5241 Steel Anonymous (The Choosing)

[unclemike]

Congrats to Eregnon the Black for winning the game as the Elven king!

This could be the last The Choosing game since Maelstrom is now available. I chose the Gnome kingdom in this non-wizard game because I thought I would dominate with the Gnome wizard power but that wasn't much of a factor in the game. Torvale was open for the taking so I moved to claim the region but the Elf got in the way and we tangled a bit. Eventually, the Elf teleported a large army group to my capital in Runnimede but I had 4 groups there with pwr-6 wizards who cast Summon Death against him and wiped out half his military. Even without a strong military, the Elven emissaries were still a match to deal with and I wasn't able to reclaim Torvale from him. Throughout the game, I wasn't bothered by the other kingdoms though I thought the Red Dragon would move against me early and my initial strategy was to prepare against him. Anyway, I hope all enjoyed themselves in the game which could be the last The Choosing game for a while.

             Victory By Rex Is The Elven Kingdom!
                           Game End Status Points

        Place Kingdom    Player                Results-25  Grand Total

          1     EL     Eregnon the Black        15,920      22,530
          2     NO    DuPont                         9,460      15,930
          3     GN    The Wise One                8,800      15,200
          4     DW    Drogo                          8,215      14,857
          5     SA     The Painted Man           7,420      13,855
          6     DA     Ashgar                         6,275      10,794
          7     AT     Son of Conan                6,300      10,645
          8     PI      The Gray Mouser           4,310       7,743

[The Gray Mouser]

I took the Pirates for the 2nd time - the other in a Confederations game where the Pirates were attacked by 7 different kingdoms in the first 10 turns.

This was again difficult as the Pirates mainly want to carve out niches in regions, and can show plainly they aren't trying to take a region, but in a Silent game there is no way to show intent beyond that - hey, I showed you I know where your towns are, and I didn't attack, but then you're attacked by them a couple turns later.  I think it would be easier in Maelstrom where you take a coastal region and go from there.

[Ashgar75]

I was the Dark Elf King, this was my first Game. I took my region with ease, then on about turn 5, the Ranger marched in an army and a division and started taking PC's. I hadn't done much recruiting so I combined forces and made a 7 brigade army and went after him. I wiped out his forces and took back the towns by turn 10 only to have the Atlantians flood my region with Emmi's. He also kidnapped a few. By now I had an Army Group of 11 brigades (still slow on recruiting), I have 3 P5 wizards, and the rest were P3's. I was able to prevent the AT from taking my region on the next turn and also Denigrated him, Declared him an enemy, and used a P5 to incite. He was Hostile. I also moved to my Capital on a hunch, and he landed an army group of 13 brigades along with a P6 and P5, I believe. I decimated his Army Group 62% (Nullified his wizards for the most part, and let my forces go from there. He then had the DW move into his region so I knew I would get a breather. The very next turn, I had the Ranger back with another 9 brigade army and another Division. I focused on him through turn 20 and took every PC but his capital. I was able to take his army and the artifact it owned. I then turned my attention to the Atlantian. It was payback time. I landed a 21 brigade army group at the city along with a 6 brigade at a PC of his, I also sent in 6 high ranking Emmi's and was Tolerant. I intended to take the region in 1 turn. The only surprise was the DW Division at the PC I landed on. No big, time to put in my orders and take the region......oh wait, Damn Elf goes and wins the game!!!!!! Grats Eregnon the Black. I didn't think you could take 2 regions so quickly but you did. Nice work. I need to pay more attention around the map and not just in my area. Thanks for the fun to Ranger, and to Son of Conan (Atlantian). I am learning a lot very quickly thanks to you.

[Ry Vor]

Nice write up Ashgar. 

One fairly new thing in Alamaze is Universal Results to let you know what's happening around the world.

Experienced players get a bit frustrated in Silent when one kingdom is clearly leading and players do not react and continue local squabbles.  But experienced players also do not want to control three regions so that their lead doesn't show up in Universal Results.  They will get control of at least two regions simultaneously to win.

Usual disclaimer:  Alamaze was designed as a diplomacy game.  Faults due to Silent are not the fault of The Creator, rather just consumer preference.

[Eregnon]

Well, I’ve always wanted to be in the history books, and now it looks like I’ll go down in Alamaze history as the last winner of a Resurgence game. It’s not “history” history, but it is something.

Here are the starting rulers in the game:
          AT    The Legendary Civilization of the Atlantians            Son of Conan
          DA    The Onyx Imperium of the Dark Elves                      Ashgar
          DW    The Dwarven Lords of the Talking Mountains         Drogo
          EL    The Evergreen Dominion of the High Elves               Eregnon the Black
          GN    The Golden Principality of the Gnomes                    The Wise One
          NO    The Great Nomadic Hegemony                                 DuPont
          PI    The Pirates of Avalon and Beyond                              The Gray Mouser
          RA    The Iron Province of the Rangers                              Enari
          RD    The Reign of Terror of the Red Dragons                   Strongwill
          SA    The Theocracy of the Sacred Order of Knights         The Painted Man

The first few turns I did the basic exploration and luckily gained control of Oakendell on turn 3, so I had a turn of full production before winter. I started building my political base, and hired a Noble Maiden. With Torvale open, I was expecting the RD to move into it, which would have been fine with me, since I felt he’d be unlikely to try to come into Oakendell with all its forests. Instead, he went after the RA in Arcania. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I started moving into Torvale.

I could see the GN was also taking PCs in the region, and on turn 7 he showed up at one of my towns with a division. Up to now there had been no real conflict between us, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be hostile. I had an army group nearby, so I ordered them to intercept his division. I intercepted him at my town, which he was in the process of sieging. Okay, that answers that question. I attacked the division, which had no wizards, and he didn’t bother giving them a defend order so I wiped them out.

I moved on Meridon, and took it and the region on turn 10. Knowing that the GN could be powerful if left alone, I started pushing towards Runnimede. Surprisingly, my divinations showed a human village still in the region, which I wouldn’t expect to see this late in the game.

On turn 13, I teleported an army group to his capital. He had all 4 groups there as patrols, and I knew I’d be taking on the chin from summon death spells, but I figured I’d be able to wipe out at least one group with a summon death of my own, and if I killed the wizards I’d consider that to be acceptable losses. It turns out, however, that phantoms are IMMUNE TO SUDDEN DEATH SPELLS! So, I lost 9 brigades for no result.

I also lost a power 4 and power 1 wizard, but that was due to stupidity on my part. One of his groups did not have a power 6, and it should have been obvious that I needed to throw protect heroes against that group, as the only way it could hurt me was with kill spells. I also should have thrown chaos with my power 4 against at least one group. Oh well, live and learn.

I pulled my troops out of Runnimede and decided to go political there while I trained up my surviving wizards. The GN and I traded denigrates and enamors for a few turns, and I ended up with two villages, including the former human village, and a town. I kept expecting the GN to come after me, but he never really did much for the rest of the game.

So it’s turn 17, the DW had pushed the PI out of the Mists, and the latter was now trying to expand into Torvale. I had a fair number of emissaries at this point – 2 Princes, 4 Barons and 7 governors, so I was able to hold my own politically. The PI made good use of his navies in Mystery, showing up on land to attack a town and sailing away the next turn, in true pirate fashion. On turn 20, I released a major skeleton on him and was able to push him the rest of the way out of Torvale.

Also on turn 20, I saw that the PI had been regaining ground in the Mists from the DW, and on turn 21 it became uncontrolled. The DW was busy fighting the SA, and had declared both them and the PI as enemies. I realized this gave me an opportunity to move into the Mists without the DW immediately knowing. So on turn 20, I moved my first wave of emissaries, consisting of 1 Prince, 1 Baron and 4 governors to the PI pop centers in the Mists, and enamored the region to friendly. On turn 22, I took the PI pop centers and moved my other Prince, a baron and 2 governors to the DW pop centers while my army group teleported to Viperhead. I also began enamoring the TM.

I had 3 power 7s in my army group at this point. On turn 23, I threw diplomacy on the city and took the DW pop centers, which gave me the region. While this was going on, my first wave of diplomats, which had taken the PI pc’s, moved into the TM, which was now friendly. My recon had showed that Hammerhold had no emissaries in it, so I moved a Prince there. I moved my group to the woods to the north to do some recruiting.

So it’s turn 24 coming up, and I’ve got Oakendell, Torvale and the Mists. There is a PI army group at a village in the Mists, and a DW division at a town in the Mists across the “Moat of Terror”. I had enough domes for the pc’s, so I wasn’t worried about losing them this turn, but my choice was whether to try to intercept one of these groups, or teleport to a town in the TM that I was fairly certain was the DW capital. I decided to teleport to the TM and go for the win. It was indeed the DW capital, and I stormed in on turn 25, which was enough to give me the region and the win.

It was a good game (of course, it’s always a good game when you win), with a lot of back and forth political action. My biggest regret is that on the last turn I neglected to cancel my standing order to execute emissaries, which cost me several hundred status points. Still, satisfying nonetheless.