#119 - First Experienced Steel Game

[Ry Vor]

The Deliverer has done it again - this time winning via secret victory as the Underworld on Turn 19.

Post your curses, congratulations, motivations for revenge, and stories of what happened and what might have been.

[The Gray Mouser]

First, congratulations of course to the World's Most Interesting Man, Kevin Dusi, who goes by The Deliverer. I haven't even acknowledged him yet in Valhalla for winning the Titans Championship, and for all I know, he may go on to win the 2013 Steel Championship, now on turn 26.

We shall post more questions on this game experience.

[kevindusi]

I played as the Underworld in game 119 and was able, though good luck and a little strategy, to claim the win. Keep in mind that most of my game was spent with my focus solely on regions 8, 9, and 10 - very little idea or interest on the balance of the map. I'll have to let others give their thoughts on what was going on elsewhere.

My opening thought with the Underworld was to try to do something different with them, and to play an attacking kingdom right from the beginning, rather than sitting back and building. To do this, I had to secure my capital in Runnimede, so agreements were made with the Gnome. Next was to recruit help for movement on a region. Due to my starting with resources in Runnimede and Synisvania, the south of the map was open for business. I managed to come to an agreement with the Demon Prince in Arcania and had no desire to take on both the Sorcerer and Ranger in Synisvania, so it fell to DuPont and me to continue our roles as "not quite buddies". Thus began the Underworld invasion of the Southern Sands on turn 1. By turn 3, BL had donated a couple of his emissaries to my dungeons and was beginning his game-long tactical plan of "wander around and look lost". Actually, he was making quite more of a game of things in 10 than I had expected and it wasn't until around turn 10 that things really started to fall in line.

Eventually, the Red Dragon made an offer to work to the highest bidder against a specified target (essentially a mercenary for hire) and the Gnome and I jumped to hire him. I did not have an answer for the BL military in the Sands, and the Sorcerer had also decided to come down and play in the Sands to help the Black.I don't understand his rationale, but I do have to give him credit for sticking to his commitments in the region. With the help of the Red, who was now playing whack-a-mole with the Black Dragon capital, I was finally able to hold region 10.

Unfortunately, before things could settle too much, the Elf picked up a second region and many were concerned that he was closing in on the win. I divined what the Elf held in Oakendale while the Red divined his holdings in the Steppes. I relocated my capital to my starting town in the Mists, along with a collection of emissaries that the Black military had graciously displaced from pop centers in my region. I enamored to friendly, moved my emissary corps into the region (who would have expected Thallion to have NO defense?) and....then the Giant showed up at my temporary capital.

Not good, as I needed things to fall into place perfectly to succeed in my move on 1 and my push for the win. I reached out to the Witchlord, hoping that he would be willing to offer a dome of protection over my poor town. Instead, to my surprise, he offered to broker peace with the Giant if I was willing to give him the Staff of Disdain (which, interestingly, he had asked me to steal from the Giant in the first place). Turns out the Giant was not a big fan of my kidnapping his baron or the Warlock's (his ally) king... but he was willing to make peace if I would return those prisoners. The Warlock prisoner was the priority and was to go first, with the Giant baron following the next turn. Good enough for me, though I would have liked the extra 500+ status points from the staff and king, but an assault on my capital would mean zero chance for victory, so I took it. Obviously the Giant and Witchlord had no idea I was to claim victory, as they were mobilizing to prevent the Elf from claiming his (I think my being able to tell them I was assaulting Oakendale that turn helped negotiations). So, I was able to invade 1 by myself to grab substantial, one of my secret victory conditions, with the side benefit of knocking him out of control, which I was guessing was one of his conditions. I failed on my attempt to kidnap his king, but still set a personal best of 3 kings kidnapped during the course of the game.

One of the most enjoyable things in this game was the coordination with the other players. From turn 4 on until the Red military showed up, I was largely operating alone in the Sands, with the Demon Prince and Gnome offering wards and sleeps. In exchange, I used my agents to kidnap or kill emissaries. For the Demon Prince, I helped against anyone that invaded Arcania (which ended up being the Troll, Ancient Ones, Ranger, Warlock, and Giant). For the Gnome, I helped remove the stubborn defense in Synisvania (it is rumored he took the whole region with only 4 governors). I provided what I like to think of as a fair bit of compensation to the Red to assist him in going after his natural enemy and, finally, once the Elf took a second region it was great to see how many people were willing to take up arms against him.

Favorite turn: Kidnapping the Warlock and Ranger king and stealing the Great Axe from the Ranger.
Best move of the game: The Gnome found a high level Sorcerer agent with the ring of invisibility. We killed the agent and the ring returned to the Sorcerer capital, where the Gnome had an invisible army group waiting to take the town (and the ring).
Best beat down/defense: Watching Bluefile2 be invaded by just about every southern kingdom and somehow keep a fairly strong position until the last few turns.

I would nominate both Bluefile2 and DuPont for iron-willed. DuPont for his unwavering desire to have two groups constantly milling about my region, only to have his gains reversed the following turn, and Bluefile2 for stout defense against all comers (and for being a shield for the Sands).

I would nominate Wynterbreeze for notorious, as he definitely had an impact on my game and, once he decided to go mercenary, stuck to the role quite well.

Finally, Wynand would be my vote for chancellor as he got to hear the bulk of the crazy ideas for things I wanted to try and acted as a good sounding board.

Sorry for the length of the post, but thanks to all for a very enjoyable contest!!

[Brogan]

What was your eso? Congrats! It's great to see the UN and GN do well in a game.

[Cloud]

Sorry for the length of the post, but thanks to all for a very enjoyable contest!!

Never apologize for lengthy recaps in the Valhalla forum! The more details the better. Everybody who's all [tl;dr] can skip it but I love getting a substantial report.

Cloud

[Lord Diamond]

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