Pestilence, day 1.
(Once again, Death stalks the land, etc. etc. etc....Something tells me that the Dwarves are going to regret setting the two of us free...)

Moving out -- a few more bumps and bruises than I'd like, but so far so good.

Turn sent.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 11-14-2004 @ 05:31 PM).]

Famine, day 1 :

And something tells me Pestilence will regret my freedom even more than the Dwarves.

Ts

(Thanks for your patience)

Pestilence, day 2.

Hmm...rumors that Famine is whispering bold words in the dark...we'll see who lays the last blight across the land...

Lost my first minion -- the first among many, I'm sure, but it angers me to see the casualties begin to mount so soon. I bet that killing some dwarves will improve my mood...

Turn sent.

-- I'm going to upgrade my video card tomorrow, which may cause a restart -- I apologize in advance if it does (and I'll aim to avoid combat if it happens).

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 11-19-2004 @ 11:58 PM).]

Famine, day 2 :

Looks like I don't have the same success as Pestilence. Some soldiers die today, yet objective was achieved.
Wonders are now about future... I probably won't be able to achieve what I planned as soon as I'd like to.

Ts

I have no problem with restarts, you can fight indies, as long as it's not a key-stronghold like a citadel with lots of defenders...

Pestilence, day 3.

Still moving out...

Turn sent.

-- No restart, despite a bunch of new hardware and drivers (strange).

Pestilence, turn 4.

Turn sent.

Famine, day 4 :

Muahahaaa!

TS

Pestilence, day 5.

Hmm... more unintelligible noises from the southwest. I'll have to remember to go check them out someday...

Turn sent.

Famine, day 5 :

We progress.

Ts

[This message has been edited by Chascal (edited 11-29-2004 @ 01:28 AM).]

Pestilence, day 6.

Still moving.

Turn sent.

Famine, day 6 :

Why do I always forget that it's impossible to migrate to any evil race ?

I wonder if it would be wise to suddenly migrate all undead towns & villages to some neutral or good race... maybe keeping Orc and Dark Elf villages.
Losing 3 days to do that in exchange of the possibility to talk to any independent town... of course, death specialist and anarchist don't help, but still...

Ts

[This message has been edited by Chascal (edited 12-03-2004 @ 02:44 AM).]

Pestilence, Day 7.
I think the investment would result in a net loss, but you're welcome to give it a try.

Turn sent.

Famine, day 7 :

No it's too late... I have too many undead units and they won't be happy anymore if I don't keep undead towns.

I will try a single player game with that strategy, building Machines to avoid morale issues and send my undead units to death to get rid of them.

The only problem might be the Heroes...

TS

Pestilence, day 8.

If you do a test, I'll be interested in hearing how it goes -- it hadn't even occurred to me as a possibility when I was designing the map, so it could be interesting.

Heroes would be an issue -- does a hero with bard's skills keep himself happy?

Turn sent.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 12-08-2004 @ 09:47 PM).]

No, he is so busy keeping everyone happy that he neglects his own soul's needs.

But, a couple of chaplains can keep a whole stack of recruits happy...if you have a human town on the surface. You don't even have to migrate that town or keep garrison in it, except when producing chaplains.

...oh, and sorry to butt in like this!!

Famine, day 8 :

I have decided that this night would be a night without any research.
I'd like to have more mana crystals than I have.

Ts

I still haven't tried, but I will. It can be fun. lol

Pestilence, day 9.

Still exploring and expanding.

Turn sent.

Famine, day 9 :

Aah... number of razed towns decreases while number of Famine's town increases.
I like that.
But there's still a lot to rebuild around here...

Ts

Pestilence, day 10.
Raising yet more undead legions...a necromancer's work is never done.
Turn sent.

Famine, day 10 :

An interesting idea comes to my mind... Soon Pestilence will cry... muahahahaaaa!

Ts

Pestilence, day 11.
More unintelligible rumors out of the southwest...
Turn sent.

Famine, day 11 :

Humph... Stupid "easy" quest... I'm pretty sure I won't be able to accomplish it in 10 days...

Ts

Pestilence, day 12.
Marching and looting, same as always...
Turn sent.

Famine, day 12 :

I wonder what Pestilence is doing...

Ts

Hi Chascal -- could you resend the turn? I never received it.

I replied to your mail.

Pestilence, day 13.
And I wonder what Famine is doing...
Turn sent.

Famine :

Famine is coming... with all I've razed, I'm Pathetic!
Do you think it's fun to be Pathetic ?
(This was always weird... how come an anarchist be pathetic if he ruins the lands ? That's what he's supposed to do!!)

Ts

Pestilence the Terrible , day 14.

Hmm...some plans are proceeding better than expected, and others aren't.

Turn sent.

Hi. Checking in, having just seen the ongoing game exploits discussion in the other forum (great thread, btw, http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=29&tn=4474&f=29,,0,60&st=120-- kudos to ZombieEater for starting it).

Figured I should ask -- Chascal, I assume that you've been exploiting at least your immediately available catalyst? I'm going to feel guilty if you haven't, and we'd have to figure out some equalizing compensation, because I certainly exploited mine for at least a few turns. My apologies in advance if you noticed the new house rules before I did (and hope you'll be flattered when I say that I first learned about the trick while reading through one of your old Valley of Flowers threads, while prepping for our first game).

We should confer, though -- I placed those catalysts with the assumption that they would be exploited (it does take some planning to maximize efficient exploitation). Do we want to comply with the new catalyst rules, or declare that they won't apply to this match? My vote would be to allow unrestricted catalyst use on this map, but let me know what you prefer -- I'm not deadset either way.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 12-18-2004 @ 00:37 AM).]

Hi,

About the Catalyst Exploit: I wanted to, but then the discussion started and before I used it, swolte changed the rules, so I didn't abuse the catalyst.

Here's what I did with the Catalyst: I was casting Animate Hero (yes, Hero, not ruins: I lost one of my starting hero during the night to a stupid Flying avenger...)

With 50 cp, it should take 3 turns to cast that spell.

I had already spent 50 cp for it and took the catalyst, bumped to 100/50 and the spell was ready. I immediately cast the spell, getting down to 0/50.

That's what I did with the Catalyst.

So what do we do ? Did you really take full advantage of it ?

Edit: I forgot to ask, we are trying (greenmonster, evilroc and I) to gather several top ladder players to start some pbems, being 4-pl or 6-pl ffa, non-WL games. Are you interested in playing 1 or 2 games ?

[This message has been edited by Chascal (edited 12-18-2004 @ 00:50 AM).]

Hmm...we do have a bit of a problem. I got 190 casting points over five turns out of my catalyst (with no pauses -- my cp totals were 98, 96, 92, 84 and 68 -- I'm sure you can guess what I was casting ). I've since drained cp down to zero, so there's no ongoing issue, but there's almost certainly a meaningful compounding effect from that early boost.
Blech. Sorry I just noticed the house rules change -- for what it's worth, an initial rush of animate ruins was part of my design concept for the map. Let's think about what to do (I certainly wouldn't want to win with that large an initial edge).

If we decide to restart, I'd suggest playing under a game-specific rule allowing exploitation: I found that the casting-planning and mana-management with the catalyst were rather interesting. We could also take a stab at balancing compensation, call this a pure playtest, or some mixture of the two.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 12-18-2004 @ 01:08 PM).]

Woaw! Looks like I have no chance at all, indeed... and I thought I was lucky because Black Angel was almost researched...

Can you restart a second game ?

But if one of us has the chance to get an early Bone Dragon or Black Angel spell, a rush attack can be really deadly with the Catalyst trick!

I also tried to play with machines (solo), in order to get rid of evil towns... well, forget about that idea, it's not playable at all!

Yeah, let's restart.

I have a couple of minor tweaks to suggest as well (I'll send an email tomorrow), and let me know if you'd like to make any changes.

Also, if you can handle sometimes slow play, I'd be game to join in a non-WL ffa game (probably only one, though). Thanks for the invite. 6 player sounds more interesting that 4, but anything is fine with me.

Since Chascal quit, I guess this game dead, isn't ?
I ask since this game is still registered.

Sorry to introduce, I was lure by "WL Title Challenge"

[This message has been edited by BruceEstrie (edited 07-22-2005 @ 11:34 AM).]