Dominions 3 Grogheads Battle Royale (5 man 1 day turnaround game)

Started by undercovergeek, March 13, 2013, 07:43:08 AM

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undercovergeek

Right,

This is the smaller and shorter of the 2 MP games been set up. The bigger, 9 man game is still in preparation mode and will have longer time between each turn.

Step forward then 5 brave champions, Pretender Gods challenging for the right to rule all.

A brief summary of the protagonists from Jason 'pretender buffer' Pratt:-

Yskonyn (who is also hosting/administrating the game) will be playing with the Eagle Kings, a faction known as Caelum, comprised of three tribes of winged humanoids and their supporters. They work well in icy cold, and use a lot of Air magic. Also a lot of FREAKING MAMMOTHS!!

Huw is playing the New Faith Ermor faction, based on the late Roman Empire, if the late Roman Empire had had a fire-based priest-mage theocracy which is now being replaced with worship of a guy who returned from the dead in a shroud, leading over the next few ages to a highly undead faction.

Undercovergeek is playing the Niefelheim Sons of Winter faction, which by the standards of this game is pretty close to its source material: a cold-based (thus air-based) faction of frost giants and hags and jarls, descended from (one of) the former undisputed rulers of the world. He will most likely crush all opposition, figuratively and literally. I'd bet on him, if money was at stake.

Ubercat is playing the Mictlan Reign of Blood faction, also pretty close to its source material, the legends and practices of the Aztecs. We can expect a lot of blood magic usage from him. (Blood magic works a little differently in Dom3 than other schools of magic: people have to be rounded up from the population and killed to get their blood.)

Lastly, Jason is playing Golden Age Arcoscephale, a mixture of Bronze Age Greek pagan, philosophical and historical/military sources. I won't have hoplites (those come from a later age), but I'll have access to myrmydons and chariots and winged horses and some things of that sort. No real archers to speak of (but maybe I can find some elsewhere), but I have engineers who can help in castle sieges, and philosophers and mystics and sceptics who can think about things really hard. I also have an expensive and high-maintenance harem of seductive magical women, whom I can trapeze around the world as super-combatants.

undercovergeek

The one thing about this AAR is I will contribute what i know, who ive met and how battles have gone, but maybe a turn or two down the line - i dont want to reveal too many nefarious plans and deeds of skullduggery.

I played the game endlessly a couple of years ago having ordered the 'full bastard package' from Shrapnel - beautiful ringbound manual, cd, poster - all for £80 and another £15 for it to be imported to the UK. Played it to death and then was tempted by another game I ironically cant even remember now and after a brief hiatus sold the lot on Ebay for £10 -  :'(  :'(  >:(

Well im back - what I do know is, like Men in Black, I have been mind wiped and I remember nothing at all! Had to redo the tutorial, I am working my way through an excellent set of Lets Play vids on Youtube and learning as I go - not the best for a multi player match, but we'll see how I get on.

Im happy for this to be an open AAR, the other players are welcome to come in here and add their experiences or comment on mine and we'll build a decent story of awesome tales and legendary battles.

Next......... turn 1

JasonPratt

Quote from: undercovergeek on March 13, 2013, 07:43:08 AMI also have an expensive and high-maintenance harem of seductive magical women, whom I can trapeze around the world as super-combatants.

And in the game!

;D


(This game lends itself well to lots of "and in the game" jokes.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Meanwhile (in the game!), my first wretched little commander just earned the trait of HEROIC STUPIDITY!!

For running the hell away.


(Either the developers need to tweak their code for a specific character entering the Hall of Fame, or they're just screwing with us now.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

undercovergeek

The map:-



An uncrossable river and whats known locally as 'Cock and Balls Lake'

So, lets see how me Kingdom unfolds. A great strength of Niefelheim is that the cold from my dominion pushes out past my borders. This lends itself fabulously to having a strong dominion push, even if my pesky neighbors manage to push back to a dominion stalemate they'll be bleeding gold from the temperature drop all along their border. If (in the much more likely case with me actively pushing my strong dominion) I manage to push my dominion into their territory it doesn't take much to cover half their nation in a wintery blanket with devastating impact to their economy - moooohahahahahahaha

Since I'm intending to actively push my dominion to the unbelievers let's consider the impact of the scales at the top. Ideally, I want a dominion that is great for me and terrible for anybody else. Cold-3 is obviously mandatory. Luck-3, as the way the game mechanics work a hostile dominion with luck functions as misfortune (my good luck is my opponent's bad luck). So pushing my lucky dominion is pushing misfortune-3 to them! Death -3 I think also fits perfectly in that it doesn't really hurt me too much but death-3/cold-3 scales make plenty of invading armies get really hungry, and makes old mages really grumpy. Sloth-3 probably won't hurt my neighbors too much, but it's basically free points and it's not going to help them any. So, my evil plan is pushing cold deep into enemy territory, and death-3/misfortune-3/sloth-3 following on its heels accompanied by all those really nifty random events those scales unlock. Meanwhile i'm sitting pretty in an order-3/luck-3/magic-1 dominion not really noticing the death/sloth scales.

Bring it the f*** on

Next, my province and my units


JasonPratt

I see that my money was well-bet, considering you haven't even mentioned your frost giant army yet.  ;)


Edited to add that this map was generated by the game engine itself, so blame the lake on monkey typewriters or words to that effect.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

undercovergeek

Niefelheim:-

A thing of beauty.

I'm not going to identify that unit - he's my secret weapon to ultimate domination.



Its a goddamned beauty pageant, these are my core forces:



My Frost Giants - I will be using these to stomp all over the challengers:



more tomorrow, due to crappy connection in hotel




bob48

^Really Geek?

I thought that Milton Keynes was the hub of the communications world.

Oh wait, is it north of Watford Gap?
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

undercovergeek

i think it is - i have 1 bar and a transfer rate of 30kbs - i have to say Lithuania had better!

More tomorrow

undercovergeek

Niefel Jarls - my Frost Giant commanders - enemies will be seeing a lot of these!



Gygjas - wrinkly old giant hags, my magic users:




So, thats team Niefelheim

Next, turn 1



undercovergeek

I cant really post many screenshots yet for fear of revealing my position and plans, but i will soon.

Turn 1 opens with a message from Ermor (Huw), basically im rubbish, he's ace blah blah blah. The problem was this coincided with a discussion from Huw on the forum that he had started right next to another player, connecting the 2 I thought this was a server generated message that had already considered our starting positions and pretenders and decided he was the stronger and i was going to get my ass kicked!!! Alas no, just a crazy Welsh man

Im sure everyone's turn 1 is quite similar. My scout is sent sneaking off to a neighbouring province to gather intel - i would prefer a forested area for the higher resource count as my luck scales should generate plenty of 'oooo heres some extra cash' messages but there are none nearby.

Ill go into recruitment next time, but needless to say i built 6 of what was required. And then the only real decision - do i send my pretender into combat or into research - my pretender is an awake, immortal, millenia year old master liche, which basically means he's a walking digestive biscuit and just as useful in combat - to the library it is - our first priority is the school of construction so we can start cranking out strong magical items from the forge

So thats the main 3 choices for every turn, recruitment, research and army movement

Next, what the scout finds, the recruitment plan built with Jason in mind and research

JasonPratt

Quote from: undercovergeek on March 16, 2013, 10:45:39 AM
Next, what the scout finds, the recruitment plan built with Jason in mind and research

{nodding} Good, good, that's all perfectly what?

Wait, why am I the one in mind?!

Or is that misdirection?

(Mental note: should I have been recruiting more with an eye toward defeating an opponent than just "being awesome"...? Investigate this...)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

undercovergeek

#12
So, turn 2 - here then is home and the surrounding regions. Ive been done out of 2 neighbouring regions as theyre water, which limits my expansion some but theres plenty of other areas to go. Intel from the scout shows 40 lizardmen to my immediate west, also that this area is a swamp (bad for income). Immediately northwest are 40 deer tribe huntsmen and archers in a 'standard' provice - no boosters, no negatives, and to my northeast 40 barbarians (quite handy with a 2 handed sword) - so actually the more i look at it the worse it gets - ive actually started with only 5 neighbouring provinces - the one north isnt attached to the capital, 2 are water and 1 is a swamp - awesome!



Last turn I swelled my ranks with 6 new units, 3 cannon fodder units and my ace up the sleeve unit - the Jotun Skinshifter, especially recruited for Jason. Now, on first glance it's maybe not apparent how incredibly awesome this guy is, but consider the following. He's got 35 hit points, then when he runs out of those he changes into A GIANT FRIKKING WEREWOLF. This second form has 48 more hit points, raising the total to chop this guy down to 83 points of damage - MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA errrrrrrr cough. Sssssshhhhhhhh, secret unit!!!



With out further ado, 3 more are recruited for further expansion and an army of sorts is built around my crazy, beserker units of awesomeness. The brown looking giants are just there to catch arrows with their faces and are set to hold and then charge, the Wolfmen of Doom and the Surt the commander are ordered just to go bowling straight at the enemy, roar and howl and win the day for Niefelheim (i hope). Mum'Rah stays in the library and reads some books, like a good biscuit based god should do



After much careful deliberation of the 2 choices i have, we opt to go Northwest and take on the deer tribesmen. Sneaky Sneakersson the scout is sent further North as we look around for a good site to build a fort and bring in some more resources



Next, our first battle, more intel and the Dominion spreads

airboy

I've read the strategy guide that you are using for your core Cold Brown Werewolf Strategy.  I've had problems making it work.  There are such tight money limits on the strategy that nations that could amass a large number of units would eat my lunch.

It is also interesting that there are multiple players trying to turn the world into an icesicle.  Only one traditionally "hot" country - Micitan.  Of course, people can choose all sorts of different scales.

undercovergeek

i hear you - ive tested a trial run or two in SP - i think i can do it

:-\