[Dominions 6] 2 Grogs 2 Furious (IN PROGRESS)

[Tanaka]

Good game all! Good luck in the carnage to come!

Carnage indeed!  I finally got into my first big scuffle with Myrmidon.  He whooped my ass, but it was an awesome battle to watch!

What else is happening in the game? We need updates!

[al_infierno]

Not much else really, from what I've seen.  It took ages of dancing around for me and Arco to finally have our big scuffle, and far as I can tell, Bandar Log and Marignon are chilling back with their popcorn, building up their sacred reserves, and enjoying the show!

[solops]

Updates and game news stimulates interest in Dom 6 and may attract new players.

[al_infierno]

Arco seems to have fully recovered from my attempt at stabbing them in the heart.  They went for a heavily defended throne last turn, and lost a big guy with a ton of items in the process.  Probably hurt a bit in terms of gems, but no big loss of troops.

I've also pretty much recovered all my lost strength, but I'm feeling a LOT more cautious about trying to invade anyone. Arco proved they can easily handle my cavalry corps with the magic equivalent of massed artillery, and Marignon and Bandar Log are way too big for me to try and take on alone.

Right now the game momentum firmly rests in the hands of Marignon and Bandar Log.  Between them they probably own about 75% of the map and neither have faced significant losses in their limited conflicts yet.  Remains to be seen how this Cold War gets hot.

Oh... also, there's a new game update today 

[TheMeInTeam]

I am at war with Arco now.  So far it's been raiding on either side, somewhat favoring me because I have more stuff.  However, it's the army fight that will be decisive, which hasn't happened yet.

I had a scout on that attempt for tier 3 throne too.  Spring hawks fit 3 to square and have a 6 AN shock damage attack.  The golem had 5% regen and 10 SR.  Here is the DRN chart for dominions..  At -4, each attack has an 18% chance of dealing at least some damage (and will sometimes hit for significantly more).

at 3/square and 8 surrounding squares, 24 spring hawks can attack per round.  At least one of them will hit for damage in >99% of rounds.  On average, quite a few will, with each successful damage also having a chance to stun the target.

I would not feel comfortable sending something into them w/o at least 20 SR.  They only have a 1% chance to deal damage per attack then, so you still have a > 80% chance per round to not take damage (good enough that regen can keep up as long as it's decent).  This is a very similar scenario to how massed air elementals killed al infierno's monument despite its > 1000hp a few years ago...too many lightning swarm attacks --> stunlock due to some but not sufficient SR.

In terms of the game state, Mari and I have done what made me nervous about Xibalba last game - pushed infra and made lots of mages uncontested.  At least, I believe Mari also made lots of mages.  Their troop count of any-fort sacred knights of the chalice is incredible though, and I'm personally hoping that came at the expense of some research speed, because if it didn't I probably can't keep up with the sheer volume of elite sacreds coming my way sooner or later...assuming I actually defeat Arco.  We can fully expect late-game techs at play in this one...I just hope I'm the only one who has them.

In terms of win probability, I estimate that either me or Mari has > 99% in this game.  Unless Arco beats me w/o losses, Mari could just wash over all of us 1v3 if I lose my army vs Arco in mutually destructive fighting.  If I beat Arco, the most likely outcome is that Mari and Man dogpile me...even though it would almost certainly be Bandar + Man dogpiling Mari if I were leading that nation.  Trying to win from Arco's or Man's position would be incredibly difficult.  They are much worse off in this game than Agartha and Xibalba were after I took Ubar with Mekone, though not quite as bad as Lanka was in that game.

Throne rush win will also be difficult.  Mari needs to take tier 3 throne (presently in Arco's land) AND one of my underwater thrones to win.  For me to win, I need that tier 3 throne and to capture a tier 2 off Mari...similarly deep in her territory as the UW stuff would be in mine.  I doubt either of us will win just by jumping onto a throne next to someone's cap and nobody doing anything about it like last time lol.

[solops]

Anyone see any good thugs yet?

[al_infierno]

Anyone see any good thugs yet?

I did some pretty solid thugging with a Lord Warden geared up with a coral blade, blade of grass, and some decent armor.  At least until he came toe-to-toe with Arco's main army.   

[TheMeInTeam]

Nearly all of Arco's unforted territory was taken via thugs, only 3 provinces taken with conventional forces (ichtyids in one water province, priest + tiger riders sniping 1 province, and probably can't thug the hamadryad province w/o army support).  I didn't meet much PD, but the stuff I used could kill 50+ PD easily so it would be a bad deal w/o mages behind it.

You can't solo operate thugs into decently designed armies, even less so if they have good tech.  Needs a tailor-made SC, and only if a weakness is spotted in army scripting.

Unfortunately, Arco disease attritioned a big % of my army, although he still lost more or less all of his remaining capability when I took cap successfully.  Did a good job making me bleed for it though, Mari is definitely position 1 in terms of troop power and has at least one tech at level 7 (evo), since Mari has harbingers also conj 6.  Might be even higher.

[al_infierno]

You can't solo operate thugs into decently designed armies, even less so if they have good tech.  Needs a tailor-made SC, and only if a weakness is spotted in army scripting.

Oh yeah, it wasn't intentional at all.  Either a happy accident on Arco's part, or a well placed counter-thug army.

[Myrmidon]

GG All!

Yeah, RNGesus slapping me in the middle of the map with the only 3 pt throne in my capring was pretty rough.  I tried to acquit myself well in spite of the circumstances. 

Maybe with some hardcore diplomancing, I may have been able to eek out a better outcome?  But my current game count has me a little too occupied for such things.  Even with said diplomancing, I'm still the monkey in the middle, with the throne strapped to my neck needed for anyone to win the game, so may as well happily accept one's fate.

Best of luck to the remaining players.  I'd say a nice tossup between Mari and Bandar at this point, perhaps depending on the initiative shown, as well as who Man decides to team up with. 

Have fun with it!

[Tanaka]

GG All!

Yeah, RNGesus slapping me in the middle of the map with the only 3 pt throne in my capring was pretty rough.  I tried to acquit myself well in spite of the circumstances. 

Maybe with some hardcore diplomancing, I may have been able to eek out a better outcome?  But my current game count has me a little too occupied for such things.  Even with said diplomancing, I'm still the monkey in the middle, with the throne strapped to my neck needed for anyone to win the game, so may as well happily accept one's fate.

Best of luck to the remaining players.  I'd say a nice tossup between Mari and Bandar at this point, perhaps depending on the initiative shown, as well as who Man decides to team up with. 

Have fun with it!

So what ended up happening? Who is at war with who now?

[al_infierno]

So what ended up happening? Who is at war with who now?

Still moving slowly, but I just declared war on both Bandar and Mari to keep things exciting 

[Tanaka]

So what ended up happening? Who is at war with who now?

Still moving slowly, but I just declared war on both Bandar and Mari to keep things exciting 

Ohhh you just pulled a Tanaka nice! Spice that #$%^&%$% up!