A'Shir, day 1

Had a close shave by the Furnace, but we are sure things can only go better from now on!

ts

Ne'khan - Day 1

A fruitful day of battles, rewards and no losses. Tomorrow, we have sighted 2 very, very enticing targets.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 2

A Pit Guard joined our ranks. He will make a nice pair with the Courtesan.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 2

We should be able to reach our first objective tomorrow...and maybe, our second too.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 3

I, A'Shir, have what seems to be a general tendency for being categorized as weak... Why would it be?...

ts

Ne'khan - Day 3

Both objectives were pushed off by 2 days since we lost a couple of valuable units in an unnecessary battle for very low rewards.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 4

Had 2 nice battles and got a great unit in the process.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 4

Lost another lvl3 today. This is getting to be a bad habit...

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 5

Progressed a bit forward and now will have to deal with some area guards during the night. Hoping not to lose any important unit..

ts

Ne'khan - Day 5

A host of battles won as planned...except for another lvl3 loss. Not good at all.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 6

Trying desperately to raise some money for the next step.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 6

A'Shir should try cutting down the number of lvl3s as I have done. Less upkeep = more money in the coffers.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 7

We didn't need that much money after all!

Looks like Ne'khan is preparing for a great disembarking operation: look at all those Rogues! He will find us prepared, although his reputation is "powerful" while ours is "weak" and we see Shades, Warlords, Djinns, Succubus and Druids...

ts

Ne'khan - Day 7

Poor succubus. Of course, with my luck with lvl3s, that was to be expected.

It seems our plans have been exposed. Now, to move fast while the enemy is still preparing.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 8

Sure, come get some!

ts

Ne'khan - Day 8

A great day. 7 battles won against the indies with just the loss of a lvl1.

Tomorrow, more battles and preparation.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 9

Seven?! (glup!)
:: what the hell am I doing wrong? ::

ts

Ne'khan - Day 9

A few more battles net me another town and an income structure. With income over 200 per turn now, scrubs are sent to every recruitment structure to hire the best possible units.

Turn sent

Albinscott, I'll be away between 9/5 and 9/8 and won't be able to play my turns.

[This message has been edited by Timelord (edited 09-03-2009 @ 11:48 AM).]

A'Shir, day 10

Pfff! 200 gold per day?! I can do A LOT better than you with much less, mister! 166 coins less, to be precise. It's call efficiency. You'll see!

:: sweating and counting every single hard-earned coin in the last few days!!! ::

ts

Thanks for the warning, Timelord.

Ne'khan - Day 10

A'Shir attacked with a far greater force than I thought he would, especially against a lone djinn. Still, I would have counter-attacked were it not for the fact that I mistakenly parked my wizard within reach of area guards.
All my enchants were dispelled due to his untimely visit to the void. Still, we have fortified our end now and A'Shir has one chance to run away.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 11

And so A'Shir pushes forward instead of taking this generous and unselfish opportunity given by Ne'khan.
The result of this aquatic battle was far beyond our best predictions and we managed to sink a Galley and putt an end to the lives of a Succubus, a Spy, a Druid, a Rogue and an Elven Ranger, while facing a couple of losses ourselves. All in sight of Zorgal and his thugs, watching from an adjacent watchtower, powerless.

A bit to east, we wasted a stealthy Rogue.

A brief moment of victory, but the menace lives on, average. We remain weak, what else?...


ts

Meh...worst unit placement. I put the boat on the bridge specifically to make sure my hero and shades would be included in the fight and then, move the ranger out into the water

Goes to show, never play late in the night!

Have the turn, will send out in the evening.

Edit: I am sorry but I was tied up in preparations for my trip. And I need some time to think about my options to counter your mobile force. I'll send the turn out on Tuesday evening.

[This message has been edited by Timelord (edited 09-05-2009 @ 01:35 AM).]

Yes, it was obvious that the Ranger was misplaced: there was no plausible reason for him to be positioned there unless by mistake.
These kind of occasional mistakes made by my opponents inflate me with some hope: sometimes it seems that only I make such nonsenses And I make them very often!

Ne'khan - Day 11

Trying to come up with a strategy to counter the floating/flying armies of the enemy.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 12

Investigating further southwest along the river.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 12

Lets see where A'Shir's hero heads now - further into my domain or will he retreat to defend his master's?

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 13

We decided to go deeper. But just a bit, just deep enough to capture Frostgate and get an easy assignment from the local Spirit of Magic. So basically, not deep at all!

ts

Ne'khan - Day 13

We still don't have a means to counter the mobile force of A'Shir and with the capture of Frostgate, all my 'good' units rebelled, including a treeman, another lvl3 loss.

A fight with indies also resulted in 2 lucky spear throws killing my wounded veteran warlord - another lvl3 casualty.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 14

What looked as an easy hit-and-run raid over an enemy Goblin settlement, ended in tragedy, bringing down two of our Gargoyles, a Djinn and 2 Slithers. A very bad call...

ts

Ne'khan - Day 14

Yes, I suspected such an attack would happen with only 3 defenders in sight. Good thing I took the trouble to bring another butcher to elite status, giving him underground concealment.
With his cohorts removed from the scene, A'Shir's hero soon followed, having placed himself near a watchtower.

Now, we can concentrate on the offensive. With a newly gained Trap ability and the nearby halfling farms, we should soon have enough water walking units to take down that hydra also.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 15

A'Shir's hero soon followed, having placed himself near a watchtower.

Ne'khan - Day 15

We move further into A'Shir's realm. It helps that I have 2 spellcasting heroes. Each indie battle is a chance for enchants.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 16

Things look just a bit complicated. Juuust a bit.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 16

We get another galley. Soon, reinforcements will be on the way.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 17

A Galley, 2 Rogues and an Elven Ranger arrived ashore. In the meantime, we don't need Ne'khan to bring misery to our military: fighting some puny independents proves difficult enough...

ts

Ne'khan - Day 17

Nothing much to report.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 18

Likewise.

ts

Ne'khan - Day 18

Pushing further into A'Shir's lands. We now have 2 armies, one headed by a newly recruited Goblin hero. Tomorrow, we will storm the watchtower and possibly, even take A'Shir's capitol, if all goes well.

Turn sent

A'Shir, day 19 and last

Tonight, a group of 5 important units with a 10% chance of rebelling did just that: rebelled. Our thiny hope is now completely wasted, as our progress to west on the northern region of the underground has now stopped for lack of good fighting units.

Since we know what the enemy holds in his rankings and we are aware of the settlements, production sites and recruitment sites he controls, we feel that further delaying an inevitable defeat is of no use at this point. Therefore, we surrender to Ne'khan.

ts

********
Congratulations Timelord! You mastered the whole independent exploitation phase, in spite your 3rd level unit problems , and you were able to lure my mobile force into a trap. These two facts determined the destiny of the game. I wasn't even capable of keeping all my swimming and flying units together, greed took over me.

Your playing skills are light-years ahead of me, so you are the natural and rightful winner. I'll keep playing pbem with the goal of developing my own skills, though, so maybe that will change someday


Not that these were crucial aspects in this game, but I have to say a couple of things about the initial layout in the map; I had mentioned them before the tournament:

1) Constructor is a very, very poor choice for A'Shir when compared to Ne'khan's Survivalist, concerning starting skills.

2) I still see units with the Control Animal skill in the map: a Shaman was defending the Seeing Pool on Ne'khan territory and apparently a Madis'shijai was available on some western Recruitment Site or defending some structure. Considering that there are several Animals placed on the board (Polar Bears, Dire Penguins, Apes), this kind of randomness looks unfair.

Everything else looks nice about the map, it is very joyful to play!

Ladies and gentlemen, TNS reporting live from the scene, where Timelord has just brought himself a big step closer to reaching the second round.

Congratulations Timelord. It seems to have been a tight match, but you managed to grab the initiative and push onwards. Did you have a particular approach to this map that gave you the edge?

Albinscott, thanks for the analysis! You have had some tough opponents and it looks like your game against JamesEde will be crucial to getting you to the next rounds. Will this game affect the morale of the other?

Good game, Albinscott

Congratulations Timelord. It seems to have been a tight match, but you managed to grab the initiative and push onwards. Did you have a particular approach to this map that gave you the edge?

To recap my strategy, I planned to rush south to get to the halfling invisible hero (+ concealment units) and the halfling village/market (great monetary boost). Then, I could have 3 options - head upriver, over the surface or around through the eastern passage.
With 2 seducers available on turn 2 and the crypt nearby guarded by 2 shades/sorceress, I was able to get both shades on day 2 and as you could see by their xp, they pretty much secured all the indie resources. I also made it a point to recruit as many floating/swimming units as possible but due to a stupid mistake, lost my entire armada to Albin's well-placed army.

I quickly realized I was ahead in the resource gathering when the seeing pool revealed that A'Shir was traveling to and fro near his cap with more than a stack of units and he hadn't recruited a hero till around turn 11 or so. So, I just pushed on

I did make one crucial mistake - my positional mistake with my armada. Fortunately, Albin didn't bring any kind of backup force which allowed me to regroup a bit and lure him into a trap.

Concerning Albin's concerns, I agree with the Survivalist vs Constructor part to a certain degree. The Nomads don't have any racial bonus at all so its technically Survivalist vs Constructor + Research bonus. Of course, with the city limitations/limited gold structures/lots of recruitment sites, survivalist turns out the better pick.

As for units with Control Animal, honestly, I didn't find one indie animal I could recruit and I had 2 druids with me. I don't think that is as big a balance issue as the seducers available in pretty much every recruitment structure (the seducers netted me 3 shades, 2 druids, ranger, some rogues, a couple of yetis, a warlord and a couple of priests) which turns the battle into who can utilize them more effectively (and what stacks spawn as guards).
The other slight unbalance is the availability of the Dreamweaver on the eastern side (slight because of availability of Beholder and floating vs 4 extra hexes) -> which ruins any chance of utilizing all the invisibility/concealment units available on the western side.

You are right about the Dreamweaver; I was able to upgrade one of the two I had to elite (Drain Will + Vison IV + Night Vision). Dreamweavers absolutely rock! (and they are indeed a weight for A'Shir in the balance scale)