Humans Day 1.

First day of new age. Human forces are moving to conquer this world and nobody will stop us. A couple of structures - mine and cosmic node - were captured.

Dark Elves, day 1.

The elven alliance raises its banner for the first time and starts to survey what shall soon be our new empire...

Nothing too exciting to report -- moving out, captured a node, etc. etc.

Turn sent.

Elves – Day1

Today the Elves unite. We set aside our differences to put down those two races that most abuse nature with their exploitation of machinery, steamworks and chemical explosives. Magic shall put down this upstart "technology", and the Dwarves and Humans will be put back into their natural place.

TS

[This message has been edited by Dafyth (edited 05-09-2003 @ 09:47 AM).]

Humans Day 2.

Today our exploration force found some useful resourses guarded by group of dark elves. They were killed and resourses used in building more machinery.

Dark Elves, turn 2.

Exploring, adding to our gold production, etc., etc.

Turn sent.

Elves – Day2

My forces have deployed, and cooperation with our long lost brethren goes exceedingly well. The long awaited Age of Elves will soon be ushered in!

TS to Evil Roc

Humans Day 3.

A mighty hero, Jasfar the Tigran, joined our forces today. Tommorow he will lead army to battle.

Restart message was generated. Reason unknown, but there were no battles today.

Dark Elves, turn 3.

I also am pleased with the cooperative attitude of my elven friends. Why did our two races feud for all those long centuries?

Marching around. Recruited some new allies to the cause.

Turn sent.

Restart message generated when McAfee interrupted me with a security update (AOW was frozen when I returned from the virus-patch install).

Elves – Day3

My ally in the North has quickly come under pressure. I send what aid I can and hope for the best.

My forces continue to explore and forage for resources in an attempt to strengthen my own position. That my closest enemy has already secured a champion troubles me greatly, and I am dismayed at how soon I must start making counter measures. A defensive position is not what I was seeking – but I do what I must, when I must.

TS to Evil Roc

Humans Day 4.

Jasfar earned his first combat experience today. Soon he will earn more... may be with help of elven warriors.

My gold income level is quite high again. Now I can start recruiting more useful troops.

Dark elves, turn 4.

What's this? Dwarves on my doorstep? Hmm, I don't like the look of that tunnel entrance over there, don't like the look of it at all... This has all the hallmarks of a trap, but... I refuse to be bluffed. I'll bite -- lets see what you've got . Anyway, as my ally has taught me more than once in the past, the lives of a brave leader are numberless...

Elsewhere, marching and fighting, the usual.

Turn sent.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-14-2003 @ 04:15 AM).]

Elves – Day4

I watch in amazement at the battle personally conducted by the Dwarven and DarkElf Wizards. That my brother-in-arms retains the sole survivor of that conflict brings me mixed sorrow and relief. The North remains ours -- at least for the day.

I have yet to see any trace whatsoever of the Humans or their Cat Champion in the South. If those troops are seeking experience with Elven warriors, then I shall gladly supply it -- if they will only show themselves. While that particular experience will be of little use to their dead troops, perhaps their future generations in exile will glean some benifit from it.

TS to Evil Roc

Humans Day 5.

Maneurs...

Dark Elves, day 5.

Whew. That was too close for comfort. Well, now I know what our dwarven enemy looks like up close. I suspect that's only the first of many fights in the north.

Round two, on the water, didn't go as well. Despite the advantage of multiple barrages of magic stones, my galley loses its attack on the dwarven ship . Ah well -- hopefully my fairer cousin's famed skill on the water will prevent this reverse from having overly severe repercussions.

Turn sent.

Restart message generated when I opened the move -- no idea why. Only one fight, though (and it went very badly for me).

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-15-2003 @ 01:04 PM).]

Elves – Day5

Oops! The humans must have heard my challenge, because they have appeared at my doorstep, lead by their Wizard personally and accompanied by his champion. My troops band together and seek the safety of high ground, hoping to protect the precious Wizard tower there.

TS to Evil Roc; restart for no apparent reason, but no battles either. Hope it’s not contagious . . .

Garrison of elven town is too strong for me now...
TS

P.S. Restart due to power shutdown during playing the turn

Dark Elves, turn 6.

Things are quiet compared to the excitement of the past couple of days. Cleaned up some loose ends left behind in the sprint west, nothing too exciting.

Looks like we've made contact with the humans down south. They appear to be better behaved then the dwarves who infest the northern reaches of this land.

Turn sent.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-17-2003 @ 10:32 PM).]

Elves – Day6

Heh, the DwarfLord returned quiker than I thought, and unceremoniously destroyed my boat in the process. My opponents now have uncontested control of the sea, and this does not bode well.

The leader of my dark brethern is nigh unrecognizable -- I mistook him at first for a hero of old! While I huddle in my tower going through my dusty tomes, he dons the weapons, armour and enchantments of a warrior and mocks the dwarven troops from atop his rampart. I have no such luck -- my closest enemies strategically withdraw to the underground, to either lay a trap or perhaps to meet up with reinforcements. My Eagle rider scouts about to see which it is.

TS to Evil Roc

Humans Day 6.

TS

Dark Elves, day 7.

More fortifying and consolidating -- my minister of interior security is pleased that I didn't disband his office in the excitement of the initial offensive, particularly now that we've lost control of the lake (at least for the moment).

Turn sent.

Elves – Day7

Again, I watch in stunned disbelief as the Dwarf Wizard and his army storm the North Citadel, and again I am elated that my outnumbered ally retains the sole survivor of the horrific massacre. He stands unbowed; well, perhaps bowed a bit by the sheer weight of his eclectic collection of gaudy magical artifacts. As gauche as his ensemble appears, it has saved him a trip to the void this day ;-)

Yes, I live vicariously through the heroic exploits of my formerly estranged kin. All *I* do is skitter about; scavenging resources a safe distance from my enemies, from the weak independents that I dare approach, and from the loot carelessly left on the ground by inattentive fools. These are not the deeds that bards sing of; no, my chronicler does no even bother to show up anymore.

TS to Evil Roc; another damn restart message.

Humans Day 8.

TS.

Dark Elves, day 8.

Another bloodbath in the north. The dwarves and I appear to be locked in a slugfest over Guildan -- perhaps the next pause will be long enough for me to adequately secure it? It's getting worrisome, just how close these fights have been.

Turn sent.

Elves – Day8

Finally, my first engagement with the enemy! I eschew the safety of defense and fling all that I have at the Human menace threatening the South. I toss the dice and risk a raid on the human capital with assistance from my ally. We secure it with slight loss, and intend to keep it by relying on the high ground – both physical and moral.

The Human rearguard has also been smashed, and their nasty undead town taken in route. Should my two forces merge than victory will be swift. Already my magic domain stretches nearly to the center of the human capital!

TS to Evil Roc

Dark Elves, turn 9.

Ah well, I see that the humans are going to take a little while to reduce...

In the north, things are still quiet. Nothing exciting to report; consolidating and exploring.

Turn sent.

Elves – Day9

Heh, apparently the humans were not amused. At a cost of one mere hatchling, they slaughtered an eaglerider, 2 boars and a monk, and recovered the city. Perhaps I’ll leave the fighting to my Northern ally and instead concentrate on my studies and resource gathering!

After finishing a second bottle of Elven bandy and trying to erase the memory of the humiliating defeat, a disfigured runt riding an ailing wolf approached my castle seeking employment. Apparently no one else would hire him, and his only hope was to seek a liege so demoralized as to take a chance on anybody. Drunk as I was, I fell for his clever ruse and gave him a small sack of coins. After plying me with a flask of his Frostling rotgut, he even got me to cast some enchantments on him.

Never, ever, mix Elven brandy with Frostling whiskey. Through bleary eyes and the worse hangover of my life, I stand at my Wizard Tower and attempt to track his progress. It gladdens me to see he is in worse shape than I! He had staggered to a magic node and was thrashed to within an inch of his life in a drunken battle with a pair of magic servants. Arms draped around his starving wolf, the beast dragged him away from scene and toward some caverns.

Hmm, with “heroes” like that, I’m actually already feeling better about myself . . .

TS to Evil Roc

Two quick questions:

1) Are we allowing call-hero? I don't see that we ever decided to ban it, but figured I'd check in to make sure.

2) Lets all get in the habit of at least posting a "Turn sent" for moves, and if there's a restart, at least noting it in the log (I know that we've all been pretty good about that, but we've had a few unlogged restarts).

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-25-2003 @ 04:53 PM).]

Day 9 & Day 10.

The days are dark for human kingdom. Enemies are coming nearer each day and even in my tower I can't feel safe. It seems that machinery failed me. Now I must count on magic and will of human monks. And on poison of aliied lizards.

-------------*****-----------------

Explanation of my restart (Day 9). As I posted in topic about finding subs, abscent notes and etc, I have reinstalled my system and AoW2. It caused a restart in most of my games.

I haven't posted a turn log for day 9 because of bad lack of free time (summer session in university). But I was doing it before and (I hope) will have the possibility to do it every time in further.

And about call hero - I think we should consider it banned.

I think not...
Call hero should be premitted, its a spell as all others...

The problem with call hero is a map specific one. If the map has only level 1 or level 2 heroes then I see no problem with it. If there are very strong AI heroes (Level 5 or greater) it can really imbalance the game.

If this is the original Inland sea map then I think that it would be OK -- All of the heroes are level 1 and you take your chances on getting a compatible with your alignment.

If the map has been modified in the hero library or a strong AI hero is lurking about, then it should be banned. I think that Evil Rock edited it, so he should know one way or the other.

Since it is an "optional" house rule, we've should have made a decision before we started. A lot of people assume the ban is in place (like me) but some don't. I vote to allow it if there are no modified heroes in the library or afield, and ban it if there are non-level 1 heroes in the library or placed on the map.

[This message has been edited by Dafyth (edited 05-26-2003 @ 02:51 PM).]

Well I don't mind realy - on this map. There are no indy heroes around so it can't ruin game balance...

That's cool, Evil Roc. It was the logs that I was mainly concerned about (I'm not positive, but I think we've all had unlogged restarts, not just you) -- I've had one group game get hopelessly snarled with criss-crossed moves, once we started to get lax about posting "turn sents".

So, it sounds like we're all ok with call hero, then? That was kind of my preference as well. Don't see how it could cause big problems with this setup.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-26-2003 @ 10:27 PM).]

Dark Elves, turn 10.

Still no exciting developments up north -- more consolidating, taking out independants, etc... Gathering strength for the next big push, and doing a little bit of long-range magical sniping in support of my ally.

Turn sent.

Elves – Day10

Eklo awakes in an underground cave, still somewhat drunk. A nearby Halfling slowly backs away, not knowing whether to be amused or afraid. He crawls back to his emaciated wolf and the pathetic creature trots to the exit . . .

My Southern forces snatch a mine and a tower and eye the humans at their capital, awaiting their next move.

A very brave Archon militia emerges from a cave near my ally’s new capital. Is he lost, or is he a scout for a new Dwarven offensive?

TS to Evil Roc

Humans Day 11.

Today my forces attacked elven trespassers. All of them were killed, 2 of my soldiers perished either. And hero was saved with his goblin granade

ts

Dark Elves, day 11.

Wow, you move quickly, aim22 .

Hmm... that resurging human hero could be troublesome for the elven alliance. I dispatch what assistance I can to my southern cousin, and elsewhere continue to build up my forces in anticipation of the next dwarven thrust.

Turn sent.

[This message has been edited by JWorth (edited 05-29-2003 @ 07:19 PM).]

Elves – Day11

Today the humans have fallen deeply into a trap planned for a long time, basically since day one. It was envisioned when I spotted a looking pond, unguarded, near my capital. Being the curious type I occupied it, and through it I saw five other looking ponds: three were near my fellow wizards’ capitals just like mine was, but strangely none of them were occupied! And two more were in the center of the world: one above ground and one below.

Had the other wizards simply moved upon the pond, they would have seen what I had seen. Above ground were heaps of gold and mana, unguarded for the taking. And take them all I did, with a waterwalking Gladerunner and Scout boosted with haste berries. Close to 700 gold and 500 mana were harvested in 2 days time. Below ground was a Spiderqueen and an Incarnate.

They did not see me separate the Spiderqueen from the incarnate. They did not see me capture the incarnate and make it my own. Though they saw my magic domain extend to the human capital, they did not see my incarnate take all of the resources in one turn to build not only a level 3 wizard tower but a far caster as well. Nor did they see my incarnate settle into the body of an earth elemental, and head straight for the human capital with another haste berry tree in route. Had my enemies simply stepped upon that looking pond they would have seen it all; but they did not, and now they pay a dear price.

Now that the Incarnate is revealed, I can reveal all. An enemy hero with resurgence is a perfect host for an incarnate. Once possessed, the enemy is helpless against it. If the hero is slain, the Incarnate emerges and exacts revenge – and the hero with resurgence comes back to life. If the Incarnate wishes to leave the hero, the hero will die, but of course will resurge anew.

An earth elemental underground and on hasteberries can travel quite a distance. In fact, it can travel from out of sight to just above ground in one turn. The question is how to get a resurging hero close to a cave mouth? The answer is live bait, in the form of an eleven army; strong enough to not raise suspicions, and weak enough to be very tempting.

The hero and his retinue took the bait, and the elemental/incarnate pounced. The elemental withstood the initial barrage, and the incarnate snatched the resurging hero. The hero died, and the incarnate hopped from monk to monk. The resurging hero rose from the dead (on MY side of course!) and fought along side of the incarnate. The hero died again, and resurged again. When the battle was finally over, the enemy was either destroyed or had become mine: the human Wizard was in the Void, my new hero was resurged, and my incarnate has a new home in the form of a human monk (for the time being). Though the human wizard has a tower to return to, my remaining troops intend to change that very soon.

TS to Evil Roc

Humans.

I can only say that this must be a kind of bug. I've played this map several times and never seen anyone to be able to hire this incarnate... It's very strange. Of course I could not expect it. If any player gets such creature early in the game on this map he has nearly no chances to loose. I'll edit this map to remove it or somehow make it unfriendly to every palyer...

About the islands - you had all the gold not because I was unaware of it, but because you just reached the island one day faster then me. My boat arrived there quite fast. May be water magic gives to big advantage on this map? Having waterwalk with all this sea around and water nodes near each player's capital? What do you all think about it?

Fighting on is quite useless now, but I will. There is one thing one can never be late with - a surrender. But hiring the incarnate was not very fair I think.