome, and then a gnome army and emissaries showed up. But he left after 2 or 3 turns, guessing because my region was already so crowded. Finally I decided to quit fighting only a defensive war and I used my priestess to find villages of Troll and of Red Dragons and I flew all over the world taking those away. I never lost my region, but it was always right on the edge. Finally I invaded the troll in Amberland but that was crowded with trolls, elves and warlocks. so I hit everybody. The elf left, the troll had little fight in him, and the warlock just took back his own population centers so I eventually left him alone after I had the region. Then I thought how fun that was and decided to take northern mists. There was no fight from the witchlord (I think he had invaded somewhere and was not home). I took every single inhabited locale. Then the Elf dropped and I took the opportunity to go to Oakendell. The Ancient Ones were denigrating me there and had some emissaries, but I flooded the region and was able to use the demonic ability to raise reaction and take the region with emissaries and a group, in a couple of turns to declare the Rex.
I would vote Iron-willed to the Troll. After I held him off and then invaded, and he had just 1-2 hovels left, he still stayed in it and kept trying to attack me somewhere. I just kept a dome near him. But he kept fighting.
I don't know who was infamous and since this was anonymous, there is no chancellor.
Good job to the other podium finishers and to everyone. This was a fun way to end my first game.
