Game 554 ALLIANCE ends

[Calidor]

Congrats to the EL/GN/TY team on a hard fought victory!

 Victory By Team (6 Regions) Is The Gnome Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-34  Grand Total

          1     GN     Strongwill                15,300      23,699
          2     EL     Wookie Panz               12,805      20,875
          3     TY     Jon Doe                    9,480      16,468
          4     WA     Calidor                    8,880      15,055
          5     UN     Mad Hatter                 4,600       8,800
          6     NO     Eregnon the Black          3,400       8,355
          7     AT     Ohman the Heartless        3,560       6,675

As you can see we had a few folks drop out of this slugfest that went 34 turns. Kudos to those that stuck it out despite being short on their team.
I thought we (BL/NO/WA) had a chance a few turns ago and we even tried to declare victory, then we lost touch with Netstrider our mentor (hope all is well) and things spiraled downward pretty quickly.

Overall though it was a great game and I learned quite a bit!  It looked like some crazy times as the GN/EL/TY tried for victory quite a few times but just missed and then one turn could have declared but didn't

I thought the teams seemed fairly balanced from a strength/position perspective.  I'd love to hear the thoughts of others.

[Ohman the heartless]

When our SO player failed to create a sanctuary, we lost 7 Wizards that the team had built, as all were lvl 3 or better with 2 lvl 5's. The positioning I think slightly favored the GN, SO, TY due to the 2 wizards could support each other initially, and the TY has the best starting economics, outside of any chivalry(if any)

[Calidor]

I understand the reasoning behind the no-diplomacy rule in team games but I think you lose a big chunk of the fun factor too.

I think it also makes it much harder for teams to recover when an ally drops. I definitely need some diplomacy in my next game!

[JonDoe]

In the team game you can take over a dropped players position. If you notice your ally miss a turn and you are getting no communication from him. Send a note to Support and they can give one of the remaining players on the team control of the dropping kingdom.

[Calidor]

So what was it like on the winning team? Any key turns/moves/decisions?

I think ours was deciding we needed to switch and move to attack the GN/EL/TY even though we still had active enemies from the RA/DA/UN. Leaving them for a bit really hurt us for the rest of the game but if we hadn’t pivoted I think the game would have ended a long time ago.

In hindsight I should have taken advantage of my hidden capital and not had a standing order to execute all prisoners. They might have pushed me into 3rd place.

Any advice from my adversaries on mistakes I/we made?

[PTRILEY]

This is my first attempt at a post here in this thread: please excuse spelling errors.

I would first like to say congrats to all who finished the game, we had some good fights, and this was my first game back after a 20 plus year absence, I have to say I very much enjoyed this game.

I thought I would write about my perspective playing the GN kingdom in this game:

When we had notice of our kingdoms, I truly didn’t really want to play the GN kingdom. I had drawn off my outdated knowledge of a kingdom I always thought to be a weaker position in the game. However, It didn’t take me but a few turns to realize that perspective was not even close to correct. The starting position, wizard capabilities, agent and political considerations had actually excellent potential.

I was teamed with JonDoe, and Wookie. Both were outstanding teammates, who not only taught me some very good lessons in the game, they both gave me suggestions which they thought would help my game and they allowed me to explore my own options, so I could learn the game. Can’t say enough about both. I may have broke their email systems with my many emails, I like to talk. Lol

After we secured our regions it was already decided that we would move the TY closer to the EL and GN side of the map. This put the SO kingdom in a bind since he was in R4 which we decided would be the TY’s area. Several turns in it appeared that the CI and AT had decided, about the same time we decided the TY would take R4, that they would move into and start a war in R1. They hit the EL position hard and the scorched earth policy of the AT, was not something I had seen in games of the past. I moved a large group into R1 to support my ally the EL, I had been developing my wizards and agents from the start. I caught an AT unit in R1 and had numbers and moral on him. I destroyed the unit and proceeded to move to the city in R2 which was controlled by the CI. The EL and TY both got our team some very nice artifacts which we kept the whole game. I had the ring of power and could teleport Army groups with my P7, so I started teleporting to cities, I teleported to the city in R6 and took it.

I could do a play by play of the whole game but that would take to long. In a nutshell our team eliminated the SO position, I know it was said he didn’t do a sanctuary, but I killed several of his wizards with mine, two of which were located at his capital in R4 in the water. I sieged that town to have a better chance of capturing his emmies. The TY had already decimated a number of the SO emmies. I believe after I destroyed his final capital, he was eliminated, with no emmies only agents left in the game.

During this time, the TY was taking it to the AT, and the EL broke his units into smaller units to cover more ground. His units/magic and political strength had turned the tide in R1 and R2 as he took both and held them. I see the CI as a nice kingdom with its traits, very powerful in the early rounds of the game, but magic/ wizards and a kingdom that can exploit a political objective can gain in strength as the game continues. The CI held in the game to the end very impressive resolve as did the AT. I should say, I felt that if the AT could have gotten into the sea of Mystery early in the game to help protect the SO, things could have been very bad for my units in the water.

At some point, and I can’t address this, because didn’t see any reports or have any knowledge of the other war that was raging. The RA and DA either dropped or were taken out by the WA/BL/NO team, and we were still fighting two still viable kingdoms.

The BL/ WA/ NO all moved into R7, which was a great move to come in force, and the fight was on. The WA from what I saw had comparable if not slightly better wizards than me, he had two Army groups in R7, and the BL had an army and army group in R7. The NO had a large unit but he was moving into R4 through R7. At this point I said bye to my teammates (they told me to lighten up.

I held the region by taking back pops they were taking from me but after a few turns I did loose control of the R7. We had devised a plan and the EL who had been developing his wizards and military units launched a blitz into the WA held R3. The TY fighting on several fronts was fighting the NO in R4, had R6 and was in R3 helping the EL. The TY was a punching bag for WA magic attack, the disadvantage of damage to his kingdom really sucked. JD with the TY pushed into R5 also. Because of the back door plan (or not, can’t speak for the WA/NO/BL team) it appeared the BL And WA pulled back into other regions and left R7 alone. I think this was a mistake, I re-focused my attention and retook R7 and the NO and I went back and forth in R4 switching control several times until I took it on the final game turn. I moved almost all my emmies and two large army groups into R8 Taking it from the BL, I “domed”all the pops he tried to militarily take back. I teleported to Avalon his capital took it and his king, the EL (Wookie) took almost all of R5 and I neutralized the city which he took and the region of R5. The TY and EL both moved military and emmies into R10 and took it. We took R4 R5 and R10 on the final turn. We controlled 7 regions at the end. It should be noted the BL dropped or went MIA several turns towards the end, if he had stayed in, we would still be playing the game I think.

Great game that almost went the distance. Thanks to all who played I appreciated it.

[JonDoe]

Nice write up.

[Wookie Panz]

This is my first attempt at a post here in this thread: please excuse spelling errors.

I would first like to say congrats to all who finished the game, we had some good fights, and this was my first game back after a 20 plus year absence, I have to say I very much enjoyed this game.

I thought I would write about my perspective playing the GN kingdom in this game:

When we had notice of our kingdoms, I truly didn’t really want to play the GN kingdom. I had drawn off my outdated knowledge of a kingdom I always thought to be a weaker position in the game. However, It didn’t take me but a few turns to realize that perspective was not even close to correct.  The starting position, wizard capabilities, agent and political considerations had actually excellent potential.

I was teamed with JonDoe, and Wookie. Both were outstanding teammates, who not only taught me some very good lessons in the game, they both gave me suggestions which they thought would help my game and they allowed me to explore my own options, so I could learn the game.  Can’t say enough about both.  I may have broke their email systems with my many emails, I like to talk.  Lol

After we secured our regions it was already decided that we would move the TY closer to the EL and GN side of the map.  This put the SO kingdom in a bind since he was in R4 which we decided would be the TY’s area.  Several turns in it appeared that the CI and AT had decided, about the same time we decided the TY would take R4, that they would move into and start a war in R1.  They hit the EL position hard and the scorched earth policy of the AT, was not something I had seen in games of the past.  I moved a large group into R1 to support my ally the EL, I had been developing my wizards and agents from the start.  I caught an AT unit in R1 and had numbers and moral on him.  I destroyed the unit and proceeded to move to the city in R2 which was controlled by the CI. The EL and TY both got our team some very nice artifacts which we kept the whole game.  I had the ring of power and could teleport Army groups with my P7, so I started teleporting to cities, I teleported to the city in R6 and took it.

I could do a play by play of the whole game but that would take to long.  In a nutshell our team eliminated the SO position, I know it was said he didn’t do a sanctuary, but I killed several of his wizards with mine, two of which were located at his capital in R4 in the water.  I sieged that town to have a better chance of capturing his emmies.  The TY had already decimated a number of the SO emmies. I believe after I destroyed his final capital, he was eliminated, with no emmies only agents left in the game.

During this time, the TY was taking it to the AT, and the EL broke his units into smaller units to cover more ground.  His units/magic and political strength had turned the tide in R1 and R2 as he took both and held them.  I see the CI as a nice kingdom with its traits, very powerful in the early rounds of the game, but magic/ wizards and a kingdom that can exploit a political objective can gain in strength as the game continues.  The CI held in the game to the end very impressive resolve as did the AT.  I should say, I felt that if the AT could have gotten into the sea of Mystery early in the game to help protect the SO, things could have been very bad for my units in the water.

At some point, and I can’t address this,  because didn’t see any reports or have any knowledge of the other war that was raging.  The  RA and DA either dropped or were taken out by the WA/BL/NO team, and we were still fighting two still viable kingdoms.

The BL/ WA/ NO all moved into R7, which was a great move to come in force, and the fight was on.  The WA from what I saw had comparable if not slightly better wizards than me, he had two Army groups in R7, and the BL had an army and army group in R7. The NO had a large unit but he was moving into R4 through R7.  At this point I said bye to my teammates (they told me to lighten up.  

I held the region by taking back pops they were taking from me but after a few turns I did loose control of the R7.  We had devised a plan and the EL who had been developing his wizards and military units launched a blitz into the WA held R3.  The TY fighting on several fronts was fighting the NO in R4, had R6 and was in R3 helping the EL.  The TY was a punching bag for WA magic attack,  the disadvantage of damage to his kingdom really sucked.  JD with the TY pushed into R5 also.   Because of the back door plan (or not, can’t speak for the WA/NO/BL team) it appeared the BL And WA pulled back into other regions and left R7 alone.  I think this was a mistake, I re-focused my attention and retook R7 and the NO and I went back and forth in R4 switching control several times until I took it on the final game turn.  I moved almost all my emmies and two large army groups into R8 Taking it from the BL, I “domed”all the pops he tried to militarily take back.  I teleported to Avalon his capital took it and his king, the EL (Wookie) took almost all of R5 and I neutralized the city which he took and the region of R5.  The TY and EL both moved military and emmies into R10 and took it.  We took R4 R5 and R10 on the final turn.  We controlled 7 regions at the end.  It should be noted the BL dropped or went MIA several turns towards the end, if he had stayed in, we would still be playing the game I think.

Great game that almost went the distance.  Thanks to all who played I appreciated it.

Nice write up by GN and comments from several other players who played out the whole game.  This was a dream come true for me to finally play a team game with J.D., something I had been wanting to do for a long time.  He is not only one of the top players in the game but a fine teacher as well and GN and I learned a great deal.  I don't think I have ever played on a team that communicated better than this one.  My west coast allies would often have 30 new emails in my inbox when I got up in the morning.

P.T. covered the game so well I'll  not say much more but there was one interesting turn where I inadvertently put our team in the cross hairs.  CI and AT had come after my EL position in region 1 and I lost control for a couple of turns.  On the turn that I regained it we went to 5 regions under our control and it was all in from that point on as all 6 remaining players brought the battle to us.  There were even times when we lot the lead briefly to the BL/NO/WA team but we were still getting hammered by the other three players too.
Lesson learned - don't get 5 regions.  go from 4 -6 and put the game away!

[Atuan]

The SO would have been fine without using level 1 agents to find my hidden capital. But its not like the game designer has stated its an exploit or anything.

[PTRILEY]

The SO would have also been fine if he built up his navy in the sea of his capital, and built a sanctuary to fall back to?

IMO, in a team game, the ability to consolidate your teams forces/ regions, where they can all three support one another is a huge advantage. We had that once the TY moved into R4.