Game 157

[Lord Diamond]

End of game details!

[Jumbie]

My after game summary.

I started well, making peace with my neighbors for 10 turns.

I was the SO and the plan was for me to share R9 with the RA. He would get control and the city. My strategy was to use hidden ore to up my production while keeping a low profile and exploring for artifacts and training agents. It was a risky plan, since it's all the eggs in a few baskets, but I figured if I got the wizards high enough, fast enough, I'd be able to raise various creature armies to make my defense rock solid. I expected no one was going to invade R9 early with the RA there.

However, the RA player dropped after turn one and no one realized until turn 4 or so.

When I did figure it out, I had to scramble to grab the city and the rest of the towns. With the region remaining uncontrolled for another 2 turns, that sent a signal that the place was open for takeover.

It also messed up my equilibrium.

I couldn't get the artifacts I needed for ESO. I had to spend money and orders on using emmisaries instead of developing wizards and agents.

At turn 9 I had to deal with some flooding in Real Life. And i ended up missing two turns.

By then the truce with the DA was over and he pounced on my capital.

I was left with a fairly strong wizard corps and some water towns that were funding me. Plus he was too weak to take the city via military. So I decided to play guerrilla. I trained up some agents and upped my wizards some more. I had just raised a monstrous army and set it at the first town on my list in R6 when the game ended.

Too bad. I felt like I had a good chance to rip up the DA infrastructure and at least deny him a finish in the top half.

I feel like without the bad luck of my starting turns, I'd have done fairly well and I definitely want to play SO again. I was particularly impressed with how few problems I had with cash flow even after the DA took my el dorado mega gold producing town.

[Ry Vor]

Good to hear from Jumbie.

[Jumpingfist]

DE path to victory

My first actions started on turn 0. I reached out to the BL who was being play by LT my military mentor to Alamaze. He would not disappoint in this short contest. Looking over the SVC rules we decided the best course of action would be to both go for 3 substantial and 2 significants, since we each started with uncontested regions we could easily give the other substantial in the other. We would then need 1 other region to basically take control of and snag 2 significants where opportunity allowed. To finish my SVC off I took 6+ fleets in two sea zones. This is one of the few conditions that could be met in two turn if really needed. the final condition was more regions than my natural enemy AN. The AN approached me with a deal to leave each other alone. I jumped on this deal as it is normally the AN giving the DE troubles more than the other way around anyway.
Luck was on my side this game without a doubt I was off to my best start in a game. I was able to take control of the region on turn 2 mostly due to the ANs deal I was able to move into and take the two cities of Arcania without using orders to scout, I had blind moved into the only 3 sea zones in the region and found a village. I also swapped towns with BL but was able to move a demon prince through his military allowing me to take the town on turn 2 as well. My larges group landed on a village. to cap off a great turn 1 another group landed on an Unusual Sighting. The artifact ended up being the Plow of the Prophet, one of my favorite artifacts. I could not feed the myself and the BL through winter and summer with no problems.
Having taken my region so fast and noticing the GI declared the WA his enemy, I was able to move quickly into R5 with some scouting and blink moves. I picked three sea areas and had my demon princes target them. one landed in a neutral town. DE with a PC you do not even know about is very bad news for any kingdom. In the next few turns I took over the only other sea PC in amberland before GI or WA knew what was going on. I was well established. around this time the AN dropped and I began talking with other kingdoms. Having a basic idea where I was planning to get my 3 substantial I started isolating myself and boxing myself in with walls of naps or working relationships. Only the northern kingdom did not have some kind of deal with me in place.
While scouting with my group I landed on the RA capital on T6 with 1RA sitting out front, but also just recovered the sword of alvinitar within one turns march of the capital. I knew the RA had dropped and let the SO know I would be taking the RA capital which he was fine with likely because it required military anyway. i was not allowed to take any other PCs in R9 though besides the village i already had.
I had been trading land villages and towns with the GI and WA in amberland waiting for BL to show up to begin the crushing part of the plan. Amberland would never be controlled for the entire contest. The BL showed up now turn 7 or 8 with his 30+ brigades of dragons/Wyvern how he was able to get so many is not my secret to tell. BL would take both cities and both GI and WA capitals over the next few turn and start getting into it with the RD. I was trying to avoid direct conflict with RD at least for now.
between the BL taking PC with emmies and me status quo or changing reaction level the BL and I captured most the emmies of the GI and WA. now the GI was just down to moving his groups from place to place to take back PC. someone how I lost no emmisaries during this time.
on other fronts I started to employ the stealthy part of my plan. I began using 600s and the 610 spells to increase my census specifically in R9 and R5. this was to allow me to get the census levels needed for the win without alerting everyone to what was going on. To most i wanted it to just look like I was fighting in R5 with BL vs the GI and WA. In total in a 17 turn game I would use 46 600 orders and 12 610 spells.
t12 I made a huge mistake that would cost me a t16 victory. I had moved 3 emmies into R10 to start getting my share of BL region. I was going to use a demon prince to raise reaction levels then take three town. but I forgot i did not own any PCs so my three emmies all got captured. Of course he was my ally so I would get them back but damage was done to my tight time table. At this time I also sealed the last deal needed with the WI and a small deal with the TR for a town and village in R5 that were part of the PCs in my WI deal. I would get rights to 4 towns and 2 villages in amberland and he could do what he wanted with the others. UN and I had already divined the WI secret intentions(along with most other) and knew he was not a threat to SVC but I could tell he was a threat to R8. I had also planned to move into R2 and had it enamored all the way up already.
T16 rolled around and I saw a new opening for a victory. if RD destroyed the R10 city he was at i could win. I let the RD know what was up and offered him some high level prisoners if he would agree. But he did not and now knowing I was that close to winning, he and the DW moved on some of my towns in R10. but I already predicted his move and had plenty in place to maintain significant. I would instead take his city in R7 and boost other places owned with 600s to make R7 R5 and R8 my three substantials needed for the win on T17.
my capital at games end.
QJ DUSI HARBOR VILL 35,923 21,750 150,024 2,910 more than 50% of my food production


Congrats to the DA for also sneaking up on me and spoiling my goal to have the BL and UN on the podium with me. I thought the UN had second placed locked up no matter what was done.

Chancelor : TR Bananas (some arch mage thing) for his very creative ideas of information sharing and deal making. I am taking away some ideas i plan to use in future games. That always gets me excited.

Iron-willed : GI Pedinski - no complaints just keeps on fighting.

Infamous : BL LT - 30+ dragons running around amberland on turn 7. Holy Cow

[bananas]

Chancelor : TR Bananas (some arch mage thing) for his very creative ideas of information sharing and deal making.  I am taking away some ideas i plan to use in future games.  That always gets me excited.

OMG, thanks!

[bananas]

TROLL SMASH!!

Well, sort of. Not having played Alamaze in like 100 billion years (and then barely any), I was effectively a newb. Having picked the troll, I was strongly advised to ally with the AN as we share the same zone. Sure, no problem. He'd take the city and control of Torvale and I'd get substantial.  My plan was to head north for the EL. The turn 1 results had all three groups sitting on pop centers. 1TR was on a town and the others were on villages. The next turn had me stumble upon an EL village and an unusual sighting.  The turn after that yielded me the horn of the intrepid and a different group sitting on another US. I couldn't have been having better luck. I had announced my plans to destroy the elf and things seemed to be going good. And then my email to the AN bounces. 



What? He didn't drop; he completely vanished from the planet! By the time I finally decided that he really was gone (as opposed to just being hacked), I had some major back-peddling to do.  I had been quick to advance on the EL as I had assumed that the AN would have my back, keeping Torvale tidy. That was no longer true. I was tempted to keep on my path, but more good advice suggested that I secure Torvale first. Happily, the EL was gracious enough to let me do that before we clashed.  Pshew, dodged a bullet (ignore the fact that I was the one who had fired it!). 



So the next several turns resulted in my running around R4 like a madman trying to get control. In the meantime, I began talking with the other players more seriously.  Everyone was friendly. As it turned out, the UN was looking for cover from all the carnage in R7 as the RD/GN war was raging pretty fiercely. He was hoping to claim some of the old AN properties. That worked for me; I even offered him the city. I had written it off from the beginning, so I really didn't feel I was loosing anything. Besides, maybe that would earn me a favor in the future.  Around the same time, I realized that I should probably grab the AN capital as it had great production and high population.  Despite the releative ease with which my troops were taking pop centers, I was worried about this one. My value vs pop center was only barely higher than twice the defenses. So siege it was. That is where things got complicated. 



Around the time the siege was to complete, I was wrapping up R4 and my ESO and was about ready to head north again. But on the turn before the siege completes, my southern group stumbles upon a GN town in Torvale. This group was strong, but rather than take it outright, I siege and do a recon. Maybe I can bargain with him. The next turn, my siege of the AN cap completes, but I wind up capturing none of his emmies. I scroll down a little further and find out the the GN town turns out to be the GN capital. That's not so complicated, right? True, but then I hear from the UN that he had been slow to acquire the city. When I captured the AN cap, it moved to the city. Obviously that was bad news for his poor emmy trying to get control.  Still no biggie, right? That was his problem.  But my conscious would not let it stay that way.  I had promised him the city, but now he could not get it (a capital cannot be taken by political emissaries and the UN troops could not lay siege to an empty lot). Worse, that was probably going to screw up his ESO.  



So I started thinking. I had already been talking to RD and was on pretty good terms. Maybe I could talk him into taking the city and turning it over to the UN.  Hey, I'm a newb, what do you expect? I had no idea that the TR troops could probably do the same thing. Well, the RD was willing, but it would take him an extra turn to do it. Not too bad. But then I get confirmation that this will definitely blow the UN's ESO. After more discussions with RD, he finally gets it through my think skull that I am a military kingdom and my troops are awesome. So then I come up with a plan (with way too many moving parts).



My group at the GN cap was in range of the city. I could easily take the town and head on over, but I was not sure how many losses I would take in the process. This worried me since I was still a little uncertain about how well I'd fair against a city capital. We were pretty confident that the GN had dropped, so what I decided is that I would completely abandon my siege of that town and let the RD zip up and take it. Meanwhile, several other things would happen. First, the UN and I would sabotage the city defenses, one of my agents and two of his. Hopefully that would increase my chances of success. In addition to moving my group to the R4 city, I recruited 3 units of orcs into my inactive group at my capital and moved them to join the group at the ctiy. Next, both the UN and I would move an emissary into the city. Finally, we'd declare each other allies. The results of that turn arrived and things were going pretty well.



We were now allies, we each had an emmy in the city, the city's defenses were lower, and I had a pretty large group poised to attack. So this is how it would go. I'd attack and hopefully take the city. Then my envoy would immediately incite rebellion, followed by the UN emmy taking control. Seems simple. So why the ally part? To keep his emmy from being bounced (or captured) when I took the city. Crossing my fingers, I waited for the next turn to arrived. Yay, I took the city with far less losses than I expected. RD was right! But the city was still neutral. What happened? Turns out the UN had misread the chart or something and his emmy was only a 'maybe' instead of a 'yes'. It turned out OK. The next turn he got the city and his ESO. So did I and the WI. Too much drama for so early in the game.



Well, all of that business down south delayed my attack on the EL. But I was not ignoring him. I had been tracking his groups and checking out his influence and regional reaction level in Torvale. The turn before I delcared him an enemy, I tried to denigrate him there, but it failed. Perhaps it was because the EL had done exactly the same thing to me. The next turn I finally declared him an enemy and denigrated him. Also, I had finally consolidated all of my forces into one big group (15 trolls and 13 orcs) and was near the border of R1. 



My agents told me that he had a ~10 brigrade group nearby. Decisions, decisions. I figured he would have the group waiting to intercept me, given that the EL intercept range is insane. On the other hand, I had a pretty good chance of intercepting him. In hindsight, that is what I should have done. It would have been pretty. But no, I convinced myself that he would be the one issuing the intercept order. So I moved my group in and stopped at one of his villages in a swamp, hoping to negate his forest bonus while still reducing the effectiveness of his calvery and archers. The trolls are almost entirely infantry. 



I had also sent a patrol way up to AA, planning to build an orc force from the rear. That went to hell pretty quick when three full brigades of orcs committed suicide at a tiny elf village. Meanwhile, the troll and elf armies passed each other quietly in the night. But the elf had a surprise for me. Another group of elves had been sneaking through Amberland. He had hoped to surprise me at my capital, but luck was with me. That sneaky elf group accidentally stopped for refreshments at my village in R5!



I had not counted it too closely, but I didn't believe the EL could get either (let alone both!) groups to my capital the next turn. But I was too paranoid to take the risk and moved my capital. Talk about hearing the bullets whistle past your ears, I barely got out in time! I had been increasing my defenses there, so the EL took pretty heavy (imho) losses taking my empty town. He then split his group and began rampaging throughout Torvale, taking all my stuff.



Meanwhile, further north, we had found his capital, a tiny village at sea. Did I mention that he had that darn staff which lets you issue free denigrate orders? Well he did, and he was using it. I was now hostile in R1 and if I wasn't careful, I was going to wind up hostile in my own home region. Luckily, the staff was there and the UN was able to swipe it. Around the same time, he took out an Agent 7 and Agent 8 of the EL.



Backing up a bit. So I know where his capital is and it is in range of my monster group. But it is at sea and I had no fleets. No problem, I had cash. I'd buy a few fleets and surprise him the very next turn. Or not. The order to purchase fleets is AFTER the order to move your group, so I had to wait a turn. Surprisingly, the EL was still there the next turn. I now had four fleets and was ready to rock. I begged a sleep from someone on the EL king so he could not get away. I don't know if it worked, but he was still there the next turn. I could not believe my eyes. This was going to be great. 



I had read somewhere to issue an execute prisoners order on the same turn you attacked a pop center in case you captured any enemy emmies. So I did that. And what do you know, my group successfully takes the village and I capture three emmies, including the EL king. Woot! I'm riding pretty high as I read the turn results. But then later, I see an order about the EL escaping! What? I had issued the execute prisoners order. How did he escape? Well, apparently the order to escape is before execution. Grrrr! Next time I'll be sure to use an agent to watch the prisoners. 



So the EL kings slips away and remains hidden for a few turns. Meanwhile, I now have two decent sized groups running around the forest pillaging the EL pop centers. Not taking them, burning them to the ground. It seemed a very trollish thing to do at the time. Although I was admittedly worried about what was going to happen when winter rolled around. On the other hand, I was even more upset when I got to his city and found its defenses were way higher than I expected. It would have been grand to burn it to the ground too (How often are cities pillaged??), but I slipped back into sanity a bit and decided to only capture it. Well, that was silly as I only lost a brigade or so taking the city.



Oh yeah, one more stroke of luck. Remember that I had moved my capital? Well, I had moved it to a sea village. Kind of risky, but I planned to move it again if the EL got too close. Fortunately, I had all four groups active, so the Order Entry and Validation web page warned me that I would have no inactive groups at my capital to receive reinforcements. That would have been bad, since the TR gets lots of really uber reinforcements. This time, I was going to get 6, and they were all going to drown! But due to the advanced warning from that truly awesome tool, I was able to make a group idle and buy more ships. No one drowned and now I had a group 'back home' to take back some of the pop centers that the EL was stealing. I had already had a group down there, but it was ragtag operation (it even had regular recruits in it!) that probably could not even take a town back (but it was able to take back two villages).



Anyway, things are progressing and the EL has very few holdings left in R1... Wait, did I mention that worthless group of three orc brigades that attacked from the rear but could not even take village? As it happens, on their way suicide on the village, they passed a town that was not on my map. What? Oakendell has 8 towns? No way? Well, they do. But what was more surprising was what a quick recon showed.... It was the GI capital! By chance, I saw them relocating there. Humorously, I was also witness to an EL emissary failing to take control of it (too bad he wasn't captured!). No sooner do I tell this to the WI, then he ports a group in to take it. I could have had a group there just as fast, but the WI seemed pretty excited so I left him to it and continued my flaming rampage. 



By the time the DE claimed victory, the EL's only pop center in R1 was his cap (yet another sea village). The Wi kept the previous GI town. I had threatened to jump over and burn it to the ground too, but was dissuaded. Besides, the UN was about to take a few towns as well. So I failed to burn every pop center in R1 to the ground. Still, I had leveled four towns and two villages. On the other hand, I had another group at the EL cap (after having somehow evaded the EL sea patrol!) and was going to take it again. One of my bigger groups had just made its way back into R4 and was about to take an important town (the old AN cap). My reinforcements had combined with the ragtag group and had already taken back my old cap and was sitting outside another town the EL had taken from me. Where were the EL troops? They were at Meridon, staring at a sizable (yet still quivering) UN army.



It was a really fun game. I just wish it could have carried on a few more turns. Both the EL and I had huge armies and nowhere near enough production to feed them in the winter. Many thanks to everyone who played and to everyone who taught me really cool stuff. The RD, UN, DE, WI, (and my enemy the EL, afterwards) were all very helpful.

[Lord Diamond]

Great write up, Bananas!

[Ry Vor]

Yeah, this is a good thread - a lot can be learned on most facets of Alamaze. 

[Airborne Ranger]

TROLL SMASH!!

Well, sort of. Not having played Alamaze in like 100 billion years (and then barely any), I was effectively a newb. Having picked the troll, I was strongly advised to ally with the AN as we share the same zone. Sure, no problem. He'd take the city and control of Torvale and I'd get substantial.  My plan was to head north for the EL. The turn 1 results had all three groups sitting on pop centers. 1TR was on a town and the others were on villages. The next turn had me stumble upon an EL village and an unusual sighting.  The turn after that yielded me the horn of the intrepid and a different group sitting on another US. I couldn't have been having better luck. I had announced my plans to destroy the elf and things seemed to be going good. And then my email to the AN bounces. 



What? He didn't drop; he completely vanished from the planet! By the time I finally decided that he really was gone (as opposed to just being hacked), I had some major back-peddling to do.  I had been quick to advance on the EL as I had assumed that the AN would have my back, keeping Torvale tidy. That was no longer true. I was tempted to keep on my path, but more good advice suggested that I secure Torvale first. Happily, the EL was gracious enough to let me do that before we clashed.  Pshew, dodged a bullet (ignore the fact that I was the one who had fired it!). 



So the next several turns resulted in my running around R4 like a madman trying to get control. In the meantime, I began talking with the other players more seriously.  Everyone was friendly. As it turned out, the UN was looking for cover from all the carnage in R7 as the RD/GN war was raging pretty fiercely. He was hoping to claim some of the old AN properties. That worked for me; I even offered him the city. I had written it off from the beginning, so I really didn't feel I was loosing anything. Besides, maybe that would earn me a favor in the future.  Around the same time, I realized that I should probably grab the AN capital as it had great production and high population.  Despite the releative ease with which my troops were taking pop centers, I was worried about this one. My value vs pop center was only barely higher than twice the defenses. So siege it was. That is where things got complicated. 



Around the time the siege was to complete, I was wrapping up R4 and my ESO and was about ready to head north again. But on the turn before the siege completes, my southern group stumbles upon a GN town in Torvale. This group was strong, but rather than take it outright, I siege and do a recon. Maybe I can bargain with him. The next turn, my siege of the AN cap completes, but I wind up capturing none of his emmies. I scroll down a little further and find out the the GN town turns out to be the GN capital. That's not so complicated, right? True, but then I hear from the UN that he had been slow to acquire the city. When I captured the AN cap, it moved to the city. Obviously that was bad news for his poor emmy trying to get control.  Still no biggie, right? That was his problem.  But my conscious would not let it stay that way.  I had promised him the city, but now he could not get it (a capital cannot be taken by political emissaries and the UN troops could not lay siege to an empty lot). Worse, that was probably going to screw up his ESO.  



So I started thinking. I had already been talking to RD and was on pretty good terms. Maybe I could talk him into taking the city and turning it over to the UN.  Hey, I'm a newb, what do you expect? I had no idea that the TR troops could probably do the same thing. Well, the RD was willing, but it would take him an extra turn to do it. Not too bad. But then I get confirmation that this will definitely blow the UN's ESO. After more discussions with RD, he finally gets it through my think skull that I am a military kingdom and my troops are awesome. So then I come up with a plan (with way too many moving parts).



My group at the GN cap was in range of the city. I could easily take the town and head on over, but I was not sure how many losses I would take in the process. This worried me since I was still a little uncertain about how well I'd fair against a city capital. We were pretty confident that the GN had dropped, so what I decided is that I would completely abandon my siege of that town and let the RD zip up and take it. Meanwhile, several other things would happen. First, the UN and I would sabotage the city defenses, one of my agents and two of his. Hopefully that would increase my chances of success. In addition to moving my group to the R4 city, I recruited 3 units of orcs into my inactive group at my capital and moved them to join the group at the ctiy. Next, both the UN and I would move an emissary into the city. Finally, we'd declare each other allies. The results of that turn arrived and things were going pretty well.



We were now allies, we each had an emmy in the city, the city's defenses were lower, and I had a pretty large group poised to attack. So this is how it would go. I'd attack and hopefully take the city. Then my envoy would immediately incite rebellion, followed by the UN emmy taking control. Seems simple. So why the ally part? To keep his emmy from being bounced (or captured) when I took the city. Crossing my fingers, I waited for the next turn to arrived. Yay, I took the city with far less losses than I expected. RD was right! But the city was still neutral. What happened? Turns out the UN had misread the chart or something and his emmy was only a 'maybe' instead of a 'yes'. It turned out OK. The next turn he got the city and his ESO. So did I and the WI. Too much drama for so early in the game.



Well, all of that business down south delayed my attack on the EL. But I was not ignoring him. I had been tracking his groups and checking out his influence and regional reaction level in Torvale. The turn before I delcared him an enemy, I tried to denigrate him there, but it failed. Perhaps it was because the EL had done exactly the same thing to me. The next turn I finally declared him an enemy and denigrated him. Also, I had finally consolidated all of my forces into one big group (15 trolls and 13 orcs) and was near the border of R1. 



My agents told me that he had a ~10 brigrade group nearby. Decisions, decisions. I figured he would have the group waiting to intercept me, given that the EL intercept range is insane. On the other hand, I had a pretty good chance of intercepting him. In hindsight, that is what I should have done. It would have been pretty. But no, I convinced myself that he would be the one issuing the intercept order. So I moved my group in and stopped at one of his villages in a swamp, hoping to negate his forest bonus while still reducing the effectiveness of his calvery and archers. The trolls are almost entirely infantry. 



I had also sent a patrol way up to AA, planning to build an orc force from the rear. That went to hell pretty quick when three full brigades of orcs committed suicide at a tiny elf village. Meanwhile, the troll and elf armies passed each other quietly in the night. But the elf had a surprise for me. Another group of elves had been sneaking through Amberland. He had hoped to surprise me at my capital, but luck was with me. That sneaky elf group accidentally stopped for refreshments at my village in R5!



I had not counted it too closely, but I didn't believe the EL could get either (let alone both!) groups to my capital the next turn. But I was too paranoid to take the risk and moved my capital. Talk about hearing the bullets whistle past your ears, I barely got out in time! I had been increasing my defenses there, so the EL took pretty heavy (imho) losses taking my empty town. He then split his group and began rampaging throughout Torvale, taking all my stuff.



Meanwhile, further north, we had found his capital, a tiny village at sea. Did I mention that he had that darn staff which lets you issue free denigrate orders? Well he did, and he was using it. I was now hostile in R1 and if I wasn't careful, I was going to wind up hostile in my own home region. Luckily, the staff was there and the UN was able to swipe it. Around the same time, he took out an Agent 7 and Agent 8 of the EL.



Backing up a bit. So I know where his capital is and it is in range of my monster group. But it is at sea and I had no fleets. No problem, I had cash. I'd buy a few fleets and surprise him the very next turn. Or not. The order to purchase fleets is AFTER the order to move your group, so I had to wait a turn. Surprisingly, the EL was still there the next turn. I now had four fleets and was ready to rock. I begged a sleep from someone on the EL king so he could not get away. I don't know if it worked, but he was still there the next turn. I could not believe my eyes. This was going to be great. 



I had read somewhere to issue an execute prisoners order on the same turn you attacked a pop center in case you captured any enemy emmies. So I did that. And what do you know, my group successfully takes the village and I capture three emmies, including the EL king. Woot! I'm riding pretty high as I read the turn results. But then later, I see an order about the EL escaping! What? I had issued the execute prisoners order. How did he escape? Well, apparently the order to escape is before execution. Grrrr! Next time I'll be sure to use an agent to watch the prisoners. 



So the EL kings slips away and remains hidden for a few turns. Meanwhile, I now have two decent sized groups running around the forest pillaging the EL pop centers. Not taking them, burning them to the ground. It seemed a very trollish thing to do at the time. Although I was admittedly worried about what was going to happen when winter rolled around. On the other hand, I was even more upset when I got to his city and found its defenses were way higher than I expected. It would have been grand to burn it to the ground too (How often are cities pillaged??), but I slipped back into sanity a bit and decided to only capture it. Well, that was silly as I only lost a brigade or so taking the city.



Oh yeah, one more stroke of luck. Remember that I had moved my capital? Well, I had moved it to a sea village. Kind of risky, but I planned to move it again if the EL got too close. Fortunately, I had all four groups active, so the Order Entry and Validation web page warned me that I would have no inactive groups at my capital to receive reinforcements. That would have been bad, since the TR gets lots of really uber reinforcements. This time, I was going to get 6, and they were all going to drown! But due to the advanced warning from that truly awesome tool, I was able to make a group idle and buy more ships. No one drowned and now I had a group 'back home' to take back some of the pop centers that the EL was stealing. I had already had a group down there, but it was ragtag operation (it even had regular recruits in it!) that probably could not even take a town back (but it was able to take back two villages).



Anyway, things are progressing and the EL has very few holdings left in R1... Wait, did I mention that worthless group of three orc brigades that attacked from the rear but could not even take village? As it happens, on their way suicide on the village, they passed a town that was not on my map. What? Oakendell has 8 towns? No way? Well, they do. But what was more surprising was what a quick recon showed.... It was the GI capital! By chance, I saw them relocating there. Humorously, I was also witness to an EL emissary failing to take control of it (too bad he wasn't captured!). No sooner do I tell this to the WI, then he ports a group in to take it. I could have had a group there just as fast, but the WI seemed pretty excited so I left him to it and continued my flaming rampage. 



By the time the DE claimed victory, the EL's only pop center in R1 was his cap (yet another sea village). The Wi kept the previous GI town. I had threatened to jump over and burn it to the ground too, but was dissuaded. Besides, the UN was about to take a few towns as well. So I failed to burn every pop center in R1 to the ground. Still, I had leveled four towns and two villages. On the other hand, I had another group at the EL cap (after having somehow evaded the EL sea patrol!) and was going to take it again. One of my bigger groups had just made its way back into R4 and was about to take an important town (the old AN cap). My reinforcements had combined with the ragtag group and had already taken back my old cap and was sitting outside another town the EL had taken from me. Where were the EL troops? They were at Meridon, staring at a sizable (yet still quivering) UN army.



It was a really fun game. I just wish it could have carried on a few more turns. Both the EL and I had huge armies and nowhere near enough production to feed them in the winter. Many thanks to everyone who played and to everyone who taught me really cool stuff. The RD, UN, DE, WI, (and my enemy the EL, afterwards) were all very helpful.

Too bad one knucklehead was playing a REX game or so he thought! Or it could have went different.